the world according to panyaluru ...

“Injin Sigal”

2011-07-02T00:30:00.000+08:00

Living inKampong Aing aka the Water Village in the 1970s, shopping was very different.Instead of you going to the shop, the shop went to your doorstep. Literally!Most people I am sure have heard of the padian, ladies who paddled around KampongAing in small boats known as ‘jumpung’, selling foodstuff and groceries. Thisis a well known, often mentioned history of Kampong Aing.

A lesser knownpart of this shopping at your doorstep was the few chinese ‘merchants’ in smallboats powered by low powered outboard engines peddling all sorts of clothingand shoes. You could here them coming with the loud noise yet you waited forages for the boat to appear. Grunt like a tiger but slow as a snail. Rememberthose days the surroundings tend to be quieter.

With inadequateknowledge and almost non-existence of English vocabulary, I got to know theoutboard engines were called ‘injin sigal’ and always linked to ‘slow like atortoise’ engines. This stayed with me until recently. With hindsight, I shouldhave known better. Like some strange sounding Brunei Malay words, it had aBritish origin. There are plenty examples of this. ‘Gostan’ which came from ‘gostern’, ‘paip jus’ from exhaust pipe, ‘obasir’ from obverseers are amongstthese words.

So it is of nosurprise ‘injin sigal’ has got British origin. The ‘sigal’ was in fact a lowpowered (10 horse power?) two stroke outboard engines named ‘British Seagull’.Now it makes sense where the ‘injin sigal’ originated. Surprisingly, thisparticular brand of engines is still in the market since the first models wererolled out in the 1930s. There are even groups keeping the memories of theBritish Seagull. More about this can be read here.

The days of the‘injin sigal’ in Kampong Aing are long gone. Now we have high powered, petrolguzzling outboard engines powered boats criss crossing the river. May be, aspart of the effort in reducing our carbon footprint, we can reintroduce the‘injin sigal’ to replace these high powered engines. At the very least, we willbe transported back to the days when life was slower and more tranquil……

Common sense….

2011-06-30T23:45:00.002+08:00

I am on the lastlap of my sojourn in this fast paced Red Dot. Time flies. It seemed onlyyesterday I sat down in the corner clueless, wondering what had I got myselfinto. Almost 12 months later, after all the up and down of so many challenges,one question keeps popping up in my mind and in my head. Not an easy questionto answer. Not because it is a toughie. More because everything went so fast,it all seemed blurred.

What is the mostvaluable learning from my time here? I can think of a few. One I have writtenabout earlier, the self-deception. Looking back, the most valuable is somethingwe take for granted in our everyday life. We have been doing it since we becameresponsible adult, ‘akil baligh’. It’s about how we deal with problems. Infacing a problem, the first thing we do is find the reasons for the problems.Then we look for ways to solve the problems. In deciding which solution tochoose, we consider the available solutions from many angles. We weigh all thepossibilities before coming to a conclusion on the best solution. Common senseisn’t it?

Surprise,surprise, policy analysis which the mere description scares many people issimilar. Identify and define the problem. Determine the root causes. Designalternatives to mitigate the problem. Select criteria to assess thealternatives. Project the outcomes of each alternative under all the criteria.Then decide. Sounds familiar? Common sense isn’t it?

If it is commonsense and we are so used to doing it, how come in many organisations policyanalysis is taken lightly? May be its time for us to be our true self in ourwork. Do the normal things we do infacing problems. May be, just may be, we can find better solutions in ourpolicies.

All it takes is commonsense…..

Self Deception…..

2011-06-07T10:54:00.015+08:00

A few years agoI was introduced to a book which I never bothered to read. Once I got the bookin the mail, to the book shelves it went. Untouched, unread for years. A fewmonths ago, in a leadership group, thefacilitator introduced the same book. Being a forgetful person, I did not evenremember I had the same book lying on the boook shelves back home. I went outto buy the same book albeit it’s the new expanded edition. Guess what happened?This book suffered the same fate as the earlier edition. To the shelves itwent. Well, this time it was a bit better. A couple of chapters were read. May beI was being influenced by the title ‘Self Deception – Getting out of the Box’which I took literally to mean get it out of the box and to the shelves andequates it to act of reading the whole book.

A month or soago, I was fortunate enough to sit in a talk on the same book. All I can say,it was one of the most rivetting talk I had the fortune to sit through. If my memory serves me right, the trademark ‘yawnevery five minutes’ was absent in the talk.

So what is thisbook all about? To quote the publisher’s website on this, the book is allabout:

Youoften intuitively know what a right action toward another person is.

It's4 am, my kid is crying...I'll go care for her.

Anact contrary to what you feel you should do for another is called an act of"self-betrayal."

I'mtired - let Jill do it.

Whenyou betray yourself, you begin to see the world in a way that justifies yourself-betrayal.

Ido everything I should do ... work hard, help in the house ... I'm a goodhusband.

Whenyou see a self-justifying world, your view of reality becomes distorted - youbegin to deceive yourself.

Jillis so lazy... insensitive... slacking off...

Wecall this "entering the box."

Overtime, certain boxes become characteristic of you, and you carry them with you.

I'mfine ... all our problems are Jill's fault because she's lazy, insensitive...

Bybeing in the box, you provoke others to be in the box.

(Jill'sthoughts about you): He's so cold and dismissive...always blaming me ... what ajerk...

Inthe box, we invite mutual mistreatment and obtain mutual justification. Wecollude in giving each other reasons to stay in the box.

It’s all about ‘beingin the box’ and the negative impact it brings. How do we get out of the box?Read the book, I guessed, it’s the best way to learn on how to get out of thebox. For now, the following steps will be a good start:

Don’t try to be perfect. Do try to be better.
Don’t use the vocabulary – “the box” and so on – with people who don’t already know it. Do use the principles in your own life.
Don’t look for others’ boxes. Do look for your own.
Don’t accuse others of being in the box. Do try to stay out of the box yourself.
Don’t give up on yourself when you discover you’ve been in the box. Do keep trying.
Don’t deny you’ve been in the box when you have been. Do apologize, then just keep marching forward, trying to be more helpful to others in the future.
Don’t focus on what others are doing wrong. Do focus on what you can do right to help.
Don’t worry whether others are helping you. Do worry whether you are helping others.

Good luck andstay out of the box……

P.S.

Nowadays, askingmyself the question ‘Am I in the box?’ is a ritual ……..

10,000….

2011-06-06T23:54:00.000+08:00

Without realising it, this blog got its 10,000 hits sometime ago. A major milestone considering periods on ‘inactivity’ in the last few months.. It took a long time to reach. Over three years, if my memory serves me right. This blog went from a totally anonymous one to a semi anonymous. May be it will be a ‘not anonymous’ blog sometime in the future. Being anonymous had its advantages. You can say whatever you like. But then again, people can say you are being irresponsible, not transparent and not accountable, the hallmarks of good governance. It can be like what the Malay ‘peribahasa’ says ‘lontar bantu sembunyi tangan’.

You can only remain anonymous to certain extend. From time to time, someone will figure out that the person behind this blog is you, especially if the can add two and two together in the various entries.

A lot of things had happened since the beginning of this blog. Ideas came, ideas went and ideas dried up. It is not easy to get ideas what to write. I have full respect to the bloggers who managed to update their blogs everyday consistently.

Coming back to the ‘a lot of things had happened’ part, Brunei now can play football LEGALLY. Thanks to relentless and dedicated effort of those people who loved the sport, we are now back in the football family. We can now occupy and make full use of the ‘Goal Project’ building across the ICC. Looking beyond the surface of all the happenings in getting our beloved country back in the footballing world, Brunei is indeed a truly blessed country. Blessed in the sense we have perfect timing and able to ride the ‘political environment’ of FIFA. FIFA is at an all time low and it needs all the support it can get. One of the best way to get support is to be seen as ‘fair’ and ‘caring’. Giving the nod for Brunei to be back in the football family is such act. Well, this is just my postulation….

Nevertheless, job well done to the Normalisation Committee. Let’s play ball…….

P.S.

Now Brunei can look forward to be co-host of the 2030 world cup if ASEAN wins the bid. Quite how 10 host countries takes 10 slots and participate in the world cup is another matter altogether….

Metaphors....

2011-04-08T23:48:00.000+08:00

Recently I was asked, as part of a class exercise, to use metaphor to describe the school in terms animals, type of food, season of the year and place. For each of these choices, I have to give a reason.

Animal? The lion came to mind immediately. Aggressive and daring. Turtle came a close second. Slow, cumbersome yet enduring and lovable.

Food? The spud sprang to mind. Reminded me of those spud eateries sprouting in Manchester. Spud aka potato is bland and tasteless. It needs to be spiced up before it became tasty. If you asked most students, most prefer not to go to school. They need all the push and incentives to make the school attractive.

Season? Winter is my season of choice. It’s dull yet hold the promise of breathtaking things especially when it snows.

Place? Bedroom stood out. Why bedroom? If a student goes to school, he or she can either dozes off bored stiff or be stirred up by the knowledge. Bedrooms have the same effect. A place to sleep as well as its where all the exciting, stimulating, thrilling, rousing stuff you can imagine.

In short, it’s our own choice to make it ‘bland’ or ‘spicy’. With the right ingredients, school can be very spicy indeed!

P.S.

Aji No Moto (not related to Hello Moto of Motorola), aka Monosodium Glutamate can make food very tasty. Its been called the sixth taste. Despite this ability, overall, it had been linked to harmful effect. Keep your food MSG FREE….

Happy New Year….

2011-01-02T23:59:00.000+08:00

It’s the time of the year again. The time to look back and the time to look forward. New resolutions, lesson learned, assesment of achievements and plans for the future. All of us know the drill.

It’s also time for SALE and spend spend spend. Floods of money for most people especially the Government Servants who got their bonuses. To those unfortunate ones without bonuses we say hard luck and have a lot of strength. Seeing every other person waving their bonuses and spending it on their dream items is not easy. To those with the bonuses, remember the ‘hutangs’ or the money you may owe others. Pay up first before you spend.

To me, accidentally, two years in a row I ended up with a Mac product on the New Year’s Day. With some luck, it may turn out to be a hattrick next year. May be it will be an annual ritual. I know of some people who have the annual tradition of buying ‘luxury’ items. Definition of luxury items varies form person to person.

Why Mac? Why not other stuff? I was in the hardcore ‘against using Mac’ category only a year or so ago. Especially after the bad experience of owning a Mac Book a few years back. Even having a boss who is a hardcore Mac user did not have any impact.

Then the iPhone came into being. After many months of pondering, decided to jump into it despite clueless on how a Mac product works. To my surprise, it was ‘peanuts’ to use. Easy peasy. Super user friendly after getting through the first hurdle of syncing, apping, ituning etc. Top that with myriads of apps, some very useful, some utterly nonesene. In short, to me, the iPhone is a ‘game changer’; a life changer in fact. From that moment, swiping is part of my life. Everything on the iPhone involves swiping. All part of life is affected. From the mundane calendar and address book to prayer time and calorie counting.

Macbook is the obvious next step. For someone who has been using Windows, there was hesitancy in the migration to the Mac. Again, to my surprise, it was straightforward and uncomplicated. So here I am, a total Mac Convert. In my experience of using windows after converting to Mac, it was easy to convert to Mac but very difficult to revert back. Why? It’s not easy to describe and explain why. To use an analogy, it’s like trying to revert back to mental calculation after experiencing the use of calculators.

Happy New Year everyone… May this New Year bring happiness, good health, success and prosperity. And off course new Mac products……

P.S.

This posting is not sponsored by Apple or any other Mac related companies.

That's Cricket.....

2010-12-29T02:02:00.000+08:00

Cricket is a strange word to many people in the world. Kids may know cricket as Jimmy the Cricket who accompanies Pinocchio, famously known for his growing nose, in his adventures. Cricket the game is even stranger to many. Despite being the second most watched sports in the world after football / soccer, a lot of people don’t understand the game. Not many countries play the game at the highest level. The highest level being a Test Playing Nation. South Africa, India, Pakistan, England, New Zealand, Australia and the West Indies. Just in case you are particular with your geography, The West Indies is not one country, but a multinational team representing 15 English speaking Caribbean Countries.

I will not do cricket justice if I try to describe what cricket is. Event though I am a fan, especially when it involves England, I understands less than 50% of it! If you interested to know about cricket apart from most of the time it is being played ‘gentlemanly’ by 22 men or women in all whites with reddish streaks on the front part of their pants at the strategic areas appearing as the day goes by, you can read more about it in the forever reliable (not 100% trusted) Wikipedia. On the team attires, nowadays you get teams in multicoloured ‘pyjamas’ in almost all forms of cricket bar the Test.

Pondering on a recent remarked from a friend was surprised to know I am a cricket fan, how did I become one? To support England is normal for most Bruneians. That’s not strange. Most of us support England in football. May be its because of our history closely linked to the United Kingdom. Bear in mind the administrative power of the UK is England. Nowadays slowly the powers are being devolved. That’s a story for another day when, if ever, I start writing about politics. Back to cricket. My love for cricket grew from my first summer in England, Ulu England to be precise, years ago. With the smell of fresh summer intertwined with the smell of ‘cow dung’ in the air, there I was watching my first game. Cricket is a game for the summer time. I can’t recall who was playing apart from one of the teams was my school’s team. But the sight of the summer day is still vivid in my mind.

From that day, my ‘love’ or rather fondness for cricket grew. Supporting the England team. Watching the live telecast on TV. Listening to the radio with headphones in the middle of the night when England is playing down under. Bear in mind those days, internet was still at infancy and only used by the military. So TV and radio was the source. Fans of cricket know the biggest rivalry in cricket is between England aka the Poms and Australia aka the Aussies (rather obvious). The rivalry is at the most when they are battling for the Ashes. If you are interested enough, you can read about the Ashes here.

From the time I started watching cricket up to as recent as 4 or 5 years back, the Aussies always thrashed the Poms. Only in the recent years the Poms got the upper hand. Right now, they are in the middle of the battle. Very intense, highly captivating. Glued me to the internet where I got a ‘free’ (illegal?) live streaming of the games. Or to my able phone for regular updates when I am on the move.

What intrigued me is how cricket, the supposedly gentlemanly game has adopted to the use of technology in disputed or bad umpiring calls. Well, the word gentleman conjured up the perception of resistance to change albeit in a polite way. Compared to football or soccer (as known in the USA), cricket has embraced new technology with open arms. Football on the other hand still resisting technology despite some admitting wrong decisions can affect the lives of many people. The famous Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly said football is more important than life and death. So why leave it solely to humans, who are prone to making mistakes? After all, football results had been known to caused deaths to the supporters.

In cricket, new technologies are embraced. Apart from the two umpires, they utiilise a third umpire who has access to myriads of technology. Hot Spot, Hawkeye (similar to the one use in tennis) and snick-o-meter are some of these. Google them up for details. Instead of slowing down the game, it made it more interesting especially for the spectators. Added suspense when a player or a team referred the decision to a the third umpire. Spicing up the excitement for us. May be football can learn from this and we will never again had the ‘did it cross the line or not’ aka the Russian linesman incidents.

Talking about technology, here is a funny yet inspiring story from the Daily Telegraph…

“….Sydneysiders finding it hard to be enthused by the fifth Test should draw inspiration from the great lengths Twitter cult hero @theashes is taking to get to the match. Not even a giant blizzard sweeping along the US east coast can prevent Theashes, a Massachusetts woman unwittingly bombarded by messages from cricket fans tweeting about the Ashes during the first Test, from seeing a match first hand. About 2900 flights have been grounded after snow blanketed cities from Philadelphia to Boston. The freeze saw the cancellation of buses and trains heading to New York, leaving Theashes stranded at home. ''Unless @qantas-airways can get me a flight tmrw, not coming,'' she tweeted in the early hours of yesterday morning. ''I hope I can work something out with @QantasAirways in the morning so I can still go.'' Fortunately for her, Australia's national carrier came to the fore yesterday. ''The trip is on! @QantasAirways got me a flight for tomorrow. I'll be in Sydney to @SeeAustralia on Thursday the 30th - in time for New Years……'

Moral of the story? Technology is a great tool but it is only a tool and not 100% foolproof. It can still deliver the wrong message to the wrong person, fortunately this time with a happy ending….

P.S.

At the time of writing of this entry, England is well on the way of thrashing the Aussies in their own backyard and retaining the Ashes. Wonderful feeling with a tinge of regret. I would have been there, should have been there witnessing and be part of history. If only I had chosen to spent my sabbatical not here…..

Paradox of Savings….

2010-11-06T14:32:00.000+08:00

Paradoxes are everywhere in this world. Recently came across this term ‘Paradox of Savings’. It’s one of the paradox of economics. Popularised by the father of Keynesian Economics, John Maynard Keynes, according to the Wiki, “The paradox states that if everyone tries to save more money during times of recession, then aggregate demand will fall and will in turn lower total savings in the population because of the decrease in consumption and economic growth.”

To explain this, the Wiki says, “If a population saves more money, then total revenues for companies will decline. This decrease in economic growth means fewer salary increases and perhaps downsizing. Eventually the population's total savings will have remained the same or even declined because of lower incomes and a weaker economy.” In short, increase in individual’s saving may be harmful to the economy.

Admittedly in economics there are many ‘factions’ or ‘schools of thought’. This view is from the Keynesian School of Thought. Others may beg to differ.

So what do we do? Encourage savings or discourage it? I am not an economist to answer this. It’s up to individuals which faction they want to believe. But what’s interesting is how we Asians specifically the Chinese think of savings compare to the Americans.

Michael Pettis in his article ‘Chinese Savings and the Wealth Effect’ discussed why the savings rate in China is very high and why savings rises when interest rates decline. By commonsense, when interest rate increases savings will increase. But not in China. The author shared that in China savings are meant for things like education. Parents will have a specific target that will cover their children’s education. This will be calculated taking into account interest rates for a monthly amount to be saved. Hence when interest rates decline, they will have to increase their monthly savings to cover the gap resulting from the decline in rate.

Culture seems to play an important role here. One thing it thought me, you have to wear many ‘glasses’ to see the true picture. The world seems different when seen through an economist’s eyes but not necessarily the complete picture…..

Lesson Snippets….

2010-10-05T00:13:00.000+08:00

It’s not easy going back to academic stuff. The hard drive and the RAMs are not what they used to be. The CPU is almost obsolete. Yet in the midst of all the confusion, ‘blurness’, blankness and lost in the street of the academic world, some lessons stuck in this old head. Struck more like it. Using the lecturers’ terminology, there are some ‘take away’ points and I try to share as much as I can here, the important ones at least.

Economics and its world of demand and supply seems to play a very important role in setting public policies all over the world. Despite economics being an inexact science, people argue if it is even a form of science and add to that economists seem to argue among themselves to what is wrong, what is right, it’s prediction is the cornerstone of policy making. Prior to this, my personal perception is economics tend to look at facts, figures and tend to be ‘cold hearted’. More concerned about ‘efficiency’, the so called size of the pie (share rather then ‘equity’, the distribution of the economic gains. Yet, the perception has slowly changed. More and more it can be seen in the pursuit of ‘efficiency’, distribution takes place. May be I am wrong but that’s how the perception has changed. Coming back to using economic arguments in policy making, hopefully someone can enlightened me to what extent it has been used in the process of policy making in Brunei.

Housing is always an important necessity no matter how we are. Recently, I had to opportunity to listen to how our neighbor approached this challenge. The take away points generated some raw thoughts.

The first one is about the DEMAND. Do we really know the actual demand on housing? Is the queue number the real demand? Is there anywhere we can manage, priorities and streamline the numbers to get the actual demand? Without knowing the real demand, we may end up building more than what is really needed. An aspect of this is the eligibility. Do we consider application from single person? Here, they based it on a family nucleus. A family nucleus is made up of minimum TWO person eg husband and wife, mother and kid etc.

Secondly is how can make use the houses to create assets for the recipients. Here, the ‘houses’ are treated as assets. Their value will grow in tandem with economic progress. The owners can cash in on the appreciation in value. Two important side to this is making ‘home ownership’ as the cornerstone and also allowing ‘right sizing’. Right sizing means upgrading or downgrading to meet the necessity.

The third one is ‘FORCED SAVING’. Everyone is ‘forced’ to save part of their income towards housing right from the beginning of their working life. Here, the figure is about 30% of the take home pay. This saving in most cases pay for most of the cost of buying the home. By the time the individual is allocated a house, he or she will have enough to make significant amount to pay for the house and subsequent payments.

An important aspect to all these is ‘financial savviness’ of the individual. The perception is that the general population is not financial savvy. Is this due to lack of education? May be educating them right from primary school will help. That’s for the future. How about for the current generation? We can’t force them to go back to school. The real question is the access to financial planning specifically in developing their individual ‘housing plan’ to meet their needs and within what they can afford. The individual will be more aware and understand more what they can afford and what needs to be done. Eventually he will have the ‘right’ expectation. The next question is who to provide this? Either we can leave it to the financial institutions or we face this head on. As we are responsible to allocate the houses, collect payments, we should be able to give financial advice. Financial advice given right from the day they submit their application.

The most important of all is we need to be pragmatic. Being pragmatic, able to evolve to meet the challenges and improve is the answer rather then to be tied up by rules and regulations. After all as the saying goes, rules are meant to be broken. Before they are broken, we can adjust to meet the demand of current time.

P.S. Is the academic world slowly infecting me? After re-reading this entry, it doesn’t sound like the usual me. Scary to think what will be the effect after 12 months of academic dose….

Time To Learn….

2010-08-29T12:43:00.001+08:00

It’s been a while. Over two months this blog has be left ‘unupdated’, if there is such a word. Time was not kind. Not enough time to do everything. Prioritisation had to be done. Blogging seemed to be not among the top ten of my to do list chart. Talking of to do list chart, there is a lot ‘to do’ apps out there. But nothing beats the simple list. Easy to understand, simple to use and off course free. Unlike some paid apps, not user friendly and time consuming to use.

So, here I am sitting by the window overlooking the green surrounding in a foreign country. Taking a year sabbatical from my work and from life in Brunei. To quote one of the people I met “we are lucky and brave to be able to do this at this stage of our lives.”

Moving into another country albeit a familiar one is not easy. Looking for accommodation and getting used to the transport system, bear in mind not having the luxury of the car we always took for granted. Walking, hopping onto the bus and up and down the trains. Add to that trying to jump-start this rusty brain to high-speed mode and process the enormous information that had to be consumed, digested and repackage into personal point of view. That’s the whole point of being here. To develop the ability to ‘having an opinion’. Sounds simple. Everyone has an opinion. It is human nature to have an opinion in everything.

Despite the many challenges, loneliness is up there, it’s been inspirational. Being in a group of over eighty people from over twenty countries is refreshing and an eye opener. I was told these are among the brightest people. Most are future leaders of their respective organisations and countries. One even aspires to be the President. I guess he is at the right place. Developing leaders is one of the primary aim of this School by equipping them with right skills and tools. Eventually, in a year’s time, all of us will not just go through this with flying colours, more importantly be a better leader. On a personal note, a better person.

As the Dean said in welcoming us “make use of everyday, every moment in the year to engage in learning.” That is the reason being here. To learn……

P.S.

One of the things I had to relearn again is cooking. The skills from my student life over 18 years ago are long gone. One mean cook had become a clueless one. Delicious multitasting recipes turned out into carbon even for the simple ‘talor dadar’. Fortunately food, halal food is plentiful. Prices are reasonable especially in the School. The famous Adam Road Nasi Lemak is just a few bus stops away. May be within this year I will go up to ‘reheating stage’ in the cooking skill level. Thanks to the microwave and those Brahim pastes…….

Seoul to Seoul….

2010-06-18T06:49:00.001+08:00

Back in Seoul. Just over a year ago was here for almost a week. The same this time. Last year gripped by the threat of their brothers from the north and the funeral of a well beloved ex President. This year, the threat from the northern brothers are still there but this time more of a fight over the sinking of the southern ship. By all accounts from experts called by the South, the north is guilty as charged. But the north disputed the south’s account as lies and fabrications.

We witnessed very deep and strong national fervor last year albeit a very sad one. This year, the national fervor is still here. But this time it’s on a happier note. It’s the World Cup. Both the north and the south are represented. Even the normally hostile north was over the moon when their southern brothers won their match.

Being in this soccer mad nation, you can see red everywhere. Red, the color of their football team. On a match day, people gathers at open space public areas. The Seoul Square in front of the City Hall packed. Streets apart from the vicinity of the Seoul Square very quiet. Here and there groups of people gathered around TV screens, big and small. Shouts in unison in the event of a goal by their team. Grunts in the event of a goal scored by their opponents. Shops are open but not that many people shopping. It is as if the whole city, the whole country for that matter, is on a standstill for ninety minutes plus the injury time and half time. Tonight was such night. But it ended in a big disappointment. Their team got thrashed 1-4 by the South Americans. Still the atmosphere was electric. I wonder what if their team wins. May be the whole place will be shaking!

P.S.

One of the speakers asked ‘why did we consume food through one hole but dispose it through two holes?’. According to him, that is the clue, the way forward for us to dispose of human waste. Two hole ‘toilet bowls', that's the way of the future, according to him……

Welcome Home World……

2010-06-13T13:06:00.000+08:00

‘The waiting is over’… ‘Let the games begin’…. ‘Here we go’ ... are some phrases heard when the World Cup 2010 kicked off. 5 years of waiting, ,months of build up complete with the increase frequency of airtime given to World Cup promos and the catchy songs.

To football mad fans and to a certain extend non-fans it will be a month of change in routines. Need to be home early to catch the early games. Waking up middle of the night to catch the early morning games. To some may be the other parts of their lives will come to a stand still. Some non-football spouses, majority of the female gender, will have sleepless nights too. TVs too loud and the husbands and kids shouting like crazy in the middle of the night. Add to that sound of popping crackers, kuacihs, cans and all sorts of must have paraphernalia for an armchair spectator.

64 matches in one month. We had 5 down 59 to go. In Brunei, for the ‘live coverage’ we have the choice of watching astro for those with dishes hanging on their walls, astro beyond for those who are into HD technology and last but not least the ever reliable RTB. RTB also offers HD. So far, in terms of quality of the pictures compared to the standard astro (I don’t have astro beyond, tempted to have one but don’t see the use of it), RTB got the thumbs up. For those fussy about details, it seems the pictures are five seconds earlier than those in astro.

Talking about RTB, thumbs up to them for their effort to bring the matches live. After all not everyone has astro. If someone have any grouse about RTB coverage is may be about the ‘experts’. At the interval of the opening match, the experts, to use a local term, ‘mati-mati’ said the referee and his assistant was wrong for flagging the Mexican player for offside. This clearly showed the experts were not aware of the offside rule. Put it simply, the referee was right, the ‘experts’ were wrong! Read the rulebook again please.

Another craze that comes along with every world cup is collecting the ‘Panini’ world cup stickers. Six hundred plus stickers to fill. That’s almost $100 per album, if you are very very lucky and don’t get doubles or even triples. Apparently some stickers were hard to find. A sniff of the precious rare stickers leads to sms exchanged, facebook updates browsed and meetings arranged for exchange of stickers. We are talking about adults here! I suppose this will help the economy a bit. Generate extra sales. On a personal note, I just started to fill up the album. Just for fun and to get into the world cup mood, not that I need much of stirring up. Still 500+ to go ….

One good news that came before the World Cup kicked off, the continued suspension of our national team from the world of football. I suppose it’s good news but since when a continued suspension is good news. But then again compared to expulsion, in the wilderness of the world football? All the fans wanted is the BAFA saga sorted out one way or another so we can have our normal football season. Hopefully this will be a kick-start to Brunei returning to fold of world football and we can make full use of the facilities FIFA funded near the Stadium.

Despite not participating in any international matches, Brunei’s ranking has gone up four places to 189. Joint 189^th with Afghanistan. We are better ranked than other well-known ‘powerhouses’ like Bhutan, Macau, Timor Leste, Andorra, San Marino and Papua New Guinea. That’s without playing. I wonder what will be our ranking if we fully participate.

