China around the corner

 

As i told few posts ago Kuala Lumpur is definitely an easy crossroads for any trip around asia. So why don't take the opportunity to visit few friends in Guangzhou ? Easier said than done.
Four hours flight with Airasia and there we are. Not much changes over there i thought, same culture, same food, similar weather, almond eyes everywhere and so on.
Guess i was wrong about it.
Culturally speaking China is still far away from any other south east asian country.
China has a unique identity, especially in the remote areas, made of its own customs and habits, where the communism still lingers in the air.
During morning time, around parks and gardens, it's quite easy to see elderly practicing tai chi, in a relaxed and quiet atmosphere; nothing to compare with the primary school children who tidily stand in front of their teacher in the school courtyard at 7.30 in the morning, obeying orders given by the speakers; a self prevention against obesity that in my opionion should be adopted everywhere. Diligence, respect and self-sacrifice they learn at school is something that i regret we lost many years ago in europe.
Anyway, although youngster generations bring relevant improvements, english is not yet a common spoken language, hygienic conditions standard are much lower than everywhere else, they hock up everything in their throat spitting it anywhere and everywhere and they burp after every sip.
As far as you move out of the main cities, they look at you like a star, a gwai lo as they say, as happened to me in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province and Ganzhou in Jianxi province.
By the way the food is delicious and still authentic compare to the standard average one that you can find in the malaysian chains. Warmth and friendliness embrace you as soon as a chinese mate introduces you to someone else, hospitality is still considered the best business card in china and it's quite common to sit on a sofa around a sumptuously decked table during a business meeting.

China might still need to walk through a tough path in order to be considered a "user friendly" country but for sure they are on the right way and the new generations seems to have understood that, although they are leading the world, they need relevant improvements.

Zhù hao yùn.

Lazy Malaysians

I found out that malaysians are generally quite lazy, let's say they rarely give the impression of making effort on what they do. There's is a evident lack of quality in this country, wherever you go it's easy to find something to complain about.

The maids generally won't clean properly, waiters are mostly unprofessional without any care for customers, bankers have limited knowledge, public officers are picked up randomly on the road and even though you point it out the outcome won't change. They nod to you and they keep going in the same way.

Quite often during my day at work i hear colleagues telling me "It's not my fault...I was not supposed to be in charge of that task....I was wrong because...you can't pretend me to work it out so fast...they didn't explain me properly so that's why i made a mistake...i thought it was enough..." and so on.

Once i've also heard "that task is not stated in my contract". WTF!

The frustration caused by such attitude makes quite hard to motivate and incentivate the staff. I've tried in vain so many times and used different ways.

There is no ownership of responsibility, nobody wants to improve.

I really can't understand the reason why they act like that, it most probably depends on their culture, i've noticed you can generally spot the same attitude in south east asia. It might not be related to the culture only then.  Are they just waiting for the next anglo-saxons colonizing generation ?

Chineses and Indians say that Malè people, also dubbed Bumiputra, benefit of preferential treatments in several fields; the government indeed reserves quota for them in the federal civil service, scholarships, educational, they can get access to better interest rates on fixed deposits, discount when buying residential properties, loans with low interest rates and so on. Even private limited companies are commited to hire a minimum quota of Malè staff.

Finally they are lazy because they don't need to strive to do their best at everything they do. Most of the private companies are run by chineses they say.

Fair enough i would say but still i'm not fully satisfied with this theory.

The laziness experienced so far is not limited to Malè race indeed. Most of my colleagues are chineses, waiters at mamak are indians only and maids are mostly filippino.

In my opinion the topic is more a trivial matter and lies in the fact that there is little demand for excellence and a much bigger demand for mediocredity in these countries.

So why do we strive for excellence when mediocrity is required ? 

Excellence causes competition and higher costs and they might not be able to deal with them.

They are easy to please, they live in a relaxed and easy going enviroment. The motto seems to be "why should i do something if i can wait to do it till tomorrow, thereby if i can do it tomorrow it's not so urgent and i might do it the day after tomorrow". 

