Surely You Remember ...

Could we remember the countless moments we sang and sang this beautiful meaningful song? We even had a play in our annual concert with this song as the theme ... May we recall all those times and more!

Camera Defect in a "Haunted" Place

It was a former Japanese Kempeti (equivalent to the German Gestapo) interrogation centre back in the late 30's during WWII ... and many of those who were forcibly brought here were summarily executed nearby.

Here is a pic I snapped to see if this place could be haunted at daytime ... Can you see anything?

The Thing about Miri City ...

I'm a local born fella and I feel proud of the city for its past and present achievements which have obviously been accomplished in leaps and bounds ... There are many positive stuff to be said -- without going into details -- about a once sleepy hollow that used to be famous just for its oil and bars and Monica Lodging ...

There are apparently not so nice stuff I want to share here, one of which is the unfriendly nature of the city towards visitors and I mean specifically those who drive into the city from other countries and towns.

Without comparing too much with great tourism destinations like Kota Kinabalu, New Zealand, the States and Canada we can see how the narrow roads and road signs are so poorly planned and limited in information. Friendly road signs should be treated as beacons of hope and guide to drivers and every distance to locations should be indicated; general directions to all locations should be provided and all facilities such as rest areas, petrol, food and lodging clearly indicated . The signs should also indicate the distances of these areas so that first-time visitors/drivers will know roughly where the places are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read and calculate that 5 km away would be the nearest rest area or loo!

Miri today is just a city like many small towns with the slight difference of the basic requirements of infrastructure that must be available to obtain city status. There is so little around us to remind us of its golden glorious history and the bad past when ambitious egomaniac Japs ruled the Asian region and the many past heroes and founding fathers of the ex-town seem to be conveniently forgotten and unrecognised. Case in point: just take a walk to the oldest Mission school in the city and you will soon realise not a single street is named after its Asian founder or the many pioneers who established the first oldest educational institution. What we have is the name of an unknown dead fella who did nothing for the school or the area on the street sign.

What the city should be doing is put a seasoned traveler in charge of turning this city into a great tourism destination. Mirians have to think like a tourist to attract tourists. A little imagination helps too.

My Sarawak Governor's Honored Uncle

One of the most memorable moments in Auckland was the time I spent with my well-known uncle, Chong Yuk Hien, formerly the Miri District Council (Now renamed as Miri Municipal Council, following Miri's elevation to city status) secretary. A qualified architect, he retired to New Zealand in the eighties. With his departure, our Anglican church in Miri lost a very generous, gracious, God-fearing and humble gentleman. It was because of his love for Christ and church that he did a lot of architectural drawings for free without charging a single cent. There are indeed so few humble, kind and warm-hearted human being I know like him. Meeting him and spending time with him was the answer to my dreams as some of you are aware I did mention his story and his heroic actions in defending Sarawak against the offensive launched by the Brunei rebels to take over the Sarawak government in the sixties' Brunei Rebellion. For his courageous actions, together with a handful of local Ibans, in holding the northern front against the invading rebels, he was presented the colonial government's governor's award bu the last British governor, Governor Sir Alexander Waddell. In the pictures, my uncle and I climbed up Mount Wellington which is near his home. In my two weeks with my relatives, we had a marvelous time walking and climbing various places. Mt. Wellington is such a fascinating site. There was a Maori settlement at the summit, and it is believed that warring cannibalistic Maoris fought each other up there in many pitched bloody battles. I managed to reach the summit myself as my uncle found it quite tiring considering his age, and I went to the actual spot where there could be seen the remnants of a stone settlement. There were lots of stones and rocks in certain parts of the area. I could almost feel the presence of hundreds of blood-thirsty Maoris with their bloody curling cries in the lonely desolete place, as the wind howled and blew fiercely and the warm sun beat my face high up there ...

Old Miri & 1Borneo

Just a two pics for all guests here. The old black & white shot is that of Miri's first and only train in action back in the 1910s.

The other pic is taken at one of Malaysia's largest shopping mall, 1Borneo. You can see see this long escalator without any steps gliding effortlessly down to the basement where there're many food shops and fine crusine.

More later ...

Miri's Firecrackers Accident

Don't play with firecrackers! The consequences of not listening to good advice is this!

The poor Indon apparently set up the lengthy string of crackers
by dangling it from a small metal rod that was placed inside a bigger metal pipe.

When the carckers exploded, the pipe flew off and despite the distance he was standing from it, smashed his skull severely, cracking it open and scattering his brains everywhere.

This accident happened in Miri City during the Chinese New Year celebrations this year.

Playing with firecrackers is an offence of course and rightly so considering the accidents that do happen to youngsters... and no, this fella was not a youngster!

