IWF allocates its World Championships in 2027 to Armenia and in 2028 to Venezuela International Weightlifting Federation –
Day: March 29, 2024
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NPR News: 03-29-2024 7PM EDT
IDF commando killed, 16 others wounded during fighting in southern Gaza https://t.co/Lld177aRMi
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) March 29, 2024
It has been proved again and again that attempts to replace President Vladimir Putin is fraught with danger. Before Sergei Prigozhin’s untimely death , the founder and former head of the Wagner Group and apparently close to President Putin used to frequently one has to be very careful to put his name forward to be a successor to Putin. Frida Ghitis a world affairs columnist and a regular contributor to CNN and The Washington Post in a recent article wrote about the risks that one would take in forwarding his or her name as a possible successor lest the person so named meets the fate of Sergei Prigozhin.
Vladimir Putin who cut his teeth in politics in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, after having spent decades working in the shadowy Soviet-era KGB. His spectacular rise to national power began in 1999 when then-President Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly named him prime minister. Yeltsin resigned months later, and the 46-year-old former spy became acting President. He promptly won the 2000 presidential election, his popularity propelled by the brutal military campaign he had already launched against Chechen separatists.
He has held the office ever since, with a brief interlude between 2008 and 2012 when he switched jobs with his then-prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to offer a pretense of respect for constitutional term limits. In case anyone doubted that Putin has no intention of surrendering power, he more recently orchestrated a constitutional change that allows presidents to run for two consecutive six-year terms, but reset the clock to zero starting at the end of his current term. After a quarter of a century in power, he can now serve another 12 years. Barring a palace coup or a revolution, there are half a dozen people within Putin’s circle who are considered possible successors. The first name that emerges in those discussions is Medvedev, the former president who now serves as the deputy chairman of the Security Council. Medvedev was once viewed as more moderate than Putin and potentially even a reformer. But since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he has become a fire-breathing nationalist, hurling insults and threats at Ukraine and the West. Mostly, he seems desperate to demonstrate his loyalty to Putin. If the inner circle were looking for a successor, however, Medvedev would be doubly handicapped, tainted by both his former moderate image and his current nationalism. To the extent that there is a legal succession plan, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin would take over the top job if it became vacant, just as Putin did with Yeltsin. But Mishustin is not viewed as a particularly strong player in the inner circle, which may explain why Putin picked the former tax official for the job in 2020: He poses no threat.
One member of the inner circle who is viewed as powerful and ruthless is Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Security Council. Patrushev is a force in the regime and could conceivably become Putin’s successor. Anyone expecting a more moderate regime under Patrushev would likely be disappointed. He is virulently anti-Western and a fount of anti-Ukraine invective. Like Putin, Patrushev was born in Soviet-era Leningrad—now St. Petersburg—and came up in the KGB’s successor agency, the Federal Security Service.
There’s no sign that Putin intends to set up a dynastic system. Barring a palace coup or a revolution, there are half a dozen people within Putin’s circle who are considered possible successors. Then there’s Alexei Dyumin. Despite his relatively low national profile, the governor of the Tula region has seen his stock rise in recent years. A former Putin bodyguard, Dyumin has become a top military official, having played a pivotal role in the successful capture of Crimea in 2014. That operation was conducted smoothly and efficiently, in contrast to the war in Ukraine since 2022, burning the image of those who participated. Dyumin’s name emerges frequently in discussions about a post-Putin succession. Speaking of invasions and wars, there is also Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who has served Putin in that capacity for more than a decade. Born in faraway Siberia, near the Mongolian border, Shoigu nevertheless managed to rise through the ranks and join Putin’s inner circle.
But his standing became tenuous as the war in Ukraine went disastrously wrong in its early stages. Before Sergei Prigozhin’s untimely death in August, the founder and former head of the Wagner Group used to frequently—and very publicly—lambast the army’s incompetence, eroding Shoigu’s reputation. Adding injury to those insults, Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny against Putin in June 2023, during which Shoigu was curiously silent, also diminished his stock. If there’s one political figure who might enjoy popular support after Putin’s departure, it is Sergei Sobyanin, the dapper and well-respected mayor of Moscow. Sobyanin has held the job since 2010, overseeing the modernization of the city and earning high marks from many residents.
