Truck and Barter

More Vice Squad

Two Sentenced For Adultery

Two people who committed illegal sexual intercourse were sentenced at the criminal Court yesterday to lashings, house arrest and banishment.

Sheeza Ismail of Kaafu Atoll Gaafaru Rai Villa was lashed 100 times and sentenced to house arrest for one year while Hassan Hameed of Shaviyani atoll Feydhoo Roazmeed was lashed 100 times and sentenced to be banished for one year.

Mr. President, how do you sleep at night!

A blogger's You-Tube letter to Mr. Gayoom

Another star in Maldives

Denise Van Outen goes for a dip after fighting the flab (may not be work safe)

Vice Squad and other recent headlines

Five Arrested for Alleged Prostitution
Three men and two women were arrested in Male’ Henveiru, with “articles that may be used during sex.”

Gender Bar Removal: Adhaalath Say Against Shari'ah
The religious conservative Adhaalath party has said it condemns the move to allow women to be elected as Maldives' President.

Can Gayoom stand for President again?

Even before and after the Chapter on the President of the Republic was amended, opposition MPs had requested Speaker Qasim Ibrahim to clear any confusion whether the work that was being carried out was amending the current Constitution or coming up with a new Constitution.

Qasim replied that from the letters sent by President Gayoom to the Majlis, and from the regulations regulating the Majlis, it was evident that the Constitution was being amended, not that a new Constitution was being established. When he said that, he received applause from opposition MPs and some members of the public who attended the sitting.

40 MPs against removal of gender bar to Presidential office

Civil Court evicts tenants who had overpowered landlady

The court passed a verdict to evict Ibrahim Shareef and Ibrahim Afeef (from Male) and Maryam Ali (from Thaa atoll Thimarafushi) and Yoosuf Hussain (from Laamu atoll Kunahandhoo).

Afeef works at Maldives Customs Service and is a lawyer who tends to civil cases. He is also an MP for Baa atoll at the People's Special Majlis, the interim constitutional assembly tasked with amending the Constitution....

The case filed by Aishath stated that Shareef and Afeef had taken over her home and refused access to the house to Aishath's representatives.

A new constitution or amended constitution?

President Gayoom will be constitutionally barred from running again as a presidential candidate, according to the Chairman of opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) was speaking after the Special Majlis (constitutional assembly) voted yesterday to limit the presidential term to two terms. President Gayoom has served six terms already...

Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP) members say the document they are in the process of drafting is a "new" constitution rather than an "amended" one.

Therefore Gayoom, who has served six terms, is still entitled to stand for President in this year's multi-party elections, because terms served under previous constitutions are deemed irrelevant.

But MDP and others say the future constitution will be an amended version, not totally new, so Gayoom would be barred from standing for re-election.

Anni said today: "No country has a new constitution, unless there is a revolution. That's a constitutional principle. Constitutions are only ever amended."

Jihad on a Tiny Scale

A Sri Lankan blogger writes;

Coming from a country with a raging internal conflict, personally, I am used to slightly more specialized weaponry. Like a suicide bombing. Or a Claymore mine. Or an AK-47. I find it difficult to comprehend a political assassination with a sharp pointed object first invented in the paleolithic era. It was not even a sword, a machete, or a rambo knife that was used; it was a kitchen knife, presumably stolen from a mother or a wife in the middle of cooking a tuna curry. How quaint, how homegrown…

via Foreign Policy blog ( I don''t know why the FP has classified it under Pacific- don't they know Maldives is in the Indian Ocean?)

Recent Headlines

Foreign Wives Amendment Thrown Out Again

Total of Seven Arrested For Gayoom Assassination Attempt

MPs begin submitting amendments to Constitution's Chapter on President

A free and fair vote in the Maldives

The assassination attempt on the life of President Gayoom is to be utterly condemned, but it illustrates the real desperation that the people of the Maldives now feel after nearly 30 years of his autocratic rule (I was just living up to Scout motto, says boy who saved president's life, January 11).

Last year I resigned from his government as attorney general, together with the justice minister, Mohamed Jameel, and the foreign minister, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, over his failure to implement democratic reforms in the islands, despite huge international pressure and his human rights abuses.

This has resulted in nearly half of Maldivians living in absolute poverty on just over a dollar a day in a country which is widely regarded as a paradise in the west. It has also resulted in a widespread campaign of intimidation and sometimes violence against his political opponents, which has included accusing us of being terrorists without any justification.

However, after years of struggle he has now finally agreed to hold elections in November which will give the people of the Maldives a chance to pass their verdict on his time in office.

We have formed the New Maldives Movement to give the people a real alternative to his rule and will be working with the United Nations, the European Union, the Commonwealth and the international community to ensure that the elections are free and fair.

At stake is a truly democratic Muslim state which could act as a model for other Muslim countries around the world.
Dr Hassan Saeed
Presidential candidate, New Maldives Movement, Male, Maldives

Male' Fact of the Day

Many residents of Malé say the idea of Hulhumalé is a good one given the atrocious conditions in the capital.

It has more than 100,000 people in a space that can be crossed on foot in 25 minutes. Rents for two-bedroom apartments top $9,000 a year, despite annual per capita incomes of $4,000. Imported sports cars jam the narrow streets, even though it's rarely possible to drive faster than 20 miles per hour. Global warming, meanwhile, has many people fearful that the low-lying city will be swamped by rising tides in a matter of years.

-Male has more than 100,000 people in a space that can be crossed on foot in 25 minutes, roughly 54,000 people per square kilometer, compared to less than 3,500 in New York.

Breaking News: An Islamic terrorist attempts to kill Mr. Gayoom

Attempted Knife Attack On President

Scout who thwarted attack on President treated at Hoarafushi health center

World Travel Awards 2007

Winners 2007

Guess the World's Most Romantic Destination?

Maldives - the central banker for trade in the ancient world

Cowrie Shells used to exported from the Maldives which were a form of money used in the ancient world.

More on primitive forms of money;

Porcelain-like shells from mollusks found mainly in the Indochina-Pacific region were the first kind of money to circulate freely in trade in the ancient world.

