Bit of a progress report on the Sinking Streets book

I've got the basic layout down and I have a fairly good idea of what the finished product is going to look like. So far the book is divided into 6 chapters (the titles might change) which are:

01 - The Concrete Isle

02 - Inner-city Doorways

03 - The Trade Capital

04 - The Swimming Track & Artificial Beach

05 - Raalhugandu

06 - The Seawall

With these chapters / sections I aim to show what life in Male' City was like from 2007-2013; with the majority of the photographs being from 2007-2009. I am writing from the perspective of this being a historical document. Something to look back on when the Maldives, and Male' City, is long gone.

I am hoping the book to be done by July of this year. This gives me about a hundred more days. So far I've got almost 200 photographs divided up into the 6 chapters. The plan is to have some text, at least a short paragraph, for each one of these photographs. This will bring the total pages in the book to almost 400. I have not yet decided on a price, but I think I will go with a dual release; with a lower resolution copy being a free download. 

Needless to say I've got my work cut out for me. I hope I will be able to finish it in time. Going through all these photographs feels like I'm finally about to close the book on the first chapter of my life's work.

2017 Update: The book has increased dramatically in scope since I began the project and has been delayed indefinitely. I do not want to rush this and want to get it right. 

Why Do I Write In English?

Is there an easy answer to this question? Primarily I think I speak and write in English because it has been necessary for my survival. Most people from the Maldives are bilingual because of this reason. Our language, Dhivehi, is only spoken by us. And of us there are not many. You could even argue that Dhivehi as we used to know it is dead. Instead in it’s place we have something you could call Dhinglish. Most Maldivians speak this way; quickly switching between languages on the fly. You could start a sentence off with Dhivehi and end it with English and it would still make perfect sense to most people. Some see this as a bad thing, but I see it as a natural progression of the Dhivehi language. Before we were forced to adapt to the English speaking globalised world, we had to adapt to Arabic after we were forcefully converted to Islam. The amount of Arabic words Maldivians suddenly had to use in their vocabulary made it necessary; even the script was changed almost entirely to accommodate the Arabic language – with Dhives script looking almost nothing like modern Thaana; which is actually based on the characters used for the Arabic counting system.

But I digress. Why do I write in English? If I were to write in Dhivehi, it would certainly help keep the language alive; but who would read it if not for other Maldivians? Is there a point to maintaining such an echo chamber? Many conservative writers publish in Dhivehi exclusively for this very reason as it provides an easy way to conceal their more bizarre ideas from the rest of the world. If I had the time or the riches I would write in both languages. I have neither, so I might as well write in English so that what I write can be understood by most people around the world. Maybe if I spoke French or something like that I could have more vehemently stuck with my mother tongue; but alas I do not. There are simply not enough of us, and our power and influence on the global stage is so negligible that we might as well not exist. Maumoon, for all his faults, recognised this and made it a point to infuse English learning into the education system.

English serves as a kind of bridging language. When I speak with my Indian or Sri Lankan friends, we do not speak in the familiar sounds of a common South Asian language, but in English. Despite our languages sounding similar and having a similar root, if we were both to stick to the language of our ancestors, we wouldn’t understand what was being said at all. It’s the same situation with almost every bilingual person I’ve ever met. The common bridge between us, what lets us understand one another, is English.

But does that answer the whole story? In the future when another language has become the global bridging language perhaps these words will also be translated to a more accessible tongue. But for now, what gave English so much power? Why do I write in English?

I believe a part of the answer would lie in the current dominance of English language media. America rules the world, not through it’s army, but through Hollywood and their entertainment industry. Their hold on the global psyche is immense. Kids from my hometown call each other “nigger” just to sound cool. Many people comment on my accent and say that it sounds American. How strange is that? In 2015, Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show in the entire world. There isn’t enough of a market to justify translating such popular shows into languages like Dhivehi, so what do we do? We watch the English versions.

This makes me wonder if the American dominance of such media is because of it’s quality or because of the fact that it’s in English makes it readily consumable by a global audience. I say this because even if I’m watching something in another language altogether like Japanese, it’s because of the English subtitles that I am able to comprehend it at all. These English subtitles exist because there is a significant market for English speakers; and for people such as myself, it is much easier to just rely on these subtitles rather than learn yet another language. Thus, rather ironically, the key to disrupting the dominance of English media might actually be to increase the accessibility of content in other languages by making sure English subtitles are always available.

There are no programs that automatically translate English captions to Dhivehi or vice versa; but Dhivehi media captioned in English can potentially be translated to a variety of languages with relative ease – instantly making Dhivehi language media accessible to a global audience. For example here is an excellent short documentary about a Maldivian icon called Nasira by Hulhevi media. If they had chosen not to subtitle their work the audience for it would have been severely restricted to just the half a million or so people in the world who speak Dhivehi.

Even the internet itself, and indeed many computer languages, is built upon an understanding of English and Latin characters. I am not sure if it would even be technically possible to have a URL in Dhivehi because of the marks we use around letters to signify vowels. My point being, if I didn’t know English, would I even be able to use computers? Or the internet? Or my phone? Once again, a lack of a market means that there have never been any operating systems etc that have a Dhivehi language interface.

The Maldives is at extreme risk of global factors such as climate change. If I don’t understand English, how would I even begin to understand and comprehend the research and dialogue around the issue? Like I said earlier, learning and being fluent in English for me is a matter of survival. One of the first things some people have said to me, especially within a university environment, has been “oh you speak SUCH good English!”. I know they mean no wrong, but for some reason the statement never fails to annoy me. Of course I speak good English! Why are you so surprised? Is it because you thought your language too challenging for someone in my skin? Maybe I find it so annoying because it makes me feel constantly judged; and makes me wonder what people who say such things think about people who don’t speak “such good English”.

When Mohamed Nasheed made his plea on the global stage for the world to be more mindful of how it’s excesses affect small island nations such as the Maldives; do you think they would have listened if he did not speak “such good English”? The plight of nations such as the Maldives makes me incredibly suspicious of people who want to do things like leave uncontacted tribes forever in the dark. Are we really that naive as to think they will truly be unaffected by our actions simply because we have not directly interacted with them? Will they not see the effects of the world in their immediate surroundings? Will they not notice the lack of food once, say the forestry industry, has encircled their entire ancestral homeland? Do they not deserve to be told what’s happening to the world that is as much theirs as it is ours? And once they speak on a global stage, how would we understand them, if not through translations or subtitles in English?

So ultimately, I think the reason I write in English is because I have no other choice.​  

Maldivians freak out over harmless gesture from Maldivian Idol contestant

The recent launch of the Maldivian version of the hit "Idol" format by TVM is one of the most significant events in Maldivian TV history. The show is by no means perfect, but it is one of the first times that Maldivians from all over the country have had a platform to show their talents. It is inspiring to see the joy on the faces of contestants who make the cut. Part of its purpose also seems to be to give the impression that the Maldives is a lot more progressive than it actually is. Probably a move by the Yameen administration to improve it's image abroad. Whatever the case, the show is commendable for sticking to it's progressive values. Predictably the backlash from the conservative crowd has already begun, with many calling to boycott the show for being "laadheenee" or irrelgious and "against Islam". 

The latest of this hysteria involves a screenshot of one of the contestants from the first episode caught in the blasphemous act of putting his hands together as a gesture of thanks towards one of the judges. 

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How could the heathen! 

Conservative rag Vaguthu, which was formerly known as MV Youth before multiple scandals involving their "journalists" stalking individuals forced them to "rebrand", was quick to run an article to add fuel to the flames. 

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First of all this guys writing is terrible. Each paragraph, while not technically wrong, is just one long convoluted sentence without a comma in sight. Translating this is going to be annoying.

