Police are investigating the case of the remains of a baby discovered buried on Kunahandhoo beach in Laamu Atoll.
Haveeru reported Kunahandhoo Council member Lirugam ‘Larey’ Saeed as stating that doctors believed the bones to be 8-10 years old. He said they were found inside a buoy buried under a pile of rocks, together with a handkerchief.
The Council had requested a DNA test, he added. Police meanwhile said the matter was being investigated.
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(0)The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has questioned the decision by the Maldives Police Service to ask DhiFM news editor Mohamed Jinah Ali about the authenticity of a news story concerning a leaked examination paper.
The report, aired on December 29, 2010, alleged that an international standard O’Level examination paper was leaked and later found hidden in a fish container.
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News that police were asked to investigate the accuracy of the story by the Department of Public Examinations (DPE).
“They say the story was completely false,” Shiyam said.
Police had discussed the matter with the Maldives Media Council (MMC) which had not sought to block police from investigating the case, Shiyam said.
While defamation has been decriminalised in the Maldives, disseminating false information technically remains a crime under the 1968 Penal Code, and attracts a fine of between Rf25-200 (US$1.6-US$12.9) depending on severity.
Deputy Minister of Education Dr Abdulla Nazeer told Minivan News that the story published by DhiFM concerned an exam conducted by a private company and had no connection with the Department of Public Examination, as inferred in the story.
“There is no truth in it at all – we had a chat with the guy who reported it. It was a private company conducting the exam – it had nothing to do with the DPE,” he said. “The guy at DhiFM who reported it told us he heard it from a guy who worked at Sri Lankan Airlines. It was a sensitive issue fabricated for the sake of gaining publicity.”
Dr Nazeer claimed the DPE had approached police over the matter “because at the time there was no media authority.”
President of the Maldives Media Council (MMC) Mohamed Nazeef however expressed concern about the government’s request that police investigate a matter concerning media ethics.
“The complaint made [by the DPE] was about DhiFM’s story – there doesn’t seem to have been a crime committed,” Nazeef said. “So what are the police trying to investigate?”
He speculated that the DPE may have made the complaint seeking to identify the source of the story within its own department.
“The original story said that the information came from an informant inside the department. What they probably want to know is the name of the official,” Nazreef suggested.
“I don’t know whether the story is true – journalists report from their sources. If there is an issue with [a story] then the complaint should be sent to the media council, or the broadcasting commission. The constitution guarantees the protection of sources.”
Nazreef noted that the MMC had no role in the matter while it was being investigated by official authority, such as the police.
“We are waiting to see how this goes off. If it goes against the Constitution we will issue a statement,” he said. “It will take some time for us to digest new media freedoms. There is a long tradition in this country of going to the police and seeking the punishment of journalists for something they have published.”
(0)Dislikes(0)The Maldives Night Market opens this evening from 8:00pm at the surf point in Male, and will run for the next 10 days ahead of Ramadan.
The bazaar is organised by the Maldives National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) and will feature 450 tables running from Tuscaloosa Café to the State Electric Company (STELCO) building.
MNCCI Treasurer Ahmed Adeeb told newspaper Haveeru that in the event of poor weather the duration of the night market would be extended.
“We’ve put up a fence just in case the waves get too high,” Adheeb told Haveeru.
(0)Dislikes(0)Maldivian NGO Tiny Hearts might have fallen short in its attempts to secure a place in the Guinness book of World Records, despite thousands of people turning up at Male’ National Stadium yesterday, yet the NGO said the event was nonetheless a great success for charitable aims in the country.
The NGO, which was formed back in 2009 to help local children suffering with Congenital Heart Defects (CHD), attempted to gather thousands of people into a heart shape to raise awareness about the number of Maldivians affected by the condition. The charity estimates that one person in every 100 born around the world suffers from a CHD.
