Cambodian-born US Diving Champ Hopes to Inspire Homeland

Ten Soksreinith

May 06, 2016 6:44 PM

Seventeen-year-old Jordan Pisey Windle has come a long way since he was orphaned as a baby in Cambodia's rural Prey Veng province.
The eight-time junior national diving champion and five-time U.S. national champion is poised to make it to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
But first, he has to make another important journey — back to the country of his birth.
A long road
Jordan, at age 7, was discovered to have a natural talent at a summer camp at the Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. By age 12, he won the U.S. Junior National Championship, diving from a 10-meter platform. A short time later, he won gold at the Junior Pan American Championships in Arizona, followed by silver and bronze medals at the U.S. National Championships.

FILE - A Buddhist monk blesses 2-year-old Jordan Pisey Windle before he left his homeland to join his father, Jerry Windle, in Florida, United States.

Now ranked in the top five American divers, Jordan is focused on next month's qualifying trials for the 2016 Summer Games.
"What we want to share with the people is that his success was really born in his birthplace, in his homeland in Cambodia," Jerry Windle, Jordan's adoptive father, told VOA Khmer. "We were able to let him develop that, by just giving him certain opportunities."
Jerry Windle, an American who adopted Jordan as a single parent in June 2000, is now preparing to take his teenage son on his first trip back to Cambodia — along with Jerry's partner, Andrés Rodriguez.
"I wanted to wait specifically until he is a teenager to make his first homecoming trip, so that he would be able to, from an emotional and intellectual perspective, embrace everything this trip means," Jerry Windle said.
"I feel very honored to go back, because I haven't been back since I was adopted," Jordan told VOA Khmer, speaking by phone from California, where he was traveling with his dive team. He says he plans to meet Cambodian orphans like himself.

FILE - Jordan Pisey Windle is an eight-time junior national diving champion and five-time U.S. national champion.

"My message would be that I was the same as them — an orphan. Luckily, I got adopted, and I am doing really well in my life," he said. "But my message would be that, if you are given a chance — like a little chance, nothing major — you can work from that and achieve something great and show people that you can do well in life."
Scheduled to meet King Norodom Sihamoni and Cambodian government officials during the visit, Jordan also plans to hold a diving exhibition to showcase his talent, hoping it will inspire Cambodian youth.
While Jordan doesn't speak Khmer, his father says he was exposed to Khmer culture and history through art and storytelling as a child, and he studied the country's brutal Khmer Rouge era in school.
Life with two fathers
Born in Prey Veng province, Jordan was placed in an orphanage in Phnom Penh as an infant after his parents passed away. Jerry Windle, a former U.S. Navy officer who had served off Cambodia's coast, adopted the boy around age 2 — a process that took about five months.
When they met, Jordan had a picture Windle had sent him hanging around his neck. The young orphan had affixed a picture of himself to the opposite side.
"When the nanny handed me Jordan for the first time, Jordan had that photograph of us around his neck, and that was a very special connection that I had for the first time with him," Windle recalled.
For Jordan, the experience of being brought up by two fathers has made him a champion of diversity.

FILE - Champion diver Jordan Pisey Windle poses for a picture with his two male parents, Jerry Windle and Andres Rodriguez.

"I love my dads more than anything in the world, and I wouldn't be where I am today without them sacrificing so much," he said. "If you want to have a family, and if you are a little different, I don't think that changes anything as long as there are people supporting, caring and loving you."
Rigorous training
From Tim O'Brien to Evan Linette and Greg Louganis, Jordan has been trained by renowned divers. At the age of 12, he became the youngest diver ever to qualify for the U.S. Olympics trials.
"Physiologically, his body shape and makeup is very optimal for diving," said Windle, who is quick to point out that it's not all about being fiercely competitive.
"He really, really enjoys being around the water; swimming and playing in it," he added. "It became very natural for him to want to be able to flip and twist off the diving board."
Out of the water, Jordan stays focused on his education, taking classes online with the International Connections Academy. He is expected to graduate from high school at the end of this year, and plans to attend college in early 2017.
"He really is an American citizen today," said Windle, reflecting on everything that's brought the family this far. "But the truth is, he is a child of Cambodia, and Cambodia is his home country, and he embraces that."
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Khmer service.

