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Selin Kose (Ideas for Essay (:fire: "First they Killed my Father"…

- - - - Marco Polo has had a large impact on the west and east. Many countries in the west such as China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and India, started experiencing western culture. Polo wasnt able to bring westernaization to the east himself but he sparked a desire in the west to explore those areas.
      - There were many reasons why people in the west wanted to discover the east. These involve the curiosity of exploring new ideas, the potential of trade between two cultures, and geographical influence and the desire of experiencing more. But the reason is because of the stories and technologies that Marco Polo brought.
      - Although people didn't believe his book at first, it sparked curiosity in some renowned explorers such as Christopher Columbus. He initially wanted to trael to China but thinking that going by sea would be faster and less tiring. He thought he had landed in China, but he had actually landed in what is now the Bahamas. This changed the lives of people in the Americas and Europe.
      - Marco Polo also brought back many items with him that weren't seen by Europeans before. One of them was a new navigation device, the compass. With the compass there was a new sense of direction and navigation. This was also a stepping stone for map making. In addition to technology, Marco Polo brought back with him paper, paper currency, porcelain, raw silk, ivory, jade, spices, and noodles. Among the most significant of these items was paper. With these new items, the Europeans were then able to, hundreds of years later, develop an effective printing press.
      - Before Marco Polo's travels Europe thought that they were the most advanced area in the world but once they saw China's technology they aimed to make themselves better. This is what led up to the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. Marco Polo also introduced gunpowder to the Chinese, they were able to make fireworks, military arms and also rockets. Trade between Europe and China opened up many opportunities. The introduction to these new items both positively impacted the West and East directly through economic gain and through the opening of new jobs.
- - - - Loung Ung was one of seven children in her family. They were a wealthy high-rank family, who worked in the government. Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Pehn. Her father was a military police officer, her mother was Chinese and all 7 siblings were educated. This made them in danger because of the revolutionary sights of their country, about having people who could farm and fight.
      - Loung Ung was 5 when the Khmer Rouge took over the city. They came to say that the war was over, but then also said that the American's were going to attack them. So they left town along with 2 million other people. They walked for seven days, trying to reach their uncles village.
      - A year into the war, military soldiers came to their camp in Ro Leap and for her father. They never heard from him again. They separated in order to stay safe. Loung and her sister went to an orphanage camp an dthen a camp for child soldiers. They had to say their mother was dead, in their religion this was wrong. Loung later found out that mother and baby sister were killed when she went to see them. She was devastated, the best way to go on was to be dumb, deaf, blind, mute and invisible and to exist but not live.
        
        Being a Child in the Genocide
        
        When in a child soldier camp Loung Ung was constantly told to "Crush the Vietnamese!" Children were brainwashed to believe that the Khmer Rouge, the people who killed their parents and 2 million other people were good. What can a child do they have no choice, it is either their life or mind. Loung Ung had to live through her father’s execution in an unidentified mass grave, her young brother’s brutal beating for stealing extra food and the sight of civilians darting through landmine-ridden land. The horror of such sights for a child is devastating. There are no definitive figures to how many, but it is believed that the Khmer Rouge exploited thousands of children during its rule, with both boys and girls recruited to fight Vietnamese forces and many more.
        
        Child soldiers were given weapons and forced to hold them. Otherwise, they would be shot. Time after time they were forced to kill innocent people.
        
        The Khmer Rouge were very clever and brutal. They would sacrifice anything to make their country into their vision, even the people. The Khmer Rouge started off saying they were good, and they were believed but this was all a lie wrapped in pretty paper. They lied that the Americans were going to bomb them. They separated friends and neighbours. They robbed people of their possessions. They were willing to pay any cost, any lost lives for their mission. Then the genocide began, first they took the men, saying they needed to be educated. They were all killed. Then they killed the families of the killed men to avoid revenge. They told children to spy on their parents. Then families were separated. The people on the Khmer Rouge death list were the group called the city people. These were any Cambodian men, women, girls, boys, and babies who did not live in their "liberated zones" before they won the war in 1975. Their crime was that they lived in the enemy's zone, helping and supporting the enemy. A girl called Dith Pran wanted to kill herself, but if she did it would show her unhapiness with the system and would result in her families death. "My greatest fear was not my death, but how much suffering I had to go through before they killed me." Women were forced to marry Khmer Rouge soldiers, they were forced to do sexual activities and if they opposed them in anyay they would be killed along with their family.
      - In the end Loung was able to escape and come to America. She was the only one of her family members to be able to do this. She faced instances of PTS, and lots of guilt. The war had gotten to her. How would it not? A young girl at the age of 5 living through a war all alone.
        
        Main Themes of the Book
        
        The Price of Survival The book "First they Killed my Father" is a tragic book about the Ung Family's survival and fight for life during the Cambodian war. It shows how much sacrifice is made so children survive. Over 2 million lives were taken, not being one of them is hard. Making it through these unfortunate times happen with luck, personal strength and unwavering support from others around you.
        
        Genocide, Racism, and Propaganda The Khmer Rouge was a very racist, and xenophobic regime that wanted to rid Cambodia of all outside influences, and ethnic and religious properties. Many times in the book Louung questions the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and her innocence underlines the craziness of the regime.
        
        Women’s Treatment in Times of War Women were faced with large obstacles, including rape and forced marriage to soldiers. The Khmer Rouge viewed women as weak and disposable. Even before the war women were treated unequally and were a subject to sexist expectations and treatment.
        