As one of the most popular—and still living—politicians in Russia, he has become the object of what may be the unwanted embrace of Putin’s United Russia party. That’s perhaps an effort by Putin to tarnish Sobyanin’s luster in the capital, where many of the more liberal Russians are not fans of the party. Still, he has close ties to the president. He served under Putin, working as Kremlin chief of staff until 2008 and then as deputy prime minister when Putin became prime minister after switching jobs with Medvedev. These are some of the insiders whose names come up in discussions of a relatively orderly transition to replace Putin. But it’s worth noting that, despite Putin’s iron grip on power, there are strong undercurrents of discontent, even as Putin’s critics continue to die in mysterious circumstances. There’s no sign that Putin intends to set up a dynastic system. His daughters—his only known heirs—have stayed out of politics. The future of power in Russia is impossible to predict.
On March 1 Sky News published the results of an in-depth investigation it had undertaken. It asserted, quoting chapter and verse and with many supporting pictures, that an Egyptian company is charging Gazans $5,000 per person to escape to Egypt, and that it has no shortage of customers.
This method of fleeing from Gaza through a specialist company is known as “coordination”. It is a long established system by which Palestinians can pay for permission to leave the Gaza Strip and undertake the journey. Before the war, a number of companies were charging just a few hundred dollars for the service – pay the fee, and a few days later your journey across the border into Egypt is laid on.
Since the start of the war all official cross-border travel, with just a handful of carefully vetted exceptions such as foreign nationals and people with severe injuries, has ceased, but “coordination” is still being operated by just one company – the Egyptian firm Hala. Sky News asserts that currently the majority of those receiving permission to leave Gaza do so through Hala. Before the war Hala charged $350 per adult for their service. The company is currently charging $5,000 per adult. Sky News states it has verified this price by corroborating accounts from dozens of sources, including a Hala employee, as well as price lists posted online.
As an example, it took February 27. On that day 246 Palestinians were registered to travel with Hala. That means the company could have made $1,083,900 in just one day. Sky News says that the volume of daily passengers has been consistent for weeks.
A Hala employee told Sky News that the best way to register and pay for travel with the company was to send a relative to their head office in Cairo. It is situated at the headquarters of its parent company, the Organi Group, in Cairo’s Nasr City district.
“The whole building is guarded with massive security,” said one source who had visited the office. Multiple sources affirmed that there were often hundreds or even thousands of people queuing outside. Videos showing the queues have been verified by Sky News.
“People are quite desperate,” one source said. “They are fundraising, they’re asking for money from their family members, doing whatever they can to raise very high sums of money in order to pay for their own freedom.”
If indeed hundreds of Palestinians are making the crossing into Egypt every day, as the Sky News report maintains, where on earth are they to be accommodated?
The answer may lie in a report that appeared in the world’s media back in February, and has since dropped out of public view. On February 16 many global news sites reported that Egypt was constructing a walled camp in the Sinai Peninsula to receive displaced Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip. The story was carried in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and supported by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian NGO, which released a report detailing and illustrating construction of the compound which it said was to receive Palestinian refugees “in the case of a mass exodus.”
The WSJ said an eight square mile (21 square kilometer) “walled enclosure” that could accommodate more than 100,000 people was under construction on the Egyptian side of the border, part of “contingency plans” if ceasefire talks failed.
The Sinai Foundation said that two contractors had told it that construction firms had been tasked with building the gated area, “surrounded by seven-meter high walls”. And indeed the international news agency AFP reviewed satellite pictures taken on February 15 of the area in northern Sinai, showing machinery building a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border.
One source is reported as saying: “The area will be readied with tents,” while humanitarian assistance would be delivered inside.