As long as they can get their daily ration of nasi lemak and happiness without any commitment they probably won't struggle for a better life because they are aware it implies hard work.

the greener grass

Seems that the grass is always greener where you relocate as an expat.

After a quick repatriation in the beloved "Toy Land" i was looking forward to going back to the chaotic, dirty, humid and messy Kuala Lumpur. Frankly speaking when i was there just before leaving few weeks ago i wasn't so excited to go back home. Why ?

It doesn't matter where you come from or where you move to, the excitement of an expatriate is often as inexplicable as it is irrational. Suddenly the public transport are on time and clean, people abroad are open mind and polite, you won't feel stressed as you were at home, life is cheaper, no queue at the post office and so on...

Is it really true ? Not at all obviously.

I'm not talking about the indisputable economic wealth, efficient infrastructures and lifestyle of places such as Australia, Singapore, Shangai or NYC that actually help to improve the life quality. The matter indeed is a bit tricky. The fact is that we can't choose the place where we born and we used to take for grant that everything has to be as we wish there, if not we complain about it. And it is far easier to complain and criticize than to not.

So first of all we should consider the expectation we have before comparing our home town life with the one in the foreign land. Without high expectations there's nothing much to complain about.

Then you need to understand what you want and above all what you would be available to bear. Melbourne is the most liveable city in the world but if you're meteoropathic it might be a nightmare.

Generally the ability to adapt to a new place make the life easier and for some curious reasons expatriates are usually able to perfectly key to the new habits wherever they move to. Again KL is definitely a noisy, dirty and messy city but plenty of expatriates found it a nice place to live in.

We should then wonder if the itchy feet of expatriates (also called "ballo di san vito" in my region) make the grass greener in the foreign country. The continue desire to travel, discover and learn make the life abroad unreasonably better than home and what is ordinary suddenly become great,  deserving appreciation.

My opinion is that after few years, once you've digested the excitement of the new adventure, there is no place on earth that someone living there couldn't find fault with.  There is no best country overall. There's maybe just a country that better fit for your own temporary needs.

One year later, the story so far (flashback)

I have been in Malaysia since one year, exactly one year ago today.
It's been a great adventure and really the time has flown by.
So far it has been a completely different experience compared to the melbournian one and the dublinian quickie. The only common things concern the wrong driving side, the standing nights in front of the tv to support my soccer team and another anglo-saxons colonized culture to get use to (well, i haven't considered the 7 eleven shops managed by lazy indians).
I arrived on Sunday and the next Monday at 9am i was on my desk for the handover with a malaysian chinese who spoke a fast manglish, not even the time to realize where i was landed.

After 5 days i moved into an apartment and in few weeks i started driving a car, a beautiful (euphemism) perodua myvi, the hidden outcome of stressed designer committed by stingy CFOs i guess. In a while i got my working visa and it actually took 6 months to start realizing i wasn't in Italy anymore.

That's pretty much the result of a fast paced working life.

Anyway the day by day tasks kept me quite busy but it didn't prevent me to take few trips to Australia for a friend's wedding, Thailand, Singapore and some walkabout in Malacca. Few friends visited me as well as my family just after xmas. I started going to gym often and playing futsal quite regularly. Thanks to that i have also experienced the private medical treatment in Malaysia due to a microfracture of the malleolus.
I've become addicted to malls already, seldom if ever clubbing, i haven't experienced golf and badmington yet.  That's my ability to adapt to the malaysian laziness. 

