Month: October 2011

Gayoom not invited to SAARC for precedent, allegations

The Maldivian government will not invite former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to the upcoming SAARC summit, to be held in Addu City and Fuvahmulah between November 10-11.

According to local media, Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem yesterday said the allegations against Gayoom of “killing people” and “torture” made it difficult for the government to extend an invitation.

“LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] leader Prabhakaran wasn’t invited to previous SAARC summits because of such allegations against him. So it’s hard for me to do it,” Naseem said earlier on MNBC One.

Local police are currently investigating Gayoom’s son, Gassan Maumoon, for the violent turnout of a protest by ruling party MDP on Thursday, October 20.

Former heads of state are not routinely invited to SAARC summits.

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Gun theft “could not have happened” at Addu’s Southern Command Centre

Reports of missing guns from the Southern Command Centre in Addu City have been denied by Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

Armed forces spokesperson First Lieutenant Abdulla Ali told local media that such an incident “couldn’t have happened at the centre because our management is much more organised. We don’t have to worry about guns missing from the centre.”

The command centre is currently holding special training programmes in preparation of the SAARC Summit, to be held in Addu and Fuvahmulah between November 10-11. The armed forces has established a Joint Inter-Agency Taskforce to oversee summit security at the centre, Haveeru reports.

All countries participating in the SAARC summit are providing security forces and equipment for the event.

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Australian medics donate boards, advice in honor of Huraa victims

Two rescue boards have been donated by an Australian paremedic and shire council in memory of the four Hiriya students and their principal who drowned on a September 10 school fisheries science excursion.

The long boards were arranged by a Lotus Special Casualty Access Team paramedic in cooperation with the New South Wales Sutherland Shire council. A report from Australian publication The Leader indicates that the boards were flown into Male’ on Wednesday, October 20 to support safety management practices on local beaches.

Australia is known globally for its surfing culture. Attached to that reputation is a savvy sense for water rescue. Australia’s own Surfers’ Medical Association (SMA) reportedly flies doctors and paramedics to Maldive islands twice each year, providing health workshops and medical equipment.

When four female students and the principal of Hiriya school drowned while on a fisheries science snorkeling trip off of Huraa island, awareness of the lack of school safety procedures and equipment was raised at the local and government levels.

The students were snorkeling in waters used by for national defense training, which are known for having very strong currents.

Although police and MNDF forces were called immediately to the site of the incident, they were criticised for being unable to reach the island until long after the critical moments.

Instead, the bodies of ninth grade students Nash-ath Saeed, Mariyam Naza, Aishath Saniha, Mariyam Shaiha and principal Ali Nazim were brought to Male’ on a speedboat from nearby Four Season Kuda Hura resort.

SMA member Paul Featherstone told The Leader that Huraa island had no rescue boards at the time of the Hiriya drowning, and he hoped the donation would make a difference in the future.

The SMA team is expected to deliver water safety and education advice from Sutherland Shire beach operation manager Brad Whittacker, along with the long boards. Paramedic Harry Gatt added that a meeting with the education minister has been scheduled to discuss risk management procedures.

“We really need to help educate them about water safety,” Mr Gatt was quoted as saying. “The community is just devastated by what happened.”

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Addu Hubasaana 2011 Arts, Crafts and Food festival boosts local entrepreneurs

Minister for Economic Development Mahmood Razee inaugurated the Hubasaana 2011 Arts, Crafts and Food festival in Maradhoo Feydhoo of Addu City on Thursday, October 20. The festival, which was organized by Ministry for Economic Development (MED), will be a platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

The fair, which runs through October 22, is the culmination of a yearlong pilot project for developing local products that was conducted in the South and North of Maldives.

“The festival will showcase authentic high quality Maldivian products,” said Hamza Imad, MED’s international consultant for the project. In addition to the display of local products ranging from handicraft and woodwork to food produce, there will also be demonstrations of the making of regional delicacies like bondi (a sweet made of coconut) and kudhi gulha (fried short eat).

“The project will be expanded to other areas of Maldives next year,” said Imad.

Over 50 SMEs of nearby atolls GA, Gdh, and Fuvamulah are participating in the three-day festival, along with Addu City. Hubasaana 2011 will also be held in Hanimadhoo of Hdh atoll in early December. The event will enable SMEs from the northern atolls of HA, Hdh, Shaviyani to participate and promote their products.

Aishath Raniya Sobir, Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant for MED’s Private Sector Development Project said two Business Development Service Centers (BDSC) were set up last year in Hithadhoo of Addu City and Kulhudufushi of Hdh, to facilitate the project’s operations.

