Random Reflexions

The race for power, the top job, of the country is now heating up and I have heard a lot of speeches and talks past few weeks. By now I had thought my ears would have stumbled upon that one speech, that one clear message, that made complete sense to me. The speech that spoke my language - the language of the common people. The words that would breathe new life into our tired and weary bodies. I thought I would have heard the one talk that would have left me with a stirring sense of patriotism and made me proud to be a Maldivian. The words that would have made me say; yes indeed, we finally have found that honest compatriot, that proud Maldivian who would surely lead us into the future.

This event is yet to take place. If such a candidate exist and he made that powerful speech, I do not want to hear him say "God willing" between every two words and each sentence. God is always willing for those people who are willing to put in a days hard work. Why we must say it between each breath I do not understand. My candidate will not sound weak ascribing his success, should he succeed, and his failures, should he fail, to God. My candidate is confident and has character and charisma and I want him to tell me somethings.

I want him to tell me that first and foremost, we as a nation of one people, a people of one race and one creed, we need to respect each other. That we need to find a reason to respect one another. That we have all but destroyed that reason long ago in the depths of unemployment and unequal pay and the raging valleys of disparity between the rich and the poor. I want him to tell me that he will try to bridge the gaps between the rich and poor by whatever means he proposes to achieve that.

I want him to tell me that the reason our youth are disconnected from society, the reason for their lack of discipline and the reason why many are doing drugs is not because we have exhausted our morality as a result of dwindling faith in religion. If anything we have been less religious in the past. I want him to tell me that, no, our youth are where they are today because we have lacked one essential ingredient for a fulfilled life: happiness. I want him to tell me that we've all but forgotten about personal happiness. That he will provide affordable housing for everyone not simply because we deserve shelter, no, but because we deserve the chance to pursue happiness in our private lives.

I want him to tell me that before he is can establish a university in this country he will overhaul the current education curriculum for grade schools, standardize a system for nursery and kindergarten and provide substantial subsidies for private schools where our youngest pupils build their foundation. That he will ensure every school library is stocked with enough books and every science lab is well equipped. I want him to tell me that although he cannot fulfill all the promises on education - increased salaries to teachers etc - he will at least have the foundation for a better educated laid before the end of his term. And I want him to tell me that every child will receive a far better education than what we have had in the past 3 decades.

I want him to tell me that we need to find the reason to care and that a caring society can only come from education. And that he would ensure that children's rights are protected and that laws and punishment are in place for whoever violates those rights.

And finally, I want him to tell me that should he win the election he would be taking the reigns of a handicapped nation in the depths of debt and he would admit that in front of him lies a tough and uncertain road and that he is ready to march forward on that road not because he wants to make a name for himself or that he is capable of cooking up lofty ideas and promises but because being Maldivian he cannot bear to see his people, his compatriots big and small, suffer anymore.

August 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (22)

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I do not think it is necessary to reiterate the magnitude of the changes that we are going through. Simply put we are not the Maldives of 5 years ago. It is certainly not a new Maldives so much as it is a different Maldives that we're building.

We've got many political parties to represent the myriad interests of the public and some NGOs established to further the values of democracy and civil society. But in all this (un)planned chaos and constitutional, political and policy changes we are in desperate need of an independent think tank.

This think tank would consist of a coalition of independent experts in various fields and its purpose and mandate would be to analyze policies, provide intellectual structure and input to public forums, do research and evaluation into high-impact domestic and international projects, be the independent expert opinion-former and adviser to government departments and NGOs, be the foremost analyst of local and global economics and politics, be the independent political strategy analyst, provide analysis of science and technology issues, study education and skills requirements of the country and more importantly be the media-mouthpiece for independent and unbiased expert opinion on all of the above.

If such a think tank is in the pipeline, then well and good. If not, we need it now and I and many others are ready to contribute. I feel it should be established by an act of the parliament and given enough authority and full autonomy as to have the its advice heard and where possible acted upon. The think tank's credibility as the leading promulgator of expert knowledge and opinion will have to be earned over time.