Just a Simple Bomb

So what can a mere single one-megaton nuclear bomb do to a country? Well, it's indeed spine-chilling to think that an area of 10-miles radius would be devastated. In other words, from Piasau to our Miri City Centre-aye, that round-about with some plants and hornbill statures- and all the way to our airport, surrounding Senadin and outwards offshore will be hit.

Here are the other effects of such a device... Let me tell you the results are really ugly as hell.

* People can be killed by blast, heat or intense nuclear radiation from the initial explosion, by fires, or by radiation dose accumulated from radio-active fall-out dust over the next few weeks;

* The spread of radioactive fall-out is unpredicable but it is likely to kill more people than the combined effects of blast and fire;

* Radiation damages cells in the body, reduces the ability to fight infection and may lead to a lingering death. It also causes genetic damage and cancers which become apparent only in the long term;

* Many people will die of thirst due to the disruption of the water distribution and supply network;

* The food supply will be inadequate and worsen as time goes on. Those surviving the blast, fire and radiation may starve to death;

* Medical care will be hopelessly inadequate, leaving people to die a painfully lingering death from blast injuries, burns or radiation sickness;

* Owing to the breakdown of public hygiene, epidemics may spread through the surviving population;

* Cold will kill many people as they spend cold or winter days without adequate shelter;

* There would be a loss in civil liberties as some form of law and order has to be maintained;

* Delayed fall-out can be carried round the globe far from the war zone and

* The ozone layer in the atmosphere could be destroyed by a large-scale nuclear conflict so that ultr-violet radiation from the sun could kill many forms of life.

By the way, the above is a summary of what the experts believe will happen in a nuclear strike. There may be more info on the consequences on the net of playing with a toy like the nuclear bomb!

We were Teachers

It wasn't too long ago-20 years ago to be exact-when there were four of us cool buddies having a good time in a sleepy hollow called Miri town....

There was Nicholas Bawin (far left), Mike Lo (next to him) and Ng Choon Onn (far right).

Nicholas is the present Man in Action or shall we say the man in hot action as he is so much up to his neck into politics. Here's a decent Iban who will be remembered by many of us teachers in St. Columba's Secondary School as the best "monkey-style" climber of coconut trees, graciously tossing coconuts down to the ground for the rest of us awe-struck nut- loving thirsty urban eaters.

Then other memories of this fella crab-hunting with us and having an encounter with a sting-ray... catching a trophy mouse at his teachers' quarters....

By the way, Ng Choon Onn is now a successful headmaster somewhere in Miri division... Sarawakians should never forget he helped trained the Columban, The Flying Dayak, Watson Nyambek up to first class standards.

Mike is a successful real estate agent.

Regrettably, we have not been constantly in touch as some of us old buddies are scattered in the far-flung outreaches of the planet as distant as Canada and New Zealand.

Oh yeah, there's this '60s style in our posture, don't you think?

A Normal Airport Day

Ever been in a place, looked around and taken note of the surroundings critically? We should. Why don't we? Well, I'll say life would be more interesting. We will feel things are not so mundane.

I was at the airport on Tuesday evening. Due to one of the worst monsoonal storms ever to hit this part of Malaysia, a friend's flight was delayed.

Aimlessly, I walked around the the two floors of the airport, from the outside unloading/loading/taxi zones into the arrival/registration/departure hall and out again.

In some places outside I could see groups of anxious passengers' relatives and friends awaiting their folks to arrive. These clusters of persons squatted around on the 10-cm above ground stainless-steel rings that were placed around all the giant pillars. Even along the room's external walls there were similar stainless steel bars running by them. People were also seen squatting on these. There were no benches. There were a few scattered chairs around.

It was surreal. The pillars had lamps around them at the top but the lights were out at some pillars. Others had bright glowing lights which emitted a romantic warm glow beneath, casting long drawn shadows at crooks and crannies around us.

Walking by the waiting room, I noticed the lack of proper lighting. Parts of the inside were in semi-darkness. Were these many persons seated on comfortable chairs expected to just wait for time to idle by while others would be in peaceful slumber?

Around the waiting room was a Ministry of Information booth. I hate to mention that it is so much a typical propaganda mini-board heralding what the government wants the masses to believe. The postings had big news about doing the "correct, correct, correct" things and certain positive acts carried out by the government. From local news it went on to international ones: one, which I recognised was an extract from The Borneo Post, citing an international news report about aid to the Palestinian clause.

There was even a direct quotation that the prime minister had made about the need for an efficient delivery system at one end of the reading board. Surprisingly, no attributions were made as to all the newspapers that had published these news. For a second there, I thought I was in the bad old days of Mao Tse-Tung's Peoples' Republic of China.