Let's see how it goes lah!

expatriate vs immigrant : the misleading root

Recently i have been wondering why people consider me as an expatriate rather than an immigrant and looking for some tips about it i found out that the web community and social network have been talking over about this matter. But despite a lot of arguments i haven't found a satisfying answer yet.
Unfortunately in this case the latin roots doesn't help, indeed etymologically speaking there's not much difference between expatriate and immigrant.
According to wikipedia (“an expatriate  is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing"), you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expatriate, regardless of his skin colour or country. On the other hand the majority contend the idea that it's not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad. One of the most provocative assumption read so far says that in the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word “expat”.
I think there's the precise intention to amplify a misleading racial discrimination issue with these discussions; the matter in this case is much more simple.
My country of origin has provided so many immigrants around the world and still now most of them proudly consider themselves italian immigrants. Argentina, Australia, Usa, Brazil, Germany are plenty of italian immigrants and, if not mistaken, we are white. So the word "immigrants" doesn't sound discriminating to me.
In my point of view it's not about the social class, country of origin or race. Basically the trick is in the common bad meaning attributed to the term "immigrant". Actually the purpose of the two different groups set the red line between immigrants and expats.
The purpose of an immigrant is to live permanently in a foreign land, leaving the native country because of economic, religion or conflict reasons. And this is exactly what is happening with afrikaans, south americans and middle east people. And the same happened during 50s and 60s for italians. Both in the past and nowadays they strive and struggle to escape from the native land due to the mentioned reasons, with the precise intention to acquire the new citizenship (in some case they also lose the origin country's one).
It's quite easy to understand then, regardless races, that British, Americans, Germans or Scandinavian have not these priorities at all thanks to the wealth conditions typical of such countries and the only reasons that bring them around the world are related to temporary business opportunities. They might set up later in the foreign country but we cannot consider them as immigrants because they still feel belonging to their origin countries and as i notice they live like they were still at home without any cultural integration.
Put in another way, immigrants may have a larger emotional commitment to their new place of residence.
In conclusion i could say that being an expatriate is a choice, but when you're forced to move then you become an immigrant.

South East Asia culture shock

The first time you set foot on south east Asia you feel disoriented, especially if you reach a remote area. Climate and weather make you feel like in a never ending sauna, spicy and intense food flavours make your mouth requiring flood of beer, different habits and manners make your integration hard.
Being an expatriate then is definitely different from a backpacker or a tourist.  As expatriate you look for an ordinary daily life as closest as possible to the one at your hometown. You have to be prepared to accept quite a few weird habits as well as avoid to complain because as i use to say when you are in Rome do as romans do.
If you can't afford it would be so distressing you will regret the day you left.
Working abroad in another culture is not only about facing a language barrier, it's about dealing with other people, manner, religion, food, lifestyle and priorities.
The most important thing is to avoid using your background as the proper culture when trying to understand or accept another habit, customs, what people do or how they do it. Don’t judge the other culture comparing it with yours. It won't help you getting on well with your colleagues or friends.
What may be consider as impolite in Italy is perhaps not at all in Malaysia.

Luckily, my cultural impact with SE Asia has been toned down after few trips in Thailand, China, HK and Japan where i learnt how to get on well with such a different customs and where actually i started to appreciate their philosophical attitude.  They might not be straightforward, they won't socialize at the first approach, people say asians lie, they just smile to mask their emotions, particularly Thai and Japanese. True or not i much prefer people smiling rather than the coldness of other countries.
Anyway my colleagues were quite surprised to see me eating almost everything at the Kopitiam using chopsticks as well as driving easily through the traffic jam of KL or don't complaining about weather and hygienic conditions.
Well, i'm not saying i'm get already used to the local culture, i probably won't get used to it at all. I'm too critic, smartass, curious observer and joker to do it.
Mucking around the malls during the weekend indeed i had the same feeling when i looked astonished at Germans wearing socks with sandal at the Arena of Verona; they might feel comfortable but people like me kept looking at them as a social awkward. I mean Malaysians are not Germans at all and they probably have never worn sandal with socks but the culture shock i've experienced walking around is well represented by the metaphor mentioned.
The outcome of dress policy imposed for women is to a certain extent preferred compared to the appearance habits adopted by malaysian men and that says a lot about it.  I'm not talking about style, not even about a proper colours outfit, i'm not that pretentious. Let's just say that tidiness, hygiene and good smell are not a priority at all for most of them.

Exactly priority, as i said, just like when you see a Mercedes S class 500 owner eating at Kopitiam a 5 MYR dish!

