I have been painting a dark picture of Malaysian living, I want to be sure everyone knows that Malaysia is a great place to live and if I am comparing it to Canada thats only because Canada is what I know, understand and is my only frame of reference.
I lived in Canada for the first 40 years of my life and of course I will naturally make comparisons, that said, Canada is more "Socially" different than Malaysia in so many ways.
For example, every house here has bars on their windows, doors and any place where someone might break into the house, subdivisions like the one where I live has barbed wire fences and patrolling guards. Do I think that Malaysia is so bad that we need this level of security? no, but I come from Canada so my frame of reference is so different. This is a Social difference, I think, but I'm no Sociologist.
I have, in my old age, developed a shoe fetish, not as bad as my dads, yet. Why am I telling you this? Well when we first moved into a new place that had an actual front yard and a drive and a little garden, you get the picture, not an apartment. The day we moved in and stayed the night, I left a brand new (Less than a week old) pair of casual deck shoes beside the front door and a pair of cheap non-leather shoes beside them, also new. Well in the night someone came and took a pair of shoes, can you guess which pair? Of course they took the RM400 leather shoes and not the RM100 crappy shoes and yes they were both brand new! You might be thinking that I'm an idiot and should have known better, right? Well the front 6 foot high gate was locked and had these little spikes on top of it, so I thought they couldn't go that way. The wall that ran around the front yard had glass embedded in the top of it, so I figured no one could get in that way. I was wrong.
So you see, it's not that Malaysia is full of thieves that thrive on idiots like me, its just that my frame of reference is different than Malaysians and they know that anything left outside is subject to being taken and sold, yep they steal the shoes to sell them. I have since learned not to leave shoes outside, at least not shoes that someone might like, I happily leave my nice new shiny pink flip flops on the drive, hoping someone will steal them.
Since I'm already talking about thieves, I might as well share my other encounters, yes more than one, I should know better right?
The shoe incident was the first, and comically the most expensive and painful. I think I have mentioned "Snatch Thefts" before, but I'll remind you. A "Snatch Theft" is when someone on a motorcycle/scooter rides past someone with a bag and snatches it, this is a very popular crime in Malaysia and I have personally seen a number of people fall victim to it, myself included. It is very similar to "Purse snatching" but the thief is usually not on foot (Asians don't run if they can help it, they will push you out of the way in a heartbeat though).
Well anyway, I was standing in front of my office building at about 7 o'clock (its already dark at 7 but my office was in one of the nicest areas of KL) and I was waiting for my wife to meet me, so I was on the sidewalk. I opened my phone to read an incoming SMS and as I started to read the message the phone disappeared from my hand. I stood there staring at my hand for what seemed like an hour, but it couldn't have been more than a second. When I finally realized what happened I looked up to see a kid jump on the back of a waiting scooter, the driver was patiently waiting on side of the road, and race off. I honestly started to laugh, I didn't even give chase or throw something, I didn't have anything to throw, all I managed to do was scream "It's a piece of shit stupid" at the scooter racing away. There were a handful of other people on the street with me, did any of them say anything, nope, but they did look at me like I was insane.
The funny thing about the whole situation was that normally I notice scooters, especially after being hit twice, but I didn't hear this one, these guys were actually pretty smart, their scooter had a muffler, most don't. I'm now suspicious when I see quiet scooters, especially when there are 2 guys on it.
The second time I was walking across a one lane bridge to get to my car, the bridge has a sidewalk separating the road from the sidewalk, with a low 2 foot wall. I was carrying my laptop in my backpack like I always do, because I was on the left side of the road it was slung on my left shoulder, away from the road! You always carry bags on the side away from the road. There are always a lot of scooters using this bridge because it was a faster way to get to the other side of the freeway than if they went the 20 blocks and made a u-turn. So I wasn't paying to much attention to scooter traffic, remember I was on the side walk with a 2 foot wall between me and the road and my bag was I thought far enough away from the road to be safe.
