From the outside looking in

I was born in a small Burmese town by the name of Mogok, in the district of Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo), under the region of Mandalay. It is about 148 miles northeast from Shwebo, and is world renowned for it’s rubies and sapphires, as 90% of it (high quality) comes from there. It is a sleepy town compared to Mandalay or Yangon, and a ghost town by the standards of London, Paris or New York.  About 150,000 souls call it home, the rich moves to Mandalay and Yangon, while the very rich migrate to London or New York. It’s really in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountain ranges, while the temperate climate year round woos many from down under, for a few days. With relatives and family in the gems trade and the civil service, my calling was the sea. It’s rather ironic as the nearest sea is about 1000 miles away. Why the sea?  God knows!

Life at sea and or working for a sea related industry, was all that I have ever known, since the age of eighteen, till a couple years ago. That was a span of forty years. My, my, how time flies. To me, the sea relates to all that exotic lands, one would read in magazines and books.  To be fair, I did see some parts of Africa and the Middle East.  India and Europe was a second home to me. During my younger years, life at sea was like living in a five star hotel. With meals served in a saloon, and stewards ensuring your cabins were kept spick and spam. More woodworks onboard, and one was treated like a gentleman. Work was not a chore either, except the condition for a stable day was under the mercy of the weather.  There was nothing negative, while you get a chance to visit continents far away, for free. Today, ships remind me of an industrial factory, where everything is digitalized and automatic. Time is money and money is time to the letter. There is no more a sense of romance and mystique. I suppose, this is the price of progress in the age of spreadsheets, laptops, smart phones and tablets.

With an alternative mode of travel, buzzing by air is all so much faster, safer and cheaper compared to sea transport. One can be at a place of your choice, generally within 24 hours. Availability is universal, how’s that for efficiency. Sea romance is all but gone except for the cruise liners. Besides, it’s not cheap to give up your free few days, out of your working year on love boats.  No more ‘ Blue Ribbons or Titanics’, those were the days. It is all cutting edge technology and the age of the chips. General cargo ships were things of the past and today, its all containers, and shore leave means a matter of hours only, if you are lucky. Whether we like it or not, container boxes are here to stay, with 99.9% of all consumer goods moving by this mode. It surely is a crying shame. Cry all you want, and to be sure that those days are not coming back.

The way things are moving, soon we might all be making love on the internet. Shopping, sleeping and working, they are all on internet. How does one get away from this?  A good question, but I see no light at the end of the tunnel. The lawyers are working on the internet, doctors are curing on the internet and sadly, some are even making bombs from the internet. One thing though, if you are in some parts of Burma, don’t talk of internet, mobile phones are still unreachable. Good isn’t it?  Or is it?  It’s only a matter of time, so make hay while the sun shine, and enjoy Burma while you can. Last call now !

Moving on, I was pleased to see Stephen Fry conquering America with a black London taxi on TV.  Being well documented was not in question, but to me, the wit, satire and taste were done to perfection. Paramount was the enjoyment of the series.  Good stuff.  Full marks, Mr. Fry !

Another person I admire is Anthony Bourdain, who ate around the world.  Does he not have any stomach upsets?, no blood pressure or cholesterol problems? Great ! Isn’t it?  Do give some tips to your loyal followers. Pray, kindly enlighten us, as I am in the opinion that you might find it tough going, eating, drinking and writing, all to be done in a given time frame, while maintaining a fit and firm figure as yours.  Bully for you Mr.Bourdain.  I do take my hat off.

During my forty years working life span in the Shipping Industry, I had already paid my dues. Now, in my golden years, I yearn to visit places that I dreamt of only.  Be there and at my own pace, study their life style, eat their food, feel their anguish and pains. See what makes them tick, and take a few shots while at it, and thence jot my perceptions.  Be there to mean a certain time frame, maybe a few weeks to months, depending on how deep I would like to venture in.  One needs money to do what I want.  Today, money is the medium that can make my dreams come true.  Rightly or wrongly money still plays a vital role, retired or not.  I don’t quite like the reliance on money, but in this day and age every one is at it, money, money, money. Even Abba sang about it.  I do appreciate money is not everything, but it is NEARLY everything.  Money does strange things to people. Sometimes they strike for it, sometimes they work at it (not that they like to), sometimes they bet on it and sometimes even love centers round it. Last of all, sometimes they even die for it. If you have money, people are nice and humble to you. Banks befriend you. Smiles all around, popular and well liked.  Without it, some will not even give the time of day. Even Rumpole of the Bailey bows down to it, next to ‘she’ who must be obeyed.  Talk about fairness.

