HAPPY MA’AL HIJRAH 1431

THE ISLAMIC NEW Year of Hijrah 1431 falls on Friday, 18 December 2009. It is an auspicious date in the Muslim way of life which signifies the paradigm shift from the worst of situations to a much better environment and well-being of the Faithful and the Pious believer.

The BBC’s definition of Al-Hijra (1 Muharram): New Year’s Day

Al-Hijra, the Islamic New Year, is the first day of the month of Muharram. It marks the Hijra (or Hegira) in 622 CE when the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) moved from Mecca to Medina, and set up the first Islamic state.

The Muslim calendar counts dates from the Hijra, which is why Muslim dates have the suffix A.H. (After Hijra).

It’s a low-key event in the Muslim world, celebrated less than the two major festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.

New Year rituals
There is no specific religious ritual required on this day, but Muslims will think about the general meaning of Hijra, and regard this as a good time for ‘New Year Resolutions’.

The start of Islam as a community
The date marks the beginning of Islam as a community in which spiritual and earthly life were completely integrated. It was a community inspired by God, and totally obedient to God; a group of people bound together by faith.

By breaking the link with his own tribe the Prophet demonstrated that tribal and family loyalties were insignificant compared to the bonds of Islam.

This Muslim community grew steadily over time, unifying the many tribes that had made up the Arab world beforehand.

Earthly and heavenly power
Islam now developed as a combined spiritual and earthly community, with political and military power working hand in hand with spiritual power and guidance.

At the same time the community developed the religious and ethical codes of behaviour that still provide the foundation of Muslim life.

Suffice to say that this shift from the old to new marks a relevant time for reflections and moving forward to a brighter future and a new world order reaching out to the Light at the end of a dark tunnel…

Allah Subhannahu Wataala (God Most High) said, “Verily, this (the Holy) Qur’an guides to that which is best, and gives glad tidings to the believers who do good that theirs will be a great reward.” (Qur’an, 17:9) And, “There has come unto you light from God and a clear Book, whereby God guides those who seek His good pleasure unto paths of peace. He brings them out of darkness unto light by His decree, and guides them unto a straight path.” (Qur’an, 5:15)

PLK

Brunei fighting spirit alive & kicking!

BRUNEI’s SEA GAMES warriors are beginning to show their true mettle when a Pencak Silat athlete, Hj Md Khairul Bahrin won the country’s first Gold medal in Laos over the weekend. Congratulations!

A few other Bruneian martial arts exponents have also won one Silver medal and five Bronze medals in Wushu and Karate respectively. The wins go to show that Bruneian athletes shine always in combat-style competitions. And call this wishful thinking but will His Royal Highness the Crown Prince bring home another Gold medal in the Cue Sports event from Vientiane?! Let’s all hope so and pray for a Royal Gold!

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah in action

PLK

Foreigner still sings it the best!

HAVE A LISTEN to the original version of “I Want To Know What Love Is” and compare it to Mariah Carey’s rendition… I betcha Lou Gramms’ vocals still best suited for this slow rock ballad, anytime, man!

Gotta hand it to Mariah’s video producer/director, though, for the better visualization of the whole song… Peace Loves Kindness forever!

PLK

Challenging young minds…

AN OLD FRIEND yesterday told me about his doubts on the attitude of the present generation of youths in this country.

His sharp observation was based on a high school outing during which a group of about 70 ‘A’ Level students went to climb one of the hills on a small islet on the Brunei river.

It wasn’t that tough a climb as the 4095 metres (13,435 ft) high Mount Kinabalu in neighbouring Sabah but even so only 40 of the students (aged between 17 and 19) dared to challenge themselves to conquer their fear. The other 30 teenagers would rather hanged out at the foot of the not-so-high hilly terrain in the mangrove swamp, instead of trying to climb all the way.

My friend said that he was surprised at such lame fighting spirit of the Bruneian youths. His small observation of that particular case got me thinking what has happened to the sense of adventure amongst the younger generation these days. When I was their age, I set out alone to climb Mount Kinabalu from Brunei only to join other climbers once I reached the Sabah National Park.

I think it’s all in the mind. The only way these young people can change their attitude is by adopting some kind of critical thinking skills. Such skills aren’t being taught in schools, I presume.