Translation: 

The national TV  (broadcaster?) which is is PSM, whose channel is TVM, which is currently airing "Maldivian Idol"... 

Ok screw this guys writing. All you need to know is how he described the gesture as "how the idol worshipers greet one another". 

It then goes into the "opinions" of people who have apparently commented on the photo while it was being circulated on "social media". The first of these upstanding citizens says that  the fact that the show was not aired live begs the question of why such "images that the Dhivehi community would not approve of" were not edited out in the final product. Clearly a conspiracy is afoot! 

The second person simply says "this is a very laadheenee image". How insightful!

The third directs his ire towards the government and says that this is "[something] laadheenee done by the dheenee (religious) government". 

A fourth asks whether people think about what they are doing when they support such blasphemy that is "against the religion". He then says something kind of incoherent about music and singing being sinful before calling on people to be fearful of god. 

Our amazing journalist ends the article by saying that even people that watch the show regularly have criticized the image. 

Of course the comments section was in full agreement, with most people bemoaning the sheer blasphemy of the act. Below are the five comments with the most "likes". They show great insight into the clash between the progressive ideals of the show vs the conservatism that is still very much a part of day to day Maldivian life. 


 

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Gainee:

So it's okay when Unoosha hugs unmarried men (hiley firihenun, literally: free men)? 

Vestu: 

Woe (halaaku, literally: break, destruction) to Unoosha!

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Gah'barey: 

Maldivian idol... Dhivehi statue (budhu, literally: idol, statue, figure)
Next they'll construct a Maldivian temple. 
Show like this will be held by sinful faajirun (I don't know what this last word means, probably something like malicious blasphemous bastard). 

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Maldivian Idiot: 

What idiot are you holding(/airing/organizing - it is difficult to properly translate this first sentence)? Just a bunch of people who don't know what to do! If you have to go to Male' for a Quran competition the parents will say that they have no money and no place to stay. When it comes to participating in this, they suddenly have the money to make their kids to whatever they want. These Dhivehin want to leave their religion for the pleasures and merriment of this world. Anni said to have fun without fear. The people who said that statement was bad are now doing the same thing. Because he'll get asked about democracy when he's in the grave, right now Anni is busy in Europe ripening/developing democracy. What a kingdom this is. Idiots. 

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Maree: 

There's nothing good about this idol of which you speak. Just loss and destruction. 

Aal: 

I call on the Islamic Ministry to ban such vile things. 

It will be interesting to see how the producers react to this growing negativity as the show progresses. The scale of the show means that this might be one of the first times where the silent and often hypocritical moderates are forced into confronting the ideals of their conservative counterparts. 

The whole show can be watched via YouTube. It's worth watching for the great mini-documentaries on contestants alone.  This format might be overdone in other places around the world, but for the Maldives it is a first. Anything that will help the country and it's people rise out of the sludge of conservatism and close mindedness is worthy of praise. I highly recommend it.  

TVM Haze

Image via wikipedia

The world has changed so much in the past few decades. The sheer amount of information we have accessible at our fingertips is sometimes hard to comprehend. If you are a person who has the privilege of internet access, the only excuse you have for your ignorance is yourself.

So what then, can we say about a regime that chose to keep its subjects ignorant? For the longest time, all the way until 2008, the Maldivian public had access to only one public TV channel. Television gets a lot of flak for being responsible for dumbing down populations; but I am of the opinion that the people that hold such views are often people who have been spoiled for choice when it comes to such media.

Television Maldives, or TVM, was founded on March 29th 1978; the same year that one of Asia’s longest ruling dictators came to power. It would remain the only local TV station for the entirety of his rule. The 2nd TV station to be formed, DhiTV, was inaugurated by him in 2008; timed perhaps so that he can claim that he had allowed more than one TV station to operate during his 30 year rule from 1978 to 2008. There was also of course TVM Plus, a short lived paid iteration that started around the turn of the century – but it was so lacking in original content that it could barely classify as its own fully fledged channel.

To say the content on TVM was controlled would be an understatement. The quality of content was also quite terrible; with very few shows featuring original works by locals. The majority of what we saw were pirated shows and music videos that always looked as if they were covered in grease, and shot through a tattered veil. My memories of the Disney Classics for instance are caked in this grime. Cartoons such as this would be shown in the afternoon, starting around 5 o’clock. They would end abruptly at the call for Magrib and Isha prayers from around 6-7 and would return only with the news at 8. If you were lucky they’d continue where they left of the next day; and if they didn’t, too bad! The best you could do was hope that they’d have a re-run at some point.

The news itself would always talk more about the terrors going on in places such as Palestine more so than anything that was remotely relevant locally; with such news being mostly restricted to the goings on at schools, or to Maumoon inaugurating some new building. The opposition would always be characterised as thugs. Instead of using the word “protest” they would always use negative lingo like “disturbances” and “threats to the peace”.

The pirated foreign content was always heavily censored. This ranged from eliminating images of people drinking, kissing, hugging and having sex, to the bizarre removal of scenes where people take their coats off after being outside. The most paradoxical part about all this was the need to still show content and maintain the façade that Maldivians are still hip consumers of Western culture. For instance there were several music video shows that would show after the 2PM news, around 2:30, that were presented in English that focused almost entirely on Western music. Most of the videos shown on it would be entirely incoherent due to the majority of the video being censored out. The fact that they accomplished this, with music videos at least, was by constantly looping the “halal” sections made the whole affair incredibly confusing. For example “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy mostly consisted of looped footage of his conversations with Rikrok; along with the former constantly getting out of his car. Yet the song was so popular that a cover version sung at the interschool singing competition, in which the song lyrics were adapted to be about the local tale of Foolhudhiguhandi and Aiminaabee’, remained a hit for almost a year.

The most loved original content was without a doubt the various dramas and music videos made by the local film industry. Most of this was however incredibly lacking in imagination and consisted almost entirely of songs, and often entire movies, ripped off from Indian cinema. In this regard the local film industry was, and still is, utterly shameless. To make things worse the strict censorship laws and stifling atmosphere of those times meant that the subject matter was always mundane; dealing with enthralling topics such as standard domestic dramas and infidelity. Still, there is probably a lot we could learn from the analysis of media produced by the film industry in those times. What were the common themes? What was left unsaid in these dramas?  In what ways were the flamboyant dances of Indian cinema adapted to the apparently pious and god fearing Maldivian market? You could write a whole book about the psychology and sociology behind tight skin coloured cloth that some music stars used to cover exposed areas such as midriffs during their dances.

Most of the interesting content on TVM surfaced during Roadha mas. During this month of fasting most people stayed up late into the night so as to have a final meal before the day ahead. This provided a great excuse to create several late night programs; many of which were interactive game shows where contestants could call in to participate. Also of note is how the broadcast of Baibalaa tournaments during this time may have indirectly played a part in the creation of the many gangs which call Male’ their home. Most of these gangs started off as “sports clubs” and to this day maintain that façade of legitimacy in their operations. Framing it as a politician funding a sports clubs activities just sounds so much better than the mafia paying off hired thugs.

The Maldivian populace, desperate for entertainment, were forced to adapt. When I was growing up piracy was the norm. If the state, with all its vast revenues from tourism, cannot afford to buy original tapes to show on their channel; then what hope does the average citizen have of obtaining such luxuries?

One of the options was the local pirate tape rental. They’d have a vast library of murky copies that you could rent for 10 ruffiya a week. Sometimes my mother would rent something as a treat for my sister and myself; and we’d rewind and watch that tape until we’d memorised all of it. Sometimes multiple times a day. You could say this is common practice worldwide for kids that grew up with VCRs before the internet; but these weren’t clear copies. These were copies, much like the ones shown on TVM, with such terrible video quality and reverberating audio that you could barely decipher what was going on in some scenes. We were just that starved for entertainment.

