Currently I'm writing from the state of Sabah which has earned the label of being the second poorest state in Malaysia in 2010 (or perhaps longer, nobody cares enough to keep count). Sabah is part of the island of Borneo which it shares with Sarawak, a fellow Malaysian state; Brunei, a country on its own; and Kalimantan, part of Indonesia. See the illustration below.
Bor-nee-oh
Sabah has lots of land. Acres and acres and ACRES of it. Those lands have trees, which contain wood, which translates to timber/lumber/sources for moo-lah. Did you know that Sabah also has oil off its coasts - funny how our history books never mentioned it much though. All in all, there are few reasons why Sabah has to be in the poor category.
A penny for your thoughts
A friend from the US visited us recently and he remarked that when he visited Kota Kinabalu 8 years ago during his first trip to Malaysia, he was surprised that KK was more developed than he had expected.
I had just been to KK last October (of 2010) and even though it looks like a nice place to visit, the place still reeks of slow development. In KL, overhead bridges, new roads, flyovers and 18-storey condos are built in the span of 3 months to 3 years. You can't find anything in Sabah that you can boast about in the same capacity.
With the head screwed on backwards
What you can find in Sabah, or at least in Tawau is idiocy on the roads and I do not mean the regular culprits (being the drivers).
Who freaking builds two traffic lights that are in a length of 5 cars apart?
Who makes you drive on the wrong side of the road in one freakin' street in town, in an effort to reduce traffic jams? Note: Critics dubbed this the American road. It has since reverted to the colonised nation way again.
Who turns two healthy, beautiful, perfect two-way roads into two one-way roads that lead to a traffic light crossroads?
Who digs up the roads to fix a pipe underneath then leaves the road unfixed after?
Who stops and summons a van driving on the right lane because there's a sign saying Ikut kiri jika tidak memotong (Keep left if you are not overtaking)?
>>>> Dare I say it? Idiots bah.