Close to this place was a large grocery/bakery store. There were lots of the usual delicacies at their usual airport prices. What caught my eye was the posting placed against the store's glass walls advertising its products. It stated that Kueh Lapis was available for ordering. Alright-good enterprising idea with high prices... Probably with quality as well with such exorbitant prices.

However, something else caught my eye!

Looking at the choices of cakes with ingenious attractive names like Roll Fido Dido, Roll Spider Web, Roll Lino Stitch, Roll Mozek and so forth, I was struck by the funniest cake name: Kek Cinta Kolesterol (transl. Cholesterol-lover's Cake)! Hell, I guess I wouldn't mind having a heart attack while having a munch on such a delightful rich creamy cake!

Finally, last but not least of my observations, at that time the reality of life was rudely brought to my attention: I could see the hundreds of birds up on the few palm trees outside the airport. They were causing a ruckus, probably due to the worst storm that ever hit Miri for such an incredibly long, long time.

Thankfully, two things brightened what would otherwise be mainly a truly gloomy day: a couple parted ways with a romantic kiss ... and amusingly, there were-AHEM-shall I say a pleasant distraction when attractive wholesome travelers with juggling assets walked briskly by right before my very eyes dragging along their luggage behind them ...

A Tragic Merdeka Day

From joy to sorrow... as a celebrating group of Independence Day celebrants accidentally killed a youngster early this year on 31st August, 2007. The sixteen year-old student was a pillion rider on a motor-bike.
This story appeared in the Borneo Post dated 1st September, 2007. Please click the pic to enlarge it.

Miri's Sunset Beach

Welcome to Miri Oil City... We have wide stretches of sunny beaches and a warm sea all year round...

What on earth are these folks up to?
Answer: They're dragging the soft beach sand to collect mussels.

A Great MissTourism Show

It was an impressive show put up by Alaric Productions in Miri on Wednesday 28th November. The indoor stadium was jam-packed by excited spectators as reported by the local press.

Naim Cendera did Mirians proud by hosting it and allowing the public, most of whom were either potential house buyers or house owners to enjoy the first-rate show.

Stimulating beautiful choreography by Alaric Soh's specialists was apparent from the moment the stage dancers appeared with foot-tapping music and stage lights of many colors...

Two comments which I hope will be considered as positive:
1. The food in bags was quite tasty but too little to fill our empty stomachs. We were told there would be food and didn't expect there would be so little of it so we attended the show with no dinner at home.

2. There was no information about the prize that Miss Korea who was crowned Miss Permyjaya won...

Certainly, the show reminds us that liberal Sarawakians can really come together to enjoy great music and performances. What a long-awaited break for me, away from the talk of some of the maddening racist and chauvinistic lying deceitful politicians around us...

Thanks Alaric and Naim Cendera! Though I didn't win a single Lucky Draw prize, the show itself was worth it!

Here are 2 pics of the event. The charming gorgeous Miss Korea pic is borrowed from a fellow Miri Community net blogger. Do click them to enlarge.

Mysterious Burnt out Taxi

Anyone in Miri, Sarawak can tell us why this taxi which is parked outside some terrace houses in Piasau Garden appears to be either fire bombed or itself accidentally caught fire? I was driving by 2 days ago and noticed the unusual sight in the huge residential area. The trees near the cab across the drain were terribly scotched by the flames and heat as well.

Shopping Mirian Cobra!

IN OUR BIG CITY one day....

Good heavens! Believe it or not! A shopping cobra came calling at the Boulevard Shopping Complex one night. Failing to slither up the high entrance stairs of one of Miri's largest shopping complexes, it attempted to enter one of the Sibu-registered vehicles near it.

A huge crowd gathered to watch the ongoing operation to find this most deadly poisonous reptile in Borneo after shoppers reported the sighting to the building's security personnel.

Eventually, a brave Iban 'Rentap' caught it with his bare hands!

Here are the pics of the vehicle and 'Rentap'...

OOps! The vehicle pic will appear later but the pic of the hero is available now!

By the way, this story never appeared in the Borneo Post.

Miri's Luak Bay Castle

With opal towers and battlements adorned
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies (Paradise Lost, Part 2).

Where once, it was Paradise...
Do not go-
Where once it was Miri's pride
of great wonder where butts and caves lay
and Nature in all its glory blossomed and flourished...
Do not go-
Ah, it is to fools their Paradise Lost...
where my castle rests in the sky close to the gods
To you mere mortals, dreaming sons and daughters of Miri
Speak and you will be silenced by my mighty forces of wealth for it is written:
you who are meek shall inherit the earth
after we the rich have exploited it...

