A disturbing service or a business

Riding motor-bikes, having fun in the park, walks and hikes are common outdoor activities we do with our kids to sooth them, though there are not enough outdoor parks in Male’. Like many others, I use to do them too. Obviously the most common outdoor parks or places suitable for kids in Male’ are Artificial beach and the children’s park in Henveyru.

But taking my kid to any of these places sometimes makes her fussy and I have to end up in an unnecessary spending. Because what greet you when you enter or by pass the gate of any of these places would be a big tree or fountain of fancy toys, balloons, balls and whatever is suitable to catch the sight of a kid is will be hanging on that mess. So, as a beginning, something, something that catches the attention of the kid has to be bought from there before the rest of the things.

Kids may fall to things though they have it. A kid may cry for a more colorful ball even if he/she has a ball. They may want something just because other kids have it. On top of all these, kids mostly have a short attention span. What I buy in the park may be useless when I come back. She might have lost interest on it. So, I end up in wastage.

On the other hand, if a kid fails to get what he/she wanted so much, she/he will somehow express her displeasure, anger or frustration. I will be at the edge of messing up the happy evening I thought about. But if I am lucky enough, I may be able to turn away her attention to something else which may stop the sulking and spouting.

Whatever the way it turns out, it is a simple headache to meet this fight every time I go to these places with my kid. Selling ‘fart’ shaped balloons and balls shouldn’t be welcomed at these places. I am sure there would be others who are on the same ship as mine.

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Maldives Land and Survey Authority

How do you define ‘land’ (Goathi)? What is the concept of a land owner? What rights and to what extent do you expect to enjoy these rights within the boundary of your land? Why does continuous rain of 6-8 hours create mini-pools on many major roads of Male’? Why do many Islanders express dissatisfaction on their Harbour depths and break water heights? Why can’t Travelers trust their GPS maps? This list can be continued for pages. Existence of numerous such matters represents the importance of a National Land Survey Authority to implement, regulate and maintain a proper Land law (cadastral system), surveying and mapping mechanism.

Construction of 16 storey hotel at H.Athireege during 2008 generated various problems/issues most of which were damages caused to private properties that were not protected by a legal frame of cadastre. Apart from this, we all know that in Maldives, especially in Male’ conflicts regarding ownership, common boundaries and easements of lands are numerous and it has lead to many of the prevailing social issues of the country.

According to the 2003 World Bank report on ‘Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction’, “access to land and the ability to exchange it with others and to use it effectively are of great importance for poverty reduction, economic growth, and private sector investment as well as for empowering the poor and ensuring good governance”.

So, even according to the World Bank, we need sustainable land policies (a cadastral system) or a land administration system for proper determination and recording of ownership, value and the use of land to accelerate economic growth and to eradicate poverty. Although we do have a law named “Maldivian Land Act” (Dhivehirahjeyge Bimaabehey Gaanoonu), I find it legally incomplete to deliver those things mentioned above.

Let’s look at a different scenario showing the same necessity of a proper land law and Cadastral system. A recent headline at Haveeru daily read as follows, “A claim has been raised by MP Rozaina Adam against MP Ahmed Rasheed due to his squawking Cockatoo”, Most of those who commented on this story have taken it as a political propaganda or a ridiculous joke. But for me this is an interesting legal issue related to Land law which we ‘don’t have’ in our legal system. Legally, everyone should be entitled to enjoy his/her property/land without ‘interference’ from neighbours.

Under the Companion Animals Act 1998 of New South Wales – Australia, “…a council officer has the power to issue a nuisance order to the owner of the animal creating a persistent noise. The order can be issued to either the registered owner of the animal or to the person who normally keeps the animal. The animal can be declared a nuisance if they bark or make another noise that keeps occurring or continues to such a degree that it unreasonably disturbs neighbours. The order remains in force for six months. If the owner does not comply with the order, the owner may face a fine of $550 or more”.

Yes, formation of Maldives Land and Survey Authority would be an addition to the increasing number of various corporations, companies, and offices whose necessities are being questioned by many of us. And I am not a fan of this extravagance policy of the government. But, as it is done in the developed and developing countries, we urgently need a Land and Survey Authority.

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You may not drink it, but?!?!

“You don’t have to drink it although they sell it”, “The government is not going to make it mandatory for every Maldivians to drink it. So what is the problem?” This is how those who support the government to permit the sale of alcohol in Maldivian islands try to justify their policy.

The first statement sounds like saying that “You don’t have to smell it although I fart at your face” or “You don’t have to smoke although they sell cigarettes”. Those of us who don’t smoke are passive smokers for the reason that we live and mingle with active smokers. So although you don’t drink or the government doesn’t make it mandatory for us to drink, doesn’t mean that you will be free from the problems caused by the alcohol.

