Say Something Nice : Why it's kewwwwwl to be a Malaysian Reason #5....( I think..)

It’s three o’clock in the morning and you woke up from pang of hunger.  You’re lazy to cook but that darn hunger refused to let you go back to George Clooney or Pamela Anderson or whoever you were having that intense interaction with before you were rudely woken up by the pain of your tummy wanting some food.   Being in Malaysia, you can just jump into something decent to wear, or if you are too lazy, jump into the car in your jumpers (and later claim that you sleep-eat..that’s a medical condition where you sleep walk and search for food to eat) and get to the nearest food stop.  Mind you, it’s 3 o’clock in the morning and we get food cooked for us, hot and lovely and not just from the microwave of 7-eleven.

You’d be surprised that in most other countries, you will be forced to either cook yourself some meal to entertain your hunger, or just go back to sleep hoping that whoever you left in your dream was still waiting for you.

This is one of the kewwwwlest things when we are in Malaysia.  In most part of Europe for instance, malls are closed on Sundays and if you are lucky, opened half day on Saturdays.  Maybe it’s a good thing whereby people are forced to bond with family instead of spending time at the mall where it is full of distractions, but imagine what this could do to one’s sanity should one is trying to run away from baaaaaaaad relationship. 

And being a woman, especially a woman of Islamic religion, I guess we are relatively very much lucky that it is relatively safe to get into the car at 3am and get your warm food.  In fact, Muslim women here are lucky to be allowed to drive.  Then again, I can’ t blame the Saudis for banning their women to drive.  I mean, if women have to cover their whole body from top to bottom, some may have just forgotten to poke two holes through their hijab in order to see where they drive towards, and this can be detrimental to one’s safety.  And that's just me saying something nice to women in such attire.  Trust me when I say, I can say reeeeeelly not so nice things.  Hmm..maybe I should join the "Say something relatively nice Campaign" instead of "Say Something Nice"...but......I'm trying...

One of the things I missed most when I was overseas, is eating under the stars on a pavement.  In some countries, eating out on the pavement like the mamak stalls or the Chinese Hawkers could mean you are eating your last meal.  Some angry citizens with weapons in their possession may just decide that there are bored and would love to go for a bullet spray, just like that.

Here in Malaysia, we tend to take for granted of how lucky we are that this country is still relatively safe and that we are blessed with many resources and people are still willing to work until late morning to serve us food.  Of course the security can be improved for the better.  To some extent, complaining and demanding for a better service from the police force is basics.  But we need to remember that as rakyat, we need to be proactive in improving our security system.  How?  For that, I have to torture you with another story.

I grew up in a community where we take care of each other, without having so much to rely on the police force.  If we see strangers with suspicious behaviour  hovering around, we will alert each other and investigate.  We do not turn our back on such things just because these suspicious characters are not on our compound. 

When I have my own house, I noticed after some time, I’m one of the few people in my neighbourhood who actually bother to get up and investigate when I hear noises from neighbours’ houses.  My house alarm went off once in the early hours of the morning, and only my immediate neighbour bothered to call to find out what is going on. The rest of the neighbours probably assumed it was false alarm, or maybe do not bother because it was not their alarm that went off, did not so much as peeped to look at what was happening.  They are just contented on paying money to people I coin as “The pizza delivery security wanabes”. 

Why I call them that, is because I notice that they will just past by every hour (on schedule ergo predictable) without even really bothered looking around.  One early morning, after coming back from clinic that I was on-call, I stood at the gate locking it when I noticed this pizza security flers passing by,….they did not even noticed that I was standing at the gate and looking at them, to see whether they so much as look at me.  So for those who are relying on such services, here’s a free advice ; Don’t sleep too sound, you may one day wake up to a knife poking your rear end.  

Bottom line, before we open our mouths to complain complain complain about the system around us, take a look at ourselves in the mirror.  Do we have something nice to say to ourselves?