Editor's Note: The following text is from GlobalPost, which provides excellent coverage of world news – important, moving and just odd.
By Patrick Winn, GlobalPost
Where once there was seabed, hotels, a casino and airport rise off Singapore's coast.
But as the tiny island city-state dumps sand on its shores, expanding its territory already by one-fifth, there are increasing claims that Singapore is illegally buying up soil through corrupt channels in Cambodia.
The latest to push these claims is the Associated Press, which reports that foreign vessels were spotted dredging up Cambodian sand for apparent export. The dredging, largely banned in 2009 for eating up Cambodian territory, appears to persist.
An AP reporter tracked or spotted vessels registered in Hong Kong, Vietnam and China dredging in Cambodia. Locals in one coastal province "joked about going to Singapore and planting a Cambodian flag there," according to the report.
A U.K.-based watchdog group, Global Witness, has done the most to expose this practice.
But despite the government's ban, the group said vessels are still scooping up Cambodian soil and selling it abroad with zero benefit to Cambodian citizens.
Rising sea levels throughout the Southeast Asian tropics will likely increase the future demand for sandy soil, dumped along coastlines to reclaim territory.
Thailand is the latest to propose such a project: a controversial and futuristic "new city" near Bangkok built atop marshy muck now under the Gulf of Thailand.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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There's plenty of sand in the Sahara and Gobi. Maybe countries in the desert regions could make an export out of their sand.
You need a ship to sail it back to china. How else are they supposed to build. Plus the Sahara is to far. The majority of sand theft is along africa and all nations within a short sailing route to china.
@rj: What does a "short sailing route to China" have to do with anything, sand theft expert? Singapore isn't in China.
Ever since the fall of Communism in Cambodia, corruption has bee the name of the game in that country. The adage being, wherever Capitalism goes, corruption follows!
Yes, because the Soviet East Block, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. had/have absolutely no corruption or nepotism whatsoever. I think you need a history lesson, my friend.
What did communism bring to Cambodia? Oh yeah, the slaughter of 1/3 of their people.
And who stopped the slaughter in and went after the Khmer Rouge...oh yes, the communists of Vietnam. If you are going to use history to make a point, try and use it accurately.
It wasn't communist. There is a lot to say about how America got involved there. We made the Khmer Rouge powerful and it took the Vietnamese to get rid of them.
America isn't good for countries, we are never there to do anyone a favor.
There is WAY MORE corruption in communist countries than there is in "capitalist" ones. In a communist regime the ONLY way to make extra money is to demand bribes and deal in an underground economy.
Oh, like our Congressmen do here in America.
Touche, Tex.
The correct adage is: Wherever humans go, corruption follows.
MUCH more accurate.
Why is it everyone seems to think they can take advantage of cambodias goods and land and sea/fishing stealing from cambodia is wrong and they better ghet after a way to make it stop or they'll run you over so hard you won't know what hit ya.
Anyway you look at it, the Cambodian people have been effed for the past 35 years by the Khmer Rouge's systematic genocide and Hun Sen's totalitarian regime. I feel for them!
Your comment leaps off the page like a red flag in football my friend. Look and read all the comments that came after yours and next time please don't waste our time with your "cute" little "history" quips. This should be a forum for people who've put some thought into what they say. Next time before you hit the enter key, re-read your comment.
What a sad, sad, warped world you live in.
The adage being, wherever Onesmallvoice posts, his idiocy is revealed
Incidentally, Capitalism also brought prosperity to billions of people.
That reclining chair you sit so comfortably in front of your computer, is a product of capitalism, and so is that computer you are using.
You socialists are retarded. Socialists believe that everyone is equal, but some people (the Socialists) are more equal than others. No? Hypocrites.
corruption does not exist in Capitalistic countries alone. Corruption exists in most countries including Communist China. Unless decent values and ethics are taught and revered, there will always be someone taking advantage of the less fortunate.
You nailed it duh. Corruption exists in both capatalist and communist societies. To say it is a byproduct of some form of government or another is pretty damn simplistic.
What you said is true.
Humans have been given to evil and corruption since ancient Mesopotamia, and probably long before that.
