a malaysian abroad

As 2008 draws to a close, I think it’s an opportune time for a little retrospection, don’t you? Here are some random events that popped into my head when looking back at what has happened in Malaysia, Switzerland and the USA in 2008.

Malaysia

March08 Originally uploaded by azlynne1972

Way back in March, the Barisan Nasional was denied a 2/3 majority in the newly elected Malaysian parliament. This was a historic moment. No more shutting out the opposition, no more easily pushing UMNO-centric and occasionally BN-centric legislature through parliament. A true cooperation was going to have to happen. How successful has the new government been? Sigh. Let’s not go there. I really do not like politics and politicians. I won’t bother to delve into Anwar Ibrahim’s promise that went unfulfilled of taking over the government in September - lost all credibility in my eyes, he did.

And in December, tragedy struck yet again in the Bukit Antarabangsa area. Yet another landslide. Since no one owned up to the disaster that was the Highland Tower collapse in 1993, and since hillside development continued despite lip service about being stricter about such development, and since the authorities didn’t do much for the smaller landslide that occurred a few years ago in the same area, sigh, I suppose what happened in early December was only a matter of “when”, not “if”.

Switzerland

lhc2 from GraphJams

Remember when some people were convinced that the world was going to be swallowed up in a black hole that was going to be produced when the world’s largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, was tried out? That took place in the CERN laboratory located in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on 10th September 2008. The world continued to exist, yay! Then on the 19th, the entire system was shut down and taken offline due to a faulty magnet. What a letdown.

More recently, Switzerland became part of the Schengen Area: set up to abolish physical borders among European countries, it is a zone covering 3.6 million square kilometres and offering unrestricted travel to 400 million Europeans within that area. Systematic controls of passports and identity cards at border crossings are now abolished, but will be replaced by random checks within border regions and in international trains. There might also be changes to visa requirements, so do check with your local Swiss Embassy before you hop on a plane there, okay?

USA

Something that blew my mind was the news that Drew Peterson, 54, whose wife Stacey disappeared under mysterious circumstances last October, whose previous wife died in an empty bathtub just weeks before their divorce would have been finalized, announced his engagement to a 23 year old a few weeks ago.  Oh my.  Where has this girl been living?  Even while subscribing to the concept of “innocent until proven guilty”, Mr Peterson is a person of interest in Stacey’s disappearance, and is still technically married to Stacey.  What a mess.

Then there was the mess with O. J. Simpson… even though he’s now in jail for robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, coercion with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit a crime, and NOT for murder, there are many who feel he’s getting his just desserts for what happened (or didn’t happen) in 1995.

The remains of young Caylee Anthony were found and positively identified in December 2009. Her mother Casey had hit the headlines in July this year, reporting that her daughter had been missing since June. Her story was soon found to be a web of lies, where just about every fact she supplied was proven to be false, yet she continued to stick to her story, and without a body, proving murder would be difficult. As such it was a relief, albeit a sad one, to know that the body had been found. The trial is going to be an interesting one, for sure.

Rod Blagojevich . ‘Nuff said.

Hey, why do my USA retrospective items fall in the criminal justice category??

Barack Obama Originally uploaded by Llima

Let’s end on a more positive note, shall we?

To cheers of Yes we can!, Barack Obama created history by being elected the first African-American President of the United States.

The election, unfortunately, seemed to bring out the worst in Americans. It was a nasty, ugly election season.  Winning seemed more important than truth, than integrity.  Obama will have his hands full trying to heal the wounds of the nation while leading it out of the horrendous economic situation the USA finds herself in right now.

As 2008 draws to a close, what stands out in your mind, of all that has happened in the past year?

NieceLaundry Originally uploaded by azlynne1972

All the above are items on the worldstage.

On a personal level, in 2008 I became an aunt.  Yes yes, I have quite a few nieces and nephews already who are the offspring of my Malaysian cousins, and of Kosh’s sister… but this one is different… this is the child of my brother and my sister-in-law.

To the above/right is a recent picture of her - isn’t she cute?

And on that smiley note, here’s wishing you and yours a happy rest-of-2008, and a challenging yet fulfilling 2009.

Cheers,
*lynne*

Back when I was younger, we’d take advantage of the long school holidays to head for Switzerland almost every year, to visit with my grandparents and other Swiss relatives during the Christmas season. There would be some presents, but the main event was the Christmas lunch, not that I remember what was served, it’s been so long… I also remember a few occasions where a few families - friends of my parents from the Brighton and London days - got together and rented a bungalow up in Frasers Hill, where we had a little indoor (fake) Christmas tree decked in lights, and we all got presents, and enjoyed the cool 16°C temperatures of the highlands.

Huge Christmas tree in Suria Originally uploaded by soham_pablo

Then I grew up, went to university, and participated in Secret Santa gift exchanges among some friends.  When I returned to Malaysia and started working, Christmas was just another day off, one that signaled the last week of the year, time to wind down, relax.  Now I’m in the USA, and while we don’t mark Christmas per se with the in-laws, we still do have a holiday gift-giving session.

I am so thankful that I never did get sucked into the frantic shopping frenzy that seems to sweep so many people at this time of year.  It’s not just folk in the USA with their Black Friday and Cyber Monday and whatnot.  To many Malaysians, that’s what this time of year is all about: the sales.

2007-1220 (103) Christmas 2007 Originally uploaded by jenniferphoon

Whether or not you’re there for the sales, walking around the shopping complexes in Malaysia at this time of year is quite amusing: Christmas songs are played everywhere, and store windows are decorated with snowmen, reindeer, snowflakes and of course, Santa Claus. The main concourse of the large shopping malls boast huge Christmas trees decorated with baubles and fake snow.

Nothing different from other countries, you might say. I agree… but still… Malaysia is a tropical country, and I find these decorations geographically and culturally out of place.

Readers in places like Florida and south Texas, where I assume you don’t really get any snow but might have more cultural affinity to it all: do the store decorations in your area also feature fake snowy scenes?

And how about folks in the southern hemisphere, where Christmas is at the height of summer: do your storefront decorations also feature incongruous snowy settings?

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers who believe in and celebrate this event, a MERRY CHRISTMAS!