A man has died in an accident while fishing in a boat near Dhaalu Atoll Kudahuvadhu, police report.
Police identified the man as Mohamed Hussein, 48, of Dhirimaage in Dhaalu Atoll Bandidhu.
Police reported that the incident took place at 11:20am.
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(0)A coalition of local NGOs conducted a workshop yesterday to review new drug laws proposed by the government.
Ahmed Adam, chairperson of drugs NGO Journey, said drug abuse was a “national issue” that urgently required a solution.
”We wish the MPs would cooperate with us hope they do not think this bill was politically motivated,” he said.
A number of participants at the workshop expressed concern about the difficulty they had reaching MPs. Adam said MPs had not even attended meetings to discuss the bill despite numerous invitations.
Among the NGOs represented at the workshop were Journey, Hand to Hand, Maldivian Detainee Network and Transparency Maldives.
History of drug use
Adam, a recovered drug addict, spoke briefly about the history of drug use in the Maldives.
Historical documents that reveal travellers who visited to the Maldives in the 16th century observed opium being used inside the palace, he said.
Moreover, in the 18th century, Indian traders introduced cannabis to the country.
”In 1972, with the advent of tourism in the country, most people started smoking grass,” he said.
The government was only alerted to what was happening much later, he added.
Adam said ‘brown sugar’, the low-grade heroin that is prevalent in the country, was introduced after the mass arrests of marijuana users in the early 90s.
A drug centre was established for the first time in the Maldives in 1997.
NGOs discussion
The discussions at the workshop focused on both the reasons why people get hooked on drugs and methods of prevention.
NGOs were divided into four groups and together discussed the drug epidemic and ways to solve it.
Among the factors identified that drove people to drug use were parental neglect, congestion and lack of privacy and space at home that draws children out to streets, peer pressure, lifestyle decisions as well as lack of job opportunities and proper role models.
The NGOs argued in favour of categorisation of drugs in the bill and called for the introduction of different methods and models for treatment apart from the existing therapeutic community (TC) model.
TC was not adequate for all types of drug addicts, they insisted.
While drug smuggling could be prevented by imposing penalties on customs officials suspected of accepting bribes, higher penalties should be imposed on convicted drug dealers, they agreed.
Drug traffickers and money they earn
Minivan News spoke anonymously to an individual who divulged information on drug trafficking in the Maldives.
He claimed that he sold drugs because he felt “pity for the sick people” [drug addicts] and did not want “to isolate them from society.”
He added that he did not face “any trouble” in attracting customers.
”If we sell good quality stuff to one person, he will go and tell his friends that we have good stuff and they also will start buying from us,” he said.
He claimed to earn “at least Rf15,000 every day” (US$1167) selling drugs, approximately Rf465,000 per month (US$36,186).
”Everyday one person will buy at least three to five packets, sometimes people from the islands come and buy 40 packets also,” he said, claiming that each 0.03 gram packet (of brown sugar) cost Rf100.
Almost one or two kilograms were smuggled into the country at a time, he explained.
The rise in crime was because drug addicts needed to feed their addiction, he said.
“All gangs are operated by people and money. Gangs earn money by selling drugs. If someone gets stabbed also the gangs would provide them with medication and financial assistance.”
Moreover, he said, “gangsters” would not have any source of income without dealing drugs.
“Real drug dealers” meanwhile, do not use drugs themselves, he said. The drug of choice for Maldivian youth was brown sugar, he added.
“There’s also hash oil, ‘white stuff’ and Charas [resin from the hemp plant] also in the market.”
While more treatment facilities and job opportunities should be offered to combat drug addiction, he said, ”drug dealers should be stopped first, but [the government] can never do that. Drug dealers are assisted by high-profile people in the country,” he said.
“First, they should figure out who they are and stop them, then come after the drug dealers. Then there will be no drug abusers in the country.”
(0)Dislikes(0)The National Social Protection Agency (NSPA) has announced that it will introduce allowances for foster parents.
Chairperson of NSPA Ibrahim Waheed said that Rf500 would be provided to registered parents and Rf1000 for registered children every month.
”Any person who has a written document from the court that a person is taking care of a orphan child is admissible,” Waheed said. ”We consider as anyone under the age of eighteen to be a child.”
Waheed said that Rf500 would be provided for each kid a person looked after.
”No matter the number of children one person looks after, we will give Rf 500 per kid,” said Waheed.
Waheed said that the purpose of introducing the foster parent allowances was to encourage people to take care of orphans.
