Telos Investments wants to develop a ’boutique’ surf resort on Thanburudhoo island, home to two of North Malé’s best waves – Sultans and Honkies. If this proposal gets approved – which is looking highly likely according to long-time local surfer Ahmed Nasru (Mickey), who claims the process smacks of underhanded dealings – then the number of quality spots in the area which are open to locals will halve, writes South African surf news website Zigzag.
This will leave only Jailbreaks (on Himmafushi island) and Cokes (on Thulusdhoo island) as the last quality reef passes in the area without exclusive rights and open to local surfers.
Privatisation of surf spots is nothing new. For decades now entrepreneurs and even companies have been buying up land adjacent to quality surf breaks from South America to North Sumatra, claiming rights to the breaks in front of their resorts, and making them exclusive to guests.
Local surfers from the North Malé atolls of the Maldives are very familiar with this process. Some of their finest surf breaks – like Lohifushi and Pasta Point for example – have been deemed off-limits for many years after resorts were built on the islands hosting these waves. It’s something the local surfers have learned to live with, because they always had a few other quality spots in the area to fall back on.
If the Telos Investment proposal goes through, that will all change as their last few quality spots are gobbled up by privatisation.
And then of course there is the ethical question: it’s becoming increasingly clear that privatisation not only infringes on local surfers’ rights to freely access the reefs and islands they’ve inhabited and lived off for centuries. It also ensures any visiting surfers who can’t afford to pay the prices of these ’boutique’ resorts will instead be forced to sit shoulder-to-shoulder waiting for a set at the last two quality spots in North Malé.
The knock-on effect could even lead to surf tour operations going out of business – why go on a surf trip when you’re not allowed to surf half the waves? The end result would mean locals not only lose out on waves, but for those employed by, or operating their own surf tour business, their very livelihood could be threatened.
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Singapore Judge Selvams company got that island to make a resort... reward for cooking up the Commonwealth & UN sponsored Inquiry Report regarding the 7 feb coup that brought down the first democratically elected government of Maldives.
Maldivian resort owners sell alcohol by the gallons to foreign tourists with a 500%-800% margin. While they punish, flog any local Maldivians caught selling or consuming alcohol.
What the tourist should know is we have two set of rules one for the local Maldivian and one for tourists. While the elite resort owners they promote, have wine tasting functions and marketing events for the sale of alcohol.
Tourists, my question is why you are visiting place like Maldives, I guess tourist should know about responsible tourism where you don’t finance to suppress democracy and human rights indirectly.
You see our current dictatorship, they are anti-Semites, anti-western, on the one hand they will welcome you to suck your money, but behind your back you will be called various names.
I island mentioned in the article is the reward to Singapore Judge Selvam who witewashed the 7Feb coup and police brutality.
Will you visit such a resort Island.