Global Voices » Brunei

Brunei: Support Group for Individuals with Autism

Mong Palatino — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:15:42 +0000

The Society for the Management of Autism Related issues in Training, Education and Resources - Brunei Darussalam or Smarter Brunei is a family support group and association which was established to protect every individual member with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their family members.

Historical Link between Brunei and Nanjing, China

Mong Palatino — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:31:56 +0000

The Daily Brunei Resources traces the historical link between sister cities Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei and Nanjing, China.

Brunika: Brunei's Instagramers Community

Mong Palatino — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:29:04 +0000

Brunika is Brunei's official instagramers network whose vision is for each members to “Share, Good Communication and Own Creativity”

Movember Brunei

Mong Palatino — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:07:38 +0000

Delwin Keasberry blogs about the Movember Brunei campaign which asks twitter users to put a moustache on their profile in support of the campaign to raise awareness on men's health.

Brunei's First Social Media Meet Up

Zul-Fadly — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:42:30 +0000

The social media scene in Brunei has again made its presence felt. Bloggers and twitterers in the sultanate gathered to attend a historic event in social media to unite and bring forth the faces and people behind the screen of their PCs or Laptops or whatever device they use.

Last October 21 marked an important date in the local social media calendar when the big guns of the Brunei blogosphere got together and organised Brunei's first Social Media Conference: “That's where it's @”. The event was held at the Radisson Hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan and some 80 social media enthusiasts attended this half-day event. A #socmedbn hash tag was created by the organizers to allow tweeps to share updates and quotes from this historic event.

Photo from CandidSyndrome Brunei ·

Before the panel discussions took place, Mr Lim Ming Soon of Telbru started the event with a very enlightening presentation of facts and figures and how TelBru, a major local Telco company, is embracing social media and trying its best to support and respond to the ever growing number of internet users in Brunei.

The conference was divided into three sessions. The first session “Dude, Where's my traffic?” was moderated by @emmagoodegg and on the panel were Rano Iskandar @ranoadidas of ranoadidas.com - No.1 Social Commercial Blogger in Brunei, Delwin Keasberry @BruneiTweet of projekbrunei.com - Brunei's No.1 Twitter star and Dinoza Maruf @Dinoza of Breeze Magazine, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Each panelist had expertise in different platform and spoke about their highs and low and how to get more traffic. Rano spoke about the number of hits and which news attracted a lot of hits. He also shared how he came about doing what he is doing now. BruneiTweet or also known as Delwin spoke about how his twitter persona as someone who has been away frrom Brunei wanted to bring together amazing stories about other Bruneians through his blog, but his main forte is his twitter presence. Dinoza hails from Sabah, Malaysia and his expertise is how he managed to get Breeze Magazine's existing 300 fans to more than 14,000 fans on Facebook. This came after their decision to shutdown their website and focus on their Facebook page. One of his pointers for generating follower was organizing competitions and giving way amazing and attractive prizes.

The second session was a much anticipated one because two prominent figures took center stage. The topic was “140 character or less: Why joined the twitter conversation?”. Moderating was blog hero, Tuan Haji Rozan bin Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yunos of @Bruneiresources and Bruneiresources.blogspot.com and his panel included Dato Timothy Ong, Chairman of Asia Inc Forum, who recently embraced social media via twitter, @Timothy_OngTM.

Dato Timothy spoke so passionately about his decision to participate in discussion with the young people of Brunei. He wanted to engage them and listen to them because these are the people who will one day lead this country and he was able to do this via twitter. You may view the whole panel discussion that has been uploaded on Youtube. 140 characters or less: Why join the twitter conversation?

The final session after a short break was a session entitled: “From Idea to Enterprise: What does it take?”. Moderating the panel was Tom Bonius, Social Media Coordinator, Rapidea Solutions, Sabah, Malaysia and his panel were Keeran Janin (@keeranJ), Founder of MeSixty and Simon Soo, Director of Mint. Both the panelists shared their experiences in the ICT profession and how to deal with the ups and downs managing your own business.

One of the highlights of the conference was the use of Pigeonhole, a site where people can log in via Facebook or Twitter or Linked and direct questions to the panelist. It was a good platform but in the words of Dato Timothy, nothing beats human contact.

From @emmagoodegg, an assessment of the event

Aside from the social media angles, I personally felt that one more important aspect of events like these is to get off your backside and get involved in your community. As residents, we must take responsibility for our society and encourage the spirit of togetherness. And that is to me the beauty of social media, the general good that can be done by cultivating social networks, large and small, through IT.

The final word however, is that in spite of all of this IT, it is important to actually make human contact, to sit in a room, in a group and hear one another speak face to face. To paraphrase one prominent speaker, it is what makes us human; we are after all not robots.

