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He was my driver one recent day in Cambodia. After many hours on the road, Sopheap gave me an insight into his personal life. And his marriage.

- John, I was the first one in our family to choose my own spouse, he said.

Still at least half of marriages in Cambodia are arranged. Parents suggest what they believe will be a good partnership between two families.

But increasingly young people are asking parents not to get involved.

Such as Sopheap. I visited him and his wife one night and he told me about how his marriage came about.

Sopheap had grown up in a family where his parents never loved each other. Later he saw all his older children accept that their spouses were chosen for them.

Not so for Sopheap. He met his girlfriend at university and soon they were dating. The two fell in love with each other and started to plan a future together.

But how to tell the parents?

Sopheap knew his parents were planning to find a wife for him. Therefore he had to thread very carefully when he finally told his mother that he loved this girl at university.

Fortunately the parents said yes, and Sopheap later was able to marry his love.

- But has your marriage been better than those of your brothers and sisters?, I asked.

- Yes, I think so, he responded. Because we chose each other we also feel obligated to make it work for our common future. We have problems as well, but we solve them. As for my sisters, they are regularly beaten by their husbands.

The question is whether he will succeed or not. Will he leave his wife at first opportunity or will they stick it out together. Will they allow each other to grow?

I don't know. All I did was listening to Sopheap telling about the tough fight to choose his own wife. And how he succeeded. He is so proud of what they have achieved compared to other they know in the city.

One evening I visit Sopheap and his wife. It is a beautiful meal. For two hours I have to watch the video from their wedding.

However: It is not spoken, but everyone knows it. How mariages of love have a better chance, how the fight for their relationship helps other couples come to the right conclusion.

So I admire Sopheap and his wife. And I pray that they will be strong enough not to leave their important principles.

North Korea, one of the world’s most impenetrable nations, is facing a new threat: networks of its own citizens feeding information about life there to South Korea and its Western allies.
Related

The networks are the creation of a handful of North Korean defectors and South Korean human rights activists using cellphones to pierce North Korea’s near-total news blackout. To build the networks, recruiters slip into China to woo the few North Koreans allowed to travel there, provide cellphones to smuggle across the border, then post informers’ phoned and texted reports on Web sites.

Read the whole article in The New York Times