A quiet night in Little India, Singapore

Kamikaze Street Vendors, Globalization & Z-Man

September 8, 2004

Dear Friend & Subscriber,

When you’re an American in China, street vendors shout at you. They holler things like ‘Hello hello hello Mariah Carey Michael Jordan!’

The direct English translation of this particular sentence is ‘Greetings big ignorant American, come over here and I give you overpriced shoeshine.’

It’s a little different in Malaysia, though. In Malaysia they assume you’re from Australia.

They say ‘Have a look at this, Mate! I sell you fake Gucci watch for only 10 Ringgits.’

Here’s a photo of the bustling Chinatown market in Kuala Lumpur, where you can buy a fake Gucci, Swatch or Rado watch for about three bucks American:

Malaysia is a *very* friendly place, and the people there are quite helpful. Most people there speak pretty good English.

I visited the world’s tallest towers, where the most interesting conversation I had was with a guy from Saudi Arabia who had gone to college in Missouri. It wasn’t long before our conversation turned to American politics.

People around the world tend to be very warm and friendly to Americans, and this gentleman was no exception. But they also tend to be rather unhappy with America itself, as in our government. The situation in Iraq is a sore spot, and the war against terrorism isn’t winning many friends either.

Now I don’t want to start a discussion about this (ie please don’t send me any political emails, I don’t know what good it would do anyway) but many people in the Middle East believe that 9/11 and all the things that came along with it were really a secret US conspiracy to make Muslims look bad – that Muslims were never behind it.

I heard the exact same thing last summer when I visited a mosque in Chicago.

Tension crept into our conversation as the man explained why America is an impenetrable fortress, and that terrorists from the Middle East could never have done this – it had to have been an inside job.

I listened to what he had to say and we said friendly goodbyes, knowing that the middle of the Petronis center shopping mall was hardly the place to engage in a detailed discussion of world affairs. We shook hands warmly and parted friends.

Why am I bringing this up?

Simply to illustrate that what you and I assume to be true, and what someone on the other side of the globe assumes to be true, are often totally and completely different.

What you and I hear on the news and what others here on the news may indeed be exactly the opposite.

It never hurts to remember that. And even though I have serious, serious doubts about what he was sayng, it also doesn’t hurt to stop and ask ourselves why we’re so sure we know what we *think* we know.

As small as the world can seem sometimes, it’s still a pretty big place. There’s always someone with a different view. If we don’t understand how they see things, we’ll never understand why they do what they do.

The Crunch of Globalization

My first extended trip outside of the US was to China in January 2001, and I’ll never forget the massive headrush I felt as I stepped out of the Taipei airport on that humid Asian morning. ‘Dang, I’m on the Other Side Of The World!’

Two more trips to China since then have demonstrated how fast the world is changing. The Internet has changed the US and Canada below the surface, but the exterior looks about the same. Not true in other places, though. Asia is modernizing at breakneck speed, the ‘first world’ is engulfing everything in its path, and every company (for that matter, every person!) competes in a Global market.

The mall at the Petronis towers didn’t look a whole lot different than Woodfield mall back in Chicago – the same brands like DKNY, Tag Heuer, Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and all the rest. Even in the far-flung reaches of the African savannah, you find Coca Cola, Nescafe and Fanta orange drink.

At the Beira Mozambique airport last year (think ‘edge of civilization’), Quincy Jones was playing over the PA system. The fingers of the first world reach into every corner of the planet now.

Globalization is a sort-of dirty word to some people. In the under-developed world, it implies lost languages and cultures, and in the modernized world it implies lost jobs. It certainly does bring a degree of ‘sameness’ to every city in the world, and it makes the rat race faster every year.

But there’s a good side to it, too.

In his book ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ Thomas Friedman talks about his ‘McDonalds peace theory.’ It states that no two nations with McDonalds have gone to war with one another.

There has been only one exception to this, and that’s Serbia in 1996. Not a perfect theory, but it does illustrate a point: When everyone’s got enough to eat, war is a lot less appealing.

So if the cost of world peace is cholesterol and happy meals, then I guess I can go along with that.

…And On to Singapore

This afternoon I arrived in Singapore, a one hour plane flight from KL. Man, this place is incredible. It’s flat-out the cleanest, most beautful and orderly city I’ve seen in Asia. I’ve come to expect a certain amount of ‘slop’ in anything Chinese, but not here. Singapore is one well-oiled machine. It’s the kind of place that *looks* expensive, but is really not.

Here’s a photo I took just a couple hours ago in Little India:

Singapore is highly recommended. Like Malaysia, it’s an eclectic mix of Chinese, East Indian, Thai and Western culture, all sloshing together in a fast-paced South Asia stir-fry. I’m told it’s a fantastic place to live, too.

Missing Z-Man

Well I’ve been on the road a week and a half, that’s a LONG time to be away from the family! I miss my wife and kids. And especially Z-Man.

Z-Man is my 4-month old boy Zander, and he’s got a smile that even the cold heart of Scrooge would warm up to. Two weeks in the life of a baby boy is a lot of time to miss!

After I left home, I found some old pics on my digital camera. Here’s a snapshot of Zander:

Give your own kids a hug and kiss for me.

Cheers,

Perry Marshall

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