Ratanakiri is a province in northeastern Cambodia that borders Laos to
the north, Vietnam to the east, Mondulkiri Province to the south, and
Stung Treng Province to the west. The province extends from the
mountains of the Annamite Range in the north, across a hilly plateau
between the Tonle San and Tonle Srepok rivers, to tropical deciduous
forests in the south. In recent years, logging and mining have scarred
Ratanakiri's environment, long known for its beauty. For over a
millennium, Ratanakiri has been occupied by the highland Khmer Loeu,
who are a minority elsewhere in Cambodia. During the region's early
history, its Khmer Loeu inhabitants were exploited as slaves by
neighboring empires. The slave trade economy ended during the French
colonial era, but a harsh Khmerization campaign after Cambodia's
independence again threatened Khmer Loeu ways of life. The Khmer Rouge
built its headquarters in the province in the 1960s, and bombing during
the Vietnam War devastated the region. Today, rapid development in the
province is altering traditional ways of life. Ratanakiri is sparsely
populated; its 150,000 residents make up just over 1% of the country's
total population. Residents generally live in villages of 20 to 60
families and engage in subsistence shifting agriculture. Ratanakiri is
among the least developed provinces of Cambodia. Its infrastructure is
poor, and the local government is weak. Health indicators in Ratanakiri
are extremely poor, and almost one in four children die before reaching
the age of five. Education levels are also low; three quarters of the
population is illiterate.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratanakiri_Province>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1204:
Fourth Crusade: Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was crowned the first
Latin Emperor in Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_I_of_Constantinople>
1877:
President Patrice de Mac-Mahon dismissed Jules Simon and installed
Albert, Duc de Broglie as Prime Minister, triggering a political crisis
in the French Third Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_May_1877_crisis>
1918:
The Sedition Act was passed in United States, forbidding Americans from
using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the
United States government, flag, or armed forces during the ongoing
World War I.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918>
1929:
The first ceremony of the Academy Awards was held at the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award>
1975:
Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier,
Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its
22nd state.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
insofar as (conj):
To the extent that
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/insofar_as>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion, and
watchfulness. It debases those whose toil alone can produce wealth and
resources for defence, to the lowest degree of which human nature is
capable, to guard against mutiny and insurrection, and thus wastes
energies which otherwise might be employed in national development and
aggrandizement. The free-labor system educates all alike, and by
opening all the fields of industrial employment and all the departments
of authority, to the unchecked and equal rivalry of all classes of men,
at once secures universal contentment, and brings into the highest
possible activity all the physical, moral, and social energies of the
whole state.
--William H. Seward
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_H._Seward>