Hasan Live

Some old customs of Huvadhu Atoll

2012-01-05T00:13:00.000-08:00

Hasan A. Hilmy:

The ‘sweat and blood of Huvadhu’ people is not much different from the rest. Despite the slight difference in the dialect and linguist, the discipline and ethics remains very much the same as elsewhere in Maldives. The revolutions and twists of the average culture during 1950 to 1960 have made changes in the old but golden ways of living, yet some customs and tradition still lives on some places. The information in this article is inspired from the journals and writings of the people who experienced those sophisticated ‘sweat and blood’.

As said, the typical customs and traditions are very much the same, with modest changes from Atoll to Atoll and from Island to Island. And the very old customs might be insignificant to last and today’s generations. Those customs could be a laugh out story lines for most of them, regardless of that being their true reflection in time. These ways of thinking would last as long as time moves along with traditions from past to present to future known as ‘trending’. These are traceable for those who intend to know. And what the trends we follow today could be laugh out stories for generations to come. We never know. They might faint laughing over trends that we follow today. And this is a trend the world has followed since the beginning. It’s the evolution of living.

One example of a today’s top trend being made a joke of tomorrow could be the mobile phones. Imagine a paradigm picture where people would only use their brain to communicate, maybe high-tech telepathy? With no mobile phones around anymore? What would they possibly look back on us and say? Just a wild guess; “they morons, why would they carry that huge thing in their pocket while it could have been implanted in the brain?” Well, that is how the world evolves.

An example from the origin of where we are to talk about; ho would anyone could possibly imagine that they can actually fly from Kaadehdhoo on a bird and land in Male’ within less than 1 hours journey? Allah witness, there were residents in the very Kaadedhoo who lived and died, without even imagining this. And undeniable, they would have made a joke if we told them it is possible.

Don't deny the power and might of Allah. We are provided with facts and evidence to think and inspire ourselves and to reflect back to almighty Allah’s power and wisdom if Islam, when knowing about how we lived.

Building Mosques Then:

Hutukodey Misky - 1970's

During olden days, mosques were built at the crossroads of inhabitable area and the jungle of that island. This is to find space for a grave yard within the compound of the mosque and keep the graveyard away from where people usually live. Folk beliefs say that the chances of encounter with “Spirits” are less when the graveyard is located away from where people live by.

Centuries ago, the foundation of the mosques built in Havaru Thinadhoo were built with lime stone clay (Uva) and erected with coral stone (hiriga) blocks. Some coral stones are intricately carved. Some walls are built with coral rubble (Thelhiga). 2x3 feet coral stone blocks are assembled as stones are all cut in a way to interlock (tongue and groove system). Lacquer finished timber columns (with coral stone stumps) and beams continue over the stones as the wall reached around 8 – 10 feet from the ground. The roof is covered with coconut thatch (Fangi). Inside, floor is softly filled with fine gravels and covered with weaved mat (Thun’du Kunaa).

During the roofing day, all the men over 15 years old who has not yet participated in cooking “Thalinga” (a traditional food item) has to cook “Thalinga” for the rest of the island. This is mandatory once in life, during those days in Huvadhu Atoll. Names of those who participate in this unifying event is written somewhere in the mosque ending with “Thalinga Khalaas” (Finished making ‘Thalinga’). Likewise, there were mosques finished with fine carpentry, lacquer, intricately carved coral stones, center dome (laage) and other artistic tricks. All these were precious treasures and a priceless piece of art.

During the kingdom of Dhevvadhoo Rasgefaanu (Sultan Muhammad), there was an astonishing piece of art built in Havaru Thiandhoo. A very crafty mosque built by his sister, Dhondhaleyka kanbuleyge, who went all the way from Male’ to Havaru Thinadhu to build that very mosque with the help of creative crafty men of traditional art in Maldives.

Here, one should know that the pioneers of “Hukuru Miskiy” (Friday Mosque) in Male’ are two gifted artists and architects from Huvadhu Atoll, who trained and instructed a team of crafty men, did the incredible work. The “Hutukodey Misky” (Hutukodey Mosque) was an outstanding work which shows the extraordinary flairs of those men back then.

After the genocide in 1962, during the repopulation of Havaru Thinadhoo on 1968, the marvelous structure with mind-blowing art and the sacred mosque lost its originality on renovation. Current structure which stands abandoned is completely different from the original. In fact, now stands a modern abandoned mosque with no remains of the old one.

Dhondhaleyka Kanbuleyge passed away (May Allah grant her Jannathul Firdhaus) while in Havaru Thinadhoo bringing up this remarkable structure. She was buried in the north grave compound of Masjidul Ghaazee Muhammad (The mosque name belongs to Bodu Thakurufan, Sultan Ghaazee Muhammad). There was small mausoleum (Ziyarai) built for royal graves in that area.

Friday Prayers Then:

Havaru Thinadhoo Hukuru Misky (Friday Mosque) - 1962

Men bath in pool (Vevu) and dress with sarong (Mundu) with their turban or white scarf (Foshaa) wrapped around their head or just leaned on their shoulder, and head out to Friday prayers every week. Some aristocratic people wear waistcloth (Feyli) and some uplifts the sarong to show the sleek beneath it.

Some men shave their beards and mustaches and clean their self at the pool (Vevu) near the mosque around 8am on Friday morning. They brush their teeth with fine grains of white sand collected from the shoreline. Some people smear their head and body with coconut oil, wrap a turban (Foshaa) around their waist while the other turban is gently leaned over the shoulder. The one who is late by 11:30am is considered one who didn’t catch the Friday prayer.

The Imam (The male prayer leader in a mosque) katheebu kileygefaan will take a bath in the pool (Vevu) at Hukuru Miskiy (Friday mosque) around 10:30am. He then goes home to get dressed and appear back in mosque to address the Friday Sermon and to perform the prayer. He waits at the veranda (Fenda) of the mosque till sermon time after praying the “Thahiyyathul Masjid” (Two rak’a prayer, performed for the mosque). He then presents the sermon in Arabic and perform the Friday prayer when its time. There was also a time when there is no set Imam for Friday prayers. Any one among the present Khathib (One who present the sermon) at the mosque would do the job then.

Luxury Houses Then:

A super-luxury house in Havaru Thiandhoo - 1962

People who own vessels, uninhabited islands and do trades are then the richest within the community. Their quarters are like a duplex-house (two separate residencies), known as ‘Maavaluge’ and ‘Beyruge’. Those are built by foundations of coral rubble (Thelhiga) and deadwood fences over it. Cross wall is built with dead Ochrosia oppositifolia wood (Dhun’buri Dhan’di) and coconut thatched covers. Window wall is made up of dead coconut wood (Ruh vakaru) and weaved coconut leaves (Viyefa hunna funn). ‘Maavaluge’ has 2 beds made of Ochrosia oppositifolia Sticks (Dhunburi dhan’di) and coir ropes (Roanu) and woodern bench/bed (Ashi) made of dead coconut wood (Ruh vakaru). Beyruge has a master bed made of Ochrosia oppositifolia Sticks (Dhunburi) and a wooden bench/bed (Ashi) and a wooden shelf/bed (Bodu Ashi). Incomparable, all the houses of rich and poor were roofed with weaved coconut leaves then (Viyefa hunna funn).

There is a difference in sleeping then. The wife or the husband of the child would sleep on the bed next to the main bed where the father and the mother sleep. Some houses do not have these arrangements tough. Children and their mates would sleep on the beds and wooden bench/beds (Ashi) arranged in different corners of the same hall. They flip the bench up and put it towards the wall after sleeping at some houses to make room in the hall during day time.

When a trading boat (Odi) arrives to the island, everyone would hurry to welcome them in warmth. Providing a pleasant hospitality to visitors was one of the thoughtful customs adopted by the people back then. People will be over cautious about keeping the visitors really happy and they will avoid any chance of disappointments. They are well hosted in the luxury houses in the island. If the men couldn’t build a passionate friendship with a girl who is single in that boat, is known to be teased by others. In Havaru Thinadhoo they say to such men that, “He couldn’t even go around ‘Hinaamaa gaa’ (An uninhabited island in Huvadhu Atoll)”. ‘Hinaamaa gaa’ is a small beautiful island with very little trees and almost like a sand bank; where sea birds use to congregate for their sunset melodies in groups.

Using Toilet Then:

The seaward of Havaru Thinadhoo - 1962

Back then, people go to seaward side (Futtaru) to defecate. Both men and women use the seaward side as their rest rooms. Two, three or more of the same sex sits close by near the wave breaking point, defecating. Except children, men don’t use to talk much during that time. But women are said to be chit-chatting, amused by each other’s jokes and laughing out loud. They even use to talk about their lovers secrets and conspire about people they hate too. Women use to go passing off together, at arrange times in groups. Usual time for them is both twilights of the day. And people who are timid of passing off in public, shut-in themselves somewhere isolated and pass-out in ground dug holes.

Some Customs of Women Then:

Deligation of Huvadhu Atoll for the first Republic Day
of the Republic of Maldives pausing
with late president Mohamed Amin Didi. - 1953

There are pools (Vevu), separated for both men and women, in all the inhabitant islands of Maldives. There were some pools (Vevu) till 1960’s in some islands. The depth of a usual medium size pool (Vevu) in Havaru Thinadhoo is between knee to chest of an average man. Most of the pools (Vevu) are built with dead coconut wood bars kept one over the other in a square shape. Top is designed with coral rock (Hathaa gaa). This pool (Vevu) is not enclosed by any fence (Fulhah) or a wall. Bands of women bath in these pools (Vevu), topless in their original brand. They can’t be identified from a close range though.

Most of the Huvadhu women use to wash their hair with a form made of ash, lemon, egg and other ingredients most of the days. Such women are free from hair lice. But there are some women busy scratching their intense itching scalp with their fingers like a rake. Rich or poor, lice are found only on the lazy one’s hair. Because finding ash (Alhi) and water won’t be a difficulty even back then; this could prevent them from growing lice. Women like this sit near fences (Fulhah) and remove lice from each other’s head. They then crash the lice with their nails making a low pop-crack sound. If the sound was not heard, then they wouldn’t count it as a lice removed. Women with lice are known to be angry-birds, maybe because of their intense itchy scalp. If two of them get on a fight, then the people declares day-doomed. They just burst off with all the filth. In some islands, women use to get naked and dance singing songs to humiliate the offender. There were some incidents where they compare their genital parts and ask each who’s is the most beautiful in public. Other women use to support the fight, provide them with mockery lines, water and even betel leaf and areca nuts (Dhufun). These support women team-up within the fight and work together as a team. When the current standing woman is tired, she is substituted by another one from the team. Sometimes this goes without a leading speaker, but as a group. They mostly start with mocking song (Hajoo Raivaru). The crowd cheers and boos them in different tones and chants. There will be a fascinated crowd gathered enjoying the fight as long as it goes on.

Women with a thorough hygiene would have a mild soothing aroma on her hair. Those women wear traditional Maldivian dresses (Kasabu baadhala boavalhuge libaas) after bathing, and they will wear a waistcloth (Feyli) or a black skirt (Kan’diki) as a bottom.

When they move like a bud of aroma in the streets to collect water from the mosque well, they will wear different types of flowers on their hair. Most known types are; Roses (Finifenma), queen of the night, (Husnuheena maa), garland flower (Karanka maa), khus khus grass (Lansimoo), tangjong flower (Moonimaa) and Jasmines (Huvan’dhu maa, Chaandahnee maa, Iru dheymaa, Kudhi maa, Gukeynooran maa, Thandi rai maa). They use to place these flowers on the tight knot in their hair shined with coconut oil. Classy women wear a garland of tangjong flower (Moonimaa fathi). It has got a long lasting smell which stays for few days. These women will gently kill the hearts of innocent young men staring at them as they walk like the queens of the road during late afternoon. The garland of tanjong flower (Moonima fathi), is brought from Gn. Fuvahmulah. These women use to give away this garland to their lovers and fiancés as a symbol of love.

Young men and women sing ‘Raivaru’ (a type of Maldivian traditional singing) during the afternoon of Ramazan. They sometimes sing or write on coconut leaves their tempting poetry and spend their time in sweet laughter.

[These are few of the very old customs in Huvadhu Atoll taken from an article written by my Father, Abdulla Hilmy, who is a historian]

We shall not be believers of the ignorant

2011-12-24T20:36:00.000-08:00

[The original article will be found in DhiIslam: "We shall not be believers of the ignorant", posted on 25 December 2011]

Hasan A. Hilmy:

Its often heard, “do not argue with the ignorant”, or “do not debate with a fool or else he will make you one and beat you with experience”. Well said lines, but I do not agree with this when the ignorant or the fool is an executive.

The massive demonstration, “Maldivians in defense of Islam” held on last Friday, 23^rd December 2011, was the largest and the most peaceful protest ever carried out in the history of the Maldives. At the infant stage of democracy, we Maldivians have projected a message to the world how mature we truly are, especially when it comes to defend our noble faith, the peaceful religion Islam. More than 12,000 people flocked to the ‘victory square’ in Male’, who were supported by more than 100,000 Maldivians all around the country who joined the demonstration at the same time. Though it seems paltry in the wake of Cairo, Libya and Tunisia; for a country of roughly 350, 000–this protest is relatively equivalent in proportion.

The ruling class did not recognize the mass of the protest. And we can expect them to remain in denial of this strong and unexpected voice of a third of our population that has demanded change.

Government heads and senior members of the ruling party have been commenting on the massive protest as a political stunt made by aminority. And they have been trying to give away a message to the international community that it was an insignificant protest; and as of this writing, not one outlet of the international media seems to have received the protesters’ side of the story; nor have they any clear idea of their demands. Their bias is unsurprising; as President Nasheed has invested a lot of time and effort during his years in office into becoming a darling of the international media. Yet, their attempts have proven futile as the message is slowly trickling through the social networks and Maldivian news-outlets critical of government policies.

All the media received a note from the Maldives National Defense Force, urging not to air certain footage of the demonstration, which they claimed would be detrimental to social harmony. Not only does this note represent the government’s continuing infringement of the freedom of expression by media outlets unsympathetic to an MDP administration; but it is a red herring that implies violence and foul play at the protest. There was no such footage, voice-outs or actions during the demonstration which concerns the social harmony. If there were, why wasn’t there was a single disturbance to the security forces during the 8 hours of the demonstration?

The MDP officials did try to attempt a strike against Friday’s demonstration later on Saturday, which they had to cancel forecasting their funeral before they conclude. Unquestionably they will be outnumbered by the “Maldivians in defence of Islam”; but the MDP need to keep up appearances to maintain whatever support base they have remaining.

President Nasheed has officially , not without some hesitancy, noted the demands as per his press secretary. They had criticized the demands by labelling the demonstration a political gathering aimed at overthrowing the MDP government; supported by only a few people. They claimed that they were unclear of the demands, as they did not receive sealed or signed documents by any one individuals and were therefore unable to discern any relevant information from what they could have read about in the news-sites, seen or heard via television or broadcast.

Why would they ignore the fact that it was the voice of more than one third of an entire population when it was as clear as the blue sky during the sunny day they came to the power on 11^th November 2008? Or is it because they lost the track to 11^th November 2013? Or is it because they are ‘smart fools’ trying to make the entire nation, their mental hospital?

Whatever it is, Maldivians shall not be blindfolded anymore. We shall not be strings attached, or slaves to any masters but Allah. We shall not be the rats that the pied piper led to the sea, or the marionettes who swings to the symphony of destruction. Above all, we shall not be believers of the ignorant or the fools.

The art of peaceful protest is real

2011-12-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

[This is an article I wrote for DhiIslam. Original article will be found in this link: The art of peaceful protest is real"]

“Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!” thousands of gatherers chanted as “Maldivians in Defense of Islam” protest started on 23rd December 2011, 1600hrs at Victory Square, Male’. It was the biggest protest Maldives has ever witnessed. Yet the most peaceful protest recorded, epic.

A record number of more than 100,000 Maldivians all around the country demonstrated to implement Shariah and to put an end to all anti-Islamic activities.

More than 10,000 people gathered near Lonuziyaraikolhu, which was renamed “Nasruge Maidhan” (Victory Square) during the protest.

Protesters stood their ground for eight straight hours, expressing their extreme dissatisfaction with the anti-Islamic policies endorsed by the State. They congregated and performed the maghrib and isha prayers while standing their ground.

Ruling party, MDP, had a counter protest at the Artificial Beach in the afternoon, in the name of “Support for Moderation”. President Nasheed along with his a paltry gathering of supporters took part in the rally which lasted for little more than an hour. Analysts described this as their least popular demonstration ever held, while “Maldivians in Defense of Islam” was said to be their worst nightmare.

