Month: April 2010

President gives certificate to Zero Degree Channel rower

President Mohamed Nasheed presented a certificate to British national Guin Batten yesterday, after she rowed solo across the equatorial Zero Degree Channel on 30 March.

The president signed and presented the certificate at a function held at the President’s Office yesterday afternoon.

President Nasheed congratulated Guin on her achievement and she thanked him and the people of the Maldives for supporting the crossing.

“I hope that my crossing is an inspiration to bring rowing back here to the Maldives,” she said.

The crossing makes Guin the first rower to cross the 60 km channel alone and she now holds the record for the fastest crossing, 7 hours 16 minutes.

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Islamic speaker Zakir Naik to visit Maldives

World famous Islamic speaker Zakir Naik has confirmed he will visit the Maldives from 28-30 April upon an invitation from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, reports Miadhu.

Naik, his wife and child are to deliver speeches according to Sheikh Farooq and the chance to ask questions will be given.

Naik is the president and founder of religious NGO the Islamic Research Foundation, which also owns Mumbai-based TV channel Peace TV.

The Indian national is a medical doctor and has become one of the most renowned speakers of Islam and comparative religion.

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Chinese tourist arrivals break records this February

Chinese tourists have set a record for tourist arrivals in the Maldives this February, reports Miadhu.

The Asia-Pacific region recorded 21,362 tourist arrivals, marking a 122.5 percent rise in arrivals from the region.

During February, 13,345 Chinese tourists arrived in the Maldives, compared to 12,003 Italians, 10,422 British nationals and 6,602 Germans.

This is the first time that Europeans have not been the largest market for tourism in the Maldives.

Tourism experts believe the rise was due to the Chinese New Year, but some critics argue that entertainment and shopping are key areas for Chinese tourists and need to be improved to sustain the numbers of Chinese visiting the Maldives.

Two Chinese tourists recently died during their stay in the Maldives. The first drowned while snorkelling in February. The second man was reported as being robbed and killed by Chinese newspaper Shanghai Daily, but Maldives Police Service reported that the man drowned.

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Comment: Resort life – it’s all about pretence… lots of it.

In resort life everyone tries to be what he or she is not, according to circumstances. Sometimes this behaviour is required as part of the profession and sometimes it happens out of inclination. For example:

Managers

They come in all shapes and sizes. Some come with a perpetual frown on their faces whilst others hide their true expressions behind an engaging smile. But they all share in the pretence.

The guests

Most guests are also notorious at deception. It is an ingrained cultural habit to smile and make light of everything, however annoying.

However there are those who are exactly the opposite – the realists and the con-guests who will complain at the smallest inconvenience to get a free bottle of champagne or a discount on their stay.

Human resources

HR used to play God until the arrival of the dreaded labour laws. Now that the mantle of power to terminate staff indiscriminately on HR’s whims and wishes can at last be challenged in the labour tribunal, things are thankfully a little bit more even handed.

Reservations

Together with ’sales and marketing’, reservations would have everyone else believe that if not for them the resort is a few days from closing down and going out of business.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that most tourists just choose to come to our resorts after hearing about our beaches and small islands from the internet, mostly through tour operators.

Tour operators do not necessarily depend on reservations but sometimes they have an agreement with the resort for the allocation of rooms, which is ‘handled’ by these pompous people. In technical terms they are just clerks and data entry staff making a big fuss over their work.

Of course there are some sweet, down-to-earth reservations people who do not aggrandize their work but in resort life such humbleness is the exception rather than the norm.

Maintenance

The maintenance people generally include the engineers and the unseen crowd. They are happiest when something really major breaks down like an engine or a water plant, because that’s the only time they can shine and their work will be valued or respected by their superiors.

They are prone to making the smallest issue as big as possible just to get the attention of the managers, because that’s the only way up the corporate ladder from their level.

Waiters and room boys and girls

Generally honest and hard-working, these gentle people have a tendency to make a purely service task into a
technical one, which at a certain extent can be comical.

Launch section guys

Perhaps the most realistic in appearance and attitude are found in the ‘launch section’ team. They have a reason for that too – extended periods of time spent in monotonous journeys between islands and airports wear them down which makes them difficult to either please or irritate.

The IT guys

The IT guys are all smiles and kindness until a computer terminal is said to be terminally ill and the IT guy is called in. From that moment the IT guy is bossy, unfriendly, talks in jargon and generally looks down on the rest of humanity.

