Dear occasional or new, and also dear old time Readers,

the last time I wrote something here was on 13 December 2012. Today is 2 March 2015.

Why the interruption? Or also: Why to start to write again?

Why? In early 2013, I moved away from the capital city of Phnom Penh. Since that time I am living in the countryside of the Province of Kep, on a pepper farm.

This change in environment had also a completely unforeseen serious consequence. Here, between the mountain range of Phnom Voar and some hills, no useful Internet signals came in. I found myself as communication-isolated as in 1994, when I established the first connection to the Internet from Cambodia, for an increasing number of users of this new system – via international telephone lines.

Until recently, when I wanted to have good Internet access, I had to carry my computer about 10 km away – via wireless broadband by now.

My former ISP in Phnom Penh offered to provide a fiber optic cable – for US$8,000. I said No. Another ISP offered to make it much cheaper – a microwave link for US$2,800. I said again: No. But recently another ISP set up a new communications tower in our region, and here I am again.

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But why to start to write again? Having again better access to what is going on in the world – in our province, in Cambodia, in ASEAN, in Asia, and in the wide world – is a challenge to reflect and to react. This challenge has not changed since I started to write this blog: …thinking it over… – www.thinking21.org

After 21 years in Cambodia, I wanted to think and reflect and share, hoping that others will also react and engage in efforts to think together – always beyond the present situations we face. Often we not only hope that things “will become better” but we dream ahead, and we talk, and we try to find ways to act together with others, always on the way to a better future.

In my last writing in December 2012 I had quoted the United Nations website for the Human Rights Day on 10 December 2012, which called this day to be

“an opportunity, every year, to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere.” And it says that “the spotlight is on the rights of all people – women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized – to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.”

In a small and moderate way, that is what I try to do also with the reflections written here. It is not only a challenge for UN websites. It is for all to consider the same challenges. And to think about them. And about what anybody of us could contribute, as individuals, or together with others.

Norbert Klein