During the past few weeks, organizers of the 23 December protest were mocked and threatened by self-described “moderates”, labeling them ‘Extremists’ who called for a ‘Taliban’-style society and the violation of social harmony.

The State’s propaganda machine MNBC One declared this protest will lead to violence. The State had done their best to convince the public that the protest would be a source of violent breakouts. This could have certainly been true, thanks to the aggression of certain MDP officials.

None of the government puppets’ warnings had come to pass. Security forces did not have to confront anyone harshly. It was truly a blessed peaceful night, although the MDP officials tried to march towards Victory Square to meet head-on with the peaceful protestors; to deny them the freedoms which, it seems, can only be enjoyed in this country by pro-MDP activists.

Surely, this protest will be remembered through the history as the biggest and the most peaceful protest; a unification of political rivals over a single, noble cause: to protest Islam from a common enemy. This protest will be revised to practice the peaceful methodology and the art of peaceful protests in future.

This protest will be mother of many other protests for Islam.

Neither Islam is debatable for Muslims nor does the Constitution of Maldives for the public.

2011-11-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

Hasan A. Hilmy:

“The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, flog each of them with a hundred stripes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of the believers witness their punishment.” [Sura 24 - Al-Noor: Verse 2].

ARTICLE 2:

The Maldives is a sovereign, independent, democratic Republic based on the principles of Islam, and is a unitary State, to be known as the Republic of the Maldives. Any reference to “the Maldives” is a reference to the Republic of the Maldives.

ARTICLE 9:

(d) Despite the provisions of article (a) a non- Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.

ARTICLE 10:

(a) The religion of the State of the Maldives is Islam. Islam shall be the one of the basis of all the laws of the Maldives

(b) No law contrary to any tenet of Islam shall be enacted in the Maldives

Above is the verse in Holy Quran, the ‘Islamic Order’ and Shariah, which defines the verdict for illegal sexual intercourse and some Articles from the Constitution of Maldives which impose Islam as the only Religion and its orders to be enforced.

The verse gives no resolutions on modern Human Rights, drafted by us ‘Doubtful’ human beings, and the Articles gives no exception for United Nations Conventions and Declarations. Thus we cannot argue with God's order over our terms of uncertain ideas, nor can we argue with the constitution over norms of other cultures.

But here is how blind we are to see definite things over our arrogance, ignorance and political self-importance.

Pillay against Islam and Maldives

The UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, told the Maldivian parliamentarians on 24th November that Flogging women convicted of extra-marital sex is one of the most inhumane forms of violence against women, calling for a much "needed" public debate in the Maldives on the issue.

Moreover, she also called on Maldivian authorities to remove the "discriminatory" constitutional provision that requires every citizen to be a Muslim in a press conference on 25th November at United Nations Building in Male’.

Protests and Condemns:

Protesters gathered outside the UN Building in Male’ the same day, condemning UN human rights chief's comments against flogging and the constitutional provision that requires every Maldivian to be a Muslim. Protestors took to the streets of capital Male’ for a second day of demonstrations against UN human rights chief's comments.

On 26th November, Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem said that the government will not allow debates to be held in the Maldives on issues that are against the fundamentals of Islam.

Parliamentarians on 28th November condemned the comments made by UN human rights chief about flogging at the parliament session.

A religious conservative NGO, Salaf, later asked the UN representative in Maldives to investigate and take action against the UN human rights chief for her recent comments "against penalties stipulated by Islamic Shari'a Law".

Pillay expressed concerns over reports of rising religious intolerance in the Maldives, media reports quoted her spokesperson as saying after the community disorder.

Comments and other Concerns:

Every Maldivian should be confident in themselves in order to ensure that a statement made by a person does not shake their beliefs and faith, President Mohamed Nasheed said on 27th Novemebr evening Speaking at the function held at Dharubaaruge to present the National Award of Honour and National Award of Recognition. He also added that we must debate on doubtful issues and come up with conclusion at the expertise level, referring to religious uncertainties.

Vice president of Maldivian Democratic Party, Alhan Fahumee, said on 28th November that he did not believe Pillay’s comments were on Islam or did humiliate Islam. He urged it was constitutional and legal matters which Pillay brought to their concern to debate and come to an understanding.

Many skeptic minds around did praise Pillay’s comments honoring her as a human rights and freedom of religion’s activist. These comments were clearly seen at mainstream media comments and on social networks.

What is to Debate?

It is obviously definite that no Muslim can argue with Allah and question His book and order, Holy Quran. And no ordinary Maldivian can argue with the Maldivian constitution. So it is very clear what is to debate or not.

Even if you have doubts, you cannot argue with God and cut a flexible deal on your terms. For a conclusion, go back to the top of the post and read the verse from Holy Quran and the Articles in the Constitution of Maldives presented.

So it is as clear as Day and Night to identify what is 'Right' or 'Wrong' in this mayhem. Neither Islam is debatable for Muslims nor does the Constitution of Maldives for the public.

Free Media to Save Democracy

2011-11-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

Hasan A. Hilmy

Have you ever seen or read the same story reported in different media in Maldives? If so, you would have noticed how biased all the streams are. And if you find that funny or lousy, then you are ‘uncivilized’ as they explained.

Today we talk about politicizing religion; did you ever ask yourself what is not politicized in this nation? Among many, Media is the prime entity highly politicized for propagating a public to make us run like the rats that the pied-piper led to the sea.

Yesterday we talked about capturing independent institutions; in a democracy, media is expected to be the most independent. Did you notice how independent our state media and other media are? They are being dyed by the colors of political spectrum like shiny coatings.

As far as I know, media is compelled to give judgmental facts over findings, to the public for their own assumptions and conclusions. Media cannot report conclusive stories forcing the public to believe on. Exceptional is columnists and opinion segments. But when it comes to news, it has to be balanced.

It is important to free media and journalists from cognitive captivation of politicization and other obligations. We must not let the fourth estate of democracy or the fourth pillar of democracy fall along with the other three. If one pillar is to re-build when others fall, it is not by any doubt the Media. Because it is the entity which most influence the society’s course.

When Media is reasoned to intermediate between places and public, today, our Media is playing the role of office boys of those places which take only fabricated messages to the public. And it is funny when those boys deny they have any masters, while it is identified even by the blinds.

So what must come to the streets shall be a call to free Media Organizations, specially the Sate Media and broadcasting channels. I wish one day they will realized how much damage they are causing to the young minds and to the nation. Maybe today they can’t imagine with all those strings attached. But it is up to those without strings to convince them. So hereby I announce my fight to FREE MEDIA, to save DEMOCRACY.

Politicizing religion or being religious?

2011-11-24T15:46:00.001-08:00

Hasan A. Hilmy

Recent havoc in Maldives over irreligious ideological conflicts is projecting a future of chaos and instability not only in the political arena, but among all the positions, starting from everyday life style to national interests to diplomatic stakes.

We shall all agree that we can not change the fundamentals of Islam and its Shariah. It was not from the people to the people, but from the creator to the creation. And we can not argue with that order or shall not question God’s command.

The ideographic sculpts in the Pakistan monument during SAARC summit made a disorder among the public in Addu City. And there were talks from both ends defending and selling their point of view.

Those who erected the monument anticipated respecting the gift by Pakistan for diplomatic reasons and those who burnt it and toppled it intended to be Gods army. Talks defending their acts; those who erected it condemned the toppling and damages to the monument and gave justification referring to ethics of diplomacy, resistance to accept other culture and saying it does not contain any ideography of other religions. And those who toppled the monument and supporters of that cause said their act was to defend Islam and to show their stand against irreligious activities in this country.

However the justifications twisted the average public mentality and their beliefs, one thing seen very clearly was that pro-partisans stayed with their party stand no matter how wrong or right they could be. This gave a clear note for record on how blind and def some people are in a country claiming democracy, running under the “L” board so far.

A true democracy can never exist without a civilized majority of a public over how a nation could run as an Islamic Democracy. Sad but true, that majority of public is disabled to judge on their finding and rather depends on their masters who preach at political podiums and other assemblies.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief yesterday called on Maldivian authorities to remove the "discriminatory" constitutional provision that requires every citizen to be a Muslim. Pillay further reiterated her previous remarks at the parliament about flogging, saying that the practice of flogging women found guilty of extra-marital sex is against the international treaties that the Maldives has ratified.

This is what the west believes democracy would be. We must not forget our foundation of all the other rights and responsibilities is Islamic Shariah, which was sent from above more than 1400 years ago, carrying its weight and rule till the end of the world. And if we call ourselves muslims, we can not deny that order under any circumstances. Democracy is best advertized in God-made Islam than any other man-made declaration.

Maldivian history has given us many examples how we our practice of Islam was twisted over outside influences and under missionary agendas. And we all know-how western cultures and their religions try to tie up with ours with various gestures and words of wisdom. We also know how weak our Islamic beliefs are while simply counting the lines in mosques.

In such a distorted society, when havoc is made within religious matters and connected with political turmoil, the result could be really devastating. Think Again!

Sail to the dark side of the moon!

2011-11-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

I dedicate this poem to the very special person who inspired me to write this, and to all those Transformer fans and Radiohead fans, because the idea of the poem will resemble to the transformer 3 and Radiohead's "Sail to the Moon". Every word and every line means a lot in this poem, and so does the whole message. I hope the intended reader gets it all smooth and cool. ;) Enjoy!

Sail to the dark side of the moon!

Hasan A. Hilmy

Hey you hey you come sail to the moon

We will start our tale and back soon

They be they be talk fail in noon

We will hide in veil and boon

They say dark side of the moon is mysterious

And I wonder if they can be serious

Because they maybe too delirious

But we will just be imperious

So we take off where waves beat the sun

And land on the dark side to have fun

Do the ‘Hasanistic’ of all undone

And be back before rise of the fallen

So tell me tell me will you go to dreamland with me

Or will you wait there at least or be

For you for you I built this ship to flee

Say that you could that I can see

How history shaped Maldivian Political Culture

2011-10-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

Hasan A. Hilmy:

The political custom of Maldives and the division of political ideologies is shaped by their social norms in traditional nepotistic way. From earliest of practiced governments, kings and queens, the power was driven from the palace to the people. Whoever opposes was executed or jailed for treason and also for terrorism in recent years. This was a custom practiced by Maldivians since they began a community and starts governing it since 500BC or before.

Most of the customs were brought or imitated from ancient kingdoms of Asia. These kingdoms were ruled accordingly their beliefs. Most of the early civilizations were animists who later became Hindus and Buddhists in beliefs. Islam came along north to Indian subcontinents and dominated during 13th century. Christianity began when European colonization started early 16th century. These are the main evolutions of beliefs which affected the growth average Maldivian ideology, and shaping how they think towards just anything.

Although governed as an independent Islamic sultanate from 1153 to 1968, Maldives was under Portuguese colonization from 1558 for 15 years. During this period, Portuguese commanded from their base in Goa, bringing their customs mixed with south-west Indians. However again in mid 17th century, as Dutch defeated the Portuguese power in Ceylon, they began their mission in the Maldives as well. They got involved in local matters, which were governed accordingly to centuries-old Islamic cultures. After that Maldives was a British protectorate from 1887 until 25 July 1965. During these eras of colonial power in Maldives, people have transformed their lives and beliefs and Maldives itself took evolutionary steps in the political system.

In 1953, there was a brief, abortive attempt to form a republic, but the sultanate was re-imposed. In 1959, objecting to Nasir's centralism, the inhabitants of the three southernmost atolls protested against the government. They formed the United Suvadive Republic. Although it was brought down by top level militant mission against unarmed men by then prime minister, this was first of the unrest ever in Maldives calling for rights and reform to political system. After independence from Britain in 1965, the monarchy was abolished and replaced by the second republic. This was when the golden frames of the current political pictures were first placed on the wall of fame in the political arena.

These events have played a vital role shaping the current political picture by influencing on belief, environment and needs of people. And also two world wars and global economic trend also affected these changes along with many other factors of different scale. But we have seen average Maldivian ideology changing from accepting a ruling over belief to a person’s command to people vote.

The democracy Maldives experiences today was shaped hundreds of years ago. From the royal battles inside the palace to domestic violence for power and reforms in governance, from national sacrifice to state treason, from determines where Maldivian political story stands. The unrest Maldivians experienced few years back and huge transitional changes in the system were not just a coincident. It was a small piece of change came along with a huge tide of transformation. And this transformation would take few more decades to complete and stabilize as per the History and basic ideology of average Maldivians.

Unlike many other countries around the world and even in this region, Maldives hold unique features to present a complex ideological experience in any system. an archipelago of scattered islands, with very small populated communities, met with Arabian and South East traders in ancient times and some even settled, different cultures from all the corners of the world was brought in different time-intervals in different causes, practice only one religion for more than 800 years, a young republic, long ruled dictators, high political participation of the public and average open minded community is what makes Maldives a politically active nation today.

Maldives has been changing, transforming and evolving with global changes and imitating most wanted features since the beginning. All the influences and the causes in history have shaped the present day complex picture for today’s participating fighters in political arena to keep on evolving more. Stopping the spin would only be like pissing on their own history which created them. Going back in time and running faster forward faster than the real time, coming to the present moment, anyone can visionaries the future. And considering all these facts the future in the Maldivian political system needs more public involvement as of today, more political decisions than personal and more ‘from the people’ to ‘to the people’. There can be many images seen on the run, and only a visionary mind could explain it all. I am just a traveler in time!

From fighter to Protector

2011-10-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

- Hasan A. Hilmy -

Commander General of Northern Province, Mahinda Hathurusinghe

Beginning from July 23, 1983 onwards, there was an on-and-off rebellion movement against the government of Sri Lanka by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This civil war caused significant hardships for the population, environment and the economy of the country. With an estimated 80,000–100,000 people killed during its course. After a 26 year long military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.

Casualties of Armed forces during their fight against terrorism reached over more than 23,790 according to Minister of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who mentioned that on an interview with a state television. The number of civilians killed were more than 13,500 while records show 27,639 Tamil Tigers also perished during this civil war.

On Tuesday 27th September 2011, Commander General of Northern Province, Mahinda Hathurusinghe met with the students of Sri Lanka College of Journalism (SLCJ) visiting Jaffna to acquire more knowledge and experience for their studies. I was one of the students among them.

the commander General along with other senior officials of the office started the meeting with a short presentation about their effort in rebuilding the area and peace keeping. Hathurusinghe, who has won the prestigious gold medal in 2009 for his thesis "Strategic Military Victory over LTTE" during his master's degree course in the National Defence College of the Philippines, explained in details about their “Military Strategies over Aftermath of the War”. He also highlighted about the postwar conflicts and false allegation. The main objective of the session was to brief the students about the rebuilding process and the roles and responsibilities of army in it.

Army – The Builders:

Commander General said that the army in northern area is now acting more like builders and aid agencies rather than fighters. They are working hard to bring that place back to life. They have built several houses for homeless civilians and helped many families to resettle according to Hathurusinghe.

Hundreds of houses have been completed and handed over to rightful owners already. Thousands more houses are being planned to be built by the army in different locations in North. Once, hundred houses were built within just seven days by the army.

Army vs Media:

Some international agencies and media have put false allegations on human rights and war crime issues over the Sri Lanka Army and the government recently. Darusman report commissioned by the UN Secretary General reflects its view on Sri Lankan civil war, displaying a very biased idea and diplomatically weak points. It sometimes impels some people to believe UN is a failed organization, especially among most of the Sri Lankan people.

Even before this there were several media reports accusing Sri Lanka Army over offensive human rights matters and postwar crimes. One of them is the Channel 4 video, which shows unauthentic video footage of army brutality over enemies and civilians. The whole video became a conspiracy for many, and controversial challenge to Army as well as to media.

All these controversy, allegations, accusation and media restrictions in war areas made it a recipe for misconceptions and blunders. Sri Lanka army is responsible for slamming their doors on media’s face, while media is responsible for not being ethical over an emotional and a delicate matter for millions of people.

Commander General advised the young journalist in-making to go in-depth the stories and do ethical journalism. This is the time where journalist could play a huge role as peace keepers as well as informers., gives the impression in his speech.

Army vs Public

Today every Sri Lankan citizen is thankful to the Army. People today salute them on their daring sacrifice for the nation. Armed forces are today “Heroes of the Nation”.

