Aussies talk a lot. Try this:

In Melbourne – two guys passing each other in a hallway:

• Dick: Hi Tom, how are you

  Tom: Hi Dick, I’m very well, thank you. What about you?

  Dick: That’s the way. I’m very well too Tom. Thank you.

KL version:

• Mat: Hey (nods the head and smiles)

  Seng: Hey (nods and smiles back)

For a typical greeting, Melburnians use a 28-syllables exchange, compared to 2 in KL. At work, an issue requiring a quick decision can take a 15-20 minute discussion before any action is taken, whereas the same result could be achieved without that discussion. Yet, this is what makes the average workplace ticks. I have found that to be true in each of the three of the four places I have worked in, since we moved here in late 2004 (one of them was a short and temporary stint in an Asian firm). Before one does anything, one talks to a colleague, a boss or subordinate and that talk starts by the above styled greeting with some niceties thrown in about taking up that other person’s time for a few minutes, followed by a five minute introduction on the matter. One then goes on to talk about his own thoughts on the matter and talks some more, about what he thought that other person might think about it. That other person would then thank the first person for talking to him about it, offer his own thoughts on the matter and asked if that first person agreed with him. 15 minutes later, the first person would thank that other person for his time and promised to see him later. Such discussions precede many things, not just the more important or serious issues. Yet, for all the additional time the whole process took, the country is not worse off economically or in productivity wise, than a country like Malaysia.

Malaysians who move here have this common observation about the above, notable difference in working here. People here talk so much more, about so many more things. A culture shock of sorts presents itself and it hurts both ways. If an Aussie who is not used to working with new Asian migrants finds that that migrant doesn’t talk too much, it could be interpreted as being unfriendly or being aloof or that nothing stirs him.

I wonder what the present customs are in the Malaysian office. I wonder if people talk more these days. I don’t mean the gossips and sports talk, the bravados about girlfriends, the note comparisons about food joints or about the latest football results. Those things get talked about a lot too, over coffee, in pubs, at a dinner party, on the train or tram and such places. I mean the talk at and about work. Does it happen more now?

As a quick way to have broad contact with the outside world, I subscribe to the BBC daily email which has several one liners on what’s happening in any given part of the world. You get to choose which regions you wish to have these one-liner updates and you have it pretty much first thing in the morning in your inbox, everyday. It’s a great way to know what’s going on and if you want the details, you just click on the link at the end of that one-liner. You get to choose which sports you want to stay in touch with as well, down to the club or team you want to stay on top of. So, I more or less know for example, on a very high level (ie without the details), that the Vatican has said aid to Amnesty International should be curtailed to cut down assisted abortion. I also know Saha and Smith have both said they wished to remain at United and fight for first team appearances, and that the US has again said something about its currency and China’s role in it. You got to hand it to the BBC/British – they’ve been at it for easily 10 years now and I have subscribed to it for almost as long.

Now that we’re here in Melbourne, I have found this daily email service particularly necessary, as the local newspapers, radio and television can be rather parochial. You’d get a 10-page spread on Aussie Rules football, down to the meaningless statistics (which the Americans are more known for) of something like the goal drought the St Kilda team is experiencing this season in comparison with the goals they have scored in the past 3 seasons. You wont however, have more than half a dozen paragraphs on the G8 in Germany and hardly anything on the recent street demonstrations in Turkey against the government for its Islamic bent. You also will have little on the heat wave in Pakistan or the landslides in Bangladesh. I’d bet you’d get plenty on last night’s State of Origin rugby league match between Queensland and NSW (the banana benders won that game, my interest in rugby league to be blamed on my uni days in Sydney).

One region I constantly subscribe to is the middle-east. I have heard, a long time ago, that that region is the clock for world history. I imagine it being a sun-dial which has a screaming device which would absolutely go off when the shadow hits say, twelve. So I try to keep an eye on it, though events in my country of birth and my adopted country keep distracting me.

