Postcard from South Africa
By Yin Ee Kiong

Cape Town
Changi is one of the most user-friendly airports I can think of. You can spend hours there without being bored – shops, movies, free city tour and if you are tired check into one of the two airport hotels; have a swim and catch up on your sleep. But don’t try the food; it’s diabolical – espy the local fare. I always thought Singaporeans know nuts about good food and Changi confirms it.
The wanton there gives wanton a bad name. The only saving grace is that they are miniscule which means you can swallow it like bad medicine.
Maybe it’s the food that has lost Changi the title of Best Airport to HK where the food is considerably more palatable.

“Take my seat” I said to the fat man standing round the corner charging his mobile phone on the outlet.
“It’s okay, I am almost finished”

We got talking and by chance he was also going to Cape Town. He was going home.
“Come and stay at my place if you like” he surprised me. “I am going home for a day and then off to Joburg for my niece’s birthday. But you can stay on, my housekeeper will take care of you.

Consideration? Charm? An honest face? Just plain lucky? All of them? It doesn’t matter, Allah is looking after me, I think.

Philip Harris was born in London but moved to S. Africa when he was young. He’s in the shipping business. He goes round the world contracting out vessels as bulk carriers.

“Welcome home Sir” the chauffeur greeted him, took our bags and led us to the BMW.

Mohd is a Cape Malay many times removed. He only knows two words of Malay – Terima Kasih and Selamat. With a name like Mohammed van der Rheede no wonder.
He would be what the Apartheid Government officially classify as a Coloured. Today people are still unofficially referred to as Blacks, Whites, Indians/Asians and Coloureds.
Blacks cover Zulus, Xhosas, Basothos, Setswanas, Ndebele and Vendas. Whites are Caucasians (Afrikaners etc), Cape Malays are descendents of indentured labourers brought over by the Dutch from Indonesia. Cape Malays live in the Bo-Kaap area noted for the quaint and colourful houses. Then there are Indians (no explanation needed here but any other brown or even yellow buggers are put in the same category ie Asian) and the Coloured are largely mixed descendents of Afrikaners and Khoisans but probably embrace all mixed races espy when the skin colour is not white.
A guy I spoke with (see “Out of Cape Town”) said that he had twins in the class where one was fair and the other dark. One was classified as white and the other coloured and they had to be separated. This was in the bad of days when racial classification applied.

Anyway . . . Philip’s house is in Simon Town which is another town some way from Cape Town. It’s on the coast and one can watch penguins nest on the beach. It’s a modest house with a great aspect – perched high on the slope of the hill fronting the sea. According to Mohd even a modest house in this part costs zillions.

“It’s better that you stay in Cape Town” Mohd said. “It will cost you 500 rand a day just to go to Cape Town and back. And what about the time spent traveling?”
Mohd arranged for the cheapest hotel he could get and took me there. On the way he gave a running commentary on Cape Town. He is an official tour guide. He registers himself as The Ultimate Tours. He also hires himself out as chauffeur to companies and the various embassies when they need transport for visiting dignitaries.

“Don’t ever take the mini bus taxis. You’re jammed in with all sorts of people – sweaty bodies, unsafe. Always take a cab. He obviously does not like mixing with the hoi-polloi. And don’t go out at night. Beware of pickpockets in crowded places.” He warned me to avoid the riff raff. Casting an eye on the Table he said, “Looks like you will have a nice stay in Cape Town, the table cloth is laid out for you.” he pointed to Table Mountain where the mist was starting to cover the top. The local belief is that if the table cloth is laid on one’s first visit a good time is assured.

If not everything Mohammed said to me was right, he was right about the distance and the cost. He only charged me 400 rand for the ride, the commentary and advice were free.
The hotel was too expensive for my pocket and too far from the waterfront. After one night I moved out. You don’t travel third class all your life and not be able to suss out hotels El Cheapo. I found a place in Green Point for half the price of the hotel Mohammed (with his posh taste – that’s what mixing with the embassy type or people with expense account does to you) got for me. Furthermore it was walking distance to the Waterfront.

Cape Town is not one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Capetonians will tell you. It is the most beautiful city!
Local pride and bias aside, there is substance to that claim. Cape Town is probably the only city in the world with a national park plonked in the middle of it (Table Mountain National Park). It has the sea, vineyards, parks, interesting architecture, art galleries, museums, performing arts - the lot.
It’s also a city that is easy to get around – not too big. The city bowl (centre) is very walkable.
Whether or not Cape Town is the most beautiful city, it is certainly a well run city – clean and efficient. Helen Zille (now premier of Western Cape) was voted World Mayor in 2008.

CT has everything except great food. But then South African cuisine is nothing to crow about. Too much ersatz European if you ask me and nothing authentically African if you discount biltong and snoek (the local fish) and boerewors (meat preserved with spices and vinegar). Snoek is quite okay it’s like trout. But biltong is like eating worn out soles of smelly shoes.
I have yet to eat a good Cape Curry – they have been so compromised to suit White palates that it has no kick anymore.
The Blacks mainly eat mealie pap – like thick porridge made from maize. Totally bland.
I must admit though that the fish and chips in Long Street (in the City Bowl) was good. It’s the best this side of Yorkshire. The guy gave up his job in banking in London when his father passed away recently to run the chip shop which has been going for the past 50 years. He just opened and I must have been one of his first customers. Good on him for taking up the family business – beats sitting in an office counting money. You have to wish someone like that all the luck.

