Here's another picture from the conference, showing my colleague, Noor Azam, giving the speech at the closing ceremony. It is from page A7 of The Brunei Times of 8 April.
I am grateful that the picture of me is so much smaller ― I really find it distateful to have my picture in the papers.Actually, I found the behaviour of photographers at the conference quite disturbing: they were constantly poking cameras in our faces, with incessant clicking and also lots of flashes. Why are photographers allowed to get away with behaviour like that?
At the same time, I recognise that, as an academic, I need to promote what I am working on, so maybe my objection to photographers is a bit hypocritical. But the way I see it is this: I try to encourage people to read what I write, and I see no reason to have a photograph of myself to accompany the coverage. Is that a conflict? Maybe.
