Over $500m spent on fuel subsidies in 2011 (The Brunei Times)

Published in the April 20, 2013 issue of The Brunei Times. Click here for original article. 

Over $500m spent on fuel subsidies in 2011, strain on coffers

Jennee Rubrico
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Saturday, April 20, 2013

THE sultanate spent more than half a billion Brunei dollars on fuel subsidies in 2011, putting a "tremendous strain" on the national coffers, an official of the Asian Development Bank told The Brunei Times.

Minsoo Lee, senior economist in the Macroeconomics and Finance Research Division of the Economics and Research Department of ADB, said in an email interview that the sultanate spent US$470 million ($580.283 million) on general fuel subsidies in 2011.

This meant that the government shouldered US$1,159, or $1,431.84, of the fuel costs of each person in the country, he added.

"The government provides very generous subsidies to ordinary citizens through a variety of pathways, including electricity, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, or cooking gas), and transport fuels," Lee said.

"The costs of these programmes do weigh upon a government, even one with substantial financial resources. Transport fuels are held perhaps 45 per cent below market costs and are part of the overall energy subsidies," he added.

Transport fuel in the sultanate, said to be lowest in the region, ranges from 30 cents to 60 cents per litre at the pump.

Data from the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH show that Brunei pays for almost half of the cost of the fuel that motorists buy at the pump.

On its website, the organisation noted that the commercial cost of gasoline with a 92 octane rating is at 92 cents per litre, but only retails for 51.9 cents per litre, with the sultanate covering the remaining 40.1 cents.

"The subsidy for diesel is even higher," it said, as it noted that the commercial cost for the fuel is at 91 cents per litre while it only sells at 31 cents, with the government shouldering the remaining 60 cents.

The GIZ draws up a database on fuel prices, taxes, price policies for countries in the world on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economy Cooperation and Development.

"Reallocating fiscal resources to infrastructure, health and education would spur growth and make it more inclusive," Lee said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Health proposed before parliament a $366.479 million budget for this year, to cover for payroll, additional manpower, purchase of medicines, hospital upgrades, procurement of laboratory equipment and health promotion, among others.

Social services, for its part, was given a $351.6 million outlay from the development budget to support projects in education, health, national housing and human resources, it was earlier reported.

The Ministry of Development has earmarked $313.2 million for the 2013/2014 financial year, for flood control projects, improvements in road safety, and public housing services.

The Ministry of Education, on its part, gets a bigger budget allocation than the amount the government spent to subsidise fuel in 2011. The ministry presented a $759.128 million budget for 2013/2014, up 3.8 per cent $731.066 million the previous fiscal year at the ninth Legislative Council proceedings.

The allocation was made for teachers' salaries, overhead costs, school buses, purchase of educational equipment, and training for teaching staff.

The budgets for these ministries, however, do not take into account support that may come from the 10th National Development Project, which was given $1.05 billion for this fiscal year.

Lee noted that while popular, selling fuel below true market prices "increases energy consumption, distorts energy development planning, and damages the environment".

Reducing the real price for diesel or electricity, he said, weakens incentives to conserve on energy and inhibits the development of renewable resources, which Brunei has been pushing for.

"Worse, the main beneficiaries of energy subsidies are not the poor. If the intent is to make energy affordable to the poor, only the poorest 20 percentile should benefit from the subsidy," he said, adding that in Asia, only five to 15 per cent of the subsidy benefits go to the poorest of the poor.

Lee also said that Brunei's ability to produce oil does not make it less vulnerable to the impacts of fuel subsidies, noting that the country's affluence is critically dependent on the energy sector.

"The oil and gas sectors account for nearly two-thirds of Brunei's GDP (gross domestic product), roughly 95 per cent of Brunei's export revenues and about 90 per cent of government revenues," he noted.

"This dependence on a single natural resource makes the economy vulnerable to fluctuations arising from energy markets. In common with other small oil and gas exporting countries, the economy is subject to pressures from swings in global prices and domestic production issues," he added.

In the recently released ADB Development Outlook 2013, the bank ranked Brunei the third biggest provider of fossil fuel subsidies in Asia when considered as a share of a country's economy.

In the list of 11 Asian countries, Brunei, which provides subsidies of over three per cent of its GDP, or the total value of goods and services produced by a country within a period, trailed Bangladesh, at five per cent of its GDP, and Pakistan whose subsidies cover more than four per cent of its economy.

According to the report, a US$0.25 per litre increase in fuel prices causes a 4.5 per cent decline in real income of households in Asia and the Pacific.

The impact is partly direct, as households have to spend more on fuel, and partly indirect, as prices for goods and services increase with higher embedded energy costs, the report added.

Brunei produced 155,000 barrels of oil a day in January to September 2012, lower than the 166,000 barrels a day it produced in 2011.

The Brunei Times

Brunei telco rates highest in ASEAN (The Brunei Times)

Published in the April 13, 2013 edition of The Brunei Times. Click here for the original article

Brunei telco rates highest in ASEAN

Jennee Rubrico

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Saturday, April 13, 2013

THE sultanate has the most expensive tariffs for telecommunications services in the ASEAN, but this does not mean that it has the fastest Internet connection in the region, a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) the other day shows.

The 2013 edition of the Global Information Technology Report, which ranks 144 economies in the world for networked readiness, places Brunei at 135th for affordability of telecommunications services.

It beats the seven other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which were included in the study: Vietnam, which at 38th of 144 economies has the lowest tariff for telecommunications services in the regional bloc; Indonesia, at 39th, Thailand at 45th; Malaysia, ranked 50th; Singapore (55th); the Philippines (82nd); and Cambodia (112th).

The WEF does not include Myanmar and Laos, the two other members of the 10-nation grouping, in the study.

In computing affordability of telecommunications services, WEF factors in mobile cellular tariffs, fixed broadband Internet rates and a competition factor derived from the Internet and telephony sectors competition index.

Brunei fares the worst in ASEAN for mobile cellular and fixed broadband Internet tariffs, with charges averaging US$0.45 a minute for mobile cellular calls and US$81.20 per month for wired broadband Internet service.

In contrast, Thailand, which has the cheapest cellular phone rates among the countries in the region, charges only US$0.09 per minute for calls. Vietnam, for its part, charges US$28.01 per month for fixed Internet services, the lowest among the members of the regional bloc.

For the Internet and telephony sectors competition index which measures the level of competition for Internet services, international long distance calls and mobile telephone services on a scale of 0 to 2 (2 being the highest) Brunei is again at the bottom, with a score of 0.78.

The country has three telco providers: Telekom Brunei Berhad, DST and B-Mobile.

Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore are the regional leaders in the index with the score of 2. All the other countries in the region that are covered by the study score at least 1.79 in the index.

The WEF study also shows that the high Internet tariff of Brunei does not translate to faster connection the country has an international Internet bandwidth per user of 22 kb/s, a far cry from Singapore's 343.7 kb/s.

Brunei's bandwidth, however, is not the lowest in the region. The country of 400,000 people is only slightly behind Thailand's bandwidth of 24.6 kb/s, and is better than Cambodia's 13.5 kb/s, the Philippines' 12.4 kb/s, Malaysia's 10.7 kb/s, Vietnam's 10 kb/s, and Indonesia's 7.2 kb/s.

The WEF study also shows that Bruneians are Internet savvy, ranking second only to Singapore in the region when it comes to the use of virtual social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for professional and personal communications.

And while there are more mobile phone subscriptions than there are people in the sultanate, with an average subscription of 109.2 per for every 100 people, the WEF report shows that the country's telecommunications market has room to grow.

The report shows that only 56 per cent of Bruneians are Internet users, lower than Singapore's 71 per cent and Malaysia's 61 per cent. For every 100 people in the sultanate, only 6.3 have mobile broadband Internet subscriptions, compared to regional leader Singapore's 114.1, Indonesia's 22.2, Vietnam's 18, and Malaysia's 12.3.

And although it ranks third in the region for the category, Brunei only has 5.7 subscriptions for fixed broadband Internet for every 100. Singapore has 25.6 and Malaysia, 7.4.

The country fares better when it comes to households with Internet access and those with personal computers.

According to the WEF, 65 per cent of Bruneian households have Internet access while 79.6 per cent have personal computers. In the region, it trails only Singapore, with 84.8 per cent and 86.1 per cent respectively.

Software piracy in the country, at 67 per cent of the total software units installed, is the third lowest in the region, after Singapore's 33 per cent and Malaysia's 55 per cent.

The study does not indicate Brunei's mobile network coverage rate, or the percentage of total population covered by a mobile network signal. It is the only country in the region with unknown network coverage levels.