The Waterfront is an example of what can be done with a lot of imagination and a little money. A group of British entrepreneurs has turned a derelict dockland into the numero uno attraction in Cape Town. It is an exciting place with free entertainment, shops, eateries, an aquarium, a hotel, marina etc. It’s a tourist trap designed to suck every rand out of you.
It’s great sitting in the sun drinking Castle beer and listening to jazz played by a street band. The sun is up but it’s not hot – at least not humid. I was minding my own business, feeling the sun on my face, the breeze ruffling my hair, a cold beer in my hand when into my vision danced a lone figure. She moved to the syncopated beat of the quartet. Why is no one dancing with her? But before I could do the gentlemanly thing of asking her for a dance someone beat me to it. Somehow I felt strangely jealous that she would dance with a stranger. But soon she rejected her partner and danced on alone.
The band played on but she stopped dancing. I went over.

“Of all the gin joints in all of Cape Town you have to walk into mine” I made Bogie’s line my own.
Her wrinkled face cracked into a smile. She extended her hand “Salma”
Salma is a 17 year old in a 70 year old body. Her exuberance and natural curiosity and interest about things have kept her young I am sure. Well young in spirit anyway. She wanted to know where I came from and what I did and how I view life and so on. She comes to the Waterfront most days to listen to the band and to dance. “I walk here – saves money.” “No I am not a Cape Malay”. Her head scarf fooled me.

We talked some more and then she left with the double bass player.


“Every time we say goodbye I die a little
Every time we say goodbye I wonder why a little . . . “
The next band played their first song and my last. No point hanging around.

You can either walk up the Table Mountain or you can take the cable car. My excuse for not walking is the lack of time.
Besides the view there’s nothing much up there - unless you like hiking and climbing.
It’s great when the mist comes on. The possibility that you may put a foot wrong and come down faster than the cable car is an exciting prospect.
But Cape Town is not just the Table Mountain and the Waterfront.
You can go to Camp Town (?) by the beach where apparently Tom Cruise and other Hollywood types chill out. It’s full of poseurs, conmen, Hollywood wannabes and gushing wide -eyed groupies hoping to spot a celebrity. I ponced around on the beach exposing my torso – no one asked for my autograph. Must be the dark glasses, no one recognised me!

It’s not just on the Waterfront that you have music. Round street corners in the city centre are groups literally singing for their supper. Some of these ‘gangs’ are as young as 5 to 12 dancing and singing their hearts out while one of them go round with a hat. This is better than the begging and pestering street urchins one sees in many cities.



Taking the mini buses is easy. Barkers will shout out their destinations if they see anyone standing on the pavement. From the city centre to Green Point costs only 5 rand (a taxi will cost five times as much). Sweaty bodies there may be but no riff raffs (unless you consider everyone who is poor or working class that) and no pickpockets.

The odd times I have taken a taxi I have not met a Capetonian driver or a South African driver for that matter.

“Where do you come from?”
“Uganda”
“Habari zako” I said.
He laughed at my Swahili. I had an Ugandan classmate I told him.
He leveled with the next taxi at the lights and chatted with the driver in Swahili.
“He’s from Rwanda” he said.

The guy at the roadside beer stall is from the Congo, the girl at the Bird Park from Zimbabwe. Everyone is from somewhere except South Africa it would seem. They all think the streets of Cape Town are paved with gold.

The best two hundred rand you can hope to spend is on the City Tour buses. For two hundred rand you can take both the red route and the blue route – one for each day.
You get to see the Constantia Vineyards, go wine tasting, go round the outer fringes of CT, Table Top Mountain, the Botanical Garden, Bird Park, go to Camp Town, watch the sunset on Signal Hill, see the historical and other interesting places within the city, visit a township. Two action-packed days. You can take it at your own pace, getting on and off as it suits you.

There’s enough to see and do in Cape Town to take up 5 days at least; but Cape Town is not South Africa. There’s plenty more out of Cape Town.

(All ìPostcardsî are written off the cuff – unedited, so please bear with any typos, grammar, etc )

Copyright Yin Ee Kiong 2011

Eggs - A Vital Source To Good Health
By Dr JB Lim
( Dr JB Lim is the current TOP Nutritionist in Malaysia.)

THERE WAS PROBABLY VERY GOOD REASON WHY YOUR PARENTS USED TO INSIST ON YOU SWALLOWING THOSE HORRID HALF BOILED EGGS-YUKKK!
EGG is good for cancer too.

Sometime back someone asked me the same question about eggs and its effect on health. I have already written and replied to him or her in a lengthy article supporting the nutritive and health benefits of eggs. I also gave scientific updates on more recent findings some of which are correctly given here as sent to me.

However the author of the article need to give at least some references of papers published in scientific journals to support the claims even though they are right.

But to super-summarize what I wrote last time in just 13 lines without me having to go all over again explaining the complexities of physiology, biochemistry, nutritional pathogenesis related to eggs and waste time and effort again, below are the yes points about eggs in human nutrition.

But I have to leave out some minor no points since the positive benefits far outweigh its negative values.

