- published: 27 Dec 2012
- views: 5998893
Loung Ung (born 1970) is a Cambodian-born American human-rights activist and lecturer. She is the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World. Between 1997 and 2003 she served in the same capacity for the "International Campaign to Ban Landmines", which is affiliated with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
Ung was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the sixth of seven children and the third of four girls, to Seng Im Ung and Ay Choung Ung. Her actual birthdate is unknown; the Khmer Rouge destroyed many of the birth records of the inhabitants of cities in Cambodia. At ten years of age, she escaped from Cambodia as a survivor of what became known as "the Killing Fields" during the reign of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime. After emigrating to the United States and adjusting to her new country, she wrote two books which related her life experiences from 1975 through 2003.
Today, Ung is married and lives with her husband in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
Ung's first memoir, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, details her experiences in Cambodia from 1975 until 1980:
A second, a minute, an hour, a day goes by
I'm hopin' just to be by your side
I'm turnin' the handle, it won't open
Don't make me wait 'cause right now I need your smile
Knock, knock
When life had locked me out I turned to you
So open the door
'Cause you're all I need right now, it's true
Nothin' works like you
Little louder, little louder
Little louder knockin'
Little louder, little louder
A warm bath, a good laugh, an old song that you know by heart
I've tried it but they all leave me cold
So now I'm here waitin' to see you
My remedy for all that's been hurtin' me
Knock, knock
When life had locked me out I turned to you
So open the door
'Cause you're all I need right now, it's true
Nothin' works like you
You seem to know the way
To turn my frown upside down
You always know what to say
To make me feel like everything's okay
Little louder, little louder
Little louder knockin'
Little louder, little louder
Little louder knockin'
Little louder, little louder
Little louder knockin'
Little louder, little louder
When life had locked me out I turned to you
And you open the door
And you're all I need right now, it's true
Nothin' works like you
When life had knocked me down I turned to you
And you open the door
And you're all I need right now, it's true
Nothin' works like you
Nothin' works like you
When life had locked me out I turned to you
And you open the door
And you're all I need right now, it's true
Nothin' works like you