Utheemu is a pretty famous island in all-over Maldives and this can be judged with the very fact that all-most-all Maldivian’s knows Utheemu, but may have not heard or known the others islands name or even the mere existence.

Utheemu (Dhivehi: އުތީމު) is one of the inhabited islands of Haa Alif Atoll administrative division and geographically part of Thiladhummathi Atoll in the north of the Maldives. The birthplace of Sultan Mohamed Thakurufaanu, who with his brothers and his companions fought an eight-year long war to drive out the Portuguese invaders who occupied the Maldives from 1558 to 1573. Utheemu Ganduvaru is the wooden palace in which Sultan Mohamed Thakurufaanu lived and grew up. It is well preserved and evokes more than any other existing building in the Maldives, the lifestyle of the rich, centuries ago.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utheemu_Haa_Alif_Atoll

As mentioned above in the wiki extract, this is one of the most historic islands in Maldives and one of the major concerns which the island chief raised during our meeting was that the island doesn’t have a harbor or a jetty as I mentioned above, which also attracts less foreign tourists from the nearby resorts – as the resort management believe it is not safe for the tourist to come and jump out onto the shore-line and then get into the island.

A staff from the Gender Department also suffered a fracture to his leg when he jumped off the speedboat to the shore-line with a bad judgment on when to jump- where to land and more importantly how to jump. Our team went to finish the work he couldn’t undertake in the island successfully and we came back safe & happy to tell the story.

But some may ask why? Been one of the most –famous islands in Maldives, why is it so? why is there no harbor or a simple jetty. Our curiosity to know WHY was answered by the Island Chief and also by the members of the Women’s Development Committee. According to them, there have been hundreds of surveys done and thousand assessments carried out in the islands but nothing has happened and they are tired of this. Even a month back a police team came down to do an assessment on building a “floating” jetty but the islanders haven’t heard from them after that.

But later during our household visits to meet the economically vulnerable women to target a grant scheme (which was the primary reason for our visit to the island), I did shift my attention to this area also because I have been visiting other islands before we came into this particular island and I have seen far-less famous or known islands also with jetty or harbor and was wondering why not this island? What is the issue? And kept thinking something is wrong somewhere (fishy fishy fishy). It was triggering my curiosity alarm and kept on me using my brain. I tried to dig more and there I get the president of the Woman’s committee and with a lot of provoking questions one after another, she finally revealed. According to her and with facts, Utheemu is not like any other island in Maldives and it is very dynamic in nature. With the change in season, the island also changes its shape – which hinders in building up the jetty.

According to her, long time ago there was a Jetty but it also fell down because of the dynamic changes in the island shape (I was even wondering when they told me that Police tried to build a floating jetty). Anyhow this was one reason and with further provoking, she revealed the social issue which hinders the development. The islanders had different preference to build the harbor, a part of the community wanted it towards the palace entry point (from where we came in) and others wanted it in south and few others in other locations.

By 2008, the island community was able to come to a conclusion on where to build it. But I believe something could be done, EVEN the KLCC tower was constructed on a total impossible piece of land but with some good hard work and dedication it was completed. According to the registry of the Palace visitors, there are around 700 – 1000 people visiting the palace in a day (according to the island chief) and during holidays it is much-much more.

I was thinking of the last factor in all issue or sometimes the very first factor – POLITICS? And oh yes!! I did see that too, but it was just an observation – So I would let it pass and ask them not to neglect it based on the votes they got from the island but on the fact that – this is an island which Maldives can promote for cultural or historic heritage.

 I was made to think when I was nurtured to lie the first time, when did I cheated the first time and when was I abused first time literally with literacy and by whom? Then comes the answer, it was the greedy needs of the parents to climb that staircase of success with dreams and aspiration which they have envisaged from their eyes. But in the due course the “sacrifice” has to be born or undertaken by the child from the very young age till the adulthood.

One of the paragraphs of lyrics from the song goes by like this

… …”Kandhon ko kitabon ke bhojh ne jhukaya

rishvat dene to khud papa ne sikhata

99% marks laaoge to ghaadi warna chhadi

likh likh kar pada hatheli par alpha, beta, gamma ka chaala concentrated H2SO4 ne poora poora bachpan jalaa daala”

The stances mean to say that it was

The burden of the books that kept us bowed down,

Bribery was first thought to me by Dad – if you get good grades (99%) marks, you would get a reward or else you would be beaten up and abused with verbal words.

