Preah Vihear

Starting off at 5am on the 30th of Dec 2009, our destination was the temple of Preah Vihear situated in the north of Cambodia near the border of Thailand. After two hours on a smooth highway we are at Anlong Veng which was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge and also the supposed final resting place of Pol Pot. 2 more hours along a dusty but smooth road and we are at the base of the Dângrêk Mountains. We chang over to an army pickup truck and go up along the streep road up to the temple, along an army guy jumps into our truck and seems to be our supplementary guide and escort for the rest of the journey.

Constructed mainly during the reigns of the Khmer kings Suriyavarman I and II dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, Preah Vihear has been a sight of dispute between the Thais and Cambodians. In 1962 the Internation Court of Justice awarded the temple to the Cambodians. After the end of the Cambodian civil war in 1998, the temple was opened for tourists from the Thai side - from where it could be easily accessed via an expressway. Even after the construction of an access road up the cliff from the Cambodian side, there was still limited access by tourists from this side. Preah Vihear was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2008, but fresh disputes broke out in October 2008 and April 2009. The access from Thailand was closed during this time, but is supposedly reopened now, though we didn't see anyone approach from that side. The visitors center with the Thai flag flying above it can be clearly seen.

After a 20 minute ascent, we arrive at the temple near the first Gopura. The staircase below leads to a market which was destroyed in April by Thai shelling. Most of the stones of this gopura have fallen off but some are precariously balanced. Walking up along the stone path we pass through the other 3 gopuras which contain carvings from Hindu mythologies. At the topmost gopura we are greeted by the sounds of music being played by the soldiers there, apparently to call the gods to the temple. Inside we receive blessings from some Buddhist monks there.

Beyond the topmost gopura, we come to the tip of the cliff from which there is a breathtaking view of Cambodia and to the north Thailand. Below the rocky outcrop is a small space in which we were told the civilians around could hide if fighting broke out again. Coming back down we are shown the wells like area which have now dried up due to deforestation in the area. The Cambodian army also proudly point out their artillery and anti-aircraft weapons on our way down while our guide gives us a history and politics lesson. On our way down we see a few Thai soldiers who are still stationed in a small monestary along the road (though it is on the Cambodian side).

Four hours later we are back in Siem Reap. The journey was not as ardous or treacherous as the guide books make it out to be, and neither is it as expensive as some tour companies in Siem Reap make it, if you privately arrange for a guide and transport. Though most of the mines around the temple have been cleared, the area around it is still not so it is a good idea to stick to the worn paths and follow your guide. The experience and the sights were well worth the trip. Once the road between Anlong Veng and the temple is completed the journey should be much smoother and the Cambodians expect more tourists to come. Right now not many make the jouney as we saw only about 2 or 3 other groups while we were there and a few locals.

Personality Issues

I suppose that when a person is hired into a regular job their personality which comes across in an interview would be considered, for example how they would fit into a team and so on?
What if you were deciding on a person who would take charge of a piece of equipment (with no benefit to them except maybe the experience :|) and you have two candidates one who is very technically sound but severely lacks people skills and is known to cut corners when doing procedures. And another who is technically weaker (due to lack of experience) but can work well with other people and follows procedures correctly. Bearing in mind that the person would have to teach other new people coming into the lab and deal with technical issues that crop up. I am inclined to pick the less later person as his technical weak points could be improved with more experience and training but personality issues are not so easily overcome.

In another scenario where a person wishes to use a piece of sensitive equipment without supervision; They do a demonstration to the person in charge without any flaws in their technical skills, however they display impatience and not caring too much about following certain checks which ensure the machine continues to work properly. During the demonstration all the proper procedures are followed but here and there certain impatience is displays which makes the person in charge wonder if they would skip things if left alone. Would it be prejudicial or wrong to not allow that person to use it without supervision based on these "feelings"? In this case the persons work may be affected as they now have to wait for the person in charge to also be available.

The people who influence us

To a large extent we are shaped by our environment. Specifically people. In our early lives its our parents. Much more than character, and opinions are influenced. Parents also encourage or discourage certain behavior or inclinations that we have according to what they feel is right as well. Often people find on hind sight that even our career choices have been influenced to a large extent by our parents, either by encouraging us to study along a certain field that they like or feel is suitable for us, or by our own actions of rebellion against these encouragements. Encouragement/discouragement also enters into the child's development through other elders and teachers whose opinions we are taught to value.
As we grow older, these authority figures become less of an influence as we tend to form our own opinions and not take what is told as face value. But our opinions are still not entirely our own. It is still linked to the people we hang around. Living away from your parents mean you grow closer ties with friends as a support system and their opinions begin to matter. Having conversations with friends and colleagues lead you to broaden your perspective and you tend to assimilate some of the general opinions. Those who are more stubborn or strong willed tend to hold on to their preformed notions while those more weaker willed will tend to sway with a group opinion.
These are common people who influence everyone. But take a specific example of grad students and you find that a lot of them are influenced by their supervisors. More than in a common work environment where there is a chain of control, and people come and go, get promoted, work in different groups and so on; a grad student has a close relationship with their primary supervisor for 4 - 5 years in general and as this is generally their starting point of their professional life a lot of cues are picked up from the supervisor. From very basic things like presentation/writing styles to more character issues like how forceful, perfection oriented, organized etc. In some cases where there is a chance to evaluate and choose supervisors/students its likely that people of similar character choose to work together, however even when thrown together randomly, by the time of graduation a lot of the supervisors characteristics are mirrored in the students. I cannot say if my initial assumption that this is not so common in workplaces is true or not though.

