maldives news – Page 1196 – Minivan News

Chinese tourist arrivals break records this February

Chinese tourists have set a record for tourist arrivals in the Maldives this February, reports Miadhu.

The Asia-Pacific region recorded 21,362 tourist arrivals, marking a 122.5 percent rise in arrivals from the region.

During February, 13,345 Chinese tourists arrived in the Maldives, compared to 12,003 Italians, 10,422 British nationals and 6,602 Germans.

This is the first time that Europeans have not been the largest market for tourism in the Maldives.

Tourism experts believe the rise was due to the Chinese New Year, but some critics argue that entertainment and shopping are key areas for Chinese tourists and need to be improved to sustain the numbers of Chinese visiting the Maldives.

Two Chinese tourists recently died during their stay in the Maldives. The first drowned while snorkelling in February. The second man was reported as being robbed and killed by Chinese newspaper Shanghai Daily, but Maldives Police Service reported that the man drowned.

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Comment: Resort life – it’s all about pretence… lots of it.

In resort life everyone tries to be what he or she is not, according to circumstances. Sometimes this behaviour is required as part of the profession and sometimes it happens out of inclination. For example:

Managers

They come in all shapes and sizes. Some come with a perpetual frown on their faces whilst others hide their true expressions behind an engaging smile. But they all share in the pretence.

The guests

Most guests are also notorious at deception. It is an ingrained cultural habit to smile and make light of everything, however annoying.

However there are those who are exactly the opposite – the realists and the con-guests who will complain at the smallest inconvenience to get a free bottle of champagne or a discount on their stay.

Human resources

HR used to play God until the arrival of the dreaded labour laws. Now that the mantle of power to terminate staff indiscriminately on HR’s whims and wishes can at last be challenged in the labour tribunal, things are thankfully a little bit more even handed.

Reservations

Together with ’sales and marketing’, reservations would have everyone else believe that if not for them the resort is a few days from closing down and going out of business.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that most tourists just choose to come to our resorts after hearing about our beaches and small islands from the internet, mostly through tour operators.

Tour operators do not necessarily depend on reservations but sometimes they have an agreement with the resort for the allocation of rooms, which is ‘handled’ by these pompous people. In technical terms they are just clerks and data entry staff making a big fuss over their work.

Of course there are some sweet, down-to-earth reservations people who do not aggrandize their work but in resort life such humbleness is the exception rather than the norm.

Maintenance

The maintenance people generally include the engineers and the unseen crowd. They are happiest when something really major breaks down like an engine or a water plant, because that’s the only time they can shine and their work will be valued or respected by their superiors.

They are prone to making the smallest issue as big as possible just to get the attention of the managers, because that’s the only way up the corporate ladder from their level.

Waiters and room boys and girls

Generally honest and hard-working, these gentle people have a tendency to make a purely service task into a
technical one, which at a certain extent can be comical.

Launch section guys

Perhaps the most realistic in appearance and attitude are found in the ‘launch section’ team. They have a reason for that too – extended periods of time spent in monotonous journeys between islands and airports wear them down which makes them difficult to either please or irritate.

The IT guys

The IT guys are all smiles and kindness until a computer terminal is said to be terminally ill and the IT guy is called in. From that moment the IT guy is bossy, unfriendly, talks in jargon and generally looks down on the rest of humanity.

However a by-product of Moore’s Law is that advances in technology will soon make them redundant, as networks, computers and devices become more and more user friendly and intelligent. They had their day in the era of Windows 3.2 and dot matrix printers, when being an IT guy was not for the faint of
heart.

Nowadays the IT guy is pretty much only still alive thanks to Microsoft Windows and the uncommonness of common sense.

Chefs and the kitchen crowd

There is an unending war between the restaurant guys and the kitchen folk because all the hard work is done
in the kitchen but all the tips are received at the restaurant.

However as most resorts are mindful of this war, generally their salary is higher than the rest which is some solace to the animosity. The kitchen guys generally do not subscribe to false smiles and half-hearted greetings, because their life is hectic and hard.

Gardeners, labourers and the like

At the bottom of the ladder, these people are resigned to their fate or position and automatically have the rubbery smile and artificial greetings for all guests and superiors.

No such smiles for their peers and others, however – ambition is not lacking in this department, as gardeners are frequently fond of watering the plants around the GMs office hoping that he or she will take notice of the effort…

There is much hypocrisy to go around in resort life, but its worth it for the the fun. If all resort folk, including the guests, were to be expressionless die-hard realists, life in a resort would be tough indeed.

Republished with permission from MaldivesResortWorkers, a site for resort staff to anonymously discuss the industry, their employers, and the realities of resort work.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Informal adoption laws and lack of legislation hampering Health Ministry

The Maldives has no laws governing adoption as the practice is forbidden under Islam, Minivan News learned yesterday during an investigation of the staff shortages at the Kudakudhinge Hiya orphanage in Vilingili.

