Hilath Rasheed's Archives (1)

Launching my official website

2009-04-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

As I left Haveeru Daily in January, and started freelancing, I’ve felt the need to continue my journalistic adventures, whether in the form of writing, photography, etc.

And with the launching of my official website, www.hilath.com, I hope to do more in the way of journalism but with regard to time availability as freelancing means I would be obliged to work on projects for various parties.

But I am happy that I am finally getting some time for myself, to work at ease, and also relax at any time I chose to, which of course translates to the opportunity now available for me to go bodyboarding at any time the best waves are on offer, and also visit other islands, something which I’ve always wanted to do but so far haven’t been able to. :-D I know it’s a hedonistic lifestyle now but hey, half my life is over, so I might as well relax and enjoy the remaining half! Who knows, I might even die tonight ‘cos you never know how the forces of nature work when you start counting the second half of your life!

Regarding the journalistic endeavors I plan to undertake…. I’ve found it difficult to maintain three blogs of mine (this personal blog, a photo blog, and a news oriented blog) so after the advice of a close friend, I decided to launch the official website of mine (www.hilath.com) and integrate all of my work there.

From now on, I won’t be updating this blog or any previous blogs of mine but they will continue to remain as an archive for visitors to refer back to. I will be updating only my official website.

Some glitches remain on that site but another close friend, who set it up by modifying a WordPress format, will take care of it in the coming few days. He will also be adding some additional features.

Cheers.

- Hilath -

How to stop the drug wars

2009-04-18T04:20:00.000-07:00

I am assuming that a person of Dr. Abdullah Waheed's caliber, due to his political position, had succumbed and was only conforming to what is falsely perceived as another "popular opinion" when he, most unfortunately I would have to say, claimed that Saudi drug law is "liberal and modern" in his post titled the same.

Ironically, in a reply to Meekaku that Dr. Waheed himself gives under that post, Dr. Waheed has given the link to The Economist's vision of how to adopt the "lesser bad" (but which does not necessarily mean is good as the newspaper itself points out) solution in its article titled How to stop the drug wars.

I cannot distinguish the Saudi law from similar versions now being adopted by countries with a "modern approach" (such as treating addiction as a disease) which now is becoming quite a popular attitude in other countries as well. In fact, the only difference that has occured in the "ancient" apporach as against the "modern" approach seems to be this -- moving away from prison to the treatment room, which actually does not address the root cause of drug trade, which The Economist has pointed out, along with reasons why the world has failed to deal with the problem over the past 100 years.

The Economist' approach is actually the "liberal and modern" approach as anybody who has read the article can see, not the Saudi one. In fact, I have to applaud President Anni for having a liberal attitude which is the only way the drug problem can be addressed (See Anni's "Ganja Speech").

I am pasting below some excerpts from The Economist article which I think gives an insight where governments have gone wrong in tackling the drug issue, the main problem being pressured to stick to arcaic religious dogma and religious conservatism.

I can understand why then Dr. Waheed has chosen to stay on safe ground and called Saudi drug law "modern and liberal" by conveniently ignoring the root causes of the problem -- which can only be dealt with by overcoming the pressures exerted by religious conservatism in order to even start experimenting with a potentially workable solution.

In a sense, this is exactly like what Ibra has done with regard to the child abuse bill he recently submitted to the Parliament: he was too afraid to call for the integration of forensic evidence to prove child abuse because once again he had succumbed to a false "popular opinion" that he will be treading on dangerous political ground if he was seen as calling for a change in conservative sharia law which says that sex can be proven with the witness accounts of two adult men or four adult women. So Ibra totally ignored calling for change in the "evidence laws" and instead only called for harsher punishments for pedophiles which becomes redundant because unless evidence laws are changed there is no way to convict a pedophile.

It is also quite baffling that police can use forensic evidence to convict people on alcohol and drug abuse cases; if your urine or blood tests positive, that's it. I am sure conservative sharia law made no mention of such forensic evidence, so why not use eyewitnesses in alcohol and drug abuse cases, too? Why exclude forensic evidence just from child abuse cases? This kind of double standards just show the prevailing sick attitudes of the men who are now in control of Maldivian politics and society. If more women come into politics, I am sure such discrimination will come to an end because I am sure they will be more sympathetic to women and children.

The way Dr. Waheed wrote that blog post also made me wonder whether he has an affection for Saudi law in general, not just its drug law.

