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Golden Oldies Index
Mail from Malaysia On Presidents and Haze Great news that President (ex) Suharto stepped down in Indonesia. It was obvious that had he not, there would have been a lot more bloodshed on the streets than has been seen there for many a year. Being so close to the Indonesia it is of real concern to us that there is some form of stability in that country. We have friends who are Chinese/ Indonesian and live in Solo, you may know it as the Batik capitol of Indonesia, and they have had a terrible time of late. Their shops and hotel have been all but destroyed, and their private homes have been attacked with rocks and other missiles. Some of the family members have taken refuge in Singapore, and that was accomplished by them making a dash to a local airfield and slipping out in a small six seater Cessna. The mother refuses to leave at this point, and I am sure there are so many others like her, born and bred in a country, and then to be attacked, virtually by your neighbours! It is very difficult for us to imagine what it must be like to be under siege, in your own country, by your own countrymen. Afraid to go out of your house to even do the most basic of things, without fear of being attacked by rampaging mobs. Remember, there are 200 million Indonesians just looking for a chance to get to a better place, and there are three places in their sights. Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, and you had better believe it mate!  Well, in relation to the ever present haze which is still cursing the Klang Valley, but not here in Kuantan thank you, things are going from mad to lunacy in the political arena. Did you ever wonder why it is referred to as the political arena? Must have something to do with Roman times where they put the Christians in the ring with the lions, it was a bit of a dog fight then, and politics still is today. But we have detoured down the road of digression again, so back to the haze. You may recall I mentioned how the Government was toying with the idea of putting sprinklers on the roofs of high rise buildings, in one of my pervious articles, (read joke page). It now appears they may actually be doing just that! They are seriously considering passing a law to make it compulsory for all owners of high rise buildings to install these sprinklers atop their buildings. Naturally the owners will be footing the bill for it, and also the bill for the excess water that is used when they are operational, that is apparently their contribution to rid the country of the haze. Okay, I can hear you all falling about the place laughing your Goddamn socks off, but this is all true. Would I lie to you? Don't answer that. That suggestion, (sprinklers I mean), does warrant some thought, and will it actually work? No, of course it wont, nobody in their right mind would even consider such a proposal in the first place. Bit like my suggestion of getting all the housewives to turn their vacuum cleaners on at the same time to suck the haze away. Sprinklers atop buildings to reduce the haze! Ha ha ha ha. And this countries capitol, (Kuala Lumpur), is facing the worst water crisis in it's history, and they are going to throw it down the gutters by the millions of litres! That makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Personally I think putting the fires out at their source would be the logical answer to removing the haze, followed by taking every two stroke scooter off the road right now. When there are more than two scooters taking off from the traffic lights there is a blue haze enveloping all the immediate surroundings. Watching ten of them roar off, (a 100cc scooter roar off? Yes they do), and it's time to put the fog lights on to see the road. Then you must multiply that by a couple of million, and you get a fair idea where the majority of the man made haze is emanating from. Oh well, now I've said this, I guess I'll just get on my 1,000cc machine and roar off to see some friends, but without the cloud of smoke as I'm an unleaded user.  By the way, Michael Doohan did it again in Italy. Another great race from start to finish, where he showed them what a terrific tactician he is, and how well planned it all was. I sincerely hope most of you had an opportunity to see the race, and give him a bit of a cheer. It was the sixth consecutive time that he has won at the Mugello circuit, and this time in front of a crowd of 60,000 spectators, and millions more via television coverage.
 Here is a bit of trivia that I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to read, at least those of you with Windows 95. Type in "Amielia", typical female name, and do a spell check on it. Also misspell the word "litres" like this, "klitres", and then do a spell check. I find it an amusing way to pass the time, doing spell checks that is. You would be amazed at times just what the spell check throws up as an answer to your request. Throwing up reminds me of the drunk who had just left a Pizza Hut. He waved down a taxi and when one stopped, he swayed over and pulled open the rear door. Slurring his words, he said to the driver, "Eh mate, you got room in 'ere for two dozen stubbies and four pizzas?" And when the cabbie said yes, the drunk threw up all over the seat!
 So, you want to live in Asia? It's been a good couple of weeks here in regard to our electricity supply. It has gone off and on more times than I have had hot dinners! It started in the middle of our Ballet exams, bang, no power meant no lights/air con/ music. Very helpful when the examiner has come from overseas and has a very tight schedule that cannot be altered. Fortunately it was restored that time in less than an hour. The problem was an external fuse that was rated lower than the capacity required. So this fuse has been blowing more often than the Geyser, Old Faithful, in NZ, and continues to do so every time they repair it. (repair! Ha!)
