I have a daughter studying in a government primary school. I recently checked her English exam paper and found many grammatical mistakes in it. And this was not the first time I had come across such mistakes. Many of the mistakes were very simple which any lower secondary student could easily spot.

This leads me to the question whether most of the local teachers commissioned to teach English in government primary schools are really qualified to teach English. I bet these English teachers must have done well in the subject when they were in high school or college. But strangely, many of these teachers could not even speak the language fluently and I myself have met several such teachers. How can these teachers teach English when they are not good at explaining things? And how can they help improve the standard of English in Brunei schools? No wonder the overall English proficiency among Brunei elementary students is still very low.

My elder brother, who is a retired Malay teacher, explained to me that many of these teachers have qualifications only in Malay language-based subjects like Bahasa Melayu, Art, Syariah, etc and do not have good credentials in English and English language-based subjects. These teachers are somehow assigned to teach English language to students in schools. Now this explains the poor quality of English teaching in our country!

I strongly believe in the need to set a standard when recruiting English teachers. MOE should only assign teachers with an acceptable level of proficiency in English to teach the language to students and should not select them randomly among teachers without credentials in the language. This is the only way to improve the quality of English teaching in the country and raise the standard of English among Bruneian students.

I hope MOE would take my comments positively and not otherwise.

- Concerned Parent

I refer to "Curious Friend's" query as expressed in the Bulletin dated June 8. While undergoing such precious in-service training, his query is that why the allowance "elaun kurnia" was not paid during a short spell at home.

May I take this opportunity, and please correct me if I am wrong, to let my dear "Curious Friend" and all others know that there are a few like us serving as "Site staff" who are not even receiving any allowances like "Khas Kurnia" or "elaun sara hidup" or "fixed mileage allowance" (although our working environment is far from our place of residence) or "children's education allowance" (being given to expats for children studying abroad) etc.

Even some expats, local teachers and employees of health service who work on monthly basis receive basic allowances and locals receive only the basic pay as our salary with just 21 days of leave every year. While we are worried about our plight and patiently waiting with optimism for reasonable action from the authorities, I request "Curious Friend" to have patience as there is a saying that you should thank the almighty "when there are people struggling for daily bread, you should not bother about the delayed dessert which is taken after a heavy dinner".

- Optimist

I was delighted to see that the Museums Department is taking Brunei's signing of the Cites agreement very seriously and that offenders are to be duly punished with heavy fines and imprisonment.

A few years ago, a campaign was launched to halt the selling of turtle eggs in the open-air markets in the country and it very successfully put a stop to that illegal trade. More people now realise that, in addition to endangering turtle numbers, the high cholesterol content of turtle eggs means that they are not a healthy choice of food for humans anyway.

In the years that I have lived in Brunei, and the many number of times I have been to "tamu", I have seen several monitor lizards (biawak) which were no doubt destined for the pot, a cage full of tiny, blue-crowned hanging parrots (loriculus galgulus), and more recently a slow loris. I realise that buying these creatures only encourages the trade, but in the absence of proper measures to stop vendors from trading them, I only felt helpless as I walked away but unable to forget what I had seen.

On one occasion when I saw a cage crammed with black hornbill chicks, I was unable to contain my anger, and told the vendor what I thought of him. I also reported him to the police, but when they arrived at the scene, he had vanished with his 'merchandise'.

On another occasion a slow loris (ukang/rengkang) was in a pitiful state, cowering inside a tiny cage. I politely asked the stallholder if he was aware that it was a protected species and did he feel ashamed to be inflicting misery on such a gentle creature. His reply was that it was his friend who had captured it and not him. I thrust $30 into his hand, picked up the cage and walked away. That evening, I released the loris into the forest near where I live. I don't know if the animal survived, but I want to give the animal a chance to live its life rather than be condemned to a life of imprisonment.

It is excellent news that the selling of endangered species will no longer be tolerated in Brunei. I hope with regular checks at all open-air markets across the country, and with the assistance of concerned members of the public, this lamentable trade can be tightly controlled.

- Environmental watchdog

The landscape of Bandar Seri Begawan has changed tremendously over the years with the mushrooming of shop-lots and industrial complexes.

However, one wonders how is it that there are still businesses like repair shops for aircon, fridges & washing machines and the likes still operating out of wooden houses in residential areas like Jalan Muara, Jalan Gadong and Jalan Tutong. They seem to be a health hazard if not a fire hazard to homes, which are in close proximity. The many empty washing machines, fridges and other equipment are stored outside where they become home to rats, cockroaches and other pests and collect water where mosquitoes can breed.

Is there a law that regulates the operation of such businesses? And can they be confined to certain areas away from residential houses where they can carry out their business? Shop rentals are so low now and many shops are yet to be occupied, so this will help the economy besides removing a source for pests in densely populated residential areas.

- Kampong Menace

I have travelled to the four corners of the world, paying homage to famous and infamous places along the way. Being a big kid at heart, I always tried to make a point to stop at amusement parks in those places. No matter how much fun I have had, I always seem to have this habit of comparing them to our very own Jerudong Park playground.