According to organisers of late nights record attempt, the target number for participants needed to enter the record books was 11,708 – a figure corresponding to the date of the attempt July 8 2011 – with 4,665 turning up to be involved.
Although not sufficient to make the record books after several attempts yesterday evening, a spokesperson for tiny hearts said that as a means to create awareness and organise local people to a cause, the event was still a success for the group.
“Ultimately, we aimed to get as many people together as possible to raise awareness [about CHD] across the country. We therefore achieved our objective,” said the spokesperson. “We managed to organise thousands of people together for a single cause, with no salaried staff: this is a huge success.”
Future goals
Yesterday’s event was designed as a means to celebrate two years of Tiny Hearts being registered as a charity in the country. Yet in looking ahead to its future goals, the NGO’s spokesperson said that it was not presently planning to renew its attempts to break into the record books – focusing instead on fundraising measures.
“Right now, we are trying to minimise costs in looking for events for funding,” the spokesperson said. “At present one surgery [for a local child] costs US$5,000, this does not include additional charges for transportation abroad. People affected by CHD are increasing all the time in a country. We have more than 200 children registered with the charity and there are likely to be an even larger number unregistered.”
Last year, a charity football match organised by the charity involving public figures and celebrities raised Rf265,000 (US$20,500) for patients.
(1)Dislikes(0)Police have destroyed 45 grams of heroine, 35 grams of cannabis, 21 bottles of alcohol, 97 cans of beer and four 500ml bottles of alcohol following a series of confiscations in Dhoonidhoo on Kaafu Atoll.
Haveeru reported that the seized drugs related to 36 cases that had not entered the prosecution process.
Assistant Police Commissioner Mohamed Sodig said no suspects were arrested in the cases.
(0)Dislikes(0)President Mohamed Nasheed has appointed ‘Sarangu’ Adam Manik as Special Envoy of the President on Infrastructure Development, following Manik’s resignation as Mayor of Male’ City Council yesterday.
Manik told Haveeru yesterday that he had decided to resign because of “pressures from within the council”.
“Some of the council members had personal expectations which made it difficult for me to perform my duties,” he said.
A no-confidence motion against Manik put forward by council members last week was revoked, after it was withdrawn by Councillor Mohamed Falah.
(0)Dislikes(0)The government’s dengue task force will be disbanded if incidents of dengue fever remain stable over the next few days, Haveeru has reported.
Speaking on behalf of the task force, Deputy Education Minister Dr Abdulla Nazeer said in the last 24 hours new cases had only been identified in four of the eight islands most affected by the mosquito-borne disease.
The work of the task force would be handed to the Health Ministry, Dr Nazeer said.
The official dengue death toll is eight this year, including seven children. A 41 year-old man died on Thursday while a 62 year-old man admitted to hospital with dengue died yesterday.
(0)Dislikes(0)Dear all,
I write this letter in response to the Presidential Press Secretary Mr Mohamed Zuhair’s seeming need to justify his position on medicinal drugs using religion.
I feel that when Zuhair needs to bring religion into the picture to justify his position on something, the MDP are going backwards.
I once saw a heavy religious question fired at President Nasheed. ‘Anni’ humbly responded by acknowledging he was not an Alim and therefore did not feel adequate to comment. It was apparent that he would have had an opinion, and that he knows more about Islam than what most people know he does. But as an intelligent thinker, I think, he can see the danger when a President takes the role of religious authority, and chooses to feign ignorance in this area unless he has to offer an opinion.
When a politician must appear to be religious to win respect because the Constitution demands he or she be of a particular religion, religion becomes shallow, meaningful only as a way to win respect.
The competition to appear the most religious in religious-political societies has always involved lies, blackmail, bribery, torture.
Just stating all Maldivians must be Sunni Muslim does not mean the constitution protects Maldives’ religious unity, as was claimed.
Social repression of such nature creates resistance, tyranny, disunity.
Islam itself can be used as a force for disunity just as easily.
