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"""Memoirs of Montagnard Religion, Traditions and Legends: Indigenous People under Siege in Cambodia"" When I set aside academic life to sign on as a Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Cambodia 1992-3, I never expected to work with an indigenous people for whom a democratic election, rule of law and the free market would usher in new forces that threaten their very existence. The Epilogue outlines the destructive consequences of modernity for the highlanders. ""Memoirs of Montagnard Religion, Traditions and Legends: Indigenous People under Siege in Cambodia"" is a non-fiction memoir that takes the reader inside the Kreung culture and way of life in northeastern Cambodia. Having been a professor of community studies and the sociology of religion in New York for many years it was only natural that I was going to do more than my official human rights work in Ratanakiri Province. The manuscript relates the highlander's views in interviews with teens talking about growing up, with a priestess who explains their religion, and much more. There are four hitherto unpublished legends told by a charismatically endowed storyteller, over fifty photographs, plus an account of the sacrifice of a water buffalo presided over by Ye Arak, Highlander priestess. The memoir also relates how Choung Pheav, a Kreung highlander and I founded the Khmer Highlander Association to promote their economy and confront new challenges to their identity and lands. However General Bou Thong, also a highlander would have none of it. He alone should decide the fate of the Province's rich soil, tall trees and highlander peoples. He was overheard saying, 'When Patrick is gone, Choung Pheav will be as nothing'."

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"I grew up in the ancient city of Kilkenny, Ireland, and like the Kilkenny cats as we are called, I have had many lives. I became a Catholic priest, worked for ten years in Brazilian shantytowns during the period of military dictatorship, and discovered the importance of human rights. See myYA novel, ""Shantytown"". I moved to New York, and taught sociological theory and the sociology of religion in the City University of New York. I edited and introduced a book of theoretical essays by my deceased friend, Emil Oestereicher, ""Thinking, Feeling and Doing"", wrote articles on religious developments in South America's Catholic Church, and on the resurgence of evangelical religion in the US. I also promoted human rights with a member of Jimmy Carter's State Department, and organized the New York Forum on Brazil 1978/79. I translated Leonardo Boff's ""Jesus Christ Liberator"" from Portuguese into English. In January 1992, I went on a UN Peacekeeping Mission to promote human rights in Cambodia, then South Africa, and on to Angola where I retired in 2003 as Deputy Director of the Human Rights Division after the civil war ended. See my fictional human rights thriller, ""Three Stars Above Luanda"". In this period I also published humorous short stories for children and wrote human rights plays for TV, radio, which were staged in the National Theater. In Florida I have written and directed two plays, so the cat has had yet another life in retirement. While I always had the ability to see the funny and ironic side of things, I dedicated my life to rather serious stuff, successful or not, I have to agree with the aphorism: hard work never killed anyone, even if it did not make much money for me. I hope readers enjoy my work even if it has a serious side to it. I am happily married, and have two wonderful children. Yet another life!"

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