The centers provided business trainings in planning, marketing, start-up plans and technical expertise to over 5000 people from the project’s target atolls. Raniya said participants share the cost of training with MED “so that they can take ownership of this.”

Hobbies to businesses

The trainings were an important outlet for a thriving talent pool. “The islanders are very enthusiastic and talented, and a lot of time the people who came for the trainings had already been doing some handiwork as a hobby,” said Raniya.

One such person is Addu City housewife, Mariyam Naazly.

Naazly had attended various handiwork courses over the years. During a fabric painting course, Addu’s BDSC consultant gave a talk on start-up business cooperatives. Naazly said the talk motivated her to become an entrepreneur.

Joined by 10 other attendees of the course, Naazly formed the Addu Arts and Crafts Cooperative Society (AACCS), of which she is the president. The cooperative creates handicraft, like baskets of eekle broom, coconut art, bracelets from nuts found in trees and decorative items from empty rice sacks among others.

Today, Naazly’s hands are full. “We have been producing products for this fair over the past days, and we also have an order to produce 300 brooches for the Feydhoo Maradhoo schools prize giving day.”

Naazly is excited at the prospect of selling AACCS products to the resort representatives and shop owners that will come to the fair. But showing her products to fellow islanders is just as thrilling. “This is all so new here, people don’t even know what a cooperative is, I hope this fair will give us exposure and let people see the things we create.”

Discussion among islanders has innovated the crafts market.

“A participant brought a lions head done in from a pillow case, and we oriented them towards making things that exist in Maldives,” said Imad. The result was a totally new product on the market: a stuffed replica of Maldivian marine life including eels and sharks, that can be taken home as a souvenir.

The cooperative’s first workshop was held in a friend’s sitting room. Now, they share a workspace along with another cooperative provided by the BDSC. “I am also attending marketing classes at the center, for the first time I can actually make a living out of all the things I have learned,” said Naazly.

The BDSC is providing a unique professional opportunity for women, the majority of whom don’t work in the Maldives’ lucrative tourism sector due to social and religious expectations. Of the BSDC trainees, 40% have been women.

Hurdles and Opportunities

In a country that creates very little, starting a project like this had not been easy, stakeholders said. Imad and Raniya said bureaucracy and administrative work had proved to be very difficult in the initial phases. “We had to go for a change of mindset on the way people do business,” says Raniya.

But change can be a difficult lesson. “Market needs, tourist needs, we had to teach people to take this into account,” explained Raniya. Speaking of a popular Maldivian snack common in most cafes, Imad identified customer control of food as a new concept. “We can do frozen short eats, so that a person can grill it or fry it when they want to eat it,” said Imad.

A total of 60 new businesses have been started via this project, including set up of businesses and cooperatives for agriculture, arts, crafts, hydroponics, aqua culture, food processing and packaging, wood carving and goat rearing.

PADI open water certificates have enjoyed new popularity–80 locals signed up for the course. “The demand was overwhelming and we couldn’t accommodate everyone,” said IMAD. “We asked the participants to bear 20% of the costs while the government bore 80%.” Maldivians with PADI training is expected to be a huge asset to the mid-market tourism envisaged by the government.

Meanwhile, barriers between locals and resorts persist. “locals would complain that resorts had no interest in buying their product, while resorts would complain about the quality and consistency,” Raniya said.

To bridge that gap and achieve success, MED joined efforts with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Tourism, UNDP and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“We also had a lot of help from Women’s Entrepreneurs Association, especially its former president late Aiminath Arif,” said Rainya.

MED will provide ongoing support to the small businesses via the BDSC in each region according to Raniya. “We will help draw up contracts and facilitate talks between the businesses and buyers. We also have introduced a loan scheme of 3 million dollars, for which we have already identified 40 beneficiaries.”

A bill that has been submitted to parliament could end up giving a huge boost to the newborn SMEs and change the face of the souvenir market in Maldives, which is at the moment flooded with foreign products. “If the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Act is passed, within 3 years 50% of products in all souvenir shops should be local,” said Raniya.

‘Made in Maldives’ could become a common thing, enabling Naazly and dozens of others like her to make a profitable business. Imad said, “We want to see a day where Maldivian local delicacies, could be marketed like Swiss chocolate.”
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Hubasaana 2011 festival will be held Maradhoo Feydhoo Social Centre in Addu city on 20-22 Oct 2011, at the SAARC Summit in Addu City from 8-10 November, and in Hanimadhoo of Hdh Atoll from 1-3 December.

