Sunday, December 28: Breakfast with “The Doctor”
Now before I start I am going to tell you that I am going to refer to the person we met as The Doctor. This is not his name, but because I haven’t actually cleared this story with him yet I am going to refer to him as The Doctor here. I have also left out part of our conversation until I get permission from him to publish it.
We met The Doctor at the cafe as usual. He was sitting alone outside. He had been helping clear plates a bit here and there, and I couldn't tell if he worked at the cafe of not. Now we have been going to the cafe every day since we arrived in Penang but the customer service has never been that great. When we walk in in the morning we can never tell if they are happy to see us or not. We might get one or two hellos, but nothing enthusiastic and nothing to hint at the fact that we are there everyday, spending money, and even sending new people there are well. This obviously annoys Elizabeth and I, but we like the food and coffee so we put up with it, but we wish we had another option and could go somewhere where they better appreciated our money and time and patronage. Anyways, since I thought The Doctor might work there, I wasn't sure if he'd want to join us - thinking they might not like having us at the cafe - but I figured what's the worst that can happen, he says no? So I went for it and he hesitantly accepted. Of everyone we have had breakfast with to date he was the most resistant.
Turns out The Doctor used to work at a cafe, from June to September of this year. The Doctor is from Penang, 100% Chinese – third generation, and trained as a doctor in Ireland (hence the nickname I gave him). He finished medical school in 2006 at the age of 28, making him now 36 years old. He speaks Chinese, Malay, and English and believes Hong Kong would be the ideal place to live. I'm sure you're wondering why a trained doctor was working at a cafe this past year and that is where The Doctor’s story gets really interesting - and honest.
After finishing medical school The Doctor realized he wasn’t really passionate about being a doctor, he was passionate about making money. He felt that people who are doctors should be passionate about being doctors, not about the financial aspect of being a doctor. He admits that this isn’t actually true across the field (many doctors are motivated by the money) and he also believes he could be a doctor as a profession and do just fine, but he really wants to make money and doesn’t believe that he should be a doctor if he isn’t passionate about it. Once he makes all this money he wants to travel the world forever without worrying about cost.
Turns out The Doctor used to work at a cafe, from June to September of this year. The Doctor is from Penang, 100% Chinese – third generation, and trained as a doctor in Ireland (hence the nickname I gave him). He finished medical school in 2006 at the age of 28, making him now 36 years old. He speaks Chinese, Malay, and English and believes Hong Kong would be the ideal place to live. I'm sure you're wondering why a trained doctor was working at a cafe this past year and that is where The Doctor’s story gets really interesting - and honest.
After finishing medical school The Doctor realized he wasn’t really passionate about being a doctor, he was passionate about making money. He felt that people who are doctors should be passionate about being doctors, not about the financial aspect of being a doctor. He admits that this isn’t actually true across the field (many doctors are motivated by the money) and he also believes he could be a doctor as a profession and do just fine, but he really wants to make money and doesn’t believe that he should be a doctor if he isn’t passionate about it. Once he makes all this money he wants to travel the world forever without worrying about cost.
So, after not choosing to continue in the medical field The Doctor instead chose to come back to Penang and try making money in other ways. He got a loan from his parent’s family business, a successful Seafood business located on the west coast of Malaysia, and decided to start flipping properties around Penang. Although I am not sure how long he has been into the real estate business he has been successful and since repaid the loan to his family with interest. According to The Doctor, however, the market here is starting to get too expensive to continue being profitable and thus he is now looking for a new business venture. (We suggested he take the plastic bag drinks to the nightclubs in the west – still waiting to hear what he thinks about that. Imagine, being able to dance and not have to hold your drink in your hand. And no setting down your drink so no date rape drugs. Ingenious!).
The best part about meeting The Doctor was the insight he was able to give us into life here in Malaysia. As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I purchased a book about temporary migrant workers here in Malaysia. They come from many surrounding countries because there is more money to be made here than there is back home. Now this was really quite difficult for Elizabeth and I to believe. From what we have seen so far, it is clear that Malaysia is still a developing country. Much of the infrastructure is not well maintained; people do follow many of the basic rules that make societies work – like road rules, and things are so cheap here it is hard to imagine employees get paid much. And this is what The Doctor confirmed, they don’t get paid much. The average café worker here might make RM$6/hour. That’s under US$2/hour. Less than US$2/hour!! Can you imagine working for that amount of money? I cannot. I would not. I would be insulted if someone offered me RM$6/hour. I would not work for that much money. And RM$6/hour is actually above the minimum wage.
The best part about meeting The Doctor was the insight he was able to give us into life here in Malaysia. As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I purchased a book about temporary migrant workers here in Malaysia. They come from many surrounding countries because there is more money to be made here than there is back home. Now this was really quite difficult for Elizabeth and I to believe. From what we have seen so far, it is clear that Malaysia is still a developing country. Much of the infrastructure is not well maintained; people do follow many of the basic rules that make societies work – like road rules, and things are so cheap here it is hard to imagine employees get paid much. And this is what The Doctor confirmed, they don’t get paid much. The average café worker here might make RM$6/hour. That’s under US$2/hour. Less than US$2/hour!! Can you imagine working for that amount of money? I cannot. I would not. I would be insulted if someone offered me RM$6/hour. I would not work for that much money. And RM$6/hour is actually above the minimum wage.
