Red and White

Saw these red and white bicycles all over the city. The bicycle scheme started with only a few bikes. But it became so popular that the city council now provided 3000 bikes to the users.

The scheme is quite simple. Basically you pay an annual subscription of 24 Euros. This gives you a key to use any of the bikes that are park all around the city for you to cycle to another location. The first 30 minutes are free and if you need the bike longer you pay 30 cents for each half an hour. The maximum time you can keep a bike is 2 hours. The are now 3000 bicycles located at over 200 stations, connecting other public transport stations such as metro, train, buses and major car parks. Is this something for back home?

A Crash Course of History

This is probably the most famous landmark in the city, a massive church that has never finished. The construction has still not finished even after it started 120 years ago by Gaudi. In fact the cathedral, known as 'Sagrada Familia' or 'Temple of the Holy Family' is only expected to be completed in the year 2026. The reason is because the money raised to help the construction comes from public donation. Secondly, when the idea was conceived by Gaudi, the means and tools to realise the dream was not even there, such as the construction machinery like high cranes and required sturdy building materials. Gaudi worked on the project for over 40 years before he died. Over 2 million people visited the church every year. Why 2026? It's the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death!

Our guide, Armando, is quite an attentive guy. However he always ended up his discussion with me rather than the kids.

The kids preferred this arrangement! Although they claimed he is not the best guide we ever had, at least he is not like all the previous guides when we were in on our holiday such as Egypt or Jordan where they tended to specifically focus the briefing to the kids. It's probably because the Spanish history is a bit heavy and complicated especially as it is not something that is taught widely in school.

With Armando, we talked about the long history of Catalonia, the land of the Catalans from the 80 years rule by Muslims, to the rule by King Aragon, the civil wars, and later in general the modernisation of the city of Barcelona which resulted in the amazing transformation of the city to what it is now - a truly livable city.

Historically the Iberian Peninsular was under Muslim rule during the early days of the Arabs and Berbers invasion. Then it was back to Christians during the reconquest which later saw the fall of Granada and Cordoba. Catalonia emerged from the conflicts as a regional power. The marriage of Crown prince of Aragon (Ferdinand) and Queen Isabella of Castille which merge two kingdoms tied Catalonia to the new Spanish kingdom.

Then much later was the invasion by the French forces of Napolean. Then a republic was formed before General Franco the famous Spanish nationalist reunited the whole of Spain through civil war. Though this was with a little help from his friend from German i.e. Hilter, who sent squadrons of bombers before WW2 to flatten out a number of towns in Catalonia and Basque. That was the short brief on the history that I could remember from the tour guide.

Back to the present day, amongst those things that really changed the city was the 1888 World Expo and the more recent 1996 Olympics. In fact there are so many beautiful buildings and parks all around the city that would probably require weeks to really explore and visit.

The Olympic hills next to the city is already on its own a large complex to visit. Mix with the old forts, the buildings from the World Expo and the various Olympic sites, one could see the full view of the city and the harbour from above these hilly locations.

Bizarre Buildings

The city was made famous by Gaudi, the eccentric architect. So the theme of our city tour was mostly around the constructions made around the city by Gaudi.

Known at Gothic architecture, one could see some of the world's most interesting and bizarre buildings here. First stops were Casa Mila and Casa Batllo along the street of Passeig de Gracia. These buildings are famous for their outlandish exterior design which reflects animal shapes, artistry, fantasies and own interpretations.

There are always long queues of people wanting to enter the buildings which we were told the insides are also quite interesting to see. Antonio Gaudi lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a Catalan, with ideas far beyond his time. His works are either loved or loathed by people. Definitely for architecture students, Barcelona is worth a visit to see something different.

Later we went to Parc Guell, another of Gaudi's design. This is a large garden park which is now declared as human heritage site by UNESCO.

At Nou Camp

Just came back with Faris to watch Barcelona playing at the club's stadium, famously known as the Nou Camp. It is the largest stadium in Europe with a capacity of 96,000. Anybody who happened to be in the city would not miss the chance to watch a Barca game. On the way we met many people (many are fathers and sons!) who obviously have never been there. Together we all managed to work out how to use the metro, find the direction and so on.