1. Eggs and milk are among the best foods for the body especially to a growing child.
2. Eggs do not cause an elevation of blood cholesterol
3. Eggs do not clog up the coronary vessels as once thought. In fact the opposite is now true
4. Eggs are low in energy value, and is a factor to consider in the formulation of a caloric-restriction diet
5. Eggs protein quality is extremely high, and has a very high nitrogen-retention value. Hence it is extremely useful in post-surgical care, trauma, and in post-management of hypovolemic shock against negative nitrogen balance
6. Eggs contain vitamin D in its natural form. The benefits of vitamin D require several chapters on human nutrition in medicine to discuss. And I refuse to repeat
7. Eggs are cancer-protective, especially for breast cancer
8. Eggs are very rich in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine which is a very crucial amino-acid in blocking damaging free radicals. These are directly linked to the pathogenesis of heart disease, cancers, DNA damage, all degenerative disorders, and accelerated aging.
9. Eggs protect against fatty liver, slow growth, macular degeneration (degeneration of the macula area of the retina in the eyes. This is responsible for central vision for reading, face recognition and detailed vision), edema (water retention), and various skin lesions
10. Eggs promote healthy growth of nails, hair and skin
11. Eggs are rich in tryphophan, selenium, iodine, and riboflavin (vitamin B2)
12. Eggs selenium content is cardio-protective against Keshan disease, cardiomyopathies (diseases involving the heart muscles, cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), myocardial dysfunction (poor heart function) and death from heart failure.
13. Eggs are protective against Kashin-Beck disease (osteoarthropathy), myxedematous endemic cretinism (mental retardation)
14. The list goes on…on!


This is one of those articles that may make one go to extreme and consume too much. Remember -- anything that is consumed too much is bad for your health. Do everything in moderation.


10 Health Benefits of Eggs


1. Eggs are great for the eyes. According to one study, an egg a day may prevent macular degeneraton due to the carotenoid content, specifically lutein and zeaxanthin. Both nutrients are more readily available to our bodies from eggs than from other sources.

2. In another study, researchers found that people who eat eggs every day lower their risk of developing cataracts, also because of the lutein and zeaxanthin in eggs.

3. One egg contains 6 grams of high-quality protein and all 9 essential amino acids.

4. According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, there is no significant link between egg consumption and heart disease. In fact, according to one study, regular consumption of eggs may help prevent blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks.

5. They are a good source of choline. One egg yolk has about 300 micrograms of choline. Choline is an important nutrient that helps regulate the brain, nervous system, and cardiovascular system.

6. They contain the right kind of fat. One egg contains just 5 grams of fat and only 1.5 grams of that is saturated fat.

7. New research shows that, contrary to previous belief, moderate consumption of eggs does not have a negative impact on cholesterol. In fact, recent studies have shown that regular consumption of two eggs per day does not affect a person's lipid profile and may, in fact, improve it. Research suggests that it is saturated fat that raises cholesterol rather than dietary cholesterol.

8. Eggs are one of the only foods that contain naturally occurring vitamin D.

9. Eggs may prevent breast cancer. In one study, women who consumed at least 6 eggs per week lowered their risk of breast cancer by 44%.

10. Eggs promote healthy hair and nails because of their high sulfur content and wide array of vitamins and minerals. Many people find their hair growing faster after adding eggs to their diet, especially if they were previously deficient in foods containing sulfur or B12.

History - A Compulsory Subject‏

It is of great concern what Yin Ee Kiong has most succinctly written about
the situation in his letter to the editor of the Malaysiankini recently-ks

The Editor,
Malaysiakini.

Sir, I can't think of a country where history is a compulsory examination subject. Compulsory or not, it is good that our children know the history of their country, but only if it is the objective version - one that scrupulously keeps to the facts. Be that as it may, in itself it is not a bad thing but what we have to fear is the hidden agenda in this ruling. Not too long ago an MCA member of parliament to his credit brought up the issue of school children being fed national history which is full of inaccuracies.

He was shouted down by his UMNO partners while the leaders in his own party distanced themselves from him - fearing the wrath of Mahathir Mohammed, the prime minister of the day. The issue of teaching history has come up again; and again the MCA grassroots have made noise about it. The problem is as always, political leaders have their positions and perks to protect and so they keep quiet. The deputy minister of Education, an MCA man dare not go against his boss who also happens to be the minister of education. But at least MCA has squeaked, that is more than what Gerakan, MIC and the others have done. The Opposition parties are as guilty by their silence.

In the face of the hidden agenda of the government (read UMNO) this silence of our legislators brings with it long term consequences which will have far reaching effects. And what is the hidden agenda?

The hidden agenda is the imprinting in the minds of our children and future generations the notion of 'ketuanan Melayu' vis a vis the others. It is an attempt to establish in the minds of these highly impressionable children that the Malays are the original inhabitants of this country (which they are not) while the others are merely 'pendatangs', and therefore one is entitled (as the original owner) to more rights and privileges than the others - the 'guests'. This is a shameful and insidious move to imprint in these young minds their version of history and in particular Article 153 of the Constitution.

