Fake Tuna to be used in Tossing Competition

A tuna being tossed at the annual Tunarama Festival, Australia.

Australia's competition to see how far someone can throw a tuna is going green next year. Organizers of the Tunarama Festival held each January in Port Lincoln on the remote Eyre Peninsula are replacing the real thing with polyurethane replicas for the highlight event, the frozen tuna toss.

Each year, contestants in four categories hurl fish weighing up to 10 kilograms as far as they can, usually using a technique akin to an Olympic hammer thrower's. The winner in each category receives $1,000 Australian ($890).

Tuna tossing is the highlight of the annual social calendar in Port Lincoln where fishermen who have grown rich from catching the prized fish and exporting them to Japan for high quality sushi and sashimi.

One good-sized tuna — known for their high-speed swimming and deep red flesh — can fetch more than $5,000. A local artist has sculpted the fake fish to look just like the real thing. "The dimensions are perfect," said Ms. Merriwyne Hore, the acting manager of the 2008 festival.

Some locals are unhappy that the real fish would no longer be thrown.

It is not clear why after the toss, the parts of a real fish cannot be eaten, by humans or by animals. What can't be eaten can be composted. How is it "greener" to use polyurethane which will eventually end up in a landfill is also not clear.



Although the organisers of this contest have to cave in to pressure from the environmentalists fighting against the depleting tuna stock, the locals can still enjoy the camaraderie of the event with a look-alike tuna.

Killed for not wearing a hijab

Canada has reported the country's first honour killing. A memorial for Aqsa Parvez is set up at Applewood Heights S.S. in Mississauga, in this undated handout photo. Sixteen-year old Muslim Mississauga teenager Aqsa Parvez died on Tuesday of wounds suffered in an attack on her Monday — allegedly by her father who strangled her. Friends of Aqsa painted a picture of a young girl eager to integrate into Canadian society, in ongoing conflict with her conservative Pakistani father who insisted she wear the hijab.

Aqsa Parvez was largely estranged from her family and sleeping away from home in recent days. Her friends said she returned to her home in Mississauga on Monday only to collect her belongings. Friends described her as a hardworking and cheerful girl who loved dancing, fashion and photography - interests that often clashed with her strict her home environment.

Police arrested the victim’s 57-year-old father, Muhammad Parvez on Monday morning after receiving a 911 call from a Mississauga home from a man saying he had killed his daughter. He is being charged for his daughter's death.

Friends of the dead girl told journalists that Ms. Parvez’s relationship with her father was antagonistic. She used leave home in track pants and hijab, then change into close-fitting jeans and remove her hijab when she got to school. She wanted to live her life the way she wanted to, not the way her parents wanted her to.

The full details of the killing are not yet available and other aggravating factors (e.g. Mohammad Parvez’s mental health) have not been discussed publicly. What is clear from news reports is that Aqsa’s refusal to wear a hijab was the catalyst to her murder and that her friends sensed that her home conflicts could quickly spin out of control.

Canada’s Muslim community has always remained moderate, although the tragic death of Aqsa Parvez has brought fears of militant Islam that has caused terror and death in Paris, London and Stockholm. The sight of a woman in a full burqa is an extraordinary rarity outside of a few small urban pockets. And such horrors as that allegedly visited upon Ms. Parvez remain almost unheard of.

Canada is not Europe and we should not read too much into this family tragedy. At this stage, it may be premature to suggest that this was a case of the clash of two cultures but what we know is that the murdered girl wanted to be "free" and independent of her family's devout Muslim beliefs. There lies the whole problem.

It is amazing how some Muslims feel wearing a headscarf is more important than a life. Such intolerance and insanity should have no place in any society.

While this incident could turn out to be domestic abuse and murder, it brings the spotlight back on the radical fanatical thinking of some Muslims who would insist adherence on their uncompromising values. This is where the danger lies and it is such unaccepting intolerance that needs to be wiped out from all societies.

Aqsa’s father who is no longer living in Pakistan and has migrated to Canada for a better life has to accept the fact that his family has come to a country where women are not forced by any man to wear uniforms that define them as property or symbols of their family’s “honour.” And if Aqsa's father accepted it, she might be alive today.

How many thousands of other Aqsas hate the hijab but wear it without complaint because they fear their fathers’ or their society's wrath? It is time in all these countries such matters be rationally and openly discussed without resorting to violence such as that which led to Aqsa's death.

All Muslim societies will have to deal with bigoted thinking that leads to violent consequences. If Canada gives a fair trial to Mr. Parvez, and is convicted and sentenced without the case being hijacked into a referendum on Islam, Canada will have sent a clear message to all religious radicals: there is ONE law in Canada and everyone is subject to it regardless of their different customs. Canada has one chance to solidify the distinction between religious and legal authority before activists on both sides of the multiculturalism debate including those against domestic abuse and feminism turn this tragic domestic abuse case into a political circus.

What about safety of workers?

This article on Haveeru reads that two young men, 16 and 22 years old, fell from a height of 40 feet while working at Alimas Carnival. The report states that the men were seriously injured and that they are being treated at IGMH after initially going the ADK hospital.

When an incident like this occurs, in most countries the Government Authority responsible to oversee workers safety will immediately launch an investigation to determine if all safety precautions were taken in working in high rise places. Since Maldives does have a 'Building code of Safety from Falling' in place, one wonders whether this matter is being investigated and why journalists do not report on these vital safety matters.

If the men are contract workers or under employment, the employers are also answerable for their safety and they have to conduct their own investigations. I assume they are responsible for the workers medical treatment and workman's compensation depending on the disability.

How does this work in Maldives?

The Battle of Reform is heating up

These are nervous times for politicians wanting to cling on to power. Politics is a dirty game and every rule, if there is any, is made to be broken. No refereeing is required for the victor takes all and the vanquished must be destroyed as the ancient Romans did inside the Colosseum in front of the watchful eye of their emperor who amused in the gory gladiator fights.

The nation is bleeding from old wounds. The hostilities among rival armed gangs in our nation has reached staggering heights. Only the tough and well-connected can survive. A significant number of our youth are depressingly high on drugs and we are just waking up to the reality that we have been in a culture of denial for too long.

The holier-than-thou political Imams of our country with their self-righteous hypocrisy of intolerance have destroyed religious unity and harmony which we took for granted for all these years.

We face turbulent times ahead. Now we have to bite the bullet to solve our problems brought about by the folly of our leaders.

This the beginning of the deadly game of brinkmanship between rival political parties taking aim to grab political power. The sole purpose of the opponents is to bring down the present government and seize power.

The main opposition political parties who were at each other's throats until recently have declared a truce and formed an alliance to challenge the government. One would think these are strange bedfellows, given the hard line opposition of the mainly conservative Adhaalat to the secular MDP.

Presidential contender Dr. Hassan Saeed now accuses the Government of wastefulness and arrogance. Echoing the Alliance's shared vision of what an interim government should look like, MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) who has defined himself by his unflinching opposition to President Gayoom has called for the president to be given immunity from prosecution.

It is impossible to guess where our country will end up on this path of reform. Looking back into history, we know that political leadership transitions have always been messy. We have wretched social conditions in Maldives from housing, health care, pensions, rising cost of living etc. The voices of public disquiet of unaddressed grievances are growing louder. Even our parliament where traditionally stone-faced men who represented unsuspecting constituents has become more boisterous. Their unholy alliances and shifting loyalties has nothing to do with any political ideology or betterment for their constituents. It is an intriguing public spectacle of scheming chameleon-like characters. Socially, our country is operating at boiling point, a dangerous level for a country that depends on the tourist dollar promoting itself as a tranquil paradise for the rich and famous.