Saudi Arabia may be the cradle of Islam but what reforms Islam was supposed to bring to hundreds of years of pagan jahiliya culture seems not to have worked for the Saudi society and the country remains one of the most perverse of human "civilisations" in the modern 21st century.

Just to show how perverted Saudi justice system is, read this article titled Child marriage case showcases deep splits in Saudi society about a judge who approved the marriage of an 8-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia to a man in his 40s.

If that is Saudi liberal law.....................

Some interesting points from the The Economist article on How to Stop the Drug Wars:

QUOTE

... Legalisation would not only drive away the gangsters; it would transform drugs from a law-and-order problem into a public-health problem, which is how they ought to be treated. Governments would tax and regulate the drug trade, and use the funds raised (and the billions saved on law-enforcement) to educate the public about the risks of drug-taking and to treat addiction. The sale of drugs to minors should remain banned. Different drugs would command different levels of taxation and regulation. This system would be fiddly and imperfect, requiring constant monitoring and hard-to-measure trade-offs. Post-tax prices should be set at a level that would strike a balance between damping down use on the one hand, and discouraging a black market and the desperate acts of theft and prostitution to which addicts now resort to feed their habits.

... That fear is based in large part on the presumption that more people would take drugs under a legal regime. That presumption may be wrong. There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also Britain) take more drugs, not fewer. Embarrassed drug warriors blame this on alleged cultural differences, but even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates. Legalisation might reduce both supply (pushers by definition push) and demand (part of that dangerous thrill would go). Nobody knows for certain. But it is hard to argue that sales of any product that is made cheaper, safer and more widely available would fall. Any honest proponent of legalisation would be wise to assume that drug-taking as a whole would rise.

...What about addiction? That is partly covered by this first argument, as the harm involved is primarily visited upon the user. But addiction can also inflict misery on the families and especially the children of any addict, and involves wider social costs. That is why discouraging and treating addiction should be the priority for drug policy. Hence the second argument: legalisation offers the opportunity to deal with addiction properly.

...By providing honest information about the health risks of different drugs, and pricing them accordingly, governments could steer consumers towards the least harmful ones. Prohibition has failed to prevent the proliferation of designer drugs, dreamed up in laboratories. Legalisation might encourage legitimate drug companies to try to improve the stuff that people take. The resources gained from tax and saved on repression would allow governments to guarantee treatment to addicts—a way of making legalisation more politically palatable. The success of developed countries in stopping people smoking tobacco, which is similarly subject to tax and regulation, provides grounds for hope.

...This newspaper first argued for legalisation 20 years ago (see article). Reviewing the evidence again (see article), prohibition seems even more harmful, especially for the poor and weak of the world. Legalisation would not drive gangsters completely out of drugs; as with alcohol and cigarettes, there would be taxes to avoid and rules to subvert. Nor would it automatically cure failed states like Afghanistan. Our solution is a messy one; but a century of manifest failure argues for trying it.

UNQUOTE

Repentance: the magic pill to solve all Maldives' problems

2009-04-15T00:04:00.000-07:00

When Dr. Mohamed Munavvar served a short term as the leader of the then opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, many blind followers did what most Maldivians are good at doing: forgive and forget.

"He has repented," an MDP follower at the time told me, conveniently sweeping under the carpet all of Munavvar's neglect of responsibilities during his 10-year term as Attorney General under former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

When the NGO Noor decided to protest in front of convicted pedophile Naseem Sore's house, where he openly gave tuition to children, many neighbors and friends of Naseem Sore clashed with the protesters. (See MinivanNews.com link)

It is beyond me why anybody would choose to send their children to tuition to a convicted pedophile when there are many credible tuition teachers available.

I posed this question to a distant relative of mine who had sent her children to Naseem Sore's tuition class, and this is what this religious conservative relative told me: "He has repented."

Convenient, isn't it?

Today I came across this Dhivehi Observer article by an MDP envoy, DO Sappe, in which he, against President Nasheed's decision to "let bygones be bygones", called for taking Gayoom to the international court to be tried for crimes against humanity.

I am sure Gayoom would have also by now quite conveniently repented.

So why only him? Why not everyone who has conducted criminal activity against the State and against the Maldivian people?