State Minister for Health and Family Mariya Ali explained that the courts permit a “long-term guardianship” as there is no ‘formal’ adoption law in the Maldives.

One consequence of this ‘informal’ system is that the Maldives maintains a reservation regarding adoption after signing the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Communications Officer for UNICEF Humaida Abdulghafoor said there is no adoption law in the Maldives “but it is being looked into right now.”

“The Maldives has a reservation on adoption in the Conventions for the Right of the Child (CRC), but culturally, we have an informal system where extended families will look after a child if his or her parents cannot do so.”

“There is no formal structure,” she said, “and the laws are not very strong.”

Mariya explained that if a child cannot be cared for by his or her parents, the court must look for next of kin.

“According to the Family Law, there are a number of people they must check first,” she explained.

If no one is found to care for the child, then they must be placed under care of the state, but the Ministry tries not to remove children from their homes if at all possible, she said.

Mariya explained that a study carried out by the ministry on adoption under Islam identified that “clearly the Western form of adoption cannot happen.”

In the Western form of adoption, a child takes his or her adoptive parents’ surname, “but in Islam that cannot happen.”

The alternative is long-term fostering: “We want the children to know their roots, which means there won’t be any corruption of lineage.”

But this has no guarantees of permanence, and finding adequate foster care is a long process.

“It is up to us to find parents who don’t have a history of sexual abuse, who don’t have a history of fraud, who don’t have a history of other offences,” Mariya explained, meaning the ministry had to do an assessment of every person who came forward wanting to foster a child.

She said the process of assessment can take up to six months – “It is very difficult for us to find a home for a child because we don’t have proper legislation to support us.”

In the meantime, the ministry has now completed regulations on minimum standards for children’s homes. Mariya said now that the costing for these guidelines to be implemented is finished, “this week we will send it to the Attorney General’s office, who will then table it in Parliament.”

“As soon as this comes through it will be a guiding document for the workers,” she said.

Mariya explained that due to staff shortages at the ministry, there was a backlog of cases waiting to be processed.

“There is only one staff member doing the case work,” she said, adding that they were hoping to get some assistance from NGOs in fast-tracking the case work.

“Ideally, babies need to be placed with carers before they’re one year old. This is the year when they form attachments,” she noted. “For children to form healthy attachment, we need to place them soon.”

She said the ministry had expressed its concerns over staff shortages many times, but “have not had any feedback about whether we’re going to get more staff or not.”

Another issue is age: “Most carers and most families that come forward want babies,” Mariya said, adding that “very few want an older child.”

Because babies need be placed with a family as soon as possible, issuing the cases quickly is essential.

She said “most of the time parents want to be given the child permanently, “which takes even longer. If they request for temporary fostering we could at least place the child with the parents and then proceed with the process, but right now we don’t get such offers.”

Orphanage

Kudakudhinge Hiya children’s home in Vilingili was started in 2006 and is a state-run initiative managed by the Ministry of Health and Family. They are currently caring for 51 children and is the only government institution of its kind in the country.

Minivan News reported yesterday that there was a shortage of cooks. Community Health Officer at Kudakudhinge Hiya, Iyaz Jadulla Naseem, said the staff shortage was due to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) removing the post of cook from civil service.

Spokesperson for the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said there are still some offices and institutions which have cooks working under the CSC, “but not island offices” because the post of cook had been “abolished by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”

“A children’s shelter is under the Ministry of Health and Family,” Fahmy said, “and therefore, if they require a cook, I’m sure the CSC would appoint someone.”

He said the home’s administration had to make a request, which then had to be submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family to the CSC.

“They are in a special category, and any post that is required to safeguard the children will be created.”

Mariya Ali said the recent staff shortage “was due to downsizing” and added the ministry has “brought up the issue of staff shortage eight times” in meetings at the ministry.

“It is dangerous not to have enough staff [in a children’s home],” she said. “The CSC has a blanket formula… there are actually not a lot of staff taking care of the children.”

Mariya said the corporate sector was also helping the ministry, and “one major resort operator is willing to give us a doctor who will be visiting the facility regularly.”

On the issue of the cooks, she said the ministry has “advertised and approached the corporate sector to ask if they are able to give us a temporary solution to the cook, but they have not given us an answer.”

A helping hand

There are several ways to help Vilingili Orphanage. Mariya said there are two funds at the moment, and there is a donation box at Kudakudhinge Hiya, one at Hulhumalé ferry terminal and one at IGMH.

“Or people can approach us directly [at the Food and Drug Authority building] and we will direct them where to go.”

Mariya said setting up a pay-pal account for people to make deposits into the fund’s bank account was “a great idea” and she would look into it.

