You’ve probably heard about the massive floods in Southeast Asia that have left many areas underwater for months after annual floodwaters ordinarily subside. People in Cambodia have been particularly affected by the flooding, in a crisis that is worsening as the months go by, though it has not received much U.S. media attention.
At Cantankerous Titles, we’ve been following flood news from Cambodia with dismay. We believe in the importance of telling stories; we also want to help materially.
We will donate $1 to Cambodian flood relief efforts for each copy of our recent nonfiction release Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh that you buy here between now and February 1, 2012.
Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh
by Anne Elizabeth Moore
$7.95
Here is a statement from author Anne Elizabeth Moore:
“One of the most frustrating things about the work I first undertook in 2007 and then wrote about in Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh was how difficult it was to convince anyone in the traditional publishing industry that Cambodia in any way mattered –whether as a nation, as an economy, or as a group of around 14 million individuals.
It’s a dangerous mindset, to presume that people in entrenched poverty can’t be news, but quickly becomes deadly when natural disasters hit, upsetting the very fragile stability those in poverty have been able to piece together. Now, around 1.4 million people are affected by flooding in Cambodia — and yet US media continues to report primarily on how the same disasters are affecting the more economically stable (and tourist-friendly) Thailand.
It’s a continuing injustice, but readers can always support and demand more reporting on less-heard-from parts of the world. Because we understand that media shouldn’t be exclusively about tourism, shopping, or finances; it must also be about access to information.”