Hello ,
Greetings from Kuala Lumpur, or if you are an old Asia hand.. KL.
I arrived here a few days ago from India, where I was involved in a bit of a ruckus at the airport, you can read it here.
I'm here to meet our salt lamp supplier and work with Raul our IT wizard who makes the back end of Ancient Wisdom all fit together and do magic. He lives in KL with his Chinese Malay wife and daughter.
I have to say.. I like KL, it's a beautiful tropical city, huge lush trees and jungle foliage interspersed with stunning buildings, and a high level supersonic mono rail transport system. It's clean and safe, and lots of shops. All the people you meet are (it seems) young, earnest and super smart. Also a unique mix of peoples. Indians, Chinese, Malay and heaps of foreigners including Brits. And in KL the natural language of shops, hotels, taxis and restaurants is English. Everyone speaks English and assumes that you do to. So for a Britisher like me it's an easy life.
Sure it's a Muslim country, this a metropolitan Muslim city that successfully manages to be all things to all peoples, with acceptance and tolerance.
I was thinking about the golden tolerance rule.. "Tolerate everything and anything except intolerance". I suppose the issue is what is classed as intolerance. It starts to get complicated, but worth thinking about and the route to world harmony, but it's not in million years an answer that will fit in a 140 characters tweet. So maybe we are doomed.
I remember being in a beach bar on Crete, a Dutch hipster waitress served us. She said (I forget why) - "I have no problem with any human on earth, but I might have problems with their actions if those actions are intolerant of others". - I thought yes how true, fall out with the actions not the person.
The King of Saudi Arabia is here. All the hotels are full of his entourage, and the papers full of speculation as to the business that is being done. After that weird murder in KL airport, and my goodness I was on that spot a day or two before - there is lots of security. I was in the hotel bar last night, having a meal with the Salt Lamp guys, one of them on a first trip out of Pakistan. He quietly asked me if the food was Halal, I assured him it was but I had to take him to the manager to hear it first hand. He was visibly relaxed and relieved but even then only made tentative use of the buffet. There was some urban Saudi guys in full white robes, chatting to sharp suited businessmen... and heavens drinking wine. The culture shock was palpable, confusion and conflict. The waiter brought a glass of wine (free with the buffet), and the guy looked at it with eyes wide and asked me: "Is that wine?" - like it was the first time he had seen the demon drink up close.. I said it is, do you mind if I drink it, if you'd rather I didn't it's no problem. No problem he said, but I sensed it could be, culture is a powerful thing.
What different worlds we live in, and yet can manage to do business. I sometimes think commerce and trade are the things that can bind a divergent world together. Doing business opens us up to know each other and learn tolerance. In an intolerant world of Brexit and Trump, it is a scary direction we are moving. But at least, for now we have KL and places like it, as living proof that hope exists.
So tomorrow it is back to Bali. Running again.. I have a week to finish a million jobs.
More news from that mystical and magic place next week.
Meanwhile Mother's Day fast approaching.. and Easter..
Check out the deals below.
Take care.
David
