King Father Norodom Sihanouk passed away

Article from Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012101559281/Online-Edition/king-father-norodom-sihanouk-passed-away.html

King Father Norodom Sihanouk passed away today in Beijing at the age of 89, 59 years after he declared Cambodia's independence from France.

Sihanouk was a greatly charismatic leader revered as something of a God King during the height of his power in the 1950s and 60s. He served both as King and then Prime Minister after taking the daring step of abdicating from the throne to enter politics.

In 1970, he was ousted as Prime Minister in a bloodless coup d'etat led by the right-wing general Lon Nol and watched from exile in China as Cambodia slid further into the turmoil of the Vietnam War that preceded the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

The prince returned to his country after it fell in 1975 to the ultra-maoist Khmer Rouge regime responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.8 million Cambodians, torture, rape, forced labour camps, starvation and the decimation of the country's economy and was placed under house arrest. Several of his children and grandchildren were killed by the regime.

As Cambodia began to recover after the Vietnamese-backed guerrillas liberated the country from the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Sihanouk once again entered into the political fray but was unable to negotiate his way back to the ruler, finally abdicating the throne in 2004 to his son, Norodom Sihamoni.

In recent years the retired King repeatedly travelled to Beijing to receive medical treatment for a number of ailments including diabetes and cancer. In a hospital there, he finally succumbed to a heart attack on today at 1.20 am, Phnom Penh time, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan confirmed.

More on Phnom Penh Post

Blogfest's Asia 2012: Angkor Siem Reap

Blogfest.asia is a festival for bloggers in Asia.

This is the region’s 3rd cross-border gathering for blogger community. Everyone is welcome to join the festival and meet hundreds of bloggers from the neighborhood community. Participants will be able to learn blogger / blogging activities in respective countries / territories, and interact with key bloggers in Asia.

The 4-day Blogfest.Asia ’12 provides a unique opportunity to address “Change & Responsibility”, in Asia perspective. The event program at-a-glance will consist of:
+One day heritage tour to gear up for blog competition
+One full-day conference
+Two evening gathering / parties exclusively for participating bloggers
Clogger Club
+Educational workshops for NGOs in Asia

Blogfest.asia will support and work closely with associated blogger community and events in the region. It will also serve as an idea hub, community exchange point, and action camp for bloggers in Asia to make technological and social impact for the benefit of the region.

More info: http://2012.blogfest.asia

Joining Asean Clan

Hello everyone, let me make a short announcement here. I would like to open for anyone who wish to have their article published on our blog. The article must be ASEAN related, free of any political purpose or potentially causing transnational conflict specially countries of ASEAN. The topic can varies from culture to society, people to place, or food to objects. You can check out some of our articles before making the decision. And please NOTE that all articles must be written by you, does not offend any copyrights infringement (you can write from various sources but avoid plagiarism and correctly cited).

If interested, please submit your article to samsokrith@gmail.com

More Dead Than Alive

Dear all First of all, this post is non-ASEAN related. However, since this is a global issue, I decided to post it. Thanks to Jen Rhee for submitting this one to me. Please feel free to add some comments or info


Created by: MedicalTranscription.net

Alodia: Queen of Cosplay

By Chhaly Samsokrith

 In the modern world of entertainment, and in the country of anime and video game enthusiastic lives a princess who contributes highly to the art of cosplay. Filipino's Alodia Gosiengfiao has found herself in this area of attention since 2003 when she was awarded 3rd place in an event known as C3 Convention [1]. Her fame rose gradually since and she has been featuring in magazines, events, and books.

Here is the list of her awards:

2003 Culture Crash Comics Convention Magic Gunner Rikku of Final Fantasy X-2 3rd Place and People’s Choice

2004 Ragnarok Online World Championships Isis of Ragnarok Online Alberta Craftsmanship Award

2004 3rd Philippine Toys and Hobbies Collection Convention Chii of Chobits 3rd Place

2005 Anime Explosion Creature Pink of Gunbound Online 1st Place, Best Props and Most Innovative Awards

2006 5th Philippine Toys and Hobbies Collection Convention Alexiel of Angel Sanctuary Best Group

2006 National Cosplay Competition Arua of Rose Online Online Voting Winner

[2]

As a youth, Alodia put her interest in arts, anime, piano and video games. During that time, she got involved in many school's art competition and earned quite a reputation. She also got involved in online fan forum known as Anime Club where she met many other people who shared the same interests. In 2003, due to enormous supports from her forum's friend, she made a decision to participate in the cosplay competition C3 Convention where she posted as Rikku from Final Fantasy X-2 along with her sister, Ashley as Yuna from the same game. Later, she gained more attention with her appearance as various characters of different franchises.

