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

Launching my photo blog

2009-03-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in D’Tandoor restaurant one late afternoon in 2006 when I saw an elderly man pushing a wheelchair which was seated by a teenaged boy. At that moment, another group of teenaged boys in soccer gear passed by the boy in the wheelchair, casually dribbling a football. In the backdrop of the Artificial Beach I saw this one very unique moment which made so many varying emotions surface in me. To this day I regret not having a camera to have captured that beautiful poignant moment.

So yesterday when my dad bought Sharif’s Canon digital IXUS 860 IS for me and my sis, it was like a dream come true because ever since that day, I have always wanted never to venture out of my home without a camera in hand, lest another beautiful moment escape me.

Though I had started uploading my photos on Flickr, until today it has been more a collection of the few photos I managed to take while I was a full-time journalist since December 1995. The recent photos on my Flickr are thanks to the generosity of many close friends like Azmyst, Ranger, and of course Sharif who have kindly allowed me to borrow their cameras from time to time. Hopefully I can now start exploring myself more in this exciting venture, expressing myself and my world view through pictures.

I could write a lot about how excited I am but I think Sharif on his blog when he got this camera himself nicely described the feeling you get when you get a camera. (Click here to read about Sharif’s own excitement at getting the camera) Sharif is one of the few photographers I would describe as a humanist. (Click here for Sharif's photos on Flickr) It is humanity I look for whether it’s a piece of written work, picture, art, music or film.

So with these thoughts in my mind today I launch my photo blog titled Life in Clicks.

One in five Maldivian schoolgirls is sexually abused

2009-03-01T03:54:00.000-08:00

One in five schoolgirls has been sexually abused at least once in her lifetime, according to the country’s first large-scale study on physical and emotional punishment, and sexual abuse of children.

The study asked 1,911 students in grade eight or above a series of questions on adult behaviour towards them, including whether an adult had ever touched them in a way that they did not want. In total, 16 per cent of those interviewed said yes: 11 per cent of the boys and 20 per cent of the girls.

Read the full shocking report on MinivanNews.com at this link.

If this doesn't outrage us, we Maldivians are a mentally sick "civilisation."

Presentation: The coral reefs of the Maldives

2009-02-27T23:36:00.000-08:00

Presentation: The coral reefs of the Maldives

Hosted by: Maldives Science Society

Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009
Time: 8:30pm - 10:00pm
Location: MSCE Seminar room
Street: Majeedhee magu
City/Town: Male', Maldives

For more information, visit these links:

On Facebook: The coral reefs of the Maldives

Maldives Science Society on Facebook

Maldives Science Society website

ABOUT THE EVENT:

The presentation, whose theme is ‘the coral reefs of the Maldives’, is given by Verena Wiesbauer (pictured) who holds Master of Science degrees in both Marine Biology and Zoology. A graduate of the famed University of Vienna, she is also a specialist on coral propagation and artificial reefs.

Verena was the Resident Marine Biologist at Huvafen Fushi island resort and was a key contributor to the realization of an artificial reef around the world’s first underwater spa at this resort. She also set up a coral nursery there.

Verena works closely with the tourists in the Maldives and her work includes guided snorkel tours, lectures, presentations etc.

"Our politicians in the parliament have more important priorities, than protecting the children of this country"

2009-02-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

This is something to think about when you are voting members in for the Parliament this time.

I am quoting the segment of this MinivanNews.com article which is enlightening and which should make us really think before casting our important vote for the Majlis elections.

***

Mohmed Shihab founder of Child Abuse Watch Maldives, a group dedicated to lobbying for the prevention of child abuse, has said he has found it "impossible" to follow up on abuse cases.

"They're not even reported in media," he said. "The agencies responsible are in a coma. Nothing is happening. The relevant players are all too quick to point out the institutional and bureaucratic barriers which are stopping them.

"But is it us, the citizen's duty to go and untie their hands? Of all the concerned authorities, the police seem to be doing fairly intensive work; they are the better of the agencies."

Responding to comments about inadequate legislation to punish and deter abusers, Shihab said, "Parliament is collectively responsible for it. It's not citizens who put forward bills to the Majlis, it's the parliamentarians.

"On things that are important to them, they present the bills fast and debate on it. Our politicians in the parliament have more important priorities, than protecting the children of this country."

***

This is from a news article by Aishath Shazra titled 'Unpunished pedophiles roam free' following the "recent discovery" of 38-year-old pedophile Hussain Fazeel. The full article can be found on this link. Please take some time to read this because I believe it will be worth our while.

Do we need to age to gain wisdom?

2009-02-26T03:27:00.001-08:00

When you take a look around the Maldivian blogosphere, you come across a wide spectrum of issues touched by an equally wide-ranging group of Maldivians in different age groups ranging from children to adults.

Most of the time it is more interesting to surf the blogosphere than reading the local newspaper because issues that the mainstream local media fear to touch are dissected with precision by both the known and anonymous bloggers.

What they write about, the issues they are concerned, and how they view it, speaks a lot about what is important to a person at a certain age.

And there also comes those special moments when someone reflects on something that demonstrates that he/she has acquired knowledge and wisdom beyond his/her age.

There is a natural change on one’s outlook on life as we age. What becomes important in our childhood is not important in teenage and is totally irrelevant in adulthood and so on.

Sometimes I wish I had gained that wisdom earlier so that I could have avoided the mistakes I had made and streamlined my life like clockwork which would today have made my world a bed of roses.

But as a friend reminded me recently: mistakes have to be made otherwise we would not learn how to correct them and straighten up the path we tread on.

It echoes another time when Anni said that we all take decisions and act on it after having thoroughly thought on it and thinking that it's the best judgment available for that time though sometimes nature takes its course and has an unintended and negative effect. In such instances, we can have the satisfaction that we tried and did our best to the best of our knowledge, ability and capability.

I also think it’s quite a natural process that we acquire knowledge and wisdom as we age, and according to age.

For instance, taking a look at blogs run by teenagers, you find that the issues they mostly touch on are love and heartbreak. It is quite understandable and natural because at that age, as we are entering the adult world, our topmost concerns are making a name for ourselves, creating an individual identity, overcoming loneliness and finding friendship, companionship, people we can identify with, people to look upon to and depend on, love, understanding, bonding and people to share one’s life and sorrows and find empathy.

Humans are social beings and loneliness is our arch enemy.

Quite ironically, the same is true when you are in old age. Your loving wife/husband with whom you shared your whole history, life’s greatest moments, life’s bitterest moments, all those decades of hardship and pain, all those years of love and joy, is no more there. They have said goodbye to this cruel world, this unfair life, and returned to the dust from where they came from.

Your children have grown up and gone away to live their own life with their own family. Of course they take care of you and they and your grandchildren come to visit you but the fact is you are basically alone.

At that moment, even someone to have around to talk, becomes precious, a priority. You truly appreciate if a younger being gives a smile, says ‘hi’ and goes on his/her way.

Though we may only gain wisdom as we age, and according to our age, I believe it is important that we try to understand these things even now, so that we can not only plan our life for the present and the future, but also make ourselves more humane, humble and down-to-earth so that we can wear the shoes of someone else, understand what he/she feels and empathize with our fellow beings, regardless of their age. This is one important way we can increase the level of our own humanity.

In the light of this, it is really depressing when opposition parties, just for the sake of winning political points, lose the message of humanity, and criticize our new government even for the humanitarian acts of kindness it has carried out so far.

I was recently in my ancestral island Kaashidhoo and there is a very old man who is related to me, who was very hard working when he was young and agile, but now is totally dependent on his children to take care of him, and even find it difficult to talk.

I put myself into his shoes, and wondered what life will be like for him. I didn’t take much money with me because it was only a two-day trip, but on the day I returned, I gave him all the money. He didn’t say thanks because there was no need to. His eyes told it all. It humbled me to my core.

Imagine: you are old, you cannot work, you cannot earn. You are totally dependent on your children or someone else for your support. It’s psychologically debilitating yet there is nothing you can do about it. Even for a little indulgence like buying a fresh fruit from the nearby convenience store you have to ask a son or daughter to give you the money for it. Though it’s your son and daughter you ask for money, we humans being proud and dignified, feel unsettled, a little bit ashamed, and a little bit in-dignified in such circumstances.

Ask any tobacco-smoking young man what he feels every time he has to ask his mom or dad for money to buy cigarettes, and though he is too lazy to work and earn for himself, he would nevertheless say that he WISHED he had money of his own to engage in such indulgences because having to ask someone else to support you even in a little act of kindness cuts a chip off your pride EVERY time.

That’s why I totally understand and appreciate Anni’s Rf2000 to the elderly. I can only happily imagine how the elderly will be feeling now and how sincerely appreciative they will be. As a friend told me today while we were having a quiet coffee at the waterfront Lily’s, it is a pure act of human kindness. A purely humanitarian act. Something only a humanist like Anni will do.

It is ironic that it took a younger man like Anni to understand such an obvious sensitivity and need of the elderly. When the November elections raged on, they said it was a fight between the younger and older generation of Maldives, Anni having the support of the young because they identified themselves with a young leader and Maumoon enjoying the support of the elderly because Maumoon, being 70+, would understand the needs of the elderly.

But I beg to differ. If Maumoon being elderly understood the needs of the elderly, why in all his 30 years did he not introduce such a scheme that could help the elderly live a dignified life till the end?

The truth is that Anni is a humanist. Every act and policy his government has pursued so far reflects this humanitarianism.

But this is not to say I am a blind follower of Anni. I have to say that Anni made major blunders as well within the first 100 days.

The greatest mistake he made was that, in his efforts to downsize the government, he got rid of the gender ministry. I believe that the major problems today affecting male youth (like drugs, violence, etc), children (mental, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, etc) and women (domestic violence, rape, marital rape, etc) have underlying gender-related root causes which need to be addressed in order to solve the larger issues affecting our society today. I call upon him to re-establish a ministry exclusively to tackle gender issues and appoint a humanist minister (not another double-faced politician like Aishath Mohamed Didi).

And I don’t even for one moment like the sharks and vultures Anni is forced to keep himself surrounded with ever since he became a politician.

But that’s politics. It is a game. And to win that game, you have to play dirty. But a true humanitarian will always remain a humanitarian at heart, and whatever manipulating and cunning he employs, ultimately, he will do so with only one purpose in mind: the establishment of a humanitarian society in Maldives.

That is why I am happy for these five years. Deal with it: Anni is here to stay for the next five years, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to Maldives. I no longer fear the police as some boogie man who might at any time take me in and torture me to death. I no longer feel afraid to speak my mind and write these things on this blog. And that is a big thing, considering the leaden weight of fear I had been carrying on my head before 20 September 2003, the happiest day of my life in Maldives, happy because it was the day when Maldivians finally were inspired and found the courage to face up to an oppressor and started fighting for their rights, but also sad because we lost the lives of our fellow brethren. But their sacrifice and deaths have not gone in vain and will not be in vain.

You might say if Maumoon did not facilitate but instead blocked our progress, would we today see the development that we are currently seeing in Maldives. True. But is this the LEVEL of progress one expects to see AFTER 30 LONG YEARS?

Take the case of my own ancestral island. Kaashidhoo has one of the largest ‘falhu’ (shallows) and the Kaashidhoo channel sees MILLIONS of cargo containers channeled annually between the continents. If even one transshipment harbor had been built there, Maldives today will be another Singapore. If such transshipment harbors had been built in Haa Alifu, Laamu, and Addu, Maldives today will be far beyond Singapore. Maumoon was neither a humanist nor a visionary. Just another typical lazy Maldivian man occupied with pursuing luxury and self-indulgence.

Perhaps that is the most important lesson we have learnt. It’s time that the DRP elect a new leadership if the party wants a fresh breath of new life, instead of going extinct with dead and useless relics. Needless to say, the leader should be, above all, a humanitarian.

***

Please do read through Ahmed Naish's article titled DRP Doublethink on MinivanNews.com which exposes the misrule, neglect, arrogance, injustice and above all the hypocrisy of Maumoon and his era. Here's the link.

Blue & yellow - Maldives' past, present and future?

2009-02-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

As we mark our National Day... this provoked many thoughts in me...