The hunt for the "perfect" chocolate milkshake

2009-04-14T06:03:00.001-07:00

by Hilath

A 19-year-old fisherman friend of mine from a North Male’ Atoll island usually visits the capital once every two weeks after a prolonged yellowfin tuna hunt.

The short break he takes in Male’ is usually spent relaxing and enjoying life’s little pleasures on offer.

During his latest visit, what he had in mind was the search for one of his favorite drinks – chocolate milkshake. Full story on Saffron Cafe and Kitchen online

Child abuse by the Maldivian state

2009-04-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

...The usual practice is for the state to wait until under-aged girls it has failed to protect from child sexual abuse are legally of age, and then to subject them to a cruel and degrading public flogging. Gayoom's government has a well-documented history of complicity in child abuse, but there is no sign that the change of government will protect Maldivian children.

...At least one of MDP's candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections, Ibrahim Manik, who is contesting a Dhaalu Atoll seat, was convicted of sex offense involving a minor. When concerned people contacted the party about it, they were told the candidate would be removed from the party ticket. But at the time of the publishing of this post, he was still on the MDP list of candidates.

...Maldivian laws, particularly evidence laws, have been criticised for their failure to protect children from child sexual abuse. With erstwhile abusers poised to become lawmakers, the future looks bleak for Maldivian children.

Read full article from Maldives Dissent

CHICKEN IN BLACK PEPPER SAUCE

2009-04-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

FOOD REVIEW by Hilath Rasheed

When I was a student in Malaysia, I came across this tasty dish which went on to become one of my favorites. And when I came back to Maldives, I really missed it, and wondered whether I would ever get to taste it again.

Imagine my surprise when I came across the dish again – this time in Male’ and at no other place than Saffron itself!

At first I was a bit apprehensive that, like many poor-tasting Asian dishes offered at local restaurants and cafes, the taste of Chicken in Black Pepper Sauce offered at Saffron may also disappoint me.

So imagine the double surprise I got when it tasted exactly as the “original” which I tasted in Kuala Lumpur! Full review from Saffron Cafe and Kitchen

A lession in open-mindedness

2009-04-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

A look at some of the flawed thinking that prompts people who believe in certain non-scientific concepts to advise others who don't to be more open-minded.

Are there really superheroes amongst us?

2009-04-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

Everyday I discover something new about the people around me, and from them, something new about myself, too.

M. Night Shyamalan quite literally raised this question in his excellent movie, Unbreakable.

In these cynical times, when we don’t see one single clean and well-meaning politician, it is easy to fall for anyone who, to our depressed minds, we see as an idealist, a savior, and sincere fighter to our cause.

And in such ominous circumstances, it is also easier for intelligent manipulators to prey on people like us and subvert our minds and hearts to fall blindly in love with them and make us hero worship them. (Link 1)

So I should not have been surprised that even my closest liberal friends and classmates, who decided not to support Anni because he was deemed too radical, self-obsessed and selfish, and instead embraced who they saw as one of a kind, unique, center-of-the-left liberal politician, turn against me in hostility when I dared to criticize this politician’s sincerity and intentions and in the process, dared to bring him down from the high pedestal to which my friends had put him on. (Link 2)

I must have given my friends such a great jolt for them to react so jumpy and negatively towards me.

And I have to say I myself got quite a shock too because I was quite unsuspecting what I had dared to do here, and therefore, I was totally unprepared for the sudden reaction of hostility and negativity from my closest friends.

So I thought about what had happened here, and then I realized that, not only my friends were victims of these cynical times, but I myself was a victim, too.

My problem was not blindly falling in love with a certain politician and hero worshipping him; my problem was having a blind love and hero worship of my closest friends and classmates whose liberalism and open-minded-ness I never questioned before. And therefore, like how they put that politician on a high pedestal, I also made the mistake of putting these friends of mine on a high pedestal of my own.

And when it appeared that I was trying to make that politician fall from that pedestal, my friends suffered a shock to their system which was evident in the sudden hostility they showed towards me.

And subsequently, I got an equal shock to my system when I realised that I myself had unconsciously put my friends on a high pedestal and they were not godly but human enough to come crashing down from up there.

There is actually nobody to blame here. I realised that the “problem” here is that we, myself included, are all too human, and that these cynical, depressing and hopeless times are leaving even the most rational-thinking amongst us dazed and confused.