The first thing I noticed was a pull on my bag, but it felt like someone bumped into me, so I just looked over my left shoulder to see who was trying to get past. There wasn't anyone there. I don't remember hitting the ground, or hanging onto my bag, but I remember the sound of someone sliding on the road and something bouncing on the road. When I got up I saw the scooter that I thought clipped me, stopped and the rider was looking back at me. I was about to give him the finger when I realized there was someone on the road, now I thought someone was hurt, I actually thought I should help the guy.
I started to walk over to the guy on the ground, I still didn't realize they were trying to snatch my bag. As soon as the guy saw me walking towards him, he got up and stared running for the guy on the bike, but the guy on the bike had a different idea and took off. It all clicked in my head as the guy got up, and I started running after him, why, I have no idea. As I was running after him I saw his helmet on the road, this is what I heard bouncing down the road, I scooped it up in one hand and threw it as hard as I could at the guy, who by now had made it to the stairs on the other side. Of course I missed him, but I felt pretty good for trying, at least for a few seconds.
When I started to think about it I figure what happened was the guy on the back of the scooter reached over the low cement wall and tried to grab the bag, but couldn't get a grip, but when I turned to see who was behind me, I put the bag pretty much right in his hand and because he had to reach out so far to clear the wall, he was already way over balanced. I also held onto the bag pretty tight and I weighed close to double what he did, so when the driver took off, I actually pulled the kid off the scooter and we both went down on the road. I was pretty scared when I realized what was going on, but I was so relieved that they didn't get my laptop and all the other things I carried in my bag. Amazingly, nothing was damaged in the bag, so Belkin you get my nod when I buy another bag.
A couple of days later 2 guys on a scooter were killed on the bridge trying to grab a bag, they drove head on into a car going the right way across the bridge, it was most likely the same 2 kids, one of the kids went under the wheels of the car and the other hit his head on the cement wall. Both were wearing helmets, but the chin straps were undone, so the fell off. The sad thing is that both of these boys were supposedly from good families and weren't stealing for the money, apparently for the thrill.
Now could all of these events have happened in Canada, of course they could. Would all of these events be in the papers if they happened in Edmonton, probably, because we would have called the police. Here there is little use, the cell phone I lost was worth maybe $30 Cdn, and was replaced on the way home. If I had hurt more than my manly pride I would have called the police, but sadly they would have done little, maybe(!) taken a report, but would never have actively searched for the thieves. All of the "Expats" I know or have spoken to, have had similar experiences, some much worse but all know someone or have had a bag snatched. Its a growth market in KL, its easy and the targets are usually women, caucasian, that look like tourists.
I have been told that most of these cases involve addicts and that the RM50 they can get for a stolen phone, will buy enough heroin to keep them going for a day or so and most if not all of the scooters used are stolen.
Like I said earlier, this could easily have happened in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, New York or a hundred other big cities in North America, but it has never happened to me, so my frame of reference is being adjusted and when I go back to Canada I will still look over my shoulder to see if a scooter is coming the wrong way or I will wait till I'm sure there are no cars coming even when I have the green light, because my frame of reference has been changed to the Malaysian way of looking at everything. My frame of reference is still different than Malaysians, they would simply shrug it off, complain to anyone that would listen and blame the whole thing on Indonesians working in Malaysia. Thats how its done here, blame the whole thing on someone else, its an art form.
I blame myself for not paying attention, and watching for the signs that something could happen, I'm much more careful now and I'll continue to be for a long time.
As a side note, the media has pretty much stopped reporting snatch thefts, I think they have been pressured to limit it because it could affect tourism and has in the past. I can think of at least two cases in the last 6 years that the victims were killed, both by being knocked down. There was one case where a bunch of guys thought they caught a snatch thief and beat him, turns out the got the wrong guy. One thing I have found very interesting, maybe disturbing is a better word, is that the few times I have witnessed snatch thefts, no bystanders tried to catch the thief, in incident the scooter hit a bystander and the bystander just got out of the way?
The high traffic areas in Bukit Bintang, the cities tourist center are supposedly the worst ares, but I have never seen one in this area, I saw 2 in Bangsar, which 10 years ago was the main expat area, and another 2 in the are where my office is, Dmansara Heights, which is also a high expat area. The thieves aren't stupid, they know that tourists carry a lot of cash and are not prepared for a theft.