Old Miri-the Tale Begins

This is a hand-drawn map of Miri from 1910 to 1945 extracted from my uncle's autobiography, The Rise and Fall of the Rising Sun in Miri, Sarawak. It was drawn by my uncle who used to be a government engineer in Miri (Click on it to enlarge it).

In 1945, he tragically lost his dad to the occupying Imperial Japanese Forces who summarily executed him, and many others after many days of torture by the dreaded Japanese Secret Police, the Kempeti, before the Australian troops liberated Miri.

In 1962, during the Brunei Rebellion, he led a group of 60 Ibans to defend Miri against the attacking rebels from Brunei. He was awarded by Sarawak's then Governor Sir Alexander Waddell with a Commendation Award for his courageous selfless act.

He has settled down overseas to enjoy his 'golden years'.

I will add in the latest comparative map of Miri later in another posting.

WARNING! 4 more years of oil in Miri!

Believe it or not! Just hot news from the respectable London-based Depletion Analysis Centre that the world's oil supply will peak in 2011 and then it would be a decline from there... According to the head of the centre, the well-respected Dr. Colin Cambell, a former chief geologist and VP of a string of oil majors including BP, Shell, Fina, Exxon and Chevron
Texaco we must not believe what the oil companies officially say...QUOTE: "When I was the boss of an oil company I would never tell the truth. It's not part of the game". UNQUOTE. Read all about it in Britain's Independent dated 14th June, 2007. Excerpts are below and if you're convinced it will happen, just think what it means for our oil-rich Sarawak, Sabah, Trengannu, Malaysia on the whole and Miri itself... What is Petronas without oil??? What is Malaysia when the oil runs dry? What are the Arab states without this priceless commodity???

A world without oil

Scientists challenge major review of global reserves and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time

By Daniel Howden

Published: 14 June 2007

Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit.

BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry.

However, scientists led by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, say that global production of oil is set to peak in the next four years before entering a steepening decline which will have massive consequences for the world economy and the way that we live our lives.

According to "peak oil" theory our consumption of oil will catch, then outstrip our discovery of new reserves and we will begin to deplete known reserves.

Colin Campbell, the head of the depletion centre, said: "It's quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and ends empty and the faster you drink it the quicker it's gone."

Dr Campbell, is a former chief geologist and vice-president at a string of oil majors including BP, Shell, Fina, Exxon and ChevronTexaco. He explains that the peak of regular oil - the cheap and easy to extract stuff - has already come and gone in 2005. Even when you factor in the more difficult to extract heavy oil, deep sea reserves, polar regions and liquid taken from gas, the peak will come as soon as 2011, he says.

This scenario is flatly denied by BP, whose chief economist Peter Davies has dismissed the arguments of "peak oil" theorists.

"We don't believe there is an absolute resource constraint. When peak oil comes, it is just as likely to come from consumption peaking, perhaps because of climate change policies as from production peaking."

In recent years the once-considerable gap between demand and supply has narrowed. Last year that gap all but disappeared. The consequences of a shortfall would be immense. If consumption begins to exceed production by even the smallest amount, the price of oil could soar above $100 a barrel. A global recession would follow.

Jeremy Leggert, like Dr Campbell, is a geologist-turned conservationist whose book Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis brought "peak oil" theory to a wider audience. He compares industry and government reluctance to face up to the impending end of oil, to climate change denial.

"It reminds me of the way no one would listen for years to scientists warning about global warming," he says. "We were predicting things pretty much exactly as they have played out. Then as now we were wondering what it would take to get people to listen."

In 1999, Britain's oil reserves in the North Sea peaked, but for two years after this became apparent, Mr Leggert claims, it was heresy for anyone in official circles to say so. "Not meeting demand is not an option. In fact, it is an act of treason," he says.

One thing most oil analysts agree on is that depletion of oil fields follows a predictable bell curve. This has not changed since the Shell geologist M King Hubbert made a mathematical model in 1956 to predict what would happen to US petroleum production. The Hubbert Curveshows that at the beginning production from any oil field rises sharply, then reaches a plateau before falling into a terminal decline. His prediction that US production would peak in 1969 was ridiculed by those who claimed it could increase indefinitely. In the event it peaked in 1970 and has been in decline ever since.

In the 1970s Chris Skrebowski was a long-term planner for BP. Today he edits the Petroleum Review and is one of a growing number of industry insiders converting to peak theory. "I was extremely sceptical to start with," he now admits. "We have enough capacity coming online for the next two-and-a-half years. After that the situation deteriorates."