Supreme Religious Council losing conservative grip

What evoked the ire of the Supreme Council to struck down Dr. Afrashim Ali , a Maldivian scholar from preaching was mysterious to me until I read this article.

Now we know that the Supreme Council has worked up a residency law that imposes a residency requirement of one year before a preacher is allowed to preach. What could be the purpose of this law?

The Government's Information Minister has promised to defy the Government’s own highest religious authority by allowing the moderate preacher Dr Afrashim Ali to appear on state broadcaster TVM.

We need the silent liberal voices in Maldives to support the view that the Information Minister has boldly taken on this case. For far too long, the liberals have allowed the conservatives to go unchallenged, thus emboldening extremist and intolerant thinking in the name of religion. The liberal scholars need to take the lead to espouse moderate views creating a culture of acceptance and tolerance as good Muslims should be doing.

As an institution, the current Supreme Council has failed to maintain religious unity, i.e, if the word 'failure' appears in their dictionary. On their watch fanatical groups fostered in Male and elsewhere and they could not stop extremist groups from taking the law into their own hands in Hinmadhoo in the name of practising their religion.

For the foot soldiers to be united in diversity, there must be unity of tolerance among the scholars and preachers. Unity in Diversity means to explore and enhance common values that emphasize interdependence, equality, justice, human rights, and the sanctity of each individual’s dignity. The religious conservatives must be willing to coalesce with their liberal counterparts to build a more inclusive community and support the diversity of religious opinions without insisting adherence to dogmatic views.

Who should wake up?

UNICEF has launched a Wake Up campaign in Maldives. It is a nationwide drug campaign aimed at preventing drug abuse and promoting recovery among addicts throughout the Maldives, a country known as a holiday haven for the rich and famous.

Here are the reasons for waking up according to wake up website.

Why? – As you read this, drug abuse is increasing in the Maldives

• Children as young as 9 and even 7 are starting to experiment with dangerous drugs
  
• The most popular drug in the Maldives – heroin – or brown sugar – is one of the most highly addictive and destructive drugs in the world.
  
• Drug addiction can happen to anyone, regardless of age, gender, economic status, or the family they belong to
  
• Every family is affected by drugs, either directly or indirectly – therefore it is in the interest of each and every one of us to take action.
  
• We are a small community and when one of us suffers, we all end up suffering

Drug addiction can happen to anyone, regardless of their age, gender, economic or social status,” said UNICEF Representative Ken Maskall. “Many people don’t realize that addiction is really a chronic, progressive condition that requires professional treatment, help and support. For a small country like the Maldives, if one member suffers, we all end up suffering, especially children. It is in the interest of each and every one of us to take action now and to say no to drugs.”

Heroin addicts are increasing in Maldives. Many believed that such explosive growth in heroin use was caused largely by population shifts, overpopulation and poor employment prospects on the islands. When parents or siblings are drug addicts, it is easy for children to be affected by breakdown of family ties, and possibly abuse that follows as a result of the addiction.

Knowledge can be power and so we should applaud UNICEF's effort in the Wake Up campaign to educate the people. But if UNICEF Rep's statement that 'being a small country if one member suffers, we all end up suffering' holds true for Maldivians, then we would not have this problem. The solution to this problem lies in our Govt's ability to stop the influx of drugs into Maldives. So far, they have not been able to do so. Rehabilitation, recovery and assimilation of recovering addicts into the mainstream society will become an easier process if we make it a national goal to stop the import of drugs into the country. Until we stop the drug trade, sadly the battle against drugs will continue to be a losing one as we have seen up to now.

Making more money with less fishing

An AP report reads, "At a time when a quarter of the world's fisheries are considered depleted, can commercial fishermen make more money by fishing less? A study published in the Friday edition of the journal Science says they can, with one condition.

They must be in a cooperative fishery, like those operating in New Zealand and Australia, where individual fishermen own a share of the total harvest _ known as individual transferable quotas _ rather than the competitive fisheries more common in the United States, where it is a race to catch the most fish.

The idea is that when there are more fish and no race to catch them, fishermen spend less on fuel and other costs chasing far and wide to fill their nets, and can concentrate on delivering a high-quality product to the dock, said lead author Quentin Grafton, research director at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at Australian National University."

Read more here.

In Maldives, tourism has grown significantly and currently accounts for 33% of GDP, a quarter of total employment and more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts.

Fisheries is the main activity outside of Male and the tourist islands. It employs 19% of the country’s labour force but accounts for only 6% of its GDP. Fisheries exports are mostly canned and fresh tuna, which is the second largest source of foreign exchange for the country.

Maldives needs to develop the fishing industry. Maldives has been graduated from LDC status by the United Nations in December 2004 to "become" a Developing Nation with a three-year grace period ending in November 2007. Since our economy is highly dependent on imports which will deplete our foreign exchange it is necessary to intensify our efforts on development of fisheries and our agriculture.

The cooperative fisheries is an interesting idea from which the Maldivian fisherman can benefit to improve their livelihood and alleviate poverty. The fisherman can form cooperative societies like many other developing countries. They can also set up their own marketing and distribution networks. Such cooperatives can undertake other income generating activities with financial support by the government, or foreign donor agencies where necessary.

Grim news about young drug users

National Narcotics Control Board (NCB) has confirmed that there are some four and five year old children in Maldives that have used banned substances.

What is happening here is clearly abuse of children by parents or others who have no idea of the harm they are causing. TV Maldives blacked out the news once the the NCB official revealed that 4-year old children were involved in drugs. Bringing out these facts into the public domain is not to glorify the drug abuse or its trade. But Maldivians will have to face up to the facts even if we do not like them. There is no loyalty, no trust, or security with the drug users. It is all about the 'high' which will eventually kill them, unless they can get help and stay away from drugs.

As a society, we have to ask an important question. Should we save our children from drugs? For any sane society, the answer is a resounding 'yes' excepting for the drug addicts who are not in control of their senses. Such people's children must be protected by the State and NCB must intervene to stop such adults causing harm to their children.

There are few things more tragic than having a promising young life cut short prematurely due to drugs. What starts as an experiment turns into an uncontrollable obsession and leads to the most degrading way to end a human life.

Maldives is emerging as a market for hatred

The waves of global violence and mass murder that we see and read about with increasing frequency has firmly entrenched its roots in Maldives. We have seen a home-made bomb go off in Sultan Park and to our dismay, we are increasingly witnessing gang warfare and even mob killings in what we used to call peaceful communities.

How did our people turn out to be blood-thirsty killers?