There was not much choices and international laws and orders to follow when the war was drawing to a close. As in a comedy show in Maldives called “Maakana Show” character “Ayya” (who represent the president of Maldives) said during one show, “At a moment where Rajapaksa (President of Sri Lanka) holds a gun on Prabakaran’s (Leader of LTTE) face, and if he needs to clear an approval from international society, by the time the formalities are done, Prabakaran might kill Rajapaksa”. Sri Lankan armed forces were left with only one formality during the last battles of the war. That is to eliminate a deadly terrorist group for national and international safety.

Sri Lanka public was not concerns whether the army followed any international charter, orders, laws or regulations. “The country is free from terrorism. Whatever the cost was, there shall not be any hearings of it no more. We have suffered a lot, and it is time to move forward.” - says a Sri Lankan student studying international relations. My personal opinions is that, “The government might be guilty, but the army is not. And even if the government is guilty, people owe them pardon”.

Human inside the Uniform:

It is a popular belief that any military personnel is not a normal human being. But the person inside the uniform bears same human emotions and feelings as anybody else. Only difference is in their duty and responsibility, and how they should act and behave at times.

During a war they will be fighters. In domestic life, they live like any other ordinary person. When in times of national revivification, they become the builders and protectors. “We are shifting our image from fighter to protector”, that is what Commander General of Northern Province, Mahinda Hathurusinghe said.

The Image:

It will take some time for anyone to imagine flowers in an army soldiers hand instead of a gun. But gradually this image will become clear when people start talking right. Even those who speak blunders are not as wrong as they seem to be. There must be a reason for people who speak otherwise to do so. Maybe they are too confused of what they have seen and heard. And it is up to officials in uniform and government executives, to clear the physical and mental wreckages of war and rebuild the place.

Government of Sri Lanka should consider being more open to Media to avoid any further misconceptions, false allegations and wrong accusations.

The image of a Fighter to Protector is already in public’s mind. And with little effort, this image could be projected to the international community. For this, the Armed Forces need to minimize the restrictions to media personnel on the field and elsewhere and provide them with all the relevant informations. Only a hand-in-hand job with media and Army could bring up the image the General of Northern Province, Mahinda Hathurusinghe wants to transform to.

Trip to Jaffna - journal briefing

2011-10-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Hasan A. Hilmy

This is the summarized journal piece of writing about my trip to Jaffna Peninsula on 26^th to 30^th September 2011, as a field trip by our college, “Srilanka College of Journalism” (SLCJ).

Monday, 26^th September 2011

14 Hours to Reach Jaffna: Early morning I left to the city of Jaffna, the capital city of the northern province of Srilanka, along with my college (Srilanka college of journalism) colleagues on a field trip.

We left Colombo around 7am, and reached Kurunegala at 10am for breakfast. We then passed Dambulla and reached Anuradhapura, the sacred City, for lunch at around 2pm. From there it was a long ride till we reached A59, a check point before the Northern Province, at 4:30pm.

We faced a little hard time crossing the check point since there were two foreign students studying journalism. But since we were Maldivians, we got through without much difficulty.

Around 8pm we reached the hotel ‘Gnanam’, where we were supposed to stay. It was a 14 hour drive to Jaffna from Colombo on a tour bus.

During the ride, I was lucky to see some of the aftermath of the long lasted civil war. Ever since we entered Northern Province, we saw nothing but only wreckages on both sides of the highway. Demolished houses, burnt trees and lifeless deserts.

We had dinner after a hot bath and slept hoping to see some extraordinary sites the next day.

Tuesday 27^th September

Hindu Temple: After breakfast we hurried to see the famous Hindu Temple in Jaffna known as “Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil or Nallur Murugan Kovil” in Nallur. There we saw highly devoted Hindus performing their prayers and experienced their culture within that marvelous temple of great architecture and history.

This current building of the temple was first built in 1749 A.D and holds a great account of history and Hindu sacred stories.

Meeting with the Srilankan Army Commander General in Jaffna, Mr. Mahinda Hathurusinghe: we visited Civil Affairs and Public Relations Office, Security Forces Head Quarters, Jaffna to meet the commander general of Northern Province. He gave us a brief presentation about the aftermath of civil war and the roles of army in rebuilding the community.

“We are shifting our image from fighter to protector” says, Commander General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, during his presentation. And basic summary of the presentation was about army efforts in re-building a totally devastated region.

After the brief presentation and a Q&A session we were served tea outside the CAPR Office. I had a chat with one of the Army Brigadiers in Jaffna HQ. And he mentioned about the effort put by Maldivian President Mr. Mohamed Nasheed at UNHRC in Geneva earlier September 2011, defending Srilanka on offensive human rights allegation put on ‘Darusman Report’. The best thing that happened was that the Brigadier actually saluted me and my county for what our President did for them in Geneva. And he said “We owe you”. I was proud to be a Maldivian than ever before at that moment.

Visit to Jaffna University Cultural Exhibition: After lunch we visited Jaffna University to see a cultural exhibition. There we saw old but golden equipments used by the locals in their daily lives. We also saw religious sculptures and remains of some rich cultural pieces of historical arts destroyed during the civil war.

Then we went back to the hotel, and on the way we stopped at an ice-cream shop where I had 12 scoops of ice-cream to get rid of a stubborn dry cold. I know it is not the best method, but it did work for me. We had dinner around 9pm and went to bed exhausted travelling and exploring. But we all knew the next day would be more exciting and interesting.

Meeting with Jaffna district Fishermen: We went to an ice plant near the coastal area of Jaffna city to meet the president of “Jaffna District Fishermen Co-operative Society Unions Federation”. He spoke about their concern over Indian vessels fishing in SriLankan territory and difficulties caused by lack of equipments and boats which were lost during the civil war.

Wednesday, 28^th September 2011

Visit to Mines and Demining fields: We woke up at 6am and had our breakfast and then we were taken to a demining field somewhere in Muhamalai. There UN demining agency officials briefed us about their work there. We were briefed about how they do the demining and challenges faced by them.

We were told how fields were contaminated with mines and how it is slowing down the process of resettlement.

Then we saw a real field where soldiers were in the process of demining. It was a sight where I could actually imagine live war and could somewhat feel how it would have looked like during those times. It was a heavily fire exchanged war zone. The “Muhamalai Forward Defence Line” was the Army Defence Line separating the Sri Lankan Army and LTTE militia in North Central Kilinochchi from South Central Jaffna. . It was a breathtaking experience.

Meeting with the Government Agent (GA) for the Northern Province, Mrs. Emelda Sukumar: We were presented with the statistical figures of resettlement and the project details during a meeting with the GA at her office in Jaffna Town.

During her presentation I came to understand how much effort Srilankan government has put on to rebuilding war affected areas and developing the livelihood of people. In cost it was billions, and in effort it was just unbelievable. The figures show total completion of rebuilding is approximately 5% so far, which means there is a long way to go. All the ongoing projects and upcoming project details were presented, and it looks like those areas and people will be coming back to life soon.

The presentation was concluded with a Q&A session, where she gave more details about the progress. It was an interesting discussion full of information and humor too.

Meeting with Dean Arts, Faculty of Arts, Jaffna University: After that we went to Jaffna university to meet Dean Arts, Prof *****. He spoke about the roles and responsibilities of media during reconciliation and about maintaining a sustainable peace in that area. He also talked about language barrier and its conflicts in many aspects, between Tamils, Sinhalese and other people.

Then we came back to hotel and had our Indian Cuisine dinner and went to bed with a mindful of information and exposures of the day. Hoping the next day, also the last day, to be much more exciting and interesting.

Thursday, 29^th September 2011

Jaffna Fort: We started the day with a great tasty breakfast and went to Jaffna Fort, which was built by Portuguese in 16^th century when they invaded Jaffna.

Many incredible pieces of outstanding architectural structures were demolished during the civil war, when it was under LTTE from 1986 – 1996 and when SriLankan army recaptured the place in 1995 after 50 day siege during the Operation ‘Riviresa’.

It is being renovated now and will be back in original look soon. The civil war has destroyed many historical places. Those wonderful structures are now on ground zero for someone to wonder.

Jaffna Public Library: We then visited the Jaffna Public Library, one of the biggest library in South Asia, which was once burnt down in 1981. Government convicted LTTE of the terrorist attack while other sources say it was burnt down by the Government. Anyhow it was a mind-blowing structure and it projects the image of highly intellectual minds of the people of north.

Visit to Media Relation Training Center, Jaffna University (MRTC): We were welcomed by students studying media related courses and journalism at MRTC of Jaffna, by gifting us a hand-woven tourist hat. But we never felt like tourist even though we wore it, it was more like home.

We had a small meeting with senior journalists in Jaffna and officials of MRTC there. After their speeches on free media and civil war related reporting, we went into a hot debate as one of the editors of a Tamil newspaper claimed that he is a free-media activist while being way too biased.

After the Q&A session and debating, we shared our experience of the trip with them. I had to talk on behalf of my other Maldivian mate as foreign students. In my speech, I conveyed my concern over their growing negative emotions and complain rather than focusing more on moving forward as one. I told them that “there is a virtual wall between north and rest of the country as a huge barrier between people of one nation, built by bricks of all the negative impressions and misunderstandings, concreted with conflicts in languages.”

Followed by my speech there was a rousing speech by one of the English TV class (SLCJ) student Ms. Shafrina Shuvaib, a Tamil Muslim girl from Kurunegala, who can speak Sinhala, Tamil and English. It was a really touching speech by Shafrina to the audience for which she got strong ovations. She said that it is the time we must start believing as ‘one’ nation with no barriers of ethnicity, religion or any other beliefs.

We were served lunch there at MRTC by them with a strong farewell by the students.

Boat Ride to Nagadeepa: We then had almost an hour and half a drive to the northern cost Jaffna peninsula, passing few islands connected with reclaimed land bridges, to take a boat ride to Nainathivu / Nainatheevu (also known as Nagadipa or) is a small but notable island, where one of the first settlers called Naga People (Snake Woshipers) lives.

It was approximately 15 minutes ferry ride. And the ferry was scary because it was too packed, small and like a box with few holes which floats.

It was once in a lifetime opportunity to visit one of the northern islands of Srilanka. Nagadepa itself was a piece of history full of rich culture and astonishing sites and happy people. The island is also one of the naval bases for Srilankan Army.

Friday, 30^th September 2011

This day is the day we came back to Colombo on a 14 hour drive. We woke up at 4:30 am and left the hotel at 5am. We stopped at the entrance of Elephant Pass, located in the gateway of Jaffna Peninsula. It has thus regularly been the site of battles during the civil war. We saw the monument (demolished terrorist bulldozer) to remember the sacrifice of a Srilankan army man who attacked a terrorist bulldozer and gave up his life in demolishing it on a suicide mission.

We had our breakfast there and then continued our journey back. We had lunch in Anuradhapura and evening tea in Kurunegala on our way back to Colombo. We reached Colombo around 8pm.

Experience in Short: The entire trip was once in a life time experience, which I believe will have a huge influence in my future. The experience I had, the knowledge and information I acquired and the images I saw beyond the sites, gave me a reflection of what I shall do as responsible human being in making at least one life better for those with none.

I wish to visit Jaffna again, as a journalist this time, not as a journalist in-the-making. And I wish to uncover stories which have been untold for decades. I wish to bring out true stories behind the enemy lines and write about scars beyond the smiles. I wish to write my appreciation for Srilankan Army on their effort in reviving and bringing back life to a dead land. I wish to engage my pen to play my role to maintain peace in that area where people suffered for more than 2 decades. I wish to return there soon. In simple, it was an “Amazingly Awesome” experience in life.

Click this link to view more pictures at my Flickr gallery.

The journey of ‘Umbalakada’ (Dry-fish)

2011-09-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

-Hasan Abdulla Hilmy-

Early morning around 3 am, the ‘alarm crew’ goes on knocking on rest of the crew’s doors, starting from ‘keyolhu’ (Captain of the vessel in Maldivian terms), to head fast to the sea for the days catch of tuna in Maldives earlier in 19^th century. It is a traditional call for the crew during olden days and it’s said they used ‘boduberu’ (Maldivian traditional drum) to wake the rest of the crew. After a very unique and traditional brotherhood signs they then head to the ‘Dhoni’ (sail boat with motor or lateen sails). During those days they only used lateen sails to sail on the rough seas and catch tuna by using pole. At the end of the day they catch roughly around less than a ton of tuna in average. Those fishermen are no wonder today’s heroes of the nation, who eventually opened the economy and boosted it for other sources to stretch out.

As all the Maldivians agree, “Fishing is the lifeblood of Maldives.” Early Maldivians have built their whole life style on catching tuna and processing it domestically and industrially. And Srilanka was the vastest market for Maldivian tuna. Maldivians sell their tuna to ‘Colhubu’ (Colombo) after drying the fish, by steaming process, which then becomes the famous ‘umbalakada’ (dry fish). The story of how umbalakada ends up in Colombo starting from Maldivian high seas by men with poles riding on sail all day long is not easy to imagine, but it is the very first trade Maldivians and Srilankans had in time.

The story of the catch

Fishermen first sail for the bait. They have to catch it by using net during the sunrise. Unlike then, they now use flood lights during night time to bring the bait fish and catch it. But then sunrise was the only possible hour to catch them.

Live bait is then kept in buckets or special compartment in the Dhoni itself to keep it alive till they reach high seas where tuna is found. Today they use fish finders and GRS system to track schools of fish or tuna. But early fishermen in Maldives used sea birds flying over to track fish. The theory is simple; tuna goes hunting small fishes, and then the small fishes comes close to surface just to be safe from the tunas moving down them, and then the sea birds come and hunt the small fishes on surface. So where sea birds circle around and hunt on small fishes, tuna is there too.

Fishermen use pole to catch tuna, sail the Dhoni into the school of tuna and start throwing live bait fishes. Tunas come catching them near the Dhoni, and that when they get caught on the hook tighten to the rode on the pole of the fishermen. They keep catching till the Dhoni is full or they reach the end of that school. Then they start sailing back to the island.

It will be almost sunset when they reach the shore with the days catch. They then cut the fish at the shore and clean the fish. They sell few fish to islanders and then distribute among the crews accordingly and to the owner of the Dhoni and others involved in the small business.

The story of the production

The clean and cut tuna taken to the house is cooked by the women. The tuna is boiled in water mixed with little salt. It is called "Garudhiya" (Clear Fish Broth). Garudhiya is also boiled more to get "Rihakuru", a byproduct.

The fish is then kept on a “dhumashi” (a stand made up of coconut leave stem over the cooker to dry the fishes slowly with heat) over the wooden cookers, where it gets the heat whenever the cooker is on fire. The fish gets to be the dry fish after being there for several days. Once they reach a stock worth sailing for a trade, they pack their stuff for a rough ride to Colombo.

The story of the trade

Most of the umbalakada comes from southern part of the Maldives. It is about 700km in distance from Srilanka. It takes 1 to 3 months to sail from their island to Srilanka on lateen sails. The usual landing harbors were Galle fort, Colombo and Negombo.

Maldivians then can speak fluent Sinhala and they are known to be good tradesmen. They usually does ‘bata system’, by selling dry fish for other goods such as clothes, grocery goods, cutleries and oil. Some vessels travel to India with those goods and buy other goods from there even.

The basic source for income can be called dry fish. And it should be honored for the first ever relation established between Srilanka and Maldives.

The story of the bridge

Umbalakada or dry fish was the first ever product the bridge between Srilanka and Maldives. Today Srilanka is Maldivian ‘Big Brothers’. All these lead by a bridge constructed by umbalakada, a bridge which then made way to diverse range of other products and services nourishing economies of both countries and prospering wealth in regional aspects.

This is not just the journey of umbalakada, but the legacy of it bridging two Nations.