The story, replete though it was with testimony and satellite videos, was flatly denied by North Sinai governor Mohamed Shousha. The construction work, he asserted, was to assess the value of houses destroyed during the running battles of recent years between Egyptian forces and Muslim Brotherhood insurgents operating against the regime in the region. The aim, he said, was to determine appropriate compensation for the owners.
In the early days of the war Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned Israel against any “forced displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert. If that happened, he said, it could jeopardize the peace treaty Egypt signed with Israel in 1979. He told a press conference back in October that Palestinians fleeing from Gaza could be moved to Israel’s Negev desert “till the militants are dealt with.”
In response Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, has said that Israel had “no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt…We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which is a cornerstone of stability in the region.”
Sky News asked Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry whether the government condoned Hala charging $5,000 per adult for Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.
“Absolutely not,” said Shoukry. “We will take whatever measures we need to restrict it and eliminate it totally. There should be no advantage taken out of this situation for monetary gain.”
But Amr Magdi, an Egypt expert at Human Rights Watch, reportedly described Shoukry’s response as ringing hollow. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “No one can pass through the border without the knowledge of the Egyptian authorities.” In other words Hala, with its headquarters in Cairo, may be operating in Gaza with explicit or implicit official approval.
Egypt has categorically rejected any suggestion that Palestinians should be allowed to flee en masse into Sinai. But the problem Egypt may face, and is reportedly preparing for, is not any forced evacuation of Gazans by Israel, but the voluntary flight of desperate people able to find, beg, borrow or steal, the exorbitant charges imposed by Hala to organize a “coordination” evacuation.. At the current rate of exodus, Egypt’s 100,000 capacity refugee facility would be filled in about 18 months.
On the other hand should there be, for whatever reason, a more general breakout of Palestinian refugees from Gaza, Egypt is making sure that it is prepared.
The Resurrection is the most important day in the entire Catholic calendar: hence, the proclamation of the Christian Faith: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!”
Standing in the Old City of Jerusalem, the famous Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre is also known for centuries as “the Church of the Resurrection.” It is every age’s silent witness to the amazing fact of the resurrection of Christ. Reckoned to be the holiest site for global Christians, it has been the most beckoning pilgrimage site for Christianity since the fourth century.
Such is the conclusion of the awe-inspiring 2017 headline news from CNN. CNN, BTW, is a non-sectarian commercial network that draws its conclusion from the research-based findings of present-day archeologists.
It is neither a myth nor a legend. The Bible says so. Science says so. History says so. The empty tomb is found inside the basilica constructed by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century. The Man who was buried there rose from the dead!
Contra factum non fit argumentum, as the Romans used to say. “You cannot argue against facts!”
Let us visit the inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, standing in what was once known as Calvary. Come and see the “burial bed” that Mark (the earliest of the four Gospels) narrated as the exact place where the Body of Jesus Christ was laid down following His shameful death on the cross (Good Friday) on a hill (Golgotha) just outside the Damascus Gate.
Inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Jesus’ “burial bed” kept untouched within the Holy Aedicule (Latin aedes meaning “small house”) comes alive. Splendid! A marvel to behold.
What does science say?
The National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., another non-sectarian organization, invited the world to see in 3D the “Tomb of Christ: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience,” and many of us had the experience of going back to Old Jerusalem in virtual reality.
The Sacred Tomb of Jesus, or the Holy Aedicule, underwent a historic restoration—a massive-expensive project that used state-of-the-art technologies, capturing global interfaith attention. “Such shelves and niches, hewn from limestone caves,” scientists confirmed, “are a common feature in the tombs of wealthy 1st-century Jerusalem Jews.”
Consider how reverent their treatment of the historic project was: “We consolidated the holy rock. We opened the tomb of Christ in order to protect it from the infection of grout. Then we reinstalled the stone slabs after inserting joints of titanium,” Dr. Antonia Moroloulou said. Moropoulou, a chemical engineer at the National Technical University of Athens, led the interdisciplinary team of specialists and masons who carried out the special project of Jesus’ tomb restoration in 2017.