Today, unlike last Wednesday when a full house watched Barcelona played against Bayern Munich, there were only 56,000 people watching. Still a high number but because of the stadium's large capacity, there were lots of empty seats visible.

We managed to get our tickets from the Internet, a bit more expensive than their 40 Euro face value. Our seats are right at top of the stadium, quite an awesome sight to see the whole stadium.

The stadium is a lot steeper compare to the traditional football stadium, initially was quite a frightening experience, especially as we have to climb all the way up. In most cases, standard football stadia could probably have a capacity limit of between 60 to 80 thousands. But with the steeper slope, Nou Camp managed to squeeze in up to 96,000 seats. Novertheless the view of the pitch is still good and in a way better compared to when watching in other stadiums.

We arrived an hour before kick-off. The stadium was still empty then. Dutring the game, saw a couple of goals, the first one was in the first minute! Later there were a couple of goals disallowed, lots of good plays and chances and a Messi's penalty saved. Overall an exciting game and experience. The big names were playing - Messi, Henry and so on.

We left 10 minutes before the game finished to make a head start before the crowd start descending to the metro line. The scoreline by then was 2-0.

Visitamos Barcelona

We are spending the weekend in Barcelona. It was an early rise this morning. By 4.40 am we were already on our way to leave the car at the airport's long-parking area. The flight was just before 7 am. Finding an empty slot at the parking area was quite difficult. Literally there were tens of thousand of cars, left by people who are on holiday.

On GPS, it says it would take 14 hours to drive to Barcelona which is about 1200 km away. A friend of us is current doing just that, driving all the way to Portugal which is even further down. Many of the natives here would do that during the summer, taking the journey easy with a few night stopover in France and so on. We opted the simple way, by flight. The plane was full. Daily there are about 10 flights to Barcelona. With the school holiday it was not surprising that it was full.

Barcelona, located in the Iberian Peninsular facing the Mediterranean sea, is a popular tourist destination for many northern European. In fact the Iberia coasts containing Benidorm, Alicante and so on are the favourite destinations for beach seekers seeking cheap holidays mainly from UK and Germany. My first trip here was back in 1985 for a field course. Later came here several times to go to the Pyrenees mountains just west of the Iberian coast.

Barcelona is quite a big city, with over 5 millions people. Barcelona itself is known as the main centre for the province, the people are known as Catalans. The vast majority of the Catalans reside in Spain, where they number over 7 million, the rest lives in southern France.

We decided to take the train from the airport to the city. Our hotel is right at the centre, next to Plaza de Catalunya, officially the city's centre. Next to it are the famous La Ramblas and Palaeis de Gracia which are the most famous shopping streets here. In fact both places were quite busy today, resembling more like Oxford Street.

Today we walked around the city centre. La Ramblas is quite a colourful street with many street performers doing their own unique tricks here and there. The famous 'Ronaldinho' performer was there. Will try to download the video one of these days to show his trick.

Fizah had her own mind. She wandered around herself for 5 hours before we met her again. She seems to be more at ease exploring the city centre on her own at her own pace. She told us later that she had almost covered most of the cultural areas and seeing many of the prominent locations at the city centre.

A Sermon to Share

It was an opportunity to bring Faris for the Friday prayer. This Mesjid has quite a good mix of jemaah, mostly Indonesian and a fair share of other ethnics and also the native Dutch i.e. tall and lanky white Dutch. Giving a sermon is always tricky to accomodate all. Although the main medium is bahasa, the imam would also translate that into Arab and Dutch. On a few occasions one of the native Dutchman would give a sermon, obviously in Dutch and English.

