Part 2 of debates... and not an Alphard in sight.

Whoops.  Rather a large gap between posts.

When you have a newborn around, energy and time is drained from you at an alarming rate!  Love of course, is in abundance, just not energy!

This post is the follow - up to the previous post about my school debates and other such things.

The second debate was 'How has Western Culture affected Malaysia?'.  I knew this would get people talking.  As one student researched and pointed out - 'It seems, these days, that it's not PC to praise Western Culture - or worse, Western Civilisation'.  How true.  I don't want to come across antagonistic, but it seems to be open season on all things Western these days.

In any event, I put my own feelings aside for this debate - I was much more interested to see the students debate this and what their views on this matter were.  And I learned a few things too.  I learned that Western culture is far, far bigger and harder to define, therefore is harder to pin down.  It's become such a monster of a culture that overseas, any change in traditional or cultural behaviour is put down to 'Westernisation' whether the change that took place was a natural change or not.  It's quite an achievement for the West in one aspect; to have put the rest of the world into a bind - do we embrace the West or reject it?  And I for one certainly didn't go to any meeting regarding world domination.  I missed the memo.

Nevertheless, it was a fascinating debate.  Apart from some mindnumbingly disastrous generalisations, the students managed to nail down a few key concepts and were able to vent some long - pent - up frustrations in the process!

I must confess, I want to share some of the concepts about Western Civilisation which were brought up to show how Western Culture had positively benefitted Malaysia.  Some of these made me giggle, but that's very unprofessional.

I quote:

1. Charity. Surprise, it's not a universal value.  In Asian cultures, the family comes first, then friends.  Strangers are 'not my problem'.  The idea that anyone would go out of his or her way to care for a total stranger, or offer him aid, is completely alien and incomprehensible to most Asians.  That's part of the reason orphans are not well taken care of.  If it's not my child, why should I care for it?  It's only national pride and embarrassment which has prompted Koreans for example, to encourage adoption within their country.

2. Courtesy to strangers.  In Canada, if you walk through a door behind someone else, you expect the person in front of you to at least make sure that it doesn't swing shut in your face.  In China or Korea, you can't assume that.  And when I hold the door open for strangers in China or Korea, they are dumbfounded.  In China, if you want to get off a crowded bus, you just push and elbow aside anyone in your way.  Nobody is offended or surprised.  Also, lying to or cheating a customer (as long as he's a stranger) is considered in no way immoral.

3. Waiting in line.  Yes, believe it or not, queuing is not a universal practice.  If you've ever seen Chinese at a bus stop or train station, you'll realise this.  The result is absolute chaos, and occasional injury.

4. The honour system.  Corruption in Africa, Latin America and Asia is staggering.  In many countries it is impossible to get any business done without bribing someone. Cheating at many Asian universities is so bad that a degree is virtually meaningless.  Even driver's licences and (probably) pilot's licences can simply be bought.  Forget about getting justice in court if your adversary is richer than you.

5. Civic responsibility.  Oddly enough, in a supposedly socialist country like China, there is no sense of civic or communal responsibility.  People just throw garbage in any communal space, and no-one thinks of cleaning it up, except the paid street sweepers.  Even in apartment buildings, the common areas (stairwells etc) are often filthy and in terrible disrepair, and no-one seems to bother about it because it's not their own private space.

6. Addresses.  This is a small thing, but surprisingly in many parts of the world they haven't figured out how to do street addresses.  In China, they don't commonly have street signs - except perhaps for major thoroughfares.  In Korea, building numbers are chronological, not geographical.  In other words, the first building erected on a street is 'one', the second is 'two' - so on a typical street the addresses would be: 1,42, 105, 3, 14, 7, 189 etc.  Malaysia puts street signs at the 45 degree angle to the road, so you never know which road it's refering to! 