What does the Bible say?
Jesus the Poor was buried in a borrowed tomb carved into the rock, hence a cave. The tomb’s owner was Joseph of Arimathea the Rich, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council that had condemned Jesus.
On the evening of the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body, and, after Pilate granted his request, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb (Mark 15:43). Reckon how Jesus was given an honorable burial and how Joseph wrapped the body in a clean shroud (now the Holy Shroud of Turin). Exegetes wonder why Matthew’s Gospel uses the Greek word soma (body) rather than ptoma (corpse).
The Roman authorities made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard, an added detail to answer claims by contemporary opponents that the followers of Jesus had stolen his body (Matthew 27:61-66).
Did Jesus, true God and true man, die on the cross and was buried?
There are two distinct questions. The first quest is this: Did God die on the cross and was buried? And the second question: Did God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, die on the cross and was buried? In Christian theology, these statements demand clarifications and definitions of terms.
To the first question, did God die on the cross? The answer is no. It is impossible if, by God, we mean divinity itself. How could it be possible for God to die? By definition, DEUS (Latin for God) is immortal, eternal, perfect, and immutable! Thus, if you say that God died, it is in itself a contradiction.
By definition, the Divine Supreme Being, which we call God, cannot die and will never die!
The following is a partial list in metaphysics and dogmatic theology of the attributes of God [DEUS], a list that can be found in the statements officially defined by Ecumenical Councils and Extraordinary Synods of Bishops, ex-cathedra papal teachings, handed on to us by Sacred Tradition made through the centuries:
God is absolutely perfect.
God is actually infinite in every perfection.
God is absolutely simple.
God is absolutely immutable [Malachi 3:6: “For I, the Lord, do not change”].
God is eternal [no beginning, no end].
God is immense or absolutely immeasurable.
God is everywhere present in created space, omnipresence.
God knows all OMINISCIENCE (scientia simplicis intelligentiae).
God is almighty, immortal, and omnipotent; therefore, he cannot, will not, and will never die. See 1 Timothy 6:16: God “who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”
God is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth.
To the second question, did God the Son, in reference to Christ the Savior, die on the cross? The answer is yes.
The Incarnate Word, the Logos of the Father, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, has all the attributes of divinity. And my all-time favorite of these attributes is this: God is divine mercy! But he also has the attributes of human nature. Jesus, true God and true man, died and expired at 3 o’clock on Good Friday.
Jesus, who said: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” [Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani (Ἠλί, Ἠλί, λιμὰ σαβαχθανί)] in the Gospel of Matthew 27:46, and he who prayed the last words, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” [Luke 23:46], died on the cross and was buried on the same day.
After more than 2,000 years have passed, different people of different persuasions and different beliefs still talk about His Glorious Resurrection. Jesus is alive!
Happy Easter, Everyone.
Three and a half years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches have fewer people in the pews, more money in the collection plate and (thank God), less conflict within their congregation than they had in 2020. But Clergy dissatisfaction remains on the rise.
Those are among the findings of a report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, part of a five-year study of the impact of the pandemic on America’s Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples.
The report drew from surveys for 4,809 congregations from 58 denominational groups, including an oversampling of 20 smaller denominations, as part of the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations study.
Amazingly, 22% of religious congregations had experienced significant growth.
Half of churches reported decline, while a third reported some or significant growth which is similar to the pattern at the beginning of the pandemic, according to the report.
Researchers also found that 16% of worship attendees were new people in 2023, up from 5% in 2020
Giving at congregations went up by about 42% over the past three years, from a median of $120,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2023. Even adjusting for inflation, this still represents a remarkable increase of over 25% since 2020 according to the report.
Giving to religious groups — including congregations and other faith-based charities — grew by 5.2% in 2022, according to the Giving USA report. Those religious donations made up 27% of all giving to charity.
