Background for this project

I tell my students: bad ideas lead to bad action; good ideas can lead to good action.

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge of the late 1970s preached equality. Equality is a good idea. But there are two ways to make people equal: lift up those who are lower or crush those who are higher. The Khmer Rouge chose the latter. That was a bad idea.

In the end was left a generation of Cambodians with a scar on their hearts and darkness in their minds.

Though Cambodia is an oral culture, there are some things that are not spoken about. Personal stories of the Khmer Rouge time are one of those things. My students tell me they do not want to cause their grandparents pain. They don't ask. Their grandparents say their grandchildren are not interested. They don't tell.

There are many untold stories.

This project is our attempt to share and to hear memories so that we might understand the experiences of our elders and to learn from their wisdom. We wish to do them honor in the hearing and in the remembering.

The title of this project is "Now they bear fruit". In English, "bear" means to carry and we can say that someone bears pain. They carry pain. But, "bear" also means to give birth to. A mother bears a child. We also say that a child is the "fruit of her womb". A mother who has a child bears fruit in a manner of speaking.

The survivors of the Khmer Rouge have born too much pain for too long. Let them tell their stories. Let them share their wisdom. Let us share in those things. Today let them say: "Now we bear fruit."