one of the strangest things about living in KL for me is the social climate which eliminates the need for alcohol. american kids, especially those growing up in an irish catholic community that were formerly the home of the navies northern fleet, and later became a premier tourist location for summer relaxation, grow up expecting there to be events driven by social lubricant.
contrary to the sense of abstention i am now used to, my former life was punctuated with regular use of liquid to grease the wheels. not former really, i have been away from KL for almost a full month now and in that time i have looked for something to offer a guest, only to find it was mysteriously, or not so mysteriously, missing. on another night, i sat for hours with friends i like, those i don’t like but trust and those i simply don’t trust but respect and talked work, sports, life and politics. the night came with a freedom that starts with the click a glass and is put back on track by offering to order the next round. a week later, i made a friend who offered a visit to tuscany, but who will never connect to keep that promise; no worries the conversation was worth the time. a week after that, i was enticed into stealing a fry, and a dip of mayo, from the next table just to prove that i had no filters.
each of these events was fueled by beverages meant to assist in the dropping of social barriers. these beverages helped to relax those talking and those not. they opened minds and helped conversations flow, they may have helped people who would otherwise have been too stressed to relax and enjoy into doing just that. why would an entire community, even those who are not bound by a separate standard of behavior, not want to engage in something that opens them up and allows thoughts, conversations and events flow freely.
i have come to understand that it’s not the beverage, but the freedom that causes the hesitation. i was in a group that told me, “its tradition to have a few drinks and tell off your boss, he knows what you think and he is not allowed to get mad… which is why it's good”. i have to agree, that is good. reality checks are a good thing, and if people can’t open up to help give a reality check to someone who needs it without assistance, then they deserve to have the courage (and cover) that social lubricant can provide. by eliminating that, everything is "on the record"; there is no “well he had a one too many” rationalizations.
malaysia is one of the stiffest places i have ever experienced. there is a culture of consumption, but it is not the consumption i was conditioned within. the older generation, the parents of my friends, tell stories of “everyone” going out together, walking home singing and coming over each other’s houses for parties. the fact that this comraderie this was lost, is right up there with encouragement of tudong and near elimination of form-fitting kebaya on the sad if not evil scale.
seriously, loosen up. life outside is so much more fun, it’s a plane ride a way, go find out and bring it back with you. imagine being able to have fun, speak your mind, get respect and not have to be fearful that someone was going to get upset and retaliate. if you can’t use the world’s social lubricant find your own… but you know certain things are standards because they work and they have been proven.
come to my house in the US, we will sit on the back porch, put something in the smoker, have a drink and rub our bare feet on the dog. if you can’t see the value and pleasure in that, if it doesn’t relax you and you can’t look at the trees and wonder why you ever tried to live any other way… well there is no hope.
you might as well just wait for durian season and admit that this is the way you really like it. to paraphrase animal house: separated, isolated and uptight is no way to go through life.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Saturday, November 08, 2008
process driven
my blog entries normally start with a thought. they are things i am mulling over, processing in the back ground as the day goes on. as i consider, or obsess over, a thought i tend to land on a short title. this helps in categorization of the idea. it also lends a shorthand method of thought retrieval. these thoughts almost never come to the foreground to be truly pondered and considered until i sit down to write.
i have been travelling for a month now. i have been to three continents; 5 major cities. i have crossed oceans, moved coasts, missed conferences, written contracts, broken promises, made new friends and accepted that i don’t know loved ones. it’s been a long and tiring month. the thing is that i am more rested and comfortable now than i have been in a while. this year has been intense, exciting and amazingly draining on many levels.
sometimes it’s when you look up and see that you are still standing that you realize you are still in the game. even when you are bone tired, when you have your head down and are listening to your own breathing, thinking how can i keep this up… its then that you pick your head up and realize you are still on the field. better than just being there, you have your team around you and you understand that you can win.
the other thing that can happen is that you realize the other guys are more tired that you are. some may have already dropped out, others are ready to go at the first opportunity. this is where “schedule chicken” comes in; it’s where you have to prove that you can last long enough for them to blink. they might not actually be more tired, but if you hold it together you can win in the end anyway. the way you lose is to show them that you are tired, or to make a dumb mistake that gives them energy. look strong, even when you are tired.
none of my blogs are ever about what i am talking about, not entirely. thoughts are not singular, they are collections of threads. writing, music, art, sports, work, life are all built up over time. all of these are constructed piece by piece, thread by thread, play by play. my writing almost never ends up where i thought it would. life is not like that, it weaves and bobs.
