1) The multitude of cultures
How many people from other countries can boast about having friends from different races, and religions? And about visiting each other's homes during their festivals? Although our religious and cultural backgrounds may differ, the majority of Malaysians have grown to/learned to respect each other regardless of creed/skin colour.2) Different languages!
Along with the different cultures, of course comes different languages. Where else can you order food from your neighbourhood mamak, with four different languages in the same sentence: "Anne, nasi goreng tapau one"?3) Food, delicious food
Talking about food, Malaysia is a land of delicious food - and a variety of it at that! You can have roti canai or thosai for breakfast, followed by nasi dagang for lunch, and some scones for tea. And what better way than to wrap up the day with some piping hot hokkien mee or kuey teow goreng for dinner?
4) We are free from 'active' natural disasters
Malaysia does not sit on The Ring of Fire (an area filled with active volcanoes) like its neighbours Indonesia and the Philippines, which mean that we will not have any mountains blowing their tops off anytime soon. Malaysia also does not experience any earthquakes like Indonesia does, but we do get the occassional tremors now and then. Thankfully, we are spared from any hurricanes, although we get the storms and floods during the annual monsoon season.
5) We have one of the highest number of public holidays in the region!
Malaysia has 11 gazetted paid public holidays annually. This does not take into account, the public holidays observed in different states. In addition, there also the occassional "special holidays" that we get to enjoy. We get "extra lucky" when a public holiday falls on a Sunday, which means the replacement leave is carried forward to the following day.
So, these are just five quick reasons we Malaysians should be thankful to be born in the country. There are many other reasons, which we will leave for another day, another topic.
Meanwhile, here's wishing all Malaysians 'Selamat Hari Kebangsaan'.
Photo source: The Star