However a by-product of Moore’s Law is that advances in technology will soon make them redundant, as networks, computers and devices become more and more user friendly and intelligent. They had their day in the era of Windows 3.2 and dot matrix printers, when being an IT guy was not for the faint of
heart.

Nowadays the IT guy is pretty much only still alive thanks to Microsoft Windows and the uncommonness of common sense.

Chefs and the kitchen crowd

There is an unending war between the restaurant guys and the kitchen folk because all the hard work is done
in the kitchen but all the tips are received at the restaurant.

However as most resorts are mindful of this war, generally their salary is higher than the rest which is some solace to the animosity. The kitchen guys generally do not subscribe to false smiles and half-hearted greetings, because their life is hectic and hard.

Gardeners, labourers and the like

At the bottom of the ladder, these people are resigned to their fate or position and automatically have the rubbery smile and artificial greetings for all guests and superiors.

No such smiles for their peers and others, however – ambition is not lacking in this department, as gardeners are frequently fond of watering the plants around the GMs office hoping that he or she will take notice of the effort…

There is much hypocrisy to go around in resort life, but its worth it for the the fun. If all resort folk, including the guests, were to be expressionless die-hard realists, life in a resort would be tough indeed.

Republished with permission from MaldivesResortWorkers, a site for resort staff to anonymously discuss the industry, their employers, and the realities of resort work.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Informal adoption laws and lack of legislation hampering Health Ministry

The Maldives has no laws governing adoption as the practice is forbidden under Islam, Minivan News learned yesterday during an investigation of the staff shortages at the Kudakudhinge Hiya orphanage in Vilingili.

State Minister for Health and Family Mariya Ali explained that the courts permit a “long-term guardianship” as there is no ‘formal’ adoption law in the Maldives.

One consequence of this ‘informal’ system is that the Maldives maintains a reservation regarding adoption after signing the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Communications Officer for UNICEF Humaida Abdulghafoor said there is no adoption law in the Maldives “but it is being looked into right now.”

“The Maldives has a reservation on adoption in the Conventions for the Right of the Child (CRC), but culturally, we have an informal system where extended families will look after a child if his or her parents cannot do so.”

“There is no formal structure,” she said, “and the laws are not very strong.”

Mariya explained that if a child cannot be cared for by his or her parents, the court must look for next of kin.

“According to the Family Law, there are a number of people they must check first,” she explained.

If no one is found to care for the child, then they must be placed under care of the state, but the Ministry tries not to remove children from their homes if at all possible, she said.

Mariya explained that a study carried out by the ministry on adoption under Islam identified that “clearly the Western form of adoption cannot happen.”

In the Western form of adoption, a child takes his or her adoptive parents’ surname, “but in Islam that cannot happen.”

The alternative is long-term fostering: “We want the children to know their roots, which means there won’t be any corruption of lineage.”

But this has no guarantees of permanence, and finding adequate foster care is a long process.

“It is up to us to find parents who don’t have a history of sexual abuse, who don’t have a history of fraud, who don’t have a history of other offences,” Mariya explained, meaning the ministry had to do an assessment of every person who came forward wanting to foster a child.

She said the process of assessment can take up to six months – “It is very difficult for us to find a home for a child because we don’t have proper legislation to support us.”

In the meantime, the ministry has now completed regulations on minimum standards for children’s homes. Mariya said now that the costing for these guidelines to be implemented is finished, “this week we will send it to the Attorney General’s office, who will then table it in Parliament.”

“As soon as this comes through it will be a guiding document for the workers,” she said.

Mariya explained that due to staff shortages at the ministry, there was a backlog of cases waiting to be processed.

“There is only one staff member doing the case work,” she said, adding that they were hoping to get some assistance from NGOs in fast-tracking the case work.

“Ideally, babies need to be placed with carers before they’re one year old. This is the year when they form attachments,” she noted. “For children to form healthy attachment, we need to place them soon.”

She said the ministry had expressed its concerns over staff shortages many times, but “have not had any feedback about whether we’re going to get more staff or not.”

Another issue is age: “Most carers and most families that come forward want babies,” Mariya said, adding that “very few want an older child.”

Because babies need be placed with a family as soon as possible, issuing the cases quickly is essential.

She said “most of the time parents want to be given the child permanently, “which takes even longer. If they request for temporary fostering we could at least place the child with the parents and then proceed with the process, but right now we don’t get such offers.”