On the regulatory indicators, Brunei scored a 4.1 on a range of 0 to 7 in the assessment of its ICT laws, trailing Singapore (5.8), Malaysia (5.2) and Indonesia (4.2) in the region. It ranks third in the region for intellectual property protection, after Singapore and Malaysia.

Competition in the country is within the global average, with Brunei scoring 4.8 on a range of a low of 1 to a high 7. Competition in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand is seen as more intense.

Brunei also lags other countries in the region in the number of procedures and the time required to start a business, at 15 steps and 101 days respectively. Malaysia, and Singapore, which lead in the first indicator, only require three steps, while it only takes three days to start a business in Singapore.

The Philippines, meanwhile, requires more steps than Brunei to start a business (16), but processes the requirements faster, at 36 days.

Brunei is above the global average of 4.3, in a range of 1 to 7, for the social impact of ICT on access to basic services. It scores 5.1 amd is behind Singapore and Malaysia. It is also on the upper side of the range for Internet access in schools, scoring 5.3 in a range of 1 to 7, putting it in second place in the region, after Singapore.

For overall networked readiness, Brunei is ranked 57th of 144 economies, three notches down from 54th place last year.

The Brunei Times

'Brunei 3rd in Asia's fuel subsidy list' (The Brunei Times)

Published in the April 10, 2013 issue of The Brunei Times

Click here for original story

'Brunei 3rd in Asia's fuel subsidy list'

Jennee Grace U Rubrico
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

THE fuel subsidy the sultanate gives to its people is among the highest in Asia when considered as a share of its economy, a report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) shows.A ranking of 11 Asian countries that provide a fuel consumption subsidy in the 2013 Asian Development Outlook puts Brunei third, after Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The fuel subsidies provided by Brunei, which according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) is the biggest net exporter of oil liquids in the Asia Pacific, account for over three per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) as of 2010, the report states.

The Oxford Business Group, in its country report on Brunei for 2011, placed the sultanate's GDP in 2010 at $11.846 billion at constant prices.

The country of about 400,000 people offers fuel prices of between 30 cents and 60 cents at the pump.
Statistics from the country's Royal Customs and Excise Department show that Brunei's prices for Super 92 petrol, as of May 2010, were about 22 cents per litre cheaper than in east Malaysia's Limbang, while Premium 97 was about 27 cents per litre cheaper.

The country produced 155,000 barrels of oil a day in January to September 2012 lower than the 166,000 barrels a day it produced in 2011.

Bangladesh, which tops the ADB list, provides subsidies that eat up five per cent of its GDP. Pakistan, meanwhile, provides subsidies translating to more than four per cent of its economy, according to the ADB.

Vietnam and Thailand trail Brunei, with subsidies accounting for around 2.8 per cent of their respective economies.

Placing sixth was Malaysia, which provides subsidies translating to around 2.5 per cent of its GDP.
Former OPEC member Indonesia, which subsidises fuel by as much as 2.5 per cent of its economy, came in seventh.

Other countries in the list were India, where fuel subsidies are estimated to be around 1.5 per cent of its GDP; Sri Lanka, at one per cent; the Philippines, at around 0.6 per cent, and China, at around 0.5 per cent.
Noting that governments impose consumer subsidies to guarantee affordability and protect households from potential shocks of fuel price increases, the ADB nevertheless stressed that the move artificially reduces the price of energy and encourages over consumption.

Simulations done by the bank show a US$0.25 ($0.30) per litre increase in fuel prices causes a 4.5 per cent decline in the real income of households in the Asia Pacific.

"Such subsidies are well-intentioned, or at least popular, but they increase energy consumption, distort energy development planning, and, when applied unevenly, provide incentives for adulteration and illegal cross-border sales," the report states.

It added that while subsidies were meant to help the poor, the less well-off "benefit little" from reduced fuel prices.

"If the intent is to make energy more affordable to the poor, only the poorest 20 percentile should benefit from the subsidy. In fact, the poor in Asia benefit little from subsidised fuel prices because many lack electricity and gas connections, few own vehicles, and most transport sparingly," it said.

Citing a study by the IEA, the ADB noted that in nine Asian countries with the highest fossil fuel subsidies and two countries in Africa, only 15 per cent of the benefit of kerosene subsidies and five per cent of subsides for liquefied petroleum gas went to the poorest 20th percentile.

In the meantime, the amount that the government shoulders "puts pressure on the budget and external account".

The ADB recommends that economies switch from general transfers to targeted subsidies to benefit the poor and reduce over consumption.

"Poor households are identified for benefits like food distribution, education support, and medical treatment. The energy subsidy could be similarly targeted," it said.

"For example, a cash payment scaled for the energy used by a typical energy-poor household, not tied to the households' energy consumption, would extend access without encouraging wasteful use."

It said this system would give beneficiaries an incentive to use less energy and keep the surplus from the payout to fund other needs.

"This achieves the objective of restraining energy use without creating the perverse incentives that so frequently drive energy systems off track.

"Replacing general energy subsidies with subsidies targeting the energy poor can immediately restrain energy demand without denying those in need. It can go a long way towards laying the foundation for Asian energy security," the ADB said. The Brunei Times

Zoomania (BusinessWorld)

published in the November 9 , 2012 issue of BusinessWorld. Click here for the original article.

Focus

Posted on 06:03 PM, November 08, 2012
Text and Photos by Jennee Grace U. Rubrico

Zoomania

Under artificial lighting that approximates the gleam of the moon, lions roar, tigers swim in a pool inside their enclosure, and owls stare hard from inside their cage. The animals that are awake are on hunt mode, but content themselves with feeding on prey that’s served dead.

OTTERS interact with the visitors of the zoo

It is 8.30 p.m. at the Taiping Night Safari, and while the day walkers sleep in their darkened cages, the nocturnal mammals, reptiles, and birds lose the lethargy that weighs them down at daytime. They now have full use of their faculties, and in the limited space that they have, are raring to get the night going.
Sitting on a 14-hectare piece of land in the heart of Taiping’s Lake Gardens, the Zoo Taiping & Night Safari is noteworthy in a number of ways. The 51-year-old zoo is the oldest in Malaysia, having hosted fauna since 1961. It is also the only night safari in peninsular Malaysia, and is a breeding center for some of the world’s endangered animals. The animal park has also put the sleepy town of Taiping, in the state of Perak, on the country’s tourism map.

A baby elephant bred at the conservation center
 walks with adults in their enclosure

Every year, 700,000 visitors go to the town north of Kuala Lumpur to visit the animal park, Hanim Ramly, the head of Taiping’s Tourism, Education and Publicity Division, said in an interview.
The visitors are mostly students from all over Malaysia who take school trips to the town, roughly three hours away from the capital, to learn more about the 200 species and 1,300 animals it hosts.
The zoo opens at 8.30 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. It reopens as a night safari from 8 to 11 p.m. On holidays and Saturdays, opening hours extend up to midnight.
Visitors can go to the park during the day then come back in the evening to see how the animals, a sizable number of which are nocturnal, change under the veil of darkness.
At night, they remain in their enclosures, so visitors can safely navigate around the property. It gets a little disconcerting when you know that vicious animals such as crocodiles, hippopotamuses and panthers -- not to mention snakes -- lurk somewhere in the area, and the only sources of light are the soft glow of bulbs that are installed in certain enclosures to mimic moonlight.
But, Dina, a zoo ranger and our guide for the trip, says there has not been, to her knowledge, any untoward incident at the zoo involving guests.

Malayan tigers frolic in the water

Operating mainly through revenues generated by ticket sales, the nature park nevertheless avoids money-generating gimmicks like animal shows. But if they are lucky, visitors may see the beasts being given food during feeding time. Guests can go around on foot, or by taking the trams that the zoo provides for both day- and night-time operations.
Meeting guests immediately after they pass the turnstile are some of the smallest and rarest monkeys in the world. Among the residents are the endangered golden-handed tamarin, the saddleback tamarin, and the pygmy marmoset, said to be the smallest monkey in the world. The slow loris, which moves at the same pace as someone suffering from arthritis, is also housed in the complex.
Their bigger counterparts, the old world monkeys, are housed in a different section of the zoo, where they have enough space to swing around.
"The difference between the old world monkeys such as the chimpanzees and the orangutans, and the new world monkeys, besides their size, is their tails. Old world monkeys do not use their tails for swinging or holding things," Dina says.
Primate lovers would have to come during daytime because at night, the apes sleep.
Fans of otters will delight in the park’s naturally adorable residents. They are bubbly, with bright eyes that follow visitors’ movements even as they also move around in their glass enclosures to ask for food. And they seem to be awake both during the day and at night.

