Category: News in Brief

US$20 million grant for renewable energy in Maldives

The Strategic Climate Fund, one of two funds under the Climate Investment Funds scheme, will grant US$20 million (Rf255 million) to develop renewable energy resources in Maldives, reports Haveeru.

Delivery of the grant is expected next month and will be invested in the carbon neutral plan announced by President Mohamed Nasheed, according to deputy environment minister Dr Mohamed Shareef. “We cannot do everything with this money. We can only carry out [projects] in some islands, which we have yet to determine,” he said.

“The Program for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries, approved in May 2009, is aimed at demonstrating the social, economic, and environmental viability of low carbon development pathways in the energy sector,” says the Strategic Climate Fund website. “It seeks to create new economic opportunities and increase energy access through the production and use of renewable energy.”

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Speaker cancels parliament six minutes into session, meets with leaders

Parliament’s Speaker Abdulla Shahid canceled Wednesday’s Majlis session after six minutes, according to a report in Haveeru.

Shahid cancelled the sitting because he said it would be unable to produce any positive results, given the current political deadlock between the parties.

Instead, Shahid said he wished to speak privately with party leaders. He said discussions were also held with Independent MPs.

The next sitting would be held Monday, he said.

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New cabinet to be announced today, surprise visit from Rajapaksa

The President’s Office has announced a swearing-in ceremony for the new cabinet at 2:45pm this afternoon.

Yesterday, Political Advisor Hassan Afeef said the new cabinet would only be proposed when the government had “reached an understanding with the opposition parties in the Majlis.”

The new cabinet must be endorsed by the opposition-majority parliament, according to the Constitution. The executive has been deadlocked with the legislature following the arrest of two MPs and allegations of corruption.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in the Maldives this morning on a state visit.

President Rajapaksa will meet with President Nasheed, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Parliament Speaker Abdulla Shahid, and Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed.

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The End of Men: Hanna Rosin

The attitudes and social behaviour of men will have to change if they are to compete successfully against women in the modern global economy, claims Hanna Rosin in the latest edition of The Atlantic.

“With few exceptions, the greater the power of women, the greater the country’s economic success,” Rosin writes. “Aid agencies have started to recognize this relationship and have pushed to institute political quotas in about 100 countries, essentially forcing women into power in an effort to improve those countries’ fortunes…

“Last year, Iceland elected Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, the world’s first openly lesbian head of state, who campaigned explicitly against the male elite she claimed had destroyed the nation’s banking system, and who vowed to end the “age of testosterone”…

“Researchers have started looking into the relationship between testosterone and excessive risk, and wondering if groups of men, in some basic hormonal way, spur each other to make reckless decisions. The picture emerging is a mirror image of the traditional gender map: men and markets on the side of the irrational and overemotional, and women on the side of the cool and levelheaded.”

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New cabinet ‘when government reaches understanding with opposition’: Afeef

A new cabinet will be proposed when the government reaches an agreement or understanding with the opposition parties in the Majlis, said the President’s political advisor Hassan Afeef at the daily President’s office news conference, reports Miadhu.

Afeef described the departing cabinet as ‘dynamic, brilliant and hard-working’, and said the government wants any new cabinet members to be endorsed by the opposition dominated Majlis.

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International conspiracy against climate change action: Frontline

Despite scientific evidence and dire warnings, developed countries are destroying the current controls on global warming, reports Indian magazine Frontline.

‘The “pledge and review” scheme was the handiwork of the U.S., which was against accepting any legally binding commitment on emission reductions,’ writes Frontline’s R. Ramachandran. ‘Acting behind the scenes since mid-2009 and with active help from other developed countries which did not want to commit to a second commitment period such as Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia, the U.S. succeeded in having the scheme formalised as a “political agreement” at Copenhagen.’

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Sea level to rise one metre in 21st century: Prof. Tim Naish

Professor Tim Naish, the lead author of the next international climate change assessment due for release in 2014, is predicting a one metre rise in sea levels over the next 90 years. This will be a doubling of the present rate of sea-level rise, but a slower rate rise than predicted by other researchers.

Prof. Naish has been appointed lead author by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His forecast is based on rock cores drilled from the Antarctic coastline that provide evidence of the earth’s geological condition 4 million years ago when the climate was similar to the ‘climate we are heading towards in the next century with global warming,’ he says.

During that ancient period, the West Antarctic ice sheet melted and raised seas by a total of five metres, and the Greenland ice sheet melted adding another seven metres, says Prof. Naish, who is director of New Zealand’s Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University in Wellington.

Prof. Naish’s latest findings will be presented at the Australian Earth Sciences Convention in Canberra 4-8 July 2010.

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Majlis members in voice recordings identified by Maldives media

The Maldives print, television and Internet media have identified the voices and names in three voice recordings made available on the Internet yesterday.

The voices were those of Kuludufushi-South MP Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed, Dhiggaru MP and Majlis deputy speaker Ahmed Nazim, Mulaku MP and leader of the People’s Alliance party Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, and Maamigili MP and Jumhooree party leader Gasim ‘Buruma’ Ibrahim, says the Maldives media.

Gasim Ibrahim is chairperson of the permanent Majlis committee for economic affairs, and chairperson of the Majlis sub-committee considering the Tourism Goods and Services bill and the Business Profit Tax bill. Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom is the younger brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and heads the permanent Majlis committee for national security. Both Gasim and Yameen were arrested and charged with bribery and treason last week.

Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed admits that he took part in the conversations in his personal Internet blog where he says a conversation he had with Gasim Ibrahim was not about raising money to bribe Majlis members.

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Maldives facing biggest challenge to its constitution: President Nasheed

Maldives is facing its biggest challenge in implementing the constitution, said President Nasheed in his weekly radio address, and “We should face this hurdle with aptitude, patience and wisdom.”

Referring to the circumstances surrounding the mass resignation of his cabinet on Tuesday, the president said they resigned in protest at the behaviour of members of the Majlis who they claimed were “hijacking” the powers of the executive and making it impossible for cabinet ministers to function.

The cabinet ministers alleged that MPs’ votes at the Majlis were influenced by bribery.

These allegations must be investigated, the president said, and an investigation was underway and people were being arrested.

The president said the constitution should be upheld to achieve the development the country wanted, and for the benefit of future generations.

Everything we do today to shape the future should depend on the lessons learnt from the history of this country, he said.

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