In my viewpoint, thinking in itself is not an art. It is a skilful act of observation. To think wisely is to use all of the God-given Sixth Sense. Sensitivity is thinking subtly in diplomacy. Silent thinking is the best form of thoughts. To think logically is to reason out with all intensity. Intent focus is thinking deeply in concentration. I guess such kind of thinking only leads to positive attitude driven by passion…

I was only too glad to know that one of those students who completed the climb was a niece of mine who sat for her ‘A’ Level exams last month. And fortunately for her, she’s quite good at Maths. My hope and prayer for her is she’ll pass her exams to enable her to apply for a Government scholarship for a degree course next year, Amin!

PLK

Brunei’s SEA Games’ athletes still ‘GOLDless’?

“DON’T STOP fighting and don’t give up hope” (to borrow wise words of a young American survivor of two cancer ordeals) would be the best encouragement to all the Bruneian athletes still slugging it out in the 25th Laos SEA Games since a few days ago until December 18, 2009.

The Karate martial arts exponents from Brunei Darussalam today won the country’s first three Bronze medals. A total of 39 top-notch Bruneian athletes, including His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah who is taking part in the Billiards and Snooker event, are vying for top spots in this premier regional sports meet.

Brunei are participating in seven events namely billiards and snooker, athletics, karatedo, pencak silat, sepak takraw, taekwando and wushu.

Medal Tally (thus far)
No. Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Thailand 13 20 15 48
2 Singapore 12 4 9 25
3 Vietnam 11 9 10 30
4 Indonesia 11 5 14 30
5 Philippines 5 8 7 20
6 Malaysia 4 7 15 26
7 Laos 4 3 11 18
8 Myanmar 2 4 7 13
9 Cambodia 1 3 4 8
10 Brunei 0 0 3 3
11 Timor Leste 0 0 1 1
————————————-
Grand Total 63 63 96 222
=============================

Altogether 390 medals are at stake in a total of 25 games being competed this year. In the last SEA Games which were held in Thailand in 2007, Brunei managed to win one gold, one silver and four bronze.

Brunei’s largest contingent ever to participate in the meet was in the 1999 SEA Games in Bandar Seri Begawan where 479 athletes took part which saw Brunei winning 4 gold, 12 silver and 32 bronze medals.

Are our national athletes losing the fighting spirit in international sporting events just yet? It remains to be seen in this year’s SEA Games in Vientiane.

After some pretty bad news for the nation in terms of sporting development and international sports participations in recent years, at least one Gold medal victory in the Laotian Games to end this year’s achievement would be welcome GREAT NEWS for the people and country most definitely!

PLK

Happy Silver Jubilee Brunei SSEAYP PYs!

THE 36th SHIP for South East Asian Youth Program (SSEAYP) this year, which brought together a total of 11 national leaders and 319 participating youths (PYs) from 10 ASEAN countries and Japan, sailed into Muara Port today aboard the Japanese ship, the Fuji Maru.

Aimed at promoting friendship and mutual understanding among youths of Japan and ASEAN member-countries, the Japanese-sponsored annual program is being organized from October 27 to December 18 on board the ship. While at sea crossing the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean until reaching the final destination in Tokyo, Japan, PYs or the ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ involve themselves in group discussions and other activities that promote group dynamics and inter-cultural understanding.

This year’s program officially started in Tokyo where the ‘goodwill ambassadors’ had their chance to pay a courtesy call on their royal highnesses Prince and Princess Akishino (Kiko-san herself was an ex-PY of SSEAYP ‘86 and stayed with a lucky foster family in Kg Ayer during her homestay in Brunei where she tried eating Ambuyat,too!) before they set sail from Tokyo to six port-of-calls including Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Bandar Seri Begawan and back to Japan again. They will also visit Myanmar by air during the port of call activity in Thailand.

For Brunei Darussalam, this is the country’s 25th participation in the program when seven ‘observer’ youths (including yours truly) first represented the nation to join other youths from six ASEAN countries (Brunei Darussalam; Indonesia; Malaysia; the Philippines; Singapore and Thailand) and Japan in 1984. Only the following year did Bruneian youths took part fully with the complete contingent of 35 participating youths from each country then to sail on board the Nippon Maru.

However, since the ASEAN membership increased some years back to include newcomers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam respectively, the total number of participating youths from each country was reduced to some 20 PYs and a bigger ship, the Fuji Maru, was built by the Japanese Government to cater to a much bigger passenger capacity. Since the program was first launched in 1973, more than 9,000 youths from 11 countries have, to date, joined the SSEAYP.