7. Planning ahead.  One of the infuriating things about working in Malaysia, and to a lesser extent, other parts of Asia, is that they are incapable (it seems) of forethought.  I have seen the worst examples of public planning anywhere and the completely unorganised methods by which to build even a wall that you are left wondering what the guy in charge is actually doing;  I suggest seeing number 4.

There are other virtues: sanitation, punctuality, etc etc.  but that's enough for now.  In my next post you'll get the other side of the coin.  As you can see, from this students arguement, Western culture isn't so bad!

The Evening Post

I taught a class tonight, my Cambridge CAE class, and many topics were discussed.  It was a good class for conversations, passing ideas around and me teaching my students about how to argue properly!

I first showed them a youtube clip about the US health reform bill which was passed today.  The clip was of the so-called Tea Party Republicans who were against the reform of the health system.  I was interested to hear their side of the argument, but was sorely disappointed and showed my students why.  A pair of media studies students from a University (didn't say which) were asking questions of the protestors as to what in the bill they were against.  Not one could offer a rational argument, a debatable proposition or even a coherent sentence as to what they were against.  What WAS clear however, was the complete lack of knowledge about what they were fighting against!  Most just quoted a Fox News presenter or mentioned a rumour they'd heard or a part of the bill they THOUGHT was in it which they were against.  No facts.  No actual details of any sort - and it made them look like hillbillies.  Uneducated, close-minded hillbillies.

Now my purpose of showing this to my students wasn't to pass judgement on the protestors, I left that to this blog!  My purpose was to show them the importance of reading, research and finding out facts before believing in something you have been told.  I showed them the footage to highlight how ridiculous these people looked, even though they firmly believed the bill was bordering on communism.  I am showing a high degree of bias here, but the effect was plain for all to see.

Now, the other point of mentioning this tonight was just how much it resonated with what has been happening in Malaysia the last few months, if not years.  The fear-mongering, the lack of facts, the rumours and heresay about threats to rights, privileges and the creating (or strengthening, to be more accurate) of the seige mentality of the majority Malay community here.  I would hazard an educated guess and say that most Malays are not impressed or represented by these groups, but they get a following in more rural, conservative (and poor) areas.  Groups which have sprung up such as Perkasa (translation I'm not sure of - see post below of my command of Bahasa!)  are purely based on racism and exist to create fear and suspicion of other communities in Malaysia.  Now a couple of points come to mind immediately.

How do groups like this exist at all?  Why aren't they shunned into oblivion?  Why do people give them the time of day?  There is no one answer as far as I know, but suffice it to say that education and money play an enormous role.  'Fear of the others' is a common thread which has been implanted into the mind of your average Malaysian, and racial profiling is par for the course.  Everyone does it.  Most would be ashamed to admit it  My point is that the politicians here use this fear to garner votes, to hold power, to accumulate wealth.  I always say to my wife that if I was a reporter here I'd probably be dead within a week, a month at the most.  I rock the boat, I ask the obvious question.  I don't take the answer as gospel truth!  The simple fact remains that these groups exist, and there are groups from each community which espouse the same nonsense, but they are not tackled head on publicly for fear of the questioner being labelled a traitor of their race, a bad Muslim or Hindu or Christian, too liberal (whatever that means) or too Westernised.  That last one I just love.  Anything to deflect the bigot from answering a direct question.  No facts presented, just deflection.

I guess, to balance this post, I do support freedom of speech.  I would go so far as to say that I support their right to express their opinion on matters they deem close to their hearts.  I wouldn't question their rights to that for one second.  What worries me is that they are moving in from the lunatic fringe into the  mainstream.  People are not countering their arguments with undeniable facts or logic.  This scares me.  I spend a lot of time trying to educate my students to be critical thinkers, to question the knowledge, to always ask WHY?  I think in Malaysia, as in the USA (and no doubt everywhere else) education is the key.

I feel there is more to come on this topic.  Watch this space.  Please leave comments and I hope to get a debate going on this issue and more in the future!