The sermon today was regarding social integration. There is now so much anti Islamic sentiment in the Western world. If we look carefully, it is due more regarding cultural dislike rather than Islam itself. There is always a misunderstanding between what is Islamic and what is cultural oriented behaviours. The failure of not only migrant muslims but also the ummah as a whole to shake off anti Islamic cultural affinity is quite sad. One example is blood revenge for family honour which in a way attribute to the acceptance of suicide bombing in some cultures. Then there are groups which literally translate the hadiths and Qur'an to the extreme - as an example everyone except muslims are to be avoided socially and to be looked down. Equally for us, many of our own cultural practices also need to be looked at carefully. Lets not keep culture just for the sake of keeping a rich heritage but to review them whether they contradict with our religion. In past there were a few strong fatwas putting religion first before culture but lately we seemed to be turning back and culture is back in the heart of everything. So much so when we are not doing well, someone would say that at least on the bright side we still managed to preserve a strong culture!

Time for a break

The kids are on their 3 weeks term break since last Friday. It will also be a long weekend away from work with tomorrow being Good Friday, followed by Easter Monday. Traditionally it's among the busiest time in Europe when people set off for a short break. In UK alone some 2 million will be flying. In mainland Europe, people normally travel on the road to places to the South for warmer and sunnier weather. For that we are also planning on a trip. It's not a 'jejak rasul' this time but more of a European cultural tour. We will set off early on Saturday. Watch the space...

From then on it will be quite hectic time work-wise.

Back home not much news coming out. Apart from the housing projects which seemed to be much 'talked about', I was actually desperate to hear more drastic economic stimulus to alleviate the current unemployment syndrome. Alas, seems to be still in a state of denial, one expert said the country is immune to the recession because of the large employment in public sector - he might missed the subtle point, that is the very reason why we must move faster as the economy feeding the public sector is almost non-existent except for the black gold. And again some still missed another subtle point, territorial gain (if that is really the outcome), still requires effort to find the black gold. Hope is not enough. Acknowledging that all blessing and richness come from God Almighty, without effort the hope would not translate into a tangible outcome.

Tiger Prowling

It's the weekend that most keen golfers will be looking for. The 2009 Masters at Augusta starts tomorrow.

Though not playing that funny game anymore, we are keen followers of Tiger. This guy always delivers and provides great entertainment. Just last week he managed to crawl from 5 down to win the Bay Hill tournament. So much was the excitement that many major TV broadcasters in the States changed their prime time schedule to beam the drama unfolding live on TV.

Talking about live TV, last week's F1 was quite disappointing. Supposedly to suit viewing time for Europe, the race at Sepang was just too late in the afternoon. After the event apparently everyone knew that there was a high chance of rain after 6 pm in KL. It's like the recession, after the event, everyone seemed to claim that they knew that it was coming. So why was it not rectified? Why nobody stand up?

The reason may be that people are always living in a dream. Things seem to be rosy and people just dare not change it even though there is definitely something wrong somewhere. As a result people becomes indecisive and reluctant to challenge. These are just a couple of examples. There are many things going badly wrong when you look around closely. At the end, we all ended up facing the consequences.

Yellow Clog

Missus got a call from the internet provider. They are offering to upgrade our connection from 6 Mb/s to 8 Mb/s, and at the same time cutting our phone+internet bill from 65 to 50 Euros per month. It does sound strange. When I checked their website, indeed the company is trying to abandon all the lower connections and want to make 8 Mb/s as the lowest speed. Then I found out that their 20 Mb/s now cost 65 Euros. So the question now is do I want to upgrade to 8 or 20 Mb/s?

But this is nothing compare to the superfast broadband that will be coming in the near future. In Holland, the government has been experimenting that broadband speed in one village for a year now. Just last month the first 50 homes in the UK got commercially connected to the 100Mb/s fibre optic broadband network. And in the news today Australia is planning to spend US$30.6 billion on what's been labelled as "the single biggest infrastructure decision" in the country's history," to create a nationwide high speed broadband network of up to 100 Mb/s.

Long Ride

The weather was promised to be a glorious one this weekend. After a couple of weekdays in the high 16 to 18 degrees C, Saturday morning was quite a disappointment. There were light showers in early morning when we sent our niece and her friends to Schiphol for them to hop back to UK. The temperature by then had already plummeted down to single digit.

Faris however was insistent that we do outside activity. So there we were cycling a distance of 15 km in the afternoon.

Holland is a very bicycle-friendly country. The way that cycling is included in the traffic systems and the flat terrain all contribute greatly in providing the perfect conditions for a stress-free cycle ride. In all there are about 20,000 kilometres of specially designated cycling lanes and paths in the whole country.

