Early Brunei International Airport

Many have forgotten when Brunei International Airport was first completed, it did not have today's aerobridges which allow passengers to walk in directly to the planes. In the early days, even when the International Airport was completed, passengers still walk down to the tarmac through the two walkways and then up the stairs to the aeroplanes.I thought Brunei was quite behind in this aerobridge

Introducing ... mortgage-backed securities! No, really

Someone please pass a word of advice to Danareksa Investment Management.

The finance firm is launching 100 billion rupiah worth of ... wait for it ... mortgage-backed securities. It's the first such debt issuance in the country, and it's coming in February, backed by Bank Tabugan Negara.

Um, I don't know how to tell you this, guys, but ... mortgage-backed securities are exactly what got us into this global financial mess. The credit crunch, the asset devaluation, the bank blowups every couple of days? Mortgage-backed securities, where home loans are sliced and diced into risky tranches that PhD-level physicists can't understand.

I hope you know what you're doing, because you're stepping into a true financial minefield. If housing prices collapse in Indonesia, and owners all find themselves underwater (owing more than the house is worth), then those mortgage-backed securities won't be worth the paper they're written on. In fact, those fancy products on the verge of making the American financial system totally insolvent.

But, as the French say, bonne chance!


Today's Top Stories

Myanmar refugees headed home
193 boat people were stranded off Sumatra

In it to win it
Indonesia's shock candidacy to host World Cup

No eye contact, please
Luxurious life of a Sultan

Obama protest?!
Local Muslims don't like Pakistan strike

Yoga ban!

I mean, come on.

I have no particular beef with the Ulema Council that recently banned yoga for Indonesian Muslims. But don't they have better things to do, than touring the country's gym classes and coming out against Hindu chanting?

Our global financial system is near total breakdown, some governments (i.e. Iceland) are actually falling, the Mideast is blowing up yet again, conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq continue apace, global warming is threatening the entire planet ... and our most pressing issue is yoga?

Priorities, people. If the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has taught us anything, it's to figure out what's important and what's not. This is not important. Our world has many threats facing it; but a college kid in Birkenstocks, chanting 'Om' while doing the downward dog, is most certainly not one of them.


Today's Top Stories

Riau Airlines debuts
From Pekanbaru to, uh, Pekanbaru

Meth with your coffee?
3.5 tons seized in Internet kiosk

Megawati mulling VP
Sultan, Akbar Tandjung, Sutiyoso among possibles

Letter pushed Suharto out?
Top ministers withdrew support en masse

CIDA in Indonesia

It's a sad truism that one of the main casualties of a global recession is going to be philanthropy.

Some notable exceptions, to be sure - like the Gates Foundation, which plans to give more this year than ever before, and New York City mayor-slash-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who's ramped up his giving to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

When it comes to cash-strapped nations, though, I imagine foreign aid and charitable giving is going to be hurting for several years. When you're having trouble paying your own bills and covering your own mortgage, whether you're a country or an individual, you're less likely to have ready money to send elsewhere.

In that challenging context, some organizations deserve real credit for their massive and ongoing efforts in Indonesia. In particular the Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA. Check out their lengthy list of Indonesian projects here. Overseas projects like those may not get a lot of credit back home ... but they're the right thing to do.

Today's Top Stories

No smoking in public places? Ha

Don't mess with my Gudang Garam

Sumatran quake hits

Magnitude of 5.6, flashbacks to 2004

Indonesia to host World Cup?

Submits bid to FIFA for 2018 or 2022

Buy our bonds - please

$4-billion government issue coming up

The Brunei Flood

I have not been able to keep up with Cuboiart, Brunei's finest cartoonist. Over the last week, I think I remembered glancing through Borneo Bulletin and finding his cartoons but I have not had time to appreciate them. The one he did for the zakat queue was hillarious but he focused more on the floods. Understandable. This cartoon was last week's and I remembered he had another one recently.On to

Apa kabar, Obama?

Need proof that Barack Obama still has a place in his heart for the place where he spent a couple of years growing up? He's actually chatting up State Department staffers in Bahasa Indonesia.

News of the exchange comes in the Jakarta Post, reporting that Charles Silver - a former staffer at Jakarta's U.S. Embassy - greeted him with a 'Selamat siang, Bapak.' Obama swiftly came back with a 'Terima kasih, apa kabar?' He praised Silver's accent, and said he wanted to visit his old neighborhood in Menteng.

We're betting that beyond the usual pleasantries, his Bahasa is probably a little rusty. (Maybe he can take those free classes given by the Indonesian embassy in D.C.!) Given his previously-stated desire for nasi goreng, rambutan and bakso, we're taking bets that Obama will be headed to southeast Asia in short order. Odds, anyone?


Today's Top Stories

Obama to Muslim world: It's a new era
Hand of friendship instead of clenched fist

Golkar expelling Sultan?
Divine VP wannabe in trouble with party

Kalla planning US trip
SBY's deputy to meet Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton

Global warming could wipe out Jakarta
Potential flooding, massive population a bad recipe

World Customs Day

Yesterday was World Customs Day. I was watching my PMO colleague launched the World Customs Day on television last night. This event surprisingly will hold a special place in my memories. Exactly a year ago, I was appointed to my current post and the first thing I had to do was inspect the Customs Officers parade and launched the 2008 Customs Day.What is Customs Day? It is the day when Customs