@marg was impressed with the conference

Another thing that thoroughly impressed me was how unlike normal conferences, where people just sat, listen, took notes and asked questions, this conference was where most sat, eyes on their smart devices (laptops, phones etc), tweeted what struck them throughout the sessions and asked questions ONLINE!

Oddly enough, on this day when everyone had their fingers glued onto their keyboards/keypads/touchscreens, they weren’t being anti-social! In fact, it was pretty interactive as the questions posted and the number of votes were projected for all to see

Protecting the Beaches of Brunei

Mong Palatino — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:17:35 +0000

The Beach Bunch Association was established to “sustain and protect the beaches of Brunei from pollution.” Some of the activities of the group include the following:

We organise and conduct cleaning campaigns regularly on Brunei beaches

We organise and conduct awareness programs on waste management on the beaches

We promote reduction in waste generation in particular plastic bottles and plastics bag

We provide environmental education programs through public, private and educational institutions

Beach Bunch also taps the power of social media to gather more support from the public. Aside from its website, it also has Facebook and Twitter accounts.

One of its projects include a mapping of Brunei beaches:

Google Map of Brunei Beaches

Another mapping project involves the identification of the location, services offered and situation of the beaches in the country.

A coastal clean up was recently organized where 150 volunteers from various schools participated. According to the organizers, “a total of 418.5 kilogrammes of waste were collected, out of which 100 kgs were plastic, one and a half kgs of aluminium and 317 kgs of non-recyclable waste.”

The volunteers wrote about their participation on Facebook:

Harold Raps: Yeah! Had a great time! Helped with something good and met some great people! Best thing was that the beach looked so much cleaner afterwards!

Anthony Er: Well Done, BB. It only takes a spark to get this fire of cleanliness going. Impressed with the big turn-out. Congrats also to Rizan Latif and the rest of the BB organizers. Bravo !

Beach Bunch Clean-up event

Volunteers in the beach clean-up drive

Jan Shim was one of the participants of the clean up event:

I think you would have a lot of fun as I did covering this international anniversary beach clean-up event. I cannot imagine how this much crap could end up on the beach and how, evidence from photos, fishermen could leave nets conveniently washed up to the beach to be cleaned up by others.

Beach Bunch collected the photos which will be part of an international database:

We believe that no matter where we live, the ocean is our life support system. That's why we're teaming up with Ocean Conservancy, Project Aware and Clean-up the World to help keep our ocean and waterways clean. The data collected will be uploaded into an international database. This is the 2nd time Beach Bunch participate on such a world event.

Brunei: Promoting Health Consciousness Online

Mong Palatino — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 03:50:08 +0000

Brunei's Health Promotion Centre taps the power of social media to advocate a healthy lifestyle among Bruneians. Its latest campaign is Diabetes Awareness.

Brunei International Defence Exhibition 2011

Mong Palatino — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:29:42 +0000

EmmaGoodEgg blogs about the Brunei International Defence Exhibition or BRIDEX 2011, a bi-annual defence exhibition. It's also the premier defence and security event in Southeast Asia

Brunei: E-government portal launched

Mong Palatino — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:34:43 +0000

The e-Darussalam website was launched by the Brunei government. It's a single web portal where Internet users will have access to all of the government's online services.

Introducing Brunei's Most Popular Blogger

Zul-Fadly — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:20:30 +0000

When Brunei social blogger RanoAdidas celebrated his eight year anniversary last month, it was an event which was well-covered by the mainstream media. It's an indication not only of his popularity as a blogger but also his success in promoting social media in Brunei.

The Brunei Times recognizes the popularity of the blogger whose blog traffic is an average of 5,000 to 6,000 hits per day and 20,000 to 25,000 hits per month

Ranoadidas has over 6 thousand followers on twitter (@ranoadidas) and his facebook fan page is less than 200 clicks away from 8 thousand likes.

Last month, Brunei's celebrity blogger, hosted his 8th year anniversary in style. He rented out one of the halls at the International Convention Centre and had booths set up for clients and sponsors to partake in the event.

Ranoadidas with young fans

The four day event was launched on Thursday 26 May, 2011, and was packed with performances and contests. Everyday Mr. Rano was giving away vouchers and gifts and balloons for kids and adults alike.

Ranoadidas balloons

A special hash tag was created on twitter #ran8adidas and featured a photo contest for Instagram and MyTubo.

Local blogger, emmagoodegg or known on twitter as @emmagoodegg, who is a weekly columnist at local newspaper The Brunei Times, paid tribute to Rano's success by doing a feature on him,

When we think Bruneian Blogger, we think Ranoadidas. And you'd be lying to yourself if you thought otherwise.

Another local Blogger, Nonnie King or known as @kisich on twitter, blogged about one of the highlighted events, The Food Eating Contest, hosted by two local food outlets, @kapowburger and @kitarojapanese.

