Maldives faces an onion crisis

According to Miadhu, "Maldivian traders says that the price of onions may go up in the market as a result of the heavy rains occurring over India which has rendered flooding of the onion fields in certain areas. Maldives imports large amounts of onion from India.

Trade Ministry informed that due to heavy rains experiencing over parts of India rendering flooding of onion fields the prices of onions is expected to go up. Ministry further said price of onion even in India has gone risen in the past few days."

In June/July 1989 India faced shortages of onions and price of onions went through the roof. Indian food security experts who analysed the situation revealed that increase in onion price was caused by market manipulation rather than real shortages.
``The unexplained spiral in prices of vegetables in June/July and the prevailing skyrocketing onion prices are the result of deft manipulation by market forces,'' said Devinder Sharma, food expert and president of the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security.

In order to overcome the Indian onion crisis, Indian government allowed the import of onions from Dubai and other countries.

Maldives too will need to look for alternative supply sources such as from Dubai and other onion exporting countries in order to maintain stable supply at reasonable prices, when Indian suppliers are faced with shortages due to heavy rains.

What is democracy?

The Maldivian government and the newly emerged political parties are promising to bring democracy to Maldives.

There are many countries in the world that abuse the concept of democracy and if Maldivians are to benefit from democracy, the voting public should know their rights and be able to demand them from scheming politicians. Maldives has seen its share of corrupt politicians who misused their power and denied the public their rights.


In the dictionary definition, democracy "is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Freedom and democracy are often used interchangeably, but the two are not synonymous. Democracy is indeed a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but it also consists of a set of practices and procedures that have been molded through a long, often tortuous history. In short, democracy is the institutionalization of freedom. For this reason, it is possible to identify the time-tested fundamentals of constitutional government, human rights, and equality before the law that any society must possess to be properly called democratic.

Social development lagging behind technology

The development of tourism in Maldives which accounts for 30 percent of the GDP has increased the per capita GDP to $3,000. This is an impressive achievement, the highest in the region.

The Asian tsunami of December 26, 2004 hit the Maldives very badly and killed 82 and caused substantial damage to tourism, housing, and fishing infrastructure in the islands. It proved once again the gross unequal development between the residents in Male' and those living in the outer islands.

The World Bank has approved a $7.7 million to improve the mobile banking service in Maldives. According to Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), this mobile phone banking service will bring a revolution to the financial sector. Work is underway to introduce the service early next year.

While we should applaud the growth and development in the financial sector, it is important to press on and improve the social sector. It is vital to eradicate poverty, provide a national health care to all and create opportunities that can empower the people in the islands.

The present method of development is creating an an elitist class of people in Male' while neglecting the social development of the citizens living in the other islands. This trend has to be reversed to avoid social tension.

Insulting the Pope

American comedian Bill Maher insulted Pope Benedict XVI before his official visit to the United States, calling Catholicism a "cult" that promotes "organized pedophilia." The comments were made on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday, Apr. 11. Maher went into a long monologue on his program comparing the Catholic church to a polygamous cult -- the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- which was raided on Apr. 3 and whose founder, Warren Jeffs, was convicted last year for being an accessory to the rape of a teenage girl.

Many American catholics are enraged at Bill Maher's comments and religious organisations have urged HBO to deal with Maher. Apparently under some pressure, Bill Maher has agreed to apologise for the hurtful comments directed at the pope which are also factually wrong.

Bill Maher used freedom of expression to hurt the feelings of catholics who have applied commercial pressure on HBO. Since Bill Maher's HBO program ratings may drop due to boycott by catholics, Maher has quickly agreed to apologise to avoid any further damage.

Grow more food

This article on Haveeru writes about the need to grow more food items that can be grown in Maldives.

In our quest for development, Maldives has forgotten about the development of agriculture and only depended on the dollars brought in by the tourist industry. The world is now facing a food crisis and some of the economists in Maldives are telling us to grow more sustainable food. Unfortunately these voices of reason are drowned out by the organised political chaos that is currently prevailing in the name of introducing democratic reform.

Increasing food prices in the world— some of which have more than doubled in two years — have sparked riots in numerous countries recently. Governments are scrambling to contain a fast looming crisis before it spins out of control.

The soaring price of rice has triggered a supply and demand crunch that is hurting some of Asia's neediest nations, forcing governments from India to Philippines to Indonesia to monitor the distribution and avoid social disturbances.

