President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed rang the couple degraded in the Vilu Reef ‘wedding ceremony’ incident to apologise on behalf of the nation, and invite them back to the Maldives at their convenience as his personal guests.
Nasheed called the couple on Saturday afternoon to personally apologise for the incident, which grew into an international media firestorm after a video of the couple being mocked and humiliated in Dhivehi by up to 15 complicit resort staff surfaced on video sharing website YouTube.
“The couple told the President that their images have been published in the media without their consent, which is causing them considerable distress and embarrassment,” the President’s Office said in a statement, adding that Nasheed was appealing for their privacy to be respected.
“The couple asked President Nasheed, during a telephone call on Saturday afternoon, to make the intervention on their behalf.”
“President Nasheed calls on the media not to reproduce photographs or video footage of the couple without their consent and to report the incident in a sensitive manner.”
The statement added that the couple “thanked President Nasheed for taking the time to personally intervene in this matter.”
Ambassador Iruthisham Adam from the Maldives embassy in Geneva also telephoned the couple, offering the government’s “profound and heartfelt apologies”.
“I informed the couple that the entire country is deeply shocked and saddened by what has happened. The Maldives is renowned for its warm hospitality and this incident has brought great shame upon our tourism industry and our country,” Ambassador Adam said in a statement.
The Ambassador informed the couple the two members of the resort´s staff had been arrested by Maldives police and the case was being investigated. The ‘celebrant’, food and beverage assistance Hussein Didi, and another man, are in police custody while the authorities determine the charges.
Minivan News understands that the Ministry of Tourism met with tourism industry leaders today to discuss steps to avoid a repeat of the incident. The government has already proposed to regulate ‘renewal of vows’ ceremonies in every hotel and resort in the country.
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I can just imagine what they're putting in visitors' food down there! Nice.
so, as the guilty parties, hussein didi and the other staff are under arrest until the crimes they have committed are discovered and decided on? i am confused... :s
The way the government of Maldives is addressing the issue is an absolute shamble. First of all we visit Maldives not through an individual. We visit to a resort which itself is a business establishment regulated by the governments concerned authority. This incident shows first of all the business establishments i e resorts are money making machines which has no regard to the rights of gullible visitors who spend fortunes to experience a dream holiday. Secondly these shows the regulatory bodies have no clue as to what they are regulating and seemed to be oblivious of the nasty side of Maldivian culture. Thirdly now this has been exposed the government has not even acknowledged the fact that the whole blame has to lie on the resort management. This means all what the government is doing to uplift the soiled image of Maldives as a tourist destination without really addressing the issue. The core issue here is not a Hasan did. This real issue is the resort failed the trust tourists put on them. Hope this makes some sense
These kind of people have to be arrested and sentenced to death cox there are making fun for the people and for the nation and deen.
Over 500,000 hits on youtube and growing, this incident is doing the Maldvies no favours. Unfortunately I will not be visiting there anytime soon...
Too little too late. But anyways...
Let's hope the furor dies down and those who gained much from this story realize the damage that's been caused.
minivian, why have u not used thier pictures now? You are the people who really humiliated them. Shame on you. and JJ Robinson you should get the hell out of Maldvies.
So The President apologizes for the incident and the “ghaazee” Didi is arrested. The Government will bring out rules and regulations to prevent this type of incident happening again.
Well done to the Government and the President!
Is that it?
What about the 10-12 people who stood by and watched the whole incident taking place? They were well aware of what was being said but did nothing to stop it.
And what about this?
From the Minivan article posted on Oct. 26:
“A 15-minute video of the ceremony was uploaded on YouTube on October 24 2010 by a member of staff. Vilu Reef Manager Mohamed Rasheed told Minivan News that the staff member who uploaded the video did it as “a joke”, without “realising the seriousness of the potential consequences”. ”
“Rasheed said he had become aware of the nature of the ceremony conducted by Didi shortly after it happened. He had banned Didi from performing any more ceremonies, but did not feel it was necessary to take any further action, until the video appeared on YouTube.”