All in all it's not as bad as this post makes it sound, I would prefer them to snatch a bag than rob me at knife point or gun point, either is likely to end much worse for the victims.
I lived in Canada for the first 40 years of my life and of course I will naturally make comparisons, that said, Canada is more "Socially" different than Malaysia in so many ways.
For example, every house here has bars on their windows, doors and any place where someone might break into the house, subdivisions like the one where I live has barbed wire fences and patrolling guards. Do I think that Malaysia is so bad that we need this level of security? no, but I come from Canada so my frame of reference is so different. This is a Social difference, I think, but I'm no Sociologist.
I have, in my old age, developed a shoe fetish, not as bad as my dads, yet. Why am I telling you this? Well when we first moved into a new place that had an actual front yard and a drive and a little garden, you get the picture, not an apartment. The day we moved in and stayed the night, I left a brand new (Less than a week old) pair of casual deck shoes beside the front door and a pair of cheap non-leather shoes beside them, also new. Well in the night someone came and took a pair of shoes, can you guess which pair? Of course they took the RM400 leather shoes and not the RM100 crappy shoes and yes they were both brand new! You might be thinking that I'm an idiot and should have known better, right? Well the front 6 foot high gate was locked and had these little spikes on top of it, so I thought they couldn't go that way. The wall that ran around the front yard had glass embedded in the top of it, so I figured no one could get in that way. I was wrong.
So you see, it's not that Malaysia is full of thieves that thrive on idiots like me, its just that my frame of reference is different than Malaysians and they know that anything left outside is subject to being taken and sold, yep they steal the shoes to sell them. I have since learned not to leave shoes outside, at least not shoes that someone might like, I happily leave my nice new shiny pink flip flops on the drive, hoping someone will steal them.
Since I'm already talking about thieves, I might as well share my other encounters, yes more than one, I should know better right?
The shoe incident was the first, and comically the most expensive and painful. I think I have mentioned "Snatch Thefts" before, but I'll remind you. A "Snatch Theft" is when someone on a motorcycle/scooter rides past someone with a bag and snatches it, this is a very popular crime in Malaysia and I have personally seen a number of people fall victim to it, myself included. It is very similar to "Purse snatching" but the thief is usually not on foot (Asians don't run if they can help it, they will push you out of the way in a heartbeat though).
Well anyway, I was standing in front of my office building at about 7 o'clock (its already dark at 7 but my office was in one of the nicest areas of KL) and I was waiting for my wife to meet me, so I was on the sidewalk. I opened my phone to read an incoming SMS and as I started to read the message the phone disappeared from my hand. I stood there staring at my hand for what seemed like an hour, but it couldn't have been more than a second. When I finally realized what happened I looked up to see a kid jump on the back of a waiting scooter, the driver was patiently waiting on side of the road, and race off. I honestly started to laugh, I didn't even give chase or throw something, I didn't have anything to throw, all I managed to do was scream "It's a piece of shit stupid" at the scooter racing away. There were a handful of other people on the street with me, did any of them say anything, nope, but they did look at me like I was insane.
The funny thing about the whole situation was that normally I notice scooters, especially after being hit twice, but I didn't hear this one, these guys were actually pretty smart, their scooter had a muffler, most don't. I'm now suspicious when I see quiet scooters, especially when there are 2 guys on it.
The second time I was walking across a one lane bridge to get to my car, the bridge has a sidewalk separating the road from the sidewalk, with a low 2 foot wall. I was carrying my laptop in my backpack like I always do, because I was on the left side of the road it was slung on my left shoulder, away from the road! You always carry bags on the side away from the road. There are always a lot of scooters using this bridge because it was a faster way to get to the other side of the freeway than if they went the 20 blocks and made a u-turn. So I wasn't paying to much attention to scooter traffic, remember I was on the side walk with a 2 foot wall between me and the road and my bag was I thought far enough away from the road to be safe.
The first thing I noticed was a pull on my bag, but it felt like someone bumped into me, so I just looked over my left shoulder to see who was trying to get past. There wasn't anyone there. I don't remember hitting the ground, or hanging onto my bag, but I remember the sound of someone sliding on the road and something bouncing on the road. When I got up I saw the scooter that I thought clipped me, stopped and the rider was looking back at me. I was about to give him the finger when I realized there was someone on the road, now I thought someone was hurt, I actually thought I should help the guy.