First, our politicians, our parliament and the members of the special majlis are all busy in political wrangling leaving the country to slip down into social anarchy. Robbers are running rampant in stealing while rival gangs are engaged in murderous violence making it appear that this is a country that does not have a police force entrusted to protect its citizens? For a moment, you gasp to think whether that this is the same beautiful country described as paradise for the sun seeking rich and famous, also featured among the first to sink due to sea level rise and climatic change of global warming. Religious hard-liners are creating pockets of religious chaos with flourishing extremism and fanaticism leading some youngsters being indoctrinated into terror. If the killing spree continues unabated, you shudder to think that suicide bombers may follow soon, as Pakistan whose chaos has appeared on our shores has reported its first female suicide bomber. Around 20 percent of our nation's residents under the age of 15 are using banned substances, according to the National Narcotics Control Bureau. Wayward youngsters who comprise more than 40 percent of the population of 300,000, with nothing meaningful to look forward to are increasingly turning to drugs. The problem of drugs continues to flourish despite a growing tourism industry which has made the 100 per cent Muslim Maldives, the richest nation in South Asia. Per capita income is 2,674 US dollars.

If getting rich should solve more social problems because we have the means to do so, we certainly don't see this happening yet. Maldives now has a sub-culture of drugs mostly young people who need our compassion and treatment but instead they are stigmatised and labelled as 'parteys' or 'druggies', words that are used to demean them. For some strange reason, we are out to destroy our own people. It is said that 80 per cent of recovering addicts relapse after rehabilitation. This drug abuse and addiction could destroy a large segment of our young generation, their families and our communities with unimaginable consequences.

As usual when a tragic incident like the mob killing occurs, Members of our Parliament in hastily convened meetings fall over each other to express their concern and frustration over the increasing violence on the streets of Male’. Beyond that, such expressions broadcast for public consumption turns out to be idle chatter for nothing constructive ever happens to make the streets safer or to reduce the violence. Over the years it has progressively worsened from street brawls, to fights using sticks and sharp objects to sword fights out to kill each other.

Increasing hard-line views on how we should practise Islam and our intolerance of accepting the rights of non-Muslims to their faiths , and the absence of an ideology that guarantees fundamental rights and saves us from the tyranny of a government has left us a bitterly divided community. We have lost our ability to empathise and our humanity only recognises the greed for money. We are a nation that operates at boiling point and since we do not know how to peacefully co-exist, our threshold for violence remains very low. But our delirious politicians will not face the problems of this community. They do not have the wherewithal to make the tough choices and put the community back on a peaceful path.

This society is imploding

The day after Haveeru ran an article titled, 'Top dogs of Male’ Drugs Ring arrested', the nation's headline news was the tragic death of a young man by gang violence.

It was reported that one of the two men arrested for drugs had bought a plot of land in Male’ last year for a sum of Rf 2 million. He is currently building a five-storey building on the plot. It was also reported that the same person travels frequently to Dubai, having already made more than 50 trips there since last year; an average of once every two weeks in Business Class. It is not clear whether this man's travels to Dubai had anything to with trafficking of drugs. As alleged, if he is one of the kingpin drug dealers to Maldives, how did he manage to escape the authorities and continue for so long?

Senseless violence has caused the death of a young man of 21 and twenty six people have been arrested in connection with the incident. According to the father of the deceased, his son had received a death threat about six days back. It is really sad that in the tranquil land of the 100 per cent Muslims, Maldivians are unable to feel safe anymore.

A worrisome sign of the psychotic nature of our people much like ancient Romans who enjoyed the gladiators brutal death fights inside their Colosseum is revealed when it is reported that there were some people who apparently stood silent spectators when the horror of a gang murder took place right in the midst of our small tightly knit community.

Random insanity

These Muslim protesters want a British teacher to be executed for allowing her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. (photo:Mohamed Nureldin Abdalla / Reuters)

All too often, we are witnessing the muddling of politics and religion in Muslim countries leading to serious consequences.

On Friday, a crowd of about 1,000 young Sudanese men brandishing swords streamed out of mosques to gather outside Khartoum's presidential palace, later marching to the British Embassy and burning newspapers bearing images of 54-year-old Gillian Gibbons.

The crowd demanded that the teacher jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam by allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad be executed following her conviction on charges of blasphemy. The crowd went on calling for her death, saying “No tolerance: Execution”, and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad”.

Dr Khalid al-Mubarak, of the Sudanese embassy in London, blamed the demonstrations on "hot heads" from "hard-line" mosques. He said: "There are many mosques and different groups congregating in different mosques. After prayer, people in particular mosques, not the mainstream, were the ones shouting the slogans to this effect."

The Muslim government of Sudan already seen as a pariah in the international community for the genocide of more than 250,000 in Dafur is facing another embarrassment for their failure to rein in the hard-line clerics.

The Ministry of Justice that dealt with Gibbons case is the same Ministry that was referred to the International Criminal Court in the Hague by the UN Security Council in 2005, which described it as unwilling and incapable of dealing with Darfur's atrocities.

The Sudanese government depends on Western donors to feed about four million Darfuris every day. Like many Muslims governments do, the Government of Sudan is prepared to use Islam for political gains as it appears to do in this case.

Gibbons had one of her seven-year-old students bring in a teddy bear, then asked the class to name it and they chose the name Mohammad, a common name among Muslim men. Each student then took the bear home to write a diary entry about it and the entries were compiled into a book with the bear’s picture on the cover titled, “My Name is Mohammad”.

The case against Gibbons started when an office assistant at the school complained to the Ministry of Education that Ms Gibbons had insulted the prophet by comparing him to an animal or toy.

While Gibbons' action can be taken as a cultural 'faux pas', it is an unreasonable assertion that she has insulted Islam in any way. These are the kinds of unaccepting hard-line intolerant attitudes that Muslims need to change in all societies including Maldives.

Malaysia's balancing act under pressure

Ethnic Indians mainly Tamils in Malaysia that constitute eight percent of the total population of 27 million but control just 1.5 percent of the economy are dissatisfied that they do not get equal racial privileges.

The Malaysian Indian community also alleged that access to housing, education, financial loans and jobs is given to Malays on a preferential basis. The recent destruction of Hindu temples by the Malaysian government has further inflamed the ethnic Indians' grievances. The declaration by some politicians that Malaysia is an Islamic country has also created problems for freedom of worship.

The 25 November 2007 civil disobedience organized by Tamils in Malaysia against their discrimination and marginalization by the Muslim dominated government represents a significant milestone in their long struggle for equal and democratic rights. The demonstrations in which hundreds and thousands of Tamil converged in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur was a rude shock to the government who has given preferential treatment to the ethnic Malay Muslims.

The Malaysian police crushed a rally of more than 10,000 ethnic Indians who were protesting against marginalisation and also to support a $4 trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a rights group demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as indentured laborers and exploiting them.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi of Tamil Nadu, homeland of the Indian Tamils has written a letter to Prime Minister Manomhan Singh, expressing deep concern at the treatment meted out to ethnic Indians in Malaysia. The chief minister has urged Prime Minister Singh and the central government to take appropriate action to end the sufferings and ill treatment meted out to Malaysian Tamils.

It looks like Malaysia's Tamil problems have spilled over its border and gained support from India.

Does this amount to Insulting Islam?

A British teacher has been detained in Sudan after her 7-year-old students called a teddy bear Mohammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, was also charged with inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. The teacher will appear before a Sudanese court and if convicted, she could face 40 lashes, a fine, or one year in jail.

The day before these charges were brought, the British ambassador to the United Nations asked the Security Council to address warrants against a Sudanese official and a militia leader accused of war crimes in Darfur, a troubled region of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have died. Some Sudanese analysts wondered if charges had been filed against the teacher in retaliation.

A 7-year-old Sudanese student on Tuesday defended his British teacher saying he had chosen to call a teddy bear Mohammad after his own name.