Thrives Like a Bud in Noon

2011-08-22T07:42:00.001-07:00

Some people give up in their life so easily when in times of sorrow. They didn’t realize that it’s just another hope for something brighter to happen, or maybe a signal for something more exciting to come. Well, it’s just an optimistic thought. But tell me, what is that you gain being pessimistic other than losing you self in drown? And this for all who thinks their life is a mess. I hope they will one day thrives like a bud in noon. I dedicate this poem to someone really special to me... :)

Thrives Like a Bud in Noon

Hasan A. Hilmy (22 august 2011)

There’s an end to all the human grief

For we all must seek a promising relief

There are times that we lose all the hope

And for that we try to hang a rope

But if you see beyond what you see

You will let yourself free

To smell the thriving buds of blooms

And fill your heart with more rooms

And you may never look back

To see what you lack

Because it’s all you get

And in time you forget

Try to see, what your heart does not sense

Through your mind and of all the nerves in tense

Try to make a picture out of it

For the days you will color it

And you will reach more height

With all the flying colors of bright

To thrive like a bud in noon

Of among the flowers in bloom

Young Minds to Promote Respect & Understanding - Maldives

2011-08-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

[Below is a paper I presented at Commonwealth Youth Program (CYP) Asia, "Workshop on Role of Youth in Promoting Respect & Understanding" in Chandhigarh, India in 2009. I believe that, there have been many changes since then and we need to highlight more areas and strategies in promoting Respect & Understanding. I hope this information would help some of you, who are interested in leading this cause]

“Young people should be respected. While the older generation might possess greater experience, young people have the intellect to understand and analyze problems and find solutions. Youth are also idealistic, and life is not worth living without idealism” ~ Commonwealth Youth Programme Asia Regional Advisory Board (RAB) Meeting in Pakistan-2007

Introduction to the Maldives

The Maldives is made up of over 1,900 coral islands, of which 200 are inhabited. It has a population of approximately 300,000 where people are scattered across 200 islands. The dispersed nature of population means that the overhead costs of providing basic services to the people are very high. It also makes it difficult to provide the necessary services to the island communities. Maldives has homogeneous populations who speaks the same language, has the same culture, religion and are the same race.

Youth definition

The National Youth Policy is directed towards young women and men aged from 18 to 35 years. Young people in this age group require social, economic and political support to realize their full potential.

Definition of “youth” is intended to include the primary target group, without excluding those who may fall outside the age group.

SOCIAL OVERVIEW

The impact of urban and rural disparities:

There is a wide scale disparities found among services and amenities as an issue for people of all ages, where many islands have fewer services and amenities. Male’ the capital enjoys the benefits of a wide range of modern facilities. As such for young people who live on islands other than capital the opportunities for education, employment, sports and recreation are limited. Subsequently, many young people and their families move to Male’ to overcome this problem.

Education:

Young people experience a number of problems in the field of education. Although all inhabited island contain primary level education the provision of secondary education is limited to a small number of islands. This requires many young people to leave their homes and travel for education.

There is also a need for further broadening of curriculum to reflect the vocational and economic needs of the country.

Youth Participation and leadership:

While our society sees the importance of the resourcefulness of its youthfulness of its population, many young people feel frustrated that their (actual and potential) contributions to society are sometimes unrecognized. By participating in social and community structures and organizations, young people are able to develop valuable skills and experiences whilst also building their self-confidence and self-esteem. Young people have and important contribution to make to our society and National Youth Policy provided a basis on which these contributions can be enhanced.

Crime and delinquency:

The incidence of crime and delinquency often involves young men and women. According to the statistics there is a high involvement in crimes among youth this is mainly associated often with other social and economic factors, including idleness or frustration and family problems. Recently, there has been an increase in youth crime in association with drugs.

PLICITAL OVERVIEW

Multi Party Democracy:

On 3rd June 2005 the Maldives took a critical step in its path towards constitutional reform, when the Majlis decided to open up the political system for the registration of the parties, pointing to a change in the ground rules of political engagement.

The commencing of political parties doesn’t only change the governing system in the country, but also the life style of its people. Most of the youth are very unaware of politics, law and human rights; this causes ineffective debates, annoying gossips, disrespectful acts and offensive violence in the community regarding political matters.

Some people define this change as “Slaying Peace for Political Agendas” while others define this as the new beginning of a refined nation.

Ratification of the new constitution:

The people’s special Majlis was established on 19th July 2004 to revise the constitution by His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom

The former president of the republic of Maldives his Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom ratified the new constitution on 7th august 2008

Recommendations:

Home:

Parents need to be aware of rapidly changing world and the respected issues such as economical, political, social and legal etc.

Parents should be aware of law, democracy and human rights to explain the core issues and solutions to develop the understanding and respect among their children and others.

Education:

Paragraph 181 of the Report of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding- “Civil Path to Peace”,

This recommends the importance of considering the school administration and its workforce to facilitate the young children to concentrate on the issues within the society.

A chapter or a module should be included in the education curriculum to promote the “Respect and Understanding” agenda, and also teachers should be facilitated to deliver the message beneficially.

One avoided tin can to recycle in England could destroy the white sand beaches of Maldives

2011-06-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

“one recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.” I saw this on a TV advertisement and a friend next to me asked how it could be possible. Without much of the technical figures and data, I said that recycling it would save the energy of the whole process of creating one starting from mining to the factory hazards. And he gave a mocking laugh and said “what the hell is that to do with us? We are not the one wasting energy to create another one… we live in a paradise of sun, sand and sea”. Well, his perception is correct in a way if only everything in this earth is not connected. As the famous quote of “butterfly effect” says, “the presence or absence of a butterfly flapping its wings could lead to creation or absence of a hurricane.”, one avoided tin can in England for recycling could lead to destruction of those white sand beaches in Maldives. You never know. When it comes to climate, there are no continents or borders; it is the ‘earth’ only.

Scientific explanation, indeed, a simple explanation to this theory is not hard to understand. To make another new tin can instead recycling an existing one, more energy will be needed. In other words, more oil is burnt. This simplifies the explanation to emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Well, you know what after that right? Yes, increasing global temperature or ‘Global Warming’. And who are most vulnerable to this effect? The white sand beaches, isn’t it? And don’t ask me how, because we all know the story of ‘submerging of Maldives’ and other low lying nations by rising sea level from melting of arctic ice due to global warming.

We the smart human beings sometimes ignore simple facts to believe and study on more complex things. And while we come to conclusion on those hard equations, we might not be able to use it since we ignored the simple fact and are already facing its consequences.

Global warming is real. We must act now to stop it. I don’t know what corporate society and international organizations would do to stop it. But I know what individuals can do. And believe me; individuals could make a bigger and a better impact than those “all-but-talk” folks. So start conserving resources like energy and water. Start recycling paper, plastic, tin cans, glass and other solid wastes. Start multiplying plants and encourage others to do the same. Most of all, start acting now.

After all, climate change is caused by human activities. And science has proven that over skeptic’s debate to save the top business and selfish morons. So only human activities could alter the change too. So the question is, are you human?

Israel, a “State of Mind” for Maldivian Government

2011-06-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

[DISCLAIMER]: This article is not for or against any political institution or person. This is my opinion about Maldives and Israel diplomatic relation as a Muslim, Maldivian and a student of International Relations. I do not intend to promote any ideology or philosophy towards this presented subject.

I wrote this article because I still don’t know why Maldives established diplomatic relation with Israel. If only the government would understand the sensitivity of a Muslim heart toward Palestine and Israel conflict, they wouldn’t even dare to call its name.

President Mohamed Nasheed announced a decision to renew ties with Israel, making a crucial speech from the UN podium of the General Assembly. And he established diplomatic relations with the State of Israel on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath on 25 September 2009. And this decision is still controversial among the public entirely Muslim population.

How Israel was formed:

Israel was formed as a modern state in 14th May 1948. The nation was founded as the result of the Zionist movement, an effort to establish an independent Jewish homeland, which began in the 1890s. Israel was created from part of Palestine in order to create a homeland for the Jewish people. A sector of Palestinian land was placed aside and Israel was built on that sector of land by a special committee appointed by UN after the World War II. Since about 1970 the USA has been the principal ally of Israel.

Maldives Foreign Relation with Israel:

State of Israel was declared independency on 14th May 1948. Maldives became the first Muslim country to recognize Israel as a state as they were first recognized by Maldives in 1965 by His Majesty King Mohamed Fareed. The first ambassador from Israel to Maldives was Mr. Abraham Darome. He was the first ambassador from a foreign country to Maldives. However Maldives withdrew recognition from the Jewish State in the late 1970's under pressure from Islamic activists who were students at Egypt's al-Azhar University (from 1950-1960).

Maldives did not supported calls for the expulsion of Israel from UN, upholding its commitment of keeping the neutrality of the UN. In 2005, the Maldives co-sponsored the resolution tabled by the USA on holocaust remembrance, and in 2007 it also co-sponsored the US-led resolution on condemning holocaust denial. In response to the Oslo peace process, the Maldives relaxed private sector restrictions on ties with Israel.

Relations between Israel and Maldives are not very strong until the new government of the Maldives came into power in 2008. From 1978 to 2008 there were no official relations between Israel and the Maldives. The current president of Maldives, Mr Mohamed Nasheed has announced that he would like to establish diplomatic relation with Israel.

The square explanation:

President Mr. Mohamed Nasheed and his foreign policy administration say they need to accept Israel as a state and make diplomatic relation to free Palestine and make peace between two nations despite the fact that Israel is the biggest enemy for humanity and Islam.

However the government says they cannot solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine if they pick sides or become cruel to Israel. But in the same situations like this, the foreign policy doesn’t talk the same. For that sometimes it brings out so many questions about the uprightness of the Maldivian Foreign Policy.

Gaddafi devil than Israel:

Mr. Mohamed Nasheed’s Administrations hard talk is always based on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, human right and democracy. They even withdrew relation between 41 year old Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, highlighting on the human rights violation by Gaddafi’s during the recent unrest. Maldives rejected Gaddaffi’s administration saying they violated human rights and good governance, and accepted rebel movement. The foreign policy in this case rejects those who violate human rights, democracy and international laws. But this leave us with a question, is the policy for this case only???

Libyan leader Gaddafi must not use arm against innocent civilians calling for rights, it is true. It is totally against International Declaration of human Rights and other conventions on civil rights as well. But on the other hand we shall not forget what Israel did to Palestinians to conquer their land. We shall not forget what Israel did to Palestinians when they protest against the 6 days war of Israeli Independency killing thousands of Palestinians and Syrians. We shall not forget that Israel used full arm, weaponry, tear gas and even mass destructive weapons against poor Palestinian civilians. And these actions did not violate human rights for Maldives or any other nation in the world. Ghaza and Lebanon war crimes are better not to be mentioned. We all know how Israel killed thousands of unarmed Palestinians men, women and even children in raids with no proper justification even after that. So why can’t Maldives withdraw the diplomatic relation with Israel?

Pity for Suu Kyi not for 4 million Palestinians

Maldives called to release Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi when she was detained as a political prisoner, and other companions along with her. President Mohamed Nasheed was one of the active leaders campaigning for her release in the name of democracy and human rights. But where is the ‘bravery’ to call to liberate Palestine?

When some countries violate human rights, democracy and other good governance practices, Maldives foreign policy talks against and for different countries in different tone. Maldives foreign policy dances to-and-fro, but not for the beat of public heart. If only the Maldivian government feel the beat of Muslim hearts, if only they could hear the cries of Palestinians, if only they could see the blood baths in their Montessori’s, if only they could refrain from Zionism…. :( Sad but true!!!

If you haven’t done peace with mother-nature, do it now!

2011-06-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

We homo-sapiens took only 200,000 years to invade a 4 billion year old planet by changing its natural balance using its own extracts. It took almost 4 billion years for earth to create all the natural wonders and sufficient balance of life for us to live on. It took massive equations to keep the circle of life running smooth for all living beings. It had to start as a giant fireball, to a water-ball as we see today, and in-between it has to face catastrophic stages in shaping a perfect land for us humans.

We human beings began our lives relying on just anything around us provided by nature. We have used from root to leaves, from grains of stone to mountains, from small ponds to oceans and from any matter in the inner earth to atmospheric matters to help evolve in this earth and move along passing defined and undefined milestones marking ‘revolutions’. One thing we left behind at the first place was our mind even though we call ourselves the smarted species in this world. And I have enough facts to tell why.

Global warming, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, desertification, erosion, storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, arctic ice cap melting, rising of sea level, whitening of corals… etc. you name it, all the environmental issues are caused by human beings. If you ask me how most of the devastating disasters took place, I would say it’s all ‘man made’. and we the ‘smart human beings’ spend all our time trying to experiment and innovate methods to kill ourselves in the most harmful way. I would say we remember to bring our mind at the first place we decided to go this revolutionary.

We can also argue how smart we are testifying human creations and innovations all around. I wouldn’t deny that fact, but I refuse to believe that most of the world policy makers do their job for many generations to come. Consequently they decide only for today, in other words, they only see up to their nose tip. Why I say this, I bet you all know. Or if you don’t, then take this simple example. World policy makers won’t agree on changing to renewable energy or promote energy efficiency because oil may lose its ruling over the world, or today’s masters will lose all their puppets. What they don’t know is that they can’t run the show if there is no circus.

But only thing which stands between success and we is our perception. So let’s not try to be skeptic over environmental issues. Or at least let’s not be enemies of environment if we can’t be friends to it. Think about the earth which gives us shelter, think about the mother-nature which holds the balance for us to live upon, think about every single thing and how important it is to our survival despite the size, matter or interest. Be kind to our environment! :)

Happy Environment Day to you all. Do something extraordinary and save yourself and others.

Infanticides running through our veins

2011-05-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Abandoned new born baby found on Hulhumale´ beach on 25th November 2010, was the hottest news headline which concluded last year in Maldivian unstable-social climax. Baby was found with her umbilical cord and barley alive pulsating. Police later found signs of torture too. She was later adopted by her foster parents selected by a special committee appointed by the government officials with the Attorney Generals recommendations.

A gathering to raise awareness over such cases was organized by social activist groups in Maldives at Hulhumale’ beach regarding the case. Message from that beach was spread all over the nation and media was busy spreading same awareness messages to public. Best advantages were taken by hungry vulture politicians, who always look for dead meat.

Not enough awareness after all. Just six months after that, 5th may of this year was again deadly shocking for the whole politically drowned nation. A dead infant found at the swimming track of the capital Male´ dumped on a plastic bag with the infant’s placenta and umbilical cord too. Police later said signs of torture were seen in the infant’s body. Photo of the infant found was all over Internet and could be the most tagged picture in facebook among Maldivians recently.

Maybe it wasn’t so entertaining of a show. Fifteen days after on 20th may, another dead premature baby was found in Vilimale bushes enclosed in cost milk tin. The next day police announced the arrest of the mother of the infant and a woman suspected of helping the infanticide.

But just after minutes later another dead infant found in Hulhumale park near a mosque, wrapped in a piece of cloth and dumped in a plastic bag. Police said it was a baby boy thrown days or hours ago as the dead infant was in a stage of decay.

Child abuse, gang rape, pedophilia, gang violence, murder, slaughter, arson, day light robbery, mugging...etc, crimes are no longer new to the few years ago peaceful Maldives. But infanticide is something more inhumane than these crimes. Something a Muslim human would very rarely dare to commit.

After all these inhuman acts, we can see everyone talking about cases and writing their opinions in various platforms. We have seen many people condemning the acts and calling for justice. When we go through such platforms, all we see is a very aware public on such issues where people ¨talk a lot¨. When we go through the law-enforcement agencies what we see is how busy they ¨write a lot¨. So where goes the ¨act a lot¨? Yes, we miss the actions to prevent such crimes and real actions to aware public over such crimes.

People show their pity over all the dead infants, but they do not tend to show their real concern over falling social-stability in the country. Authorities blame each other for failing the structure to serve justice and prevent crimes, but they never blamed themselves for failing in their responsibilities. What we need now is not to voice-out against such crimes, but to call for proper systems to stabilize to community and strengthen the fabric of society. What we need is to minimize urban and rural disparities and minimize the act of illegitimate sex. Most of all, what we need is to differentiate between ¨humanity¨ and ¨inhumanity.¨

Hulhumale' beach where the new born baby was abandoned on 25th Novemeber 2010

The police line blocking access to the area where the premature was found in vilimale' on 201th May 2011 [Haveeru Photos]

The plastic bag, which contained the dead infant wrapped in a black shawl, found during the early hours of May 22, 2011 from the park near the mosque in Hulhumale. [Haveeru Photos]

Mugshots released by Maldives Police Service on May 22, 2011 show Aiminth Shaaira (L), who is believed to be the mother of the dead premature baby found on May 20, 2011 in Villimale, and Fathimath Aniya, who is suspected of aiding the delivery of the baby found enclosed in a Coast Milk tin thrown away in the bushes near the powerhouse in Villimale. [Haveeru Photo]

The plastic bag, which held the placenta, placed over the body of the dead infant found from the swimming track in capital Male on May 5, 2011. [Haveeru Photo]

Protesters and government both need to STOP the hooliganism and set more HOPE for the nation

2011-05-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

People gathered in youth square protesting against government over its economic policy.

A series of protest led by opposition leaders by the name of youth has increasingly created a ‘shake’ in Maldivian old fashioned demonstrations. They are demonstrating over the faltering economy.

In a speech earlier at president Nasheeds term, he promised to the nations that price of goods would not rise, price of Maldivian rufiyaa wouldn’t go down and that fishermen and other industries would benefit a great income with his economic policy.