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American documentary on new Muslim communities reaches Maldives

Independent American documentary New Muslim Cool was screened at the American Center on Male’ last week. The film follows the efforts of former Latino-American drug dealer Hamza Pérez, now a Muslim convert, to integrate into a Muslim community on the tough north side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Co-producer Hana Siddiqi, who attended this week’s screenings, said the film addressed one of many versions of Islam in America.

“We were looking at how the youth are creating a new American Muslim culture for themselves, and how arts and music is a big part of that,” she said.

Considering its impact in the Maldives, Siddiqi identified the film as a conversation starter in more traditional or orthodox Muslim communities.

“I think people have a general lack of understanding of Muslims in America because there just isn’t much in the media,” she said. “What you do see is quite negative and political, so I think just the fact that Muslim communities are seeing a film from America that has a Muslim as the main subject is enough to spark their interest. And it just opens up their minds I think to see some people who practice like this.”

New Muslim Cool was produced and directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. Released in 2009, the film has been shown on public television in the United States, at festivals across Europe, Russia, Angola and now the Maldives.

Siddiqi said audience reception has been “quite good” worldwide, and noted that most audiences are curious about the different types of Muslims in America. “I let them know that this is just one story of one individual, and there are so many different types with different backgrounds and experiences and they follow different interpretations of Islam as well,” she said.

Hamza Pérez associates his conversion to Islam with his success in drug rehabilitation.

To contribute to his community, Hamza spoke to social groups and prison inmates about overcoming the drug-dealing culture and discovering faith. He also produced rap albums with his brother under the band name ‘Mujahideen Team’, or M-Team.

In an interview, the Pérez brothers denied the violent connotations of ‘jihad’, a word often translated as ‘holy war’ and associated with ‘mujahideen’. But their promotion of their music walks a fine line between suggestion and interpretation.

In one scene, Hamza distributes copies of his music to Pittsburgh gang members while inquiring after gang activity in the area. When he is told that most are Mexican and few get along, he tells them that Latinos never turn the other cheek but that the city gangs should work together to protect one another.

During a M-Team concert, Hamza takes the stage with a flaming machete in hand. When asked about the weapon’s role in Hamza’s message, Siddiqi said it served several purposes.

“We made a point to have a conversation with [Hamza and is brother] about illustrating that the machete is part of their Latino ethnic history and culture, and that it symbolises the struggles they have faced. When people ask, we make sure we let them now what it really symbolizes.”

The machete is also an attention-grabber.

“A little bit of it is just entertainment to them, they think it’s fun, that’s part of being a stage performer and they always make that point as well,” Siddiqi said.

Partway through production process, the FBI raided Hamza’s mosque during Friday prayers. Siddiqi said that although the raid was disturbing and questions went unanswered, it gave the story direction.

“This is one of many FBI raids to many mosques where there were children present and while they were in the middle of their Friday services, which is something that would never happen at a church or a synagogue. So it’s one of those things that people just need to see is going on in our community.”

Siddiqi said reactions to the film in the Maldives had been positive, but admitted that its relevance was unclear. The US Embassy representative, who was preoccupied with her iPad, waved away questions regarding the agenda.

“I think the work with drug rehabilitation in the Maldives is a factor,” Siddiqi observed. “The film could be a good place to start a dialogue in the community, because the film shows how Islam fueled Hamza’s own rehabilitation. The emotion and energy connected to his conversion basically was his rehabilitation.”

Recently, Dr. William Silcock spoke to Maldivian journalists about the value of public involvement in contemporary news. Siddiqi said journalism was critical for developing and developed communities alike.

“Journalists have one of the biggest responsibilities for getting information to the people. And if that’s not happening in a society then there’s a lack of awareness, and I feel a lack of growth as well.”

New Muslim Cool was awarded the Feature Film Freedom Award at the 5th Annual Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Doha, Qatar. It was also an official selection Lincoln Center Independents Night, co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Correction: Previously this article inaccurately stated that Hamza Pérez had been convicted of rape. It should have stated that a man involved in the FBI raid on Hamza’s mosque held a police record involving accusations of rape. The inaccurate information has been removed from this article and Minivan News apologises for the error.

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MDP protest turns violent outside Gayoom’s residence

A protest launched by the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) turned violent today after party activists clashed with supporters of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in front of his residence Enderimaage, in the Maafanu ward of Male’.

MDP MPs and activists gathered outside the Supreme Court at 3pm this afternoon in anticipation of a verdict in a case filed by Umar Naseer – an interim council member of Gayoom’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) – challenging the legitimacy of Thimarafushi MP Mohamed Musthafa’s candidacy on the grounds that he had a decreed debt.

Earlier in the day, the MDP national council conducted an emergency meeting and approved a resolution to launch a protest against the judiciary, claiming judges were unduly influenced by the former President and his half-brother MP Abdulla Yameen.