Religion was the only sector in the Giving USA report where giving went up.
I believe that in the next two decades will see a major religious revival.
The first major sign of this revival is the National Catholic Educational Association announcement that nationwide US enrollment in Catholic schools increased by 62,000 to about 1.68 million students, marking the first increase in two decades and the largest jump it has recorded in at least five decades. And a new survey says 95% of congregants plan to give the same or more in 2024 (only 10% feel they did enough last year) according to the 2024 Giving in Faith report.
A second sign from the UK is the Liberal Jewish movement experiencing a surge in conversions to Judaism with community leaders saying the pandemic has made people reflect more on faith. Some of the new applicants are motivated by traditional reasons, such as a Jewish marriage partner. But many have little previous Jewish connections.
Liberal Judaism reports that 139 people registered to go through its conversion process in 2021. The number is double the 2019 total of 70 and a significant rise on the 93 registering in 2020. About half had some Jewish ancestry, half none at all.
The same doubling is found in Los Angeles where on October 31, 2023 Benjamin Wright, the Associate Director of the Introduction to Judaism Program told me that the annual number of conversions in the 10-years pre-pandemic averaged 300; and rose to 650 for this past year (July 2022-June 2023).
In my 60 years as a Reform Rabbi I have helped hundreds of non-religious people to become Jewish through conversion to Reform Judaism. Among them were many ex-Evangelicals and Protestant fundamentalists who rejected the following six beliefs and replaced them with Judaism.
1 They heard fundamentalists claim that there is only one way (our way) to attain Heaven or Nirvana. Judaism teaches that many paths can lead ethical people to God’s peace.
2 They heard fundamentalists claim that the afterlife is more important than life in this world of suffering, sorrow and sin. Judaism teaches that one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than the whole afterlife.
3 They heard fundamentalists claim that sacred scriptures must be read and believed. Judaism teaches that sacred scriptures must be studied and understood.
4 They heard fundamentalists claim that sacred scripture must be taken literally. Judaism teaches that every verse of scripture has 70 different interpretations.
5 They heard fundamentalists claim that questioning undermines true faith. Judaism teaches that the youngest child should ask at least four questions.
6 They heard fundamentalists claim that religious truth must be universal and absolute. Judaism teaches that our covenant is unique to us. Others have their truths.
Amos, a farmer-turned-prophet, preached during a time of surging national optimism: “Look, the days are coming…when I will send a famine through the land; not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east seeking the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.” (Amos 8:11-12)
Of teens and young adults who say they are affiliated with an organized religion, 52% say they have little or no trust in organized religion according to the “State of Religion and Young People” study which surveyed more than 10,000 Americans ages 13 to 25 about their involvement in, and feelings about, religion.
The study also found that 60% of teens and young adults who are not involved with an organized religion described themselves as at least slightly spiritual; 19% said they attend religious gatherings at least once a month, and 12% of unaffiliated young people have become more religious in the last 5 years.
This last group will lead the next religious revival starting post Codid-19 but only if the leaders of today’s religions will be open to the desire of young people for religions that are not homophobic; and advocate religious diversity by respecting other religions because they do not claim an exclusive ‘we have the only truth’ or ‘our religion is the only one approved by God’ theology.
According to a 2008 Pew survey, one in five Christians in America believe that non-Christian faiths cannot lead one to salvation. That number soared to 60 percent for white evangelical Protestants who attend church once a week.
This is especially important for America’s Islamic leaders because the Qur’an is a strong proponent of Religious Diversity: “Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (Quran 2:62)
A survey of over 35,000 Americans in 2008 found that most Americans agree with the statement: many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life. Among those affiliated with some religious tradition, seven-in-ten say many religions can lead to eternal life.
This view is shared by a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including 82% of Jews, 79% of Catholics, 57% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of Muslims. (From the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008, Pew Research Center.)