Special cycling paths are very much in use to separate bicycle traffic from motorised traffic. As many people are cycling here, evidently there is a need for such appropriate infrastructure. Thus cycling is accepted as an important mode of transportation and not simply as either a kid's game or a professional sport. This makes the cycling community very diverse - children riding to school, people commuting to work, couples on holiday, people on a leisurely weekend ride, racing professionals - they all share the same network.

The other side to this is that it can get a bit crowded on the cycling lanes, where so many people often riding with different attitudes and at significantly different speeds come together. The large use of bicycles does lead to the wide availability of diverse facilities, like proper route signs, dedicated traffic light and so on.

However, bike theft does become a real problem. Annually some 750,000 bikes are reported stolen, which is about 5% of all bikes in Holland! As a result of the risk of bike theft, many city dwellers, especially students go around on very bad bikes . They are in such a bad state that it may astonish you that people are still using them. This is a very common practice, not only to limit the loss of value at theft, but also as a kind of insurance by reducing the appeal to theft. These bikes are used only for 'high-risk' areas in town like the railway stations, or for going to the university. Many people, however, have fairly good bikes, esp. for daily commuting.

Today we went on a nice path from home to the kid's school, about 30 minutes ride from home. Then we went off in the direction of Wassenaar before heading back home. All in all, with breaks in between, we spent one and half hours riding over a distance of 15 km. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon out in the open.

Saturday at the Autoshow

This week, the annual car show is being held at the Amsterdam RAI complex. The RAI is a large exhibition and convention centre on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The car show, known as the AutoRAI 2009, is a biennial event which started in 1899. So this year it celebrates its 110 years!

Not that there were any cars on show then back in 1899 (when were cars invented anyway?) but it was started off as a bike show. It evolved into an auto show and has grown over the years to be one of the largest auto exhibitions in Europe.

The car show is big with literally all the large halls being used, something like 10 halls in all. One could basically spend the whole day. We were there just like most of the crowds, curious to see what's on display. The clear theme is on Eco-friendly cars, most of the exhibitors showing how 'green' their cars, mainly to do with fuel consumptions.

Brunei in Dilbert

What a surprise! This was on Dilbert Daily today. Though I don't understand what the joke was about.

Brunei was also mentioned in the Simpsons twice. Don't know which episodes were that.

Easter Break in Holland

Our niece from Hull, is visiting us this week, along with two housemates from the "Team Cur Pisang" (??) of the recent BruNotts Easter Games. They landed yesterday from Leeds just after the big shut down of the motorway for the Afghanistan conference.

One lane of the 5-lane A4 motorway leading to the airport was closed specifically for use by the conference delegates to ply between The Hague and the airport. As a result there was massive traffic jams all day at times reaching 14 km long. Luckily we missed that when we picked them up. Will be a busy itinerary for them. Today they wondered around to see The Hague. Friday Fiz volunteers to give them a tour of Amsterdam.

Out and About

Today one of my staff asked me if he can leave an hour early. He said he is off to Metallica concert! Apparently all sort of concerts and events are starting again as it's now officially spring and people are really looking forward to just go out to enjoy.

Tomorrow a large part of the city where we live will be cordoned off. The Hague being known as the City of Peace and Justice will be hosting a-day ´International Conference on Afghanistan´. Both the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are expected to attend. Seventy two countries will be attending to discuss how the international community can continue to promote the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan in the years ahead. After three decades of wars and more recently seven years of UN-backed fighting against the Taliban, the end is no nearer. Now the US want to send more troops and even put more pressure on the Taliban. The clear result is that it will squeeze the Taliban out of Afghanistan to start wrecking havoc in neighbouring countries especially Pakistan. The current situation in Pakistan is already quite dangerous. With several daring attacks by extremist fighters in the past weeks and months, Pakistan in on the brink of collapse. It may ended up like Afghanistan. That would be a real disaster.

To tax or not to Tax?

