I have long been adamant that there is no poverty in Brunei. Yes, there are less financially able people but these people don’t starve, their kids are still able to go to school, they don’t live in the landfill or at squatters settlement.

The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports on 18 Nov 2019 shared some new initiatives for the ministry, one of which is “a review of the action plan on the issue of poverty.” This  implies that the issue of poverty exists in the country. The Minister further mentioned about an initiative called the “Poverty Eradication Plan Programme.” What? Not only we have poverty, it has already reached a point that a programme is needed to eradicate it? Where was I when this so-called “poverty” made its debut in Brunei??

Poverty is not an enigma – there are dictionary definition, the UN definition, the World Bank definition, national definition, etc. These definitions all imply to one thing, which is the inability to meet basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, education, etc) necessary for a minimum standard of living. I am yet to be convinced that there are starving people in Brunei who live on the street and all. If what poverty widely means has changed, certainly I never get the memo.

Excellent Civil Servants

Aspired: Speaking at the closing ceremony of new officers induction programme on 7 Nov 2019, the Acting Director of Administration and Finance at the Ministry of Health urged officers to forge networks regardless of whether they are new or old officers and reminded them to nurture a positive attitude, build high commitment to shoulder responsibility with other public servants. She advised them to execute tasks as best as they could and adhere to the regulations and discipline. “I hope that the participants can adapt to the work culture at the ministry,” she added.

Actual: Urging, reminding, advising and hoping. Good luck with that. Just saying…

Culture of Preparedness

Aspired: On 5 Nov 2019, the Chairman of the National Disaster Council stated that the dissemination of information on weather conditions and disaster management procedures will support the community in getting prepared for the upcoming monsoon season. A culture of preparedness is the most effective component of disaster management, he added.

Actual: The “culture of preparedness” that exists among the population is that of preparedness in snapping photos and taking videos of flooded roads, blown-off roofs, and other monsoon-induced mayhems, posting them on IG and FB, passing them around on whatsapp. Just saying…

Youth Engagement

Aspired: In an speech on 05 Nov 2019, the Minister of Development highlighted the importance of youth engagement in the formulation of policies. “Latest technological breakthroughs brought on by Industrial Revolution 4.0 like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum computing and others are among the areas that need to be ventured into by the youth.”

Actual: For the over 40s, the use of big scientific and tech words is the in thing today in discourses. For the youths, they would say “cool, where do we sign up?” Just saying…

Last Saturday, the news about a Bangladeshi man being attacked by a crocodile went viral on Whatsapp. He was not anywhere near a river, but was just cutting the grass near a storm drain at Kampong Pandan in Kuala Belait. The man survived with just same lacerations on his thigh. Crocodile attacks are not rare in Brunei, so I will not talk about crocodiles here.

In September this year, a Bangladeshi construction worker in Brunei fell to his death. This is also not rare. According to the Minister of Development, the two highest types of job-related accidents recorded in the country are ‘fall from height’ and ‘struck by falling object’. A few years ago, a Bangladeshi man sued his employer when his head was struck by falling object at the construction site. So, I will not talk about job-related accidents here.

In July this year, a Bangladeshi man died of electrocution when working at a construction site in Kg Lamunin, Tutong. This was, however, not the first time a Bangladeshi in Brunei died of electrocution. Back in 2016, another Bangladeshi man was electrocuted to death when he was doing some electrical work at an electrical pole in Kg Tungku. So, I will not talk about deaths by electrocution here.

So, what is the elephant in the room this is about? Just in case no one realised this yet, of recent, there has been a flood of Bangladeshis coming into the country. If you don’t notice them being everywhere you turn, then you better wake up and smell the paratha. Look at the mosques during Friday prayers, you will see lots of them. Drive along the road and look to the left and right, you will see them. When the shops are all closed (try Sengkurong or Serusop), scan around, in the darkness you will see them, under the trees, in the middle of the grass, talking on or playing with their phones. Another observation which is hard to miss is that they made it to the headlines of local news more often now than before. Previously, news about Bangladeshis only popped up once in a while, mostly being caught overstaying or running away from their employers. Now, it seems like we hear about them in the news every other day – getting electrocuted, being attacked by crocodile and other misadventures. All these pointed to the fact that there are too many of them here, enough to change the landscape of foreign presence in the country.

