Năm 1890, sau khi lập Liên bang Đông Dương, người Pháp trích một phần đất hạt Tây Ninh (hạt Tây Ninh nguyên là toàn bộ phủ Tây Ninh) là phần đất dọc theo rạch Ngã Bát cho Campuchia thuộc Pháp, trong đó có lẽ gồm cả phần đất tỉnh Svay Rieng (tức tỉnh Soài Riêng) đề cập đến ở trên.
Các bản đồ của người Pháp thể hiện xứ Nam Kỳ thuộc Pháp, vẽ với kỹ thuật Tây phương khá chính xác, vào các năm 1872 và 1886 (trước khi thành lập Liên bang Đông Dương năm 1887) đều thể hiện "vùng lồi" Svay Rieng thuộc đất Nam Kỳ (Cochinchine).
It has to do with France during the colonial period. Minh Mang in 1832 divided southern VN into 6 provinces. Back then, the southern half Tay Ninh went all the way to Long An, occupying the present area known as Svay Rieng. France carved this area out and gave to Cambodia due to the water canal acting as a natural border between the 2 countries.
Năm 1802, vua Gia Long lên ngôi, đồng thời đổi tên phủ Gia Định thành trấn Gia Định. Năm 1808, trấn Gia Định đổi lại đổi là thành Gia Định, gồm có 5 trấn là Phiên An, Biên Hòa, Vĩnh Thanh, Định Tường và Hà Tiên.
Năm 1832, vua Minh Mạng định tiếp tục tổ chức hành chánh ở Gia Định, từ 5 trấn chia thành 6 tỉnh gồm có Phiên An tỉnh thành (tức trấn Phiên An cũ), Tỉnh Biên Hòa (trấn Biên Hòa cũ), Tỉnh Định Tường (trấn Định Tường cũ), Tỉnh Vĩnh Long (trấn Vĩnh Thanh cũ), Tỉnh An Giang, Tỉnh Hà Tiên. Lúc bấy giờ, vùng đất Tây Ninh thuộc Phiên An tỉnh thành.
Năm 1838, vua Minh Mạng đổi Phiên An tỉnh thành là tỉnh Gia Định gồm có 3 phủ, 7 huyện. Các phủ là Phủ Tân Bình có 3 huyện, Phủ Tân An có 2 huyện, Phủ Tây Ninh có 2 huyện là: huyện Tân Ninh và huyện Quang Hóa.
[quote]Năm 1890, sau khi lập Liên bang Đông Dương, người Pháp trích một phần đất hạt Tây Ninh (hạt Tây Ninh nguyên là toàn bộ phủ Tây Ninh) là phần đất dọc theo rạch Ngã Bát cho Campuchia thuộc Pháp, trong đó có lẽ gồm cả phần đất tỉnh Svay Rieng (tức tỉnh Soài Riêng) đề cập đến ở trên.
Các bản đồ của người Pháp thể hiện xứ Nam Kỳ thuộc Pháp, vẽ với kỹ thuật Tây phương khá chính xác, vào các năm 1872 và 1886 (trước khi thành lập Liên bang Đông Dương năm 1887) đều thể hiện "vùng lồi" Svay Rieng thuộc đất Nam Kỳ (Cochinchine).
https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A2y_Ninh
"Coronaviruses tend to be associated with winter because of how they're spread", explains Elizabeth McGraw, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University.
For one thing, in winter months, people may cluster together more indoors, increasing the number of folks at risk of becoming infection by someone who's contagious. In addition, there's the matter of transmission.
Viruses spread through respiratory droplets that are released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. And the droplets are more likely to spread under certain conditions.
"What we know is that they're [the droplets] are better at staying afloat when the air is cold and dry, " says McGraw. "When the air is humid and warm, [the droplets] fall to the ground more quickly, and it makes transmission harder."
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/12/805256402/can-coronavirus-be-crushed-by-warmer-weather
Becc - Dear you, Sometimes, I really need you to stop and be like, 'Hey, look at your life, look at what you've overcome and are still transforming. It is ok to grieve, it is ok to rest.' Trust in the Sacred process of your unfoldment.
Your Light knows what it is doing, much wiser than your mind. And what I really want to say to anyone considering working with me in Sacred session - I can do this work because I am you.
Every ounce of wisdom that guides you through me, is the wisdom that came out of Healing myself. And it has been incredibly challenging. Every time I feel like I've awakened, I find more of myself still asleep. And that's the Heart of it.
What if all the things you feel ashamed of, flawed about or failing at, are exactly where the Gold is? 'If I am to Awaken, I must first be asleep'. - My spirit guide told me this, and that it is something the Buddha said. A Lotus flower blooms best in a rich, Earth and mud. In the purity of Light only she would starve, with no soil.
https://www.facebook.com/beccluminary/
My great-aunt used to say she would win the lottery every day, although she was afraid that if she got a big windfall, "relatives" would appear out of nowhere and she would lose all the money if she ever won.
Sometimes it seems like every lottery winner ends up spending their winnings within a short time. It's untrue. There are some amazing lottery winners. Their successes can inspire you. You may never win the lottery but you can learn from these lucky and smart winners to plan for your own financial windfalls.
In 2012, 81-year-old Newport, Rhode Island resident Louise White was eating rainbow sherbet when she bought her $210 million lottery ticket. After consulting with legal and financial professionals, she started the Rainbow Sherbert Trust to offer her privacy and protect her winnings.
After Cynthia P. Stafford's brother was killed by a drunk driver, she took on the challenge of raising her brother's five children as a single mom. In 2007, Cynthia was working at a computer firm and living in a 1,100 square foot house with her brother's children.
Cynthia credited the law of attraction for her $112 million lottery win. She slept with a note reading "$112 million" under her pillow and after three years won the Powerball jackpot she visualized. She met her family's financial needs and started her dream career as a film producer.
Cynthia told Marie Claire that "You have to prepare yourself for wealth. You have to prepare for what is going to occur—at least as much as you can."
Cynthia was successful in preserving her winnings for nearly a decade. But in 2016, she filed for bankruptcy. Cynthia's film company had business setbacks, and some of her investments performed poorly. She told Piers Morgan "people have stolen from me."
So what should you do if you win the lottery? Most financial planners say you should consult with an attorney and a financial planner before you cash in the ticket. Not only will you need to decide between a lump sum or an annuity, you'll want to preserve your privacy.
Before you do anything with the money, give yourself some breathing room and time to think. This is solid advice for lottery winnings and other financial windfalls like an inheritance or a legal judgment.
Brad Duke, who won a $220 million Powerball prize in 2005 is often called the most level-headed Lottery winner. Duke continued to work as director at Gold's Gym for about three years after he won the lottery.
He paid off his student loan and mortgage, traveled to Tahiti with 17 of his friends (the trip cost $63,000) and made a yearly gift to his family members of $12,000.
Brad then set up a family foundation trust, invested $35 million in real estate, oil, and gas, and placed $45 million in low-risk, conservative investments including bonds.
He set a goal of becoming a billionaire using his lottery winnings. As of 2018, he reported he'd made about $100 million toward his goal. His primary advice today? "Take a breath and start thinking about who's going to help you to do the right thing."