Food culture: Nasi Lemak & Mee Goreng

I'm definitely a foodie, a chubby food lover who can actually fall in love with authentic homemade dishes. But i've got a problem, i'm italian, a certified fucking venetian, proud of his culinary art and fully convinced that there's nothing better than italian regional food culture.
Talking about food, i use to say that Italy is out of competition.
So just to be clear far be it from me to make any comparison with the italian food culture, i'm going to tell you about foods and related topics experienced so far.
Nasi Lemak is undoubtedly more than a national icon, capable to unite all Malaysians. Usually eaten for breakfast it's composed of white steamed rice (obviously), chicken, cucumber, fried anchovies, roasted peanuts, boiled egg and sambal, a hot spicy sauce. Just mix everything and eat !

You can find it everywhere, especially at hawker food courts and on the street stalls for 5 myr only.

I use to have it at Damansara Uptown on saturday mornings, where you should expect to queue to get your table. I'm not sure whether they're still serving the authentic or the adapted one, but certainly, despite being much more expensive than everywhere, it's a culinary excitement. Don't go too far with the Sambal, you will regret it as soon as you sit on the porcelain bus.

Besides nasi lemak, Mee Goreng surely is one of the Malaysian's favorite foods, a further imported icon from indians with all the possible variations, usually served at mamak. It's a fried noodle dish made with garlic, onion, chicken or pork, cabbage and other vegetables and tofu as well.

If you travel down here you absolutely must try the banana leaf rice at Bangsar. Served directly on the banana leaf you will enjoy the biryani rice with a chicken leg and a mix of cucumber, melon curry and fried bitter ground. I suggest motton masala and fried sotong on the side.

I tell you, the fried bitter gourd is addictive.

Last but not least, if you're a chinese oriented foodie you might find your idyllic place at Koptiam, usually a crowded, hot and smelling open space shop with a wide choice of Hokkien and Cantonese dishes such as fried kueh teow, char siew wonton mee, dry beef lai fun, noodle soup, roasted pork, bak kut teh. Most of the traditional chinese kopitiam are in Klang valley where i work so it's one of my usual choice during lunch break.

Well, there is something else that deserves to be mentioned: a fruit called Durian. I haven't tried it yet, i'm not that brave or should i say crazy ?

Anyway whether you love it or you hate it, you won't ever forget its smell of baked cheese and onion with a gym sock aftertaste. The closest i can compare it with is the typical smell of food rotting experienced in a garbage dump.

Enjoy it.

KL overview

Sottolineo fin da subito, onde evitare ogni fraintendimento che Kuala Lumpur non è una città dove andarci apposta a meno che non ci siano ragioni di business.

Se dovessi definirla in poche parole KL, come si usa chiamarla, altro non è che un groviglio di cemento e tangenziali disposte alla cazzo in mezzo a colline di granito con grattacieli moderni alternati a quartieri fatiscenti. Le Petronas Tower stonano come i cavoli a merenda, circondate dal nulla, difficili da raggiungere a piedi e dalla cui sommità raramente si può ammirare un panorama che giustifichi il prezzo del biglietto. Kuala Lumpur non ha il fascino autentico di Hong Kong, non è pulita ed ordinata come Singapore e non ha la ricchezza di templi di Bangkok. Leggendo la lonely planet ti accorgi come gli autori si siano sforzati di trovarne lati positivi riuscendo spesso a far passare per straordinario qualcosa di assolutamente normale. Nemica dei pedestrians per eccellenza a KL il downtown non esiste e quello che risponde al nome di Bukit Bintang è una composizione disordinata di mall di lusso raggiungibili dopo lunghe code in auto o rischiando la vita a piedi lungo marciapiedi inesistenti immersi in odori da discariche abusive.

Dalla sua i malesi (attraverso orde di migranti sfruttati come animali) stanno cercando di migliorarne la viabilità. E' infatti in corso un'opera faraonica, seppur in ritardo di 20 anni rispetto alle altre tigri del sud est asiatico sopra citate, ossia una LRT (light rail transit) che dovrebbe snellire il traffico. Dovrebbe perché i malesi sono il popolo più lazy incontrato finora, i brasiliani in confronto sono degli svizzeri e dubito che accetteranno l'idea di lasciare l'auto in garage e camminare 100 mt. per raggiungere la stazione senza un tunnel dotato di aria condizionata a 18°.