In the past, when talking about foreign workers in Brunei, one would picture Indonesians or Filipinos. But now, the picture morphed into Bangladeshis. According to publicised figure from the Bangladesh side, there are now about 30k Bangladeshis in the country. The actual number could be more than that. Although Bangladesh has been one of the longstanding sources of foreign workers in Brunei, one thing for sure is that their number here has been increasing drastically particularly over the past 3 years. Currently, their numbers have already bypassed the 28k or so Indonesians and the 20k or so Filipinos in the country. Before the Bangladeshis came in droves, there were already some foreign workers from their fellow region-mate India here amounting now to around 11k. Its really not hard to tell them apart, if that is what you’re thinking (google it).

Despite their big presence, however, the Bangladeshis have kept a low profile and stayed away from crime. Part of the reason could be that they are in a tiny country with a majority Malay population, thus it would be hard for them to blend in or evade dragnets should they be involved in crime, unlike the foreign workers from Indonesia and Philippines, who can easily pass off as locals. Furthermore, the Bangladeshis are far from home, they have to go through a lot of illegal border crossings in order to get back to their country should they become fugitives.

Well actually, they did commit crime here, but interestingly, the crimes so far were on their fellow Bangladeshis. Early this year, for example, 5 Bangladeshis were arrested for involvement in a gang robbery and assault on a fellow Bangladeshi man in Kampong Tanjung Maya, Tutong. Earlier in 2016, a Bangladeshi man was charged with murdering a fellow Bangladeshi man at Kampong Sungai Teraban. In 2017, a Bangladeshi man teamed up with a Malaysian accomplice to commit human smuggling, the humans in question were of course Bangladeshis. They were busted when at the Sungai Tujoh Border Post, Customs officials asked to inspect the boot of their car when, lo and behold, two Bangladeshis were “just chillin’ inside the boot.

So, how did it come to this? Why is there a drastic increase in Bangladeshis here? Well, to put it simply, they are here because of two things. Firstly, there is an increasing demand of low-cost labourers, especially in the construction sector owing to the many mega projects that are currently going on in the country, and boy does Bangladesh have lots to supply. Secondly, as has been uncovered recently, they have been duped to believe that these jobs await them. Brunei being a peaceful country with no income tax provides an excellent pull factor for the unsuspected Bangladeshis to take the bait laid out by the “brokers” who offered (with some cost) to lay the yellow brick road to the job opportunities in Brunei. So leaving their families behind with the promise of $300+ remittences per month, off they went to Brunei, only to be welcomed by disappointment when the jobs didn’t exist, like oasis in the desert.

The “brokers” in question are, again, of course their fellow Bangladeshis who (allegedly) have teamed up with some locals in the employment scam. After the discovery of the racket, these brokers got the beating from the Bangladeshi High Commission here in Brunei, yaha literally and figuratively. In August this year, a video went viral on social media which showed a Bangladeshi man being roughed up by 8 other Bangladeshi men in the Bangladesh High Commission here. It was later revealed that the assaulted man is a minion of one of those unscrupulous brokers and the 8 men who beat the crap out of him are the victims of the scam. Boy, were they pissed, and they got the right to be.

Shockingly, not only that these thousands of Bangladesh migrants have been scammed off their money coming here for work, they are then asked to look out for jobs on their own while continued to be bullied and intimidated by rogue “recruitment brokers” also Bangladeshis who have creepingly established their footings as gangster bosses in the country. So…wake up Bruneians! We have a serious issue here. Yes, the country is new to such menace, but there is no time to “let the issue sink in first” and a reaction is needed now as the issue is already on the verge of getting out of control.