Related;
Maldivian Cowrie Trade History;

As early as the mid-ninth century AD, the Maldives were known to the Arab merchant Sulayman as a producer of cowries (Cypraea moneta), the tiny shells once used as a medium of exchange in Bengal, China, Southeast Asia, and throughout large parts of Africa. Although there are no indications of a direct trade in cowries between the Maldives and East Africa, it is known that huge quantities of these shells were taken to the ports of Southern Arabia as ballast in Arab dhows crossing the Indian Ocean from Southeast Asia by way of Male. These cowries must have been re-exported to Africa via Sinai, the Red Sea, and the ports of the Somali and Swahili coasts. It is also likely that dhows sailing to Africa carried cowries as ballast, exchanging them for slaves and local produce in ports such as Mogadishu, l amu, Malindi, Mombasa and Kilwa.
The profits attached to the cowrie trade were substantial. Ibn Baututa, who visited the Maldives in 1343-4 and again in 1346 (and who did some trading in cowries) records that cowries sold at Male for between 400,000 and 1,200,000 to the gold dinar. Seven years later this 'Traveler of Islam' was to see similar cowries, almost certainly of Maldivian origin, selling at 1,150 to the gold dinar in the West African Kingdom of Mali-a tidy profit margin indeed!

With the arrival of European vessels in eastern waters during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Arab domination of the cowrie trade between the Maldives and eastern Africa was rapidly superseded first by the Portuguese and then by the Dutch. During the 16th and early 17th centuries Maldivian cowries were generally shipped in bulk to Bengal, often aboard Maldivian vessels, and then re-exported in European ships to both the east and west coasts of Africa.

During the latter half of the 17th century the Maldivian cowrie trade was largely re-routed via Ceylon, which had fallen under Dutch control between 1640 and 1658. The Dutch did very well out of this trade, and each successive governor of Ceylon was urged by the Dutch authorities at Batavia to supply larger quantities of Maldivian cowries for the rapidly expanding slave trade on the West African coast. By the middle of the 18th century, when the West African slave trade was at its peak, Dutch control of the traffic in Maldivian cowries was long-established and their value in West Africa, although still substantial, had started to fall. An anonymous Dutch account published in 1747 draws attention to this development in the following matter-of-fact teens: 'Formerly twelve thousand weight of these cowries would purchase a cargo of five or six hundred negroes, but those lucrative times are now no more; and the negroes now set such a value on their countrymen that there is no such thing as having a cargo under twelve or fourteen tons of cowries.'

World's Most Amazing Islands

The List

Photo of the Day

US Marines and Maldivian Defense Forces enjoying a traditional dance;

On Drugs and Alcohol

An interesting quote from an EU observer;

Aside from dynastic politics, the delegation were struck by “how little is done against drugs,” by Gayoom’s administration. “It makes no sense to have all [incoming] luggage screened systematically [for alcohol] when you can buy heroin in Malé in the street...this is more than ridiculous,” our source said.

Rumours of public officials profiteering from the drugs trade have long existed among Maldivians but it seems their concerns are now shared by the European Union. “One [alcohol] is heavily regulated in order to make a profit. The other is heavily deregulated – perhaps in order to make a profit as well,” our source added.

Top 10 endangered sites due to Global Warming

Antarctica: the Müller ice shelf and the Larsen ice shelf are shrinking dramatically.

Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: global warming is blamed for melting of the year-round snows at the summit of Africa's highest mountain. They could be gone in 15 years.

The Arctic ice cap: the melting of icebergs and ice caps in the Arctic is blamed on global warming and threatens the habitats of species such as polar bears.

The Maldives: rising sea levels (3½in per year) could make these 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean uninhabitable within 100 years.

Venice: the Italian city is sinking into the Adriatic and rising sea levels could make things worse.

Alaska: American travel agents report thousands heading for the shrinking glaciers and melting permafrost.

Great Barrier Reef, Australia: it's been predicted that rising water temperatures, which are bleaching the famously vivid reefs, will kill 95 per cent of the living coral by 2050.

Kitzbuhel, Austria: the home of the world's most fearsome ski run is among low-lying Alpine ski resorts whose long-term futures are threatened by rising temperatures - on average the warmest they have been for 1,250 years.

Galapagos Islands: rising water temperatures are bleaching coral and causing the deaths of marine species.

Patagonia: South American glaciers are also retreating.

From The Telegraph

Meet The Maldives

The Music Band from Seattle

Headline of the Day

Convicted prisoner re-arrested while trying to intimidate Magistrate
A man who had been sentenced to 24 years in jail on three separate drug convictions was re-arrested last night while he was trying to intimidate a magistrate of the Criminal Court

Maldivians in Kerala, India

Maldivian men come shopping for brides in a big way in Kerala where women outnumber men (1,058 to 1,000) and it is a big business for the brokers in the poor fishing hamlets of Poonthura, Bheemapally and Vallakkadavu. “We don’t encourage such marriages. But we are helpless when the parents certify that the prospective groom is decent and capable of looking after their daughter,” A Saifudheen Haji, president of Vallakkadavu Jama’at Committee, said. “Some 100 marriages were registered in my area alone in the past ten years. Some poor families receive regular remittances from the Maldives to sustain themselves but some marriages have ended in tragedy,” he said.

Since the late eighties, people from the archipelago of over 300,000 inhabitants, whose per capita income is four times more, come to Kerala in large numbers for leisure, treatment or education of their children and make it their second home. At least 5,000 families have made the state’s capital Thiruvananthapuram their second home. More than half of some 100,000 medical tourists who arrived in Kerala last year were from the Maldives and there are daily flights from Thiruvananthapuram to Male, just half-an-hour flight away.

The story is blown out of proportion- as is typical in India. Anyway the issues are real and sad.

Fishing the Maldives Way

Pole and line is the typical way

Related;
Scientists Protect Corals from Warming Oceans
Corals could resist climate change

Enjoy these videos of stingrays being hand fed; Video 1 ,Video 2 and Video 3

Britain could annex Maldives territory?

Former Attorney General recently warned;

The former Attorney General told an opposition rally last night Britain may take exclusive control of forty square miles of Indian Ocean off the Maldives south coast, because the Government has failed to contest a legal claim dating back to the 1990s.