Personally, I’m quite happy that I was one of the pioneering batch of youths to have paved the way for hundreds more Bruneian youths over the years to be given the opportunity to interact with their counterparts from the rest of ASEAN and Japan in this mutually beneficial program. LONG LIVE SSEAYP!

~~ Fuji Maru, sailing the blue, blue ocean ~~

PLK

Oprah Winfrey does have both gifts of the Gab and the Heart…

THE ICON OF GLOBAL Talk Shows, American Oprah Winfrey, recently announced that she’s making an early retirement from her highly-successful TV career. The much-acclaimed Oprah Winfrey Show will end its run next year after enjoying a worldwide following for 25 long years!

I happened to watch her show around lunch today, in which the amazing award-winning Country Singer, Taylor Swift, was featured as her main guest, together with a couple of child prodigies. I think this particular show was amongst the best that Oprah’s company, Harpo’s Productions, has ever aired for the whole world to see.

What made Oprah Winfrey Show so uniquely special is her knack for getting the best out of people — a real people-person of the highest degree. I’ve heard of 19-year-old talented singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift but I wouldn’t have known about her innocently sweet personality and pure-hearted kindness if I hadn’t watched all her achievements as seen through Oprah’s eyes.

In the same program, Oprah also had flown in all the way from Wales, Britain’s answer to the late Michael Jackson in Shaheen Jafargholi, whose singing talent was discovered and encouraged by Simon Cowell in this year’s X-Factor reality TV competition that also produced new singing sensation, Susan Boyle. And Oprah managed to dig up more on 12-year-old Shaheen for the whole world to cry to tears seeing through the show his special attributes and extraordinarily powerful voice. Bravo Oprah!

PLK

My Top 10 Fave Malay Soundtracks…

ONE OF THOSE boring nights with nothing better to do than downloading Malay songs from where else but YouTube…

PLK adds a Bonus extra song by the late Sudirman: “Salam Terakhir”

“Definitely, Maybe” — YES! “New Moon” — no…

I HONESTLY don’t know what’s the rave all about this year’s topnotch box-office movie, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I quietly watched it this evening but left the Empire cineplex during the final part towards the end.

Probably its stars appeal lit up the ‘Vampires vs Werewolves’ sparks, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. And all three heart-throbs succeeded in pulling the mostly young global movie-goers to spend a record 480 million-plus dollars over the last fortnight.

Perhaps, my teenage son connected well with this over-the-moon and overly-hyped movie sequel of last year’s equally-successful Twilight. I haven’t asked him about his review, though, after his five-day trip to Manila (where he watched New Moon with his Filipino cousins) the day before yesterday. He has read all the Twilight book versions so he should be able to digest the plots and story-lines much better (just as he’s read all the Harry Porter book series back-to-back).

Fortunately, my young daughter isn’t really into this Twilight thing because I’d have to close her eyes every time lips-locking scenes started one too many throughout the movie.

This morning while I was still home, I squeezed in some free time watching a slightly-damaged DVD of the 2008 romantic-comedy, “Definitely, Maybe” (directed by American writer, Adam Brooks). Now, that was more my cup of tea! I could relate to this movie better…

It does strike me each time I go and see a new movie to come up with an overly-ambitious idea of producing or directing a truly Made-in-Brunei movie, complete with local Bruneian casts and shot on-location in the Abode of Peace! That’ll be the day, my friends… But seriously somebody must take up the challenge to develop the movie industry in this country because lots of highly-talented young Bruneians are out there hungry for exposure and opportunities to shine!

P.S. This year alone, the Hollywood movie industry raked in USD10 billion in gross profits (WOW!)

PLK

~ Your Song & United Nations’ Peace Singer ~

DECEMBER IS the time of the year when most people get mellow and all melancholic, out of the blue… So let’s relax and enjoy two different versions of “Your Song”, starting with the latest `09 release by good old crooner, Harry Connick Jr.:

My favorite is by Elton John always, especially during any of his Live concerts, playing his piano. Real music to my ears~:

AND CONGRATULATIONS are in order to the one and only Stevie Wonder who just got appointed by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as a Messenger of Peace:

Above performance was before in his younger heydays. Below is how handsome Stevie Wonder still looked in the UN Headquarters in New York last December 3, 2009:

Have a great weekend and PEACE, people!

PLK