Bangladesh was right to call for the arrest of the “gangster bosses” or without such stern action, the activity will continue to thrive in the country or mutated to become other unthinkable menaces. Take Kuwait, for example. It has last month handed down life sentences to 2 persons (a Kuwaiti and an Egyptian) who were involved in visa trading, a crime of the same kind. How about that.

Early this month, Bangladesh took action and cancelled the passports of 5 Bangladeshis in Brunei who they refer to as “human traffickers” and requested for Brunei to cancel their visas and immediately repatriate them for legal action – specifically for human trafficking, visa trading and exploitation. It is not known (at least not publicised) if the 5 men have been located and deported. At least the floodgate of surplus Bangladeshis is now shut.

So, what to happen to the thousands of duped Bangladeshis who are already here. They have work visas but are jobless and still need to send some money home to support their families. They’ll do fine, until their employment passes expired then they’ll be illegal migrants, try to hide or take the car boot express across the border, or get arrested, do some jail term then sent home. Sounds like a good plan.

Top 5 things people say or do that don’t make sense (bordering nuisance).

5. When the cashier handed back your change with the coins on top and the sales receipt sandwiched between the dollar notes and the coins. Like, cant they just give me the coins first so that I can put them away in the coins pouch or pocket before giving me the notes.

4. When you pay at the cashier some x dollar and x cents amount with dollar notes and the cashier asked you if you have the specific amount of coins. Like, if I have coins, I would use the coins to pay, or even if I have the coins, I have my own reasons not to use them (lazy or no time to look for them). So, if I give you notes, just take the notes and get on with it, don’t ask for coins from me.

3. When you order food at a fast food restaurant and they told you that there will be a 10 minute wait. Like, whats the point of calling yourselves “fast food” restaurants??

2. When restaurants said that their operating hours are up to 10pm but when you come at 9pm they said that their kitchens are already closed. Like, just put 9pm then on the sign.

1. When people posted on social media photos of their laptops and some paperworks with the caption “busy day”, “overworked” or “I need a vacation”, but they have time to update their status. Like, what even??

Remember Elvis’s classic songs Can’t Help Falling in Love and Always on My Mind that were sang in different music genres by other artists like UB40 and the Pet Shop Boys? Well, those are not what I am not going to talk about here.

The issue of unemployment is currently a hot issue in the country. But it is hardly a new phenomenon. Way back when, when there were no WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms, circa late 1990s, the public relied on the BB Opinion section to vent out their frustrations on things. Unemployment was one of them.

It was around the year 2000 that every parent’s dream life milestones for their kids no longer fall into place as they found their children unable to get work months, years after they graduated. So, what happened? What has led to this?

I remember watching on national TV, a pineapple farmer being interviewed. He said that  his pineapple yield was good, but some of them have to go to waste as supply exceeded demand. This was exactly what happened. The country has reached the point where the labour demand just couldn’t catch up with the number of people entering the labour market.

Statistically, in 1991 the percentage of working age population was about 61%. Then the percentage increased to about 68% in 2003, 72% in 2013 and 75% in 2018. There are more and more people in the working age population and there are just not enough jobs for them.

There is only so much that the government can do to create the much needed jobs for the unemployed. Creating jobs in the public sector requires money. To have funding for job creation requires economic growth. To have economic growth, the country needs to increase productivity. To increase productivity, the country needs a skilled labour force and of course a robust production sector to absorb the skilled labour. Do we have all these prerequisites?

