Maldives5

She woke up terrified, struggling for her life. She couldn't breathe. Someone was brutally suffocating her face with a cushion. Her desperate shouts for help were stifled. Life was fast draining out of her exhausted body.....

President Gayoom's Women's Day message gives new hope and opportunity to the women of Maldives. It also challenges them to take their rightful place in society. In his appeal published in a media supplement issued on March 8, 2002, he called on the women of the nation to accept and assert that women and men are equal in their ability and aptitude, and to achieve their full potential in managing their own lives and in contributing to national development.........

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The green wire-mesh fence separating Gaamadhoo Jail and Himmafushi Island had gaping holes large enough for an elephant to pass through. I asked Ahmed (all names in this article are changed) my NSS escort why the inmates don't run away.....

"........For the leaders of island countries, this is not a new issue. In October 1987, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, noted in an impassioned address to the United Nations General Assembly that his country was threatened by rising sea level. In his words, his country of 311,000 was "an endangered nation." With most of its 1,196 tiny islands barely 2 meters above sea level, the Maldives' survival would be in jeopardy with even a 1-meter rise in sea level in the event of a storm surge........"

President Gayoom's address to the Citizens Majlis on its 2002 opening day met with universal support on the roads of Male for the depth of his understanding of people's problems and his genuine desire to help them. Particularly appreciated was his government's intention to 'alleviate the problems of housing and congestion' in Male....

Is our nationhood naked without a national dress? Some of us apparently feel so. Perhaps it is a subconscious national desire to keep up with the Joneses, since many neighbors do have national dresses. But many others dont, and its comforting to know that we are by no means alone in our cultural nakedness. In fact, we are in excellent company. Still, it may be worthwhile to see why others have national dresses and what they achieve from them.....
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Ah, Valentine's Day. Here you come again. Urging me to be romantic. Telling me that if I buy my wife a dozen roses, a box of chocolates, a Hallmark card and dinner at Thai Wok Restaurant, she may keep me around for another year....
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Matheerah is a small scenic island in the lagoon of Hathifushi, Haa Alif Atoll. It is famous throughout the Maldives for its ancient Mausoleum. Interestingly, nobody really knows who the Mausoleum contains, or when it was built. However, old folks in Hathifushi relate a story that sheds some light on the mystery.....
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According to oral tradition the people of Feridhoo in North Ari Atoll are descended from Negroes. Feridhuans trace their origins to three slaves freed by King Mueenuddin and settled in the island more than a hundred years back. They even trace the origins of the popular Maldivian dance drumming, bodu beru, to these emancipated slaves....
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King Shamsuddin's Entitlement Ceremony was the last flicker of the candle before the thousand-year- old flame of royalty was finally extinguished in the Maldives. Though the monarchy would linger on for another 60 years, the level of splendor and pageantry seen on this occasion would never be duplicated again......
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Exporters have known for some time that the quality of Maldive fish was becoming crucial. But they were not particularly concerned since Sri Lanka, the main market for dried and salted fish, was still hooked on 'umbala kada'. This illusion of security was shattered dramatically last year. The writing on the wall is now clear...
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"Its a girl," a nurse in operation theatre greens told Ibrahim Fulhu through the half open door, "both mother and baby are dong fine." Ibrahim Fulhu heaved a sigh of relief, thanking Almighty Allah for the happily changed circumstances in his life. As his eyes wandered across an almost endless stretch of spotlessly clean white tile leading on to an immaculately kept flowerbed, his mind travelled into the past...
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Somewhere among the distant memories of Maldivian history, women were on top. But since then it has been a steady downhill slide for them till almost the 1990s........
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Cyber terrorism, the 21st century incarnation of an age-old menace, is threatening the Maldives like a dark cloud. Though the neo terrorists use the latest in modern technology, their dark designs and malicious motives remain obsolete. As in the past, what makes todays terrorists tick is the same frustration at their inability to achieve their selfish ambitions through lawful means......
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The Maldivian society considers certain crimes more shameful than others. Among these are homosexuality, fraud and petty theft. If a man were arrested for homosexuality, he would tell his friends he was found with a girl. The latest trend in Male has been conmen and petty thieves claiming to be political prisoners......
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International Development Agencies are generally wary of giving aid to third world countries. These countries rarely implement their projects as planned; results are often partial and invariably delayed. The Maldives, where more than 90% of externally aided projects are implemented fully and in time, makes a sharp contrast to all this. This and the fact that it has never defaulted on a loan have made the Maldives the darling of the donor community.....
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The truth is democracy is an ideal that a lot of countries strive for, but which no country has actually achieved. And in comparison to many other countries the Maldives is not doing that bad. Unfortunately some of our friends don't seem to be convinced that our elections are fair, despite overwhelming evidence. Perhaps, the only election they would consider fair is one where they win. But then, this is not always possible because in a parliamentary election there could be only two winners per constituency and in a presidential election there could be just one winner....
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On January 5th and 6th, Indian State TV Channel Dhoordarshan, as well as the independent channel Star News repeatedly played a video-clipping of President Gayoom calling for "the condemnation and elimination of all acts of terror, whenever and wherever it appears, to safeguard peace, democratic ideals and economic prosperity."
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When Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was elected President of the Maldives in 1978, children in the outer islands had no schools to go. Unless their parents could afford expensive accommodation in the capital Male, they simply had to be satisfied with whatever the local "eduruge" could teach them....

The knowledge explosion of the late twentieth century is fast catching up with the once sleepy islands of the Maldives. Jalaluddin School, formerly the Northern Secondary School, in Kuludufushi recently organized a science fair.....

The Modern Maldivian does not think of him/herself as superstitious. But the fact remains that like their ancestors over the bygone centuries, they too live in an environment they share with a host of jinnis and other spirits. No one raises an eyebrow when the local football team hires a "fanditha man" to work hand in hand with the expensive coach hired from Rumania.