It's a glorious day today. Still a bit cold but plenty of sunshine. With the clock forwarded by an hour today, sunset is now at around 8 PM. Psychologically this rather trivial clock change has a big impact in the ways people deals with their normal routine. With the late sunset, there seems to be plenty of things to do before everyone settle down in their home.

If there is anything I want to change back home is to change the hour. What it means is that there is still one more hour of daylight when people go home.

It means people wake up early and go to work when the sun just about to rise. But on the flip side when people go home in the afternoon, there is still time to do other things or be at home well before sunset.

When I used to be a daily long commuter to Seria, I only reached home just before or at around sunset. That seemed to be the end of the day for me. The long drive was not help by the same small road that thousand other people are using. There seemed to be no respite when that will change.

Here in Holland, everyone that I talked to does not mind paying income tax. The tax is high, set from 33% to 52%. The 52% rate applies to those who earn more than 100 thousand Euros a year. It is quite hefty, amongst the highest in the world but the investment put back by the government is just incredible. The Dutch here are in general happy with how the money being spent. The motorways, the public transport system, the social services to name a few are the investments that really satisfy the people here. But it needs a government who knows what to do and build. Back home there have been strong resentment on the tax idea. Rightly so. As for now the government does not really need that additional income. All what is needed is smarter way to spend the money.

Blustery Afternoon

The new Formula One season starts this weekend. This year the coverage has been taken over by BBC. So far the BBC coverage is a lot better than ITV in yesteryears as the Beeb gives a fairer coverage to all the racing teams. They also have a lot of interesting graphic and background stories to go with their programme. But most important of all gone were the dreadful commercial breaks!

Drastic changes have been made unfortunately making the F1 cars looking like ugly ducklings. These are to cut costs, which amounted to a total combined costs of two billion dollars spent last year by all the teams, equivalent to the economy of a small nation. The cut aims to reduce spends by about 30% this year to ultimately 80% over the coming years.

The changes have resulted in several changes to the car body, spoilers and so on resulting in less grip but not impeding the car behind because of the turbulence from the car in front. So far the result in the qualifying has been great with a good mix of teams up at the front where else the big three - Ferrari, Maclaren and William struggling. So it's an early start tomorrow in Europe for the main race as the opener is in Melbourne. And no doubt this year will see a lot of controversies with teams pushing the interpretations of the laid rules and regulations to the limit.

The same can be said about the weather this afternoon which kept on changing almost every hour. The sunshine can quickly change to cold and blustery weather. We went on a cycle ride through Wassenaar, going round nearby to Voorschoten before turning back to our house. On the way we passed this Indonesian School which is just a small building. There is a large Indonesian population here but mostly are already well integrated into the society. Some can't even speak Indonesian anymore. The Indonesian Embassy here tried as much as it could to support and relive the cultural heritage of their former countrymen. There are always events being organised by the embassy to try to bind these people together and to keep their roots still intact. These are commendable efforts.

Today in Haarlem

Today we went to Haarlem, the Capital of Noord Holland province. Harleem is a small town close to Amsterdam. We thought the town is much bigger as always mentioned as the flower capital of Holland. But was rather disappointing. Not only it was small, but also lack character. By the way, the famous Harlem district in NYC owes its name from this town. It was named by the early Dutch settlers.

The clock will change starting mid night tonight. It will be forwarded by an hour meaning earlier rise in the morning and later sunset. The whole idea was to reduce use of energy in the evenings. It was said up to 10% energy could be saved by doing this as there will be one hour less usage of electricity in the evening.

This evening also coincides with Earth Hour where lights are switched off in many homes and cities around the world from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. local time. I am not really into this. It is a good effort. But if one is dragged into this just for the sake of being part of it but not doing any real effort now and later to save and care the environment, then that is hypocrite.

The Office?

Sometimes there are always something to write on this blog. But this week yours truly have been busy writing a report in the office that at the end of each day felt really drained out.

When having lunch with colleagues today prior to the Friday prayer, we were talking about who makes the best boss. In my career, I have several bosses. First was a Brit, then a Nigerian, a Malay, Dutch, a Brit again, German, Dutch, American, Dutch, Brit, Brit, Dutch, Brit and finally a French. All have different characters. Some are more aggressive or direct than others. Some are quite diplomatic. Some are like a friend. There is no clear winner. Everyone has their own styles. It's down to individuals how they adjust to the change in the work or management style.