One of the other options was to invest in a satellite dish. Some of the incredibly rich even had paid subscriptions. Most people, however, used decoders which let you access almost all of the paid channels for free. My uncle had such a set up, so we ran a cable all the way from his house to our TV. We couldn’t change the channel and were forced to watch whatever his decoder had been set to, but it was still much better than only having access to TVM. When my uncle got rid of his satellite, we put a cable in from my aunts; and when it was time for Dragon Ball Z, my sister and I would call them up to see if they could maybe change the channel to Cartoon Network for an hour. We must have been quite annoying.

In the 2000s some cable operators did begin service; but their catalogue was severely limited and overpriced. The pirate satellites still remained the better option. Some enterprising individuals even figured out that some Indian subscription services worked all the way down south in the Maldives; leading to rooftops being dotted with that particular type of dish for quite a while until the service providers became wary and began cancelling accounts.

These foreign cable stations provided a window to a greater world that Maldivians simply did not have access to in the past. They also served a strange form of self-validation in our own existence. I remember people proclaiming with astonished voices that “even the BBC” was reporting on events such as the historic protests of 2004. To finally see tyrants like Maumoon grilled by foreign journalists during the 2008 elections was nothing short of a revelation. The questions asked in the Al Jazeera video below, for example, are questions that very few local journalists would have even dared to ask back in those days. Mohamed Nasheed did not get imprisoned for his work with Sangu by accident.

101 East speaks to Asia's longest serving leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and opposition candidate Mohamed Nasheed at the Maldives' first free elections. In this edition of 101 East, we look at this turning point of democracy in Maldivian history and ask both presidential candidates why Maldivians should vote for them. - Al Jazeera English

Despite all these avenues for consuming pirated foreign content, the amount of local content was still shockingly low. With the advent of the internet, self-publishing, and more affordable technologies, this has changed quite a bit. Anyone can now create a show and post it onto places YouTube for the whole world to see. And there are now several local TV stations that compete with TVM as well.

Yet Maldivian media remains in its infancy, still struggling to find an identity from the years of that information blackout. In a way we are now undergoing our first renaissance of the creative arts. I am sure the Maumoon regime would like to take credit for this, but I think it has more to do with the world advancing as a whole rather than any conscious effort by them to improve the situation.

During Mohamed Nasheed rule, perhaps to distance his fledgling democracy from the days of dictatorship, TVM was renamed to MNBC One. But not for long. The station was so close to the hearts of the regime and its supporters that it was one of the first government buildings stormed and taken over by mutinying police during the coup of 2012; after which it was promptly renamed back to TVM. Some people say this is because the “secret” meaning of MNBC was not “Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation” but “Mohamed Nasheed Broadcasting Corporation”.

I think it was because TVM was like a mother to many regime loyalists. TVM back then was our way of communicating with our god, Maumoon. The days he gave Friday sermons were the days that the mosque was most packed. And of course these sermons were broadcast live on TVM for everyone at home, mostly women and children preparing lunch for the pious men who are busy praying, could soak it in as well. They find comfort in the nostalgia of those “peaceful” days of ignorance. In the endless songs of nationalism, penned by none other than god himself. Even now many people moan about the loss of the “peaceful” Maldivian community to the chaos of “politics”. Back then we never heard about the people that were abused and tortured in Maumoon’s prisons, so many people took this lack of information to mean that everything was OK. Back then many of the rural islands were, and still are, poverty stricken and lacking in basic development; which many people from the capital interpreted as “the simple life” that we are so missing out on today. Many of these people have never had to live “the simple life” and are simply tourists who exotify the rural islands they visit during their holidays. Even well into the 2000s, while those in the capital complained about slow internet, many in the islands still lacked proper sewage systems and electrical plants.

Yet still many people long for the days that we spent lost within that TVM haze. The drone of the no signal tone and the coloured bars that went along with it while I waited for programming to start are still burned into my mind; and much of this programming the Maldives has yet to overcome.​

A Colourless Divide

Only Maumoon's kids will understand! 

Third World Democracy Simulator v0.13

A satirical cookie clicker type game that I am working on using Orteil's Idle Game Maker. So far you can bribe all your way upto your very own political party. 500,000 votes gets the "winning achievement". Future plans include adding resorts and various shady politicians. Feedback, thoughts and ideas much appreciated! 

You can play the game here:  http://orteil.dashnet.org/experiments/idlegamemaker/?game=7tW6EsUC
 

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Fear of the Dark

A draft of Chapter 01 of "Apostates in Paradise"

               “He’s a Christian…” he whispered gesturing towards a boy several rows of desks in front of us.

                “What do you mean he’s a Christian?” I asked.

                “Well, I went swimming the other day right, and I saw he was wearing a pendant on his necklace”

                “A pendant…?”

                “Yeah, it was shaped like a cross. He said it was just a knife, but I’m sure it was meant to be a cross. Only those Christian crosses look like that”

                “Huh…”

               The bell for interval rang and the conversation ended. I was 11.

               A year later two planes flew into the World Trade Centre complex, killing 2852 people.

               There were kids in class celebrating, 12 year olds joyously celebrating the death of the “infidel Americans” and the tyrant “West”.  All of them were avid consumers of media produced by these “infidels”; Hollywood & Bollywood movies, South Park, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom & Jerry, Friends, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Megadeth, Metallica, Slip Knot, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Eminem, terrible pop music like Aqua, video games, the World Wrestling Federation, Harry Potter, The Famous Five, Goosebumps, all manner of cartoons and everything else imaginable. Most media back then was either pirated or from satellite TV; with healthy doses of government propaganda being provided by the only TV channel, TVM or Television Maldives.

               “They deserved it” they said. “They had it coming, kafir scum”. I asked them why, I remember getting angry and saying that they were people too but mostly I remember feeling confused, lost and sorrowful. I was quite naïve about hatred back then.

***

               I'm peddling a bicycle through a winding unpaved road. The complete darkness alternated with pools of focused light created by the street lamps. The tires make a soft sashaying sound against the coral rich sand as I make my way back towards the bungalow. Each time I dipped into the darkness I felt a dread grow deep within me, which was replaced my relief the moment I escaped those inky clutches and rode back under the lights. All the while under my breath I would recite the shahaadhai'. And so it went, in a most bipolar fashion until I made it back to the safe embrace of fluorescent lights, television and familiar company.

               All of these things seemed to repel the illusive jinni - whose mysterious evils were the source of my fears. I was never truly afraid of the dark as a child until I was informed about their existence. What was just an absence of light quickly became a source of paranoid hallucinations and imaginations gone wild.

               Looking back on it, I cannot quite place my finger on exactly why I was afraid of them. Was it because I feared I would be possessed? Was it because of the stories of evil jinni who hated Allah and fought for Shaithan? I am not quite sure.

               But what I do remember is I did not used to be afraid of the dark until I learned that within the darkness was where the beings of smokeless fire dwelled. I do not remember the exact moment. It was some friend of the family or perhaps some work associate of my parents. We were heading towards the beach, or perhaps we were coming back, but out of nowhere was the warning – “don't go in the dark, jinni live there!”

               At first I laughed it off. I did not believe they existed at that point. My parents were not the type to talk about such things just to scare their children. If they didn’t want me to do something, they just told me not to do it. For example they were not the kind of people to teach their kids to be afraid of the ocean, but they would still let us know to be careful in case there were sharks about. If there was some danger they told me about the danger. So I asked my mother and to my surprise she confirmed their existence with a grave face.

