Stolpa award nominee!

It's not often we have an nominee for the Stolpa Award -- the award that combines the concept of "too stupid to live" with the aggravating circumstances of endangering your whole family in the process.

From Cambodia comes this story of people who are so poor they dig up unexploded mines for scrap.

[The village of] Choam Ksant has its charms, but its inhabitants are poor, and in the dry season they can not make any money from planting rice. They have to find other ways of bringing in cash, including gathering UXO* for scrap. At the back of a well-kept cafe, a pile of rusted rockets and shells could be seen, waiting for a buyer.

* UXO = Unexploded Ordinance.

The Stolpa Award is named for the man who, in 1993, decided to take a short cut on a lonely highway, passing signs that said it was closed for the winter. The car became stuck in a blizzard. After three days, he left his wife and baby in the car and went to find help. Lucky for him, he found a CalTrans truck several miles down the road, and the family was rescued. Their reward? A half-million dollar deal to turn their "story" into a TV movie. Both adults did, however, lose parts of their feet. Now that's inspirational!