This goes to the bigger picture like what is the best system to run a country. Democracy seems to work in the West but definitely not something that is going to readily work in developing or less politically matured societies. In the end it's down to the elected leaders on how they conduct their new reponsibilities and power. Unfortunately in some cases, what initially are really decent and responsible person, with the new found power and wealth, they began to plunder rather than develop their countries. There are many examples of these in Asia and particularly so in Africa.

What is now hot in the news are similar people in power but sitting in offices of big corporations. These are the corporate bosses of banks and industrial conglomerates who are getting huge paychecks and excessive amounts of bonuses. They are currently being maimed in the press for their pay excesses and using their corporate positions in abusing their privileges. To me these highly intellectual people are no different to the corrupt leaders of some countries - power and wealth seem to drastically change people's attitude.

Spring Weather

The weather outside was great today. Took the opportunity to mow the grass after a hiatus of nearly 5 months due to the cold winter. The hedges however were quite difficult to trim as they have grown haphazardly - we need a pro to tackle that bit some other times.

The kids at the same time took the opportunity to play badminton and cycling around. It was quite a lovely day indeed.

With crops now being seeded, the foul smell from animal manures used as fertilizers in the surrounding fields is quite unbearable at times. These manures are normally spread on the field from the middle of March onwards. Those especially the slurry type do give a particularly unpleasant odor, it is as if the whole town is sitting next to a big sewage.

King of the Road

Today Faris had his birthday do - a day out go-karting with his closest friends. He really loves go-karting and always tries his best whenever he has the opportunity.

Today he was really on top form, shaving his previous fastest lap time by 3 seconds and 5 seconds faster than any of his friends.

The sports and outdoor facilities are really fabulous here. For kids, it is really great for them as they could experience and enjoy all these different things.

A Small Get-together

We had a small get together at our house this evening. It has been quite a while since we had such a gathering. But seemed to be a good idea to have something before the weekend sets in. There are not many of us here. But the good news is there might be an addition or two coming this way soon.

The Easter holiday is coming. The school will have a 3-weeks break. Everybody seems to be talking about their plan for the break. We have something in mind but only for a short trip or two.

Turn of Age

Our youngest turns 12 years old today. We didn't do anything special for him apart from giving him a card. Nowadays birthday presents seem to come well in advance or promised to come soon after. Tomorrow he is inviting 7 of his friends for a go-kart birthday party. That's all the celebration.

He shares the same birthday as Fernando Torres. Saw the Champion League draw today. And yet again Liverpool is meeting Chelsea. Man U seems to have an easy ride to reach the final playing against Porto and grouped in the weaker pool. Whereas the other pool contains the cream of Europe - Barcelona, Bayern, Liverpool and Chelsea. Hope a team from this pool will eventually win the final.....

A Long History Indeed

A 'do-nothing' imperial power, by Dr. B. A. Hussainmiya

Pangs of conscience over the failure to protect Brunei under the 1888 Treaty hung over the British officialdom more closer at home, ie in Malaya than in the metropolis of London. There the policy makers exhibited injurious ignorance about the geography of the sultanate. This allowed Brooke to make a final dash to mop up the kingdom, first, bisecting Brunei by annexing Limbang. Second, obtaining land rights inside Brunei in Muara Damit, alarmingly named Brooketon and ostensibly to develop a colliery, around the mouth of the Brunei River. He also owned 3,500 acres of prime land in the Kota Batu, the seat of the ancient capital in Brunei. In the former he set up his own civil and legal administration.

Thus, John Anderson the British High Commissioner in Malaya who signed the 1906 Supplementary Treaty on behalf his Government (echoing McArthur's opinion) admitted that: "[Brunei]a country which has certainly not derived any benefit in the past from its position under British protection, and indeed , suffered, because of its position and its regard for British protection has rendered it easy for its neighbours to encroach on its territories with serious results to its resources and revenues."