Scarlet ibis and flamingo share an enclosure

Cat lovers, meanwhile, have a lot to see with the zoo’s sizable collection of felines, which range from the small cats to their great kin. In the park are several civet species, the medium-sized Asiatic Golden cat, panthers, lions and tigers.
Dina reveals that the zoo has successfully bred Malayan tigers, which are on the endangered species list. On its web site, the San Diego Zoo also mentions Zoo Taiping & Night Safari as one of the conservation centers for Malayan tigers.
The zoo has also successfully bred elephants, monkeys, deer and night herons. When other zoological parks in the world need any of the creatures that Taiping has too many of, an animal swap usually happens, Dina says.
The park boasts a good mix of endemic and exotic fauna. Besides the Malayan tiger, the endemic animals include the Asian elephant, Malayan sun bear, wild boar, bearded pig, tapir, and gaur, which is Perak’s state symbol.
Among the exotic species are the arapaima, the world’s biggest scaled freshwater fish, which are endemic to the Amazon river basin. The vicious fish, which look like overgrown arowana, eat smaller animals. They can grow up to 11 feet, are considered to be living fossils for not having changed over the past 13 million years, and are on the endangered species list due to overfishing and loss of habitat.
Also in the zoo are the scarlet ibis -- bright red wading birds which are also endemic to South America. Wallabies, cassowary and ostriches from Australia, as well as deer, zebras and giraffes from Africa are also residents.

Wild boars take a nap during the day

The center tries to provide an environment that takes the animals’ welfare into account. Flash photography, for instance, is not allowed. While this would make taking pictures at night difficult, it also reduces the stress the animals are subjected to.
Young males are also separated from the alpha male when they become a threat, in apparent deference to the laws of the jungle. And in the case of lions, Dina says they take turns in taking the viewing platform.
"We try to keep the setting as close as possible to the animals’ natural habitat," Dina says, noting that the park tries to operate as an open-concept zoo.
Just how close an approximation to the animals’ natural habitat is it? Enough for them to keep their instincts, it seems.
"A baby monkey fell from the tree above the arapaima pond," Dina recounts. "It was eaten by the fish."

---

Zoo Taiping charges an entrance fee of RM12 per person while the Night Safari charges RM16 per person. Taiping can be reached by bus, train or car. Visitors who drop off the bus or railway station can take a taxicab to the animal park.

25: Looking Back, Moving Forward (book)

For its silver anniversary, BusinessWorld came out with a coffeetable book called 25: Looking Back, Moving Forward.

I was asked to write one of the chapters of the book -- on the Philippine power sector. Running for 10 pages, the chapter discusses how the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the law passed in 2001 to rectify the problems in the power sector, has or has not been able to meet its mandate.

The book also tackles other sectors and the issues they grapple with. Philippine telecommunications, agriculture, and the stock exchange are just some of the important industries discussed extensively in the book.

25: Looking Back, Moving Forward was launched on July 28, 2012, and will soon be sold to the public.

For inquiries, call +632-5359901

'Brunei must diversify economy to avoid Dutch Disease' (The Brunei Times)

This originally appeared on the May 2, 2012 issue of The Brunei Times. Click here for the original article

'Brunei must diversify economy to avoid Dutch Disease'

A file photo of an oil drilling platform off the coast of Brunei. 'Petro-states' like Brunei need to decrease heavy dependence on oil and gas, which could be earmarked for other investments instead, said the World Economic Forum in a paper titled 'New Energy Architecture: Enabling an effective transition'. Picture: Courtesy of Shell

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

PETRO-STATES like Brunei have to look at ways of diversifying their economies, a study conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) states.
In the paper "New Energy Architecture: Enabling an effective transition", which was released last month, the WEF said that countries that capitalise on their hydrocarbon resource base depend on oil and gas exports heavily to boost their economies.
This in turn puts a heavy toll on the environment and the economies, it added.
Brunei, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Kazakhstan, among others, are categorised by the WEF study as "capitalise" countries, or those with large hydrocarbon reserves and have the energy infrastructure to focus on sustainable ways of harnessing them. Referred to as petro-states, countries under the archetype typically export oil and gas.
"Key opportunities for these countries involve diversification of economies and leveraging experience to enable expansion across the energy value chain," the study states.
It adds that "options with regard to maximising energy sector returns are not necessarily sustainable", and that they must be "carefully considered and executed to ensure co-benefits across government, society and environment".
It notes that these countries often rely on oil and gas exports to generate economic growth and maintain social stability, often taking a heavy toll on their environment and resulting in large fuel subsidies.
These countries, the study states, run the risk of a range of economic problems, including Dutch Disease, where oil exports push up prices and harm other industries.
Heavy focus on oil and gas could also divert capital earmarked for other investments, the study notes, adding that "reform fatigue", where structural economic problems are not tackled due to potential future wealth, may also affect these countries.
"The common challenge for these countries is to ensure that the opportunities for longer term economic development are not lost to economic distortion and ensuring political and social pathologies," the study states.
The WEF study covered 124 countries, which were categorised into four archetypes. Aside from the "capitalise" countries, the other archetypes are: "rationalise" countries, or mature economies, mostly members of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, that focus on reorganising their energy architecture to balance the needs of the environment, government and society; "grow" countries, such as China, which are focused on securing energy supply in light of rapid economic growth; and "access" countries, like Cambodia and Bangladesh, which struggle with providing its people with basic energy needs at affordable prices.
The study categorised the countries based on their economic growth and development, including energy intensity or the amount of energy they use to produce a unit of gross domestic product, the cost of energy imports, and a combination of GDP and human development index, among others; environmental sustainability; and energy access.
The study aims to present trends that are common to groups of countries with similar needs and objectives, to enable policy-makers to understand the broader consequences of their actions and the trade-offs they entail. It also presents ways for countries to effectively transition into a "new world energy architecture" according to their archetypes, given the radical shift in the way the world sources, transforms and consumes energy.
Data from the study show that the world will need US$38 trillion worth of investments in energy supply infrastructure between 2011 and 2035.
It also points out that global cost of fossil fuel consumption subsidies will reach US$660 billion in 2020 if reforms are not instituted, from US$409 billion in 2010.
World energy consumption, meanwhile, is expected to grow by 40 per cent between 2009 and 2035. -- Jennee Grace U Rubrico
The Brunei Times

Challenges seen in TPP pact (The Brunei Times)

This was published in the April 21, 2012 issue of The Brunei Times. Click here for the original story

Challenges seen in TPP pact

Jennee Grace U Rubrico
and Debbie Too
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Saturday, April 21, 2012

NEGOTIATIONS under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement are rife with challenges and prospects of meeting its objectives are dim, a working paper from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies states.
The paper, written by Deborah Elms, head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade and Negotiations (TFCTN), highlights difficulties faced by the TPP in meeting its objective of "open market with no exceptions".
The paper, titled 'Getting from Here to There: Stitching Together Goods Agreements in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement', was released for comments on April 17.
Originally composed of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, the TPP also includes the US, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Canada, Japan and Mexico have also indicated their willingness to join the economic grouping.
"The agreement is not finished, so there is still the possibility of a breakthrough in the talks. However, after two years of negotiations in goods, the prospect for an agreement that matches the rhetoric of no exceptions does not look bright," Elms says in the paper.
She points out that the countries under the TPP already have existing multilateral and bilateral agreements, wherein issues on goods trade have already been discussed.
"These deals are the result of carefully crafted compromises at the time of negotiation in each agreement. Any decision on how to negotiate in the TPP would run the risk of upsetting the existing PTA preferences," she notes.
She also highlights challenges in drafting tariff schedules for goods that would be included in the agreement by member countries.
She says TPP members have three options: to have a single schedule that would apply to all countries; to have each country prepare its own market access schedule following negotiations with others; or to combine the two options and have a uniform schedule for tariff reductions for non-sensitive products and separate schedules for sensitive ones.
But she also says: "There are nearly 6,000 tariff lines corresponding to trade in goods. For the nine countries in TPP (except for Singapore which has tariffs at zero on all products except for six lines) the starting point varies tremendously."
She also points out difficulties in opening the markets in new non-agricultural areas. Apparel, for instance, is a sensitive issue between the US and Vietnam, with Hanoi currently facing "a bewildering array of tariffs and exports" to Washington for textile, apparel and footwear exporters.
"Tariff levels of rubber footwear were as high as 37.5 per cent in May 2011," she notes.
"Vietnamese officials would like to see these complicated tariffs reduced. Up until now, most of these textile, apparel and footwear tariffs have not been addressed in American PTA negotiations."
As for market access for agricultural products, Elms notes that negotiations on "extremely sensitive items" under other trade agreements have resulted in the exclusion of certain highly sensitive items as well as the reduction, but not the elimination, of their tariffs.
She also states that other restrictive methods employed by countries were to allow high tariff peaks to remain, or subject these products to extremely long phase-in periods. In addition, countries can use a range of quantitative restrictions that are not generally allowed in other products.
"A high-quality, 21st century TPP with no exceptions should, as far as possible, avoid all these elements," she says.
The paper also raises issues on goods' rules of origin which must distinguish whether they are from TPP member countries.
"The rules must also be capable of distinguishing goods that are not from members to ensure that these non-originating goods are not eligible for the benefits of the agreement.
If these rules of origin were not put into place, any firm from any country could take advantage of any PTA," she states.
The Brunei Times

Exotic Menagerie (BusinessWorld)

Published in the April 20, 2012 issue of BusinessWorld. Click here for original post

TEXT and PHOTOS BY JENNEE GRACE U. RUBRICO

Malaysia National Zoo: Exotic menagerie

  
There are no proboscis monkeys in the Malaysia National Zoo.