Used to write on ma arm and learn Alpha, beta, Gamma and about the concentrated formulas which has taken away by teenage to youth.

But on the other hand, I agree that if parents doesn’t do this then we would be thrown into the wrong section of the society with all the anti-social elements following us. But don’t you think in order to save from this side; the habits are actually been nurtured and nourished through such means of conquering those dreams to become a doctor, an engineer or someone set out by the parents.

The lyrics of this song is amazing 

 http://bollywoodtadka.com/2009/11/lyrics-song-give-me-some-sunshine-from-the-movie-3-idiots-2009/

On one hand when I blame it on the government and its civil authority, the other hand I have the parents of these wandered youths. When I say this, I am not saying that they are the ones who are doing this or sending out their kids into these evil traps but the very high profile words of “condition, situation and circumstance” is leading to this.

What could have the government done? Or what could have the parents done? There are a lot to be said and discussed but then again like climatic change – it’s something we all know of “when, where and what” but we are not doing the part of ‘HOW”.

The youth of a country which is a cluster of many scattered islands all around it’s archaeology and only one major hub which caters all the economic and social needs of the youth which is male’ and also now the most densest city in the world and in a literal sense where one is stamping onto the head of the other to earn for a living – This is our current Condition.

Not just been dense in population is the fear which we are encountering but the high standard of living which is making every individual a competitive animal in the making is the biggest fear. The youth of nation work “their Ass off” in order to compete with the high standard of living which when rise never comes down but only incline. This is our Situation.

When we the youth of nation after such hectic work, turns around and look for a leisure – then what we find is play grounds in each areas but to go and play there, they have to use the tactics of “Survival of the fittest” and its on first come first basis. If we do a calculation of Youth in male’ and the number of play ground and how much it could occupy them, then nearly 75% of them would not be even able to put their feet into any of these grounds as it would be fully packed with no breathing space when that 25% of youth get in. Then comes the second means of leisure and that is coffee and every other day a coffee place comes up and this is where people meet and socialize and then we the youth of this nation have developed the habit of sitting in one place for around hours as there is nothing else to do or coffee hopping. Then comes the third, riding around male’ which is like 5 mins one whole trip around male’. Now who would be bored of all this after the stressful time we have? – This is the circumstance

The youth of this nation belongs to a country which has no entertainment which could divert them from once get in activity.

I am bored, I want to watch a movie – get one at home and watch it – But watching it on big screen is entertainment.

I am bored, I want to go for a picnic – NOT KUDA BANDOS (the only affordable place) but somewhere else which is under our budget and where we the local can afford.
I am bored and I want to go sit somewhere peaceful and calm – Not near the Tsunami monument or Jumhoore Park but somewhere which is much more peaceful.

On this youth day, I would send out this recommendation to the government that making play grounds is not the solution to bring the already lost youth or organizing music fest with explicit rock songs.

Make vilingili a wonderful park where family can go and relax or even in Hulhumale’
Make Alimas carnival into a Mall with some movie theaters.
Make Picnic islands affordable for the local at a cheaper rate
Make a water/dry theme park

Explore the world and bring it if you want the youth of the country to be the drive force of the country in the nearby or coming future.

Since I am collecting these memories from the last side of ma brain, it is not coming in the package but in a very dull order or is very vague.  But I do remember quite a few of them,

1)      Is the airport security good or bad? Do you think the measures they take are better?

Well what more could I say in this area! It’s all better as in almost all the airport I have been, this is the kind of system they follow and it’s just that we don’t have to walk a long distant as everything is nearby.

But then it leaves me with a concern of what about the domestic airports of Maldives other than GAN? they don’t even have a X-Ray machine, you can actually send guns and drugs or anything through the luggage as all they do is weigh it and put that into the plane. Now north Maldives is an easy access point – what if a terror attack is initiated from there? and arms & ammunition reach the hub from there? What about the security measures there? anyhow that is a long story, I would withdraw from there.

2) What do you think about the internet facility in the airport?

Oh trust me, I was waiting for someone to ask me that – Ridiculous is the word I can use here, it is most absurd Internet facility I have seen in any airport I have been. They say wifi zone and then you have to pay it? HOW? run around and get a package from somewhere? Duh!!  All the airports provide free wifi internet or  atleast provides you Kiosk whereby you can use free internet for a certain time period along with free wifi internet. If you can’t, then they don’t even say that they would provide internet.