"The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy," the boy said shyly. "I said Mohammad. I named it after my name," he added.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said in a statement released in London: "This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense."

Islam and the Challenge of democracy

This post comes as a follow through of a post on Simon's blog and a comment by Dr. Freex. Thanks to Dr. Freex for the link of Boston Review, the subject of which I have used here.

My analysis of the the issues in contention is as follows.

Both in Maldives and outside Maldives, our politicians have publicly been talking about making the necessary constitutional amendments and introducing the reforms to take Maldives on the path of a liberal democracy. Both the government and the majority of the opposition in the parliament and the Special Majlis hold this view.

The constitutional amendment for Maldivian citizenship has once again been passed without any opposition by uniformly affirming that Maldivian citizenship is only for Muslims. One aspect of the anticipated problem was highlighted by prominent MDP MP and lawyer Husnu Sood who said that some Maldivian children of other faiths living abroad will lose their citizenship when the bill comes into force.

We know there are many countries in the world, including in the South Asia region, which have adopted a State religion, but do not require all their citizens to adhere to that religion.

The least any one can expect from our Special Majlis on a bill such as the citizenship bill is to have a vigorous debate reflecting the current situation and feelings among the Maldivian community. If the conservatives had won over the liberals after such a debate, then accepting the outcome without feeling squeezed out is part of the democratic process.

In Maldives, the concept of national unity and harmony are linked to the concept of religious unity, and drummed into the minds of the population at every opportunity. A country does not have to be 100 per cent Muslim to have perfect harmony in religious unity. It is a false argument. Maldives has been a 100 per cent Muslims for a long time. As a result of the constitutional requirement for all Maldivians to be Muslims, have Maldivians become better Muslims or are there any who have turned away from Islam? No, we are not better Muslims than any other multi-religious country where the Muslims exist in harmony with people of other faith.

The Maldivian government should not force any Maldivian to be a Muslim through its Constitution.

Coming back to Dr. Freex comment that democracy is no more Godsent than the 'Sharia', while I agree to the premise of that argument, I also believe that it distracts the focus from the issue of the Maldivian citizenship only for Muslims. The two are separate arguments, one about an individual's right to decide the faith without compulsion by the State and the other about the case for democracy in Islam.

I will leave Khaled Abou El Fadl's excellent explanation on democracy to the reader. It is on the Boston Review link above.

Dubai set to introduce VAT

Taxation is not a popular financial instrument in most countries. In the Gulf countries, taxation is a politically sensitive subject.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been urging the Gulf countries to introduce a value added tax (VAT) as it will offer a fiscal cushion to service driven economies such as Dubai and Qatar, and to others a diversified source of income that will hedge the government finances against future oil price volatility.

Dubai is off the blocks faster than other Gulf countries. Introduction of VAT across the UAE have been backed by the IMF.Quoting a government official, it has been reported that the UAE could implement Value Added Tax (VAT) "in a year's time", which could be supervised by a new federal authority.

The other Gulf states' plans to introduce a VAT could be further delayed due to disagreements among them. The Gulf states have been planning to unify their economies and introduce a single currency by 2010.

VAT would be another tax adding to the already existing taxes like housing fees for rentals in Dubai. VAT being an indirect tax may hold better than a direct tax like income tax or property tax in Dubai, according to tax experts.

Dubai is increasingly developing as a hub for service industries such as IT and finance. It is now focused to diversify from a trade-based, but oil-reliant, economy to one that is service and tourism-oriented. Dubai has become an exciting tourist destination and a thriving business and logistics centre.

Challenging the male dominated hierachy

For too long women in Maldives have been held back from holding important positions in the political hierachy. Often the reasons cited are of tradition and culture, and relatively few women seek or are selected for public office. The percentage of women in government and politics does not correspond to their percentage of the population.

In order to increase participation by women in the political process, women are taking the lead now. The first women attorney general Azima Shukoor and other prominent DRP women, including minister for Presidential affairs Aneesa Ahmed, walked out of the Special Majlis building yesterday when the speaker of the constitutional assembly rejected a measure to boost the number of females in parliament.

While more women are joining the job market and other professions, Maldives remains a very male dominated society. While the modern women are self-reinventing in the public service and private industries, the men it seems still falter when it comes to advancing women to be self-sufficient.

Old traditions will die hard but it is time for men to realise that women can no longer be held back.

Making our public schools purposeful

Maldivian Government will spend MRF 131 million in the free give away books and examination fee of needy students for the year 2008.

The mission of public schools must be to inspire a passion for learning and develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge that will enable all students to maximize their potential as positive, responsible participants in our community and the global community.

If our country's national education policy accepts such a mission, it has to instill the kind of values that can pass down such enthusiasm and creativity for learning. In this respect, the public policy of giving away free books to suit a political objective fails to address the major problems within our education system.

Families, schools and their communities are the primary agencies in the education and behaviour of the child. Not only does the family introduce him to the basic forms of civilized living, but it shaped his attitudes, formed his patterns of behavior, endowed him with manners and morals.

It is important for Maldives to have a debate on the kind of values that are currently passed on to the younger generation. What has made a segment of our young people, even if they are a fringe minority, to fight in the cause of terror? Why did parents, school and the community fail to stop such people getting distracted and taking up to violence? We need to seek answers for some hard questions to restore harmony and avoid having to live in fear.

Our national education must internalise the value of education, the value of hard work, intellectual challenge, curiosity, creativity, etc., that will greatly affect individuals' creative growth and economic prospects. And these positive values are, to a large extent, passed down from one generation to the next.

Bollywood goes global

Here's globalisation in action making the popular Bollywood film industry a major entertainment brand worldwide.

Mumbai film crews are increasingly filming in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are winning more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well, such as Lagaan, Devdas and the just released film Saawariya starring the deutants Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. As the first Bollywood film to be co-produced and financed by a Hollywood studio, Saawariya is an example of globalization reaching across far distances and cultures. The movie is the first product of a recent wave of alliances between Indian producers and the likes of Disney, Warner and Sony which backed Saawariya, released worldwide on Friday.

When Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood’s most popular star, arrived on the red carpet launch of his film Om Shanti Om in London, he spelled out his ambition: “I want to make the first Indian film that the whole world will watch.”

The night before the Om Shanti Om bandwagon rolled into London, rival 'Saawariya' had its world premiere in New York. Saawariya is the first Bollywood film produced by a leading Hollywood studio, Sony, and the two films have been vying for publicity in the Indian media before their release on Diwali, 9th November, traditionally a peak box-office slot.

Fight for climate change begins with Maldives

The Maldives, a country that is entirely dependent on oil to run its economy and tourism has to start walking the talk and cut down on its own greenhouse gas by reducing the emissions from vehicles that are jam packed on our streets in Male'. We must use less energy and be more efficient in our use of energy. We need to promote energy efficiency and conservation measures, and our Government has to help the population achieve these aims by offering incentives and creating awareness. We need stringent efficiency standards for appliances, homes and offices, industrial processes and vehicles. We need more renewable energy. We need more public transport.

Retain talent with challenging jobs

The National Fund for Higher Education and Training has opened applications for 24 scholarships. Candidates applying for the scholarship scheme will come from various government departments chosen and announced for this year.

According to this article from Haveeru, the Ministry of Higher Education has offered scholarships on the basis that successful candidates on completion of their course must payback 25% of the total cost within a period of 12 years.

