The Islamic Swimsuit

Hei, what do you know? An Islamic swimsuit. This is designed by a Turkish and was described by Western media as a throwback to the type of swimwear before the advent of the one piece of swimwear where a swimmer was actually arrested in 1907 for showing her arms, legs and neck. This Islamic swimsuit looks more like body hugging very colourful tracksuits. More than 40,000 swimsuits were sold last

More Questions Confusing Mankind

How come wrong numbers are never busy?Do people in Australia call the rest of the world "up over"?Does that screwdriver belong to Phillip?Can a stupid person be a smart-ass?Does killing time damage eternity?Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?Why is it called lipstick if you can still move your lips?Why is it that night falls but day breaks?Why is the third hand on the watch called a second hand?Why

Scrabble in Brunei

One of the board games that we play at home is Scrabble. My six year old loved it, though he is more interested in keeping scores (we let him as it helps with his additions) and we play his tiles for him. To keep him happy keeping scores we let him win most of the time. According to my dad, he and my mom used to play it almost every evening when we were tiny little kids. In those days, remember,

English is a stupid language?

I was looking at the entry to HND requirements and it stated that you must have 1 A Level in an English related subject and 4 O Levels. I don't know about you but I have met a number of people whose A level is in a non-English or non-related subject thereby closing to them the opportunity to study either a ITB or even at the local private institutions in Brunei. Twenty years ago, these people

Are Brunei drivers incourteous?

I wrote yesterday's piece about a hypothetical Brunei driver who did not want to stop at junctions because he is convinced that statistically more accidents happen at junctions and the less time he spends there, the less likely that he will have an accident. Of course by zooming straight without waiting for the lights will likely cause him to have an accident. I didn't realise that most

Why Brunei Can't....

Someone said to me that this blogsite is getting too serious and that he can't smile anymore when he is reading the articles. I have to agree. I think the topics lately have been a little too heavy for some. But today, I thought we will have some light hearted moments laughing at ourselves. If you don't understand no.3, just stick to no.1 and no.2.1. Why Bruneians can't stop at junctions.There

Our New Solar System

I wrote the following piece and posted it on February 10th on my predecessor blogsite, spaces.msn.com (now renamed spaces.live.com) about the hooha about what constitutes a planet and at the bottom of the piece today, I included the updates from the recently concluded IAU (International Astronomical Union) meeting in Prague held last Thursday about our 'new' solar system:-Are we about to lose a

Single parent or triple parent?

I stood in for my PS yesterday as he couldn't make it to be the guest of honour at one mosque's forum on a better family life (keluarga bahagia dan diberkati). The forum itself is run of the mill with the panelists advising the audience that couples should as usual be nice to each other, respect each other etc kind of thing. But during the Q&A sessions, out of the many, two questions stood

The Muslim Calendar

For an Islamic country, surprisingly most Bruneians will have difficulty if we are asked what is the Islamic date today. I am proud to say that I can tell you what it is but then I have to confess, I check the calendar every morning so that I can put the correct dates on all the letters and memos that come my way for signature. A couple of months back I wrote two pieces on the origin of days'

Kampung Cowboy by Haryati

Rain, rain go away Come back another again,Little bebe wants to playRewind twenty years ago, when the air was less polluted & all the cars were labut by today’s standards, you might catch me singing this tune when I was stuck indoors. I was an active child running around outside my house without a care in the world except takut nampak spended! My siblings, cousins and me would play outside

What images do we want to potray?

These comments were found on virtualtourist.com about Brunei. What a big difference in 3 years:In August 2002 - Xinta wrote: Brunei's multi-million dollar playland complex with its free rides, sights and sounds. Early birds are attracted to the free rides, bathed in light and colour, which offer seats from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Popular with the elders is the ageless carousel. They mix with the

Mushaf Nurul Iman - the Giant Brunei Quran

During the Thanksgiving Ceremony for His Majesty's Birthday last Thursday, His Majesty was presented with an extremely huge Quran weighing 225 kilograms (about 495 pounds for the metric-challenged readers). It took 6 men to carry the Quran into the Plenary Hall where the function was held and another 3 to put the Quran into the huge rihal (for keeping the Quran in place while reading it). I

Making Brunei Competitive

An anonymous post on my entry Turning Brunei into a Nation of New Ideas noted that "... The Straits Times today (Sat 19 Aug) reported on the recent IPS-NTU report ranking economies on competitiveness. Out of 15 Asian economies, Brunei is in 14th place..."Competitiveness is a word much bandied about in Brunei nowadays. That anonymous entry certainly thinks that competitiveness is something we

The Stone Age in Brunei

How long has Brunei been populated? By all reckonings Brunei's history goes as far back in time as we know it - even being mentioned in Chinese annals as far back as the 6th century. It wasn't until the 14th century when Awang Alak Betatar married a Johor Princess and became Sultan Muhammad Shah was our current sultanage lineage started and hence began the modern history of Brunei. We haven't

Turning Brunei into a Nation of New Ideas

"How can we turn Brunei into a nation of new ideas?" Dr. Saad Al-Harran, a UBD lecturer asked yesterday in the Borneo Bulletin and he continued "... As a newcomer to Brunei, I have observed that there are too many restaurants and catering services in practically every corner of the capital. Undoubtedly, restaurants provide us with delicious food to eat and enjoy, while at the same time it enables

The History of Brunei Oil

Last Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book on display at Solitude at the Mall. I remembered this book vaguely some 30 years ago when my father bought it from the publisher, Brunei Museums. I could not find the book at my parents' house anymore, someone either pinched it or we could not find it among the many things being stored at my parents' house. Sometime last week, I saw it

$42,900 GDP per capita - are Bruneians now richer?