Thus, in the 21st century United States most Christians, Jews, and Muslims have rejected the ‘only one truth’ religious mind set and believe in the Qur’an’s pluralism teachings: “For every one of you did We appoint a law and a way. If Allah had wanted, He could have made you one people, but (He didn’t) that He might test you in what He gave you. Therefore compete with one another to hasten to do virtuous deeds; for all return to Allah (for judgement), so He will let you know [about] that in which you differed.” [5:48]
Only those who reject God by disbelief or by unrepentant evil activities will be the losers when Judgement Day comes. And most ‘only one truth’ religious mind set theologians will learn that they might not be as smart as they thought they were.
It is very important to understand that ‘religious pluralism is the will of God’ is different from religious, moral or cultural relativism. Relativism teaches that all values and standards are subjective, and therefore there is no higher spiritual authority available for setting ethical standards or making moral judgments. Thus, issues of justice, truth or human rights are, like beauty, just in the eye of the beholder.
Most people, especially those who believe that One God created all of us, refuse to believe that ethics and human rights are simply only a matter of taste. Religious pluralism as the will of God is the opposite of cultural psychological or philosophical relativism.
The fundamental idea supporting religious pluralism is that religious people need to embrace humility in all areas of religion. All religions have always taught a traditional anti self-centered personal egoism type of humility.
Religious pluralism also opposes a religious, philosophical, and self righteous intellectual egoism that promotes a tendency to turn our legitimate love for our own prophet and Divine revelation into universal truths that we fully understand and know how to apply.
Religious pluralism teaches that finite humans, even the most intelligent and pious of them, can not fully understand everything the way the infinite One does.
This is true, for every human being, even for God’s messengers themselves. When prophet Moses, “who God spoke with face to face, as a person speaks with a friend” (Exodus 33:11) asks to see God face to face, he is told, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see My face and live.” (33:20)
Similarly, in the Qur’an prophet Jesus admits to God, “You know everything that is within myself, whereas I do not know what is within Yourself”. (7:116)
When Prophet Jesus was asked in private by his disciples, “What will be the sign for your coming (back) and the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3) Jesus warns his disciples about upheavals and false Messiahs that will come. Then Jesus concludes: “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the son: only the Father”. (24:36)
A similar statement was made by Prophet Muhammad when asked, “Tell me about the Hour”. He said: “The one questioned about it knows no better than the questioner.” (Muslim book 1 Hadith 1&4) God taught the general principle of epistemological humility through his Prophet who taught his followers “I am no novelty among the messengers. I do not know what will be done to me, or to you.” (Qur’an 46:9) In truth, the only universal truth should be the humility to admit: “Only God knows.”
Or as Allah’s Apostle said, “Don’t give me superiority over Moses, for people will fall unconscious on the Day of Resurrection. I will be the first to regain consciousness, and behold! Moses will be there holding the side of Allah’s Throne. I will not know whether Moses was among those people who became unconscious and regained consciousness before me, or was among those exempted by Allah from falling unconscious.” (Bukari Volume 8, Book 76, #524)
As God declares through Prophet Zechariah: “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.” (8:16-17)
Finally: “Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.” (Quran 2:177)
And as Prophet Micah makes it clear, what God wants is not one religious belief or ritual but your whole heart and commitment. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Biblical Book of Micah 6:8)
As Prophet Isaiah states: “Learn to do right; seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.” (Biblical Book of Isaiah 1:17)
A French diplomat staying in a riverfront hotel in the Cambodian capital is attracted by the rate board on the massage parlours . ‘5 US dollars for oil massage (1 hour)’ board draws him into one of the parlours. He hangs his bag and clothes and hits the bed. The petite lady masseur offers a aromatic handkerchief and the unsuspecting Frenchman falls fast asleep after inhaling the aroma.
When he is woken up after an hour by the masseur with a shrill “massage fini” shout, the Frenchman draws on his wallet and pays the equivalent of 5 US dollars in local currency.
Back in his hotel, as he retires for the day, the Frenchman checks his wallet to figure out if he needs to change some more currency.