               These fears manifested themselves through several nightmares which I have had. I do not often have nightmares, most of the terror I experience in the nocturnal realm transforms to excitement, to some adventure, so I remember these blood chilling experiences well.

               They all involved sleep paralysis, and the utterly terrifying sensation of being awake but being completely helpless to move on your own accord. I would hear a great rushing noise, almost as if I was within a roaring typhoon. A great whirling grey energy, flecked with black and silver streaks, would surround me and manifest itself near my head at the foot of the bed. I would see all this through my peripheral vision as I strained to move my head; which like the rest of my body felt bolted onto the bed by invisible steel girders that felt as if they had as much weight as celestial objects. There are few things in life as terrifying as your own body disobeying your orders.  

               All the while the rushing would intensify as if heading towards some grim crescendo. As this feeling grew and I drowned in feelings of utter helplessness, so did a growing panic that something... bad.... was about to happen. This jinni, this being, was going to take my life - or worse - take my sanity and run screaming with it all the way to hell.

               As soon as it began, it would stop. I would spring up, bathed in cold sweat and panting as if I had just swam a great distance. I would look wildly around the room to see were my tormentor had concealed themselves.

               Over and over again I would say the shahaada. Laa-ilaaha-illallah, Muhammadhu-rasoolullah, Laa-ilaaha-illallah, Muhammadhu-rasoolullah, Laa-ilaaha-illallah, Muhammadhu-rasoolullah. Through gritted teeth I would recite those verses over and over again until I managed to calm myself down.

               I never doubted that it was jinni who were responsible. Who else could it be? Jinni were always blamed for such things. All the monsters and beings of Maldivian folklore had been transformed into a tale involving some kind of jinni. They were why we stayed away from certain kinds of trees when it was dark. They were why we stayed away from the dark - period. Surely only extremely dangerous creatures would be worthy of such avoidance?

               And so the night light stayed on.

***

               Fast forward to grade 9 of high school in 2004 and the “war on terror” was on in full swing.  All the rage in computing class was watching footage from the war and sharing pornography.

                “This is the best one yet”, said some classmates who were huddled around a computer. I got up and walked over to have a look.

               The grainy, pixelated footage showed someone who appeared to be from the US army, kneeling in a dimly lit room, facing the camera with eyes covered and hands bound. Behind him is the black flag of the Mujahedeen.  A man walks in, carrying a rusty blade and wearing a balaclava, who proceeds to rough his prisoner up while yelling and gesturing at the camera.

               “Here we go…” one of my classmates said.

               As if on cue the masked man suddenly grabs his captive from behind and begins to saw and hack away at his neck. Blood bursts out covering himself, the floor and his executioner’s hands. He kicks his legs and flays about hopelessly, all while blood gushes and spurts out of his mouth as he desperately tries to breathe.

               The soldier’s agony is drawn out for what seemed like an hour while the man, whose eagerness was only surpassed by his clumsiness with a knife, continued to gleefully cut away at the mutilated flesh until his head was finally severed. He grips it by the scalp and triumphantly shows it to the camera, blood still oozing from its ragged base.

               It was the most horrifying act of violence I have ever seen. My mind was spinning, I felt nauseous. The soldier’s dead eyes kept flickering in my consciousness like a strobe. I saw some friends have the same reaction; others were already joking about it and making faces.

               “They deserve that shit, those fucking Americans” one of them sneered.

               “Damn infidels and Jews” said another.

               I died a little that day. Some part of me is now gone and lost forever. I used to be squeamish but after that, the goriest horror movies do little to affect me. How could the imaginary ever be as terrifying?

               Gone too was my fear of the dark. What protection could a nightlight offer from the waking horror of a world filled with the realities of man?

---

5 sociological concepts that every Maldivian should know

05. Structure & Agency

“In the social sciences there is a standing debate over the primacy ofstructure or agency in shaping human behavior. Structure is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available.[1] Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.[1] The structure versus agency debate may be understood as an issue of socializationagainst autonomy in determining whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a manner dictated by social structure.”

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom - Dictator of the Maldives from 1978 - 2008. Photograph via wikipedia. 

Maldivian Example : 

During Maumoon's dictatorship (1978 - 2008), one of  the structures that shaped our behavior can be defined as his authoritarian regime. Agency was severely limited in the way that criticizing his regime, even though it was not technically illegal, would still land you in a lot of trouble. As such freedom of press was severely controlled. This is evident in the way that  all newspapers had to tow the government line and in how the state broadcaster TVM (Television Maldives) was the only local television station to allow to air for almost the entirety of his dictatorship. 

The legacy of Maumoon's dictatorship is clear in the insistence by most Maldivians that the Maldives is "100% Muslim". This is maintained by the Maldivian constitution (the structure) and how it restricts the freedom of consciousness (in other words the agency) of Maldivians by stating that all citizens are required to be Muslims .  

How is this useful practically though? Well for instance one could analyse the influence of structure and agency on the suicide of Ismail Mohamed Didi, a 25 year old atheist who committed suicide after being refused asylum. What structures of Maldivian society drove him to the decision to take his life? Was his dramatic death, hanging himself off the airport control tower of a nation so reliant on tourists, a final scream demonstrating his autonomy? 

04. Dramaturgy

"In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that the elements of human interactions are dependent upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate scene being presented.[3] Goffman forms a theatrical metaphor in defining the method in which one human being presents itself to another based on cultural values, norms, and beliefs. Performances can have disruptions (actors are aware of such), but most are successful. The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through carefully conducted performance. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed.[4] "

Maldivian Example: 

Maldivian celebrity Ali Rameez, singing with his band before he transformed himself into an extremist preacher. He now appears to run a sizable network of radicals and is involved with indoctrinating the public on a daily basis. 

Consider politicians, religious scholars, the MNDF and the police. They are all wearing their own uniforms and when they wear this uniform, they act in a certain way.  Politicians wear the uniform of suits and ties and go to great lengths to appear "professional".  A politician would not wear a mundu to parliament as this would clash with the image they are trying to present. Similarly, religious scholars also put considerable effort into maintaining their appearance. This is apparent to the extent that you can even somewhat discern the sect the preacher is affiliated with through their appearance. A salafi preacher for instance, would almost never take to the stage without his beard or rolled up trousers . As such, politicians and preachers, when they interact with the public, put on a performance. The way they speak with the public will not be the same way that they speak with their peers and it will not be the same as the way they speak to their families. This is how you get alcohol drinking politicians and adulterous preachers giving incendiary speeches about how natural events such as the tsunami occurred because of a lack of morals on our behalf.

This is of course not limited to just people of a certain profession but to everyone; except perhaps a hermit living by themselves.  Simply consider how your parents act around you and then how they act around themselves, or how you act around your parents compared to how you act around your close friends .

03. Labelling Theory

"Labeling theory is the theory of how the self-identity and behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. It is associated with the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent to an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms.[1] The theory was prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, and some modified versions of the theory have developed and are still currently popular. A stigma is defined as a powerfully negative label that changes a person's self-concept and social identity.[2]"

Maldivian example:

Are you from the MDP? A yellow person? According to the PPM you must be a  ganja smoking alcoholic! 

Are you from the PPM? A pink (or is it magenta?) person? According to the MDP you are a brainwashed drone incapable of thinking for yourself. 

Are you an atheist? According to the MDP and PPM you are a nasty Islamophobe funded by zionists and you're probably addicted to heroin too. 

Are you a salafi? According to the atheists you are a brainwashed drone incapable of thinking for yourself. 

Are you a police officer? According to almost everyone in the Maldives you're a brainwashed drone incapable of thinking for yourself that has no sincere intent of even trying to adhere to the motto of "protect and serve". 

