Good Brunei Blogsites

I bought a few books when I was in Singapore. One was Harvard Professor Jeffrey Sachs's Commonwealth, rather a heavy read about world economics. The next two were law related, John Grisham's The Appeal which taught me a lot on the politics of the American States' Supreme Courts and the other which I completed last night after a marathon 5 hour was Lord Jeffrey Archer's A Prisoner of Birth. Lord

Still Overly Dependent on Oil and Gas

My foreign affairs colleagues on the trade side had been having a tpr (trade policy review) with the WTO sometime end of February. Both IMF and WTO hold some kind of, if I can use the word, annual interrogations, IMF calls it Article IV Consultations and WTO calls it Trade Policy Review. Of course, it has its usefulness and being a citizen of the world that needs to trade and may one day need

Graveyard in the City Centre

Last year around this time, I was in Bandar trying to get a much better photograph of Raja Ayang's grave - you know the one in front of the General Post Office, next to TAIB's carpark. I was rewriting an earlier blog which I did in November entitled Grave in the Middle of the City which I rewrote as my second or third article to be published in my column Golden Legacy in Brunei Times. I rewrote

The Old Police Station

Bandar Seri Begawan's buildings have more or less remained intact from the 1950s. Most of the major changes have been at the commercial areas along Jalan Sultan where the two storey shophouses are on their way out. However government buildings tended to last longer with the exception of this one building.This building stood the test of time until about 1983. That was the year that to increase the

Seria in the 1950s

This is Seria Town in the early days. I can make out the Marina Cinema but I am sure Serians can more than just identify Marina but also which of the buildings no longer exist.

The Anniversaries in 2008

I was having a chat yesterday regarding the program for this year's commemorative stamps. I understand it has not been finalised yet but in the works are stamps to commemorate the 100 years of moving BSB to dry land (this process was in 1906, so the stamps will be about 2 years over the 100 years), to commemorate 100 years of health, 40 years of His Majesty's Coronation and 50 years of the SOAS

The Origin of 'Ringgit'

Someone asked on the shoutbox when did we use Ringgit as a word? I got this information quite sometime ago and always wondered when do I have the chance to show it. Well, someone asked and finally here is the answer that I have kept all this while:-Ringgit - The word ringgit denotes a unit of Malaysian (or Brunei) currency made up one hundred sens which displaced the respective English words