When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under The Khmer Rouge Paperback - Plot & Excerpts
It reads, “Also killed 168 children today for a total of 178 enemies exterminated.” The year is 1976. Hunger is constantly on our minds, an inner voice that will not be stilled. Yet the Khmer Rouge lecture us about sacrifice. In a mandatory meeting they tell us that we need to sacrifice for the mobile brigades that are working on the “battlefield.” These mobile brigades, they stress, are building padewat (the revolution). We, here in the village, are not worth much since we don’t work on the battlefield. We’ve planted rice, yams, and yucca, yet we get to eat little or nothing of the harvest. Most of the food is sent to the brigades. Later, I learn exactly what “battlefield” means—a place where the only fight is to survive the revolution itself. Mak’s swollen body somehow improves, so she can walk short distances now. Like a vulture sensing a corpse nearby, an informant begins circling our hut. He orders Mak to a meeting. Mak pleads that she’s not well yet. But he pounces on her slight improvement.
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