If a group wanted to break away from the mainstream government, they could say their separatist cause is an Islamic Jihad. An example? Maumoon was accused of not being a Muslim, therefore, according to very radical militant Hanbali style Zahiri, he and the NSS, if they defended him, were legitimate targets for Jihad.
For Islam to be imposed for unity, it must be controlled and defined by an elite so that contradictory understandings are oppressed. This amounts to putting a mental straitjacket on society, which will provoke a violent resistance from those who have a different understanding of Islam.
I have met Maldivians who detest preachers of Islam because they had been sexually abused by clerics as children. They associate the Qur’an with hypocrisy, oppression and sexual abuse.
Imposing religion via the Constitution and having Islam controlled by headstrong literalists is sure to provoke a sense of violent betrayal and anger against Nasheed’s government.
Imposing religion will divide Maldives, not unify it, as many will rebel, if not openly at least in their hearts. The only way to invite back such people to Islam is to demonstrate that Allah is gentle, Allah is not into forcing himself on people via the Constitution.
This aggressive controlling of human minds and hearts creates frustration, hate, resentment and militant Islam.
Allah is locked in a perpetual, raging power struggle against false representations of himself.
All Maldivians are deeply grateful for the sacrifice of the martyr. But some see their sacrifice as being for the freedom of Maldivians from oppression.
At that time the will to freedom, the strength for dignity was expressed through Islam. But to use Islam now as a force for oppression is against the reason the martyr died.
The dignity and sovereignty of the Dhivehin, for which Thakurufaanu died, has as much to do with pre-Islamic Fanditha type culture as it does Islam. Fanditha culture is as Maldivian as fishing and family, yet “orthodox” Islam is opposed to Fanditha culture.
Nearly 50 per cent of Maldivian tradition, which most Maldivians call “Islamic”, would be considered unorthodox or bida’ (innovation) by the Adhaalaath brothers i.e. Islamic fundamentalism is against Dhivehi culture.
This may seem paradoxical, but freedom of religion improves morality in a society. Religious freedom was fought for in Europe by those who wanted to improve morality, not abandon it.
On the surface the USA looks like the most immoral society on Earth, but dig deeper into Al Mamlaka Al Arabiyya Al Sauddiya and the other religious societies (Vatican, Taliban-led Afghanistan etc…) and you will see these places are morally much worse than America.
I studied Saudi history and I tremble to even think of the activity that goes on there regarding child prostitution amongst the Sheikhs.
When religion does not depend on the state for funding and is not controlled by the state, the religious are free to act as a check and balance against government corruption without fear of retribution or without being silenced.
Majid may be less obliged to remain silent about certain more serious issues than discos and graveyards if he had not climbed to power through the support of some questionable figures.
Religion should not compromise its own values for power.
When religion is not imposed through a constitution, the religious have to work harder to win people over through inspiration rather than through intimidation, as a consequence, their moral standards are elevated and they inspire others moral standards.
I knew a guy who used to refuse to come to discos as he loved the closeness to Allah he felt in the Mosques and this eventually inspired me to follow him.
If he had tried to threaten me into following him, I would have partied at the disco ten times longer.
Furthermore, to get power, even if it’s power to do good, as politicians will begrudgingly concede during rare moments of honesty, a compromise of moral values occurs.
Politicians often think that the few lies and crooked deals will be worth all the good they’ll do once in power, but if a religious leader does it, this sets a bad example.
It says the end justifies the means. People don’t strive to be as moral as possible as a consequence of the ‘amorality’ of their role models.
Ben ‘Abdul-Rahman’ Plewright
(0)Dislikes(0)Founder of SALAAM School, well-known women’s and youth rights campaigner and Minivan News columnist, Aminath Arif ‘Anthu’, died yesterday afternoon from burn injuries suffered in an accident at a family barbecue on June 5.
Anthu and her sister were burned while attempting to extinguish an Indian man after a large container of flammable liquid he had been using to tend the barbecue caught fire and burst.