I started to walk over to the guy on the ground, I still didn't realize they were trying to snatch my bag. As soon as the guy saw me walking towards him, he got up and stared running for the guy on the bike, but the guy on the bike had a different idea and took off. It all clicked in my head as the guy got up, and I started running after him, why, I have no idea. As I was running after him I saw his helmet on the road, this is what I heard bouncing down the road, I scooped it up in one hand and threw it as hard as I could at the guy, who by now had made it to the stairs on the other side. Of course I missed him, but I felt pretty good for trying, at least for a few seconds.
When I started to think about it I figure what happened was the guy on the back of the scooter reached over the low cement wall and tried to grab the bag, but couldn't get a grip, but when I turned to see who was behind me, I put the bag pretty much right in his hand and because he had to reach out so far to clear the wall, he was already way over balanced. I also held onto the bag pretty tight and I weighed close to double what he did, so when the driver took off, I actually pulled the kid off the scooter and we both went down on the road. I was pretty scared when I realized what was going on, but I was so relieved that they didn't get my laptop and all the other things I carried in my bag. Amazingly, nothing was damaged in the bag, so Belkin you get my nod when I buy another bag.
A couple of days later 2 guys on a scooter were killed on the bridge trying to grab a bag, they drove head on into a car going the right way across the bridge, it was most likely the same 2 kids, one of the kids went under the wheels of the car and the other hit his head on the cement wall. Both were wearing helmets, but the chin straps were undone, so the fell off. The sad thing is that both of these boys were supposedly from good families and weren't stealing for the money, apparently for the thrill.
Now could all of these events have happened in Canada, of course they could. Would all of these events be in the papers if they happened in Edmonton, probably, because we would have called the police. Here there is little use, the cell phone I lost was worth maybe $30 Cdn, and was replaced on the way home. If I had hurt more than my manly pride I would have called the police, but sadly they would have done little, maybe(!) taken a report, but would never have actively searched for the thieves. All of the "Expats" I know or have spoken to, have had similar experiences, some much worse but all know someone or have had a bag snatched. Its a growth market in KL, its easy and the targets are usually women, caucasian, that look like tourists.
I have been told that most of these cases involve addicts and that the RM50 they can get for a stolen phone, will buy enough heroin to keep them going for a day or so and most if not all of the scooters used are stolen.
Like I said earlier, this could easily have happened in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, New York or a hundred other big cities in North America, but it has never happened to me, so my frame of reference is being adjusted and when I go back to Canada I will still look over my shoulder to see if a scooter is coming the wrong way or I will wait till I'm sure there are no cars coming even when I have the green light, because my frame of reference has been changed to the Malaysian way of looking at everything. My frame of reference is still different than Malaysians, they would simply shrug it off, complain to anyone that would listen and blame the whole thing on Indonesians working in Malaysia. Thats how its done here, blame the whole thing on someone else, its an art form.
I blame myself for not paying attention, and watching for the signs that something could happen, I'm much more careful now and I'll continue to be for a long time.
As a side note, the media has pretty much stopped reporting snatch thefts, I think they have been pressured to limit it because it could affect tourism and has in the past. I can think of at least two cases in the last 6 years that the victims were killed, both by being knocked down. There was one case where a bunch of guys thought they caught a snatch thief and beat him, turns out the got the wrong guy. One thing I have found very interesting, maybe disturbing is a better word, is that the few times I have witnessed snatch thefts, no bystanders tried to catch the thief, in incident the scooter hit a bystander and the bystander just got out of the way?
The high traffic areas in Bukit Bintang, the cities tourist center are supposedly the worst ares, but I have never seen one in this area, I saw 2 in Bangsar, which 10 years ago was the main expat area, and another 2 in the are where my office is, Dmansara Heights, which is also a high expat area. The thieves aren't stupid, they know that tourists carry a lot of cash and are not prepared for a theft.
All in all it's not as bad as this post makes it sound, I would prefer them to snatch a bag than rob me at knife point or gun point, either is likely to end much worse for the victims.
No comments:
Post a Comment