Still fresh in memory the golden outing our national team at the Qualifiers for the 1980 Moscow Olympic. We were grouped together with the hosts Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Brunei gave the bigger countries a run for their money. We defeated Philippines 2-0, Indonesia 3-2. Roslan Hj Suhaili scored a hattrick past the Indonesian keeper Taufik Lubis. Indonesia at that time was a powerhouse in this region. At that time we had Ali Hj Ismail, Zulkifli Anis, Ak Zamani, Pg Tajudin just to name a few. We lost narrowly 1-2 to Japan. 1-3 to both Malaysia and South Korea. Look at what happened to Japan and South Korea now.

If we followed the example of Japan and South Korea, may be we will be in the World Cup Finals sooner than we think. Nothing is impossible……

P.S.

When we won the Cup, the Malaysia Cup not the World Cup, we were ranked 192. The year 1999 will be forever etched in the memories of the local football fans. That was the pinnacle. It felt we were on top of the world.

A tribute, a celebration ….

2010-06-03T00:37:00.000+08:00

Farewells are always sad. With the recent changing of the guards, a few of us decided to have what originally we termed as a personal farewell to our bosses. Gathering of people who worked closely with both of them before.

When the night came, those who were there unconsciously but unanimously made it into a celebration, a tribute and an appreciation. The beginning, not the end of the road.

Each and everyone present were asked to speak. Sharing experiences, conveying tributes, showing appreciation and off course expressing their deep sincere thank yous.

I was among the last one to speak. Being among the last gave the advantage of making notes. The early ones had to make do with impromptu speeches. Mine was a bit scripted. Notes made on the phone. If there is one thing I learned over the years from my boss is having written notes and keypoints helps a lot.

Decision to put the raw notes here as it was ‘scribbled’ was more personal than wanting to share it with the world. These words came from deep down. To put it here is one way to safely keep it, treasure it. The notes were definitely disjointed, may not make sense but these are the words uttered:

“Dear friends, i consider us all friends .. Pehin, Dato, Lets make tonight a not sad one.. I got selesma not crying... Lets make tonight a celebration & appreciation for Pehin's & Dato's achievements & our bonds.....I dont know what else to say.... Everything has been said... & i concur with all ..But i hope the story about names will say it all.... Continuing Theme tonight about names.. I consider myself still young yet i m worse off, very very bad in remembering names ... Until i bought a small book on how to remember names.. Thats how bad I am so very forgetful with names... But the impact of pehin & dato through the many highs and the few lows on me personally i m sure i will never forget pehin's & yb's names...tq pehin tq dato..tq for everything ... Everything realy means everything.. All the best wishes for pehin & dato.. Amin…..”

Throughout the 5 years leading us, both of them had achieved a lot. But to me the greatest testimony of all , the greatest achievement of all is the strong bond between them and the rest of us. That, to me is priceless and lasting. More than anything else……..

The New Guard …..

2010-05-30T00:00:00.000+08:00

Today , the announcement a lot of people, if not everyone was waiting for, came. His Majesty the Sultan dan Yang DiPertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam in his titah this afternoon announced the new Cabinet Ministers line up. Details of the appointments can be read here.

To the new guard, we say congratulations and welcome and wish them good luck, all the best and all the success. To the old guard we show our appreciation and say thank you very much, we wish them all the best in their future undertakings, good health and happiness.

On a personal note, today’s announcement means some ‘uncertainties’ but exciting time ahead. May be it is the same for others who share the same position. The weeks, in fact months of speculations ended with today’s announcement. Some of the speculations were spot on. Some did not materialise. That’s the nature of speculations. Many uncertified pundits. Everything was analysed. Rumors flying around left, right and centre. Some were outright outrageous. Nevertheless, it added to the ‘suspense’ feeling. In fact we can feel it in the air.

Somehow, it died down a bit when no announcement came last week. Then came lunch time today. SMSes started coming. To quote a friend, it was raining messages (hujan labat!). Everyone searching for radio and TV to confirm what the sms conveyed. The radios and TVs confirmed it but no timing was mentioned. Form then onwards, our ears on high alert glued to the radio. The old TVs with the ancient antenna, which was seldom switched on, suddenly, became the centre of attention.

Work must go on. Yet the mind and the head were focused on the impending announcement. Two o’clock passes, three o’clock came still no announcement. SMSes and phone calls ‘belatupan’. Even old friends who had not called for a long long time rang up. Came Asar time, the mind set for the announcement to come around five o’clock just like last time. Suddenly, at the end of the doa after Asar azan, appeared His Majesty on TV. The rest was history…..

P.S.

To my boss, congratulations and all the best wishes and success in the new portfolio. We had our sad farewell too. Thank you Dato. You have been great to us. We will always treasure your advice, guidance and most of all your kindness and generosity. You can always count on us as your friends.

To whom it may concern .....

2010-05-29T08:26:00.000+08:00

P.S. Need I say more? ;)

Rankings....

2010-05-27T16:24:00.004+08:00

Brunei came 63^rd in the Network Readiness Index (NRI) 2009-2010. But what does it mean?

NRI measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology. Propensity, to those who does not have access to any dictionary, means simply ‘tendency’ or ‘inclination’. It is part of the Global Information Technology Report published by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, an internationally renowned graduate business school and research institution. The full report can be read here.

The NRI is a composite of three components: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the community’s key stakeholders (individuals, businesses, and governments) to use ICT, and finally the usage of ICT amongst these stakeholders. It covers 133 economies from both the developed and developing world accounting for 98% percent of world’s GDP.

Sweden with a score of 5.65 is the Numero Uno, the most networked economy in the world. Our neighbour, Singapore with a score of 5.64 came a close second. Brunei’s score is 3.77. Among the high-income countries, Brunei is ranked 44^th out of 46 economies. At least we are better than Kuwait and Trinidad and Tobago. Among the notable countries that are above us are Vietnam, Thailand, Tunisia and India. Just below us is Azerbaijan.

Let’s dig deeper into the report. Assuming being ranked in the top 40 as doing well, the report indicates Brunei has a good ICT infrastructure especially with very strong support from the Government. Our education system is ranked highly especially in the quality of maths and science education. We also have an ICT friendly taxation and legal framework.

Surprise, surprise, we are outside the top 100, infact ranked 127 out of 133 on the time required to start business and ranked 128 in the number of procedures to start a business. Sounds familiar! Remember what was reported in the Ease of Doing Business Index? May be there is a miscommunication on this. As I recalled, in the Ease of Doing Business Index published by the World Bank, we got the very low ranked due to the part left unanswered by the survey respondent.

Other areas where Brunei can improve are the need to have more competition and in the creative and technology exports sector. May be somebody has looked into this. I do hope the incubates at the iCentre can rise to this challenge.

One other area we did not score well is ‘buyer sophistication’. Are they serious? I thought we Bruneians are quite up to date with the technology and we are crazy just about everything ‘the latest’. Look at how fast we change our high tech gadgets, our mobile phones, our laptops, our computers, our TVs and many more. Even the products not launched in other parts of the world will reach us in just few days. How can they say we are not sophisticated? May be our inclination to buy ‘grade A’ copies aka pirated / not original alternatives had a say in this. May be….

In another ranking done by Speedtest.net, Brunei is ranked 146 out of 178 countries in terms of download speed. At an average 0.91Mb/s, we are the tortoise compared to the top ranked South Korea at 33.97 Mb/s. In ASEAN, only Cambodia is ranked lower. Singapore is ranked 31^st at 8.47 Mb/s. Even Rwanda at 3.74 MB/s and Mozambique at 1.96 Mb/s have faster download speeds. Hopefully the new Brunei International Gateway project through the Asia-America Gateway due to be completed in 2011 will help us move higher up the speed league. May be we can sit next to the Maldives in the top 50 ……

To summarise, as the familiar phrase written in the school kid report books, 'Well done but there is a lot of room for improvement'.

P.S.

How do you measure success of the awareness campaign on fuel subsidy? It is not easy and results definitely will come overnight. May be the results can be seen in the coming months or years in terms of fuel consumptions. Any significant drop may point towards a more efficient usage of fuel and more people moving towards ‘green’ lifestyle.

But the TV news seemed to think the massive drop in fuel sales, 85% if I heard correctly, meant the campaign was a success. How can that be? Isn’t it obvious people will not buy petrol on that day? Isn’t it obvious people rather wait till the next day to fill up their tanks the day after? It must be obvious that the sales figure would drop massively when price are double or even tripled in the case of diesel. The drop only points to the fact that Brunei population is a ‘savvy’ and knowledgeable group. They are quite aware to the rise and fall of their daily necessities.

Choices…..

2010-05-24T10:46:00.000+08:00

The last week had been eventful. Had some time off. Some interesting items in the news. Some of us were waiting for some big news that never came, for now.

One news that made headline was the so called destruction of the mangrove area, the habitat of the proboscis monkeys aka Bangkatan. One side claiming we are destroying the Bangka tan’s habitat. Another claiming we have done everything we can not to disturb the Bangka tans. Who is right?

My guess is, nobody is 100% right. Both have sound arguments. One looks after forest and its habitat. Bangkatan is an endangered species. Apparently they can only survive in Borneo and not many of them left. Being rare, and their habitat in Brunei is accessible within a short boat ride, it became a tourist attraction. No wonder the tourism people cry foul when they heard of the clearing of the mangrove area.

On another side are the people trying to alleviate flooding. I am not going to bore everyone with the technical details. Suffice to say they need to widen and deepen the existing river. They did their environmental impact studies and proposed mitigation actions that have minimum impact on the mangrove vegetations and the habitat of the Bangkatans. In short, leaving their habitat on Pulau Luba untouched. The few Bangkatans that ‘migrated’ across the river now must move back to the island.

So the choice goes down to either helping thousands of people in the flood prone area or the few Bangkatans? It is not an easy decision but an obvious one. Choices had to be made. That’s a fact of life.

Talking about choices, another recent headline was the introduction of new regulations on the type of number plates for cars. I may have missed it but I did not hear any explanation on the need to change. Please correct me if I am wrong. Everyone must change before the end of the year.

Apparently, at the moment only two companies are licensed to produce the new number plates. Lucky them. In the next few months it will be a windfall to them. At $38 per car and with around 180,000 active vehicles in the country, that works out to be almost $7million within 7 months. Cool $1million per month. That’s not including the new cars, around 20,000 annually. I wonder how much is the investment to set up the number plate business.

Today is Energy Day in Brunei. SOS is the mantra. Switch Off unused lights and water heaters. Set the air conditioner to 24C. Hopefully, we do this not just today but everyday. Make it a habit. We can make the choice and start saving energy and other green initiatives.

We will also be paying the commercial rate for our petrol today. Double the normal rate. Overheard some complaints already. Nobody likes any price increase. It’s human nature to want everything on the cheap or free whenever possible. Long queues seen at some petrol stations yesterday. Imagine if the increase is for a longer period. May be next year we can try this out for a week especially during long weekends. Wonder if the queues at the border crossings will be as long.

Hopefully, out of this, our people appreciate better our energy and the subsidy we are getting. Around $200 millions of subsidy annually. We are a lucky lot indeed. But the more important thing is for us to start living responsibly. Realising our resources is limited and scarce. By doing this, we may just secure the future of our future generations.

Sadly, subsidy if not appreciated, admittedly, in most cases will make us ‘misbehave’ and ‘irresponsible’.

We are lucky .....

2010-05-19T09:07:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, a big group of us together with the bosses went on a road trip to Ulu Belait and Tutong. Checking progress of a few projects. Kargu, Bang Taong, Buau, Sukang, Biadong and Merangking are among the stops. Longhouses were visited too.

At one of the longhouses, got talking to an old man. About life in the ulu. They seemed to be contented with the life, peaceful life. In the conversation, what struck me most was what the kids went through to get their education. At least two hours walk just to reach the school! The roads were only accessible on a four wheel drive cars. Five in the morning, still in darkness, surrounded by thick greens, they are ready for their two hours daily trek to school. Five in the morning in bandar, most of the kids are still in the dreamland, blanketed, in their air conditioned rooms.

Two hours to school, another two hours heading home. Four hours total. By the time they reached home these kids must be tired yet they endure this daily. That’s the spirit, RASA KAN BELAJAR. For kids in bandar, if can, they want the cars to send them up to the class room doors! Even people live near the school send their kids by car.

May be we need to change this. Need to make the kids feel a bit of hardship. May be the will appreciate how lucky they are. May be they will not take things for granted.

P.S.
On a flight to the Lion City, listening to old songs, feeling melancholic, savouring my rare time off from work. Almost halfway on the flight, with almost empty stomach, saw the stewardess smiling pulling the food cart. In my head, here comes the best part of the flight. Food! I love airline food despite being less tasty lately. As the cart approaches, the heart beats eager to know what’s on the menu. Longing for the days where they gave out the menu at the beginning o the flight. To us who flies on 'kelas kambing' we no longer have the privilege. We can only intu-intu and subok subok to those in the Business Class who knows in advance what they will be having. Back to food cart. It now stood next to my seat. The lady serving the guys in front of me. Then it moved slowly to the back. May be she was going to the back to get some food so I thought. Minutes passed by yet not food in my view except those of the passengers nearby. Finally saw the cart approaching but sadly it passed by me right to the front serving drinks to others. I sense something not right. I felt annoyed a bit. How could they keep me waiting for my food, my highlight of the flight. Losing my patience but still cool, pressed the call assistant button. A guy came politely attending to my call. Food, where was my food, I asked. Surprise surprise, the lady missed me! I must have gotten the invisible effect I read in the Invisible Man story. It is not as if I am off small built. She apologised albeit belatedly. Me more disappointed than angry. Appetite spoiled. Food not even half eaten. A couple of her colleagues apologised for the mistake. Apologies accepted but my highlight was robbed. Contemplated to make an official complaint. On second thought I better not. I may end up labelled a spoiled adult behaving like a kid who lost his sweets. May be I am ...

Balikpapan, Kota BERIMAN ......

2010-04-30T18:30:00.003+08:00

Balikpapan, a city famous for many things. Also famous in Brunei for the wrong reasons especially during the time, not so distant ago, where we used to have direct flight from Bandar Seri Begawan to Balikpapan. Even now there is a place in Brunei known among the locals especially the older members of the public as Balikpapan. Don’t ask me why.

Here I am, first time at Balikpapan, not knowing what to expect except the stories of adventure or rather misadventures of some of our countrymen (I stressed men) here. To arrive here, we have to do a round trip via the Lion City and it took us almost 10 hours. No more direct flights. Some alleged the stopping of the direct flight was due to the misadventures of our countrymen. The more plausible reason was may the very low passenger count. I heard the original intention was to use the direct flight as a link to Australia.

After almost a day here, Balikpapan indeed is a delightful city. With the typical colors of the Indonesian cities I had visited but without the traffic jam. Last night, I heard the Governor saying something about Kota Balikpapan known as Kota BERIMAN. Must be a very religious city, I thought. Not surprising as on our walkabout, we heard quite a number of the call to prayers, the azan. More about the BERIMAN part later.

With a large number of Muslim population, I was told at least 70%, this seaport city on the eastern coast of the island of Borneo has a good mixture of people. The population of over 600 thousands is a mixture of origins from Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Jawa, Sumatera and Kalimantan.

My boss commented last night the name Balikpapan is unique and in some ways romantic. If I heard him correctly that is. I decided to look it up. The official website of Kota Balikpapan had two versions of the origin of the name Balikpapan.

One version is during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Idris in 1739. The sultan ordered the communities around a bay area to contribute building materials for a new palace. The contribution is in the form of 1000 pieces of timber tied together into a raft. Upon arrival at Kutai, 10 pieces were found missing. These missing pieces were thought to have refused to be part of the contribution hence the phrase ‘Baliklah papan itu’.

Another version was from the people of Suku Balik, better known as Suku Pasir Kuleng who migrated to the current location of Balikpapan. This group originated from the family of Kayun Aleng and Papan Ayun and was known as ‘Kuleng-Papan’. Kuleng in Pasir Balik dialect meant ‘balik’ hence the name Balikpapan.

Coming back to the BERIMAN part. I thought it was about religion. Infact it is an acronym and it stood for ‘BERSIH, INDAH & NYAMAN’.

More info on Balikpapan can be found here.

P.S.

While having breakfast, I heard a story about how some Indonesians are ‘crafty’ and how it takes a lot of patience living here. There is a local saying ‘if you can make it difficult, why make it easy’. From experience, it's not an Indonesian phenomenon, it's everywhere......

Rumours & Speculations…

2010-04-27T07:31:00.001+08:00

Throughout our live, no matter what we do, where we are, who we are, we can’t run away from hearing rumours and speculations. All aspect of life affected by rumours and speculations. The stock market, price of goods and services and many others. The nature of rumours and speculations no matter how far fetched they are, they will always get attention. One rumour which is not connected to another speculation, will somehow be linked through creative out of the box or shall I say out of this world thinking. A small one sentence rumour can become a full paragraph or even a few pages of text after passed on from one ‘uncertified pundit’ to another. Reminded me of the Mossad’s motto "Tell people big lies often enough and they'll believe it.”

How we deal with rumours and speculations, how we handle them, how we analyse them and the conclusions we draw from them will somehow dictate our success in life. Some people make a living out of analysing rumours and speculations. Bookies, futurist, market analyst. May be even this skill is essential to those aspiring to go through MBA , economics and related courses.

In the old days, we have the newspapers, radio and the dumb box we called TV as our main sources of information. Now, we have the sprawling reaches of the world wide web as the main source. A movement here, a shift there, a shake here, a rattle there, with a click of a button, the whole world knows about it. Be it tweeted, facebooked, four squared, you-tubed and more other internet medium not just the social networking sites. Rumours and speculations are also on the same ride. Spreading faster than wild fire. As fast as the lightning I guess.

Gone are the days of privacy, the cushion of time to tone down an impact of the news be it the truth or a mere rumour or speculation. Harnessed the right way, we can do many good and wonderful things with it. Use it the opposite way, we can do untold damage, intentionally or not.

I am definitely digressing a bit here. What started as a thought about certain rumours and speculations that is snowballing as we approached May 2010, let me to think about how rumours and speculations affected every part of our lives. Ending up with a piece of unscripted, unplanned piece of writing. All that came to my head I typed down. So if this entry looked disjointed, my apologies. Not that I am such a planning sort of person. Not planning is planning to fail, I read somewhere. But some may say, not planning is also planning in some way. Planning not to have any plan.

What are the rumours and speculations I am referring to here? A lot of people realise it is already May 2010. Almost 5 years from the appointment of current line up of Cabinet Ministers. People on facebook (who does not?) got a reminder of this when a well known blogger put up a survey on the performance of the ministries a couple of months back.

Sharing and spreading the rumours and speculations about this story is not what I have in mind. So many of them, we can’t tell which ones are from reliable source or which ones are not. Some are credible some are far fetched. Very interesting to hear if you keep your ears open to these ‘uncertified’ pundits. What is more interesting how people arrived at the speculations. Some even went to the extend, may be jokingly, is to do a survey of the well known tailors in town. Who ordered a more than normal number of suits, are the ones with aspirations or strong belief they will be appointed. Far fetched yet plausible?

Enough of that. … we just wait and see….

Buildings Principles.....

2010-03-29T23:59:00.000+08:00

It was a long morning, even a longer afternoon. Dreading a long evening too. To my surprise, the evening was a delightful one despite a bit tired after staying up watching my beloved team thrashed Sunderland. Delightful evening, not so much the food nor the company but the privilege to listen to a renowned architect, Mr Chien Chung Pei AIA. For people who are familiar with the world of architecture, the family name ‘Pei’ brought images of famous buildings such as the Grand Louvre in Paris and the skyscraper Bank of China building in Hong Kong. These buildings, off course were designed by the one and only I.M.Pei. Mr Chien Chung Pei AIA is one of his sons.

It was not just a talk on architecture. Going through some the buildings he designed such as the Al Burj in Dubai, the Bank of China Head Office in Beijing, Suzhou Museum in China, United States National Slavery Museum, Ronal Reagan UCLA Medical Centre and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, he talked about the thought and philosophy behind the designs.

As he remarked again and again, it will take him more than three hours to go through his presentation. Fortunately, or was it unfortunately for us, he talked for slightly over an hour giving us to have a lively interactive session for another hour.

To share what I learned will take me pages and pages of boring text. I will not be able to put them as eloquently as him. But two things, simple yet valuable things etched strongly in the mind. If put into practice we may just be able to meet the client’s expectation more not just in terms of cost and time but ultimately the end product, a building meeting their requirement.

Firstly: “Buildings should make people (occupants) feels better”.

Secondly: “in designing a building, talk to the client/owners”. Talking to them will help us discover what they really want and need. It is easier and more comforting trying to sell to them their own ideas rather than trying to force our ideas on them.

With these two principles, we may have more and more happier clients and end users.

Songkok...

2010-03-28T14:26:00.002+08:00

Price of songkok must be have gone up. May be focus on spending is not on songkok. May be there are other far more important things like servicing our credit card payments which for some people shot almost 300 percent suddenly. May be even it is the ‘in thing’ now, the new style. May be they want to show off their trendy branded expansive sunglasses on top of their heads. May be.

What am I rambling about here? It’s the growing phenomenon of men attending weddings in full baju melayu complete with sinjang but “songkokless’. Judging from the few weddings I attended, not that I attend a lot of weddings, the number of ‘songkokless’ guests are increasing. Not just among the young men but also the older men in their thirties and above.

Some may ask why does it matter if you have your songkok on or not. It may even be a trivial matter to some people. I don’t consider myself as an ultra conservative. In fact I am quite liberal in some of my views. Somehow the sight of ‘songkokless’ men in full baju melayu attire just gets on my nerve. In this country, aren’t we suppose to have a dress code for functions like wedding? Minimum standard and minimum level of decorum. If we see the ‘warga emas’ they normally dress immaculately, stylishly in their baju melayus complete with their songok in some cases inclined at an angle ala P. Ramlee.

In short, respect the function, dress accordingly. As the Malay saying goes, “masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang kerbau menguak.”

Earth Hour ......

2010-03-27T18:10:00.002+08:00

A lot of people all over the world is talking about the Earth Hour. For those not in the know, not many I guess, Earth Hour is a global call to raise awareness on climate change issues by encouraging everyone to turn off non-essential lights and electrical appliances to save energy. This year it falls today, 27 March 2010. Started in 2007 in Australia, it has grown into a global movement. Last year cities and towns in over 88 countries officially participated. The number is expected to increase this year. Brunei for the first time will be officially in it. Thanks to the efforts of a group of determined young people and supportive NGOs.

What can one hour of switching off the lights do? Not much in grand scheme of reducing our energy usage and the climate change. But this act, hopefully will trigger other acts that will have a bigger positive impact on climate change issues. So, it is not just for today, not just for one an hour. It’s for every hour, everyday, all year round. What can we do to conserve energy and save the environment?

Turn things off, buy energy efficient appliances, use less stuff, use cloth bags, recycle hazardous household wastes and MINIMISE WATER USAGE are among the simple things we can do. Yes water. Reduce our usage of water. Apart from energy, water is another major issue we must focus on. Water, energy and environment are all interlinked. You cannot deal with one and ignoring the others.

We can even argue what are essentials what are not. Is watching TV essential? Some say it is non-essential but in this modern age of information and entertainment some need it as a form of outlet to remain sane and to keep touch with the rest of the world. Do we need 100 watts light in the toilets? Some people say level of lighting varies on the usage of the area. Areas for reading must have high level of lighting. But some people read in the toilet. How about charging our hand phones and gadgets while we are sleeping? Is the burglar scaring light essential? How about having more than one fridge per household? How about more than one car per person? The list goes on and on. Very subjective and varies from one individual to another. Some say if we follow fully the green guide we may end up back in the stone ages. We must find the balance between having a modern lifestyle yet taking care of the environment. In moderation I guess.

In our enthusiasm to celebrate the Earth Hour, please remember the aim is to create a sustainable low carbon future. In short lowering our carbon foot print individually, the whole country and the whole world. Some of our activities may leave a higher carbon footprint compare to switching on the lights. Lighting candles are worse for the environment than light bulbs. Carbon dioxide emission is a s much as ten times higher. So candle light dinner, no matter how romantic it is and how good it is to your relationship, should be avoided. Guys may use this as an excuse to go on a romantic candle light dinner with their loved ones. Plausible reason even though the real reason may be they are skint or even stingy. Come to think of it, dinner should be avoided too. Candle lit or not. Be it fast food, slow food which is eat at your home or sit-down restaurants, all food production especially for beef involves destruction of rainforest contributing to global warming.

No lights, no dinner, no TV, no radio, no to many other pleasurable things we took for granted. Have fun tonight everyone in saving the earth.

P.S.

Based on data from the International Agency, Brunei's per capita Carbon Dioxide emission stands around 15 metric tons. We are way up there despite our total emission is negligible compare to the total global emission. How much can one hour switching off do? At the most, just about 0.01 percent. Well, that's my rough estimate assuming it is just one hour out of 24 hours a day, 365 days every year.

Money Sense .....

2010-02-28T12:32:00.003+08:00

Open up the back pages of the local newspapers, we can see almost daily rows and rows of bankruptcy orders. Credit card debts, loan defaults, failed business are some of the reasons. Over the last year or so, more and more details surfaced about how many people in this blessed country of ours are deeply in debt. Just look at the long list applying and receiving the wang zakat. Any rumours of “gifts” and any sniff of “easy money”, we can see thousands congregating. We hear a number of people declaring themselves poor (‘fakir’ and ‘miskin’) to get their hands on the wang zakat. Gone are the days where people were eager to show off their pay to gain more loans. Now people are more eager to show off their debt (‘hutangs’) Based on these alone, debt is a very serious issue. Up there with other social and economic issues. Debt can lead to other social ills and crimes.

The authorities, I am sure, realised this. From the curb on personal loans, new regulations on credit cards and also the introduction of the Supplemental Contributory Pension (SCP), the authorities are trying to address the debt and personal finance issues. But what else can be done?

There is only so much the authorities can do. As in many things, financial discipline involves personal will and personal control. How best can we do this? Obviously education and awareness plays a big role, if not the biggest. But, are we taught about this in our schools? Not during my school days. I believed it’s the same for many others. Lack of personal finance education can lead to costly mistakes. A good example is buying a car. I believe to many people owning a good car is a symbol of status and among the most important things in live. It’s the same with me. Imagine my shock when reading the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. According to him, which I believed is true, a car is a LIABILITY not an asset. Come to think of it, it should have been commonsense. Apart from a few vintage cars, all cars depreciate in value as soon as you get it out of the showroom.

So, education is very important. Hopefully the Education authorities can look into this and do something similar to what they did for “Corruption” issues. Give our kids, our young, a head start in personal financial management.

How about us who missed the boat? What can be done to help us? Our neighbours, Malaysia, had setup ‘Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan Kredit’ (AKPK) or ‘Credit Counselling and Credit Management Agency’. Its mission is to promote financial wellness among Malaysians by empowering them to be financially savvy through comprehensive consumer educational programmes and providing professional credit counselling and debt management programmes to enable them to regain control of their finances. AKPK is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank Negara Malaysia, set up to provide financial counselling and debt management to individuals as well as financial education to help individuals take control of their financial situation and gain peace of mind that comes from the wise use of credit. All their services are provided “FOC” (Free of Charge). You can read more about AKPK and learn some tips and even download their Money Sense / Celik Wang e-book here.

May be setting up a similar agency here will help not only in debt management but more importantly increase ‘financial literacy’ and hopefully shorter list of wang zakat applicants.

My Country Brunei Darussalam....

2010-02-23T18:21:00.001+08:00

Today, 23rd February 2010, we as a nation celebrate our beloved the land of unexpected treasures country, Negara Brunei Darussalam national day. "Negaraku Brunei Darussalam" a simple theme yet with deep meanings. What does it mean to us? I am sure each individual will interpret it in their own way. To me it simply says, proudly, Brunei Darussalam is my country. It brings strong sense of belonging, sense of ownership. Owning and belonging will make us, most people, to feel attachment and love. This leads to actions of care and not wanting to lose the one we love. Automatically we will be acting responsibly. Responsibilities we will be willingly doing. All will be natural to us. Respecting the authority, the religion, the laws, the culture are among the things that will come natural to us. In true spirit of our national day, not just today, but every day, let’s remind ourselves proudly "Negaraku Brunei Darussalam". MY COUNTRY BRUNEI DARUSSALAM.