For rice exporting countries like Thailand and Vietnam, the world's two biggest exporters of the grain, the rising demand is a money-spinner with rice now selling at more than US$500 a tonne in Bangkok and nearly as much in Hanoi.
(link Tapei Times)

Singapore to open up its first farm resort

Since Maldives has many uninhabited islands, here's some news that could give us some idea of what we could do in Maldives- beyond just catering to the sunseeking foreign tourists.

Singapore government's Land Transport Authority is offering an agri-tainment farm resort where visitors could have a more unconventional experience when it opens its doors in August 2008.

Visitors will be able to find out how crops like corn and coffee are grown and may even get the chance to harvest their own vegetables.

In addition, the five-hectare site, which is equal to the size of six football fields, will have 21 villas and a nearby spa. And the villas will be going for up to S$200 a night.

(Link Channel NewsAsia)

A heart warming gesture

Some parents and the faculty of Kalaafaanu School got together and donated Rf200,000 and four Bangkok return tickets to a student of the school who is suffering from cancer. The student is suffering from bone cancer to his left leg and doctors had said that it was spreading fast, affecting his lungs even and could become life-threatening if the leg was not amputated. (link)

This is a very noble effort by parents and Kalaafaanu school to help a cancer stricken 10-year-old student.

A grateful father said that he had been forced to beg for aid from the Government, wealthy local businessmen, and parents of the Kalaafaanu School children and that the donation from the School was by far the most generous amount he had received.

To avoid such desperate plight, Maldivians should call on all political parties and demand that the Government introduce a national health care programme to provide medical treatment for all citizens; the cost of which can be paid by a publicly funded tax. No Maldivian parent should have to beg anyone to treat his/her child.

What went wrong with the maths genius?

The Sufiah Yusof story has made sensational headlines–around the world- a good Muslim girl gone wrong, prodigy turned hooker,

She was the Malaysian child maths genius who won a place at Oxford University aged just 13—but now news coming out from her adopted nation Britain has shocked those who loved and adored her.

How did this gifted girl with the winning smile who had the world at her feet ten years ago and who should be a rich woman by now end up prostituting her body for a living?

Sufiah's father Farooq is a Pakistani and mother Halimathon, a Malaysian.

Sufiah’s current choice of career was revealed by an undercover reporter whom she entertained in her flat.

According to a British tabloid, she apparently advertised her services on a hookers’ website calling herself Shilpa Lee available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm.

Sufiah gained notoriety for the first time when she rebelled against her strict parents and ran away from Oxford at 15. She wrote an email to sister complaining - “I’ve finally had enough of 15 years of physical and emotional abuse. You know what I am talking about.”

Sufiyah's controversial father Farooq, 50, is now in jail serving 18 months for sexually assaulting two 15 year-old girls he was private tutoring in maths. Prior to this, in 1992, Farooq was jailed three years in relations to a £1.5m mortgage swindle. At 19, Farooq was already a juvenile delinquent - he was sent to borstal (a youth prison in the UK) pertaining to a conspiracy involving £100,000.


From The Star Online.

Sufiah Yusof’s ex-husband Jonathan Marshall has expressed sadness and complete shock over the one-time child prodigy selling herself for £130 per hour.

Britain's Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying: “I am completely shocked. It’s very sad, actually. It’s very shocking that someone can use himself or herself in such a way.”

“I can’t fathom why she would do it – especially someone in her situation. Despite the problems with her family she had many advantages, which other people don’t have,” he said

The two fell in love and married in 2004. Marshall, a law student, had already converted to Islam. He was 24 and she was 19. The marriage lasted less than two years.

“The reason we split was that I became more observant and Sufiah became less so,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Marshall as saying.

“That took her in the wrong direction, away from the direction in which I wanted to go. The teachings of Islam are fundamental to your everyday life, so when paths diverge in that respect it is a major issue.”

Hospital workers go on strike

Photo: SAM BAKER/Manawatu Standard
PAY UP: Hospital worker Bruce Claire was one of 25 Spotless workers waving placards and picketing outside Palmerston North Hospital


In New Zealand, up to 800 cleaners and food workers in public hospitals walked off the job for 24 hours this morning in protest at employer Spotless Services' failure to honour a pay deal agreed with them last year.

The increase would bring their minimum pay rate to $14.25 an hour.

Service and Food Workers Union site representative Ken Archer said the pay increase hold up was unfair.

"The Government has given them [Spotless) the [extra] money for the lower paid workers, and they still haven't paid us. So we have to strike to get what we are owed. . .it's really disappointing it will cost us a day's pay to get what is ours, but what can you expect from an Australian- owned company?"


Read more here.