Live streaming of the event was also possible with the help of the guys from @CornerGeeks who helped set up live video feed via UStream.

Ranoadidas has proven that blogging is not only a potential source of income but a viable platform to influence public media as well. He faced many struggles in the past 8 years but he didn't lose his belief about the power of blogging to become an important social empowerment tool in Brunei.

Aside from covering various events sponsored by private and public institutions, he also gets involved in charity whenever he can. He recently partnered with another celebrity blogger Reeda Malik of anakbrunei.com.bn and raised money for a charity event hosted by HSBC.

Earlier this year the two of them were also invited to attend the first ASEAN Bloggers conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Indeed, Ranoadidas' success is an inspiration to many bloggers in Brunei.

Brunei: Largest solar power cells in Southeast Asia

Mong Palatino — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 23:48:03 +0000

Jan Shim blogs about the installation of solar panels in the Seria Power Station at Tenaga Suria in Brunei. The equipment is said to be the largest photovoltaic system of its kind in Southeast Asia

Bieber Fever Hits Brunei

Zul-Fadly — Tue, 10 May 2011 21:39:58 +0000

After the release of Justin Bieber's silver screen debut, ‘Never Say Never‘, a movie/documentary of his trials and tribulations, his ‘Beliebers' here in Brunei have attempted in full force to get his attention because Brunei is not one of his concert stopovers in Southeast Asia.

News of his sold out concerts in neighboring cities, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, spurred his fans in Brunei to create the #Bruneineedsbeiber hashtag and local fans flooded the hashtag #Brunei every minute to get @justinbieber's attention.

‘Brunei Beliebers' even opened a twitition to help get the Canadian star to come to Brunei. To date they have 366 signatures.

Local blogger @marul69 of geekinwhite.com was never a ‘belieber' and ‘is still not a bieber fan' but after watching ‘Never Say Never', he mentioned,

After watching this movie, I have to admit his success is no fluke, not manufactured or because of his looks entirely. He has real talent from a very young age. The type of talent one is born with.

I’m in no way Bieber-ized. His songs are catchy no doubt, but it’s nothing I wanna listen to daily. All I am saying is that I respect his determination, his never say never attitude, the hard work he has put into it and the sacrifies he had made to be where he is. And when you’re 16 years old and you sold out Madison Square Garden in 22 minutes, that is just sick!

Brunei's twitter celebrity @BruneiTweet sent out his first tweet to @justinbieber after watching ‘Never Say Never' film and mentioned that he watched it for social media researching purposes.

Another local blogger @Bruneiankidsays in his blog ‘memoirs of a Bruneian Kid' has nothing but praises for the 17 year old.

think he’s a gifted singer no matter what the future lies for him. There’s just something about him

Some ‘Brunei Beliebers' has even gone to the extent of making videos and posting it on YouTube to convince Bieber to come to Brunei. Meanwhile, local talent Aziz Harun, @jambul212 records his version of Bieber hit song, ‘Baby.'

But after all these attempts, ‘Brunei Beliebers' are still frustrated because @justinbieber has yet to reply to any of the tweets from Brunei.

Brunei: Fake Bus Robbery Alerts Citizens

Zul-Fadly — Tue, 10 May 2011 02:18:14 +0000

Last week, the story of a robbery in the busy business area of Gadong, Brunei, spread quickly on Twitter and Facebook.

@ranoadidas: http://twitpic.com/4t68c2 Part of the crime scene this afternoon, near Ayamku Gdg. Lady hurt from cash robbery. Around 3pm #brunei

@givemecaek:‎ First time I heard there was a day light robbery in Brunei. o.O

Local celebrity blogger ranoadidas posted on his blog his concern about this bus robbery which is unprecedented in Brunei:

rumours that the victim was killed or murdered were not true. She was manhandled for sure and the culprit managed to walk away with the $$. According to a local source, the lady worker withdrew some substantial amount of money from a bank and walked in Gadong area. Only then she was apprehended outside Ayamku Gadong and that's how it all happened.

… the lady victim is in stable condition and the robber is still on the loose. Now the question is about the level of safety in Brunei. This is truly a sad incident to know of because the magnitude of the robbery. This happened in broad day light and in public. This would indeed change the mindset of the public of bringing $$ in hand too.

I do hope the police and relevant authorities can find the culprit. So guys.. just be aware and mindful if you withdraw loads of money in public places… today's incident may have cause some temporary doubts about the safety in public places.

Scene of the crime? From the twitpic page of @purply28

An earlier report stated that a few passengers on a bus might have caught a glimpse of the ‘robbery'. Taken from Brunei Times:

As the bus was still moving, he said he could not see the occupants inside the car but noticed that both front doors were open. From his line of sight, he also saw another individual standing “a bit far” from the car, who also witnessed the incident.

“He was looking directly at the car. I don't know. He could've been one of them (an accomplice) or just a witness,” he said.