Recommended by Incredible images reveal once luxurious Cambodian home is now a 'slum palace' filled with prostitutes, drug addicts...and a beauty school

THESE stunning pictures show how a once plush, multi-storey apartment block in Cambodia has become a giant slum palace full of prostitutes, heroin addicts...and a beauty school.
The White Building in Phnom Penh, was once a luxurious hub for middle class civil servants.
But it fell into ruin after a huge crack appeared in the middle of the stairwell.
 

Animals die as Cambodia is gripped by worst drought in decades

Behind a clutch of huts that hug the major route between Cambodia’s capital and its famed Angkor temples, rice farmers Phem Phean and Sok Khoert peer into a cement hollow.
It is several meters deep, and one has to crane over the top to see all the way down. At the bottom, all that is left is a small pool of warm, dirty-looking water; it has run all but dry, along with two other wells, meaning the farmers and four other families have just one working well left from which to drink. And that, too, is fast running out.

Behind them, hundreds of acres of parched earth bake under an unrelenting sun in a relatively cloudless sky. If a rice harvest is even possible this year, they fear it is set to be poor and their main concern right now is being able to get enough water to drink.


Here in Kompong Thom province’s Kampong Svay district, about 200kms north of Phnom Penh, Phean and Khoert spin a familiar narrative being repeated and lamented the length and breadth of Cambodia, which is currently in the midst of its worst drought in decades.
According to Keo Vy, spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management, the severity of this drought cannot be overestimated.
“Previous droughts only affected parts of the country, but the current drought is affecting the whole,” he said on Tuesday.
Nineteen provinces have been classified as in a serious condition requiring “immediate intervention” from the government, he said, and while the authorities have held off on making an appeal for international aid, “ministries, military units, NGOs, and everyone capable of helping” have been asked to step up.
Vy also warned that people are now more exposed to illnesses such as cholera, but insisted that the government “will not allow any Cambodian people to die of thirst.”
In Ratanakiri province in the northeast, Unicef has found that 136 out 203 primary schools are facing water shortages, with “high absenteeism” of both students and teachers being reported.


Cambodia’s rainy season, as it is known, typically arrives in May and continues in earnest through to October. This year, Vy said the ministry of water resources is forecasting that the season will not begin until July. This, coupled with a poor wet season last year, has put farmers in a difficult bind.
Over the past few weeks, the toll on animal life has been significant. First, in Siem Reap province, came the death of a female elephant, which collapsed from heatstroke after years of carrying tourists around Angkor Wat.
In Battambang province in the northwest – one of the hardest-hit regions in the country – Radio Free Asia reported that at least 30 monkeys died after the heat claimed the last tracts of water in their flooded forest habitat. RFA also said at least 200 water buffalo and cows have perished in the northern province of Stung Treng.
Back in Kompong Thom, Stoung district governor Prim Ratha told The Guardian that the loss of 70 tonnes of fish in the Boeng Tonle Chhmar lake, about 40kms west of Stoung town, was a “great upset”.
Fishing is banned at the protected lake, meaning fish numbers are dense, but with the water level now teetering at the 20cm mark, authorities have been trying to cool what is left by introducing more plants in a bid to save those that remain.
Ratha also said he and other local officials used their own “pocket money” to fund emergency relief measures, including the purchase of water bottles and water pumps, because bureaucracy has stymied the release of funding from central government. Reserves have been released into the local river, but the reservoir is now running low.
In spite of all this, Stoung district rice and chicken farmer Hean Sokkhim has still had to borrow money and pawn belongings to pay for bottled water. A pond at the back of her property is nearly empty and she is saving whatever rice seeds she has left for eating. Last year’s yield was poor. She and her family have enough to eat, she says, but her worry is acute. About two chicks are dying every day.
The few patches of rain that have passed over this scorched land in recent days have done little to mitigate the impact of months of drought. Next door to Pheam and Khoert, vegetable farmer Kin Tai points to a recently dug well behind her hut. Her efforts were in vain, as it yielded no water, and her cucumbers and pumpkins have all died. She said the loss is worth about $100 – a significant sum in a country where the gross national income per capita is about $1,020, according to 2014 World Bank figures.
Pheam and Khoert say they have not even been approached by the Kampong Svay authorities, let alone offered any help.
“We don’t know what our fate will be; we don’t know what to do.”

