Elite

In the crazed traffic scrum of Phenom Penh there are the usual players squaring off. Buses go up against Tuk-tuks and remorks while scooters dash about like herds of velociraptors. It's chaos, a dusty, noisy chaos. The added players here are the Khmer elite. Those in the government ministries, and their huge families, careen about in SUVs funded from the streams of graft that float almost everyone with an ounce of power.

There seem to be three choices for a Khmer satrap or their relatives. There are Lexus 470 SUVs in black, huge Range Rovers or Toyota Land Cruisers.

This in a country where many rice farmers still use Ox-carts.