Sights At The Zoo: Storks walk around
the roads at the Malaysia National Zoo

The irony of not being able to see the primate with the bulbous nose that is the symbol of the island of Borneo hung in the air and somewhat deflated the enthusiasm we had been feeling on the way to the place.
The Zoo Negara, as it is called, is in Ulu Klang, around 45 minutes away from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur by car, and we had gone there mainly to see the shy, comical-looking, light-haired monkey.
Although somewhat put off when we were told that the apes didn’t take up residence in the menagerie, we decided to go in just the same, so as not to waste our trip.
We were glad we did.
The zoo, which covers 110 acres of land, hosts 4,000 other animals, many of them endemic to the land. It is managed by the Malaysian Zoological Society, a nongovernment organization that aims to “conserve, teach and research” wildlife “while providing recreation for local and foreign tourists.”

Sights At The Zoo: Zoo Negara’s resident puma
 is among the mid-sized cats found in the menagerie

By no means a big menagerie, Zoo Negara’s exotic fauna nevertheless surprises and inspires awe.
Perhaps its most remarkable residents are the tapir, the shy, stubby-legged, long-snouted, two-toned massive mammals that are endemic to Malaysia and other countries in southeast Asia. The endangered creatures, with their black and white stripes and gentle if heavyset demeanor, looked adorable in their enclosure while they took a nap under the afternoon sun.
If the tapir are the most remarkable species in the zoo, the Malayan tigers, whose roar could be heard before they could be seen, have to be the most majestic. It is no wonder that the animal, called harimau in Malay, is Malaysia’s national icon. Everything about the tigers, from their roar to the rippling of their muscles as they walk around their enclosure, oozes power and beauty.
Completing the great cats section of the zoo are the lions, the panthers and their spotted siblings, the leopards, who were not to be outdone when it came to beauty. Like the Malayan tigers, the leopards, endemic to Asia and Africa, are also in critical danger of being wiped out as poachers hunt them for their coat and farmers drive them out of their habitat.
Malayan sunbears, which are classified as vulnerable because of the destruction of their natural habitat, are also residents of the zoo. The black, droopy-eyed bears, the smallest of their kind, walk around an electric enclosure that houses a cave, tire swings and a pool. Perhaps because they only eat insects, small animals and honey, the honey bears, as they are also called, do not appear menacing. If anything, they look cute, especially the one who was paddling in the pool it appeared to have outgrown.

Sights At The Zoo: penguins have found their
 way to tropical Malaysia.

And then there’s the musang, the civet, which is known the world over for being responsible for crapping out the world’s most expensive coffee. Zoo Negara hosts a number of these endemic animals, including the Artictis binturong, the tree-dwelling civet which is the largest of its kind. The species is also in the vulnerable animals list because of its loss of habitat.
Housed along with the civets are mid-sized and small cats that will impress any cat lover. Included in this section are leopard cats, which, true to their name, look like a miniature leopard; a puma, which is on the endangered species list; and, for some reason, raccoons.
A surprise find at the Zoo Negara are penguins, which are penned in air-conditioned aquariums. The flightless birds do not fail to elicit surprised reactions from visitors, presumably because the cold-loving birds are not a common sight in tropical countries.
The zoo’s savannah provides a refreshing contrast to the usual enclosed aviaries. At Zoo Negara, storks cross the road without a care about the tram that waits for them to pass. Flamingos provide color to the lake, swans glide on the water in full view of passersby, and egrets fly unimpeded from perch to perch.
Many of the other animals enjoy various degrees of freedom in their pens. The management takes pride in having an “open concept zoo,” claiming that over 90% of the animals are kept in spacious exhibits.

Sights At The Zoo: Malayan sunbears ar
e housed in an enclosure that includes a cave,
a pool and tire swings.

“We are working in making sure that the old zoo concept is changed entirely,” the management says in the Zoo Negara web site.
Apart from the exotic, the menagerie also hosts conventional zoo animals like elephants, giraffes, buffalo, hippopotamuses, snakes and other reptiles. Among the more notable animals are the barking deer, whose bark can be quite disturbing if one didn’t know what it was. The ape center, which houses the great primates, appeared deserted when we visited because we got there at around their feeding time.
The zoo also has a section for insects, which requires a separate entrance fee. It is worth mentioning mostly because it houses live tarantulas.
Like many other zoos, Zoo Negara has animal shows scheduled at different times throughout the day. Watching one would mean seeing a sea lion performing the usual tricks, a civet walking at a leisurely pace on a bamboo pole, and birds suddenly appearing in front of the pool.
For those in the mood to have their pictures taken with a bird perched on their arm, the show provides a chance for this. All one needs to do is hold up a ringgit note, and the bird will swoop down, pick up the note with its beak, and pose on the benefactor’s arm for the photo before flying back to its handler to deposit the money.

Sights At The Zoo: A tram can take passengers
 around the zoo

The zoo is small enough to explore on foot, and vending machines and kiosks are scattered around the place for easy access to beverages and snacks. But those who may find the Malayan sun too harsh for rambling can take the tram. For 6 ringgit (roughly P90) per person, the tram transports passengers from the entrance to the middle of the zoo, where they can explore the different sections of the menagerie on foot. When they’re done, they can go back to the drop-off point and wait for the tram, which brings them back to the entrance.
There are no proboscis monkeys in Zoo Negara, but there are 4,000 other animals that are just as interesting, and just as vulnerable to human abuses.
As one leaves the zoo, one may feel a mixture of awe at just how much beauty and diversity there is in the planet, pity for the enclosed beasts, and sadness at the thought that these beautiful creatures are in danger of never being seen again.
But if these mixed emotions lead one to become more environmentally conscious, the zoo will have accomplished its primary goal.
Zoo Negara is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It charges an entrance fee of 30 to 35 ringgit per person, depending on the package one avails of. More information is available at its Web site, http://www.zoonegaramalaysia.my.

Kellie's Castle (AIMLeader Magazine)

