ThaRum

Born in 1983, Soben Houn, who stands on the international stage as Miss Utah USA 2006, represents Cambodian-American communities and Cambodia as a whole. As a celebrity, she will promote the significance of higher education in this digital age. And, she is looking to compete in Miss USA 2006 on April 21.To celebrate and support Soben Houn, her fans launched the Weblog ‘Soben Huon - Miss Utah USA 2006′ expressing their pride and gratitude for her achievements. On her fan-supported Weblog, visitors can read Soben’s profile, newsarchives, past competition information, or view the photo gallery, and of course, readers’ comments.

Congratulations to Soben!
Your Miss. Utah title bring Cambodia and the Khmers great honor, world spotlight and more hope. All Khmers are so proud of you. More importantly, I’m sure you will compete for the Miss. Universe title. Your name Soben (meant Dream) fits really well with everything you’re persuing and working hard for. I wish and highly hope your Soben (dreams) will come true. Keep up the good work.
Good Luck :-)
Ritchie

According to US national who has worked in Cambodia for many years, and now speaks fairly well in Khmer, Jinja is curious about what his Khmer friends think about the traditional annual American beauty contest. “Most families in the Cambodian countryside would be horrified to see their daughter enter a public swimsuit competition. But ‘Freshie Girl’ this ain’t.”

Also, Angelie Oum, one of her fans, commented that:

“I just wanted to express how wholeheartedly proud and happy I am to see a smart, beautiful, and out-going young American woman of Khmer descendant making connections with people in her local and national communities. Soben could not have gotten where she is right now without her intelligence, determination, beauty and stamina. I know there are young women and men out there looking up to her.
Hopefully, like Miss World 1994, Aishwarya Rai, she will bring about respect, positivism and optimism in any communities she is representing. Based on her interview and mother’s interview, which I heard from a Khmer radio station, she comes from a well-grounded and respectable family. I admire that. I support her effort and long journey ahead.”

When considering an affordable and efficient means of long distance communication, a Weblog is probably the best choice. An online presence can be reached by some hundred-thousand of her fans and Cambodians in different regions, and the two sides can interact with one another conveniently and economically. In previous years, Cambodians living abroad communicated with their family members, friends, and loved ones in Cambodia through email, which is affordable by most. Many share interesting news and other information through newsgroups. It has changed recently. Not only because people can make cheap international phone calls via Voice Over the Internet Protocol, but they now can quickly share their daily stories via online personal diaries containing a few notes and photos taken with their camera phones.

The weblog post, original work of mine, was first published on Global Voices Online on April 10th, 2006.