Category: News in Brief

Maldives Broadcasting Corporation board member signs for PPM

Nahla Ali, a board member of the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), has signed for the government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), local media has reported.

In a signing ceremony reported to have been overseen by PPM Interim Leader and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Nahla handed over 100 membership forms for the party during her signing ceremony, according to the Sun Online news service.

PPM MP and Spokesperson Ahmed Mahlouf was not responding to calls by Minivan News at the time of press.

However, speaking during the signing ceremony, Mahlouf told local media that the signature of the MBC board member, who holds a master’s degree in political science, was “a great leap” for the coalition party.

Back in April, MBC announced it was temporarily halting all political programming on state media outlets, amidst debate over the need for more independent and informative public broadcasting.

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Anantara resorts to debut “unique” Black Ivory coffee

Anantara resorts are offering their guests a unique culinary experience with the Maldivian debut of elephant-refined Black Ivory Coffee, writes Neil Merrett for Minivan News’ spin-off travel review site, Dhonisaurus.

“Taking influence from Kopi Luwak, a coffee variety derived from beans digested by civets that is then harvested from the creatures’ faecal matter, Anantara has claimed that its Black Ivory Coffee is instead refined by Thai elephants consuming arabica beans picked at an altitude of 1,500 metres,” says Merrett.

The beans are ground by hand and sell at $1,100 a kilogramme.

Blake Dinkin, founder of Black Ivory Coffee, said that he came up with idea through necessity after SARS led to the extermination of 10,000 civets in China.

It was reported that, following harvesting, the coffee beans are then refined at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) in Thailand which provides for street elephants and their trainers.

Eight percent of all the coffee sales goes towards financing veterinary care for the foundation’s elephants.

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Revised penal code to be sent to Majlis

Naifaru MP Ahmed Mohamed has told Sun Online that a review of the Penal Code is due to be sent to the Majlis later this month.

The bill – first sent to the Majlis in 2006 – is set to replace the 1961 code, and includes 1204 articles, reported Sun.

“We are now completing the pending items which were set aside earlier, and obtaining opinions of different groups on these matters. If the Parliament continues without disruption, we can send the bill to the Parliament floor before the end of the month,” Ahmed said.

“The penalties have been revised to suit current times. Exile has been eliminated almost completely,” he added.

Ahmed said the bill was long-overdue, having been delayed due to parliamentary unrest and lack of space. He anticipated that the bill would pass without major debate.

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Health Minister says compassion can cure sector’s ills

Minister of Health Dr Ahmed Jamsheed has told local media that 80 percent of the problems in the healthcare sector could be resolved if patients were spoken to in a more compassionate manner.

“We have to keep in mind that patients are usually worried. They don’t go to the doctor for fun. We have to provide patient-focused services,” he told Sun Online.

He said that one bad experience by a patient can affect an entire community.

Referring to issues regarding the payment of salaries in the sector, Jamsheed said that these concerns were related to problems in the Finance Ministry.

“Problems with receiving salaries should not affect their work. That should not be the attitude of health sector employees,” he said.

Sun Online also reported that Minister of State for Health Lubna Zahir had stated that the HIV spreading behaviour was on the rise in the Maldives.

Speaking at the closing of the Enhancing the Response to HIV/AIDS in the Maldives project, Lubna said that the risk was highest amongst drug users.

“We have collected information that shows that behaviours that contribute to the spread of HIV are increasing at an alarming rate. The risk of HIV spreading fast in the Maldives is extremely high,” Lubna is quoted as saying.

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President Waheed visited by German and US ambassadors, and UNICEF director

Germany’s new Ambassador to the Maldives, Jurgen Morhad, yesterday presented his credentials to President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan, the President’s Office has reported.

The President thanked the new ambassador for Germany’s contribution to the tourism industry and its assistance in dealing with environmental problems.

The current issues facing the Maldives young democracy were also discussed.

“Highlighting the political, social, and fiscal challenges being faced in the country today, President Waheed underlined the importance of conducting capacity building programmes for the youth. He noted that such programmes would in turn solve the unemployment issues in the Maldives,” read a release on the office’s website.

Social issues were also discussed when the President welcomed Karin Hulshof, UNICEF’s Regional Director for South Asia.

