I’ve always been fascinated by the sketching effects possible in Adobe Photoshop and other programs like Corel Painter. Its a lot of work but seeing the results from the pros makes me want to master it. Above is my first attempt. Long way to go…
Incidentally, Taiwan has decided to re-open its representative office in Brunei March 1, 2007 after it closed the facility last March 17 to save on diplomatic resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday.
Interesting that they want to re-open since there has been no change to our One China policy. Given this, a Brunei office would still be a “useless facility”. I’ll leave the political rhetoric to other more qualified bloggers.
I have nothing against Taiwan but I wonder what their objectives are this time around? I am sure our MOFATeers will be querying this exhaustively.
Hmm.. this sounds like a very pro China stance. Let me put it this way, China is to Taiwan as is Malaysia is to Brunei (whn it comes to bullying us about our borders and oil rights!). Bruneian’s chinese population is probably 90-95% from KinMen, a small little island north of Taiwan. They are proud to be from Taiwan. Pehin Lau and other well known local chinese businessmen are ALL from Taiwan. The Bruneian Chinese hence has much stronger ties to Taiwan than to China. I don’t think there’s any agenda to Taiwan trying to open up its office here again. Without the office here, it inconveniences us Bruneians with Taiwanese ties – business people and non business people alike. The government itself has business ties with Taiwan – Semaun Holding’s Prawn farm in Sungai Liang is run with parnership with a Taiwanese partner. I know of a friend who is posted in Taipei Taiwan from MIPR/MOFAT to strengthen business ties between Taiwan and Brunei since 2005. Furthermore The Chinese Embassy, through its bullying power actually call Bruneian Chinese up to NOT attend any Taiwan official functions. For me as a local Bruneian Chinese INDEPENDENT from China, I feel insulted and offended by their arrogance to presume control over our choices and policy. For me it is important to acknowledge the fact that we Bruneian chinese have stronger ties to Taiwan than to China and we should be proud of that. We’ve aready been bullied out of direct flights to Taiwan soo any more bullying is just not on.
Bear in mind also when the office closed down, ALOT of business people and the general population was greaty inconvenienced. This is definitely great news by alot of people.
Of course my view is not unbiased. My wife’s Taiwanese, but I stand by the fact that if Brunei was bullied by Malaysia constantly, then we’d know how to Taiwanese people feel too.
BKK: I knew we had a lot of Bruneian Chinese with Taiwanese roots, but had no idea of the numbers! Tks for clarifying dude!
Given the numbers you mention dude, I welcome the re-opening of the TECRO in Brunei but I just hope that its for the right reasons and it doesn’t end up a “useless facility” this time around 🙂
Hi Reeda,
actually my point is that the facility provided by the Taiwan government was never a useless facility in the first place. It was very useful to begin with to those who needed it and there were many who did use it regularly. when it closed, everyone had to spend at the very least $500 to get a visa from KL done. So to label the centre as useless would be a little inaccurate.
p.s. the number may not be 100% accurate as there are no stats on it, but I know the majority of the hokkien speaking population in Brunei is frm KinMen