Dunque, perché vivere a KL ?

Bene nella prima riga di questo post ho scritto "a meno che non ci siano ragioni di business".

Infatti KL è logisticamente al centro del sud est asiatico, a 2 o 3 ore di volo si raggiungono Filippine, HK, Vietnam, Thailandia e Cambogia mentre per l' Indonesia si può tentare il salto con un'adeguata rincorsa.  KL poi offre lavoro (parlerò in un altro post dell'economia malese e della mancanza di figure professionali qualificate) e il costo della vita è ancora molto basso rispetto alle rivali Singapore e Hong Kong.

Devo inoltre ammettere che gli appassionati dello shopping troveranno qui la loro mecca nei numerosi ed enormi mall sparpagliati qua e la dove i malesi usano appunto trascorrere il week end.

Quindi concludendo potrei dire che KL è una città da usare come base logistica per un trip sufficientemente lungo nel sud est asiatico o come luogo in cui maturare un'esperienza professionale riuscendo a mettere da parte 4 denari.

Talking Manglish

Credo di aver dedicato numerosi posts all'idioma inglese in tutte le sue forme, slangs e storpiature incontrate. Avevo infatti lasciato l'Australia lamentandomi spesso dell'accento usato dagli aussie che rendeva l'apprendimento e la comprensione dell'inglese piuttosto arduo.
Difficile spesso da interpretare ma altrettanto utile al fine di integrarsi con i locali, l'inglese assume in Malaysia la sembianza di una nuova lingua, caratterizzata da parole, suoni e forme grammaticali uniche e particolarmente colorite, seppur grammaticalmente zeppo di errori ed imperfezioni. Pensate forse che Laetitia Casta sarebbe la stessa senza quell'autostrada che le passa tra i due incisivi ? Qualche secolo fa sarebbe stata emarginata, oggi grazie a questa imperfezione risulta unica.
E come per la Casta anche per l'inglese imperfetto parlato in Malaysia sto cominciando a provare una certa simpatia.
In realtà il manglish è ben più di un inglese storpiato, si tratta di un meltin pot in continua evoluzione dove bahasa, mandarino cantonese, hokkien e tamil si uniscono partorendo vocaboli unici nel tentativo di avvicinarli all'idioma anglosassone.
Iniziamo con uno dei must per farsi accettare ovvero il cosiddetto suffisso "lah", intraducibile ma semplice da capire per noi veneti, abili utilizzatori di rafforzativi, suffissi ed abbreviativi non sempre accettati dalla comunità ecclesiastica.
Non trovando il modo di spiegarne l'uso in italiano faccio ricorso di seguito ad alcuni esempi.

come on, lah!   traduzione: "come on, don't be shy" o "come on, don't waste anymore time"
ok-lah   traduzione: "Okay, okay, I'm sorry"
A: Hey, can you lend me five ringgit?
B: sorry lah, I need money to pay for my cab and lunch-lah
C: can you help me for a minute?
D: ok-lah.
Is she your girlfriend?
No lah!!! That one is Jimmy's one lah.

Leggermente differente è l'utilizzo del "ma", simile al lah ma meno forte. Deriva dal cinese ma.
“Did you know?” “I didn’t know ma” che in qualche modo ha lo stesso significato di “I didn’t know lah” ma più debole del “lah”.
Quando uno dice “I didn’t know ma”, indica indirettamente che la persona è dispiaciuta nel non sapere una determinata cosa.
Altrettanto stravagante è il suffisso "ah". Usato alla fine della frase in forma retorica (una sorta di question tag implicita). "Why is he like that ah?" oppure usato per chiedere conferma, "Is that true ah?" o per introdurre un argomento prima di fare un commento, "My brother ah, always disturb me!"
I cinesi infine lo utilizzano anche come prefisso alla stregua del nostro "si", "eh", "ok".
Quello che invece è un vero uso improprio nel manglish è l'abuso dei vocaboli got e can. Infatti "There is"/"there are" e "has"/"have" sono spesso sostituiti dall'espressione got che quindi assume ulteriori significati rispetto ai già tantiattribuitigli dalla lingua inglese.