Are you not straight? According to almost everyone in the Maldives you're probably having sex with animals too. 

Are you a drug addict? According to almost everyone in the Maldives you're a lost cause and a waste of oxygen. 

With this last example, think about the effects this stigma would have on such a person in terms of getting out of the situation that led them to the addiction in the first place. Do you think they would see the error of their ways or would their addiction worsen as they attempted to ease the pain of further ostracization? This might also explain why so many people from Maldivian minorities (they themselves being severely ostracized )  appear to also suffer from some kind of drug addiction. 

This can also apply to members of Maldivian gangs who are often discriminated against and stereotyped by using the term "partey(s)". A person joins such a gang because society has rejected them, because they find acceptance within that community; do you honestly think rejecting them further is the solution to get people out of those situations?

02. Social constructionism

"Social constructionism or the social construction of reality (also social concept) is a theory of knowledge in sociology and  that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world. It assumes that understanding, significance, and meaning are developed not separately within the individual, but in coordination with other human beings. The elements most important to the theory are (1) the assumption that human beings rationalize their experience by creating a model of the social world and how it functions and (2) that language is the most essential system through which humans construct reality.[1]"

Maldivian example: 

What is the difference between a "raajje' therey meehaa" (literally - someone from within the kingdom, but often used as a derogatory term in the way someone might call someone a "country bumpkin" ) and a "Male' meehaa" (literally  - someone from the capital city of Male', but often used as a derogatory term in the way someone might call someone a "city slicker")? 

The differences are entirely constructed by society and it is maintained by several structures of Maldivian society; including the language itself which is divided into several levels of "politeness" and "sacredness" depending purely on class. 

The same can be said for our performances of gender. Consider our constructions of gender in terms of our change of garments from the past to those of today. From the libaas and feyli to either the Western garbs of globalisation or the Arabian garbs of religious indoctrination. At the moment many people believe that women are somehow deficient in their capacity to lead and use religious justifications to make arguments against the idea that a woman may become the leader of a nation. As Maldivian society progresses, these ideas will be left by the wayside; but it doesn't mean that women suddenly became inherently more or less capable, it simply means that our perceptions around the idea have changed. 

01. McDonaldisation

Ritzer highlighted four primary components of McDonaldization:

• Efficiency – the optimal method for accomplishing a task. In this context, Ritzer has a very specific meaning of "efficiency". In the example of McDonald's customers, it is the fastest way to get from being hungry to being full. Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the organization is geared toward the minimization of time.[3]

• Calculability – objective should be quantifiable (e.g., sales) rather than subjective (e.g., taste). McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product. This allows people to quantify how much they're getting versus how much they’re paying. Organizations want consumers to believe that they are getting a large amount of product for not a lot of money. Workers in these organizations are judged by how fast they are instead of the quality of work they do.[3]

• Predictability – standardized and uniform services. "Predictability" means that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same product every time when interacting with the McDonaldized organization. This also applies to the workers in those organizations. Their tasks are highly repetitive, highly routine, and predictable.[3]

• Control – standardized and uniform employees, replacement of human by non-human technologies

With these four principles of the fast food industry, a strategy which is rational within a narrow scope can lead to outcomes that are harmful or irrational. As these processes spread to other parts of society, modern society’s new social and cultural characteristics are created. For example, as McDonald’s enters a country and consumer patterns are unified, cultural hybridization occurs.

Maldivian example: 

What would make the Maldives a perfect luxury tourist destination? The subtraction of the local population of course. But until that day, drones will have to do. It will be a very uninteresting society, but it will be absolute perfection in terms of providing a predictable service. For this one I'd like you, if you'd please, to think about this one for yourselves a bit. Where do you think the Maldives is truly heading? Do you think enough is being done to preserve our history and culture - especially it's ancient past? Do you think the Maldivian society elevates an individual to be all they can be, or does it mould a person for subservience?  

Note: All of the examples I have provided are very basic and might not even be that accurate in terms of the broader theories involved.  Do not listen to anyone expecting easy answers about any of these things. As with everything else I highly suggest you do your own independent research and come to your own conclusions.

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Maldives, UPR Report Consideration 2015 - Statement by Dr. Ali Naseer Mohamed

““Let me now turn to the recommendations we received from Member States. As we have stated at the UPR Working Group, for over eight hundred years, Maldivians have embraced and maintained our Islamic values. Islam forms the basis of our Constitution, and all our laws. Any efforts to introduce practices contrary to the values of Islam, will not be entertained by the people of Maldives. Of the sixty recommendations the Government has rejected, and thus taken note of, are mostly those that contradict with the Islamic faith and our Constitution. The people of Maldives, through a democratic process, have rejected freedom of religion, LGBT, and non-traditional forms of family. However, as previously stated, non-Maldivians are allowed to practicetheir own faith in private. We have also provided explanations on the recommendations in the Addendum submitted to the Council.””

— Dr. Ali Nazeer Mohamed

What democratic process?

The Maldives refuses to allow basic human rights by using the vague justification of religion. The UN is the greatest circle jerk in the history of humanity. They do not care about your rights as a citizen of this planet, they instead care about the rights of nations. Maldivian minorities will just have to suffer in silence. What other option do we have when the powers that be have failed us? And what greater power could there be on this planet than the United Nations? Does the UN not care at all about Maldivian minorities? Are they simply a myth to them? 

The UN website streaming the video didn't even have a link to the transcript, or even closed captioning features. Says a lot really. 

Maldivians are encouraged to dream big, but not so big that might dream of something like the freedom to believe in what you wish.  Through what "democratic process" (as Dr. Ali Nazeer claims) have we decided all this? Just exactly what "humans rights" education are we talking about here where minorities such as apostates and LGBT are not even given the right to exist?

One thing is clear. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is utterly meaningless. Why does the document even exist in the first place if autocratic regimes like the Maldives can do with it as they please?  What actual protection does it afford the humans of this planet?

The Full statement: 

 Thank you, Mr.President.

 

Excellencies, Ladies, and Gentlemen: Good afternoon.

 

It is a pleasure for me to be back at this esteemed Council, and part of this important meeting to consider the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of the Maldives, and adopt the Report of the Working Group.

 

In July this year, the Maldives celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of independence, and three days ago, we celebrated fifty years of membership at the United Nations. These two landmark anniversaries reaffirm our collective will to further continue the journey we began in 1965. It is a journey we embarked on to reform, and to strengthen our system of governance, our institutions, and to improve the livelihood of the peoples.

 

The Universal Periodic Review process has become a key navigational instrument in our drive for national progress. The Maldives UPR held on 6 May 2015gained nation-wide interest in the Maldives. The Session received wide coverage on national and private news channels, and lively discussions from schools to social media. The engagement and the discussion both positive and critical, has renewed and strengthened the commitment of the Government to this process and its core guiding principles: universality, inclusivity, and transparency. It has reaffirmed our belief in the process’s potential to contribute to the positive and sustainable development of the country.

Mr. President

At the Maldives UPR, we received two hundred and fifty eight recommendations from one hundred and two States. After a careful consideration, the Government of Maldives has accepted one hundred and ninety eight recommendations, and rejected sixty. For a small nation with very limited resources, we hope you appreciate how ambitious we are. But we have never shied away from a challenge: as we said in our closing remarks to this Council on 8May 2015,for us, “small” is neither insignificant not unimportant; . . . small means striving to achieve higher, and dreaming big”.

Mr President

I will now highlight some of the developments on human rights that have taken place in the past four months. The Health Services Bill, the Sports Bill, National Integrity Commission Bill, and the Disaster Management Bill have been ratified.