For decades now the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) has been brainwashing all participants the Malays' superior position. However most BTN participants are Malays; this does not change the mindset of the vast majority of the population. The government realises that doing it this way is too slow. Hence this new edict regarding making history a compulsory exam subject. In this way every child shall be indoctrinated with a national history that is skewed towards one race. Within two or three generations every Malaysian will accept as historical fact what is essentially false. If you tell a lie often enough soon it becomes the perceived truth - the government is only too aware of that.

Already we have teachers and principals spouting their personal take of the position of the different communities with impunity. This piece of legislation (to make History a compulsory exam subject) gives them unbridled licence.

Contrary to the general perception, good history is never written by the victors.. Good history is based on broad facts - not selected facts. Opinions when given, come from all sides. Short of that it is propaganda and forcing students to take it is forced indoctrination or brainwashing.
What is racist and what is not? It is true that we do not have the colour discrimination of apartheid South Africa or the U.S. in the fifties and sixties.

By and large the different communities get along - granted that lately this is more on a superficial level between the Malays and the others. But this is the galling thing: here we have a multi-racial country where people get along and do not discriminate on skin colour, ethnicity or religion; yet we have a government which is intent on dividing the communities by way of a dual citizenship, and racial discrimination disguised as 'affirmative action'. Where does 'affirmative action' stops and racial discrimination begins?

I put it that any discrimination based on 'race' - be it for political or economic reasons - is 'racist'; it need have nothing to do with skin colour. To say that one is bumiputra and the other is not - based on ethnicity - is racist. Those who try to hide behind the screen of 'affirmative action' has a job explaining why the 'have-nots' of other races are neglected. Affirmative action is colour-blind.

To use a narrow definition of 'racism' as Chandra Muzzafar has done is not helpful, the subtlety between that and something else is lost on someone who is jobless and hungry because of his race. Try explaining to a fourth generation non-bumiputra Malaysian that it is not 'racism' when he is discriminated against while a 'newly- arrived' with the right ethnic credentials are granted privileges he is not entitled to.

When 'bumiputraism' first surfaced, Tun Ismail was against it. While he was for 'affirmative action' he predicted that such a classification of citizenship would divide the people, and so it has! The teaching of a skewed history will do the same.

Yours truly,
Yin Ee Kiong.

TIN MAN
- review by Chelvi Murugiah

I see Tin Man by Yin, as a local Malaysian story with a ‘wake-up’ call to fellow citizens irrespective of race, to not take lightly the racial discourse faced in the country. In what is viewed as growing intolerance amongst Malaysians, Yin a Malaysian Chinese makes a timely and conscious attempt in Tin Man to historically reflect upon the struggles of the early Chinese migrants and their current state of welfare.

Spanned across three generations, a typical Chinese migrant’s family history unfolds alongside Malaysia’s history narrated by the grandfather ‘ah kong’ Lee Ah Ming to his favorite grandson, Lee Kuan Sang. ‘Ah Ming’ is a Chinese migrant who came to Malaya as a ‘jyu jai’ piglet and many upheavals later becomes a ‘towkay’. While he did not forget his roots in China, his heart was set to make Malaysia his home.

As the author Yin states, not all Chinese migrants were willing participants in the great exodus; many were merely ‘jyu jai’, sold to settle debts or just to ensure the survival of the family. In the 19th century, tin mines in Larut, Perak were a major attraction to thousands of Chinese migrants who came to Malaya – merchants, fortune hunters, fugitives and coolies. Whilst many were sojourners yet many others like ‘Ah Ming’ remained in Malaya and continued to contribute towards nation building.

‘Ah Ming’ speaks of the harsh realities of life in the tin mines where he narrowly escapes death himself during a horrific stand-off between Chinese clans. As described in Tin Man, clans are indeed the integral makeup of Chinese communities which identifies - place of origin, kinship and dialect which is useful as a foundation to establishing ‘guanxi’ (personal relationships) a concept embedded in Chinese culture.

As mentioned by the author, the Chinese migrants brought with them clan rivalry which often ended up in clan wars resulting in large numbers of deaths but also the disruption of commerce (particularly the tin trade). This concerned the British who intervened to safeguard their commercial interests and ended up colonizing Malaya.

Tin Man from an academic perspective is a bite off a much larger, global picture but nonetheless significant in that the book reveals the Chinese migration streams so essential to Chinese community development which evidently also influenced Perak’s economy, its history and undeniably the development of Malaysia as a whole.

The Chinese diasporas is currently a ‘hot topic’ within the academia as research papers and books on Chinese community migration by academicsare being studied in detail; specifically the human tide trends (Chinese migration streams, in particular) as these movements are seen to be instrumental in rapidly reshaping China’s economy whilst affecting globalization. In the same genre, a recent book by Martin Jacques is a bold account to hallmark the emergence of a new world in which he states that the Chinese influence will become increasingly apparent in world economic terms, within the next two decades.

Tin Man, laments that the cycles of migration seems to be reoccurring as many local Chinese born and bred in Malaysia continue to send their children away to seek ‘greener pastures’ as their forefathers had. These reasons aside, the underlying fact is that many today leave because they also feel unwelcomed in their homeland, and resent being labeled pendatang, immigrants even after over 50 years of independence. Why is this occurring in a country that brands itself as 1Malaysia?