This is a very crucial factor because, most of the guest/tourist/delegates would be sending out some latest communications in the terminals and even trying to communicate with the family from here to let them know where they are and they are about to leave and then you are busy running around for internet.

3) What do you think about the bank facility in the airport?

Ah!! they asked me this question on the right time, just when my card was declined by the Japanese restaurant and I didn’t know how to go and look my balance or what happened with my card. I am going with the hope that I can use my card but now my card is declined and there is no ATM inside the departure terminal (now I have to call the customer care). How cool is that and then they ask do you use the bank facility? Normally I see ATM or small bank branches inside the terminal which helps the tourist/guest in the last minute currency conversions etc. But here we have a bank which is located in the arrivals terminal which is actually suppose to be used just as a means for currency conversion. This is something I always raise as a problem as I am most of the time in a hurry and then never can check my balance before I leave.

4) What about the sign boards – does that help?

Oh I never read any of the sign boards here in male’ international airport as I always knew the way but I guess, the sign boards are never friendly ( I am not sure about this), but I dont think there is any leading to the immigration counter from the checking counter.

5) The behavior/attitude of the immigration/checking counter staff?

Oh trust me, they are doing good – all you need to do is change other things and leave the staff as how they are (When I said this, the girl who asked me all this thought, I was working there — Hell NO).

6) Toilets/Announcement system etc

Never used a toilet because I don’t think Male’ International Airport is a transit airport, so I think the facilities are fine keeping in mind the space available or the size of the current terminals. Announcement is also fine as its a small airport and the sound reaches everyone.

7) Are you happy with the restaurants inside the terminal?

Do we have a choice is my question? There are two restaurants and I always prefer the Japanese one not because it is good, but because it is cheap and I also find the DOME staff eating there because that restaurant is freaking expensive the first time I checked out and I think it is like the same. Anyhow I feel that if the MACL want, they can actually break down the Japanese restaurant into sectors and cater different varieties making it more attractive and yes at a more affordable rates. I haven’t found any restaurant in any of the airports which actually twice expensive the rates available in the city hotels of the same country and providing the same kind of service.

Adding to this, I always had a complain with the restaurant which is near the departure gate “Mariyad” if I remember the name is and they just kill you with the price, but I think its time that they lower the rates to a more affordable rates and cut down the price there as it is not realistic. Maybe MACL have put the price as they dont want to cater many guest but trust me still the seats are been used, so if the seats are used, then in business point of view make other things also be used which would just increase your profit margin.

aah this is getting lengthy and yah its like everyone around is doing a survey nowadays…

Anyways that was a general frustration released in a due course. Now from the general context, I will just narrow done myself and come down to just one turning point or fact.

Let me begin this with a simple question, how many media providers are there in Maldives? Ah simple “MediaNet and Bnet” and everyone knows that Bnet is merged down with MediaNet. Whenever a company tries to come up in this area or field, the monopolistic company who have already build the empire takes over the tiny newly build up castle.

Today on haveeru, I read that Maldives Islamic Authority has banned the import of Airtel receivers because of the various complaints they have received. Few days back, I have seen an article in Haveeru saying that “Airtel should be banned because it is showing GOD TV and spreading Christianity”. I don’t know in this era who is going to buy that article and the funny to core is the reasons why Airtel has been banned according to Islamic Majlis is because of this reasons of indecency shown or this broadcasting very particular channel.

But I have one question to this author of the article, why haven’t you written any article regarding the famous Saas Bahu serials which are so widely viewed in each household in any corner of Maldives from the very remotest to the very developed corners in Maldives, from morning till late evening – the women, children and now men are busy watching these serials/soaps/drama.