Yesterday he told a rally of opposition parties that the Maldives Government had failed to contest a claim by the UK Government to all waters within a two hundred mile radius of a British base on Diego Garcia, which intrudes into Maldivian waters by forty square miles...

The former Attorney General said the Finance Ministry had refused his department’s request to pay legal fees of $1,000 a day and the President’s Office had instructed him to seek foreign aid.

“The Government only finds money when it wants to, for example to build the nine storey police headquarters,” he told an audience of over a thousand in the Dhaarubaruge conference centre.

Related;
Key military outposts

Is it Global Warming?

Foreign experts to investigate cause of unusual amount of fish deaths in Maldives

Is this legal?

A hotel in Australia calls it Breakfree Maldives

The Maldives- a music band from Seattle

So what should the country, the Maldives, to do about it?

Telegraph Travel Awards

Favourite Destination Worldwide
1. New Zealand
2. Maldives
3. Australia

Best Specialist Travel Organiser
1. Trailfinders
2. Airline Network
3. Travelbag

Related;
Expenditure on luxury travel, excluding domestic trips, totals around $180 billion a year or $7,200 per arrival, however, this could in reality amount to around $20,000 per arrival as most international trips involve more than one destination.

A Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy a Maldivian song.

When arrogance, politics and poor marketing meet

It's not good for the nation

More Trouble in Paradise

Some recent headlines;

Banned For Wearing The Buruga: Swimmer Speaks Out

Ansar Al Mujahideen Targets the Maldives

Police Accused Of Beating Detainee

When he refused to confirm police suspicions, Shuhaan says one of the two officers, neither of whom revealed their identities to him, punched him on the right cheek. A few minutes later the same officer punched him on the left cheek, and later twisted his wrist.

The second officer threatened to send him to Guantanamo Bay if he did not cooperate, Shuhaan alleges.

Parliament Rejects Freedom of Information Bill

Majlis Walk Out As President's Appointees Reject Impeachment Clause

Rare species of bird being seen in Maldives recently not a threat to farming

Increasing number of dead reef fish washing ashore

Woman who dealt drugs with her son given life sentence

Two men who threw coffee at Policeman’s face arrested

Taxi drivers propose to raise fare to Rf 20

Police investigate case of young girl who was sexually assaulted by physiotherapist

President's Niece Gives Photographer The Finger

Defy Veil Ban In Courts, Adhaalath Urges Women

Government “Playing Politics,” With The Economy: MDP

When giving away textbooks, stationery -- indiscriminately

Legal compensation only for some?

When former Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel Ahmed was asked whether one of the reasons for him resigning from the Cabinet post in early August included a rumored Governmental decision to illegally give an island for resort development to Abdulla Jabir, the former had said that that was also among the reasons for his resignation.

All roads lead to Pakistan

Maldives suspects 'in Pakistan'- BBC
Police in the Maldives say 10 suspects in a bomb attack on foreign tourists in September, which wounded 12, are on the run in Pakistan.

Related
Richard Haass on CBS News: Pakistan is Biggest Threat to U.S. Security
Bhutto-Musharraf Face-off

Why is the US interested in the Maldives?

“…Also now in this sensitive time …when much of the Middle East is in turmoil, people are looking at the transition here, in the Maldives, as a potentially a very significant one, one in which democracy can take root,…a model for other countries to follow, democracy within an Islamic context-…I think that is part of the reason why United States is more closely looking at the Maldives…”

Video clips of the event- Part 1, Part 2
Related;
Former FM calls for national reconciliation government before Presidential elections
Government Snubs American Embassy Democracy Debate

Al Gore in the Maldives

A strange bit of news to some of you ;

Former Unites States’ Vice President and international environmental campaigner Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary was screened in Male last night as part of the celebrations of the US-Maldives Friendship Week.

Held in collaboration with the civil society NGO, Open Society Association, “An Inconvenient Truth” was screened at the Government-run Nasandhura Palace Hotel in Male for invitees....

At the conclusion of the screening, there was a session for question and answers but no one in the audience raised a hand; the film definitely spoke for itself.

Religion in the Maldives

A recent Al Jazeera report;

Here is the part 1 of the program.

Related;
Shari’ah Expert Advocates Freedom Of Religion For Maldives

Mohammad Hashim Kamali a Shari’ah advisor to Government bodies in Malaysia and South Africa has called on the Maldives to allow expatriate non-Muslims freedom to worship and set up their own schools.

Ibn Battuta in the Maldives

From The Travels of Ibn Battuta - A Virtual Tour with the 14th Century Traveler;

The Maldive Islands were important in medieval times for their exports: coconut fiber used to make ropes and cowrie shells which were used as currency (money) in Malaysia and in parts of Africa. About the middle of the twelfth century the people of Maldives converted from Buddhism to Islam when a pious Muslim from north Africa rid the land of a terrible demon. (The demon had demanded a young virgin each month - and the Muslim hero offered to take the place of the girl. Before the sacrifice, he recited the Koran throughout the night, and the demon could do nothing out of fear of the Sacred Word.) These islands rise only a few feet above the surface of the sea and stretch for about 475 miles like a white pearl necklace.

Ibn Battuta had not planned to spend much time here as he arrived at the capital, Male. But the rulers happened to be looking for a chief judge, someone who knew Arabic and the laws of the Koran. The rulers were delighted to find a visitor that fit their requirements. They sent Ibn Battuta slave girls, pearls, and gold jewelry to convince him to stay. They even made it impossible for him to arrange to leave by ship - so like it or not, he stayed. He agreed to remain there with some conditions, however: he would not go about Male on foot, but be carried in a litter or ride on horseback, just like the king or queen! He even took another wife after staying there less than two months, a noblewoman related to the queen. It seems as though Ibn Battuta was playing politics. He was now part of the royal family and the most important judge.

He set about his duties as a judge with enthusiasm and tried with all his might to establish the rule of strict Muslim law and change local customs. He ordered that any man who failed to attend Friday prayer was to be whipped and publicly disgraced. Thieves had their right hands cut off, and he ordered women who went "topless" to cover up. "I strove to put an end to this practice and commanded the women to wear clothes; but I could not get it done."

