برني دارالسلام: Brunei Darussalem

Dear readers,

Many a boring day can be made interesting by reading my blog tracker statistics at work. I am fascinated by the plethora of nationalities that read my blog (if you are interested, I have now capped 45, and at least 37 of those have hit more than once). For instance, this morning I got to work and found that someone from a place I had never even heard of had read my blog last night. I proceeded to spend half an hour of what would otherwise have been Boring Time learning about this nation on the internet (mostly with the help of my friends Wikipedia and the CIA). After my half hour of Learning, I feel it best to dedicate this blog entry to the sultan of the little (yet mighty!) nation of Brunei Darussalem.

According to Wikipedia:

Brunei, Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: برني دارالسلام ), is a country located on the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the states of Sarawak and Sabah, East Malaysia. Brunei, the remnant of a very powerful sultanate, became independent from the United Kingdom in 1984.

The Sultanate of Brunei was very powerful from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century CE. Its realm covered the whole island of Borneo and the southwestern Philippines. European influence gradually brought an end to this regional power. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, whose title has passed within the same dynasty since the fifteenth century, is the head of state and head of government in Brunei. He is effectively the supreme ruler. There is no elected legislative body. Due to the absolute rule of the Sultan, Brunei is one of the most politically stable countries in Asia. The country has been under hypothetical martial law since a rebellion occurred in the early 1960s and was put down by British troops from Singapore.

The total population of Brunei is 383,000. The total landmass is 5,765 square km, making it the 170th largest country. The official languages are Malay and English. The climate in Brunei is equatorial tropical, with high temperatures, high humidity, sunshine and heavy rainfall throughout the year. Crude oil and natural gas production account for nearly half of its GDP. The government provides for all medical services and subsidizes rice and housing.

Hello? How much awesomer would Japan be if the government subsidized the freakin rice? Some of you may not know this. Rice, though eaten 3 times a day by most Japanese, is more expensive in Japan than almost anywhere else in the world (and fyi, I read a book about this once and the following babble is the fuzzy remnants still bobbing in the back of my brain from that experience). This is because the Japanese govt refuses to allow Japanese people to eat any rice that isn't Japanese, so even though its nonsensical for Japan to put so much effort into agricultural production when they could buy buttloads of rice at 1/20 the price from China, they do. Japan doesn't have much flat land for agriculture at ALL. Most of their rice paddies are propped precariously on mountains in tier formation, and jillions of hours of backbreaking toil are put in by family farmers, since machinery doesn't really work well on mountains and small plots (though Japan is also the most over-mechanized country in the world when it comes to farming equipment). Per acre, Japan is comparatively quite productive, but a lot more labor and time go into each acre than other places.

Basically the govt wants to be able to remain self-sustaining in case of catastrophe like another world war, so they need to maintain rice and fish production. They convince normal Japanese people that its a good idea to keep producing rice by telling them that all other rice in the world is far inferior to Japanese rice for XXX reasons, and probably that they will keel over and die if they ever touch a single grain. In fact, bringing rice into Japan is considered a serious CRIME. Yeah, no packing your favorite Canadian wild rice next time you get on the plane over here. You could actually be arrested for that. Though you re a gaijin and probably don't know any better.

That Hassanal knows what keeping people happy is all about.