”There are many children in ‘Kudakudhinge Hiya’ [orphanage in Villingili],” he said. “We want to encourage people to take them and look after those kids,” he said.
He said that more than 2000 applicants had already applied, ”but some of them do not have the court warrant,” he said,” so we have asked them to bring it along with the application.”
Moreover, Ibrahim Waheed said that allowances for single mothers will be available from the 15th of this month.
He said that every single mother registered would receive Rf1000 per child under the age of eighteen.
He noted that each mother would receive Rf3000 maximum.
”Even if they had more than three kids, we could only provide Rf3000 each month,” he said. ”Currently the judicial system will provide them with Rf450 every month from the kids’ fathers, so Rf3000 is better than what they can get through the judicial system.”
He said that all single mothers can apply with a court warrant, whether they are widowed or divorced.
NGOs inluding Hand-in-Hand, Rights for All and Care Society said that they did not have enough information on the Forster parent allowance and did not comment.
(0)Dislikes(0)An 11 year old boy drowned last night in the swimming area in south Male’, after he became entangled in some rope underwater.
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said that police received a report of the incident at 10:20pm last night.
”Police officers were there within five minutes,” Shiyam said.
Shiyam said that police officers noted that the boy was not breathing when he was taken out from the water.
”We provided first aid to the kid before he was taken to hospital,” Shiyam said, “but he dead when we took him to the hospital.”
A person familiar with the incident told Minivan News that the boy went to the sea with a group of children who were of almost the same age, including his own brother.
He said that the kids were playing a game in the sea.
”They were playing a game where each one of them went under the water holding their breath, and picked up sand,” he explained.
He said that when the boy did not resurface for a while everybody started to panic.
”His brother went down to see what happened to him and he also did not come up,” he said. ”The boy’s leg was stuck in a loose rope tied to a stone beneath the water.”
He said the boy’s brother tried desperately to save him, ”but he was out of breath and had to come up. His brother was still under water.”
He said that shortly afterwards two men came and were able to pull the boy from the water and call police.
”His brother who tried to save him is still admitted to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital,” he said. ”He was taken to IGMH because he had breathing problems because he hold his breath for a long time,”
He said the boy who died was a student in Imaduddeen School.
He was buried after the Afternoon Prayers today.
(0)Dislikes(0)Police have arrested a boy under the age of eighteen with allegedly stolen items in Lhaviyani Atoll Naifaru.
Police reported that Rf4000, two mobile phones and two sim cards were found with the boy.
Police said they suspected the items belong to a doctor working in Naifaru Hospital.
Naifaru police station is investigating the case.
(0)Dislikes(0)Adhaalath party has officially launched their English website, at http://www.adhaalathparty.com/
The party said that the English website was intended to give information and events of the party to foreigners.
All the sections in Dhivehi website will also be in the English section of the website, the party added.
(0)Dislikes(0)The Dean of the Faculty of Arts Abdul Rasheed Ali has said the college will introduce a degree in journalism, a diploma in psychology and political science by next year in the faculty for the first time in the Maldives.
”We are looking forward to introducing a Masters Degree in the Dhivehi language also,” Rasheed said.
Rasheed said the courses offered by the Maldives College of Higher Education’s Faculty of Arts would be “more professional” than the courses provided by the neighboring countries.
”There are many challenges we have to face,” he said, including a lack of equipment and land at the faculty.
”We need a laboratory for the study of psychology and a studio for the degree in journalism,” he said, ”and we need more qualified students.”
Many students left after completing half the courses due to a lack of money, Rasheed observed.
”Half the students taking a BA in Dhivehi have left because they did not have enough money to pay the course fees,” he said. ”There are many students looking forward to the Rf 2000 (US$155) loan the government provides for students.”
Many owed far more than Rf 2000, he said.
(0)Dislikes(6)President Mohamed Nasheed has announced that he will veto the bill on local council elections voted through by parliament earlier this week.
Speaking at a ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rally last night, President Nasheed said ratifying the bill on decentralisation would be “the intelligent thing to do” but article four of the local council elections bill would deprive many citizens of their right to vote.
Article four requires that voters would have to be present in their island of birth or registered constituency in order to cast their ballots.
The bill was voted through by the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)-People’s Alliance coalition without any votes from MDP MPs.
The president said a large number of people from the atolls living in Male’ or “40 per cent of the population”, would be deprived of the right to vote if he ratified the bill.
Moreover, he said, young men and women who work outside their islands would not have a say in local government.
He added that the bill was “definitely unconstitutional”.