I guess this is the kind of circumstances which gave rise to the birth of “superheroes”; in depressing and hopeless times, people needed a larger than life character who will save them from dire circumstances. So they subconsciously created these characters in their fantasies which we now get to read generally in comic books. All this time I never figured out why but now I finally understand people’s love for comic books and its superhero characters.

More hilarity on the way, Adhaalath assures

2009-03-30T02:19:00.000-07:00

by Ahmed Satellite

Hot off the spectacular success of the recent Friday prayer for rain – which yielded a thimble-full of rainwater and was centered over some of the Adhaalath sheikhs’ heads -- DJ Majeed has assured the fascinated public that more hilariously embarrassing situations for the AP were on the way. Full story from Bakhabaru, Maldives' Finest News Source

God vs. Adhaalathu

2009-03-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

...I am beginning to think that even God is out to destroy what is left of Adhaalathu’s credibility. And maybe vice-versa. I mean, isn’t Adhaalathu making God look like some kind of a two-bit magician? Couldn’t save the children of Gaza and sent in a bucketful of water. Hardy har har. And I think these group prayers for rain is reminiscent of pagan rituals of the old. I wonder where that came from. Madagascar 2?

Read full story from Simon's blog

God says "No" to Adaalath

2009-03-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

On Friday Adhaalath officials led a prayer for rain, following several months of the northeast monsoon Iruvai which have caused severe water shortages across the country. In fact, weather forecasts had predicted rain and the religious conservatives were probably hoping to cash in on it. Unfortunately, the weather remained stubbornly dry and no rain, which can in any way be regarded as an answer to Adhaalath's prayer, occurred at the weekend.

Adhaalath is also having a bad time in politics. After protests over revelations of internet censorship by the Islamic ministry, which is controlled by Adhaalath party bigwigs, president Anni has installed MDP's own religious scholars in the ministry to keep an eye on Adhaalath. Adhaalath is now grumbling that it might have to get critical of the government.

Full Story from MaldivesDissent blog

Commenting on a comment

2009-03-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

I do get a lot of comments to this blog that are:

1) Unrelated to the topic
2) Hate comments

I now usually reject or delete comments that doesn’t serve in making the debate go on.

I also see that some of these comments that I reject are then copy pasted on other blogs which does not have comment moderation turned on.

Anyway, here was one intriguing comment that I got and even published. It was by, you guessed it, another anonymous commentator, who calls him/herself Ignoratio elenchi (who also has linked his/her identity to Wake Up website) who commented to my blog post titled, What is there to write about?

The comment was unlike any other comment I have ever received. It was unusual, intriguing, and a bit sinister–sounding I have to admit.

So before publishing it, I forwarded it to some of my friends for their opinion, and they were kind enough to give me their feedback and most of them explicitly told me to go ahead and publish it. So I published it and one of my friends even anonymously commented to Ignoratio elenchi’s comment.

I want to share some of the feedback I got from my friends regarding what they thought of Ignoratio elenchi’s comment.

First, here is Ignoratio elenchi’s comment:

Sometimes, Maldivians display, shyly, a tiny little spark of brilliance, a simple soliloqy of some hidden talent under all that horseshit and obsessive lies and thoughts of the sleepless loon, the madrigal quality of the socio-political system that governs the spirit of every unintoxicated mind. But to follow it is like trying to track down a will o' wisp into the marshes.

Wake up.

A bottle-full of cheap glass marbles on the street outside your house, Hilath. A bottle-full of marbles. There is nothing except the refracted colors, a kalaedioscope which twirls over and over, millions and millions of shades and shapes as unique as a baroque cornice on the president's residence.

Wake up.

Only runandrunandrunaway fanciful sentences that lead nowhere but some distant nebulosity that the instant you step on you fall, fall until you realize you are there on your snazaroo golden ochre doorstep, hours later, frozen in stasis, looking at the multiheaded mutation packed like sardines into a can, speaking to you undulating and shimmering mirage-esque, you imagine, over the waves where you surfed.

Wake up.

Oh the cloying smell that slices a person's vision twentyfold and into a petite little japanese fan that one can flutter around like a geisha, dressed in fantastic floral prints not unlike the dress of beyoncé in the oscars, the garishness making critics swoon in the scaudenfreude of writing so many biting reviews of a simple vase-like golden rose, whose shimmering catches your eye, your breath and your mind for hours.