Like Cynthia Stafford, Brad Duke thought about what he would do with a lot of money ahead of time. Both winners "visualized" not just their winnings but what they would plan to do afterward. One key difference?
Brad continued to pursue his passion of cycling but didn't spend most of his winnings on it. Cynthia had always wanted to be in the film industry, but it's a notoriously tough business and her film company wasn't successful.
Both of the winners helped their families and enjoyed good times with their friends, but moderately. A trip to Tahiti is a big splurge but moderate compared to Brad's overall net worth. Although Cynthia filed for bankruptcy, she kept the pool house she bought for her family in 2007. Located in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades, Cynthia still has an asset in one of the country's wealthiest neighborhoods.
https://myworthfinance.com/dream-big-win-big-and-how-not-to-lose-big/
In many ways, your gut bacteria are as vast and mysterious as the Milky Way. About 100 trillion bacteria, both good and bad, live inside your digestive system. Collectively, they're known as the gut microbiota.
Within those trillions of gut bacteria are about 1,000 different species, represented by some 5,000 distinct bacterial strains. Everyone's gut microbiota is unique, but there are certain combinations and collections of bacteria that are found in healthy individuals.
The main factors that affect your personal microbial mix are age, diet, environment, genes, and medications (particularly exposure to antibiotics, which can deplete gut bacteria).
Your gut microbiota plays many roles. It metabolizes nutrients from food and certain medications, serves as a protective barrier against intestinal infections, and produces vitamin K, which helps make blood-clotting proteins.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/can-gut-bacteria-improve-your-health
In some cultures, a brown or tan colored butterfly symbolizes a new life or a fresh start. Seeing a brown butterfly also mean there is good news or important news soon to come your way. If a brown butterfly enters the house it means that an important letter or message will arrive soon.
Butterflies are extraordinary creatures. They are a rare insect group most people are not afraid of. Actually, people think of butterflies as beautiful and fascinating. We usually associate butterflies with joy and happiness, which is a common opinion all around the world.
Watching butterflies fly from flower to flower, silently and gracefully has a very calming effect on any human. There are thousands of butterfly varieties. They come in various sizes and colors. Some butterflies are very small and simple, with wings painted in a single color.
There are larger examples of magnificent color patterns, such as monarch butterflies, for instance. Regardless of appearance, butterflies are mostly benevolent and lovely insects. They drink plant nectar and do no harm to humans or other living creatures.
Specific color or even a species of butterflies carries specific meaning, but all butterflies share the same general symbolism. All are associated with numerous of positive qualities, concepts and ideas.
Butterflies usually represent lightness and joy, innocence, rebirth, grace, blessing, love and beauty. There are many more ideas we could connect with butterflies.
Butterflies are extremely rarely seen in a negative light, but there are some superstitions that consider them bad omen. It depends on circumstances in which one sees a butterfly or on butterflies’ color. Harming or killing a butterfly is never considered a good thing to do, in symbolical sense.
Of course, it is not a good thing to kill such a tiny beautiful creature either way. Butterfly symbolism - Let us talk more on butterfly symbolism in general and then we will move onto meanings of the color brown and brown butterflies.
Butterflies represent ideas mentioned, but there is more to it. It is especially interesting to think of it from the perspective of different traditions and cultural concepts. Butterflies are a common motif in folktales, beliefs and legends from around the world.
Butterflies bring sweet dreams - native Americans believe butterflies are somehow connected with the realm of dreams. Their folklore is full of interpretations of spiritual powers of various animals; Native Americans’ tradition is marked by distinctive belief that we are all connected by the energy of life.
Plants, animals, humans, spirits and more, we are all part of one world and we are all in search for harmony and peace. At least, it should be that way. They believe butterflies are very special beings. They believe butterflies bring pleasant dreams and that they have a calming effect on a person who is asleep.
In some tribes, parents would show a butterfly motif to a child, while putting it to sleep. They would sing a song a long, believing a butterfly would bring their little ones deep sleep and sweet dreams.
In Hopi tribe, there is a ritual called the ‘Butterfly dance’ and it is actually a ceremony of passage for women. It marks their transition to adulthood. Butterflies appear as shape shifting spirit in other Native American folktales.
In all of the beliefs, it seems butterflies are seen as positive, fortunate spirit who brings calmness, balance and happiness to peoples’ lives. Symbol of love and beauty - In Chinese folklore, butterflies stand for beauty and love. Chinese sense of art and beauty is very sophisticated, so they have always paid great attention to tiny details.
Moreover, they have always been able to notice small wonders in the world around them and to praise every little miracle. They have always appreciated and adored what is graceful, soft, fragile and beautiful. Little birds and butterflies are a common motif in Chinese art.
There is a Chinese story about butterflies as symbol of love. Butterflies do represent love in many other traditions; we could say it is universal meaning. However, this sad and beautiful story is quite descriptive.
According to the legend, there was a girl who dreamed about moving to a big city to go to school, which was forbidden for women of the time. However, she managed to get into it. Very soon, a lovely young man fell in love with her. She loved him back; their love was pure and innocent. Unfortunately, a girl had to marry another, because her family wanted so.
It was already arranged. The boy who loved her fell ill out of sadness and soon died. On the day of her wedding, a girl visited his grave. She was desperately sad and crying. Suddenly, a beautiful butterfly came out of the grave.
It was the boy himself, transformed into a butterfly. A miracle happened and the girl became a butterfly herself, so young ones flew away together, never to return. This story the best illustrates butterflies as symbol of innocent, unconditional love, especially that between young people. There is certain sadness in it, but also much warmth, emotion and positivity.
Freedom of the soul - Butterflies are associated with the idea of freedom and especially with the freedom of the soul, which comes as the ultimate goal of transformative processes. Butterflies symbolize transformation, as well. They go through different stages of existence, not at all pleasing to our eyes.
However, they end up as those beautiful creatures we so much admire. Metaphorically, it is a way of one’s spiritual, personal growth. Aware of it or not, each human strives for some sort of liberation. The ultimate liberation and the hardest to reach is freedom of the soul.
Butterflies are associated with both ideas of liberty and soul. In many traditions, it is believed they are embodiment or and incarnation of people’s soul. Seeing a butterfly in unusual circumstances is commonly interpreted as a spirit of someone who has b passed away visiting you.
In Irish folklore, it is believed that butterflies carry souls of children who have passed away. A sad belief, but also so innocent and pure one. Butterflies are considered precious spirits.
There is even a law that forbids you to kill or hurt a white one, since this color of butterfly is specifically associated with soul of dead children. In Celtic tradition, butterflies are generally associated with good fortune and luck.
Color brown symbolism - Color brown is color of the ground and the earth. Not as attractive as some vibrant shades, brown is ever present. It this represent longevity, life and nature, but also modesty and simplicity.
Brown color is raw; it is the life as it is. It is the nature as it is. Color brown is warm and comforting, in a way. It reminds us that not all precious things have to be shiny and flamboyant, but they often come in very simple form.
Well, the earth is extremely valuable, but we see it every day, walk on it or whatever else and just take it for granted. Earth gives us food. Color brown itself is the color of many edible natural things. Think of all sorts of seeds and nuts, of cocoa or spices or anything else. Bread is brown, roasted meat is brown, beans and else, as well.