Nothing wrong, his 30 odd 100 dollar bills are intact.
But as he walks into a money changer counter next morning, the Frenchman is in for a shock. “Copy dollar these,” screams the moneychanger.”Not real dollars, copy man.” The word “Copy” is clearly inscribed on the greenback.
As the Frenchman argues that all his dollars are from his bank back in France, the moneychanger threatens to take him to police for selling fake dollars.
The Frenchman, a diplomat who came to attend an UN conference, then realises what has happened. His currency notes were changed at that 5 dollar massage parlour, dozens of which dot the Phnom Penh riverfront.
As he goes to the local police station to complain, the cops are less than cooperative. “How do we know you have not brought these fake dollars,” says one cop in halting English. His diplomatic passport does not help as the cops are reluctant to register a case. Clearly, the parlours function under their protection and they get a cut of the loot.
Back in the hotel, as the Frenchman shares his torrid experience over breakfast, a Chinese diplomat attending the same conference, shares a similar experience. “I lost 5000 dollars the same way in a similar parlour,” says the Chinese diplomat.
A UN conference with dozens of delegates must be great business for these riverfront parlours, considering the value of dollar in Cambodia (4052 KHR for one US dollar).
The French and the Chinese diplomats opened up, others might not. The Chinese diplomat said one of his trader friends lost 18000 US dollars from his hotel room safe, insisting he was too busy to visit parlours on a short business trip and that the replacing of real with “copy” dollars (the word copy boldly printed) must have happened in his room safe.
An Indian trader I know was nearly dragged to airport police when he tried to pay a 100 dollar note for his Hennessey cognac at the Phnom Penh airport duty free and it turned out to be copy. But he insisted he has had no time to visit massage parlours because of business negotiations — so he suspects the changeover happened in his hotel room locker in the same riverfront hotel where the French and the Chinese diplomat was staying. “I suspect they have a way of cloning the code I used to lock the room safe,” says the trader.
None are willing to be quoted because this may impact their Cambodian visas in future or they don’t want to publicly admit visiting shady massage parlors looking for cheap sex, which they never get because the aroma handkerchief takes care of it.
Considering the tourism is Cambodia’s leading industry and foreign exchange earner, it is strange the authorities turn a blind eye to what is obviously a burgeoning currency fraud industry that involves many from the masseurs to their parlor owners to the fake currency handlers to the policemen who turn away complainants, mostly foreign tourists.
Cambodia’s tourism earned gross revenue of $3.04 billion in 2023, up 115 percent from $1.41 billion in a year earlier, according to a Ministry of Tourisms report released on February 12, 2024.
The kingdom received 5.45 million international tourists last year, up 140 percent from 2.27 million in the year before, the report said.
“Averagely, a tourist stayed 7.6 days in Cambodia,” the report said.
The Southeast Asian country launched the 2024 Cambodia-China People-to-People Exchange Year last month, hoping that the initiative would be a catalyst for increased tourism and investments.
“I’m strongly confident that the initiative will become a new driving force to attract more Chinese tourists and investors to Cambodia,” Cambodian Tourism Minister Sok Soken said at the launching event held in the cultural province of Siem Reap.
China was the third largest source of foreign tourists to the kingdom in 2023, the report said, adding that the country welcomed 547,798 Chinese visitors last year, up 412 percent from only 106,875 in a year earlier.
Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia’s economy.
The country has four world heritage sites, namely the Angkor Archaeological Park in northwest Siem Reap province, the Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk in central Kampong Thom province, and the Temple of Preah Vihear and the Koh Ker archaeological site in northwest Preah Vihear province.
Indian foreign ministry says more than 5,000 Indians are trapped in Cambodia, held against their will and forced to carry out cyber frauds on people back home. The government estimates that the fraudsters have allegedly duped people of at least Rs 5 billion in India over the past six months.
Some Chinese nationals are also there but it is not clear whether they are held against will or are willing accomplices or masterminds of such global cyberfrauds operations.