Wake up.

Existence... oh the burden of parents who opress you, who love you enough to feed you despite your many many ingratitudes, your slights and your deception. The heavy, suffocating guilt must therefore, be lifted, by the fog, and the smooth creamy unblemished, untarnished skin.

Wake up.

Here’s the feedback from some of my friends:

FRIEND A:
No idea what the guy's babbling about but I say you approve it. It's hilarious heheheh

FRIEND B:
This is just a load of postmodernist rubbish.

FRIEND C:
if u ask me the guys a pretentous ass. just reject the dumbo. o tell him just caome out and say what he wants. clearly

FRIEND D:
well, i'd post it if it were my blog cos if not it's censorship. you'd have received this kinda comments before too. the only difference is this is written better. does the language sound familiar? yea whoever this is, it looks like they know you & they could have been blunt & even nasty especially since commenting as anonymous but opted to remain smooth & ambigous. it also looks like a statement on the society as a whole rather than you & it's got nothing offensive or discriminatory. i see no reason for you to not publish it.

FRIEND E:
Good decision to publish it. not to publish it would be to fear it and that is mostly the motivation behind oppression of freedom of expression and religion.

I think the closet gay thing is quite obvious...there is a tone of admiration (once you are able to sift through all the flowery and whimsical fluff) but also a sense of fear and self-righteousness.

Not so sure about the fundamentalism part though.... a fundamental closet gay would probably have used religion a lot more in making a moral stand on this (possibly cos that would be his/her way of coping)

but i must say reading it again, it sounds creepy and somehow psychotic.... do be careful.

It's not surprising that many people would fall in love in with you.... a little bit like the crush one would have on Arundhati Roy or Aung Sung Su Ki...who stand for something and who has been able to give voice to things people fear to say out loud or don't have power enough to say out loud.

But it is also true that people fear difference and more so other people's freedom to express and live that difference....so u may have made enemies along the way

I admire your courage so do keep it up!! :)

FRIEND F:
The guy is replying in a way to comment about each and every paragraph you wrote. Reference words can be found in each of his paragraphs in relation to your own paragraphs.

FRIEND G:
I think you should dedicate a post to the comment itself. Just approving the comment and leaving it buried among other comments to the earlier post would deprive your readers who just comment once and don't check up on the post again from seeing it.

Ibra conveniently forgot to propose changes to evidence laws thus rendering his bill on child protection useless

2009-03-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

....Ibra's much heralded bill to criminalise paedophilia would not protect the vast majority of victims, because it does not propose changes to evidence laws. If the conviction of child sexual abusers is a near impossibility, what's the point of calling for harsher sentences for them? I understand that Ibra was advised by experts and concerned individuals about this, but chose to ignore the issue of evidence laws in his bill.

... Ibra's bill does not offer respite either. The seriously flawed bill was probably more politically motivated than the result of any genuine commitment to protecting Maldivian children from widespread sexual abuse. Note also that Ibra is proposing lowering the age of consent to 16 years, even though those under 18 years of age are regarded as minors under Maldivian law. This means the 16 year old girl from south Maldives would not not have got any protection from Ibra or Anni.

Read full article from Maldives Dissent blog

Social irresponsibility

2009-03-24T03:40:00.001-07:00

A friend told me of his family troubles today and I am tempted to write this post.

I think many people have faced this situation: your dad is tired of your mom and wants to leave her but has no apt excuse, so every mistake you make he uses that as an excuse to lay the blame on mom, start a fight and threaten to divorce and leave.

Is this because the man is too cowardly to just say it to her face that he has outgrown her and want to divorce and leave?

It is natural that a man may lose interest in his family "halfway" through life, but what every man should know is that, at the very onset when he decided to marry, he had decided to sacrifice at least 18 years (roughly one-third of his life depending on if he chose to have one child) to see through that his child is left to fend for himself/herself.

I see it as great irresponsibility when a man decides to leave his wife and children before they are 18 and able to stand on their own feet.

When this happens, as has happened to a lot of families, it leaves the wife and children psychologically scarred and economically helpless.

Perhaps one reason why these terrible circumstances occur is that there is so much family, peer and social pressure on young men and women to get married at an early age, when they are quite unaware of what they really want to do in life and what life is really about.

It is high time people stop pressuring young people to get married and just let them grow up first. It is also high time that young people stop giving into pressure and live their lives for themselves, not concerning themselves of what family, peers or society may gossip about them.