“We are also planning a sponsor a child campaign,” she said, which would hopefully ease the strain on the government to care for all the children at Vilingili.

“It is the responsibility of all of us to care for these children,” Mariya said.

She added that she hopes “different corporate sectors and even the public, individuals, can come forth and say to us ‘we are willing to cover the staff costs for one person.’ Then we could have enough staff.”

She noted the corporate sector is already sponsoring staff at the Ministry of Health and Family to go on a training course in England with UK-based children’s charity, Barnardo’s.

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Erroneous reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters: Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that while recent reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters are unsubstantiated, the government is concerned about pirates operating off the Somali coast west of the Maldives.

Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said the government is keeping in touch “with the Indians and the Americans to enhance maritime security.”

“For now, Somali pirates are operating as far as the Seychelles, but not in the Maldives.”

Dr Shaheed said the government was taking “pre-emptive and preventive measures” to ensure the safety of the country.

State Minister of Defence Muiz Adnan said although there have not been recent reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters, “this is a concern for everybody. A lot of pirates operate out of Somali waters.”

Adnan said the coast guard conducts regular sea and air patrols and also regularly schedules joint patrols with the Indian army, although “not only concerning piracy.”

He said if any pirate vessels are seen in Maldivian waters, “we will take the necessary measures to apprehend them.”

President of the Fishermen’s Union Ibrahim Manik said he had heard no reports of fishermen sighting any pirate vessels in Maldivian waters, but said that sometimes they saw foreign vessels illegally doing long-line fishing.

Manik said if fishermen saw any illegal vessels, they would “definitely cooperate with the government. We are fighting against this,” he said, but added that “we are not very concerned. We are stronger than that.”

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Lightning strike causes Rf384,000 damage to Hirilandhu

Lightning struck the l, lightning struck the 300 ft tall Wataniya antennae on the Island.

The island of Hirikandhu in Thaa Atoll suffered and estimated Rf384,000 (US$30,000) in electrical damages when a lightning bolt struck Wataniya antennae early on Saturday morning.

Councilor of Hirilandhu Mohamed Shakeeb said the lightning struck the 300 foot antennae around 4:00am in the morning.

”It was raining heavily and it was thundering non stop that night,” Shakeeb said. ”We switched off the generators providing electricity to the island at 3:00am, because they were having problems probably due to the rain.”

Shakeeb said there was no electricity on the island at all when the lightning hit.

”There was a electric line visible that night traveling across the Dhiraagu antennae and Wataniya antennae,” he said.

”All the televisions and computers which were plugged in to the sockets were damaged, cable TV lines were damaged and two channel lines at the power house were also damaged,” he said.

Communication over mobile phone and land lines run by both Dhiraagu and Wataniya were also down.

”We started receiving connection for mobile phones that afternoon and land line services last night,” Shakeeb said.

He said that last time lightning hit the island was 20 years ago “but there was no antennae there, only palm trees.”

Public Relations and Communication manager of Wataniya Niushad Shareef had not responded to Minivan News at time of press.

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Maldives and Timor-Leste start Asian initiative on climate change

Maldives and Timor-Leste will be launching the “Asian Initiative on Climate Change,” reports Miadhu.

The world’s largest growing economies and most populous countries are in Asia, and both the governments of the Maldives and Timor-Leste believe if Asia takes immediate action against climate change, other regions in the world will follow.

The Maldives was part of the recent Progressive Group meeting, held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia last week.

The Progressive Group is formed by countries wanting to reach a legally binding agreement at the next UNFCCC climate change summit in Mexico later this year.

The group will hold a second meeting before COP16 in Malé this July.

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Vilingili Orphanage understaffed and overcrowded

Kudakudhinge Hiya, a temporary shelter for children in Vilingili managed by the Ministry of Health and Family, has been short-staffed “for months,” says Community Health Officer Iyaz Jadulla Naseem.

Iyaz has said he is “very concerned” over the staff shortage in the shelter. “There is a lack of staff,” Iyaz said, “and in the current structure, cooks and labourers’ jobs have been removed from the civil service.”

“We asked the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for a new cook, but they said they can’t send another person because these jobs have been removed [from the civil service].”

Iyaz added that the children’s home is being “treated like a government office,” and the commission has said that a government office has no need for a cook.

“We are not a government office,” Iyaz said, “but this is how they deal with us.”

The home, which has a capacity for 45 children, is currently catering for 51.

They had four registered cooks, but one resigned recently. “Another cook is on leave, so we only have two cooks right now,” Iyaz said.

The cooking shifts are shared, he explained, “but we still have to cook three times a day for the children. Imagine one person cooking for 51 children.”

“Three days ago there was no one to cook the morning shift,” Iyaz said, “so we had to call the afternoon cook to come in the morning as well.”

vilingili_orphanage_12 — A lack of chefs is affecting the health of children at Vilingili Orphanage says health worker

He said this “lowers the quality of the food, and one person cannot concentrate for that long.”

