Random Reflexions

I promised myself this one would be different. None of that cynical paranoid android shit. This one is going to be personal. This one is about four music bands whose music and words have shaped my thinking, influenced my creativity, and molded my personality and helped me through sorrow and uplifted me through happiness.

I have been told that as a baby I would be terrified by the sounds and music of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The clock chimes on Time, the cash register clanks on Money and the mad laughter on Brain Damage. As it happened the album was released the year I was born. Pink Floyd's music, especially those albums on which Roger Waters participated and influenced, has always been close to my heart and I've never tired of them.

I listen to Pink Floyd when I think about the past, understandably as a result of its unbreakable connection to my early childhood. And my favourite album? The Dark Side, of course, followed closely by The Wall, The Final Cut, Animals and Wish You Were Here.

It was much later, when I sported that unmistakable sign of early teens that is the noticeable arc of darkened fluff above my lips that I was introduced to the music of King Crimson by my father's dear friend Maizan Adam Maniku. The album was In the Court of the Crimson King. It was, as they say, love at first hearing.

At this point I knew that my mind was attuned to the genre of progressive rock and King Crimson was filling in the gaps, if any, left behind by Pink Floyd. The clinical precision in King Crimson's layered arrangements astounded and captivated me then as it does even today. It truly is intellectual music.

It was in the late 90s that I first heard Tool. Without realizing that I was falling in love with yet another progressive rock bank I had collected all of their albums to that point.

Tool's music is the fuel that drives my critical thinking even today. It is the dark matter of my grey matter, so to speak. It is the spark that is responsible for the work that I do and the words that I write and the thoughts that are unwritten. Ænima has been their most played album for me as is Vicarious their most played song today. The tension, the cynicism and the openness (or so I like think) of my words are all augmented, if not amplified, by Tool's music.

And lastly, the band whose music has, as only irony would have it, drowned me in my most sorrowful times and uplifted me in my most happiest and yet somehow made it all OK in the end, is Radiohead. Their album OK Computer contains by far the most precious tracks of any album for me. I'd guard them with my life, except I sometimes fear I need safety from them instead. Their music and Thom Yorke's voice can, almost magically, amplify my emotions.

Radiohead is simultaneously my Prozac and my whisky - only, it never acts as the cure, but ends up being the cause of the affliction. If I were a tree, Radiohead would be the hurricane and the gentle breeze. Truly strange.

If ever one is able to tune into the frequency of my brainwaves one would hear the wailing of Radiohead in my heart, the tremor of Tool in my frontal lobe, the precision timing of King Crimson in my spinal cord and the madness of Pink Floyd everywhere. And when my children are big enough I will tell them, if nothing else, play Lucky at my funeral.

"Kill me Sarah, Kill me again with love. Its gonna be a glorious day"

Happy Valentine's day to all.

February 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (14)

As I walked past a bunch of men clad in Pakistani garb and sporting unshaven beards, I heard one of them say, "these people, they are not Muslims!" It was said in Dhivehi in such a way that I could almost feel the disgust being spat out from his mouth.

A couple of days later I run into an entirely different scene. Inside an ordinary tea joint (sai hotaa) sat four middle aged men, dressed casually, sipping tea or munching short-eats. I sat at the adjacent table; from where I could here they talk.

"These bearded people think they know religion! In reality, they are not even Muslims!" said the loud one. There was one among them who disagreed while the remaining two were somewhat in agreement with the loud one.

Here is a bit of a dilemma for Muslims: without them realizing, Muslims, who are found in large and small groups holding variations on the same beliefs (or different beliefs altogether), are excommunicating each other by takfeer. For instance, group A says group C are not Muslims because of their beliefs. Group B thinks group A is definitely non-Muslim but group C can improve on their beliefs and become real Muslims. Group C thinks all other groups are non-Muslims. No single group can agree on who a real Muslim is.

The differing views on critical religious issues among scholars and clerics in the Muslim world have always been a huge problem. In addition to this, Muslims declare takfeer on others with mesmerizing fluidity of words and lack of rational thought. As a result it is hard to point one's finger and say who is a real Muslim or not.

In the case of extremist views, people who thought they were being true Muslims their entire lives are being excommunicated and in many cases murdered or flogged for their incompatible beliefs.

The search for the real Muslim is, therefore, sort of like the wild goose chase or like looking for the chicken that lays the golden eggs. It is sort of like playing cops and robbers; only in this case, every Muslim is a cop as well as a robber.