Written for AIMLeader Magazine. Click here for original post

Kellie’s Castle
Words and photos by Jennee Grace Rubrico

In the outskirts of Perak’s capital city of Ipoh stands a stately remnant of Malaysia’s colonial past.  Built on a hill and cut off on one side by a moat, the ruins of Kellie’s Castle, an unfinished mansion in Batu Gajah which was built by a wealthy Scotsman a century ago, bears silent witness to the passage of time.
The castle seems impenetrable to passersby. Red brick walls seem to protect secrets, and pillared windows with dome-shaped arches are eyes that watch intently.
The verdant grounds provide a warmth that offsets the somber ambience of the house, and the river that passes in front of the property is serene.
But even they reveal nothing.
It was a hot Saturday afternoon in May when we visited the castle, and the tourists—most of whom were foreigners – who flocked to the place that day attested to its draw.
How Kellie’s Castle came to be built is well-documented.  A 20-year-old Scotsman, William Kellie Smith, had gone to what was then Malaya to seek his fortune in the 1890s. In 1909, Smith bought a 960-acre jungle in the Kinta district, which he turned into a rubber plantation. It was on one section of that land that he built his first home, where he lived with his English wife Agnes and daughter Helen. Five years later, when his son Anthony was born, Smith embarked on an ambitious plan to build a castle that would be connected to the old house.  The castle ‑ which was to be built using marble from Italy, among other imported materials ‑ was to be remarkable in many ways, but in one most of all: it was to contain the first elevator in Malaya. 
With 70 Indians under his employ, Smith started construction of the manor. It was set to be completed in 10 years, but a plague and other misfortunes kept delaying the work. When Smith was 59 years old, he went to Lisbon to fetch the elevator for his house.  He never made it back, and the house was never completed.
After his death, Agnes sold all of their holdings in Malaya. Smith’s family never returned to the house that a century later remains standing and incomplete, waiting for its master.
Why the house was built is a mystery. Aqfast Enterprises, the company that now manages the property, conjectures that Smith intended for it to either be a gift to his wife, or a place to entertain wealthy guests.
The design of the castle, apart from the plan to install the country’s first elevator in the house, would support the theory that it was made to impress. The building follows colonial architecture, with dashes of Moorish influence.  It is connected to the old house—also designed with dome-shaped windows —by the servants’ quarters. Between the two houses is a courtyard that’s big enough to hold an intimate party on a moonlit evening.
By the side entrance of the building is a staircase that leads to a cellar that could house a sizable wine collection.  The property manager has also identified a room above the cellar that was to contain a bar.
The castle’s high ceilings seem to have been designed to hold chandeliers.  The rooftop, meanwhile, is big enough to hold a tennis court and a party deck.
Some of the guest rooms have the best views, being located on the higher floors. They are also most conveniently situated, as they stand next to the elevator shaft.
Many of the rooms are bare. On the walls of some, though, are Greco-Roman finishings that give an indication of how they would have looked had they been completed.  One can easily imagine works of art hanging on the solid walls, and windows, which must have looked out to the gardens or the rubber plantation, draped with colorful curtains or covered with screens that would nonetheless let the breeze in. The huge spaces allotted for bathrooms, meanwhile, obviously meant that they were to be luxurious nooks.
The property is so picturesque that it became one of the filming locations for the Jodie Foster-Chow Yun Fat movie, Anna and the King.
Yet, the romantic aura that the palace invokes does not resonate with the Smiths’ seeming concern about their safety.  The family members’ bedrooms, located on the second floor, are connected to each other by secret passages that go through bathrooms. Each room also has a separate secret passage that leads to a hiding place.  One of them leads to a dungeon directly below the room.  
What were the Smiths afraid of?
Ghosts are said to haunt Kellie’s Castle. Among the reported sightings is of a girl who has been seen in the room that was to be Helen’s.  Whether the ghost stories are true or not, though, Kellie’s Castle does haunt its visitors.
“Every time I come here, I think about how great the house could have been had it been completed. I think about how grand the rooms would have been, and what kind of visitors would have visited the house,” Waran, a native of Ipoh and a family friend, said as we toured the place.
“If it had been completed, it wouldn’t be such a mystery. But because it wasn’t, it leaves visitors with a lot of questions.”
Questions, such as: What would it have looked like? Why couldn’t it be completed? Why did Smith’s family abandon the house that he had tried so hard to erect? And, why did Smith build the second house?
Kellie’s Castle leaves a psychological mark that cannot be removed. It stands in silence to perpetuate the story of William Kellie Smith, unperturbed, as questions that burn in many a visitor’s mind long after leaving remain unanswered. 

A Piece of Heaven (published in BusinessWorld)

Published in the February 16, 2012 issue of BusinessWorld. Click here for original story

Posted on 06:24 PM, February 16, 2012
TEXT and PHOTOS BY JENNEE GRACE U. RUBRICO

A piece of heaven

WATER CASCADED gently down a mountain slope to stone basins that allowed it to trickle into the stream below. In one of the pools, bathers were oblivious to the tourists milling around and taking photos. Towels and discarded shirts were strewn on the rocks to dry, while trees provided shade to those who elected to keep to dry land and explore the watershed.

THE BHARAT tea plantation at Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands

I stood at a vantage point to observe the falling water while further down, my parents chatted on rocks that broke the flow of the stream.
We were basking in the sun at Iskandar Falls on the way to Cameron Highlands in Pahang, Malaysia, taking a break from navigating the winding road that connects the tourist destination to the Tapah Interchange, which we had taken from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
It was going to be a two-and-a-half-hour trip by car to the chilly, hilly getaway from Kuala Lumpur, and we had only covered half the distance.
Sunny -- the cab driver we hired for the day trip who lives up to his name -- had maneuvered blind curve after blind curve in the two-lane strip of a highway that ran between a mountain and a cliff. We had been getting nauseous from the drive when we reached Iskandar Falls and found an excuse to get off the road for a bit.
By the roadside, stalls sold handicrafts, fruits and flowers. Except for those who intended to stay for a picnic or a bath, however, there wasn’t much to do around the area, so after taking pictures and preparing to once again zigzag our way to our destination, we hauled ourselves back into the cab.
Sunny told us it would take another half hour before we could get off the road.
“No one gets to heaven without dying,” I muttered, going for a laugh.
A truck passed us from the other lane. Then another truck with a trailer and a whole lot of wheels suddenly appeared in front of us. It seemed to have tailed the first truck and was now careening towards us. Our cab screeched to a halt, staying close to the mountain wall. The front of the truck passed us, and as it continued to move, I covered my ears and shut my eyes, convinced that the rest of it would hit our vehicle.
We all breathed a prayer of thanks when the truck’s brakes bit into the pavement, halting the behemoth completely and preventing its trailer from sideswiping our car.
Suddenly, that comment about dying to get to heaven was no longer funny.
Thankfully, that was the only near-mishap we had.
After a pit stop at the Tudor-style Lakehouse Hotel where we stretched our legs and took in the beautiful view of the Sultan Abu Bakar Lake as Sunny inputted the places we wanted to see into his GPS, our Cameron Highlands tour started -- with a visit to the bees.

BATHERS are oblivious to the other tourists at Iskandar Falls

Located in Jalan Boh in Ringlet town, the Highlands Apiary Farm grows different kinds of flowers and has bees flying all over the place to gather nectar from them. It was hard work trying to take photos of the bees, as they could never keep still.
The place has beehives on display, with one made of glass so that visitors can view the bees as they work. The farm, which has a heart-shaped pond filled with koi in the middle of the nursery, also grows strawberries and visitors can pick their own fruits if they want to buy them. Also for sale are bottled honey and bee souvenirs that range from pins to plush toys.
A few minutes’ drive from the apiary brought us to the main road of Tanah Rata where the Cameron Valley Tea House greeted us with a spectacular view of rolling hills that host the Bharat tea plantation.
Visitors can walk around the verdant maze but are warned against plucking tea leaves by a sign board that issues the admonition in three languages.
The path, while navigable, can be difficult to the uninitiated and those with the wrong footwear. But the scent of tea leaves that wafts through the air as one ambles around the plantation is worth the long walk down and the steep climb back.
We had drinks in the tea house that offers a wide array of choices for around RM6 (around P85). The mint tea infusion I had was the best I’ve tasted, and my mom’s strawberry tea, which I sampled, made me rethink my aversion to fruit-flavored versions of the beverage.
There is a shop beside the tea house that allows visitors to purchase the drinks that suit their fancy and recreate the delicious experience at home. While browsing through the products, I wondered whether the coffee growers in Batangas have thought of doing something similar for their plantations. It was shrewd and brilliant for an already profitable tea industry to incorporate tourism into its business strategy to generate even more earnings.
Our next stop was the adjacent town of Brinchang, where we had a delicious, filling lunch of noodles and pork before we visited Cactus Valley. Perched on a hill, the nursery invites visitors to see different kinds of cacti for a RM4 fee.
If only for the sheer number of cacti it hosts, the place is worth the entrance fee. It would have been great if there was a system to help visitors identify the cacti in the collection, but just seeing the plants in forms I would never have associated with the species was so astonishing that not knowing what they’re called didn’t matter so much.

HIGHLANDS APIARY visitors can pick the strawberries they want to buy.

One variety looks like an octopus, while another looks like a baby elephant. There’s one that’s shaped like a starfish, another that looks like a flower, and yet another that looks like a mushroom. The Hollywood western variety, with its tall, thin appearance was also present, as was its complete opposite, the spherical one.
The nursery also hosts other kinds of plants and flowers, including the carnivorous monkey cup (also called the pitcher plant).
Besides the impressive selection of flora, the nursery is also worth the visit for its quaint view of the houses and shops of Brinchang at the foothills.
Also in the town, Healthy Strawberry Farms offers all kinds of products that contain the fruit. The farm, which also allows fruit picking at certain times of the year, sells chocolate-covered strawberries, fresh strawberries, strawberry jams, and others. A word of caution about the strawberry ice cream, though: only the fresh strawberries they put in it come from the farm; the four scoops of ice cream over the fruits is a commercial brand.
The farm also sells potted plants for RM10. If a flower catches your eye and you don’t know what it is, ask the gardener. Thanks to them, I now know what a cyclamen is.
For the more culturally inclined, Cameron Highlands also highlights its Kampung Orang Asli (indigenous people’s villages). They aren’t easy to find, however -- it took us three attempts to find one of them, and by the time we got there, it was already too late in the day to explore the area.

