Visa run in Penang

So I've found myself on the island of Penang, Malaysia. I dropped off paperwork this morning for another Thai visa which I should get back tomorrow at 2pm. My initial impression of the island is that I miss Chiang Mai. People were much friendlier in Chiang Mai. I also have a better understanding of the currency and the Thai language, whereas the language here again sounds like gibberish (square one again). I find that even with the little Thai I know, I can always use it to clear up a conversation when the person has a thick Thai accent. Here in Penang I can't do that. From what I've gathered from conversations with taxi (taksi) drivers, the Malay language is actually an English slang. A good comparison is what French, Italian, and Spanish were to Latin, Malay is to English. They became languages in much the same way that Malay has become a new language.

The most shocking thing about Penang is how multicultural it is. Chinese Buddhism next to Indian Hinduism with Muslims living in between them. Then there actually is a Christian presence also. I've talked with a Muslim taxi driver, a Hindi taxi driver and a random Hindi man on the seafront, and a Christian homeless man playing guitar on the street. Oddly enough I haven't talked to any Buddhists, possibly because they're mostly Chinese and, as one taxi driver was complaining, Chinese don't tend to learn English. I suppose there's so many of them that the don't need to, but I don't know. Another complaint was that Muslims didn't integrate with society. Rather, they tend to try forcing their culture on the rest of society. At dusk I can hear men chanting from the mosque a block away.

The homeless guitar playing Christian that I talked to was convinced (and trying to convince me) that Muslims were out to spread hate. Oddly, I sensed a gigantic hate against Muslims radiating from him, despite his agreement that Jesus intended us to love our enemies. I know it's easier for me to love Muslims since I've never lived among them, but I don't think it makes it any less true.

Tonight I got an expensive 12-inch sub at Subway and only ate half of it. Then when I was talking to the homeless guy I realized that he hadn't eaten today, so I forced him to take the rest of my sub (he tried to turn it away). I also gave him a little money. I suppose I did it because I got to talk to him a little bit. I don't usually give money to homeless people. I think it's partly the number of them, partly the proximity (I usually don't see many), and partly because I don't personally feel bad for them (by that I mean that I've never had any interaction with them, so they carry no emotional significance unlike a good friend). I read an interesting article about why the world needs more people like Bill Gates; it hypothesized that he's successful in philanthropy because he can conceive millions of oppressed people and not become daunted by the number like the rest of us. So I suppose I often see 10 people laying around on a particular street (with the obvious notion that they'll be sleeping there tonight) and walk past simply because there's 10 of them and not just one.

I was drinking a 1.5 liter bottle of water, but I saw an old woman lying on the street as well as some other men. I realized that I didn't need all that water, and water in Malaysia costs money (unlike the USA), so I gave it to her speaking as little as possible as she probably wouldn't understand me anyway. A man I was talking to today was saying that there are so many jobs in Penang that anyone who wants a job can just walk into the right place an have one. He said that Malays that don't work are just too lazy to work. So I'm not really sure about the ethics about giving a lazy man food and money, or giving a poor old homeless woman water to drink, but I feel like I did the right thing. For some reason it seem so much harder to help a homeless man when you're convinced he's homeless only because he's lazy. Since I'm not yet convinced that these people are lazy I might as well help them.