Then again much has changed, life was simpler then; for the new comer, the ability to adapt to local customs and speak the language of the locals was enough to be accepted into the mainstream. As in Tin Man, Ah Ming (a Chinese migrant) befriends Ahmed (a Bugis); a genuine friendship is sealed based on hardships faced together. Indeed, there was a time in history when communities found it necessary to watch each other’s backs and it was common to share their wealth with their friends irrespective of race and religion as in the case of Tin Man.

On the flipside, Malaysia’s neighbor with a Chinese majority, - Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was recently reported to have commented in The New York Times that the younger people today demand for more political openness and a free exchange of ideas and to secure their well-being in modern Singapore. “They have come to believe that this is a natural state of affairs, and they can take liberties with it,” he said. “They think you can put it on auto-pilot. I know that it is never so.”

The author has as in his debut book, Postcards from a Foreign Land and now in Tin Man, brought to life stories of ordinary Malaysians, their unique cultures and norms. Local stories that are often taken for granted asks to be noticed when craftily lined in history - provides for an interesting read with learning included. Tin Man certainly has a deeper set of messages to deliver and in a nation that claims to be impartial to racial differences, the book begs to differ.

Tin Man is a recommended read, in particular, by every Malaysian Chinese Perakian - it may rekindle thoughts to hold on to the legacy left behind by your forefathers who toiled with dreams of a better life in the tin mines of the State.

The author dedicates Tin Man to those who came from near and far to make this land (Malaysia) their home.

Postcard from Shenzhen
By YinEe Kiong

Happy Birthday!
Shenzhen was 30 yesterday. (6th Sept)

It’s also my second anniversary (okay late by a month plus) in this city.
So what do I think? Take away a groan here and a moan there, it’s great! The city changes from day to day and mostly for the better. Even in one short year I have seen improvements.

I have shared many of my observations with you but I hope you don’t mind if I repeat some of them (for the benefit of those who have not read my postings and the amnesic).

Infrastructure

Shenzhen has a very sophisticated public library system. You can borrow and return books through automatic kiosks which are sited in different parts of the city. The public library is a huge thing – 6 floors( ?). City Hall decided to promote reading in Shenzhen and once the policy was decided on they did what needed to be done to implement it.

They have done a lot to reduce pollution and also traffic congestion even in the one year I have been here. They have introduced electric taxis and buses. I suppose diesel and petrol buses and taxis will eventually be phased out (it will take a few years at least). Buses are now equipped with cameras which can take pictures of the vehicles in front which can be relayed to the police station. The idea is to keep the bus lanes clear of other traffic espy during peak periods.

Here’s something which I have not seen before in other places – buses are given ‘stars’ up to five stars. If I am not wrong ‘star’ buses are those whose drivers have earned it (five star – for excellent drivers) and who have kept their buses in top condition. A casual observer will find that these buses are much better maintained and cleaner (not that the ‘no-star’ buses are not) and the ride much smoother (some of the ‘no-star’ drivers can be a bit reckless). This is one way to encourage their drivers.

Public transport is cheap and efficient. You can get anywhere by bus or metro or if you are in a hurry, by taxi (which is affordable).

But they are not finished yet. They are improving the public transport system in Shenzhen all the time. The metro line will soon cover most of SZ. But what is a revelation is that they are now talking of a ‘straddle bus’.

What is a ‘Straddle Bus’, you may well ask.

This Chinese invention (at last they are inventing and not just copying) is a new type of bus which is 4.5 meters (14.85 ft for the non metric amongst us) high. It will run on special tracks (like trams). Because the bus is raised and is wide enough other vehicles can pass under it. It can carry up to 1,400 passengers and travel between 60 and 80 km (approx 40 to 50 mph per hour, I think).

It is claimed that this can reduce traffic congestion by up to 30 percent. The big advantage is the cost. It is estimated that it will cost USD7.35 million per km to install, about ten percent of the cost of building a subway line over the same distance. It will also be three times faster to build than a subway system.

The way Shenzenites drive you need to get as many people off the roads as possible.

By the way, a friend who only just passed her driving test got into an accident on her first outing (and she was only in the compound of her condo – apparently the other driver had only been driving for six months). Her 400,000 yuan Audi incurred a dent – the first of many to come I suspect. By her own admission her’s is a ‘kopi-lisen’. Anyway her husband insisted on buying a posh car. Mian Zi, the quintessentially Chinese trait of needing ‘face’ meant he as the head of dept had to have a posh car even when he does not have a driver’s licence.

I think there are a thousand over parks in SZ (I read somewhere). SZ contrary to the common perception one has of an industrial city, is very green. Many of the roads are tree-lined. They have also built over 300 km of dedicated bicycle lanes (to reduce pollution) and last month they introduced free bicycles in Shekou. You can borrow these bicycles for use in the area and return them to designated parking areas.

There is a laundry list of infrastructure improvements made to the city.
No need to bore you with the list. Aside from the tangible improvements there are other changes which make life much better for Shenzhenites.

Social

There is not much crime here (for a city of 15 million) - the papers are not filled with rapes or murders or even robbery. Yes there are pickpockets but this is concentrated in certain areas (where laowais – foreigners gather). Overall it is a peaceful place.

The law is applied strictly – I stopped counting the number of buildings which have been demolished because they don’t have building permits. They take corruption seriously. SZ’s ex-mayor is now in jail and so are a few billionaires, police chief and judges – not just your run-of-the-mill petty crooks.