“The staff member who uploaded the video, Ali Shareef, a shop assistant, is not being disciplined or investigated further, Rasheed said. He complied with the request by the management to remove the video from YouTube.”
So no change here then?
And if this was being “uploaded as a joke”, it means there were a lot more people aware of what was going on.
Clearly a lot more people than Ghaazee Didi feel contempt and hatred towards our guests.
I suppose this is the natural effect of tourism being treated as a pariah industry by the extremists who continue to pervert Islam in our country.
Many of the insults on the video seem to have their origins from the religious sermons we hear every day and especially on Fridays. We are told “not to trust the infidel” and that “the infidels, they are like dogs”. That is the mild version.
This is quite normal and not unusual in our islands these days. So it is no wonder that these people would use similar “jokes” on their silly pranks. Same for the insults on women, who’s status we all know.
But this is no excuse for the behaviour of these people. They are supposed to do their job in a professional way and they should have been aware of the importance of this ceremony both to the guests and to the resort. They have no excuse at all for their conduct and there is no real reason for them not to be penalised .
And this is where Maldives Resort Workers and their union TEAM have failed these people and the industry. Instead of calling for all the people involved in this sordid incident to be sacked, they go off on a tirade about Minivan News and “the way the news was reported.” No such complaints when the stories of their strikes are mentioned in Minivan. Such blatant hypocrisy I have not seen in a long time.
The solution to the prevention of these problems with wedding renewals is simple:
1) These ceremonies must always be conducted in the presence of the General Manager of the resort or his deputy, and preferably BY them.
2) They should be conducted in English with translations provided to the guests if they don’t understand English. There is no reason for the ceremony to be conducted in Divehi (there is no similar ceremony in Maldives anyway).
3) A document in English, signed by the GM, outlining what was said in the ceremony, should be given to the guests as a certificate of the ceremony.
This will be more than enough to prevent this type of “joke”.
And it should be noted that there are thousands of these ceremonies taking place in Maldives – in English – and in the presence pf the GM – where everything is done professionally and very well.
The changing of the mindset that leads to people using these insults as a “joke” is a much more difficult matter and one that needs to begin by bringing the pariah of tourism out from the street into the home.
Unfortunately, this figure of speech will be impossible to comprehend in a country where there are no dogs except the “infidels” the sermons talk about.
So funny, as soon as it looks like a loss of business. We're asked to keep quiet. Sorry the damage has been done guys.
The Government should not arrest a "waiter" for this issue, the GM of Hotel should be held accountable and responible for this as he being the GM of the resort should be aware of what is hapening in his resort, secondly where was the entire management team of this resort??? And finally Sun Hotels needs to have an effective,efficient and qualified HR Director and not a "puppet" how come that this particular waiter who has been in jail for six years has been recruited by the GM of this hotel and approved by the HR Department to employ such individuals, this clearly show that this has been an ongoing practice with the knowledge of the Hotel Management, when one see the crowd of hotel employees participating in this cewremony this gives a clear message that this is happening to all guests on a daily basis and the Management givs a deaf ear to what happens around them.
The top Management needs to be taken to task and not only a waiter.
@ahmed
You mean deen as in waheedeen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7rOxXvPmk
The core issue is the Maldivian culture and their backwardness, The Maldivian has to be polished to create more humanly society, this behavior is quite norm in their culture due to religious hegemony.
What about FREEDOM of SPEECH? its should not be criminalized. oh ic, white people.
yeah. we are all nice people here. its the infidels and jews who want to paint another picture. exactly why our constitution states that the citizenship on all non muslims should be taken away, and why christian missionaries are arrested, imprisoned and deported. the jews will want to corrupt us, sheikh ilyas was right.
All this apology and compensation is understandable.
However why is the government and the police trying to pin the whole blame on this moron hussain didi, and this second guy.