I feel there must be a lot of experts and knowledgeable people out there that are not aligned to any political party or social group. The think tank will be their forum - the place where the scientists, the comms expert, the economist, the statistician, the financial expert, the public relations expert, the political analyst, the law expert, the medical expert and the social sciences expert will be able to positively contribute to the country with full autonomy under the prestigious roof of the think tank's institute.

What do you think? Are we ready for The Maldives Institute?

August 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Three decades of having had to live a life of subsistence, begging and borrowing and stealing, has made the average Maldivian something of a special breed of opportunists. The biggest problems of being the opportunists that we are is that we have lost trust in each others ability to make informed, unbiased and, most importantly, uncorrupted decisions. So there is a very stale air of distrust in the public.

Take the current race to the throne of power; the presidential race. Many have told me that the Republican Party, headed by Gasim, is the only hope of bringing down Gayyoom. Whenever someone says that to me I frown as I try to wipe the image of Gayyoom as an over-sized blood sucking leech and Gasim, with a mad-jail-warden-type grin, poking a pitchfork.

Now, I know I've lashed out angrily and stated that I would even vote a doormat if I had to but Gayyoom will never get my vote. This does not mean I'm going to vote Gasim (not that he's a doormat). No. But there are reasons I would not vote for Gayyoom and my rant was aimed at those who don't see why we should not. Most of us, I assume, want to dethrone him but many want to do so at any cost. The primary reasoning behind this being; let's just get the bugger out of office even if we had to elect a far more incompetent fool and deal with the consequences later. Right!

On the surface all this looks like a reaction from a sickened and fed-up public. The reality though is far more interesting for someone like me. It looks like it is the distrust of the public by the public that is fueling this sort of do-or-die mentality. After all, if the public votes him out, democratically - the way it should be - then why should we be worried? Why should we put our money on someone, in this case Gasim, assuming that only he can do the job. If we, the voting public, simply do not vote Gayyoom, then we would have achieved our goal of removing him.

But we just cannot trust ourselves to do that, can we? There are those of us who still see him as something of a demigod. And we need someone with money to corral those voters who's votes have a price tag. Which is probably a large number of voters. The fear is that any time we can become the greedy opportunist - playing our game under the table for short-term gains.

So, it looks like we're in a very tight spot - unable to move anywhere because every turn we take it's our own butt that's staring in our faces. Who else do we have to blame for all this except ourselves?

As for me, well, I know who will get my vote and it won't be because he's more capable of dethroning Gayyoom. As far as I know, Gayyoom doesn't stand a chance as long as we don't vote him and to do that we need not vote Gasim just because he's got the pitchfork - vote for him if you think he has a better plan for our future.

August 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (9)

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According to a TVM program that was broadcast around 9:30 this morning the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD that wiped out Pompeii was God's wrath and anger. Accompanied by still photos of the excavated ruins of Pompeii and a ghastly background music, the usual documentary narrator chap at TVM poured over page after page of religious hogwash about how the Pompeians were punished for their sins the same way the people of Lot's town in Biblical mythology. Not surprisingly sinfulness included sex, homosexuality, drinking, other pleasures and entertainment such as Gladiator death-matches at the amphitheater and the persecution of the original Christians. The latter, he said, was probably the main reason for the disaster.

There were translations of 2 or 3 verses from the Quran read by the narrator with the God-like echo effect that is a hallmark of the fear mongering prevalent in this type of programming.

What was not said in the program was that historical records of eruptions before and after 79 AD exists, many even in modern times. Some of the eruptions prior to 79 AD actually had wiped out bronze age settlements. Thousands from neighbouring city of Herculaneum were also killed during the eruption in 79 AD - apparently handpicked by God for their sins and proximity of their homes to the impending fallout. More important, recent eruptions (in 1631) were so powerful that the ash reached Istanbul some 1,200 km away.

This is exactly the problem that I have mentioned in the earlier post. We've been fed the fruits of countless hours of genuine scientific research stripped of its factual value and unashamedly dressed in religious garb making it devoid of any worthy substance - for decades! What was the informational value of this program? Nothing. What was the educational value of this program? Absolutely nothing. What was the moral message of this program other than that it is immoral for anyone, be it religion, to steal other people's hard work and use it for their own shallow gain? These programs are designed by uninformed people who are completely ignorant of history, who lack common decency to accept their failure to progress with times, for the express purpose of injecting fear into the public.