But even before the papers came out the next day, there was already rumours that the robbery was staged. The fake robbery made the front page of one of the local newspapers. Apparently, an employee tried to steal money from an employer by faking a bus robbery. Here are some comments on Twitter:

@kisich: okay… so, the robbery never happened.

@ranoadidas: twitpic.com/4thu4v So the robbery was staged??

@d3x: Worrying trends.twitpic.com/4thvct

Even from the start the story did not really make sense. Why would anyone withdraw BNF $20,000 and not have someone to accompany them? This is a tragic story of how the ‘assaulted' person tried to cheat her own employers but in the end could not pull it off out of guilt.

In a fairy tale, there would be a happy ending, in this case the employers could possible sympathise here and decide to help her. However, this is not a fairy tale - in real life she will have to face the law.

This incident, regardless of its false nature, had given the people of this country some cause for alarm that some people are not afraid to resort to crime just to make a quick buck. It just shows that money, in this case, can do more evil than good.

Brunei: Health Promotion Blueprint

Mong Palatino — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:38:01 +0000

During the launching of the Health Promotion campaign in Brunei, a walkathon was organized which was participated by 6,000 people.

Brunei: Twestival Unites Local Netizens

Zul-Fadly — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:15:12 +0000

Social media movement Twestival made its inaugural debut in Brunei on March 24, 2011, which marked an important day in the local social media scene. The chosen motto was ‘Tweet.Meet.Eat.Give‘ in order to raise money for the Child Development Centre in support of the World Down Syndrome Day. Another aim of the Twestival is to connect the local Twitter community offline and give them an opportunity to meet face to face.

The Brunei Twestival event was sponsored by Kitaro Japanese Restaurant and Swensens Cafe & Restaurant, which agreed to hold a food eating competition in support of the charity. The proceeds of the event will be used to buy new equipment and educational toys for the children of the Child Development Centre.

A pre-Twestival food challenge event was held at @KitaroJapanese Restaurant where contestants had to consume a plate of sushi. One of the top finalists in last year's Borneo Blogger awards, BorneoColours (@marul69), was very supportive of the Twestival event and uploaded a video of one of the winners of the Sumo Challenge.

At Swensen's Cafe & Restaurant, the Huge Swensen's Challenge required participants to eat the infamous ‘Earthquake' of 8 scoops of ice cream weighing 3 oz each in a huge bowl topped with whipped cream and other sweet toppings. Local blogging heroes came to support and participate in the event like @ranoadidas, @anakbrunei, Senor Pablo, @kurapak and @maurina to name a few.

One of the main organisers @BruneiTweet for Twestival Brunei 2011 mentioned on his blog the number of attendants and how much was collected this year.

Funds were raised from a portion of the proceeds from dinner sales at Kitaro Japanese Restaurant Brunei on 22nd March 2011, and from the sale of ice cream and kids meals at Swensen's Brunei (from 20th March 2011 to 24th March 2011). The tally of funds raised came up to BND$1,573.82 and has gone towards the purchase of developmental toys, teaching aids and educational equipment for the children who undertake therapy at the Child Development Center.

Close to 500 people attended across both local events, many Twitter friends met up for the first time…

Another one of the organisers @emmagoodegg took the opportunity to thank the outstanding individuals who volunteered to help make Twestival Brunei 2011 a success in her recent post on borneocolours:

Along the way we picked up many big-hearted folks who helped with the logo (@jidah), technical issues (@thewheat, @mfirdaus & @talkingaloudbru), background details (@faeyakof & the crew of @ubdfm), PR (our local social media friends), including the sponsors (Swensens & @kitarojapanese) and the public who came to give their money and time.

A local podcaster @talkingaloudbru was present at the event and managed to do quick interviews during the pre-Twestival event at @KitaroJapanese Restaurant. He was also one of the volunteers promoting the event and he did a ‘live recording' at Swensens during the main event. You can listen to pre-twestival podcasts here and Twestival Brunei podcast here.

@kurapak one of Brunei's well known bloggers, showed his support for the event by making a comic poster using the Twestival Brunei logo on his site. @johnreydangilan on his blog theasianbimbo made appearances during both the pre and main twestival events.

There were a lot of familiar faces on twitter and to be able to meet them were a little scary for me. I am a social pariah of some sort so being in the sea of all these people is a little bit of “I could pee a bit in my pants/puke inside my mouth” moment.

Being the charitable person I ~~pretend to be~~ am, I am glad to be able to take part in this offline gathering of twitter lurves especially for a good cause. Even greater joy for me to see people who I have conversed with on twitter and a few more who recognised me from my rants here and there.

More pictures of the event are available at @anakbrunei's blog @ranoadidas's site. The organizers of Twestival Brunei 2011 are @BruneiTweet, @emmagoodegg and @zulfadly.