the important thing is to know your requirements. writing for me is to allow me to complete those thoughts. it allows me the time and effort to bring them together and realize the pattern that the threads create. patterns are the things you need to watch, not the threads themselves. if you do watch the threads you lose patterns. pattern recognition, pattern appreciation, is the final skill of understanding.
let your process flow, allow it to take you where it wants to naturally. remember the path of least resistance, consider economy of energy, appreciate the elegance of simplicity. you might find that the threads lead you to a beautiful pattern.
i have been travelling for a month now. i have been to three continents; 5 major cities. i have crossed oceans, moved coasts, missed conferences, written contracts, broken promises, made new friends and accepted that i don’t know loved ones. it’s been a long and tiring month. the thing is that i am more rested and comfortable now than i have been in a while. this year has been intense, exciting and amazingly draining on many levels.
sometimes it’s when you look up and see that you are still standing that you realize you are still in the game. even when you are bone tired, when you have your head down and are listening to your own breathing, thinking how can i keep this up… its then that you pick your head up and realize you are still on the field. better than just being there, you have your team around you and you understand that you can win.
the other thing that can happen is that you realize the other guys are more tired that you are. some may have already dropped out, others are ready to go at the first opportunity. this is where “schedule chicken” comes in; it’s where you have to prove that you can last long enough for them to blink. they might not actually be more tired, but if you hold it together you can win in the end anyway. the way you lose is to show them that you are tired, or to make a dumb mistake that gives them energy. look strong, even when you are tired.
none of my blogs are ever about what i am talking about, not entirely. thoughts are not singular, they are collections of threads. writing, music, art, sports, work, life are all built up over time. all of these are constructed piece by piece, thread by thread, play by play. my writing almost never ends up where i thought it would. life is not like that, it weaves and bobs.
the important thing is to know your requirements. writing for me is to allow me to complete those thoughts. it allows me the time and effort to bring them together and realize the pattern that the threads create. patterns are the things you need to watch, not the threads themselves. if you do watch the threads you lose patterns. pattern recognition, pattern appreciation, is the final skill of understanding.
let your process flow, allow it to take you where it wants to naturally. remember the path of least resistance, consider economy of energy, appreciate the elegance of simplicity. you might find that the threads lead you to a beautiful pattern.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
bad santa
having grown up in an irish catholic family, seeing my father kneel and cross himself as me moved in a church, watching my grandmother say her prayers long after she had lost touch with her family and surroundings i understand what faith is. but also having a natural tendency to question, research, consider and analyze, i have become quite comfortable with the post-enlightenment modernism view of the world. gone are the acceptance of myths that bound society in the classical world. rather modernism replaced myth with an acceptance of the temporal and self-directed, but promising, future that people have when they work, learn and progress without classical ties which bind them to historical answers to questions of life, purpose and morality.
when i moved here i was shocked at the level of myth which is still believed. not only believed, but accepted apparently without being questioned. added to this is a level of connection to the family which is becoming uncommon outside of rural or possibly cult-like groups in the west. mature adults in asia have told me that they would not be allowed to do things like, get divorced, have a tattoo, emigrate for work or education, or even go on a weekend away because of the way their parents would feel about it. when asked how my mother felt about me moving half way around the world, her second child to do so, she said, “well, what can you do, he is going to do what he thinks is best, no matter what we say”. i smiled when i heard that, thinking my mother respected my ability to choose my life.
but i have questioned how malaysia keeps its people believing the myths, and not questioning the word or authority of their elders for so long. some adults do have lives their parents know nothing about, or may suspect but would never ask details about for fear of being told. many more than in the west simply will not act in ways which would upset their parents. they do it out of respect; and fear. they believe their parents are entitled to make decisions for them, and to be believed when they tell them what is right and wrong. this got me thinking about where this is lost in the western world.
how do our children learn to become independent of thought? how do they learn do become open and possibly vocal about their desires, when people here stay quiet and under the influence of the parents? i was thinking about my youngest son a few weeks ago, i was reflecting on his ability to manage up in his relationships with parents. this is not only me, but his mother and other parent-like replacements that are in his life. he and his siblings have learned to be read between the lines, and have a more active interaction with the adults around them.