Alcohol is a depressant drug which in high quantities can cause unconsciousness and even death. Frequent and high level alcohol consumers face uncountable health problems including strokes, cancer, vascular and liver diseases. If you are not a drinker you may be free from these problems.

But a large proportion of alcohol related calamities contribute disability and death through accidents, violence, suicide and homicide. When drunk, you are more likely to indulge in sex, extreme verbal and physical abuse. Remember it’s not only alcohol drinkers who become the victims of these accidents and violence. Many innocent people have become the victims of the drinkers in Countries where they allow drinking.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Alcohol is the second largest cause of drug-related deaths and hospitalisations in Australia after tobacco and it’s the main cause of deaths on Australian roads. The estimated economic cost of alcohol misuse to the Australian community in 1998 to 1999 was estimated to be about AUS $7.6 billion. This is the situation of a developed Country where they have proper law enforcement capabilities.

Now imagine our present situation. Although it’s illegal, even now many people manage to get alcohol beverages in our society. Illegal sexual activities, street fights and raping has become a part of this small community. Many youths are desperate to get some form of intoxication whether it’s Dunlop, Cologne, Kerosene etc. Government doesn’t have proper law enforcement capabilities. So where would we end up if the road for intoxication is made easier than now?

What trust is this man – Adhil Saleem talking about? He better first face the public with the truth regarding his sexual scandals and the recent guest house story. I know that he can’t be Tiger Wood, but at least let us know who you really are.

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Failed!?

James Cameron’s last film ‘Avatar’ is on its way to triumph over his best feature film and the king of the cinemas ‘Titanic’. The film named after the largest, most advanced and luxurious ship of its time, which failed to complete its first voyage under the captaincy of E.J. Smith. Why did the experienced captain who was about to retire failed? It’s not only your qualification and experience that take you to success.

Whatever the way you define the word ‘fail’, it would show lack of performance, motivation, preparation, effectiveness and sufficiency in doing a certain job. Being unable to complete a job within a given time is a more specific way to describe the word ‘fail’ and it has taken account of an important factor-time which has to be kept in mind when talk about ‘fail’. Completing a 2 hour exam within 3 hour doesn’t make you pass. Bringing 5-10 years progress within 30 years doesn’t make you a leader.

Every now and then we hear and see DRP and PA members defining the present government as failed and disabled making their statement an old chestnut. Maumoon and his cronies have had ultimate power for 30 whole years, but did nothing close to what they could have done within that much time, and now go on rebuking the present government who is just 1 year old. How truthful, loyal and logical would be these people who label the new government as a disabled dummy? Can you imagine the development that could be brought within 30 years to a small country like Maldives who has been having a high per capita GDP for years? Don’t you think 30 years is even enough for Maumoon to reclaim another island nation called Maldives from Indian Ocean and bring it to the present standard or even to a better standard?

Despite being a failure, he still manages to be on the horizon, not because he is credited like Lee Kuan Yew or Mahathir Mohamed. Didn’t Suharto and Augusto Pimochet have supporters during their days? Didn’t Robert Mugabe have supporters? Many aged people are caught in the spell of him thinking that he is a pious man. This is the best way I can define the two major groups of people who still support him.

Yes, in politics there will be oppositions and we really need them, but not old rotten eggs. Don’t you think Maumoon and his cronies have had enough chances to take us to the sky they promised? They have had their chips. When someone else is trying to do the 2 hour exam you failed to do within the time doesn’t mean he is the failure, you are the failure. When someone else is trying to bring the progress Maumoon failed to bring within 30 years doesn’t mean he is the failure, Maumoon is the failure. Maumoon and his cronies are the obvious failures. So don’t try to be a dog in the manger, sit aside with the bit of luck you guys already have got. Those who have cut down a 30 year old tree will know very well how to cut down a much younger one when the time comes.

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Be happy, let bygones be bygones

How often do you wish that you have never done it, something you have done in the past? How often do you wish if you could undo or edit your life, restarting back from a certain point in the past? No matter how strong is your wish, how deep is your anguish, the past can’t be changed.

Yet it is innate to have such wishes for the reason that neither can you have a past without mistakes nor can you get rid of mistakes in the future. Mistakes happen in spite of who you are. Who expected Jesse Jackson and Tiger Wood, who stand on their dignities to get caught in sex scandals? Successors are those who take mistakes as lessons of wisdom, obstacles as opportunities, not as consternations with regret.

How hardly a disaster strikes, how destructive it is, how desperate you are, remember, it too shall pass as 26th December 2004 had. At dreadful moments, it is normal for you to wonder if you will ever make it, if you will ever reach your goal, if your life will ever be the same or better than before, if it is really worth to go through all the pain and suffering while you are unaware about the final outcome. Yes, this is the life of this world. Happiness, worries, sadness are a part of human life. Solution is to get strengthened, encouraged and empowered in front of the unpredictable future ahead, not to harbor meaningless wishes for a life without trouble. If the door in front of you is closed, another opens, so don’t wait there looking at the closed one in despair.

