Golf Course Or Padi Field?

So we evidently have a food crisis.

One we were taking lightly in the beginning as if there was never a problem to start with.

From Reuters:

Malaysia has bought 200,000 tonnes of Thai rice, paying 10 percent more than it had offered in a failed tender on Monday as it moves to lock in supplies of the food staple.

It is in talks to secure another 300,000 tonnes, a Thai official said, part of a deal announced last week and which follows on plans announced on Monday to cap domestic prices and offer Malaysian farmers more for the crop.

Of course, this isn't entirely unexpected.

At the rate we were converting padi fields into golf courses, it's a wonder that we do have any rice in the country at all.


But back then padi fields did not generate much income beyond the crop that the average Malaysian consumed. And it didn't matter that we always had to import some from our cousins up north.

Rich people paid more to utilise the golf courses and they didn't eat rice, anyway. Kobe beef, escargot, foie gras and calamari washed down with Cabernet Sauvignon were more down their alley.

(I presume. I don't do fancy dining, being the kampung, nasi-lemak-eating chick that I am.)

Now you're going to say I'm being mean.

Perhaps I am. But this crisis affects me. And because it was not managed properly, we are in trouble.

Because someone cared more about lining his pockets than making sure the country was a good place to live in.