Orphanage

Kudakudhinge Hiya children’s home in Vilingili was started in 2006 and is a state-run initiative managed by the Ministry of Health and Family. They are currently caring for 51 children and is the only government institution of its kind in the country.

Minivan News reported yesterday that there was a shortage of cooks. Community Health Officer at Kudakudhinge Hiya, Iyaz Jadulla Naseem, said the staff shortage was due to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) removing the post of cook from civil service.

Spokesperson for the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said there are still some offices and institutions which have cooks working under the CSC, “but not island offices” because the post of cook had been “abolished by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”

“A children’s shelter is under the Ministry of Health and Family,” Fahmy said, “and therefore, if they require a cook, I’m sure the CSC would appoint someone.”

He said the home’s administration had to make a request, which then had to be submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family to the CSC.

“They are in a special category, and any post that is required to safeguard the children will be created.”

Mariya Ali said the recent staff shortage “was due to downsizing” and added the ministry has “brought up the issue of staff shortage eight times” in meetings at the ministry.

“It is dangerous not to have enough staff [in a children’s home],” she said. “The CSC has a blanket formula… there are actually not a lot of staff taking care of the children.”

Mariya said the corporate sector was also helping the ministry, and “one major resort operator is willing to give us a doctor who will be visiting the facility regularly.”

On the issue of the cooks, she said the ministry has “advertised and approached the corporate sector to ask if they are able to give us a temporary solution to the cook, but they have not given us an answer.”

A helping hand

There are several ways to help Vilingili Orphanage. Mariya said there are two funds at the moment, and there is a donation box at Kudakudhinge Hiya, one at Hulhumalé ferry terminal and one at IGMH.

“Or people can approach us directly [at the Food and Drug Authority building] and we will direct them where to go.”

Mariya said setting up a pay-pal account for people to make deposits into the fund’s bank account was “a great idea” and she would look into it.

“We are also planning a sponsor a child campaign,” she said, which would hopefully ease the strain on the government to care for all the children at Vilingili.

“It is the responsibility of all of us to care for these children,” Mariya said.

She added that she hopes “different corporate sectors and even the public, individuals, can come forth and say to us ‘we are willing to cover the staff costs for one person.’ Then we could have enough staff.”

She noted the corporate sector is already sponsoring staff at the Ministry of Health and Family to go on a training course in England with UK-based children’s charity, Barnardo’s.

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Lack of legislation and disrespect of law could sabotage infant democracy: HRCM

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has warned that “deliberate disrespect towards upholding the rule of law” in the Maldives risks the population losing respect for democracy as a system of governance.

Making the claim in its draft contribution to UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, now released to public review and comment, HRCM claimed that a continual failure to legislate and install regulatory frameworks concerning human rights would “inevitably” lead to violations in the future.

HRCM’s report is particularly damning towards parliament, stating that efforts to establish a standing committee on human rights tasked with pushing bills for human rights compliance “have failed to materialise”.

The report also noted that while the Maldives has ratified six of the nine core international human rights instruments, it had yet to sign the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

It noted that the Maldives has seen “a dramatic increase in the numbers of undocumented migrant workers”, as many workers had been either abandoned by recruitment agencies or simply arriving on tourist visas.

“Their illegal status makes them hesitant in expressing their grievances to the relevant authorities. Most migrant workers, who are abandoned while engaged in low paying day jobs, are vulnerable to exploitation by employers,” the report noted.

Another area of concern raised in the report was child protection, national mechanism concerning which “remain severely inadequate to deal with the dramatic increase in child abuse cases reported to the Department of Gender and Family Protection Services, and the Maldives Police Service.”

The report noted that even despite recent legislation protecting children from sexual abuse, “strict evidentiary requirements” and “non-enforcement of sentences” remain major problems.

Furthermore, the report claimed, there was little capacity to rehabilitate victims of child sexual abuse besides institutionalising them.

Inadequate housing was another concern, particularly in Malé, where a lack of minimum standards had led to 85 per cent of the population “living in houses that fall short of meeting all components of the Right to Adequate Housing.””

Furthermore, the government’s announcement in January 2009 that it would build 10,000 housing units in some cases involved “a lack of consultations with local island communities in developing the project and related land use plans.”

“The continuing practice of allocating land also needs to be reviewed in light of plans for the housing scheme,” the report noted.

Detention and drugs

According to the HRCM report, 90 per cent of the prison population are drug offenders, the majority young people.

“Public perception is such that drug abuse is an issue for retribution, rather than one for rehabilitation,” the report noted, highlighting a general discrepancy between the use and supply of drugs.