The people who should take responsibility is the management of Vilu Reef - Sun Travels pvt ltd. They should be fined. And I call all tourists to boycott Vilu Reef and all other business ventures of Sun Travel.
First of all this Shakir from Sun Travels tried to defend this incident saying that the morons meant no harm to the tourist couple, they did it just for a joke among themselves. The only action they took against him was to just restrict him to the staff quarters, until the video surfaced on youtube.
Which hotel in the world will come short of firing who ever was involved in such a degrading thing? But Sun travels management does not have the principles nor the integrity to fire these people and hand them over to the authorities.
And that is because the owners of Vilu Reef are scared of their staff. People like shakir are paranoid that their staff might expose his hashish oil habit. Sun Travel shiyam (the big shot) is a sick bastard who have done threesomes with a mother and daughter.
So what do you expect from the Sun TRavel management? They are the ones who should be taken to jail and sued. Everyone should boycott this pathetic company and their resorts. This is what happens when uneducated, filthy idiots get a lot of money and given to run resorts. They have single handedly humiliated a whole nation and destroyed our image forever.
suntravel shiyam (a primary school drop-out and a husband of four) has no idea what marriage is. 'the Sun of Noonu atoll' (his parliamentary slogan) has burnt down the entire maldives. good work, fool.
@murthala
it is not speech when the person you're addressing does not understand what you're saying. might as well be a dog barking at you. there's freedom of speech for you, idiot. time to muzzle you for being a nuisance and an embarrassment for humanity.
The people who conducted the ceremony should be fined for immorality, social misconduct and abuse on many different level, and in it complicit the people who were present there.
Villu Reef and management Suntravels should be made to compensate the couple and punished for being complicit in the heinous act, causing massive PR damage to the country's Tourism industry.
This is now at a stage were it cannot be swept under the rug so easily. This has brought to light where our moral fabric actually lay, let us all think about this, government as well as NGO need to take up arms to cure our society.
MaldivesResortWorkers - it is your continous Denial of these events that is the biggest problem here. The 'furor' will continue as long as people like you are in Denial and refusing to acknowledge the seriousness of what has happened and apologise to the international community.
From your comments we can now see your wahaabi intentions and your desire to bring about an end to the Tourism industry in our country.
I hope that Resort Workers can see through your bullsh-t.
What next Minivan news, English translation of "ThauleemuDhiyaana", might be a good idea.There are so many contrary issues in that small booklet where JJ Robins and many Ethiest Maldivians fight are fighting for. Once its translated in English and send to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to fuel their Islam bashing and you guys will get more international media coverage. What is in "Thauleem Dhiyaanaa" is what exactly Western media is fighting to change in curriculum of Saudi Arabia too. In this satiric video Gazi Didi also mocked same things from daily sermons in every mosque in the world.
What next Minivan news, English translation of “ThauleemuDhiyaana”, might be a good idea.There are so many contrary issues in that small booklet where JJ Robins and many Ethiest Maldivians are fighting for. Once its translated in English and send to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to fuel their Islam bashing and you guys will get more international media coverage. What is in “Thauleem Dhiyaanaa” is what exactly Western media is fighting to change in curriculum of Saudi Arabia too. In this satiric video Gazi Didi also mocked same things from daily sermons in every mosque in the world.
I agree Mr. Karma. We as tourists must boycott Vilu Reef and any resort associated with this resort managment.
It is very sad that such an event has
taken place in the Maldives.
Having been there a few times, I can only recall very courteous and friendly
Maldivians . I hope and wish to think that people like Hussain Didi (with a very poor mindset) does not represent the view of the Maldivian people.
This ugly incident shows the disrespect young muslims have for non muslims. From childhood they are brainwashed into thinking that islam is the best thing since sliced bread and plurality and respect form any other belief is wrong. Non muslims should A*V*O*I*D holidaying in islamic countries and spend their infidel dollars where they will be treated with respect. Without tourism Maldives is another Somalia.
