The Stephen is out and about in Malaysia this week. I think that’s almost exactly halfway around the world from Moncton. He brings this post about culture, technology, and education that is exactly a propos of our emerging conversation.
Half an Hour: The Village on Stilts
I am not going to glamorize Malaysia – the country is far too complicated for that. Like Colombia, and like Lesotho, there is poverty. People struggle to make a living, even as glass and steel towers rise in the cities, even as the malls sell MacBooks and mobile phones. Perhaps my most enduring memory of Palau Ketam is not the old man weaving reeds around the shell of a chair or the women preparing seafood products on the floor of their house, but the sight of a flat-screen colour TV through the window of one of these houses. Poverty exists side by side with plenty, sometimes even in the same room.
Go read the whole thing.