The Indian man suffered burns to 90 percent of his body and died on June 17 while being treated in India, while Anthu’s sister sustained burns to her hands.
Anthu herself suffered burns to 55 percent of her body and was airlifted to Sri Lanka for emergency medical treatment.
As a Swiss citizen, she was evacuated to Zurich University Hospital in Switzerland where she underwent multiple operations to try and save her life. Minivan News understands that she died ahead of a major skin graft operation.
Her three children launched an appeal on Facebook, ‘Help my Mum’, to try and raise money to cover the costs of her evacuation and medical expenses.
Anthu, who is the daughter of local historian Abdul Hakeem Hussain Manik, contested the 2009 parliamentary elections as a candidate for the Dhivehi Quamee Party (DQP).
Anthu was a passionate and outspoken advocate both of education for the young and disadvantaged, and of women’s involvement in all aspects of society, particularly business.
Anthu lived in Switzerland for over 20 years and could speak fluent German, and in 1999 founded SALAAM School in Male’, an educational foundation providing training and life-skills coaching to young men and women. She was a highly-respected figure in NGO circles in the Maldives.
Anthu celebrated her 50th birthday in April, and is survived by her three children.
Writing for Minivan News
On the impact of a society of powerless women:
The powerless women are those who deny their own needs of physical, spiritual and psychological development, do not seek financial independence and do not accept the responsibility of their own well-being. Their financial dependence is self construed and often subject to tribal influences. The powerless women are fearful of stepping out of their familiar disempowering environment; are emotionally dependent, fearful of the unknown; the terror of dislocation and disconnection; scared of predators; devalue themselves; behave like second class citizens; panic about responsibility for their children’s under-performance, and fear of being unable to spare their children from suffering.
Unable to escape their circumstance; insecure about their own role in her life and lastly, refusing to claim their constitutional rights and use whatever structural, institutional or regulatory tools that are available for her to fight for herself. Powerless women weigh down the social and economical growth of Maldives. Women are poorer than men, carry family responsibilities of children’s upbringing irrespective of the circumstance, and make up half of the Maldivian population. Women head 47 percent of households either as single (when husband remarries or leaves the island to work somewhere else) or divorced parent. The social cost of disempowered women is high.
On democracy and Maldivian politics:
There is no individualism in Maldivian society except for those in control. Individual’s needs are not validated and only the overall function of society is important. The Maldivian society is thus a singular being – something that can be manipulated and changed as a whole and poverty and inequality are just valid parts of society, so are juvenile delinquency, crime and domestic violence.
Democracy is a threat to Maldivian politicians, businessmen and religious leaders because it calls for sharing or wealth and privileges, position and power. Democracy dilutes society as a entity, through its principles promoting equality, fairness and tolerance where the individual and minority are validated and majority will is respected.
On setting parental example and the impact of divorce:
A child’s behavior reflects their experiences at home. When there is hostility or fighting among parents, this creates a lot of anxiety. When parents are rude and abusive towards each other, children experience insecurity. A cycle of competition, jealousy, rivalry, disrespect and forms of abuse starts amidst confusion and nervousness and thus creates the dysfunctional family. Dysfunctional families disconnect and neglect each other.
The Maldives has one of the world’s highest divorce rates. Many parents do not handle their separation maturely and can be seen to act with bitterness and revenge controlling their behavior. An unfair burden is placed upon the child during the divorce.
Children replay what they observe and experience. Children experience the feeling of loss, betrayal and being cast aside while parents tangle with resentment, sense of failure and blame, leading to self-victimisation and succumbing to revenge or silence and resignation.
On the vicious cycle of youth unemployment and alienation:
Instead of seeing youth as an asset to social development, social reality is a growing population of unemployed youth being the victim of social disorder. The problem occurs in a vicious circle where poverty, unemployment, crime, drugs, poor schooling, inadequate housing, broken and dysfunctional families, etc, where each one is the cause and each one is the effect. The future is explosive and a serious threat to social equilibrium as Maldives fails to give hope and social assurance to its youth.