when is the first time that our children begin to feel the ability to manage the relationships with the adults in their lives? i have decided it is the same time that they realize the adults are lying to them about things. for western children this comes during their early youth, just after entering school, when they learn from classmates that santa does not exist… the myth is broken, and the children see the conservative conspiracy that was put in place to help them continue to believe the myth. not only are the parents found to have lied to them, but grandparents, teachers, the media … almost all adults in their life are now brought into question. there is an understanding that adults lie, the same people who have taught them that lying is bad, are now found to be those lying about the things that mean the most to them.
the fact that santa is a pseudo-religious symbol, actually a saint in some but not all western countries, is not lost on the child either. this apparent crack in the façade of religion is later reinforced a few months later when the now questioning child calls the other pseudo-religious mythical holiday symbols into question… saint valentine and then the easter-bunny are the next myths to fall to this new ability to question and accept the falsity of myth. the three pseudo-religious symbols are all debunked by the child, who is quickly enlisted in the conspiracy and told they do not want to spoil it for the younger (or is it more naïve) children.
at least within the us, the remaining holidays are largely without myth. halloween, is a time for everyone to dress up, so yes it is built on deception (or extortion) but the children are let in on the secret early on and is not upset by this. although holloween could be seen as the distraction which helped to eliminate “all saints day”, which is the day after halloween, a day most american's completely ignore.
the turkey associated with thanksgiving is presented to the child crispy and ready to be eaten, so there is no lie there. other than the false fact that the pilgrims landed in pymouth… they actually landed and spent the summer months in truro. yes the pilgrims had spent their first summer in the america on the cape, just down the road from the future provincetown… a place with very little deception… my kids knew the judy garland on skates handing out fliers to the cabaret was an xy even before they knew santa was false.
so, the root of the stability malaysian society holds on standard family values is the lack of connection to the santa and easter bunny myths. malay kids have no example of parents caught red handed in conspiratorial disregard for the truth. this allows the parents to hold onto myths and reinforce them much longer than is possible in the west. without the ability to catch a parent in a lie, the child and then adult is kept in the belief of myth cycle…. (hey, it’s a theory that appears to make sense).
now… given it so clearly damages not only the family cohesion, but the ties to conservative society and belief in religion in general… we need to consider who the backers of all of these myths really are. in the secular society of the west, we realize that all three myths are truly propagated by the commercial interests of big business. selling holiday cards, candy and all things gift worthy during christmas is the post-myth acceptable relationship with these holidays. secularism is supported by the understanding that the religious backing of these holidays are if not completely false, than highly questionable.
the question of course becomes… is santa then a conspiracy within a conspiracy. the revelation that santa and his cousin myths so clearly damage the tie in the west between person and belief, turning it into a purely secular and consumer based event… is it possible that this was the sinister goal from the very beginning. is santa a patsy, a fall-guy, meant to expose the deeper myths propagated by the church and other conservative groups in the pre-enlightenment era? is the vast right-wing conspiracy of the holidays a carefully constructed and amazingly executed sinister left-wing conspiracy to expose myth in general? to teach the west that myth both in religion and family are so clearly false that even an 8 year old can see though them.
malaysia has been lucky to largely avoid this exposure by being off the radar of the consumerism of the west. but as malls expand here, and consumerism takes an ever deeper hold on the society, it is only a matter of time.
malaysian children, in order to complete in the world, will soon be the unfair target of learning, knowledge and the ability to analyze when adults are lying to them. how will the society, so clearly requiring the unquestioned belief in elders survive such a vicious and evil assault?
protect your family, your children and your society. ban bad santa.
when i moved here i was shocked at the level of myth which is still believed. not only believed, but accepted apparently without being questioned. added to this is a level of connection to the family which is becoming uncommon outside of rural or possibly cult-like groups in the west. mature adults in asia have told me that they would not be allowed to do things like, get divorced, have a tattoo, emigrate for work or education, or even go on a weekend away because of the way their parents would feel about it. when asked how my mother felt about me moving half way around the world, her second child to do so, she said, “well, what can you do, he is going to do what he thinks is best, no matter what we say”. i smiled when i heard that, thinking my mother respected my ability to choose my life.
but i have questioned how malaysia keeps its people believing the myths, and not questioning the word or authority of their elders for so long. some adults do have lives their parents know nothing about, or may suspect but would never ask details about for fear of being told. many more than in the west simply will not act in ways which would upset their parents. they do it out of respect; and fear. they believe their parents are entitled to make decisions for them, and to be believed when they tell them what is right and wrong. this got me thinking about where this is lost in the western world.