This was on bold and strong words. I remember hearing it several times and it is still on record. What I do not understand is how he changes what he says when it has changed from his words. What I do not understand is how he manages to escape with such tricks. Maybe he is too smart or the rest is too stupid.

Today he couldn’t keep the promise and still manage to convince the public with great excuses. After all, his excuses were real truth he could have told before without showing illusions to public just to buy some support for elections.

This results to series of anti-governmental protests in the capital male’, leading to social instability, individual injuries and property damages. The protests have reached its 6th consecutive night and 7th protest in a row against government.

What I do not understand is why would anyone protest to reduce price of goods and increase the value of a nation’s currency??? Economy cannot be made better by protests and demands, and people should know this.

Maldives is not the only country facing rise in price and economic downfall. It’s a global crisis and we need to increase our own productivity and bring a stable change by long-term investments to boost productivity. I am not an economist nor i know much about economy. But I know this, no country can go without facing economic crisis. and once faced these crisis, neither protests nor protests against the protest can fix it. Only plans and lot of sacrifices can fix it. So people, STOP talking and START working!

We all are not economists. And we should give technical people to do their job and believe them. We cannot voice out against their policies before it has been implemented, while they have the right to plan and implement any policy they want since they are ruling the executive.

So I request those who are not happy with the current regime to criticize the government make them held accountable and voice out against them or even protest against them, but save your own account in-terms of truth and justice. And I request the government, especially president Nasheed, not to make false promises and to STOP showing illusion and to do whatever you can to save the nation from crisis.

My final request to my dear brothers and sisters as someone who do not have any knowledge like the rest; “please do not set your focus on today or tomorrow, set it far beyond that.”

Your Beauty Over Roses

2011-04-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

The following poem is about a picture, a picture of a gorgeous girl holding 3 beautiful red roses for her lover. And the poem goes as such, read by her lover to her. This is just a wild guess of the feelings the guy would have once seeing the picture and the story behind it. And this is also my first experience translating a picture into a poem.

Your Beauty Over Roses

Oh you held the roses,

For whom felt the fondness.

Though you kept it on heart,

Saw knees bent and hurt.

Beauty of your skin,

Losing motion of hair,

The touch by roses,

Leave your beauty over roses.

Is that for affection?

Or just for adoration?

But you lead with devotion.

So be keen on passion.

Your body says you need more

More of what you had

But your hair says you had nothing

Nothing of what to have more

So tell me tell me I owe you

Of all that I never had for you

And let me let me say to you

Of all that I never had said to you

System Error!!! – a brief overview on recent Maldivian political system

2011-04-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

“What right is right, what wrong is wrong.” I always believed that I must always praise the good and criticize the wrong. But it is sad sometimes people take critics personal though I intend to note that wrong only meaning to make it right. When I look at the Maldivian political system from an eye of an ordinary citizen, I do not see any good unfortunately. So critiques are all I have this time, but then again, I intend to make this note to make the wrongs rights.

Maldivian Political System

Maldives is governed by three separated divisions of powers (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary), which is the best practice political system for modern democracy. Unfortunately, the system seems malfunctioning since the common ideology of all three branches is rather out of the ordinary. Parties are driven by ‘personal’ than ‘policies’. This determines how the parties dominating the branches could function. The challenging part is that the ‘executive’ and the ‘legislature’ are dominated by two arch rivals in nature which is Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) respectively. The judiciary power is endorsed and proposed by the executive and then approved by the legislature and the consequences of the clash can be shocking.

President H.E Mohamed Nasheed (middle) with speaker of the peoples majilis, Hon. Abdulla Shahid (left) and chief justice Uz Abdulla Saeed (right), during democracy fair 2009.

‘Checks’ and balances

To prevent one branch becoming supreme than others while protecting the "opulent minority" from the majority, and to induce the branches to cooperate, government systems that employ a separation of powers need a way to balance each branch. Typically, this was accomplished through a system of "checks and balances", the origin of which, like separation of powers itself, is specifically credited to Montesquieu (a French philosopher). Checks and balances allow for a system based regulation that allows one branch to limit another, such as the power of parliament to alter the compositions and proposals of the executive.

Real outcome seems different despite the fact that all three powers claim to keep the practice. Three branches also try to overtake the supremacy of other branch through the “disable constitution” ratified on 2008. Factors commanding to these radical actions are the burning heat of hatred, enmity and power hunger within the crooks in the system. This leads to only checks and no balance in the system.

Minority government

The current government came to office winning 2008 presidential election on the second round with the help of coalition, thirsty for a ‘Change’ to bring down the dictator Gayyoom. What everyone left behind during this process of change is what we wanted is just ‘change’ or ‘better change’.

MDPs presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) took the oath of office on Tuesday, 11th November 2008, after a hard struggle during the change process. He won 24.91% in the first round behind Gayyom on 1st holding 40.34%. Following the first round results, it was announced the second round since no candidate could win more than 50%, and then other 4 candidates joined MDP foaming a coalition and won the second race by just 53.65%. The coalition doesn’t last longer. The parties in the coalition broke up and now they are opposition. Which technically means government is holding the support of 25% that they won alone in the race or a few percent differences in that.

The current government runs the office ‘practically’ on minority scale as per the results of presidential, parliament as well as council elections. And the consequence leads to a major SYSTEM ERROR during the infant stage of democracy.

Monkeys in parliament

Majilis of the Maldives’s election was held on May 9, 2009. The Majlis term is five years and then must be dissolved as pertained in the current Constitution of the Maldives. Maldives now uses the ‘first past the post' system. The election results was; Dhivehi Rayyithunge party (DRP) winning a majority of 28 seats (36.36%) leaving behind the ruling party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) with 26 seats (33.77%) while DRPs coalition party, People’s Alliance won (PA) 7 seats (9.09%), independent candidates won 13 seats (16.88%), Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) won 2 seats (2.6%) and Jumhoory party (JP) with only 1 seat (1.3%).

Together with the coalition, common ideology independent candidates and other small party candidates the oppositions hold a majority of more than 55-60% average during sessions.

How the majority controlled in the parliament makes the executive reckless rather than responsible for the mandate. How negligent parliament is not unknown to any single citizen who now regret for electing their members then turn out to be monkeys. Ask any Maldivian to comment on parliament and 90% would be of negatives than positive comments. But the monkeys still argue on reasons why they should justify how some got BMWs, how they raped under aged children, how they won billion USD bids without proper tender procedures, how they walk out from courts on bribery and loan fraud trials and how they brought another MRF 20,000 incensement to their existing MRF 62,000 + allowance salary while the whole nation suffers an economic down term as well as civil servants salaries are cut down. These are not just all, but their ‘little monkey game’ is more annoying than to explain here.

They have been at office since March 2009 and they come to pass very few bills until now. They have got many bills on committee stage from which most of them are very urgent, some regarding criminal law, economic law and social protection law. But are always busy debating on their vacations and increasing their salaries. The selfish MPs are known to all Maldivians as ‘bloody monkeys’, who just act before people and beg saying “I need some cash”.

Handicapped Judiciary

Constitution is supposed to give its people the right to live equally with maximum rights, freedom and independence along with responsibilities. And one who offends the laws endorsed by the constitution shall be punished to keep the harmony and peace within. But if the harmony and peace loses its springs and violates the society more every day, doesn't that mean the law set is 'disabled' or law-enforcement authorities and institutes are 'disabled'???

Crimes rates in Maldives has raised, shocking the society and creating a dark cloud of fear and terror all over the fragile nation who never heard of ‘gang violence’ until very recent. There are many factors triggering for these social instabilities other than a ‘failed system’. But being sheltered under a ‘disabled constitution’ and ‘disabled law-enforcement agencies’, it is hard to keep the justice and abide the law which then supports to continuing the crimes and repeating same crime by the same person number of times. It has been recorded that 29 murder cases since 2008 during gang violence and most of the suspects are ‘friends of jail’. They have been convicted and even sentenced several times. There comes the question of the reliability of law-enforcement agencies.

The whole judiciary system is governed by ‘chief justice’, and watched closed by ‘Judiciary Service Commission’ (JSC). The supreme institute within is the ‘supreme court’. The turmoil within this division is that the JSC is hijacked by some unprofessional crooks who are often ‘nether here neither there’. And few professionals find it hard to regulate the whole judiciary and end up being labeled ‘rebels’ of the nation.

Law-enforcement agencies such as; civil courts, high court, supreme court, Maldives police service, attorney general office, prosecutor general’s office, special commissions and other institutes enforcing law has really no common grounds in their work. Each of the entities argues with their technical provisions that they are professional but they have no idea to connect their professional world with the other entity within the branch or outside.

The sad part is that most of the appeals to courts regarding crimes end up before going to courts. As Shakespeare said “Kill all the lawyers”, is the best option it seems for now.

It’s said that only two bills regarding crime prevention is passed from the parliament. Sad but true, that there is no witness rights law in Maldives, which is really vital during most of the cases. Since that component is missing, most of the cases are closed to criminals favor saying that there’s no ‘enough evidence’. Criminals seek advantage through law as the law was designed at parliament by the ‘Monkeys in parliament’ (MPs) in an approach they can manipulate it for political advantages through ‘loop holes’ they created on purpose.

Biased media

Media is the ‘fourth estate’ or the ‘fourth pillar’ in democracy, the watch dog for other three branches and everything around. Media is the most indispensable entity in any democratic system. Media also hold the power supreme to other three branches in public affairs. But it is also fragile because the evils eye is always set on it for manipulating it for their advantage. This is why media can never be 100% ‘independent’ and why we see ‘factional media’.

Maldivian media is utterly biased and the reason is very clear. Maldives was previously under a dictator where freedom of expression / speech was not at all permitted even though the constitution gives the rights clearly on bold words. During those days, media was dictators ‘show reel’ for propagandas and for his own entertainment by ‘brain washing’ people. Since the ‘change’ took place recently, the custom is put into practice at different heights in media.

All the companies and corporations in media are entirely one-sided. If you take any TV channel, radio station, online news or print paper, it will be telling stories from one side and projecting a ‘mass propaganda’ instead of real ‘two-side’ reporting. Try watching MNBC One, Dhi TV and VTVs news on a same incident and judge the Maldivian media yourself.

Chaos theory now

We are to witness the greatest chaos and turmoil within our political system today. All the above mentioned facts plus the politics inside the branches to party politics and island politics is way off the practice. Most of the people in the system are ‘neither here neither there’, and most of them are ‘big shot corrupts’. Those who run the show play a picture which says you will see a ‘big picture’ which apparently never appears. And others outside sells black tickets to another show while some walk on red carpet with flashes and autographs demanding behind the rail. Some sits and plays chess on checkered room itself while others play cards with wild cards on. And I say, “It is all a game, not about winning but being part of it.”

A good word is like a good tree. ~ Quran.

2011-04-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

The following article is taken from one of the blogs of Ustaz Zhulkeflee Bin Haji Ismail. You can visit his main website here.

أَلَمۡ تَرَ كَيۡفَ ضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلاً۬ كَلِمَةً۬

طَيِّبَةً۬ كَشَجَرَةٍ۬ طَيِّبَةٍ أَصۡلُهَا ثَابِتٌ۬ وَفَرۡعُهَا فِى

ٱلسَّمَآءِ تُؤۡتِىٓ أُڪُلَهَا كُلَّ حِينِۭ بِإِذۡنِ رَبِّهَا‌ۗ وَيَضۡرِبُ

ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡأَمۡثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمۡ يَتَذَڪَّرُونَ

“Seest thou not how Allah sets forth a parable (similitude)?― a goodly Word like a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the heavens― It brings forth its fruit at all times, by the leave of its Lord. So Allah sets forth parables (similitudes) for men, in order that they may receive admonition. ”
(Qur’an: Surah Ibrahim: 14: 24-25)

REFLECTION

“Sub-HaanAllaah” When I reflect that the main message of al-Islam is Tawheed (“Laa-ilaaha-il-lalLaah”), the kalimah given to every Prophets being “a good word” (kalimah toy-yibah) from Allah, from thence its teachings bloom and grow – this parable (similitude) is most apparrent and profoundly apt.

Consider the SHAHADATAIN. It is like the seed, containing every potential to a tree, be it the foundational creed (like the root), and the potential edifice of a way of life exuding goodness and righteous deeds (like the branches and the manner how a good tree is bound to grow). This requires nurturing. The declaration of this SHAHADATAIN contains both, conviction of its truth, as well as the first act of commitment – a promise to always strive to uphold it as a ‘Witness’ unto all & every nation – that I am a Muslim. With my life I bear witness to all, that there is none to be worshipped except Allah alone, Who has no associate nor partner, and Muhammad s.a.w. is a servant and the Messenger of Allah.

Just as a seed when first nurtured in the ground must begin to grow, SHAHADATAIN is that growth, the impetus, motivation, the self-actualization that must be kept alive with striving and continual struggling, come what may. Just as the seedling grow in two directions, the root (hidden underneath the soil) as well the outward manifestation of its sprouts. Similarly, in SHAHADATAIN, it represents the underlying creed (belief system i.e. aqidah – “arkaan al-iiman,” of the unseen or al-ghayb) as well as the commitment, consciously declared, to fulfill the susequent practices in submission to the Will of our Creator (“arkaan al-Islam”-pillars of Islam). Just as a seed has the potential to split the hardest of rocks, so too the Shahadah of a true Muslim.

AQIDAH (the Islamic creed) enumerated by the Prophet s.a.w. as (“arkaan-al-iiman”)is an important aspect of the ‘growth’ of a Muslim. its acquisition requires development of conviction to the Truth and the meanings of life and Existence that it seek to inculcate, unto which we are to bind ourselves to them, as anchor – making us to remain firm and stable throughout the trials & tribulations of life. Thus, our believe in it cannot remain static but must be nurtured to continously grow ever deeper – our understanding of them ever profound and penetrative. As nobody else could see this growth, do not disregard its importance to our own selves. A tree with static or shallow roots would be in constant danger of collapse.

AS-SWOLAH , the 5 daily devotional prayers of a Muslim, is likened by the Prophet s.a.w. as the pillar, the column or upright superstructure, of our religion (“imad-du-al-Deen”). The likeness of it is as in the growth of a good tree, after the sprout, its growth would entail development of a solid and strong trunk. A tree would have to be differentiated from creepers and weeds. A tree would easily stand out amongst shrubs and bushes, and be in a class of its own. And the tree-trunk is that which links the roots to the other parts of the tree – distributing all the beneficials nutrients. Similarly, faith without outward performance of deeds is empty, outward performance without faith is mere rituals. It is when both are dynamically combined that a person becomes true inward and outward, his deeds strengthening his faith and his faith strengthening his deeds. Thus the Prophet s.a.w. asserts that difference between a believer and non-believer can be discerned from the performance or non-performance of “As-Swolah.”

The tree as it grow, it requires to produce its own food and nourishment. We learnt that the green leaves (chlorophyll) react in sunlight to produce its food, through a process called ‘photo-synthesis’. In this process, it significantly contributes in cleansing the atmosphere by taking in the carbon dioxide, and releasing oxygen back. Its leaves, stems, branches provides shades and helps to sustain the eco-system as it serves also food and nourishment for others.

This is amazingly similar with a Muslim. After As-Swolah, the next pillar to be fulfilled by Muslim is Az-Zakah. This is the compulsory tax upon wealth of a Muslim which is to be distributed to certain categories of poor and needy. In life we need to acquire wealth to sustain our life, yet in doing so we are expected to contribute towards others. Also the meaning of Zakah is both “to purify & make it grow.” It purifies a Muslim from greed, miserliness which material wealth and possession can affect our hearts, as well as teaches us that there are always surplus given to us in our wealth, which are meant for others. Unless and until we give to whom it is due, our wealth may not be regarded as pure, and the concept of growth is not in the amount, but rather in how much it benefitted others too. Indeed, a tree’s submission to the natural law can be a powerful lesson in that – for us to live, we must also contribute towards the welfare of those who need.

A good tree always protect itself from the extreme elements present in its environment. It grows layer of bark on its trunks and branches to sheild itself from the effect of harsh weather, parasites and other harmful elements. Stripped of its bark, it would be exposed to many parasites and be harmed. Thus without fail, each year a new layer would be formed, and thus a tree’s age can be known by measurement of its rings of bark which it had. When we consider te next pillar of Islam for Muslim is the SAUM (Daily Fasting of Ramadhan).

