Here in Australia, things get done so slow. Sometimes, I think that Malaysia is more advanced because we get things done faster. Take transportation as an example– if you want to get things done fast, you have to travel from one place to another in a short period of time. But in Australia, there are speed limits. Of course, in Malaysia, we have speed limits, too, but nobody listens. In fact, when I first learned to drive I didn't even notice the speed limits on the road. When I was finally lectured by a friend, I was like, "Do I have to look at the speed limits? You mean, all of them? But I'm driving.."
So anyway, in Australia, the government is really strict with the rules but at the same time, they set their speed limits really low. For example, it takes us about twenty minutes to drive from Subang to PJ. In Australia, that would like take us forty minutes. It literally takes us half the time to get to the same place. Why? Because while they travel at 50mph, we are travelling that same distance at a hundred. When Australians are travelling at 60, we are travelling at a hundred and twenty. By the time Australians travel at 70, we are going at a hundred and forty.
But then again, when there are traffic jams,... Australia has the upper hand. When there is a traffic jam, Australians dwindle down from 50 to 20. But Malaysians... we dwindle down from a hundred to 0.
When I was about fourteen, my church had a missions trip from KL to JB. And we were stuck in a traffic jam on the expressway. People were getting out of their cars. So did our driver. And after walking like five to ten minutes from where we were, he realized that an eighteen-wheeler or so which carried huge logs, had overturned and laid across all three lanes of the expressway, entirely blocking off the entire expressway and nobody could do anything about it.
After like an hour, the police, fire fighters and ambulance managed to squeeze their way through to the site and created a divergent using a lane from the other side of the expressway. This experience made me realize that if we just left on our journey a little earlier or drove a little faster, one of the vehicles in our team could have been involved in that accident but God spared us by His mercy and grace.
Yeah, so.. Speed kills. Malaysians may be faster but we have more accidents– and tragic ones. The slow and steady wins the race.
This reminds me of a time when my group of friends– all pastors kids, were travelling in a group of about four cars, driving from the IHOP in KL– the city– to one of the local churches in PJ, which is like a popular suburb near the city. It was like a half an hour's drive at that time of day. In our group, one of the drivers was a guy from Kulim. Kulim is like a little town in the middle of nowhere. The rest of us were from the city. I still remember, during that trip, how I was looking out for him because he always went missing.
"Where's Marcus? Did you see Marcus? He disappeared again!" I kept looking at the rear mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
But as soon as he manages to catch up, he goes missing again. By the fifth time or so, I found myself saying, "Where's Kulim? Did you see Kulim? Kulim disappeared again! Where did that Kulim go?"
My navigator was trying to hold back her laughter and hide her face at the same time. She kept saying, "Oh no.. Don't call him that! Oh my goodness..."
But the time we arrived, I made big fun out of him, "Do you know what I was calling you in the car?"
He was rather crossed with me. Then, he started to share:
"Anna, do you know that when I was back in Kulim one day, I was driving with my mom beside me and we were going at like 40mph because that's how Kulim people drive. Out of a sudden, two boys came dashing out of nowhere into the middle of the road. But because I was driving at 40mph, I managed to jam my brakes in time. Anna, I could have killed someone that day."
It's true.. Speed kills. Kulim saves lives.
* tRUST & OBey the LORD *