He took three more wives who also had powerful social connections, and seems to brag: "After I had become connected by marriage ... the [governor] and the people feared me, for they felt themselves to be weak."

And so he began to make enemies, especially the governor. After nasty arguments and political plots, Ibn Battuta decided to leave after almost nine months in the islands. He quit his job as qadi, but he really would have been fired. He took three of his wives with him, but he divorced them all after a short time. One of them was pregnant. He stayed on another island, and there he married two more women, and divorced them, too. He tells us about marriage and divorce in the Maldives at the time:

"It is easy to marry in these islands because of the smallness of the dowries and the pleasures of society which the women offer... When the ships put in, the crew marry; when they intend to leave they divorce their wives. This is a kind of temporary marriage. The women of these islands never leave their country."

Later, he even thought about going back to the Maldive Islands and taking over under the support of an army commander in southern India. But that was not to be.

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem make out in the Maldives

Exclusive Pictures (can't guarantee it's work safe)

A European Singing in Dhivehi

A European attempting to sing in the local language of Maldives, Dhivehi.

Gross Violation of Human Rights on both sides

Breaking News: Police lay siege to a mosque being used by fundamentalists on a tiny island which has led to a violent confrontation. Opposition and human rights groups have been largely silent probably fearing being labeled as terrorist sympathizers.

Related;
You Tube Video
More pictures here, here

An Exorcism Maldives Style

A disturbing video of an exorcism in the Maldives (not recommended for everyone)- I previously mentioned about it in an earlier post.

Terrorism comes to Paradise

Breaking news from Maldives;

Twelve tourists have been injured in an explosion in Malé’s Sultan Park, in what appears to be a planned attack on the Maldives Tourism industry.

A small explosion took place at the entrance to the park, near the northern edge of the island at 2.36pm....

Some local media report the explosion was triggered by a home made device involving a mobile phone and washing machine motor attached to a gas cylinder. Witnesses report seeing nails scattered in the park, before the area was cleared by security personnel.

The Right Way to do Serious Political Debate

Male' Hotel Will Come At Huge Human Cost, Warns Report

Read the report.

Black Opium Energy Drink banned

Some news headlines from Maldives;

Importing, selling Black Opium Energy Drink banned in Maldives

The National Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has yesterday banned the import and selling of the Black Opium Energy Drink in Maldives.

The NCB said in a statement that although there were no traces of any narcotic drugs in the drink, the NCB believed that the name of the brand and the phrases used in promotions and advertisement for the product encouraged people to abuse its namesake drug.

Maldivians becoming congenital liars

Taxi rides: Do we really need it?;

One of the taxis heading from west to east slowed down and I climbed into it. The driver was familiar and I struck a conversation with him regarding the difficulty of getting taxis in this two-square-kilometer island.

“There are over a 100,000 people here and 600-plus taxis ain’t just enough,” argued my taxi driver friend who I will call Mohamed.

“It would have been easier to get taxis if people called up taxis only for necessary rides,” he said.

He went on to say that as most Maldivians are “lazy”, they would rather take a taxi “to go to a place on the next street” and that if some people had their way, “they would rather have us taxis stop right in front of their rooms!”

Some 300 criminals are on the loose in the capital

The Best Resorts in the World

The Beach House at Manafaru- a new resort in Maldives opens, New York Times report.

Related;
The world's best hotel was judged to be the One&Only Maldives at Reethi Rah, with an outstanding ambience and top-notch leisure facilities.
-BA, Virgin and easyJet scoop Conde Nast awards

The voyage of Francois Pyrard of Laval to the Maldives

Interesting reading;

The voyage of Francois Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil,

Things Wal-Mart and Maldives have in common

Nothing drives home the point more than the recent case of Wikipedia's new WikiScanner. Created by a California Institute of Technology graduate student studying computer science, the scanner can trace an edited Wiki entry to the Internet protocol address of the computer network where the editing change originated. Thus, we find that a Wiki entry on the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which once listed statistics on the number of species killed by the catastrophe, was edited to erase those numbers. Worse, the entry tried to turn the oil spill into a positive environmental event by adding: "Six of the largest [salmon] harvests in history were recorded in the decade immediately following the spill."

Someone with an e-mail address at Wal-Mart changed "Wages at Wal-Mart are about 20 percent less than other retail stores" to "The average wage at Wal-Mart is almost double the federal minimum wage." A person traced back to PepsiCo removed several paragraphs about the health effects of drinking the soda. A State Farm IP address deleted references to lawsuits related to Hurricane Katrina. And the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, hired by the "repressive government of the Maldives, removed information on the lack of independent news outlets, election rigging and the imprisonment of political activists in the Maldives," the scanner report says.

A Row Over Migrants

That is in a tiny country of 300,000.

Immigrant Workers May Be Withdrawn: Bangladesh High Commission;

Bangladesh’s High Commissioner has told the government he will pull out his country’s 25,000 expatriate workers if the Home Ministry cannot guarantee their security.

Bangladeshi Castrated In Haa Daal Horror Death;

A Bangladeshi worker has been found dead, with his penis chopped off and stuffed up into a black bra strapped around his groin.

Vote Fraud of the Century?

Government Claims Huge Win For Presidential System;

With all results now in, 93,042 Maldivians have voted for the presidential system advocated by Gayoom, and 57,109 for a parliamentary system....

But the opposition MDP are not accepting the results, and have lodged a protest with the Election Commissioner.

Principal among these is an unprecendented turn out of 150,000 of 194,000 eleigible voters.

MDP observers were placed at two thirds of ballot boxes, and counted 72,000 voters. From this the party believes actual turnout was closer to a 100,000.

Other complaints include the Election Commissioner's selection of island chieves to officiate at voting stations, and the distance party observers had to stay from the counting process.

The MDP has sent 147 separate complaints to the Election Commission. The DRP reportedly submitted a similar number earlier in the day

The opposition's point about the huge turn out appears legitimate- than on the other hand it may be that the census is wrong after all. There’s an easy way to check this- just make a list of all those who didn’t vote in the election.

Dead Men Do Vote

The day after the Election Commissioner blamed Maldivians who fail to report the deaths of family members for inaccuracies in the referendum election register, it has emerged his own deceased mother is on the list.

