Bye bye Asia

01/07/11

We are mainly spending the day in airports or in the sky. We go from Bali to Singapore wait there for 7 hours and then fly back over Bail to Oz. So in all a boring day where the main excitement has been complaining about the 10 quid departure tax from Bali... its not like we got in for free they charged us for that too! It is also our wedding anniversary today. Where has two years gone? Well as always we are enjoying life and living it to the full.

As we leave Asia today here are James thoughts on the last few months in Asia...

Thoughts on Asia

I will apologise now if my words come across as naïve or indeed offensive to people. I am sure that those more cultured and travelled than myself will find my ideas far from nuanced and/or rather blunt. I recognise that trying to describe Asia and Asians is like trying to describe Europe and Europeans. Indeed, you can find many differences between Mancunians and the Liverpudlians and they are only 40 minutes down the road.

These are my musings about what I have seen and thought in my 5 months in SE Asia. Please remember that this is my first time in Asia and that I am a white working class lad (he he he – such butch!) who had one non-white person in the entire of his school (not class or year) and who spent my first 18 years in the rather traditional conservative semi-autonomous republic of the City of York (in the bad-lands of Acomb!). So, bear with me. I feel a little like I am just learning about the world.

First a word about the word Asian. To the UK populace it tends to mean, for want of a better description, brown people. This means usually Indians or Pakistanis – if those words were actually used (unfortunately these people are sometimes lumped together and described less than politely) - everyone else is Chinese. Asian in the US means, I understand, what the Brits describe as Chinese. Quite confusing and I am not sure which is more accurate. Certainly for the sake of simplicity and ethnic diversity monitoring forms of course, things have been a little dumbed down.

I find it difficult to do this any longer, to group people together without so much as an attempt at precision is just meaningless. And to reserve Asian for those of the Indian sub-continent, leaving Chinese for the, well Chinese, leaves my vocabulary at little short to describe everybody else. Yes I know they are Vietnamese, Laotian (or Lao), Thai, Malaysian (or Malay) et cetera, but I have really struggled to describe large-scale the people I have met on travel. This is complicated by large ethic minority populations that, in the UK, would make the Daily Mail self-combust. This is before considering cultural identity, nationality and everything else that makes us who we are. Perhaps I worry too much, and accept people for what they are, or rather deem it an unimportance.

And no they really don’t all look the same at all – I had heard this a thousand times at school, and, forgive me, still half believed it before coming travelling. No more than Europeans with our big noses and tall height – and big cocks (Thai’s obsessed with this). They can have common features indeed, reduced variation in hair colour comes to mind (though dying it ginger seems to be fashionable) but I can much more accurately guess someone’s ethic heritage now. Skin colour guides me to country or region but also bizarrely to wealth. Being tanned not a good thing you see – the preponderance of whitening creams available soon tells you that, and low paid outdoor work can soon make you a bit walnutty. Shape of nose and eyes also helps, and to a degree style of dress and general demeanour.

I am also interested in how westerners are viewed by Asians; I suppose to see if the humorous stereotypes are still there. These conversations are sometimes enlightening. People seem to view Britain and/or Europe as some sort of earthly utopia, rose-tinted spectacles combined with nostalgia at its worst. This has led (especially Thailand I found) to a certain passiveness to the fate of their life’s and/or their country. For the poor they have made it when then can get together with a European, other options discarded. This is not helped by maintenance of the myth by feather bedded Farang that the locals are lucky to be with them.

Yes Europe is comparatively richer but the expectations about our lives and the desire for a western existence feel almost painful at times. I am so tempted to tell lies about just how awful England is (Oh yes the civil war killed five thousand last week). We are all viewed to be very rich – as if either we don’t have to work, or that travelling/holidays are a normal aspect of our daily lifestyle as opposed to something saved and rationed for. I find their ideas about my wealth uncomfortable and it’s impossible to explain without coming across as complaining. Bizarrely there is also, especially in India, some residual respect, in an upstairs/downstairs sense at least, for the western man and even affection reserved for the British – railways and water/sewerage were mentioned numerous times. We are certainly viewed more positively than other nations especially the US. I am glad though amazed at this, British history is hardly something to be proud of at times.

The burgeoning development of SE Asia is certainly occurring within a completely different world structure. I feel you could look at this historically, when western and developed countries developed, there was no-one more ahead than us, we did it our way, and did things (UK oak forest anyone?) that we condemn others for now. I feel sometimes Asians look at their own countries and feel overwhelmed by the challenges they face, corruption levels, poverty, pollution, and the more educated aided by modern transport and the global workplace (and the European myth) can move on and work and live elsewhere. Or they do things our way, which doesn’t really work, within their own culture and stage of development. Or, they can live and work where they are, isolated in a middle class bubble that I feel is more encased than the UK. Gucci watches next to shitting on the street, makes me incredibly uncomfortable. We certainly seem to worry more about social imbalance and the rich-poor divide than the average Asian I have met. That said, the scale, scope and simple stupendousness of Asian development, where is does happen, regularly left me in awe.