The escalation of fighting, this time by Hamas in a civil war type of struggle against the Fatahs, somehow caught my eye. These battles go on all the time so although dozens are reportedly killed, they don’t ordinarily get more than 30 seconds of my attention. Maybe it is the next story, which was the killing of an anti-Syrian Lebanese MP, which had a combined effect on me. It suggests a swelter is building up, even escalating and although similar developments have taken place before, I somehow feel something is going to boil over. I hope I’m wrong. Maybe I should not, because if developments there suggest history is indeed heading for a showdown it may mean better things to come, thereafter.

Apocalyptical events – in so far as they are seen through the eyes of the church (as opposed to the eyes of Hollywood, which often features a nuclear holocaust in Los Angeles or New York City, followed by big-brother style policing by sub-human personnel – are usually tied to the middle east in general and Israel/Palestine in particular. Daniel refers to the “abomination that will cause desolation” which would be set up in the temple, presumably in Jerusalem. The Armageddon is often thought to be in the middle-east, in the region of the ancient city of Megog (again, it neither happens in Los Angeles nor New York City – or outer space). Since the 70s oil shock, focus has grown a lot sharper in that region, where it is thought the end of the world would play out. Can you blame this simple, excitable person therefore, when battles escalate there? I often get this picture that conditions are so volatile there that it won’t take much to set things off. Rock throwing can escalate beyond mere skirmishes, growing into bloody battles and exploding into full-on wars. With rampant threats of nuclear proliferation in places like Iran, wars can be catastrophic, threatening to spark off annihilation of the human race. Yes, the apocalypse. Maybe it’s the very cold weather blanketing Melbourne for now – it was 1 degree this morning in Moorabin, a suburb not too far from us, and was only 3 degrees when Theresa and I left home for work – which is numbing my brains…

 I received this email a short while ago.

 Worthy of reading and further thought…

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and states. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

“Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.

Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority” the “silent majority” and it is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China’s huge population it was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, can contribute to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

My muslim friends, what are you waiting for? Speak out against your brother who are perpetrating a terrible wrong!

Someone sent me an email earlier today, titled “A Joke”. I thought it was one of those emails meant for lunch time reading so I ignored it until, well, lunchtime! It turned out to be a short piece on a news conference by a businessman in Malaysia. His name is Soh Chee Wen. He’s sometimes referred to as John Soh. He had just been convicted of a crime a day earlier. A white collar, securities dealing related, crime but he is nonetheless, a convicted criminal. So what was the news conference about? He wanted to make a comeback, to the securities dealing scene no less. He wanted to get involved in M&A again. He said he doesn’t need money, saying all it takes is brains.  

I cannot understand Malaysia. I don’t get the press, especially. Maybe the article appeared in some gossip column, or showed up in some metro section. Maybe one of those free “news” papers distributed in train stations. In which case, the press is pretty impressive for picking up comic material, or saccharine society scum stories. Maybe the in house counsels of Malaysian news entities have come down so hard on its journalists that stories meant to criticize are masked as straightforward news reporting.  

Here was a man who illegally traded hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of shares. He virtually stole money to do it. Along with some other so called business leaders of Malaysia at that time, he helped sink an otherwise healthy securities dealing firm. Many employees of that firm lost money, some extensively, from stock options which became worthless. All lost their jobs. In other words, his crimes destroyed lives. Hundreds of them. That was over 10 years ago. After gallivanting around the world and escaping justice all these years, he goes back to Malaysia and was given a Six Million dollar (Malaysian) fine. It was an insulting slap on the wrist, for a ghastly crime. The employees of the firm Soh Chee Wen destroyed copped more punishment than him. That of course, is typical Malaysian justice and is itself another story.  

The salt on this wound is his threat to return. He was spared a prison term, something he richly deserved. Surely part of the deal he struck must include his total departure from the corporate scene? One can only speculate but is the Malaysian authorities stupid or corrupt? That has to be a rhetorical question, as all Malaysians know it is very likely both. For all his flaws, Soh Chee Wen appears to at least be honest. All it takes is brains? In his case, that penchant must be for criminal acts. Yes, it does take brains to steal in a big way, and not face the consequences. In many places other than Malaysia, it would have been – A Joke.

Just following up from yesterday’s entry on public servant package, I could not find anything on Malaysian packages, especially those working in local councils. I did not expect to anyway. I guess such information would probably never be volunteered, never mind published.