That way, our young will stop taking drugs and having sex and will make people more religious and morally higher beings; is probably the mentality behind the program. What idiocy! What nonsense! I am not talking about a TV program from a few years ago. This was just this morning, fresh from the filthy kitchen of the religious propaganda house that is TVM. The dumbing down of the public and creating people who are apathetic towards the environment and ignorant of history, science etc has been going on for decades.

These programs, produced by the TVM, are an insult to intelligence and should be considered as such by intelligent people everywhere. The story of Mount Vesuvius includes the tales of the proud and advanced Roman civilization and their magnificient contributions to art, science and modern thinking. The real story of Pompeii is a sad reminder that we are at the mercy of nature which makes no distinction between the adult and the baby. Which is more beautiful? A sense of wonder and excitement learning about the world or the sense of fear and brutality, of punishment and damnation?

Let me ask you then. Did the perpetrators of the genocide of 1 million Bangladeshis (mostly Muslims) by the Pakistan army in 1971 face a terrible calamity for raping and maiming hundreds of thousands of women and children? Of course not! Did an earthquake destroy Istanbul after the Ottoman empire carried out the genocide of millions of Armenians? No! What is Pompeii compared to these horrendous atrocities against humanity?

One has simply to abandon logic and let our ignorance prevail when viewing these TV programs. How they affect our compatriots whose brains are impervious to knowledge, is anyone's guess. We seriously need to ban these programs from public television. We need to change this muddled way of looking at the world. We need to stop viewing the world, it's wonderful natural beauty and colourful and bloody history, through the cataract ridden lens of dogma.

Perhaps then we can inch our way forwards instead of backwards.

References: Wikipedia entries Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii

August 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (5)

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This morning on a certain FM radio station was a listener call-in discussion program and the topic was The Environment.

During the 10 minutes of the program that I heard 2 callers were put on air and both had basically the same opinion regarding the topic but one in particular caught my attention

All we need to do is be more pious, pray regularly and strengthen our commitment to God, he said. This, the environment, in its present condition is a sign from God, he said, that people were deviating from the true teachings of the religion. Scientists, he said, say a lot of big things but in the end it is God's will that ordains the nature of things. Science was, in effect, simply reporting. If our islands sink, he said quite proudly, it is because God wanted them to sink. Therefore, he said, he isn't worried about the environment and that he really wasn't worried about saving the environment as much as saving the society from falling out of religion and therefore God's favor.

The point being, the efforts of countless scientists, politicians, engineers and the average person is all but futile - the condition of the environment is a sign from God that we humans have strayed from his path.

There are several things that one can extrapolate from this. One, our general population is, as I had always feared, completely ignorant of the environmental effects on us and utterly uninformed about science in general. Two, that there has been an ominous relationship crafted, over decades of having been exposed to glorified religious propaganda thinly sprinkled with science (ala Quran aa Science etc), between science and religion, in which science is made to look like a mere causal side-effect, a sort of detailed observation, of divine creation. Both these are, in my opinion, dangerous beliefs.

On the one hand it creates apathy towards the environment by instilling the ideology that nature was "created" to serve man. Secondly, it pushes science into the realm of religion, quite unfairly, to be used solely as a tool that has no other purpose but to observe what God's work is, in their opinion. This is fine on the outset. That is, yes, science does explain observable, measurable and testable phenomena - whether the latter were natural or created by a "higher" being.

It is impossible to imagine that someone with this kind of mentality to ever appreciate or let alone realize the importance of the scientific breakthroughs of smallpox or polio vaccinations, for instance. Or that he would realize how science has extended our lifespan by not few years, but decades. Isn't this how science becomes not just a way to observe the supposed handiwork of God but also truly alter or intervene in the "great plan"?

It should be with the mission of truly enlightening the public that the next government must plan their approach toward education in the coming years. This education must come not just in schools but through popular media such as television and radio. Religion, religious mythology and centuries old tales have absolutely no scientific merit or value just as how mutation of viruses, chemical bonding or quantum theory have no religious value.