“Penalties for drug use and possession and trade need to be differentiated, with the former aligned with rehabilitative programmes,” the report recommended.

“The existence of only a single residential rehabilitation centre, the lack of a halfway house and availability of just two detoxification centres with limited capacity, indicate an urgent
need to expand availability of and accessibility to treatment facilities throughout the country,” it noted.

Despite the prevalence of young offenders, the prison system contained no separate institution for juvenile detention “and thus juveniles are kept, sometimes in the same cells, with adults.”

In some situations, it noted, “persons detained by police, persons remanded in custody and persons serving their sentences are held together on the same premises [without] segregation by category of offence, gender, medical condition, or security risk.”

In addition, “rehabilitation, education facilities and employment opportunities are unavailable as a means of restorative justice.”

The UPR report was established by the UN General Assembly to review the fulfillment by each of the 192 United Nations Member States of their human rights obligations and commitments. Reports are sought from a country’s government, major human rights organisation, and NGOs.

The HCRM report is now open for public review and comment; send all submissions to [email protected] before 3:00pm Sunday April 11, 2010.

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Erroneous reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters: Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that while recent reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters are unsubstantiated, the government is concerned about pirates operating off the Somali coast west of the Maldives.

Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said the government is keeping in touch “with the Indians and the Americans to enhance maritime security.”

“For now, Somali pirates are operating as far as the Seychelles, but not in the Maldives.”

Dr Shaheed said the government was taking “pre-emptive and preventive measures” to ensure the safety of the country.

State Minister of Defence Muiz Adnan said although there have not been recent reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters, “this is a concern for everybody. A lot of pirates operate out of Somali waters.”

Adnan said the coast guard conducts regular sea and air patrols and also regularly schedules joint patrols with the Indian army, although “not only concerning piracy.”

He said if any pirate vessels are seen in Maldivian waters, “we will take the necessary measures to apprehend them.”

President of the Fishermen’s Union Ibrahim Manik said he had heard no reports of fishermen sighting any pirate vessels in Maldivian waters, but said that sometimes they saw foreign vessels illegally doing long-line fishing.

Manik said if fishermen saw any illegal vessels, they would “definitely cooperate with the government. We are fighting against this,” he said, but added that “we are not very concerned. We are stronger than that.”

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Closing public water taps “like drinking blood of the people”: Umar Naseer

Male’ Municipality has closed 14 public water taps across the city, leaving only four taps available.

Deputy Head of the Municipality Mohamed Arif said the taps were closed because the council had received many complaints about the taps, which were “not being used by Maldivians.”

”Most of the water is used by expats, for car washing and a very few poor locals,” Arif said. ”We have done surveys to check who has been using the water taps.”

Arif said the water taps cost the municipality Rf3.5 million (US$270,000) last year.

He said the water taps were established intending to help the poor locals who could not afford to pay the water bill.

”Our records show that only 10 per-cent of the people using the water taps were Maldivians,” he said.

”We receive many complaints from Ameer Ahmed School that people throw water at the students,” he said. ”We also have many complaints from people that they are having difficulties due to water spilt near the taps.”

Press Secretary for the president Mohamed Zuhair also said that the taps were used mainly by expats and for washing cars.

Vice president of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party DRP Umar Naseer said that he was concerned about the issue as “a lot of people are unable to afford their water bill.”

”That’s why they stay in the queue for hours, ” he said. ”Closing the water taps is like drinking the blood of the people.”

Most people could not afford to drink bottled mineral water all the time, he noted.

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Bids for management of Malé International Airport received

Many well-known companies in the airport management business have shown interest in investing in and managing Malé International Airport according to Invest Maldives, reports Miadhu.

The main interested company is GMR of India, who has also made a bid to develop Hanimaadhoo International Airport.

Some of the other interested parties include Turkish company TAV Airports Holding Company, Aéroports de Paris Management Company of France, and two joint bids by Mexican government-owned Aeropuertos Y Servicios Auxiliares in partnership with Reliance Infrastructure of India, and Indian company GVK Airport Developers Ltd in partnership with Swiss Flughafen Zurich AG.

The winning bid will be chosen by a special evaluation committee. Experts have said the company who wins the bid will have to spend millions of dollars to redevelop, upgrade and manage the airport.

Malé International Airport is being offered for investment as part of the government’s decentralisation plan, but critics have said the airport is one of the few government owned ventures that makes a profit.

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