No Disney World or Universal Studio or Warner Brothers can be compared to the lavishly built playground we have in Brunei. Where in the world can we see marbles being laid on the ground that we walk on? Or where in the world can we see gardens being tended to for constantly? Or where in the world can we see gold-plated emblems placed beautifully around the playground? Or where in the world can we find the entrance fee as low as at JP with modern and exciting rides? I could simply go on about how grand our playground is

Sadly, after paying a visit to the playground, all I could see was the total opposite. I have heard how the park had deteriorated over the past few years, but after seeing it with own eyes, it was far from how I'd imagined it to be. I could feel the whole essence evaporating as soon as I took a glance around. I could not help but feel sad that all I just had was a memory from the past, which I could not share with others.

With the tourism industry steadily on the rise, it would be worthwhile to see an improvement to our once beautiful park. I am aware that Brunei Darussalam has numerous interesting sights which are normally seen during the day, but when night falls, for those who want to relax and unwind, or turn up their adrenaline, perhaps want to go to a place such as the park.

As I was thinking about how sad the playground had fallen to its present sorry state, my thoughts were interrupted by laughter and joyful shrieks from young children playing nearby. If the relevant authorities do not want to make improvements for the sake of increasing tourists, then why not do it for the young ones? After all, they are our future. Do not let it be just a memory for them, too, like it is for those who had once enjoyed our beautiful park.

- Rafidiorable 78

Seeking email address of DPMM FC

Can anyone help me find out the email address of football club DPMM FC? I'll be very happy if you can send it to me! I was in Brunei three years before and I had a wonderful time!

- Filip Toncar, Kladno, Czech Republic

I have been a frequent viewer and long time subscriber of Astro Supersport.

I'm a big fan of Professional Wrestling and watch WWE Raw every week.

However, due to my schedule, I'm unable to watch the first playing on Tuesdays so I watch the replays around midnight.

However, recently, the replay times have been switched back and forth and changed and I've missed three episodes of WWE Raw.

Please bring back both replays of WWE Raw to their original midnight slots of Thursday and Sunday. Thank you.

- RAW fan

I have been a frequent viewer and long time subscriber of Astro Supersport.

I'm a big fan of Professional Wrestling and watch WWE Raw every week.

However, due to my schedule, I'm unable to watch the first playing on Tuesdays so I watch the replays around midnight.

However, recently, the replay times have been switched back and forth and changed and I've missed three episodes of WWE Raw.

Please bring back both replays of WWE Raw to their original midnight slots of Thursday and Sunday. Thank you.

- RAW fan

I am writing on behalf of my 82-year-old mother who is from Zambia and visiting Brunei for the first time, and indeed on my own behalf.

I was driving my mother to see different parts of Brunei on Saturday, June 11, 2005 and we were on our way to KB from BSB when we were involved in a car accident.

My mother and I were amazed to see how quickly Bruneians came to our help. My mother was particularly impressed by the care rendered to her by everybody that stopped. She says that her memories of Brunei will not just be of the beautiful and peaceful country but also of how nice and helpful the Bruneian people are. She says that she had never seen so many people caring and comforting a total stranger before.

Thank you very much to everybody that helped. I would particularly like to thank the two gentlemen who immediately stopped to help us and one of them stayed with us until the end. Many thanks also go to the gentleman from Shell fire brigade who called the ambulance and assisted my mother until the ambulance came.

Last but not the least thanks to the KB paramedics and the KB hospital staff who looked after us so well. Luckily we were unhurt.

- Impressed, Mrs Nellie Suffolk and her mother Ms C. Lungu

If one were in our position right now, one would be frustrated, worn-out, bored and fed up. This is the situation that is faced by teachers of night classes.

It has been almost half a year now that we are teaching without pay. How poor the management has become ever since the night classes were introduced. Years have passed, but no vital improvements are seen. Yet the Continuing Section seems to be like a Kleenex tissue, just absorbing and throwing problems away without upgrading.

We have never demanded anything like teaching materials (whiteboard pens, photocopying of notes, OHP, etc), which we should have. Nevertheless teachers still face the problem of late pay. One of the problems is that the Continuing Section is faced with budget woes. Well, the section should seriously budget its finances so as not to affect other people like us.

One of the committees once said during a meeting held this year that the three systems of payment introduced this year would accelerate the payment. However, every year the same result is portrayed. Promise after promise, still progress is neither seen nor observed. What a pity.

I think there should be a reshuffle of the committees in the Continuing Section so as to give a chance to other talented persons willing to work. If such problems persist, don't be surprised to see letters of resignation piling up on the desk.

- Despondent teacher

The last few days I tried sending an MMS to my family in KL only to be told by 151 DSTcare that they haven't set up the system internationally. I'm wondering when will DST setup this system because we are left behind by other countries.

It's really important to me and probably to other foreigners who work here. Instead of sending through email, with a click of my finger, I could send MMS easily.

- Wonder MMS