Borneo Blog

Anyone related to Howard Ng of Sandakan and Joan of Kudat? Because if you are, you are somehow connected to Barack Obama.

Here’s how. Ng and his wife, Joan, both Sabah-borns, migrated to Canada a more than three decades ago.

The photo above is from The Star newspaper

Their son Konrad Ng was born there and later ended up in Hawaii to pursue his education and career. He is now an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii.

The meeting in Hawaii

While in Hawaii, Konrad met Maya Soetoro, who is Obama’s half-sister. They later got married. Maya was born to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian businessman and Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama’s mother.

Watching an Independence Day parade in the US four years ago were (from left) Michelle Obama, her daughter Sasha, Obama, Malia, Maya, Ng, and their daughter Suhalia. — AP

Maintaining contact

“I have many relatives who live throughout Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and the two towns where my parents came from,” Konrad, 34, told The Star.

The Star did not mention who is the older — Obama or Maya — but after some research, it was clear that Maya is the younger one. Below is a picture of Obama as a young boy and the toddler Maya, with their mother Dunham.

Father left when Obama was two

What happened to Obama’s father? Well, in Obama’s own word: “He had left my mother and myself in Hawaii back in 1963, when I was only two years old.”

“As a child, I knew him only through the stories that my mother and grandparents told,” said Obama. [Source]

Obama was born “Barack Hussein Obama II” at 7.24pm in Oahu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961.

So I guess, Dunham had married Soetoro about several years after Obama’s birth.

On Obama, Ng said, the Democrat candidate was “exceptionally brilliant.”

“He has a thorough understanding of the challenges we face and sound judgment on how we should address these challenges.

“Barack is a dedicated family man and cares deeply about transforming the world into a better place so that all families will have the same opportunities to do better,” he told The Star.

What happened to Obama’s father? He died in a car accident in Nairobi in 1982.

While surfing the web recently, I came across a very interesting map of Borneo Island, with the British Isles “embedded” in it to show just how vast Borneo is.

What amazes me is the fact that the map was drawn in the 19th century, an era where global positioning system and satellite navigation, not to mention Google Earth, were still light years away.

The map is included in a 1869 book titled The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), a 19th century British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist.

Wallace wrote in the book that he dedicated The Malay Archipelago to Charles Darwin, the author of The Origin of Species.

He said the book was “not only as a token of personal esteem and friendship (with Darwin) but also to express my deep admiration for his genius and his works.”

The book also has many interesting hand-drawn illustrations depicting the lives, people and the flora and fauna of Borneo and other islands in the Malay archipelago.

One of the many interesting drawings is about an orang utan attacking a group of Borneo natives. See all the unique illustrations and read all of Wallace’s adventures in The Malay Archipelago here, courtesy of Papua Web.

George Bush hater Todd A leave left the United States soon after Bush Bush’s re-election in 2004, saying, “I became so depressed that the idea of sitting under a palm tree far, far away from George Bush became more appealing.”

The Firewater frontman travelled the world but returned three years later in time for the US 2008 Election, with a new album “The Golden Hour”, with Borneo as the opening track.

“Got a monkey for a president” is the third line in the lyrics.

[Photo Source] A Malaysian chef decided to wrestle with fate and ended up opening a restaurant in Portsmouth UK.

According to a report on Portsmouth news online, “Vietnamese-born Tring Lim, her husband Yan Lim and brother-in-law Woo Lim, from Malaysia, of which Borneo is a part, opened this colourful neighbourhood restaurant five years ago.” The article says:

“A succession of chefs from the Borneo village of Sandakan have arrived to cook for their Western brethren who crowd out the restaurant, attracted by the food, a Malay-Chinese mix, and the friendly atmosphere.”

The reports said Malaysian dishes include udang sambal (king prawns cooked in prawn paste with a chilli sauce); ayam santan (chicken drumsticks braised in coconut milk); ikan nyonya (monkfish in a tamarind sour sauce with chilli); lembu rending (beef curry with a coconut sauce) or nasi goreng (fried rice with chicken, prawns, onions, peppers and a touch of chilli sauce).

I definitely want to try the beef rending.