The New Penal Code has come into effect on 16 July 2015, after a comprehensive roll-out and sensitisation programme was conducted to familiarise the relevant stakeholders with the sweeping changes. Many amendments to legislations have also been ratified, in order to comply with the Constitution of 2008 and the new penal code. These legislative reforms have contributed to the strengthening of the legislative framework around a holistic approach to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Maldives.

On the socio-economic front, the Government has committed to provide 24-hour electricity to all inhabited islands before 2018, a right enshrined in our Constitution. We have also introduced the concept of “Smart city” to the Maldives, and begun efforts to develop a youth city, to cater to the nearly fifty percent of the population that are below the age of twenty-five. In August 2015, the Government has also introduced Islamic Financing loan programme ‘faseyha madhadhu’,which would benefit the small and medium enterprises.

On 17 August2015, the President, on the approval of the Parliament, appointed three new members to the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives to replace the members whose terms completed. The process of appointment was publicly announcedand transparently conducted. Members have also been appointed to the Public Service Media Governing Board, further enhancing the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution.

Mr President

 

Let me now turn to the recommendations we received from Member States. As we have stated at the UPR Working Group, for over eight hundred years, Maldivians have embraced and maintained our Islamic values. Islam forms the basis of our Constitution, and all our laws. Any efforts to introduce practices contrary to the values of Islam, will not be entertained by the people of Maldives. Of the sixty recommendations the Government has rejected, and thus taken note of, are mostly those that contradict with the Islamic faith and our Constitution. The people of Maldives, through a democratic process, have rejected freedom of religion, LGBT, and non-traditional forms of family. However, as previously stated, non-Maldivians are allowed to practicetheir own faith in private. We have also provided explanations on the recommendations in the Addendum submitted to the Council.

The Government has developed a comprehensive strategy for implementing the one hundred and ninety eight recommendations we have accepted. Under the guidance of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to be the principal agency coordinating the implementation of the recommendations. And we have already started the consultations. Following informal meetings, the reconstituted Standing Committee of the UPR has held its first formal meeting on 20 August 2015. The new Standing Committee has 8members from the Government, and 4members from civil society organisations. We have taken a results-based approach in implementing the recommendations by identifying measurable and verifiable benchmarks.

President Yameen’s Government believes that human rights are not only about international instruments or pieces of law. Human rights is as much about cultivating respect, nurturing belief, and in making human rights a way of life. To promote these values, the Government will continue its efforts to provide human rights education.

Mr President,

 

For a Small Island Developing State, with numerous challenges such as lack of expertise, capacity, technical and financial limitations, we remain constrained in our efforts to achieve the legislative reforms needed, at the pace we want.

New legislations such as the Gender Equality Bill will be presented to the next Parliament session, and there are many others in the pipeline. The adverse impacts of climate change is, and will undoubtedly pose new challenges to the realisation of the human rights of our small population, scattered over a large expanse of the ocean. Similar to many other countries, our societies have not been immune to the waves of drug abuse and radical extremism spreading across the globe.

We have been very forthcoming about our limitations. We have exercised maximum transparency in highlighting the challenges we encounter. We have never claimed we are perfect. And indeed, no country can legitimately claim to have a perfect record.

Despite the challenges, the progress that the Maldives has achieved only within a span of ten years, is by any measure, impressive. It is therefore highly unfortunate that there are several forces, both outside and within, trying to reap the benefits of our political vulnerability. It is also unfortunate that the Maldives, our governance system that is only a decade old, is often judged by the same yardstick used for countries that took centuries to establish. And while the attention is appreciated, conclusive evidence shows that change is only sustainable if locally owned, locally driven, and locally shaped. Institutions need to have the space and time to grow organically according to the specific needs of the people of the country.

Having said that, we always come to this Council with an open mind, and an attentive ear. We have much to learn from the experiences of other States, and well meaning, well intended advise is well received. We count on the support of our partners to help us reach our goals, and especially in implementing the recommendations received at this Council. We would like to hear from your experiences, on how best we can tackle some of the challenges we face. As my Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon stated at the UPR Working Group in May, “we are here with a sincere intent to listen, to engage”, to share our experiences, to be guided by yours.

 

With this in mind, I would like to request the President to open the floor, and I look forward to a fruitful discussion.

Thank you MrPresident.

Sources: 
http://webtv.un.org/search/maldives-upr-report-consideration-24th-meeting-30th-regular-session-human-rights-council/4506181291001?term=maldives#full-text

https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/hrc/HRCSessions/RegularSessions/30thSession/OralStatements/MALDIVES%20UPR%20-%20Opening%20Statement%20FINAL.pdf

Mirror of the PDF

A password for UN extranet access can be obtained without much hassle from: 
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/HRCRegistration.aspx

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A POLICY OF DESTRUCTION - From 'The Maldive Islanders' by Xavier Romero-Frias

Footage leaked of museum vandals destroying pre-Islamic artifacts

This is the final chapter of Xavier Romero-Frias' "The Maldive Islanders".   With the direction the Maldives appears to be heading in, it is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first written. If you wanted to know why so little is done to preserve Maldivian culture and heritage, this is why. 

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A POLICY OF DESTRUCTION

The relentless effort to promote Arabic cultural values within the Maldive island society is allegedly made with very good intentions. Its supporters claim to hold the monopoly of moral and spiritual values, and steadfastly affirm that their aim is to create a more virtuous society. However, local resistance against the arbitrary imposition of an alien desert culture on this equatorial oceanic nation has never been officially defined or at least assessed and has rather been stubbornly ignored. Hence, as the saying goes “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and, humans the world over being who they are, as soon as a new law to promote virtue is enforced, a new trick to circumvent that very law pops up. 

The result is that the country has become a virtual police state, but certainly the society is not becoming any more virtuous. Lacking perspective of their cultural identity, average island people are simply helpless to fight back the cultural forgery imposed on them. The state religion has been Islam for the past eight centuries and, in the eyes of the islanders, Islam is synonymous with a formidable machine of power and authority which cannot be contested. Thus, Maldivians have to put up with the role of remaining passive onlookers when freshly arrived Arabic teachers or ‘holy men’ harshly criticize their own island traditions with impunity. 

It is a secretly acknowledged fact, though, that within the island population there are many who feel that they are traveling on a boat which is going in the opposite course they wish to go, but they feel helpless to do anything about it. This conflict is, if anything, compounded by the intense propagation of hard-line Islamic ideologies, including the construction of mosques and Arabic religious schools137 throughout the country since 1978. 

The Arab religious schools, fruit of the petrodollar wealth, were first opened in the capital Male' in 1983 and they set a pattern of cultural and political indoctrination for schools all across the Maldive Islands.138 Boys or girls attending those schools have problems having pride in their own culture because they have been pitched against the basic Maldive cultural values ever since their first classes. One unavoidable side-effect of Islamic education is that students end up admiring the Arab culture and despising their own traditions. Children who are unaware of causing any harm are made willing accomplices in the dismantlement of their own cultural heritage. 

With the media in the hands of an Islamizing government and the spread of Arabic madrasahs throughout the country, the pace and depth of Arab influence is growing fast. During the 1970’s, except for a few modern schools in MaleØ, most Divehi children were taught Quraìnic reading in the small traditional ‘maktabs.’ However, this situation changed in the 1980’s, when two heavily funded Arabic schools ‘Mawhad Dirasì at-ul-Islamiyya’ and ‘Madrasat-ul-Arabiyya-al-Islamiyya’ opened in MaleØ. These schools, teaching undiluted Islam, were instrumental in introducing the Arab veil among girls and in the crystallization of Arabic mores within the Maldive society.