Genetics Abortion Ethics

Congenital conditions can be scary - some develop only after adulthood (or methods of detection were only developed in later years), at this juncture you might have children and passed on these illnesses to them. If on the other hand you find out about them before you have children what are the options you have. Based on the condition you could have a 0 - 100% chance depending on whether it is recessive/dominant and your partner's genetics. Assuming of course that you want to have children (otherwise the discussion becomes moot), what are the choices you have. If the chances are especially high of passing on the condition there is always adopting children. Assuming then that you want to have biological children there seems to be two choices.
First there is preimplantation genetic diagnosis which requires the use of IVF. This means the testing is done before implantation but at the embryo stage (I believe after the third division). Of course this means taking the IVF route which is a costly procedure and becomes a longer route if the couple has no other problems concieving. Only certain diseases can be tested for and it assumes that one cell is representive off all - leading to more false positives/negatives. Not all countries provide this due to ethical concerns
Prenatal diagnosis is the other option which can be non-invasive for certain conditions or more invasive procedures like aminocentesis. Invasive procedures carry their own risks to the fetus.
Both these procedures come close to eugenic like selections - hence the reason for most ethical arguments against them. Although as a parent who is likely to pass on congential conditions to their children perhaps it would not seem this way as they are not using these procedures to select sex or traits.
The tricky part is if there is a positive result to these tests. In the preimplantation diagnosis it would be an easier proces to discard the embryo (as not all embryos generated for IVF are used anyway regardless of screening). In the other case it comes down to whether the parent wished to carry the child to term or abort the pregnancy. Some conditions would cause death or severe disability almost from the time of birth hence it seems ok to abort the pregnancy. Fetal corrective procedures are rare so this seems the choice that comes with prenatal screening. There is also the case of less sever cases where the child maybe able to live a semi normal - normal life with assistance - so are you taking away this right. The parents physical/mental/ financial ability to cope with such children I think needs to be taken into consideration. Of course if abortion is illegal in a certain country these tests can lead to no useful results except perhaps better prepareredness before the birth of the child. What about the extreame case of diseases which are late developing - i.e. person can lead a normal life until their 50s or 60s where the congenital condition starts giving problems. Does a parent abort or carry the child to term. The person might never develop problems (or they might), they might die earlier of unrelated incidents, a cure maybe developed in their lifetime. Is there some good to try to stop the continuation of passing on these genes which seemingly have a negative impact on the human being's health. Or is this a mild form of eugenics too.

Enjoy every moment of it

When we very young we look up at our seniors and want to grow up sooner. In college we can't wait to get out there and start working and earning. Always waiting to grow, and get out there from our protective cocoons. I am in a stage where I should be out but have formed another cocoon to keep me where I am and all I can say to those wanting to grow up is - wait, stop, enjoy the moment you are in school and college. We seem to have a delusion that stepping out on our own gives us freedom but those carefree days are the more free than what you get living on your own and tending to your own needs.
A friend of mine who came to visit me at the lab said when she saw all the undergrads walking around she wanted to go up to them, shake them and say "enjoy every moment of this!"
Perhaps not everyone feels this way though, perhaps its just those of us who have to grow up but don't want who keep clutching at the past memories.

Order and Chaos

My little menagerie sit guarding over my desk. Its a little cluttered they think; I agree. Its mostly chaos, perhaps something resembling the aftermath of a mini tornado or hurricane. But there is order in this chaos. I can reach out and grab whatever I need and I mostly know where everything is. Try as I might tidiness is not something that comes easily to me. I attempt to put everything into neat piles every so often but its back to the usual mess the very next day.
I have another desk, free of my personalization and a little abandoned. That earns me the title of being "quite a neat person" from my boss. Everyone else disagrees; they have seen my first desk.

Time

Time feels like its slowly slipping away. There are so many things still left undone. Will it be too late to them? Is there something else that will need to be done when I finish what I am doing now such that I can't do what I have planned? Whether it is the surroundings (of being in a university and not the "real world") or just my perception of things, I don't feel old. Things like family, responsibilities seem like an abstract concept. However things are rapidly changing around me. People graduate and leave, people talk about what to after graduate, people get married, have kids even - are they all grown up even though they are my age? Two more years seems like such a long time but then again it seems like only yesterday that I started and that was more than two years ago too, so would I be graduating tomorrow. I look forward to it in some sense of getting it all over and done with, moving on with life, to have some accomplishment, maybe even a better pay! But then again I don't seem to have much to graduate with, and the question what next that I haven't even figured out an answer to. Perhaps its just the feeling that while I am standing still, everyone I have know seem to be moving around rapidly - it is dizzying in a sense.