Earlier this month, the Indian Home ministry held a meeting with officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and other security experts to draw up a strategy to rescue the Indians trapped in
“The agenda of their meeting was to discuss the organised racket and bring back those who are trapped there. Data shows that Rs 500 crore has been lost (to cyber fraud originating in Cambodia) in India in the last six months,” a top official said.
He said that the investigation by Central agencies has so far revealed that agents were trapping people, mostly those from the southern part of the country, and sending them to Cambodia on the pretext of data entry jobs before forcing them to carry out cyber frauds.
The source said those trapped in Cambodia were forced to scam people back in India and, in some cases, extort money by pretending to be law enforcement officials and saying that they had found some suspicious materials in their parcels.
So far, three people from Bengaluru in south India who were trapped in Cambodia have been brought back to India.
The matter came to light after the Rourkela Police in Odisha busted a cyber-crime syndicate on December 30 last year, arresting eight people who were allegedly involved in taking people to Cambodia.
Sharing details of the Rourkela Police’s operation, an officer said the case was based on the complaint of a senior Central government officer who had been duped of around Rs 70 lakh. “We arrested eight persons from different parts of the country and we have prima facie evidence against multiple people who are involved in the scam. We issued Look Out Circulars against 16 people, following which the Bureau of Immigration this week detained two persons, Harish Kurapati and Naga Venkata Sowjanya Kurapati, at the Hyderabad airport while they were returning from Cambodia,” the officer said.
One of the rescued men, Stephen, told ‘Indian Express’ newspaper : “An agent in Mangaluru offered me a data entry job in Cambodia. I have an ITI degree and did some computer courses during Covid. There were three of us, including someone called Babu Rao from Andhra. At the immigration, the agent mentioned that we were going on a tourist visa, which raised my suspicion. In Cambodia, we were taken to an office space, where they held an interview and the two of us cleared it. They tested our typing speeds etc. It’s only later that we got to know that our job involved looking for profiles on Facebook and identifying people who can be scammed. The team was Chinese, but there was a Malaysian who translated their instructions to us in English.”
Talking about his daily schedule, Stephen said, “We had to create fake social media accounts with photographs of women sourced from different platforms. But we were told to be careful while picking these photos. So a South Indian girl’s profile would be used to trap someone in the North so that it did not raise any suspicion. We had targets and if we didn’t meet those, they would not give us food or allow us into our rooms. Finally, after a month and a half, I contacted my family and they took the help of some local politicians to speak to the embassy,” he said.
Odisha police official say that the accused were agents who took men — potential scamsters — to Cambodia on the pretext of jobs. “But once they land in Cambodia, they are made to join these companies that indulge in fraud. The companies take away the passports of these men and make them work 12 hours a day. If anybody refuses to do the work that is asked of him, he is tortured by way of physical assaults, electric shocks, solitary confinement, etc. Many Indians who are not willing to engage in such scams are trapped there. We are trying to identify them, contact them and try to bring them back to India through proper channels,” Padhi said.
Talking about the nature of the scam, the officer said the men were initially made to join a “scamming company” in Phnom Penh in April 2023.
There, the scamsters were forced to pose as women on dating apps and chat with their potential targets. “After some time, the scamster would convince his target to invest in cryptocurrency trading. This way, many people were duped in India,” Padhi said.
According to the Rourkela Police, in October 2023, the agents got the men to join another company which focused on investment scams. “This company lured people to invest in fake stocks. They also created a fake online app,” the officer said.
“We have also gathered critical information regarding the location of the fraud companies, their operatives, their working style and their management hierarchy. We have identified three key high-level operatives of Indian origin and one high-level operative who is of Nepalese origin. We intend to take the help of Interpol to arrest key players in this scam,” Padhi added.
It is not clear whether these fraudsters are also connected to the fake currency rackets and what kind of local patronage they enjoy. But without such patronage, it would be unlikely they carry on so long and so brazenly.