Brown is also associated with dirtiness, but it is, in fact, natural dirtiness. It comes from the earth. Brown color is pleasant to have in your environment. Wood comes in all sorts of brownish shades and it has very pleasing and calming effect if you have it in n your home.
Color brown represents rationality, being with both feet on the ground. It is a direct and simple color. It lacks the attribute of mysterious or imaginative, perhaps. Overall, it is associated mostly with positive meanings.
Brown butterfly meaning - Brown butterflies also have to do with simplicity. They represent beauty found in simple things, which is, in fact, the hardest thing to do. We would always first notice a colorful, beautiful butterfly with wings painted in many colors, as if they are made of stained glass.
Many would not even notice a brownish butterfly; many would take it for another insect, expecting a butterfly of vibrant colors. However, brown butterflies have quite strong symbolism. They are of humble appearance, but their spiritual potential is huge.
Brown butterflies represent natural order of things, life as it is, simplicity and beauty of life found in the same simplicity. They teach us modesty is a virtue. Brown butterfly is also spiritually associated with human soul. It is believed it could be a soul of a deceased person.
There is an interesting belief that does not speak in favor of brown butterflies. It says that it would be a very bad luck if the first butterfly you see at the beginning of spring was brown. Perhaps it means the world would lack colors, in terms of crops and vegetation. In most of traditions, though, brown butterfly carries the same positive energy as other ones. It is a fortunate sign.
Brown butterfly totem - If you are guided by brown butterfly totem, you could learn much from your spirit guide. It will show you the way, through many precious symbols. Brown butterfly spirit teaches us about modesty, respect and understanding.
It tries to make us realize that life is about not only glory and shine, wealth and social status. It does not want to lessen our expectations and to bring down our dreams, but it wants us to see the other side.
Brown butterfly know that in order to reach heights, one has to know where he or she comes from. Value your family, your friends, value every step of your way and people you encounter. You should find a firm base in very essential things in life. We often forget how important it is that we are simply here and alive.
This humble totem actually possesses great power. It will help you become a person you would like to be, in an honest and honorable way. Brown butterfly teaches you the importance of empathy and understanding. It is a calm totem and it wants you to be at peace with the world.
Of course, just as the case with any other totem, you should be careful about this energy. Do not become too tolerant and understanding, because it might happen others, with ill intentions, would make advantage out of your good heartedness.
Brown butterfly totem wants you to remain rational and grounded. Be merciful, kind and good-hearted, but train your intuition. Listen to your inner voice all the time and it that way, you will get the best from your totem.
If a brown butterfly appears in your dream, maybe you should think about your recent behavior towards someone maybe you were rude or egocentric. However, this dream could also reflect your self-image. You see yourself unworthy or unimportant. The dream would help you become aware of this, so that you can actually move towards changing it.
https://dreamastromeanings.com/brown-butterfly-meaning-and-symbolism/
Các bước thực hiện món cá cơm sữa rim khô: Cá cơm sữa khô sau khi mua về bạn đem ngâm mềm, rửa sạch rồi vớt ra để ráo. Hành tím, tỏi bóc vỏ, băm nhỏ. cá cơm sữa. Pha hỗn hợp nước để rim cá. Bạn cho 2 muỗng nước mắm + 2 muỗng đường + 1 thìa ớt bột và khuấy đều lên nhé.
Bắc chảo nhỏ lên bếp, bạn làm nóng 1 chút dầu ăn rồi cho hành tím, tỏi vào phi thơm. Cho cá vào đảo chừng 1, 2 lượt rồi bạn cho hỗn hợp nước rim cá vào, đảo đều cho cá ngấm gia vị. Ở bước này bạn chỉ cần để lửa nhỏ, rim cá ở lửa liu riu cho ngấm gia vị. Khi cá đã ngấm gia vị bạn tắt bếp và cho ra đĩa.
Cá cơm sữa rim khô - Bạn thấy đấy chỉ với 3 bước cực kì đơn giản bạn đã có ngay một món cá cơm sữa rim khô ngon cho bữa cơm gia đình. Món này dùng với cơm trắng hay cháo đều ngon cả, vừa dễ làm mà hương vị cứ ngon mê ý.
Từ những con cá cơm sữa giòn giòn, đặm đặm ngon ngon, những gì bạn chuẩn bị thêm chỉ là một chút mắm, đường, ớt bột và rim kho nhỏ lửa. Vậy là bạn đã có ngay món ăn ngon dành cho cả gia đình.
Ngoài ra, bạn có thể tham khảo thêm cách làm một số món kho khác chẳng hạn như món thịt ba rọi kho gừng hay món chân giò kho nấm đông cô để bữa cơm gia đình thêm phong phú và hấp dẫn nhé. Chúc các bạn ngon miệng!
http://yeunoitro.net/nau-an/mon-an-hang-ngay/ca-com-sua-rim-kho/
The popular Khmer view of Koh Tral – as reflected in the Khmer blogosphere, in popular song, and on YouTube travelogues – is that the island which Vietnamese know as Phu Quoc is historically Khmer, that Cambodia has never relinquished its territorial claim, that Koh Tral was unfairly awarded the Vietnamese in 1954 over Cambodian protest, and that because the maritime border used a 1939 French colonial administrative line never intended to reflect sovereignty (the “Brevie Line”) international law should dictate the island’s return to Cambodia.
This view and the quest by leading Khmer politicians to secure Phu Quoc for Cambodia appears rooted in myth. It reflects a misunderstanding of the history of the island and the Khmer’s connection to it, an exaggeration of Khmer leaders’ continuing commitment to the cause of Koh Tral, and a lack of appreciation of the legal hurdles involved in wresting the territory from Vietnam in courts of international law.
It is a common refrain among Cambodia’s opposition movement, as currently embodied in the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), and particularly popular with party leader Sam Rainsy to “remember the sad fate of Kampuchea Krom,” or that chunk of southern Vietnam that was once part of the Khmer kingdom.
The prevailing admonition regarding Kampuchea Krom in general may reflect resignation, but such is not the case with Koh Tral. CNRP party leaders Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy have committed themselves and their party to seek recovery of the island to Cambodia by legal means, citing international law as favoring such a return.
But both the historical record and the legal avenues that would have to be pursued to secure Koh Tral’s return to Cambodia differ quite substantially from the popular view.
SailorNeptune
A Khmer Island? While Cambodia certainly laid early claim to the island, no one has offered compelling evidence that Khmers have ever had a substantial modern presence there, or that a Cambodian state exercised authority during a time of Khmer occupation. For many Khmers the case of Koh Tral is one of history imagined rather than remembered.
Artifacts in the Heritage Museum at Phu Quoc evidence human habitation going back 2,500 years, long before a Khmer nation existed. Pottery there from what the Vietnamese refer to as the Oc Eo period (1st -7th century AD) suggests at least a proto-Khmer presence on the island during a period preceding the establishment of the Angkorian empire.
The earliest Cambodian references to Koh Tral are found in royal documents dated 1615, reflecting the allocation of the various governors’ authorities among the territories of the Khmer empire.
We don’t know how many Khmer inhabitants the island may have had, nor do we know how the Khmer sovereign’s authority was reflected in the life of the hardy souls who may have been resident. It must be recalled that this was a chaotic period for the Cambodian state; no fewer than 15 kings occupied the throne during the 17th century.
