Perry Marshall in Singapore

September 8, 2004

A quiet night in Little India, Singapore

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

PS - That first trip to Taiwan and China
in 2001, you can read my travelogue, with
plenty of cool photos, at http://tannah.net/asia