US Ambassador to Brunei Mr William E Todd

Aloha Bandar! I am back from my working visit to Hawaii. While I always enjoy being in Hawaii and also meeting with my fellow US Ambassadors, I am glad to be back in Brunei. This week, I would like to talk about the recent Nobel Prize winners.

I want to congratulate our American winners and in particular President Barack Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize for his mission to bridge the divide with the worldwide Muslim community and efforts to eliminate nuclear arms worldwide. As always, I welcome your questions and suggestions at ask_usambassador@yahoo. com.

Q: Ambassador, I read recently that the majority of Nobel Prize winners this year were Americans. Why so many Americans and not other nationalities? Come to think of it, what worldwide issues could a Bruneian work on to come up with the next big invention to win such a prestigious prize?

Thank you for your timely question. I think there is a certain degree of luck and timing involved, but I do think Americans have a healthy number of wins in the Nobel Peace prizes arena because we aim to attract the best and brightest around the world.

Americans are not necessarily any smarter than the average world citizen, and in fact at least one third of American Nobel Laureates in recent years were born outside the US. This year alone, over half of the US.winners were foreign born.

This foreign talent is attracted to the US in part because our academic environment promotes research and developments and we actively fund such actions.

It is also connected to our generous and accessible immigration programme for study, research and employment. We also actively use federal funding to empower and enable our students and research talents to focus on that "Big Idea" yet to be discovered.

We believe and accept that in any new idea or technology or innovative process, you will inevitably have more mistakes than successes. In creating an environment that allows mistakes to be made, this promotes learning along with decisive action and inspires confidence in both students and researchers.

There is an old saying still true today that says, "Show me someone who has not failed and I will show you someone who has not tried." This is a key to such success even when it often inflicts high costs for investment to achieve the end goal.

Any American is capable of achieving the impossible and; as a result, every student is encouraged to strive for higher education. This is done with the absolute confidence that one cannot predict who will be the next Thomas Steitz, Carol Greider or President Obama.
If given the opportunity to explore higher education, any citizen can explode on the world stage with a discovery if the proper motivation and opportunity to excel in their respective passions are provided. Brunei is a great country with phenomenal resources and equally great potential to attract foreign talents.

That said, Brunei's most valuable assets are its citizens. Increased investments should be on developing Bruneian youths while providing them with an environment. This highlights and encourages thinking up big ideas - that are never thought of before - which is so critical.

I also encourage Brunei to foster an environment, which allows mistakes to be made, promotes decisiveness and inspires confidence in students at the same time.

In so doing, I am certain Brunei citizens have the exact same potential as Americans to inspire the world stage with their discoveries and inventions and in so doing, achieve international acclaim through a Nobel Prize.

I have a couple of ideas about world issues for talented up-and-coming Bruneian minds. Certainly the impact of Global Climate Change, which in my opinion will impact everything from food production to over a billion people who might have to migrate globally just to survive, ranks extremely high on the world radar.

In terms of inventions, cleaner, more environmentally efficient fuels and machines will be required. Given the rich talent pool within the oil and gas industry of Brunei, I am excited about what advances we could see in the near future within the alternative energy field.

I do believe commercial development of robots and artificial intelligence devices will also be some of the next big breakthroughs.

All these areas and more are ripe for developments and I am confident any properly motivated and equipped Bruneian has the ability to seize the moment, take risks, make mistakes and ultimately achieve success the entire world can and will applaud! As always, I hope you have a great weekend. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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