Next to money, management of it comes into play.  It is some what related. The better you manage it, last longer it will and sometime money can even grow. All one need to do is have a chat with the bank, and use a bit of the gray matter.  Management of cash flow is also important in a household.  

My wife would say,     “ Spend wisely if you must, don’t just flaunt it." 

We have been lucky, as lifetime savings are there for our rainy days.  As, for the generation of today, spending is at times is more than their earning power.  Keeping in tune with the trend and showing off, seems to be one of the culprits. Some modern girls are looking for 5Cs in a prospective husband to be. 5Cs namely are cash, credit card, car, condominium  and career. I wonder where love comes into play.  Maybe it’s my age, I can see through a fair weather love affair when I see one. No wonder the high divorce percentage. It seem the vow ' for richer or poorer, in health or sickness ' are no more.  Sad, really!

This reminds me that many a soul are targeting money only, where some goes for power too.  There are more of us on the ‘take’ side than ‘give’.  The population today seems to ‘want’ or ‘take’ more. I really do not know what this world is coming into. I loosely link this phenomenon, with so called progress and a wooing termed advertisement. We are so much prone to advertisement, either by sight and or by sound, from the time we open our eyes till shut eyes. Radio, television, billboards, newspapers, shop windows, taxis, public transport etc. etc. These all are nudging on us whether we really need them or not, without will power, the requirement for medium of money is prevalent, to make good our cravings.  At times, our own family and close friends convince us, to fill in the vacuum. Must shop groceries from a special supermarket, or only a special boutiques will make good our wears. We even sometime wear clothes where ‘labels’ are to be seen. We would advertise for makers freely and be fashionable. True?  Or not so !   Knowingly or not, we are swept by this tide. The power of advertisement and how it has a hold on us. I am afraid you can wait till kingdom come, but still no getting round this.

I yearn to visit the South American continent, as I have not set foot there. It hold so much mystique for me and am intrigue to know how they live, I mean in the outback’s there, before kicking the bucket.  The nearest to being there, was by walking with my fingers, on the red Phillip’s atlas booklet.  Countries of Peru and Chile seem an obvious choice, both countries on the Pacific western coast, with same official language of Spanish. While one is a developing and the other is developed, it should make a nice contrast.  Peru with a multiethnic population of 30.8 million, out of which 31.3 percent are in the poverty line, does make a good contrast against Chile’s 17.6 million mainly white population, which is the most prosperous and stable nation in South America. 

Peru, being the home to Norte Chico civilization up, to the famous Inca Empire, is the oldest civilization in the world, it intrigue me as to why this country is still at the developing stage, while Chile marched on, to be the richest country in South America. Peru does offer a diverse civilization, and they also have such wonderful music.  What sprang to mind was ‘El Condor Pasa’ by Paul Simon, well loved the world over, was from a Peruvian folk song. The “siku” flute made from bamboo,  does send shivers down my spine with its haunting hiss.  With 25 states offering wild jungles of the Amazon, to the peaks of the  Andes mountains, it will be a mind boggling affair. Here is a society of Andean people, where money and markets does not come into play, should offer better insight to their priorities and beliefs. It should also be a treat to taste their food, with so much influence from the Chinese, Africans, Arabs, Italians and Japanese cooking. Peruvian gold made Spain rich. I am sure it was not a gift from the people, Spain, that period in history, was not that nice or kind, even though they did introduce writing in the 16^th century to them.

Chile on the other hand, mainly inhabited by whites, is somewhat different to its neighboring Peru.  However, similar to Peru, Chile also hug the Pacific ocean, it’s land is a long thin piece with the northern desert yielding rich copper mineral, and southern plains are fertile and rich in forest with grazing land, where as, Peru’s 60% is Amazon jungle. Chile’s four seasons also makes a nice place to stay.  Both countries suffered from the Spanish invasion and political turmoil, however, Chile is blessed more with economic wealth, and the people are more market orientated. Maybe, thus the reason for the developed country status.  The Spanish did not find gold or sliver here, but they did recognize the agricultural potential, and made it part of their empire.  Got to find out though!

To my mind, all the empire builders were unscrupulous in their actions, however, feel Britain might not had been so blatant.  Still, this is arguable, depending on which side one is akin to.  All were out to make a big profit in the name of their king, church or country, and none for our mankind.  As far as Peru and Chile were concerned, the Spanish were all out for gold with their muzzles.  Win, win situation was not yet in their vocabulary then.