I found this in Kaashidhoo island, North Male' atoll, Maldives, on 11 February 2009.

Just the Sun

2009-02-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

By Maryam Nadhrath

After many years I came to see the sun set. Not glance at it while I pass by...but to really really ... look at it.

It was setting. I watched as it made its gradual progress in to the inviting water. But I knew that it was just an illusion. A picture, we had drawn centuries ago based on our ignorance and the inadequacy of our senses. The truth of today is that the Earth rotates on its own axis causing night and day. It was, what is known to be, a fact.

I looked at the sky. The colors were just as bright as I remembered them. But somehow, the familiar feeling of awe eluded me.

Next came the realization that something had changed in me. This was not the Sun I used to look at. I wanted to go back in time... to see the sun I called my own. I wanted to go even further, perhaps to the time where it was just a mysterious orb that goes in to the earth at night to get its rest. I wanted to look up and wonder if it was a divine chariot or a blessing or a curse. Then I would have stood underneath it for hours, marveling at the luminance of it and its tireless journey across the sky. It would be something incomprehensible, giving me legitimacy to be ignorant. It would be something unfathomable, something that I could try to paint in any color that I wished.

Now... as I sit before it, all I see is a burning star which will one day burn out itself, the center of our solar system, the source of energy and life. I should have been grateful, that I knew the reason why the sun shines upon us. I guess I was grateful, but my mind searched for another reason, a reason more mysterious than I could explain. Surely, it was more than scientific. If so a spider's silk will not glisten so beautifully, sunflowers will not bow and the sky will not dance goodbye bidding the sun goodbye.

I tried to see it the way I had done before, when life was innocent. But soon rational thought prevailed. It was a just a burning star. Had been examined, had been fathomed. It was the sun. Not a chariot, not a mysterious orb.

The final rays were about to set, the light waving one final goodbye. I felt sad, as if something beautiful had been violated and that the beauty had gone forever.

I turned to come back home and saw a little boy staring at the sun. I didnt know what he saw... But I knew his sun made him happy. Perhaps because he didn't have to pull it apart to gain dominance through knowledge. He just saw the colors... it was enough for him.

OBITUARY: Transcending stereotypes: the remarkable Rugiyya from Vilufushi

2009-02-21T06:26:00.000-08:00

(This article originally appeared in The Evening Weekly on 24 January 2005. However, Rugiyya died on 31 March 2005, three months after the tsunami, fighting for her life in a semi-comatose state at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital. The brave Rugiyya led a celebrated life and has truly been an inspiration for me and many others.)

Rugiyya Moosa has always battled with gender stereotypes, but as we went into press on Saturday she was fighting for her own life. A look at some of the achievements of an extraordinary tsunami victim.

By Ali Rasheed

Rugiyya drifts in and out of consciousness, in intensive care, at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Male’. Pushing 90, she needs all her fighting spirit to recover. She has to battle against tetanus spasms, failing kidneys, and deteriorating overall health due to advanced age.

Rugiyya is a victim of the tsunami waves, which hit the Maldives unawares just under a month ago. In a matter of minutes, the Indian Ocean swept across several islands, including Rugiyya’s home island of Vilufushi in Thaa Atoll, leaving in its wake unprecedented death and destruction. When the muddy water receded, her 14-year-old step-grandson Adam discovered her under a pile of logs crying for her children: “Dharifuhlha, dharifulha!”

Rugiyya was inside her house when the waves struck and, somehow, they carried her off and deposited her on the other side of the island, half-a-kilometre away.

Within 5-6 hours she was rushed to a health centre in the neighbouring island of Guraidhoo. Ill-prepared to cope with the unexpected flood of traumatised patients from several islands, the staff of the health centre and the people of Guraidhoo tried to manage the best they could. More than two weeks later, Rugiyya was finally transferred to IGMH in Male, but her condition remains critical.

More than 10 people died in Vilufushi, including Rugiyya’s three-year-old grandson Maiz, and some are still missing. Nationwide, the tsunami killed 82 children, women and men, with 26 people still unaccounted for. The devastation on some islands is so extensive that they are currently uninhabitable. Four weeks on, Maldivians are still struggling to come to grips with the worst natural disaster in living memory.

Things were very different when I met Rugiyya two years ago. She was sitting on the sand outside her house, basking in the morning sunshine. Good-natured, high-spirited and glad to have visitors, she crooned choice ravivarus , or folk songs. There is no denying that some of her verses were nostalgic, poignant, even pessimistic, but they also carried an unexpected air of liberation.

Of marriage she sang: Who dares take me away from this entangled jungle?

As it happened, the restless damsel was rescued from the jungle several times. Rugiyya married five men, but most of them turned out to be, in her own words, “lazy good-for-nothing scum.”

It is not unusual in the Maldives, which currently holds the world record for divorce, for men and women to have married several partners in their lifetime. And there is none of the stigma attached to divorced women that is so prevalent in the rest of South Asia.

Rugiyya’s first husband, according to her, was in the habit of lolling around while she did all the work; not just the domestic chores expected of subservient wives, but even the business of earning a living.

But exposure to these inferior human specimens resulted in quite extraordinary feats. Rugiyya single-handedly mined huge blocks of coral from the lagoon and crushed them; from the little pieces of coral and limestone she constructed four walls; and from coconut fronds she wove a thatched roof, to build her own house. With only her eldest daughter to help fetch and carry, she laboured in the hot sun for days to complete the astonishing undertaking. Little did she know then that the house would one day be washed away by a series of freak tsunami waves.

Rugiyya’s youth was not all slog and slavery. She fell madly in love with a toddy-tapper and married him. They would go into the coconut groves together and, in between bouts of passion, he taught her his craft. Soon she could climb the tall palms and squeeze the nectar out as well as he could.

But the honeymoon was short-lived. The love of her life began to waste away right before her eyes, from an unknown ailment. Rugiyya was forced to hand him back to his own family, because she was too poor to care for him properly. In any case, the dwindling man died soon thereafter.

In one of Rugiyya’s raivarus, she sang to a departed soul: I shall forever cherish your memory though your tombstone has long crumbled.

Singing, masonry and toddy-tapping were not her only skills. She was also an amateur carpenter, and particularly proud of a certain hardy wooden box she made. Unfortunately, the tsunami waves carried away the box, along with Rugiyya’s savings.

More radically still, Rugiyya was an accomplished fisherwoman. It was a common sight in Vilufushi to see her wading out into the lagoon, spear in hand, to catch fish. But she did not break traditional gender norms to make a political point.

“I had no choice but to do those things,” she explained. “It was either that or the family would starve.”

Even last year and with failing eyesight, Rugiyya could be spotted in the water as the sun rose. Although she had switched to line and tackle, she could still be counted on to bring home a respectably-sized snapper or two.

Until the tsunami destroyed Vilufushi, Rugiyya was living in the house she built with her son’s wife and children. She has two daughters and 10 grandchildren, having lost the eleventh to the tsunami. Rugiyya has outlived all her husbands and is well above the national average lifespan of 70 years.

On Saturday her son Mohamed, who saw her at the ICU, told me she had now stopped responding when he talked to her. All her family are in Male’, praying for the remarkable and, until recently, robust human being.

[Rugiyya Moosa was interviewed by Ahmed Nazmi and Ali Rasheed.]

Hell of a paradise

2009-02-20T03:34:00.000-08:00

Well, that is only just a tentative title for my autobiography which I hope will be my own social commentry on the beauty, tragedy, comedy and irony of life in a small island, in the tradition of Dickens and Joyce.

As a friend pointed out, maybe this is the best time for me to start working on my biography which I hope to get published one day. Though I have started writing it in English, perhaps I will consider translating it to Dhivehi by myself too later.

From now on, I will be spending a lot of my time on archiving on this blog my previously written material (which is a lot actually), including some of the contributions my friends made, but of course I will post blog posts whenever I feel I need to express my view on an issue that catches my interest.

This is kind of a re-assessment and introspection on my life as last week I started work on my biography.

Hence, because I will be spending so much time on my PC and on the Internet from now, I have compiled this music playlist called Melancholia. Melancholic music, quite ironically, uplifts my mood and playing these songs while archiving my blog and writing my biography will surely greatly contribute in keeping me engaged fully and also providing me with inspiration.

I sincerely thank many of my friends for encouraging me to start writing my biography. You know who you are :-) ! Some of your very favorite music are on this list which I hope will delight you when you visit here and spend time reading through past interesting material by me and my friends.

Some of these music may not be everybody's idea of "sad music" but as a friend pointed out, a song doesn't necessarily have to be slow in order to give an aura of melancholic sadness.

You are most welcome to give feedback and suggestions to possible additions to this list. You can mail me at hilath@gmail.com

Below is a list of songs which will make this list alternately on days depending on my current mood.

Abba – Dancing queen
A-ha – Hunting high and low
Bob Marley – No woman no cry
Bob Marley – Redemption song
Boy George – The crying game
Children of Bodom – Bed of razors
Chris Isaac – Blue hotel
Chris Isaac – Wicked game
Cyndi Lauper - Girls just wanna have fun
Dan Byrd – Boulevard
Duran Duran – Come undone
Elton John - Sacrifice
Enigma – Return to innocence
FasyLive – Your betrayal
F.R. David - Words
George Benson – Nothing’s gonna change my love for you
Guns and Roses – Don’t cry
Joe Satriani – Always with me always with you
Kylie Minogue – Tears on my pillow
The Moody Blues – Knights in White Satin
Nelly Furtado feat. Coldplay – All good things
Roxette – Listen to your heart
Sasha – If you believe
Shakin Stevens – Teardrops
Titanic OST - Rose

Interested in performing for a sample TV show?

2009-02-20T01:24:00.000-08:00

Hulhevi Media was registered in Male, Maldives, in February, 2009. We are seeking performers for sample TV shows that we are developing for Maldives TV including TV shows.

Please join our Hulhevi Media productions Facebook group for more information. It was formed by Ali Rasheed (Al) and Ahmed Shafeeu (Narcu).

Please also visit Club Hulhevi's official website for more information on us.

If you or a friend is interested, please do contact Al or Narcu.

Paradise for pedophiles

2009-02-19T21:41:00.003-08:00

It’s not good news for children and young people in the Maldives that Maumoon Abdul Gayoom intends to run for yet another term in office. Asia’s longest-serving dictator considers under-21-year-olds too young to vote but 12-year-olds old enough to have consensual sex with adults. Read full story from Maldives Today

My favorite comment to this blog in January 2009

2009-02-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

Going through the comments I received to this blog last month, it was difficult to choose a favorite but I have selected the following comment as my favorite comment to this blog last month.

This is a comment by an Anonymous person made to my post titled I'm retiring:

"Why so serious?"

Perhaps The Dark Knight is too much on my mind right now as it was a drama played out by good vs. evil. As Aindhy pointed out, Batman/Bruce Wayne has so much clarity of mind with regard to defining what is good and evil and he pursues his path because he can tell good and evil in clear-cut black and white.

But when it comes to me, it's so difficult. For me morality is such a blurry issue and I see good and evil in only shades of gray. Hence, many a time I am so envious of Batman's clarity in his world view.

Anyway, the above comment is so relevant to my life, especially in relation to two more comments that follow that comment (also by other Anonymouses):

"Hilath, why are you giving them so much power over you?"

"hillath, dont act like a kido . If u let go now its a defeat of free speech and the values u so dearly adhere to."

Very true I have to say, which is why we can't leave a battle half fought. We have to win the war.

Government Gazette a conspiracy against newspapers

2009-02-17T23:40:00.001-08:00

The proposed Government Gazette is the result of wanton jealousy by a particular politically influential individual of Maldives (he will know who he is I am talking about). See Minivan News story on the Government Gazette.

Though I am no longer at Haveeru Daily, I am particularly familiar with his hatred of Haveeru and he came up with this idea exclusively to possibly put Haveeru out of business because most of the Government's adverts are given to Haveeru as Haveeru still enjoys the most wide readership in Maldives (this was confirmed by an independent survey whose results I personally saw).

This Government Gazette should expose to the people the hypocrisy of some politicians who outwardly "support" democracy but inwardly from the core of their being is against the very idea of free speech and free expression.