Even now Maldives is seeing a brain drain where highly qualified individuals are seeking more challenging and rewarding jobs outside the country. Even if a formal Deed of Agreement is kept between the scholarship applicant and the Government, returning graduates will find that it is not easy for them to payback the 25% of the scholarship within the compensation they earn from one job, either in the public or private sector.

Maldives will also find that in a globalised world, there are many countries in our region and beyond that compete for our top talent. Even now our talent is being lured out of Maldives, and unless our work conditions, compensation, job satisfaction and quality of life are improved dramatically, the exodus will accelerate hollowing important sectors like health care, as more people become highly qualified and are sought after by overseas demand.

Just to give an example of this problem, let us take another developing country: the Philippines. With medical tourism expanding in several in countries, at least 15,000 nurses and other medical professionals are leaving the Philippines each year for better-paying jobs abroad, mainly to United States, Britain and lately to Australia and even Asian destinations, threatening the country's health infrastructure. WHO officials have called it a serious situation for the Philippines. The starting pay for a graduate nurse in government hospital is 10,000 pesos (Sin.$322) about the average wage of a maid in Singapore. Hospitals and administrators in Philippines are grappling to keep up with high leaving rates.


The challenge for our Government will be how to meet from limited financial resources rapidly rising social demands for education scholarships, jobs, infrastructure, health and other social services while retaining our best talent in Maldives.

Extreme poverty leads 11-year-old girl to suicide

By hanging herself a day after All Saints' Day, 11-year-old Mariannet Amper of Davao City, has become the embodiment of the Filipinos' worst nightmare, a saint of poverty for a nation that continues to deny the blighted reality of its impoverishment.

As this news quickly spread around the world, the Philippines promised yesterday to investigate the apparent suicide of the 11-year-old girl due to poverty after the incident generated angry public reactions and street protests.

She wrote a letter to a television network asking for a new pair of shoes, a bag, a bicycle and better paying jobs for her parents, local newspapers said. She also left a diary narrating her family’s difficulties in sending her and a younger brother to school and how she wished her father’s health would improve and get him a good job other than doing small carpentry work.

She was in the sixth grade and eager to catch up so as to finish her elementary education. It is reported that Mariannet killed herself out of quiet desperation over her school absences and her inability to catch up with school work.

Mariannet's diary is similar to Anne Frank's: both prefigured the unyielding doom in their lives--Anne's, the holocaust of the gas chambers; Mariannet's, the holocaust of extreme poverty.

These incidents are immensely tragic and shows humanity's inability to take care of the most vulnerable in society. World Bank estimates that 40 per cent of the Phillipines population of 87 million live on less than US$2 a day. While the country's economy is currently improving and making good economic progress, the economic gap between the rich and poor is also widening thereby deepening the despondency of the poor. In most third world countries, corruption and mismanagement have made their governments the key perpetuator of poverty.

Perils on the path of democracy

Recent developments in Fiji where the elected government was forcibly removed from office, and Zimbabwe where the members of the Opposition were not only prevented from holding a rally but were arrested and beaten by the police while in custody brings into sharper focus the perils on the path of a liberal democracy. Closer to home, Pakistan where the chief justice was suspended under circumstance which undermines the separation of powers and the rule of law is a clear indication of how a system is manipulated by a military dictator. These are situations when the majority consent through the process of an election is withheld and it calls for a re-examination of the Rule of Law and the concept of democracy as mentioned here on the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative newsletter.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is an international non-governmental organisation formed to support Human Rights and particularly to support the implementation of the Harare Declaration which set out the Commonwealth's core principles and values, for the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The developed West imposes upon developing countries, the traditions of democracy as experienced by them. The starting point for most countries like Maldives, struggling on the path of democracy could be the public voting and majority rule, most people can choose for all of us, and majorities can impose their will on minorities.

Collective decisions affect us all only because the majority is empowered to force its will on everyone. We have begun to see this process get played out in Maldives. For example, recently when a constitutional amendment was proposed by a leading critic of police powers from the MDP, even activists from the MDP reacted with horror. Clause twenty five of the draft bill of rights had read, “no person shall be arrested or detained without reasonable and probable grounds to believe he has committed an offence.”

The MDP sponsored amendment allows a police officer to detain anyone, “he believes may commit an offence.”

The amendment was passed in the Special Majlis with the MDP splitting its vote on both sides. Thus sweeping powers are given to law enforcement by the collective will of majority. Now the people could be faced with situations of saving themselves from the tyranny of the majority who get to choose something for everyone.

As Fareed Zakariya, Editor of Newsweek International who explained the term "illiberal democracy", the real key to freedom is to secure people from tyranny by the majority, or freedom from democracy.


For much of modern history, what characterized governments in Europe and North America, and differentiated them from those around the world, was not democracy but constitutional liberalism. The "Western model of government" is best symbolized not by the mass plebiscite but the impartial judge. (Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom, p. 20.)


Eighty years ago, Woodrow Wilson took America into the 20th century with a challenge to make the world safe for democracy. As we enter the 21st century, Fareed Zakariya envisions our task is to make democracy safe for the world.

With all its flaws, democracy — represents the “last best hope” for people around the world. But it needs to be secured and strengthened for our times. Maldives is at the threshold of this challenge now.

State welfare can lead to a crutch mentality

Maldives is hitting the election fever and political parties are positioning to appease the voters.

The Maldivian government has announced that it would increase the wages of the state employees in 2008 . Further measures include the government funding the books and stationary needed by all students from Grades 1 to 12. In addition, the fee for participating in the O' level and A' Level exams are to be paid by the government for those who can't afford it.

While we welcome a little benevolence from the Government, when the budget for 2008 is presented to the parliament, members will have to find out how this social welfare scheme is being financed. Who is paying for this handout? While many needy children will benefit from this programme, the rich don't need government handouts for their children for the rich are blessed with an abundance of wealth. Such schemes need to be designed to help the needy and to help them become self-reliant. While the social realities of our country make it necessary to help the needy through such programmes, it is also worth noting that most of the countries that practice such welfarism find that lifelong handouts is not the solution to the low income group. Such action tends to create a mentality of dependency on the those who are able to give. It is important to empower the people at the lower income levels, for them to have the self determination to help themselves. It is important to create the conditions and provide the incentives for such people to build up their own capability and to earn their living.

The main opposition party MDP has said the party will ensure all Maldivians benefit from tourism the mainstay of our economy, give more tourism jobs to Maldivians, open doors for Maldivians in the industry, and use tourism to strengthen the economy. MDP has also said it wants to dismantle the present patronage system by taxing the businessmen with corporation tax and introducing income tax and at the same time allow ownership of property rights. They will reduce import duties and remain committed to free market economics. MDP's detailed policies on health care, education, taxation and the economy will be made public only a month prior to the 2008 general election.

Social enterprises- the true answer to happiness?

Singapore Management University (SMU) alumni Shashank Nigam writes that living in Boston has a number of upsides. One of them is the opportunity to meet world-renowned luminaries such as Dr Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen bank. He writes an interesting perspective on social enterprises, about doing more than just increasing the profit-making behaviour in order to help lift the poor out of poverty. Read more here.

Despite the multitude of benefits that free market capitalism has brought, it still leaves vast number of people trapped in poverty. Professor Yunus believes that social businesses can help people in this group more effectively. Yunus’ idea of social business is catching on in many countries. Unlike the regular concept of business to maximise profit, social business is to maximise "doing good" for the benefit of other people.