I do not think we would want to one day wake up, perhaps a decade from now, to hear someone say on the radio that he would let his child die of pneumonia because that's God's will. Could we possibly be retreating instead of progressing? I think the fear should be real.

There is also one thing that we should realize about this issue of saving the environment. We are not saving it to save the planet. The planet has been here for close to 4 billion years and has gone through, who knows how many such chaotic transformations. The planet isn't going anywhere and it will be here grinding away in the vacuum of space when we've all but wiped ourselves off its face.

We're trying to save the environment to try and save ourselves.

August 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (11)

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I am a father of 3 very young children. I, as their father, am responsible for their security more than anything else. Their life is a thousandfold more precious to me than my own. I will ensure that no harm shall fall on any of them and I will protect them with my own life. And in my mission to protect them I shall be aware, vigilant, discerning and observant. I will protect them from physical harm, from abusive relatives and friends and from sexual predators that lurk in our society knowing all too well that if I don't protect my children then absolutely no one will. And that is a serious problem worthy of contemplation.

No sane parent would willingly harm or allow harm to their children. And yet everyday we see and hear heartbreaking news about something happening to some child or children somewhere. A child is molested by 4 men in Vilingili, a child sexually abused by the Quran teacher in Baa Atoll, five children are sexually abused by the imam of Baa atoll Goidhoo, a child is raped by 4 men in some other island, a child is sexually molested by a MNDF officer, and so on and so forth.

What would the parents of these children feel I wonder. What kind of anger and sorrow would parents endure knowing their children had been stripped of their innocence - to say nothing of the permanent psychological trauma inflicted on the children themselves?

Until recently the law did not provide much in the way of punishment for child sex offenders and pedophiles. Readers will remember that a huge public outcry due to lenient sentencing of certain abuse cases lead to changes in regulations just this year only. After how many little innocent lives ruined is that?

Time and time again I've seen the judiciary in a state of disability when it comes to protecting the rights of children. And strangely enough, if you think about this, we too are at a loss as to what kind of punishment must be meted out for pedophiles and child molesters. We know, from divine guidance in the Quran, how many lashes must be administered for having sex outside of marriage or adultery with a consenting partner. But do we know what to do with the 50 year old man who forced himself on the innocent, petrified and sobbing 6 year old child? No! We know what must be done with a thief but we have naught in dealing with the child rapist. Let me ask you this: Is it more important to punish two consenting adults than to save a child from harm? Is it more urgent to specify, in great detail, the punishment for theft or make sexual predation on children a sin?

Somehow children are precious to us mere mortals. It is a biological response that is hardwired into our genes. We weep at the sight of a starving Somalian child, we weep for the children in the West Bank, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and we weep for victims of sexual and physical abuse. It's the children, your children, and their child. We have devised declarations specifically protecting the rights of children in the UN charter and yet, in our most precious books of divine guidance, the Quran or the Bible, the protection of children and their rights are sadly nonexistent.

Why do you think we frequently hear of Quran teachers molesting children? In my opinion, the blame has to be shared between religion, the teacher and the parents. Quran teachers are viewed as people of religion by parents. They entrust their children into their care without a doubt or suspicion of wrong-doing because they see religion as a protective shield that will ensure the safety of their children. After all, a religious man will never harm anyone, let alone a child.

But religion offers no such protection to children.

When the pedophile imam is about to molest his child victim does he have a certain holy verse in his preferred holy book that should dissuade him or is he more reluctant , if at all, because of his act being a societal taboo? Is there such a person as a religious pedophile? If so, does he have anything in the scriptures that warn him of eternal damnation in hell, hellfire, flogging and stoning that awaits he who touches and destroys the innocence and the purity of a child? No, of course not!

