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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bosco who wrote (6077)	9/1/1998 3:07:00 PM
From: peter michaelson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Along these lines, Stitch & Bosco, a broad generalized distinction among the new tiger countries is Muslim vs. Buddhist. I find it to be a useful analytical distinction, probably because it coincides with Malay/Polynesian vs. Mainland. Now, don't anyone accuse me of racial prejudice or my buddies and I will seek you out and firebomb your house!! Peter

To: Bosco who wrote (6077)	9/1/1998 7:42:00 PM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 9980

Bosco; <<My point simply to say one cannot lump all SE Asian countries/economies together. Each has its own set of problems and potentials.>> Yes, I agree, I have argued this point many times with clients, here on the threads, and in other forums. They differ dramatically. The illustration I like to use is what does a Tibetan monk, a Shanghai taxi driver, an Orang Asli fisherman, and a Singapore banker have in common. Answer: Very very little. However, this may be changing. There is, still, ASEAN after all. It was to the larger, indeed all of Asia, that my remarks were addressed. I was simply saying that there is growing evidence of a rejection of tenets that we hold dear in the West which marks a slight hint of a reversal of the broad acceptance which we have seen over the last several years. It has been ballyhooed as an historical movement by many pundits and observers. I, for one, bought the notion. When I first came here to live, even after years of traveling, I learned just how naive I was. Bosco, I can't even begin to tell you how naive. Please understand that first of all, I am here on my own. I have no ex-pat package whereby living quarters are provided in high rise "guaylo ghettos". I am married to a local of Chinese ethnic origin. There is a not another westerner living within 4 miles of my place as far as I know. At least, if they do they do not frequent the local shops or hawker stands. My experiences do not just include trips to the American Club and the local TGIFs. My neighbors are Malay, one a former chief of staff to the late Prime Minister Tun Razak. The other is a corporate CFO of a bumi company. Our talk over the fence as we putter in the garden has taught me a great deal about locqal attitudes. But even more revealing has been the hours of talking in tea parlors, coffee shops, and homes of the locals. I assure you, we are paradigms apart in our thinking. Paradigms. Even still, I held dearly to the belief that basic values are universal and that so-called "Asian values" were a myth created by reigning powers to protect and disguise their nefarious ways. I still believe it is true. The primary differences lie in the how, not necessarily the what. After all, we still have Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But all my experiences had further strengthened my belief that the common ground lay in the free market. It was here I felt that we might realize a sort of evangelism that could stick. So I am expressing my regret that seems increasingly less true today then before. Recent moves in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and, of course, the much more visible and vocal Malaysia, are what prompted my remarks. The interdiction in the markets, though I generally feel that they are a logical response to unrestrained forces, do represent a rejection of free market tenets IMO. Perhaps not xenophobic on the face of it, but surely rationalized in a tone of nationalism much akin to the fears that are xenophobic by nature. From my own personal experience these fears exist most emphatically. Best, Stitch