Sons of ACU President Given Top Jobs

 

Two sons of Anti-Corruption Unit president Om Yentieng were among the 18 officials newly appointed to the controversial agency over the weekend, according to a royal decree signed on Saturday and obtained yesterday.
 

Yentieng Puthyrith was appointed secretary of state and his younger brother Yentieng Puthira was appointed undersecretary state of the agency. The appointments were made despite a ban on nepotism within the agency that took effect in March 2014.
Other officials were appointed to positions equivalent of ministers and general directors.
 

San Chey, chairman of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (Cambodia), said the appointment of Mr. Yeniteng’s sons to the agency would cost it credibility.
 

“The ACU is meant to be a transparent organization, but with these new appointments I don’t know how that can be,” Mr. Chey said.
 

He expressed concern that other staff at the agency may be reluctant to criticize the president’s sons out of fear of retribution.
 

Mr. Chey has sopken out against nepotism within the government before.
 

On October 21, 2014, he sent a letter to Leng Peng Long, general secretary of the National Assembly, asking him to provide a list of officials working in the general secretariat of the National Assembly. He also asked for a detailed explanation of how staff management worked and for an account of expenditures.  
 

In the letter Mr. Chey said that Mit Karen, general secretary of the National Assembly, who had been general director of administration and finance, had assigned relatives to key positions within the National Assembly.
 

Mr. Karen’s daughter and son-in-law worked in the general department of administration and finance, while his son and his nephew worked as president of the department of internal audit and president of the second audit office respectively. Two other in laws of Mr. Karen and the child of another in law had been placed in senior posts in the staffing department where they managed the salaries of lawmakers, the letter said.
 

The government did not respond to Mr. Chey’s letter.
 

The ACU declined requests for comment yesterday.

China's top diplomat praised Cambodia for its support of Beijing's positions on world affairs as he ended a visit to the country

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — China's top diplomat praised Cambodia for its support of Beijing's positions on world affairs as he ended a visit to one of the country's closest allies in Southeast Asia on Friday.
China is at odds with several of Cambodia's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who accuse Beijing of illegitimately extending territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon said at a news conference that Cambodia backs Beijing's call for a solution that does not involve interference from outside — an unstated reference to U.S. naval support for some of the countries challenging Beijing's claims.
Wang Yi said China's buildup of infrastructure on islands in the contested waters does not affect the interests of other countries or interfere with the navigation of ships traversing the area.
Cambodia, one of the region's least-developed countries, enjoys large amounts of aid and investment from China.
Wang Yi reaffirmed that China will assist Cambodia in education, tourism, health care and clearing land mines, which are a legacy of decades of war in Cambodia that ended in the 1990s.
Wang Yi also met with Cambodian King Nordom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen during his two-day visit.
China's influence in Cambodia is considerable despite Beijing's strong backing of the former communist Khmer Rouge government that was responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million people in the late 1970s.

Chinese firm wins contract for oil refinery in Cambodia

Logo of China National Petroleum Corp. [File Photo: sohu.com]

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Northeast Refining & Chemical Engineering Company on Wednesday secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract from a Cambodian conglomerate to construct a 620 million-U.S.-dollar oil refinery in its first phase.

