Other Expats

I left three days ago

But no one seems to know I'm gone

Home is where the hatred is

Home is filled with pain and it

Might not be such a bad idea if I never

Never went home again...

The lyrics from Kanye West's On My Way Home don't appear particularly home-friendly. It's a consolation to know that he does take some poetic license in the piece.

Truth is, many of us expats don't feel that way. However, some of us do. To others, home is our birth countries as well as where we currently are now.

I personally prefer the third option; you can always go home when you feel that it's time. But you have the choice to experience other cultures—the best of both worlds.

It's not always rosy for us Other Expats, however. Some of us have to be away from home for various reasons; wars, and political and economic instabilities.

Then, it is not just about not having the opportunity to return home, it's having the good fortune to be able to live outside of your home.

Whether you've made Malaysia you

One of the ideas behind Other Expats is to share the experiences that we as "other expats" have learned from, to help us all be better people and contribute more to the society. In Malcolm X's 1962 speech, he pointed out that "The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman." Okay, he was talking about America. But it applies to black women around the world.

In this episode of the Other Expats podcast, we reached out to Amal Adam, who notes that in addition to fielding ignorant questions, black women face an almost all-around pressure. "Sometimes it's from our own people, other times it's from outsiders—that's why for us we have to always be perfect, like there's no margin for making a mistake because doing so it going to attach you to everything negative so you have to be the model black girl." She, however, noted that she generally feels "safe" in Malaysia.

What is the Other Expats about? Why are we even doing this? Listen to find out.