KD Ahmed Manik’s mother, the late Fuhlaa Hawwa Fulhu appears as 6991 on the register, next to the name of the Commissioner himself

-Referendum Bulletin

Meanwhile the political campaigning for the form of government is in full swing. Listen to a local song in support of parliamentary system.

Stupid reasons why parliamentary system is bad

The tiny nation of Maldives is going to have a referendum this month on whether to have a parliamentary or presidential system of government. Their president, Asia’s longest serving ruler, and who has been the world’s longest serving central bank governor and defense minister, wants a presidential system for the country. This is how one of his appointees in the parliament justified why the country cannot afford a parliamentary system;

“Out of the five hundred members in [the Indian] parliament, twenty nine members have physically abused their wives. Seven have been detained for bribery. One hundred are seventeen are accused of rape, murder or theft. Seventy one are now denied loans from banks, because they have not made repayments. Twenty one have ongoing court cases. Eighty four have been fined for various offences.”

“This is the nature of the people who will lead us in a parliamentary system of government.”

The Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed went to on to say, Indian MPs “are not able to deal with any issues,” because of “walkouts, peoples’ clothes being ripped off, [and] a woman’s sari being taken off.”

Maldives Rising

A documentary about the Maldives from Al Jazeera; Part1(above), Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4

I would highly recommed Part 2.

Breaking News from Maldives

Police takes over the Justice Ministry and Attorney General's Office as Attorney General Dr Hassan Saeed and Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel resigned from the government;

“I have had to approach members of parliament to put forward reform bills as private members,” Dr Saeed said. “It is a very sad thing for the Attorney General’s Office to have to go to an opposition MP to pass legislation.”

Jameel said, “the President has not done enough to control extremist Islam.”

“We submitted an action plan to control religious extremism, but the President has sat on it for six months,” added Dr Saeed.

Dr. Hassan Saeed is the brother of a prominent Islamic Scholar, Professor Abdullah Saeed, Director of Centre for Study of Contemporary Islam at Melbourne University.

It is heartening to see that talented people willing to sell their integrity are becoming scarcer in the Maldives- goodluck and best wishes to the two ministers. Dr. Shaheed when are you resigning?

For Comment; The Maldivians will be going to the polls on August 18th, to decide on whether a presidential or parliamentary system is best for the country- let us hear your comments on this. Is parliamentary or presidential system the better one for a small and culturally cohesive country?

Related;
Voters Uninformed Ahead Of Referendum;

Concerns are growing about the lack of information available to Maldivians ahead of the country’s August 18 constitutional referendum. Campaign observers are reporting most voters lack basic knowledge of a presidential or parliamentary system, while many are even unaware a referendum will be taking place on August 18

Caught In The Act: Lawyers Witness Police Beating Detainee
Another Child Abuser Banished

Government Drug Rehabilitation Programme In Tatters;

Diameri, a company owned by American self-help guru Terence T Gorski and Maldivians Mohamed Fahmi and Dr Mohamed Shafiu, was expected to take over the government’s two rehabilitation facilities, a centre on Himmafushi in North Male’ atoll and a half-way house in Malé. But after nine months of preliminary work and consultation, the government has decided not to offer a contract.

Foreign Minister Outrages Parliament;

Comments made by Dr Shaheed criticising parliament, have been seized on by opposition politicians to gather support for a no confidence motion in the Foreign Minister.

Last week Dr Shaheed told journalists “over the past forty years the Majlis [parliament] has failed to protect people’s rights.” The Speaker of the People’s Majlis has since rejected the comments, and opposition MPs have called for “steps to be taken.”

Justice from Paradise

Four men who had sex with a twelve year old girl after breaking into her home in January have been cleared of rape. A judge found the girl from Kurendhoo, Lhaviyani atoll, had consented to have sex with the men after they smashed her bedroom window with an axe.

The judge sentenced the four men to eight months exile from Kurendhoo for sex outside marriage. The sentence apparently contradicts a government commitment in May that child sex offenders would be imprisoned rather than banished.

-“Gang Rapists” Given Eight Months Exile

Friends of Maldives Video

Fish and Fury

The trial of fishermen for vandalism continues:

The Criminal Court has given one month for lawyers to investigate the case of the 18 fishermen accused of vandalism of government property and obstruction of government duty. The lawyers are to spend the month given by the court in researching the incident and finding out what led to the fishermen dumping 25 tonnes of fish onto government property in Haa Alifu atoll Dhidhoo.”

Some other local news:

Unfair Dismissal Case Begins

Maldivian Police having a good time
(note that there are no women in the pic above!)

Ruling Party starts a circumcision campaign

Government Education Waste

T&B Banned in the Maldives?

If you were sitting on the fence about whether the current Maldivan autocracy was serious about democratic reform and respecting freedom of speech and assembly, you might start looking for a way down.

Paul sends word that, following some changes made by Dhiraagu -- the majority government-owned landline telecom provider in the Maldives -- Truck and Barter can no longer be accessed from the Maldives, and that all Google requests from the Maldivan gateway are forwarded to google.mv, the Maldivan version.

I hope this is just a temporary situation, but fear that this is just part of a larger attempt to silence independent voices promoting reform in the Maldives. [Updated] I will not be taking this up directly with Dhiraagu, for security reasons.

Of course, until the situation is resolved, Paul will be posting far less frequently.

Unschooling for democracy

“It’s always harder to forge your own path without someone telling you what to do.”- Peter Kowalke, 27, unschooled as a child

Gary at Spontaneous Order makes a good comment about why some people may not like homeschooling;

From the demand side, the reason why parents may not want to teach their own kids (other factors being held constant, like their income, time availability, their educational level) at home also occured to me while reading the same NYT story. Peoples' innate fear to go about their own way without guidance. People simply want to be told what to do. This seems related to what Hayek has said in Fatal Conceit. That contemporary people still have that lingering longing to be led, part of the legacy we inherit to this day from the time when we live in a small community and individuals' decisions are made according to the directions of the wiseman in the group.

