Transnational Infrastructures

This week’s readings remind me of the specific and shifting meanings of technopolitics in relation to place and time (Hecht 2011). Harvey and Knox detail the transnational actors involved in infrastructural projects. The Iquitos-Nauta and Route 26 road projects involve assorted actors such as the Peruvian and Brazilian national governments, engineers, diverse local communities, legal advocates and NGOs (Harvey and Knox 2015). In particular, I thought about Chinese infrastructural projects in Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, the Chinese government and private companies jointly finance infrastructural projects such as bridges, buildings, hydroelectric dams and Chinese language classes (Sigfrido and Ear 2010). In 2011, the hydropower company Sinohydro constructed the Kamchay dam in Cambodia funded by the Export Import Bank of China (Grimsditch 2012:5). Insufficient water in the Mekong reduced the number of fish that people depend on for protein. Flooding displaced communities along the river. In addition to environmental impacts, these projects unevenly affect various ethnic groups (Hensengerth 2013). Harvey and Knox’s discussion on transnational actors prompt me to think about the transnational actors involved in the proposed dam in Areng valley, Cambodia which is projected to begin construction in 2018. I first heard about the dam through the work of Kalyanee Mam, a Cambodian American lawyer turned film maker who conducted research for the documentary Inside Job. Mam subsequently produced a documentary entitled A River Changes Course which features the lives of a Phnong highland family, a Khmer woman who migrates from a village to Phnom Penh to work in a garment factory in Phnom Penh, and a young Cham boy who leaves his fishing village in search of labor A River Changes Course. Mam’s most recent documentary Fight for Areng Valley sketches the experiences of an Chong family in the context of the hydro dam Fight for Areng Valley Chong communities. The Cambodian government deported Spanish environmental activist and co-founder of the non-profit organization Mother Nature, Alejandro Gonzalez-Davis. While Spanish-language newspapers note that Gonzalez-Davis is fluent in Khmer, they do not note that his impeccable language skills which provide him legitimacy and credibility the Cambodian diaspora. Gonzalez-Davis traveled to the U.S. to raise money for the group Mother Nature. Gonzalez-Davis’ Khmer language skills are truly striking Gonzalez-DavisThe political opposition party Cambodian National Rescue Party publicly supports Gonzalez-Davis. At the same time, I watched videos where locals did not necessarily support Gonzalez-Davis. Relations between diverse groups play out in this projected dam project in the Areng valley. Harvey and Knox’s analysis nudged me to examine the multiple actors in large infrastructure projects particularly in relation to my focus on diaspora and media. 

References

Burgos, Sigfrido and Sophal Ear 2010. “China’s Strategic Interests in Cambodia: Influence and Resources.” Asian Survey 50 (4): 615-639.

Fontdegloria, Xavier “Arrestado en Camboya un ecologista español” El País 23 February 2015

http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2015/02/23/actualidad/1424700928_766186.html

Grimsditch, Mark. 2012. China’s investments in hydropower in the Mekong region: The Kamchay hydropower dam, Kampot, Cambodia. Washington DC: World Resources Institute.

Harvey, Penny and Hannah Knox. 2015. Roads: An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Hecht, Gabrielle, ed. 2011, Entangled Geographies: Empire and Technopolitics in the Global Cold War. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hensengerth, Oliver. 2013. “Chinese hydropower companies and environmental norms in countries of the global South: the involvement of Sinohydro in Ghana’s Bui Dam.” Environment Development Sustainability 15: 285-300.