I'm outraged after watching the video clip. Maldivian people depends on tourism and yet they set out to humiliate individuals. Many couples visit the Maldives yes on their honeymoons but a few like me for instance visited the maldives as an unmarried couple, wondering what they said about us? I don't Think i will ever visit the Maldives again it would make me feel uncomfortable and paranoid.
sun Shiyam .hurry up and become an mdp member...within seconds of signing as a member for mdp u n ur resorts become as clean as a 'lolly'..
I feel for the poor swiss couple and am abhorred by the disgraceful and might I add cowardly behaviour of a crowd of people insulting the two foreigners who could not understand a word. Despicable and gutless lowlifes all of them. I hope they get sacked and are caused to suffer so as to learn about consequences.
JJ should have wrote: "President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed rang the couple degraded in the Vilu Reef ‘wedding ceremony’, made famous my minivannewsarchive.com.
Whats sed is sed and whats done is done.
I, We; are proud of our president for the personal action he took on his behalf.. A man like him can be called 'a father of a nation' who would go out of his way to apologize for ridiculous mistakes of his children. Thank you Mr. President.
Since there have not been laws on punishment of such acts, I believe it would not be the best of judgments to punish them on act of religious mockery as they certainly don't speak any sermons...only makes it sound like it...HAABURI RASHEED should be the first one to get arrested in that case...
Culture degrading could be a punishment..but would not be wise either since there have been so many instances of practice through out the nation.
I suggest the government can start suspension punishments for periods of time...like 2-5 years on such acts...suspending the person/s who took parts from tourist industry for 2-5 years would surely make him/them understand. Otherwise today he will go to jail for another 6 years, hit parole and next year again in the industry making pple like us worry about when he/they will do it again.
This will ensure proper conduct and discipline. It can be linked onto a police report which every one will require to apply for jobs...what you say? Anything to add or is this ok?
actually who is guilty...resort owner is the real culprit...
guess what..if a cargo ship violates maritime regulations, who is arrested,the captain..not the crews...
Mr. Nasheed is trying to politicize and garner international attention for him...
people ... do not get tricked by this gullible treacherous president.
Hussen Didi and other are just crews ,,real crime was facilitated by the owner...i wonder what kind of justice is this...always the rich is spared and poor is persecuted for the rich peoples handiwork.
Islam is never a problem. The ignorant,the psychopaths and some Mullahs are a disgrace to mankind and these are the guys who are painting a wrong picture of Islam. Anyway the damage has been done and it will take a concerted effort for all responsible parties to do something to redeem the pride of all Muslims for being a Muslim!
this man Anni has been on my "hate list" since he came to power. but standing up and apologizing in front of everyone when we are wrong takes courage. Man i salute you for your guts.
In this lovely mullahdom of ours, it's now become common practice for men to spit such filth at innocent women just because their faces can be seen.
I hope the govenment addresses the bigger problem in this country instead of skinning 2 guys from a resort.
They can be fined under the anti-social behavior act, which was passed quite recently.
@ Jack on Sat, 30th Oct 2010 8:20 PM
This video is the best thing that happened to Maldives in a long long time.
an opportunity for the government
and police if any to make money from
the resort's owners. ha ha ha
@aharen
Thats also a good thought...but what are the fines or penalty for anti-social behavior? My thoughts are merely based on the conductors services again at this industry because so many of us are trying hard to keep our image up and is led down cz of guys like this.
My comments does not exclude the management's neglected duties.. The management should pay for the loss caused. May it be any form of punishment and it should be public so that we all know.
But my understanding is that even though our parent sacrificed their full life behind us, watching our every step, questioning about every party we attend or friends that we make,,,,it had never stopped us from having or doing mischief..end of the day, we have our fun..
@hassan- This is very different from Maritime regulations. Yes the captain is taken into account on failure to abide by the proper regulations because he is the only one who controls the ship..all others are 'hands on deck' if you get what i mean,...but in a resort, divisions, departments and subdivisions are responsible for a daily operation. I am sure the management would have never told the staff to conduct it this way...I mean if you are not a 5 year old, you would know that filth was not the way to conduct a wedding!!!...logic.
