A tribute, a celebration ….

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 …..

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 .....

P.S. Need I say more? ;)

Rankings....

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…..

 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 .....

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 ......

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…

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.....

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...

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.”