This morning our office came close to a standstill. No email, no Teams, no shared files. People sat at their desks with plenty of attention to give and nothing to give it to. I watched capable colleagues wait for a status page to tell them when they could be useful…
Category: Society & Culture
Observations on Bruneian society, culture, and social issues
Brunei & Governance
Harga makin naik
“Harga makin naik.” Prices keep going up. You hear it everywhere these days, at the office, at the kopitiam, in the family chat. Usually said with a sigh, and then we move on to the next topic. For me it’s butter (pasal selalu membali masa dulu utk org rumah membuat…
Brunei Darussalam
Perhaps the Strawberries Are Doing Just Fine
Yesterday I wrote about raising strawberries. Not the ones at the supermarket, but the ones we have apparently been growing at home. Children so shielded from life’s knocks that they struggle when things do not go their way. Then I shared the post with my own children, and what came…
Society & Culture
Guest Lecture at UTB: What We Talked About
On the morning of 6 October, I spent a few hours in Lecture Room 7 at Universiti Teknologi Brunei, talking about Digital Media and Society with a cohort of Communications students from both Masters and Undergrad level. I was there as a guest, and I want to say thank you…
Faith & Reflection
It Starts With Us
Today’s khutbah was about work culture, which is not something you expect to hear from the mimbar, and it has been on my mind since. It talked about safety in the workplace, looking after mental health, speaking to each other politely and clearly, getting along with colleagues, and not letting…
Society & Culture
Why Dangdut
People ask me this more often than I expected. Why Dangdut? A man my age, with my background, humming Rhoma Irama in the car. The truthful answer is that I don’t really know. I can’t even tell you when I first heard it. It feels like it was always somewhere…