Differences in Attitude

Obviously the Far East and Western Europe are significantly different places in terms of culture. Only spending a couple of weeks doesn’t really gimme a chance to tap into it fully but two points I have come across are interesting.

Firstly, their attitude towards global warming puts us to shame. In both Singapore and Malaysia, Earth Hour was a massive deal, with lots of press and some very public exponents of the intiative. I’m guessing there was a bit of press coverage in the UK but it wasn’t really on the public radar. Compared to here, where even the hostel I was staying in turned stuff off! I’m a realist and now that Global Warming is inevitable but it’s still nice to see a collaborative effort towards a common goal (even if it is unattainable).

Obviously, this doesn’t touch on the fact that it’s primarily the tiger economies of this region which are causing the most damage as they industrialise, citing the fact that western nations already had their period of mass pollution and it’s only fair they get theirs.

I diagress, second trend I have found is the hunger for knowledge. I have ridden the train in to KL City Centre the last couple of days and I have seen many people reading books about business best practice and case studies of sucessful brands/projects. Now I reckon if I took the same journey in London, people would be reading Dan Brown and Harry Potter… Also the bookstores have economics, management and marketing boks front and centre in their stores. Just an interesting contrast, the reason for which probably stems from a relative lack of complacency here comapred to the UK.

However one huge negative is the prevelance of smoking. I’m sitting in a Starbucks (original huh? You’ll be happy to know the Chocolate Frappucino tastes exactly the same) and every so often a waft of smoke engulfs my breathing space. After the way I’ve been spoilt back in the UK, this is effin annoying…