Lessons from the UK: Part 2

On the other hand, my experience also tells me that even a developed country has its own problems. In my 13 months in the UK, I’ve seen……

1. misuse of public funds
Just earlier this year several members of parliaments were caught misusing taxpayers’ money for personal purposes, e.g. paying own loan’s instalment and buying own cars. Some of them made public apologies. Some resigned. Some returned the money.

2. over-commercialisation
Almost everything are franchised, even convenience stores. Whichever city i went to within the UK, I saw the same stores. Hardly can see any shop that exists on its own. On the contrary, in Malaysia in each city / town you will get certain shops that are famous for something locally, e.g. food. Lack of variety & creativity is one thing, but it makes staying in a city loses its appeal. If not because of UK’s ability to preserve their historical buildings and promote purpose-built tourism sites, I think all UK cities will look identical in alot of ways. It makes the cities losing their ‘warmth’ to certain extent.

3. very little greens.
Probably due to the weather or a result of previous industrialisation. There are very little trees / forest areas like what I have seen here. Also, food wise, choices of vegetables are very limited, becasuse of what happened in No 4 below.

4. people giving up on agriculture as a source of living.
You can hardly find any fresh food market anywhere in the UK nowadays. If there are, they open only once a week during weekends.  There is this ex-farmer that I got to talk to, who now grows grasses on his farm to be sold as cattle food. He said when he was young there were lots of markets where farmers brought their produces to sell (like our pasars). However, more and more hypermarkets drove them out of business, not only by direct competition but through ‘dirty tricks’ as he described – these hypermarkets first bought the farmer’s produces by contract, then pushed them to minimise the prices while demanding an increase in production. Because these hypermarkets are much more resourceful, they always manage to get fresh food from somewhere else and can afford to sell them at low prices. This leaves the local farmers with no market (no choice) but to succumb to the hypermarket’s demand. As far as i know, UK is now a net importer of vegetables, and consumers have little choice on fresh food and have to get most things from those hypermarkets. This probably explains why they are expensive in the country. Looking at the mushrooming of hypermarkets in Malaysia within 1 year,  i’m starting to get worried too…sighhh…

5. heaps of  alcohol misuse problem.
Alcohol misuse is great issue in the UK, especially among youngsters. Imagine local government putting up posters at bus stops to remind their youngsters (particularly girls) not to walk back alone after drinking at night, it’s THAT prevalent. Worse still, they don’t think it is an issue. Although some of them do, but still drink anyway.
During weekends you can see tonnes of people flooding pubs and clubs. Some of those who are drunk will just lie sleeping on the street. A local friend said weekends are the busiest for hospitals because there are often cases of alcohol-related injuries or acute diseases. And yeah, because of that ambulance sirens are common on weekends. The government has been trying to correct this by e.g. increasing the price of alcohol but faces strong objections from the public, including students, as alcohols are so ingrained in the people’s culture. Malaysians are somehow very sensitive towards the word ‘alchol’ and often associate it with Islam. Well, alcohol is not just related to Islam culture.

6. high tax.
Could never imagine myself paying a double digit of tax. Friends working there told me that income tax alone is about 20%, + some other form of taxes, almost 30% are  gone from your monthly income. Of course, you get to enjoy social benefits but you would better pray that the government would use it wisely. I believe high taxes are what allows the UK to become a ‘nanny’ state.

Of course, the list of problems can go on and on, some of which I did and do not really apprehend.

But they do tell me one thing: staying in a developed country doesnt equal to staying in an ideal society which will be free from e.g. social ills, bad politics, etc.

Those people who idolizes living in the western society so much
& choose to migrate seem slightly irrational now.

While those who always criticised and call the country irreparable
without actually doing something to correct the situation seem very shallow now.

If we think the place we are living in is bad in this and that,
what have we done to change it,
besides running away and just crying with no action?

Of course, everybody has their own limited capacity, but if most people choose to play their own small parts, our society can be a much better place to live in.

In the past, I doubt normal citizens like us have little role to play in the society. Several things I have encountered and several people I have met in the past months after returning from the UK change my mind.