In the 2008 presidential elections, said Nasheed, MDP received the majority of its backing from islanders living in Male’.
President Nasheed accused opposition MPs of employing “trickery and deceit” during the last session of parliament.
“50,000 people will vote for MDP. This is a cunning plan to deprive them of their vote,” he said.
Shifting blame
The two main political parties have blamed each other for the controversial article four.
Two amendments proposed by the MDP to allow remote voting were defeated in parliament on Sunday.
”We proposed to amend the bill in a manner everyone can vote for,” said MDP MP Eva Abdulla. “But DRP MPs did not vote for it.”‘
Eva said then MDP then proposed another amendment to allow people of other islands living in Male’ to vote in the council elections “but they refused for that also”.
”There are more than 20 percent of each islands population who are from other islands,” she said.
DRP MP Ahmed Nihan said that DRP MPs did not vote for the amendments because it did not provide the right to vote for everyone equally.
“‘One amendment allowed voting for people living in Male’ who had left their birth place, which is not fair,” Nihan said. “The other reason why we did not vote for the amendments is during the meeting held with political parties and the Elections Commission (EC), DRP objected to article four, but everyone else supported so we also agreed.”
Apart from DRP, said Nihan, MDP and MPs of the Dhivehi Qaumee Party participated in the meeting with the EC.
”The EC said that it would be difficult for them to keep ballot boxes everywhere and said they had financial difficulties too,” he said. “But we said it should be like any other elections, and the EC said that it was different from presidential elections and parliamentary elections and also said that it was the way they do it in other countries as well.”
He said that the ruling party was trying to “mislead people”.
”DRP had confirmed that we will present amendments to that bill and try to keep ballot boxes in other countries where Maldivians live,” he said.
But, MDP MP Mohamed Hamza dismissed Nihan’s claims as “all lies”.
”We presented two amendments, first one to at least allow people from islands living Male’ to vote,” Hamza said, ”the second one to hold the elections as widely as the elections commission could,”
He said that DRP MPs rejected both even though they understood it would deprive people of the right to vote.
DRP MP Ahmed Mahloof said the DRP raised the problem at the meeting with the EC and warned that article four would “become an issue”.
”[But] the EC wanted to make it different from other elections,” he said.
Mahlouf said President Nasheed was unhappy that the bill states all appointed island and atoll councilors should be dismissed.
“We want as many people to take part in the vote,” he said.
(0)Dislikes(0)High government import taxes on plastic bags, intended to reduce their use, has prompted some businesses in the country to manufacture their own plastic bags.
While a 200 per cent duty import duty is levied on plastic bags, the import duty for raw materials is 25 per cent.
The manager of a popular bakery in Male’ told Minivan News that the store had a machine able to produce 45,000 to 50,000 plastic bags everyday.
He added that the bags were produced for their own use and were not for sale.
“We cannot use paper bags to pack bread,” he said. ”I do not think that it is done anywhere in the world.”
Moreover, he said, the bakery had been producing plastic bags for ten years now.
”We do not have any permission from the environment ministry,” he said. ”We did not ask for permission because we use it for our own purpose,”
He said the company imported raw materials needed to produce plastic bags.
“We sometimes produce blue color plastic bags also, we can do any color we want,”‘ he said. “We import the raw materials mainly from Dubai and Saudi Arabia.”
However, an employee in an office located behind the bakery told Minivan News that he and his colleagues were “unable to work” whenever the machine was being operated, because of the toxic fumes.
”When they turn it on, a smell like paint thinner spreads through the whole area,” he said. “We get headaches, feel like vomiting and experience difficulty breathing when the fumes reach us.”‘
Everyone in the area faced the problem, he claimed.
”The substances they uses are very toxic,” he said. ”That’s why we feel ill when the fumes are released.”
Deputy Environment Minister Mohamed Shareef said that there were two companies permitted to produce plastic bags in the Maldives.
‘There will be no company permitted in Male’,” Shareef said. ”We give the permission after conducting an environment inspection survey.”
Shareef said that the government was trying to completely ban plastic bags in the Maldives.
”We are trying to make a law to ban the importation and production of plastic bags,” he said.
Shareef concurred that the fumes released when producing plastic bag contained toxic substances.
Head of Environmental NGO Bluepeace, Ali Rilwan, said that although the government’s 200 per cent tax on plastic bags was intended to discourage people from using it ”now they have started to bring in raw materials and establish factories.”
Rilwan said that the manufacture of plastic bags in a residential area poses health risks.
”People living near the bakery complain that they can’t breathe when the machine is on,” he said.
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