Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Most likely confrontational, but I mean no harm, my opinion is just that

     Today is an odd day. Woke up to a pack of feral dogs fighting in the hills behind my apartment, I felt horrible because I could hear one yelping. The office was extremely quite all day. There was some big client meet and great/schmooze/network thing that a bunch of people attended in the am, and a funeral for a former co-worker in the pm. I didn't go to the funeral, I don't know the person and I thought it would be rude to show up to a funeral (never mind depressing). Although it is of interest to note that the woman died of food poisoning. She was in the hospital for some time, but still it is rare for something like this to happen. It's also not the way to go (trust me on this one). I feel bad for her family and friends. Thus it was pretty much the interns and the newer expats in the afternoon. I'm quite tired from staring at a computer screen, moving lines around/fixing diagrams and plans all day. I need to be out and about. I need to be active. That's where I struggle with architecture. Always have really. The modern day attachment to computers scares me in many ways.

     After work I was going to go to yoga, but my tummy doesn't feel well (the mee goreng I had for lunch was quite spicy). I'm also trying to save some money, as tomorrow I'm going with a few co-workers to the largest pasar malam (night market) in Malaysia tomorrow night.

     There are a few new interns at work now. Four guys from Saudi Arabia have joined the company for three weeks. They are extremely shy/stick to themselves, but the other interns keep asking them to lunch to get them to come out of their shells so to speak. It is tough to do when only 2 of them are comfortable speaking English, although one speaks quite well. There is a lot of translating that goes on (I'm currently helping out on the same competition). It's been interesting working with them, I would love to know what they think about taking directions from two women. The guy who speaks good English (whose name is, interestingly enough, Osama) has been surprisingly open in terms of speaking about the Arab world and life in Saudi Arabia.

     If there is one thing I've learned about Arab culture it is that I will never be able to wrap my head around it. I understand some things, on a very superficial level. Whether I agree with them or not is a different story. I have been told that the woman is seen as a fruit or a flower. If it is left out in the open with no protection, the flies (or men) will swarm around it and ruin it. Therefore, women need to be protected. On one level this is rather charming, but on another, doesn't that give men the excuse to act like flies? If not, then why is it every time someone speaks about the Arab world the differences of the sexes is brought up? My friend's sister (who is Iranian) put it nicely saying that she questions Islam because in the modern world it seems to have become a discussion about the differences and rights of men and women. Religion shouldn't be about these issues. I agree. However, it is not my place to preach, say, or do anything about the way other cultures and religions go about their business. I was not born into that society, culture, country, region, race, whatever you want to call it. I can't possibly understand the issues surrounding it, and quite honestly, it isn't my business. Yes I'm a woman, but I'm an American woman, brought up within a different social construct. I have no right to do anything more than state my opinion within the context in which I have been brought up in. In essence, it is not my place, nor do I want it to be.

     With all of that being said, the guys who work with me have not treated me with any disrespect or rudeness whatsoever.  If anything, they are shy which comes across as intimidated by the fact that men and women who are not related or married hang out together. When I put myself in their shoes, there are definitely things they couldn't understand about my culture as well. It goes both ways. I give them credit for hanging out with the other interns at lunch and they seem to be opening up a bit. They came all this way and my hope is that when they go back they at least learn something about each of us or at least Malaysia.

     Today at lunch I told O the importance of the West and the Middle East (people, not government) making an effort to learn from one other. It's so important because due to our respective media, we don't get any sense of reality of each other's lives, homes, and culture. Both sides just hear about the worst situations and stories, not about reality. Propaganda is rampant and the only way to begin to understand each other's cultures is to experience and learn about them. The conversation went from that to our economies and job markets. I found it surprising that they have similar employment issues as we do back home. Both countries are going to experience a severe brain drain if something isn't done soon. Theirs goes one step further to say that the only jobs that can be found are those with foreign companies. These companies only employ foreign workers. If a local workforce is hired, it's for the shit jobs no one else wants. So think about this for a second folks. Obviously the people are going to develop a distrust of the west if the western corporations are coming in and essentially denying their equally qualified workforce a chance at a job. I would be pissed too.

    Another interest (especially to those back in the states) is the oil prices. I asked them (as well as the Malaysians) how much they pay for gas. In Saudi Arabia gas is $0.15 per liter...there are about 4 liters in a gallon making a grand total of $0.60 per gallon...astounding. Seriously astounding. How much do you pay in California these days? On that same token, a Big Mac in Saudi Arabia costs roughly $6 from what I've been told. I suppose you could call that a trade off....wait...probably not. In Malaysia gas is roughly RM 2 and change per liter which is about $2.60 a gallon. That is still significantly cheaper than what most Americans pay to fill up. Both nations are a part of OPEC. Crazy isn't it? I'm not suggesting that cheaper oil prices are good or anything like that. I think that a rising price is a good thing because people need to stop being dependent on a limited resource with negative environmental impacts, but weening the world off an oil dependency is no easy task, and I have no solution.


     That's all for today.


-M

  

1 comment:

  1. Hmmm California gas price $3.95 to $4.50

    Agreed citizens talking with each other and soon they find out that they have a lot more in common than differences, Jobs, children, love, dreams it is all the same accross all cultures

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