A matter of perpective

A matter of perspective

MUSINGS
By MARINA MAHATHIR

What we regard as poor in Malaysia would be very rich in Bangladesh. Yet in some ways, their poverty has made them much more innovative than us richer Malaysians.

IT was a moment when I became aware of perspective. I was in Bangladesh talking to the staff of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO that does tremendous work in alleviating poverty.

They asked me what our poverty line was and I replied, relying on memory that it was about US$200 per month.

“Per month?” they asked, “that’s our per capita income!”

In fact, both of us were a bit off the mark. Our poverty level is at about US$218 while Bangladesh’s per capita income is now US$599 (although I have also found a source that says US$1,400).

But the point is, our monthly poverty level is way above their per capita income (ours is at US$14,400). That is an indication of how relative poverty is when you compare different countries. What we regard as poor here would be very rich indeed over there.

This was evident in a field trip I made to a village outside Dhaka to visit women members of the Grameen Bank microcredit project. Over the past 20 years, these women were able to set up small businesses that in turn enabled them to raise their living standards, own property and become more self-confident.

But to understand how their lives have improved, we have to understand what they started with. They started with virtually nothing: no property, no clean water, no opportunity to generate any income nor send their children to school. Now, through the loans they obtained from Grameen Bank and other microcredit facilities, all these have come true for them.

But if Malaysians were to visit them, they would still think these women were poor.

They may have TVs, fridges and mobile phones but they still live in homes with only two rooms, one of which is a bedroom-cum-kitchen. They may own a fleet of rickshaws but no cars. They still buy provisions from the little village grocery shop, not from any hypermarkets. Their children still run around the village in bare feet.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. While I would certainly wish for better health and nutrition standards for all poor Bangladeshis, these initiatives and many others that I saw there have made genuine improvements in their lives.

I visited a school for slum kids that has done so well that these kids regularly best their richer schoolmates when they join the mainstream school system.

I visited a safe motherhood clinic that has done much to cut down on maternal and infant mortality in the slums. In many ways, they are doing what we did in the early years after independence.

Yet in some ways, the poverty has made Bangladeshis much more innovative than us richer Malaysians. They have a genuine Nobel laureate in Prof Mohamad Yunus and Grameen Bank for the sheer simple ingenuity of microcredit. We don’t.

Their people may be poor but not lacking in entrepreneurial spirit. Who hasn’t heard of the Telephone Ladies, village women who found a way of making money through the hiring of time on their mobile phones? Or the enterprising villager I saw who installed a satellite dish and is providing cable TV to her fellow villagers?

When people need to survive, they become resourceful and inventive. Sometimes I think that is what we are lacking here; perhaps because we are generally comfortable, price hikes notwithstanding.

The existence of so many NGOs doing excellent work among the poor in Bangladesh may point to a failure of government to provide the basics but it also illustrates a lively grassroots movement, dedicated to empowering the poor and marginalised.

Indeed, it was interesting to me that everyone, from government right down to poor villagers, is not reticent about using the word “empowerment” and means it as well. Here, it is treated as if it’s full of germs.

In Malaysia, we expect the Government to provide everything. It is rightly the Government’s responsibility to provide us with good education, healthcare, infrastructure, law and order. But, sometimes I think this has created a dependency on government that stifles creativity and innovation.

Beyond the basics, how do we help and support the marginalised, the disenfranchised, the disabled, the uneducated and the impoverished? We seem to think that throwing money at them is all it takes.

When was the last time we heard a Minister talk about empowering anyone? Instead, almost always somebody else is blamed for problems: parents, teachers, women, the Opposition, foreigners.

In the past, Malaysians used to go to Dhaka to study at university there. These days Bangladeshis come here to work, mostly as menial labourers.

It’s an abject lesson in not taking development for granted and how, through poor leadership, it can be lost overnight. We should heed that lesson.

Happy Merdeka!

The Dark Knight

I just watch Dark Knight .. yeah I know it too late to comment anything on it. But really a nice movie .. it will be so scared if we have hv same criminal ..

The reluctant politician

Some times ago, an uncle asked me to read a book : Tun DR Ismail - the reluctant politician. Emm last week masa dok melepak kat borders, tiba2 ternampak buku tu and baca la a few pages...
I kind of admire him .. I think he is really a leader... The way he worry much abt the country more than himself and even the party. How I wish we still have those politician nowadays .. Quote from him regarding Malay's special right from another blog

“This proved a less intractable problem because the leaders of the Alliance realised the practical necessity of giving the Malays a handicap if they were to compete on equal terms with the other races. The only point of controversy was the duration of the ’special position’ — should there be a time limit or should it be permanent? I made a suggestion which was accepted, that the question be left to the Malays themselves, because I felt that as more and more Malays became educated and gained self-confidence, they themselves would do away with this ’special position’ because in itself this ’special position’ is a slur on the ability of the Malays and only to be tolerated because it is necessary as a temporary measure to ensure their survival in the modern competitive world: a world to which only those in the urban areas had been exposed”.

