Tropical
Troubles
By
Roy Greene
The cambodia daily
As anyone who has spent any time in the country knows, Cambodian
mosquitoes are a tenacious, ravenous breed.
It’s hard to be sure whether they actually became fiercer
when the air conditioning failed at The Cambodia Daily office,
whether they sensed an opening as the heat crept in and
blanketed the newspaper’s staff.
At the time, during my stint as an assistant editor in 1995
and 1996, this seemed to be the case.
When the power died, which was often that year, a collective
groan would go up. Since our computers were powered by a
generator, the dozen or so editors and reporters continued
working. But soon, clothing would be shed—shirts, sometimes
shorts, anything for relief. It would come in handy for
sopping up the sweat before it drenched keyboards.
A short time later, a chorus of bare hands swatting legs
and feet for mosquitoes would join in rhythm with the clacking
of keyboards. My colleague, Rich Garella, would fetch the
industrial-sized can of an ominous-sounding, kills-everything
product called Shell Tox and proceed to spray around under
our desks.
The vicious beasts would retreat for a while but return
with a vengeance—sometimes taking cover in shoes left
near the door for stealth attacks later. If we were lucky
that day, the air conditioners eventually would spring back
to life, along with the Oasis blaring on the boom box. But
for several days on end, we suffered.
Seven years after the Daily, memories of such torments are
still fresh. Life at the Daily mirrored life outside that
office: Intense, surreal and unpredictable. I’m sure
this is still the case.
Of course, mosquitoes and power outages seem like minor
inconveniences compared with the serious challenges that
made—and still make—getting the paper out seem
like a miracle on some days.
What always impressed me was how the staff pulled together
and weathered the storms with pluck, camaraderie and, for
the most part, good humor.
I’ve come to believe that the last attribute is the
key to the newspaper’s survival.
Happy birthday, Cambodia Daily. And pass the Shell Tox.