Drinking and Driving:
Can Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Angkor
and the Kingdom affect your life?
Three main things that cause deadly collisions are:
1-Roadway conditions
2-Vehicle conditions (equipments)
3-Human conditions-drivers (human errors)
Out of the three conditions, human errors, motives and mental attitude are accountable for most accidents.
In Cambodia today, roadway conditions and vehicle conditions need to be drastically improved.
But at this time what need to be improved first and more than anything else is the human conditions—the people’s attitude toward their overall safety.
Drinking and taking or using drugs (legally or illegally) and driving are the formula of death or serious injuries. There are thousands of lightweight vehicles (motorcycles, scooters, tricycles, bicycles, etc.) on the roads every minute in Cambodia. When they collide with heavier vehicles like cars or trucks, the results are deadly.
Stop drinking or drinking responsibly will help reduce traffic death and injuries!
If you have blood alcohol content (BAC) of .05, you are considered impaired. A BAC of .08 or higher you are actually intoxicated.
Consuming one can of beer like the "Angkor" beer will raise your BAC to .02. Two cans will raise it to .04 and more than two cans you will become impaired and 4 cans you will be intoxicated. Will you resist an additional drink so that you and your fellow countrymen can come home safely to hug their loved ones?
However, drinking is a habit formed by Cambodians themselves with the help of heavy advertisements on radios, televisions, billboards and other forms of commercials and infomercials.
All of Cambodian famous and sacred symbols and names are being used as powerful forms of advertisement to lure more Cambodian drinkers.
Angkor: The famous name of Khmer National Symbol now has become the name of beer that has ABV equal to more than 5%.
ABV: alcohol by volume (abbreviated as abv or ABV) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in an alcoholic beverage...
Phnom Penh: The name of Cambodian Proud Capital City has also become the name of alcoholic drinks.
Cambodia: The name of the country of which Cambodians are proud of has now become the name of an alcoholic beverage.
Kingdom: Usually is a symbol of Respected Khmer Monarchy, a part of Cambodian National Motto, is now a symbol of Cambodian beer breweries...
What have happened lately to Cambodians and Cambodia, a Buddhist Nations ingraved in the country's National Constitution?
The answerer remains unknown, but what is known thus far is the destructive habits and behaviors formed by more and more Cambodians by ways of drinking, taking illegal drugs, gambling, sex trading, etc. The habits were warned more than two thousands years ago by the very person that Cambodians bow to every day--Lord Buddha.
Stop drunk drivers and help save Khmer lives!
Timothy Chhim
NY 03-23-2013
