I have always tried to express my thoughts as hilarious as I possibly can, as I believe there is always a lighter side to this thing called Life.

However I have decided to be a little philosophical about my life as a Malaysian, living in a now-semi-white Australia.

Consider the following scenario: 

"Hhhheeeeyyyy brother. How’s it going?" John asked when he accidentally bumped into Joseph on the street one fine weekend. Joseph has only met John a couple of times before as they both knew each other through their mutual friendship with Jim.

(Genuine Malaysians tend to stretch certain words to enforce rapport among fellow Malaysians or brother, which is a term reusable among friends with no blood ties or of similar ethnicity.)

"Aiyah… don’t talk about it lah! Damn shitty lah! So damn stress, man," Joseph replied as he shook his head in frustration.

It is unfortunate to say that sort of conversation above is common in Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, while some even insisted on Indonesia. Let us call these three countries the MSI.

In a country like Australia, most of the locals here insist on a proper work-life balance. A common misconception among MSIs, in general, is that this attitude is an excuse for laziness, which I understand is sometimes vented out of jealousy or a misunderstanding. Having been working in Brisbane for the past 1.5 years in an American consulting firm, the normal office hours is between 8am to 5pm. There are rare occasions where we have to work to 9pm, but again, that is very rare. The reason for us leaving home at 5pm is probably due to the lack of breaks we take during office hours, in comparison to what MSIs generally take. Practices like breakfast breaks, tea-time breaks, coffee breaks (and this is usually conducted with a meeting agenda in place) and other unnecessary breaks during office hours are not part of the societal norm here. We are expected to work the full 8 hours a day, as we are paid accordingly.

That being said, in response to a standard greeting of "Hey, how you doing?", almost any fellow Australians will gladly reply with a "I’m good, mate! How’s yourself?" instead of the usual approach that Joseph chose to reply in the above situation.

In my very honest opinion, MSIs do not often project enough of positivity in their daily lives. This problem could have probably started from as young as 6 year olds, where parents come back late from work with some undue mental stress and may project little of these negativities towards their children. MSIs sometimes over focus on these negativities and can often result in being construed as an act of conservation (conservative), as of the following scenario:

"Hhhheeeeyyyy brother! My girlfriend’s sister coming to KL tomorrow. She’s pretty and single. Why not we go out for makan* tomorrow together?" John bumped into his old pal Harry on the street.

"Wah, really ah? Don’t want to interrupt you all lah." Harry replied.

A foreigner may easily accept Harry’s reason, but really, do you think Harry’s spoken intentions can be assumed for face value? Perhaps shyness (which can be a product of conservativeness)? Or maybe not?

Another common attitude issue is the greeting between strangers in a public place like the shopping mall. Picture yourself in this scenario - you are walking in the mall, minding your own business; and all of a sudden, as you were walking past this dude, he smiled towards you and asked the friendliest question, "Hello. How are you?". I bet your ass this is the almost similar thought you are making up in your mind:

"What the hell? This bugger crazy or what? Must be gay or something."

Think about it. Email feedback to .

* a Malay word for "meal". 

Toileting helps me think - that’s why I’ve got heaps of magazines at the toilet side. Magazines that I’d even surprised myself. One of them I’m proud to admit to have in the pile was The Economist, December 20th 2005 edition!

If you’re about to ask, "Why the hell does this dude keep an obsolete version of such mags next to a toilet-bowl? (It’s not even a Playboy!)", I might have to get back to you on that. I’m not even a big fan of The Economist. The texts are way too small. We don’t see articles with over two pages, FRONT and BACK, in magazines like Sweet 18s or Girls Unlimited. Seriously, who wants to know the details of 135,000 Algerian kids who has the chicken pox? Do you? - I’m sorry for you.

On the brighter side of things, there was this article in The Economist that attempted to study further into Jonathan Gruber’s big question: Is Religion Good For You? His paper went on to imply that people who doubles their church attendance raises their income by a far cry of 10%.

How far from the truth is that?

In response to Gruber’s question, I haven’t been making heaps of money by going to church. As a matter of fact, I lose a fair bit more due to bus fares and worse, when all I’ve got is a $20 in my pocket for the collection box. I’ve fought off the temptation of putting in a $20 note and take back out $15. Really, has anyone of you done it before? (I’ll leave the Comments section open for you, collection-box-thieves!). I’ve wondered to myself the reason behind the collection boxes - I’ve concluded that they are a way of profitting off the people who are guilty for their sins and yet not brave enough to face the priest in a Confession Room. Thus logically, the more guilty one is, the more one would contribute to the collection box. On the other hand, I’d be contributing an advanced $20, knowing I wouldn’t be coming to church for another couple of months. It’s strange that we would rather spend $200 on a second-hand iPod than $20 for our soul in the after-life.

I’ve got a theory: the amount of money we contribute to the church determines the quality standard of our room in Heaven. For $20, you’d get a small corner right by the Gates of Heaven.

So, the main question is… how can religion help make you richer?

"Mr Gruber offers several possibilities. One plausible idea is that going to church yields “social capital”, a web of relationships that fosters trust. Economists think such ties can be valuable, because they make business dealings smoother and transactions cheaper. Churchgoing may simply be an efficient way of creating them.

Another possibility is that a church’s members enjoy mutual emotional and (maybe) financial insurance. That allows them to recover more quickly from setbacks, such as the loss of a job, than they would without the support of fellow parishioners. Or perhaps religion and wealth are linked through education. Mr Gruber’s results suggest that higher church attendance leads to more years at school and less chance of dropping out of college. A vibrant church might also boost the number of religious schools, which in turn could raise academic achievement.

Finally, religious faith itself might be the channel through which churchgoers become richer. Perhaps, Mr Gruber muses, the faithful may be “less stressed out” about life’s daily travails and thus better equipped for success." Wealth From Worship, "The Economist", Ed. December 20th 2005

So, who’s going to church this weekend?