"A Little Bit Sensitive"

Today I came across this well-written article about land disputes in Cambodia. As Andrew Higgins of The Washington Post writes draining the lake has caused a lot of commotion here in Phnom Penh. We don't live very far from this now deserted area and in fact pass by every time we head downtown. Since we moved to Cambodia only in 2009 we never saw the "lake" in its original aquatic state. It's been a muddy demolition site. Now it's a desert, and a strange sight to behold at that. One thing that really struck me in this article was the estimation that it could take as long as 10 years (I repeat, ten years) for the now-desert to dry up sufficiently for the building to commence. As a source states in this article, this whole Chinese-funded project is "a little bit sensitive," for many reasons. To be fair, though, the situation is even more complex than the article lets on. It's not the Chinese who are the bad guy. There are worldwide corporate interests that tear at Cambodia, a fledgling state in comparison.