What no one, not even BP, disagrees with is that demand is surging. The rapid growth of China and India matched with the developed world's dependence on oil, mean that a lot more oil will have to come from somewhere. BP's review shows that world demand for oil has grown faster in the past five years than in the second half of the 1990s. Today we consume an average of 85 million barrels daily. According to the most conservative estimates from the International Energy Agency that figure will rise to 113 million barrels by 2030.

Two-thirds of the world's oil reserves lie in the Middle East and increasing demand will have to be met with massive increases in supply from this region.

BP's Statistical Review is the most widely used estimate of world oil reserves but as Dr Campbell points out it is only a summary of highly political estimates supplied by governments and oil companies.

As Dr Campbell explains: "When I was the boss of an oil company I would never tell the truth. It's not part of the game."

A survey of the four countries with the biggest reported reserves - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait - reveals major concerns. In Kuwait last year, a journalist found documents suggesting the country's real reserves were half of what was reported. Iran this year became the first major oil producer to introduce oil rationing - an indication of the administration's view on which way oil reserves are going.

Sadad al-Huseini knows more about Saudi Arabia's oil reserves than perhaps anyone else. He retired as chief executive of the kingdom's oil corporation two years ago, and his view on how much Saudi production can be increased is sobering. "The problem is that you go from 79 million barrels a day in 2002 to 84.5 million in 2004. You're leaping by two to three million [barrels a day]" each year, he told The New York Times. "That's like a whole new Saudi Arabia every couple of years. It can't be done indefinitely."

A Haunted House in Miri.

For over 30 years, it was abandoned and left to rot. Its occupants supposedly met a tragic end in an accident which wiped the entire family of 4 out...

After this, many tenants who stayed in this Krokop house told of hair-raising loud eerie noises after the clock struck twelve; others claimed after falling fast asleep, they would find themselves mysteriously sleeping outside the wooden home...

There were trees and thick bushes surrounding the house before this pic was shot.

Shortly after this pic was taken, it was torn down and today you can find shop-houses in the vicinity.

Was it really haunted? Was it all a figment of imagination by a superstitious public? The jury is out there!

Down Miri's Memory Lane 2

The pic on the left shows Beautiful Jade Centre. If my memory serves me right, it was named Beautiful Jade by the former Chief Minister Abdul Rahman Yakub after one of his ex-Chinese girlfriends (who happened to be a classmate of my aunt) according to the papers when the commercial centre was first publicised.

Can you recognise the shophouses on the left of the pic?

You're actually looking at the row of shophouses that has our popular Nonya Kopitiam in it. On the right empty spot, a new row of shophouses would be built and it would have Sin Liang Supermarket in it.

The pic seemed to be shot from Gloria Hotel.

As for the two pics beneath it, they are from the Borneo Post's feature magazine, Post Mag dated 30/1/94.

Again, they show another part of Beautiful Jade Centre. The tall building under construction appears to be Mega Hotel.

Down Miri's Memory Lane...

YES! YES! You're looking at some cool pics by a well-known photographer, Francis Liew, of old and quite new Miri places. These pics came out in the Miri Daily News (Now known as The United Daily News) sometime ago.

I regret I do not have the actual date of its publication. If you do, please let me know and I'll add it in.

A few comments from yours truly here:
a) Even as an old Mirian, frankly, I haven't the foggiest idea where the heck Jalan
Unku is! Typically, the local Authority makes changes to road names with little
notification! Miri would be a greater tourist attraction if we follow our beautiful capital city, historic Kuching and give names to streets and roads that reflect truly our gratitude to our past historical personalities such as Chong En Siong, Malaysian founder of the OLDEST northern region educational institution, St. Columba's School in replacement of an unknown Abang Indeh who has no connection whatsoever to the school! What about Jalan Chong En Siong instead of Jalan Abang Indeh for the road that runs through between St. Columba's Primary and St. Columba's Secondary School??? Before Jalan Abang Indeh it was Jalan Kubu.
b) The present Taman Selera was a popular spot for picnics in the early '70s.
The pic with the coconut palms was where the present food stores began. There
were a few (2 or 3) hawker-style stores selling rojak, food and drinks at first. Mirians
could park vehicles wherever.
c) The 3rd row pics show Miri town as it was then-just some shops with hardly any
tall buildings. The tallest and oldest in the '70s was 7-floor-Park Hotel!
d) The Hock Hua Bank pic would now be considered as really out-dated-Hock Hua
Bank doesn't exist any more and today, Public Bank occupies the old building.

I hope you've enjoyed your view of our past Miri...I have lots more in store, including a rare pre-World War 2 SHELL wharf pic which I may show here.