SPHERICAL CACTI at Cactus Valley

It was on the way back to the Malaysian capital that we passed the Time Tunnel, a memorabilia museum. For a RM5 entrance fee, visitors see over 1,000 vintage items on display. While not everything in the collection is worth noting -- the old M&M toys just didn’t cut it for me -- a lot of the items can make one chuckle with nostalgia.
An old water thermos on a wooden table, an earthen stove and a charcoal iron reminded me of the things I used to see as a child in my grandparents’ house. The LP covers on the walls, old valises, and tin covers for chocolates also brought back memories. The old packaging of food products and sodas were interesting, as were the wall telephones with rotary dials and the mini jukebox that greets visitors at the entrance.
I wasn’t ready to see an “Octupus” game-and-watch unit in the museum, however. I used to play game-and-watch as a child, and I never thought that something of my generation would be found in a museum for vintage stuff.
I felt old.
The Time Tunnel also displays photos of the Cameron Highlands of yesteryears and shares tales of mysterious disappearances of affluent men in the area, earning it the moniker “local museum.”
The trip back to Kuala Lumpur took three hours -- via the safer, wider, and less meandering road to Ipoh.
Cameron Highlands, with its crisp, rainy weather, laid-back ambience, beautiful scenery and delicious farm products really is a piece of heaven on earth. And I was happy to note that one need not die to get a glimpse of paradise, after all.

Samudera in vibrant colours (The Brunei Times)

This came out on the January 16, 2012 of The Brunei Times (Click here for original story)

Jennee Grace Rubrico
KUALA LUMPUR

Monday, January 16, 2012

WHEN Dr Abdul Jalil Othman, associate professor at the University of Malaya, held his first solo exhibit as a visual artist last year, he chose to present a collection of 63 underwater paintings.The paintings, all done in abstract drawing on canvass and first showcased at the Muzium Seni Asia, depict life under the sea.
Called "Alam Samudera", the exhibit showcased paintings that he worked on over two years.
"I wanted everybody to understand nature because I love nature. I wanted to expose people and to show them that there's another life in another world, and people should think about that life I love to show the music of the colours," he said.
"I love the colour of the sea and the movement of the water, not to mention the fish. If you look at their movement, it symbolises harmony in another world they all move in the same direction," he added.
As an abstract painter, Jahlil uses his imagination when painting, and he said that he doesn't allow himself to be limited by things as they are seen. The sea, for instance, is represented by different colours in his paintings.
How he chose the colours of the sea for this collection, he said, depended on his mood when he was working on a particular piece.
"It doesn't mean that the sea must be blue. Sometimes it can turn into yellow, into red. This is just an abstract. It's not the real thing, but it depends on my mood also," he said.
It was during his first exhibit that Jahlil's paintings were priced by Malaysia's National Art Gallery at between RM2,000 (around $825) and RM18,000. "This was the price fixed by the art panel," he said.
He added that following that exhibit, he brought his Alam Samudera collection to the National Taiwan Sport University.
"The president of the university, Professor Kao, invited me to an exhibit, and I just came back two weeks ago," he said, adding that he has been getting a lot of support from UM.
Jahlil said that he is not able to sell his paintings outside of Malaysia.
"I can't sell during exhibitions overseas, because there are stringent customs requirements," he said.
Interested buyers, he added, can buy his art through Malaysia's National Art Gallery.
Having been painting since his school days, Jahlil decided to seriously pursue the art five years ago, while on a sabbatical in Japan.
"While I was in Tokyo, I showed them some of my paintings, and I saw so many people appreciate my paintings. It inspired me to be serious with my painting," he said.
He then started participating in group exhibits in other countries. "I travelled a lot to participate in them."
Jahlil says that he finds time to paint when he gets home from his day job at the university, where he is attached to the Faculty of Educations Department of Language and Literacy Education. While at home, he works for several hours, sometimes through the night.
"It's a form of escapism and to relieve my tension, and allows me to fulfill my interest and passion for drawing," he explained.
It takes him anywhere between a week to a month to do a painting, he said.
Asked if he felt an attachment to his paintings, Jahlil said that he didn't face any difficult selling them. "Sometimes, I even give it for free. (Selling the paintings) inspires me to produce more of them," he said.
Right now, Jahlil is gearing up for another exhibit, again to be housed at Muzium Seni Asia. This will be in April and it will be a different theme. This time, it's fireworks, he said.
The Brunei Times

Real-life Farmville (The Brunei Times)

This came out on the November 19, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times. (click here for the original story)

Real-life Farmville

Jennee Grace U Rubrico
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Saturday, November 19, 2011

WHO hasn't played or heard about Farmville, that addictive simulation game on Facebook where players are given tracts of land to farm on?
Many have spent hours planting and harvesting, and earning coins which are ploughed back into the farm, so that yet more coins are earned. The more money one earns, the more choices one can have for crops to plant and buildings to build.
Perhaps, you are one of those committed players who would time your planting and harvesting, so that if you have plans to leave for the day for school, for instance you don't have to worry about your produce spoiling before you could get back home for harvest time.
Many find it fun to call on neighbours for help out on some project, share goods and take care of livestock that almost guarantees money that could be used to buy cool additions to the farm. It's challenging to be responsible for the yields from a tract of land. And the rewards that come with seeing one's farm progress into a wealthy one, as well as the idea of earning coins to buy pretty things for the farm, makes it such a draw.
If you're one of those who would like to experience Farmville in real life, plant real crops or grow livestock with the help of friends, spend time growing them and when the time comes, earn money from all the hard work, then backyard farming is for you.
Many people who live in urban areas engage in backyard farming. There is even a variation: planting on the rooftops.
There are many reasons people go into backyard farming. Some do it to get a steady stream of food. A vegetable bed or a poultry farm would allow a family to get their food fresh from their backyard instead of from the market, where a favourite vegetable could go out of stock.
Others do it because they want to make sure that the food they eat is safe from cancer-causing substances that are present in artificial fertilisers. This is called organic farming.
Still others do it for its earning potential. Just like in Farmville, a backyard farmer can sell the produce at the market or to friends and earn from it.
"Home farming has come about as a result of the convergence of several different ideas related to economics, health and environment," the website Home Farming Basics (http://homefarmingbasics.com/starting-a-backyard-farm) states.
Anyone who wants to have a backyard farm has to do one basic thing: plan it.
"The best place to start anything is with some good solid planning. Determine what it is that you hope to accomplish and decide whether you have the resources to accomplish it, make adjustments, then set a plan in motion," the website states.
The website, which offers helpful tips for would-be backyard farmers, gives different options on what to grow and information on what one needs to grow them.
For vegetable gardens, "it is possible to raise a substantial quantity of root crop vegetables, and top crop vegetables on a very small area of land, or even in containers".
"The smaller the area, and the more consistent the need for production, the more labor intensive it becomes. You may need to replant the minute that one crop becomes inviolable, and have the new crops already growing and ready to transplant. It takes some serious planning and preparation, but it works."
One can also grow fruits at home, it adds.
"Fruiting vegetables are the easiest way to produce fruits for the home farmer with small acreage. Melons, cantaloupes, and strawberries can be grown in small areas, and can even go vertical," it says.
"With a little ingenuity and careful use of space, a reasonable quantity of food can be produced from small fruit trees, and fruiting vines like grapes. It is even possible to grow some small fruit trees in large containers."
Meanwhile, those who want to breed animals will "need to have a serious amount of space" for goats and cows. Chickens, though, are more manageable, the website says.
"Both chickens for egg production and fryers can be raised in a relatively small space with careful management techniques, but a wider area for 'free range' is preferred. Depending on your tastes and preferences, other small animals such as rabbits can also be raised for food production."
Backyard farming takes more work than a Farmville farm. Crops will take longer to grow, and it entails spending real money to improve on it.
Depending on what you grow, fertilisers, feeds, pens, tools and garden beds all require varying amounts of money.
You will also have to think of the elements, and you have to properly position your crops so that they get just the right amount of sun that they need to thrive.
But at its very core, backyard farming is just like Farmville. It requires dedication, hard work and commitment. It takes time away from other activities, requires planning and takes a lot of patience.
Whether you grow crops, or flowers, or livestock, backyard farming is bound to be challenging, fun and most of all, rewarding.
The Brunei Times

Exploring Ipoh (BusinessWorld)

Published in the August 04, 2011 issue of BusinessWorld

TEXT and Photos BY JENNEE GRACE U. RUBRICO

 

It was midmorning and the sun was unforgiving when we sat ourselves down in a dim sum restaurant. As soon as we got to Ipoh, the capital city of Perak in Malaysia, Waran, a teacher in one of the schools in the city and my mom’s former student, whisked us to breakfast.

