Safety Standards or the Lack Thereof

As in most developing countries, construction safety standards lie between non-existent and totally ignored.  Cambodia is no different.  There are no hard hats – only baseball hats.  The men don cheap flip flop sandals in the stead of steel-toed boots.  Shirts with ridiculous English phrases replace bright orange vests.  And naked children sometimes run around on the periphery looked at only at a distance as well.

I stepped outside of my apartment one morning to the sound of Cambodian construction-men working aloft on the project across the street yelling to one another.  I looked up to see someone hugging the legs of an upside-down man – a man hanging more than four stories above the ground caught up in lines.   Three or four shouts directed below to pull up or pull down on the choking lines coalesced into a pulsed cacophony until at last the lines began to budge and the man was clutched by more hands.  The workers retrieved our man into someone's future living room and work resumed.

Peril
Phnom Penh, Cambodia – March 2013