However a verdict was not delivered by the Supreme Court today, which said the hearing was called “to clarify a few points after reviewing the case.”

After Musthafa emerged from the hearing, the protesters marched towards Endherimaage, where violent clashes erupted between MDP activists and a few Gayoom supporters blocking the entrance to his residence.

The clashes occurred after a large piece of wood allegedly thrown from Endherimaage struck a 17-year-old demonstrator or bystander, who was immediately rushed to hospital on a passing pick-up.

Minivan News journalists at the scene observed gravel, rocks, hot water and sharp metal raining down on protesters from the top floors or terrace of Endherimaage.

Several activists claimed they saw Gassan Maumoon, former President Gayoom’s son, throw stones and pour boiling hot water on the protesters.

MDP activists meanwhile threw large stones at Endhirmaage and attempted to break down the door.

Some windows of the house were smashed while a car parked outside was damaged.

The 17-year-old is currently undergoing surgery at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH). A number of MDP MPs and senior members are waiting at the hospital.

MP Ali Waheed told state broadcaster MNBC that the boy was behind MP Alhan Fahmy when the piece of wood struck him straight on the head.

MNBC One showed blood stains on the MPs’ shirt, which Ali Waheed said resulted from the injury to the boy. The state broadcaster also reported that other people at the area were hurt from falling objects.

Speaking to Minivan News outside IGMH, the brother of the injured boy said that according to doctors “his skull was damaged and parts of the skull have gone inside his brain.”

“He was hit in the right side of his head and the left side of his body is now paralysed,” the relative said.

Doctors could not predict how long the surgery would take, he added.

”The doctors said the surgery was to remove the particles from inside his brain,” he said.

Some of the MDP supporters outside the hospital claimed the boy was hit by a wooden door hurled from the terrace of Endherimaage by Gassan Maumoom.

Police spokesman Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed to Minivan News that police were investigating reports that the object was thrown from the Endherimaage building.

“We are questioning the witnesses to try and determine how this happened,” Shiyam said.

“This is a very serious issue. Because of this there might be other problems and we do not want there to be political violence.”

Meanwhile in an interview with private broadcaster DhiTV this evening, Gayoom condemned the protest and claimed the violence was organised by the government.

Gayoom said he saw senior MDP members such as Male’ City Mayor ‘Maizan’ Ali Manik and Executive Services Secretary at the President’s Office Mohamed Ziyad. Minivan News also observed Ziyad and Maizan Alibe at the protest.

“They came with their activists and attacked my home,” Gayoom said. “They attacked nearby houses as well.”

As riot police were not at the scene to intercede, said Gayoom, Chief of Defence Forces Moosa Jaleel and Police Commissioner Ahmed Faseeh should “personally bear responsibility” for the damage.

Gayoom said he would inform foreign governments of today’s events.

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PPM files registration forms

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), headed by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, submitted registration forms to the Elections Commission today.

PPM interim council member Aishath Azima Shakoor told Haveeru that the commission would register the party within a week’s time.

The commission has a one-month period to formally register the party.

PPM held its registration meeting on Saturday at which it elected former President Gayoom as its interim President, rejecting no other applicants for the position.

The party also approved its constitution, manifesto, and palm-crescent logo with the official party color, magenta.

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Parliament urged to vote against Bari

The parliamentary committee assigned to review Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari’s reappointment as Islamic Minister has advised against the recommendation.

Nine out of 11 members of the Government Accountability Committee voted against Bari’s reappointment.

According to committee member Villufushi MP Riyaz Rasheed, only four members of ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) voted for Bari’s appointment. Meanwhile, four opposition MPs voted against it. Committee chair Hanimaadhoo MP Mohamed Mujthaz tipped the vote.

Riyaz told Haveeru news that the committee made its decision based on the assertion that Bari earlier resigned from the position without a valid reason.

Bari first resigned as Adhaalath Party’s Scholars Council President on September 29, and then stepped down as the Islamic Minister on October 3 when the party decided to sever coalition ties with MDP. He was reappointed on October 9.

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Maldivian national commits suicide in Trivandrum, phone in hand

A 22 year-old Maldivian studying in Trivandrum, India hanged himself in his room on Wednesday, October 19.

Another Maldivian residing in Trivandrum reported that the young man had been “seen having fun” earlier that day, Haveeru reports.

The individual told Haveeru that the suicide was triggered by a relationship issue, noting that the young man been found dead with a phone in his hand.

The young man was studying for a diploma in Airport Management, and was planning to visit Male’ in November. His body has been transferred to a mortuary for examination.

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