Humanity -- the common religion

2009-02-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

Imagine this scenario: four friends go to a cafe and they order food. When it comes we find that it's four different dishes: one likes rice, the other roshi, the other noodles, the other spaghetti.

So should these four friends condemn each other because they did not conform to one standard? Should they go their separate ways because the differences between them should stop them from being friends and make them enemies instead?

Or say I have a friend whose skin color is coal black. Is it fair that I ask him to change his skin color? Could he really do that? And because I don't like his skin color, should I stop being his friend and instead kill his character, or worse enslave or murder him?

It's understandable that primitive humans tended to identify themselves into social groups for reasons like security and influence.

But that was hundreds of years ago. Today in the 21st century, we humans have had our minds enlightened and educated. We don't need to form ourselves into groups based on shared race, or shared tastes in order to protect ourselves and promote our interests.

In other words, in this enlightened age, a human being should be able to survive on his/her own along with his/her "quirks" and "oddities." Minorities should see no reason to live in fear in a true democracy where individual rights, freedoms and liberties are upheld and protected. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights wrote: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."

Yet, even on the Maldivian Blogosphere, we see people setting up blogs exclusively not to promote certain ideologies but also to bash and crush ideologies that are not in agreement with their own particular ideologies.

For instance, both pro-Islamic blogs and anti-Islamic blogs are equally "at war" with each other while the same can be said for pro-gay and anti-gay blogs.

Should this be the case? Where's this thing we call tolerance?

Whether you are religious or liberal, heterosexual or gay, when someone ascribes to the extreme poles of any ideology or lifestyle, then he becomes a fundamentalist, a radical who tries to impose his beliefs on the rest by talk and if possible through the use of force.

I attribute this intolerant attitude of many Maldivians on the failure of our education system.

Hitler teaching Germans that they are superior because they belong to the Aryan race would go very well in line with what we have been taught in Maldives by family members, elders, opinion leaders and teachers ever since we were children.

Maldives for some hundreds of years have belonged to a single religion and a single language, thus giving the opportunity for the ruling class to enslave the ordinary person through the indoctrination of the idea that a kind of superiority is offered in the "oneness" of the Maldivian people.

Hence, from childhood, the Maumoon-controlled media and our teachers from preschool to CHSE, we have been brainwashed to believe that we Maldivians have to be “proud to be Maldivian”, are the centre of the Universe and that we are some special people chosen by God Himself above the rest of all humans. (On a micro level you can even find Male’ Supremacists who hate Addu people and likewise, Addu Supremacists who hate Male’ people.)

As a result, we tend to label all others who don’t belong to our religion, our language and pursue alternate lifestyles as stupid or as having deliberately rebelled against God. This is quite ridiculous because I can’t for any reason understand why anybody would deliberately fight against God. Human beings are selfish and I don’t think it is in any thinking person’s self-interest to pursue a path that will land him eternally in Hell. As for non-thinking persons, they obviously belong to mental asylums and I don’t think God is going to punish them for creating them disabled.

Hence, the critical factor which has prevented Maldivians from becoming enlightened, civilised and tolerant is this homogeneity itself. Pity Maldives is not a country like Malaysia which has gone on to become a first world country due to the fact that the presence of multi-cultures enriched their human experience and made the society more tolerant, peaceful and goal-oriented in work and towards living fully satisfied lives -- without interfering in other people’s personal affairs.

Here in Maldives, it is a tragedy. From the cradle to the grave, you cannot be your true self and have to live a double life or a secret life, for fear of being alienated by the tyranny of the family or the dictatorship of the society which expects you to conform to their wishes to the letter.

Children are not treated by parents as individual beings but as ornaments to glorify whatever is missing from their own lives or to “perfect” their own lives.

They are not free or not allowed to develop to become their own individual human selves. Rather they are “part of the bigger picture” which of course is the nuclear family, the extended family and the society itself.

Individual liberty is required to be “sacrificed for the greater good” though what is meant by this “greater good” is nothing more than an excuse to sacrifice individual freedom itself in order to cater to the insecurities of a conservative people who fear change and progress itself!

Hence, a “superiority complex” can be found even among many youth of Maldives, which has now openly surfaced on the Maldivian Blogosphere considering the amount of hate blogs and hate comments against other religions, other cultures and other lifestyles.

The continuity of this “superiority complex” will be detrimental to establishing a true democracy in Maldives. We need to have our education system overhauled and our media totally revamped in order to promote the concept of tolerance and respect for other people’s views and lifestyles.

You don’t have to have shared views and lifestyles to be friends with other people. You can be friends with anybody regardless of what he believes or what lifestyle he lives as long as he doesn’t impose his beliefs and lifestyle on you. Live and let live. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights wrote: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

We are all humans and humanity should be the driving purpose of our life on Earth -- the common ground on which we have to live.

Balance in Nature

2009-02-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

Several months back, one of my friends was barely surviving. I had some money then so I gave it to him. He made it through and is now living quite happily.

Several months later I went broke and was barely surviving when I met a friend who assisted me to get back. So I am now financially recovering but not still to comforting levels.

Most recent incident: One of my friends lost his job, all his savings he had spent on his family, and he was barely filling his stomach. I had a few hundred bucks to spare (though my financial situation isn't that good) so I gave him and he was very happy, and with renewed energy expanded his job hunting and landed a job he's quite happy with.

A few days later, I came across 50 dollars on the street. Another day later I came across 100 Rufiya on the street. And another day later I came across 50 Rufiya on the street.

I pondered about it. And realised there is a balance in Nature.

There are so many proverbs about this but I think the idea behind most of them is that, say, if Ahmed helps Mohamed one day, then in turn Mohamed will help or get to help Ahmed.

But that's not my point: my point is that Ahmed may help Mohamed when Mohamed is in need, and at a time when Ahmed himself is in need, Ali may come to Ahmed's help, not necessarily Mohamed. Nature has a way of balancing itself this way, I believe.

For everything that gets destroyed, I see something created. And for everything that gets created, I see something destroyed.

But this is not to say that I am viewing this negatively. I see "positive" and "negative" as personal reactions and judgments passed on events based on our personal beliefs and perceptions.

For me there are only causes and its outcomes and consequences. Treating consequences as just outcomes, without assigning any positive or negative perceptions about it, actually helped me to overcome my own depression and stress and inspired me to lead a life clean from alcohol and drugs.

Anni's "canary" comment "borrowed" by Harvard oceanographer?

2009-02-13T23:12:00.000-08:00

Today I was reading this article on ScienceNews.com on Maldives and Kiribati drowning when I came across the following quote:

“They are like the canary in the coal mine in terms of the dramatic impact of climate change on a whole civilization of people,” says Harvard University biological oceanographer James J. McCarthy, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “They didn’t cause the problem, but they will be among the first to feel it.”

I remembered that it was Anni who personally wrote an article titled Losing Paradise in International Herald Tribune in which he mentioned:

"The Maldives is the canary in the world's carbon coal mine."

I wonder whether this is a coincidence that McCarthy "borrowed" Anni's comment from the IHT article?

The phrase about the "canary" had earlier caught my attention because when it was Anni who referred to a canary it kind of gave a humorous twist to it.

PS, I Love You

2009-02-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

Vendors sell flowers at Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

By Hilath Rasheed

KUALA LUMPUR - No, it's not the first book in the Sweet Dreams series. Nor is it the shortened form of "post script" that is demanded at the end of a hastily written letter from which important points (or gossip) were left out. No, it is not even an initial that Sony came up to refer to its chic Playstation game machine.

In a Malaysian context, "PS" stands for the initials that have been forged by Maldivian tourists and Maldivian students living in Malaysia to refer to Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur's infamous flea market selling all sorts of cheap pirated products, ranging from video compact discs to "branded" T-shirts.

So why do they call it "PS"? Is it out of fondness? Or is to disguise the fakeness that is the trademark of all Petaling Street products which they buy nevertheless?

In reality, Maldivians enjoy a love-hate relationship with Petaling Street.

"It's just another Ungulhay Baazaar," says Aminath. "I always have to take a shower after coming from there and change into new clothes. It's hot--and sweaty people there!"

Whatever criticisms they have, they are still drawn to the street, lured by the availability of cheap vcd films, audio cds, T-shirts, jerseys, shorts, slippers, shoes--you name it.

But few will openly admit to things they buy from Petaling Street, especially if they are clothes they wear. They are embarrassed if someone finds out they are wearing a Petaling Street T-shirt or jeans, and will righteously declare that they are not. The reason? Some find it socially unacceptable to strut around in clothes they buy from flea markets because their fellow compatriots will see them having "neither class nor taste."

"Bah! Buying clothes from PS and wearing them. Have they got no taste?" You can expect to hear this comment from someone if he or she spies another Maldivian wearing a Petaling Street T-shirt or jeans.

Once my friend Thohir got "caught."

My friend Nayif must have seen that shirt from Petaling Street and recognised it immediately when he found Thohir wearing it.

Nayif went on a needling rampage. "Hey, Thohir, is that shirt you are wearing from Petaling Street?" he called out to Thohir loudly so that everyone in the vicinity could hear.

The bomb was dropped. There was nothing Thohir could do except turn towards damage control. "Sssh! Don't say 'Petaling Street.' I bought it from 'PS,'" Thohir replied, and recovered some of his self-esteem.

As long as you are not "discovered", there is nothing wrong with buying Petaling Street products. In fact, Maldivians who visit Malaysia on short holidays, medical purposes or to visit their children studying here, will make sure that they put aside a day to exclusively shop at Petaling Street. The day before departure back to Male' (the Maldives capital) is the PS Day. Hordes of Maldivians can be spotted buying bundles of T-shirts, jeans, jerseys, etc. Everytime a Maldivian student living here goes back to Male' for holidays during semester break, he or she will make sure that one last trip is made to Petaling Street.

"There's no way I can go back to Male' without buying presents--mostly T-shirts for my closest friends. And what better place to buy things in so much quantity yet at so cheap prices," says Mohamed, a Petaling Street regular.

Being in one of the most "happening" areas of Kuala Lumpur, namely near Kota Raya and Pudu Raya which are the central bus stations in the capital, you can see certain happenings at Petaling Street that most resembles the northern harbor of Male'. Petaling Street brings vividly to mind how crew from dhonies (traditional boats) at the Male' jetty used to forcibly lure people--who wait for transport to the international airport at nearby Hulhule island--to their particular dhonies. That was before the Maldives government enacted regulations protecting people from being harmed.

But no such regulations exist here in Petaling Street. Anarchy rules PS. Vendors shove people around, overeager to sell their products. You can see sellers trying to drag Western tourists to their stalls, anxious to make a sell. We Maldivians ourselves are not spared. Just step into Petaling Street and all those vendors surround you, holding onto your arm, trying to drag you to their stall. "Want this? Want that?" They will keep asking. Of course, the sensible thing is to ignore and just walk on.

However much distaste Maldivian folks have for such facets of Petaling Street, they nevertheless love hanging out at the place. Sometimes Maldivians can be spotted walking alone, eyeing new mobile phone covers, latest releases of Hollywood films on vcd, hip new clothes from "famous" brands, etc.

So why do they hang out there?

"I love the commotion of the place," says Ismail, a Kolej Damansara Utama degree student.

"When there's nothing much to do, just a visit to PS will kick you out of boredom," he says.

In a nutshell, it's the hustle and bustle of the flea market that makes Maldivians keep coming to the place--like flies are attracted to sugar.

Aishath, another student from KDU, neatly summed up the reason for hanging out at Petaling Street: "It's such a 'happening' place," she put in simply. "They (Maldivians) are a bored lot. They need some commotion in their lives to keep them from being bored, to keep them from being engaged in gossip."

Petaling Street may be the best answer. So whatever unpleasant thoughts we Maldivian visitors have about you, PS, we still love you.

(I wrote this article to my Geocities website in 2000 while studying in Malaysia)

Kicking the habit

2009-02-12T01:05:00.000-08:00

The "structures" for rehabilitation symbolised at Drug Rehabilitation Center in Himmafushi island, North Male atoll, Maldives (Pic by NNCB)

By Maryam Omidi

Gathered around a circular wooden table in a leafy garden in Guradhoo, Male’ atoll, sit 20 men, aged between 19 and 30. All but two are recovering drug addicts. Most have been in and out of rehab with limited success. One even jokes about the speed with which he returned to drugs after receiving treatment.