Parents need to recognise this a long time ago, and prep their kids for the unemployment apocalypse. In fact what we are seeing today is just the beginning of its ugly face. The future rise of the robots will see humans being obsolete in the workforce. Just saying…

Everyday we hear about the Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR or Industry 4.0 as a thing of “tomorrow”. But I wonder if we really understand what 4IR is all about. People talked about it, but what pictures about this future 4IR world that were in their minds. We are asked to be prepared for it, but be prepared for what exactly? and how? For Brunei, are we in the right juncture of necessity and time to occupy our minds with 4IR worries and anticipations?

Im assuming that the first things in their minds would be automation, artificial intelligence and robots. Robots will replace humans for doing many jobs. This is actually a very possible future or may well be the destined future. The thought of robots doing things that are currently done by humans makes a lot of sense. For any bosses, it is never easy to deal with humans. So, with robots, all the human-linked issues will disappear – laziness  and incompetencies especially. The workers will work like clockwork throughout the work hours – no canteen break, no absence during office time to do school runs, bringing kids to the clinic, bringing their cars for servicing or repair, going to funeral, and all the other fancy excuses. The robots will have all the knowledge and of course they can speak many languages. Imagine Robocops, Robosurgeon, Robomaids, Robolawnmowers – they will be godsends to our comfort of living. If this scenario is what the 4IR enthusiasts right now are talking about, what kind of “preparations” would they be referring to?? As much as we are excited about having these robots in our lives, seriously though, it will take perhaps another 20-30 years, even longer, before robots become part of the workforce and everyday life.

In fact, it is really disappointing that some of these technologies imagined decades ago are not here yet. Flying cars for example. The Jetsons cartoon series first aired in 1962 depicted a future world where people have robots as maids and travel using aerocars. More than 50 years on, there are still no robot maids and no flying cars. The 2004 movie I, Robot was set in a future world some 30 years away (in 2035) where there are robots among humans, flying cars and also self-driving cars through fancy tunnels. Well, 2035 is now just 16 years away. Is it enough time to catch up with the movie’s 2035 scenario. I don’t think so, at least for Brunei it is still far fetched. Although I must acknowledge here Elon Musk’s car-flinging tunnel which he unveiled in 2018 looks very promising.

So lets take it down a notch. Perhaps they are talking about the Internet of Things or IoTs where all devices are connected to the internet and are communicating with each other. Already today we see in Brunei some of these devices – the smart phones, smart watches, smart TVs, smart light bulbs and smart security cameras. For the public, perhaps one manifestation of this would be smart homes, and smart cities for governments.

Well, there are already many smart homes in the US and other super advanced countries. For Brunei, the smart homes concept has already made its way, largely thanks to Amazon Alexa launched in 2014. I would say, specifically, 2018 is the year when smart homes caught the attention of the population. That year, Fabular debut its smart home model. Its a tiny two bedroom unit, very modern looking, quite affordable. It is installed with Amazon’s Alexa software which will allow the homeowners to use voice command or their smart phones to communicate to Alexa to operate or control all the devices with internet connection at the home. The said devices offered by the Fabular unit are the security system (smart CCTVs and smart door locks), entertainment system (smart TVs), lightings (smart bulbs) and the temperature (smart air conditioners). Sounds so cool and very futuristic, but the unit is so tiny, definitely not for big families or the claustrophobics.

The good news is, Fabular units aside, homeowners can actually transform their houses into smart homes, right now. I have myself been face to face with Alexa, chatted with her, she even shared some jokes (AI jokes are lame though) and played trivia (also lame). I said Alexa switch on the light and the light came on. This was at my relative’s house. Experiencing this myself I was totally bought. The Alexa hardware is affordable, ranging from $70 to about $200 depending on the size. Then just get some smart devices and connect her to them, now you’re in a smart home, just sit back, relax and enjoy. But, there is a “but” though, two buts actually. But what happens when there is no internet connection?? and But what happens when your Alexa got hacked?? Imagine, hackers mess with your light, making them flickering on and off, driving you insane. Or hackers unlock your smart door lock. These scenarios are very much real in Brunei. There are areas in Brunei with no or very poor 3G/4G coverage. The people living there can forget about having smart homes for now. So the next time someone mentioned about 4IR and the need to “be prepared” for it, it means that the providers of the supporting infrastructure – internet coverage, speed, cybersecurity, etc –  must do more and move at a faster pace than what and how they are doing it now.

