Dewasa Bernegara Part 1

I’ve been back for more than 4 months but I still cannot accept how Bruneians, especially parents, actually live. They don’t seem to value their lives and their children’s. I’m referring to the use of safety belts in the cars of course. Everyday, everywhere I see children jumping up and down in the passenger seats. What is worse, I always see parents who actually drive with a child on his/her lap. Once, I actually saw a car swerved in the middle of a road and when I looked at the driver, it was a man holding a crying BABY!

It looks like the law on child-seat and safety belts fall on deaf ears.

Some people blame it on the implementation of the regulations. They say the police are not doing anything about it so why should we. I say: when accidents happen, those policemen won’t lose their lives but you and your children will.

Some people say the child-seat is expensive. I say: more expensive than the lives of your children?

Some other people say their children refuse to sit in the child-seat and/or wear safety-belts. Since they don’t want to upset their children then let them do as they wish. I say: You don’t love your children!

I’m ashamed and saddened by the way we Bruneians see and live life. After 25 years of independence, do we deserve to be called ‘Dewasa Bernegara’ when we do not even want to be responsible for our own lives and that of our children? When we still need other people to look after our lives? When we still embrace the old-skool mentality of law-breakers as opposed to law-abiders?

Oh dear.

Salaam.

Snail Mail

Can somebody from the Postal Department explain exactly the process of receiving/sending mails/parcels in Brunei, please?

Until today I still do not understand how it can take almost 3 weeks for a letter from the UK to be delivered to someone in Brunei. This happened many times to us. For example, about 3 weeks ago, we sent a letter to Brunei. It was an important document but not too important for us to fork 45GBP to send it through DHL. So, we sent using an express UK mail service. With a given tracking code, we could track the letter through the internet. It was express alright, the letter reached Brunei in 2 days time. Unfortunately, the tracking system only applied in the UK so its whereabouts in Brunei, God knew! Thinking that it should arrive in safe hands within a few days, we were happy.

We were wrong. 2 days ago, the intended recipient asked where the letter was. We were gobsmacked! Finally, today we were told the letter has now finally arrived. It took exactly 18 days: 1 day in UK, 1 day travel, 16 days in Brunei.

Really, the term ‘snail mail’ literally applies to Brunei mail. What happened?

I don’t know about anyone else but a good, reliable postal service is crucial in providing a healthy and conducive business environment. Millions of e-bay UK sellers, for example, depend on the reliability of the UK postal service to deliver the goods in timely manner. Sending anything ‘First Class’ will usually mean next-day delivery wherever you are in the UK (the first time I experienced this, it knocked my socks off! haha). And you can claim for compensation if item is lost or damaged by the Post Office. So if the e-bay VP who is now in Brunei knows about the postal service in Brunei, I’m sure he will devote half his talk about the importance of a reliable delivery system.

Anyway, this is one service that can and should be corporatized (Read: the salary of all employees will depend on their ability to send letters/parcels quickly) so hopefully it can become efficient. I hear it’s in the pipeline. So, a big GOOD LUCK wish from me!

Salaam.

Battle of the Sexes

While watching President-elect Obama and his staff having a meeting in the news today, it dawned to me that out of the 20 or so people sitting around the table, there were only about 3 females. Why? Are we less productive? Less capable? Less educated than men?

In Brunei, for example, this year alone about 80 per cent of UBD graduates were females but I bet this percentage does not reflect the number of female high-ranking officers (directors and above) in the government sector or even in the private sector. OK forget Brunei, according to Fortune magazine, in 2007 women made up only 2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.

I found this interesting article from Slate that explains why we still live in a male-dominated world. Apparently, there are three reasons: 1) women are more risk-averse. 2) conscious discrimination still exists and 3) unconscious discrimination (despite women working harder). And according to this article, mothers earn 75 percent as much as men while childless women earn 95 percent as much as men of the same age and the same job.

Oh dear, apparently we women still can’t have it all.

Salaam.

Click here for the list of 50 Most Powerful Women in the world.

Freakonomics: the Origin

The word Freakonomicsis currently not in the dictionary. It is actually a title of a book by Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner. This is an excerp from their book which explains the concept of freakonomics:

"Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded young scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life-from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing — and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: Freakonomics.

In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of — well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.
What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and - if the right questions are asked - is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: if morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. "

http://www.freakonomics.com/thebook.php

My intention for this Blog is to try to explore the unique Brunei economy in a 'freakonomicsish' (or conventional) way.

I maybe right, but often I am sure I will be wrong! I don't claim to be a 'good' economist, Hey! I'm not sure if I am even one. Therefore, I'm not writing as an economist, rather as a curious person in Brunei Darussalam.

Whenever I can, I will try to support my views with research, facts and figures. Nevertheless, as you often see in any journal papers: "All remaining errors are the author's responsibility"

I welcome comments from anyone.

Salaam!