Why haven’t he mentioned that in all this serials/soaps/drama the main focus is religion and how well they worship the idol? Or how different they worship the idols? Or what and type of worships they do. For e.g. Choti Bahu – The main lead is always worshipping Lord Krishna (Idol) and you would see a different puga (prayer) every other day performed. Damn!!! I don’t know the names but all I know is that which ever serial we take – they are talking about religion (hindu) and this are channels which are been provided by MediaNet and in case Medianet stop telecasting Sony, ZEE and Star plus – Trust me, no one would buy that and then all this channels show it or try to spread religion. They censor some programmes like ramayan or mahabarata etc but the major serials which everyone watch are actually the real spreading of religion as they talk about how to do this and that. (but accepting a religion or adopting a religion is something that belongs to one person and him/herself and how you try, you can’t take that persons ideology of been rational – I am muslim and I will always be one and I will follow the path of Islam even if I see any of this and nobody can change that view of mine )

Thirdly, this is 21st century – each and every household in male’ and most of the islands are connected to the World Wide Web and to get information about a religion or to watch any indecent thing, it is just a click away. You can access this through not only computers but yes you can use your mobile phone in a remote area and visit any of these sites and see – hear what you want. This is technology and we are talking about providing  technology which is already in place. If you don’t know then let me tell you (aimed at a certain group of personals)  that in Airtel there is something called parental control and there you can delete all this unwanted channels or you can even unsubscribe such channels. This is technology and the price they give is the price it should be given and talking about price……

The packages in medianet are simple and it starts with 280 and goes to 500 MRF and if you take the 280 package you basically get all the free to air channels. When you go for the 500 MRF you get some good watchable channels. I was using it for a long time and I used the 400 MRF package as that is the best package (cheap) for the sports and movies.

Then last year December I came across Airtel and I thought, I would give it a try and brought it into Maldives and Voila – I could watch channels (much more with good quality) and more importantly at a much cheaper price.

Imagine this: I bought the Airtel package (the receiver/dish and 6 months package) for just 930 MRF. Where as for the Medianet one, I paid 1500 for the receiver and connection and another 350 as the package rate for one month and my question is the price really SO high? Or just a way to cheat the common man and get the money from the common man by means hook and crook?

For a year in Airtel I had to spend only 1580 MRF, where as for Medianet for an year I have to spend 4800 MRF which is actually 300% more, which means I can use that money to buy another 3 years subscription for my Airtel Package.

You talk about indecency on one hand when it hurts your business or your profit earning ratio, or else who cares. I would say… Ban broadcasting all channels as in sports they wear shorts and it is indecent, in movies they show intimate scenes and that is indecent, in dramas they show different religion – In English they keep saying ‘Oh jesus’ and ban news channel as they keep showing what pope or what hindu or buddist say – lets plug ourselves to one channel called TVM and just watch ‘Kudakudinge TV’ –

I would stop this by saying that “If you want to rectify don’t pluck the top branch, the root is still there and it’s been watered, the branch will grow again – so just cut the damn root and get it cleared out”.

This is link in haveeru – http://www.haveeru.com.mv/?page=details&id=85177

This statement is a very frequent statement that we are hearing in the past few days from our national TV “TVM” during the so called debate of the candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election. During the debate, majority of the seconds given to each candidate is used on throwing dirt on the other candidate. There was a time when I thought, are we contesting for a seat in the fish market or local market where one or the other is trying to sell their products by going to an extreme where by they don’t have a clue of what they are saying or doing.

When I see any candidate, be it from any party or any constituency – going through a speech during the campaign, they make sure that they could possibly talk less about what they have in them but rather abuse or criticize the other candidate and then pile up a whole lot of day dreaming and present it towards the general public of that particular constituency.

Moving back to a normal citizen life, when a citizen try to approach a interview and when he/she pass through the hardships, they have been asked to do a medical checkup and more importantly provide a police report – certifying them of been good and loyal citizens of the country without any offence in their past history.

Then come a situation whereby, if a citizen during his juvenile days if committed a crime and if that is in the police report – chances are high that he may loose the job irrespective of going through all the hardship of the interview process and medical checkup. Sometimes they are able to go through also after considerations but then also once you enter the premises of the jail, you have already got that big stain on your body which could not be washed off easily in our society.

Moving forward with the current situation, we see most of the parliamentary candidates promising, abusing and negotiating every other day. But then it is politics, I also understand that politics is known as the “dirtiest game” in the world after mud fight. But then again, it’s time that we don’t learn things from countries around our isles but we implement a few role models to other countries.

Normally a habit is that we always implement things that we see in other parts of the world and other societies and try to implement those activities directly into our society without doing any analysis or cross examination or alterations which is suitable to our society. But now it’s time that we shall not repeat the same mistakes all over again, its time that we not only observe what and how others are doing but bringing in our own culture into it and then try to adapt into our society.