Speaking to The Singapore Straits Times recently, Professor Yunus said, "Social business" is not charity but more in keeping with the adage: it's better to teach a man how to fish than give him fish."

Professor Yunus gave a lecture at the International Islamic University, Malaysia on how to empower the poor through social business.

Radicalism cannot be defeated with hypocrisy

Maldives is facing a growing problem of radical Islam and with the crude home-made bomb that went off recently in the Sultan Park, it is clear that hard line views and intolerance has exploded into dangerous violence.

Last year a UN rapporteur on Freedom of Religion who visited the country was accused of, "trying to undermine the Islamic Unity of the Maldives," by then Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel. Now UN has sent another Shari’ah Law expert to Malé. Mohammad Hashim Kamali who is Shari’ah advisor to Government bodies in Malaysia and South Africa has said the ban on freedom of religion in the Maldives is a “disservice to Islam.” He urged that the 64,000 expatriates living in the Maldives, “should be able to open schools for their children and practice their faith openly.”

It appears that political unity is only possible in Maldives when it comes to religion. All the four main parties uniformly rejected Kamali's appeal. Radical Islam feeds off on this kind of intolerance and their agenda is to promote extremism and violence. The main opposition party MDP has said, it would be “political suicide” to advocate freedom of religion. Politicians do not resort to such desperate tactics for they are too busy looking after their personal interests. Some of them can't even trust Maldivians to believe in their own religion. What these people fail to understand is that the freedom of religion is given to human beings by Islam that imposes no compulsion of faith on its believers. They don't deny that this is a fact revealed in Quran. Yet, they continue the intolerance as though it is politically correct to do so. We need to change this attitude if are we to reverse the tide of radical Islam and its extremism. We have witnessed the folly of misinformation in Hinmadhoo and elsewhere in Maldives that has led us to unexpected crisis.

Muslims should live as good Muslims because of the personal conviction in their faith and not only because some experts or politicians force them to do so.

Change driven by crisis

Change occurs in Maldives largely driven by crisis. This is evident when we look at political succession, public housing in Male', and the various land reclamation work that is carried out throughout the country in spite of the fact that many pristine islands remain uninhabited. Today the capital island Male' has its population living shoulder to shoulder, yet our community as a whole fails to show empathy or express sufficient outrage when injustices and abuses happen to one of us. The thread running about Dr. Niyaf on MaldivesHealth demonstrates this point in the health care which needs the services of dedicated professionals to provide the best care.

Change can take many forms and include many environments. You hear this term frequently in the corporate world and there are so many change-management programs that are used in corporations and in countries. Maldives is going through a process of change, an attempt to install the framework of good governance, separation of powers and enhancing individual freedoms.

Typically the objective of any change is to maximize the collective benefits for all people involved in the change and minimize the risk of failure of implementing the change. Change is not implemented on this basis in Maldives. For example, it has taken more than three years to revise a constitution that is nearing completion now. If the purpose of the revision is to work out a just constitution, then every effort should be made to live up to it. As things stand now, parliament itself has become a public spectacle of archaic procedures, mindless jargon, amusement and even ridicule.

We need to recognise the individual talent in Maldives to reverse this trend and provide social justice and good value to every citizen. Our biggest threat comes from proponents of radical Islam and they have found a group of our young vulnerable for indoctrination. These forces need to be defeated by our community reaching out to every vulnerable individual with intensive counselling so that extremist elements can be stopped on their track.

Contributing to social good

During the past few years, philanthropy has taken a high profile due to increased media coverage of activists like rock star Bono and his campaign to alleviate Third World debt to developed nations. The ambitious projects of the Gates Foundation's resources and initiatives, such as eradicating malaria ; and Warren Buffett's donation in 2006 of $30 billion to the Gates Foundation made world headlines.

The purpose of philanthropy has been debated in both positive and negative terms. Some equate philanthropy with benevolence and charity for the poor and needy. Others hold that philanthropy can be any altruistic giving towards any kind of social need that is not served, underserved, or perceived as unserved or underserved by the market.

Whatever the case maybe, philanthropy is a perfectly legitimate practice and there is no question that people who are prepared to give millions for the public good are entitled to respect and appreciation. But the mere fact that they can afford to give millions does not mean they should be singled out ahead of others who dedicate themselves to public service.

According to a Boston College study, Americans are sinking $5.5 trillion to $7.4 trillion into the philanthropic industry during a 20-year period that will end in 2017. Most of the activists involved in the giving are coming up through the high-finance and tech industries. They are highly engaged in their causes, investing not just money but also time, energy and oversight.

Philanthropy is a private sector means of affecting social change without recourse to government mechanisms such as those represented by aid programs.

Do the rich in Maldives help the less priviledged by engaging in various causes to build up a stronger community?

What if oil runs dry?

Humanity's way of life is on a collision course with geology—with the stark fact that the Earth holds a finite supply of oil.

No one knows for sure, and geologists and economists are embroiled in debate about just when the "oil peak" will be upon us.

Peak oil takes the premise that the amount of oil left for us to use has "peaked" (or is just about to peak). Once worldwide production begins to fall and with no corresponding decrease in demand, oil prices will skyrocket, leading to widespread chaos. Richard Heinberg, a Californian college professor paints a dire picture.

"It's not just going to be a matter of replacing gasoline with something else and continuing on our merry way. We're actually going to have to change our transportation systems and reduce the amount of transportation that we do."
Heinberg is also sceptical of the prospect of biofuels saving the day. "It's clear ethanol and other biofuels are going to entail a trade-off between food and fuel. If we try to replace gasoline and diesel fuels with biofuels we'll simply fail because we don't have enough land and people will starve in the process."

If we are to gently surf the downward slope of Hubbert's bell curve rather than precipitously tumble off the edge, Heinberg says, it will take a social transformation of no lesser magnitude than the industrial revolution. "I don't think we are going back to exactly how people lived 200 years ago but we are going to need lots more human labour in agriculture and that means the middle class is going to start shrinking."

Healing the poor

According to a report on Business Standard, villagers and slum-dwellers who are the poorest of the poor in Maharashtra, India run their own health insurance fund, with spectacular results.


Dandekar bridge slum in Pune is unlike any other slum in the country. When someone here falls ill, the family just has to dial a 24-hour helpline, whose doctor advises them which government hospital the patient should consult. The family also receives money for treatment.

The slum-dwellers are part of a health security fund, an experimental project to which each person contributes Rs 60 annually. The unique fund is run by the slum-dwellers themselves along with those living in 88 other slums in Pune, Mahrasthra. So far, 30,000 have joined the fund, which covers all Pune slums and some villages in two other districts of the state. Dandekar bridge slum in east Pune accounts for 8,000 members.


More on this scheme on Business Standard.

Lending money between family and friends

British billionaire Richard Branson who started his 'Virgin Records' business from a loan he took from an aunt knows the effect of small loans. He is today launching Virgin Money USA, a financial-services powerhouse he plans to carve out of what’s currently a small Waltham start-up.

Branson is creating Virgin Money USA out of rebranding the Circle Lending Co., a “peer-to-peer” lender that the Branson bought in May for an undisclosed sum.

Founded by entrepreneur Asheesh Advani, Circle Lending helps friends and families formalize loans to one another.