The other day I heard the exactly the same comment made by a local chief from one of the islands commenting on 3rd November 1988 attempted coup incident –‘The greatest worry we felt was that we had no one to show us the direction, show us the guidance from the capital, Male’. And we had to plan and do things on our own.’

I don’t know whether our first priority aught to be a mentality overhaul before we can think about democracy?

Horse Fish?

Local fishermen found the following weird looking fish- if any body knows the scientific name for it, drop in a line.

Collina’s stuff on auction

A local daily Haveeru has organized an auction of items used by the world's most popular referee, Pierluigi Collina of Italy during the 2002 FIFA world cup finals. The proceeds of the auction are to go to families who lost their homes in the tsunami disaster of 2004. They will be on E Bay soon, auction closing on the 25th December.

Related; Some cool pics of Pierluigi Collina

The price of delaying democratic reform?

Jonathan at The Head Heeb has interesting analysis of recent riots in Tonga;

“It looks like Tonga will finally have its democracy, but at staggering economic and social cost. And the price of withholding democratic reform for so long may in fact be even greater than it first appears; during the past three years of turmoil, Tongans have become used to revolutionary protest, and the effect on national politics and governmental legitimacy may remain with the country for a long time.”

Related;
Trouble in Tonga (Radio National Podcast)
NYT new blog The Lede has more on the Tonga riots
Information hub on the Kingdom of Tonga
Country profile: Tonga

Cruise, Holmes leave for Maldives honeymoon

Maldives is now the honeymoon capital for celebrities;

“Newlyweds Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have jetted off on honeymoon to the Maldives after a fairytale wedding in a 15th century castle in Italy.

The guest list read like a Who's Who of Hollywood as Cruise and Holmes tied the knot in Bracciano on Saturday.

There were fireworks inside and out too as the couple sealed their vows with a "never-ending kiss".

The kiss lasted so long it caused guests to shout "stop, stop!" said Giorgio Armani, who attended the wedding and designed the outfits of the bride, the groom and their baby, Suri.

The couple flew out of Rome on Sunday morning for a honeymoon in the Maldives, said Ciampino airport spokesman Adriano Franceschetti. The rest of the wedding party was due to fly to Los Angeles later on Sunday.”

Related;
Katie Holmes Tom Cruise Wedding Pictures
More links here at A Socialite’s life

Smart Sanctions- would it work?

Lonely Planet, one of the leading international travel guidebook companies has advised its readers to support a Friends of Maldives (FOM) campaign for a selective boycott some of the most popular resorts in the country. The following are excerpts form the guide as stated on FOM website- I couldn’t find it on the Lonely Planet website. I’m not convinced that this kind of selective boycott is the right approach.

“In 2005 British based campaign group Friends of Maldives unveiled a carefully targeted boycott of some of the Maldives most popular resorts. Outraged at the torture in Maldivian prisons, the police brutality on the streets and the human rights abuses, the group unveiled its selective boycott to pressure the regime from within. The boycott targets any resort owned wholly or in part by a member of the government, the hope being that the loss of revenue will in turn cause associates of President Gayoom to put pressure on him to an end human rights abuses, hold free and far elections and rein in the police and National Security Services…

We support this cleverly targeted campaign and suggest you do too; it fully supports tourism in the Maldives conscious that it’s the country's only major industry, but it tells adherents to avoid about one fifth of the resorts which bring ministers and other senior government figures significant revenue each year….

Friends of Maldives has been roundly discredited in the Maldives by a smear campaign calling them both Islamic terrorists and Christian missionaries. We can confirm that this is not the case, and that the Anglo-Maldivian staff who run the organisation have only the human rights and general welfare of the Maldivian people at heart. They have set up a separate charity, Maldives Aid (reachable through the Friends of Maldives website) that sends aid to the poorest regions of the country. Donations can be made here to projects that will help rural residents rebuild their lives and their future.”

It also includes in its history section a description of events such as the Evan Naseem Killing in 2003 and Black Friday 2004, major human rights events in the Maldives. Also mentioning the role of Maldives PR firm:

"Gayoom's other measure was to hire the London office of PR giant Hill & Knowlton to whitewash his dictatorship, a job they continue to do today with sickening success."

For Discussion; Do you think this kind of approach has merit in it? Has economic sanctions brought down any authoritarian regimes?

The funniest (and sad) headline I read today

Police releases would be demonstrators;

"The Maldives Police Service has released the passengers of two dhonis who were en route to Male to participate in the November 10th demonstrations. The Police had intercepted the boats as they were arriving to Male and had detained the passengers. The demonstrations were organised by Maldives Democratic Party to force the People’s Special Majlis to amend the constitution."

Lessons to Autocrats

“If you’ve free assembly, the probability that a leader will be in his or here position a year later- they’re not a democracy- the probability decreases by 86 percent if they make the mistake of allowing people to assemble. Of course they don’t make this mistake….

These guys have figured out, if I let these folks get together, if I let them be well-informed, if I let them know what the government is doing, I’m going to be in trouble. I can make them better off economically and so forth without doing that, and I can by that mechanism postpone the risk that I’m going to be kicked out.”

-Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, in this podcast interview.

Related;
Crackdown in the Maldives- special report from Channel 4 UK. The video of the news report can also be seen here.
Maldives opposition calls off protest rally after arrests
EU Expresses Concern About the Maldives
Government U-Turn On Media Freedom
Getting To Know Hill & Knowlton
National branding- A new sort of beauty contest;
“Nor can money spent on glitz and schmooze easily make up for dire political realities, such as a bad record on free speech, or an amnesiac approach to history. But that doesn't stop governments from trying. Russia is spending lavishly in the hope of boosting its international profile. Projects include trips for foreign journalists and politicians (one particularly cushy one was dubbed the “plane of shame”); another is an English-language television channel that aims to counteract the increasingly critical portrayal of the country abroad. A more successful initiative is an annual winter cultural festival in London's Trafalgar Square. That has cleverly combined two of the commonest popular perceptions of Russia: harsh winters and historic strength in art and music.”

Politicians do what they do to stay in office

Lessons from the recent elections in the US;

“About $2.6 billion was spent on the 468 House and Senate races. (Scandalized? Don't be. Americans spend that much on chocolate every two months .) Although Republicans had more money, its effectiveness was blunted because Democrats at last practiced what they incessantly preach to others -- diversity. Diversity of thought, no less: Some of their winners even respect the Second Amendment.

