Anti-Trafficking Concerts Rock Crowds in Cambodia, Thailand
FrontLines - February 2009
By Hal Lipper
Buddha of Thaitanium, one of the hottest bands in Thailand, performs at the MTV EXIT concert in Bangkok.
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Siem Reap, Cambodia—
Thinh Sean is bright, enterprising,
and forever looking for new ways to earn enough money as he drives his three-wheeled taxi known as a "tuk tuk."
But he wasn’t ferrying tourists to restaurants in his motorized rickshaw the evening of Dec. 7. His sole passenger was his fiancé, whom he took to a USAID-supported concert produced by the MTV Europe Foundation at Angkor Wat, the 12th-century temple. The concert was part of the MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign, which has reached millions of people in Asia through broadcasts and the internet since its launch in 2007.
Cambodia’s top artists as well as Placebo from the United Kingdom and The Click Five from the United States performed
for free at the temple. This was the first rock concert staged at Angkor Wat and one of four MTV EXIT events held in Cambodia.
Thaitanium, a popular hip-hop band in Thailand, at the MTV EXIT concert in Bangkok. From left: Day, Khan, and Way. MTV VJ Poon is at far right.
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The free concerts and cultural events were launched in Laos, ramped up in Cambodia, and will take place in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines this year.
The Angkor Wat concert was for 1,500 ticket holders so as not to overrun the UNESCO World Heritage Site. But five days later, more than 35,000 young people packed Olympic Stadium in the capital of Phnom Penh to hear The Click Five and several of Cambodia’s top bands, including the country’s most popular singer, Preap Sovath, who narrates the Cambodian version of the television
show "Traffic: An MTV Special."
The documentary, funded by USAID, is a harrowing account of three people who were trafficked in Asia. It has been translated into 13 languages and broadcast across much of the continent.
As the campaign’s Khmer spokesperson, Preap Sovath also appeared at MTV EXIT concerts in Sihanoukville and Kampong Cham, Cambodia.
Yuk Thinratha sings beside her guitarist at the MTV EXIT concert in Phnom Penh.
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The deputy chief of the U.S. embassy, Piper A.W. Campbell, urged the Angkor Wat audience to be suspicious of job offers that seemed too good to be true; and USAID’s Cambodia Mission Director Erin Soto joined performers
in Phnom Penh to warn about the dangers of human trafficking.
Two nights later, MTV staged a concert in downtown Bangkok.
U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Eric G. John joined The Click Five and Thai and Burmese artists,
each speaking against human trafficking. Volunteers distributed wallet-sized cards with anti-trafficking information in Thai and Burmese.
Tuk-tuk driver Thinh Sean received a similar card in Khmer when he attended the show at Angkor Wat—along with a blue rubber anti-trafficking bracelet that he gave to his girlfriend.
"I got to see my first concert,"
he said the next afternoon. "And I learned that I have to
be more cautious when looking for work."
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