But today, they tell of another, more uplifting story, of how each and every one has been clean for the past three weeks to two months. Although this may not appear to be much of a feat, what is unique about this group is that its members have shaken off addiction not with conventional treatment but through mutual support, counselling and camaraderie.

One of the leaders, Easa, a former scout leader, shines in his role, speaking to the group as he does with his perfect blend of assertiveness and gentleness. He explains although the group was formed two and a half months ago during the Eid festivities, the idea to combat the island’s soaring rate of drug addiction had been floating around for several years.

Commitment

Each new member who joins must be willing to open up and share their past – a cathartic experience that allows new recruits to forge close relationships with others in the group. The strong bonds that form act as a support network for members to fall back on in times of need. Counselling is available both from members in the group and the leaders.

Capturing the essence of the group’s success, 20-year-old Ahmed says, “This is like a family, we share everything.” Another member, Moosa, 30, says he is able to control his addiction with the help of the group. “When I hear a song that I heard when I used drugs, I get a craving, but it’s easy because in this group I can just call someone.”

But, there have been failures, concedes Easa. One member, who had a “heavy addiction”, did not want to become “thoroughly involved” in the group. As it is the group’s policy not to force anyone to become a member, they could not prevent him from leaving.

A crucial component of the group’s success is complete commitment. Although several members have been offered resort jobs, the group has decided to stay in Guradhoo for the time-being to prevent relapses. A wise choice considering the notoriously high relapse rate in the Maldives - 95 per cent according to an employee of NGO Journey.

Crusade

In a further twist, the group has elicited support from islanders to tackle drugs in an unexpected way. They have created a form obliging those who sign, to inform them if they know of, or witness any people involved in using or dealing drugs. Easa says around half of the islanders have signed so far.

“We don’t report it to the police unless it is a big catch,” he says, “in which case we will take it to the island office. But if it’s not more than a gram, we will destroy the drugs and offer advice to the person concerned.”

Another member, Ibu, adds, “The goal is not to bust them but to bring them back to the community.”

Nor is the group exempt from its own policies, says Easa with characteristic resolve. “Even within the group everyone will be searched. No one will be spared. We will even do a strip search in the island office.”

Official support

Over time, the group has received unofficial support from the regional police. They have now been given special gloves and containers with which to collect the drugs. But, says Easa, even though dealers may leave the island for two or three weeks, it is never long before they are back.

Councillor Abdul Hadi Hussein acknowledged the drug problem could only be solved with active participation of the community, adding he would advise other islands to adopt similar self-help programmes. “I’ve always thought if there were people who came out and did something about it, the situation could get better.

“I said nothing would be successful if only the government officials try to do it. It has to come from the public…The role of the island office is giving them support if they need the police….The problem is the inflow of drugs and we have to stop that. Everybody has to try.”

Respect

As a result of their work, the group has overcome another obstacle commonly faced by addicts - that of societal acceptance. The stigma of drug addiction in the Maldives often leads to addicts being ostracised; those who have recovered have a permanent stain on their character. “Before,” says Moosa, “we were always outcasts.”

But the islanders’ mistrust has gradually melted away, says Ahmed. “When I first came out of rehab, no one accepted me. But here everyone knows we used drugs and because of what we do, there’s respect from society now.”

Easa says that scepticism about their homespun rehabilitation programme has given way to confidence. “There were those who said we couldn’t do it but more and more people have started saying they believe we can.”

The next step, says Easa, would be to get financial assistance. He says the group are trying hard to make ends meet. “They have recently repaired a dhoni and have gone fishing for the past two weeks…they are also making their own drums so that we can put on shows on safari boats and nearby resorts.”

But before Easa is allowed to get too carried away, lauding the group as he is so fond of doing, one member, Fayaz, issues an important reminder: “The main thing is not to collect a lot of money but to spend time together.”

All names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.

(This article was originally published on MinivanNews.com on 10 February 2009 at this link)

If tomorrow comes

2009-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

By Hilath Rasheed

A cool dawn breaks over a red sky as the first orange rays of sunlight sneak through the drapes, caressing my face, waking me up to the call of a cheerful new morning.

Taking a warm freshwater shower in my apartment on the suburbs of Hulhumale, I dress, down my breakfast and get on my Honda for the ten-minute ride to Male.

Wind whipping against my face as I ride on the bridge linking Hulhumale and Male, I sneak a glance back at the thriving city of Hulhumale and on my left I spy one of the flights of our national carrier touching down on the extended airport runway, no doubt carrying tourists from a faraway destination.

Arriving in Male, I head straight to my office, a sprawling 20-storey building housing the quarters of a multinational offshore bank that now finances the development of a major share of resort and other industrious islands chosen from a cross section of all the atolls.

My first task is to go through all the corporate emails and my own personal emails, plus I do spend a few minutes to chat with some corporate officials discussing some upcoming resort development projects. Thank God Internet is so cheap. I am now able to do virtually all my transactions, communications and even keeping in touch with family and friends over the Internet.

I take the opportunity of the 10 o’clock coffee break to visit a relative who is undergoing a cardiac operation at the hospital. I find that he is already in the operating room, and one of his relatives tells me that the operation is supervised, through video conferencing, by a renowned heart surgeon directly from the United States. Talk about satellite communication revolution, I am so relieved. I go back to my office, promising to visit my relative after the operation.

As I get out of the hospital, a call comes to my mobile phone. The caller identity shows it is my friend Suhail who probably right now is fishing on his big vessel a few hundred miles outside Maldives’ territorial waters.

“Hey, what’s up?” I say.

“Long time no hearing from you!” Suhail exclaims.

“Why, we were in Kotari only last week!” I say. “You must be bored, being so many months away from home.”

“No way, man,” says Suhail. “I’ve all I need here. My PC is here with me. I get to enter the chatroom even from here. I’ve got Internet plus a fully computerised vessel. What more could you ask for? You should come out to the sea sometime, my friend.”

We chat for a few minutes, thanks to this international roaming service that links Maldives to virtually any point on earth.

When I get back to the office, one of my managers, Mohamed, is waiting with a folder. I sign some documents and he hurries off to catch the 12 o’clock ferry that will take him to a Vaavu atoll island which we are financing to develop as an agricultural island. Hopefully, he will finish his task and return to Male in the evening by the six o’clock ferry. I am awed by the pace of economic development that is taking place due to the mobility of people and resources when regular ferry services, linking all islands, was established a few years ago.

It is now evening and I decide to hang out with my friend Zaid who needs a break as he is very busy these days preparing for his PhD presentation at one of the higher education colleges in Hulhumale. We decide to watch the latest Tom Cruise vehicle, Mission Impossible 6 (yes, the series have been that successful) at the multiplex in Vilingili’s downtown area. In front of a wide screen, with DTS surround sound effects giving the full cinematic experience, we spend two overwhelming hours in one of the THX cinemas as Tom Cruise chased evil spies, hung from Grand Canyon cliffs and in the end saved the day—and the girl. Finally, we both return to our separate apartments in Hulhumale, by cab, and retire for the night.

With a start I wake up and realise, sadly, that it was just a dream. But such a beautiful dream it was. Then a smile spread across my face as another realization struck: That dreams can come true if we work on it. If the commitment is there. If the hope is there. Because hope never dies. And neither can a dream.

(This article was published in Haveeru Daily on Jan 1, 2001)

FEEDBACK:

@ "Though I browse through Haveeru, I must have missed this article. Enjoyed reading and like you, I'm sure there are hundreds of people who'd like to project themselves into a new era and island such as Hulhumale. Dreams can be made realities if everyone works to make them realities. Though progress is slow, the 'painting' is getting better. Anyway, keep on writing. Your stuff is informative and interesting. Bravo!"--0009san, 1 Dec 2003

@ "I found your article If tomorrow Comes very interesting; it wasn't like a dream as you described; it was so real."--Mohamed Sobah, Malaysia, 5 Jan 2004

The Love Wall Crisis

2009-02-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

by Maryam Nadhrath

Entwined figures are seen perched at every three feet of the Wall, entertainment for the passing joggers. Hey! It's another reason to howl and hoot.

The respected elderly walking up and down gasp and self-righteously declare it was never so in their time. They tsk tsk about it until it's time to go back home. Thank God their little girls are not mounting the dreaded Wall.

How could she? The wise parents ask themselves, after all she's under 24-hour surveillance.

The smiles fade when one of the precious siblings is seen carving her name on the Love Wall. And it's just their luck the guy turned out to be a grade eight dropout with an attitude. Or worse he could be a 'drugie' with a cute smile.

The Law of Purity has been violated. The betrayed parents bang doors and throw tantrums. They ask questions like "What about all the sacrifices I made for you?" and "Don't you realize that if it wasn't for you we could have gone to India or Lanka every six months?" It could even come down to the extra pounds the Mother gained after giving birth.

Now the Mother will never be able to go fetch the young ones from school, too many I-saw-your-daughter-this-your-daughter-that from "well meaning friends". As for the Father, the good ol' saihota will never be the same. His buddies would be sure to point out how little control he has over his kids.

It's a major mess. She can't go to the tuition class, she's not supposed to be home if any body calls her. But did any indignant parent stop to wonder why a self-respecting girl with a few brain cells would climb up the Wall? If the parents would stop playing Ostrich for a few seconds they would realize that every thing is mixed nowadays. You cannot keep the guys and girls separate any more, even the ten-year-old knows what a 'bit' is thanks to the kind of movies and stuff they are exposed to. And no thanks to the great communication gap the parents don't have a clue about what goes on in the minds of their kids.

"Does she think she's old enough?" "Is she seeing some one?" The questions are never asked.

Now, those parents who understand that the kids are looking for companionship say, " OK bring him home" and these are the parents who can sleep peacefully at night. At least they know where she is. She's right there on the joali under the 60 watt tube light, with a guy you have been introduced to, not on the Wall, under a nonexistent moon, with some creep who smokes pot.

(This article appeared in Haveeru Daily)

Four Stories

2009-02-04T02:05:00.000-08:00

She was by his bedside. She held his hand, her tears falling to his parched skin. I couldn't find any words to say to her. She looked at me, and whispered, 'Stay away.' Six days later I heard that he'd died. She'd died years before...

by Ian Butterworth*

*Ian Butterworth is a VSO in Maldives

My father owned a shop. When I was eleven, his nephew came from the village to work. He was eight years older than me, already a big man. He filled the house. In two years, we were married. I had seven living children, and three dead. At twenty-seven was my last pregnancy. He'd had enough of me. I was glad.

My husband's voice was quiet, but everyone listened for it. Laughter stopped as he entered the house and my children grew watchful. They should have been smiling, but he made them wary. He gave them no childhood.

There were nights when he wouldn't come home. At first I cried and couldn't sleep. But soon I found that I liked being alone. My neighbours told me names of his women. I wouldn't listen to them. From the beginning I tried to be a good wife, but he hurt me. I wanted someone to hold me and tell me things. I was so young. Everything I said made him angry, so I said nothing.

A boy came to stay, from my husband's island. He served in the shop and looked after the house. Each night he studied. His eyes were gentle. He smiled and carried things for me. He joked with my daughter and picked her a flower. She wouldn't leave him alone. I loved to watch him, when he was clean and praying. I breathed the freshness of his newly washed clothes. Once, I was burning up with fever. The boy brought me soup. He bathed my face and stroked my fingers. My husband was watching. He slammed his fist into the side of my boy's head. After this the boy wouldn't look at me. But he still played with my children, and smiled at them.

The boy stayed for a year. He left when he married his cousin from the village. She was very beautiful. I was happy that he could start a new life.

* * *

I was my father's eldest son. He lived from fishing and dreamt that I'd work in an office. I was sent to Male' to study. It was a different place in those days. The rustle of leaves was cooling. The white walls felt warm against my cheek. There was more time.

I stayed in the house of my uncle's wife. Inside was dark and quiet. On the wall hung a photograph, brown tones and curling paper. It was of a young woman, laughing and beautiful. She was lovely. I didn't know it was of my aunt until I saw her laugh with her daughters. Then she came to life.