As for the need for re-skilling and up-skilling in preparation of the future 4IR labour market dynamics, I think it is premature to make a hoo-ha about it now, at least for Brunei, where the jobs and the corresponding skill requirements are expected to remain the same for the next decade or so. In terms of the need for education reform, people just talk about it being important, but with regard to the 4IR preparation, it is still an uncharted territory with many not having any clue yet how the needed “reform” will take shape.

So, while 4IR is the hip topic to talk about and to raise today, I just don’t see any concrete action going on beyond the talk. Instead of fixating their eyes looking through the telescope at the things far away in the future, why not focus and deal first with the things that are now right under our noses – unemployment, economic diversification, inefficiencies, etc.

Just saying…

This year 19,913 people received His Majesty the Sultan anugerah kurnia peribadi in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya celebration. They are comprised of Orang Bekeperluan Khas (OBK), orphans and registered recipients of the welfare assistance from JAPEM and Majlis Ugama Islam Brunei (MUIB). This number is up from last year’s 19,576, 2017’s 18,299, 2016’s 17,284 and 2015’s 16,479. Which could only mean one thing. The number of destitutes are increasing. This together with the increasing unemployment rate make a lethal combination. It will be just a matter of time before the increasing number of people needing welfare assistance would become overwhelming for the country.

Among the recipients were also people of other races who are certainly not celebrating Hari Raya and hence no Hari Raya spending needs. This puzzled me quite a bit. I am yet to figure out the explanation for it.

As in previous years, similar situations have been reported. There were recipients who were unruly, jumping queues, pushing, rude and very impatient. This is not first come first served basis so I don’t see why they can’t just wait in the queue patiently.

They can do 4 things with the money – spend on basic needs including on school expenses, spend on the things that they always wanted but couldn’t afford before this, pay out debts, and put into savings.

It is very disappointing to hear about some of the things that they do with the money which are a far cry from relieving the financial burden for Hari Raya spending as rightfully intended. What I often hear is that some spent the money to buy new phones.

I also found out that a number of the recipients have been receiving the kurnia for close to a decade now. I find it hard to believe that no initiative can be done to get them out of financial hardship within the close to 10 years period. And these are not frail senior citizens, but are healthy 20 and 30 plus year olds. Something is definitely not right here.

In what sounds like an acknowledgement to this “something is not right” observation, the Minister of Culture, Youths and Sports in November 2019, stated that the ministry has put emphasis on employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to boost economic self-sufficiency of the underprivileged people and reduce their dependency on assistance. The Minister revealed that the government has given aid amounting to B$9.73 million to 5,788 recipients of the Monthly Welfare Assistance (Bantuan Kebajikan Bulanan).

I don’t quite remember the exact year WhatsApp was first used in Brunei, but for myself I began to use WhatsApp in 2011. Those around me (just three people actually) also said they started using it about the same time. The one feature that attracted me the most to the app at that time was that it offered cheap alternative to the regular sms. I remember having my phone bills exceeding 1k because I sent around 300+ sms per day. 10 cents per sms! It was only years later that the sms charge was reduced to 5 cents per sms.

I am not the type who can stand long phone calls, so when sms was introduced I think back in …hmm…need to check the year, it was like the answer to my prayer. It should be around 1997 or so. Because there was no way I can afford the big phone bills prior to me starting working.

