# Cambodia: Country for Sale **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cambodia-country-for-sale/447189 "2008-04-28T04:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cambodia-country-for-sale/447189/1 "2008-04-28T04:38:37Z")
Story [here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/26/cambodia?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews). Excerpt: “Almost half of Cambodia has been sold to foreign speculators in the past 18 months - and hundreds of thousands who fled the Khmer Rouge are homeless once more.” This is a big reason foreigners cannot own land in Thailand. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cambodia-country-for-sale/447189/2 "2008-04-28T11:41:05Z")
It’s a real shame that such a beautiful country is being treated this way. I visited Sihanoukville in 2002 and I bet I wouldn’t recognise the place if I went back now. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cambodia-country-for-sale/447189/3 "2008-04-28T12:04:26Z")
Reminds me of the story in this week’s Economist on a tiny island in the Pacific. Its main source of income is from housing immigrants not yet granted the right to live in Australia. Previous to this, the island was heavily mined for phosphates, the result of which is that on an island barely more than 2x4 km in area, only a strip of land around the sea front is inhabitable. [Here’s](http://www.economist.co.uk/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11090649&CFID=3641010&CFTOKEN=24201782) the article, complete with map. Although half a country the size of Cambodia being owned by foreigners trumps that a bit.