I hate meetings
Meetings are held just to waste your time but yet at the same time, make you feel as though you've accomplished something when all you did was talk and talk and talk for a long long time without any actions being followed up after that. At least, that's what i'll define our local government meetings.
Yesterday, i had to attend a last minute 'compulsory' meeting on my company's behalf after the whole speed boat crashes into a vessel incident on Sunday. By the way when i say last minute, it's like they fax a memo over to you saying there's a compulsory meeting at 2 pm on the day itself. That's how last minute it is. But that's not the frustrating part of it. Before i go on, first let me tell you why we're involved.
If you've read this report, you'll see the report saying that it (the speed boat) hit a floating vessel. When it comes to floating vessel, it'll involves us i.e. those who works in the quarry business because we have vessels like these to transport stones for us from Temburong to Bandar. And i work in a quarry. So yes, that's how we're being pulled into the picture. And when they called for this meeting, i was assuming that the authorities was either going to implement new rules for big vessels like ours to take different routes so accidents of speed boat crashing into vessels can be avoided next time or at least to find out from vessel owners who's vessels registered under which company and so on (by the way, it's not our vessel that was involved in the accident just so you know...). But no, that's not exactly what the meeting was about.
Here's what i had to go through yesterday. 2 pm, we (vessel owners, captain and crews) went all the way to the Ministry of Communication for this so called 'compulsory meeting' just to hear people reading out their powerpoint slides to us. And what's on the slides are basically the old rules and regulations of marine saftey and all those nonsense which have been around for ages but having the typical "Entah ah" and "Inda ku tau" Bruneian attitudes, i guess no one really knew they existed or obeyed them anyway. So they just went on and on and on about how speed boat drivers should know that they're carrying the lives of other passengers on their boats and how it's dangerous risking passengers' lives because of their reckless driving and emphasizes on the safety of operating a speedboat and how being a safe speedboat driver can also boost the country's image, then the whole canggih canggih cabaran untuk negara kami patriotic stuffs talk followed after that. If that's not bad enough, it took them almost 2 bloody hours to end this stupid meeting with a conclusion that; with immediate effect, life jackets, playing the doa selamat and having a standby crew at all times on the boat are compulsory for all speedboats.
Here's the problem though. Towards the end, when it's time for the usual Q&A answers right before the floor was opened up for any questions, one of the authorites finally asked the question...
"Siapa di sini pemilik atau pemandu speedboat, sila angkat tangan!" (Who here are owners / drivers of speedboats, please raise your hands)
Number of hands raised?
NONE.
Like uh hello, all present here today are only vessel owners, captain and crews that transport stones only. We're not the mat rempits of Brunei / Temburong rivers. So when they they realized that they've been 'preaching' to the wrong crowd, the only response they managed to cough out is "Ah...ani semua orang kapal batu ka?" (Ah, these are all stone vessels people only ka?) but man, the look on their faces are like -___- "
Oh, and by the way, there were cameras around yesterday so i figured this would most likely end up in the papers and true enough it did. I'm not so sure if the reported i saw was the right one but man, his report on this meeting is hillarious.
Lifejackets A Must For Passengers
By Azlan Othman
Bandar Seri Begawan - An initial investigation into last Sunday's speedboat accident in Temburong River revealed that the mishap was caused because there was no crew onboard to assist the captain and that passengers did not put on their lifejackets.
Yeap, lifejackets causes accidents. Talk about mis-communication in the Ministry of Communication. *ba-rab-dish*
But of course, everything ended with smiles on their faces because after that, all were filled with Teh Tarik and Mee Mamak. Bah mari minum, minum...agatah makan...
Oh and there's another 'compulsory' one today. Hai...i hate meetings.
In Him
Yesterday, i had to attend a last minute 'compulsory' meeting on my company's behalf after the whole speed boat crashes into a vessel incident on Sunday. By the way when i say last minute, it's like they fax a memo over to you saying there's a compulsory meeting at 2 pm on the day itself. That's how last minute it is. But that's not the frustrating part of it. Before i go on, first let me tell you why we're involved.
If you've read this report, you'll see the report saying that it (the speed boat) hit a floating vessel. When it comes to floating vessel, it'll involves us i.e. those who works in the quarry business because we have vessels like these to transport stones for us from Temburong to Bandar. And i work in a quarry. So yes, that's how we're being pulled into the picture. And when they called for this meeting, i was assuming that the authorities was either going to implement new rules for big vessels like ours to take different routes so accidents of speed boat crashing into vessels can be avoided next time or at least to find out from vessel owners who's vessels registered under which company and so on (by the way, it's not our vessel that was involved in the accident just so you know...). But no, that's not exactly what the meeting was about.
Here's what i had to go through yesterday. 2 pm, we (vessel owners, captain and crews) went all the way to the Ministry of Communication for this so called 'compulsory meeting' just to hear people reading out their powerpoint slides to us. And what's on the slides are basically the old rules and regulations of marine saftey and all those nonsense which have been around for ages but having the typical "Entah ah" and "Inda ku tau" Bruneian attitudes, i guess no one really knew they existed or obeyed them anyway. So they just went on and on and on about how speed boat drivers should know that they're carrying the lives of other passengers on their boats and how it's dangerous risking passengers' lives because of their reckless driving and emphasizes on the safety of operating a speedboat and how being a safe speedboat driver can also boost the country's image, then the whole canggih canggih cabaran untuk negara kami patriotic stuffs talk followed after that. If that's not bad enough, it took them almost 2 bloody hours to end this stupid meeting with a conclusion that; with immediate effect, life jackets, playing the doa selamat and having a standby crew at all times on the boat are compulsory for all speedboats.
Here's the problem though. Towards the end, when it's time for the usual Q&A answers right before the floor was opened up for any questions, one of the authorites finally asked the question...
"Siapa di sini pemilik atau pemandu speedboat, sila angkat tangan!" (Who here are owners / drivers of speedboats, please raise your hands)
Number of hands raised?
NONE.
Like uh hello, all present here today are only vessel owners, captain and crews that transport stones only. We're not the mat rempits of Brunei / Temburong rivers. So when they they realized that they've been 'preaching' to the wrong crowd, the only response they managed to cough out is "Ah...ani semua orang kapal batu ka?" (Ah, these are all stone vessels people only ka?) but man, the look on their faces are like -___- "
Oh, and by the way, there were cameras around yesterday so i figured this would most likely end up in the papers and true enough it did. I'm not so sure if the reported i saw was the right one but man, his report on this meeting is hillarious.
Lifejackets A Must For Passengers
By Azlan Othman
Bandar Seri Begawan - An initial investigation into last Sunday's speedboat accident in Temburong River revealed that the mishap was caused because there was no crew onboard to assist the captain and that passengers did not put on their lifejackets.
Yeap, lifejackets causes accidents. Talk about mis-communication in the Ministry of Communication. *ba-rab-dish*
But of course, everything ended with smiles on their faces because after that, all were filled with Teh Tarik and Mee Mamak. Bah mari minum, minum...agatah makan...
Oh and there's another 'compulsory' one today. Hai...i hate meetings.
In Him
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