Kuala Lumpur, now home to the worlds second tallest building Merdeka 118 that stands 678.9m tall.
*Originally written in March of 2025.
Kuala Lumpur is lively and growing, rapidly.
I was last in KL in 2019. In that time the population has grown by about 1.2 million people! The economy is growing at about 5% a year. Big tech is building data centres in Johor next to Singapore, adding to semiconductor manufacturing plants in Penang. The populace is educated, 40% have been to university and to varying degrees are English speaking. Since the population is made up of ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians, English is the common language in many situations.
It’s not a multicultural society in the sense that the US or Australia is. Essentially you have three different ethnicities living in the same place, but separately. Even though you often see mixed ethnicity groups hanging out, I’m told that intermarriage between groups is still unusual for religious and legal reasons . There are immigrants from the SEA region here too and further afield. Lured by economic opportunities. Malaysia is somewhat wealthier than it’s SEA counterparts.
I think it’s fair to say that we are in the Asian century. It is in Asia where most of the worlds economic growth is happening. First you have a young and growing population. Second the two cultures that seeded the region, India and China, both have deep histories of scholarship, civilisation and culture. Which sets the foundation for rapid growth. When it comes to economic development the Chinese culture seems to be particularly catalytic.
I know, it’s not politically correct to weigh up different cultures like this, but I’m an investor. I’m only trying to see reality as clearly as I can. In India monetary wealth isn’t emphasised in the same way, but spiritual wealth is. So from each major cultural mother we get some vital pieces of a puzzle that are now coming together to create real dynamism in the region.
Anyway, these are the kinds of things I think about as I eat my pork buns. (I still prefer Greek food)
What about Japan, where do they fit in? Japan has a major problem right now, their population is shrinking and overly concentrated in Tokyo. There’s a new policy being talked about in parliament to address this, it’s called Happy Japan. It centres around redistributing the population and making conditions easier for people to have families.
Young people in Japan are essentially the least optimistic anywhere in the developed world. What do I think will happen there? Well, nothing that drastic. They’ll probably tick along just fine as they have been. They will continue to be a rich country, with an orderly society.
There’s a balancing act between venerating our culture and updating it when the times call for it.
I’m filled with optimism seeing the progress in this region. If you haven’t been it’s worth a visit to see just what is going on here. For me the cities are much more interesting than a beach in Bali or Phuket.
I was at the gym yesterday, next to me was a Chinese women, very fit. An African man dancing around with his headphones on between sets. A Malay man pressing 36kg dumbbells. And me, an Australian (of Greek decent). I just looked around and smiled. Because it really doesn’t matter what’s on the outside. We are all in there doing battle with those weights. And we are all lucky to be in this life. We are all alive. That is what should define us. The rest? It’s there, but it doesn’t have to take on such importance.
When I was at the Ashram last year in India they had no mirrors in the training centre. For four days I didn’t look at myself. And a lot of the time my eyes were closed in meditation. When I finally did see myself in the mirror I had almost forgotten what I looked like. We are so obsessed with our own reflection these days. It’s all a bit narcissistic isn’t it, looking at ourselves in the mirror, taking a constant stream of pictures to post online. And the trouble with it is that it just trains us to think about and identify with all these superficial aspects. It isn’t good for your mental health to be on about all that. All of it is superficial and perishable, only the imperishable gives one solace and true joy in life, and being obsessed by the superficial makes the imperishable harder to uncover.
The world, the whole world is being mixed up like one big cocktail. I’m all for it. It makes the world an interesting place. And it forces us to move beyond our tribal programming.
So how to tie this rambling post together? Perhaps with a call to everyone who has the inclination to travel and see the world. I mean really see it and live it as locals do. Observe people and see how they behave. See what counts as proper and uncouth in each place. Realise how we are programmed by where we live, and through these observations see how to go beyond your own programming. There’s a certain part of us that likes stasis, because it is safe. On one level it is indeed safe, but it causes the soul to wither. Fortunately the soul is the imperishable aspect of ourselves, and once we move in the right direction it’s reawakening is quick and powerful.