BLACK MAGIC

It’s been many people’s observations that, for some reason or another, the vast majority of marriages between American guys and girls from Cambodia don’t work out. One reason that people often cite for these failed relationships is the involvement of black magic.

Here’s a scenario that may or may not have actually happened to cause some of these marriages to fail.

One day the happy newlywed couple in America receive a package from the girl’s parents in srok Khmer. The package contains the usual items: photos, dried fish, and Khmer condiments not easily found in the U.S.

But those are not all it contains. Found in the package is an envelope with a letter and thin sheets of paper coated with a thin film of golden powdery substance. The golden sheets called yon. A letter written in Khmer instructs the daughter to have her American husband rub the yon regularly on his forehead.

“Tell him it’s for good fortunes and prosperity,” instructs the letter, with or without the daughter’s knowledge and complicity.

The American husband doesn’t believe any of that magic stuff but finds the idea amusing. So he plays along and rub the yon on his forehead, thinking it’s harmless fun– just like rubbing the fat Buddha’s belly for good luck at a Chinese restaurant.

Little does he realize that the yon had been charmed through an elaborate and solemn ritual by a voodoo master back in srok Khmer. The girl’s parents might have asked the famed Cham voodoo practitioner to charm the yon with a love spell to cause the American guy to become blindly infatuated with their daughter. They might ask him to help them gain control over their son-in-law’s volitional capacity, negating any objections he might have for their daughter’s monthly trip to Western Union.

At any rate, the intentions behind this kind of practice are invariably impure and morally suspect. It goes without saying that people who use black magic generally have poorly developed concepts of justice and morality. They want things, but they don’t want to work for them. Instead, they resort to unfair and unnatural methods to achieve their desires.

Of course, the yon does not work. It doesn’t work for the very simple reason that it can’t. It doesn’t matter how famous the Cham voodoo master is or how elaborate the ritual he used to cast a spell on it. There is nothing in the cosmos that suggests that magic practices, black or white, would work. They’re based purely on human fantasy, superstition and ignorance.

Nevertheless, if the American guy rubs the yon on his forehead often enough, some of the golden powdery substance may be absorbed through the pores of his skin, entering his bloodstream and causing neurological disorders. So he may end up doing crazy things anyway because of the yon, even though the supernatural basis behind it is totally bogus.

The yon by itself won’t cause the marriage to fall apart. It’s the unjust, impure, secretive, malevolent, ignorant, dishonest, unethical, underhanded, (should I go on?) intentions behind it that create a climate of distrust and suspicion that leads the marriage to fail.

And I’m not going to gross people out by even mentioning some of the other vile and disgusting black magic rituals that Khmer people practice.…