I don’t know where I am. I mean … I do … I’m at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf inside of a mall. I’m drinking a double Americano with that vanilla powder stuff I like so much. But I don’t know if the world still exists. Could be that it blew up. I think there was supposed to be some sort of eclipse of Venus today. Maybe things went wrong. Things are going wrong all the time.

You see I haven’t been outside in over four hours. I’m not just in a mall, I’m in a maze of malls, a network of giant molecules where the basic elements are Starbucks, 7-11’s, Levi’s Store, and Hush Puppies.
This area … this conglomeration of consumerism here in Kuala Lumpur is called the Golden Triangle. It should be called the gold credit card. I’ve never seen such mall rat culture before. Everywhere you look family members are peeking into each other’s plastic bags, teenagers are showing off their newest cell phone casing, and college students are walking slowly with good posture, a shopping bag in one hand and gesturing with the other.

And the greatest thing? Everyone is a different color. A different religion. Speaking a different language with inevitable bits of pigeon English slipped in. There are dark skinned Muslim Malay girls with hot pink cell phones sticking out of their head scarves. There are Christian Chinese mothers reading Fabio covered romance novels while their children skate around hyperactively on rollerblade tennis shoes. North African men are speaking a Rasta sounding form of Malay and playfully ridiculing each other as they try on Gilligan type fishing hats at Malaysia’s version of Urban Outfitters. South Indian 20-somethings are speaking Tamil to each other while wandering around aimlessly in full Punk Rock attire, anarchy signs and all.

And what do they all have in common? They love to shop. They’ve all chosen to identify themselves by some sub-culture which maybe is and maybe isn’t related to where their great-great-grandparents lived.
Is this where we are all headed? Will unity and tolerance only come once we have spent enough money to buy an identity?

I don’t know. But it is god damn encouraging to see so many diverse faces in such synergetic joy. Even if it is just the five minute ecstasy of a new purchase at the mall.

I’ve gotta go find some daylight.

Word.