        The Unbreakable Bonds of Family No matter what, Loung's family stood together, even miles apart they were together. They wouldn't have gotten through this without each other. Because Loung is so young her family is the biggest part of her life. Loung Ung mentions that she is not too close with her siblings but loves them anyway. This traumatic experience only ties them together stronger. Although, theses times in her life have stolen her innocence, childhood and happiness her family will never be broken.
        
        Life After the Genocide and how People Reacted
        
        The world was not fully aware about what was going on. Cambodia shut themselves off from the world. There were interviews held by the Thai border and some information trickled out, there was talk about widespread executions, disease, and starvation. The US made very little efforts to help. With the fresh defeat to Vietnam America did not want to get involved. Soviet-bloc countries voted to keep Cambodia’s seat in the UN, and the U.S. voted in favor of this too. For another decade, the Khmer Rouge fought the Vietnam-backed government with support from China and the Soviet Union. In 1989, Vietnam withdrew their troops because of the economic sanctions the US had placed on Cambodia and a lack of aid from the Soviet Union. A peace agreement was signed between opposing parties. Elections were set for 1993, and the former monarch, Prince Sihanouk, was elected. After the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, more news about what was happening cam to light. The crimes began to gain wider international attention.
        
        Pol Pot's goal was to transform Cambodia into an agrarian utopia. On October 23, 1991, Paris has a peace talk. A peace accord among all Cambodian parties is signed. They approve holding a national election under the supervision of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge boycott the polls and won't demobilize their forces. During all this time the Khmer Rouge soldiers continue to wage guerrilla war. Pol Pot dies in 1998 and the civil war ends in 1999. The end of the Khmer Rouge is considered in 2001. Cambodia asks the U.N. to help create a court to prosecute the surviving top leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Then, Cambodia's National Assembly passes a law to create a court to try serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime
        
        Life for Loung Ung
        
        Loung was able to escape the Khmer Rouge in 1979, fleeing in the middle of the night. She and her two brothers and sister ultimately found safety in a refugee camp. In 1980 after escaping Cambodia to Thailand, Loung, her brother Meng and his wife Eang, received sponsorship and emigrated to the US. Loung was 10-years-old when she arrived in Vermont. She went on to complete her high-school education and university degree. So many of Cambodia’s former child soldiers remained, left to somehow rebuild their lives. Loung returned to Cambodia for the first time in 1995 and today, she works as an activist in the US supporting victims of Cambodia’s war.
        
        Loung was not used to Vermont, the language, the land and the food. She felt very guilty leaving her family behind because of this her mind and heart were still in Cambodia. She tried hard to study but how well can she do when living for 4 years in a genocide. Fireworks reminded her of home. Puberty was also hard, painful and, as a result, psychologically, it made her afraid of war. She had post-traumatic stress disorder at the sight of blood and her period. Every single month, she would think she was dying. She wanted to kill herself but the only thing stopping her was the thought of her family seeing her like this.
        
        A $42m done was given for the demobilisation program started in 1999 but was suspended in 2003 after reported misuse of funds.16,500 of a planned 31,500 soldiers were demobilised during the time. TPO Cambodia is a local NGO focused on mental health and psychosocial support services they have helped several child soldiers reintegrate themselves back to society. Sotheara Chhim, a psychiatrist, says that mental health problems, alcohol abuse and unemployment were all likely common outcomes for many former child soldiers in the Khmer Rouge. He believes some are probably still "trapped in the vicious cycle of trauma, violence and poverty." Three years later the Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment were endorsed.
    - - The Communist Party of Kampuchea, informally known as the Khmer Rouge started from the struggle against the French colonisation. In the years leading to the Khmer Rouge's system the neighbouring Vietnam war spilled to Cambodia. In March 1970, Marshal Lon Nol staged a successful coup to depose Prince Sihanouk as the head of state. The Khmer Rouge headed by Pol Pot, with Sihanouk, unoficially starting the civil war. On April 17th, 1975 the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Pehn. They beat Lon Nol's forces with the help of the Vietnamesa and the US, dropping half a million tons of bombs on the country, and killing as many as 300,000 people in 8 months. They emptied the people in the capital to labor camps which reeked of physical abuse, disease, exhaustion, and starvation. The country’s name was changed to Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and Pol Pot declared it “Year Zero” as he began building his new republic.
      - The Khmer Rouge were very brutal, they singled out all doctors, teachers, monks, journalists, the rich, artists, anyone with an education, and ethnic or religious minorities. They also executed any one who was unable to do the hard labor, so the elderly, ill and children all became targets. Survival was determined on ones ability to last throught the hard labor. Executions were held in large killing fields, which were set up all around the country. The international response was silent, neither the US or Europe called attention to the genocides. America, having just lost the war against Vietnam, did not want to immerse themselves back in. It wasn't until the regime was over that the public starting calling attention to it.
      - Clashes with Vietnam started in 1977. In 1979 Vietnam invaded Cambodia, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge. Soviet-bloc countries voted to keep Cambodia’s seat in the UN, and the U.S. voted in favor of this too. For another decade, the Khmer Rouge fought the Vietnam-backed government with support from China and the Soviet Union. In 1989, Vietnam withdrew their troops because of the economic sanctions the U.S. had placed on Cambodia and a lack of aid from the Soviet Union. A peace agreement was signed between opposing parties. Elections were set for 1993, and the former monarch, Prince Sihanouk, was elected.
      - Over 25% of Cambodia's population was killed in three years. The population was just over 7 million meaning that over 2 million people were killed. Adapting back to normal life was very hard. The poeple remaining alive were extremely hurt mentally and physically. Repairing cities and people was hard.