Compare this to what is happening in Malaysia, where bag snatching is a daily affair, empty houses are vandalised and stripped and killings are not uncommon. Where corruption is rife and illegal buildings are allowed depending on who you know. And the corrupt go unpunished.

The government is talking about minimum wages – probably the Fox Con suicides have brought this to the fore. In the Fox Con case the workers’ wages have doubled and their living conditions vastly improved. It shows how underpaid the workers have been –rather than the generosity of the company. The company has not gone bankrupt because of this.

Other companies (Honda for instance) have also improved their workers’s pay and conditions.

At home the government is still blind to the exploitation of the workers by businesses. As long as they can tap into the cheap labour our neighbours provide businesses will be against minimum wage and the government will abet their exploitation. Meanwhile Malaysian workers remain unemployed because the pay is too low to survive on.

Commercial

The city government knows very well that Shenzhen has to stay relevant in order to stay competitive.

In this regard it has taken certain measures:

To tap into the Hong Kong market they are developing a huge coastal strip in the Qianhai suburb (where we live actually) into a financial and services centre. They invited proposals worldwide. An American company won it with it’s proposal which is both aesthetically pleasing and also ecologically sound.

The artist impression of the project is impressive.

No such thing as keeping it amongst their cronies. I can imagine if this was done in Malaysia it would have gone to a crony firm which will then employ a foreign firm to do it – the old renter mentality – thus inflating the cost which ultimately the rakyat have to bear.

Shenzhen needs expertise in order to compete. Not satisfied with scouring China for new talents it has decided to establish four recruiting centres in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia to recruit experts. The first to open will be in the Silicon Valley. They reckon they need at least 2,600 experts immediately for the various industries – both local and foreign owned.

Chinese high tech and high end service industries need high calibre professionals and they have gone out to get them.

At home we are not just facing a brain drain but many of the brains that are still there is left is sidelined by a racist policy. How do we propose to compete?

Political

I have found a greater measure of freedom here than would be expected of the stereotypical communist state. The papers here are fairly critical of the government and issues are discussed openly. Often proposed policies are flagged before implementation – inviting public comments. I know, I have participated in it (I write regularly for the Opinions Column in the Shenzhen Daily) – for instance the policy of banning electric bicycles was widely discussed in the SZ Daily (and I suppose in Chinese language dailies too).

Many times I have been critical of the government . . . no one has knocked on my door at 3 am yet.

You will find that the papers are not filled with the comings and goings and pronouncements of Hu, Wen or other party big shots (unlike at home).

Unlike in Malaysia where you are not encouraged to criticise the government, Wen Jiabao has called for the “changing of the country’s political system, as well as creating conditions for people to criticise and supervise the government”. He also asked for “more effective supervision on over-concentration of government power”.

Is this a communist country?

The mayor of Shenzhen has called for a ‘civil society’ – inviting residents to take a bigger role on social issues. It is unclear how far the city government will take this idea.

For instance will it allow the more contentious organisations? (That’s what I asked in my column).

Whatever it is, the residents here seem to have a greater say in how their city is run than a supposedly democratic country like Malaysia where local government elections is forbidden.

Shenzhen is a test bed – not just for commercial or social experiments but also for political ones. SZ is reinventing itself all the time. The government is not afraid to change – probably not having to face an election helps. But really the position of the top guys are not guaranteed. If they don’t deliver they go.

With greater wealth has also come greater freedom. They are talking about a Socialist Democracy with more freedom for the people.

We on the other hand have less freedom than when we started as a nation.

Of course SZ is not perfect – which place is? But everything considered it is a very livable city. People who have been to Shanghai say how rude and indifferent people are there, in SZ people are nice and helpful. I don’t think this is just in SZ, in my travels I have found the Chinese a nice people.

There are many good things about SZ but there are also lots which I don’t like. I still can’t get used to the habit of people spitting everywhere. Smoking probably adds more to air pollution than vehicles. There are laws against smoking in public places but no one cares – because implementation is weak. The place while not a pig sty, could be cleaner especially in the poor areas. Drivers are discourteous – pedestrians have little rights, and the police do nothing (probably because this is a new problem for them) You only have cross over to Macao to see how civilised the drivers there are.

Social changes take time but it will come as more Chinese travel and are exposed to foreigners here. Already the dreaded public toilets of which I heard so much about before I came, is a thing of the past. I can say without reservation that their public toilets (malls, cinemas, airports, restaurants and even city managed ones) are definitely cleaner than those at home. Soon they will be talking about our dirty toilets just like we talked about theirs.

And food . . .

At last something that we trump them. We have the culinary legacies of three great cultures – thank Allah, they have not wrecked that yet.

Shenzhen’s GDP has grown 24% every year compared to the national average of 9.8%. SZ has the highest per capita GDP in China. (Official figures). But there are still too many poor people and the wealth gap is growing. That is the government’s worry because this will lead to civil strife. Now the focus is on the rural areas. Many industries have moved inland to take advantage of lower costs. And the government is beefing up the infrastructures there.

China is the second largest economy in the world but it’s not a big deal here. No one talks about it. The truth is China is still a poor country with a per capita income 30 times lower than Japan’s and probably lower than Malaysia’s too (but for how long – the rate we are going).