membebel di malam hari

Sometimes, i felt it is true that politic and religion should not be together at least in Malaysia. Maybe it not abt politic but party politic. When someone that have deep in religion knowledge involved in politics, they tend to follow what the party say. so scary ...
I felt only through education you can change people. You can't blame people if they dont understand abt freedom or equality. Maybe they never been expose to the idea. If you believe in freedom/equality, you have to show them what it's mean, not by expect them to understand it. It wasn't as simple as " We are equal or we want equality". I think this is what happen in Malaysia. People use this equality concept as mean for gaining the vote not to educate ppl which cause all the hatred among race. When we say abt equality it will involved 2 component. One component is "the less" and another one component is "the more". So most of the time, this equality concept diceramahkan pada "the less". So mestilah "the less" ni semakin membara2 perasaannya while the anti-equality willl give the ceramah to the "the more". Sure la semakin membara2 jugak as "the more" felt that "the less" want something which is not belong to "the less". So i felt all this thing can only be fix at the grassroot. Somebody must educate and show "the more" what is yours and what is not. If suddenly Pakatan Rakyat able to get the country and try to enforce this equality concept, I do feel tragedy 13 May or some riot may happen as "the more" still didnt get the concept yet and they felt they are victim.
I read Dr Mahathirs's blog which I partial agree on the need to have certain law and agreement to control the sensitivity. While I agree that we need to have this extra law compare to other country to ensure peace due to the sensitivity in Malaysia, we also need to drive an effort to make this sensitivity is no more a sensitivity. We can't just rely on on law as over time it surely break. When the law break and people are not ready, this is when another civil war may happen. Our education may need to restructure to ensure this sensitivity impact to society is lessen over time but I'm not sure if it will happen or not.

Single vs married

bila dok baca entry emo cpah pagi tadi tetiba terasa nak menulis benda yang lebih kurang sama. hahahah .. tapi rasanya tak le sampai kuar api kat monitor. Seperti mana single single yang lain .. ada le mulut2 yang suka nak bertanya bila aku nak kawin .. kawin best etc. But when i think of it, not all of my married friend are happier compared to when they are singles. Marriage not only come with companionship but lots of responsibility. Like normal relationship, not all the time the responsibility is shared among the couples.
For me marriage can be divide into 3 types. First type, when we marry to wrong guy or girl. Husband cheated on you or the wife cheated on the husband etc. Second type, the husband is good person, not even look at another woman but does not love his wife as much as he should do. For example: they went for oustation bring their 1 year old daughther. Then the wife nak jumpa kawan dia. Husband dia, after hantar wife and anak dia ke tempat yang kawan dia janji nak jumpa, terus balik hotel and tidur. You just imagine, the wife dah lama x jumpa kawan dia, sure ada banyak benda nak cakap and then anak umur setahun sure banyak ragam kadang2 nak tido etc. So what he expect if the daughther want to sleep.. nak suruh wife dia dukung je ke. At least make sure the wife bawak stroller etc. Maybe the wife is okay but i will be sad if I'm his wife. Another example, wife and husband keje. Balik keja, wife do all the stuff, cooking, laundry, clean the dishes and even pick up towel yang letak bersepah2. Sama2 keja kan... and sama2 penat. takkan x leh considerate? At least if the husband lazy, he can suggest the wife amik cleaner or helper.
The third type, for me is the perfect marriage. They do quarrel, have some argument on certain thing but they let go certain thing just to make the partner happy. Marriage need a lots of scarification from both. I'm happy as single and I don't want to trap in the first and second type of marriage. If I have chance to have the third type of marriage, I'm more than happy to leave my single title tapi sekarang x nampak bayang lagi :).
Sometimes the perception that being singles are not happy, bukan je datang dari pertanyaan og2 yang dah kawin dan beranak pinak but from singles too. There is one time, I'm visiting my friend X yang dah ada anak together with my other friend Y yang dah ada anak gak. Then suddenly i got a phone call from my single friend. When I told her that I'm at X's house together with Y, her responds "semua org pun ngn anak masing2, ko je xde .. " (ayat dah diubah sebab x ingat :p). Does the "single" title prevent us to mix around with married friend. Maybe perception masyarakat that when your are 30 and not yet marry it's a real taboo compare than your own happiness. huhhuhuhhu .. I wish i always have the strength to stand on my own thought rather follow what people say/think.
tetiba teringat pakcik teksi kat kampung aku. He complaining abt her daughther yang x kawin lagi which he claimed one of the reason sebab anak dia beli kereta besar (waja). Org laki takut kalau nampak perempuan ada kereta besar. Terasa nak gelak tapi those type of guy exist.