The Daily Brunei Resources

My mother had an unfortunate fall down a couple of steps the other night. It was a bad fall and her head bled profusely and that she also had bumps on her face. We rushed her to the Accident & Emergency at RIPAS. At first I was thinking whether we really should go to RIPAS as my previous experience with the A&E Unit is that you might be better off anywhere else but there. My last experience was taking my son there about four years ago when he fell off from a stool and hit his head on the floor. When we arrived at the A&E at about 9 pm, it was like visiting a market of some sorts. People were all over the place and you didn't feel as if you are in an A&E, more like being in a general outpatient department where nobody has an appointment. It was that chaotic. However when we took my mother there, the place I have to admit has transformed dramatically since the last time I went there. The place is better organised, the waiting area has increased and in a much better co...

I received an invitation from my bank asking me whether I want to skip October's loan repayment. I wasn't sure what the promotion was, maybe Hari Raya. Though they get to charge a bit more interest for extending the loan for an extra month and probably some other administrative charges as well. They did indicate some form of charges will be required but they did not say what the rates are going to be. I mentioned that to someone yesterday and apparently our local banks are also doing it. One that I heard was that you can skip this month's repayment and they will recoup it from your bonus pay. I think this probably works only for government officers. All these are presumably again because of the expectation of high expenses of the coming Hari Raya celebrations. Even JPKE is also using this opportunity to launch Brunei's Grand Sales throughout the whole month. That seemed to be an interesting phenomenon. Why suddenly spend during Hari Raya? We got caught up in it as well....

I received an email from a Bruneian studying at Robert Gordon University yesterday asking me to write something about the library. In fact, this is not the first time I have received requests about writing about the library system in Brunei either through the email or through the comment box. My problem is that the last library I went into was during the four months executive program stint at the UBD and that was amost two years ago. Before that, I think the last library I went into was when I did my Masters and I don't exactly want to count the number of years in that one. What's more worrying is that the last time I actually went into the Brunei national library I think is almost 4 decades ago! So my knowledge about our national libraries is almost nil. But then other than students, I think almost everyone is in the same boat as me. We talked about libraries and the need for knowledge but hardly any people I knew has actually been into Dewan Bahasa. The question would be why ...

When you are driving to work and you noticed that the traffic slowing down, much much slower than usual, you automatically assumed a few things. One is that there is a police road block up ahead or or there is some major roadworks up ahead or there is an accident up ahead. If it's the police or roadworks, usually you would start to do a little curse something along the line, couldn't they they have waited until rush hour is over? If it is an accident, you curse all the other drivers for slowing down and yet without fail you yourself have slowed down when passing by the accident. Why is that? Why do drivers slow down when passing by an accident? Everyone realises the impact to the rest of the traffic behind us. What are they looking for? Apparently this is not just Brunei. It happens to every accident in the world. I have my own theory but so do others. To me usually it is just curiousity. I am never the first to see the accident as by the time I come across it, a whole line of ...

A couple of months back, one of my friends messaged me and asked me to write about the radio stations in Brunei especially after Kristal Radio pulled off the London Capital FM and Capital Gold stations off the air. I told him I am not so sure whether I can do that as I don't listen that much to the radio since they pulled off those two radio stations either and since I no longer drive my car to work, it has been very quiet. I used to blast the radio with my collection of 80s rock and heavy metal sounds. Nowadays, it's a dignified silence. However since the sms, I did make an effort to listen to all the stations that are available in Brunei just to fulfill that request. If you are curious, there are seven radio stations in Brunei - RTB currently has five stations - Nasional 92.3 fm, Pilihan 95.9 fm, Pelangi 91.4 fm, Harmoni 94.1 fm and Nur-Islam 93.3 fm and Kristal Radio has the Kristal FM. In addition, the British Garrison also has its own network of BFBS radio 1 available in B...

I found this interview conducted by Devin Galaudet in the In The Know Traveller website . I thought I will retrieve it and let you all read how the Brunei tourism is sold outside Brunei and maybe invite a few comments from readers, if you were to be asked to be the Brunei spokesmen as to what you would actually say:- I must admit I had more than a few misconceptions about Brunei Darussalam before my recent trip to this year’s ASEAN Tourism Forum held in Davao City, Philippines. I am not alone. While it is frequently connected with the Middle-East, it is not the Middle-East. Brunei is much closer to Malaysia. After all, it is surrounded by Malaysia on the northern coast of Borneo. I caught up with the head of Brunei Tourism and CEO, Sheikh Jamaluddin bin Sheikh Mohammed during the intermission of the Hinugyaw Cultural Dance Troupe performance – they were amazing! Although, I was initially intimidated by the Sheikh’s powerful name, however I found a pleasant and relaxed man – another mis...

On this Sunday, I thought I will talk about history books of Brunei. Someone mentioned the Hussainmiya book on my post on the History Centre's publication Jurnal Darussalam . Hussainmiya wrote three books so far, one is a semi-autobiography of our 28th Sultan, Sultan Haji Omarali Saifuddin published in 1995 entitled " Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III and Britain: The Making of Brunei Darussalam ", the second entitled " The Brunei Constitution: An Inside History " published in 2000 and the very recent one entitled " Brunei: A Revival of 1906 " on the issue of the 1906 Agreement between Brunei and the British. For those who do not have prior or little knowledge of Brunei history, the books are well written and will give you all you need to know about what happened since 1906. However I would term the books more on the line of what is termed by Graham Sauders, now a Professor at Hull University but used to be a History teacher in Brunei, 'the official Br...