Because ultimately, it's your life. And a hasty irrational rash decision that you take now may leave you in a trap that you can't get out of, and worse, psychologically scar not only you but your partner and your children, too.

“Porn” is personally not my cup of tea

2009-03-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

When an arch is being built, it needs scaffolding to hold it up, but once it is built and standing on its own strength, the scaffolding is removed.

The link on my blog to Ubaid’s blog was put at a time when controversy caused a delay in getting Ubaid’s blog listed on MvBlogs. So to show solidarity for free speech and free expression, I had put a link on my blog to Ubaid’s blog.

But now Ubaid’s blog has been listed on MvBlogs and it is now standing on its own feet. So I now find no need to keep the link on my blog to his blog because personally “porn” is not my cup of tea although I respect people’s right to access, view and enjoy it. Therefore from today, I have removed the link on my blog to Ubaid’s blog.

I commend Ubaid for his novel, daring and pioneering idea and contribution in setting a precedent to broaden what is acceptable behavior and to expand the sphere of free speech and free expression; Ubaid is Maldives' own Larry Flint as far as the Maldivian Blogosphere is concerned.

The most notable comment to this blog during February 2009

2009-03-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to judge what a "best" comment is because I believe everybody has a worthy opinion to express.

So it was quite difficult to choose the "most notable" comment to this blog last month but after going through all, I have chosen Jasmine's comment to my blog post titled "Do we need to age to gain wisdom?" for personal reasons.

Jasmine says the little and big things that happened in her childhood helped shaped her into who she is today, and from what she says, I detect a note of calm, serenity and happiness about it.

I don't really know who Jasmine is nor her age so I cannot say anything about her present circumstances. And obviously I cannot say anything about her future.

But in the light of what Jasmine said in her comment, I can say something about my life.

It is true that a lot of things in my childhood also shaped me into whom I am today. But what is notable is that while somethings stayed, somethings left, too.

For Jasmine, she seems to revel in the fact that something stayed with her and is still staying in her character.

But this may or may not change in future. Like what happened to me.

Of course, every opinion expressed is subjective. So everything I say here will also be subjective. Hence, when I say that I believe that before I was the age of 29 I was living in a very narrow reality, a very closed vision of the world, people will say that's subjective.

But that's how I see it.

I believe I had been living in a narrowly defined boundary of existence, a life which always felt fake and stressful to me. But since I was clueless then, I didn't even know I was living in that microcosm, and therefore, I didn't know that I could expand the horizon of my existence.

But perhaps due to a stroke of luck, or my native intelligence fighting against the narrow window of my world, or my exposure to more enlightened friends, or my exposure to the world due to travel abroad, something snapped inside me and it was as if I had woken up -- to the reality of this existence. And from then on, I never looked back. Now I am always relaxed, happy, calm and full of wanting to embark on new adventures, realizing the great potential of this existence.

Earlier, I was unsure, of both myself and this existence, and therefore, always stressed and always hyper. But now that I have woken up (not just from susbtance abuse which happened only during my navigation period towards breaking out of the box), I now see things quite clearly, things for what they really are, and this has given me a confidence about myself, a confidence about the truth of this existence, so I am now at peace with myself and the world, completely changed from what childhood made me.

Worthless worshiping of ignorant men

2009-03-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

The situation of Maldives' women is not only tragic but quite ironic as well.

Here's a story related today by a female friend:

***

I used to visit the home of a female friend. In that house, all the men eat first.

So women bring all the food, and also the best among it, and arrange it on the table for the men.

After the men eat and leave, the women eat what's left of it.

One day, while my friend and her father was there, I happened to comment that the women of that house eat only the "left-overs" after the men finish eating.

The father was shocked and said that that's not true, that though the men eat first, that didn't mean the women ate only the left-overs.

My friend kind of looked embarrassed and after a moment of silence, replied: "Well, actually she is right. We eat only the leftovers."

The father's jaws dropped.

I then realized what really happened: though the men ate first, they never thought that the women were so loving and worshiping of the men that they did not really think of their own plight, but to please their beloved father, husbands and brothers, they instead brought out all the food and also the best of it.

The men never thought that women were so recklessly in love, in awe and in adoration of them, and therefore sacrificed their own needs and pleasures for the sake of men.