Today the youth in Maldives is seen a liability, a major stumbling block in the transitional democracy, and looked upon as a social burden, their energy and vibrancy diminishing at an increasing rate. Who should be the creator of the conditions that will turn youth into assets? The government is no doubt the caretaker and has a very tough responsibility to fulfill. The pressure of this responsibility is to make the youth of this country economically independent and self-reliant.
On the need for arts in the Maldives:
The Maldives needs a comprehensive and high quality arts education. The passivity we see in children, the nonparticipation in our youth and the lack of ability to bridge difference and solve conflicts in our adults can be caused by the lack of a most significant vehicle in our society: arts to “express the inexpressible and the unbearable”.
On the limited aspirations and opportunities for young people in the Maldives:
Many young men join our classes because it is the only opportunity to walk through an open door. Young men and women’s motivation to get married early is evidently the results of nothing else to do in the community.
Boys are expected to have future employment and young women have limited aspirations for their future lives and work. With such limited personal aspirations and goals, marriage may appear to be an attractive option for these young women. Being a wife gives a young woman a role and often a deceptive one. Unfortunately being a husband does not change much for a young man who has not understood the responsibilities and commitments that go along with marriage. Young people cross the threshold to adult life without having experienced youth.
On her school being attacked after allegations of “spreading Christianity”:
Today there are factions of Maldivians who believe that artists should not be encouraged and there are stories of confrontations, threats and attacks. This happened to SALAAM School in 2000.
The school was vandalised in October 2000. Paint was thrown into the corridors, liquid soap onto the walls and the petals of the fans bent so that they touch each other at the tips. The school was under attack and labeled in the media as ‘spreading Christianity’. Miadhu explicitly wrote on April 22, 2010: “Anyone who has studied in the Arabian Peninsula should know that missionaries have been using the word “Salaam” to spread Christianity. After six months when the cat was out of the bag, Maumoon had no choice but to close the school which he opened with his very own hands.”
Was it the word “SALAAM” or the teaching of arts that was the measure to identify Christian missionaries? The reason behind the vandalism will never be known. Was it political or was it the believers of the new Islamic movement? There was every attempt to stop anything that brought people together, and SALAAM School was attracting many young people to one place.
On conservative gender politics in the Maldives:
“While Maldives is under pressure to mainstream gender issues, the onslaught of conservative religious preachers is confining more and more women to the four walls of their homes.
Within this isolation, women succumb to a resigned lifestyle removing them from social and professional live, stripping them of their self worth and self confidence over time. It hits hard when the husband starts an extra-marital affair and soon deserts his prime family to start another life with the new woman. In many instances, family and friends joins the deserting husband to re-instate that the man left the woman for reasons such as failing to fulfill the needs of the man, further victimising the woman. Left alone and without love and care, the blamed woman has no one to turn to, within her family or otherwise.”
On standing up for women in business:
Women tend to devalue their skills, abilities and experience more than men do. Women must value their offerings in order for customers and prospects to value them. The ability to be compensated well for the value a woman provides lies squarely on her ability to look the customer/prospect in the eye and state, with confidence, that it’s worth the price she is charging. So my fees remain… discounts come only after quotation.
On the first Maldives Hay Festival:
It gave people the opportunity to participate and fill in the gaps in knowledge of the Maldivian heritage and culture. It gave people the opportunity to contribute to important issues and understand the Maldivian contexts in Maldivian literature and play a participatory role in the evolving Maldivian story.
It took ‘Maldivian’ beyond food, music and dance and rituals. It helped people enter and explore the depths of the Maldivian heritage blending common global issues that affects Maldivians and will impact the Maldivian lives and help reflect on where we came from and where we are going. The broader participation will enrich our culture and help the nation to grow.
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