GUEST POST - Malaysia - standing in the eyes of da world

REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION

So I'm taking this World Anthropology course on edx, and one of the subjects we covered was refugee/immigrations in Malaysia. There's an interview with an "illegal" immigrant, that really got to me:

Robert: Malaysia for me is a world of trauma and a place of distress.
I don't say good things about living in Malaysia.

Gerhard: Nothing at all?

Robert: Nothing, because we cannot hope; we cannot have dreams. We can't plan for the future, and we don't have rights. We don't have rights for education. We don't have rights for employment. We don't have a voice. We can't say anything. We cannot complain.

----

Because, you know, we have more than they do, but we don't really have a voice, either.

— Melissa Ariffin

Malaysians, R U READY?

OR R U ANGRY?

Selamat pagi Malaysia

Hello! Good morning Malaysia. Wake up, it's a chilled morning. Sparrows are chirping. Make yourself a delish Asian breakfast consisting of mostly carbs, sugar and oil.

If you prefer, eat outside, bistro style, just like in the picture. By cincai-parked vehicles. The sight is not too photogenic as you can see, road side food liddat I suppose in this part of the world.

Car lined avenues, not tree lined... A bed of motorcycles, no flowers in little concrete planters. No fancy awnings or 'quaint' café atmosphere beb. No tinkling piano music shit. Just simple, casual and a bit precarious – the fumes of vehicles and passive smoke. The smell of exasperation as drivers search desperately for a parking spot. Ala, double park only lor, leave your number on the dashboard.

Yes, we understand, very fast, fingers crossed: no polis saman, no car want to get out. Only 10 minutes to tapau RM7 siewyook rice, if the queue not that long. It used to be RM6.50 a week ago. I'll listen attentively, in case got honking...