EG

Charles and I went to the EG conference (www.the-eg.com) this past week. We had an amazing time. We really felt like we were meeting the Leonardo Da Vinci's of our time. Joshua Bell performed, Teller of Penn & Teller spoke, and Nicholas Negroponte inspired us all. I was told that you can view some of the presentations on the TED website (www.ted.com) in the coming days.

I did not expect to find Cambodia connections there, but I did! Nina You, companion to Mike Hawley (the organizer of the conference), and her father. Sophal Ear and his expecting wife. Dimitri Negroponte who lived and worked in Cambodia.

I also met the most amazing woman named Tan Le. She's a Vietnamese Australian woman who co-founded a company called Emotiv (www.emotiv.com). Using the latest developments of neuro-technology, her company has developed a headset which facilitates non-conscious human computer interaction. Check it out - it's straight out of science fiction.

The conference inspired me to take risks and play a big game with my life. The presenters and participants play at the highest level in several areas of the their life. To wit Mike Hawley - not only was he an MIT professor and entrepreneur, but also a champion of the Van Cliburn competition!

An Honor in Los Angeles

In November I went to Los Angeles to receive the iWitness Award from Jewish World Watch, an organization formed through a collaboration of Southern California synagogues concerned to raise consciousness about the mass killings in Darfur and about genocide throughout the world.

I was honored to be recognized by Jewish World Watch for the work I have done in launching Khmer Legacies, and was pleased to have the opportunity to speak to students and community leaders from the Cambodian community at the award ceremony.

While my short-term mission has been to preserve the testimonies of survivors and the history of Khmer Rouge atrocities, my long-term goal is to add the voices of Cambodians to the collective voice of communities speaking out against genocide. This conviction guides my own work as it does, I believe, the efforts of Jewish World Watch to raise a "call to conscience."

The award itself, seen in the picture, is a shofar, a Jewish horn sounded on Rosh Hashanah to stir the conscience.