Dirty laundry

We have the luxury of having a laundry service in our condo and as a result I never have to iron anything.  Brilliant, right?

Well, we recently got some new ironing ladies. (I don't know what happened to the old ones, but they were very good).  The new ones are both painfully slow and don't do a very good job.  And much like their predecessors the new staff do not speak any English, but what does it matter?  It's not an act that requires a great deal of communication.

I picked up some shirts the other day and as usual the receipt was taped in some bizarre place, just waiting for Ian to set off with a piece of paper fluttering from his wrist or shoulder.  To save him this embarrassment I pulled off the tag and without even looking at it handed it to him to put in the bin.

I then heard a peel of laughter and Ian handed me back the receipt:

Orang Putih translates literally as 'white man.'  So just imagine if you went to the dry cleaners and picked up your laundry and it said 'white man' or 'black man' or 'latino man.' (For the record our previous ironing ladies just wrote our condo number on the receipt.)

At least they didn't write 'Mat Salleh' which is a more derogatory term used to describe white people - which roughly translates as 'mad drunken sailor' and has it origins in describing the bad behaviour of sailors on shore leave in Borneo in the colonial era.

This incident is so typically Malaysian.

Malaysia is often thought of (and frequently is) a pretty racist place.  Throw together a healthy mix of Malays, Indians and Chinese (and as a result Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists with a sprinkling of Christians) not to mention a healthy aboriginal and expat population and you at once have a truly wonderful cultural and ethnic diversity but also a recipe for much conflict and strife. 

Malaysia does certainly not rank high on the politically correct scale (ahem, see exhibit A above) - and sometimes I think that's a virtue, it's an easy thing to overdo.

Anyway, we got a good laugh out of it.  My Malaysian friends and colleagues also got a kick out of it (but only after I assured them that we were not offended - then they too thought it was hilarious.)