Around 1680, one of these kings granted Chinese merchant and explorer Mac Cuu the authority to settle and develop a large swath of unproductive Cambodian coast, a project that resulted in Mac Cuu’s establishing Ha Tien and six other villages as trading centers newly populated by fellow Chinese immigrants and Portuguese traders, including one village on Phu Quoc.
With Vietnam and Cambodia besieged by Thai invaders in a struggle for regional dominance fought mostly on Cambodian soil, by 1714 Mac Cuu had changed allegiance and recognized the authority of the Vietnamese sovereign. In return Mac Cuu’s family gained the right to oversee his lands as a fiefdom, paying tribute to the Nguyen lords who ruled southern Vietnam.
Nguyen protection notwithstanding the Thais completely destroyed and depopulated the Mac’s Ha Tien in 1717. (It would be sacked again in 1771.) Though not documented it would not be surprising if the same fate befell nearby Koh Tral for it was the Thai military’s standard practice until the end of the Thai-Vietnamese war in 1847 to destroy that which they could not occupy and haul off surviving inhabitants to Thailand or Thai-occupied Cambodian territory.
Three reports from the island coming just before and just after the turn of the 19th century suggest that Phu Quoc had ceased to be a Khmer island. In the 1770s Pierre Pigneu de Behaine, seeking to expand missionary activities following the destruction of the mission at Ha Tien established a seminary for Vietnamese converts at Phu Quoc where he also gave refuge to future Emperor Gia Long.
Descriptions of this mission make reference to the local Vietnamese population of the island but not the Khmer. Get first-read access to major articles yet to be released, as well as links to thought-provoking commentaries and in-depth articles from our Asia-Pacific correspondents.
An 1810 description of the coastal route from Vietnam to Thailand prepared by court officials to Gia Long describes Phu Quoc as having a local (Vietnamese) administrative office and military officers, with a dense population devoted to a range of economic activities.
British East India envoy John Crawfurd’s 1821 embassy to Cochin China paints a colorful portrait of life among the fishermen and traders of Phu Quoc, but it is a life without a Khmer presence. Phu Quoc residents reported to Crawfurd that among four or five thousand occupants “aside from a few Hainanese sojourners the population of the island is 100% Cochin Chinese.”
There is no mention by Crawfurd of Cambodian authority or interests on the island. Crawfurd’s 1828 map of the area is cited by some as evidence of Phu Quoc being part of Cambodia rather than Cochin China but in fact the map shows no territorial boundaries. The map contains the island’s name in Thai and Vietnamese but not in Khmer.
Sydney-based attorney Bora Touch is the primary legal advocate working on behalf of Cambodian sovereignty for Koh Tral. His own version of history fixes 1789 as the end of Cambodian authority over Koh Tral. His writings speak not at all to the Khmer population of the island or to how Cambodian authority was earlier displayed.
Vietnamese historian Nguyen Dinh Dau researched 19th century land transfers on Phu Quoc. He told BBC he found no evidence of a Khmer presence in these land transaction records .
At the time the French established their colony of Cochin China the island had a population of only about 1,000. The French brought new crops and plantations to the island but by the turn of the 20th century there were still just 5,000 inhabitants.
Today, with new industry and tourism providing jobs for new arrivals, the population of Phu Quoc is 85,000. It is predominately Vietnamese (ethnic Kinh). The 1989 census found the Khmer population of the island to be approximately 300 (less than 1 percent of the total). Khmers on the island today estimate that approximately 200 Khmer families call Koh Tral home.
Ambivalent Claims - A linchpin in the quest to regain Cambodian sovereignty is that Cambodia has never relinquished its claim of ownership of the territory. It is a commonly accepted belief, yet one that is contradicted by history.
Koh Tral has been viewed as an exchangeable commodity since before the establishment of the Protectorate and there is substantial evidence that Cambodia gave up Koh Tral in the name of regional security decades ago.
The first indication that Koh Tral was viewed as expendable is given in King Ang Duong’s letter of 1853, in which he offered France the island (which Ang Duong did not control) in exchange for French protection. There was no response.
Two years later the King in a second letter to Napoleon III urged the French not to accept transfer of the island from the Vietnamese who controlled it, but this would be the last expression of a claim by a Khmer sovereign on behalf of Koh Tral for one hundred years.
When in 1939 French officials felt obliged to publish the Brevie Line for administrative purposes, it was indicative that Cochin Chinese management of the island was a touchy matter for Cambodian colonial officers but did not suggest a royal conviction to press the Cambodian case with France.
In 1954, King Sihanouk objected to the treaty by which independent Vietnam gained full control from the French authorities over Kampuchea Krom and Koh Tral. He noted that Cambodia reserved the right to bring the issue of the territories to the United Nations.
However meritorious he and those who have followed him might have gauged Cambodia’s case to be, no head of state has chosen to act on that reserved right in the 60 years since independence.
With a number of border issues remaining unresolved, Sihanouk in 1964 proposed to the Vietnamese a map aimed at settling those issues. As part of the compromise Cambodia offered to accept the colonial Brevie Line as the maritime boundary, thus abandoning its claim to Phu Quoc. The Vietnamese issued a unilateral declaration in 1967 that accepted the map’s proposals.
The parties never signed a treaty confirming the earlier agreement, however, and both soon changed their minds. In 1969 Sihanouk renewed his claim on Koh Tral as did the Lon Nol administration which followed. The Vietnamese hardened their position and backed off their previous acceptance of the Brevie Line seeking more generous sea lanes around the islands.
The Khmer Rouge, whose Democratic Kampuchea* was accepted by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Cambodia, fully accepted the Brevie Line in their talks with the Vietnamese (despite an ill fated 1975 island landing), though the parties again failed to reach agreement given expanded Vietnamese demands.
Cambodia’s PRK government affirmed Vietnamese sovereignty over the island in their 1982 and 1985 border agreements with Vietnam. Bora Touch and others in the Cambodian opposition make compelling arguments that these treaties are null and void under the terms of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement as they were signed while Cambodia was occupied by Vietnamese military forces.
Interestingly, though, the Sydney attorney in 2002 and 2004 letters to King Sihanouk assures him that in the event the 1982 and 1985 agreements were nullified the 1967 Vietnamese Declaration would be determinative, thus relinquishing any Cambodian claim to Koh Tral but retaining for Cambodia greater territorial waters. This part of the legal argument understandably doesn’t get play in the CNRP blogosphere, although Bora Touch’s letter is found on CNRP’s internet homepage.
Irrespective of the status of the 1982/1985 treaties, in 1999 the Cambodian representative to the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Border Commission affirmed the state’s acceptance of the Brevie Line and Vietnamese sovereignty over Phu Quoc, a position reported to and accepted by the National Assembly.
Commenting prior to the national elections last year on CNRP claims regarding the island, Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated that position. A Quixotic Legal Strategy - Political advocates of Cambodian sovereignty argue that a CNRP government should bring Vietnam to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the issue of Koh Tral. This position betrays a misunderstanding of what the ICJ does.
