Perspective

At a friend's farewell dinner last friday, I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of new people. They were mostly expats sitting on my table. Amongst them, Patrick is officially Malaysian, but I think he used to live abroad for most of his life. He is married to Debbie, who is British but born here in Malaysia and live the better part of her life here. They met at the Wimbledon tournament. Anyway... the fact was that they love it here in Malaysia. Peter and Tina, also British, have lived in Asia longer than they have in their homeland. They share many of the same sentiments as the expats on the table. They extolled the virtues of living in this country for most of the evening and I listened in facination.

You see, I have been a little disanchanted with Malaysia of late. Whilst I love it here, I feel something is fundamentally wrong with the fabric of society. We sit miles away from the typical situation in Carcosa, socialising, speaking well of others, enjoying the company over great food and good wine. I cannot help but feel that whilst the expats that we were there that night and that they trully believed what they feel about Malaysia, they cannot really understand the underlying rasicm that is so tightly woven into our society. Gaining some perspective from our expat friends helps a little.

Unfortunately, some twat will so easily change all that. Today, I experienced one. I drive behind this fella. We wait at a junction to turn left. We do at the next opportunity. He however decides to almost immediately stop by the roadside after making the bend! I toot at hime in disgust, noticing the many NO PARKING/NO WAITING roadsigns along that road. As I make my way past him, he comes out of his car and gives me a great big intimidating stare and a posture of violence. Is it just me or are our Malay friends getting a tad more violent in nature these days. Maybe the rethoric brandished by the idiots in Umno is rubbing off afterall. I pray for us all... The day will come when it will all come to a head. How can it not?