John Humphreys is asking for some help for a Khmer friend and colleague whose family is having a rough time.
On a related note, while I was at AARES, I got talking about co-authors and it struck me that mine come from at least a dozen different countries. Going roughly from east to west they include NZ, Australia (obviously), Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Greece, Italy, France, Netherlands, Spain, England and the US. It’s certainly one of the great things about an academic life that this kind of contact is natural and taken for granted.
John Quiggin 
This comment is typical of the extra-ordinary experience of a cultural elite (CE) and a major reason why they have difficulty empathising with the flag-waving cultural populus (CP). Of course Pr Q is no kind of snob, going by his noisy support for hearty activities and general mastery of the common touch. But he nonetheless cannot help being moved by his rarefied strata.
CE’s of diverse races and cults usually associate with people of similar class (occupation and education) backgrounds who have been carefully selected by institutions to make good team members and healthy competitors. So they tend to meet and mate with the best of other cultural and racial groups. This is all good clean fun, epecially when they can seal the deal by dining out on cheap ethnic cuisine.
Moreover, diverse cultural and racial elites co-opted by the Anglomorph elite have invariably internalised the Christian/Kantian values of the great global civilizaions, the Roman and British empires – usually with an American glitter. So the non-Euro CE is really not that much “different” from the Euro CE’s after all.
The experience of a nation’s CP hoi polloi is markedly different. The CP has, under conditions of laissez-faire globalization, to co-exist with persons of low or uncertain educational and occupational competencies from diverse races and cults.
These people are invariably thrown together willy nilly, with no special attempt at selection or complementation. They find themselves in competition with foreigners for scarce resources (jobs, houses, schools, hospitals) without the easing factor of a common fraternal heritage.
Yet the CE has the power to dictate cultural policy for a nation’s CP. This is very dangerous when members of a CE unthinkingly project their own (unrepresentative) personal and professional experience onto the political field. This is a recipe for social conflict unless the statesman take prudent action. Outbreaks of Hansonism, Le Pen-ism and Cronulla-style outbreaks are a predictable consequence.
A policy of cultural conservatism is indicated.
Jack,
It all sounds a bit like maxist class theory to me.
Regards,
Terje.