My wife suggested that I should write something on Burma. A Burman writing about one’s own country, is I feel a wee bit on the right side of the middle path. I rather leave it to the foreigners to do justice, and be on a panel passing comments on their work.  Likewise, I long to write on some far away places, jotting my two cents worth and passing my own perception.  Rightly or wrongly.

Singapore, now, that’s not a far away place, and only just over 1100 miles from Yangon, as the crow flies. However, my son, live and work there and I did also spend a number of years there too, so, I think I am able to comment a few words on the place. From the outside looking in, Singapore is a great place to work and live. It is rather slower pace than Hong Kong by sight, but eyes can be deceptive.  Actually, the business is quite vibrant as any hub city port, except things are more orderly and systematic here, and everything works like clockwork. They are  ‘kiasu’  lah' !  The red dot city state that everybody seems to know.

Now, I wish you give you some pointers. Not a propaganda in any sense, but some hard cold facts.  This small fishing island town, was an outback with potential. It was a shipping crossroad between the orient and the west. The Indian and Chinese traders started it, but it was Raffles from the East India Company, who got all the credit.  It was the days of the British Raj, after all.

There was much havoc and in fighting. The communist wanted to take over, but a British trained lawyer by the name of Lee Kwan Yew, manage to secure independence from the British in 1962.  Harold Wilson, nor most countries including Malaysia, did not want anything to do with him.

When he took over reigns, the place was pitted with slums, and Lee Kwan Yew and his comrades did a great job by building public housing blocks known as HDBs (Housing Department Board). Now over eighty percent of the population lives in there, and slums are a thing of the past. Education is also second to none and the best in the region, so much so, that children from neighboring countries are schooling there. Roads are good and the health service is also the talk of the region. Average life expectancy rose to above 80 years for all.  Not bad uh!

They transformed Singapore from third to first world status, and turned it into a member of developed countries.  Banking and finance is well trusted the world over, and their dollar is strong and respected together with other hard world currencies.  What Lee Kwan Yew built, was continued by his son Lee Hsein Loong and his entourage.  Today, Lee Kwan Yew is a world statesman, who everybody respected and quite rightly too, I may add. What I admire the most is everybody under the sun can challenge him on all that he’s done or said. Some have, and never won a case in the courts of law and paid dearly for their misjudgment.  He never took a cent, all went to some charity or the other.

It took real courage, and he dare say, " I’ve done nothing wrong, nor have I taken any ill gotten money."

 This tradition was also continued by Lee Hsein Loong. Some say, it is the Switzerland of the East (must be said by a European), I think it is much, much more.

Singapore is also known as a ‘fine’ city as all civil public offences were fined.  Once, gums was not allowed to be chewed, as it dirtied the city.  PAP was made fun as ‘ Pay And Pay ‘.  Even with such negative views, the expatriates and Europeans still flock to this island. The pays were good and their wives, swears that the humidity was also good for their pale, dry skin.  The apartments were modern with amities, and no skin heads and punks waiting round the corner to mug you or grab your wife’s handbag.  This is not to mention, the kind weather and no need for heavy woolen clothes.

The only thing one wonder is, will their Generation Y pick up the slack where Lee Kwan Yew and Lee Hsein Loon left off. It’s the million dollar question. I believe they should, otherwise Singapore will slowly spiral back downwards.  According to my taxi driver, he knows PAP is doing well, but rather not be given a free hand.  As such, he would like to see a sizeable opposition in Parliament, to ensure check and balance. 'Kaisu lah!'

This is also the view of my many Singaporean friends. I argued that this PAP is doing a grand job, to which the reply was, "We would like for them to even do better ."  Such was the paradox.

I have also seen the ugly side of some Generation Y. They are self centered and selfish.  Full of complaints with no compassion on the family or their fellow men. Ethics and etiquette are much lacking and money is their only religion.  Maybe because they have not suffered like their forefathers or maybe not taught enough in schools while growing up. What ever it maybe, it sure was not nice.

Some Singaporean baby boomers defended their Generation Y.  

Comments such as,  “ Their education levels are high and they never say a bad word against the government except at the ballot box. Ha ha ha “. What to say?

I still very much root for Singapore, even with all her faults. It’s more than I can say for some countries. If you cannot stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen ….. sang  Bob Dylan  !!