But that's the reality, is it not? We are confused and act like a bunch of blinded fools when it comes to children's rights simply because we are left to act based on our own moral judgments. I've read a lot of articles written in outrage and condemnation of child sexual abuse, in print and in blogs, but not one has identified the root of the problem. Let me ask you. What are you thinking when you are watching movies like "Trade" or "The girl next door"? What goes through your mind when you read about your friendly neighbourhood pedophile Quran teacher who abused your neighbour's 7 year old? Ever though if it was your own child that was touched and fondled by the filthy hands of a strange man? Imagine it for a minute if you can handle it. What do you think? I know what I think.

I think the omniscient God forgot about the suffering of his children.

August 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (23)

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It makes me sick to the stomach! Look at them! Empty, brainless zombies with vacant grins seated foolishly clapping like they were at the Joker's gangbang at Arkham. But some of them look like they could be educated and intelligent. Intelligent people have a certain look, don't they? I might be wrong there. Educated fools, more like. But look at them, the imbeciles, barking mad, cheering on the one person who must be held responsible for the despicable state of the country and its people.

Don't they see through the obvious disguise and the lies? Don't they feel any shame? Even if the best we Maldivians can produce as a replacement leader is an elaborate doormat (Raeesul Jumhooriyyaa Doormat) the bitter feeling of shame and guilt of supporting old man for a seventh term would win the said doormat my vote. I promise you that. Such is the contempt I have for this man, this clown of a man, waving his palm at the credulous morons watching on.

Or perhaps it isn't the contempt I have for him that enrages me so. No. Unfortunately, it is the sight of the sold-out pigs and the ignorant hoards salivating at the sight of the blob of wicked old flatulence before them. Here's a man that for that past 30 years have drained the country, created a nation of half-wits and called it education. Here's a man that have naught an inkling of shame when he lays claim to the result of hard work by ordinary citizens and calls it "progress". Oh, it makes me regurgitate yesterday's dinner with impunity!

If you have any sanity left in you, you'd have to wonder, what kind of mentality some of these people have. The kind of depraved greed and outright hypocrisy and in most cases tunnel vision and narrow-mindedness has always been a hallmark of the typical Maldivian. Our sense of distrust towards our compatriots stems from these sorts of disorders. The centuries of back-stabbing and double-speak mixed in with a submissive demeanour (the evil beggar?) have hardwired this into our very genes - our history is replete with stories of this sort - hardly a trait of an intelligent and patriot people.

This is why you see the vacant looking hoards cheering and you have to watch in awe of the magnitude and depth of the shallowness of these people as they applaud lie after lie after lie.

Of course, there is no end in sight to this. The hand-logo of that man says it all: if he can have his way again, which I fear he will, he will ensure the nation a thorough handjob. Yes, a big, orgasmic 300,000 strong handjob - taking you, me and that guy over there with the MDP bandanna and funny voice, to "new heights". Oh, yes!

August 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (12)

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So there's this caged monkey, right. He's been wearing the same leaky diaper for the past decade or more. Honestly! Imagine the suffering and the inhumane deprivation. And what about the stench? The wholly overpowering stench of filth everywhere. But today is a good day for the poor monkey.

Today, for the first time in so many years, and after much monkeying around, kicking and screaming and losing a few teeth here and there, it finally got a diaper change.

Different diaper. Same old monkey. Same old shit.

August 7, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (11)

How do you exploit the ignorance, beliefs and stupidity of a neighbour country? Well, ask Sri Lanka, who for the past 5 years have been putting up an evil Lankan smirk as we Maldivians have been fooled into thinking that the only two dogs in the country, gifts from Sri Lanka, were drugs-sniffers protecting us from the trafficking of drugs! Instead, according to the Chairman of the drug-trade investigation committee of the parliament, what we've had all along were just ordinary pet dogs - the kind you see in movies, named Tinkerbell or Rufus, who'd fetch balls and pee on evil Mrs. Cruella's cacti, and are loved by the household children.

So there are these two dogs, large fierce-looking German-shepherd types, stationed at the entrance to the airport arrival terminal, and they are both thinking, "WTF are we doing here, again?".

The Lankans are smart, you see. Remember the million dollar drug haul? Could they have had access to a classified Sri Lankan intelligence file? The file marked "Maara Confidential: Maldivians think our gift-dogs are drugs-sniffers. Adoh! Bugger, don't tell anyone!"

August 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (8)