Even the phonetic sounds of the Divehi language are changing. Local letters are abandoned and disappear. The indigenous sound ‘p’ has been replaced by the Arabic letter ‘f’ during the last couple of centuries; and the autochthonous retroflex ‘nö’ (nöaviyani) has been slowly vanishing to the point of having been deleted from the local written alphabet by Muhammad AmÄín in mid-20th century.  

In contrast to this carelessness towards their own phonetics, young Maldivian students are very particular in their efforts to reproduce with fidelity Arabic phonetic sounds,139 alien to their own language, in order to win Quraìn-reading contests promoted by their government. This trend is to blame for the growing tendency towards the abandonment of retroflex sounds not existing in Arab phonetics. Those retroflex sounds ‘lø’ (Löaviyani), ‘dö’ (Döaviyani) and ‘tø’ (Taö viyani) and ‘nö’ (Nöaviyani) made by flapping the tongue against the palate are a characteristic feature of the Indic languages. However, they were the bane of some highly fastidious, Arabophillic local learned men who sought to replace the local Divehi Akuru with the Arabic script in the past. 

After many unsuccessful attempts, the ‘Taìna’ alphabet now in use was devised as a compromise. This three-century-old although some present-day documents propagated by the government claim that it is older in order to fit it into their particular vision of history140 artificial alphabet is based mostly on the Arabic numerals and diacritical signs and, more importantly, is written from right to left like Arabic. The abandonment of the Divehi Akuru141 and the introduction of the Taìna form of writing was a decisive step towards a greater Arabization of Divehi culture. The new form of writing could easily accommodate words and even whole sentences in Arabic within texts in the local language. Therefore, in practice, the Taìna alphabet became a wedge for the further introduction of a foreign Semitic tongue into the written form of Divehi. 

During the past five or six centuries, Maldive identity has steadily lost its color and vitality. Local dances, songs, festivals and ceremonies that were deemed un-Islamic have been weeded out and repressed with almost sadistic ruthlessness. Hence, most autochthonous ancestral cultural expressions have degenerated or have disappeared. Kite-flying and mutual water-splashing (fenô kuliø ), are among the popular festivals that were forbidden by the Maldive government during the latter half of the twentieth century . 

Since the early 1980’s, during a government drive to promote Islam in the Atolls called ‘DÄínuge Heìlunterikanô’, Islamic preachers sailed from island to island, to scold the islanders with fiery speeches. Acting with the same zeal characteristic of the former Sayyids, these enforcers of religious ideology saw sin and depravation in the normal sexual dimorphism of dress and behavior and in the open expression of youthful joy by means of dances and songs, which are a vital part of any healthy society.

Devoid of popular entertainment, except for modern sports, island atmosphere has become extremely dull.142 Despite the introduction of consumerism and the relative economic buoyancy of the last two decades of the 20th century, things have not changed very much since C. Maloney reported in the mid-1970’s that:  

This particular island appeared (...) as an enervating place, with almost no games, no music or scheduled events, except prayers, and few surprises (...). Only the changing of seasons, (the Muslim month of) Ramzaìn and the two Iïd (Muslim festivals) broke the passage of time. The KatÄíbu (government official) ruled in a tyrannical way (...). There is no crack in the shell of orthodoxy, at least in appearance. The majority of citizens of the Maldives pass their time on such islands as this, (...) scarcely touched at all by the civilisational vibrancy of the outer world.143

Since 1979 Arab preachers have been periodically invited to the Maldive Islands by the government and given VIP treatment. Conferences where those ‘holy men’ are the star figures are organized in the evenings during their stay. Government officials and schoolchildren from the capital are forced to go to listen to their religious speeches. These aggressive sermons in Arabic are not only broadcast live in the national radio, but their recordings are routinely aired during the following months. 

However, an Egyptian friend of mine who knew well that type of person, Mahmoud Salama, told me that no one in Egypt would pay so much respect to those cheap preachers. According to him, they were totally unimaginative types, from a mediocre background who were basking in the exaggerated attention they were receiving. “These are backward characters. What good can the Maldivians learn from them?” another Egyptian friend, AmÄín ‘Pako’, one day commented. And yet, during the last twenty years, these Egyptian preachers have been let loose in the Maldives to indoctrinate the local people under special orders from the President’s office. 

These brash preachers seize with glee their unearned high status in the Islands. Often they use to grow quite passionate and eloquent in their speeches about the torments of hell, probably provoked by the un-Islamic appearance of the crowds who are gathered in to listen to them. For the fact is that Maldives got most of its Islamic facade mosques with minarets, Moorish arches and veiled women only from the year 1981 onwards, when the petrodollars began pouring abundantly into the country. And there are many locals who have not adopted the Arab look. 

Initially these Egyptian propagandists were not liked by Maldivians at all. They appeared rude and gross to them, terribly lacking in manners. The calm, monotonous voice of the Divehi translator contrasted sharply with the impassionate, hysterical screams and violent gesticulation of the Arab religious preacher. To make them more palatable, in later years, the indoctrinators were coached by government officials regarding how to behave in front of the Maldive public and they learned how to talk in a more culturally sensitive cool and regular tone. And yet, the crude content of their sermons remained the same. 144  

Throughout Divehi history, Arabs were still viewed as foreigners by the average Maldivian. However, the last quarter of the twentieth century has seen a new phenomenon appear in the Island society’s horizon: The ‘Arab wannabe.’ These are Maldivians who leave the islands in their childhood and are sent to Arab countries or to Pakistan to receive Islamic training. Eventually, when they return to their country as adults, they behave exactly like the Arab Sayyids of old. These uprooted Arab impersonators put much effort into weeding out the last remnants of true Maldive national identity. Since the end of the 1970’s, many very high government posts in the Maldives are held by such ‘Arab wannabes’ and their number is increasing. 

In the outer Atolls, the average attitude of these young, but religious-wise highly trained people is, at best, arrogant and insensitive. They are usually contemptuous towards the ‘aløuverinô’, or old religious males of the island, whose time-tested combination of folkwisdom and religion, is too unislamic for their taste. At the same time, their position as young persons and religious learned men simultaneously is still highly incongruous. Within the ancestral island society, there was a role for old religious men, but none for inexperienced youngsters happening to be well-versed in Arabic and religion. 

Traditionally, one was supposed to acquire knowledge along with wisdom with age. Hence, young aløuverinô, or young learned men, simply didn’t exist. The result is that these brazen young ‘Arab wannabes’, full of Islamic zeal, put much effort into discrediting their elders, slandering them for not being orthodox enough. In this manner they have led people not to pay attention to the old local aløuverinô and have ended up destroying the traditional hierarchical system, in which old people had to be respected. This is paving the way for a break-up of the moral fabric of Divehi society. 

It is a well-known fact that presently in Maldives, there is a secret hostility to excessive arabization, but it is leading nowhere. This ‘resistance’, if it even may be called so, is not only unorganized, but its goals are not defined and it has no visible leadership.145 Moreover, there seems to be nowhere else to go in the other direction, for the ancestral Divehi culture is effectively lost. 