The EPC contract was inked here between Li Limin, chairman of CNPC Northeast Refining & Chemical Engineering Company, and Hann Khieng, managing director of Cambodian Petrochemical Company, under the presence of Cambodian Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem.

Under the contract, the Chinese firm will carry out detailed engineering design of the project, procure all the equipment and materials necessary, and then construct an oil refinery for the Cambodian Petrochemical Company.

Li said the construction of the oil refinery in the first phase will be completed at the end of 2018 with the oil production capacity of 2 million tons per year.

"The oil refinery will reduce the country's import of petroleum," he said.

"This project will greatly contribute to developing the economy of Cambodia."

According to Li, CNPC Northeast Refining & Chemical Engineering Company is one of the three top refining and chemical engineering firms in China.

Hann Khieng said the plant, which will be built with the latest equipment and technologies, is located in Cambodia's southwestern Preah Sihanouk province.

"It will be the first oil refinery in Cambodia," he said, adding that the company will increase its investment in the project to 3 billion U.S. dollars with the increased capacity of 5 million tons per year in the next phases.

"Now, it should be the time for Cambodia to build its reputation as an oil producer for domestic use and export," he said.

Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem welcomed the project, saying that the investment clearly demonstrated the confidence of investors in Cambodia's political stability and favourable business atmosphere.

"This project will not only provide huge advantages to Cambodia, but also contribute further to enhancing friendly relations and good cooperation between Cambodia and China," he said, expressing his sincere thanks to the Chinese government for encouraging investors to Cambodia.

Currently, Cambodia totally imports petroleum from Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand as its seabed's oil and gas have not yet been exploited.

According to government figures, the Southeast Asian country spent nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars to buy 2.55 million tons of oil last year.

Working undercover, Ouch Leng has exposed how private companies and Cambodia’s government have colluded in the illegal logging and export of valuable timber

Cambodian activist Ouch Leng has been awarded the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in documenting the illegal felling and export of timber in the Kingdom’s dwindling forests.

Ouch Leng in the forest. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize

The global prize is awarded to honour grassroots activists for their sustained and significant efforts to protect the natural environment, often at great personal risk.

Leng has been working for more than 20 years documenting the illegal logging of Cambodia’s valuable trees, often going undercover posing as a tourist, timber dealer, labourer and even a cook. Much of the unlawful activity goes on in collusion with government officials, often those who are supposedly in charge of protecting the forests.

“I think the government still cooperates or is involved with illegal logging and doesn’t care about the forest and the land of the people,” Leng told Southeast Asia Globe.

Since the beginning of this century, the Cambodian government has been leasing land to private companies as Economic Land Concessions (ELCs), often for large-scale agricultural plantations of rubber trees and sugarcane. Under the cloak of operating as an ELC, the companies strip the concession and surrounding land of valuable trees, such as rosewood, to sell at profit. Much of the prized wood is exported to Vietnam and China, where it is highly sought after for furniture making.

Concessions are even granted inside so-called protected areas such as national parks.

“So, inside the protected areas, now local people have to buy water from the private company because they’ve blocked the waterway in order to keep the water to supply the rubber concessions,” Leng explained.

Born to a poor family just before the Khmer Rouge era, Leng grew up in a country still ravaged by civil war. He struggled to gain an education and eventually won a scholarship to study law. He then worked for various human rights organisations before founding the Cambodia Human Rights Task Forces, dedicating himself to land rights and protecting the forests that had sustained him and his family during difficult times.

“I’m very excited and very proud,” Leng said of winning the coveted award. “My family is very poor, so they’re very proud for me. It’s more like a dream. It is unbelievable.

Cambodia is a dangerous country for those exposing environmental crimes. Fellow activist Chut Wutty was gunned down in 2012, while a park ranger and police officer were killed while on patrol last November.

Leng vows to keep up his work, despite the dangers. “I think that I have only lived until now because I’m lucky,” he said. “If I’m unlucky, I will end up like my brother Chutt Wutty.”