So, will the real Muslims please raise their hands? One can almost imagine a general rising of hands then breaking into a bloody fight moments later because of disputes. Could it be that, with the constant declaration of takfeer among Muslims (including the scholars, mullahs, clerics and the ordinary), there really does not exist a single group of people that can be identified as being real Muslims anymore?

Could it be that there really aren't Muslims anymore, but a bunch of people involved in constant bickering, backstabbing and hypocrisy? In a sense, the people who were previously known as Muslims had excommunicated each other out.

February 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (19)

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Child sex offenders, thieves, rapists and criminals of all shapes and sizes are routinely sentenced to be "banished" to some inhabited island as punishment. Those critical of this kind of sentencing view it has a lenient punishment for some - a walk in the park, so to speak, especially for rapists and child sex offenders.

What is actually most interesting about this kind of criticism is that we only focus on the lawbreaker - as in, whether banishment to a remote island community is an appropriate or deserving punishment or not for the criminal in question. We ask ourselves what kind of pain, suffering and depravation of social privileges a criminal will endure on a tropical island paradise. Images of the said criminal going for a relaxing swim, sun-bathing and establishing and mingling himself within the island community frequently cross our minds as we sit in our dingy one-bedroom apartment in Male'.

But remember too that it was not long ago we held to the belief that it really was a terrible thing to happen to anyone. Lenient or not, even today we still consider this as punishment - more suitable for some than others.

So what exactly does banishment entail?

My father, when recounting his days spent banished on an island decades ago, used to tell me that the island folks did not have the luxury of electricity and he vividly recalls the small cuts and wounds on children turning gangrenous due to unavailability of simple anti-bacterial medication. The lack of medication and proper nutritious food was especially devastating to the community it seems - the vast majority of the island folk suffered from night-blindness caused by vitamin deficiency, for instance. One can only imagine the extent to which these little communities were afflicted with untreated diseases.

To make matters worse there was, he said, absolutely nothing to do leading to a general sense of uselessness and mind-numbing boredom among the islanders.

Why do we not see the reality of criminal banishment? It is not about sex offenders finding more victims. Nor is it about criminals having a holiday on an island. The reality is that the punishments are endured by the natives of those islands every single day of their lives - with or without the criminals. People spend their entire lives deprived of basic necessities and essential resources - basically living on subsistence and wasting away in utter boredom.

The act of banishing criminals, many rapists and child sex offenders, is maybe a lenient punishment for them but more than anything it is the biggest insult on the so-called Raajetherey people - the people living in other islands than Male'. The thinking behind this horrible indignity is that island life is so terribly dreadful so we will punish our lawbreakers by making them feel the suffering of living in dead-end island communities. To further add injury to the insult banished criminals are free to continue their unlawful activities on the islands.

The situation maybe different today, most islands have 24hr electricity and medical supplies and mobile phone access, say, but the punishment of banishing has its roots in this mentality, which still prevails today, that the islands are no place for you and me. This is a mentality that stems from how those in power in Male' have always viewed our compatriots from "Raajethere" - as lowly peasants like the untouchables of India - the cleaners and bearers of filth of the land.

Banishment to islands must be abolished. It has to be abolished on the grounds of respect and honoring the dignity of those of our own who live underprivileged lives in the islands. Underprivileged because they have been neglected and looked down upon for so many decades or even centuries. What right do we have to dump the society's worst criminals on the shores of our lesser privileged compatriots and make a mockery of their lives?

It is a shame, really.

February 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (5)

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When my grandmother of 86 years tells me about sun rising from the west on Mars and warning about the same happening on Earth I knew the unchecked and unmonitored religious propaganda machine was on a serious rampage and out of control and inflicting mental anguish on the public. How did this bullshit get to her, I wondered?

It is my belief that the following organisations must issue official apologies to the public for the recent dissemination of pseudo-scientific garbage about Mars retrograde motion claiming and associating this optical phenomenon as a sign of impending doomsday.

• Mathee Majlis of Islam for gross incompetence and ignorance
• Adaalathu Party for abusing the collective psyche and playing with people's beliefs and using pseudo-science as religious propaganda to spread fear and panic
• Haveeru Daily for careless fact-checking, gross incompetence of the editorial team, abusing public misunderstanding of science to sell newspapers

These organisations have a moral obligation to tell the truth and not lie - especially on matters concerning religious beliefs.

In a country where the public understanding of science is in a sorry state and where the dependence on religious dogma has been the norm, this kind of disinformation will (and it has) spread like a lethal virus. These organisations must be held accountable for or must accept their failure as entities serving the public for what is blatant lying, fear mongering and spreading confusion on a massive scale.

February 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (22)

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