"We’ve developed a very flexible set of products where you can pick your own interest rates, miss a payment if you want - basically enjoy a freedom that’s totally different from what you get at a bank,” said Advani, who’s staying on as Virgin Money USA’s CEO. “Our vision is to build a major Boston-based financial-services company.”

Advani and Branson intend to add education loans, financial planning and other services to Circle Lending’s existing line of mortgages, personal and small-business loans.

Advani's six-year-old company emerged alongside the "peer-to-peer" lending industry that seeks to snatch business away from banks by using the Internet to match borrowers with lenders. However, unlike CircleLending, those services generally pair up strangers.

In CircleLending, because borrower and lender know one another, loans typically carry lower interest rates than banks offer -- without the unforgiving nature institutional lenders often adopt with delinquent borrowers, Advani says.

Dealing with Islamophobia from within

Wittingly or unwittingly, we have undermined our unity by allowing different religious fanatical factions to take roots in our small communities of what used to be moderate Muslims. We now have to engage the separatists in meaningful dialogue and their fears need to be addressed and listened to, not brushed aside by branding them as outcasts. Criminal behaviour will have to be dealt with according to law.

Enter Islamophobia into our small community of just over 300,000 Sunni Muslims.


Islamophobia is a political term, though controversial is an increasingly accepted prejudice or discrimination against Islam or Muslims. The term has been revived after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Not long after Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech that enraged Muslims around the world, some people in Denmark called for a contest to depict Prophet Muhammad through drawing or caricature. The world is witnessing growing Islamophobia, a phenomenon that has existed between Muslims and the western civilization for a long time. Now the Muslims are practising Islamophobia among themselves.

Early this year, an article written by Aniya showed how sensitive Maldivian conservatives are to any criticism of religion. Aniya's article was thought-provoking and one can say she gave the wrong interpretation of the wearing of veil by women as revealed in Quran. To question in Islam cannot be considered as heresy and even if she is wrong she has a right to her opinion and those who don't agree with her will have be tolerant of different views. Instead she was condemned and forcefully dragged to Supreme Religious Council. All of us will have to learn to tolerate each other's differences. If a crime is committed, then deal with it according to law.

The Sultan Park bombing incident is a criminal act and will have to be dealt with as such. Separatist groups like the people of Himandhoo have chosen a certain way of life. We have to ask ourselves, is the problem with their way of life (how they dress, pray etc.) or are they also committing any punishable crimes? We need to deal with criminal behaviour such as getting married outside the law. If their intention is to deliberately stir trouble, that too will have to be dealt with. More of the same failed preaching by the Supreme Religious Council is not going to solve this problem. Knowledge without understanding can easily turn destructive as we are finding out in Maldives.

Teaching tolerance as Muslims and respecting diversity will be the peaceful way forward.

From culture to cult

Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief. Maldivians are 100 per cent Muslims and therefore they celebrate all the festivals that feature on the traditional Muslim calendar. Thus Islam is the cornerstone of the culture of Maldives.

Our educational system has principally rewarded those who have developed their ability to swallow information and regurgitate it during a prescribed time frame. This distorted thinking is further advanced by our scholars who return home after graduation from overseas institutions and impart knowledge to local communities without engaging them in critical thinking. Thus our minds which controls everything about our life is influenced, manipulated and in the end controlled by people who sometimes subvert faith and religion because of their ignorance or their madness. Many of the followers who blindly follow teachings that include the distorted ones get trapped into radicalism and extremism. Thus emerge the cults that often bring a painful end, it wrecks families and communities.

The recent bombing in Sultan Park Male' and the masked men of Hinmadhoo who stood against the police and security forces have revealed that we too have our cults who live differently, teach their children out of the mainstream schools and are prepared to fight and defend their separate way of life in small communities. This is just the beginning of our cults and if it progresses unchecked, we could hear of martyrdom and more destructive cults.

The battle against destructive and death cults can only be won when the Muslims take a forceful stance against extremism, separatism and radicalism. This view is beginning to be shared across the Muslim world and now its time for Maldives to walk its talk in making Maldives the peaceful country that it claims to be.

Is Islam a religion that has the propensity to lead to destructive cults?

Let us look at what some of this separatist groups are doing. Some of them say we should live exactly in the same exact way as the Prophet and his disciples lived. We should dress like them, eat like them and live like them. The argument is on whether Muslim men should be allowed to wear suites and ties as Westerners do or not? When they are told that why should we live like them when they existed 1500 years ago and our life today is different? Why should we ignore the current life style and not take full advantage of the technologies that exist today to our benefit? Their response is: "Don't you think that if Allah wanted to make the cloths of today lawful, He would've made the Muslims have them 1500 years ago?" How is it possible to reason out with such erratic thinking? If we can't reason out, is it possible to change such thinking and dogmatic behaviour?

A young woman's journey searching religion.

The main message that I picked out is that by learning the virtues of different religions we learn to tolerate the intolerance.

Indians abused in Malaysia

More than 200 Indian nationals working in a Malaysian factory have alleged that they were being abused by their employment agent and are desperate to return home after three of their colleagues were brutally beaten up.

The 264 Indian workers, employed at a factory in Senai in Johor state, claimed their agent started abusing them when they arrived in Malaysia two years ago.

All the major Indian newspapers carried this news. Reading through the Rediff comments, it will be observed that there are flames from some angry Indians. The anger at the abuse is understandable and action must be taken to prevent such abuse. At the same time those who perpetrated the abuse must be held accountable according to the law. While the religion of the employer who allegedly inflicted the abuse is unknown, some have called for action against Muslims because it has happened in Malaysia which has a majority Muslim population.

The abuse will have to be investigated without bringing any religion in the picture because no religion calls for abuse of rights of other people. Every time something goes wrong it may be easier to scapegoat Islam but it does not solve the underlying problems of poverty, abuse, unemployment and oppression. It only distracts focus from the underlying problems.

New York mayor takes the train to work

Michael Bloomberg is an American businessman, and the founder of Bloomberg L.P., currently serving as the Mayor of New York City.

Bloomberg entered politics as a self-made media mogul and struck a populist note early in his mayoral campaign by pledging to use mass transit. Since starting at City Hall he has invited reporters, photographers and television news anchors to ride along with him.

The mayor's spokesman said that he "walked to the subway when he first started as mayor, and he stopped doing it when cameras staked out his house every morning and walked with him." Now the mayor is driven to the subway station at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, where he can board an express train to City Hall.

Being driven to the 59th Street station shaves the mayor's commuting time by one-third, based on a reporter's test runs. It also saves him aggravations like taking the local train and transferring to the express.

"He goes to various stops depending on where he is going and where he is coming from," said the spokesman.

He is public transportation's loudest cheerleader in New York, boasting that he takes the subway "virtually every day." He has told residents who complain about overcrowded trains to "get real," and he constantly encourages New Yorkers to follow his environmentally friendly example.

University puts courses on YouTube

Berkeley university, one of the most prestigious universities in the US, is embracing the Internet revolution by putting free videos of courses on YouTube.

More than 300 hours of University of California, Berkeley, classes and events are available online. The university plans to continually add videos to the channel, which officially launched Wednesday with about nine full courses consisting of approximately 40 lectures each.

Check them out here.

