| Looking at Kuala Lumpur, it's hard to believe that Malaysia
began as a fishing society of small villages along muddy river deltas.
Then Arabs, Chinese, and Europeans bumped into each other and decided
to build a country. The Arabs came first with their religion. The Chinese
and Europeans brought the trade. Money flowed in from the East-West trade,
continued to flow with oil, and converted the little fishing communities
into metropolises. The Malaysian face looks like a meeting of Indian/Chinese/Arab/European
ethnicity, people living in mega modern cities that envelop their mosques;
Islam framed by technology. The Malays use a Latin alphabet and have adopted
some English words, dropping "T's" whenever possible, so post
is pos and cent is sen. |