Got question? — Is there a question? / Do you have a question?
Yesterday at East Coast Park got so many people! — There were so many people at East Coast Park yesterday. / East Coast Park had so many people [there] yesterday.
This bus got air-con or not? — Is there air-conditioning on this bus? / Does this bus have air-conditioning?
Where got!? — lit. Where is there [this]?, also more loosely, What are you talking about? or Where did you get that idea?; generic response to any accusation. Derived from Malay sentence "Mana ada"- 'Mana' (Where) 'ada' (got)
Gimme lah, ok or not? — (Give it to me, OK?)
Can! — (Sure!)
Can! — (Yes, that is possible)
Cannot. — (No way.)

Weather in Kuala Lumpur

Non potevo non dedicare il primo post narrativo al clima malese visto che una delle domande più frequenti da parte di amici e conoscenti pre-partenza era : "ma non sarà troppo caldo per te?"
Vi dico subito che qui le stagioni non esistono, c'è semplicemente una lievissima variazione di umidità tale per cui i locali usano parlare di stagione umida, quella in cui schiumi a tal punto che la maglietta funge da muta o seconda pelle e la stagione secca dove ci si limita ad espellere mediamente 3 litri di sudore al giorno.

A Novembre e Dicembre poi, forse gli unici due mesi con una parvenza di sollievo, gli acquazzoni pomeridiani creano un atmosfera incredibile. Mezzora di buio durante la quale scende un quantitativo d'acqua in grado di allagare strade e campi e dove l'uso dell'ombrello, nella malaugurata ipotesi di non riuscire a trovare riparo, ha la stessa utilità di un culo senza buco. Vedere per credere.

In quanto a temperatura, senza citare numeri, la percezione può essere facilmente così descritta: caldo, caldo bastardo, caldo schifoso.
Ovviamente i malesi hanno ben pensato di trovare rimedio a tutto ciò ricorrendo all' utilizzo di quella macchina infernale altresì denominata climatizzatore. E fin qua nulla di strano se non fosse che, assumendo una temperatura media esterna di 30 gradi, i geni del male, impostano il clima a 18° provocando emicranie e reumatismi tali che in confronto l'hangover della domenica mattina sembra una carezza sul viso.
I mall non sono dei centri commerciali bensì dei mega frigoriferi dove la gente ama trascorrere le giornate, un pò come i padovani che intasano il costo la domenica mattina nella speranza di trovare refrigerio a bocchetta paù o a treschè conca.
Si stanno già preparando infatti i prossimi mondiali di sci alpino a kuala lumpur, nel reparto surgelati dei supermarket.

toc toc

Scusate il ritardo ma ho avuto qualche urgenza da sbrigare in questi 4 e anni e mezzo di assenza o molto più semplicemente c'era poco di interessante da raccontare o ancora non vi era la giusta ispirazione.
Sono stati comunque 4 anni a dir poco intensi, difficili da raccontare.
Anyway sempre a causa del ballo di san Vito che mi perseguita mi trovo da 10 mesi esatti in Malaysia dove vivo e lavoro.
I dettagli a breve.
Questi umidi 10 mesi nel sud est asiatico sono volati come un battito di ciglia, tanto che solo pochi giorni fa, aprendo i cassetti impolverati di una memoria spesso intenta solo a far conti, ho ricordato di avere un blog. Ed ho pensato di dare un continuum a quanto vissuto downunder, dopo la breve parentesi Irlandese.
Ancora, in mezzo ci son stati 4 anni vissuti (umanamente molto poco) in madre patria per i quali anche il più abile dei prosatori non avrebbe potuto e saputo scrivere nulla.
Un saluto dal vostro chubby Sandokan.