Content Warning: This section mentions death by suicide.

In May 2007, Timmerman is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Labor Day. As tourists and worshippers visit a Buddhist shrine, they are confronted by begging children and elderly people. There is also a line of street sellers with bird cages. A woman gives a seller money and releases one of the birds into the sky—a Buddhist ritual symbolizing the release of sorrow, pain, and hardship. As the bird flies toward the river and plummets into it, the same seller retrieves another bird that has flown into a tree. Timmerman offers some children a dollar to save the drowning bird, but they decline. The bird seller jumps into the water, saves the bird, and then demands money from Timmerman. Despite his outrage, Timmerman gives the man a dollar for retrieving his own bird.

The author explains the origins of Labor Day. On May 1, 1886, 40,000 workers in Chicago demanded a maximum eight-hour workday. A riot ensued, during which seven police officers and two protesters were killed. In the aftermath, four protesters were hanged. These events ultimately precipitated better pay and working hours for American workers. However, American Labor Day was moved to September since the American government did not want to commemorate socialism.