My uncle married her for the house. There was nothing he could give her. He was unaccountable. He stayed away and was unfaithful, but my aunt seemed indifferent. She'd fallen in love with what she hoped he'd be, not what he was.

I'd been in the house some months when she was sick. I took her food and held her hand. Her eyes filled and she clutched my fingers. She breathed my name. He walked into the room and beat my head against the wall. When I saw her next there was a burn on her face from the soup.

She had neither choices nor will. She did her jobs, fulfilled her duties. She was frightened of being disappointed, so she asked for nothing. If there had been magic in this life I would have taken her somewhere and made her laugh. When I married a girl from my island she was so happy for me. She cried for us as we left. That's how I know she loved me, too. More than my own wife ever did.

After years working away I returned to Male'. The old man was in hospital, hollowed with cancer. I visited him with my son. I was shocked to see his dying eyes glisten when he saw my boy.

She was by his bedside. She held his hand, her tears falling to his parched skin. I couldn't find any words to say to her. She looked at me, and whispered, 'Stay away.' Six days later I heard that he'd died. She'd died years before.

* * *

I haven't long to live. Pain rides through me. My wife is by my side but she can't give me comfort. She is weak, of no use, and I wish she would go away.

She was lovely when we married, looking like a woman. I could make my hands into a circle and reach almost round her waist. People said I married her for the house. But it's not true. Her shy glances were mesmerising. Her hair, her eyes were so beautiful. I really did love her. I wanted no one else. But I married a child.

She never laughed. She never spoke with me. She only replied. She was mine, but there was nothing to own. I thought children would make us better. But she excluded me. When I came into the room their conversations stopped. She hid them from me. I was left alone. I spoke to them but they only gave me answers. If I hurt her, she would notice me. I went with other women, but I never divorced her. She filled me with guilt. How can you talk to someone who will not look into your eyes?

She was in love with my brother's boy. He was a lad from the island who stayed with us. He took her from me. I know they met in secret. Some girl came from the island to marry him. She was sleeping in my wife's room. On the morning of the wedding, before light, I walked in, covered her face with my hand, and forced myself on her. I finished and looked across at my wife. She was watching. She didn't say a thing.

Part of me wants to talk of this now. But it would be like telling a corpse. I could weep at the waste.

* * *

My husband has never hurt me. He studied and worked all hours, earning money to support my son and myself. Every day he has worked to bring us comfort. But our lives are false. There is no meaning.

On the morning of our marriage, before dawn, his uncle came into my room. He raped me. I'd never even spoken to him. His wife was in the same room. When he left she just turned to the wall. I can never forgive her for that.

How could I tell my husband? What choice did I have? I forced myself through the day. On our wedding night I froze. I felt dirty. I couldn't sleep. My husband thought I was just frightened. He fell asleep, holding me, suffocating me with his kindness.

For years I dreamt of that morning. I could feel his hand clamped, pressing my mouth; his weight draining my strength. The pain tore me. The worst was that his wife had done nothing. Was that all I was worth? I couldn't understand how my husband continued to love me.

We have no other children, though we tried. I would have been proud to have a little girl, all of our own. My husband never knew that he was not his son's father.

Many men tried to catch my eye. I was frightened of them all. I am so lonely. I loved my husband, but I could never open myself to his love. I know that I hurt him dreadfully. I wish with all my heart that it could have been different.

He's visiting the hospital now, with my son. The old man is sick. When he dies, they'll ask me to pray for his soul.

FEEDBACK

@ "Ian. The first thing I thought of after reading your story was "Damn it, how come I hadn't thought of writing a story that is told from all view points?" The idea was just perfect for exploring the deep dark happenings that are so common in some of our homes. I felt very sorry for everyone in the story, none of them got what they wanted in life. The major reason behind this fact is probably that none of them stood up and fought for what he or she could have had. They all suffered in silence and it just made them hollow inside. And I think Ian portrayed this hollowness very well. Brilliant Ian! Keep them coming."--Mariyam Nadhrath, Australia, 7 Feb 2003

@ "Excellent piece of work. I really admired the style of writing; the simplest sentence tells so much. Really disturbing, too. A pure work of literature. Amazing how each character's story sounds so genuine. Explores their psyche very well."--Ali Riyaz, Maldives, 3 Feb 2003

@ "Thought-provoking and eye-opening short story which genuinely captures the unspoken suffering that Maldivian people quietly live with. Ian seems totally in tune with Maldivian culture to an extent that even we Maldivians are not familiar with. Hope to see more of your work, Ian!"--Hilath, Maldives, 3 Feb 2003

The only regrets in my life

2009-02-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

This is something very very very personal.

If I die today, I will have only two regrets in my life:

1) I've never told my parents how much I admire the deep love they have for each other, even after all these years, in their old age, when the romantic spark is still there -- one true love which is openly envied and talked about by our neighbors and our parents' office mates.

2) I've never told my parents how much I admire the fact that in their old age they are jointly building a "home sweet home" for us. Now at 8 stories high, it stands as testimony to my parents' courage and responsibility and perhaps an everlasting monument to the love they deeply feel for each other, and us their kids.

I just don't have the guts and say this directly to them. I guess I don't have that kind of bond with them; is this a generational gap thing?

I am also afraid I may get emotional and start to cry. But at the same time I have a deeper fear that I will cry harder if they die before I tell them how I feel.

I just don't know how to go about this.

Bottomless Pit of Wants

2009-02-02T02:06:00.000-08:00

by Shanooha Mansoor

Silent and dark, in the dead of the night I peer out at the sky, dotted with millions of stars, imagining that someone is gazing back at me. I yearn to go out and lie on the grass, with their blades caressing me, like thousands of fingers, the cool night air enveloping me, stinging my face with its coldness, prickling my body, its smell taking over me intoxicating me, leaving me yearning for more and more. My parched lips cracked and open for a single drop of dew, as though it will quench my thirst for eternity, a thirst so great and consuming that I feel sometimes as though I am drowning in it.

The whole world silhouetted against the night sky, soft halos surround them, lacking details and definitions, a time when true beauty really shines, with the sharp edges, the soft contours, the smell, the warmth, and emotions that vibrate in the dead of night, beauty at its purest and most primitive form. I see the world as I’d never seen it before, touching me at the very core, but that somehow doesn’t seem enough. I’ve got a yearning, a yearning for something more. It creeps up on me, even at the moments at which I am most at peace with myself. I try to coax myself, to delude it, to make myself believe that this is as good as it gets.

But there’s always a ‘but’, or an ‘if about what I could and would do, an insatiable desire to have more than I get, to do more than I could. First it was about a toy, then friendships, then about love, about a career, about money, something or other was always there, something I wanted and when I got that it somehow was never enough; the grass on the other side truly seemed greener and more lush, the trees in that pasture seemed to grow with fruits much more bigger and juicier than on mine. Even the shadows looked bigger and intense. Someone else always seemed happier than me, more content; they seemed to know the secrets of love and life and I was left wanting that, changing from one thing to the other, searching, wanting, my mind always in turmoil, my soul in tatters. I was nothing but a bottomless pit of wants.

Somewhere along the road I had lost touch with being content, with being what I was. There always seemed to be attainable heights, greater pleasures, a bit further I could push myself. I could not live, not happily anyway, for I was blinded by my wants, when I could very well have done with all I had, all that was mine. I could have been one of those people smiling, a soul at peace, that free spirit without fretters that bound me to my miserable self. Sigh!

But, I am what I am, and I guess I will console myself and blame it all on human nature once more (sure way to block that accusing voice in my head!). After all it is true, that we really are bottomless pits of wants without a clue as to where we begin and where our wants end.

FEEDBACK

@ “You are right: a human being is never satisfied with his or her wants (The grass is always greener in somebody else's field.) I have everything that I could ever hope to have but still I yearn for more. Maybe this is what drives humans towards more perfection and survival? I guess... I think your prose was more verse. For instance, the first half of the article read like a poem, and I thought you were experimenting on how to write an article in verse form rather than prose. I once read a short story written all in verse form. It was like one big poem but very nice. It was called ‘Frenchtown Summer’ by late American author Robert Cormier. Perhaps you should read that book. Your short story also reminded me of the poem ‘Drummer Hodge’ by Thomas Hardy. In that poem, Hodge is a drummer in the British army who is sent to Africa to fight in the first world war. There he dies, an insignificant soldier, in a war that was none of his business. He is buried on a mound, his grave unmarked, and his spirit feels lonely as he looks up at the sky every night, his companions being only the stars. I was very moved by that poem. So I was also quite struck by the subject matter you brought up in this short story.”--Hilath Rasheed, Maldives, 11 Nov 2004

A Thought

2009-02-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

By Mariyam Nadhrath

She looked at his crumpled shirt, the mess on his table and the serious look on his face as he read one important document after the other.

She felt restless. As if she was Pandora and the box was begging to be opened. She had questions …and answers … and some thoughts that fit in to neither category.

Why did she like him? The question challenged her rational thought. Is it because fate had destined them to meet in this small cluttered office? A meeting that was simple and ordinary on the surface, but was chaos, if looked at, through her eyes.

She had been content, if not happy in her busy isolated existence, had even forgotten that she was supposed to be lonely. And then she met him. After that… few things had made sense.

She looked at him again. He rubbed his eyes and put his glasses back on, an action she had learnt to associate with him. Did it mean he was tired?

It frightened her that she didn't know him. She didn't understand him but had somehow arrived at the conclusion that he was good. Does one not fall in love with the eyes and then mind, heart and finally the body? How has he gone straight from eyes to body? Perhaps she did know him…or may be she didn't want to know him for fear that the perfect image she had painted of him would fade. She needed to believe that he was meant for her, at lease for the time being. Then she wouldn't lose the string and get lost in the labyrinth of her own cynicism.

The question made her wonder if she was attracted to not him but the thought of unwrapping something that she found interesting and mysterious. Perhaps something she regarded as her gift for missed and ill-timed Cupid's Arrows.

He got up and her eyes followed him as he got a drink. Coke. He looked at her with raised eyebrows. She nodded. Using lean fingers he opened the can for her and went back to his papers. She went back to her musing.

Why had it excited her to see him open the can? Why notice it in the first place? Because it was a display of strength, because of what he did for her? Was that why females tend to go for men who were taller and broader than them? Do we still harbor the secret wish to be small and dainty compared to a man? Are we looking for an unconscious guarantee that we would be kept safe?

She looked at him. He was tall. But that wasn't the reason…

Maybe she had needed someone to fantasize about so that she wouldn't fully forget that she was a woman.

He looked out through the window lost in thought. He was so close but yet so out of her reach. Yes... fantasizing about unattainable objects did give an objective to a life which went on because you were not dead yet.

It frustrated her… why why why… more than the feelings itself the evasiveness on the reasons for it disturbed her.

It was all chemical, wasn't it? The chemical reactions make our palms sweat and heart thud. Believing that explanation was easier since the reactions would not be conscious. She could then detach herself from the treacherous reactions of the mind and body. But… nothing was that simple. One cannot write it off as clinical chemical reactions. There had to be magic in there somewhere… the magic that brings a smile where tears had just treaded.

There just had to be magic. She couldn't believe it any other way… why had she been pulling it apart to find a speck of sense? What if there was no sense in it? Couldn't she just surrender to the unexplained beauty of it? Couldn't she just accept that she was simply attracted to him?

She should just tell him. But she was the female, should she? The question irritated her. Does sex determine the intensity and the legitimacy of one's feelings? She should definitely tell him.

But how? How does a human being drop all pretence, all expectations and fears and stand in front of another human being?. Would there be a more vulnerable form? Did she have the courage to do it? Does he mean that much to her?

He looked up and saw her blank stare. He smiled.

She smiled back. She must tell him or she would wonder for the rest of her life, think about what could have been.

She stood up and walked to him, started talking and didn't stop until she had nothing more to say.

What happened next was not important. What was important was that she had reached out for something she had thought was meant for her. It was indeed … was it not enough…???