Well enough for now, I am going to collect my free phone card (worth 100 yuan) – a gift from City Hall to every SZ resident to celebrate 30 years of success.

What did Bandaraya Ipoh ever give me?
I hope you didn’t forget your Merdeka gift!

There will be those who will be peeved at how scathing I have been about my tanah air. “Go to China then” the unthinking will say. In any case some of them are already calling us lain lain to return to where our forefathers came from.

Imperfect as it is Malaysia is still home – even if it is not the home I knew as a boy – so pardon me if I have been brutally honest about how bad things are there when I see how far others who were once so far behind, have come.

I am just an angry old man!

HIDUP MALAYSIA.

(All “Postcards” are written off the cuff – unedited, so please bear with any typos etc )

Copyright ã 2010 Yin Ee Kiong

Postcards from SZ, China
By Yin Ee Kiong

Lately I’ve not been able to travel as much as I would have liked. My gammy foot is only one reason and the least of it, the other is unmentionable. So if you are expecting exotic places forget it. But Shenzhen has so much to offer that one finds gems here and there which one had overlooked before.

One such place is F518 in BaoAn – alternatively called the Shenzhen Free Art Base. It is an art and design community set up by the BaoAn District Council. Unlike Dafen where art is more an industry and where thousands of cheap copy art can be found, F518 has only original art. The government has built blocks of workshops where artists and designers work and live. And to facilitate visitors and business people – industrial designers also set up here – they built the Avant Garde Hotel.

On a rainy Sunday (this is typhoon season) I visited the place but found most of the workshops closed. Those whose doors were not locked I invited myself in only to surprise the sleepy artists who were only just getting up.
What about the art? Interesting best describe them. No Zhou Chunya or the much copied Yue Minjun among the lot, but who knows, one of them might just be discovered one day.
Having said that, there was an exhibition of Chinese ink paintings a few of which are listed in the six figure price range and the cheaper ones are over ten thousand. So they must have a ‘name’ then.

Frankly the place was as quiet as a graveyard and the artists have one foot in the grave. This shows that you can provide the best facilities but you cannot guarantee success. Money and facilities help as well as hinder.
Personally, I think to put the infrastructure first and hope that it will encourage art is to put the cart before the horse. Art communities that are artificially incubated are not robust. Robust art communities are born out of the natural congregation of artists and then it grows organically – without interference from officialdom. Often these are in poor areas where the rental is affordable and then over time these areas become chic and fashionable. Great artists (like good athletes and footballers) are often born out of poverty. The best footballers come from the favelas of Rio. In the past Scotland used to produce great footballers who invariably came from the Gorbals – a slum area in Glasgow. When they cleaned it up, Scotland’s source of great footballers also dried up.
But of course Shenzhen is only thirty years young and there is no tradition of art in the city. It shows how difficult it is to germinate an arts culture – a gentle and sensitive hand is needed.
Penang seems to have succeeded in spawning a vibrant arts community. Ipoh sad to say has a long way to go.

I had a chance to speak to the people who run F518. It’s not for the lack of trying that it has not taken off like Dafen. Still they have not given up. A big exhibition is planned for December. Meanwhile I felt that the place needed more publicity to promote it as a centre for original art which sets it apart from Dafen.

Bus 42 to Window of the World and then Bus M200 which will take you to the front door of F518.

Nan Ao is in the easternmost part of Shenzen. It lies on a peninsula at the foot of the Qinang Mountain. It took us nearly three hours from Shekou by public transport. Bus 42 to Window of the World. Then metro to Luohu and then bus 205 changing to Bus E11 which takes you through lovely countryside right to Nan Ao and beyond.

Nan Ao is the place you go to for seafood. It has a seafood street lined with shops offering live seafood – octopuses, fish, prawns, crabs, eels and molluscs of all kinds.
You select what you want and take them to one of the restaurants which will cook it in the style of your choice.
We had fish, crabs and sea urchins. The last in fried rice – the fried rice was good but I couldn’t make out where the urchins were and so cannot tell you how it tasted. The fish and crabs were good except that the crabs were short of meat and were only saved by the nice sauce it was cooked in. The fish was the best of the three, but still not enough to rave about.

So besides eating what has Nan Ao got to offer?
A twenty minute drive takes you to either Dong Chong or Xi Chong – east and west bays with beaches and crystal clear waters. The only trouble is (as is always the case anywhere in China) there are loads of people. However if you want a beach all to yourself that can be arranged. Just hire a boat which will dump you on one of the many secluded beaches which cannot be reached by land and return to pick you up at the appointed time. I saw a few very tempting and secluded beaches; maybe I will do that the next time.

Struck up an acquaintance with a couple of old geezers and before you can say ‘kanbei’ we were zipping round the litchi forested countryside on the back of one of the guy’s bike. The whole place is very hilly and the bike had a hard time struggling up some roads with three people on it. On a particularly steep slope the unwilling bike like a recalcitrant donkey decided to ditch us. Sprawled all over the road (luckily traffic in that area is few and far between) we picked ourselves up and this time the old geezer decided to push the bike up the steep incline before climbing on again. The only thing that was hurt was our pride.
The best part of the mini tour was Ngor Koong Chun (male goose – ie gander – village). It is an old village (at least a hundred years old) now largely abandoned except for two families who still live there. The old houses were quite fascinating. The inhabitants were really friendly. A lady was plucking jumbu batu and she gave us one each to taste. Then the lady on the other side – minding her ducks – decided to chance if we would be interested in buy a duck from her. Well if you can buy fish and get the restaurant to cook it why not duck? The run down village has a natural charm unlike the put up ‘heritage’ villages that dot the more touristy areas.

