synthesis blog 2
SYNTHESIS BLOG TWO
The book First they Killed my Father is a written non-fiction account of Loung Ung’s experience in the Cambodian genocide. However Loung Ung was not in Cambodia for the entire conflict, the genocide lasted from 1965 to 1975. The US did not intervene and in ways helped the Khmer Rouge kill off innocent civilians. The poor treatment of the citizens and former government officials in Cambodia during its awful genocide was a severe violation of their basic human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written and proclaimed 27 years prior to the Khmer Rouge’s takeover of Cambodia. It states in article three of the declaration, “Everyone has the right to live, to be free, and to feel safe.” Loung Ung’s entire time living in Cambodia during the genocide was spent in starvation and fear. Many people Lounge knew were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Loung was the farthest one could be from safety. Obviously, Loung didn't have her basic human needs met, and as seen in Maslow’s Hierarchy, and without these needs being met, you can not function normally. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up. The Khmer Rouge took away the Cambion people’s physiological needs: food, shelter, etc. (the bottom tier of Maslow’s hierarchy), and without those basic needs, you can’t improve yourself, better yourself, or educate yourself. The Khmer Rouge knew this and actively tried to get rid of the educated public. “The Khmer Rouge soldiers are not only killing people who worked for the former Lon Nol government but anyone who is educated” (Ung 75).
Loung dreads the moment when the Khmer Rouge soldiers will find out her family's secret, that her father worked for the government, placing them in the middle class, (in the eyes of the Ankar, wealthy). She fears that they will kill her father, who is the center of their family, and her safety and shelter. One day, they do come to take her father away, and Lounge withdraws deeper into herself. Danny Vong, a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide, said that he did ever get to see his family. I wonder if that would have been easier in a way compared to Loung´s experience because he didn't have to see his family slowly get picked off around him, as she did.
When looking at the article, “Hope Through Food”, written by Holocaust survivors, they state, “They were going crazy for food. It was always in your mind.” Loung grows angry and sad without food, “My anger subsides and the bottom of my stomach opens, drawing me deeper and deeper into a pit of despair” (Ung 92). When your basic needs aren’t met, then you are consumed by trying to meet them.
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