Ipoh, Waran said, is known for its food, being the birthplace of Malaysia’s Old Town White Coffee and one of the country’s food meccas. We had tried to beg off from eating so soon after arriving, as we had been served pastry and drinks during the two-hour train ride that took me and my parents to the city from Kuala Lumpur; our host, however, would not hear of it.
“You can still make space for this,” Waran said, as five kinds of dim sum were served along with glutinous rice, dumplings, tea and white coffee. “This is light.”
I took a piece of prawn dim sum with doubts about finishing what was before us. A bite changed my mind. It was so tasty, with the flavors coming alive as soon as they touched the tongue. The others were just as flavorful.
Even the char siew pao (pork dumpling), which I didn’t think I had space for, was gobbled up. The softness of the bun coupled with the strong flavors of the meat was almost perfection. And while I did have a hard time finishing my portion of the delightfully salty glutinous rice, it was by no means a commentary on its taste. I was simply stuffed.
“It’s impossible to die of starvation in Ipoh,” Waran said. “You can die of overeating, but it’s with a full stomach.”
Ipoh owes its development to a mining boom during the 19th century, when tin was its main product. It has since positioned itself as a cosmopolitan city that is less crowded than the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
“Ipoh has everything,” Waran, a native of the city, said when we were back in his well-maintained nine-year-old Proton sedan. It certainly has wide roads, and a lot of one-way streets. The rows of shop houses we passed were reminiscent of the old section of Singapore.
“A river divides the city,” Waran said as we drove over a bridge. “On one side of the Sungai Kinta is the Old Town and on the other is the New Town.”
British influence is embodied by the colonial buildings in the Old Town, bits of which may be familiar; many were used as locations for the Jodie Foster-Chow Yun Fat movie Anna and the King.
At the Ipoh railway station, neoclassical architecture combines with Moorish domes and turrets. Nearby, St. Michael’s Institution, a government-run school that is part of the La Salle community, has stood for 99 years. The heritage building, simpler in design than the rail station, has strong clean lines, gables and arched verandas that open to the school grounds’ lush vegetation. The long hallways feel like ghosts haunt the place.
“Next year, we celebrate our centennial year,” says Waran, who is both an alumnus and a teacher in the school. “The building has not undergone major renovation work. This is the same staircase it had when it was first opened.”
The school was a Kempeitai headquarters during the Japanese occupation. On a marble slab, the names of La Salle brothers who fell victim to the war are listed. Beside a door, a plate marks a room used for interrogating Kempeitai prisoners. Here, Malaysian heroine Sybil Kathigesu “suffered the atrocities of wartime interrogation.”
The former torture room, Waran said, was now being used as a classroom.
Away from the city-center, a mystical Ipoh beckons. Wat Mekprasit (Mek Prasit Buddhist Temple) stands to welcome both the faithful and the curious. Statues of the Buddha -- including one that shows him cutting his hair with a sword meet visitors at the tiny parking lot of the temple, said to be one of the oldest in Ipoh. Two seven-headed snakes frame the way to the place of worship, which is best known for housing a gigantic reclining Buddha. A mural tells his story.
At the main prayer hall, where the giant Buddha lies and a monk was watching TV, a golden Buddha in lotus position sits on a layered altar. Surrounding the hall are graven monks, also in lotus position and with hands crossed in prayer, their faces reflecting the blissful expression of the reclining Gautama.
The silence of the temple was calming, and the cool cement under our bare feet gave some respite from the noonday heat.
After resting at Gunung Lang Taman Rekreasi (Lang Recreational Park), where one could go boating, feed the fish or simply rest tired feet while enjoying a view of canopied islands and a placid lake, we got to visit more unconventional places of worship: temples with limestone walls in the bowels of the earth.
Fronted by a white and red façade that is covered with inscriptions, Perak Tong (Perak Cave) houses a 12-meter high image of a sitting Buddha that greets visitors at the entrance. The Chinese temple houses more than 40 statues of the deity, each one different from the other.
In one corner, a priest was leading some people in worship. They were kneeling before one of the statues and chanting.
Calligraphy and Chinese paintings adorn the cave walls. On a slab of limestone, a pretty Chinese girl in traditional garb looks down on visitors while on another, praying monks kneel before a meditating Buddha. Painted on one of the inner caverns is a traditional Chinese landscape, drawn in black and white. On other walls, Chinese poems are illustrated with flowers and other paintings. The artwork in the cave could rival a museum’s gallery of oriental art.
Facing the cave is a garden with a statue of a lady gazing at the temple. “That is a goddess that is said to be protecting the temple,” said Waran.
Another cave temple, Sam Poh Tong, stands beside Perak Tong. Built in 1912, the Buddhist temple sports a more intricate façade than its neighbor’s, but the centerpiece is the Chinese garden of bonsai trees and the pond that hosts turtles and koi. The garden features stone pillars and a grotto of a goddess. With the limestone mountain as its backdrop, it is breathtaking. In 1993, it was named the best landscaped garden in Malaysia.
A walk through the cave -- which is decorated with images of Buddha carved on marble -- brought us to the tortoise pond behind the premises. There must have been a hundred sleeping in the gated pools under the afternoon sun. Waran said feeding the tortoises was allowed, but we contented ourselves with watching them adjust to the heat.
Across from the tortoise pond is a traditional Chinese building. The gates were locked, and no one seemed to be stirring inside. The white building with a red roof rises five storeys high. Like many ancient Chinese buildings, the awnings host animal sculptures on their edges. The only western mark we could see from outside the compound was a fountain that had a sculpture of a naked boy.
Our last cave was Kek Look Tong, which sits on a 12-acre site in Guning Rapat. It was the simplest among the three cave temples, containing 13 statues of Buddhist and Taoist deities and none of the murals of Perak Tong. But it surpasses Perak Tong and Sam Poh Tong in two aspects: first, the stalactite and stalagmite formations of the cave have remained intact.
Its second edge is not as easily seen -- one would have to walk all the way to the rear mouth of the cave to see a stunningly beautiful garden.
Shangri-la, my dad said.
Waran calls the place Garden of Eden.
The Web site of Kek Look Tong says that the award-winning landscape garden features a jogging path that circles two man-made lakes and hosts one of the longest reflexology footpaths in Ipoh. Bordered by mountains on three sides, the garden is a safe haven for endemic flora and fauna as well as migratory birds.
“The lakes are populated with carp, turtles and cichlids, while monkeys, lizards, and even the occasional mountain goat are sighted within, roaming the grounds,” it adds.
As we admired the view, a breeze blew from the garden and through the cave, enveloping us in a coolness that not only refreshed, but also comforted.
“No wonder the first man lived in caves,” Waran commented.
Thoughts of Ipoh filled my head on the trip back to KL that night. The city is many things: a food haven, a spiritual sanctuary, and an architectural treasure.
Ipoh is a city with charms that know no bounds.

Google: Big brother is watching you (The Brunei Times)

Published in the July 27, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times

Jennee Grace U Rubrico
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

SO YOU now have a Google+ account. Congratulations on being one of 18 million subscribers as of July 24 who got an invitation to the most exclusive social network party in ages.