Recalling back over 26 years ago, the evening of 31 Dec 1983. Rain could not stop thousands thronging Masjid Omar Ali Saiffudien for the hajat prayers ushering Brunei Darussalam gaining full independence. Sitting outside, not managing to get space inside, a lot of us were wet under the drizzle. None of us care. We just had to be there.

As the hours pass, events moved on to the adjacent Taman. Used to be the old Padang Besar, the centre of Bandar Seri Begawan, centre of everyday lives for so long. It was fitting the proclamation of independence was held there. As the clock struck 12 midnight, His Majesty made the proclamation. Some in the crowd shed tears and shouted "merdeka". The late Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan led the shout of "Allahuakbar", the crowd roared. Standing at the centre of the Taman was surreal even for a teenager. I was a teenager then. In my shirt and jeans. Looking back, I should have been in my best baju melayu for the historic day. Baju melayu or not, the moment His Majesty proclaimed our full independence and the shouts of "Allahuakbar" will forever etched strongly in my mind, my memory. A moment we will never experience again...

P.S.

Part of being responsible to our country is being responsible in the use of our scarce resources especially water and energy. On average, we use 450 litres of water every day. One of the highest in the world. That’s equivalent to 300 big bottles of bottled water. Around $240 worth of bottled water yet we are paying only 5 cents for it. Almost ten times cheaper than the production cost. Recently, the Energy Authorities declared “Brunei's roughly 400,000 inhabitants consume electricity similar to that of a country with a population of one million”. Both shocking figures. Let’s do something about it. Start saving. Save water, save electricity. And save money too. At least the extra money we save from our utility bills can help us pay off our credit card debt.

Credit....

2010-02-19T15:05:00.001+08:00

Late last year the Ministry of Finance introduced regulations on credit card. In short, (quoting a notice from a bank), “to qualify for a credit card, you will have to be at least 21 years old, have a minimum gross salary of B$500 per month with your salary credited into your account with the bank issuing the credit card or maintaining a deposit amount equivalent to your card limit.”

How about the credit limit? Below B$1000 will only get one month gross salary. Two months for gross salary between $1000 and $9,999. Anybody with gross salary above $10,000 can get anything the bank wish to give. Lucky them. Or shall we say unlucky them?

How about the minimum payment? This will interest a lot of people. Currently some banks charge as low as 2.5% of outstanding balance. But from January to March, it will be 5%. After that, it will be 8%. For a lot of people this means the minimum payments they have to make to the bank will be at least three times what they are paying before. More money to service their debt, less money for other things. There goes the luxuries.

What will happen to cardholders who do not qualify with the new criteria? By June 2010, they will have their cards withdrawn or invalidated. The outstanding balance will have to be settled over a period up to 36 months. What will be the interest rate charge? If based on existing credit card rate, people will end up paying a whopping 24% interest annually. Makan darah some people will shout. Hopefully the interest rate will not be that exorbitant. Afterall, the cardholders are no longer getting the full services of a credit card. Just servicing what the owe the banks. Hopefully the banks will not take advantage of the people who will no longer be their loyal customers after three years.

As in many things, everything has its pros and cons. So do these new regulations. Some says in short term, at least for the next three years, some will suffer. But after 2013, people will have less debt. What is a short term suffering compare to long term prosperity? Some says there will be increase of people declaring themselves fakir and miskin which will allow them access to “al-gharimin credit”. Some even says this regulation is only favouring the rich, the well paid people. Giving them more opportunities to credit and access to the luxuries of life while the not so well off can only watch in the sideline, gigit jari. Some says this will make people treasure the luxuries and pleasures of life, not easy to get hence we will appreciate them more. Right now, swipe your card, you can get 42” plasma TV, the latest smartphones, self lighting always visible watches and many more. Worry about paying for them later. In the future, we will have to work hard for it. The argument goes on and on.

How about the economy? Will it be affected? Not knowing any data, and not bothering to look up, lets deduce what is the worth of the credit card industry here. Assuming population of Brunei is 400,000. With 50% above 21 years of age and average minimum income of B$1,000. Assuming everyone, which is not impossible, every single one, has one credit card each with B$1,000 limit. That will be B$200 million worth of credit monthly. B$2.4 billions worth of business annually. What is B$2.4 billions? That’s about half of the Government’s annual expenditure, more than double the total investment in Brunei in 2005. Can the economy cope with loss of B$2.4 billion worth of credit from the consumers?

P.S.

This whole thing reminded me of the curb on personal loans. Based on that experience, is anybody willing to bet against the bank industry coming up with ways around this or finding creative, alternative ways to give us, the consumers, credit? Debts will live on I suppose.....

Don’t Know ....

2010-01-26T19:49:00.001+08:00

Today, I had the opportunity to sit in one of the so called “business development” workshop. Technically, I was not among the participants. More like an “uninvited participant” but a keen listener nonetheless. It is true what some people says everyday in every way we can learn something.

There I was, “intu-intu” on the fringes of the “high powered” group of people, so “high powered” the young speaker himself was in awed and had sleepless night scared of his audience. If he was telling the truth that is. Come to think of it, he was right. There, in that room, most if not all, are the people responsible for the physical development of this beloved country of ours.

Not expecting much from this young speaker and in the subject I thought I know well as I have been acquainted with it for many years, I was twiddling away at the new toy. Must be the ego doing the rounds. What can such a young guy teach such a high powered group of people, I thought.

To my surprise, I always like surprise especially the nice and wonderful ones, not the nasty ones, this guy had a lot to share. A lot of knowledge to impart. Well at least, the parts where I was in the room as an uninvited participant that is. He talked about how there are three categories in what we know. The first two, which constitutes our ego, are things that we know and the things we know that we don’t know. We can always learn, read about the things we know that we don’t know. But these are just small portions of the “knowing” world. What is worrying is the part where we don’t know that we don’t know. That seems to be the biggest portion by a long run.

So what can we do about the things we don’t know that we don’t know? Some says who cares. If I don’t know that I don’t know, why bother. We may not even realise it. So why worry? Why bother? Why burden ourselves with what we don’t know that we don’t know? Life is simple why make it complicated with what we don’t know that we don’t know. Confused and seeing stars with endless phrase after phrase of what we don’t know that we don’t know? May be we don’t know that we don’t know how important are the things we don’t know that we don’t know. May be....

Well, let’s put this into a decision making process. The best decision will always be an informed decision. An informed decision is always based on “full facts”. But how do we know we have the full facts? Some, a lot in fact, will add a disclaimer at the beginning or the end by saying “to the best of my knowledge”. This statement alone is an admission that the person does not have ALL the facts. May be it is impossible to have all the facts. But maybe it is not impossible to do all we can to get all the facts. To get as much information and facts as we can to help us in our decision making. In short, things we know, things we know that we don’t know and especially the things we don’t know that we don’t know. How can we do this? To be honest, I don’t know myself. Well at least, this is one of the things until today I don’t know that I don’t know.

The speaker suggested everyone to be more inquisitive as a way of increasing our knowledge especially in knowing the things we don’t know that we don’t know. We all can try this but in our culture we must be extra careful not to end up being too inquisitive ending up being nosy, being busy body. This reminded me of something I learned many years ago, also in one of my intu-intu times in one of self improvement talks. Honestly I came for the free supper but ended up with one of the best things I learned in life.

Everyone knows having power can bring you a long long way in life. But what is really behind power? Money? Brawn? Weapons? The answer we got that night was none of those obvious things. Knowledge is the most important, if not the main basis of POWER. We can get knowledge through many ways. We can pay to attend courses, buy books. All these need precious dollars and cents. But we may end up with knowledge that is not that useful to us and skint at the same time. Some may say all form of knowledge is always useful. That’s for another time. The speaker, a lady speaker if my memory serves me right, suggested to us to set a daily target. Set a target of everyday to be in contact with five people with the knowledge and information we need. Networking, keeping our eyes and ears open whenever we meet people. Another is by having a network of reliable sources, just like the CIA and KGB with their extensive network of spies and agents but in a much much smaller scale. A mini James Bond of some sort. Surely, we will gain important knowledge. Free knowledge.

To summarise this endless rambling, whatever we do, however we go about it, we must try to learn something every day. As the famous saying on the radio says, “SEHARI SEPATAH KATA”. Or we may end up with bigger than usual portion of “we don’t know that we don’t know” pie.

P.S.
Thank you Mr Young Speaker. Thank you for making us put aside our egos and realise there is alot of important things that we don’t know that we don’t know......

Year in Review....

2010-01-05T13:48:00.002+08:00

This entry started a day or so before we usher in the new year of 2010 and completed a few days later.....

Here we are, at the end of 2009. Hours to go before the world usher in 2010. If we believe the Mayans, we are closer to the end of the world, 2012. End of the year normally brings in reflections. Reflections how the year has gone. Here and there, on TV, radio, in magazines, newspapers, the internet, the media is full of the year review.

Some, many I guess, will also review their year. A personal review of some sort. Did we fulfil our 2009 resolutions? Did we meet our goals, targets and objectives? The highs, the lows, the happy times, the sad time, troubles, success, achievements. All will be flashing in our head and mind. Doing our own reflections.

One of the biggest explosions of 2009 is the Facebook phenomenon. Practically everyone that has access to computers and smart mobile phones, which is almost everyone we know, is on Facebook. Some are passive users. Some are active. Most of us would have updated our status if not daily, may be regularly or once in a blue moon. If we look back at our status updates, Facebook will be a good way to review our year. Looking at mine, it is full of cucur pisangs, roti talor bawangs and some silly thoughts. Boring life indeed. Nothing to shout about. As hard as I tried to make things exciting it was indeed nothing to be excited about. A road trip meant going round the country on office business. I wonder if other people’s status throughout the year is giving similar reflections.

Based on articles online, it will not be surprising if this is the case. An article in www.time.com showed how a year review based on Facebook can be. One damning conclusion the article said about us, Facebook users, is below:

“I may be bland, but judging from my friends' status roundups, I am not alone. In fact, most Facebook users lead overwhelmingly boring lives. (They must; why else would they have nothing better to do than check Facebook?) My news feed is cluttered with updates about triple word scores in Scrabble, new Taco Bell menu items and people who won't stop talking about their pets. Sure, there is the occasional flash of excitement or wit — like in August, when I said that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sounded like the name of a law firm, or November when my friend Marc went golfing in a canyon — but the moments were brief, hidden among anecdotes about breakfast burritos and daytime television programs.”

The full article can be read here.

I guess one of our New Year resolutions is to make our lives more exciting. At least to make it seem so on Facebook....

Happy New Year 2010 everyone....

P.S.
People says 80% of anything is Public Relation. Public Relation is a big part managing our image, the perceptions and impressions we projected. I suppose it works the same on Facebook.

Deal or No Deal...

2009-12-30T07:04:00.000+08:00

It’s been a long, very long past two weeks or more. The trip took a lot out of me. Long hours in the save the world conference drained the mind. The mind which was already on slow snail tortoise like speed due to the cold weather. It was very very cold. Temperatures in the capital of Legoland were below zero at times. Had multiple layers of clothing on. Add to that gloves, long johns and a silly hat. Silly it was but good to keep the ears warm. It was snowing too. Well after many years not seeing snow, some of us were so sakai about it. Took pictures in the middle of the night with some of the locals looking amused at our antics. They must be thinking who are these sakai lot.

Saving the world is not easy task. Even when the world agrees we are facing catastrophic future if we continue our lives business as usual. With 192 countries involved, all with differing agendas and priorities, it was very difficult, almost impossible to come to an agreement. So there we were, 192 countries; more than 110 heads of states or governments in attendance from various background, culture, style of government. Hearing them, one by one from small island nations to major powers. Some inspirational, some brought tears to the eyes and some brought disappointment. But as in many things in this world, the strong dictates the weak. Here is no exception. The major powers tried to dictate. Fortunately, we are under the United Nations where one country has one vote. Not so simple for them to steamroll their wishes. In the end, after marathon sessions, they came up with an agreement where only few countries signed up. The rest just took note. Was it a good deal? It seemed to bring all, everyone, to agree to a deal was impossible. Even more so if each country put their self interests first, which is understandable.

But all is not lost. We, the ordinary people can contribute. We can reduce our carbon footprint in our everyday lives. Little by little, here and there, maybe we can help reduce our carbon emission and save the world.

P.S.
Picture this: on the radio, quiz session, the DJ asking the question, the caller supposes to answer. Then at the start, the DJ asked the caller 'are you ready WITH the question?'. I didn’t know the format is the caller is asking the question. Very creative indeed. Or maybe they want to make it into a hilarious show. Funny indeed. Listening to the supposed to be number one radio station always brought surprises and unearths gems like this.

Cold & Expansive......

2009-12-16T12:36:00.001+08:00

It’s cold. Legoland is definitely cold. It even snowed as we walked out of the airport’s door. Excited to see the snow, acted like ‘orang sakai’. Well, it’s been years since I had my last encounter with snow. The cold breeze made me regretted not taking my ‘Made in Brunei Darussalam’ baju sajuk. Ah! Baju sajuk. What a contradictory term. Isn’t it suppose to be baju panas? To keep you warm?

Not surprising. We are living in a world full of contradictions. Take this Climate Change Conference we are in now. Almost everyone, every countries represented, agreed the earth is warming, heating up to a disastrous future. Warming due to human’s actions. Yet, a big number especially the major countries, the ones with their agendas and interests, is acting as if it is not so. Some people, especially from the world’s civil society who represents the public, the ordinary people, say we are playing politics with our future, our survival, our existence.

Here we are. Thousands and thousands representing the humanity. Sitting down, discussing, negotiating, trying to save the world from the predicted disastrous future courtesy of our own actions, the global warming. The civil societies from all over the world doing their bits. Lobbying to save the world in their own ways. Singing, demonstrating, dramatising. Some are so moving you can’t help having tears in your eyes. Even more so in seeing their honest convictions.

Pressure is building up here. Time is running out to come up with a meaningful outcome. An outcome that is “Fair, Ambitious, Binding and Comprehensive” that is demanded by ordinary people. As set out eloquently by a few speakers at the opening ceremony last night, “We can negotiate about the climate, but we cannot negotiate with the climate. We cannot ask the climate for more time...” Despite a lot of the pundits are not hopeful of a successful outcome, let’s hope by the end of the week a miracle will happen. After all we must have hope. Without hope, there is no point in being here.

P.S.
It is so cold. We will do anything to keep warm even having silly hats on! It’s also so expansive here. A packet of mentos which cost not even a dollar back home, caused three times more expansive!

10 signs .....

2009-12-06T17:05:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow, 7 December, the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference will kick off. Brunei, as a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol will be among over 190 countries at the table. Each country with their own agenda, concerns, worries, positions, negotiating to achieve an historic agreement which many pundits say the biggest, most historic agreement mankind has ever seen to date. It is definitely a monumental task. Some people dare not think what failure will mean to humankind.

Most, if not all scientists, says it is unequivocal the climate change and the warming of the earth is the direct result of human activities. This is despite the stories going around now about the leaked emails from some scientists purportedly exaggerating the effects of the greenhouse gases and the climate change. We, the so called layman, the non scientist, have to rely on what the scientists say. But there must be some things we have experienced, we heard, we watched, we read that points to effects of climate change. The Straits Times in its 5 December2009 edition listed 10 signs of Climate Change:

Rising Temperatures: average global temperatures forecast to rise by an additional 1.1 to 6.4 deg C this century affecting weather patterns, the environment and human life.
Rising Sea Levels: sea levels up to 15 – 20 cm in the last century. The pace is quickening and by 2100 sea levels may rise by as much as 2 metres threatening coastal communities and low lying islands.
Melting Ice: Glaciers are retreating at unprecedented rates. Together, Antarctica and Greenland has lost 2.5 trillion tonnes of ice since 2002. The meltdown contributes to rising sea level. Loss of Arctic Ice also frees methane – a greenhouse gas – from seas and soils, worsening global warming.
Dying Seas: the seas absorb CO2 emissions but increasing output is turning the waters more acidic, threatening marine life. Warm water also contributes to death of about a quarter of the world’s coral reefs.
Severe storms: the frequency of downpours as well as the power of hurricanes have increased dramatically that “100 year storms” are striking some areas once every 15 years.
Parched Earth: more intense heatwaves in the past 50 years. El Nino weather pattern associated with droughts appearing in shorter intervals.
Smaller Harvests: this year farmers in India, Indonesia and the Philippines are reporting harvest up to 50 percent less than the usual yield due to extreme weather of dry spells punctuated by downpours. It would only take a metre of rise in sea level to cover half of the rice fields in Bangladesh, inundate much of the Mekong Delta, and submerge parts of Asia’s rice growing deltas.
Earlier Springs: Japan’s cheery blossom came five days early this year and a week earlier than the average for the past three decades. Changes in the onset of seasons could lead to animals dying because the food they depend on is no longer appearing at the expected time.
Spread of Diseases: diseases and their carriers are travelling to new pastures because of warmer temperatures.
Endangered Species: the most high profile victim of global warming may yet be the polar bear. The US Geological Survey predicts if the Arctic sea ice keeps melting, two thirds of the 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears would be gone by mid century. Countless other creatures and plants worldwide are under threat.

I am sure we have experienced some of these signs. The unpredictable weather especially and not forgetting the flash flooding it brings. And off course the El-Nino effect we hear year in and year out.

Hope by 18 December2009, the end of the Copenhagen Conference, the world will see an historic agreement to save the earth and eventually humankind....

P.S.
What can we do? Apparently agriculture and food industry is one of the major contributors of greenhouse gas. Some experts say production of red meat especially is extremely intensive in emitting greenhouse gases. May be it is about time we listen to our doctors and dieticians. Go on a diet. Eat less red meat. Not only we will be healthier, our doctors happier, wallets thicker, we will also be helping to save the earth.

Being Responsible .....

2009-12-01T18:41:00.001+08:00

In general, as a country, when it comes to our kids, we are very protective, very responsible. The practice of sending and picking the kids up from schools especially primary and pre-school levels is a good indicator how responsible we are. Most parents will only trust themselves to send and pick up their kids. Obviously safety is the main consideration. Safety when transporting them, safety from them being picked up by unwanted and dangerous strangers with criminal intent.

Often we see some, quite a high number actually, of government staff arriving late to work or goes off from work early especially lunch time. 745am in the morning, car parks at the government office complexes are not even a quarter full. The normal excuse given is sending their kids to school. Despite being late to work can be seen as a form of indiscipline, thankfully being late due to sending the kids are tolerated. In fact, there are some bosses who are so kind and thoughtful, they even go to the extent of telling their staff to leave meetings if they have kids to be picked up from schools.

Now that school holidays are here, it is only fair to expect the scenes at the carparks and arrival time to office to be different. Carpark full by 745am. A high percentage arriving to work on time. Yet, the scenario remains the same, school holidays or not. Carparks still empty, arrival time still beyond the expected time, empty work stations.

Why? May be a number of the staff is on leave. Or maybe the parents are having their well deserved break from waking up early, from their normal day in day out torturing routine stuck in endless traffic jams. May be they are taking in the scenery that would normally be missed in rushing here and there. May be they are enjoying the pleasure of driving smoothly on roads almost with no traffic jams. May be some are busy attending to the kids at home, having breakfast with them at home for a change instead of in cars. May be......

Talking about being responsible, there is an interesting article on Climate Change by REHMAN RASHID titled “2 degrees of separation from disaster” which appeared in the New Straits Times on 29 November 2009. Here are some excerpts from the article:

“....On the two key facts underlying all this, the scientific consensus is in. Firstly, global warming is clear, present and "locked in" (even if all fossil-fuel burning stops today, what's already out there is going to keep raising temperatures for years to come). Secondly, we are to blame. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change holds that post-industrial human activities are "90 per cent likely" responsible for global warming, due both to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from commerce and industry, and the deforestation that has shrunk the planet's "carbon sinks" for soaking up carbon dioxide and turning it into something we can breathe. Before the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the concentration of GHG in the planet's atmosphere was a stable 280 parts per million, most of it from vulcanism, bio-metabolism and other natural processes. It is now 387ppm..... That would hardly mean a lovely Edenic world for humanity; we might only hope that climatic catastrophes won't get much worse than they are now. But it would still be a tremendous achievement for mankind; greater, indeed, than anything we've ever done. The builders of the Pyramids and Angkor Wat couldn't pre-empt climate change. But that's what this generation of planetary citizens is going to do, or roast, drown or starve trying.... On the baseline of a century ago, our present +0.7 degrees and the +2 degrees we do not wish to reach are on a scale where +6 degrees would extinguish life on Earth as we know it.....”

In short, global warming is real and here to stay and WE , humans, are to be blamed. So, let’s do something about it. Let’s be responsible ......

P.S.
Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said “We do not have to go back to living in caves, but we do have to reduce, re-use and recycle.”

350 & 2 deg C ...

2009-11-30T18:28:00.000+08:00

Every news programme you watched and listened to, newspapers you read lately is full of Climate Change and the coming Copenhagen Conference. But do we really understand what is going on? To make something of it we must remember two numbers: 350 and 2 deg C. Why are these numbers significant? Here is what Goh Sui Noi wrote in the Straits Times on 24 November 2009 (I can’t put it any better):

“LAST month on Oct 24, United Nations Day, people around the world had the number '350' thrown at them. Activists - from skateboarders in Australia to farmers in Bangladesh, and from divers in the Maldives to herders on the Mongolian steppes - formed the number with their bodies or held placards and banners bearing it. In Singapore, more than 300 volunteers formed the number for an aerial photograph. They wanted to etch the number deep in the minds of as many human beings as possible. They wanted citizens to push their leaders to negotiate a strong treaty next month in Copenhagen to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and thereby prevent irreversible climate change.

This number - 350 - refers to the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere by volume: 350 parts per million (ppm). It is the low end of a range of 350 ppm to 550 ppm that scientists believe will trigger irreversible climate change. We are now at 387 ppm, and the last time we saw 350 ppm was in 1987. The figure of 350 ppm is what scientists believe is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

Another figure to remember is 2 deg C. This is a European Union target - to limit the increase in global temperature to a maximum of 2 deg C over pre-industrial levels (or 1.2 deg C over today's level). A rise above 2 deg C is likely to trigger dangerous irreversible climate change.

To achieve this target would require the world to stabilise carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at about 400 ppm and greenhouse gas concentrations - carbon dioxide plus other greenhouse gases - at about 445-490 ppm. Based on the current growth trajectory, greenhouse gas levels could hit 550-700 ppm in 2050.

So what do we do with the knowledge of the possible danger we and our children face? Take the bus or cycle to work or school, use reusable shopping bags, remember to switch off lights not in use, buy fewer clothes, recycle our waste? For how long? A week? A month?

The world needs a more concerted effort than what we as individuals can do on our own - although individual actions are important - to cut emissions to meet the 2deg C target. Emissions must peak by 2020 and then be more than halved by 2050 relative to 1990 levels for global warming to fall below the 2 deg C limit. Developed countries will have to cut their emissions by 25 per cent to 40per cent and developing countries, which emit far less carbon dioxide per capita than rich nations, will have to slow their emissions growth.

A powerful mechanism for reducing emissions would be establishing a carbon price - that is, impose a cost on carbon emissions. Having to pay a price for spewing carbon into the atmosphere would motivate countries, businesses and individuals to reduce their carbon emissions. It would discourage the use of fossil fuels and encourage the development of renewable sources of energy and low-carbon emission, energy-efficient consumer technologies.

'We need more energy, less carbon and price signals to unleash the energy to take us forward,' said Mr Jeremy Benthem, vice-president of Shell Global Business Environment, at a recent conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Two ways to price carbon have been proposed: an outright tax on fossil fuels and a cap-and-trade system. In the latter instance, caps on emissions would be set and power generators, industries and other emitters of carbon would have to purchase permits to emit more carbon than their mandated limits. A market would be established for the trading of permits.

The carbon tax is favoured by some, such as former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo. It would be simpler to implement and less open to corruption than cap-and-trade. It would also set a clear price, something that would be easier for industries to plan around than the fluctuating price that a cap-and-trade system would entail. A tax would also raise a clear amount of revenue, which could be used for the research and development of renewable energy sources or as rebates to the public - for example, to offset higher energy prices.

Proponents of cap-and-trade argue that it has a clear advantage over a carbon tax in that a cap would effectively place a legally binding limit on emissions which a tax would not. While a tax would penalise all indiscriminately, a cap-and-trade system would penalise those who failed to keep within their caps but would reward those who did and who would thus be able to sell their permits in the market. A cap-and-trade system would encourage growth in new green sectors.

The cap-and-trade system was first used successfully in the United States in the 1980s to eliminate the use of leaded petrol in cars. A cap was placed on the production of leaded fuels, and refiners were allowed to buy and sell permits among themselves. Refiners producing unleaded fuels could sell their unused permits to leaded fuel producers. The latter, in order to compete in the market, were incentivised to turn to producing unleaded fuel. Within five years, nearly all leaded petrol was eliminated.

The Kyoto Protocol, the global climate pact now in force, provides for a cap-and-trade system in which 37 developed countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2per cent from 1990 levels. These countries could trade emission reduction credits among themselves, as well as offset their emissions by financing projects that reduce emissions in developing countries.

However, the Kyoto Protocol will end in 2012 and the world is in the midst of negotiating a new treaty. As the time for sealing a deal nears - set for next month at the 15th annual United Nations conference on climate change - several countries are beginning to warm to the idea of a carbon tax or a combination of a tax and emissions trading.

Whichever path is adopted, the emissions cuts must be deep enough to ensure that the 2 deg C limit is maintained. There is no sign yet that the nations of the world are close to agreeing on cuts that will meet that target.”

Remember these figures. Please also remember Brunei despite so insignificant in terms of absolute carbon dioxide emission (total), due to our small population, we have one of the highest per capita (i.e. per person) emission in the world. Something we should not be proud off.

Do our part. Save the Earth from being fried.....

P.S.
I wonder what is the carbon footprint of all the frying done at the Pasar Malam. Lucky I have cut down on fried chicken wings from there. At least it will help in reducing our emission level, though insignificant in the big picture. But as the saying goes, “Sikit-sikit, lama-lama jadi bukit”.

Korban & Climate Change....

2009-11-28T13:58:00.002+08:00

Selamat Hari Raya Haji everyone....

Hari Raya Korban to some of us. In some places it is also known as Hari Raya Aidil Adha. In Brunei, it is the lesser celebrated of the two Hari Rayas. Less in many sense. Less baju raya, less new furniture, less spending, less visiting, less food intake, less greetings, cards and even text messages and many more “lesses”. The only things that is more is more buffaloes, cows, goats, sheep and even camels losing their heads. Even the holiday is less, just a day of public holiday compare to two days for Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. Fortunately this year it falls on Saturday for us in Brunei. We have a long weekend. Add to that it is the end of the school term in fact the end of the school year for school kids. The more reason for us to celebrate yet waking up this morning, it did not feel like hari raya at all.

To me the best part of Hari Raya Haji apart from the many majlis korbans and bountiful supply of free meat is hearing the takbir hari raya for four days. Many people, including me, feel sad and sayu hearing takbir hari raya for many reasons. Tears flowing, nose blocked up. For Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, we can only hear it and betakbir during malam pukol, the night before hari raya, until before sembahyang hari raya. Not enough.

May be it is not fair for me to say we do not celebrate Hari Raya Haji. Some people do. In fact the number of invitations increasing every year indicating more and more feeling of celebration. May be one day, we will celebrate Hari Raya Haji as meriah as or as alive as we celebrate Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.

Whatever we do, in this climate of economic downturn, in whatever climate for that matter, more celebration does not mean increase in spending which may lead to increase in wastage. In moderation, that’s the name of the game.

Talking about climate, the Climate Change Forum in Copenhagen is just two weeks to away. Most, if not all pundits, expected it to end in a stalemate. The develop countries with their stand. The developing countries with theirs. Whatever their stand, the world, as the scientists had said countless times is heading to a disaster if we go on living like we are now. Spewing carbon and other toxic chemicals. The earth is warming. Any more warmer than the 2 centigrade increase in earth's temperature, we will be on an irreversible path with disastrous consequences. Throughout the world we have already seen the effect of climate change. Unseasonal droughts, rain, typhoons, floodings. 2012 movie coming to the mind. Yet the countries are still divided on emission cuts and who to finance the efforts amongst other things.