From what I have observed, I see that most of the candidates are following the Indian ongoing election process and learning from there. But that’s the second largest populated country and our total population is just as small as one of those villages of that country.

When Varun Gandhi gave an anti-secular speech against Muslims favoring Hinduism, he was arrested and jailed. But then now when he is released he has come out more matured and with vengeance but not the guilty feeling that India is one of the most secular country and his remarks on the minority was a real drawback. Now BJP is using him as the tool for the election. But then again there is something else also we could learn from that country, When Mahatma Gandhi was fighting for India’s freedom he was arrested, he was abused and he was jailed several times but then again you won’t find him using that as the qualification for him to fight for a cause or a reason. Whereas he never mentioned about it and moved on with his own non-violence means of struggle to freedom and by the end he got freedom for India.

When we look into our society, we already have a messed up youth and young generation who have lost the trails or the paths of what is right and what is wrong. We already have a situation where we are not been able to control them and every other day we are able to hear some or the other stories.

“Few believe that it’s the influence and some says that its parenting and I believe its both”

Now in a situation where the normal citizen are tackling all this problems of getting too much exposure to the western culture or eastern or southern or even northern and the conflict of controlling the emotions is on high rise – comes this new high selling mechanism of the candidates “I was arrested – I was jailed – I was on hunger strike”

This statement by them had given me a feeling that well in this country, to be a politician and to contest for any seats – first thing I need to do is get jailed for some or the other reasons (political, drug, prostitution, terrorism, pedophile etc) and when I come out I would get my PG. politics (Prisoner of Graduation in Politics) and this would be first qualification. Followed by abusing all the other candidates, followed by the ultimate way of showing unrealistic & unreliable high dreams to the voter class of that particular constituency.

Why do we need this heads or Members of Parliament? To let the high authorities above them who are running the government turn the ship out of the whirlpool and to anchor it in safety? Or to cut the anchor and cheer the country ship into the whirlpool and then sinks our culture and society and makes profit out of it?

Some say that most of the candidates who have out rightly spoken about the getting imprisoned during their past history were to get the basic citizen rights be heard and change those prevailing situations to the present situation? I might agree with those few who really did get imprisoned for this but those others who were jailed for other purpose but now using it as a tool to campaign. What about them?

Anyhow – my ultimate concern in one sentence is:-

When candidates are speaking about been jailed or going to jail or been arrested and been manhandled by the police on national TV and other mass media or during rallies or speeches are giving a very wrong picture to the already messed up society where by youths are already loosing their rightful paths.

I just hope from the bottom of my heart that the present generation of our society doesn’t take this as a role model and think “ITS COOL TO GO TO JAIL” or commit a crime. Instead these candidates should be talking about what they can do realistically or what an MP means and what an MP can really do.

* I haven’t aimed at any particular candidate – it is in general context.

Is this because we lack the information on climate change? Is it because we are not educated about the dreadful impact we are incurring on the mother nature and it’s resources? Is it because we are aware of all this? But then when I don’t have to think even for a millisecond and the answer are yes – we know all this but we have generated a habit of close your eyes to things that you don’t want to believe. This could be even clearly visible yesterday when few of those educated bunch actually went on to the streets with their vehicle and few of them even lighting up the whole house because they think it was a political move. They are educated but still they are uneducated about the ethics or the difference they could do.

I agree with this initiative but I believe it would have been more effective if this activity had a longer time period rather than just one hour of a 24hours of a day. Now I feel like this is also another day found out in the calender to sight out as a reason to celebrate and infact use as a commercial purpose. But here we are not talking about valentines, diwali, Halloween etc but here we are talking about the place were we celebrate all this. If Earth is not there then where would we celebrate all this? in space? under water?

“Protect Earth not for yourself but the generation that would follow us” -
It is not our duty but it is our responsibility,
It is not by saying but it is by doing and
it is not by wishing but it is by making a change.

I might be one individual but I know one Individual could make a difference and I would protect the Earth where I am living now so that the generation ahead won’t look at me and say “He is the culprit, if he had opened his eyes way too early then we could have changed this happening from where they have left but now they have left us no option and nowhere to live”.

Earth Day is not just one day out of the 365 +/- days in a year , it comes out through every day of every week of every month of every year and it is called the life span of every single being in this world.

Earth