Waheed briefed the director on the steps being taken to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals whilst Hulshof emphasised the importance of raising drug awareness within the school system.

In a busy day, the President also welcomed US Ambassador Michele J. Sison who was briefed on the measures being taken to increase security and safety in the country following the murder of MP Dr Afrasheem Ali.

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‘Sun Travel’ Shiyam says World Bank cannot give any more money to Maldives

MP for Meedhoo constituency Ahmed ‘Sun Travel’ Shiyam has informed the Majlis that, after meeting with a representative of the World Bank, he was told that no additional money could be provided to the Maldives, reports Sun Online.

“The reason given by him is that Maldivian citizens are being forced to cope with political unrest and danger. He said that Maldivians are in dismay, and that investors are apprehensive about investing in Maldives,” he said.

Shiyam was reported in local media as telling the Majlis that investor confidence was being negatively affected by the country’s politics.

Sun reported Shiyam as saying that more attention should be given to the opinions of foreigners in the Maldives affairs and that new faces were needed on the political scene.

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Jagged islands: The Economist

“Emerging from their planes, tourists are whisked into lavishly equipped boats which cross the turquoise sea to their resort islands, or onto seaplanes to get to farther-flung islets. Those who visit the capital find a tiny city which functions well and looks strikingly modern by South Asian standards,” writes a columnist for the Ecnomist.

“Beneath the calm, there are bitter, highly personalised differences of view regarding the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, who was arrested on October 8th in the south, a week after fleeing the trial to which he had been summoned. He was released from custody on October 9th, given 25 days to answer charges that he overstepped his powers while president, and restricted from leaving the capital.

His supporters extol him nonetheless. “For so many years he was the only one fighting for our democracy, our freedom, our right to speak our mind,” says Ahmed, a photographer in Male. He is not a member of Mr Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) but praises the changes it has brought, ranging from better transport between islands to a health-insurance scheme.

Adam, a young doctor, feels differently. He feels that under Mr Nasheed’s presidency it became “not cool to say you’re a devout Muslim who prays five times a day”. He says the ex-president was whimsical, and asks why he had to spend a month personally overseeing the construction of a conference centre in the southernmost atoll.”

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Decoding Nasheed: The Hindu

“Eight months after the political upheaval in the Maldives that saw Mohammed Nasheed resign as President, fresh turmoil there has belied hopes that the nation would slowly settle down. Mr. Nasheed, who alleged after resigning that he was ousted in a coup, has been arrested for defying a court order,” writes an anonymous author in The Hindu today.

“Charged with detaining a judge unlawfully on January 16 while he was still in power, and ordered by the court to remain in Male for the period of the trial, the former President opted to break free of his ‘island arrest’, going off to the southern islands in the archipelago to attend political rallies.

He believes that the charges are politically motivated, designed to convict and make him ineligible to contest elections. If that is correct, he is now responsible for handing the courts a far simpler way to achieve the same objective, by convicting him on a possible charge of contempt.

Evidently, Mr. Nasheed thinks brinkmanship serves better his political objectives, especially after the Commission of National Inquiry — constituted to go into political events from January 14 to February 8 — destroyed some of his political planning by concluding there had been no coup in the Maldives.

It said the change of President was legal and constitutional, and that what happened was a ‘reaction’ to Mr. Nasheed’s own actions as President. Though he has refused to accept the conclusions of the report, he can hardly accuse the Commission of bias.

It was at his bidding that its mandate was rewritten; additionally, a Maldivian member of his choice, plus an international co-chair and two other international observers, were added to it.”

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Maldives delegate to UN General Assembly call for assistance in fighting climate change

The Maldives delegate to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Hassan Hussain Shihab, has appealed to larger nations to commit themselves towards more clean and renewable forms of energy in order to reduce carbon emissions.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that Shihab told those at the assembly in New York that the Maldives was doing all it could to build resilience to the effects of climate change.

He said that the Maldives government was currently spending more than 27 percent of its national budget, suggesting that a small country such as the Maldives could not overcome these issues alone.

He also highlighted the Maldives commitment to implementing the decisions made at the recent Rio +20 conference on sustainable development,  expressing hoping that progress would be made during the current UNGA towards on issues relevant to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

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