The purpose as commanded by Allah s.w.t. is for Muslim to learn self-restrain and attain to true consciousness of God (Taqwa), It is like a one month intense traing or exercise of self-restraint, that it strengthens a Muslims spiritual resolve to adhere only to Allah’s command and totally refrain from whatever He has forbidden. By the end of Ramadhan. Muslims would have attained to greater height of self-discipline and restrain through being conscious of Allah s.w.t.(Taqwa). Hopefully, after gaining it, it does not wane, but we are to maintain or increase it until the next Ramadhan. To liken SAUM (fasting) as a sheild, is also very true. It is only with our inward spiritual strength, based on Taqwa, that one can assure oneself of immunity from outward harm, as it is our greatest sheild in our journey in life. It is our ability to say “No!” and capacity to resist every temptation that really matters, because in life we cannot avoid coming into contact with them. Every year this sheild is renewed, and the true age of a Muslim can be determined by the number of Ramadhan he had gone through.

Observe how a tree grows. Although slow, almost undetected by man yet it patiently perservere towards its destiny – cm. by cm. upwards towards heaven, or towards light. When obstructed, it tries to overcome by pushing, if unable then to seek other path without forgetting to persistently continue to grow. It seem as though it possesses an in-built compass, and a determination to journey towards a certain end, although it is seen by us as remaining static. Also, trees seldom grow in solitude, but would be clustered together for strength and mutual dependency in jungle or forests. Each even assisting one another to continue growing towards heaven and sunlight.

Likewise, for a Muslim, the commandment to undertake the pilgrimage to Makkah or HAJJ, for those who are capable, contains a powerful and practical lesson on Jihaad (Striving with our utmost and sacrifice in Way of Allah). What Muslims can learn is that life is a sure journey towards our Maker, and thus we must always prepare ourselves to the Day of meeting with Him. It teaches us to patiently struggle, purify ourselves, perservere and to always be ready to make sacrifices, to emulate the prophet and compete in every righteousness, to battle evil and falsehood, to learn about steadfastness, compassion and unity of brotherhood amongst believers, and many other. Even those Muslim who are not able to, or yet to go, their faces are constantly made to turn towards the Ka’abah in Makkah daily. Just like a tree, our inner compass always guides us towards Heaven and the Light (Truth), for Muslims are certain that, “To God we belong and unto Him we shall be made to return.” Although we are in this world, but we are not of this world.

Another element that a good tree possess is its quality of “goodness.” A tree may be big, with thick foliage etc. but it may be rotten and diseased. It is when each and every elements (from roots, trunk, branches, leaves etc) grow well, that whole tree can be regarded as good. This reminds me of the question posed to the Prophet s.a.w. after he had explained both “Arkaan al-Islam” and “Arkaan al-iiman” : “Tell me what is ‘al-IHSAN’?” -To which the Prophet s.a.w, said “al-IHSAN (The Best conduct or excellence) is that you worship (serve) Allah as though you see Him, if not then, certainly He sees you.”

Here, our Prophet s.a.w. is emphasizing “Sincerity” as the crucial criteria in determining quality or goodness in our deeds. To be sincere is, to be doing a good act purely because of Allah s.w.t., as an offering to Him, seeking His Pleasure. Afterall, it is Allah, Whose acceptance or rejection that really counts, not others. So any deeds, no matter how small, if done sincerely for Allah would then be considered good. Great things done not for Allah, but instead for some ulterior motives, trying to please others or out of self-conceit does not qualify as Good by Allah.

The final aspect of my reflection is, when Allah s.w.t. says: – “It brings forth its fruit at all times, by the leave (permission) of its Lord!”

- SUB-HAA-NALLAAH!

A good tree exists to produce and perpetuate other good trees through its fruits. If not, the fruit itself can be beneficial to everyone, as nourishment, or perhaps quenching thirst, or even as a cure etc. A good Muslim, growing like a good tree, would be granted by Allah s.w.t. the opportunity to touch others such that they too, receive the Guidance of Allah s.w.t. This is the promise of Allah; and those given are indeed most fortunate. Hopefully we can be like the Muslim, described and praised byAllah s.w.t.:

وَمَنۡ أَحۡسَنُ قَوۡلاً۬ مِّمَّن دَعَآ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَعَمِلَ صَـٰلِحً۬ا وَقَالَ إِنَّنِى مِنَ ٱلۡمُسۡلِمِينَ وَلَا تَسۡتَوِى ٱلۡحَسَنَةُ وَلَا ٱلسَّيِّئَةُ‌ۚ ٱدۡفَعۡ بِٱلَّتِى هِىَ أَحۡسَنُ فَإِذَا ٱلَّذِى بَيۡنَكَ وَبَيۡنَهُ ۥ عَدَٲوَةٌ۬ كَأَنَّهُ ۥ وَلِىٌّ حَمِيمٌ۬ وَمَا يُلَقَّٮٰهَآ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ صَبَرُواْ وَمَا يُلَقَّٮٰهَآ إِلَّا ذُو حَظٍّ عَظِيمٍ۬

“Who is better in speech than one who calls (men) to Allah, works righteousness, and says “I am of those who bow in Islam – (Muslims)”? Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel with what is better: then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate! And no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self-restraint none but persons of the greatest good fortune.”

(Qur’an: Fussilat: 41: 33-35)

May Allah grant us the Taufiq (success) wal Hidaa-ya (Guidance)

WaAllaahu a’lam

Brave, Strong . . . positive!

2011-04-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

This is a poem I wrote on November 2007 dedicating to a special person. I first published this on my windows live space, but since its no longer in use, I thought of posting it here on my official blog. And this poem has a lot of direct connection with my life since then and has inspired few more friends over philosophy of Brave, Strong and Positive (BSP), who really learned this in practice later and has made huge impacts on their lives.

I again dedicate this poem to the same person for reasons better untold...

Brave, Strong . . . positive!

Just a gaze to stop the move

Eyes and body speaks then

Shaking the tense emotions to react

Feelings hail to the mysterious impression then

With reasons to believe

With sensation to relieve

You are here to be Brave again

Hoping for the best

Days of puzzling pleasure

Promises from least to most

Shed upon a sudden cause

Difficult to change it over

With faith told

With intensity to hold

You are here to be Strong again

Hoping for the best

It’s all about the time

Fate and the reality faces

Speak the words of wisdom

Ease the move with bravery

With strength of passivity

With concerns of serenity

You are here to be Positive again

Hoping for the best

A day to remember for the days to come

2011-03-08T06:20:00.001-08:00

Though we may call it luck or perfect timing, I am not sure what trick this is at my fate that I joined Sri Lankan College of Journalism on Monday, 7^th March 2011. But however my first day at the new college was perfectly interacted with the mates and lecturers.

As I was always so enthusiastic in writing or when called reporting, journalism, I found this opportunity on the limelight in my career. Though I consider this course “part-time”, I had to attend classes on 5 days per week, funny! ein???

But the momentum in the beginning itself tells me this day I could recall in future and tell stories about it to my children (Insha Allah). And so I cheers for the start and thank Allah for providing this opportunity and I am proud of my family and friends who made this possible for me. Well I don’t forget all the others who wished me luck, special thanks to all of them and my mates at class for the wonderful welcoming and kind corporation.

Sacred Wisper of Screams

2011-01-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

People say that silence rules the darkness of the night with calm old mood and star stories lifting the soul upon the utopia of “human –tales”. But reality projects a different picture sometimes painted with diverse thoughts, twisted emotions, and infinite lines of questions. And the time gives us all the chances and options as we all pray, hope and dream for such chances in life.

Last night I had the honor to meet one of the most unpredictable girl I have ever met. Respect for those who tend to receive this phrase from me is not undermined as the surprises which I had would never be taken even for granted.

The conversation I had with this sweet little girl who is inspired by those historical figures whom I admire too went on for so long that even I sometimes feels being inside a page of history.

A philosophical conversation decorated with arts of interest and flavors of causes, ideological and factual notes conveys that controversy is really simplified when honesty is revealed.

This is a poem Sajaan (Sajiks muaz) dedicated for my blog. Thank you Sajaan for the contribution and it really was a great conversation with you! Gurl you are unpredictable!

Sacred Wisper of Screams

know I'm not the only one broken down

But it feels like I'm the only one around

Am I the only one that feels walked on?

Am I the only one frowned upon?

It feels like everything's falling down on me

All I want is to finally be free

I can take the slaps, the kicks, the screaming

But the broken heart is what gets me steaming

I can live with physical pain

But every time you say my name

I feel my heart break

A little bit more

It's going to be crushed

Of that I am sure

Everyday I deal with the yelling

All my bruises turn to swelling

But one thing that I can't take on

Is the pain I have in my heart from dusk to draw

How Would I Live & Love Life?

2010-12-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

This is a poem dedicated to a Maldivian girl, who was sexually and physically abused by her father, and whose mother died few days after giving birth to her. All the way throughout her life, she was fed pain and sorrow, she gets beaten up by her dad more than food he gave, and only filth than love was what she had from her step-mother. later on her life, she was married to loyal man, but then again she was a victim of black magic by the man's psychopath x-lover. She is still living with the fears in her eyes and scars all over her body. and most off all, with unsolvable miseries in her heart. Stand against the child abuse!

There was a time, when my fading soul was ease,

When my time was long before this scream.

I could not feel the things I must feel.

And then again, I still have to breathe.

Of all the dazzling scene, above the other mean,

I wish to be seen, for the love with keen.

I wonder why I kneel, before a monster wheel,

Which crushes me on heel, leaving me unheal.

Of my father who carried, the hammer at my bed,

For the mother who was buried, before me being fed,

From cursed being married, of a man agreed me to led,

Wouldn’t it be better to be ferried, to an eternal life on dead?

I was a girl, a girl with dreams,

I was a girl, a girl with dreams of living,

I was a girl, a girl with dreams of living in this world,

I was a girl, a girl with dream of living in this world like an ordinary girl.

Who say who get to be the charming hover,

More and more horrifying pain all over,

For and for praying for days to over,

Go and go terrifying itches a bit lower,

Show and show mercy over me god my savior!

My psychedelic year comes close to en end

2010-12-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

An unpredictable year comes close to an end, marking vital transitions and massive changes in my life. For once if I take a glance over the year and put footage on a high light reel, it would look like a psychedelic song twisted with indescribable lyrics spited in cuts of sudden change in scene.

My resolution for 2010 was “To be more like me”. And I hope I did all I could to be more like me. And I am afraid I faced the consequences too. The year started while I was watching the lunar eclipse on the New Year night at carnival food court, Maldives. And I promised myself “to be more like me”, wishing and praying to god to give me strength to do it.

For so many reasons I can’t expand and write the year highlights, but as I said, it was very psychedelic and I wish myself good luck for the coming year and wish to fulfill one last thing before the end of 2010, which is stabilizing some weak structures in my life.

2010 is a year I can never forget in my life. The incidents, transitions and huge changes which took place in this year taught me many things and have put my life in a totally different direction. But thank god that I am still on the right direction towards my goals of life and dreams. The experience I have gained throughout this year will stay as my wisdom to rejoice my future.

One important thing I learned this year is, “No matter how hard you try to do something right, you cannot do it unless you meet the right time”.

What I mean here is that there is right time to do anything. Suppose we couldn’t find this moment and try to present a righteousness or rightful thing, the impact wouldn't be the same as if it was presented on the right time. Time plays a vital role at any chance or opportunity that we get in life. And time is really precious and influencing.

So for the next year, I should still do more analysis on this year and come up with a resolution and objectives. And I should set a goal lower than the potential shooting ability, so that I could score a better one this time.

There are many sources of international laws. However conventions stand out amongst them as the strongest

2010-11-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

This is a copy of another assignment I did on International Law under the topic "There are many sources of international laws. However conventions stand out amongst them as the strongest". However from an alternative perspective, the outcome might differ from my conclusion. To those who determine to contrast over conventions and customary international law I hope this article could at least draw a line.

What is International Law?

International law deals with the relationships between states, or between persons or entities in different states. It sub-divides into "public international law", and "private international law", the body of legal rules, norms, and standards that apply between sovereign states and other entities that are legally recognized as international actors.

Sources of International Law

Article 38 (1) of the ICJ’s (International Court of Justice) statute identifies three sources of international law: treaties, custom (Customary law), and general principles. Because the system of international law is horizontal and decentralized, the creation of international laws is inevitably more complicated than the creation of laws in domestic systems.

Customary international law:

Customary international laws are those aspects of international law that derive from custom. , custom is considered by the International Court of Justice, jurists, the United Nations, and its member states to be among the primary sources of international law. Article 38.1(b) of the ICJ Statute refers to "international custom" as a source of international law, specifically emphasizing the two requirements of state practice plus acceptance of the practice as obligatory or opinio juris sive necessitatis (usually abbreviated as opinio juris).

General principles of law:

The scope of general principles of law, to which Article 38(1) of the Statute of the ICJ refers, is unclear and controversial but may include such legal principles that are common to a large number of systems of municipal law. Given the limits of treaties or custom as sources of international law, Article 38(1) may be looked upon as a directive to the Court to fill any gap in the law and prevent a non liquet by reference to the general principles.

Treaties/ Conventions:

Treaties are known by a variety of terms—conventions, agreements, pacts, general acts, charters, and covenants—all of which signify written instruments in which the participants (usually but not always states) agree to be bound by the negotiated terms. Some agreements are governed by municipal law (e.g., commercial accords between states and international enterprises), in which case international law is inapplicable. Informal, nonbinding political statements or declarations are excluded from the category of treaties. Treaties may be bilateral (between two states) or multilateral (between many states). Treaties with a number of parties are more likely to have international significance, though many of the most important treaties (e.g., those emanating from Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) have been bilateral. A number of contemporary treaties, such as the Geneva Conventions (1949) and the Law of the Sea treaty (1982; formally the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), have more than 150 parties to them, reflecting both their importance and the evolution of the treaty as a method of general legislation in international law. Other significant treaties include the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), the Antarctic Treaty (1959), and the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (1998). Whereas some treaties create international organizations and provide their constitutions (e.g., the UN Charter of 1945), others deal with more mundane issues (e.g., visa regulations, travel arrangements, and bilateral economic assistance).

Some Famous Conventions:

United Nations Charter

The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the United Nations. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on June 26, 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries (Poland, the other original member, which was not represented at the conference, signed it later). It entered into force on October 24, 1945, after being ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council—the Republic of China (later replaced by the People's Republic of China), France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (later replaced by the Russian Federation), the United Kingdom, and the United States—and a majority of the other signatories. Today 192 countries are the members of the United Nations.

As a charter, it is a constituent treaty, and all members are bound by its articles. Furthermore, the Charter states that obligations to the United Nations prevail over all other treaty obligations. Most countries in the world have now ratified the Charter. One notable exception is the Holy See, which has chosen to remain a permanent observer state and therefore is not a full signatory to the Charter.

Hague Conventions

The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the First and Second Geneva Conventions (1864 and 1909), among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law.

Geneva Conventions

The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted between 1864 and 1949 that represent a legal basis for International Law with regard to conduct of warfare. Not all nations are signatories to the GC, and as such retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way which either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles.

Vienna Convention

Vienna Convention can mean any of a number of treaties signed in Vienna. Notable are:

Several treaties and conventions resulted from the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) which redrew the map of Europe, only partially restoring the pre-Napoleonic situation, and drafted new rules for international relations
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961)
Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (1963)
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963)
Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (1968)
Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals (1968)
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969)
Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records (1976)
Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties (1978)
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980)
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985)
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or Between International Organizations (1986)
Vienna Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988)

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (or VCLT) is a treaty concerning the international law on treaties between states. It was adopted on 22 May 1969 and opened for signature on 23 May 1969. The Convention entered into force on 27 January 1980. Although this convention is a starting point for a discussion of the law of treaties, and much of it was codification of customary international law, it applies only to those treaties made after its entry into force and only to written treaties. The VCLT has been ratified by 111 states as of November 2010; those that have not ratified it yet may still recognize it as binding upon them in as much as it is a restatement of customary law.

Treaties or Conventions vs international customary

In the era since World War II treaties have taken over from custom as the most important source of international law. Treaty law addresses a wide range of issue areas, including trade, the environment, human rights, and arms control.

Customary law is the practices followed generally by the nations. A treaty is not a necessity here. On that logic treaty laws could evolve from long practiced customs if state parties wish to have a codified form of their customary practices

The transition from conventional to customary law is a constant in the international legal system whose reach is supposed to be universal by nature, if not in reality. Whether universality can be achieved is, of course, a different matter. All this holds true even where a treaty has become universally accepted, like any of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 as from August 2006.47 Even then, however, general practice based on, or dehors the four treaties evolve ceaselessly, either reflecting or going beyond their terms where required by new circumstances. This process, a fortiori, takes place in respect of all other multilateral treaties.48 As far as a treaty rule is concerned, the treaty that carries it plays the role of “freezing” it in a document which in all probability will remain unchanged, even with provisions for revision and amendment. However, the general practice relating to it does not become static and may evolve subsequently, especially when the terms of the treaty do not command general adherence.

