His Majesty asks why and how…

I have never heard His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei made such a touching and stern titah or speech. Everyone in Brunei is talking about His Majesty’s speech broadcast over the radio news today. I think I heard at some parts of his speech he sound like he was almost choking. I couldnt bear to hear it.

The radio news reported that His Majesty was delivering his call when he attended a meeting with the Brunei’s National Disaster Management Centre this morning.  The more I listen to his text the more I love His Majesty. He really cares but tired, shall I say, with whats going on. ‘Tunggu apa lagi?‘ (what else are we waiting for?)

Some of the text that I gathered were (not in order):

• Why wait until His Majesty highlighted an issue such as the zakat or tithe and self-sufficiency in food and then only the relevant authority will act on his call on the issue?;
• Why are low-ranking officials travelling alone to attend meetings while big groups accompany high-ranking officers when travel abroad?;
• If these officers are alone, who would they turn to when they want to exchange ideas or look after them when they fell ill?
• Why would staff of opposite sex be sent together abroad at the same time?
• Why is the Islamic Religious Knowledge not a compulsory core subject in the SPN21 or the country’s education system?
• Why should the heads of the natural disaster committee wait for reports when they should be forward-thinking in looking at events and not wait for things to happen?

On his birthday celebrations, he said that although all events (apart from the mass prayer) have been postponed, the spirit and mood of the 15th July (his birthdate) is still strong. He thanked those who have organised the various event sfor the celebration, however he was unhappy with a number of things: 

• Why ask companies to sponsor or donate? Is this appropriate?
• Is the allocated budget insufficient?
• How grand do we want the birthday events to be?
•  Why holds a celebration afterwards to celebrate these sponsors and donors? These celebrations would be widely covered by the media with a Minister or a senior official receiving the sponsorship.
• Would those who sponsor or donate are sincere or do they have to do it?

Frankly, His Majesty said he do not like the celebration to be used as a tool to attract or accumulate donations.

On H1N1, His Majesty highlighted that what has been done by the authorities is to give out advices. The most important preventive measures is to temporarily prevent Bruneians from travelling to the affected areas. Only after the Prime Minister’s Office issued a circular, no one has thought or carried out the measure.

• Heads of Department work like a robot with no discretion or common sense. They only wait for instructions although they have been given a mandate to make certain considerations and take logical steps;  
• We have many religious officers but not a single officer organises or start a special programme to inform and lead the public on the importance of ‘doa’ or prayer and ‘zikir’ or praises to Allah in an effort to protect onself from such pandemic.
• There is also no Tv guidance or onformation on ‘Doa wirid’ or ‘zikir’ which are good to be read. ‘Do you also have to wait for my order to do that?’;
• As schools re-opened, there is no initiative to ask the students to recite the ‘doa’ before they start their classes to seek Allah’s blessings. Is it difficult to do? Children’s prayers are quickly answered as they are pure and free from sin. ‘Can’t you think about this this?’;

Read news report from Brudirect:

- Some government servats are like robots

- Do not turn royal birthday joy into a media circus

- Royal dressing down for indecisive heads of department

- Sultan frowns on series of failures and faults

Influenza A (H1N1) analysis

Have a look at the graphs below and take note on where Brunei stands. During the survey period, Brunei is the top 40 countires in the world with the highest growth of cases in the last ten days from the survey with 547%. But then again, Brunei has a very small population and has been the last country in South East Asia to catch the flu.  I do hope the Bruneian authroties are coming up with an analysis on the H1N1 so that lessons can be learnt from the situation, our preparedness, our action plans, emergency procedures in an event of a pandemic and the most important of all, prevention. China has offered help as it has its own experience with the bird flu. We can always learn.

Did anyone know which is the mother of all pandemics? Its the 1918 Influenza, also known as the Spanish Flu which infected one third of the world’s population or around 500 million people at that time. Why its 1918? Because it happened way back in 1918 and I think that maybe at that time no one has come up with the H1 family name for virus as yet.  You can read more interesting influenza history here.

Source from the rest of this post below: http://www.peterosborn.com.

“Peter has worked extensively on business contingency planning.  Since 2005 he has worked closely with Dr. Tony Yardley-Jones to track the threats posed to business by pandemic influenza, and help management teams develop appropriate strategies for their organisations. Tony is a specialist in Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, and He has worked with international businesses for over 20 years in all aspects of occupational health. We concentrate on the issues for Management and business that might be expected to arise from a pandemic.”

This is a summary of the key statistics of H1N1.The aim is to be able to understand the flow of the trends, not to attempt to document individual data or calculate totals from the chaotic reporting that takes place.

These two graphs look at the history of total deaths and total cases so far. Blue trace is death rate (CFR), left-hand axis. Red trace is total cases, right-hand axis. Green dots plot new cases reported daily. Straight black line is linear trend. Black trace is five-day moving average. Red trace is long-term average since 20 April 2009.

Ten-day growth cases with Brunei on the top of 40 countries.

Cases per 10,000 population

Three pandemic waves: weekly combined influenza and pneumonia mortality, United Kingdom, 1918-1919

 

Influenza A (H1N1) update – life goes on in Brunei

Alhamdullilah, the number of patients who recovered from the total number of cases has reached almost  44% (see figures above). Despite the fact that schools re-opened last Monday, only ten new cases were reported yesterday but again, its too early to say now. Lets see whats the statistics say at the end of today as those catching the flu will only display symptoms after three days?

I hope people are not panicking but should observe personal hygiene and be vigilant. I was wearing a mask last night when I was visiting at the hospital. I saw that a number of visitors also wore masks. I then met a relative who was not wearing one and joked about me wearing a mask. He said, ‘Wah, trying to protect yourself from catching the flu? You will get it eventually. I better stay away from you too!’

I said to myself, ‘WT*’ with his attitude so I ignored him. I am sure people will agree, I am protecting myself and those around me. People wearing mask would not want to spread the virus if they got it or would not want to catch it. We have to make an effort, right. Berusaha, berdoa dan bertawakal.

Back to the hospital, I could not believe my eyes when I was passing through the A&E area. It was so full of people and not just adults but babies and young children as well. I overheard a lady who said that she was down with a flu and went to the Ong Sum Ping Health Centre (about ten minutes drive from RIPAS Hospital) and her queue number was 205! So she decided to go to RIPAS instead and what did she find? More people!

The number of people in the A&E area is one matter but what matter most was when I saw this family of six with the mother holding her baby in her arms. I dont know who wanted to see a doctor, its either the mom or the baby but it look like the whole family was having a picnic. They were enjoying the atmosphere by eating keropok or snacks  and drinking in the open; and not wearing a mask. I dont know if they realised that they are risking the young ones to the virus. Okay maybe I sound paranoid but can they be at least considerate to others?

Reading the local news for the past few days also caught my attention. It look like life does go on in Brunei with endless expos at The Mall and elsewhere, a concert with local artists and one upcoming popular treasure hunt to be held soon. I heard more than 800 people have registered to join in the hunt? Not sure if the numbers’ right but I do hope people are aware that the virus is in the air?