In settling territorial disputes the ICJ relies on the willingness of both parties to submit to ICJ jurisdiction and accept as final its judgment. Unless Cambodia demonstrates to the Vietnamese a willingness to go beyond political rhetoric with economic sanctions or a military confrontation there is nothing that might compel Vietnam to submit to ICJ authority on a matter it deems already resolved.
Were Vietnam to submit to ICJ authority it is quite likely it would prevail. There is precedent in international law (see Island of Las Palmas, Netherlands v. United States) which establishes that a claim to sovereignty based solely upon discovery (we found it) and contiguity (it’s closer to our land) even with corroborating maps can fall before a counter-claim based on long-term display of sovereignty and effective occupation, both of which Vietnam can easily document.
Would Mac Cuu’s temporary recognition of Khmer authority, if it could be clearly documented (the chronicles are inconsistent) be sufficient to evidence Cambodian sovereignty? Perhaps, but it is a tough case to argue on the merits made even more difficult by the lack of documentation.
Bora Touch argues that Cambodia’s best hope for Koh Tral is that the United Nations determines the island falls within its provisions for decolonization described in the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence of Colonial Countries and Peoples.
Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy have both posited the case of Singapore as a comparable example of this process. There seems little chance of this happening. The colonial powers subject to the 1960 Declaration were specifically identified as the European powers who emerged from World War II with overseas territories which the UN viewed as deserving the right to self-determination.
Vietnam is not identified as a colonial power, Phu Quoc is not a state, and as for the right to self-determination it is unlikely the 99.5 percent Vietnamese population of Phu Quoc would opt for allegiance to Cambodia.
There is some legal precedent to suggest that self-determination might not always be the highest priority in all cases of decolonization. Still, it’s hard to imagine how Cambodia’s claim, given Cambodia’s lack of substantial interest in the island and clearly ambivalent position on sovereignty, could override Vietnam’s interest in maintaining its territorial integrity, something the UN established as a critical principle in examining cases of decolonization.
Ultimately, the quest for Koh Tral can only be viewed as quixotic. Should the matter actually reach courts of international law Cambodia can only expect an unfavorable outcome sure to intensify feelings of victimization. It is hard to see this effort as being in the best interest of the Cambodian population at large rather than a cynical effort to mobilize popular opinion against Cambodia’s eastern neighbor for purely political gain.
https://thediplomat.com/2014/06/cambodias-impossible-dream-koh-tral/
Nam tiến (Vietnamese: [nam tǐən], lit. "southward advance" or "march to the south") refers to the southward expansion of the territory of Vietnam from the 11th century to the mid-18th century.
The territory of Vietnam was gradually expanded to the south from its original heartland in the Red River Delta. In a span of some 700 years, Vietnam tripled its territory in size and more-or-less acquired its elongated shape of today.
The direction of expansion to the south could be explained by geographic and demographic factors. With the South China Sea to the east, the Truong Son Mountains to the west, and China to the north, the Vietnamese polity pushed south, following the coastal plains.
The 11–14th centuries saw battle gains and losses as the frontier territory changed hands between the Vietnamese and Chams. In the 15–17th centuries following the failed Ming conquest (1407–1420), the resurgent Vietnamese took the upper hand, defeating the less-centralized state of Champa, forcing the cession of more land.
Betty Weider
By the 17–19th centuries, Vietnamese settlers had penetrated the Mekong Delta. The Nguyen Lords of Hue by diplomacy and force wrested the southernmost territory from Cambodia, completing the "March to the South".
The native inhabitants of the Central Highlands are the Degar (Montagnard People) peoples. Vietnam conquered and annexed the area during its "march to the south" (Nam tiến).
Cham provinces were seized by the Nguyen Lords. Provinces and districts originally controlled by Cambodia were taken by Vo Vuong. Cambodia was constantly invaded by the Vietnamese Nguyen Lords.
Around a thousand Vietnamese settlers were slaughtered in 1667 in Cambodia by a combined force of Chinese and Cambodians. Vietnamese settlers started to inhabit Mekong Delta that was previously inhabited by the Khmer and in response the Vietnamese were subjected to Cambodian retaliation.
The Cambodians told Catholic European envoys that the Vietnamese persecution against Catholics justified retaliatory attacks launched against the Vietnamese colonists.
Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mang enacted the final conquest of the Champa Kingdom after the centuries long Cham–Vietnamese wars. The Cham Muslim leader Katip Suma was educated in Kelantan and came back to Champa to declare a Jihad against the Vietnamese after Emperor Minh Mang's annexation of Champa.
The Vietnamese coercively fed lizard and pig meat to Cham Muslims and cow meat to Cham Hindus against their will to punish them and assimilate them to Vietnamese culture.
Minh Mang sinicized ethnic minorities such as Cambodians, claimed the legacy of Confucianism and China's Han dynasty for Vietnam, and used the term Han people 漢人 (Hán nhân) to refer to the Vietnamese. Minh Mang declared that "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Han [Sino-Vietnamese] customs."
Anh Khoa Anh Khoa & Họa Mi
It was said "Hán di hữu hạn" Hán tự: 漢夷有限 ("the Vietnamese and the barbarians must have clear borders") by the Gia Long Emperor (Nguyễn Phúc Ánh) when differentiating between Khmer and Vietnamese.
Minh Mang implemented an acculturation integration policy directed at minority non-Vietnamese peoples. Thanh nhân 清人 or Đường nhân 唐人 were used to refer to ethnic Chinese by the Vietnamese while Vietnamese called themselves as Hán dân Hán tự: 漢民 and Hán nhân Hán tự: 漢人 in Vietnam during the 1800s under Nguyen rule.
Extreme anti-Vietnamese sentiment due to Vietnam's conquest of previously Cambodian lands which are now the Mekong delta part of modern-day Vietnam and hundreds of years of Vietnamese invasions, Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia and Vietnam's military subjugation of Cambodia, has led to extreme anti-Vietnamese feelings against ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia and against Vietnam, and in turn has led to pro-China sentiment among the Cambodian government and the Cambodian opposition, including in the South China Sea, leaving Americans unaware of this to be puzzled by pro-China leanings in Cambodia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_ti%E1%BA%BFn
Nguyen Hung and wife
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In 1975, a spokesperson for the newly installed communist regime in Phnom Penh claimed proudly that because of the revolution "2,000 years of Cambodian history have ended." By "history" the spokesperson seems to have meant the sum total of Cambodia's past, as well as all the narratives about it prior to 1975.
The abruptness with which the new government embarked on a new era made many Cambodians agree that the old "Cambodia" had to an end. Francois Ponchaud's disquieting title, Cambodia Year Zero, makes this very point.
For some Cambodian communists, on the other hand, Cambodian history ended when they were driven from power in 1979. Others still consider that this dispossession was temporary and contingent; they hope to return to power and regain control of the historical process. Still others - most Cambodians, perhaps - have assumed that Cambodia's history, like the society itself, will sooner or later resume its prerevolutionary form.
Anh Khoa and daughter
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Against this shifting, post-revolutionary backdrop, I would like to discuss three themes in modern Cambodian history: Cambodia's accessibility, cultural distance from Vietnam, and the grandeur of its medieval past.
Cambodia's Accessibility - Since about 1800 the Mekong River basin, where most Cambodians live, has been accessible to military forces, immigrants, and influences from southern Vietnam and central Thailand.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Vietnamese forces occupied Cambodia for several years, and when Thai forces came to the "rescue" of the Cambodians, the kingdom became a battlefield.