You don’t necessarily need to have the best of everything for you to be happy, just move with the flow of your life, taking happiness as a journey, not as a destination. Remember, when your friend finishes a 3 hour exam within 1 hour doesn’t mean he or she would score better than you. When your friend is not being tested like you are doesn’t mean his or her life is precious or happier than yours. You need to wear his or her shoes for you to know what he or she is up to. Never expect to get mentally or physically matured by getting aged, maturity has more to do with the variety of things you have met and learned in your life.

Take lessons from the past and treasure every moment of your life as much as possible. Let bygones be bygones and happily begin the New Year 1431, 2010 with hopes and inspirations.

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Maumoon versus Quran translation

Composing a dhivehi translation of the Quran was one of the earnest vows made by Maumoon during the early days of his presidency. Many had been desperately and monotonously waiting for it, when it was finally out in 2008, after about 30 years to the promise. The reason for it to happen in 2008 was obvious, though Maumoon tried to justify it otherwise by saying that it was a critical scholarly job, which required extreme care and repetitive checking.

So, according to him, the Quran was translated by qualified people, with extreme care and it was checked for errors, mistakes making them to take about 30 years for the whole job.

In spite of the extremely careful work they have done, number of problems have been noticed from some translations. It started with literary problems, further revealing that verses of different surahs were mixed up, some verses were repeated whereas others were missing. It is possible that many more such mistakes can be there in other translations at the hands of public and everyone may not be able to notify such mistakes.

If a translation has misplaced verses, repeated verses, missing verses, can it be a translation anymore? I think it will be a new or a modified version of the original book, not a translation. What a mess? May be 30 years is even far less for Maumoon to do it.

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What have the police been investigating for all these months?

Was it a story of a fornicator that Hilath Rasheed wrote on his blog? Was it a story of a fornicator that Aazima Shukoor talked about on 13th September 2009, during her party’s gathering? Was it a story of a fornicator that caught the major headlines of the local news papers months ago? I thought it was a story of a concubine that circulated at lightning speed across the country, carrying ‘astonishment’ and ‘joy’ with it as it’s related to Islam.

Despite the different ideas, articles, sayings made and written on this story, I was indifferently and curiously waiting to know the result of final investigation by the police. Alas, according to an article on Haveeru, 24th December 2009, police has never tried to know whether the 16 year old girl involved in this case was a concubine or not. Rather they are taking it as a case of fornication and sexual abuse by Ahmed Jihad, 22, who is currently her husband or claims to be her husband.

Where are we now? What was the nitty-gritty of the matter? Why didn’t police investigate the case that created the chaos? Where is the lady who talked to the doctor or Hilath? Where is the man who had the girl as a concubine? Doesn’t he deserve a punishment? If there never exists a concubine, what is all this fuss about? Should we call this ‘freedom of speech’?

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What ‘freedom’ or ‘rights’ are we talking about?

Courtesy: The American Culture

Have u heard about Terri Schiavo, the American who spent 15 years in a vegetative state, whose case was heard in Florida courts for more than 20 times before she was ‘allowed’ to die on euthanasia or mercy-killing on 31st March 2005. How about the Italian woman, Eliuna Englaro, whose 17 years of stay in a coma brought a constitutional battle to the predominantly Catholic country when Berlusconi’s government objected the Italy’s top court decree to give Englaro a mercy-killing. Englaro died naturally on 9th February 2009. Many countries have been experiencing political and legal battles on matters of euthanasia. Still euthanasia is illegal and a criminal act in most of the countries.

In secular countries like Italy, where many claim to have the right and the freedom to choose your own life, where many claim is the staunch of freedom of conscience, where many claim to be a strong symbol of freedom of thought, where many choose human reasoning over faith, still seems to struggle over those rights or freedom they are talking about. What do you think is the reason?

Man made constitutions, laws, codes and regulations initially emerge in accordance with culture, belief and ethics of the society or country and would go on changing as these ingredients change. Italy, which was once the spiritual hub of the Catholic Christians has been changed to a place of Atheists and Agnostics. But when people are subjected with questions of bioethics concerning the relationship between faith and reason, still some find it difficult to stick to the notion of freedom. People follow different beliefs and religions not because they don’t know what freedom is, they find safety and contentment in what they are following. Now if you are to live among such a group of people don’t you think that you should respect and abide by their rules and regulations as long as you don’t commit a crime and go against your belief? If you think you have your own right to choose your way of life, who are you tell others how they should live?