Some reports are saying ordinary people are doing more then what their governments are doing towards alleviating the climate change. Noticeably in Brunei, this issue is less discussed among the public apart from once in a while some event or talk is organised. May be we have other more pressing matters to focus on. But we have to remember we live in one world, one earth. Whatever happened in the other parts of the world will have an impact on us. May be we, the public, should give more attention to this thing the whole world is worried about, the Climate Change.

Let’s hope and pray they will come to the desired conclusion in Copenhagen. I suppose we, the whole world, have to ‘berkorban’ or make sacrifices if we want to have a world for the future generations to live on.

P.S.
“Berkorban apa saja, harta atau pun nyawa.....” P. Ramlee sang ......

Simplicity .....

2009-11-26T08:00:00.001+08:00

In my line of work and having a “brainy” boss, reading and listening to stories, which almost all are fascinating, is part of my daily work routine. One of the stories I heard a few times over but never quite catch the whole story, being a forgetful person and not a story teller, was about the space race of 1960s between the Americans and the Russians. Today I came across the story in one of the papers I read. The story goes ...

“During the space race of 1960s, NASA was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space. So they went to work. After spending US$1.5 million, they came up with a pen that would write in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, over wet and greasy paper and in extreme temperature ranges. It was an engineering marvel. The Russians? They just used pencils.”

This story shows how in our daily lives, we tend to complicate things. We put great effort, time, money and creativity to solve a problem when all it needs is a simple solution. A lot of the time the solution is obvious, right in front of our eyes.

Keep things SIMPLE!

P.S.
Today is Government Payday, tomorrow is Paybill Day......

Going Bananas....

2009-11-25T17:07:00.000+08:00

I love bananas. Especially the cucur kind. There was a time everyday for breakfast will be cucur pisang. Lately, I have gone bananas, literally crazy. Crazy about bananas, the fruit not just the cucur type. Bananas are good for you. Just look at these facts: no fat, sodium or cholesterol, rich in vitamin B6 and they are a good source of fibre, vitamin C, magnesium and potassium.

To be honest I do not know much about bananas before. All I know is monkeys love them, the cucur is delicious especially from the places we frequented. I will not name the places. Not paid any advertising fees. I gave bananas serious thought only recently when told to change my eating habits. Well, it is a nice way of saying I have been told to go on a diet.

Talking about diets, all these while I thought my body weight had gone down significantly from many months ago. There I was feeling happy about it until one day I decided to get a new weighing scale. I had a big shock when I stood on top of it. Around six kilos difference between the old and new scale. Must get back to serious change of eating habits. According to Ministry of Health, we should not exceed 1200 calories intake every day. They even come up with a weekly menu which on certain days looks delicious on other days boring. To know more, go and see your dietician at your local clinics.

Back to the bananas. Surprise, surprise, an article in a newspaper I read categorised bananas as “Happy Food”. Bananas help produce the happy hormone, serotonin. Apparently, having bananas and other happy foods early in the morning can set us on happy mood, banishing the blues. There are ways to produce serotonin to get us “high” throughout the day, legally off course, such as having Mediterranean style diet, concentrating on protein at lunch time, evening meal rich in carbohydrates (good news for those against “no carbs in the evening” advice). Rich carbo meal with no protein will stimulate serotonin production. Chocolates, the dark type will also make us high. Some people say it is an aphrodisiac. Another good mood enhancer are nuts. But gout sufferers beware!

Off course a healthy diet will always include lots and lots of water. Maintain our hydration. Reduction in our hydration levels can make us grumpy. At least eight glasses.

I wonder if we encourage the offices to serve these happy foods throughout the day especially in meetings, with everyone high and in a happy mood, will decisions and compromises be reached easily? Just may be.

Let’s start our day with happy food, the easier one to get hold of is off course the banana. We all will be on happy mood, no grumpy morning faces, everybody smiling, courteous. But not too much though. People may end up being saying you had gone bananas.....

P.S.
I am neither a diet expert nor a dietician he he he.........

Style.....

2009-11-24T12:30:00.001+08:00

Read an interesting guide on style for formal occassions in a paper recently:

• About 1.5 cm or ¾ inch of collar and cuff should emerge from under a jacket;
• How do you know which collars suit you? Apparently, the fuller the face, the wider the collar; the slimmer the face, the straighter the collar. Long, think neck means high collar stands; short, thick neck means collars lie flat;
• And off course NO WHITE SOCKS!

How many of us, men, has broken these rules? Over the years, learned some things about style despite admittedly I am not a stylish person. No white socks is definitely one of them. The one that I always keep in mind is the length of jacket or shirt. It should not go below the level of the fingers when you are standing up. Anything more I will look even more vertically challenged.

Why is this important? Why image is important? According to some PR agencies, 80% of everything we do is PR, public relation. Image, visual image, goes a long way to help you sell your views and products. If you want to be taken seriously, look after your image. If we do not take the effort, we run the risk of losing the attention or the sell. First impressions, looks are important despite in this politically correct environment most will not admit to it. It is human nature. Especially, even more so when dealing with strangers. To be seen as professional, you must portray the professional image. How you dress is definitely very important.

According to Les Giblin in his bestselling book “Skill With People”, we learn and buy 83% through sight, 11% through hearing. The rest through smell, touch and taste. Image is definitely important.

There are people no matter what they put on, they will always look stylish even in simple clothing. There are people with their very own sense of style. Then there are people, no matter how hard they try, no matter what they put on, even the most expansive clothings, somehow, always ending up a disaster. Some prefers to keep things simple in keeping with the mantra SIMPLE IS BEAUTIFUL. Some prefers lighthing things up with bright colorful patterned shirts. Some with blings blings enough to dazzle even to blind us especially on a bright sunny day.

Of course there are instances image and how you look does not matter. An example of this is your parents, no matter how they look, how they dress, be it in kain pelikat and baju cap buaya or butterfly batik bajus, you always take them seriously. As you grow to know someone, how they look will not matter so much. The emotion, the love, the respect will override how they look.

True, look is not everything, but it definitely brings you a long long way .....

P.S.
Les Giblin also says “People are more interested in themselves, not in you.... Man’s actions are governed by self thought, self interest”. A friend recently said "Love people, use things NOT love things use people." Two opposing ends to ponder....

Cut & Paste & Toilets ....

2009-11-19T08:26:00.002+08:00

Yesterday we had the World Town Planning Day Celebration. As the name says, the emphasis is on planning. Planning is an important step in doing everything, anything in fact. Not to plan is planning to fail, some says. So everyone plans but sometimes we don’t too. Sometimes we followed our gut feeling, our instinct. Then again this can also be planning. Planning to follow our guts. Big guts in some instances.

In doing our work we planned ahead, we have a system, an approach albeit it varies from one individual to another. My line of work involves preparing speeches for my boss. As with any speeches, be it major or minor, inputs or sometimes the full text will be provided by the relevant people. These inputs will then be transferred to a ready template. Technology, computers, make the work even simpler, faster. Highlight the text, right hand click, press cut then paste it to the template. Simple! Then the hard part. Going through the text. Making sense of it, adjustments, numbering, spelling checks, thorough info checks and all the normal stuff. Sounds straight forward. Job done bar last minute changes. Then came the time the speech delivered. The shock of my life. First para, the opening para was totally wrong. What a clanger! Had the wrong occasion typed on it. The cut & paste curse hits again. So much for the planning, the so called systematic approach, the use of technology. It is true when people say no matter how hi tec we go, if garbage goes in, garbage will come out. I put my hands up. I am the guilty one. No need to charge me. I admit.

The moment the boss said that now infamous sentence, I wished the earth just swallow me. Kick me on the backside, slap my head, clip my ears, tok ketampi Hj Bakhil style, all in one. All the planning, all the good work especially by the people giving the inputs went down the toilet!

Ah! Toilets! Today, 19 November is World Toilet Day. The day we remember toilets. As if we do not remember them enough as it is. We visit them every day, a few times a day. Our best friends in time of needs. We reminisce, we think, we read, we angan-angan, we sing, we call, we text, we facebook, we tweets, in fact we do all sort of things in them. But do we appreciate them? Some do, some do not. We must. Just look at these statistics: 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children a year; even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways. Let’s do something about it! Let’s commit to improving toilet and sanitation conditions. That scene in the Slumdog Millionaire comes to mind......

An anecdote my boss kept telling us is imagine if we are walking along in the row of shops in Kiulap or Gadong. Suddenly the tummy grumbles, just like the worst ribut you can think off. No rest bite. Grumble and grumble. Rumblings. The light is on amber and ready to turn green. But no toilets in sight. Not a single public toilet in the rows of shops. Only private toilets. You will end up going to one of the shop, buy whatever you can get your hands on. Then asked kindly but sure in grumblings voice, “Boleh pinjam jamban boss?”. Add to that no water, no tissue, nothing! That could be the worst day of your life, your worst nightmare, ever worse than the nightmares those kids have in the Nightmare on Elm Street Movies.

On this day, let’s show our appreciation to our toilets. Keep them clean. Improve them.

P.S.
Read more about World Toilet Day here.

Values.....

2009-11-17T17:00:00.001+08:00

Sharing is caring, some people say. Sharing is definitely one good value to hold dear. Here I am sharing what I read recently on values.....

“....Icelanders, still stunned by the collapse of their banks a year ago, chose “honesty” as their chief national value on Saturday at an experimental assembly of politicians and ordinary people to map the island’s future. Some 1,500 Icelanders, from ministers to fishermen, took part in the experiment, dubbed the National Assembly, in an attempt to define their basic values as the country of 320,000 continues to grapple with its worst-ever economic crisis...... Honesty topped the list of Icelandic values that resulted from their conversations, followed by respect, equality, justice, responsibility and compassion.....”

A point to note, Iceland is a country with some similarity to us. Put aside that we are in very different climate zones, Iceland a developed country, Brunei a developing country. In many terms we are in the same bracket as Iceland: population size, high literacy rate, population age structure, high percentage of urban population, life expectancy, similar GDP, the labour force numbers, annual budgets, high mobile and internet users, just to name a few.

Based on this, some people may say it is reasonable to argue, we may come up with similar values if we do the same exercise. But in reality, are we?

Let’s look at another piece of news from a neighbouring country with similar culture to us. This particular survey highlighted what the respondents felt most pressing issues are.

“......Corruption and abuse of power is the most important problem which needs to be solved, a new survey of voters in the country released today showed..... Notably, the kind of graft listed as most serious was petty corruption, with 42 per cent viewing it as “very serious.” This was followed by nepotism (41 per cent), fraud (37 per cent), corruption among politicians (34 per cent), grand corruption (30 per cent) and administrative corruption (24 per cent).....”

Wonder what will be the result if the same survey is done here. Not wanting to speculate on the outcome, if we as a country hold dear to our values, it will not be surprising to see corruption and abuse of power comes well below in the list. May be, just maybe, social problems, welfare, crime and public safety will come higher. But looking at the current situation, I will not be surprised to see “financial woes” comes on top. If I am a betting man and into horses aka lumba kuda, this will be odds on favourite.........

P.S.
Congratulations to my son ..... well done son...

Durian & Economics.....

2009-11-09T08:03:00.002+08:00

Now is musim buah. In fact it has been musim buah for the last couple of months. By all accounts, this musim buah has been an excellent one. Fruits aplenty. Juicy delicious ones. Just look at durian. All sorts of durian especially durian kuning everywhere. “Bejurit” here and there. A friend who went all the way to Lamunin area to hunt for durian kuning even remarked there were too many durians, too many until it is the first time in his life he had to turn away the durians.

By supply and demand law, as the durian is so many, the price should be lower. It was and is still low. But it was even lower after the first and second week of hari raya. It remained so low until the last Sunday of October. Then it went up suddenly, some places by as much as 50%, almost. The supply was there, the eager people wanting to eat those lovely durians were there. What was lacking was the purchasing power. With almost a quarter of the over 180,000 workforce in Brunei in the Government service, that is a significant number of the population having their early payday before Hari Raya. By Hari Raya, almost, if not all of the income was spent or committed to the Hari Raya preparation. Not much left for the durians. With less purchasing power, durian aplenty, less buyers, the prices dropped just like the stock market prices on a bad bad day. Bear Market indeed for the durians.

Came Government Pay Day on Monday 24 October, not surprisingly, the price jumped up. Bull Market for the durians. Excellent example of supply and demand at work.

P.S.
Do we as a nation overspent unnecessarily during Hari Raya? Do we as a country lives from pay cheque to another pay cheque? The answer may be obvious but as in many things, we may need a consultant to do a study and tell us. Why waste money on looking for obvious answers? Isn’t it better to focus on what to do about it?

Teachers...

2009-11-05T13:00:00.000+08:00

Today we celebrate Teachers’ Day. I am sure everybody has someone that has taught them something useful in life. Be it “official” teacher or just anybody with no teaching qualification. To these people, we wish them Happy Teachers Day. We show appreciation to them for what they taught us. We must be thankful to them. Show our respect to them for the rest of our lives we must.

Talking about teachers, reminded me of my school days. As with many others, we have our favourite teachers and our least favourite, or shall I say, hated teachers. Some students, be it boys or girls even were “infatuated” with the teachers. Looking back, how the teacher was affected and impacted on how we students like a certain subject and to the extend how what was taught stayed in our head, not just “masuk telinga kiri, keluar telinga kanan”.

Over the years, some teachers remained forever etched in the memory. One Indian teacher was so good; I owed to him my ability to solve mathematical questions and also my understanding of the chemistry world. Biology was one of my least favourite subject yet due to one moment of madness in class, where a few of us were thrown out of the class by one teacher, led to my obsession on Biology resulting in a surprising distinction. I owed it to him for kicking me out and stirred me to action. An English teacher who taught us maths, shared with us his passion for football and football pools. He called us his hooligans and he supported a “shit” team (forgive my language, that what I told him exactly), Middlesbrough. Through him, I started listening to the BBC World Service for the football results. Those days, with no internet, no satellite TV, we have to rely on the shortwave radio. There I was, every Saturday evening, radio to my ear trying to make out what is being said through the “hissing” of the shortwave transmission. To date, BBC World Service is still my source of information by choice, albeit now through the internet and satellite TV. Bye bye the shortwave radio.

If all the stories are to be written here, I am sure it will be a long entry. So long, I may end up running out of space in this blog. Enough to say, throughout our lives, not just our student days, we will meet people who will teach us something that will leave a significant mark for the rest of our lives. Like them, hate them, they are our teachers. We will forever be indebted to them. Happy teachers’ day everyone.....

P.S.
Everyone is a teacher as well as a student. We learn, we teach every day. Keep an open mind. Open all communication channels to receive as well as transmit.

LOG ......

2009-10-29T18:45:00.000+08:00

Another day, another meeting. Woke up feeling slightly groggy. Heard an interesting fact over the radio. Today, 29 October, is the birthday of the internet! Happy Birthday Mr or is it Miss Internet. Just being careful not to be labelled as having gender bias or even politically incorrect.

On this day, 40 years ago in 1969 at 10.30 pm the first recorded internet message was sent. What was the first message? “LO”. LO you wonder? Yeah it was a simple word “LO”. Actually, according to well documented account, the message was suppose to be “LOG” which was sent letter by letter from UCLA to Stanford Research Institute with the people involved also connected over the telephone. “L” and “O” reached safely. But when “G” was sent, the system crashed. Imagine how little the computing power back then. Compare that to the power of even the simple desktop home use computer. It is like comparing “injin sigal” with and F1 car.

As advance as the computing power and computer modelling the world has now, it is not powerful nor advance enough to model something as complex as climate system our planet. If we can, at least we can get clear answers to the “big problem” facing the human race i.e. the rapid climate change. Some may ask why worry after all the climate of the planet has gone through natural cycles of warming up and cooling down over its life. The statistics look grim. Over the next 100 years the global warming is likely to be 3 to 10 times more than the figures in the 20th century. The serious effect of the global warming is no longer an issue. How it develops, its effects and detection are now the issues. Can we cope? How can we cope? Some may not be bothered at all. After all, it will happen beyond their life time.

To combat the global warming, the world comes up with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 to reduce greenhouse gases emissions such as Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and CFCs. To my knowledge and understanding, this Convention at the very least recognised or shall we say admitted there is a problem, set some objectives and time frame. Next step, in 1997 comes the Kyoto Protocol. More or less same objectives as the Convention but legally binding with targets to be reset by 2012. I am sure if you have been following the current affairs lately, you would have noticed Copenhagen 2009 mentioned many times. Copenhagen this, Copenhagen that. Copenhagen is where the United Nation Climate Change Conference will be held in December this year. This conference is significant as it is the dateline whereby a new target will be set. As usual things will go down to the wire. The outlook for an agreement is not good. Well, we can hope, must have hope. With no hope, might as well stop all the negotiations. But if I am a betting me, which I am not, I will put all my bet on No Agreement. Almost as sure as the buah dadu of Ibrahim Pendek in the Ali Baba Bujang Lapuk movie.

All this global thing is well and truly good. But what does it mean to our small country? Well we have one of the highest per capita carbon dioxide emission, in the top ten. We must do our bit to reduce our emissions. Remember we live on the same planet. Whatever happens in the other side of the world will affect us. Rain pattern will change. We have seen some weird weather affecting us lately, unsesonal rain, strong “uprooting trees and roof” winds. We must do our bid to save the planet. Go green, not wear green but live green with green lifestyle.

LOG ... Lifestyle of the Greens .........

P.S.
Reduce, Reuse, RECYCLE .......

Snippets again...

2009-10-28T10:43:00.001+08:00

It has been a while. Here I am sitting in a meeting. Fascinating as it is, I am slowly but surely moving into “dozing off” mode. Blame it on the phenomenon of can’t sleep properly on strange bed.

A lot had happened. The obvious hot one is the zakat story. Many people has written and commented about it. Many more has started to fill in the forms. With any luck these people can own brand new cars, phones, just anything that take their fancy. My take on this is simple. Zakat is to help the needy. The authority is there to ensure the recipients are the worthy ones as required by Islam. The applicants and eventual recipients MUST be truthful. If any unworthy recipients got their hands on the zakat money, as the saying goes, “dosa tanggung sendiri”. May be they can put this warning on the zakat forms. Then again, in anything, it is not easy to get 100% correct. As long the percentage of the unworthy recipients is small, maybe it is acceptable. But what percentage will be small enough to be acceptable?

Another hot stuff was the “banning” of DPMMFC from completing their S-League Fixtures. To me, this is not the main issue. The main issue is how to revive the “legal” football in Brunei. By international law, as far as I understand it, nobody can organise any football unless under the umbrella of FIFA affiliated local organisation. Taking this to the extreme, even local kampong league may be illegal. The solution? Like it or not, hard to swallow may be, BAFA has to be reinstated as FIFA wished it to be. Once reinstated, we can all work together to ensure past mistakes, if any, are not repeated. Lucky not being a member FIFA is not a requirement to watch football. If not, there would be a high probability of riot by the football mad supporters of the Premier League starved of football.

Talking about premier league, to all Man United supporters, enough of all the excuses. Face it, your team lost. That is a fact and that’s what matters. Three defeat in a row......

P.S.
“Positive Thinking” in our local context equates to “Macam Si Tahi”, my boss recently shared.

Jokes & Theories.....

2009-10-19T23:31:00.001+08:00

I love jokes especially funny ones. Well, I am sure nobody likes unfunny jokes. While I love jokes, for the life of me I can’t tell a joke even if a gun is pointed at me. Punch lines fizzle coming from my mouth. Laughter blurted well in advance of the punch lines. Not remembering how the punch line goes is another one shortcoming of mine. All in all I don’t qualify as a joker nor a stand up comedian. I am sure the audience will be laughing their heads off. Not at my not funny jokes but at how silly I look standing in front of them on the stage. Who knows that is one way for me to strike gold? Here I go again, me and my endless digression.

Back to the jokes. This morning I heard a funny yet so true joke from my boss. I hope I can repeat it here and do justice to the joke. It is about a crazy man who has a theory about where the ear of a spider is located. He theorised spiders have their ears at the end of their legs. One day to prove his theory, he gathered a group of people around a spider. After placing the spider on the floor he then commanded the spider to walk. It duly obliged. Then he took the same spider and removed all its legs. Repeating the same step, he placed the spider on the floor and commanded it to walk. The spider did not move even a single millimetre. On seeing this, the man with great pride told the group of people the reason the spider did not walk was because it could not hear the instruction as he had removed all its ears..... To him his theory is proven.

In the real world, we can come up with many theories to explain the phenomenon and happenings we came across. We can even come up with reasons, explanations to promote and lobby for an idea or a cause. Some are true, some are plausible. There are some totally absurd ones. Yet we come up with it. Some believe it, some do not. Throughout history, again and again theories and hypothesis are proven and disproven. Like a yo yo. But whatever we theorised; the key is to be truthful eventhough sometimes the truth hurts, be professional. Surely you can sell your theory.

PS
A friend theorised eating durian instead of rice helps in weight reduction.....

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri...

2009-09-21T17:32:00.000+08:00

Today is 1 Syawal, better known as Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Is it “Aidilfitri” one word or is it two words “Aidil Fitri”? I have seen both versions in both the official and unofficial documents. I suppose it does not really matter as long as we meant it the way we are suppose to meant it. And what’s important is our sincerity, KEIKHLASAN.

To the readers of this blog, there must be a few, very few may be, as the counter keeps ticking even without me visiting it, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir dan Batin. Please forgive me if there are parts of my ramblings that may have offended any of you. As I had said in my earlier entries, I meant well. I did not mean any harm to anybody, anyone or any soul.

This year’s Hari Raya will be a bit odd. No Istana open house due to the H1N1 situation will be the most significant. To many people, even to foreigners and tourists, Istana Open House is the main event of Hari Raya. To Government Officers, by tradition, most will be heading to Istana on the first day back at work. The highlight of personally greeting His Majesty and the Royal Family is something to look forward too. Add to that the sumptuous spread of food served. Offices will be almost deserted. Strangely for the whole day. So this year we will see the office with a bit more people. No more taking the opportunity of “escaping” from work after Istana visit. Still, no Istana open house will be making this Hari Raya less exciting to most people.

On H1N1, the health authorities advised everyone to be vigilant. Provide sanitisers or at least hand washing facilities. Good advice indeed. On the flip side, hand sanitisers whose price are already exorbitant, will now rocket up. I am sure nobody will hesitate to shake hands berziarah. If we follow our own religion’s advice, we are asked to wash our hands before eating. Stick to that, insyallah we will be alright. Worst case scenario, which is not impossible, we come across someone who will wash his or her hand every few handshakes, carrying with him or her a portable sanitiser. The pocket must be bulging with the sanitisers adding to the things already in the pocket, wallet, keys, phones etc. What’s important is to be vigilant, keep high personal hygiene to avoid hesitancy in berziarah.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN....

P.S.
Over the years, the number of Hari Raya cards had been on a rapid decline. Short Messaging Service, SMS and emails had taken over the role of cards. This year, the numbers will decline further, even SMS greetings are expected to be lower as Facebook and other social networking services provides a faster and easier platform to send greetings. A simple posting on the Wall is all it takes to greet every single person in our friends list. Less tasking for the fingers clicking when sending SMS greetings. Wonder what will be the future medium will be. May be just thinking of sending greetings is enough to send it to the recipient. But until now nothing beats the feeling of getting Hari Raya Cards......

History....

2009-09-06T12:40:00.000+08:00

History is not everyone’s favourite subject. Back then, during the schooldays, history seemed to be remembering obscure names and dates. Endless dates. Not dates with the favourite girl in school but dates of historical events. Most of us could not understand what use all those history lessons were to us apart from it was another subject, another brain draining exam to pass, especially for those who wants to score straight As. No choice. Must do history. To make things worse, we had history teachers who made the lessons more conducive to journey into the dreamland. Secondary students nowadays are lucky. It seems history is an elective subject, not a compulsory one.

Over the years, as the gray hairs slowly appearing, as the music taste change from the fast beat to more mellow easy listening songs, history has grown more meaningful. Not obsessed with it but more of a curiosity. Not a history buff, but more of taking a keen interest.

People says we study history so that we will not repeat the mistakes of the past. Some says everything has cycles and by studying the past will help us prepare for the future. Some study history to gain knowledge. Knowledge of what happened, why it happened, the environment it happened so they can appreciate it more. Reasons may vary but all points to one thing, it is important to learn, to know history. Not just to pass the exams. Hopefully, this will be stressed more to the students unlike during our time where we were puzzled what good history was to us.

One part of history that always interests me is how science had developed. Science always pride itself in doing things the Scientific Method. With an engineering background, looking at things the scientific way is built in. The scientific method is simply making observation, state the problem, formulate a hypothesis (assumptions), experiments to test the hypothesis, analysis of results, interpret data and formulate conclusion then publish the findings. By all accounts, the pioneer of the Scientific Method is an Islamic scholar, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, better known as al-Haytham or AlHazen. History has shown the Islamic World contributed massively to the science world by laying foundations to many of today’s sciences.

Back to the scientific method, it will be a good thing if each and every one of us make it a habit to think in a scientific way. Think based on real facts. Know all the facts. Not just jump to baseless conclusions. Do not assume unless we have proven our assumptions, unless we have the evidence. Determine first if there is really a problem before sitting down to solve it. Addressing the wrong questions may lead to the wrong solutions, no matter how wonderful such solutions seemed to be. Ending up with a complete waste of everyone’s time. To quote the youngsters, “BUANG KARAN SAJA!”

P.S.
Here are some quotations on what History is all about:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. – George Santayana
The past is useless. That explains why it is past. - Wright Morris
Only a good-for-nothing is not interested in his past. - Sigmund Freud
What experience and history teach is this-that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.- G. W. F. Hegel
History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are. - David C. McCullough
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. – Karl Marx
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. – Will Durrant

Thinker .... Doer.....

2009-09-02T01:50:00.003+08:00

Simple is beautiful. Most if not all architects believed that. Economics, albeit a very complex subject, keep to simple models in trying to explain everyday life. Many people, I am sure, like things simple too. Who want all the stress, the headaches, the fear, the scare and all those not so nice feelings complicated things bring with them. Men, especially, like to keep things simple despite some of their actions complicate their lives. Partly due to, some says, easily loses his head, the big head and the heart is overwhelmingly controlled by the smaller head. As for the ladies, the jury is still out there. Mix signals from them. Who in the right mind would make an already beautifully designed piece of fabric and turned it into complicated lines and lines of sparkling beads? Unless they want the dress to get the full attention rather than the person. Distractions from those red pouting lips and perky cheeks, botox assisted in some cases. Opppps! Here I go again, digressing. Better be careful with what I am saying about the female species. I may end up being labelled a lady basher. Let me get back on track.

As a habit, looking at things in a simplistic way had become a tendency. Remember when we were kids? Our maths teacher used to say, simplify the equations before solving it? Apply that to life, it is still the same. No matter how complicated things are, break it down to little pieces. The solution is out there. Admittedly, it is not easy. There are times, a lot actually, the mind goes overdrive. Instead of simplifying things, more and more branches are added. What is a small thin lean tree of a problem will end up with a tree with a blown up afro look complete with hanging messy beards. Oh no! Digression No.2.

Well, here it is. Over the years, out of observations, some in passing, some ogling, with no reference to any academic publications, at least to my knowledge, if any it is purely incidental, everyone, in its simplest form has two sides when it comes to approaching a problem or an assignment. On one side is our “THINKER” part, on another is our “DOER” part. Sounds familiar? Both parts have good and bad things associated with it. These two exists in each and every one of us but in different composition. Some with the Thinker part as the majority shareholder; some the Doer part, with different effects.

The Thinker tend to be creative, brilliant, refreshing, enthusiastic, but at the same time individualistic, eccentric (this can be good too!), disorganised, may not be a team player and think too much ending up with no work being done. They can think up just anything, any solution but may lose interest and stubborn especially if their suggestions are not chosen. In short, exciting but risky.

On the other hand the Doer in most cases will stick to standard, tried and tested solutions. Not giving it too much thought, just bulldozing it and get things done. Most will tend to be formal but good team player and more organised as he is less distracted by too much thinking. In short boring but safe.

