About Seng Ty:
Seng Ty was born in 1968, the year President Richard Nixon bombed Cambodia. He grew up in a small town in Kompong Speu province, into a family of eleven siblings.Seng Ty is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, from 1975 to 1979. He was seven (?) when the Khmer Rouge came to power. Like thousands of other Cambodians from cities, towns and villages, he and his family were forcibly evacuated to the countryside to do three years of slave labor with little or no food. Most of his family members, including his mother, died of starvation. His father was one among thousands murdered.
The Khmer Rouge tried to break families by separating children from their parents and siblings. They brainwashed the children to turn against their family and think only of Angkar, the supreme state, as their new parent.
Seng and his siblings were separated with other children and put into work camps. During that time, he survived by stealing food, although he could be tortured and killed. Once he was caught stealing rice, and he was beaten and tortured severely. He was fortunate to be spared.
Seng, like many Cambodian children after the Khmer Rouge brutal regime, was left orphaned to struggle on his own to survive. With luck, he managed to escape through the jungle into the Thai-Cambodian border refugee camp, and made it to the United States through adoption by an American family in 1982. He began his new life with his new family in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Look for his full story and journey in his memoir, My Mother's Teakettle.
You can also read about Seng Ty in the 1981 interview in TIME, by Roger Rosenblatt. His story was also featured in the book "Children of War " (1983) by Roger Rosenblatt. Seng was one of the young people touring with the Children of War , founded by Judith Thompson and Arn Chorn-Pond, to speak and share his experiences living under one of the most brutal regimes of man.
Seng is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , with a Master's Degree in Guidance Counseling(?). He is currently living in Lowell Massachusetts, working as a guidance counselor at the Bartlett and Butler Middle Schools.
CBS 60 MINUTES
In 1999, Seng returned to Cambodia with CBS 60 Minutes II to the village, Tuk Cjo, where his father was killed and his mother died of starvation. The 60 Minutes story "GET AWAY FROM GENOCIDE," aired December 16, 2000.Pictures
Donahue Show - Children of War Tour in 1984.
PictureTIME MAGAZINE
Articles written by Roger Rosenblatt... PicturesBOOK--SENG'S MEMOIR
Seng is currently writing his memoir. Since he first saw Pol Pot on TV news about his jungle trail in 1997, Seng began writing down his childhood memories. The manuscript is about 270 pages long. The describes my childhood, my family and what happened to him and his family during and after Khmer Rouge genocide. He was eight years old when the Khmer Rouge came to occupy Cambodia. He had a family of eleven siblings. At the end ony two sisters and a brother remained. His father was executed because they perceived him as being a part of the bourgeois class.His childhood turned upside down, he was forced to work without food. In the manuscript, he describe his personal journey for survival. In spite of fearing execution, he persisted on sneaking out at night, stealing things to eat to stay alive. His mother and brothers died of starvation.
This is his personal story, a memoir of grief, sadness and resiliency. It is a testimony to what he had witnessed and endured through tremendous human loss and suffering. In spite of it all, he continues to survive. This is why he want to share his story with others.
The title of the book "My Mother's Spirit of Survival" My Mother's Tea Kettle. is his only inheritance. The teakettle kept him alive throught the Khmer Rouge. He used it to boil water and cook food without letting the Khmer Rouge know. It's an inheritance for survival within it, his mother's spirit, casting down her watchful eyes to warn him of danger.
SPIRITUAL SITE.
CAR RENTAL SERVICE IN-CAMBODIA
INTEREST INVESTMENT IN CAMBODIA
Email: sty98@mail.massed.net
Links:
Khmer Cultural Institute
Web page by Sheldon Brown url: http://sheldonbrown.com/ty