Asylum case

In the Asylum case, the Court did not have to decide the question after it had found that Colombia had failed to prove the existence of the putative rule of customary law, either prior to the 1928 Convention or thereafter.61 that finding rendered a consideration of the question unnecessary.

Corfu Channel Case

The Court considers that, even in so far as many facts are established during the tribunal, they lead to no firm conclusion. It has not been legally established that Yugoslavia possessed any GY mines, and the origin of the mines laid in Albanian territorial waters remains a matter for conjecture. It is clear that the existence of a treaty, such as that of July 9th, 1946, however close may be the bonds uniting its signatories, in no way leads to the conclusion that they participated in a criminal act.

The Arab-Israel Conflict

The communities and Holy Places of Palestine have been under the express protection of international law since the early 19th century. For example, the International Court of Justice advisory opinion noted that access to the Christian, Jewish and Islamic Holy Places had been protected by various laws dating back to the early Ottoman Empire, with the latest provisions having been incorporated into the UN Partition Plan, article 13 of the League of Nations Mandate, and Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin of 13 July 1878.

International Criminal Court 2002

On July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, have criticized the court. The United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states in the event that they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties.

Apart from these cases, there are many cases in which the importance of treaties could be determined. Customary laws have been the primary laws to commence any case with international crimes or offences; however treaties play a vital role during the jurisdiction. Vienna conventions and UN charters are among these treaties, which stand out most strong amongst other customary laws and general principals.

Conclusion

Since World War II, it is treaties rather than customary laws that have been the favored embodiment of international legal cooperation. That the customary process and its results are vague, slow, malleable and uncertain; but that treaties can be made relatively spontaneously in specific terms. However, the making of a multilateral treaty is recognized as a cumbersome process that may well outlast the formation of a custom outside its framework; many norms created by the UNCLOS can testify to the verity of this proposition.

While the interplay between treaties and custom is a constant in international law, there is strong sense in insisting that the two sources maintain separate existences. The question of the extent to which treaty rules, together with their attendant conditions for application, may affect the customary rules of identical content, and vice versa, is still in need of a consistent line of criteria, while taking into account the circumstances of each concrete case. It is felt that some degree of rigidity has crept in by way of judicial precedent in respect of the fact that one act, which may be a reservation to a multilateral treaty, partakes of a dual character of addressing itself to both the rules of the treaty and the customary law that it reflects. The duality of that act is a fact, just as a diplomatic agent of government being both an official and a natural person at the same time, and it can only be distinguished juridically as one based on the treaty or on the strength of customary law, if the separateness between the two formal sources of international law is maintained.

Moreover, treaties stand out to be stronger than other sources of international law as it is binded as such minimizing contradictions and controversial tribunals and international injustice.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://treaties.un.org

Utopia – by Thomas More

Customary International Law and Treaties – By Mark E. Viliigar

United Kingdom Political System Overview

2010-11-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

As a student of International Relations, I have been learning the political system of United kingdom recently. It is totally different from the United States of America's political system as I compare and contrast both. Here I present a short bulletin note of an overview of UK political system. I will soon publish a post comparing US and UK political system as far as I could trip in. Thanks to my lecturer Mr. Sanath for providing these bulletins.

Official Name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Population: 61.4 Million (2008)

Capital: London

Area: 94,251squire miles

Year of Current Constitution: Unwritten; Partly Statutes, Partly Common Law and Practice

Head of State; Queen Elisabeth II

Head of Government: Prime Minister David Cameron

Languages: English, Welsh, Scottish

Religion: Anglican 26.6, Roman Catholic, 5.7, Presbyterian, Methodist, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jewish,

POLITICAL HISTORY

· The British Constitution was created in 1801 as the climax of the process of expansion began in the 12^th centaury.

· Grate Britain; the principal part of the United kingdom is divided in to three parts : England Scot land and Wales

· Scotland was an independent kingdom since the 1707 Act of Union.

· Wales Joined with England in the 16^th centaury

· Northern Ireland consists of six counties of Ulster and it is a part of UK

· The remainder of Ireland broke away to form a separate state in 1921 as a culmination of a rebellion against the crown launched in Dublin in 1916

· United Kingdom has become a Democracy by evolution rather than revolution and democratization was a slow process that occurred over the centuries.

· For most of its history, England was governed by the rule of law but the government was not always Democratic.

· Compared with her neighbors England has been fortunate in solving many of the fundamental problems of governance early.

· The supremacy of the states secular power over the Church was settled in the 16th centaury when Henry the VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church to establish the Church of England.

· The power struggle between Crown and Parliament was restored by a civil war in which parliament triumphed and the restoration of a weakened monarch in 1660

· Parliament was able to hold the Crown accountable.

· The early days Parliament respected only by a small portion of the population.

EVOLUTION OF CONSTITUTION

Theory of Divine origin

· Charter of Liberties: King Henry I voluntarily stated what his own powers were under the law.

· Magna Carta,: Which was also known as Carta Libertatum (the Great Charter of Freedoms), is an English legal charter, originally issued in the year 1215.

· Magna Carta was arguably the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in the English Speaking World.

· Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects (the Barons) in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges.

· The English Civil War (1641–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political plots between Parliamentarians and Royalists.

· The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worchester on 3 September 1651.

· The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles 1st, the exile of his son, Charles II, and replacement of English Monarchy with first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–53), and then with a Protectorate (1653–59), under Oliver Cromwell.

ENGLISH CONSTITUTION

· The constitution of the United Kingdom is the set of laws and principles under which the United Kingdom is governed.

· The UK has no single constitutional document comparable to those of most other nations. It is therefore often said that the country has an “Unwritten”, uncodified, or de facto constitution.

· The bedrock of the British constitution has traditionally been the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty, according to which the statutes passed by Parliament are the UK's supreme and final source of law.

· It follows that Parliament can change the constitution simply by passing new Acts of Parliament.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS SINCE WORLD WAR II

There are Five stages.

1. All Party Coalition (Winston Churchill ( C) / Clement Atlee ( L) during the WW II)

2. Conservative Period ( 1951-1964) ( Winston Churchill / Anthony Eden / Harold Macmillan)

3. 1960 – 1979 ( Harold Wilson( L) / Edward Heath( C) James Callaghan ( L) )

4. 1979-1994 Margret Thatcher Period/ John Major (C)

5. 1994 – Up-to-date ( James Cameron/ New Labour)

Structure of the government

Come on, Come on and break a bone!

2010-09-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

There are no times,

Such as good times

Every time is perfect with you

Holding my breath down in you

Woman you are my ecstasy

Sacred prayer in my lullaby

Night rider of my sixty nine impressions

Come on, come on and break a bone in my deception

Darling you move so smooth

Butterflies in my mood

Chemistry so strong

Senses so bold

Girl you are my fantasy

Secret desire in my sky

Right castle in the heaven of imagination

Come on, come on and break a bone in my hallucination

And when you move your body

Dear, you leave a scar in my soul

And while you dance on my body

Dear, you crave your name in my core

Darling you are my character

My heroin in my scripture

Sight full of blossom delusion

Come on, come on and break a bone in my illusion

Broken and Closer!

2010-09-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

(this poem if taken from my journal, and was originally written in 19th march 2005, Actually the poem is a description of a picture i have drawn)

Why do people want to be perfect?

Maybe they want to be close,

So they could be faraway from the evil.

Don't they ever know,

That they get more close with completion?

Something should be broken,

Something should be kept inside,

And the thing could be complete.

Never let it go away,

For it may cause a confusion,

Of a flying evil,

In the shades of an angel.

It is better left broken... and Closer!

Dream About Time

2010-04-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

I dreamed of dream where lights could reach,

Where dreams and reality meets.

I dream of a place where I do not breathe,

Where conscious and awake I keep.

I wasted my time on desperation,

For which I need recuperation.

Renewal can be a complication,

For which I bring up expectation.

Life is wonderfully full of surprises,

Full of affection and ecstasies,

Yet life is sinfully full of causes

Full of depression and mysteries.

All I need is a wing to fly,

Fly far from the end of my ending life,

Up to the heavens in the sky,

To begin another beginning in my life.

Time and time I dream of time,

Where all the poetry seems so real.

End of my beginning begins with another beginning,

Where I have neither surprises nor causes.

New Quotes...

2010-04-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

"Life is a Riddle, Solve it"
Riddles have many possible answers but only one correct answer... Life is something like that, we have many possible options and paths to live the life, but only one way would lead us to the real destiny of the life...

[new quotes will be published here soon]

Extremists’ vs Skeptics

2010-04-15T01:41:00.001-07:00

After the fight for the freedom of expression and other fundamental freedoms, people start fighting for the inner-self interests such as ones beliefs, philosophies, and cultures or over particular perspective. What we see today in Maldives, especially in Male’ is an intellectual battle between religious scholars or extremists vs religious skeptics and moderates. The origin of this intellectual war is to win over an ideology. I strongly believe that both groups should have equal rights to act in the field within the boundaries of the constitution, understanding the circumstances for the benefit of the people and by means of religion and nation.

But what we see today might be from an infected sector in our culture, but it is not the best practice to promote any ideology or to convince a philosophy. We all know this isn’t mathematics where only one answer is correct. This is philosophy and fundamentals of religion and human rights. There will be many possible answers and solutions and that many ways to express it.

I tried to find some basic principals in Islam and how it relates to our way-of-life now. Also tried finding the basic rights provided in the constitution (where nobody stands above the law) and how it has been practiced throughout.

A principal over which some religious people forbid certain things:

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) warned that “what ever deed which triggers to sin is a sin itself”.

Let me explain why this is controversial. I would like to take an example from the society itself. The ministry of Islamic affaire said that Akon concert to be held in Male’ in few weeks time is against the laws of Islam and they just mentioned the above “hadees”. Going into detail, they said Akon’s live performance will trigger young people to act wild and go crazy and commit sins.

If what they said is true, then internet itself should be forbidden (Haraam) for Muslims, because internet triggers people to commit sins and even go crazier than what Akon’s conset would do. Sometimes internet facilitates people to commit murders, grand theft, rape, brutal sexual abuses and even genocides in the name of “Jihad”. So I didn’t find a reason why they didn’t ban the internet from that principal.

A principal over which some religious skeptics fight for freedom:

Article 19 of the Maldies constitution says “A citizen is free to engage in any conduct or activity that is not expressly prohibited by Islamic Shari’ah or by law. No control or restraint may be exercised against any person unless it is expressly authorised by law”.

Religious skeptics and moderates fights for their right to believe in other religious, atheism and other extreme rights supporting this article. But what they didn’t see from the article is that it clearly says “not expressly prohibited by Islamic Shari’ah or by law”, which means forbidding Allah is truly against the very first law in Islam. Therefore we cannot just go beyond the boundaries of Islam too.

What ever principal people take, and how ever they see things, we all have boundaries and limitations for our own good and others. Let’s not break through them protesting for rights and freedom. The role models of the society must show the good example for respecting controversy and setting a debate with respect and understanding. Also the followers and debaters must show a sensitive motion over the controversy. Last thing we want is chaos and riots. Faire justice and true underlying principals must be in clear to build a better nation with people moving in the right direction!

[All the above content is considerable in different ways. This is just my point of view over the mentioned issue. I am a person who believes in the “Islam” with peace and democracy (as shown by our messenger Muhammad (SAW)). Any context reasoning to defame or insult any person, group or particular ideology is purely coincidental]

President inaugurates Youth Challenge 2010

2010-04-08T03:14:00.000-07:00

[Source:President's Office] President Mohamed Nasheed has this morning inaugurated the Youth Challenge 2010.

The event is being organised for the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports by Maldives Exhibition and Conference Services (MECS) with support of JCI Maldives. The event gives the opportunities for youth to gather information on employment, higher education and training opportunities.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, President Nasheed noted the pivotal role played by Maldivian youth in bringing democratic reforms to the Maldives. He added that they brought those changes to realise their hopes and aspirations.

Stating that a majority of Maldives’ population were youths, President spoke on the many problems faced by the youths.

Describing the congestion problem in Male’, President Nasheed said social problems such as unemployment, drug use and gang violence were all consequences of congestion. He said therefore, unless we address those issues, the Maldivian youths will continue to face many challenges.

In his speech, the President said the voices of the youths needed to be heard and that we need to continue the efforts to realise the hopes and aspirations of our youths.

Youth Challenge was first held on 1999.

“Blue Revolution” Another attempt to demolish the infant democracy

2010-03-31T03:13:00.001-07:00

The people of the Maldives has already witnessed a revolution, the “Yellow Revolution”; transforming from an extreme authoritarian to social libertarian system. We have seen us reforming from dictatorship to a true democratic system, modernizing the principals of governance and amendment of laws according to variations by the people. We have seen a 30 year old anarchy being check-mated by a political criminal as labeled then. Everyone has been the “Change” itself in this short period of time.

“Democracy” is what those political refugees gave the people. They fought for the reform, they brought down the dictatorship, they established a law giving everyone the essential rights in a democracy and they gave everyone a fair chance to take part in the change.

Opposition movement is necessary to hold the government responsible for every step they move. Opposition is needed to keep the democracy alive and make this nation an example of true democracy and governance. That is why the government officials gave the oppositions to assemble system to make the government accountable. So far the oppositions have failed to practice an ethical and a principled movement. Rather they try aggression even though they are given the chance for openness.

The government officials won’t be cruel like the former ruler, who even murdered innocents and tortured political activists for giving him advice on establishing a democratic environment where everyone is “equal”.

For me, “Blue Revolution” sounds like a fake copy the “Yellow Revolution”, fake means it is not even close to possible. Reason is because we are already in a revolution and no second one is possible unless the first is over. And the “Yellow Revolution” will only be over when the democracy turns out to be a toddler.

“We will continue the “blue revolution” until the party is in charge of the government” says deputy leader of DRP Mr. Ali Waheed speaking at an event to mark the dismissal of the Auditor General. Another deputy leader Mr. Umar Naseer said that the government is very weak and it’s time to strike and bring down the government”. Sometimes oppositions seem like clowns in a children’s circus who makes funny expressions and jokes over “Unreal Matters”. Making the government accountable as the reason, these clowns are now weakening the fabric of the society. They are playing dramas to create chaos and dilemma in this nation which can only twist the effectiveness of democracy.

Akon to perform live in “the biggest ever event in the Maldives”

2010-03-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

[Source: MinivanNews]Well known R&B singer Akon will perform a live show in the Maldives, after he was denied a visa in Sri Lanka because of a scene in one of his videos depicting a woman dancing around a Buddha statue.

Director of Platinum Entertainment Lasantha Samarasinghe, the company organising the ‘Super Fest 2010′ show, said it would be be held at the outdoor cricket stadium on the 23 April and would be “the biggest event ever held in the Maldives.”

“We are expecting 25,000 people to come to the show,” he said, including many tourists.

Samarasinghe said if this event was successful the company “will bring even more Hollywood superstars to the Maldives.”

Press secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said that the government had given the permission for the show to take place, saying it “fully supports these kinds of events.”

“It will promote the country’s tourism sector and provide a good opportunity for Maldivian singers,” he said.

Zuhair also said that President Mohamed Nasheed was keen to attend the show.

The show’s main sponsor will be Villa Television, with ‘official drinks’ provided VB Mart and Foco energy drink.

A Villa spokesperson claimed this was “the first time a superstar is performing in the Maldives.”

Tickets will go on sale from Friday.

Meemu Atoll Mulah – An Island of true kindness

2010-03-28T10:29:00.001-07:00

During my visit to a workshop in Faafu atoll earlier this month, I was invited to conduct a project planning workshop at Meemu Mulah by a local NGO. I accepted the offer and went to M. Mulah on March 25^th to 27^th. The two days I spent there was a shocking experience for me. The people, culture, places and an unforgettable hospitality provided to me made the whole trip remarkable.

So deep down I had this idea of writing these experiences while at scenes. I thought of freezing the moments and split into images and words so that I can keep it on the wall of fame. [Click to view the flikr photo gallery of the trip]

Island Information:

Mulah or Boli Mulah is one of the inhabited islands of Meemu Atoll, Republic of Maldives. Located 136.99km distance from the capital Male’, this island hold a population approximately around 1560 people. In length 1440m, width 400m, this island has a reclaimed during the construction of the jetty. Fishing and agriculture is the main economic activity in the island. But few people work in the tourism sector and construction sector as well. The nearby two islands, Muli and Veyvah is at a distance of around 2km each.

