I had some free time these few days, and I spend it analysing statistics I have on you, dear readers. The most surprising piece of fact is: if I divide page views by the number of visitors from any one country, Russia is the champion: the figure is 44.0 pages/ visitor. I take my hat off to you, my readers from Russia. It is extremely complimentary and yet humbling. Thank you for your encouragement!
Apart from reading a few translated Russian novels, I don't know much about Russia. Yet by the looks of things, quite a few Russians probably could paint quite an accurate picture of Malaysia from reading my blog. For such a huge country, it is amazing that the inhabitants are good in second and third languages.
A few years ago I read a book my brother, the globetrotter, purchased. It was written by a Western writer who travelled by train from the eastern tip of Russia to the extreme west. He spent many nights in little towns as well as big cities. During the few months I kept the travel log, I actually read it twice because the writer was able to bring the people he met across to me. Sad to say, I did not keep that book. Most books came in, I enjoyed reading them, and then I passed them on to other booklovers.
One thing Malaysia and Russia have in common is graft. Malaysia is resource rich, if managed properly, it should be richer than Singapore and Scandinavian countries. However, when I left Sabah more than a year ago, some aborigine folks living in the city are living on two meals a day because real income in terms of purchasing power is outpaced by inflation. A beautiful land with petroleum, minerals, palm oil, fish, ... yet a vast majority of the income was stripped by federal demands. We, in the capital, enjoy wonderful infrastructure but in many cities and towns in Sabah and Sarawak it was like a time capsule from my childhood in the late sixties. It is very sad!
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