The other cool feature of WhatsApp when it was introduced was the ability to send photos. I remember before WhatsApp, photos can only be sent using MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), which I believe costed $1 per MMS. Sending MMS from overseas even costed more than that. One time when I was overseas, my sister asked me to get a certain brand handbag for her. I had to take some photos using my digital camera, transfer to my computer, and email them to my sister so that she can choose which one to buy. Now, I can just snap the photo, share on WhatsApp and get the decision in just seconds. Then came the ability to send videos, audios and later documents. The floodgates now opened – oversharing (TMIs), chain messages, fake news, character assassinations – became the new forms of daily entertainment.

With sms, once the message was sent, you are left wondering if the person read it and what took them so long to reply. Now, with WhatsApp, here is the first of its curses – The Ticks (double ticks and the blue ticks). Double ticks mean the message has been delivered and blue ticks mean that the message has been read. Previously, people found themselves anxious waiting for the double ticks to turn blue, and once they turned blue, they are expecting to see “typing…” as in immediate reply. If I accidentally read a message and the sender saw the ticks have turned blue, I would feel obliged to reply immediately, or quickly find an excuse to give later as to why I didn’t reply straight away. Thankfully, WhatsApp users can now deactivate the blue ticks function. But you will be left annoyed, especially if you are the sender, thinking that the person may have read it but chose not to acknowledge or reply your message.

Then came the WhatsApp Group. Suddenly, you are added to this and that group. Family group, alumni group, workshop group, kampong group, project group, work group, all kinds of group. And you have no say. More annoying is when you are made the administrator of the group without even asking for your agreement first. And these people who added you dare to say “welcome to the group” when you didn’t even join by your own free will. Exiting the group will label you as not being a good sport.

Then there is this awkward moment where you want or have to leave the group but not wanting the group members to make a fuss out of it. And Yes, they will make a fuss out of whoever leaving. You leaving the group will be the headline of the day. WhatsApp is soon introducing the group controls function, where we will be able to select who can add you to a group by giving three options – Nobody, My Contacts or Everyone. I surely look forward to that function and will definitely choose Nobody. I hope next WhatsApp will introduce a way to quietly leave a group. Sneak out of the room without waking everybody up. That will certainly remove a major source of predicament.

For now, the best job WhatsApp done so far was introducing the delete message function. Im sure everyone has their own horror tales about sending texts to the wrong chat windows. The moment you realised it, your face turned pale, hands were shaking, and the 7 second rule set in – quickly apologise and say that the text was wrongfully sent or just do nothing and hope that no one takes notice. The delete message function allows you to delete the message within 7 minutes after clicking send. It however does not totally get you out of trouble, especially when the recipient of the deleted messages was your significant other who would still insist to know what the deleted messages were all about. There are still some explaining to do. It will be about time for WhatsApp to remove the “This message was deleted” notification in order for the delete message function to be totally effective.

Certainly with WhatsApp, it brought people, wherever they are in the world, closer “physically” in the virtual context. Gone were the days where we had to use calling cards to talk to people overseas. No more worries about sms charge and roaming bills. Communication is now so cheap that people are grossly taking it for granted. Parents would just text their kids who are right in the next room. People don’t talk anymore, they just send messages. Excitements, sadness, anxiety, fear, anger are shown through the use of emojis and stickers instead of body language and the tone of voices. Seeing the “online” status of loved ones seems to be good enough now to know that the person is okay. Likewise, leaving a group or blocking someone’s number would be good enough to show how angry and annoyed you are. Irritating people can be in your face without you even seeing them in person by posting lame and eyesoring updates to their status. No more birthday cards or Hari Raya cards. People just send their birthday greetings through images or forwarded texts with no personal touch at all.

Suddenly, from just family members and a few friends wishing you Happy Birthday, now in the WhatsApp era, you received birthday greetings from your ex-schoolmates in the Alumni WhatsApp group. Many if not all of the birthday texts are the same ones they just conveniently forwarded. For me, there was a good reason as to why I lost contact with these ex-schoolmates – which is simply that they were not my friends. They just went to the same school the same years as I was. After unwillingly being added to the alumni WhatsApp group, are they supposed to be my “friends” now? A number of them I didn’t even like back then, the adult, married-with-kids version of themselves are no better.