The Economic Planning and Development Department (JPKE) finally announced last Monday the much awaited ‘new’ GDP for Brunei. The last issue of the Brunei Economic Bulletin published by JPKE was for the 2nd quarter of 2005 which was released in December last year (all the Bulletins are available on aseantourguide website. I was told then that's why the 3rd and 4th quarters as well as the 2006

The Gender Wars in Brunei (Revisited)

One Aaron Johns just recently commented on the The Gender Wars in Brunei entry which I posted a couple of weeks back. I thought his comment was very eloquent and gives a different perspective to the overall argument about the gender differences between men and women. Rather than leaving it in the comments box, I thought I will take it out and post it out here so that everyone can read this. Aaron

What is there in Tutong?

Just under 50 years ago, there was no connecting road between Tutong and Seria. Seria in the early 1950s was just over 20 years old, it was a completely made up town and existed only to serve the fledgling oil industry which was found in 1929. Brunei in the early 1950s was also struggling to recover soon after the Japanese invasion and was just taking over its administration from the Australian

I give up this Sunday

You can't take bottled water, you can't take your phone, you can't take your medications, sheesh... why the heck not. Ban everything. Not even your clothing. Think of how much savings airports will make. No more security guards and no more worries about anyone planting anything on any airplanes. The Ultimate Airline Security.I give up. The world has gotten far too crazy for me. I can't get off it

What's the weather like in Brunei?

Brunei's weather forecast for yesterday was occasional crossing of squally showers persist further offshore this morning and may spread to coastal and inland areas in early afternoon. Nevertheless, fair intervals and slightly hazy can be expected in between. For outlook to early Saturday morning, expected to remain unsettled with crossing of squally showers. The wind will be Southwesterly 10-30

The Golden Jubilee of Teacher Training in Brunei

Together with about a thousand guests at the Chancellor's Hall at UBD, we watched His Majesty signed the plaque to commemorate 50 years of teacher training in Brunei. The noble institution which started as Brunei Teacher Training Centre and today, as the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education has trained so many of our teachers and with them the future of Brunei Darussalam. I have said

What happened to the Brunei Shipwreck?

If you remember, one of the most interesting discovery in recent times in Brunei was the Chinese junk wreck which sank some 40 kilometers off the shores of Brunei. This 1997 discovery of what is now known as the Brunei Shipwreck is probably one of the most important in Brunei's archaeological history. Some 13,000 artefacts recovered originated from Thailand, Vietnam and China showed just how

Brunei Darussalam Annual Report 2004

Since the early 1900s, the Brunei Government produced the Brunei Darussalam Annual Report. The report highlights the achievements of the country as well as the various happenings in Brunei during that one year. It functions as a diary of sorts as well as to provide statistics of that year. I did an entry once for the 1961-62 report when it outlined the developments before and after the

Telaga Raden Bisa - the well that heals

Continuing on my series on the interesting aspects of the places in Brunei - today I will focus on Kampung Tanjung Nangka. And for those who are Brunei-geography challenged, Kampung Tanjung Nangka is just a couple of miles further up from the Jalan Tutong junction to Jerudong which makes it around 19 kilometers from Bandar.As usual, the kampungs in Brunei either have a few names for it in the

The 15th Anniversary of the World Wide Web

Today, I will not talk about Brunei but rather I would like to post this very short piece to celebrate something which enabled all of you to be here to read this article. Something for you all to ponder.You see, yesterday, the 6th of August was the 15th Anniversary of the world wide web - the ubiquitous www.something.com finally became a part of our lives. On this day 15 years ago on 6th August

The Future of Brunei

An anonymous comment on my post yesterday on The Brunei Housemaids went like this:"... As a senior government officer, Do you think, if ever in the future, that the situation will be the other way around? i.e. bruneian going abroad to work as labours and maids ..."I will not anwer that directly but I will delve slightly further into two other comments which were posted on my post on Thankful to

The Brunei Housemaids

I am still at home. I should be in the office but I am bent almost in half everytime I try to stand up. I must have a trillion invaders in my tummy giving me the mother of all tummy aches since 3 this morning. But I am unbowed and will attempt to write today's blogs. How's that for sacrifice to fulfilling a daily blog? I must be off my head...Through the miracles of modern technology namely the

Brunei Underwater World

My sister in into scuba diving. She is taking lessons and I remembered when I last stayed at the Empire, the company running the scuba diving lessons gave free vouchers. I think we threw our vouchers away but I did see a number of other people who took advantage of it. Anyway, I started wondering what is it in Brunei Waters that's available for people to see. Boy, was I in for a

srmat bureni poelpe

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a

The Gender Wars in Brunei

In one of the official dinners with a mission from IDB of Jeddah helping to develop the human capacity on the financial services sector, we talked about the gender differences in Brunei.The mission was surprised to find that despite the Brunei population which has a slightly more male population and even from birth rates, slightly more male births - the male numerical dominance is not seen in the