So the father always thought that though the men of the house ate first, the women brought out food for the men only after keeping an enough portion for the womenfolk of the house as well.

***

How I hope that both men and women will realise sooner, not later, how patriarchy has shaped our conscious and subconscious minds over the past centuries, and how our women are suffering for it, sometimes with the man's knowledge, at other times with his ignorance, and at other time's with his refusal to acknowledge it.

The Opinions of Others

2009-03-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

I have set up a new blog to share links to articles and other material I come across on the Net which I find interesting and which may be interesting to others as well. Some of them will be downright serious while others will be lighthearted.

I set up this new blog in order not to congest this blog with foreign articles. I hope to keep this blog personal, dedicated only to articles by me and by my friends.

But at the same time, I come across so many interesting things on the Net I thought it would be wrong of me if I didn't share them. So this new blog titled The Opinions of Others.

Cheers.

Letter to Anni

2009-03-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

I think this is what every moderate reformist Maldivian youth who voted for MDP and Anni should do right now:

We should all individually write a letter to President Anni asking him to kick out Adaalath Party out of the MDP Alliance "coalition."

We will have to appeal to him to uphold the noble principles of democracy and free speech, and kick out anybody from the MDP Alliance who opposes such principles.

We will have to specifically mention that we will no longer support any MDP-backed candidate for the upcoming Parliamentary elections if Adaalath Party is not kicked out of the MDP Alliance immediately and press freedom restored back to Maldives.

If every reformist Maldivian youth take time and deliver such a letter to Anni, we will be giving the government -- and Adaalath -- a strong message. Anni cannot afford to ignore our voices because we, the youth, voted for him.

If he ignores our voices now, we all know what to do when the day comes when we can cast our ballots again.

How Adaalath Party killed Maldives' women's magazine "Rasrani"

2009-03-17T02:58:00.000-07:00

"Shortly after the first issue, we became the punching bag for Adaalath as it tried its damndest to shut us down. Not surprisingly, intimidation through phone calls, death threats the works was targeted at the all-girl Editorial team of Rasrani, and local businessmen being the hypocrites they are pulled out their advertisements and with just the second issue we had to be shut down. Adaalath had won their first battle against freedom of expression!" Full story from Inaya's blog

Silver line in the cloud

2009-03-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

I can see a silver line in the cloud regarding the bipolar nature of the MDP Alliance government.

Banning websites and suppressing peaceful protests, only will add fuel to an already boiling situation and expose the hypocrisy of this government not only to Maldivians but to the outside world as well.

If President Anni doesn't deliver on his promises, he can give up any hope of winning a second term in office.

Already, Maldivians are frustrated with the blunders the MDP Alliance government is making, and its embarrassing efforts trying to divert attention away by trying to make international headlines.

People are only keeping quiet at this time because it's still early. "Let's give these new guys in government a chance, shall we?" is the mentality most have at this time. But let a year or two pass and when this government is seen as failing to deliver its promises and failing to uphold press freedom and the rights of all citizens, the Maldivian people will come to its senses, put pressure on the government to correct the wrong-doings, and if it doesn't, go to the ballot box and vote it out. The MDP taught us that much at least.

At the current rate the misdoings of the government is increasing, one can quite clearly see that a lot of senior government officials are now trampling on their own balls. Hama rangalhah fain erifa.

Lesbians subjected to "corrective rape" in South Africa

2009-03-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

Lesbians living in South Africa are being subjected to "corrective rape" and severe violence by men trying to "cure" them of their sexual orientation, human rights groups have said. Full story

Father impregnates daughter 7 times

2009-03-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

A man accused of imprisoning his daughter for nearly a quarter of a century and fathering her seven children repeatedly raped her in front of the youngsters, prosecutors said Monday as his trial opened in Austria. Full story

What is there to write about?

2009-03-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

Some friends have asked me why I am not writing much blog posts lately.

Well, things haven't really changed that much here though this is Aneh Dhivehi Raajje, right?

One look around the Maldivian blogosphere today and you see that all forms of human expression (writing, music, films, art, and most recently now photography itself, according to a fellow blogger) is under renewed attack from, ironically, a government which is led by a human rights activist leader who used to be a dissident writer who all his life fought for free speech.