Bottomline, while WhatsApp killed DST revenues, it also along the way killed the human touch to conversations and relationships. It cuts distance, but it doesn’t bring people closer together in the true sense of the words. It does not create you new friends, but it does bring you unnecessary drama and annoyance that you can actually live without.

During this Ramadan month, much of the headlines on the news are about donations to “fakir miskin” in the country. This has puzzled me for the past few years. I think back in 2017, the issue began to catch my attention – people receiving these donations referred to as fakir miskin. Do we really have fakir miskin in the country? I always thought that poor people are defined as those who have nothing. Not just no job, but no means to get food hence nothing to eat, nowhere to cook, take a shower, sleep hence no shelter from the elements. I do get that there are Bruneians who cannot afford luxury things, but I would refer to them as  people with kurang kemampuan kewangan, in other word broke, not outrightly fakir miskin.

What I also don’t understand is the food drive. I mean they consumed the food that would last them maybe a month or so, then what. They are still broke. With Brunei littered with $1 even 50cent nasi katok vendors, Im sure cash will be more appreciated than a carton of instant noodles, which by the way, may contain MSG and boric acid that are dangerous to health.

I strongly believe that there is no one in the country who is starving or spending every day wandering around looking for food or money-for-food donations because he or she has not eaten for days. So I find it annoyingly lame when people, particularly today’s youngsters, organise this giving-out-food drive in the name of “community service”. Yes, we see this a lot in the US, but those people there are homeless and would definitely appreciate hot broth and soups especially during the cold winter nights. But, in Brunei, seriously? Do I look like I want food from you?? Do I look like I can’t afford cooking or buying this bubur lambuk myself?? Do I look like Im lost and couldn’t find my way home where I can cook my own food?? Which part of this is “community service” to you??

The youngsters these days seem to have poor understanding and poor conceptualisation (pun very much intended) of what community service entails. They see Kylie Jenner giving out food packs to people on the street and they thought that this is what community service is. They should ask the question, does this thing that we do improve the quality of life of the less fortunate people??

Giving out packed meals to random people? NO

Volunteering in festivals? NO

How about going to Kampongs and helping the less financially-able people fix their houses. I also see an elderly couple, the wife in a wheelchair some mornings at the bus stop waiting for the bus to go somewhere. I wonder what their stories are. Maybe the elderly lady needed to go for regular appointments at the hospital, or has to undergo dialysis three times a week (I miss my dad). Why not volunteer to provide transportation to these transportation-needy people.

I have a nephew whose salary is just $400 a month. He is not poor. He just can’t afford to go eat at fancy restaurants, buy a luxury car or an iPhone. He knew his financial limitations, so he spent within his means. There are lots of cheap cars and cheap phones available. Any money received from parents or relatives are to be put in savings that can be used for any future unexpected spendings such as when the car breaks down, fix leaking roofs or the air conditioner. So yes, they would appreciate money to inflate their savings rather than receiving maggi, eggs or beras wangi, and please don’t call them fakir miskin because they are not.

Just saying…

So last Sunday 14 April 2019, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook were down from 6-9 pm which seemed to have caused a lot of “rioting” all over the world. It even made it to the front page of Borneo Bulletin on the next day. I still struggle to make sense out of this. Why was it such a big deal. Yes, I would be restless if the entire Internet was down. But, on that night, it was not like the end of the world for me. Without WhatsApp I could still use SMS to contact people, send them emails or just give them a call. My theory is, these hardcore social media users thought that their “friends” would die of curiousity if they didn’t know where everyone was and what everyone was doing. Well, trust me people, they actually don’t care. They “liked” your posts because they wanted you to “like” their postings back. The more likes they get, the more they feel like their existence are validated. The truth is, there are no friends, just interests. So if you see me liking your post, I actually don’t give a shit.