Even before the introduction of the Residency system, the urgency remained, therefore, for people like McArthur, as a means of easing the imperial burden, 'to right the wrongs' done to Brunei. The first was the take over of the Brunei-owned Labuan Island by Britain using gunboat diplomacy in 1847. Second was their tacit approval for Charles Brooke's unilateral take over of the province of Limbang.

As regards the first, McArthur proposed to transfer the island from the bungling British North Borneo Company to be administered by the Crown and join it with Brunei. It was partially carried out in 1905 when the early Brunei Residents until 1921 had their seat of administration.
The problem of Limbang

Limbang issue emerged as the intractable problem. Several British officials at the time urged their Government to reinstate Limbang to Brunei. In January 1905, Sir Frank Swettenham, the outgoing High Commissioner in Malaya suggested that it would be "a great advantage to Brunei, if Limbang could be restored to Brunei, paying the Rajah of Sarawak whatever (if any thing) he can fairly claim." In fact, the Colonial Secretary directed the possibility of returning Limbang to Brunei that ought to be borne in mind during negotiations for the 1905-06 treaty.

McArthur's report made an indirect plea for the return of Limbang to Brunei, so that the kingdom could thrive again. For, the Limbang was the true river of Brunei described as 'the river of life' for the Bruneians in the Report. The so-called Brunei River, which had no ulu, was merely an arm of the sea, salt throughout its length. The large fertile Limbang had served the Kampong Ayer folk to foray food, find clothing and materials for housing and fishing. Since its annexation Brunei had lost vital revenue. Moreover, the petty traders, such as collectors of jungle produce, lost their means of livelihood. Above all, Bruneians felt bitterly about the loss of their 'soul' in Limbang dangling like the Democles' sword for years to come.

Although McArthur's wishful thinking bore no fruit because Brunei could not compensate the Rajah who fought a prestige battle. In the alternative there were other proposals to form a contagious territory for Brunei that would also satisfy Rajah's needs for undisturbed possession.
The Limbang boundary continued to be a bone of contention and a source of much friction given the fact that the district was never ceded by Brunei voluntarily. More importantly, for Brunei the contour of the country is such that the watershed of the Limbang comprised almost all the land between its banks and those of the Brunei. McArthur's solution was to make the Limbang River itself to form the boundary between (West) Brunei and Sarawak administration from its mouth up to the Mandalam confluence. By this arrangement, once for all the disputed ownership of land between Brunei and Limbang and the island of Berambang could be solved. Control of the upper Limbang would have given Brunei a means of communication between Belait and Tutong and Temburong. The Rajah did not agree to this either.

As regards Brooke's intention to own the remaining rump of Brunei by having toehold inside its heartland, McArthur checkmated him. Rajah's ownership of Muara Damit deprived the Sultan of all export and import revenues from goods passed through Muara. The goods that landed in Brooketon were distributed in the Brunei countryside without any taxes paid to the sultan's Government. Also buffaloes were exported from Brunei to Sarawak from this port without payment of duty of one dollar per head. Sir John Anderson noted that the position created by the British government's implied recognition of Rajah's revenue rights in Muara Damit was exteremly anamolous and difficult.

A more serious situation arose due to the gambling farm set up by Brooke in Muara. The Malays flocked there for gambling, many losers becoming debtors. Although McArthur's idea was not accepted immediately, Rajah Vyner Brooke had to abandon the venture in 1924. Otherwise, Muara could have become a haven gambling as Kuala Lurah has become haven for drinking! Not unexpectedly, Muara generated much crime and civil disputes arising from the immoral gambling activities. A population of only 6.6 per cent in the district accounted for 55.37 per cent of the civil cases and 16.14 per cent criminal case in 1912.

McArthur resisted a proposal strongly to hand over Temburong to Sarawak in return for its surrendering the rights in Muara. Temburong contained no Tulin property except the Labu, and the incoming administration could manage it without any encumbrances owing to complicated and bogus land rights.

Similarly, if another suggestion of the British Colonial Office went through at the time, Belait and Tutong would have been exchanged for Limbang with Sarawak in order for Brunei to keep its territories as one piece. Had it happened, needless to say, Brunei would be today sitting over some sparsely populated green hectares of Limbang instead of reaping the rich benefits of the black gold!