In an organisation, in a team, observed carefully enough, we can suss out who the thinker and who the doer is. A balanced mixture promises better outcomes. But, as in everything, there are always challenges to be faced and questions to be answered. Who is the ideal leader of the pack? The Thinker? The Doer? How do we reward? The thinking part or the doing part? Same remuneration packages for both? Same career scheme and development for both? Do we treat them equally or as different entities? I am sure if a study is done, there will be cases where the Doer gets all the credit for the Thinker creative solutions, and there will be cases the Thinker gets all the credit for all the hard work of the Doer. Both sides will want fairness.

Life is not that simple after all ....................

P.S.
It’s the assessment season again. Our challenge is for each of us to identify which part of us, thinker or doer, is stronger, utilise it to the maximum, at the same time strengthens the weak part. A perfect marriage of thinking and doing is the end zone.

Gift......

2009-08-31T01:22:00.002+08:00

5 days leave courtesy of the Health Authorities! Even better, starting from my wedding anniversary. I did not know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh because so happy to get some time off. Cry as it was very stressing and worrying especially in today’s environment of H1N1 scare. It was indeed a troubling and agonising experience. But an eye opener and reassuring one. A case of two extremes situation.

Not wanting to pinpoint what or where the cause and start of it all but a few days earlier, together with a friend, went to the Gerai Ramadhan at the Stadium to get some pesungkaian. This was after a couple of years not bothering to go there. Got the normal stuff. Nothing exotic. When it comes to food, I am not that adventurous. I should have heeded the warning signs after the first visit. The tummy started to grumble more often. As often as the thunders that accompanied the heavy rains we got frequently lately despite everyone predicting prolonged dry weather. The urge to look for one particular gerai made me went for the second visit. Then the trouble really started.

Grumblings becoming louder and louder. Visits to the small room got more frequent. Still manageable and even went out and about until realising my body temperature had shot up to well above the normal range. The worry got worse after noticing the mini poster about H1N1 hanging just outside the small room. Not wanting to take any risk, off to RIPAS I went.

Upon arrival, walking through the unmanned thermal screening, I could see my infrared self on the screen. If someone was there, they would have thought Thermo Man was making an appearance. I was on fire. May be even a candidate to be one of the hottest men there that night. After the normal filling in the form, another surprised awaited me. Not so much the waiting time, but seeing how the heart rate or rather pulse rate rocketing up. Panic mode but fortunately one of the doctors explained it must be the effect of my hotness. A couple of paracetamol gulped to lower the body temperature.

With my travel history, the well above normal body temperature and the tummy grumblings aka diarrhoea, I was referred to the Flu Screening Centre after a wait of over almost an hour. This wait, with hindsight was a good one. It provided ample time for the body temperature to go normal and the heart rate stabilised. After the interview and becoming another number in the H1N1 statistics, a lady doctor attended to me. Prepared for some swab samples to be taken but was pleasantly surprised when they did not ask me to. Been hearing stories of how painful it was to take the samples. Luckily I did not have the chance to verify this story. Saved by the lack of cough and some other symptoms. On the other hand, Brunei has moved on to the next stage of H1N1 fight, the Protect and Treat Phase where the emphasis is more on protecting the vulnerable group and not so much on reporting of every single case. So not every single suspect will be tested. Before going off, was given a few “bata” or take home stuff. The standard but effective paracetamol, something for the diarrhoea and most importantly the antiviral Tamiflu.

Over the next 36 hours, visits to the small room more and more frequent. If there is a customer loyalty programme, I would have got some air miles, may be even a free ticket to some exotic destination. Endless checking and monitoring of the pulse rate and especially the body temperature which was yo yoing. The digital ear thermometer shouted red alert most of the time when the readings were well above normal. To make matters worse, Tamiflu had a nice side effect. Nausea and vomiting. Imagine feeling like to vomit most of the time. It was definitely a case of exit both at the top and the bottom. Not the normal enter at the top, exit at the bottom scenario.

Allhamdulillah, after 36 hours or so, things had stabilised. Everything seems to be heading to normal except for the side effect which hopefully will be gone soon. This experience was indeed an eye opener on how blessed we are to have a first class health service and organisation. Despite some criticisms, justified or not, played up by the media, mostly in the internet chatters, all I saw and experience was total professionalism and care. True, the waiting time still needs to be improved, but what is a little wait. Compare to what is happening in our neighbouring countries where based on the news report, are facing mounting challenges from H1N1. All in all, we must be grateful to the health authorities here for their responsible, swift, professional and caring actions. Thank you for job well done, thank you for the 5 days leave ...........

P.S.
Talking about anniversaries, I am sure most Bruneian Malays has the choice of two different dates to celebrate their wedding anniversaries. One is nikah day, the other is actual bersanding day which in majority if not all are two different dates. Some celebrate the nikah day for the obvious reason that is the day they are officially and legally husband and wife. Some celebrate the actual bersanding day. I dare not ask the logic behind this. I can only insinuate it’s because it is the actual day the marriage is consummated. To be on the safe side, celebrate both. But make sure you negotiate well in advance, just one present for both dates. 2 in 1 ............

Ramadhan.....

2009-08-22T02:41:00.002+08:00

It’s Ramadhan again. Time to focus more on good deeds and amal ibadat. Time the devil aka iblis is incaserated. Time to fast or better known as puasa. Refraining from food, drinks and all the “prohibited” things from dawn till dusk, the hardest for some is not so much the food and drinks, but not to pick their noses all day long. If we are observant enough, we can see all sorts of antics, tactics and actions devised to meet the demand of itchy noses.

It is also the time more people will remember prayer times for Maghrib and Suboh, if not for prayers, it’s the time we can eat, drink and to certain extend being “extra friendly” with our spouses. Maghrib, the starting whistle blows. Suboh, Imsyak to be precise, the finishing line. That seems to be how some people think of Ramadhan. Sungkai feast offerings here and there. Eateries offering Sahur spreads. In short, Maghrib to Suboh is the time for personal pleasurable indulgement.

To some, the numbers are not that many, Ramadhan is just something they have to go through before the much anticipated, awaited Hari Raya. To them, fasting or not is irrelevant. What is important is Hari Raya. Time to have fun. Time for new clothes. Time to eat, eat, eat. And off course the Hari Raya, open houses, gatherings and parties. Not realising, or may be just acting ignorant, what Hari Raya Aidilfitri is really for and for whom is Hari Raya for.

Fortunately, thankfully, more and more people, are aware of the significance of Ramadhan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri from Islam point of view. More and more are knowledgeable on the amal ibadat, wajib or sunat encouraged in this month of doing good deeds. Mosques are also seeing increase in attendance, especially at night for terawih prayers. The numbers seem to peak in the first week, stabilising in the second week, slow downward trend in the third week followed by drastic nose dive in the fourth and final week.

In short, it seems, admittedly not scientifically deduced nor backed by hard statistics, just by simple observations, as we go through Ramadhan, some of us are heading in the opposite direction to what Ramadhan is all about. More indulgement instead of more sacrifices.........

P.S.
Today’s khutbah on the jokes made about sighting of the new moon is timely. We all love jokes and the jokes on the failure to sight the new moon are hilarious and original. With the theme around the “out of order” aka “rosak” telescopes. But in reality, sighting of the new moon is a serious matter and comes with big responsibility. A decision affecting all the Muslims in this country. Everyone involves are giving their best, backed by experts and high tech equipment. Failure of sightings is not for lack of trying and equipment. All by God’s will...... Selamat Beramadhan in everysense... everyway.....

Change or else.....

2009-08-14T10:29:00.003+08:00

One of my early entries was about how it was raining, flooding here and there yet taps were dry. Prolonged disruptions to the water supply. Now, today, the last few months until who knows when but if we believe the forecast as early as September or may be longer, we are in the dry season made worse by our not so good friend Mrs El-Nino. Prefer to call it Mrs, the female gender as weather phenomenon especially tropical storms, typhoons, cyclones, initially were named after the female species. Wonder why this is? Anything to do with the female kind ability to brew up storms out of nothing? But in 1979, some people who wants to be politically correct and seems to be too serious at all things changed this. They said this practice was sexist. Spoil sport! Now the males are also associated with it!

El-Nino increases surface temperature, induced forest fires, amplify haze and brings prolonged drought. Up to 40% reduction from the normal rainfall is predicted. This figure is worrying. It is already supposed to be dry, now 40% drier? Why should we worry some may ask. We still get some rain, water is plentiful, stored in tanks, rivers, dams, etc. True, as a country we are blessed with natural water source. True we have dams to store water. True we are blessed with a government who provides excellent water infrastructure. But with our current usage of water, among the highest in the world, this will catch up with us, we will run out of water, cheap water that is. Water can always be produced but at what cost? Do we want to be in the situation where the cost to produce water is so high, uneconomically high? Ask the Saudis, Singaporeans and other not so blessed countries, how many times more it cost them to produce a litre of water compare to us in this blessed country. Do we want to pay more for our water? Increase our water bills? Reduce the portion of our hard earned income we can spend on our houses, clothings, shoes, bags, food, cars, bikes, TVs, home cinemas, karaoke sets, mobile phones, gadgets, spa treatments, facials, pedicure, manicure, hair treatment, traveling, shopping trips, hobbies, all the pleasurable albeit some are useless things and also our savings? Do we really want that? Hope we will not take this fact for granted.

Let´s all CHANGE, use LESS WATER now! Not just during this dry season, but all the time. Change or else ....

PS
If my sources are correct, I believed they are, they are the professionals, the experts, at the current rate of usage and in the event of prolong dry season, our storages can only last us between 6 months to a year. Worrying indeed and the water levels are beginning to drop. Boh doi!

Being Critical ....

2009-08-12T01:23:00.001+08:00

“To me the sign of a great nation – and a great citizen – is pride in the country coupled with the ability to recognise what needs to be improved” wrote Philip Merry, CEO of the Global Leadership Academy in the Straits Times.

Definitely something to ponder, contemplate and reflect as we grow as a country and a nation. I am sure every citizen, every resident in this country of unexpected treasures, negara bertuah, feel blessed to live in one of the best places in the world. A wonderful place. The best place to lead a balanced lifestyle one of my bosses said before. In fact a friend used to say, albeit jokingly, which if you think about it, have some truth in it, you can find everything here. Good, bad, legal, illegal, over the table, under the table, halal, haram and so on. Semua ada as in the Doraemon front pocket / pouch where all sorts of things, gadgets and tools can be magically produced.

As much as we are proud of our beloved country, I for one do not wish to live in another country even if I am forced at gun point, we must be able to be critical, not in a senseless way, to make this great country even greater. To be critical we must be civilise, able to discuss rationally, objectively with constructive criticism at the same time understanding the issues, getting the full true facts and most important of all is our good intention to see this beloved country grow even greater and able to provide the best for her people. For the good of everyone. All for one and one for all as the Musketeers used to say......

P.S.
Doraemon’s front pocket is called yojigen-pocket, or 4-dimensional pocket. Although he can hear perfectly well, Doraemon has no ears: his robotic ears were eaten by a mouse, giving him a phobia of the creatures. I once read Doraemon stories contain a lot of moral lessons regarding values such as integrity, perseverance, courage, family and respect. May be our kids are not wasting their time watching this blue and white creature from the future up to his antics. May be they did learn something.............

Breastfeeding ....

2009-08-08T00:12:00.003+08:00

It’s the end of the first week of August. The last day of the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) which this year falls from 1st to 7th August. By all accounts breastfeeding is good for the baby as well as the mom. Among the objectives of the WBW 2009 is to draw attention to the vital role that breastfeeding plays in emergencies worldwide. According to the WBW website, “ Children are the most vulnerable in emergencies – child mortality can soar from 2 to 70 times higher than average due to diarrhoea, respiratory illness and malnutrition. Breastfeeding is a life saving intervention and protection is greatest for the youngest infants. Even in non-emergency settings, non-breastfed babies under 2 months of age are six times more likely to die.”

Our local health authorities have a policy of encouraging breastfeeding as soon as giving birth, exclusively for six months and to continue breastfeeding up to 2 years. The fliers they distributed also stated among the advantages are the baby will have higher IQ, lower risk of obesity, antibody against diarrhoea, lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and reduce risk of orthodontic and dental problems. As for the mom, breastfeeding helps the mom's body return to its pre-pregnancy state faster, helps delay return of fertility and to space subsequent pregnancies, develops a special emotional relationship and bonding with her child and helps the uterus contract after birth to control postpartum bleeding.

That takes care of the mom and the baby. How about the daddy? To date, haven’t seen any fliers telling what benefits breastfeeding brings to the daddy. Some will say, having healthier wife and baby is benefit enough. But guys being guys, I am sure will want to know what other advantages they will get out of it. Remember, if the mom breastfeeds the baby for at least two years, that will be two years of refraining from some pleasurable activity for the daddy. So they must be thinking “I better get something out of this”. Hope the health authorities can look into this.

In the absence of such fliers, on top of the head, we can see some obvious benefits. First, to the wallet. Milk formula tends to be costly. Breastfeeding definitely will help in reducing the household expenses. The money saved can be used on other things or be used as seed money to open up the baby’s account. Over two years, the figure can be around $1000 which will worth double when the baby turns 18. A second advantage will be to the eyes and better night sleep. No more worries about waking up and mixing the milk formula with half eyes closed in the middle of the night. Better sleep means the daddy can get up early and be at work on time. No time loss at work and the boss will be happier.

I am sure if we put our head into it, we can conjure up more imaginative benefits to the daddy. A not so obvious advantage, according to one website, the stool of a baby on breastfeeding has a butter-milk smell. Any volunteers to check on this? If it smells like the butter milk fish/beef/chicken, pretty sure changing diapers will be a more pleasant experience. We may even want to savour the moment, take in the smell, may even feel hungry, not trying to get it done as fast as we can.

Being a daddy, I support wholeheartedly the breastfeeding drive. Don’t be surprised to see the following slogan on my car bumper.... “Support breastfeeding, excellent for the baby, good for the mom and the daddy too.”

PS:
As in anything, if you ask any guys, breastfeeding has its “disadvantages” . Feeling left out, less bond with the child, just to name a few. Some may feel resentment towards the baby who has "come between" him and the mom. We often hear jokes how the daddy may compete with the baby.But I am sure, we in this muslim country, would do all we can to avoid being grouped into the “sesusuan” category.....

Happy Birthday....