Due to her fame, she is invited to be a judge in many cosplay competitions. In 2009, she was named FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World [3]. Currently, she is a spokeperson for CSCENTRL, continues her habits in participating in many cosplay events and often featuring in many teen magazines. Her reputation is worldly recognized.

To Filipino, and Cosplay fans, she is a symbol of creativity and enthusiasm.  Her background with arts coupled with her passion in anime, video games and other creative media franchises has led her to contribute to the rise of Cosplaying activities in Philippine. At the time she started cosplaying, there have been already much interests in that. In recent years, cosplaying in Philippine has been intensifying. Even people who do not cosplaying, they also know her name, such is a great contribution to Cosplaying.

Trivia [4]:

The name Alodia is an ancient kingdom located between Africa and Egypt.

The nickname "Edjie" comes from a combination of her parents' nicknames.

Alodia used to live in Balete Drive, a street that is very popular due to rumors that it is constantly haunted by a white lady.

The name "Alodia Almira" means "Princess of Love".

Alodia plays the keyboards in her bands, Tutuband and The Bestidas.

Alodia Gosiengfiao hosting with Luis Manzano at the TV show “LOL: Laugh Out Loud

As a child, one of the earliest anime series Alodia was exposed to was Pokemon.

Her connection:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlodiaGosiengfiao

Website: http://www.alodiagosiengfiao.com/

Art Gallery: http://blackmage9.deviantart.com/

[1] http://www.supanova.com.au/guest/alodia-gosiengfiao/

[2] http://www.realitytv.nfo.ph/alodia-gosiengfiao-biography-and-photo/

[3] http://www.spot.ph/peopleparties/29797/why-are-all-the-geeks-hot-for-cosplay-queen-alodia/1

[4] http://orientexpression.blogspot.com/2008/05/alodia-almira-arraiza-gosiengfiao.html

"We Can't Change The World, But We Wanna Build a School in Cambodia" - a movie which will touch your heart til the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIvojePbnJM

Struggling life, unskilled leadership, a twist of fate, a bridge of love, a mouthful title, an inspiring true story

The title might be funny to you, but the story is indeed far more inspired than what you can imagine. Let me introduce you Kota Hada, a real-life ordinary student who successfully raise a large sum of money to build a school in Cambodia. From the story we learned that Kota was a second-year medical student who was struggling in studying and live, whose life changed after he stumble across a pamphlet advertising for Cambodia volunteering activities. For Kota, he had never been to or heard of this country before, but he was so happy to take this job. He had the supports from his 3 best friends, and he went further to create a group of people to collect the money. Though not skilled in leadership and speech, Kota always put his life on the line for this task.

The movie could not get high attraction without the hard work of the casts. On the spotlight, is Osamu Mukai who stars as the protagonist Kota. His performance savours the taste of bittersweet taste of life of a university student who is experiencing a pure pressure of both social and financial issues. However, it is not him alone that has done a great job. Even Cambodian counterparts performances were producing a unique feeling of people who suffered from both past and present issues, such as war, HIV/AIDS, and poverty. Not to mention a really sweet background music which will never let your mind fly away from the movie. 

This is a great movie, it brings you to see two countries, the first world country of Japan, and the third world country of Cambodia, magnificently that you feel appreciated for those countries, their people and culture. The movie also gives you a greater insight of volunteerism, what does it mean to volunteer to help others. Kota is the one who seeks help, but he chooses to help others so that he can find the meaning of his life, and it leads him to a whole new life.

Movie Snapshot: Directed by Kenta Fukasaku
Based on 僕たちは世界を変えることができない。by Kota Hada
Starring Osamu Mukai, Tōri Matsuzaka, Tasuku Emoto, Masataka Kubota Cinematography Kazuhiro Suzuki
Studio Toei, Central Arts
Distributed by Toei
Release date(s) September 23, 2011
Running time 126 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Box office US$$3,334,273
Theme Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kwsgk5y3Qw&feature=related