After months of not having Borneo Bulletin in my grasp, I miss the Bruneian newspaper so much that I visited the website. It is not as good as reading it in paper form, but it sure is more environment-friendly, or green as media put it.
Since I was, and still am, an avid fan of Borneo Bulletin Weekend, I checked out that part of the website first, and found an article relating to just what I had been blogging about two posts ago. Due to the fact that the BB website is updated frequently, to retain the article I will post it here.
Change your attitude, change your life By Kartini Knox
"I have some kind of infection, the doctor doesn't know what's wrong and I'm in bed, on painkillers and antibiotics, until who knows when", my friend groaned over the phone. I couldn't help feel sorry for her.
Maybe it was coincidence or maybe not, but in a spate of recent bad luck, she had slipped and injured herself, had her car dented and split up with her fiancée.
On reflection of our past conversations and exchanges, the idea flashed through my mind, that there was always something going wrong for her. Circumstances and situations had a tendency to go belly-up, leaving her in despair. Bad luck followed her around like a bad smell. Was she jinxed?
Not being the superstitious type, it dawned on me that maybe her problems could be pinned to her attitude. We've all had days when we got out of the wrong side of bed and things got progressively worse as the day went by. If anybody deserved the label "Misery Guts" tattooed across their forehead - she was one of those people.
When not ranting on about her job, her colleagues, deadlines, rules and regulations, she would moan about her salary, which wasn't enough she said, to compensate for all the headaches she put up with in the line of duty. "Phone bills, car bills!" she'd sigh. Apparently, her monthly pay packet never lasted long enough - (a daily fact of life for most of us!)
Apart from her working life, her personal life was a frequent topic of mind-numbingly repetitive grumbling.
Her rants about how her nearest and dearest constantly disappointed her were not only restricted to coffee-shop conversations. Whenever somebody incurred her wrath (and it didn't take much - forgetting her birthday would do the trick) she would have no qualms about expressing her temperamental frustration online through Facebook for all to see. If she was expecting sympathy, it had the opposite effect. The next thing we'd hear about would be how the latest love of her life had deserted her. I wasn't surprised. Her attitude was enough to scare anybody away!
That's not to say I didn't sympathise with her. But her attitude needed a makeover! It's no secret that positive thinkers seem to have better luck than negative people. On the other end of the spectrum, her on-going resentments and disgruntlements were taking over her life! Any redeeming qualities she had once possessed were fast disappearing, along with her sense of humour. This girl could never remain cordial with anybody for long, and was constantly picking fights for no reason, other than what could be put down to her personal insecurities. Her lack of faith in herself and low self-esteem seemed to drive away friends, old and new. Apart from providing an open ear to her dramas, there was nothing I could do to help, short of telling her to stop being such a grouch!
You may have had a terrible childhood, spent half your working life unemployed and had your pet cat die on you after paying a fortune on vet bills, but limiting the chronic commiserating with friends, will do wonders for your social life!
If you've known a Chronic Complainer, who'd rather blame others than accept responsibility or look into their own character flaws, forget about offering any sound advice. It will fall on deaf ears.
If any of these Perpetual Pessimists are reading this, then maybe this is a wake-up call - to change your attitude and change your life!
The above article is a copyrighted material from Brunei Press Sdn Bhd, March 21, 2009.
So now, let's visualise a soceity full of people with attitude like that of the said author's friend. I couldn't bring myself to even sympathise at all.
Here is another article, this time on World Forestry Day in Brunei.
World Forestry Day: Brunei a perfect carbon sink By James Kon
Brunei yesterday celebrated the World Forestry Day with a flurry of green activities at Bukit Shahbandar Recreational Park. The guest of honour for the celebration was Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awg Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources.
In his opening speech, he said, "Brunei Darussalam is one of the countries that don't contribute to the greenhouse gases because the sultanate's pristine forests act as an effective carbon sink. Brunei's peat swamp forests have been cited by numerous scientists as capable of storing carbon in its ecosystem."
"In the report by the International Panel on climate change assessment, new evidence has shown that climate changes has started to affect many part of Asia. A study on Southeast Asia and the South Pacific for year 2001 has detected changes in regional temperature and rainfall trends.
"The result shows significant decrease in cool days and cold nights. In rainfall patterns, the number of rains days has decreased significantly in Southeast Asia. However proportion of annual rainfall has increased on most stations which mean lesser rainfall events but greater amount of downpour.
" The heavy downpour coupled with rising sea level is an indication of how climate change will affect Brunei Darussalam. Our country will definitely be affected considering temperature and rainfalls are important variables in our economic activities.
"The government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam has never stopped to fulfill its responsibility to mitigate global warming.
"Brunei Darussalam has actively participated in the UN Framework on Convention of Climate change (UNFCCC) which signify the country's interest to stabilise concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
"Brunei Darussalam is also a member of the convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). Members commit themselves to achieve a significant reduction of biodiversity loss by 2010."
At the national level, the minister revealed that, "Numerous agencies and organisations in Brunei Darussalam have undertake green projects such as reforestation, energy conservation, energy efficiency promotion and public awareness programmes. The national forestry policy of Brunei Darussalam recognised the basic need to harmonise the relationship of the environment and the human population".
During the ceremony, the minister also presented Dayang Rafidah Hj Omar of Science College, the winning prize for the World Forestry Day Logo 2009 competition. The prize however was received by her representative.
The above article is a copyrighted material from Brunei Press Sdn Bhd, March 22, 2009.