2009-08-03T12:56:00.003+08:00

~~~ Happy Birthday To You ... Happy Birthday To You... Happy Birthday... Happy Birthday.... Happy Birthday to You ...~~~ Happy Birthday To You ... Happy Birthday To You... Happy Birthday... Happy Birthday.... Happy Birthday to You ...~~

My cheeky brainy fourth son has been telling me to sing it regularly lately. He asked me to sing it TWICE in a row every time I wash my hand with soap. Didn’t give it much thought initially. Really thought he was having me on. Got the cheek to play a prank on me.

Apparently, to my wonderful surprise, to make sure our hands are really clean, we need to wash our hands for at least 20 seconds. That’s about the same time it takes for us to sing the Happy Birthday song twice. Thank you son. You taught your ignorant dad something. Who says the we can’t learn anything from the young. Definitely comes in handy in this time where we need to wash our hands regularly. Touch anything, we wash. Sneeze, we wash. Cough, we wash. Shake hands, we wash. Wash, wash, wash. Wet tissues, hand soaps gone in no time.

Singing Happy Birthday song can also bring smile to our face. Remind us of the birthdays of the people around us, the people who means a lot to us. Have them in mind when we sing it, advance, current, belated. Those gifted with wonderful voice will bring cheers to people around. Those not so gifted, with suara katak, with any luck may just scare those bacteria and viruses off our hands for good......

P.S.
Reader’s Digest August Edition gave an alternative, albeit costly. We can ask our kids to use a soap dispenser which shoots a small black ink (vegetable dye) along with soap. Kids need to thoroughly wash for 20 seconds to get the dye off. Well, we may have clean hands but may also end up with artistic abstract looking stain splattered all over their uniforms....

Time to Kill...

2009-08-01T14:21:00.002+08:00

It’s the first day of August. It’s a Saturday. It’s my off day. Well normally it’s my working day. But for some very special and joyous reason, it’s my off day. “Time to kill a lot I have” as Yoda would have said it. Quite where in the Star Wars series he said it, please do not ask me.

What do I do with a lot of time to kill? I can choose from watch TV, read, trying to catch up with some sleep, cruising around aimlessly, window shopping, house chores, baby sitting etc. The list goes on and on. One of the killing time activities is surfing. Before you start thinking of beach bums with bermuda shorts, delicious behind with tanned six pack torso, with surf board in hand, this is not the surfing not on the beach kind. It’s the kind of surfing used to be for the nerds of this world but now it seems everyone bar the few still in the dark ages, nerd or no nerd are into surfing. Surfing the internet seems to be one of the most favourite past time nowadays. On the PC, on the notebooks or on the smart phones and to certain extend not so smart phones, everyone is surfing the cyber world, the world wide web, the internet.

Everything, anything in this real world can be found in the internet. Useful information, useless information, trivial matters, serious ones, long lost family members, forgotten friends, new love, old love, gossips, facts, PG rated, X-rated. It goes on and on. Basically everything you can think off. Google it, it will be there. Sometime ago, a friend said one way of measuring how popular you are is by goggling your name. Imagine his horror when he goggled his name, no entry appeared. He was obviously very popular.. NOT!

Freedom of information some people call it. But as in everything, freedom does not necessarily mean a totally good thing. No regulation on what is put on the internet. No way of telling if it is a fact or a lie. One thing we can do, is not to trust the internet 100%. Take the information with a pinch of salt. An example of this is how readily available information on health and symptoms of any disease is. Before you go to the doctor, you somehow manage to come up with the diagnosis and even the prognosis. Some may even doubt what the real life doctor says and prescribed. It seems a few minutes surfing on the internet made us a well qualified doctor compared to someone who had gone through at least 7 years of medical training and many many years of professional training and experience. The internet seems to be taken too seriously and taken as the truth. In actual fact, the internet is only a very useful tool to disseminate knowledge and extend our network and source of information. For expert and professional advice, trust should and must still be given to the right professionals of the real world.

Back to my surfing. Came across a very interesting albeit to many people useless site. With a domain name of thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com, it definitely attracts attention. This particular site has a collection of facts and trivia about things that are the longest of their kind in the world. Useless but some are hilarious.

The longest name of a country? With 74 characters with spaces and 63 characters without, Al Jumahiriyah al Arabiyah al Libiyah ash Shabiyah al Ishtirakiyah al Uzma holds the record. It is more widely known as Libya. Imagine how twisted tongued the newsreader will be!

Another, the world's longest abbreviation containing 56 letters: NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT
Which stands for Laboratory for Shuttering, Reinforcement, Concrete and Ferroconcrete Operations for Composite-monolithic and Monolithic Constructions of the Department of Technology of Building Assembly Operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for Building Mechanization and Technical Aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the USSR. Do they even understand what abbreviation means? And who in the world would give something such a long winded name. No wonder the USSR is no longer around.

You can try the website for more. Have fun ...

PS:
Only do this if you have plenty of time to kill. You have already wasted enough of your valuable time reading this useless entry. Ha ha ha ....

Big Yawn ...

2009-07-28T03:49:00.002+08:00

Read in the August edition of the Reader’s Digest:

“..... Researchers say our brains burn up to 33% of the calories we consume - and generate heat. Yawning cools brain cells, thus making them more efficient. The researchers also found that yawning increases blood flow and helps maintain optimum levels of functioning. And they suggest we´re biologically hard-wired to yawn to stay alert and protect ourselves from danger...."

The next time you see somebody yawning nonstop in a meeting or a presentation, be rest assured he or she is the most alert one. The one who will take in most if not all what is being discussed or presented.

No wonder I yawn a lot when reading a book. No wonder so many men yawn during khutbah on Fridays . No wonder husbands yawn when the wives pour their hearts out. Come to think of it, men yawn more than women. Now we know why... Men seems to be the more alert species... the more thoughtful...

P.S.
for better career prospect, next time make sure you yawn a lot in front of your boss. If he asked what is wrong with you, give him a copy of this article. He will definitely appreciate how alert you are and how your brain is functioning at the optimum level..... Guaranteed top management material.... Promotion will follow very very soon....

@$#!&* ....

2009-07-27T02:22:00.000+08:00

The clock struck 530pm. Newsreader started the news rolling. This and that. Bla bla bla ....

Out of the blue, Arghhh! I am so gerigitan. Words can´t describe what went through my head. They are at it again. How many times? Will they ever learn? Did anybody tell them? You can call me bibiran on this. I don’t care. Is it just me being so fussy? Nobody else see or hear what I heard and saw? And they announced it to the whole world. Some will say they meant well, they are just doing their work. I am not disputing that. In fact I salute them for all their hard work in keeping our country safe. I really do. Tunjuk langit kind of truth!

But why oh why in the world do they have to say they are undertaking their operations "sempena" or in conjunction with His Majesty´s Birthday? Are they saying more criminal elements appear during this joyful occasion? May be statistics can and will show it is true more crimes do happen. But isn´t that suppose to be the case? Crowds will always attract unsavoury elements. Just like sugar will attract ants. Just like ladies will attract guy´s attention. It´s a fact of life how sad it may sound.

There must be better ways to tell the whole world about what they are doing. Isn´t it better just to say they are doing their duty to keep us safer during this joyous occasion. But definitely and surely not in conjunction! As if it´s part of the official celebration. The last time I checked, I did not recall seeing the operation listed anywhere in the programme book.

I am sorry and sincerely apologised if this seemed to be repeat broadcast of my entry before. Just can´t help it. I am just so gerigitan and geram at the way this piece of news item is being handled again and again. Geram berabis. Some people says KE OTAK....

PS: singing Geram Jangan Engkau Geram as famously sang by Black Dog Bone....

In a blink....

2009-07-26T11:43:00.001+08:00

Time really flies. The week seemed to have gone pass with only a blink of an eye. Sunday to another Sunday to another Sunday here we are almost 70% of the year gone. Wonder how much we have achieved the targets we set at the beginning of the year. 70%? 50%? 30%? Or worse 0%? Are going to quantify it in terms of numbers? Or we do it qualitatively?

Soon, in less than a month will be Ramadhan. The month of ibadat. Month to get in touch with our inner self. Month to do good things good deeds. Well aren´t we suppose to be like that 247 365? (366 in a leap year ....)

Bulan puasa is also famous for being the month of food. All sorts will turn up everywhere. All kind of offers to tempt us. Not just for sungkai and sahur. Catalogues, lists, forms for kek raya flying here and there. All sorts of cakes, kek rolls, biscuits some with strange names like kek lapis Siti Nurhaliza and Dato K as if Siti Nurhaliza can make kek lapis.

As soon as puasa starts, preparation for hari raya will start. Offices having meetings to discuss hari raya celebrations. Shops offering hard to believe sales playing raya songs from day 1 of puasa. Opening hours extended. Midnight crazy sales offered. Shoes walking away. Shirts and pants apart from the size S ones gone. Tailors on 24 hours shift. Sets and sets of new sofas on the road. Crates and crates of soft drinks fronting entrances to shops. Hampers taller than most people who got them walking about. Flowers blooming albeit plastic ones. TVs, large ones appearing in many living rooms. Rolls and rolls of cucul of all sorts of colours and blinks unfurled. Yards and metres of curtain hang. Buckets of paint splattered. New car registrations jumps up. Sounds of air bombs louder by the day. Pawn shops on overtime. Loan sharks having field day. Banks giving out loans in myriad of names but all the same it is still hutang. Credit cards well ironed and swiped with eventual thicker than usual statement waiting.

Off course the ladies started well well in advance. Some as soon as Syawal ends. Or else they will end up with baju raya from the past. That wouldn´t look good in the photo albums. Even more so now in the age of Facebook where old raya albums are uploaded. Guys can get away with it. Baju melayu is still baju melayu. Apart from the odd one or two people with baju melayu bekatok, all look the same. Even for those who favours the handkerchief hanging on the front style. Add to that saloons offering all sorts of treatment. Lose kilos before raya. I bet those kilos are the weight of the dollars we have to pay for it. All sorts of perms. Afro look used to be the hits in raya pasts. Rebonding. You name it. Whatever you want to do with your hair, they will do it. Even for guys. But if you want to do the kojak look, save your money. Don´t go to the saloon. Just go to the Indian barber. $4 and your hair will be gone in a blink! Massage and head slapping thrown in for free!

About the only thing that seems to be in decline is the attendance for terawih as Ramadhan passes by.....

P.S.
What am I doing talking about puasa and raya? First thing first, we are in Sya´aban. The month for Rasulullah. The month for puasa sunat even if it is only just a day. I won’t go into detail about it. I m no ustaz. Just another guy with "tuhur" level of knowledge in ugama matters. But let’s remind ourselves of Nisfu Sya´aban, the night of 15 Sya’aban. We are encouraged to do sembahyang sunat and recites Surah Yaasiin three times with doa in between. Doa for panjang umur, murah rezeki and ditetapkan iman. Amin ..... Insyallah this year Nisfu Sya’aban will be on the evening of Wednesday 5 August.

Food.. Food... Food

2009-07-20T23:11:00.002+08:00

Recently, a friend asked me why I think of food all the time. My reply.. everything we do goes back to food. Food is among the basic things in life. Abraham Maslow, in his hierarchy of needs theory published in 1943, identified food as one of the basic human needs. He categorised food together with water, air, shelter, clothing and few others including sex as "deficiency needs" which if not met, will cause the individual feels anxious and tense.

It is no different here. On average, each household spent almost 30% of its income on food. The biggest portion of spending. Well ahead of other form of spending

Improving quality of life of the people was and still one of the main objectives of this country. Self-sufficiency in food especially rice has became an obsession. Like it or not, as a country, we have to strive for this. Our over reliance on food import is one of our main strategic challenges. It is not impossible to be self sufficient or near to be self sufficient. We have already one success story in the local eggs production which has more or less managed to meet the local demand. Based on Agriculture Department’s statistics, all of use consumed around 123.66 millions of eggs. That’s about 311 eggs per year for each of us, almost one egg a day. Around 123.21 millions of eggs are produced locally. That’s a self-sufficiency rate of 99.6%! I still can recall, clearly, the years where we imported most of our eggs. It will arrive in wooden crates. During weddings, where eggs wrapped in napkin or handkerchief was the common door gifts, we can see these timber crates closely. There were even instances of egg shortages especially during festive seasons. Now we hardly have these shortages.

Compare to other countries, the figure of 311 eggs per year per person is reasonable. In the Philippines, it is around 94, in Thailand 145, Malaysia 305 and in the USA is around 257. We are indeed an egg consuming nation which is good for the agriculture industry. All those kek lapis, kek batik, kueh makmur, biscuits which required trays after trays of eggs especially near to Hari Raya which is just over two months away is definitely welcome.

What! Is Hari Raya that soon? I haven’t bought any kain yet for my baju melayu. Shortly, all the tailors will be fully booked with baju melayu orders. Here I am thinking of hari raya when it’s not even puasa yet. Should be thinking of puasa more , how to improve ibadat etc etc rather than new baju melayus, sinjangs, new sofas etc.

Talking about food and my encounters with food , there are many memorable, wonderful, funny, and delicious stories. I am sure everyone has their own stories. One of my earliest recollections was with kueh malaya. One stall in the old tamu at Padang Besar sold the best, the meanest kueh malaya. A favourite indeed. A relative joked, it was not because the kueh malaya was any good, but the daughter of the owner was pretty! Well, what did a 6 year old know about pretty girl. Not much! So it must be the kueh malaya. Next to be encountered was the talor dadar (egg omelette) taken together with lauk goreng cacah with the Brunei chilli sauce (nowadays it is in the familiar yellow cap to differentiate it with the Singapore ones). The ever favourite is my nini’s fish curry. Out of this world!

Another that stuck in the mind is the kebab in Manchester. Abdul Kebab to be precise. It was so deliciously hot, we were sweating in the middle of winter by the kebab. The briyani was also fingerlickingly delicious. But beware! Consume at the risk of regular trips to the small thinking room more famously known as the toilet. Must be all the spices. The trick was to consume it only when we were safely at home and with no plans to go out after that.

Talking about briyani, more precisely nasi bukhara, we used to bring back boxes and boxes of the supa dupa delicious bukhara from a particular place in Kuala Lumpur. Once we took back more than 10 big boxes, the custom people did not believe us. They thought hidden among the bukharas were some contraband stuff!

Food industry is definitely growing here. Restaurants, cafes, gerais mushrooming everywhere some with catchy names. All sorts of food. Local, ambuyats, western, chinese, indian, french, italian, fast food, slow food and many more including the popular nasi katoks. All the best to them but what’s important, they must be halal and must maintain high standard of hygiene.

PS: Today, passed by a new row of shops and saw a well known food chain in Kuala Lumpur famous for it’s supposed to be secret recipes, opening an outlet here. Good luck to them. Hope they can keep up with the established ones such as CA Mohammad, Chop Jing Chew, Thien Thien..............

Playing Catch Up ...

2009-07-17T15:05:00.002+08:00

Finally able to catch up on my readings, especially newspapers, which I had neglected for the past week or so for many reasons. Luckily these are just papers... if not I would have gotten some yellow card for abandoning my duties... worst I can be charged for desertion.

In one article I came across an interesting result from a survey which polled almost 1,000 people across Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. When asked what are the worst attributes of the opposite sex, men think women are materialistic and difficult to please, always dissatisfied and always complaining. The women think men are indecisive and difficult to please, always dissatisfied and always complaining. So what’s new? It took 1,000 people to state the obvious. It took three countries wide survey to confirm that men and women are the same. Both are difficult to please, always dissatisfied and always complaining. Ha ha ha ..... Well, for the single ones, who according to this survey rates finding it hard to meet someone who shares their values or interests as one of the top three reasons to remain single, at least being difficult to please, always dissatisfied and always complaining is a good start to having a common interest. Interest in complaining ha ha ha ... Statistics indeed paint many pictures depending from which angle you see it. This reminded me of a famous quote attributed to one Aaron Levenstein ... “Statistics are like bikinis, what they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital.”

On another note, the new Harry Potter ( I always thought all this while it’s Porter not Potter) movie, the so called Harry Potter 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is finally here. Being avid fans and reader of the novel, obviously the kids have been waiting for this. I don’t know much about Harry Potter apart from it spans over seven books which are thick enough to be my paperweight. At least the kids are into reading. That’s what matters. Reading is important. Very important. It keeps the mind, the brain alert. On top of that we can gain something useful such as knowledge. The boss at work has been bugging us, again and again stressing how important reading is. To the extend just read anything, novels, papers, comics, magazines etc. A friend, when asked, what book he is reading now, answers FACEBOOK. Good one!

PS: I am struggling to finish the Jeremy Clarkson series of books. As interesting as the stories are, they are very interesting and very funny, often made me laugh out loud when reading them on the bed at night some may think I am having some sort of extra pleasurable strenuous activities, lately the eyes still manage to shut effortlessly.

Surreal ....

2009-07-14T03:10:00.002+08:00

Wowed! Proud! Inspired! Moved! Stirred! Some of the words to describe the reactions to today’s Titah from His Majesty. No need for me to repeat what was said. I am sure all eyes were glued to the TV and all ears tuned to the radio. Some even commented RTB got their biggest ever audience for the 8 o’clock news. It’s the hottest thing in town and will be in the foreseeable future. Some are looking forward to the Titah on 15 July.

In the cyber space, on Facebooks, Twitters, in Blogs, forums, people are talking about it. Commenting, suggesting, letting out how they feel. Some are serious, some are funny, some are sarcastic. It will not be complete without some commenting along the lines of “I told you so”; “Baru ia tau ...”; “Padan mua...”. But in all, one common message that came across clearly, visibly, undoubtedly, is the people’s awe and love to His Majesty. All in all, today’s event seemed surreal .... dreamlike.

Whatever and however we feel, we all can talk endlessly on how to react and what to do, all of us have our responsibility. To borrow from a famous phrase from a well known brand, lets JUST DO IT!

PS: Happy Birthday His Majesty ........

Weekend Ramblings .....

2009-07-12T23:50:00.003+08:00

Not much happening this weekend. Pretty uneventful. I suppose the last few weekends had been uneventful too. Even more so now with the H1N1 scare. Only out for essential matters.

Surfing the net, checking the latest cricket score (beginning to regret not subscribing to the cricket on the only legal satellite TV provider here), Facebooking, listening to the news at the same time, suddenly overheard the newsreader saying something about “Kumpulan Belia Lasak”. Involuntarily, I burst into big laughter. Flashing through my mind is a group of “Bald Youngsters” running around. I am sure most people, if not all, local Bruneians at least, knows what “lasak” is in our local cakap Brunei. Lasak in short means bald. Other words associated with lasak are “gondol” and “botak”. “Kojak” is another, the origin I was made to understand, was from the popular American television series starring Telly Savalas (he is bald) way back in the 70s. So popular the series was, the word Kojak is synonym with being bald, especially if totally bald (botak licin). Parents, family members and friends even gave nicknames to boys with no or little hair. We ended up with many “Si-Kojak”, a few I know personally. One interesting about Kojak, he was famous for sucking on lollipops as a substitute for smoking. Smokers may follow this.. suck lollipops to stop smoking!

Talking about nicknames, another popular one is “Si-Kanon”, associated with overweight boys. Again, another popular 70s TV series was the influence. Cannon was a detective series about an overweight private detective Frank Cannon, who had resigned from the LAPD and become a private detective. He was indeed shaped like a cannon ball! I am sure a lot of us know of “Si-Kanon” here and there.

Coming back to the “Kumpulan Belia Lasak”, it is actually a group of active, all action youngsters on a mission of doing good deeds. Definitely an initiative to be given full support and backing from all of us. I just wish the people naming the group were extra careful in naming the group ........

PS: this is how boring this weekend has been... the mind even had the time to wander on such trivial things as “Si-Kojak” and “Si-Kanon” ............

Hi-tech ....

2009-07-09T21:59:00.001+08:00

Reached the office, settled down, switched on the notebook, turn on the radio tuned to the self proclaimed No1 radio station in Brunei, few sips of water, munching the customary cucur pisang, started the day as usual browsing through the local paper.

There on the front page, a big bold headline that reads "Hi-tech battle against flu". Finally, we are fighting back. Finally, I thought, we are employing and getting the latest technology to fight this menace. My mind went off into orbit thinking what hi-tech things we are getting our hands on. Are we getting the virus zapping lasers as in the Sci Fi stories? Are employing Optimus Prime and its transformers clan to help us? On further reading, the hi-tech thingy the headline referred to was the sms advisory service. Flat feeling engulf the mind. An anti climax. Sms is hi-tech? I am sure a lot will agree sms service is nothing to shout about nowadays. It is common even companies such as banks publicise their promotions through sms.

Admittedly sms is one of the best if not the most successful communication tool ever invented. A very useful tool for mass communication and to spread the word. Even rumours spread in no time through sms. One big factor in Brunei is the booming mobile market with penetration reaching 90% The figures published in Brunei Darussalam Key Indicators showed the total number of mobile subscribers in 2007 is 397,013 from an estimated total population of 390,000. It seems even babies have their own mobile phones!

I am sure introduction of the SMS advisory will complement immensely the fight against H1N1. But to call it Hi-tech? I suppose the editor meant well and is trying to spread good news in this troubling time. But in my case, to my brain, this painted the wrong image. The expectation is wide off the mark. So distant from the actual thing. In the eagerness to have a feel good headline, it painted a not totally correct picture.

Here I go again, complaining as if I am an expert in mass communication and PR. At the rate I am going, I won’t be surprised if the editor or someone from the paper will walk up to me, throw a copy of the paper at me and bark “Mun fikir pandai, cuba tia buat nah!”

At least I mean well............

PS: Keep up the good work MOH.

Hunting ....

2009-07-08T01:27:00.001+08:00

Since the outbreak of the swine flu here the last few weeks, groups of people can be seen hunting. Hunting high and low to quote the song by a famous 80s Norwegian band, A-ha. No, they are not hunting the swines. In fact they are hunting for protection against swine flu. Sanitisers, alcohol laced wet tissues, thermometers and the coveted face masks. Ironic, just a few weeks ago these items minus the alcohol laced wet tissues were lying about almost untouched. Wet tissues with alcohol content were very hard to get even before. I wonder if it has any relation to the alcohol ban. A more realistic explanation would be the producer of the wipes trying to meet the market demand of this muslim majority region. We are not suppose to have any alcohol contaminating things around us especially our clothings even more so the ones we use in our prayers. Some will say they still smell the branded expansive very likely containing alcohol perfume in the jemaah...... well as in most things, this particular believe is subjective depending on what we accept as the true rule......

If we do a quick survey and spend sometime in a well known pharmacy, you can bet your life 9 out of 10 of the people entering will ask, “Ada mask kah?”, “Ada hand sanitiser kah?”. These things are hot in the market and their prices are on a steep incline... naik harga berabis. Imagine a pack of 5 of those N95 masks costing more than $17! For those still in the dark about the correct type of masks, I am sure not that many, the recommended masks are the N95 type that are designed to prevent the inhalation of airborne particles such as viruses. Off course there are shops trying to make a killing in this trouble times. One particular shop tried to pass off a normal standard dust mask as N95 mask and selling it at almost $4 a piece. Saw a few gullible and desperate people fell into this trap.

Some people suggested the government to provide free masks to each and every one of us. Imagine $3 per piece, 400,000 pieces every other day. That’s almost $3.6M in a week, assuming three pieces per person per week. Imagine this whole thing lasts its two year cycle? A staggering amount of over $350M! That’s equivalent to building SIX new hospitals at current costs. I am sure everyone will agree the money is better spent on building new hospitals especially specialised one for this kind of pandemic and to improve the health service. As for the masks, most of us in our own way can provide our own.....

PS:
I suppose some form of price control can be introduced and the needs of the real needy must be looked after by the government. At the same time, the importance of good personal hygiene must be stressed again and again. A friend said, wash your hands regularly, insyallah we will be alright.

Freebie ...

2009-07-07T12:24:00.002+08:00

“Wedding guests get energy-saving gift” front page headline in one of the local paper. It goes on to say .....“A profound energy-saving message was sent out in a novel way yesterday when around 500 guests at a wedding ceremony in Kuala Belait walked away with energy-saving bulbs given away as traditional wedding gifts to the guests..... the energy-saving light bulbs priced at $7 each were generously contributed by the Energy Division in the efforts to cut down on energy costs and also help the environment.... “

Wow! Definitely a novel idea, an excellent wedding gift, an even better way to promote energy saving mentality. It is indeed a worthy action, killing many birds with one stone (in this case 500 stones).

Energy is a critical and strategic area for our beloved country Brunei Darussalam. Being a producer and energy exporting country, we are also one of the biggest user / consumer of energy. Be it petroleum products or electricity, we are way up there among the top user. Not sure what are the actual figures, in terms of electricity usage, in the region, we are the third highest consumer of electricity after Japan. Compounded even further by one of the lowest electricity tariff in the region. May be it is our Brunei nature, doing and consuming in a big way. Big houses, big cars, even bigger number of cars, everything we want big, even hutang also we are known to have big hutangs and liabilities. Big thing is our thing. On another extreme, we Bruneians love freebies...

Coming back to the wedding gift, $7 wedding gift is in my opinion is on the pricey side. I suppose in this case the energy saving objectives made the cost more or less acceptable. Then again, not many apart from few well off group, can afford a $7 per piece wedding gift. Generally, any gift, as long it is free, people will gladly accept. Observe around us, free things will be gone in no time. Remember the near riot scene of the wang zakat applications? Time and time again we hear stories of people seeking assistance. Of course there are genuine cases, but there are also cases due to the person’s own reckless way, living outside their mean.

On a more worrying note, some may see it, now at least they have an alternative agency to apply for assistance especially weddings in particular wedding gifts.... some can now go to the Energy Division he he he .........

PS:
When you leave a room, turn off the lights. Save energy by turning off household appliances too when not in use. You can save money when you do these simple things. The money save if collected over a period of time can pay for your wedding gifts.

Prodded, Poked, Pulled ....

2009-07-05T13:11:00.003+08:00

It used to be holding the mobile, clicking away, typing the text and whatever else you can do nowadays with your mobile. Smart phones on the hands of the addicted means Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Googling etc. But lately we can see another phenomenon.... people walking about holding their forehead. Some do that once every few minutes. Some more frequent. Not enough with the forehead, other parts will also be touched. All in the name of feeling the “hotness” level of our body. Well to the hot chicks and other hot feeling people walking about out there, it’s not a measure of how hot you are. I am sure in a scale of 1 to 10, your hotness can be specified albeit it being subjective to each individual likes, dislikes, tastes, naughtiness etc.

The hotness level we are talking here is our body temperature. Lately, due to the very unwelcome visits of the not so very friendly, in fact very very detested, H1N1 flu, body temperature has become a very big deal indeed. Everywhere you go, depends on the way they take the temperature, your forehead will be poked (skin method), your ears pulled, your armpits pushed (axillary method), your mouth prodded (oral method). Fortunately the rectal method (thermometer shoved up your behind), which is the best way to measure the body temperature according to the Wiki, is not used. Imagine if it is? Smiley happy people walking around we can see for sure. For women, the vagina can also be used. I bet a lot will volunteer for this... NOT!

Under normal conditions, our body temperature should be around 37C (98.6F). Then again this depends on the method of measurement we use. Temperature in the anus (rectum/rectal), vagina, or in the ear is about 37.6C. Temperature in the mouth (oral) is about 36.8C. Temperature under the arm (axillary) is about 36.4C. Furthermore it varies slightly from person to person.

“Temperature examination in the rectum is the traditional gold standard measurement used to estimate core temperature (oral temperature is affected by hot or cold drinks and mouth-breathing). Rectal temperature is expected to be approximately one Fahrenheit degree higher than an oral temperature taken on the same person at the same time. Ear thermometers measure eardrum temperature using infrared sensors. The blood supply to the tympanic membrane is shared with the brain. However, this method of measuring body temperature is not as accurate as rectal measurement and has a low sensitivity for fevers, missing three or four out of every ten fevers in children.[4] Ear temperature measurement may be acceptable for observing trends in body temperature but is less useful in consistently identifying fevers.” .. the Wiki says..

Confused? Let the experts worry about the detail. For us, no matter what we used minus the hand on the forehead method (style lama ni!), let’s keep it simple, anything above 37.5C (doctors and experts please correct me if I am wrong here, admittedly I am no expert nor I have any certificates even forged ones) take extra precautions, follow the Health Authorities instructions.

PS:
I do hope the guys taking the temperature in the office know what they are doing. Been hearing strange readings of as low as 31C.

Sad... Shocked... Scared....

2009-07-02T23:44:00.003+08:00

It is a sad day. A sad day as our country suffered the first fatality due to the H1N1 flu. The details and the circumstances are in the news. Upon this news was made public, the internet was and still is full of blame game. Sad as we are about this loss, blame game is the last thing we want. Add to this news another 27 new cases, we have almost a century of cases now. Scared? Worried? Most, if not all, will be ..... Mixed emotions .....

Early in the morning, most if not all the people I came across were alarmed on the sudden rise in the number of H1N1 cases. Some people say it is inevitable. Just look at the United Kingdom where they have given up in preventing the spread. Now, they have moved into the treatment phase in managing this outbreak, treating the ever increasing numbers affected by the flu. It is projected, by August, over 100,000 cases per day will be seen. I guess any plan to go the UK will have to wait for now.

While it is very worrying to see the trend, the good news is that vaccines may be available as early as August this year. A consolation, if we can call it one, the experts acknowledged H1N1 is a mild flu and with early detection and treatment, most will recover. Follow the advice, keep good standard of personal hygiene. No more of the favourite past time of picking the noses for now. Wash our hands with the ever increasingly difficult to find hand sanitisers. Check the body temperatures twice remembering the flexible thermometers you used for the armpits not being used in the mouth. Better to get the ear digital thermometer which is running out fast like the Fun Donuts when it arrived here. Put the masks on, it is trendy now to have one on. Stay home if we are not well. Exercise self quarantine for at least seven days if you have just arrived from an affected area. I am sure many will take this offer of extended leave which I regretted not taking. Have adequate rest. Avoid crowded areas, for now, a perfect excuse not to attend weddings, functions etc. Regularly clean our work area and equipments. I must keep this in mind... should not take the mobile to the toilet. So no more Twitter and Facebook updates “live” from the BilekTermenung.

In our office, as in many other offices across the country, the various action plans or SOPs were activated. To be honest, the plans were for the Bird Flu. I suppose the action plans would be similar for H1N1, just a matter it is swine this time not the birds being the culprit. With the modern technology, it is not difficult to convert the Bird Flu action plan to Swine Flu. Just click “search and replaced” bird with H1N1, we will have an action plan for the H1N1. And do not forget to delete the part on when we find dead birds lying about.

Everyone, everybody is doing their best to counter the H1N1 threat. One thing we must not forget, is PRAY.... pray and doa so we, the whole country will be spared from H1N1. Amin .............

PS:
to those in MOH, keep up the good job.... you have done the best.....

H1N1 online ....

2009-07-01T22:31:00.001+08:00

66, yes 66 cases of H1N1 as of this afternoon. Since the first case detected ten days ago, the numbers had shot up. Are we supposed to be alarmed? May be we should. Should we panic? May be we should not. Stories, rumours spreading like wildfire about this flu. Every media you can think off, be it official, print, electronic etc. In blogs, forums, facebook, twitters, chat lines stories are exchanged. How many of the stories are true? How many are half truths? How many are straightforward false allegations?

In Brunei, like the rest of the world, more and more people especially the younger generations are sceptical of the government media. Even when the government media is telling 100% the truth, they will not take it totally. Look what is happening in Iran. It is doubtful such voting fraud in a massive scale could have taken place. Yet despite the government effort to explain and to certain extent appease the protestors, they still believe the non government media. In the case of the H1N1 spread here, if we follow the internet chatter via Facebook, Twitter etc, you will get the sense the government media is not fully trusted. In certain extremes, we get the sense there is a perception the government is not totally transparent and trying to hide something.

Being part of the IT generation, I am all for free speech and unrestricted access to information. But at the same time, we must realise, freedom comes with responsibilities. We also must understand the role of the government. Government agencies have responsibilities to ensure the public’s well being and to maintain calm. With these responsibilities, ensuring the right and accurate information reach the public is of paramount importance. Whose reporting we rather believe? The government with its responsibilities or the people online who has no direct responsibilities, some if not all, are strangers to us?

The challenge for the government media and agencies is to provide accurate, up-to-date almost real time information to the public and to be seen as approachable and fully transparent....

PS:
The last six days was a roller coaster emotional ride. Scared, beuri, kabak-kabak, ingau, terrified and many more emotions all mixed up. Why? Coming back from an H1N1 affected areas, can’t help feeling all those with any slight changes in the body temperature and other flu like symptoms. If before, any cough, sneeze would be taken on my stride, now, have to pause and contemplate. People nearby will be staring at me like I am an outcast. Endless self checking of the body temperature, to the extent of carrying my own thermometer. Allhamdulillah, so far so good. Another day, can I say our group will be declared H1N1 free? It will be like independence day for our group .....