It completely disrupts our classes, plus everyone else's business that is in the same office block as us. The final straw came a few days ago when we were conducting our music exams, and Professor Ronald Farren-Price from the University of Melbourne was here as the examiner. The last student was about to enter, and POP goes the weasel, disguised as electricity. Down the stairs and outside I go only to find the electricity guys have pulled the major fuses from the junction box that feeds this building. No-one from the Tenaga Nasional said anything to any of the tenants in the building that there may be a power disruption, just pull the pin and who cares. In less than two minutes just about every one from all the offices was wanting to know what was going on, and complaining about computer programs being lost and all the associated problems. So I quickly did some explaining to the electricity workers, and some pleading on my knees, and they restored half power for an hour to allow us to finish the examinations. You may think they were very kind, but they paid me back twofold a day later. At 4pm the power went off, ( anything unusual in that you may ask), and out I go along with half the other tenants, and there they are again, the 'powerless' guys. "Sorry, but we are going to do some major cable replacement and you wont have power again until tomorrow morning". Well thank you very much. We then spent an hour on the phone calling all the students and canceling the evenings classes. Just what every business needs in these hard economic times. Is this a secret plot by the Government to make private enterprise wholly dependent on them? Stay tuned folks for the next exciting episode, when Sparky meets Darky! Speaking of Darkie, do you remember not so long ago there was a toothpaste available in Asia called 'Darkie'? It had a caricature of a Negro from the South in a top hat, and a big smile. Well, political correctness has put paid to that brand name hasn't it. It is now called 'Darlie'. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. But I have digressed again. NEWS IN BRIEFEver been anywhere where you feel there has been someone staring at you? It happens all the time, but you tend not to take too much notice of it, and if you were bought up like me, your mother would have told you it is bad manners to stare, and you don't do it. But here, oh yes, only here, staring brings an entirely different meaning to what your interpretation of it may have been. Let me quote from an article in the ever Lovin' newspaper."A staring match among three people across a crowded food centre here (Penang) on Tuesday evening resulted in one death and two on the run. A fight occurred when two sets of friends at separate tables were having beer at the centre. Mr. Koh sustained severe head injuries when he was beaten up with an iron rod by two men in a fight after exchanging stares about 5.30pm. The suspects ran away." End quote. Wow, you don't need friends like that. I don't know if the time of 5.30 p.m. was quite relevant to the exchanging of stares turning into murder though, but just in case, you should keep that in mind whenever you stare at someone. It does seem the locals get a bit excited whenever they don't get their own way, like spoilt children really, but with far more disastrous consequences. One poor soul was using a public 'phone, and there were a few others who were waiting. They became a little impatient at his extended time on the telephone. Then there was the obligatory fight over the darn thing and one of them was stabbed to death, and another was seriously injured. Call me old fashioned if you like, but I think that's' a bit of a drastic way of timing telephone calls. While we are on the subject of stabbing, might go on to the next item about the Air Hostesses. The headlines read, "Love triangle fight … ……. ………" Hey that grabbed my attention in a big way. All the ingredients of a really good movie, Air Hosties, Love triangle, suspense. Etc. etc. It seems that two Malaysian Stewardesses were dating the same guy, and didn't know too much about it. Only problem was that the Hosties shared the same house, along with another Hostie and a couple of guys. The fight started in the kitchen and then continued down the hall, all the while going each other with knives. One died of several slash wounds and her head was almost severed from her body, whilst the other was in a critical condition with slash wounds to her face and body. Both women also had scratch marks and clumps of hair missing from their scalps. Boy! They really had a go at it eh? One of the housemates was asleep in HIS room upstairs, and told the Police he heard nothing and was unaware of the whole incident! Obviously a fairly heavy sleeper wouldn't you say? Why bother with guns, when you can do the same job with a blade and with a lot less noise! TO ANDY: Thanks for the email from Korea, but you didn't mention if you were studying there, or dragged along buy your folks for employment reasons. Never the less, it doesn't alter anything here much, and I will attempt to answer your query re the haze here in June. My personal prediction for the air quality generally throughout Peninsular Malaysia for June is moderately clear skies with very little chance of rain and air quality medium to good. Most parts of Malaysia will have reasonable air quality, with the Klang Valley having the lowest, which will be around the medium to poor range. Of course East Malaysia is a different kettle of fish being so close to Kalimantan, Indonesia, and because of that geographical placement it will have generally lower than good readings on the index scale of air purity. By the way Andy, I don't know if "Thanks a Load." Is the best way to sign off in Asia. TO JEANNE: Nice to see a reader in Perth taking an interest in Australians Abroad. Very sensible of you to enquire what a place is like re the good points and bad points before making the final decision to go there. If your move to Penang is sponsored by a company and they are prepared to cover all expenses, including schooling, then it is worth considering. Otherwise my advice to you is to stay in Perth and continue Loving it. The good points in Penang are few, and it is mainly the variety of food, although there are a lot of Expats there so you would quickly find that community and not feel too left out. Schools, yes there are plenty and although I have no personal knowledge of an international one, I am sure there will be, as there is one in this little fishing village where I am. The problem with the international schools is their fees, they average about A$5,000 upwards per year. If you have three primary school age boys they would not be comfortable in a non English speaking school, so you resale have no choice in that sense. There are always heaps of supermarkets around where it is just like going down to your local Coles or whatever, so fresh fruit and vegies are no problems. The haze will return again later in the year and stay around for about four months. Of course I am hoping very much that I am wrong, it is not pleasant and if any of you are asthmatics, you must take preventative medication and you will not suffer any more than anyone else. Crime rate? Well, it is higher than you would experience in Perth that's for sure. But if you are sensible when you go out you should not have any more trouble than walking down the main street at home. Your last question gave me a lot of food for thought. "Is there anything you wish you would have known before you moved there?" Perhaps someone to answer my questions in a straight forward manner, the way I have with you. It is a hard decision to make, but then again if it is for a specific time, so you have the consolation of knowing that if you don't like it you will return to Perth in X number of months. Me, I'm here for the duration. Most of the time it simply is a case of life is what you make it, and my life is great here, and yours can be too. Take Care, ANTHONY. (Wherever I go, that's where I am.) May 1998 |