(This story was published in The Monday Times)

FEEDBACK

@ "An excellent portrayal of confusion, anxiety, and conflicts of emotion. Well versed and well layed out. Thumbs up."--Ahmed Shaheem Razee, Maldives, 27 May 2003

@ "A beautiful, earnest portrayal of confusion and courage. Striving for what’s meant for you…hmm.. that’s how it should be. I was happy she finally summoned up the nerve to open up and got what she wanted. Of all the 24 questions she has posed I’d like to take note of the big one which is “should the female propose?” I don’t see anything wrong with that. Its just a misconception that has been around ever since the beginning of humanity, that the guy should initiate. But I think we’re finally beginning to accept it shouldn’t be that way afterall. This story is testimony. Anyway, good work!"--Sharif Ali, Maldives, 28 Dec 2002

MvBlogs -- the brave and the courageous

2009-02-01T03:39:00.000-08:00

It is a nice day I woke up to find that the admins at MvBlogs do support free speech and democracy with no strings attached.

Whatever "glitches" that led to this uproar about online censorship, I am happy that it has been peacefully solved and that all parties involved showed extreme courage and patience on their part, making me realise how strong the sense of community that exists on the Maldivian Blogosphere, even if they happen to be on the opposite extremes of conservatism and liberalism (as Jaa kindly pointed out in his comments on my Facebook).

As Ubaid, Drink Cunt Juice and others pointed out, it takes courage for us to overcome our natural and inborn and also cultivated and conditioned prejudices and biases, and only those who use their native intelligence and overcome these issues emerge as the true patriots and the true champions of democracy and free speech.

As for me, well, I will still stick to my decision not to write on any "controversial" subjects because after fighting for human rights, especially minority rights, on the Internet starting from October 2000 with my old Geocities website (almost a decade...that long, eh, now I realise), I guess I am now too tired to take all the pressures from conservative circles, which still is an influential political lobby in Maldives and they happen to bring under their umbrella my own relatives, neighbors, acquaintances and strangers.

So I think I will choose to remain a phantom menace like Sauron and have my young "minions" do the "dirty work" of fighting for human rights and minority rights. I am very much heartened by the fact that there are many young Maldivian men and women out there, a whole lot of them on the Maldivian Blogosphere, who with much vigor and energy are daring to speak their minds and fighting for their rights. So I guess I will quietly fade into the background and only act behind the scenes in giving advice and moral support and encouragement to the hordes of Maldivian youths who will keep up the fight with youthful energy and with their innovative ideas and creativity coupled with a fresh outlook on life.

After this "censorship" issue, like Drink Cunt Juice I have also decided to put up an ADULT WARNING notice to anyone who accesses my blog, not because I plan to post any nude or sex photos, but because some of my writings contain profanity and foul language. Also I think the content of the short stories are quite adult in nature. Unlike some parents who are OK with their children watching all these Dhivehi, Hindi and English romantic movies, I am very much against it; I strongly believe that children are too young to be fed ideas about romance and sexuality.

Peace.

PS: Man, did I just sound like Yoda talking patronisingly to Anakin? kekeke

I'm retiring

2009-01-31T09:31:00.000-08:00

Obviously this MvBlogs "online censorship" thing has become a big issue.

I've been in direct communication with Simon and he has explained, or rather clarified, his stand, and what he wrote in the post, and I am convinced that the intentions of Simon and the admins at MvBlogs are good.

Ever since I posted my previous post about this "censorship" issue, and also added its link to my Facebook, I've been getting several emails.

Some of the emails are from religious friends and I can understand their obvious concern.

But I am surprised and disappointed with some of the comments emailed to me by friends and acquaintances who earlier I thought were quite liberal and free-minded. Some of them operate blogs on the Maldivian blogosphere, and understandably anonymously, because they are so free-thinking and liberal, they fear social alienation due to their free-spirited comments on "controversial" issues such as religion and sexuality.

Why I was surprised and disappointed is that, though they are liberal and free-thinking, I realised that this liberalism and free-thinking is ironically within certain limits set obviously by our culture, traditions, and norms.

Below is a point which convinced me that these liberal and free-thinking friends just didn't get the point what democracy and free speech is all about:

- Democracy and free speech has no limits or extremes. It does not operate within the boundaries of any religion/belief/ideology because as far as humanity is concerned, humanity itself is divided among many religions/beliefs/ideologies, and therefore important human decisions cannot be taken based on any one religion/belief/ideology while disregarding the alternate or opposing religion/belief/ideology. That's why there are common civil laws in secular countries.

This is where also I stand because I believe that my own religion is my own personal matter, and that I should not make any critical judgments about human issues by wearing spectacles tinted with my own personal religion because the other person may not be a person believing in my religion. It is because I express my view in this way which has got me "labeled" an atheist, not because I made any public announcements about my belief, which I believe is a personal thing and therefore is no matter of public interest. Due to my diverse views on religion, which does not have anything to do with my own religion or personal beliefs, I've also been occasionally labeled a Sufi Muslim, a Pantheist, a Naturalist, a Goth, and so on.

Surprisingly my liberal and free-thinking Maldivian friends have this weird notion that freedom of speech and democracy should operate within the confines of Islam and our constitution and not on the basis of civil laws and civil liberties catering to the wider humanity, including Maldivians, who may or may not be Muslims.

I believe that Islam at no time stifles free thinking, free speech, art and democracy for the sake of debate and progress of Muslims. Hence, I believe that Dr. Hassan Saeed is a believing Muslim and he was not committing blasphemy by debating on ruling out capital punishment (the death penalty) for apostasy and advocating freedom of religion in his "controversial" book which the IDP tried to get banned. Dr. Hassan Saeed was only doing what a good Muslim scholar should be doing: advocating humanity without letting it be colored by his own personal Islamic spectacles.

***

Below is the point where my religious and also non-religious but conservative friends disagreed with me but I have sympathy for them because obviously they cannot be expected to embrace liberal values and they would expect even free speech and democracy to have "limits within the boundaries of Islam” and not based on civil laws and civil rights for the wider humanity who may include non-believers.

- Unsurprisingly, their idea is that any blog or website which is against the principles of Islam should be banned or blocked. In that sense any Maldivian blog which even talks about extra-marital heterosexual sex should also get banned. The issue of homosexual or bisexual sex cannot even be considered because it is a "graver" sin than extra-marital heterosexual sex.

But what is surprising is that my liberal and free-thinking Maldivian friends were OK with extra-marital heterosexual sex but not homosexual and bisexual sex because they thought it was "pervert" -- this coming from supposedly liberal and free-thinkers! So I guess these liberal and free-thinking Maldivian friends were obviously different in that they were “limiting” their thinking to fit the boundaries of their own religious or non-religious but conservative views, and also based on Maldivian traditions, norms and values. My Maldivian liberal and free-thinking friends were different in that they did not believe in common civil laws and civil liberties on the basis that some Maldivians may be believers while others may not be.

It is not only in the West we find true champions of free speech and democracy. Perhaps my Maldivian liberal friends and free-thinkers should also hold up a mirror to themselves so that they may realise that to be truly liberal and free-thinking, to truly understand what free speech and democracy means (regardless of whether they are believing Muslims or non-believers), when viewing the world and humanity they cannot wear spectacles colored with any religion/belief/ideology and instead have to treat the wider humanity on a purely human and civil platform. To be that is to be a true champion of free speech and democracy.

As I pointed out in my earlier post, Beyond the Rubicon and a few of my other friends and acquaintances actually got the point and understand what true free speech and true democracy is. But this was a minority group within the “larger” minority group of Maldivian liberals and free-thinkers. A minority within a minority!

It's been a long time since I've been seriously thinking of giving up writing altogether -- or at least take up writing only when true democracy comes to Maldives, or when I am able to emigrate to a country where true democracy already exists, a country where people like Dr. Hassan Saeed will not be vilified just because they understand true democracy and free speech and advocate views in the interests of the wider humanity, though they themselves are believing Muslims.

I guess I've been slowly moving away from my writing because of issues like this in Maldives. I guess my disappointment had been building up even before. You can now hardly see any of my writings in any of the mainstream media in Maldives though even now I freelance. I deleted my earlier blog and even this new blog several days back (and only recently brought it back again just to archive my earlier writings) because I did not want to suffer the kind of pressure that Dr. Hassan Saeed got himself into, just because I might be misunderstood for my writings, when most people in Maldives, even liberals and free-thinkers, just don't get what true democracy and free speech is all about.

In a way I am happy today that this MvBlogs and censorship issue came to the limelight because it has now cleared up all the doubts I had earlier and though I must say I am very disappointed today, this has actually finally convinced me that it may not be in my best personal interests to continue writing in a country like Maldives where both religious people and liberal free-thinkers are quite conservative -- as this incident has revealed to me. (I am now not surprised why there are only right-wing parties in Maldives, SLP included).

So today it has allowed me to make an easy and clear-cut decision: this will be my last writing on a "controversial" issue. I will from now on only engage in my own personal development, make as much money as I can, and lead a quiet non-controversial private life away from the public eye in the pursuit of my own personal hedonistic happyness.

Peace.

MvBlogs and censorship

2009-01-31T02:18:00.000-08:00

It would be hypocritical if I remained silent at this juncture.

I personally know the bloggers calling themselves Drink Cunt Juice, Cute Dude and Beyond the Rubicon.

Over the past several days Cute Dude told me how his blog was refused listing on MvBlogs. And Drink Cunt Juice told me how his blog was listed "after a long time after several attempts at submission."

Today Simon wrote a blog post about this and from what he wrote I assume he was speaking on behalf of all the admins of MvBlogs. Here's the link to Simon's response.

Cute Dude, Drink Cunt Juice and Beyond the Rubicon have criticised MvBlogs stand on what it calls "pornography" and though I am friends with Simon and also to an extent know the other admins at MvBlogs, I have to say that my sympathies lie with Cute Dude in this instance.

The reason? Beyond the Rubicon has expressed it more eloquently than I could have done.

Here's those three bloggers' responses to the admins at MvBlogs:

http://beyond-the-rubicon.blogspot.com/2009/01/on-liberty.html

http://drinkcuntjuice.blogspot.com/2009/01/some-maldivian-blogs-are-more-equal.html

http://cutenudedudes.blogspot.com/2009/01/simon-defends-mvblogs-admins-opposition.html

Coming from Simon that’s a sad comment. There’s no limitations or extremities where free speech is concerned because it’s just that. If we humans are to start setting up boundaries as to where and what kind of speech is “acceptable”, then the whole idea of free speech is lost.

I have been “labeled” many times as an atheist and a gay for having earlier written in support of freedom of belief and religion, and freedom of sexual orientation and preference, and other minority rights as well, but I don’t care at all. Maldives is a Kasauti-type hypocritical society so why should I care what they think or what their opinion of me is?

I know who and what I am and however much I would like to cut out people’s tongues for spreading so many lies about me I can’t do that because even the Kasauti crowd has the right to free speech, including the right to insult me.

Whether I myself get destroyed in the process, I will always make a firm stand where free speech and democracy is concerned, and this is more pronounced wherever minority rights are concerned.

Peace.

And you, too

2009-01-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: This is the story of a girl friend of mine who claims the below events actually happened to her. I have not used real names in order to protect the identities of the persons involved.

By Hilath Rasheed
(May 2004)

“If someone had told me only six months ago that it’s possible to fall in love with two people at the same time, I would have laughed at the idea at the time.”

I brushed back my hair. It was difficult to keep it in place in the breezy Lonuziyaaraiy Kolhu wind.

Lonuziyaaraiy, the place where infinite waves break, the place where countless hearts are also broken.

“I’d have said that it’s just…ridiculous,” I shook my head, trying to find the right words.

Nina, my quiet bestfriend, nodded. Being my lifelong friend, she knew exactly what I was talking about. Sometimes, it was as if she can read my mind…

“But,” she held my eyes for a moment, “…you have to chose between the two.”

That was true. As a matter of fact.

I didn’t answer at once. My eyes wondered to the surfs; a surfer had just wiped out. If only I could time out like that -- all my problems will be over…

What am I thinking! It’s not the end of the world after all.

It all started with them, my boyfriends. Plural, yes. As in Mahid and Niyaz.

Was it their similarities? Or was it their differences?