how do our children learn to become independent of thought? how do they learn do become open and possibly vocal about their desires, when people here stay quiet and under the influence of the parents? i was thinking about my youngest son a few weeks ago, i was reflecting on his ability to manage up in his relationships with parents. this is not only me, but his mother and other parent-like replacements that are in his life. he and his siblings have learned to be read between the lines, and have a more active interaction with the adults around them.
when is the first time that our children begin to feel the ability to manage the relationships with the adults in their lives? i have decided it is the same time that they realize the adults are lying to them about things. for western children this comes during their early youth, just after entering school, when they learn from classmates that santa does not exist… the myth is broken, and the children see the conservative conspiracy that was put in place to help them continue to believe the myth. not only are the parents found to have lied to them, but grandparents, teachers, the media … almost all adults in their life are now brought into question. there is an understanding that adults lie, the same people who have taught them that lying is bad, are now found to be those lying about the things that mean the most to them.
the fact that santa is a pseudo-religious symbol, actually a saint in some but not all western countries, is not lost on the child either. this apparent crack in the façade of religion is later reinforced a few months later when the now questioning child calls the other pseudo-religious mythical holiday symbols into question… saint valentine and then the easter-bunny are the next myths to fall to this new ability to question and accept the falsity of myth. the three pseudo-religious symbols are all debunked by the child, who is quickly enlisted in the conspiracy and told they do not want to spoil it for the younger (or is it more naïve) children.
at least within the us, the remaining holidays are largely without myth. halloween, is a time for everyone to dress up, so yes it is built on deception (or extortion) but the children are let in on the secret early on and is not upset by this. although holloween could be seen as the distraction which helped to eliminate “all saints day”, which is the day after halloween, a day most american's completely ignore.
the turkey associated with thanksgiving is presented to the child crispy and ready to be eaten, so there is no lie there. other than the false fact that the pilgrims landed in pymouth… they actually landed and spent the summer months in truro. yes the pilgrims had spent their first summer in the america on the cape, just down the road from the future provincetown… a place with very little deception… my kids knew the judy garland on skates handing out fliers to the cabaret was an xy even before they knew santa was false.
so, the root of the stability malaysian society holds on standard family values is the lack of connection to the santa and easter bunny myths. malay kids have no example of parents caught red handed in conspiratorial disregard for the truth. this allows the parents to hold onto myths and reinforce them much longer than is possible in the west. without the ability to catch a parent in a lie, the child and then adult is kept in the belief of myth cycle…. (hey, it’s a theory that appears to make sense).
now… given it so clearly damages not only the family cohesion, but the ties to conservative society and belief in religion in general… we need to consider who the backers of all of these myths really are. in the secular society of the west, we realize that all three myths are truly propagated by the commercial interests of big business. selling holiday cards, candy and all things gift worthy during christmas is the post-myth acceptable relationship with these holidays. secularism is supported by the understanding that the religious backing of these holidays are if not completely false, than highly questionable.
the question of course becomes… is santa then a conspiracy within a conspiracy. the revelation that santa and his cousin myths so clearly damage the tie in the west between person and belief, turning it into a purely secular and consumer based event… is it possible that this was the sinister goal from the very beginning. is santa a patsy, a fall-guy, meant to expose the deeper myths propagated by the church and other conservative groups in the pre-enlightenment era? is the vast right-wing conspiracy of the holidays a carefully constructed and amazingly executed sinister left-wing conspiracy to expose myth in general? to teach the west that myth both in religion and family are so clearly false that even an 8 year old can see though them.
malaysia has been lucky to largely avoid this exposure by being off the radar of the consumerism of the west. but as malls expand here, and consumerism takes an ever deeper hold on the society, it is only a matter of time.
malaysian children, in order to complete in the world, will soon be the unfair target of learning, knowledge and the ability to analyze when adults are lying to them. how will the society, so clearly requiring the unquestioned belief in elders survive such a vicious and evil assault?
protect your family, your children and your society. ban bad santa.
changing pakcik
i have been in malaysia for close to three years. when i first got here i was told by some that certain things would never change. there were too deeply protected in the society, and changing such things would bring about a crisis that the government could never accept. the pakcik who run things on seemingly all levels are too protective of their hold on the country, it could just not happen. but i see the country changing as i watch… i wonder if anyone else senses that the things they thought impossible are now happening.
this country is accelerating the process of fracturing into the cosmopolitan and the rural communities represented almost singularly by the micro-sized copy of los angles we know as kuala lumpur, and the vast number of kampong communities which the expats here almost never see. for most expat, malaysia is KL, penang and a group of exclusive islands used for weekend getaways. the british used hilltop retreats to escape the tropical heat… KL locals now use them to gamble and experience a faux western location without air travel.
certain behaviors which only brought disgust and denial three years ago, are now openly discussed. not only do i have an openly gay staff member… or more… but the newest member of parliament is a married man, with 5 children, who no one can really say if he does or doesn’t also have a semi-hidden gay lifestyle. but, i am told is accepted by the gay community either way.