The hardships of that time, Vietnamese attempts to colonize Cambodia, and popular resistance to their rule all entered popular memory, reemerging when Cambodians began fighting the Vietnamese again in the 1970s. At that point, some Cambodians may have thought that history was repeating itself.
The nineteenth-century struggle ended when France established its protectorate over Cambodia in 1863, separating the combatants. Had France not done so, Cambodia would probably have disappeared as a sovereign state divided into spheres of Vietnamese and Thai control, with a frontier running along the Mekong River or nearby.
"Cambodia" survived by exchanging the hegemony of its neighbors for dependency on France. In some ways, it was a French invention. Under French protection, however, Cambodia became even more entangled with Vietnam.
In the early 1900s, without being consulted, Cambodia became a component of "French Indochina," comprising three segments of Vietnam, Cambodia, and three principalities in Laos. Other entanglements followed.
In 1930, a handful of Vietnamese radicals led by Ho Chi Minh founded a Communist Party, and succumbed to the "Indochina" concept, probably on Soviet advice. The consequences of an "Indochinese" communist Party, with no Cambodian members prior to the 1940s, still reverberate in Cambodian politics today.
Moreover, because the French educational system in southern Vietnam, or "Cochinchina," was more extensive than its counterpart in Cambodia, many more southern Vietnamese than Cambodians were literate in French.
They soon filled up the middle ranks of the supposedly Cambodian civil service. During the colonial era nearly half a million other Vietnamese, mostly farmers, fisherpeople, and artisans, emigrated to Cambodia, encouraged by the French authorities, who considered them more vigorous than the Cambodians as a "race."
By 1945, more than half the inhabitants of Phnom Penh were ethnic Vietnamese, and so were nearly all the workers on Cambodia's rubber plantations. Cambodian nationalists in the 1930s were distressed by these developments. Many educated Cambodians eared that they were being sidetracked by the French and that they would eventually be "swallowed" by Vietnam.
The push against Cambodia from the Vietnamese and later from the French was matched in the nineteenth century by similar pressure from the Thais. In 1794, Thailand annexed two Cambodian provinces, Battambang and Siem Reap. The former was prosperous agriculturally; the latter housed the "undiscovered" ruins of Angkor.
The Thais annexed the provinces in exchange for allowing a Cambodian prince back into his country to be king, and they held onto them until they were forced to give them up by the French in 1907. When France was prostrated by World War II, the Thais took the two provinces back, releasing them in 1946 as part of a deal that enabled them to enter the United Nations.
It is not surprising that when Cambodia gained its independence in 1953, Thai and Vietnamese activities over the past century and Cambodian perceptions of their intentions led the kingdom's leading politician, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, to be wary of these neighbors.
In the 1950s, Sihanouk's watchfulness was justified by frequent plots against him undertaken by the pro-US governments in Thailand and South Vietnam. Later on, he had to worry about the clandestine occupation of much of eastern Cambodia by Vietnamese communist troops.
Sihanouk agreed to this installation, being unable to resist it, and also to gain credit with the communists if they won the Vietnam War. His own preferences were both Vietnams to leave Cambodia alone.
Sihanouk frequently claimed that Cambodia was "surrounded" by Thailand and Vietnam. In his speeches he indulged in racist rhetoric to assert Cambodia's superiority over the three states, a tendency that kept relations at a fever pitch. Unlike Lon Nol and Pol Pot, who said similar things, Sihanouk had a healthy respect for the military potential of the two powers and a corresponding sense of Cambodia's vulnerability.
To counterbalance pressure from his neighbors, he formed an alliance with China. This "pro-communist" behavior infuriated Bangkok and Saigon authorities all the more. Cambodia's modern history has been entangled with the histories and interests of Thailand and Vietnam, largely because of its accessibility to these two powers.
Another reason for the entanglement lies in the cultural differences between Thailand and Cambodia on the one hand and Vietnam on the other. These differences spring from the fact that until very recent times both Thailand and Cambodia were Theravada Buddhist kingdoms with cultural roots stretching back to India, while Vietnam, until 1945 a Mahayana Buddhist empire, derives much of its culture from China.
The differences have grown less important over time, but they still form a component of Cambodian, Thai, and Vietnamese cultural baggage, and they deeply influenced Cambodian political behavior in the 1970s.
Traditional attitudes of the nations toward each other also affect many of the choices that Cambodians, Thais, and Vietnamese make in the sphere of foreign relations. The Thais and Cambodians have traditionally perceived the Vietnamese as territorially aggressive, mendacious, and condescending.
As non-Theravada Buddhists, the Vietnamese have also been seen as nonbelievers, unredeemably beyond the pale. Two anecdotes will illustrate this point. In April 1970, soon after the coup that had removed Sihanouk from power, anti-Vietnamese riots in Phnom Penh got out of hand and thousands of unarmed Vietnamese civilians were massacred by Cambodian troops.
No expressions of regret were forthcoming from Lon Nol's government, the press, or the Buddhist monastic order. For Cambodians, there were no "innocent" Vietnamese and no "guilty" Cambodians, either.
Five years later, when the Cambodian communists came to power, one of their first actions was to dismantle the Roman Catholic cathedral in Phnom Penh, which they called "the Vietnamese church."
They also tore down other Catholic churches frequented by Vietnamese. Cambodia's own Buddhist temples were not subject to the same abuse, and neither was the former US Embassy, the headquarters of Cambodia's "Enemy Number One."
If Cambodian feelings about Vietnam were traditionally fueled by resentment, those of Vietnamese toward Cambodians, until very recently, have occasionally been tinged with a sense of superiority, often disguised as bafflement. Vietnamese have tended to see Cambodians as a childlike, barbarian people whose kingdoms on the outer reaches of Vietnam cry out for management or stratagems.
These attitudes were submerged in fraternal rhetoric and behavior in the years of Vietnam's protectorate over Cambodia in the 1980s. During that time, many Cambodians at home at abroad began to question some of their mythology.
Were the Vietnamese better or worse than Pol Pot? Was there a future for a brand of nationalism based on mistrust and confrontation with Vietnam? A third theme affecting modern Cambodian politics, related to the other two, is the grandeur of its medieval past.
Cambodia's Medieval Past - When France abandoned Cambodia is the 1950s, it left behind an ambiguous legacy. Starting in the 1870s, French archaeologists, historians, and savants had untangled the chronology of medieval Cambodian history; recovered the names of Angkorean kings; excavated, named, and dated more than a thousand religious monuments; and deciphered roughly the same number of inscriptions.
They had constructed a framework for Cambodia's history. Arguably, this work was France's most enduring contribution to Indochina. What were the Cambodians to make of this extraordinary gift?
The narrative of Cambodian history bequeathed to them by France involved a period of greatness, culminating in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and followed by a long decline.
The period of greatness was marked by strong leadership, monumental art, imperial ambitions, and a highly stratified society. Times of "decline" were characterized by weak leaders, inward-looking policies, foreign interference, and a society that, if not egalitarian, was organized in terms of villages, families, and entourages rather than on a national scale.
