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Leonard Cohen Coming to You Live from Phnom Penh
By: Pushpitha Wijesinghe on Oct 13, 2010

When you talk about musicians Leonard Cohen stands right at the top. His music and song writing skills are topped with the talent of being a world class performer. The world famous singer and musician has baffled many audiences around the world for many years. Now he's coming to Cambodia to get the Phnom Penh crowd on their feet pumping to the beat.

Canadian by birth Leonard Cohen is an accomplished singer, songwriter, musician, poet and also a novelist. After publishing his first book in 1956 which was a collection of poems he went on to write his first novel in 1963. Very mysterious in nature he has always attracted the attention of the public and critics alike. With beautiful prose and lyrics and uncommon practices such as Zen Buddhism he has always been a step ahead of the rest.

It's been 15 years since his last work tour and the latest tour has been critically acclaimed by many enthusiasts and critics alike. The ones in a life time opportunity for many Cambodians and tourists alike will be complete with his famous nine piece band which will be accompanying him to Phnom Penh. It is expected that many tourists from around the world will be in Phnom Penh to be the incredible experience that is a Leonard Cohen concert.

For many of the visitors the main issue would probably be finding comfortable accommodation and lodging. Looking for a hotel in Phnom Penh? An outstanding Phnom Penh hotel for accommodation would be Raffles Hotel Le Royal which is available to all tourists who wish to spend a relaxed and peaceful time after the concert in the comfort of a world class hotel with the best service around. The brilliant Leonard Cohen is coming to Phnom Penh and it's highly recommended to not miss this chance.

Author Description :
Pushpitha Wijesinghe is an experienced independent freelance writer. He specializes in providing a wide variety of content and articles related to the travel hospitality industry.

The Age A2 magazine
Melbourne http://www.theage.com.au
The amazing story of ex-Melburnian Chris Minko, who persuaded Leonard Cohen to play Cambodia to raise money for the disabled.

A letter to Leonard
Author: Leisa Tyler
Date: 16/10/2010
Words: 1453
Source: AGE
Publication: The Age
Section: A2
Page: 18


Christopher Minko had a bold idea to help Cambodia's disabled and got Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan on side, writes Leisa Tyler.

CHRISTOPHER Minko seems an unlikely hero. Dressed only in black, his bald, sun-blotched head topping an elongated face with stained teeth, this tough-talking, chain-smoking, ex-alcoholic rocker could be Cambodia's guardian angel.

With no connections but a lot of chutzpah, Minko has persuaded one of the biggest touring, entertainment and sporting groups in the world, AEG, to bring superstar musicians to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, to raise funds for the country's disabled. Called the Mekong Sessions, the first gig, on November 27 this year, features

76-year-old singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen; Bob Dylan is set to play next March.

The challenges are endless. Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in Asia. The indoor arena of the 1960s-era Olympic Stadium, where the concerts will be held, is dilapidated and doesn't have the sound equipment musicians of this calibre require. Nor are there many personnel with the experience and expertise to organise a stadium concert.

Then there is capacity. The arena can hold only 3500 people. Holding it outdoors would not work; Phnom Penh has only 2500 hotel rooms, most of them $10-a-night guest-houses.

But Australian Christopher Minko is a man on a mission, determined to find a stable source of income for charities working with Cambodia's 40,000 landmine and 60,000 victims of polio, a disease which was only eradicated here in 2006. Cambodia still has 2 to 3 million undetonated mines, the bitter left-overs of the Khmer Rouge; there is one chon pika, or landmine amputee, per 290 people.

Minko also wants to put Phnom Penh back on the map. Before 1975, when the Khmer Rouge began the reign that killed more than 1.7 million people, Phnom Penh had an extraordinary art and music scene. This leafy city of grand colonial mansions enjoyed a cultural renaissance after independence from the French. Art and music flourished; talented young architects created "New Khmer Architecture". Psychedelic rock groups played nightly to eager audiences.

"Phnom Penh was amazing once and it can be amazing again," says Minko. "Yes, AEG are taking a risk, but the Mekong Sessions will be unparalleled, with positives far outweighing any negatives."

"The city captured my imagination," says Rob Hallett, the president of AEG Live, who is hoping to bring four international acts a year to the city. "It has such a horrific history but every time I go there people are smiling. As time goes on, the facilities will get better and the number of hotel rooms will increase. Rome wasn't built in a day. But music is an incredible healer; it has the power to build community."

