Comment: Nasira Abdulla – an inspirational misfit

The following is a comment piece submitted in response to a video profile of Nasira Abdulla produced by Hulhevi Media in July, 2014.

Born in 1957, Nasira passed away yesterday (September 8) after suffering breathing irregularities.

Ostracised by some, she was also an inspiration to many living the capital Male’.

‘She has always been known as the insane woman. A social reject living on the streets, she has suffered every abuse…’ Over 8000 hits in less than 24 hours? Of course. These are the days of social media. ‘Putting it out there’ is easy. Should I ‘like’ it? Or should I ‘share’ it?

Nasira’s story is an insightful look into the life of the homeless in Malé. She is street-smart and pragmatic, but her quick wit and sense of humour belies a litany of social injustices that is universally experienced by the homeless: verbal and physical abuse, rejection by family and society at large, the constant and soul-destroying search for shelter and the need to hustle to find money to keep hunger at bay.

I get lost in the trackless jungle of social media; I blame my age and my natural impatience with technology. However, ‘social rejects’ are nothing new to me. I grew up with ‘Firihen Fathuma’.  She came to thatch our kitchen roof, reconstruct the boundary fence between our house and our neighbour’s and to spread the coral sand before the onset of Ramazan.

Even then there was a dearth of men wanting to do manual jobs in the Maldives. Men were doing much more important things such as imprisoning and banishing one of my brothers for political dissension, or delivering long sermons on how to respect one’s superiors.

I found Firihen Fathuma’s disregard to social conventions somewhat liberating, viewing her with considerable envy as she walked her tuna home from the fish market.  Another of my brothers got into considerable trouble for taking on a dare to squeeze her chin as he cycled past her on Handhuvarudhey Goalhi. In his defence, she did sport a particularly well curved and magnificent chin.

But enough – I digress.

Why the interest in Nasira? Is it because we see in her a little bit of ourselves, that constant temptation to break free from the straight jacket of social norms? Or more pointedly, is it because we recognise her to be the end product of a system based on self- interest at the expense of nurturing a sense of common responsibility? In either case, Hulhevimedia, thank you for sharing.

I do believe it is an outrageous misfortune that the country has fallen, yet again, prey to the old elitist oligarchy with an over developed sense of  entitlement, and an underdeveloped  moral compass as badly off kilter as those of the thugs who roam the streets of Malé. In a previous life, I would have cried for Nasira as Maldivians are passionate about misery, but I’d like to think that I have grown out of that particular victim mentality.

So instead, I take refuge in words…

In April, Yameen – the latest incarnation of the old regime – announced the development of  SEZs (Special Economic Zones.) The insidious end results of these types of economic policies have already been eloquently pointed out by  Maldivian Economist in his article, ‘SEZ bill opens doors for economic slavery‘ and by Mushfique Mohamed in his ‘The Scramble for the Maldives‘.

I do not wish to reiterate the shortcomings of such an economic policy. However, I wish to extrapolate on the effects of such policy and how such policy decisions are directly related to societal poverty and the proliferation of displaced people.

Yameen’s is the kind of economic policy that is embedded in the dangerously misleading premises of the ‘American Dream’ – the all pervasive  belief that a free market allows everyone, regardless of race, culture or social status, to reap the benefits of their hard work.

Thanks to the power of celluloid, the print media and the globalisation of western culture, this dream has become so much part of our economic thinking, that many of us do not question it.

The words of a prominent businessman in the Maldives, that I was once made privy to, echo these sentiments exactly: “I made my money through sheer hard work. I risked everything. Why should I feel sorry for those who choose to sit on their arses and do nothing to better themselves?”

Makes sense. Or does it?

What is not so obvious is that it is easier for some to get off their behinds and reap the benefit of hard work than it is for others. Those who are rich, well established and have their behinds comfortably perched on the top rungs of the social ladder are in a better position to access the advantages of such policies. In fact, it can and should be argued that such policies are placed primarily for the benefit of such an oligarchy; that these simply legitimise their plunder of the nation’s wealth.

Ordinary Maldivians, who have already endured years of victimisation, poverty, lack of health care and who are deprived of the liberating influences of a good education, are not in a position to walk the yellow brick road to the emerald city. A nation’s human capital develops because of enlightened and humane policies, and having the foresight and strength to deliberately discard the brutal rule of the survival of the fittest.

The failure to do this is epitomised by citizens like Nasira, and by the hordes of young adults who roam aimlessly around the islands, often drugged and armed with  a rather laisse faire approach to human life. The excluded, oppressed and exploited have nothing to lose; they are all misplaced one way or another.

It is not because the chances aren’t there. It is not because the Maldives hasn’t got potential. It is not because Nasira is not resilient, eloquent or intelligent. She is all these things as the five minute clip proves to us. It is simply because she did not start from a level playing field.

Please don’t remind me of the Arnold Schwarzeneggers, the Halle Berrys, and the Ella Fitzgeralds  – or their Maldivian counterparts who crawled through the social cesspool of constant poverty to shine as beacons of success. These are the exceptions to the rule.

There will always be one or two exceptions, if not by nature, then by the ‘benevolence’ of the oligarchs who will ensure by personally controlled patronage, that such exceptions exist for the benefit of their highly spun public profile.

Economics and social policies based on self interest and nepotism, create social casualties such as Nasira. While the rich 10 percent gets richer, the poor 90 percent become the non participants who wait with begging bowls at the bottom- perhaps in the hope of catching the trickles of good things that these policies so famously postulate.

It is like starting a sprint race from one end of Majeedee Magu to the other, with four fifths of the competitors placed five hundred meters behind the forward few. Maybe the exceptionally talented can Bolt to the lead, but the vast majority will always remain trapped in the back.

The final insult is of course to build the discourse round the unfortunate woman saying that she is mad and she chooses to live this way. This is also part of the narrative of the ‘American Dream’, that those who fail the system do so because of their own personal failures.  The system provides- the individual fails. It is the perfect framework to demonize the economic under- achievers.

The final indignity is that Nasira is already a statistic, like Firihen Fathuma, a misfit of society.

I am just saying. Just putting it out there before I go to have my latte’ and give some very serious thought to the new app I want for my Ipad. Or perhaps, I will have some face time with my friends.