Management mistake was failure to supervise the actions for such prolonged time. Even if you are DRP or MDP or whatever party, you should be able to understand what Mr. Nasheed did by apologizing..and he deserves all the media coverage he can get my "not 5 year old" friend.so just learn to appreciate even your enemy does right than talk nonsense and be the same as the culprits who started all this.
@ADHD- you are the most sick person to comments on this sensitive issue if what you mean is a free thought. Maybe you are a civil servant or a shop runner I donno...
However, I agree with you on one hand that this was a good thing....It had opened eyes of a lot of pple...specially the government that their citizens need a stricter guidance and laws..and for resorts to understand what neglected management duties could cause
This video definitely is not a good thing for Maldives at large. But definitely timing that this has been exposed by MDP lead media has benefited them, not to expose undemocratic congress they have concluded yesterday.I suspect this is a deliberate act of Minivan, so that MDP congress will get less media attention.
nothing so bad/humiliating has ever happened in the 'PAST 30 YEARS'....look at the mess we are in for the past 2yrs ..
@wolf, i think you have a point.
again, typical way to ignoring the real issue here. arresting Didi and other guy and "president' making an apology call and inviting the vicit as personal guest DOESR NOT solve the problem which is:
Maldives is a xenophobic country and people here have no respect for other religions and cultures.. period. If president wants to do some real work here, he would employ people and methods to educate the people.
what a lord of crap Ambassador Iruthisham is talking.. Denial is not going to help..
@Ekaloa
@messy mess
Mate this has nothing to do with politics, as a society to move on and advance the civilization these issues should be acknowledged and dealt with. Playing the blame game or building conspiracy theories isn't going to help at this juncture. If you think rationally you would understand that such a act damages the country as a whole and no one benefits from this, least of all the ruling party.
Under the previous regime we did not have the free media to expose such gross misconduct.
I really wonder where the F.-k is the island owner??? He is the real one to apologize the couple...but there is no news or what so ever from him. The president of the Maldives has personally called and apologized to the couple.
I really wish that government would ban their hotel licence for a while.
Stupid miss Management Company!
For some time it is better for Maldivians to never land in Switzerland or any other European country.
Try to scrimmaging what happen when all previous wedding ceremony taken in this resort by camera by the couple are begin translate from Dhivehi.
Complete damage to the Maldives !!!!!!!
The original upload of this video may well have been removed "at the request of hotel management", but many more uploads appear on YouTube almost every day. The genie is out of the bottle, damage limitation by the President now is almost futile...
One last comment on this subject--I am one of the 10's of thousands of Brits that served on RAF Gan,and I will say that you will not find one of us that has a bad word to say about the Maldivian people.We have just been back[last march] for a very warm and emotional reunion.I have been back several times on holiday and I have to say that I have noticed a tremendous different attitude from the younger Maldivians,maybe its the availability to see what else is going on around the world[internet],maybe its the fault of the tourists flashing their wealth,maybe its just the need to try and do better than their fathers..But there are rotten apples in every barrel,none more so than in the UK,and it will be almost immposible for your country to escape the failings that will certainly come--the reason MONEY..Money breeds greed,,greed breeds corruption,corruption destroys any thoughts of decency..With all my heart I wish you well in the future..PS I am still going to Gan next june,and I would advise all other people thinking of coming to the Maldives just to come and meet the nicest people in the world....Larry RAF GAN 69/70
Vilu Reef FAKE WEDDING Resort
@Larry[geordie]Dodds.. aww so sweet ..am really touched...thank you so much for the beautiful compliment...hope u have a beautiful holiday here this June..
@aharen.. 'Under the previous regime we did not have the free media to expose such gross misconduct."...
U mean to say now ur media is that free???.. to my knowledge no media is tht free for such gross misconduct anywhere in the world..!!..u must have enjoyed Dhivehi observer 2years back (under ur margin of free media)