People:

Most of the youth generation lives in male’ and other islands. Main reason for the migration is in search of jobs and proper education. The average population living in the island consists of children and matured men and women. Friendliness, kindness and sociability is what makes them brighter in the society as they believe.

they also have with tendency of moving towards development and bringing the essential changes to society with time. most of the young people are educated and serving for the island.

Places:

The “Kulhi”: Kulhi is an impressive and a peaceful sight to visit. Even though the water in the “Kulhi” has no deepness, the scenery is just marvelous with the combination mangroves with other unique plants and ferns blended with palms and song birds.

Bodumas Aanugan’du: The protective wall or the “futtar” has a unique hardpan or “aanugan’du” which is located between the island’s bushy area and the beach. Usually this hardpan lies between the beach and the shallow water. The local calls it “Bodumas Aanugan’du” meaning the “Whale’s hardpan”. There is a folk story saying that this hardpan was formed by a huge whale’s breaker. This is a famous gathering place during Ramazan.

Old Mosque: the old mosque is one of the most historical places in the island. this place also has graves with hand-curved tombs. The mosque was built in mid 1800’s with madrepore coral or “hiriga” and has the fascinating impression of Islamic admirations.

This mosque is also listed protected place by the government and maintained. few renovations have been made in the past years and the old fashioned plaster is gone because of that. But the interior has no much change compared to the day built.

Culture:

The locals have a unique way of life in this island. They believe in great hospitality and respecting each other. They believe that development comes with great determination. Unity and strong teamwork was an inspiration I learned from the people. They also have a different way of communicating, including local jokes and humor to conversations frequently enjoying every single moment.

I have also seen a rare activity these days. All the women take part in a team event to clean the beach area and other public areas in the island. They sweep the area using “iloshifathi” or a sweeper made of coconut palm leaves.

Haveeru fineega (Late afternoon activities):

Children and some teenagers enjoy the time playing dodge ball, football and some other local games. Most of this time is spend on the streets or on the beach.

Youth spend the time in cafeterias and other gathering places to talk about their day and other activities while the elders continue their stories in “holhuashi” and on benches. Some youth also gather for their football or volleyball time.

The late afternoon is their main socializing time of the day. And it is also a special time for visiting relatives and friends.

Night life:

Apart from the daily routine, some youths head to fishing in the early evening. Steering towards nearby fishing spots, they ride on a small vessel of around 15 feet long. Catching fish is fun, but the most fun part comes while heading back to the island. Everyone in the vessel should get wet before hit shallow waters. Otherwise the person goes into the water. I was told that it is a tradition they have in reef fishing. And yet it was exciting than imagined before.

The time while the feast is served is yet another enjoyable time. Maldivians style fish soup or “garudhiya” from reef fish served with coconut powdered rice, onion, lemon, coconut and spices makes the stomach goes wow!

Some people also enjoy spending time near the jetty area and other resting places talking about every day occurrences.

My admiration:

The insight of the whole trip agrees on the kindness of the people and the uplifting scenery with enjoyable activities. It was simply an unforgettable time and a charming experience throughout the trip.

Freedom of Expression; Misused in Extreme

2010-03-23T04:00:00.001-07:00

The constitution of the Maldives defines “freedom of expression” under;

CHAPTER II: “FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS”,

ARTICLE 25 : Every citizen shall have the freedom to express his conscience and thoughts orally or in writing or by other means, unless prohibited by law in the interest of protecting the sovereignty of the Maldives, of maintaining public order and of protecting the basic tenets of Islam.

Problems caused by freedom of expression being misused in extreme.

Social problems:

Crime of defamation:

Crime of defamation has increased after the right to freedom of expression was defined in law giving individuals a radical right with responsibilities undefined.

It was also prompted by the announcement of the newly appointed independent Prosecutor General that he would start pursuing criminal defamation cases, reversing a prior practice of not bringing such cases. Many criminal defamation cases have been brought over the last year.

Popular cases include;

· Adaalat party leader defaming former president Maumoon Abdul Gayyom

· Journalist Defaming Qassan

· Haama News editor defaming Abdulla Yamin

Most of the defaming cases were seen in political arena, but impacts the society triggering violence and other criminal activities such as arson, stabbing, robbery and threatening.

Few stabbing seen recently was followed by a defaming case or a contextual argument over a political ideology in a political party function. Threats and warning were given to such public speakers activating another defensive violence causing aggression.

Domestic Problems:

Marital problems and other family related issues have been raised due to freedom of expression. Brotherhood and sisterhood has been forgotten since the right to expression was given without any responsibilities.

Most of these cases are seen in islands where the ideology more divided through politics than ancestral. The culture of these types of tribes practice autocratic and expression of certain things are restricted. Freedom of expression leads to internal domestic violence and breaking barriers of the precedent culture they live in.

Political Problems

Political arena is full of problems caused due to freedom of expression. The most famous case seen today is the case of Member of Parliament, hulhudhoomeedho, Mr. Alham Fahumee.

MP Alham fahumee was former DRP member who later resigned due to criminal defaming and threats given to him after he voted against his party in a no-confidence motion against foreign minister. He then later signed MDP.

Speeches given after this incident by both ruling and oppositions lead to street violence and a huge political clash. The impact of this clash was also seen during Majilis assemblies.

Protests:

Most of the political protests end up in violence since the protestors express motions offending other leaders and political figures sometimes defaming other person too. At some point protestors and offended parties confront in violence.

Most of the time Maldives police services has to use tear gas and heavy armor to stop these civil riots.

Economic Problems:

Freedom of expression can also cause economic problems within the nation and also international.

Most of the leading politicians are also leading businessmen’s in the nations. Sometimes due to personal grudge and being offended in motion of defamed by others, they fluctuates money flow within the nation causing inflation and shortage of some goods.

Protesting over increasing civil servants salary while the government had decreased the wage bill to participate in IFR program by reducing the salary, these protests can interrupt IFR aids and other international aids to the nation.

Possibility of false news/reporting and such events

Along with the freedom expression we were given the freedom of assembly and freedom of association. Recent years we have seen TV/Radio broadcasting stations have been registered. More online news websites have been registered. Many blogosphere sites are used today. Freelance news casters have increased.

TV Stations:

False news/reporting events and stories are more often than the real ones. Some TV stations broadcast false news and reports creating chaos within the nation and leading to violence afterwards. The micro-wave battle between TV stations in the country is leading the nation to new horizon of crime and confusion.

Last week media was threatened by gangsters for announcing a release of a famous gangster from jail. DhiTV staffs were threatened and attacked followed by stabbing a Haveeru employee.

Blogosphere:

Freelance news casters and daily reporters working in the blogosphere mostly spreads false news and reports to promote their self propaganda related to their own ideology.

We have seen recently disrespectful reports over Islam and our society in blogosphere. This also led to violence and threatening. Maldives police services have started a special operation to find the writers and supporters to bring them over investigation.

Crimes escalated from incomplete human rights system: NGOs

2010-03-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

[Source: Haveeru Online]

A joint press statement issued by the NGO sector has said crimes escalated because a full-fledged human rights system is not implemented in the Maldives.

Transparency Maldives, Maldivian Detainee Network, Rights for All, Strength of Society, Maldives Aid, MADULU, Democracy House and the 44-member NGO Federation cited lack of cooperation among state institutions as one of the main reasons for the soaring crime rate. The institutions are pointing fingers at each other, the NGOs added.

The NGOs noted that while the authorities are accusing each other, the crime rate is getting higher.

“This is a cause for loss of public’s confidence in government authorities and independent bodies of the state, established in the democratic Maldives,” the statement read.

The statement also urged all relevant bodies to make crimes “the biggest issue,” and assume their responsibilities while respecting each other in the national interest.

It further called on the parliament to pass the bills on anti-social behavior, gang violence, evidence, criminal procedure and the penal code.

Never ending freedom fight

2010-03-16T00:44:00.001-07:00

History marks some great time of brave heroes, fighting for freedom by eliminating dozens to millions of lives. Massacre and mass destruction was executed to stay paramount to hold so called freedom. The moral of all the stand-up fight to world wars was to seek freedom for an intimidated paradigm.

There is no ending to this battle unless people find freedom from their own selves. Looking at some earlier periods these series of bloodsheds, we can see how the pattern continues.

In ancient times, people fought to conquer land for gold mines and other natural resources. Others fight back for freedom; practically the whole battle is for freedom. Finally the invaders have to hold on to the victory and be on defense which originates another huge civil war for freedom within the land.

Culture, religion and racial conflicts occur after the freedom on a land from conqueror or colonized enemy. This civil conflict continues with bloodshed and violence till they find freedom for their particular interests which are called beliefs.

Human race has practically being in this process from the very beginning and changes the archetype according to time. Time has been crashed, lives have been lost, homes have been wrecked, cities have been demolished, countries have been destroyed and the whole world has been devastated with wreckage of human bodies and blood. For which we call “fight for freedom”.

And we gain freedom for our own belief or interests; we get into small group conflicts and contradiction. Disagreement over controversial issues even led people to announce a “fight for freedom” which then leads to the same wreckage to time they live on. These conflicts can even reverse the whole fight and can lead back to a world war too.

The circle of conflicts, battles and world wars will continue till we find freedom from the self which we can’t get out of. We will struggle to death fighting for freedom which we believe we only had for a moment and need to fight more for it. The human race will never find the freedom to our spirits and lives unless we understand the value of a single life on this planet. So the fight for the freedom continues as it follows many areas other than combat battles. Fight for freedom is also ritual role play for many social, political and technical conflicts. This has no end by means of all the selfishness in human beings!

“Freedom is not served on a plate; we have to fight for it, but not overwhelming others freedom”

Climate skepticism a “diabolical conspiracy” says Nasheed

2010-03-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

President Mohamed Nasheed launched a vigorous assault on the current wave of climate change skepticism during his address at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

“In my mind there is a diabolical conspiracy to cloud the scientific evidence behind climate change,” he said. “The science is very clear and sorted, but there are vested interests trying to cloud the issue.”

The president was particularly critical of the hacked emails from the Climate Change Unit at the University of East Anglia, which he argued “make no material difference to the fact climate change is happening.”

“It is now so necessary to find out who distributed the emails, who hacked it, where they are placed, how the emails made the rounds, and how they became newspaper headlines. Where is the investigative journalism on the criminal element of it all?” he asked.

“And why are the emails such a big issue when there is no substance in them? I’ve read them all and they don’t add up. I believe there is a conspiracy, and I believe responsible journalists should think about who is behind this, who is this devil?”

Nasheed was also critical of the coverage surrounding inaccuracies in reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which consolidates much of the accepted climate change science.

“Any report can have factual errors but that does not make any substantial difference to the facts,” he said. “Even if one page of a 1000 page report [is problematic], you cannot then deny the other 999 pages.”

He accused the media of being complicit in the loss of momentum around climate change following the lacklustre Copenhagen Accord, claiming that continual reference to the email scandal and mistakes in the IPCC report in articles on climate change was “clouding the issue and creating doubt in the general public.”

“We have to get rid of the perception that there something wrong with the science, and we need to pick up the momentum we had at Copenhagen,” Nasheed urged.

“Icecaps are melting, sea levels are rising, the weather is unpredictable, and rain and fish do not appearing at the same time they used to. European friends tell me they have experienced the coldest winter in the last 20-25 years, and by summer I predict they will be saying they’ve had the hottest summer in the last 30 years. We should not doubt the science in front of us – please visit the Maldives and have a look what happening to our beaches, our coral reefs and our oceans. There is no doubt.”

[Source: Minivan News]

Sometimes we are too blind to see a real thing

2010-03-08T02:52:00.001-08:00

Isn’t it obvious that sometimes the human mind is incapable of recognizing the important colors from an image the eye captures? Well I was told that most of the people get attracted to an image for the colors it projects, nevertheless, we are like bees hunting for sweet nectar from blooming flowers when it comes to choosing something for own good.

But do we ever compare the processes that certain things have been through till it came to our focus? Do we ever compare the quality with the physical appearance or the price? Or maybe, do we really concern about the work done on that particular thing?

Let’s take a painting for an example. The combination of colors and the dramatic illustration takes our breath at the very first glance to a painting. But we don’t really realize how the artist came across with the layers of paint over paint and distorted smudges curves smoothly consuming lot of time and patience. When it comes to real life, we use the same reactions.

For example, people always get attracted to sights and sounds. And the spectrum of the sight or the tones of the sound makes the dimension deviate. But the tools or the means which creates these sights and sounds has no honor though.

It is very certain that people are blind to love rather than “love is blind”. Because we don’t really see it, or sometimes we don’t even feel it. It’s like someone has to write it somewhere and draw a scale and indicate how much they love a person. Otherwise the other person won’t even know it. We may call it the “21^st century showcase” to the performance and scenes created to “express love” to someone. But I wonder why people put so many efforts in showing something than to build it? Maybe they need a “big hands” to the work done (partially done). There I put partially because if a work is "done", then we don’t need to show it and explain it layer to layer. Take a painting for an example. Does the artist explain how he/she did it in details? But still we manage to identify it if we are interested.

Alright, lets get to the point here. I know some might get bored reading this. The point is that we don’t have to explain everything in details to a person close to us. And we don’t even have to judge the colors of the painting without knowing how it was drawn.

“Just looking at a painting you may not realize the hard work done... And the artist won't tell you too!... You just have to look more!” – Hasan Abdulla Hilmy

The Riddle Will Be Solved!

2010-02-22T06:41:00.001-08:00

There there we seek to find an answer,

Here here though we have it.

Never ever we might not know it,

Fear here being our restrict.

Choices can make gladness,

Forces can hold boldness.

Satisfaction still lies beneath the options,

Pleasing to be sensitively uncovered.

Still the riddle has no hints.

Future seems the coming,

But past takes over while evoking.

Memories cannot be forgotten,

But it can always be forgiven.

For we might see a clue for the riddle.

Time never waits for us,

Step in or out is for us.

Back of the line is not fortunate thought.

Lack of compassion drives this march in-cruel.

There again we fail to solve the riddle.

Sad because mystery always make us stand.

Sad because history remains unchanged.

But there is no going back.

But I won’t search for luck.

Because the riddle will be solved in time!

Riddles in life...

2010-02-12T15:04:00.001-08:00

It is hard to find the answers for the greatest riddles in our lives. We struggle all the way through our life seeking answers for these mysterical questions. When we find an answer, we think it is the best that we could find. But after sometimes we realize that wasn’t good enough. And so the search continues again. We live in a constant seeking to archive the answers for the riddles.

This article will continue when I find myself the answer for the riddle which will put the next paragraph in plain text… Thank you!

Umar Naseer claims MDP influencing internal DRP politics

2010-02-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

[Source: Minivannews]

Former president of the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) and candidate for the DRP vice presidency, Umar Naseer, has claimed he is being targeted by an amendment presented to the party insisting candidates seeking elections to senior positions must have been a member for at least six months.

”It must be someone related to MDP who is trying to stop me from becoming the vice president of DRP,” Umar claimed.

He said that the MDP “was afraid that if I become the vice president of the party the government might fall”, and said the ruling party was “planning many things” to stop him from becoming the DRP’s vice president.

DRP MP Ahmed Mausoom said the amendments would only be announced on the 16 and 17 of February, adding that he did not know who had presented the amendment.

DRP MP Ali Waheed, who is also contesting for the party’s vice presidency, said he had not yet gone through the amendments and could not comment on them yet. He said he gave the eight candidates running for the post of vice president his “best wishes”.

Spokesman for MDP Ahmed Haleem said that the MDP “does not consider Umar Naseer a political figure”, and added that the party was looking forward to a time when DRP “strengthens its inner democracy and leadership to become a strong opposition party.”

Political parties does not urge the withdrawal of the bill – DRP

2010-01-02T02:42:00.000-08:00

DRP had said that political parties has not urged the government to withdraw the draft bill on decentralization and government’s statement that decentralization bill was withdrawn because political parties urged to do so is misleading. The party said at least the DRP and the PA did not urge the government to withdraw the bill.

The comments were made during the debate on the draft bill. DRP MPs also said that DRP will not negotiate about the bill with the MDP and DRP is against the creation of provinces.

MPs also said that as efforts were put under the bill and so much money had been spend, DRP does not want to withdraw the bill.

President Nasheed said that the bill was withdrawn to redraft and the new draft would be sent to Parliament in its next session in January 2010.

[Source: MiadhuNews]