During the Investiture Ceremony in conjunction of the 62nd birthday of His Majesty the Sultan dan Yang Di Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam, His Majesty the Sultan, in his titah, asked why Brunei had not been able to increase its self-sufficiency in its rice production. The 2007 statistic revealed that Brunei was only able to produce a mere 3% of its total rice consumption and the rest were imported. He mentioned that he had brought up this matter repeatedly in previous years, but it looked as if it fell on deaf ears.
During the Israk Mekraj celebration, His Majesty in his titah touched on the issue of self-sufficiency again. He even said that he would not stop stressing the need to increase Brunei’s self-sufficiency, especially on rice production.
There was this well-written article on the feasibility of making Brunei self-sufficient on its food needs. The author may be right to argue that in the short run, the efforts to make Brunei self-sufficient would be a good interim solution, but it may not be so in the long run.
At work today, we talked about the local rice production. One of us was apparently told by his uncle that the Ban area in Mulaut was initially supposed to be used as a rice plantation area. Perhaps he was right. ‘Ban’ was not really a Malay word and it was perhaps a derivation from the English word ‘bund’ which meant an enclosure or a wall. As you may have figured out, the roads around the Ban area are labelled Ban 1, Ban 2 and so on. The roads might have been the walls of each rice planting plot. If you look carefully, the roads are actually raised from the ground level. As with any rice plantation area, it would have to be well irrigated. Water is essential as it provides a favorable environment for the rice strains being grown as well as discouraging the growth of many species of weeds (from Wikipedia). When the area was first developed, it was perhaps designed to be on a lower lying area and that was probably the reason why the area, which is now becoming a residential area, is always flooded whenever it rains. Perhaps over the years, people start to use the area as a residential area and houses were built. And during this period, the authority might have turned a blind eye and let houses to be built in an area designed for paddy plantation.
So can anyone actually check if this is correct?
The picture below is the satellite image of the Ban area in Mulaut. You could see the roads in the Ban area and the roads actually formed the borders of individual rectangles which were probably planned for the individual paddy fields.
Not long ago, there was this big talking point about the behaviour of a large group of Bruneians when free food were served when His Majesty the Sultan dan Di Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam met his subjects on the occasion of His Majesty’s 62nd birthday. Many things have been said and even a video was made available on Youtube.
This morning, a more serious and tragic incident happened. There was one thing in common: free stuff. Apparently, some tickets were being distributed in a building in BSB for the Israk Mekraj gathering with Her Majesty the Raja Isteri and His Royal Highness the Pengiran Isteri at the Palace. In the ensuing chaos, a stampede happened, where reportedly some people, said to be elderly women, had died. A score of people had been admitted to the hospital, some seriously injured.
What have become to our people, the people who are well-known for their gracefulness and courtesy? Have we turned into a society that loses all manners of patience and civilisation for the sake of free items?
Following these two incidents, I hope the relevant authorities do something whenever something free is given out. I hope no more lives are lost.
Another day on the badminton court and I got another injury.
We had a friendly badminton match against a team of teachers from one of the schools in KB. During the last game of the match, I partnered my now-usual double partner, when I picked up a drop shot that one of the opponents had returned. My return was a bit too high and the player on the other side of the net hit my return with a smash. It happened so fast that I did not have time to cover my face with my racket or turn away as what I’d normally do nowadays since I seem to attract injuries. The shuttlecock must have been travelling with a speed and it hit me right above my left eye. I saw a white flash as I got hit and got blinded for a while. My left eye became red and the area where I was hit was starting to get swollen. I’d have continued playing but we trailed so far behind in that third set that it would be no much use to continue.
Fortunately, my face is not swollen; I got a cold softdrink can last night and applied it to the bit where I got hit and it seemed to have helped reduce the swelling. However, I felt like a vampire; I could not really get out in the sun as it would hurt my eye a bit.
Perhaps now I should consider wearing some eye protection while playing badminton. This was the fifth time that I got hit on my face by a flying shuttlecock.
Perhaps something like what Edgar Davids wore on the football pitch?
Or a pair of swimming google?
Or a pair of safety glasses?
Or perhaps my own prescription glasses?
Having said that, I would need something that I could fix securely as I move a lot while playing badminton and I would not want my eye protection to fly off in the middle of a rally.
Just last week, two Brunei-registered cars were involved in a horrific road accident in Limbang, where five people perished in the accident.
Over the following few days, a video, which had been taken by a passer-by just minutes after the accident, was in circulation here. It was reported that the video was even posted up onto YouTube. In the video, one could clearly see the victims being pulled out from the wreckage and two of them were still in the heavily-damaged car. At one point, one could see camera being pointed towards the victims as they laid motionless on the ground and in the car.
It is one thing that people drive slowly whenever an accident occurs, but it is another when they stop and take videos and pictures of the accident, and then distribute the videos and pictures to the general public. Have we turned into a society of heartless voyeurs? Have we turned into a society of sadists? Are we a society of freaks, who get high from other people’s misfortune? Please spare a moment and a thought towards the victims and their families. Let them grieve privately and peacefully, without having to know that a video of their loved ones during their final hours of being alive is in circulation.
I urge whoever has this video in their inbox to stop circulating it and delete it.
Please take a moment to remember the deceased and hope that they all rest in peace. Al-Fatihah.
I just got a set of birthday presents from some friends from work.
These items are going to be useful in my upcoming trip……
Many thanks to Kicks (of Sarawak), Kakarrot (of Japan), Prez (of the Philippines), Jester (of Manchester), Wonder Woman (of Seoul) and Noor (of Sydney).
Firstly, we welcome a new addition to the family; my seventh nephew (or the 20th ‘anak buah’). He was finally born after keeping his mum in labour for more than 24 hours! As with the other anak buah, he has got our facial features. Close friends would know what I am talking about! Congrats to the Double F couple on the birth of your first child; hope this is the first of many!
Then Dad got admitted into the hospital. He had been complaining of back pain, which grew worse as the week wore on. After Friday prayer and lunch, he tried to get up from the chair, but he could not move. He was complaining of the pain being sharper than ever. I was at work and left work immediately. We then took the decision to take him to the hospital. He was x-rayed and observed under ultrasound, but all the tests were negative. He was discharged yesterday, but last night complained of the same pain and could not move much. We decided not to take him to hospital yet, but would try alternative medicine, such as chinese medicine.
My sister was admitted since Tuesday and only gave birth on Thursday. She is still at the hospital as she needed some blood transfusion as her blood haemoglobin was low. I volunteered to donate some blood yesterday to replenish the blood bank as my sister would have taken the whole content of the blood bank. That was the first time that I donated blood, so it was perhaps the start of my life-saving initiative, after failing to become a doctor! I also found out that my blood type was O-positive, so basically I could donate blood to anyone.
And by the way, it was not an iPhone, it was an iPod Touch. But still a nice toy to have!
Today is the 62nd birthday of His Majesty the Sultan and Dipertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam and it is a public holiday here in Brunei.
It must have been quite a weird past few days for those people working for the Government. Since Friday, they had an alternating off and on workday pattern. Weekends for the government staff consist of Friday and Sunday, so they have had this: Friday – off, Saturday – work, Sunday – off, Monday – work and Tuesday – off. Then they would work again on Wednesday and Thursday before their weekend starts again. It is not too bad for us, who are working in the private sector, we had our normal Saturday-Sunday weekend and the normal working days, punctuated with this public holiday.
During this public holiday, no one, including foreign workers who form a large proportion of contract workers in Brunei, is allowed to work. As a result, the town is full of them (no, I am not being xenophobic!). See this post in Shimworld as a proof.
Bulgemeister 