Cohen and Dylan are reducing their fees by up to 80 per cent to play in the Mekong Sessions, with the anticipated $US150,000 profits going directly to the Cambodian Red Cross and Minko's own non-governmental organisation, the Cambodian National Volleyball League for Disabled (CNVLD).

As tickets are priced between $US200 and $US500, the concert is way out of reach for most Cambodians. So Cohen will stage a free concert on November 28 for Cambodians only; 2000 tickets are being distributed to people with a disability, those working in the arts and youth volunteers and the remaining 1500 by raffle.

As a former Zen Buddhist monk whose career has spanned five decades and whose melancholic music has touched the lives of several generations, it seems fitting that Cohen should be staging the first concert in Cambodia a Theravada Buddhist nation.

Cohen was living in a monastery when Rob Hallett "stalked him until he agreed" to put on another world tour. "Ever since I was a kid I wanted to see Cohen live, and I knew the only way this was going to happen was if I put on the concerts myself," says Hallett, who is overseeing Cohen's current world tour, which includes 53 concerts in 45 cities this year, including Melbourne.

For Minko, it is an opportunity to show how corporations are the perfect partners for Third World development.

Born to a Ukrainian Jewish father and German concert pianist mother, Minko grew up with his three brothers in Myrtleford, north-eastern Victoria. Music was in his blood: he played the trumpet in the Victorian Youth Orchestra before, in the 1980s, joining the jazz-rock group Bachelors from Prague and helping to organise the Moomba Goes Musical festival. In between, he spent eight years in Israel and Germany "seeking my roots" and was a founding member of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Tired of the Australian arts scene, which he felt had become "shallow, pretentious, with endless marketing and hype and no political or social substance", Minko moved to Cambodia with AusAID in 1996 as a technical adviser to the Cambodian Disabled People's Organisation. They were troubled times the following year, former Khmer Rouge soldier and current prime minister Hun Sen staged a bloody coup, deposing Prince Norodom Ranariddh. But Minko stayed, working as an ambulance driver picking up the mangled bodies of the dead and disabled, developing a deep respect for the needs of the Khmers and a repugnance for the international aid world, which he refers to as the "band-aid parasites".

A single dad (his 16-year-old daughter lives with him in Phnom Penh) and self-confessed alcoholic without a penny to his name but a grant from AusAID, Minko started Cambodia's first disabled sports team, a volleyball league. They were a motley bunch of prosthetic-limbed farmers and ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers, but Minko trained and cajoled them to third place in the Volleyball for Disabled 2007 World Cup. It was the first time a Cambodian sports team had been placed in an international event, elevating the amputee sportsmen to national superstars.

But this isn't a straightforward story of triumph over adversity. It is a story of victory and betrayal that features among its colourful characters a lot of guns, some brave nuns and a deceitful Cambodian minister who stole $US250,000 donated to the volleyball team after the World Cup. Written into a film script called By the Rivers Dark, by American journalist Christopher Cox, the story is currently being hawked around Hollywood studios.

Minko won't name the minister, afraid he would be asked to leave the country if he did. He also assures me it's only through his relationship with Prime Minister Hun Sen, anti-corruption minister Om Yentieng and Chinese/Cambodian mogul Oknha Suor Pheng that he has been able to achieve as much as he has.

"Corruption is the tragedy of greed led by 20 years of unbridled handouts by the aid world," says Minko. "But this is nothing compared to the corruption found in the international aid world. Whites have set the agenda for corruption in this country. Some aid workers get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to sip cocktails in fancy bars, drive fancy white four-wheel-drives and advance their own careers. Very little of so-called aid ever makes it to the people it was designed to help."

"Chris is passionate and blunt and not afraid to speak his mind and that offends some people," says Corinne Suor, Oknha Suor Pheng's sister and a key donor to the volleyball team and its associated charities. "But there is no doubt that Cambodia has changed for the better because of him. He has such an enormous and beautiful heart. He made being disabled OK, a part of mainstream society."

Minko was destitute after losing the donations given after the World Cup, so his friend, Australian nun Sister Denise, suggested he return to his roots in the music industry.