Weeding out pious frauds

What is emerging in the reports coming out from the Sultan Park bombing incident reveals that some of our youth are getting radicalised in Islam. This is starting at an early age, sometimes in high school. These issues will have to be addressed at its source before they grow big and manifest into lethal action causing harm and destruction. The problem is not with Islam but with twisted interpretations of selected texts to suit a particular thinking.

In the recent past, there were some students in Male's premier high school CHSE who were noted to be acting different from the mainstream. While we have to remain tolerant of diverse views, there is a concern in indoctrinating radical Islam in our every day life making harmonious living impossible because of the religious intolerance and extremism.

To have people in our society who cannot go their to prayers to the mosques for whatever reason and confine themselves to build a cult is not acceptable. If anyone has a grievance or takes issue with the prevailing system compelling them to form their separate groups, their issues will need to be looked into before they get out of hand.

We need to teach our children the principles of good living.

Increasing climate change refugees

Environmental degradation around the world is creating a new category of people known as "environmental refugees."

According to a National Geographic article in 2005, there are at least 20 million environmental refugees worldwide, the group says—more than those displaced by war and political repression combined. This figure continues to increase rapidly.

The inhabitants of the Carteret Islands are the first climate refugees due to sea level rise attributed to global warming and climate change. Other inhabitants of low lying islands and Island states, are also at risk. Tuvalu and Maldives are especially susceptible to changes in sea level and storm surges.

By 2010 the number of environmental refugees could grow to 50 million, the Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) predicts.

Professor Norman Myers, who is a British environmentalist and authority on biodiversity has estimated climate change will increase the number of environmental refugees six-fold over the next fifty years to 150 million.

Equatorial countries that are home to hundreds of millions of people will become uninhabitable as food and water run out due to climate change, scientists are expected to warn this week.

A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to be published on Friday, will warn that the temperature rises of 2-3C predicted by 2050 spell global disaster for both humanity and the environment.

Australia has said that it will prepare to play its role as a part of a global coalition to do their share of assisting the low lying Pacific island states such as Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu - which sit just a few metres above sea level - are at risk of being swamped as global warming forces sea levels to rise.

Maldives needs to quickly put its house in order internally and start taking action for long term survival/relocation without being content on asking the international community to reduce the greenhouse gases. The environmental threat is already looming on the horizon and we really don't have the time to waste in playing unproductive games.

"NO TO TERRORISM! DON'T TOUCH OUR MALDIVES!"

"We don't want terrorists and terrorism in our Maldives!

Join the cyber-protest by Maldivian bloggers."

Worries over veil in Turkey

Turkey is a secular democratic republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Turkey is located between Asia and Europe, often described as a bridge between the western and eastern civilizations.

The current constitution in Turkey obliges the government to ensure equality for all - a clause that women's groups fought hard to include. A revised new constitution is now being proposed, describing women as a vulnerable group in need of special protection.

Thousands of prominent men and women who make up the elite of this country are having panic attacks in the face of the possibility that Turkish universities might tolerate their students wearing the Islamic headscarf. Virtually everyday, bureaucrats, pundits and even university rectors lash out against the proposed article in the new constitution to set the headscarf free.

Under the Ataturk code, women were banned from wearing the headscarf in government offices. The Turkish military, the fiercest guardian of “Kemalism” as the cult of Ataturk is known, has used the threat to secularism as the pretext over the decades for many an intervention in politics.

Over the last 80 years, since becoming a secular country the Turks have still not got over the fear of seeing a veiled women.

Stop the madness

Maldives has long maintained a stand of remaining a moderate Islamic country. In all travel guides that gives advice to tourists visiting Maldives, our country is still declared as having very little crime.

The recent homemade bomb that went off in Sultan Park causing injury to 12 tourists has shocked our government and shaken our community. It has made headline news around the world drawing negative publicity to our idyllic sunny islands.

On crimes, we now know that some of the crimes committed in Maldives have become major crimes, way beyond petty crimes. The government, all the political parties and the people have condemned the attack on tourists in the strongest terms as they rightly should. Now it is time to look inward and seek answers why things have come to this stage.

Looking on the crime side, there are horrific crimes that has been committed in Maldives in the recent past. In Jan, 2000- In Thinadhoo a father-in-law was brutally killed in broad daylight by a son-in-law who attacked him mercilessly with a knife. 'He threatened to kill anyone who came near,' claimed by standers who watched in horror. More recently, on Himandhoo island last year, Wahabbis barricaded the island mosque saying that it was constructed on a burial ground. Later, an island official was found dead on the island's beach in December, after enforcing a government decision to close a breakaway mosque.

Looking at this Ramadan alone, we find that crime and violence has gone through the roof. Even the guards keeping watch on shops have not been spared and they have not been able to stop the theft. Now the shopowners themselves are losing sleep trying to keep vigil to protect their property and assets. We have come a long way from a country that has little crime.

On the moderate Islam front, in the recent past we have seen different factions of Islam making there presence felt in our society. We see the increasing Wahabi influence by men whose trousers are worn well above the ankle, and who keep long beards. They gang up in difference places spreading their brand of Islam. There is an outburst of extremism and religious intolerance. The violence that is happening in Addu makes the place look like a war zone.

On the political front, our country is going through a dramatic change when democracy and reform and setting up the institutional framework is the priority of the national agenda. Presently we have fractious unity between political parties , the government and the parliament. Nothing gets done without inordinate delays and the country is heading down on a slippery path. The only reason there is a huge outrage and a call for firm action against the perpetrators of bombing in Sultan Park is because it caused injury to 12 foreign tourists and therefore may hurt tourism. The same standard must be applied to every injustice and every abuse of the right of Maldivians. The same standard must also be applied to stop the import of drugs and eradicate drugs from our society. If it were the case we would never have come to this stage.

Unless we stop this shift to radical Islam and increasing violence, we will destroy tourism and hurt other industries and no one will be able to find any joy living in Maldives. Unless we wrench our country out of the grip of this madness more doom and destruction will follow. It is time for politicians, law enforcement agencies and the people to step up and face this daunting task.

The youngest CEO at 17.

Here's a rags to riches story where the American 17-year-old girl Ashley Quall is featured in a Fastcompany article. It is an interesting article of how a minor (legally) has really become big in business.

The power of Quall's website whateverlife.com hit home last year when Quall posted a music video of an unknown boy band on her website. This was at the behest of the creator of online video widget, similar to YouTube, who had been hired by Columbia Records to see what kind of buzz he could create with an inexpensive marketing campaign conducted purely on the web.

This is evidence of the meritocracy on the Internet that allows even companies run by neophyte entrepreneurs to compete, regardless of funding, location, size, or experience--and she's a reminder that ingenuity is ageless. She has taken in more than $1 million, thanks to a now-familiar Web-friendly business model. Her MySpace page layouts are available for the bargain price of...nothing. They're free for the taking. Her only significant source of revenue so far is advertising.

According to Google Analytics, Whateverlife attracts more than 7 million individuals and 60 million page views a month. That's a larger audience than the circulations of Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! magazines combined. Although Web-site rankings vary with the methodology, Quantcast, a popular source among advertisers, ranked Whateverlife.com a staggering No. 349 in mid-July out of more than 20 million sites. Among the sites in its rearview mirror: Britannica.com, AmericanIdol.com, FDA .gov, and CBS.com, even ahead of Oprah.com.

Now her life is centered around working in the basement of the two-story, four-bedroom house that she bought last September for $250,000.