Introduction to Malaysia

Malaysia is a middle income country, with GDP purchasing power parity of 447 billion, ranked 30 in the world according to GDP purchasing power parity (whatever that is!), with the European Union countries grouped into one and ranked 1 in the world, followed by USA, China, India etc... According to this ranking it is one place ahead of Nigeria and 4 behind South Africa. Population is 29 million, GDP per capita ranking 77 in the world..South Africa is 104 in the world, whilst Botswana is ranked higher at 72. (CIA World Factbook Malaysia 2/3/2012)

Malaysia's culture is a mixture Malay, Chinese and Indian culture, and these are the three main groups of  people in terms of population. (CIA- The World Factbook Malaysia 2/3/2012)

The Malaysian Flag (Pictured in Seremban)

The dominant religion in Malaysia is overwhelmingly Islam, though there is a good level of religous tolerance in personal life...

Road around Mantin

The infrastructure in Malaysia is well maintained, though not necessarily new. For example a visiting Dubai one notices that everything is new, and of course well maintained, but in Malaysia you notice that the roads, streets, railway system and some buildings are old, but they are generally in good working order. In my view, an opinion on how well a country is doing should not be made simply on the level of development in the country's business/political capital city, but rather on an assessment of the level of development all around the country. It is with this view I commenced writing this blog before a visit to Kuala Lumpur CBD to avoid this kind of bias. My first visit was to a regional capital of a state (province) close to Kuala Lumpur called Negeri Sembilan, Seremban, and to Mantin a small town within this state enroute to Seremban; something like Chivhu in Njanja as an example...er erm...being a Sinyoro you know :D, both of which are close to the university campus where I live. 



Mantin town, which is enroute to Seremban. No potholes or dust is sight, but maybe its because it rains 9/12 months everyday so there is green grass everywhere. But then how do you explain the absence of potholes when it rains like that?

Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan State

The only noticeable thing to dislike in the general urban environment is litter. Where I have travelled there is a serious problem with littering, used plastic bags, cans, bottles everywhere, which is not good. In this vein I notice how cleaner my beloved little rural hometown of Chivhu is compared to Mantin because in Zimbabwe we do not use as many plastic bags as they use here. If you buy for example one burger, it will be put in a box, then into a plastic bag, if you buy a 1 litre of Ceres fruit juice it will also be put in a plastic bag. And the plastic bag is not durable enough to use twice, and neither is it big enough to use a store of anything for some time. Now I understand why Francis Nhema had a law passed against free plastic bags in supermarkets, and the quality of the plastic bags. It goes a long way towards a good environment... er erm, i know some Zimbabweans are used to complaining every second on the clock and nothing can ever be done right by our government...time to appreciate eh.. next, culture shock...