Free markets, including political markets, equilibrate, producing supplies to meet demands. The Democratic Party, a slow learner but educable, has dropped the subject of gun control and welcomed candidates opposed to parts or even all of the abortion rights agenda. This vindicates the candidate recruitment by Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairmen of the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees, respectively. Karl Rove fancies himself a second iteration of Mark Hanna, architect of the Republican ascendancy secured by William McKinley's 1896 election. In Emanuel, Democrats may have found another Jim Farley, the political mechanic who kept FDR's potentially discordant coalition running smoothly through the 1930s.”

Via Russell Roberts

The dynamics are different when it’s not a democracy- still opposition leaders need to work on building coalitions of willing among moderate and reasonable segments of the society if one wants to build a sustainable democracy.

Related;
The Political Economy of Power (podcast)
The Logic of Political Survival
Principles Must Come Before Politics
James M. Buchanan—The Creation of Public Choice Theory

A Nation Crying for Freedom

Crackdown in Maldives ahead of planned protest rally;
Ms Latheef said the government was taking advantage of the fact that there are few international observers on the islands. "The government is intimidating the public by saying the US military ship in Maldives for a training session is there to actually help the government in handling the demonstrators ... there is no respect for rule of law by the government and they have the power to do what they please."

Welcome To The Dark Side Of Life: Press Freedom In Maldives
“The police are beating people! Hurry, follow me.” My arm was grabbed and I began running in the darkness down a street of clay made slippery by a day of rain. At the first junction I turned right and then quickly stopped due to the sight before me:….

I came to the Maldives to be an objective journalist with the most independent news website in the country. I never have, nor do I now, support the MDP. From first-hand reporting and experience I am saying that the Government of the Maldives is silencing the country’s media, and logically, the only motive behind suppressing the press is to prevent the information of other freedoms that are being denied form becoming public.

Ibrahim Fareed search drags on past a week: Police

November 10 Has Begun

UN Press Release Regarding the Request for Asylum

More pics of the Day

Alcohol and a New Muslim Nation

Alcohol found aboard barge near Kumundhoo

I imagine that most Maldivans won't think it odd that the discovery of contraband alcohol [al-kuhl , something like "the distilled essence" in Arabic] is big news. After all, the Maldives currently forbids alcohol possession and consumption -- except for foreigners on the resort islands -- on the grounds that the Maldives is an Islamic nation, and citizens by law are Sunni Muslims.

The current regime has used its monopoly over the tenets of Islam to permit the influence of far more conservative forms of Islam (with varying degrees of success). The administration already liked to portray Christians as an enemy that must be stopped through force, and apparently increasingly zealous religious indoctrination.

This is all very good if you're trying to keep your hands on the reigns of government today, but this tactic is bound to unleash forces that you cannot control:

Gayoom’s attempt to portray himself as "protector of Islam" in the Maldives, against unspecified foreign threats, has helped to create a paranoid atmosphere in which radical ideas have spread.

Conservative supporters of the government, particularly on isolated islands, often say that "Islam will only be safe with Gayoom" – testament to the president’s success in underming the Islamic credentials of the MDP.

But it will only be at the next parliamentary elections that the real strength of the Adaalath and Islamic Democratic parties will be tested.

And if the Islamic parties win, what about alcohol? The entire economy is based on tourism, which is based on sandy beaches, luxury amenities, and alcohol. Tourists will not pay $2000 a night for two of the three.

Now, I won't argue here about the Koran's prohibition of alcohol for individuals, but I will argue that alcohol prohibition is not a good policy for any country -- even one founded on Islamic principles. (Among writers on this subject, there seems to be no notion that a step is missing in the logic that transfers duty from person to policy. Because something evil can come between a man and his God, why must other men rush in to help eliminate it? Shouldn't a man himself -- or God -- be doing this?)

Anyway, in 2:219 the Koran describes what seems to be a cost-benefit test for the morality of drinking, and comes down against drink and gambling, but I think the Koran is clearly wrong in its policy implications:

"They ask thee concerning wine and gambling, say: "In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit..."(2:219)

All this is important because, as you can see from the other posts on T&B, a new Maldives is on the horizon. It will have a mix of traditional, reformist, and hardline Islamic elements.

Maldivans should be asking themselves whether they want to continue to live in a country in which the government forbids the people from making their own moral choices -- a government that insists, under threat of incarceration or banishment for any transgression of sharia, that all Maldivans be true and pure Muslims. Do Maldivans really want their imams (and husbands and wives and neighbors!) to have the power to punish them for every personal moral failure, as is the case when there is no separation between religious and secular authorities?

The Maldives could become free, peaceful, prosperous, and democratic nation rooted in the self-denying personal conduct required by honest adherence to the tenets of a relaxed Islam. Or Maldivan leaders can pretend that Islam contains a comprehensive code of interpersonal conduct for a world that has become far more complex over the past millennium.

However, given the current spread of conservative Islam to the outer atolls, it is likely that in the formation of a multi-party system, there will be a power struggle between those who see democracy as a process in the struggle for freedom and modernity, and those who see the elections democracy offers as a swift means of gaining control over the legislature, the budget, the courts, the police, and hence, the people.

In the Maldives, I have no idea who will win.

Let's hope that Maldivans realize that it isn't true that all one needs to ensure stability and individual morality is a strict enough law -- and a powerful enough police force.

How Long Does it Take to Write a Constitution?

The People’s Special Majlis of the Maldives has been thrashing around ideas for a new constitution for around two years now -- with nary a written word, except for news releases -- although a lot of talk. The opposition has made a call for supporters to meet up in Male on November 10th. The ruling party has said that it will not meet with the opposition, and claims, as usual, that opposition demonstrators are criminals, etc. There's much more at the opposition-based Minivan News.

In short, THIS IS NOT GOOD.

But let's give the folks writing up the constitution the benefit of the doubt; maybe it takes a really long time to write up a constitution for a democracy.