Apparently in so far as introducing the Residency system to Brunei was concerned the British authorities applied firmness. Not so when it came to Brooke's dealings with the Sultanate. The British government conveniently had adopted a 'do nothing' and 'let it develop' attitude. In fact, then as later in the 1950s, the same do nothing attitude by London's White hall contributed to much fiasco during the drafting of the Brunei Constitution.

Brunei needed more than the restructuring of its institutions ala West. True, that the British intervention saved Brunei from extinction. Yet, a sincere commitment on the part of the British government in recovering Brunei's lost lands owing to treachery and wheeler-dealings by one of its own agents would have added much value to the country. Some key British officials believed, perhaps rightly, that the Sarawak Rajah had not abandoned the ambition to own Brunei even by resorting to strong arm tactics. But McArthur was not one of them- he sealed the Rajah's fate as far as Brunei was concerned, although Brunei was unlucky to get back at that opportune moment its soil rights in Limbang and Labuan.

Akhir Zaman

An expensive ornament or a house of worship. The question is do we need to build really big mesjids or mosques. It is becoming a trend now for every Islamic governments to build the biggest and the most beautiful mosque, most are tucked somewhere for everybody to see, but unfortunately far away from any settlement area to warrant the size of the construction. These large mosques are well maintained but hardly have any people praying except for the mass Friday prayer. And yet all the other smaller but more functional mosques more often than not are neglected. So is it just an expensive ornament? Most cases these mosques are named after the political leaders in the country, regardless whether they are the dictatorial type, unfitting of a house of god. One of the poorest country in the world, Yemen, just opened a new mosque which can accommodate 40,000 worshippers. The mosque is definitely beautiful befitting a house of worship. Yet in a land of mosques , the president goes out of his way to build the biggest, most expensive and most unnecessary one. But it not just Yemen. Almost every Islamic nations race to build the biggest and the most expensive mosque.

Rasulullah pernah bersabda: "Akan datang suatu zaman di mana agama Islam hanya tinggal namanya sahaja, dan al-Quran pula hanya tinggal huruf dan tulisannya. Masjid-masjidnya cantik dan megah, tetapi sunyi daripada petunjuk......'' (Riwayat Baihaqi ).

A Case of No Action

What does the future hold? In this modern world, there are things that are certain but there are also things that are uncertain (sounds like Donald Rumsfeld talking!). Remember him saying, "As we know, There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know There are known unknowns. That is to say We know there are some things We do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, The ones we don't know We don't know."

Anyway talking in things in general...it is quite annoying when you expect things to progress but did not. It is obvious that sometimes when there are problems, the easiest way to do is to ignore them and let the problems to just disappear or somehow sort by themselves. But these are like Ostrich burying its head in the sand.

What happens when you 'bury' or 'hide' your head in the sand? The most obvious thing is that you won't be able to see anything! If you can't see anything, you will not know what is happening around you. When a person buries his head in the sand, he tries to run away from his problems; he refuses to even acknowledge that he has any. Instead of tackling the problem, he deliberately ignores it. By turning a blind eye to it, he hopes that somehow the danger or trouble will go away on its own! In other words, he is wishing it away; he doesn't want to deal with it. You cannot continue to bury your head in the sand. We need a plan of action.

Our Nice Street

So we are well into the month of March. Normally in Europe this is the month where car sales are at its peak. One of the reasons is because most companies give their annual bonus during this month. But with the current recession, factories temporarily being shut down, car sales has gone down by 50%. To try to counter this some car companies even slash their car prices by 5 to 10 thousands Euros!

Away from cars, this is the photo of our beautiful street taken yesterday. The houses here are not big but comfortable. And the street looks very nice with well maintained lawns and gardens. There is a good mix of local and expatriate families living in this street. The Dutch are in general friendly and very helpful as they are the one who stay here longer and has more interest to ensure that the neighbourhood at least has some cohesion socially and that the place is clean and well maintained. For expat, some might just don't bother to upkeep their lawn or garden, which is annoying as that spoils the image of the street.