Google which has had its share of flops since the launch of Gmail in 2004 is back on its game with its by-invitation-only strategy for Google+. Unlike the other social network, where anyone with an email address and Internet connection can sign up, Google+ is - for now, at least-restricted to the elite millions who have the power to decide if a hapless non-user should be given a pass to the party. Sigil of privacy
Never mind if, based on July 22 statistics from analysts, website Findpeopleonplus.com, most of the subscribers are engineers, software developers, web developers, programmers or other people who work with computers and the Internet. And never mind if Google itself tops the list of companies with the most number of employees signed up to the social network, at 9,704. According to Google, the social network which was rolled out on June 28 had been growing by two million subscribers per day until recently. Sooner or later, there's bound to be a demographic in which we mere mortals could belong.
Google+'s draw - apart from its exclusivity - is the control a user has over his account. Under the beta version, a user has sole control over what posts appear on one's wall - erm, stream. Should he wish to post incriminating photos of himself on his stream for everyone to see, that is his prerogative. His sister, who may derive pleasure in embarrassing him in front of his friends, will not have the same privilege. Not on his stream, at least.
There is also Circles, which has been touted as the sigil of privacy in a realm where it is thought to be non-existent. By assigning people to circles, users control who can see a particular post which is great, because people who may not be interested in knowing what book you've read recently would not have to know that you've just finished Bridge on the River Kwai.
But the real power of Circles is that it filters posts that come from others. This is important for a social network that doesn't require someone's consent to be included in someone else's network. If your ex has decided to put you in one of his circles in a malicious attempt to get you to read updates on his love life, his efforts will be in vain as long as you don't put him in any of your circles. He gets your public updates, and you get a notification that an update from him is waiting in your "incoming" stream. But you can always decide to ignore the notice. If this doesn't work for you, you can always block him, and neither of you would be getting the other's posts.
But while Google+ protects you from others, it does not protect you from Google itself. Like it or not, the social network is yet another platform from which the Internet giant could cull information about its users.
The thing about Google is that its services are integrated, and a user's information is shared by most of the platforms. Using Google's services is like giving the Internet giant permission to take your fingerprints and trace your activities. With all the data we have been feeding Google through Gmail, Blogger, YouTube, Chrome, Reader, Google Docs, Calendar, Buzz, and now Google+, it is not farfetched for a conspiracy theorist to think of it as the real world's equivalent of Eagle Eye's ARIIA, the omniscient, omnipotent super-computer tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world.
Information on everyone
For all we know, Google has already gathered enough information on everyone to rule the world. But maybe not.
How does Google use data from users? "We may combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Google services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services," it says in its terms of service.
For Google+, "we will record information about your activity such as posts you comment on and the other users with whom you interact in order to provide you and other users with a better experience on Google services".
It adds that information provided by others - such as people who put you in circles, or tag you in photos-are also collected to be used as aggregate statistics about Google+ activity and shared "with the public, our users, and partners, such as publishers, app developers, or connected sites".
Governments are aware that Google is sitting on a treasure trove of information and have been asking its help. Google complies.
"We receive requests from government agencies around the world to provide information about users of our services and products," it says, adding these "primarily cover requests in criminal matters".
Criminal investigation
"We can't always be sure that a request necessarily relates to a criminal investigation, however, so there are likely a small number of requests that fall outside of this category," it adds.
There have always been provisions in Google's terms of service that have caused discomfort among users; but resisting the Internet giant would be futile. Short of committing cyber hara-kiri, there is no way to avoid the omniscient Big Brother.
In any case, Google users seem to have already factored this in. Gmail users, especially, have had an earlier encounter with privacy issues - and have kept using the service since.
I console myself with the thought that having a virtual fingerprint is just like having a real one. Unless a need arises for that fingerprint to be located, it remains in the dark recesses of the storage rooms. So I convince myself: There is no need to be afraid.
Besides, with 18 million Google+ users and more Gmail subscribers, there are surely people with more colourful lives than mine who would occupy the time of Google, and that of the powers-that-be.
And if it comes down to it, cyber hara-kiri is always an option, and I can rest assured that Google+ won't retain my data. But it always bodes well to remember, before putting up a Google+ post: your parents may not see it, but Big Brother is watching.
The views are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times. The Brunei Times

Bimp-Eaga can tap $1.5t global halal food market (The Brunei Times)

Published in the July 17, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times

Jennee Grace U Rubrico

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Bimp-Eaga sub-regional grouping is poised to take a bite out of the trillion-dollar global halal food market, a ranking official of one of its member-countries said.
In a talk with reporters yesterday, Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar V Purisima said that the halal food market presents an opportunity for the sub-region, which counts as its members Brunei Darussalam as well as provinces and states in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
The Halal Journal estimates that halal food currently accounts for approximately one-fifth of world food trade, and values the industry segment at US$1.2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) as of 2010. The trade publication which focuses on the halal market also states that the industry segment grows by US$500 million annually.
"Individually, we already supply halal food to the market, but not as Bimp-Eaga. Tapping the market as Bimp-Eaga with a Bimp-Eaga halal certification with a Bimp-Eaga brand is something we should start looking at because these are the key blocks to make sure that the Asean integration happens," said Purisima, who was in the Sultanate to attend the 65th birthday celebrations of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
He said that during Haj, Saudi Arabia alone needs to feed millions of pilgrims for a month. In 2010, 2.8 million pilgrims were estimated to have taken part in the Haj.
"Just for the needs of this Haj, we can target that as a major opportunity. We can collaborate. It can be the land of the Philippines, it can be the money and technology of Brunei, it can be cooperation with the Malaysian and Indonesian companies, and maybe also some of the areas in Malaysia and Indonesia," he said.
"If we reach out to the market, in Saudi Arabia, and partner with them as support for the region and give us some preferential access to the market so long as were competitive, that would be good."
He also said that members of the sub-regional grouping can even "specialise" in the types of food to produce, with areas designated as Bimp-Eaga centres for chicken, corn, fish, prawns, beef and other food products.
"When you look at it, we should even reach out to New Zealand and Australia. They have so much of the lamb and cattle. We can bring them here, process them here because it's cheaper, and certify it," he said.
For this to happen, the growth area needs to build the infrastructure that would facilitate trade, Purisima said.
"The key there is making sure that we build the infrastructure: the ports, the seaports, the cold chain, the processing facilities," he said.
Meanwhile, Purisima also said that on a country-to-country basis, the Philippines could tap Brunei's know-how on halal certification.
"The Brunei halal food brand is recognised worldwide and we'd like to work with the Brunei halal food authority to make sure that we improve our halal certifying bodies in the Philippines and maybe have a joint project," he said.
The Bimp-Eaga comprises Brunei; Kalimantan and Sulawesi in Indonesia; the federal states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the federal territory of Labuan in Eastern Malaysia; and the islands of Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines.
The Brunei Times

Asean seeks to boost fund for infrastructure projects

Published in the July 17, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times

Jennee Grace U Rubrico

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is hoping to beef up a fund that is being set up for infrastructure projects in the region.

Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar V Purisima told reporters yesterday that the 10-member grouping hopes to entice central banks in the region to invest in the Asean Infrastructure Fund (AIF). The AIF will be a combination of equity contributions from Asean member-states and bond issuances.
Asean member-states have pledged to contribute US$335.2 million ($408.41 million) to the fund.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give a counterpart of US$150 million as well as hybrid capital, amounting to US$162 million, in the form of debt and equity.
"We believe that the AIF is a very good initiative. Our goal is that it becomes so successful that the credit rating becomes very high hopefully in the A's so that the central banks of the region can invest in it so that it can become bigger," Purisima said.
He said that at around US$400 million, current pledges for the fund are "a good start".
"But given the infrastructure needs of the Asean, we really need all the capital to be funneled to that," he added.
The ADB has estimated that the region requires infrastructure investments amounting to US$596 billion from 2006 to 2015, with an average investment of US$60 billion per year.
Purisima said that the central banks in the region have the means to invest in the fund.
"We do have the reserves. Across the region we have substantial foreign exchange reserves. Our challenge is to create the mechanisms for recycling these investments, and AIF can be one of that," he said.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Malaysia had foreign currency reserves of US$120.58 billion while Singapore had foreign currency reserves of US$238.5 billion in May 2011.
The Philippines, meanwhile, had foreign currency reserves of US$59 billion, while Thailand had US$177 billion in the same period.
Asean aims to establish the AIF during the informal Asean Finance Ministers' Meeting in September.
The fund was conceived to provide funding for the huge infrastructure requirements of the Asean. Indicative projects include those in the energy, transport and water sectors.
Based on discussions among the Asean member-states, the AIF will be a corporate entity, with a board that will take the key decisions of selection of projects as well as their implementation.
The AIF will be headquartered in Malaysia and will be administered by ADB on behalf of Asean member-countries.
Malaysia has pledged US$150 million for the fund, while Indonesia said it was giving US$120 million. Laos and Cambodia have pledged US$100,000 each, while Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore pledged to contribute US$15 million.
Asean Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan, however, had earlier said that the fund was not going to be enough to support the implementation of the Asean Master Plan on Connectivity, pointing out that Asia needs to invest about US$8 trillion in overall national infrastructure between 2010 and 2020.
"In addition, Asia needs to spend about US$290 billion on specific regional infrastructure projects in transport and energy that are in the pipeline," he said. The Brunei Times