The French associated what they insisted was Cambodia's decline with the refusal or inability of Cambodians to continue to behave in Angkorean ways. A fondness for grandeur, nourished by a close study of Cambodia's extraordinary art, made some of them disdainful of periods when Cambodia's rulers and ruled seem to have made more realistic assessments of their environment, and perhaps lived on better terms with each other.
At the level of popular belief, Cambodians blamed the abandonment of Angkor in the fifteenth century on supernatural causes and the machinations of the Thais. Here is Lon Nol, talking to US Ambassador Swank in July 1971:
In response to my request for his assessment of the internal political situation he launched into an exposition of his plans to rejuvenate the Khmer nation. Warming to an obviously favorite subject, he spoke of the historical superiority of the Khmer people to their western and eastern neighbors and of the long centuries of their decline.
He recounted the legend explaining this decline involving the capture by the Thai of a sacred buffalo impregnated with the creative soul of the Khmer nation, thereafter lost for centuries. The present task, he continued, is to restore to the nation its soul, the formulae (kbbuon) which once made it great.
The idea that Angkorean greatness was purely Khmer and could be reconstituted almost by an act of will preoccupied Pol Pot and his colleagues after 1975. "If we can build Angkor," Pol Pot declared, "we can do anything." Cambodia's grandeur, for example, could be summoned to defeat the Vietnamese.
Cambodia is the only country in the world to display a ruin on its national flag. The gift from the French of a certified "greatness" (as well as a certified "decline") has been a mixed blessing to a country suffering from its accessibility to outsiders, a shortage of saleable resources, and a relatively small population.
The tension between its past greatness and its present misfortune has characterized a good deal of Cambodian political thinking in recent times. The People's Republic of Kampuchea (now known as the State of Cambodia) submerged or altered some of these psychological tensions because the PRK, like its Vietnamese patrons, was eager to set itself apart from previous regimes ("feudal" Sihanouk, "puppet" Lon Nol, "fascist" Pol Pot) and disavow the strand of Cambodian nationalism that was based on conflict with Vietnam.
This belated injection of common sense into Cambodian self-perceptions contrasted sharply with the rhetoric of many Cambodian refugees and of opposition groups along the Thai border, who still proclaim that prerevolutionary Cambodia and its privileges can be brought back to life, and that the raison d'être of all Vietnamese has always been to "extinguish" the Cambodian "race."
With the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia, some of these fears and animosities might reemerge, or flare up, in the countryside, where Vietnamese migrants have settled in large numbers. Prerevolutionary "live and let live" attitudes among Khmers are also likely to revive.
At the government level it seems unlikely that policies will ever be based on the military confrontation with Vietnam or on alliances with Vietnam's enemies. Paradoxically, 10 percent of the pronouncement that opened this article seems to be coming true.
Two hundred years of Cambodia's history, rather than two thousand, have ended - or have been modified at least in the last ten year or so. Animosity toward Vietnam and fears of encirclement have faded from official pronouncements.
Vietnamese ambitions toward Cambodia, whatever they were, seem to have receded. As the demythologizing process works itself out on both sides of the border, cultural differences between Cambodians and Vietnamese, so useful to Cambodian demagogues in the past, are blurring, and the people of both countries find themselves as neighbors in a global village.
Cambodian culture, insofar as it is unique and looks backward to its periods of greatness, will survive, and a more internationalized "Indochinese" culture may develop (as it seems to be doing among some Cambodian migrants in the United States).
The Cambodian people and some kind of Cambodian nation will also survive, provided that the fighting stops, political stability reasserts itself, and foreign powers stop using the country as a testing ground for allegedly larger interests, such as punishing Vietnam, pleasing Beijing, or avenging the coup that removed Sihanouk from power 20 years ago.
When peace turns, the outside powers that guarantee it will probably not allow Cambodia the luxury of unbridled nationalism, the chance to revert to the status of a hermit nation, or to be swallowed up by one state or another.
Instead, what we might see in the 1990s is a more outward-looking, post-revolutionary phase of Cambodian history, dominated by Cambodia's independence guaranteed by the United Nations.
The prospect of Cambodia becoming a small state locked into the rest of Asia, bereft of some of its mythology, does not seem to be too high a price for Cambodians to pay for their survival. They have already paid for more than most of us.
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/reflections-cambodian-history
A rare cape pangolin. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine - If there is a single dish that has come to symbolise humans’ willingness to eat other animals out of existence, it is the ortolan bunting.
Traditionally, you devour this diminutive songbird, prized since Roman times, whole, in one fell bite, your head hidden under a napkin to hide your shame from God (although, drowned in armagnac and deep-fried, this “delicacy” is also just plain messy).
In France, where hunting ortolans has been banned since 1999, 30,000 birds are still trapped every year, according to the RSPB; they are said to fetch up to €150 (£130) apiece. Despite conservation efforts, ortolan numbers dropped by 84% between 1980 and 2012.
Yet the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the ortolan as “a species of least concern”. There are many animals that are in far greater peril, according to Prof David Macdonald of the University of Oxford, who reported in 2016 that our culinary habits threaten 301 land mammal species alone with extinction.
Here are 10 of the creatures that are most at risk, based on Macdonald’s study, guidance from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), the IUCN’s red list of endangered species and the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Edge of Existence conservation programme.
Once found across central, south-western and southern China, the world’s largest amphibian has seen its natural population fall by 80% since 1960, according to ZSL’s Olivia Couchman.
Despite a Cites appendix I listing (the highest level of protection given by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), specimens reportedly fetch more than $1,500 (£1,150) each on the black market, where they are prized as much as a delicacy as for their medicinal properties.
In 2015, the Washington Post reported that undercover reporters from a Chinese newspaper had caught 14 police officers feasting on salamander during a banquet at a seafood restaurant in Shenzen.
These ancient, supersized fish (they can weigh up to a tonne and a half) could once be found all the way from central Russia to Italy and northern Iran, but overfishing – for their flesh and caviar – and the devastating effect of modern river infrastructure on their migratory spawning patterns have caused their range to contract to just two rivers, the Ural and the Danube, and the basins they feed into, the Caspian and the Black Sea, respectively.
As the MCS’s Jean-Luc Solandt says, this is “definitely one that could become extinct within a generation”. With Beluga caviar fetching thousands of pounds a kilo, it’s easy to see why overexploitation remains a problem. And it’s not the only sturgeon in trouble: of the 27 species, the IUCN puts 15 others in the same critically endangered bracket.
Since 2000, more than a million pangolins, the world’s most trafficked wild mammal, are thought to have been killed for flesh and blood, as well as their scales (which is used in traditional Chinese medicine). When all eight species of pangolin were given an appendix I listing in 2016, everyone at the Cites convention is said to have applauded.
However, as Oxford University’s Dan Challender points out, alarming seizures continue to take place: 8.3 tonnes of scales (amounting to 13,800 pangolins) in Hong Kong in January (the shipment from Nigeria was bound for Vietnam); 30 tonnes of live and frozen animals and body parts in Malaysia in February.
With the Asian species, particularly the Sunda and Chinese, no longer commercially viable because there are so few left, local demand is being met by intercontinental trade. Paul De Ornellas, the chief wildlife advisor at WWF UK, describes this as “one continent hoovering up wildlife from another”.