How sad that humans can be so intelligent and have such enormous potential, and yet be so greedy, so selfish, so thoughtless and irresponsible.
God help us!
Which one? Middle Eastern god or Asian?
Corruption starts at the top. Until you stop the Scoundrels and Thieves in Washington the corruption will spread like a virus.
It is already starting with the petty little Boss Hog kingdoms.
Can they come pick up this load of fill dirt in my backyard?
FOMCF !! ;~)
The entire country is for sale by the Government without any benefit to the citizens. This is the story of mining, lumber, and any other business here. Just wait until they start pumping oil. It will be another example of how corrupt countries who get oil lead to lower quality of life for citizens and how less corrupt countries lead to higher quality of life(take Nigeria for example).
Nothing but a BS story.
Are you claiming that ships are not dredging up sand off the Cambodian coast and dumping it off the shores of Singapore?
I claim that sir. I claim it with CAPLOCKS! No but seriously, sand theft is an important news stor...hahaha, couldn't even finish the sentence. So, about Libya...
If the pirates make glass eyes from the sand, when they come ashore without eye-patches, how will we know they're pirates? Arr, they be getting sneaky.
This is an interesting story. Kind of something to giggle at. Haha! Pirates with glass eyes.
I saw the Pirates steal second base last night.
If only we could put an end to crime and corruption, this would be such a better world.
But then what would CNN have to write about anymore? it would be all natural disasters and filler stories
What a great way to make a neighbor disappear.
NOW WHY CAN'T THEY SIMPLY DREDGE ALL THE TOWELHEAD COUNTRIES AND MOVE THE MUD TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE??
Stealing sand? How pathetic can yo get?
Debt Ceiling debate, that's even sadder...
Well if if were big private businesses aka. corporations doing it, the only reason an article like this would be written on CNN would be to call the Cambodians, who are attacking the corporations' dredging ships, pirates. Yeah they would be labeled as pirates from attacking and taking hostage the very people destroying their coast with impunity.
amen . he who has the money rules. and that means about 2 % of the people on this earth rule it. when we the commoners get paid all were doing is borrowing. it some how finds its way right back into the pocket of those 2 %.
Too bad NV isn't closer. We could put a lot of people to work digging up the state and filling our treasury. But the Feds own most of the state so we probably wouldn't get much. Oh well, just a thought.
try wouldnt get any. im in tn and we have natural gas in our mountains. unfortunantly for the government its on private property. they got around that small problem. they charged the people who owned the land for the equipment, and taxed everything but the airthese people breath. they make around 200$ a month it by the time the companies and the government get thru.the gas is scattered. not alot of it in one place. so no one has a chance of " striking it rich". but the companies are happy with the arraingment.no government for the people, a government for big business.
so its all about money. i was thinking it was about something irreplacable. like a coral reef, some sort of fish. but no its about paying for the sand. ye gods if youre basicly building an island, and are going to build on it. pay the people for their sand! idiots.
They better be opening up an hourglass manufacturing.
They should steal sand from Houston and give me an ocean front in Austin.
Solution: Stop population growth.
This is a tempest in a teacup. 1. The sand probably originates up the Mekong river (China?) and is washed down to Cambodia. The real problem is soil erosion. 2. So they dredge up sand and use it for something useful. That is a worthy deed. 3. Does the world need more Singapore, or more Cambodia? Conclusion: Global witness has too much time on its hands. AP should report on real news. CNN should be telling us how can we support these dredgers.
Hey Paul Krugman ( http://moneyland.time.com/2011/08/16/paul-krugman-an-alien-invasion-could-fix-the-economy/), you don't need no fake aliens to fix up the U.S. economic woes. Just send all your warships to Cambodia to dredge up all the sand and sell them to any country that needs it and at least you'll be doing something productive to reduce your deficits rather than fantasizing about non-existent aliens or coming up with more hare-brained ideas from someone looking more like a homeless person!
China has their hands in every corrupt and illegal activity short of killing people in the name of religion. It will catch up to them and I hope I have the DVR ready to record.
>:D Yesh more sand is taken now no more sand castle for the little children