I simply don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

But now that I am being forced to choose between the two, I am having to give it some thought. Some serious thought.

It wasn’t their physical features that attracted me, that much I am sure. But I cannot deny the fact that when you find somebody appealing, all his physical features become attractive, too, in a way that cannot be explained.

They were the same height -- two inches shorter than me. Not a problem but one which made my parents -- and some friends -- comment, off the mark, that we were the most “mismatched couple” on earth.

As far as I was concerned, we matched perfectly.

Which was the start of all my problems.

“Why can’t I have both?” I pursed my lips, sulking at how the natural order didn’t fit my own scheme of things.

Nina touched my arm. “You cannot marry both.”

The simple truth.

The truth of the matter was that I was in love, deeply, with Mahid and Niyaz. And I loved them equally, which is quite hard to explain.

Mahid lived in my neighborhood, another surprise to me as all this time I had never actually noticed this beautiful creature, a fruit of -- I came to know later -- an interracial marriage. But it was more than his olive skin that caught my attention. Nor was it his soft touch which never failed to thrill me as if always for the first time.

One day he just was there. Relaxing on the pavement, sharing a cigarette with two of his friends, and taking in not just the nicotine but the moment itself, with me being caught helplessly in it.

Entangled may be the correct word as I tried to clear myself of my Dahon bike which accidentally collided with an ‘ofialay’ tree which just seemed to grow out of the blue.
No sooner did I get my bearings than I saw a hand being offered.

“I…” I murmured sheepishly, taking his hand. It was hard -- no, rugged -- and strong.

“You alright?” He looked concerned.

“I’m…alright,” I tried and failed to smile at my savior. His two friends, fortunately, didn’t snicker at my plight, as does all the “roadies” seem to normally do these days. Perhaps, they were descent fellows unfortunate enough to be born on the lesser side of life.

“Thanks,” I said. I straightened my bike and was about to get off when suddenly I had a wild idea. To this day, I don’t know why I flirted with a stranger I had just met.

“I am Suha,” I gave him my best smile. “Short for Suhana,” I added as an afterthought.

The guy stood there, intrigue listing on his face.

“Listen, how about a coffee sometime?” I seemed to have no control over myself.

“I live right over there,” I said, when he didn’t answer.

I gathered myself, and invited all three of them, but getting the hint, his two friends politely declined, and said something to the effect that “the garage awaited them.”

“I’m Mahid,” he said, nodding, accepting.

It turned out that we didn’t go to coffee after all but actually bought ourselves some burgers and cokes and went for a walk down Lonuziyaaraiy Kolhu. On the seawall, we sat, close, shoulders almost touching. I didn’t mind. He didn’t mind either.

The week seemed to pass in a whirl. I found out that Mahid worked in a garage the next street round the corner, and everyday I found myself taking the longer route to work, always finding some excuse to stop at the garage and asking Mahid to fix this or that.

The truth was I was totally mesmerized by this human, who almost seemed…out of this world. In truth, he was. I haven’t in my whole 23 years met a person who is less cynical than Mahid and who is less selfish. He struck a balance between reality and idealism, which perfectly suited me. Though he dreamed great dreams (I happily found out that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to climb the top of Mount Everest one day or make the treacherous long walk down the Silk Road) he took life as it came and seemed to drink in and enjoy each second of this short, precious life. He was my kind of person.

But then, I met Niyaz who turned out to be just like Mahid.

I was thrown into conflict; all these years, I was looking for that rare person who would like me for who I am and not because he needs someone to sleep beside him and make him lots of babies. The idea itself freaks me out. Where is the sense of adventure, the passion, the zest for life? Perhaps, it was lost in the sands of tradition. The recesses of culture.
I fought that culture. And now I am an outcast. A nomad traveling on the fringes of the so-called “mainstream” society.

I wasn’t afraid. But they were. They chose the blue pill after all. Mahid, Niyaz, me… we all wanted a way out of the Matrix that was Male’.

Niyaz was the new guy in our office. Got the job just a week after I started dating Mahid.

Niyaz is coal black which is kind of sexy because it brings out the twinkle in his eyes. And combined with the calm, intense look he always gave everyone, it set my spine on fire everytime he gifted me with a gaze from those eyes.

I made up all kinds of excuses to hang out in his department, always wanting him to look at me straight in the eye. I don’t know how this feeling came about but I sensed that somebody who had as intense a look as Niyaz must have something deep inside him.

I was right.

I began to dig and he opened up. Over our various coffee shop outings during the course of the week, I found out that though Mahid and Niyaz had their differences, they were not so different at all… in their spirit.

But the irony of it all was that instead of just that one rare person, I had discovered two. And though I don’t believe in soulmates, they both perfectly fit the concept.

“I do understand,” Niyaz said when he found out that I was going out with Mahid.

Of course, he would. We were all alike.

But then, he dropped the bombshell.

“I guess you have to choose,” he said calmly, looking into my eyes, oblivious to the waves crashing on the tripods, wetting us with their spray.

“But I don’t want to,” I was adamant. “I can’t choose between you. I just can’t.”

I got up, walked about a little on the slippery seawall, and sat a down a distance from him.

He came over quietly, and touched my shoulder.

“You’re important to me, too. I need you both.” I hoped that I sounded firm but knew deep down that Niyaz was right.

I shuddered to think what I would do without them -- Niyaz and Mahid.

“Just take it easy,” he said, taking my arm in his. “It’s alright.” He held my eyes for a moment. “You’re not thinking clearly. I want to you to go home and take a rest. I’m sure you’ll understand.”

He was right. I had to choose. It was the will of the people.

I shook my head. “I’ll have to settle just for their friendship, then…” I looked at Nina.

She was the epitome of beauty. Fine, wavy hair, more soft than silk. A pixyish face. She was what you would call… exquisite.

She was also a realist. Though she was one of us, she consciously held on to an invisible thread to the mainstream, perhaps because of her own insecurities.

I took her soft hands into mine, and held it there. My eyes lingered on her for a moment.

“This must be true love then. I cannot bring myself to choose between the both of them. But I guess I must. Meet met here at 5:00pm today.”

It was almost sunset. I was late. So was Nina. And so were Mahid and Niyaz, too. It was not a good sign. It only increased my anxiety.

Nina was surprised to find Mahid and Niyaz -- I didn’t tell her beforehand what I had in mind.

Mahid and Niyaz were bewildered as to why I had called for an “emergency meeting” at Lonuziyaaraiy Kolhu.

They were also apparently uneasy to be in each other’s presence, especially with me being there.

I looked at Mahid. It was obvious he was unsettled by all this. He still surprises me to this day because, unlike Niyaz, he never asked me to choose between the two of them. Was he content with just my mere presence in his life?

“You asked me to choose,” I said, my eyes wandering from Mahid to Niyaz.

The moment of truth.

“I love you both. Equally. And I need you both.”

I waited for a reaction.

None.

Both Mahid and Niyaz stood as still as the lifeless tripods.

“I know that sooner or later I have to choose between the two of you. But that is not what I am going to do. I choose you both. The decision is now in your hands.”

Nina’s jaw dropped.

Mahid blinked a few times.

Niyaz took a deep breath.

I walked away.

FEEDBACK:

@ "I can't believe Hilath actually wrote this! This to me read straight like a Hindi film! I don't think Hilath should have ever written this story! And I don't think anybody else should ever read such a shitty story like this from Hilath."--Ismail, Maldives, 27 May 2004

@ "I found this story unconvincing. And to tell the truth, this story does not really strike to me as a story at all. Rather, it looks like a summary of a story. Perhaps, Hilath should have developed this more and included in more events to make this read like a story. The way the story has been written now looks like a summary report of an event which this girl claims to have occured to her."--Ali, Maldives, 27 May 2004

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

2009-01-29T11:47:00.000-08:00

This Booker prize winning book has the essential three Cs that make an enjoyable and literary read--clear, concise and crisp. McEwan weaves a complex story studying the characters of two friends, who falls in love with the same woman--who is now dead--and who are driven to their limits in stretching the boundaries of friendship--with a shocking climax. The prose is almost lyrical.

MTCC's mishandling of ferry crises

2009-01-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

The woman in the Hulhumale ferry terminal was in tears and clutching her baby tightly. I asked her what had happened and she told me that she got squeezed and almost suffocated.

This was last Friday in the ferry terminal on Hulhumale, the Island of Hopes and Dreams, and when it was time to board back to Male', I witnessed this incident which I think maybe something that is happening every weekend there.

As the sun had set and many picnickers and visitors were in a rush to get on the earliest ferry they can to get back to Male', there were many people in the ferry terminal and it resulted in a squeeze. I heard some shouts and this woman with the baby was escorted out of the crowd.

Soon police officers arrived on the scene, and the door to the terminal was shut, effectively keeping any new arrivals out until those already in the terminal departed to Male'.

There was only one staff at the counter selling tickets.

Is this the capacity of one of our premier public companies?

With experience, I am sure MTCC would have the foresight to deal with crises like these, because they have been long in this business and they would know beforehand that the weekends make unusual demands on their capacity. By now they should have been able to deal with such circumstances by increasing the number or frequency of ferries to meet the great demand of passengers during the weekend.

But MTCC chose not to do this. Shouldn't the company be held accountable for this gross neglect?

Shame on the government.

PHOTO CAPTION:
A group of Maldivians disembark from a ferry at Hulhumale jetty, Hulhumale, Maldives, Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. With a desperately overcrowded capital hemmed in on an island, the Maldives thought it had a can't-miss solution: build another island. Photo by Eranga Jayawardena for AP

A Midnight's Awakening

2009-01-26T04:49:00.000-08:00

By Shaukath Mohamed

'Awake! For morning in the bowl of night
Has flung the stone that puts the stars to light;
And lo, the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's turrets in a noose of light.'

--Beau Geste / P.C. Wren

It would be terrible I imagine when a young man on waking one day looks up at the sky and feels that the world has closed in around him.

The clouds so succeed in reminding him with their changing faces that by living his life in ignorant oblivion up to now he has left himself with but a small vista to the other world. His surroundings fail to please him anymore when he realises this.

I suppose some would be content to live their lives in reasonable solitude, inside four walls but I am not one of them.

'The age of romance is over' so said great explorers after they had conquered their share of the world. How selfish they are to suggest this. They lived in 'an age of wonder' and were made legends after cutting through the Amazon, subduing Africa, and fighting gallant wars in the Sahara in all supremacy. After having done this they return content, and leave everything else to imagination. They make us wonder what fun it would have been to live in their worlds.

If they had a foresight and imagined what it would be like to live in a world where such adventures are listened to with bored indifference I suppose they would have never come back from those wonderful places to talk of their experiences.

Imagine running bare chest and barefoot in a vast tropical jungle, your senses tested to peak, drawing in sharp air and sweat running down your body, a modern Tarzan, with only the lesser mammals of the earth as friends and companions. Or riding your camel in the scorching sands of the desert your only worry being the heat and scorpions, praying that you get a chance to refill your canteen at the next oasis.

And then think for a moment. Ours is the 'age of technology' where people create their own worlds in VR, digital imaging and video graphics. This same technology has taken over our day to day lives. From Europe to Asia people seem content with this replacement world to spend the rest of their lives in front of a small screen (or a larger one), with the glowing images as their only companion and distraction.

Now is a time where people of different worlds learn each other's language in textbooks, try their best to comprehend conflicts that rage constantly in far away places. Yet none among us ever imagine to strike up a conversation with a stranger curious of his place in the world. Never if it was not for some selfish interest of own.

But I can't possibly convince myself that a man could become a true soldier through simulation in Virtual Reality. Nor would one become a true linguist if he did not spend some time among the people of a desired language. And surely a man could not truly empathise for people caught up in wars by watching details on TV. All these situations demand adventure and experience and that cannot be had within self-containment.

Maybe it is the dull grey atmosphere of concrete around us (in any place of the world for that matter) that numbs our sense of adventure. Maybe it's the glowing haze of lights and other crude distractions. Whatever it may be I feel that our pride in being mammals of spirit, of wonder and mystery is slowly being tamed. I somehow feel that eventually there will come a day when conversation would be of no use, being so locked up in our own worlds.

