How the West was won

I remember this one time in downtown Kuala Lumpur when I came across a Muslim missionary who was preaching in the streets occupied predominantly by the Indian-Muslim community. Instead of the common religious garb, he was dressed in modern-day safari wear.

What he said still reverberates in my memory.

Chastising the people for their attitudes toward “the West” in a time when hostility against western nations and influences remained just as high as any summer’s day heat, his words stung through with unusual realities.

He questioned them why they would unilaterally regard the West as bad when there were a lot of good things that they have failed to emulate and instead chose the worse to copy after and then crucify them for their “decadent lifestyles”.

“When traveling, these Westerners wouldn’t be staring out the window blankly like you,” he blasted, “They’ll always have a book in hand to read. But do you do that? No! You just waste your time looking out into space…”

He continued, “I have seen how independent their women are, too. Even in the middle of our rainforests, I have seen how two or three women would be there exploring the wonders of our ecological treasures on their own. All these while our women do nothing more apart from whining and gossiping about friends, family and just about everyone throughout every of their waking moments!”

“So don’t talk about the West being evil and all that when we ourselves are no better! All we ever do is talk about others… How about cleaning our backyard first?” he closed.

And while I’m not a Muslim, nor do I subscribe to its religious beliefs, I was and still am today in awe of this missionary’s foresight and honesty.

So yes, we all criticize the West, well to be more precise, the United States why? Because we can, knowing our lives will not be threatened with death sentences in doing so and that they would still uphold human rights, even if the dices are not in their favour.

Having said that, I really do believe that it isn’t so much of the West’s decadent behaviour that we’re really bothered with. Rather, we are deeply envious of their success, influence, strength and development of civilization – factors to which we have found it so much easier to sweep our shortcomings under the carpet than to come to terms with what we lack.

And unless we make real honest changes to our attitudes, it’ll probably take another millennium or two before we can hold our heads up as a civilization that’s noteworthy. So, its either we start changing now or once again regress into our shell and expect our children to make the change instead because we aren’t brave enough to face our lives. And in between takes… take another bash at “the West” for our misfortunes!