"In a very deep state of depression I wrote to the master of depression," says Minko, who contacted Leonard Cohen via his manager Robert Kory, whose contact details he found on the internet. "I had been watching the movie Taking Woodstock, about the community of Woodstock and how they took a chance on life and created the festival. I thought f--- it, went downstairs and wrote a very heartfelt email to Cohen about Cambodia and the state of disabled peoples here, then suggested he should come and do a charity concert. Two weeks later, I received a one-line reply from Robert Kory saying 'Introducing you to Rob Hallett. He will work with you on Cohen's Phnom Penh concert'."

Minko's eyes gleam when he considers the possibilities created by the Cohen concert, including gigs teaming Thai and Khmer bands that he hopes will soften the animosity between the two countries. He is also establishing disabled-people rock groups; the first, called Krom in Khmer ("The Group"), features a pretty lead singer suffering from polio. Their first single, Johnny Cash's Walk the Line, has been released and featured widely on Cambodian television. "The opportunities are endless," he says. "I still wake up every morning and can't believe it's all actually happening."

'Introducing you to Rob Hallett. He will work with you on Cohen's Phnom Penh concert'."

The Celebration of Life Through Sports Award: Christopher Minko of Cambodia
David Stein - December 20th, 2007

I am less concerned today about whether or not Roger Clemons will wind up in the Hall of Fame. I am less concerned today about what kind of shape Mike Vick will be in when he gets out of prison. I am less concerned today about everything that seems important in sports after spending some time learning about a tough and compassionate Aussie who is “Paying it Forward” in a big way in a land far off.

I would be remiss if I did not confess that the majority of my knowledge about Cambodia consists of bits and pieces gleaned from war movies, Jeopardy, and an old series of strips from Doonesbury when refugees wound up at the homes of Washington socialites.

Here’s another confession. I had to look at a map to make sure where Cambodia sits in Southeast Asia. And-yet another confession: My knowledge of landmines comes from an episode of M*A*S*H and videos of Princess Di (left) walking around with body armor and a face shield and working with landmine victims. What does this have to do with A Celebration of Life Through Sports?

This month’s award goes to an Australian who knows where Cambodia sits. This month’s award goes to a man who has seen the reality of what Alan Alda experienced on a Hollywood set. This month’s award goes to a man who brings that reality to a vision—a vision of sports bringing a people’s tragedy and struggle together in a bond that only a team can understand.


Allow me to introduce you to Christopher Minko (right). Chris is just your regular everyday guy with the ability to get even North Korea to open their eyes to what can be overcome through sports. ‘Nuff said. When part of the “Axis of Evil” thinks you’re doing a good thing…you’re doing a very good thing. As a leader in the sports and cultural event management field including The Australian Football League, Chris has always been led by a heart to help those in need,

“Throughout my career, in all fields I have worked in, I have placed an emphasis on the involvement of the disadvantaged.”

Chris made his way to Cambodia in 1996, a year before landmines became headlines when The Nobel Peace Prize was shared by American Jody Williams for her efforts to ban the hidden explosives, (see Jody’s post at the Britannica Blog).

“My mandate was to work with Cambodian disability groups that we might generate awareness—both intra and internationally—of the insidious root cause of disability in Cambodia: Landmines.”

This was the genesis of The Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled Organization) or CNVLD. Volleyball is tough enough with two arms and two legs. Imagine if you are one of the 40,000 (not a misprint) chonpika, or amputees, in a country where 1 in 290 people have been blown up. That sure does seem like a high rate of people losing limbs in such a small country, but we would see thousands of amputees at the malls of Florida or Georgia or Michigan if each of those states of similar size to Cambodia were littered with 6 million landmines. (By the way, that’s one bomb for every person living in Maryland.) Chris’ organization has taken this human rights disaster and these dis-abilities and created A-bilities with, not only one of the very few national athletic organizations in Cambodia, but one of the few recognized by The United Nations.

The 160 active players in the league are now ranked fifth in the world and have been champions of the Asia version of The Paralympics—a far cry from the genocide of The Khmer Rouge killing fields of the 70’s. San Mao and Som Chak, for example, are friends and teammates. During three decades of civil war they were trying to kill each other. In an interview this year for The West Australian, San said, “We are the victims of the war, but we are friends now. When we chat, we chat for fun.” San lost his leg when he stepped on a landmine while moving munitions as a Khmer Rouge guerilla.

