The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Chasing the DNC Flame by Fonda Berosini

TakePart at Slow Food Nation by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

State Fair Having Trouble Keeping It Green

TOMS Wrap Boot: Shoe Addicts Saving Lives

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Andy Kondrat:

Mexican Gov Spends $16M to Save Endangered Porpoise

Wilco Offers Section on Website for Carpooling to Shows

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Jon Popham:

Portland Gym Utilizes Human Energy

Angkor Wat Threatened by Tourism Boom

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Gina Telaroli:

10 Powerful Women Using Their Power for Good

10 A+ Worthy Movie and TV Teachers

The ruins of Angkor Wat are being threatened by the enormous number of tourists traveling to visit the breathtaking site in Cambodia.   Built in the 12th Century by King Suryavarman II to serve as his state temple and capital city, Angkor Wat has survived countless wars and unthinkable pestilence, persevering as one of the masterpieces of world architecture to this day.   But success has come with a price.   The stunning towers and remarkable setting with its unworldly sunset views over the temples have made this national symbol of Cambodia - it appears on the Southeast Asian nation’s flag - a highly trafficked tourist destination, and the massive attention it’s commanded is bringing enormous wear and tear along with it.

For starters, the structures at Angkor Wat are built primarily out of sandstone, which the huge amount of foot traffic around the site is steadily eroding.   Secondly the large number of hotels that have sprung up around the ruins to lodge visitors have put a great strain on the local water supply.   This water drain is actually causing the ruins to slowly sink into the ground.

A decade ago 300,000 people visited Angkor Wat per year.   Today that number is up to one million annually, with the government, eager for the tourist revenue, hoping to push that number up to 3 million per year by 2010.  The problem is one faced by magnificent ancient monuments the world over.   Angkor Wat is an amazing site, something practically anyone would want to visit in their lifetime - including this writer.   But the affects of mass tourism on such archaeological treasures can have such devastating consequences that keeping unrestricted access to the monuments eventually becomes untenable.

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The Penal Colony, a new exhibit by visual artist Dinh Q. Le, highlights the injustices and hidden aspects of war and the secrets behind prison walls. Inspired by the recent events involving the United States Military Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the installation is divided into two sets of media.

Videos shot in the notorious political prison on Con Dao island off the coast of Vietnam highlight the horrific conditions where anti-French and anti-U.S. activits from the southeast Asian nation were sent to be tortured and live in “tiger cages” during the Vietnam War.

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Singer Ricky Martin recently visited a Cambodian shelter in Siem Reap where a teenage rape victim performed a song she wrote about her ordeal as a trafficking victim. Martin was representing his Ricky Martin Foundation when he visited the Cambodian shelter that houses 65 victims.

The Ricky Martin Foundation works as advocates of children’s rights focusing their our work in benefiting this most vulnerable population around the world by supporting structured, equal opportunity initiatives that will secure children the right to be children, and provide them a more promising life. Check out this AOL video where Martin discusses his activist work.

According to the United Nations, about 2.5 million people are involved in forced labor as a result of trafficking, with most victims between the ages of 18 and 24. The US State Department has called Cambodia a country that is a source, destination and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for sexual exploitation and labor. and get involved with The Ricky Martin Foundation by visiting www.rickymartinfoundation.org

This Sunday, New York Times photographer Dith Pran passed away at age 65. Pran was known for his work spreading the word about his native land, Cambodia:

Mr. Dith saw his country descend into a living hell as he scraped and scrambled to survive the barbarous revolutionary regime of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, when as many as two million Cambodians ” a third of the population ” were killed, experts estimate. Mr. Dith survived through nimbleness, guile and sheer desperation. His credo: Make no move unless there was a 50-50 chance of not being killed.

He had been a journalistic partner of Mr. Schanberg, a Times correspondent assigned to Southeast Asia. He translated, took notes and pictures, and helped Mr. Schanberg maneuver in a fast-changing milieu. With the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, Mr. Schanberg was forced from the country, and Mr. Dith became a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communists. [The New York Times]

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Spitzer’s prostitution scandal and the outing of “call girl” ashley alexandra dupre, have provoked quite a reaction and much debate. Yet, the debate about legalizing prostitution has yet to surface. Is it time for the United States to decriminalize the world’s oldest? If we acknowledge that prostitution will never go away, wouldn’t we, as a society, be better off if prostitution were legal? Prostitutes would be less stigmatized and victimized. Prostitutes would have protection from the violence which haunts them, and more access to safe sex education, resources, and testing. The debate over whether prostitution is “moral” or “immoral,” liberating of exploitative strikes me as academic. What we do know is that the “problem isn’t going away.” So the question is, do we live in a state of denial and hypocrisy? Or do we think rationally and act compassionately?

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