• 137 Decades before the murderous spree led by religious hard-liners in Algeria, and long before the opening of those schools in the Maldives, Algerian writers like Rachid Mimouni had already questioned the wisdom of mass-religious indoctrination. “What do they want? A country of muezzins? Or a country of pious unemployed people (chomeurs)?” 
• 138 Paraphrasing Vivekananda, in those schools the first thing a Maldivian child is taught is that his father is a fool because he can’t understand the Quraìn as he doesn’t know Arabic, the second that his grandfather was a lunatic because he held on to many folk beliefs that were unislamic, the third that his mother is shameless because she doesn’t cover her hair, the fourth that his grandmother was a whore because her form of dress revealed too much of her body, the fifth that all the old Maldivian books and stories are lies, and the sixth that Divehi courtesy is rude because Maldive Islanders don’t go around saying all the time ‘Assalaìm alaykum’ as polite Arabs do (the traditional Divehi way being to ask: “Where are you going?”), etc. Vivekananda, a well-known Indian reformist, denounced British education in the schools of the Raj for giving Indians a false perspective of their own culture.
• 139 Letters: thaì, hâaì, khaì, dhaìl, Ïaìd, Íadì , Ìaì, Ña,ì Âyn, gôayn`and qaìf. These are foreign Semitic sounds that don’t come naturally to the Divehi people and are, thus, very difficult to pronounce for them. Even so, since they are positive that Arabic is the language of heaven, much effort is invested among Maldivians since childhood in order to achieve the correct pronunciation. 
• 140 The claim that the Taìna script was devised in the 16th century is, however, not supported by historical documents. The oldest writing specimens in that alphabet, interspersed with Arabic, are from the 18th century. These are the Iïdu Miskit Dorosöi inscriptions, dated AH 1170 (AD 1757). 
• 141 The traditional Maldivian writing whose most ancient manuscripts (in the form called ‘Eveìla’ by H.C.P. Bell) go as far back as the 7th century AD. The last manuscripts written in Divehi Akuru are from mid-19th century. 
• 142 According to most islanders, the only excitement is to be found in secret illicit relationships.
• 143 C. Maloney, ‘People of the Maldive Islands.’
•  144 For example, this is how Maldivian women were coaxed to cover their hair: “Every single hair of a woman not covered by the veil will become a poisonous snake in hell.” From a speech by an Arab guest preacher in Divehi Raìjjege Adöu (Radio Maldives) translated from the Arabic into Divehi and broadcast during the month of Ramzanì in 1990.
• 145 Commenting on the power of the government and the power of Islam in turn-of-the-millennium Algeria, Mohammed Arkoun, director of the Institute of Arab-Islamic Studies at Paris-III University, writes: The nationalist vision insists on the continuity in time of the Arab-Islamic culture and, consequently, of the state. Thus, the social spirit dominating today is directly connected with the official thesis that refuses to make the indispensable room to the scientific analysis of facts and problems. Intellectuals who, like Mustafa Lacheraf, invest their efforts into the separation between the functions of the official ideology, which pretends to mobilize national construction, and the critical knowledge of the ingredients that have fashioned real Algerian society, are extremely rare. M. Arkoun, ‘Une SpiritualiteØ qui deØpasse la Religion d’EÚtat’ (GEO n 114).

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Athireege' Thaana 0.1

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It reads "hurihā insānun ves ufanvanī, daraja āi ḥaqqu takugai minivankamāi hamahamakan libigenvā ba-egge gotuga-eve" (All human beings are born free and equal in ranking and rights - Article 1 of the UDHR). 

A font I have recently created which is an almost exact replica of "Athireege' Thaana" or "Vadaan Kashi" thaana. 

You can download v. 0.1 from here.

At this point it's all manual and I haven't added in any "fili" yet. I am loving the look of this without fili so I might even just leave it like this. It follows the inputs of most standard thaana fonts.  You are free to do whatever the hell you want with it. 

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Broken Rainbow

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A girl walks along a narrow road. The sun beats down on her from above, as heat rays rise from ground. Her steps echo loudly along the narrow streets and the sounds of traffic and horns blaring can be heard in the distance. The road smells of petrol and concrete. On both sides there were buildings either too small to house those that lived within or ones so ambitiously large that they were never finished being built. There is a sudden rush of air through the road as a flock of roosting pigeons take off. The flurry of sound from their many beating wings gives her a jolt. She looks up to see the blur of wings disappear to reveal a cat walking along the gutter. It looks down at her and meows. She breathes a sigh of relief. As she keeps looking clouds roll over from above, casting the road into shadow.

Drops begin to fall, some of them hitting her eyes; making her squint and look away. The soft pitter-patter crescendos into a thundering roar that drowns out all the sounds of the city. She hurriedly ducks under the cover of a low balcony. The cat appears beside her. It meows and rubs against her leg. She bends down and ruffles its neck. As she scratches its ears the rain stops; just as suddenly as it started.

The sky looked brighter and more vivid. Slowly a rainbow begins to crystalize from within the mist. It arches over the alley, so that its centre hovered above her head, blocking out the sky. Colours swirl through, swirls pulsing and colours mixing. She stood there staring, mesmerized at the scene before her.

The rainbow began to move strangely. It began pulsing more violently, its sides shifting and flickering. It then began to bend downwards in the centre as if some heavy weight had been placed upon it. Slowly it began its liquid descent. Still she stood. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was as if a crack had opened up the cosmos and she was staring into heaven itself.

Then abruptly as if snapping because of the strain, the sides of the rainbow lifted themselves above the ground. The centre began to accelerate. It began rushing down straight towards her at incredible speed. The colours from its edges began to fly off violently, like raindrops on the wings of an airplane. All the while its pulses quickened and the colours mixed even more frantically until it became a blinding white arrow falling from above; barrelling straight towards her forehead. She was not afraid.

Just before it made impact it slowed down, barely an inch from her temple; then with the tenacity of a drop falling from a leaf and the ferocity of a cloud, it gently caressed her skin. It spread over her like mercury, enveloping every inch of her until she was covered in light. She extended her arms and took a look at her new glowing skin. It pulsed softly with the colours of wild flowers. For the first time in a very long while she smiled.  

Her entire body quietly began to rise up, levitating towards the sky. She rose until she was high above the buildings. High enough to see around the entire island and the sea surrounding it. A hint of a cloud passes by and she couldn’t resist the urge to touch it. It broke up, swirled to form a leaping sailfish; which arced over her head and then dissipated as if sinking back into an invisible ocean. Delighted, she let out a giggle. Seeing some clouds in the distance she glided towards them. Effortlessly she soared, with finesse that would have made all but the most daring eagle jealous. She skimmed over the many clouds and when she brushed against them, many fish and dolphins came fourth, which followed her every move and rode the valleys of clouds at her side. The rush felt incredible. Everything was a blur of blue and white. This must be what it feels like to be truly free she thought. She was grinning now.

She came to a stop hovering over the centre of the island. She looked down at the city and its inhabitants, blissfully unaware of the spectacle above. They were going on with their daily lives as usual. Rows of cars and hordes of motorbikes swarmed the streets. People looked like scurrying ants. “I wonder if they know what it’s like to be free”; she thought to herself. For the first time since taking off she felt a stab of fear at her heart. Something was not right.

The horizon was darkening. Yet the sun still shone brightly above her. She squinted. In the distance, barely visible, a black tide was rising. It was gathering momentum and moving towards the island from all sides. It was not the ocean. It shined a deep dirty black that filled her with dread. She must warn them she thought. They were going about their business as if nothing was happening. They must be unaware. She must warm them. But alas, she could not move.

A strange force bound her in her lofty position. She tried as hard as she could but she could not break the invisible bonds. The tide rushed closer still. Her heart beat faster and faster until she felt like it would leap out of her throat. The black tsunami hit land. It spread like an oil slick, devouring the city below. It moved almost as if alive, parts of it leaping ahead to smother fleeing pedestrians and vehicles. Their screams felt like being encased within a coffin of needles.

From all sides it charged forwards until they met at the centre. Straining her neck she watched helplessly as it began to twist and spiral towards her. The vortex rose rapidly in a raging helix until it finally reached the soles of her feet. It spread over her, like a seething giant octopus, her screams doing nothing to stop its advance. It reached her neck and invaded her throat. All was dark. All was silent. 

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