Additionally, it means there is only one menu being prepared for all the children.

“We have five month-old babies and ten year-old children eating the same food. We need at least three or four cooks,” Iyaz said.

He said the Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM) had said they would go to the CSC to deal with the issue urgently.

Staff at Kudakudhinge Hiya have also spoken to the Ministry of Health and Family, who are “cooperating,” and Iyaz noted that Deputy Minister Mariya Ali “has been very helpful. But they can’t help until the CSC creates these jobs again.”

There had also been reports of several of the children being sick and sent to Indhira Ghandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH). “It wasn’t a big outbreak,” Iyaz said, “some vomiting and diarrhoea.”

He said twelve children were sick and “the Food and Drug authority came here to see see if it was food poisoning, but they didn’t think so because only a few children were affected.”

He added the doctors said it was a viral infection.

“Two of the children were admitted to IGMH,” he said, “and one child is still feeling weak but she’s getting better.”

Iyaz said the home is taking the issues to their superiors.

Recently appointed Director of the home confirmed there are four registered cooks, “but one resigned and one is on leave.”

“It is very difficult for one person to cook for all the children,” he said, noting that they are “trying our best and have reported to the Gender Department.”

A child plays with a toy at Vilingili orphanage

Government response

Deputy Minister of Health and Family Mariya Ali said the biggest problem at Kudakudhinge Hiya is “they don’t have enough staff.”

She said the ministry have recently hired staff and is communicating with the CSC to provide them with new cooks. They are also trying to bring back volunteers.

Mariya said although volunteers had not been able to go for a couple of months, the volunteer programme “is back on track.” She noted that “we have received help from a number of corporate sectors.”

She said the ministry had been trying to pass laws based on guidelines and regulations for children’s homes since 2007, “but they have just been going back and forth from the Attorney General’s office.”

“The costing for regulations to be implemented is being processed,” Mariya explained, noting that the regulations would include clauses on staff to child ratios, staff standards and etiquette, visitation procedures, and general criteria for the institution.

“We will send the guidelines to the AG this week,” she said, “then they will be sent to Parliament. It is very important to maintain children’s homes at a high standard.”

Mariya said that the most important thing was to reduce numbers in children’s homes and improve the criteria of admission.

She added that the Ministry of Health and Family is waiting to sign an MoU with English charity for children, Barnardo’s, for staff “to go to England to learn how to manage children’s institutions.”

Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said the government’s plan to restructure the civil service meant there are new considerations for hiring a cook, as there were over 150 cooks in the civil service.

Zuhair said several ministries had been employing cooks and some offices in the health sector, for instance, would have a cook but not a nurse.

“But this is a special area,” he said, “there are special considerations. I’m sure the government will give special consideration to this case.”

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PG’s office sends corruption cases back to Auditor General’s office

The Prosecutor General’s office has returned cases against former government ministers forwarded several weeks ago by former Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem.

Naeem claimed that former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, together with many of his cabinet ministers and several members of the current government, had failed to declare details of their financial assets as required by the Constitution.

Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem said the cases was returned to the Auditor General’s Office “because they were not investigated sufficiently.”

Shameem said they should have been “properly investigated” by the Auditor General’s Office before being sent to the PG’s Office.

“People who were named in this report were not asked to submit their forms,” Shameem said. “[In addition] they were not informed about the criminal charges. It is unfair they had to hear about it from the media.”

He said the PG’s Office believed “they should be given an opportunity” to declare their assets and to further investigate the claims.

He added that the cases have not been dropped by his office, and “if they are sent back, we will proceed.”

Assistant Executive Director and interim head of the Auditor General’s office Mohamed Hussein said he could not give any information about the case.

Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said the former Auditor General “did not make up this case on his own or without collecting information. He would have sent these cases to the PG after working with a team.”

Zuhair said parliament’s no-confidence decision on Naeem did not mean that the whole Audit office was corrupt.

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Vice President urges companies to fulfil social responsibilities

Speaking at the 15 anniversary function of Malé Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) at the Fen Building, Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed urged all business organisations in the Maldives to give special attention to fulfilling their corporate social responsibility.

Dr Waheed said, as the largest water provider in the country, the MWSC was undertaking a great responsibility.

He called on the company to fulfill its social responsibility and keep in mind the greater benefit of the people, while still working to maximise its profit.

Dr Waheed said clean drinking water and more affordable and accessible services for the less fortunate of the country should be given special consideration.

He said access to clean drinking water and adequate sewerage facilities was a Constitutional right of Maldivians, and it is the state’s responsibility to provide these services.

Dr Waheed said the MWSC had been providing clean water for half the population, and added the government established provincial utilities companies to provide for the rest of the population.

Dr Waheed also presented the company’s annual employee awards.

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