Madam Sophia Kuan

Last Wednesday, BAG Networks the company that I work for celebrate International Women's Day. We had Dr Irene Cheong from UBD who gave us a presentation on Brunei Women and Environment; how we can play our role to save the environment.

Within BAG Networks, we had an internal survey / mini contest for fellow BAG citizens to vote for the 'most outstanding woman' in our lives. Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Princess Diana are some of the names that popped out from the survey.

I voted for Madam Sophia Kuan. And, below was my reason behind my vote.

"She comes from an average family, living life getting what she wants like most kids these days. That was some 40 years ago. Until her father fell ill, she and her mother sold off almost everything that they have got; including the bicycle shop that have been bringing income to the family. Losing income and her father, she has to turn herself as helper in her relative house, giving in to porridge and soy sauce as an everyday meal. Considering the family's current situation, she married early through an almost arranged marriage to a businessman, hoping for a better life, for her and her mother. Unable to complete her secondary education, she was trained by her mother in law to clean, cook for a big family and for business. Looking at her hands, although both hands are dry, wrinkled with scars and protruding veins, they are the most beautiful hands in the world to me. They are the hands that has gone through so much to bring herself up after every fall, to support her family, to support her husband, to support her in-laws, to bring up her 4 children including filling forms, enrolling them to university (eventhough she can't read / write in english, she bought herself a chinese-english dictionary). Today, she hasn't rest her hands, she is still doing all the duty as a wife, as a mother and most important of all, as the most outstanding woman in the family and among her friends. These hands belong to my mother, the most important woman in my life."

With that, I got myself a gift from BAG.

2 movie tickets and $20 body shop vouchers