So, why can’t you leave alone some 300,000 people who belong to a same religion, culture and race to decide their own way of life? What makes you to think that they should legalise same sex marriages, churches and temples? Why don’t you call upon the rights and freedom of the two Australian ladies, Davina and Beck Storer who travelled to Canada in June 2009 to get married because same sex marriages are not officially recognised in Australia? Don’t you think it would be more rewarding to call for the rights of more than 20 million people rather than trying on some 300,000 people? Why don’t you go along with the evolutionary psychologist Randy Thornhill and the anthropologist Craig Palmer who claim that rape is a natural act, an evolutionary adaptation, a biological phenomenon used by men to spread their genes, so excessive force shouldn’t be used to stop raping as it may decrease the chance of the victim getting pregnant? If you are done with human rights, why don’t you support the organization, ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) who claim that fish do have rights? Do you think you will ever be allowed to have absolute freedom by any constitution?

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Don’t we have a better way to get rid of the expatriate workers?

According to the related government records, the numbers of expatriate workers in Maldives are increasing day by day. Despite the business benefits derived from the foreign workers we are left in a kind of dilemma due to the number of rising social problems created by them which include different sorts of crimes and transmission of communicable diseases such as AIDS. Government just toddles over the matter having difficulties of putting an effective regulation into action.

Out of the many students following different certificate level courses, diploma courses and degree courses in male’, few manages to get a satisfactory stipend or a pocket money and some goes on blaming the government for their shortcomings. Like many students in some foreign countries do, why don’t Maldivians think of having some casual or temporary work along with the studies? Doesn’t this strategy sound integral for our community? Can’t this be a remedy for at least few social problems by the foreign workers and by our youth?

As far as I am concerned, the main obstacle that stands against this idea is our ‘lifestyle’ or ‘culture’. Growth, development and prosperity of a society are more or less determined by its cultural values. Likewise the moral values, traditions, beliefs and general laws that govern the behaviour of the people in a society are mostly determined by the type of culture in that society. In our culture we don’t see a college student working as a waiter or waitress or a delivery person. Why is that? Aren’t there opportunities for such works? Can’t the students spare some time for such works? No, none of these are the reasons. Only that we have a culture or etiquette that makes us to think that such works are so low class which should only be carried out by foreigners. You would be a degraded ‘bangaalhee’ if you ever dreamed of doing such a work in Maldivian culture. Don’t you think this is the main reason why many of us are so reluctant in grabbing such a work though the pocket money is far less to meet the expenses, though some have nothing to do other than wandering around the roads?

It’s high time that we change these cultural values that no longer fulfil any purpose and bring any good. Why don’t we take and copy that part of the western culture that has some genuine benefit and potential to our future. I strongly believe that this would be a good way to get rid of some expatriate workers and bring back those youth who wander from the right path due to lack of work.

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Patriotism or Extremism

How many of you have watched the series ‘Desperate Housewives’? If you have watched few episodes even, just recall the character of Bree. She always wants to keep things neat and tidy. At whatever the expense or how hard she has to work, she always tries to keep her routine and maintain the order. She becomes fussy even to notice a tiny speck of dust or a smudge. And she expects others to be like that. By doing so she has gone extreme. So, even good habits can be changed into bad habits when they are taken to an ultimate. Though look positive, we need to be careful about our behaviour. Too much of anything is not good.

Imagine how we have behaved in supporting our national football team during the last SAAF championship. During the days of the competition, for many of us, nothing seemed to be more important than making some fun in the name of supporting our national team. Whenever we win, whenever we score, we are given the freedom above all traffic laws and regulations. You were free to have a ride on your motorbike with whole your family members on it. You were free to shout and call whatever comes to your mind at any pitch through megaphones. No consideration was paid to the old and sick who are unable to withstand the pandemonium. But still we proudly call it, ‘patriotism’.

Although the country is struck by a great economic depression, where many are just left to live from hand to mouth, nobody seemed to know and remind others of the situation we are in. Rather we were caught by the spell of the media and people who has taken things to an ultimate. We were urged to spend or more appropriately to waste money in the name of patriotism. In a society where large number of youth is just wandering around the roads looking for a chance to create some havoc, do you think its patriotism that we have experienced from them.

Senior government officials and about 25 parliament members attended the final match at Bangladesh leaving the Parliament at a halt. May be these political figures took to their heels just to get caught by the public to show how patriotic they are. If they are really patriotic and loyal to us and our country don’t you think they have things much better and important to do? How many bills or legal codes that are directly or indirectly related to our basic needs or harmony of the society are pending to get passed or legalised?

I would rather call it extremism, not patriotism. I know many of you would find it hard to agree with me. If so when would you call it extremism? If too much of anything is not good, sure there would be extremism in patriotism too.

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