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The State of Malaysia
15 years ago
General
Recommended Listening
dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip - Waiting for the Beat to Kick In
Even the nicest of guys have some nasty within' 'em
You don't have to be backlit to be the villain
Whether it's greed, lust or plain vindictiveness
There's a level of malevolence inside of all of us
Wow, already over half way through my hols to Malaysia. It's going by pretty fast, all things considered.
Internet access has been easier to come across than I anticipated. Four years ago (my last time here) the only 'net I could get was about two hours of dial-up for the entire length of the visit, and now broadband, wi-fi and mobile Internet are both readily available and quite cheap. Malaysia is a still-developing nation, but the pace of change is quite clearly noticeable.
The first few days were spent in Kuala Lumpur. It's a lovely city. The rest of the holiday (and where I am now) is in Serian, Sarawak - part of the island of Borneo. There's not as much to do as KL, and there's a lot more bugs - it's not a good trade-off, in my opinion.
Speaking of which, I have about thirty bug bites (primarily from mosquitoes and ants). They're itchy.
It's interesting seeing the contrast between what is old and new in Malaysia. The nation may seem primitive in some cases (open sewers are everywhere, laws saying you have to wear a seatbelt while driving didn't even exist a few years ago), but in others it seems almost futuristic (the public transportation around KL is a dream to use, and people can buy RFID tags for cars so they don't have to stop and pay at toll booths or car parks - the due amount is automatically docked from their accounts).
Politically it's a similarly mixed bag. The government has been running anti-climate change campaigns for years, as well as the "1Malaysia" campaign promoting racial and religious harmony. And yet on the other side of this, the media is mostly state-controlled or moderated, political dissidents can find themselves in a jail cell. The censorship in the media is very apparent, with anyone not supporting the government deemed "the Opposition" (no other parties apart from the governing one is named), and all news coverage of the Opposition is overwhelmingly negative.
(The use of the death penalty is mandatory for possession of unauthorised drugs, so you tokers in the house tonight probably won't want to come here any time soon.)
And some random things that I can't be bothered contextualising:
* Yesterday I went to Indonesia... for about half an hour. Border controls are apparently so lax that they just let us walk past the guards and armed troops.
* Pirated good are still rampant around the nation. Be they CDs, films, games or toys. You haven't lived 'til you've seen Grand Theft Auto: Spider City (something to do with Spiderman, I think) or the well known Deformation Robot series (Transformers).
* My aunt wants a website... a big one. Hurrah for income!
* I'm in a house with some 40 of my relatives, nearly the entire Malaysian side of my direct family. So... many... cousins. *drowns in them*
I'll be back January 3rd/4th. I don't know which, as it takes the better part of a day to get back to Britain from here.
See you folks later!
Internet access has been easier to come across than I anticipated. Four years ago (my last time here) the only 'net I could get was about two hours of dial-up for the entire length of the visit, and now broadband, wi-fi and mobile Internet are both readily available and quite cheap. Malaysia is a still-developing nation, but the pace of change is quite clearly noticeable.
The first few days were spent in Kuala Lumpur. It's a lovely city. The rest of the holiday (and where I am now) is in Serian, Sarawak - part of the island of Borneo. There's not as much to do as KL, and there's a lot more bugs - it's not a good trade-off, in my opinion.
Speaking of which, I have about thirty bug bites (primarily from mosquitoes and ants). They're itchy.
It's interesting seeing the contrast between what is old and new in Malaysia. The nation may seem primitive in some cases (open sewers are everywhere, laws saying you have to wear a seatbelt while driving didn't even exist a few years ago), but in others it seems almost futuristic (the public transportation around KL is a dream to use, and people can buy RFID tags for cars so they don't have to stop and pay at toll booths or car parks - the due amount is automatically docked from their accounts).
Politically it's a similarly mixed bag. The government has been running anti-climate change campaigns for years, as well as the "1Malaysia" campaign promoting racial and religious harmony. And yet on the other side of this, the media is mostly state-controlled or moderated, political dissidents can find themselves in a jail cell. The censorship in the media is very apparent, with anyone not supporting the government deemed "the Opposition" (no other parties apart from the governing one is named), and all news coverage of the Opposition is overwhelmingly negative.
(The use of the death penalty is mandatory for possession of unauthorised drugs, so you tokers in the house tonight probably won't want to come here any time soon.)
And some random things that I can't be bothered contextualising:
* Yesterday I went to Indonesia... for about half an hour. Border controls are apparently so lax that they just let us walk past the guards and armed troops.
* Pirated good are still rampant around the nation. Be they CDs, films, games or toys. You haven't lived 'til you've seen Grand Theft Auto: Spider City (something to do with Spiderman, I think) or the well known Deformation Robot series (Transformers).
* My aunt wants a website... a big one. Hurrah for income!
* I'm in a house with some 40 of my relatives, nearly the entire Malaysian side of my direct family. So... many... cousins. *drowns in them*
I'll be back January 3rd/4th. I don't know which, as it takes the better part of a day to get back to Britain from here.
See you folks later!