Money & Honesty .... Temptations

2009-06-29T23:43:00.000+08:00

Money changes everyone, changes everything.... is it so? Well for sure Love Changes Everything according to Climie Fisher.. here I go again digressing, must be the influence of those 90s songs I am listening to now...

Back to money and honesty, a seemingly ordinary non-event incident recently made me think about the effect of money on the level of our honesty. Over the years I am sure some, many of us had come across money lying on the pavement, floor. What do we do with it? I remember when I was still a kid, came across two dollars lying on the jambatan or bridge, it felt like durian runtuh (windfall). Did I bother to ask around? No way. I just took the money and headed to the nearest KK. Not Kota Kinabalu but the nearest Indian Shop better known as Kadai Kaling. Kadai si Kadir to be exact. Two dollars worth a lot those days, even more so to a little kid. Errands such as buying “tong gas” or gas cylinders only earned little boys 50 cents, one dollar if we were lucky. That was rolling the cylinders along the bridge, not an easy feat, very tricky indeed. So two dollars was like winning a lottery. If tikam-tikaman (I wonder if any of the current generation know this game, or was it gambling?), to get 50 cents was very hard especially with low probability, let alone one or two dollars.

Recently while walking about around the third best airport in the world, contemplating to get the iPod docking alarm clock or not, a ritual whenever I am at this particular airport, I almost stepped on some money, obviously not mine, must have dropped by somebody. Upon further inspection, it was only seventeen dollars from a GST refund. First thing on my mind, what do I do with it? Take it? Run away with it? If I am a little kid, maybe I would have done that. Being a good civic minded person (angkat bakul eh), I went to the nearest information counter, reported it and left the money with the ladies there. As I walked away I was feeling happy and proud as I have done the right thing again. I remembered I did the same thing when I found a communicator handphone at one of the eating places in the same airport.

Not giving the incident much thought, boarded the plane and tried to get some sleep. Then a thought start to nag me. What if the money on that floor was a lot? What if it was hundreds of dollars? What would have I done? Would it be silly to leave it at the information counter not knowing if the money will ever get back to the rightful owner? Would I start thinking that it was rezeki for me to get the iPod Docking alarm radio? Many questions ran through my head. May be I would still do the same thing but was it a certainty I would do that? May be yes, maybe not....

Despite most, a lot of us, if not all, knowing honesty is the best policy, the right thing to do at all times, when it comes to money, it is not a certainty we will do the right thing. The amount, the situation, the scenario may lead to different outcomes. Temptations, cobaan as Bujang Lapok called it will always be there. Many cases over the years of people fallen to the lure and temptation of the dollar signs. May be we can ask Climie Fisher to rewrite the lyrics to their hit song and titled it “Money Changes Everything” .... may be...

PS:
Finally bought the iPod Docking Alarm Clock after four rounds of ritualistic pondering contemplation stretched over a period of many months. Well it was worth it. Booming bass sound from such a small box is just marvellous. Fergie of Black Eyed Peas would be shouting .... Fabulous!

Paybill Day ....

2009-06-29T00:35:00.003+08:00

It’s Sunday, a day after payday for all Government servants. A friend joked its PAYBILL day... maybe he is right. For a lot of people, immediately after the salary dollars entered their bank accounts, big portion of it will either be withdrawn or blocked by the banks to pay for liabilities such as car loans, credit cards, all sorts of personal loans etc etc. As Bruneians call it, panas pun alum punggung....... the money is gone in no time after waiting for it for over four weeks....

After the monthly ritual of paybill, a lot of people wonder if they have anything left of their hard earned salary to be saved. It is a well known fact, everyone should try to save 10% to 30% of their salary. Do we? Can we? Chances are, many will not. Too much debt to pay, desire not balance with need, consumerism and useless stuff are among the common reasons cited for this. The following tips taken from a website may help us save a bit:

• Pay out/clear all the credit cards or any invoices. Don’t debt. Don’t pay minimum payment, it's just increasing the debt from its interest.

• Minimize the desires/wishes of things. Desire is not the same with need. Sometime, when we think that I need a car, think twice, do we REALLY need a car? Can I drive just a motorcycle to my workplace or just a bicycle?

• STOP spoiling eyes and brain for what we see, we touch. You don’t have to wear luxurious satin gown to the party if you can modify your cotton gown.

• No more than 2 credit/debit cards in wallet. Use it wisely, don’t push the limit.

• Investment, investment, investment. You can apply insurance for keeping your money, of life insurance, or any insurance that fit with your condition. OR.. you can apply for bank deposit which has annual withdrawal, which give us penalty if we withdraw before the time limit.

• CUT OFF 10-30% from salary immediately after we received and save it to your bank account. Make it as "dead account", don’t make withdrawal history from this account unless you really really really need it. Make this account without any card facility, low interest is fine, the important is it's safe.

May be then we can really earned the rich tag Bruneians tend to get overseas especially in this region.

Talking about tags and reputations, at the beginning of the week I was in a modern city state founded by Sang Nila Utama and once was saved from attacks of the swordfish by the genius of a 7 year old boy, Hang Nadim. To the people in this city state, Bruneians are well off rich people. Therefore it is understandable, whenever we are getting any service at any hotels, for the hotel staff especially the bell boys to expect big tip from us. Admittedly some deserve it. For sure all will try to please you 247. To cut a long story short, over the period of five days I was there, I have gone from being called Tuan when I arrived, to Dato, Pengiran and Pehin in the space of just five days. That must be in a world record time! The price? Only $10 of tip ......

I wonder what the bellboy will call me if I stay a day longer .......

Scarce Resource ...

2009-06-24T13:45:00.001+08:00

Today and the last couple of days were spent listening to diverse views from diverse group of people on water. But one common understanding they all have is “water is a scarce resource”. What does it mean? In short, water is a priceless resource. Some people, in fact a lot of people, says water is life. Life needs water....

That’s the global perception. How about our own local perception? First let us all be thankful, our country is blessed with abundance (but not limitless for sure) of water. We live in a country where we have among the lowest, if not the lowest water tariff in the world (yet we still have people complaining about it and a significant number of “none paying mau free saja user”). We also have the “honour” of among the highest user of water per capita per day, 450 litres per day. That’s around 300 big bottles of those sehat water. Well, if I sound bibiran about this as this was in my earlier entry, so be it.

With the above basic facts, a question that needs to be answered is how we, as a nation, value water? To answer it, let’s look at simple and basic things in our life in Brunei. The answer lies in there somewhere. When we got up in d morning, how do we brush our teeth, how do we shower, how do we wash? A large number of us have the habit of letting the water run and run and run, throwing away water. If we value something, are we willing to throw it away? NO! Most if not all will say... In fact a lot will want to collect and keep the valuable thing. Conclusion? We do not value water... simple!

But for sure everyone realises how important water is in our lives. For people who has not realise this, do imagine that you are doing your “big business” in the toilet at night. Suddenly, the electricity and water were cut off. What do wish for? If you were asked to choose either electricity or water, which one will you choose? 100% of you will ask for water to be restored. See how important water is?

The above are the normal basic things most if not all has experienced. It points to two extremes, one where we do not value water and another where we know water is important in our lives.

Let’s look it at from another perspective. All of us, it is in Bruneians’ nature, to think to the future and do our best to secure our children’s and their children’s future especially education and harta. If water is important to us and it is not limitless, don’t we want to leave some for our children and their children? I am sure, many if not all will say YES....

The question now is HOW? Everyone has a role to play. The government, thankfully, has and will continue to invest and pour millions into new water infrastructure projects and maintaining and upgrading existing water infrastructure to meet the demand for water. But the demand will always increase with increase in population. As demand increase, more and more investment will be required. The government will always play catch up. We will never be able to stop the increase. It is a lost hope it seems but there must be something we can do to slow down and reduce the increase. How? Each of us, every day, reduce our water usage. Slowly but surely, the rate of increase in water demand will slow down ...

Let’s play our role, be thankful that we have abundant of water, and value our water MORE..... after all, our children and their children deserve to live like us...

VALUE WATER ..... SAVE WATER!

Champions....

2009-06-20T00:56:00.002+08:00

Congratulations! Bravo! Well done! Tahniah! to DPMM FC for winning the Singapore League Cup 2009. An achievement the whole country is definitely very proud of. This is no small feat. Only admitted to the S-League two weeks before the start of the season, here we are few months on, the Champions of the League Cup, the first foreign team to win any silverware in Singapore domestic competitions. Next is the League title ............

Most TVs in Brunei were glued to RTB watching the match unfold. Full time score 1-1, the match went into extra time. Thirty minutes of torture as the Singapore Armed Forces FC (SAFFC) mounted attack after attack. Then came the penalties. Pacing around trying to keep calm. What a relief, it ended up 4-3 to DPMM FC. Phew!

Sitting there watching the match on TV, memories of one Saturday night in December 1999 came flooding back. There we were, thousands of Brunei hardcore supporters at the Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur gathered to watch an historic moment, witnessing the first and only time Brunei won the Malaysia Cup. Those days, we had Patron Akakpo, Brian Bothwell, Rosli Leman (wonder what happened to the Toyota he won), Liew, Azmanuddin, Irwan, Ibrahim and many more including Ak Sallehudin who is one of the key players of the current DPMM FC team.

At the beginning of 1999, it did not look like we will be winning anything! Being the year Brunei was hosting the 20th SEA Games, the focus of the country was on the SEA Games. Preparation for it became top priority. The M-League matches had to move to Padang Kebajikan as the Stadium was under renovation. Well over the years Brunei had played their matches in lesser padangs. It started at Padang Besar (now Taman SOAS) in 1979, then the KBRC (I remembered this fondly, the match against Sarawak where Pg Tajuddin scored through a thunderbolt freekick), the Police Stadium in Gadong and the Padang Puaka aka Padang JKR at Airport Lama (Brunei remained undefeated in one season here!). So what’s wrong with Padang Kebajikan? May be it was bad luck, Brunei fared badly in almost every match there. Not until after Brunei had done with the hosting of the SEA Games (a memorable sporting event we hosted brilliantly with the most gold medal haul ever for Brunei), the matches moved back to the National Stadium, the Brunei Team aka the Wasps got into gear and started winning match after match.

After failing at the semi final and quarter final stages the previous years, Brunei was not going to be denied. The couple of weeks before the final got thousands scrambling for air tickets. By hook or by crook, a lot of people wanted to be at the Final. Luckily extra flights were arranged. Kuala Lumpur was flooded with thousands of Bruneians. Some even arrived on the day of the final and immediately returned after the match.

On that Saturday night, 4 December 1999, as soon as the final whistle blew, thousands of us were ecstatic. Tears flowing. Hugging. Shouting “Brunei Yakin!”. Jumping up and down! Who cares how silly we all looked like. All we care was after 20 years, we finally won the Cup! Few of us managed to celebrate with the players at the team hotel (after soup ekor session to regain some energy drained during the match). What a night! Hairs on the back of my neck stood and tears in my eyes every time I recalled that night!

Now, 10 years on, we won the League Cup. Hopefully this will be a good sign for the future of football in Brunei. Better things to come unlike the downhill spiral the local football scene took after winning the Malaysia Cup in 1999. First thing first, the most important step is to sort out the BAFA/FFBD quandary ...

Brunei Yakin!

the Internet 247 .....

2009-06-18T00:30:00.000+08:00

Internet is part and parcel of most people’s lives now. Being online and connected 247 is a very big deal to a lot of people. Loss of internet connection is treated the same way as loss of water or electricity supply. More and more ways to stay in contact with family and friends are available. E-mails, internet messengers, Facebook, Windows Space, Twitter to name a few.

As in all things in this world, internet has its positives and negatives. Focussing on the positives, advancement in the internet means we now can get real time news. A good example was a few days ago there was some disturbances at the Malaysian Parliament. Faster than TV news can do it, we can read real time hot from the oven reports direct from the Parliament. Guess who the reporters were? The members of parliament themselves through the Twitter service.

Not just through the computers, we now have access through our mobile phones. Even the not so smart models come with internet access as a standard. Facebook users, twitter subscribers and even the MSN users can now use their mobile phones and update their status, made comments and the most useless of all ... poked their friends. If we observe carefully people around us, we can see more than 50% will be holding and staring at their mobile phones. More and more of these people are actually accessing the internet. Some even take their phones everywhere ... I know a few who updates their status while doing their business in the toilet. Lucky for us, internet so far only comes with sight and sound effect. Imagine if it comes with smell effect!

One aspect of the internet world is E-Govt. Everyone has heard of e-govt and many understands it provides access to government services online, from the comfort of our homes or offices, in fact from anywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We in Brunei are also not left behind on this development. Recently, we had the e-govt expo at the Mall. Admittedly I did not go to see it. Not so much for lack of interest, but more because of the hassle of finding a parking spot which is almost impossible in the area at weekends. How I wish I could have parked online and go on a cyber tour of the exhibition.

Today I came across a very interesting speech from a Senior Minister of our neighbour. He is of the opinion good governance is the foundation for successful e-government which in turn enables us to improve the effectiveness of Government. He stated three features of good governance that are critical to successful e-Government: Transparency, Accountability and Incorruptibility; Continuous Regulatory Review and Working together as One Government. You can read the full text here.

What is interesting in the text is the focus on good governance. I am no expert, but from what I know good governance is basically conducting public affairs, managing public resources in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law. Participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law are among the characteristics of good governance. Based on this, may be, as we go down the e-govt road, we as a country will improve in this aspect. It is well known some procedures are convoluted and confusing. Even the “Ease of Doing Business Report 2009” painted a not too good picture. Ranked 88 out of 181 economies.

Well there is always hope. We must always have hope. May be, just maybe, the current e-govt initiatives will bring about positive changes, making our processes and procedures less complicated, more straight forward and most importantly not open to abuse.

With access from anywhere to government services online and other services from private providers locally and internationally 247, we will be a truly well connected people.... even beyond the imagination of the “connecting people“ at Nokia.............

2009-06-17T08:01:00.001+08:00

El-Nino ... La-Nina

The driest we will experience in 30 years.. one paper said yesterday. Various agencies here and in the neighbouring countries released numerous warning. Yes.. these agencies announced, ladies and gentlemen ... El-Nino is here.

All and behold... it was pouring rain yesterday afternoon. And last night too! Not just light rain.. but heavy one! Is it really El-Nino? Or is the brother, La-Nina here? It made some of the agencies looked silly.....

If there is anything we can learn from this is how unpredictable the weather is nowadays. Is this the effect of the so called Climate Change everyone fears? May be ... no one can tell for sure...

No matter if it rains or if it is hot and dry, we all have a responsibility.. responsibility to reduce or even stop activities that is harming the environment... open burning, wasting energy, wasting water, uncontrolled development, cutting down the forest, high volume of rubbish, and many more ..... together we can do it ... no need to think too much, no need to ponder a lot, no need to talk too much... as Nike says it ... JUST DO IT!

Exam fever....

2009-06-16T21:14:00.004+08:00

A fever hit Brunei the last few days. But no need to worry, no need to report to the WHO or the health authorities. No health screening, no scary injections required. It was just the exam fever ....

Over the last few days, over a thousand Government officers sat for the compulsory if you want to be promoted exams. The subjects should not be something new, strange or even alien to the officers. It should be basic knowledge for the officers to be a government servant. After all, to do your job you must know what are your responsibilities, your authority, what you can do and cannot do... all the basic rules and regulations. General Orders better known as GO and Financial Regulations known as FR are these. So should be peanuts to all of them.

Is it really kacang? No, many will say. Yes, some will say as in any other tests or exams. To most government officers, taking the exams is to get promoted. It is true, for those who fail, the chance of being promoted are slim (I do not believe it is nil as many does). May be this is where the fault is. Learning something just for the sake of passing the exams ( I have plenty of experience in this). It is nothing compared to learning something to be a good civil servant. We will end up with the situation of “masuk telinga kiri, keluar telinga kanan”, not much difference in the level of knowledge before and after the exam (during the exams, off course it is high). Surely there are those with the right attitude, learning the GO & FR so they will be better civil servants. May be, I do hope, the numbers for this group is increasing. (may be we can do on the spot surprise tests he he he) Realising that we need to know, understand, get a feeling, appreciate these rules in order to be a good civil servant must be the ultimate goal... not just to get promotion.....

Talking about exams, in the news yesterday, some cheats were caught using concealed electronic devices (transmitters) in university entrance exams in China. Most people know you can get cheap electronic gadgets in China, I am sure these people have easy access to these devices. I wonder if this will catch on here as more and more careers relied on them passing the exams. The market is there. Over one thousand people sitting for the exams. Wherever there is a market, I am sure there will be ready suppliers. May be some are already writing up their business plans for this. May be the day will come where thorough checks will have to be made on all the candidates. I do hope NOT....

As I have said before in my earlier entries, trust is very important. Even more so in being a civil servant. We trust, all our civil servants are trustworthy and will not resort to what they are up to in the Chinese university entrance exams...... Good luck guys....

PS:
I wonder if there any tuition classes opened for the GO & FR exams? Any online help available? Very good business opportunities but do not forget to apply for permission to set up a business .....

1000th .... a thousand apologies

2009-06-13T23:54:00.002+08:00

A milestone reached, a threshold passed, a target accomplished. Sometime today, this blog got its 1000th hit. This is based on the low tech counter put up on the sidebar. Being a not computer savvy person, with almost zero knowledge of how to design a website, putting a more sophisticated counter or a tracker is not possible right now. Not that no effort had been put to learn, the learning process is very slow. The Kids’ Guide to HTML is the current lesson level. Its lower then beginners or even the famous range of guides better known as the Idiot’s Guide. Definitely regretting missing those extra IT classes I was supposed to be in many years ago. HTML was on the lesson list for sure. Who knows those lessons would have changed the layout, instead of polka dots blue based page, may be the layout would have evolved to a multicoloured full of graphics belingkaran here and there. Well, keeping things simple is my motto. May be it’s for the best that I missed those classes hehehe.... (sekadar kan menyamankan hati...)

To the person who clicked the 1000th hit on this blog, as the character in Mind Your Language, Ranjeet, famously says, A THOUSAND APOLOGIES! No prizes for being the 1000th hit. There is no way of telling who you are. Being, or trying to be an anonymous no comment allowed blog made it even harder! On this, once again, A THOUSAND APOLOGIES, this status quo will remain for the foreseeable future.

The 1000 figure, to me, is a bit misleading. Sure, it is a significant number but the counter does not differentiate on where or from whom the hits came from. In fact if someone was to sit in front of the computer with this blog opened and click refresh or reload nonstop, I am sure 1000 hit can be reached in no time. Quite why someone would do that is beyond me. Using logic and simple deduction, almost half of the hits must have come from the author. A significant portion may be from the closest person to me, checking if I am saying anything bad (I am definitly going to be in trouble for this!). One thing for sure, the 1000th hit is not the author’s.

Whatever it is, this is indeed a good marker to pause and look back. In fact, it would have been a double milestone, double celebration of 1000th hit and 50 posts or entries. But sadly, 7 of those entries did not count, there were unpublished drafts. Pity ....

My “Minister of Home Affairs” cums “the finance minister” cums “the Lord of the Dominion” remarked recently this blog has no particular theme. Well known, more popular and more advanced blogs have certain angles. From helping to foster a better informed Brunei Society (A thousand apologies sir!), to the Brunei’s No1 Social News to photography, food, hobbies, all categories are covered. As I have mentioned in the earlier entry, this is my way to let out what I think of some of the things I see, hear, touch, smell and taste . So no restrictions on subjects, categories and angles. But will always remain responsible albeit sometimes panyaluru.

Coming back to the 1000th hit, I recalled fondly a wall sticker about statistics I put up in my previous offices, at the back of the door so my boss would not notice it. On it, a tall voluptuous beautiful lady in yellow bikini, with the caption “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” How very true ......

Mahal... Kita ..

2009-06-12T01:45:00.001+08:00

Lately, more and more people are complaining how things are getting more and more expansive. Our purchasing power seemed to have dropped. Is it really that expansive?

If you follow the news, in a recent survey done by human resources firm ECA International on the most expensive city in the world for foreign workers, you cannot see Bandar Seri Begawan. But to my surprise, I am sure to a lot of other people too, the most expansive city in the world is Luanda in Angola. According to the report, a meal in Luanda can cost over US$100 and a "decent" apartment can cost as much as US$15,000 a month, despite the fact that most Angolans live in poverty, with over 60% of the Angolan population live on less than $2 a day.
The cheapest place? Maseru, the capital of the African state of Lesotho! To put things into perspective, Tokyo, the most expansive city in Asia is the world’s second most expansive city. Singapore, our neighbour, in the top 10 of the most expansive cities in Asia, is ranked 72. Kuala Lumpur is ranked 38 in Asia, 210 in the world.

Personally, one way for me to compare cities is the price of meal per person. Surf the net you can get a very good picture. In Bangkok, US$1 can buy you a good meal. Other countries and cities? In South Korea, US$5 to US$10; Tokyo similar to South Korea, Hong Kong is around US$5; in India about US$1; in Shanghai between US$1 to US$5; Jakarta around US$2 and Manila about US$5..... No need to say much about Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Most Bruneians know the prices. Just be careful not to end up like the Americans in Singapore charged S$30 per prawn!

Coming back to Brunei, a meal can cost as low as B$1 ... nasi katok or roti kosong with aing sajuk. Pay a bit more, you can have the delicious Roti Talor Bawang. Go to the pasar malam, you can get lots of B$1 food. Is that expansive? I don’t think so.... No wonder Bandar Seri Begawan in ranked 13th in Asia as the best place to live in ..........

PS: you can use the cost of a meal as a guide when giving tips in a foreign country!

El-Nino ........

2009-06-10T22:13:00.007+08:00

El-Nino is coming! Liverpool fans, do not rush to the airport, to the hotels or even the stadium. We are not talking about El-Nino, the Kid, Fernando Torres, the No.9 prolific Liverpool striker. The El-Nino we are talking here is the global climatic phenomenon we experienced a few years back.

Scientifically, El-Nino is .... “El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO; commonly referred to as simply El Niño) is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. The Pacific Ocean signatures, El Niño and La Niña are important temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. El Niño and La Niña are officially defined as sustained sea surface temperature anomalies of magnitude greater than 0.5°C across the central tropical Pacific Ocean. When the condition is met for a period of less than five months, it is classified as El Niño or La Niña conditions; if the anomaly persists for five months or longer, it is classified as an El Niño or La Niña episode. Historically, it has occurred at irregular intervals of 2-7 years and has usually lasted one or two years.” ... so says the Wikipedia.

Basically, El-Nino will bring in hotter and drier weather. The current episode is estimated to last until September at least. Hotter and drier weather means possible increase in the number of hot spots. Do not be too happy and start to take out your notebooks thinking and hoping for increase access to the cyber world. The kind of hotspots here will more likely burn your notebooks! These hotspots are actually occurrences of forest fires. More hotspots mean higher chance of the dreaded haze (jerebu) coming up.

What can we do to help? Stop open burning! That simple..........

PS:
Apple unveiled it’s new iPhone, so called the iPHONE 3G S, with the S standing for speed. It’s the same phone as the current iPhone 3G but faster... twice as fast. Very likely will be available in Singapore in July or early August. In Brunei? I am willing to bet it will be available here as early as June 20...a day after it is available in the US Market!

Dikir .....

2009-06-09T23:11:00.003+08:00

It’s been a long and tiring day. Lately, by the end of the day, feeling drained, exhausted, tired, you name it, it’s all there. Today is no exception. May be I should start taking those multivitamins especially Vitamin B complex again. Don’t dare to take any other energy boosting supplements. Excessive energy has its own problems too.

Despite being a long day, today brought back a lot of childhood memories. Sitting and listening to Dikir Brunei brought those memories back. Years ago, when I was still a kid, alum besunat as my nini always referred to me and my cousins those days, bedikir sessions were common, almost nightly. Led by my late great grandfather, a group of us, young and old gathered at his house and practice the dikir. It was fun. Those days we did not have much else to do, no distractions, no video games, no computers let alone internet, no mobile phones and only limited TV channels.

As I grow older, some say wiser but I may beg to differ in this particular case, the ability to do Dikir Brunei just disappeared like that. Only a few phrases remained in this head now full of other supposed to be more interesting things in life. Then one day, in London, a group of us, the so called Surau Boys, were told by Ustaz we will be performing the dikir at one of prominent Bruneians’ house. We thought we had a few days to practice but in reality we had only one night to practice. There we were this group of “dikir rookies” at the centre of the majlis looking like the real deal. Lucky there were dikir pros amongst us and the whole thing went well, at least the dikir sounded alright to us, the rookies, despite some of us were clearly miming ala Milli Vanilli.

Nowadays, many people, many organisations, either in the Government or privately, put a lot of efforts to keep Dikir Brunei alive not just among the older generations but also the young. Well done to these people. They have done a great job and I am sure they will continue to do so.

But one thing still puzzled me, among the various names given to the “lagus” they used, there is one or two titled with the word kopi in it. An example is “Badat Kopi”. Why kopi? What is the significance of kopi here? I jokingly theorised that may be it took a cup of kopi for the whole thing to be completed, which is shorter than normal dikir. When I asked a friend, a veteran of Dikir Brunei, he replied may be because “teh abis” he he he. Anybody who knows the real answer, please help me out of this misery, and make it one less question running around my head....

Fever Free ....

2009-06-08T22:29:00.003+08:00

Fever Free....

Since H1N1 made the headlines, everyone seems to take extra care and be extra aware of their body temperature. A trip to any health premises, be ready with your forehead, at least your ears. Previously, during normal times, only the person seeking treatment will be checked for their body temperature. Nowadays, no one is spared. Lucky they just use the ears and the nose. Imagine if they resort to other areas where they can measure your body temperature.

Fortunately, as mentioned in the news today, they are introducing thermal scanners the kind they uses at the airports at some health premises. At least it will speed things up and make it a bit more comfortable for the visitors.

At the end of the temperature check, everyone will get a “Fever Free” sticker. Sounds like you have won a prize. You are now certified free from fever. Lucky the sticker does not say “Free Fever”. On one particular visit, the kids seemed to be so excited to get those stickers. The adults just went through the motion. On another visit, a foreign man who just arrived from outside Brunei had a body temperature of 39C. A few of us there were suddenly terrified. What if the guy got the swine flu? Allhamdulillah, things turned out ok.

Returning from overseas trips, especially from affected countries brings along some worries. Kept checking the body temperature. I bet the thermometer at home got tired of checking. Any fever signs, the mind suddenly went overdrive. What will I do if I am going to be quarantined?

We must be thankful that our beloved country, so far, is free from H1N1. Some of our neighbours are not that lucky. To this, we must besyukur and laud the efforts of the Health authorities here. We hope and pray our country will remain H1N1 free.

P.S.
In my last entry I put out some ideas for song titles, CINCAU and CENDOL. Well for those who wants to use this title, CINCAU can be Cinta Ini Cinta Akhirku; CENDOL can be Cinta Engkau Dan Orang Lain .... Just make sure you attribute these titles to me. I will not ask for any royalties he he he .....

Sunday Snippets.....

2009-06-07T23:42:00.000+08:00

Another Sunday, another day for taking things easy ... as the Lionel Richie says.. Ooh,that's why I'm easy, I'm easy like Sunday morning, That's why I'm easy, I'm easy like Sunday morning...

Well it wasn’t quite early morning when I opened my eyes. It was only a few months ago, a Sunday morning is like any other mornings, time to look at my work. Not that I am rajin, may be I was very bad at time and work management. A friend once said if someone has to take work home or work on the holidays, he or she is poor in managing his or her time and work. So, with this and other reasoning in mind, subconsciously I started to treat Sundays as they are suppose to be.. a day to take things easy. Well, if required, I will still turn up to work (just in case my bosses are reading this he..he..he).

So what is my typical easy Sunday? I suppose the things we do on Sundays are similar. Wakes up, shower (I do hope everyone showers despite our effort to reduce our water usage!), have breakfast, watch TV, surf the Net including reading e-mails, updating Facebook, read the papers, have lunch, watch TV again, take afternoon nap. To some lucky ones (lucky? Not!), they have invitations to attend, be it wedding and other family and non family functions. (To anyone who is interested, I may write about things we can do to avoid attending any invitation in the future.) Before we know it, it’s Sunday evening and we need to get ready for another manic Monday.

Today, had homemade cucur udangs for breakfast. May be it was brunch as it was almost lunch time. Top that with nasi goreng, definitely no need to have anything for lunch. I used to make “mean cucur udangs” in my student days. After a few trial and errors, especially the first time when my cucur udang was very “karup-karup” and so nipis they looked more like crisps with prawns here and there, I can consider my cucur udangs as good as any I have tasted bar my nini’s. Now, happily I am a retired self proclaimed chef. The day ended with a nice, delicious roti talor bawang (RTB) session. Lately, been having a lot of RTBs. Bawangs, as a friend used to say, good for your health but bad for your sex life (even worse is garlic!).

That was my easy Sunday......

PS:
I have the CD of a popular group, ST12 for some time. Listened to it today after a long time. When I first heard the PUSPA song, I was wondering what does the title got to do with the story of the song. Story of a guy falling for a girl and asking her to leave her boyfriend. Is it the lucky girl’s name? Or is it referring to the Puspa drink? (very unlikely!). Rupa-rupanya, PUSPA is short for “PUTUSKANLAH SAJA PACARMU” as in the lyrics...

.... jangan jangan kau tak terima cintaku, jangan jangan kau hiraukan pacarmu, putuskanlah saja pacarmu, lalu bilang I LOVE U padaku .....

Songs are definitely getting stranger and stranger.... what’s next for the title? CINCAU? CENDOL? I leave it to you all to work out what they mean he he he ....

Nothing to write about .....

2009-06-07T00:17:00.004+08:00

Lately, these last few days, updating this blog has been harder than usual. It is not because I have lost interest. There is plenty to write about but I do not want to write anything about my work. Not just because some things are not meant to be shared (call it confidential, sulit, rahsia etc), it is boring to talk about work. Enough about work from morning to early evening.

Talking about confidential stuff, it seems everything confidential in the office will be chopped “SULIT” on the envelope or on the piece of document or placed in a folder with big “X” at the front. Humans being humans has curiosity as their nature. More often than not, documents marked “SULIT” attract attention than others. What does this mean? There is a higher likelihood these documents “kana subuk” or peeked into. I wonder if a study has been done on this. If none, we should do a study or even run some dummy tests. The results, I am sure, will make an interesting reading.

Every employee aspires to move up the career ladder (naik pangkat = naik gaji = better life?), hoping to go as high as they can. I suppose I am no different. Many books I have read on how to go up this ladder, how to develop as we go higher. But the important question, to me at least, what do you do when you get there? Today, I heard two very important characteristics or qualities you must have when you are up there. One is leadership, another is altruist. (I will add a third which I believe strongly).

So what is leadership? Kacang question! Everyone knows what leadership is. In simple terms, it is the act of leading a group. Personally, in reality, it is not just to lead but to have the ability to lead. To have the vision, to see the incoming problems, to make decisions and able to defend them, to advice and many more.

What is altruist? Or what is altruism? Basically, being an altruist is being unselfish, concern for the welfare of others, showing selflessness. Being an altruist will bring more significant outcome to everyone and everything.

A third, a more important quality to have, at least to me is “trusting”. You must have trust 360 degrees. Without trust, there will be distrust (isn’t that obvious?). With distrust or is it mistrust, you will end up having to check every single thing and end up with nothing gets done. With trust, working relationship will be better, morale will increase and I am sure productivity will head north.

In short, as we go up our career ladder, ability as a leader, being an altruist and more trusting will help us a lot. (At least I think so!)

Here I go again, talking about work..... how boring ...

PS:
Now the English Football season has ended, Saturday and Sunday nights are quieter. A friend remarked, he has nothing to look forward to except for endless football repeats or siaran ulangans. The weekend has gone flat. But to some parents, it is a welcome break. Now their football crazy kids can focus on their studies. Then, there is always DPMM FC matches to go to now their participation in the S-League is no longer under threat.......

Save our World ......

2009-06-05T14:24:00.002+08:00

Today is World Environment Day (WED). The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.

I do not blame you if the above statement about Copenhagen, climate change convention etc etc is a bit puzzling. Even veterans of climate change may find the whole climate change thingy bewildering. For beginners like me, we can read the beginners guide to Climate Change here.

For the impatient ones, basically us humans with our activities are contributing towards the warming up of the earth. If nothing is done to reduce this, the world will end up with more famines and catastrophes. We have seen how the climate has changed by the skewered monsoon and dry seasons worldwide. Whether we are among the believers or not in this theory of Climate Change, we can see the impacts. Are we willing to take a chance with the lives of our future generations? If not, let’s do something. The scientists have recommended a long list of things we can do.

But let’s make it simple, let’s do the little things... less burning, use less water, use less petrol, , use less energy, less electricity, less paper... walk more, cycle more... maybe we can help in our own little way. As our local saying says, sikit-sikit lama-lama jadi bukit ....... We can save our world...

Al-Fatihah

2009-06-04T12:40:00.001+08:00

Still feeling shocked, sad and a great loss.....

Yesterday morning, a trustworthy, reliable and professional colleague, a very good friend passed away. I will remember him fondly as a great colleague, an even greater friend. Al-Fatihah .....

Life goes on some people says. True as it may seem, it is not easy. In no mood to do any work. But go on we must ......

Spesel Dates.....

2009-06-02T22:20:00.003+08:00

“9 orang anak damit dilahirkan sempena Hari Ulang Tahun ABDB Ke-48” .....

That’s one of the headlines in the news. Before this I never thought somebody would give birth to commemorate (well that’s what sempena means to me in English) any particular date. At least now we know. Obviously there are people out there setting targets when they want to give birth, to coincide with major public holidays and historical dates.

Or is it a case of something not right with the reporting? Something gone wrong with the standard of our language expertise? I admit I am not an expert; in fact Bahasa Melayu or even English is one of my poorer subjects. Even now, I am still confused between verbs, adjectives, proverbs etc etc etc. Lucky I have my kids’ school text books I can refer to. But, with a very high degree of confidence, I am sure there are people out there who sees this headline as “a bit funny” to say the least. To some serious ones (I hope I do not fall into this category), it can be seen as a sign of decline in our linguistics ability. Well, someone out there knows the answer better than me.

The next magic date is 9th September 2009 i.e. 090909. I wonder if there is any couple out there working very hard on 31st December 2008 to have their babies born on this date. If you missed it, well, there is always 10th October 2010 to aim for........... or 11th November 2011... or 12th December 2012 .... pick your date ... I am sure you can count backwards!

Neighbours... everybody needs good neighbours...

2009-06-01T16:10:00.001+08:00

It’s good to be home, so good to wake up on your own bed despite the so called “heavenly bed”, the “warm you up” toilet seat and the jumbo shower head of a top class hotel. Talking about heavenly beds and jumbo shower heads, a friend said we must make full use of them. Having that in mind, I had the most number of showers in less than 12 hours.... 4 times! The bad thing was worrying about the Swine Flu, even after going through all the screening especially the infrared scanners mindful not to “urap any minyak panas”, any signs such as coughing and body aches caused you curious glances from people around knowing you have been to an affected (in our case two!) countries. Even checked my body temperature few times since I woke up.

Talking about health, as soon as we reached Brunei, we were greeted by the sad and shocking news about a very close friend in critical condition after what seemed to be a sudden heart attack. If this can happen to someone who to my knowledge is a very fit and healthy person, what about us who has been neglecting `our health? Sobering news indeed. I can only pray for his well being and full recovery. Amin....

Apart from health, family and friends are among the important things in our lives. I fondly remembers my childhood time at Kampong Aing where people are surrounded by extended family and friends. In fact the whole kampong knows each other. Despite sometimes having no blood relations, your neighbours were very close to you. It’s no longer like that now. Living in a perpindahan area, may be through my own fault, I hardly know any of my neighbours apart from the ones next to my house. Forget about names and jobs, their faces I also do not recognise. How I miss those days where you know all your neighbours.

Last night, I got an invitation from one of my neighbours. I was a bit hesitant to go not just because I was feeling tired after all the travelling; partly it was also because I did not know most of the people there. So there I was sitting in my neighbour’s living room among some of my neighbour’s, 90% of whom I did not know and recognise. Some of the conversation took my interest especially when a few of them started talking about the surrounding houses and their occupants. I had my ears on full radar mode waiting for them to say something about me and my house, praying they will not say anything about me. To me relief, I was spared from hearing anything about me! I told myself, from today onwards, I must make the extra effort to get to know these people more. After all they are my neighbours, the people who I will be living next to, the rest of my life.

Just like the lyrics to the TV soap Neighbours (my favourite TV soap in my student days) says....

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours,
Just a friendly wave each morning, helps to make a better day.
Neighbours, need to get to know each other, next day is only a footstep away.

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours,
With a little understanding, you can find a perfect plan.
Neighbours, should be there for one another.
That's when good neighbours become good friends.

Neighbours, need to get to know each other, next door is only a foot step away.
Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours,
With a little understanding, you can find the perfect plan.
Neighbours, should be there for one another,

That's when good neighbours become good friends.

Finally to everyone who celebrates Gawai, I wish them Selamat Hari Gawai, Gaya Guru, Gerai Nyamai....

Historic Friday, a surreal moment..........

2009-05-30T15:51:00.001+08:00

It’s Saturday, on a plane, almost a week away, now heading home via Singapore. Home sweet home I will be on Sunday morning. The last few days had been hectic yet was fortunate or unfortunate, depends on how you see it, to be in a foreign country experiencing historic events. The death and funeral of a former popular president and the threats from a hostile neighbour (more like a hostile brother in this case). With a room almost overlooking the main square, sea of yellows, sea of people in mourning, watching the funeral live in front of my eyes, at the same time the TV showing live footages of the whole event. The experience started the night before, Thursday evening, when patriotic songs alternating with what I can only make out as prayers can be heard blaring from the nearby square. So so surreal. Woke up on the Friday morning, the scene just got more intense as sea of yellow can be seen building up. Patriotic songs and prayers getting louder and louder. People singing and praying along. A few of the locals we talked to said they never experienced this enormous public outpouring of grief. Needless to say, traffic was on a stand still.

Yet, there we were, a group of people in a room, listening, talking, discussing, sharing, exchanging information and experiences on how to save the world from the dreaded 2 Celsius increase in the earth’s temperature. By all accounts, if this increase is not slowed or reversed in the next 10 to 20 years, it will be catastrophic to us and the next generations. We have to do something, step by step. Do our bit. Little by little but surely, a change of lifestyle we must achieve. Go green we must. Appreciate the blessings our country has with ample cheap supply of energy and water supply other countries found so scarce. Use less energy; reduce our water consumption we all must. This gathering is indeed an historic moment. What is remarkable, a country under such grief and threat did not lose heart. Instead, the spirit of we are all in this together in this endeavour overcame such grief. Saving the world is a far greater concern.

Evening came, funeral done, the streets still filled with people with candles in their hands, gathering, demonstrating. Songs and speeches can be heard through the night as I packed. Morning came, there were still people, a lot of them. Buses lining the streets. Looked like police buses forming a barricade. As we headed to the airport, I can only wish this country the best wishes. Threats of nuclear attack no to materialise, ever.

Back to me on the plane. Watched a wonderful movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You”. The synopsis says “.. the story of an interconnected group of Baltimore-based twenty and thirtysomethings navigating various relationships from casual dating to married life. Each is hoping to be an exception to the “no-exceptions” rule.” Good movie, watched the full length despite feeling so so sleepy.

If I seemed to be rambling from one topic to another, that’s precisely what I want. These ramblings showed how diverse this world is yet so much interconnected. An action from someone somewhere will affect another in a different place. As straightforward and as common sense as that may sound, somehow we always forget that fact.

In a foreign land ... the sequel

2009-05-28T17:44:00.000+08:00

Another day... another road trip. Fortunately today is only an hour’s drive. On the agenda is river watching and burning stuff.

Woke up with very big grin... ha ha ha ... Man Utd lost ... lost is an understatement. They were outplayed! Condolences to all of them! Today will indeed be a brighter day. Some friends, the Man U die hard supporters, are in for a nasty surprise. Expecting not to get any nasty text messages with me being in a DST roamingless foreign land. As the saying goes “kalau hendak seribu daya”. There are ways and means to get the message through to them. Friends on Facebook were already on the wrong end of it.

Yesterday was a long day. The road trip lasted almost 10 hours with almost 8 hours in the car being driven by what we called a mad superman driver. Imagine an MPV driven like a race car chasing the official black mercs. Tiring yet it was worth it. The hours were spent wisely learning the local lingo. At least now I know how to say hello. My I-Pong kept my mind off the scary feeling being driven that fast. The evening was a mellower proceedings with a dinner at our ambassador’s place. Delicious indeed. Food was great. Add to that wonderful stories about the old days and the ever, a must, funny jokes from the boss.

Expecting to watch the Man Utd-Barca game. As usual my tiredness caught up with me. Ending up with the TV watching me sailing into the dream world. The hotel referred to their beds, pillows etc as the dream bed. What a dream it was! To see your bitter rival lost their so called historical game, the game that is supposed to make them among the greats, felt like being rocketed to heaven and back! Add to that the “heated, bidet, sprayed” toilet seat... what a warm smiling start to the day.

With my notebook, handphones and the room’s clock showing different time, telling what time it was last night was very confusing. One moment I was one hour ahead, the next I was one hour behind. Just like in the Twilight Zone, moving between parallel time zones! Thinking it was midnight when in fact it was one in the morning! Woke up, looked at the time on my handphone it was almost six in the morning, actually it was already seven. May be I should consider wearing a watch again. Hey, no watches for my birthday will be accepted.... got other urgent, more important wish list.

The internet access problem sorted itself out. USD 22 for a day’s access is not that steep compared to USD5 for an iced mocha at Starbucks. What’s USD22 compared to the benefits of having the access. Well, I can always sell those indo mees, canned chicken curries and serunding to cover the cost... ha ha ha!

Lahitraot, ja-rit-ruh ..... for now!

In a foreign land....

2009-05-27T23:23:00.001+08:00

It’s Wednesday, in a foreign country, in a minivan for at least a three hour, 270 km drive to see the experts “handler” of hazardous waste. Fortunately I have my trusted “I-Pong” (to the not so well verse with this terminology... it is the Chinese copy of I-Pod.. can’t afford to get the real McCoy) and my notebook to keep me company. The last couple of days spent travelling, over 6,000 Km. On the plane, managed to let two movies watched me sleep. Arrived with the roaming phone not roaming at all. (DST please do something about it, your website says you have roaming here but even with 3g set, it is roamingless here.. was told B Mobile is the better option here...). Feeling lost without it, fortunately the hotel provided a local mobile set complete with number. At least, for official matters, we have means of communication. Another bummer, such a upscale hotel does not have free wireless (USD22 per day is a bit steep!) ... so have to look for a place for free wifi... the Coffee Bean and Starbucks behind the hotel looks like a nice place to sit and get free access. But then again a cup of iced mocha is about USD5 here... maybe it is not a bargain at all. Not worth it just to update the Facebook or even upload this entry. Sounds like Hj Bakhil talking here......

Right now, we are on a suspension bridge with a breathtaking view. So far, apart from those mentioned above, everything has gone well. Halal food and delicious ones plenty around. Myriad of cheap things to buy (asal saja wang matusin ada). Last night, briyani with onion nan was excellent. Add to that one quarter of a really enormous watermelon. Not forgetting the juicy sweet strawberries. Sure the indo mee packets and canned stuff will remain untouched.

People are fashionable here. Even the old ones seem to have great sense of fashion. Felt out of place standing next to them. Some know a few words of Bahasa Melayu especially to say “terima kasih”. Tried to learn a few local greetings, but a simple word like “good” ended with a mouthful of the local version, “belingkar lidah” just to say it. Even worse, almost all the signages are in the “belingkar character”.... lucky our drivers know a bit of English.

In general, people here are very friendly and helpful. Special mention must be given to the Hotel Duty Manager here who helped me a lot and made life easier for me (apart from not getting me free internet access... I suppose I should not be greedy he he he). Unlike the one in Singapore who checked me into the wrong, occupied room (Yes, occupied! Lucky there was no one around. Imagine the surprise on the face of the occupants seeing me entering their room.... if they were there) despite checking in at the so called privileged counter.

Weather has been excellent. Before I left Brunei, the Yahoo! weather forecast painted gloomy next few days. But was confident enough not to bring “baju sajuk” ( a strange terminology since it is meant to keep you warm.... if we can call the blanket “kain panas” why not call it “baju panas”? They serve the same purpose....) apart from a couple of suits. May be the Singapore Airlines pilot knew about me not having any baju sajuk, he announced 17C outside temperature when he landed. He must be having me on.... Yahoo! said it is going to be nice comfy 24C not 17C! With wind chilled factor, it is going to be cold. Without baju sajuk, can end up “karau kesajukan”. One of the first things I asked our embassy staff who greeted us was..... “Sajuk kah?”. When he said, the last few days had been warm and will be warm in the next few days, the decision not to take baju sajuk seems to be a very good one. No baju sajuk means a few extra kilos for the shopping.

If there is one thing or rather complaint I have so far, is that some of the street vendors are not that friendly. Some were even angry at us looking and trying the stuff they are selling. Even worse if we don’t buy anything after bargaining. To me, a “marong” face doesn’t help, a simple smile will go a long way in helping to do the selling for them.

Talking about smiles, the first thing that greeted me when I entered my hotel room was a smiling Bruneian lady. Hey! Don’t get me wrong! The smiling lady was on the TV. They were showing a documentary on a special hotel channel about Brunei especially on Kampong Aing. Those smiles sure will help in promoting our beloved home....

Apart from the Bruneian smile, the sight of the special toilet with the heated, “spray, bidet, dry control” toilet seat brought a big grin to my face. It will sure bring a nice warm feeling every morning .....

Dining by the river....

2009-05-24T07:55:00.003+08:00

In the last week or so, a few friends had been “pestering” me to try a new “fine dining” place in town, Tarindak d’ Seni. Dining out is not really my thing but I intended to give this new place a try. As if fate has it, my old boss, who I considered to be the best boss I could wish for, rang to invite me and a few colleagues to a dinner. Just my luck, a free makan with pleasant company...

So there I was, a “not dining out person”, sitting in a new dining place expecting the normal makan . To my surprise, delightful surprise, at least to this “not dining out ” and “not a food connoisseur” person, the food was great, cooked by Chefs trained for the Istana. The view was out of this world. A romantic place to bring your object of desire, dinner for two facing the view of one of the oldest “on water” settlement in the world. Top that with being served with waitresses trained for the Istana... a royal experience indeed, even more so being surrounded with exquisite local handicrafts. Fine dining indeed....

Over makan, we got talking, reminiscing, about how life was at this place right in front of our eyes, the place we called Kampong Ayer. A few of us, mixture of older and younger generations had our childhood and a big part of our adult lives in Kampong Ayer. Life were easier, more mellow, friendlier, less distractions.... it was simple yet fulfilling living. As one of my friends said, those were the days when you have “cukup makan”, you will be happy, besyukur. Life was good..... some people may say life was better then....

As the night passes, one thing that struck me is the name we called this place, the place of the beginnings of our country, this placed we called Kampong Ayer. Would not it be better to call it “KAMPONG AING”? Well, it is true most of us called it by the name Kampong Aing but officially it is Kampong Ayer. I am not a history buff so I do not know why it ended up being titled Kampong Ayer. (Those in the know, please shed some light on this to me). Many reasons we can give why we should call it Kampong Aing. To me, the most important one is to be true to our identity. We are orang Brunei. Orang Brunei called this place “Kampong Aing” (at least in my living memory despite I am not a “beliau” @ veteran yet).

To me, to a lot of us, it is and always will be Kampong Aing ...

U call that Cinta? ....

2009-05-23T01:55:00.003+08:00

Lately, the songs we heard in the radio, especially the Indonesian ones, tend to have weird lyrics. Just look at the one below, taken from the song “Ego Kah Aku” by Wali Band:

“Salahkah aku mencintaimu, Walau kutahu kutak dihatimu
Egokah aku memilikimu, Walau kutahu kau tak memilihku
Kuharap tuhan cabut nyawamu, Agar tak ada yang milikimu”

It is really scary when you love someone so much until you wish him or her dead so no one else can have him or her. This must be so very true love. NOT! And look at the band’s name, WALI Band... what an irony!

Another one that caught my attention, is this song, “Camelia” by Irwan Shah...

“kau wanita terhebat, yang pernah singgah di hatiku
kau wanita yang tegar, aku mohon lupakanlah aku,
sudahlah jangan menangis lagi, ku rasa cukup sampai di sini
mungkin di suatu saat nanti, kau temui cinta yang sejati
sudah cepat lupakanlah aku, jangan pernah ungkit masa lalu
ku takut kekasihku pun tahu, kau pernah menjadi simpananku”

On first hearing, the song seems so so very sweet. Talking about the lady by being the best he has ever met yet just good enough to be a substitute, a SIMPANAN. Hey that’s like saying Micheal Owen is the best striker Newcastle has, yet putting him on the subs bench. I am sure the lady must feel so flattered. NOT!

The next one from “Kekasih yang tak dianggap” from Kertas Band....

“aku mentari tapi tak menghangatkanmu, aku pelangi tak memberi warna di hidupmu
aku sang bulan tak menerangi malammu, aku lah bintang yang hilang ditelan kegelapan
selalu itu yg kau ucapkan padaku......
sebagai kekasih yang tak dianggap, aku hanya bisa mencoba mengalah
menahan setiap amarah, aku sang bulan tak menerangi malammu
aku lah bintang yang hilang ditelan kegelapan”

Even the title already makes you smile. Just to get yourself called a lover or “Kekasih” you give yourself the self proclaimed title “Kekasih yang tak dianggap”. But the truth is “kekasih yang tak dianggap”is equivalent to being a nobody to her... Zero!

But the best must be the song “Kekasih Gelapku” by Ungu .... (hey I love this song... very nice melody, good karaoke song for those with suara katak like me)

“Ku mencintaimu, lebih dari apapun, Meskipun tiada satu orang pun yang tahu
Ku mencintaimu, sedalam-dalam hatiku, Meskipun engkau hanya kekasih gelapku..”

If someone requests that song for you on the radio (surprisingly a lot at the height of the song’s popularity), you better start thinking and saying “what a a load of bull!”. Ha ha ha .....

The world is indeed getting “weirder” and “weirder” .............

Kan Membeli Mobile - Needs, Necessity, .... Luxury

2009-05-21T06:25:00.005+08:00

Yesterday, my relatively new “Life’s Good” so called smart mobile phone suddenly went stupid on me. Getting a new mobile phone is the last thing on my wish list but it seems I have to get one now. Fortunately, my old and trusted, “Connecting People” very smart very reliable phone came to the rescue. It still works despite lying in limbo on the desk. Good enough for now ......

Nowadays, being in contact 247, within reach 247 seems to be a necessity in life. The most common or shall I say the most popular (the word common and popular conjures different perceptions) is the mobile phone. It seems everyone has one, from the old to the young, different types from the technologically advance smart phones to the very basic to text and call only phones. Go to a mobile phone shop, you can get a phone for less than twenty dollars a month. Yes that’s cheap only twenty dollars a month BUT over seven years. 7 years? Doubt if the phone will last that long. Some people kept changing phones like changing shirts. Some have it like an annual ritual, getting one for every birthday. Some, every two to three years. Seldom we see someone holding to a mobile phone for that long, 7 years! I let you do the maths (I admit despite being brilliant in counting in my school days, years of lack of practice, make the brain very rusty! Betagar, in need of WD40), but I am sure paying $20 over 7 years will have you ending up paying almost double the actual price.

Walk into an electrical shop, you can get a plasma or LCD TV for $50 a month. That’s cheap, on the surface of it. But work it out over 7 years, you are paying a bomb! Yet, more and more people are using this option to get the goods these days. We end up having a society of people in debt (Club HKK... Hutang Keliling Pinggang!). Who is to blame for this? The banks? You can’t really blame them. They are just doing business providing a service that’s in demand. So who? (Hot in the news as I am typing this: the American Government is cracking on the credit card companies... what an irony!)

The list of so call necessary things in life is indeed very long. Cars, TV, phones, handbags, shoes, audio video home theatre systems, astros etc etc. Are these things necessities or are they luxuries? (Not the luxury biscuits we enjoyed in the office).

Maslow stated, in his hierarchy of needs theory, human has 5 levels of need (in order of importance) : physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self actualisation. The basic need is the physiological: breathing, Physiological needs , the very basic needs, include breathing, water, sleep, air, food, excretion, sex (really?), clothing and shelter.

Without going into the theory, ( I admit I am not an expert), it can be seen food and shelter are the basics of the basic human needs. Imagine hearing from a friend, whose wife is teacher in a school, of kids being hungry, nothing to eat at home. This alone should make us think and look at our priorities. Not the smart phones, not the LCD TVs, not the cars nor the fancy shoes and handbags. Our priorities should be, must be,to meet our basic needs, food and shelter.

A basic house or shelter will be a good start ...... after all, what’s the use of having the LCD TVs if you have to watch it under the open sky, romantic as it may seems to be.

Saya Putar Halim!

2009-05-20T01:37:00.000+08:00

“The World Revolves Around Me” a caption in red I saw recently in one website....

That brought back fond memories of an embarrassing moment when I first set foot in England. To be exact, the first time I set foot in the famous Selfridges in London. Revolving doors were quite a normal sight in buildings in the UK at that time, to keep the cold out I suppose. Selfridges was no exception.

So eager I was to set foot for the first time in Selfridges, I made my way to the main entrance fitted with rows of revolving doors. A simple rule to keep in mind when using a revolving door is one person at a time. With my eyes fixed on the inside of the store, I rushed and pushed the revolving door totally ignorant of the people around me. “Hey!” suddenly I heard a lady shouted. To my amazement and even bigger embarrassment, I wasn’t alone in that section of the revolving door. There, together with me, was an old lady (kalau muda nda jua apa ) with a green umbrella, nearly sprawling to the floor by me. After that I got a good “rollicking” from her. No amount of apologies and excuses would have kept her quiet. Being a first timer and a rookie to the UK scene, I suppose that was good enough excuse.

After that, I had a feeling, every time I went near Selfridges, I was a marked man ......

Fond memories indeed .......

Brunei Yakin ...

2009-05-19T02:04:00.004+08:00

Over the years Brunei has hosted and organised many big international and local events. Majority if not all of these events were held successfully. It is indeed a testament how Brunei as a country and Bruneians as a nation has advanced, developed and matured rapidly to be a regional and international player.

How can a small country with limited human resources managed to organise and host such major international events like APEC 2000, the SEA Games and other national celebrations successfully? In theory, it’s just like managing a project. You define the scope, determine the available resources, check timeline, assemble project team, develop and work a plan, monitor progress, keep everyone informed etc etc.

Hey that’s what the theory says. In reality, it can be very different here. A story I heard many times about a sinking ship gave a true insight of the Brunei way. What does a group of Bruneians do first if they find themselves on a sinking ship? First, set up a committee, have a lengthy discussions and if they are lucky save themselves from drowning.

It seems, the Brunei key to success in almost everything we hosted and organised are:

Setup at least a committee (we are legendary in having many committees, sometimes the ratio of committee members to the participants were so big! at the same time we do look after their welfare very-very well);
The committee will sit down and make lengthy deliberations on what to do, how to do it, determine resources (money, people etc) and comes up with a plan;
As the D day approaches, nothing has been done, everyone slips into panic attacks mode, pray and hope for the best, try to implement the plan and end up just doing anything resembling the plan;
Then in truly magical way, everything done and in place, the event or project a huge success.

Some people refer to this sarcastically as “Bujang SiGandam” No planning, all adhoc, always last minute.

To me, the spirit of Bujang SiGandam reflects the “can do” spirit we have. A characteristic we all must be proud off. Nothing is impossible, anything can be done even in the last minutes. Nya orang Brunei selagi baduk or takbir alum bebungi, selagi atu tah perhiasan rumah kan berubah. The Americans will say “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings” ( why must it be a fat lady? Why not a small lady? Why not just any lady?). Bujang SiGandam requires amongst others high self belief, leadership, innovations, creativity, perseverance, competency, patience, passion, resilience and trust. On top of that great teamwork!

So forget what people say, put aside all the so called modern tools. We keep it simple. Use the simple “to do list”, set a timeline and above all, do what we do best, practice the spirit of “Bujang SiGandam”.

Setangah saja, syukurtah ....

2009-05-18T01:12:00.004+08:00

Is the glass half full? Or is it half empty? The common conundrum you come across a lot in self development.

Seeing it half empty? You are an optimist. You have a positive outlook, a favourable view on things and realise your full potential.

Seeing it half full? You are a pessimist. You make difficulties of your opportunities.

This is a classic validation of how people see events and objects differently depending on the person’s perception.

In our modest upbringing, seeing it half empty can make you look greedy (tamak). Talking about tamak, “Nda balek untong” a friend once said. This was indeed a very progressive and optimistic view of doing business, counting and expecting the profits before even breaking even. Then there is also the expression “orang tamak selalu rugi”. Who says? If not tamak, it means you have no dreams. Without dreams you won’t go anywhere in this world. But there is a fine line between dreams and angan-angan. See where angan-angan brought Mat Jenin?

Seeing it half full, in our tradition, means being thankful for all our blessings. Sharing what we have even if it may not be enough to meet our own needs. Sedekah even if the amount is little.

But .... human being human, when the sedekah or pemberian is little, I am sure there is a high probability u will get a “tahi gigi pun nda cukup” response .......

Be thankful... bersyukur....

PS: “tahi gigi pun nda cukup” is a perambaan brunei meaning not enough (I think).

Tin Kosong .....

2009-05-16T23:13:00.006+08:00

When I first started work, I found it very irritating (“irritatingly annoying” more like it) seeing some of my senior colleagues and bosses not saying anything in meetings even on straight forward issues. On the extreme days, I even wondered if these people have brains or not.

Over the years, as I became more and more of a veteran, I observed a particular trend. The quieter you are, the higher the chance of you being promoted. At the same time, the longer you are in the service, the quieter you became. So my theory that these people were brainless must be totally wrong. If not, they wouldn’t have been promoted. Or could it be the talkative ones were just all noise but just like empty cans.("tin kosong").

I struggled to understand why this was. One possible explanation I can deduce was there must be a direct correlation between the levels of quietness with the level of "work intelligence". In short, the quiet ones are the clever ones, the ones “pandai bekeraja” not the tin kosongs. That’s why they get the recognitions and the promotions. Well I admit this was not scientifically deduced and proven, so take this with “a panyaluru warning advisory”.

If you really want to be respected, valued, admired and promoted, the following rules taken from an international bestseller “The Rules of Work” by Richard Templar, may help:

Walk your talk;
Know that you’re being judged at all times;
Have a plan;
If you can’t say anything nice – shut up;
Look after yourself;
Blend in;
Act one step ahead;
Cultivate diplomacy;
Know the system – and milk it;
Handle the opposition.

As for me, may b I should try to be a bit quieter for a start (as if I can)...

Numero Uno @ Nombor Wahid .....

2009-05-15T23:29:00.004+08:00

Strolling through one of the biggest supermarket in Brunei, mindful not to be a victim of price targeting (something I learnt from a book I read some time ago), so obvious by the very low price of the chicken and some inexplicably higher prices on some other products (to talk about this will be a long winded entry on its own), I met a friend who happens to be well connected to the supermarket.

After all the pleasantries, I asked how business is. To my surprise, despite the whole world yet to recover from the credit crunch, he seemed upbeat about the prospect of the local business scene especially the local products. After given few tips on what products are really cheap and what products are not (surprisingly my friend gave away the business secret here!), we got talking about how he and his connections can contribute to the market growth of the local products.

According to him, Brunei has the products, marketable, "sellable", tasty and in some cases among the best around. But what seemed to be lacking is our ability to transform from a small family business to a bigger “industry” level business. Add to that the lack of lab facility to certify our products are up to the internationally accepted standards (so far we have our own Brunei Halal Brand, which is indeed a very good start). Another obstacle seems to be the seasonal nature of some of the businesses, where they work “ikut mood”, some months they work, some months on holiday, making supply of the products unreliable. (zzzzzzz.... such a long winded description, I myself is yawning typing this down).

After listening to him, and was about to make my move (I was already late... for sure I will get just telor puyu, if I am lucky, for Jumaat prayers), he said proudly, the store imported everything, every single product you can think of, even the ones produced in Brunei, except for one product. Guess what the product is? I laughed when he told me.... jeng jeng jeng... it is BELACAN! Yes belacan ladies and gentlemen! The red brownish shrimp paste (bubuk nya orang Brunei), the subject of the famous dialog in P. Ramlee movie “Bukan kau tak tau kesukaan aku belacan, kenapa kau masak sayur asam tak campur belacan.” Ha ha ha .... yes belacan. The reason? No imported belacan can rival the Brunei made belacan!

Wow! Something we all must be proud off! Our belacan is Numero Uno, Nombor Wahid, top of the chart in the belacan world! To those who love belacan, next time you have our local belacan, be sure to enjoy every bit of it. You are tasting the best, just the like the caviars of the Caspian Sea.

Myself, I am not a big fan of belacan. Not that I don’t like it. In fact when I was small, I used to take belacan with “ampalam” (kalah orang mengidam!). But lately, any products from the shrimp family will cause me to have, what a lot of ladies dream off by having botox, Vitamin C injections etc, the “Angelina Jolie” lips effect. Add to that, the “Rocky Balboa” face (the face after multiple hits!) and the “itchy & scratchy” cartoon acts from the Simpsons. So the choice is take belacan or suffer......

Well.... like it or not, love it or hate it, scratching or not, Brunei made belacan is Numero Uno!

I wish....

2009-05-14T06:00:00.000+08:00

""Walk-in" services to end at RIPAS eye clinic" says the headline on the front page of a local paper.

It went on to say, “The Ministry of Health has informed the public that effective June 1, 2009, the "walk-in" services at the eye clinic in RIPAS Hospital will end and will only provide services to eye patients who have prior appointments.”

Is the economic downturn affecting us so bad? Then again I thought we are not that affected as the articles from the same paper made us to believe. What is happening to our health service? Not enough budget? Are we restructuring in order to focus on the H1N1 (the so called swine flu)? Not enough doctors? Bla bla bla ............. A lot of negatives went round and round my head. That's how shocked I was on reading the headline. I am sure some of you might have similar reaction. ... Well actually I am exaggerating a bit here to make my point.

Only after reading the next part of the news I felt a bit relieved. It went on to say “However, such `walk-in' services will now be provided to the public at eye clinics located at health centres in the morning during office hours.”
Actually, after reading the whole text, to me, the Ministry of Health is improving its services by bringing it nearer to the public and more focus services at RIPAS. All good things which the public should be happy about.

But what is annoying, at least to me (I do hope, really really hope no others see it my way), the whole press release text lost its message by starting with a negative. Why in the world you want to start with informing the public a service will end? Why don’t you start on informing the public on the improvement of services? When will we realise our job is not just to inform the public, but also to "promote" or market the Government agencies.

Look at the way the private sector promote their services (taken from BIBD Wish Campaign):
“Be it a house to share your love, a vacation with your loved ones or simply a new computer, no wishes are ever too big or small. Each wish is personal and special to you, and to us, and we’re here to help you realise them no matter what they may be. Receive a Wish Voucher with one Wish Code for every BND500 deposited in your CASA account.”

See the difference? The emphasis is on the positives. Reading it make you think you can get all you wish taking the focus away from the fact that you have to part with your hard earned BND500.

Is it down to the mentality? Is it down to training? Is it down to the fact in the private sector, it all boils down to dollars and cents while not so true in the Government service? I can only wish (without parting with even 50 cents let alone BND500), how I wish we put more emphasis to the positives than the negatives. Market, promote not just inform.

I wish .......

take a break....

2009-05-13T22:11:00.003+08:00

Once in a while people get bored at work. They need to do other things, take a break, to rejuvenate, to refresh. The following lot should get the "Most Creative Break at Work" award for these masterpieces:

think safety, work safely.....

2009-05-11T23:38:00.006+08:00

The first time I laid my eyes on this picture I laughed like hell as I am sure some of you will do. I still can’t stop giggling.

But on second thought and second look, it is indeed a very very good safety advice. Imagine without the notice, people will fall into the lift shaft. The guy who put the notice there does'nt just have a very good sense of humour (I am sure he does to be able to compose such an excellent piece), he has a very good civic sense. Humour makes a potentially alarming situation in to a less stressful experience. Knowing the lift is unreliable (to deduce this he must also be an excellent maintenance engineer) he put up this notice. Any mishaps will cause the owner of the building a big compensation case. (To have such assessment, he must also be a risk assessor).

So, the next time you see a safety sign or a safety advisory; please do not take it lightly. It’s put there for your own good by well meaning people. The act of putting the sign there takes a lot of effort, expertise and professionalism. Authorship, engineering, risk assessor, psychology, humour and many more.

Think safety, work safely....

latest model....

2009-05-11T17:24:00.002+08:00

Latest Nokia phone anyone? Serves multiple purpose. Easy to carry around. Just slip it on. When it rings just lift your leg to answer the call..........