Talk About Multiculturalism!

     On August 31, Malaysia celebrated its 55th anniversary of becominging a nation.  What a short little life that seems to be, even compared to a relatively young country like the USA.  Maybe that's why the Malaysians show such an abundance of national pride -- they're kind of new at it.  So, I went out on one of my weekend motorbike jaunts just to see what I could see.  I wandered into a very local department store called MyDin.  I didn't find much to buy myself, but this trio of young clerks warmed my heart.  (They dutifully asked permission from their supervisor before they agreed to be photographed.)


    
        Outside the local police headquarters were also festooned with the Malaysian flag.  In my country, black and white are the colors of police forces, mostly, but here it's blue and white.  In front of the HQ, a fellow was unfurling Chinese flags in preparation for some upcoming festival or event.

Raising Chinese festival flag in front of Police HQ

What local men wear to prayers

Burning of paper offerings for the "Hungry Ghosts"

      Closer to  home and within one square block, I saw the incredible diversity that makes Penang such a fascinating place to live. There's a nice little complex that has Starbucks and Subway, banks and a fitness center upstairs.  Out front there was a fully black-enshrouded woman holding her iPad to her ear, apparently calling her husband to come and pick her up.  She was standing in front of a local bank where all the employees had come out on their lunch hour to make food offerings and burn paper effigies to appease the "Hungry Ghosts."                     

       

A little Indian girl in her finery

 



There's an Indian temple right next to the

Starbucks complex. Their uncaged chickens occasionally wander over into the parking lot there.  On this day a little Indian gal all decked out in her holiday finery was heading there with her mother, presumably to eat at Kapitan, a pretty humble Indian restaurant with some of the finest-tasting food in all of Penang, if you ask me.  Cheap, too!

         
 Across the way, there's a new Muslim mosque.  It went up right next to the street.  This doesn't seem to trouble the Muslim men who pray there, but it surely does bother some of the expat residents of the high-rise apartment complexes nearby. They resent the calls to prayer that are broadcast via LOUD loudspeakers five times a day, every day.  The mosque went up amazingly quickly, a fact that seems to be attributed to the fact that Malaysia is a Muslim country, with all that that implies.  Out in front of the mosque a trio of men were discussing important world issues, no doubt.  I'm not positive, but they seem to be Indian and Muslim.  

   Then, between the mosque and the Immaculate Conception Church next to our condo, you can see the stupa of the Thai Reclining Buddha Temple, and there's a Burmese temple across the way. 

    Now that's what I call living and breathing multiculturalism!