(16 October 1998) A Malaysian Journal: Health concerns [ (C) Copyright 1998, D. Crocker, Brandenburg Consulting ] [ A series of notes on living and working in Malaysia, during Jackie's ] [ Fulbright Fellowship to Universiti Putra Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur. ] [ Copies may be freely distributed, but must retain this preamble. ] [ To (un)subscribe, send me a note. /Dave ] As responsible adults, we took the usual precautions before coming to Malaysia. At the clinic where we got our various shots, there was a map of the world, showing the distribution of the 5 or 10 major diseases. Pretty much all of them occur in Southeast Asia. The only comfort the medical experts offered us was to claim that most of these diseases were more prevalent in what locals call "outstation" venues, rather than in the cities. Whoopee. It does not take much effort to get pretty freaked out by the objective dangers. One can let the concerns dominate, and maybe be safe in the white bread cocoon of an American suburb. Heaven knows that option seemed pretty appealing to me at the start of this adventure. But news reports increasingly make that suburb look a lot less safe, and not nearly as much fun. So now I'm willing to eat in all sorts of restaurants that I wouldn't even look at when I first arrived. (Don't worry, there are still major limits.) For all that greater laxness since we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Jackie and I seem to have had only one, brief bout, each, of intestinal problems. Mine was in Geneva and hers was from eating canned French pate'. Go figure. KL does not get monsoons on the scale of the eastern side of the peninsula or Borneo. (A "super" typhoon just hit nearby at the northern Philipinnes and we'll get to see how big the difference is this weekend, with a 4-day trip to Sarawack, the southern of the 2 Malaysian states on the island.) But it is raining more around here and that has increased the bug population noticeable, renewing the question of disease. The maintenance staff came by and sprayed the apartment against mosquitos -- this of course made me wonder about the dangers of being around the spray. In any event, Jackie has found a trick to reduce our getting the usual array of bites while sleeping. She cranks down the room air conditioner and has the ceiling fan whipping things up thoroughly. We're stupid enough to stay in the room, but the mosquitos aren't. All this is reassuring, because one of the unwanted performances during the recent Commonwealth Games was a couple of cases of dengue fever, only a few miles from our apartment. If you don't know anything about it, keep it that way because it's one of the real bogeymen -- I think that was originally a Malay term -- of the disease world, right up there with the horrible Dustin Hoffman thriller, Outbreak. Anyhow I looked up some information about dengue fever, on the World Wide Web, and was amused to see that the fact page for dengue was prefaced with a story about some other exotic disease in Wisconsin. Nice of them help us keep things in perspective. Although perspective is sometimes not so helpful: The cover on the double water filter in the kitchen is see-through. We were told that it is supposed to get cleaned once a month, but the build-up is so intense we need to do it every 2 weeks. At least. The shower water isn't filtered and I keep having visions of the soap doing little more than making room for a fresh layer of dirt, deposited directly on my skin by the shower. Making room for a fresh layer of political leadership is likely to prove a more problematic health concern around here. No, nothing all that dramatic is evident. Daily life remains almost entirely unaffected and the local TV news still carries bits about the legal process. I said "almost". The Special Branch police were reportedly on campus, today, looking for pro-Anwar literature. We got this from two sources, one of whom is very credible. In fact the idea seems to make sure that everyone knows about the visit, so it serves as intimidation. Jackie says she never saw them. So as intimidation efforts go, I'm inclined to say that this seems to have had the same careful organizing and, ummmmm, execution of most Malaysian projects. An interesting World Wide Web sites indexing news and opposition views is . There are supposedly more demonstrations than reported in the general press, and certainly more than reported in Malaysian press, though nothing frequent. They are in the 3,000 - 10,000 size range rather than anything larger or more widespread. Anwar was moved out from under the Internal Securities Act retention, although some others are still held under it. The ISA has been touted among the world's press for its Draconian nature, but I've had the impression that Malaysia is not even close to unique with such a "national security" control law. Too bad. We're told that Mahathir's handling of a roughly similar crisis, ten years ago, included his going out of the country, leaving it in the hands of his deputy (not Anwar at that time, but part of the "problem" group.) Somehow a mass disturbance happened in the north end of the country during Mahathir's absence. (I wonder who started it?) When he returned he held his deputy accountable and fired him. Mahathir is out of the country this weekend and has been reported as saying that anyone wanting to take over the country should do it now, since there is no deputy prime minister. While that sounds like pretty nutsy thing for the head of state to say, one thought is that it would give him an excuse to declare marshal law, essentially giving him power for life. One explanation for a lack of tension, now, is the expectation of elections next year. The situation might therefore become extremely unstable if he found a way to eliminate those elections. For all that, Jackie and I suspect that the real and major health concern is from eating too well. It's not true that every meal is fabulous, but the hit rate is pretty darned high, including random selections in areas we are just passing through. A "banana leaf" Indian restaurant near us is a new favorite. Jackie scouted it some time ago and we ate there once or twice. For lunch they have something you might call an Indian dim sum... sort of. They put down a wide banana leaf for each person, throw a mound of rice on it, and then come by with your choice of fish or chicken curry -- sauce, not any meat. Then they walk by with a selection of curried tofu, cucumber/onion, dal and potato curry. After that there are platters of various fried fish and fried chicken that show up. You choose whatever you want. By local standards, it isn't cheap. Lunch today cost US$ 2.50 per person, including a shared glass of mango lassi -- liquid yogurt, totally necessary given the spiciness of the rest of the meal -- and a curried tapioca desert. Yes, I said curried. The really astounding meal there was a few nights ago. It set a new record: After some confusion trying to read the menu we discovered they made "dhosa" which are very large, very thin pancakes. You can get them plain, and dip them in lentil dal sauce or a couple of other thick sauces. Masala dhosa has a curried potato filling. It was all fabulous, except for the warm lime juice -- warm because they boil the water they add and we don't get ice -- which was a lousy choice with all that spice. The meal cost US$ 0.50 person. We had them recalculate it twice, much to their amusement. d/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dave Crocker Tel: +60 (19) 3299 445 Post Office Box 296, U.P.M. Serdang, Selangor 43400 MALAYSIA Brandenburg Consulting Tel: +1 (408) 246 8253 Fax: +1(408)246 8253 675 Spruce Dr., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA