Songkok...

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 ......

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 .....

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....

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....

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 ....

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....

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...

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......

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 .....

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Parched Earth: more intense heatwaves in the past 50 years. El Nino weather pattern associated with droughts appearing in shorter intervals.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Spread of Diseases: diseases and their carriers are travelling to new pastures because of warmer temperatures.
10. 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 .....

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 ...

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....

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 .....

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....

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.....

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 ....

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.....

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.....

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...

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.