To think that people come form other countries, can make more money here, can compensate for the higher cost of living, and still send money home is unimaginable. I don’t even want to think what people are paid per hour in places like Bangladesh and Burma. Maybe RM$2/hour, about US$0.75. Not sure, but that would be my guess. Until reading this book, and talking with locals like The Doctor, it had never occurred to me that people would come to Malaysia to make a better life for themselves. I just didn’t/still don’t really realize how poor it must be in other places. I am now very interested to see what these other countries are like. I mentioned this to The Doctor – how I can’t imagine this, since I can at any time return to America and get a job there making so much more money he told me I am “blessed.” This is very true, I am “blessed.” I speak English as my first and native language, I am a citizen of America – the most powerful and influential country in the world, I come from a well-off family, and I will hopefully never have to work for RM$6/hour or less.
So for a bit more about the average worker’s life/compensation. We will use a café worker for this as this is what The Doctor was able to give us the most insight to. So a café worker might be making RM$6/hour. They would typically work 6 days per week and 10 hours per day, so 60 hours per week. At RM$6 per hour that is RM$360 per week; in US dollars that would be just over $100 per week. Food can be had for about RM$3 per meal and rent is maybe RM$300 per month. So let’s do the math. RM$360x4=RM$1440 per month in income. Less RM$300 for rent is RM$1140. Less another RM$300 for food (roughly) is RM$840. Less other random expense, you might be lucky to save US$100/month, maybe. But that is considering you are renting (or even sharing) a room in an apartment, eating very cheaply, and probably not going much. Elizabeth and I have already spent more than this – we probably spend about RM$100/day on food, if not more. Granted we are not trying to be too cheap – breakfast along between coffee and bagels runs us RM$30 – RM$40 per day – but things add up. And they are living off maybe US$450 per month. That’s per month, not per week. What is the rest of Asia going to be like?! And one last quick fact – the minimum wage (of RM$900 per month) has recently gone up.
So for a bit more about the average worker’s life/compensation. We will use a café worker for this as this is what The Doctor was able to give us the most insight to. So a café worker might be making RM$6/hour. They would typically work 6 days per week and 10 hours per day, so 60 hours per week. At RM$6 per hour that is RM$360 per week; in US dollars that would be just over $100 per week. Food can be had for about RM$3 per meal and rent is maybe RM$300 per month. So let’s do the math. RM$360x4=RM$1440 per month in income. Less RM$300 for rent is RM$1140. Less another RM$300 for food (roughly) is RM$840. Less other random expense, you might be lucky to save US$100/month, maybe. But that is considering you are renting (or even sharing) a room in an apartment, eating very cheaply, and probably not going much. Elizabeth and I have already spent more than this – we probably spend about RM$100/day on food, if not more. Granted we are not trying to be too cheap – breakfast along between coffee and bagels runs us RM$30 – RM$40 per day – but things add up. And they are living off maybe US$450 per month. That’s per month, not per week. What is the rest of Asia going to be like?! And one last quick fact – the minimum wage (of RM$900 per month) has recently gone up.
Here’s one more example: mascara. I currently use a Bobbi Brown mascara that costs about US$25. In the US this was roughly more than 1 hour of my wages, and I thought that was a big pricey. I bought it because I liked it but it seemed a bit spendy. When I moved to NZ this same mascara cost NZ$60 which was 3 hours of my wages there. I refused to buy it for that price and instead had my mother ship it to me from the US where I could get it significantly cheap, ever after paying the shipping costs. Here in Malaysia it costs RM$95 which is like US$27 – quite reasonable if you are making money in US dollars. But what if you were getting paid RM$6/hour. That would take you 2 full days of work to buy that. Two days of work to buy mascara! That is insane! I do not know who shops at these malls here, who can afford anything here, when they are making less than US$2/hour. It is just unbelievable.
After spending our morning with The Doctor we split up again to do our own thing for a few hours. I went back to see my Chinese seal man and ordered a seal with the character for “Explorer” on it. I’ll be picking it up Wednesday morning. Then I had lunch at a local café where I met two Canadians, Brayden and Natalie, who are currently teaching English in Korea. They are there for two more months and will then be moving to Thailand where Natalie wants to teach English another year and Brayden will try to find some other job – he wasn’t in love with the teaching. Then it was back home. Elizabeth went to see the hobbit and all her favorite characters died. I did my bodyweight exercises (another goal for 2015 – do 4 sessions/week) and then we had dinner. After dinner we once again ran into Amanda and set up breakfast plans for the next morning, Monday, with her and Sam. And then we set up breakfast plans with Bob (Mr. Marley) from Starbucks for Tuesday. And that was Sunday.
After spending our morning with The Doctor we split up again to do our own thing for a few hours. I went back to see my Chinese seal man and ordered a seal with the character for “Explorer” on it. I’ll be picking it up Wednesday morning. Then I had lunch at a local café where I met two Canadians, Brayden and Natalie, who are currently teaching English in Korea. They are there for two more months and will then be moving to Thailand where Natalie wants to teach English another year and Brayden will try to find some other job – he wasn’t in love with the teaching. Then it was back home. Elizabeth went to see the hobbit and all her favorite characters died. I did my bodyweight exercises (another goal for 2015 – do 4 sessions/week) and then we had dinner. After dinner we once again ran into Amanda and set up breakfast plans for the next morning, Monday, with her and Sam. And then we set up breakfast plans with Bob (Mr. Marley) from Starbucks for Tuesday. And that was Sunday.
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