As another fellow blogger pointed out, our President has to ensure that Maldives is a safe heaven not only for oppressed foreign writers but for every Maldivian who needs and wants to speak freely and openly. Otherwise, as yet another fellow blogger pointed out, Maldives cannot be a true fully-fledged liberal democracy but yet another theocratic dictatorship.

So when talking about blog posts, what is there to write about really other than about human rights and civil rights? About human beings' need to establish their individuality, about their need to live their lives the way they want as long as it doesn't infringe the rights of others, as long as it doesn't disturb or interfere the lives and personal affairs of others?

I have waited and waited, and I can still wait without writing, until Maldives becomes a true liberal democracy where everyone can express their true feelings, emotions and honest opinions, through all forms of mediums and arts, without self-censorship, without state censorship, and without fear for their personal safety and security.

So, in the meantime, I will only keep writing 'safe' blog posts like this, and post articles of interest, by me and my friends, from my own archives -- articles that reflect life as it was and is in Maldives, and the frustrations and the yearning for individual freedom by those who are not afraid to lead an adventurous and fulfilling life.

Male's lovers lane

2009-03-10T07:09:00.000-07:00

by Ahmed Saeed

Crabs inhabit the tetrapods on the protective seawall surrounding Male during daytime. But come the night when human couples are seen sitting on the tetrapods or lowering themselves into the dark recesses to do what all lovers do.

There was a time in the 1970s and 1980s in Male when lovers dated near the gate of their house, or under the street lamps near road junctions.

And there was time when lovers dated and talked while sitting in the "joalifathi" in their gardens. But now few homes have gardens due to restraints in space in this congested capital.

That culture and that era have since vanished.

Desperate lovers and couples then started hanging out in small, out-of-the-way narrow roads which had poor street lighting; the darkness offered them some privacy.

However, now Male has all been lighted up, and there hardly is a place where lovers can meet and share a private moment.

The road behind STELCO is now harshly lit and so is the road behind the new cemetery. A little privacy is still available in the little-used road behind the Male garbage dump.

There is no privacy on Boduthakurufaanu Magu on Male's southern coast whatsoever, as towards every evening, the road is now inhabited by joggers, cadets, and school bands. This was especially true when Independence Day celebrations loomed large, when loud banging drums droned out all other sounds. In the midst of all that noise, you could not even hear what your partner was whispering.

The nearby island Villingili may be considered as Male's fifth ward. However, parents regard going to Villingili as going out of hometown, and are reluctant to let their daughters go out on a stroll to Villingili.

This is not to mention that the beach of Villingili which once offered privacy, behind the bushes and vegetation, now hardly are private at all.

Some cafes and restaurants with their semi-lighting offers a semblance of privacy, but the cash-starved general public cannot afford to date in the premises of these cafes and restaurants.

Telephones in the office, or personal mobile phones, are no source of comfort either, as talking to your lover on the phone does not offer any opportunity to know the person at all. In this age and time when parents ask their children "to know your lover well before you marry," phones do not really work.

Hence, there is only one way to know and understand your lover well, and that is to meet him or her in person -- and in private.

It seems then that there is only one place now available in Male which offers this kind of privacy, and that is in the dark recesses of the tetrapods of the seawall, the "great wall" which was erected to protect Male from the onslaught of high waves.

But spending time on the tetrapods with the crabs may not be quite comfortable.

"A crab once bit me on the butt," a mini-skirt wearing girl once said.

It can also be a different experience for people who throng on to the seawall to get fresh air and has no other ulterior motives.

"I was once shocked when a couple seemed to materialize out of the tetrapods right in front of my eyes. They seemed to be embarrassed to have been 'caught' at it," a person recounted an incident of two weeks ago.

Because of the desperate situation, lovers seem not to mind the awful smells rising from some parts of the seawall where some people have illegally dumped garbage into.

And it is not only lovers who inhabit the seawall at night; many married couples do, the reason being that there is little or no privacy in their congested homes. Most households in Male are now partitioned by wooden boards which hardly stifle the noise or the sounds that may be coming from the next room. On top of it, children are forced to sleep in the same rooms as their parents because of lack of space.

Lovers and married couples who seek solace from the seawall are as familiar with the tetrapods as the crabs which inhabit them. The positioning of the tetrapods themselves offers adventurous and innovative yet dangerous positions. However, there have been no reports of injuries or broken limbs. Not yet.

This article was published in Haveeru Daily on 31 July 2003