KL has nearly open prostitution, bars that stay open into the late hours of the night, a community of married men and woman who have secret, but not entirely hidden affairs, and the ability to find recreational drugs if you are interested. i have a couple next to me as i type this, the upwardly mobile chinese kid has GQ magazine in front of him and is drinking an espresso drink. in a loud voice he uses well known western colloquial phrases like, “let’s not fuck this up”. he just said, “you can find a lot of partners, you get what you need and you get out” followed by “i know there is a risk involved”. the two i thought were a couple are really a gay man and his female friend out for brunch to discuss his sex life.
when i tell people KL feels like the US this is what i mean. i could be sitting in the US right now and it would feel no different, the things around me would not be much different and the way i am going to spend the rest of my day would mostly be the same. KL continues to become more and more western, specifically american, but american in the early 60s. amercia has melted together, that has not happened here yet, sad and possibly dangerous.
i have been asking myself how this could happen and if it is a good thing. pertronas is quickly running out of oil to help fund the economy here, people still believe they should be retiring at 55, the economy is slowing down, inflation is picking up, and people expect higher raises. The fact that there is other competition outside the country, and that each act here reflects on the country as a whole is not really factored in. people only have a micro-view of their rice bowl, but the world views things in a macro sense and malaysia is not growing fast enough to compensate for its desires.
this is squeezing the small middle class which is crammed into KL and the klang valley. but, what is really hurting things is the self-driven need to copy and compete with the west. the need to have the status symbol of a western produced car, when they cost 3 times what they cost in the west… while the common person makes 25% of what someone makes in the US. this translates to cars which in real terms cost the price of a house in the US are being purchased by people who have the salary of a college drop-out working in starbucks in my home city.
building of real estate continues, junior staff members purchase homes and cars which they would not be allowed to get loans for in the US, but they do it expecting the homes value to have a 30% increase in over short periods to bail them out of danger. “las vegas” vacations are taken couched in the guise of a shopping or beach vacation. life in this sleepy little country on the other side of the world becomes more and more familiar to the westerner.
all of these thoughts were prompted the other morning when i was driving to breakfast and was aggressively cut off by two different middle-aged malay pakcik, not an upper class guy being driven in a western luxury sedan, a standard uncle wearing a songkok with makcik sitting next to him as he drove. this was a first for me, and it happened twice… it happened during ramahdan a time when the devil does not exist.
the pakcik are changing in government, they are losing power and will be replaced. but the pakcik-pakcik on the streets are changing too. when an uncle driving a waja cuts off a matsalleh driving a perdona i know something has changed in this country. i don’t mind getting cut off, i grew up with east coast drivers, i have no issues in boston, hartford or new york traffic, but … this is a “tipping point” moment. things are changing.
i had a meeting with my staff this week. i showed them that there was an opportunity, and benefit, of working more hours and measuring themselves against the staff in the west. i realized that i am helping to drive this change. 30% of my staff is naturally aggressive, a few of them went to school in the US, others have travelled there, but some have/had never left the country, but they are western in both mind-set and behavior. i have helped to foster that because it’s good for the company. the remaining staff is now the target of my “modification”. i am looking to make them a group that not only competes with, but beats americans at a game the west invented and is now bringing east.
as westerners continue to come here, as we show examples of consumerism, workaholism and socially progressive lifestyles are we doing the right thing?
i guess that’s for the people to decide. there are two malaysia’s, kampong is there to move back to, no one is telling them they need to be westerners… but if they have decided that they and their country are going to leave the third-world and enter the first… things do need to change. trying to pretend they have not already changed (and will continue to change faster as they can hold onto the rest of the world) is not going to bring success.
pakcik has figured things out, you can either sit in stalled traffic, or you can push forward.