Som lost his while fighting San’s comrades along the Thai-Cambodia border. “My friends in the hospital told me ‘look around you, many people lost legs too, so move on,’” I didn’t want people to laugh at me because I couldn’t do anything. I don’t want anyone to insult us.”

. . . and Barry Bonds couldn’t get along in the dugout with Jeff Kent when they were multi-millionaire teammates in San Fransicso. Shame on the selfish professional athletes of today.

For Chris Minko, it is the vision of what Som and San can do together on a bigger plane. He wants to: draw attention to huge problems—severe physical and psychological damage compounded by social and economic marginalization— facing disabled individuals in Cambodia. I have been working towards these aims with the CNVLD for the last ten years in Cambodia using the unique power of sport to foster social cohesion and civil society development through team sport*

*http://www.sportanddev.org/en/team-play ... -minko.htm

According to a discussion with Chris on www.sportanddev.org, the CNVLD has started an annual program of sporting and recreational activities for children with disabilities. “This includes ‘training the trainers’—which allows foreign sports education experts to work with local teachers to transfer the knowledge, skills and resources needed to teach sports to disabled children.”

2007 also saw the launch of the CNVLD world tour exhibition titled “To Be Deter-mined-At Arms Length.” As for the North Koreans, they are sending a delegation to see the fruits of what Chris has created. It’s the first time North Korea has ever participated in an international disabled sporting event. We say on The Celebration of Life Through Sports Show on Sporting News Radio each night, all sports does is bring families and friends together.

I guess I’ll have to add enemies to that.

Each month we give an individual or a team or an organization The Celebration of Life Through Sports Award and YOU can nominate the recipient! Please make a comment and a nomination in the space below.

This month I have a special honorable mention. This story just came in to me last week. Twelve-year-old DeMarcus Thomas of Hamilton, Ohio, was a linebacker on The Little Blue, the town’s Pee-Wee football team. Last Wednesday, DeMarcus made sure his 11-year-old sister, Deona, got out of the family’s burning home . . . this before succumbing himself to the smoke and flames. Today DeMarcus is being hailed a hero and many confirm that this young man learned much of his strength, courage, and unselfishness . . . on the fields of play. Would Deona have been saved had DeMarcus not had the experience of team sports? Perhaps. We’ll never know. We do know, though, that where DeMarcus is today he will be intercepting every pass, and he’ll be there to inspire every teammate just as he was for his teammate, and sister, Deona.

God Bless You, our young friend.

Minko's eyes gleam when he considers the possibilities created by the Cohen concert, including gigs teaming Thai and Khmer bands that he hopes will soften the animosity between the two countries. He is also establishing disabled-people rock groups; the first, called Krom in Khmer ("The Group"), features a pretty lead singer suffering from polio. Their first single, Johnny Cash's Walk the Line, has been released and featured widely on Cambodian television. "The opportunities are endless," he says. "I still wake up every morning and can't believe it's all actually happening."

YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION:
Media Release: September 6, 2010

krom (the group) release first single, i walked the line

'i walked the line', the debut single from krom was put on general release on vcd format in music stores across Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Monday, 6 September. The single was also released for free download online at: http://www.youtube.com/user/themekongsessions on the same date.

Built on a Kottkesque roll with Khmer and English vocals and instrumentation, krom are the first band to debut on the newly launched Mekong Sessions label.

krom vocalist, Tata, a Cambodian woman with a disability expressed the desire for krom to act as a catalyst for more singers with a disability to gain greater employment opportunities in the entertainment business.

krom have released little information regarding future material or performances only hinting that their next single, a wee boogie called 'prahok', will be released in six months.

"'Elusive, Exclusive and Reclusive' is the band motto and try as we might we can do nothing to change that," a spokesman close to krom stated on condition on anonymity yesterday.

Only Tata speaks to the media and she can be contacted on 012-494344

krom - the group:
tata: vocals
minko: guitar and vocals
ian white: guitar
jimi baeck: accordion
brian webster: drums
kim bunthan: khmer violin

band matriarch: the om

The single: i walked the line
minko: music + words
ian white: producer
photography: luke duggleby
video: ian white + darren campbell

I am having a hard time keeping track of the growing numbers of Canadians and friends of Canadians now intending to come to Phnom Penh for the concert. With awareness growing in the wider Asian region, and attractive joint travel and concert packages now available, I expect many Canadians to be present. My wife and I will of course be there as well.