Such a time would not be for me, I would not care much for it, for I am still thrilled by the playful nature of the dolphin, I still dream of flying with birds. More than anything, I long for a day that I can be free of these dreary surroundings and stand proud on desert sands, my turban wrapped around my head, a Sultan in a far away Persia.

(This article was published in Haveeru Daily on 1 July 1999)

Ali Umar kicks off for the stars

2009-01-26T04:39:00.000-08:00

By Hilath Rasheed

MALE, Jan 26, 2001 (Haveeru News Service)—He has changed styles many times. He was bald when he was first seen from First Division football at Youth Sports Club. There was a time when he even sported pencil-thin sideburns in the style of Italy’s Del Piero.

Ali Umar was 17 then and the subject of much speculation. But he never stepped a foot back and boldly pursued the latest styles, not only in his looks, but in his football career as well.

Now, four years later, the 20-year-old striker (pic) is in peak form, and the subject of much admiration, both on the football field, and also as a youthful icon for many aspiring young men. And with his boyish looks, he is no less a pin-up heartthrob for countless admiring hormone-driven teen girls.

"I never thought that I would come this far," says the young striker of Club Valencia, who began carving out a career in football from as far back as his schooling days.

Ali’s star began to rise from the time he joined Valencia. His outstanding—and stylish—talent, plus a neck for scoring goals, earned him admiration and respect. He transferred to Valencia on a three-year contract after Youth relegated to the Second Division. By the time the three-year contract was over, Ali Umar shone as bright as other big stars in Maldives’ football.

Many clubs offered contracts hoping to reap Ali’s talents to their advantage, but Ali decided to stick it out with his present club; he renewed his contract with Valencia last Ramazan.

"Valencia offered the best contract," Ali reasons.

Although last year was not one of Valencia’s best, as it did not manage to win any of the seven football tournaments, Ali still managed to home in 27 goals, the most in last year’s football season, thereby managing to claim title to Haveeru Daily’s "Golden Boot," an award the newspaper bestows each year on the top-scoring player of the season.

However, it did not alleviate Ali’s bitterness. He claims both the coach and the club’s management took everything too lightly last year. "Only when the national tournament cup drew too near did they become serious," says Ali.

With 2001—and a new contract—Ali is ready to kick off with a renewed effort to alleviate the bitterness.

"I want to achieve a lot of success for Valencia so that we could put behind us last year’s losses," Ali says.

He is also not totally satisfied with his performance: Although he still managed to net 27 goals, he believes he lost many opportunities that could otherwise have been converted to gold.

"I think the 27 goals represent only about 60 percent of the chances I got. I got a lot of opportunities to score. That’s why I’m not too happy," he says.

Ali has now set his target to winning the Maldivian Footballer of the Year title, also awarded by Haveeru.

"My next big aim is the Footballer of the Year title," says Ali, who has a full-time job at Maldives Customs Service.

"I couldn’t play up to the mark last time. In addition, I believe the club’s overall performance is also considered. There were many players who were better than me." Ali was one of the five contenders for the player of the year title which, on January 6, was accorded to Ali’s close friend and fellow compatriot in the national team, New Radiant’s Adam Abdul Latheef who won the title for the second time, the first time being in 1995 when the title was introduced.

Ali’s most memorable season was in 1999; fond memories of his scoring the "golden goal" against New Radiant to win the FA Cup for Valencia still lingers, says Ali.

Perhaps Ali’s star may shine brighter this year than it did during the last five years of his football career. His eager followers—both male and female—would indeed love Ali to top it out in 2001. Cheers to that.

(This article was published in Haveeru Daily on Jan 26, 2001)

FEEDBACK:

@ "While scouring the www for news, articles, anything on my football team of choice, Valencia FC, I came across your feature article on Ali Umar. Several 'google' searches later I was directed to your personal website. Admittedly, I haven't read enough of your work to pass a judgement of any kind, however, I hope you would allow me to make the following observation(s) and take it with a pinch of salt. Apart from what appeared to be perfunctory writing, what struck me most was the following comment "... plus a neck for scoring goals ...". Well, I suppose you meant to say 'knack'. I'm not sure if it was an attempt at humour on your part, though I fail to see why. Or may be it was just a typo. Whatever the case, it remains one of the most humourous bits of prose I've ever read in my life. Please don't take this personally -- patronising you would be my last intention. Perhaps I stand accused of being pedantic, of which I'm guilty as charged. I'm sure you would have better things to do than waste your time reading this [perhaps even gratifying my comments with a reply]. However, let it not go unsaid that I did enjoy your article on Umar and hope to read more of your work in the future."--James Colburn-McIntyre, 17 May 2003

A Life Less Ordinary

2009-01-26T04:13:00.000-08:00

by Hilath Rasheed

One fine morning I had the unpleasant ordeal to sit through at breakfast with two of my friends who were arguing about the pros and cons of the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator.

One friend claimed that the director had not done his homework: "In not doing adequate research, Ridley Scott had distorted facts, and resorted to sensationalism and melodrama."

The other friend disagreed, reasoning that Scott is one of the most renowned directors in Hollywood, the magical hand behind such masterpieces as Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise. He argued that Scott knew his job and was doing exactly that: make an entertaining movie that was spectacular and appealing to masses.

The terrible part about this quarrel was that both my friends took each other's opinions as personal attacks on the other's tastes, character and integrity.

These days it is difficult to keep a decent conversation going. So many critical and debatable issues are bound to come up. But this must not pose a problem. Conflicts in views and opinions are what make the conversations interesting. As individuals every person holds unique beliefs, values and opinions towards certain issues and these are what make life interesting -- the fact that we are different. Life will be boring without conflicts: quarrels, arguments and fights make our social lives more liveable!

However, these differences must not be taken to heart. Conversations, debates and discussions should not become a clash of egos; nobody should hold grudges, store hard feelings or develop a poor opinion of others, just because they happen to have different, alternative or conflicting views .

You would have thought that with the degree of liberation education that is now available to us we would have become more tolerant, civilised and open-minded. But that is not how things have turned out to be. We may hold liberal and open-minded beliefs, and profess and preach these to our friends, but in our anxiety to belong to the circle of liberals, intellectuals and the intelligentsia in general, we began to stubbornly stick to only our personal way of thinking. We tend to disregard other people's sensitivities. And we go to extreme lengths to defend our own perceptions, though this is narrow-minded, or at least looking at things from a very narrow angle. When this happens, on paper it would look something like this: "liberal views vs. liberal views", "liberal views vs. itself", "liberal views against itself", or more appropriately "one available version of a certain liberal view vs. another available version of that same liberal view". Sounds silly, though.

In the process to gain social acceptance, and the upper hand over our compatriot liberals, we disregard our friends' views, because of a selfish and false belief that our "liberal" beliefs are more superior than that of our friends' beliefs, that our views are the standards against which other "liberal" views have to be weighed. As in George Orwell's Animal Farm, we tend to regard that our liberal views "are more equal" than other liberal views.

Once, we all struggled to stand for liberalism and tolerance, but sadly this is not the case now. And worse, we cannot even recognise the fact that we have fallen into this trap; that we have become the narrow-minded and the intolerant; that we have become the beasts that we were so anxious to tame.

When a debate or a discussion becomes a clash of egos, there is no point in continuing the conversation any further. But here also there is no escape. My breakfast table friends were disturbed with the fact that I was keeping quiet right throughout the conversation, without contributing any views. They gave me looks that questioned why I was not chipping into the conversation.

I was trying to sit on the fence, but it did not help either. Soon they started giving me suspicious looks which clearly indicated that my two friends were distrusting my silence, developing the perception that by keeping quiet I was taking the side of one against the other.

What was I expected to do? I, a neutral element, was caught in the crossfire of two warring parties.

Come to think of it, were not all wars fought for the sake of beliefs, whether they are religious, social, or cultural? Human beings have been fighting wars since the dawn of civilisation just for a single cause -- in order to impose the dominant ideology over the weaker.

All this time we thought that when society began to call for free speech, liberalism and open-mindedness, that it was a good thing. But then for reasons that have yet to be determined, these sacred calls took a wrong turn, and those who used to be the preachers of free speech transformed into inquisitors against free speech. Sadly then, there is some truth when communications scholars such as Stanley Fish say that "there's no such thing as free speech, and it's a good thing, too!"

It is true that there is no such thing as 'free' speech because speech is never free; it is always accompanied by actions or consequences. For every word we utter, there are consequences and actions that directly result from our speech. Just because I have the right to free speech cannot give me the freedom to call someone a liar, as the consequence of this can possibly harm him or her, verbally or psychologically.

In the United States -- the champion of democracy and the protector of free speech -- the society is facing a host of problems resulting from free speech itself. Individuals and parties with hidden agendas always invoke the First Amendment in order to gain their own fishy ulterior motives. The concept of free speech has been abused so much to incite hate speech, libel and defamation that communications scholar S. Johnson was led to remark: "Nowadays the First Amendment is the first refuge of scoundrels."

Individual freedom can be allowed only to the extent that freedom of all individuals are protected. While each individual is entitled the right of individual freedom and of free speech, these freedoms by nature are limited due to the social responsibility they hold in ensuring that social harmony is maintained for the greater good.

(This article appeared in Haveeru Daily in July 2000)

The 25-hour Day

2009-01-26T04:02:00.000-08:00

By Hilath Rasheed

Ever wonder why people carry schedulers with them? Stylishly bound, this chic thing is normally linked to people who are believed to lead a busy daily life. Earlier only executives were thought to have a busy daily schedule, and thus they self-righteously claimed title to schedulers.

But nowadays schedulers have become an "in" thing for people from virtually all walks of life. In fact, carrying a scheduler around makes it easy for even the ordinary person to schedule his or her daily programme; to divide time so that time can be allocated for each and every aspect of life.

Nowadays we find that we have such short time on our hands that it is close to impossible to allocate equal time for work, play and rest. Our lives have been so busy that it seems we now require more than a 24-hour day to plan and fit everything into our busy lives.

Things seem to have become more complicated now. Years ago we had lots of times on our hands; after school or work, we had time to help around in house chores, do work for our neighbours, and help our kid brothers and sisters do their homework. We had time to play, rest and do something entertaining, and pursue a hobby.

But times have now changed. Now most of us seem to have a full-time job and a part-time job. We go to office in the morning, we go to office in the afternoon and we go to office in the evening, too! We come home late at night and hit the sack, and that's it! But, is that a life? If our daily programme runs like this, in no time, most probably we will have a nervous breakdown or go insane at the worst.

It is necessary, therefore, that we properly divide our time so that the three most important things can be fit into our lives--work, play and rest. We should find time to spend with our family, our relatives, and our friends. We should find time to exercise our body, be it doing aerobics, going to the gym, or just going for jogging or swimming. We should find time to entertain ourselves--read a book, watch a film, or listen to music. We should find time to pursue a hobby that we like, such as writing, collecting stamps, or having pets.

And we should find time just for ourselves, to be alone, to daydream, to expand the horizons of our mind.

At first glance, this may seem much, but if you are able to divide your time, you will find that you can fit all these things into your daily programme and maintain a balance in your life.

This would do miracles for you. It will result in a more balanced and happy self. You will become more calm, more likable and a more integral personality.

All of this because of a scheduler? Not necessarily. The scheduler is just a medium. Ultimately it depends on how successful you are in dividing your time. A scheduler can be of immense help to take this first step to integrate work, play and rest into your life. It will also help you to keep your appointments and duty not only to your bosses but also to your family and friends and to yourself.

So don't be surprised when you hear someone claim that he or she needs "a 25-hour day" to plan out things. It doesn't make a difference whether you have 25 hours or 48 hours, you still wouldn't have a clue as to how to plan out until you actually start doing it.

So don't wait. Act on it.

Of course, initially things may not run as smoothly as you wish. But don't get discouraged. The idea is not to blindly bind yourself strictly to a pre-programmed schedule. That is not the point. The aim of programming your daily life is to allow you to loosely incorporate all aspects of living--work, play and rest--so that you emerge as a saner, healthier and more likeable person. That is a goal worth aspiring for, isn't it?

(This article was published in Monday Times, Maldives' only exclusively English language weekly newspaper)