Interestingly Asians view us as a rather odd and eccentric lot. They are either suspicious of our western ways - poorly cultured, non-religious heathens so we are. Cautiously intrigued or excited – aren’t all Western girls sluts? Embarrassed or semi-admonishing, with a casual roll of the eyes - we always seem to be doing things somehow wrong, eating, drinking, shoes, toilets come to mind. Almost laughably obvious financial predators – casually ripping tourists off as and when they are able, but with a certain respect given and relationship formed with those who know the score and usually price. Endearingly naïve of the nature, role and function of the western world – food stuffs, nuances of job titles and roles (makes me feel most UK jobs are pretty pointless – you work in hospital you doctor or help doctor that’s it), weather, government, police, everything. Not limited to Asians of course, westerners guilty of many of these things just as much – I certainly didn’t know where Laos was till started travel planning – who knew it is the most bombed country in the world? - and taxi drivers are bastards the world over. In many ways, widespread gruelling poverty aside (we are poorer in many ways than Asians) Asia is such an attractive place to be, perhaps because it is just so different.

But the world is changing – or has it already changed. I remember at school as we played the world trade game in RE (developed countries had the scissors (high price), developing countries had the paper (low price) so that it was difficult for the poor countries to win) – a pupil commenting that the UK will always be rich and things will always be the same. Such arrogance in a way but not an uncommon thought. The balance of power in the world is shifting to the east, helped by technological development and rising populations, though obvious problems can be created by this. India now has a population of 1.2 billion and as people move from village to city the capacity simply is not there for them. But the sear potential of these nations to innovate means they will move quickly through the “value chain”. I believe the BBC has a series coming out shortly with the provocative ad-picture of a shirt label printed “Designed in China/Made in Italy”.

Asia bizarrely seems to have made me become more conservative regarding the welfare state. I will try and explain. Though I feel a country should support those who fail for whatever reason with a safety net, there should be an expectation that you get back on your feet. This is a subject in itself, but some of the dynamism and drive and need to succeed that exists in Asia in due to the need to look after oneself and family. Stopping, giving up, relying on others, except in the most debilitating circumstances, is just not an option, neither practical or positively ideological. We in the UK have become too dependent, too blame orientated, looking to the state for help and assistance (and expecting and demanding it) rather than looking to local families, communities, yourself. The UK has a complex history of benefit dependency (as separate to the “benefits culture”) which is not easily unravelled and not solved by simply removing benefits, but there must be better ways of removing people from poverty than the state propping them up with cash handouts. We seem a little lost as a nation, what do we do, what we do stand for?

Building on this I am also concerned about the lack of pride and lack of status there is now to be had from working in a real job that provides real benefit to the state and its people. Why would educated people (and a higher education is now much more widespread) become school teachers, police, nurses, firefighters or council officials when they can be paid much more becoming bankers and private HR “consultants”? Public sector workers in particular do not seem to command the respect of the UK populace any more (“gold plated pensions”/”not in touch with real world” - that one really gets my goat). I can accept low wages in a public spirited enterprise (the NHS is just about) but why would I accept them working for Care UK PLC when someone with my depth of knowledge, skills and education, following a different career path (banking, business, accountancy, law etc) is in a very different place financially? An Asian bus driver or road sweeper takes pride in their work and pride in their country and a job well done. Having a job, any job, is valued, in order to support their families. What have we lost?

Perhaps we are just too safe in the UK, nothing that demands the Dunkirk spirit, whatever that is or was. When as a popular comedian said, when we are complaining about 2 weekly bin collections (and riots when a new Tesco tries to open!) we really have nothing to complain about at all. But comfort breeds complacency. Our role and function in the world is far from assured. Asia provides a threat but also opportunities, if only we could shake off our sense of entitlement.

I have loved and hated Asia, often both within the same day. It is an area of outstanding beauty as well as overwhelming filth. Fascinating and generally lovely people as well as the occasional shark. Care, compassion and manners with a splash of “scream inside your head” inefficiency and general inept-nous. It is a place that makes you stop and think. It can make you feel big, it can make you feel small. Traveling on a budget has been a blessing and a curse – through basic, local accommodations I felt we have better understood the local culture and way of living, with the notable disadvantage of generalised discomfort, back and neck pain, and dreams bordering on the erotic of a deep hot bath. I am writing these final words awaiting a flight to Australia. I really don’t want to go. I want to start over again, though perhaps doing it slower still. Asia. You crazily enduring frustrating area of the world. We will be back. Please don’t change.