The MCS says this species is “just one step away from extinction” in the wild. Its range – which until the middle of the 20th century stretched from Norway and Ireland to Morocco and the Black Sea – has contracted by 80%; it has been declared extinct in the North Sea.
This bottom-dwelling, sedentary fish is most threatened by trawling for other species, where it forms part of the accidental bycatch. Once widespread in Vietnam and China, this species is now down to just four known individuals, thanks to the local appetite for its meat and eggs.
With two males in different Vietnamese lakes and the other pair in an as-yet-unsuccessful Chinese captive breeding programme (the male has a damaged penis, according to the New Yorker), Couchman says it would be very surprising if the species survives.
This freshwater turtle’s plight highlights that of the wider turtle population: after primates, they are the second-most threatened of the world’s major vertebrate groups.
Found in the mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, this gorilla is particularly vulnerable to poaching for bushmeat, associated with illegal mining camps. While the other eastern gorilla subspecies – the mountain gorilla – is the only great ape to see its numbers rising, the eastern lowland’s are in steady decline.
Although violence in the region has made accurate accounting impossible, its population is estimated to have dropped by 77% in a single generation to 3,800 individuals, according to the Edge of Existence list.
These mysterious fish migrate from the Atlantic (they are thought to be spawned in the Sargasso Sea) to fresh and coastal waters to grow, then head back out to the ocean to breed.
While little is understood about any of the process, juvenile (“glass”) and mature (silver or yellow) eels alike have been consistently overfished, to the point where yields have halved since the 1960s. With excessive exploitation just one of the many threats the eels face, the MCS urges us to “avoid eating European eel at any stage in its lifecycle”.
Christoph Schwitzer of the Bristol Zoological Society says this group of monkey species – there are 18 – is a prime example of large-bodied primates being hunted to extinction “because they make a good family meal”.
They are found across sub-Saharan Africa, where habitat degradation and improved road access have seen the commercialisation of bushmeat-hunting, with devastating effects. One species, Miss Waldron’s red colobus, is already feared extinct, having not been seen in the wild since 1978, while the most recently discovered, the Niger delta red colobus, is on track to disappear within the next five years.
Madagascar’s lemurs – of which the singing, black-and-white indri is the largest – are the world’s most endangered primate group: 105 of the island’s 111 known species and sub-species are threatened with extinction.
While habitat degradation due to slash-and-burn agriculture has long been an issue (with human eating habits posing an indirect threat), the past 15 years have seen an alarming rise in subsistence hunting and commercial poaching for local restaurants, according to Schwitzer.
This new threat is linked to the island’s political and economic crisis. As Couchman puts it, people are starving. They may look like antelopes, but these large forest-dwelling mammals, found in the Annamite Mountains along the border between Laos and Vietnam, are more closely related to wild cattle and buffaloes.
Western science only got wind of their existence in the early 1990s, when horns were found in the homes of Vietnamese hunters. Little is still known about them today, including how many are left.
The Edge of Existence list says it could be as few as 30 left. For De Ornellas, the saola is linked to “empty forest syndrome”, a real concern for this region of south-east Asia where almost all the large animals have been hunted out for food.
Yi ethnic
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This article was amended on 9 April 2019 because Grauer’s gorillas can be found in the mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but not also north-west Rwanda and south-west Uganda as an earlier version said.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/03/deadly-appetite-10-animals-we-are-eating-into-extinction?CMP=share_btn_fb&page=with%3Aimg-5
No one knows how many species of edible plants there are in the world, or in North America. In the former the guess is around 135,000, in the latter between four and six thousand, a margin of 50%. Of those perhaps 3,000 are reasonably well-known. There is still a lot to discover.
Resembles parsley but low growing - I would not be surprised to find close to two thousand edible species in Florida as it ranges over 400 miles from hilly temperate to nearly flat tropical.
In fact I know of a survey that listed 1,700 edibles in the local area but that included subspecies and varieties including ferns and mushrooms. The point is one can always find an edible plant one had not known before, and that was my case about a decade ago with the Modiola caroliniana (moe-DYE-oh-lah care-row-lin-knee-ANN-ah (or AIN-ah.)
I don’t lead many foraging classes in large state parks because they usually are not where the common weeds or the people are. The edible plants are also few and far between, sometimes a half a mile or more whereas in an old city park one can often find a half-a-dozen edible within a square yard.
While scouting Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge for a suitable foraging class site an odd plant presented itself under the bird observation tower — read a plant that follows man’s feet rather than traveling solely by nature.
Deep green, kind of looked like plump parsley, maybe a mallow of some kind. Low growing, alternating leaves, in a wet area but growing high and dry on a dirt road in partial sun.
Tiny mallow blossom - Such discoveries can sometimes take months, if not years to identify. This time, however, I knew exactly where to look first: Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses by the University of Florida.
I am very sure I use this book far differently than the authors intended. The book was put together to help home owners and businesses identify weeds in the lawn or golf courses so as to eradicate them. While they don’t say so, about half the plants in the book are edible, with good photos and descriptions.
And there on page 152 was the object of my search, the Bristly Mallow, except it isn’t a mallow… well, that depends on how you use the word. It is in the greater Malvaceae family but its genus is not Malva. In fact, the Modiola caroliniana is the only species in its genus so there are no siblings to account for.
The seed head helps in off season identification - Whether the Modiola is edible is a bit of definition as well. Cornucopia II says on page 148: “Cajuns make a refreshing drink by soaking a handful of the leaves in a quart of water for two or more hours. Many drink it every day.”
That’s good news but elsewhere the information is not so encouraging. Dr. Daniel Austin in his huge tome, Florida Ethnobotany, says on page 442 it was used as a gargle for sore throats, tonsillitis and diphtheria; as an emollient and sedative, and to treat edema. One would presume it is a diuretic, and perhaps “refreshing” means relaxing.
A cold water extract was used for a “healing bath” and it was also used for menstrual issues. It is suspected in the poisoning and paralysis of sheep, goats, and cattle. If it is troublesome to livestock in some degree or amounts it might be nitrate toxicosis, which is sometimes caused by Malva species.
It would seem on one end of the Modiola’s spectrum we have a … refreshing… drink and on the other a strong herb for medicinal uses. Approached correctly it’s probably a good plant to add to the bank of foraging knowledge.
Carolina Bristle Mallow seeds. Not edible - Where the plant came from originally is not certain. Most think South America then naturalized into tropical and warmer temperate parts of the world. In the US it is reported in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania then south to Florida and west to California, up to Oregon and in Hawaii. Nevada and the northern half of the US haven’t reported it (save for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.)
Elsewhere it is found from northern Argentina north, in northern Spain, northwest Portugal, northern Morocco, South Africa, southern peninsula India, Java, New Zealand (common in the Auckland area), the Chatham Islands, Australia (southern Queensland to southeast South Australia) Tasmania, southern Swanland, Norfolk Island, the Caribbean and Atlantic islands, including Bermuda, Hispaniola and Jamaica.
(On a personal note it is all over my cousin’s farm in South Carolina.) Modiola is from Greek and means the center of a wheel, a reference to the seed pod. Caroliniana means from Carolina, read the eastern North America (though we now know that not to be true.)
http://www.eattheweeds.com/carolina-bristle-mallow/
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