Nan Ao is a very small town and the fishing industry and lately tourism is the mainstay of the economy. Salt and fish are very distinct in the air. Fresh seafood is popular with diners. We met up with four old fogeys we passed who had cycled all the way from Luohu to have lunch.
There’s a market dedicated to dried seafood. Here you can find all sorts of dried seafood – fish head, star fish, sotong (which is excellent), fish maw, salted fish, ikan bilis, dried prawns and believe it or not blachan! One wonders if the Chinese had not brought blachan to our part of the world all those years back. Despite fish drying by the sea and the seafood shops, remarkably there were no flies! The only fly I saw was one in the hotel room.
Nan Ao is worth a visit if one is looking for a getaway not too far from Shenzhen. Hong Kong and Macau is nearer (time wise) for us but Nan Ao is an altogether different kind of place. You can find peace and quiet in Nan Ao which is impossible in HK and Macau.

On the way home Luohu beckoned; or rather the urge to eat good dim sum did. Luohu probably has the best dim sum and Cantonese restaurants in Shenzhen. This is because of it’s proximity to HongKong. Luohu is a border district and is also the take off point by train to other parts of China.
If you have never been to Luohu you must do so. The place is full of pickpockets, hustlers and touts as well as the generally more interesting characters one meets in life. You can find almost anything in Luohu – designer handbags, watches, shoes, shirts etc – all fakes of course. What is not fake are the beautiful hand-sewn costumes used by ball room dancers and entertainers. Liberace probably got his gear from Luohu. They have enough glitz to satisfy even Elton John.
It’s a wonderful place to people watch – foreigners, Hongkies, locals all ready for the slaughter.
It’s a place where you can spend the day starting with brunch or lunch at any one of the many excellent Cantonese restaurants. Fortified by a good meal you can then shop till you drop and then resuscitated later by skilled masseuses who way lay you in the corridors of the shopping mart. The massage parlours which also provide manicure, pedicure, reflexology or just removing dead skin from your feet, are popular with shoppers. What better way to spend a day – eat, shop and relax.

Until my gammy foot heals Shenzhen is about the extent of my gallivanting. Nothing wrong with SZ, life’s okay here.

(Please note is always written off the cuff so bear with the typos etc)
Copyright ã Yin Ee Kiong 2010

The Shame of Ipoh, Joke of the Nation.
By : Yin Ee Kiong

It takes something like the tower-block development ‘smack right next to nature with a panoramic view of the Kinta Valley and towering outcrops’ to remind us why we need an elected local government.

The present system of an appointed mayor and councillors is just not working. Well, some can argue that it’s working in that it’s easier to ‘do business’. . . if you catch my drift. But it’s not working for the people – protecting their interests, meeting their aspirations regarding the environment, infrastructure, jobs and services. It does not give them - the stakeholders - the right to hire and fire as should be the case in any democracy.
So there is no accountability at all. Callous businessmen with the right connections can do as they please . . . and get away with it.

Under a democratic system – with an elected council - any development such as The Haven would have been put to public scrutiny. The public would have been invited to view the proposals and voice their opinions. I am not talking about just any development but one which is “nestled at a foothill and with the virgin forest of Titiwangsa Range as a backdrop.”
What will be the negative impact such a development have on the environment?
It’s all very well to promise buyers ‘live water’ flowing at 7570 litres an hour, mountain bike trails, jogging tracks, cool waterfalls at Ulu Kinta. But at whose expense?
Bike trails and jogging tracks and excessive human traffic will impact on the pristine environment which the developer is quick to use as a selling point. It will affect the fauna and flora of the place.

Someone in authority argued that the development “blends in with the hills”. Like a sore thumb! I say. How can you hide or blend three twenty-six tower blocks with the hills? No Pritzker Prize architect can do that much less one engaged by the developer (which one can safely assume has not won any major prize at all).
The developer can promise to take all the precautions, but even if he is true to his word, it’s just the degree of damage he does to the environment: damage it he will.
Three tombstones will mark the spot where the environment died.

This is a development that comes at a high environmental cost – a cost that will be borne by the people of Ipoh today and till kingdom come.
Rather than being an icon which is the ‘Pride of Ipoh, Envy of the Nation’ it is the “Shame of Ipoh, Joke of the Nation”.
The joke’s really on the people of Ipoh, because the developer will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Until we have elected local government this will repeat itself. There’s of course no guarantee that this won’t happen under an elected city council but if it does we have only ourselves to blame. For now the finger can only point at the State Government and the gaggle of order takers who pass off as mayor and councillors.

This is not about party politics because both sides of the political divide are equally determined to deny the rakyat their say in how their local government is structured and run.

This is a fait accompli, some say (not till the Fat Lady sings, I say), but even if it is, it does not mean we have to take this lying down. Those involved in raping Ipoh should not think they can get away without hearing our anger and disgust. They leave behind a legacy which future generations will curse them for..

CopyrightYin Ee Kiong 2010