*********************
someone should tell the chinese guy on the other side of me though that not all things should be copied. red cargo shorts and orange croc clogs are a fashion no-no, east or west…
this country is accelerating the process of fracturing into the cosmopolitan and the rural communities represented almost singularly by the micro-sized copy of los angles we know as kuala lumpur, and the vast number of kampong communities which the expats here almost never see. for most expat, malaysia is KL, penang and a group of exclusive islands used for weekend getaways. the british used hilltop retreats to escape the tropical heat… KL locals now use them to gamble and experience a faux western location without air travel.
certain behaviors which only brought disgust and denial three years ago, are now openly discussed. not only do i have an openly gay staff member… or more… but the newest member of parliament is a married man, with 5 children, who no one can really say if he does or doesn’t also have a semi-hidden gay lifestyle. but, i am told is accepted by the gay community either way.
KL has nearly open prostitution, bars that stay open into the late hours of the night, a community of married men and woman who have secret, but not entirely hidden affairs, and the ability to find recreational drugs if you are interested. i have a couple next to me as i type this, the upwardly mobile chinese kid has GQ magazine in front of him and is drinking an espresso drink. in a loud voice he uses well known western colloquial phrases like, “let’s not fuck this up”. he just said, “you can find a lot of partners, you get what you need and you get out” followed by “i know there is a risk involved”. the two i thought were a couple are really a gay man and his female friend out for brunch to discuss his sex life.
when i tell people KL feels like the US this is what i mean. i could be sitting in the US right now and it would feel no different, the things around me would not be much different and the way i am going to spend the rest of my day would mostly be the same. KL continues to become more and more western, specifically american, but american in the early 60s. amercia has melted together, that has not happened here yet, sad and possibly dangerous.
i have been asking myself how this could happen and if it is a good thing. pertronas is quickly running out of oil to help fund the economy here, people still believe they should be retiring at 55, the economy is slowing down, inflation is picking up, and people expect higher raises. The fact that there is other competition outside the country, and that each act here reflects on the country as a whole is not really factored in. people only have a micro-view of their rice bowl, but the world views things in a macro sense and malaysia is not growing fast enough to compensate for its desires.
this is squeezing the small middle class which is crammed into KL and the klang valley. but, what is really hurting things is the self-driven need to copy and compete with the west. the need to have the status symbol of a western produced car, when they cost 3 times what they cost in the west… while the common person makes 25% of what someone makes in the US. this translates to cars which in real terms cost the price of a house in the US are being purchased by people who have the salary of a college drop-out working in starbucks in my home city.
building of real estate continues, junior staff members purchase homes and cars which they would not be allowed to get loans for in the US, but they do it expecting the homes value to have a 30% increase in over short periods to bail them out of danger. “las vegas” vacations are taken couched in the guise of a shopping or beach vacation. life in this sleepy little country on the other side of the world becomes more and more familiar to the westerner.
all of these thoughts were prompted the other morning when i was driving to breakfast and was aggressively cut off by two different middle-aged malay pakcik, not an upper class guy being driven in a western luxury sedan, a standard uncle wearing a songkok with makcik sitting next to him as he drove. this was a first for me, and it happened twice… it happened during ramahdan a time when the devil does not exist.
the pakcik are changing in government, they are losing power and will be replaced. but the pakcik-pakcik on the streets are changing too. when an uncle driving a waja cuts off a matsalleh driving a perdona i know something has changed in this country. i don’t mind getting cut off, i grew up with east coast drivers, i have no issues in boston, hartford or new york traffic, but … this is a “tipping point” moment. things are changing.
i had a meeting with my staff this week. i showed them that there was an opportunity, and benefit, of working more hours and measuring themselves against the staff in the west. i realized that i am helping to drive this change. 30% of my staff is naturally aggressive, a few of them went to school in the US, others have travelled there, but some have/had never left the country, but they are western in both mind-set and behavior. i have helped to foster that because it’s good for the company. the remaining staff is now the target of my “modification”. i am looking to make them a group that not only competes with, but beats americans at a game the west invented and is now bringing east.
as westerners continue to come here, as we show examples of consumerism, workaholism and socially progressive lifestyles are we doing the right thing?
i guess that’s for the people to decide. there are two malaysia’s, kampong is there to move back to, no one is telling them they need to be westerners… but if they have decided that they and their country are going to leave the third-world and enter the first… things do need to change. trying to pretend they have not already changed (and will continue to change faster as they can hold onto the rest of the world) is not going to bring success.
pakcik has figured things out, you can either sit in stalled traffic, or you can push forward.
*********************
someone should tell the chinese guy on the other side of me though that not all things should be copied. red cargo shorts and orange croc clogs are a fashion no-no, east or west…
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