In September 1786, a revision to the articles of confederation (which itself took months to draft, and years to ratify) was started. The finished U.S. constitution was ready one year later, on September 17, 1787. Ratification took some time, and the new government founded on it started operating until March 1789. Drafting time: a few months. Total time 2.5 years.

But that's old news. How about some recent data:

Members were appointed to draft the Iraqi constitution on May 12, 2005. The draft was modified by Parliament on September 18, 2005, and was ratified by referendum on October 15, 2005. Total time: five months

In Afghanistan, the Constitution Commission was stood up in October 2002, and ratification occurred on January 16, 2004. Drafting time: months. Total time: 1.5 years

But maybe U.S. occupation tends to speed up the constitution-writing process.

The proposed E.U. constitution took years to write (starting in December 2001, going through the first published draft in July 2003 to the final tweaking in June 2004). The ratification process is ongoing. Drafting time: years Total Time: at least 5 years.

The Maldives has had several constitutions. The 1930 one "contained 92 articles. It took exactly 1 year, 8 months and 22 days from the Sultan's decree to draft a Constitution to the ratification of the document."

Conclusion: it does not take years to write a constitution, unless you specialize in delay.

Getting High in Paradise-Part 2

New survey data indicates drug addiction is on the rise in the Maldives;

“Over 50 percent of the youth abuse drugs in some islands,” said the UNICEF report. “The most common substance abused is heroin.”

The average age when the habit forms is 12, the report said, although there were cases as young as 9 years old…

Even police records show a steady increase in the number of drug related crime. In 2001, there were 216 crimes reported, 302 in 2002, 340 in 2003, and in 2004 the amount was over twice that of its previous year: 697…

Everything in the Maldives is being affected for the worse because of the increasing number of drug abuse and trafficking. 247 ‘bullets’ of heroin washed up on Villi-Male in May 2004, which is worth over Rf 1m. If the situation was really improving, what reason would there be to find a million rufiyaa’s worth of heroin? There were over 50 sacks of narcotics buried in an underwater stash off Alifu Alifu atoll Gangehi Resort.

It is appropriate to be concerned about the extent of drug trafficking and abuse in the Maldives. There is nothing in Maldivian history remotely similar to the relatively recent discovery of over 50 tonnes of drugs. The evidence points to the Maldives being a transit location for narcotics….”

Costs of Island inundations not significant?

On the costs and benefits of climate change;

“Robert Mendelsohn, professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, argues that such negative costs may still be less than the benefits.

He sees a net global warming bonus in the near-term, as higher farming yields in northern countries offsets damage elsewhere, especially in Africa.

"In that sense it doesn't make sense to spend money right now," Mendelsohn said, adding that beyond 2050 and a 2 degrees Celsius rise the damage and need for action grows.

He added that he does not cost species extinctions and health effects, and only crudely measures the cost of island inundations.

Richard Tol, Senior Research Officer at Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute, has a similar stance.

"(My damage estimate) does hide some things that some people will get very upset about," Tol said. "From an economic perspective small island states are so tiny and people are moving out of there anyway."

As an example Tol estimates the welfare loss of the Maldives submerging at three times the inhabitants' annual salaries, in addition to the 100 percent loss of the country's GDP.

Citizens are happy to value the preservation of the global ecosystem at a cost of 50 euros per person per year, Tol says, but added he does not factor in the risk of rapid sea level rise…”

Related;
Leave The Maldives To Sink, Senior Scientist Says
Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
The Politics of Climate Change;

“The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.”

Carnivals for Dictators

“Detail from the Sunday Mail in Zimbabwe - Mugabe, Lukashenko and Chavez share a laugh at the summit of non-aligned nations.”

Via Ethan Zukerman

Highly recommended – The Ludicrous Nature of Politics from Russell Roberts

Related
Demonization at the UN
President blasts ‘stupid democracy’ (Zimbabwe)
Stopping the dictator- a game from an Egyptian blogger

Maldives
The President addresses UN General Assembly in Dhivehi
This is how the Mr. Gayoom was welcomed in the country

Maldives to set up Bollywood Studio

“The government plans to open the country’s first professional film studio, officials have announced.

The studio will be located in one of the new resorts currently being constructed in the country. The government hopes the studio will attract the Bollywood film industry to shoot more of their motion pictures in the Maldives.

“We will devote a resort island to the studios so that film units can use it as a single stop for their work. That will spread the good word about Maldives,” said Hussain Shihab, Minister of State for Arts..”

From Minivan News.

Recent economic news;
Opposition Criticises New Tourism Tax
Board of directors sell STO tea plantation

Should the State have a monopoly over security and violence?

In the capital of Maldives, Male’, citizens have been making arrests of criminals;

“A group of civilians from the area where Maaveyo Magu and Buruzu Magu intersect have recently formed a group, and have gone out searching for drug offenders and turning them over to the Police along with the evidence they find. A member of this group has said that they had so far handed over at least 20 drug offenders to the Police.”

In other news;

“A new non-violent democracy group, calling itself Gaumataka, marked Evan Naseem Day on Tuesday by delivering flowers to the police and representatives of the government.

The human rights activists delivered white lilies and roses to the police headquarters in Male’, the Maldivian High Commission in London and to the head office of President Gayoom’s public relations company, Hill & Knowlton.

Gaumataka said the flowers were “delivered as a symbol to urge the police to stop all brutality and to join hands with the people to bring about a just and democratic Maldives.”…

Tim Fallon of Hill & Knowlton, President Gayoom’s London-based spin-doctor, was less enthusiastic to discuss torture and human rights abuses, however.

“We went into the Hill & Knowlton office and asked if we could see Tim Fallon to present him with the flowers. The flowers are in memory of those people that Fallon’s client has murdered, tortured and abused over the past 28 years. However, Fallon would not meet us. First we were told that he was not in the building, then we were told he is “too busy” to see us,” said Sara Mahir.

Death Threats and Game Theory

South Asia correspondent to UK Telegraph writes in his blog about a recent incident involving a death threat to Maldivian dissident in UK;

“British police traced the foul-mouthed email to an address belonging to Husna Latheef, who is the wife of the Maldives Chief of Police, Adam Zahir. Mrs Latheef copped the caution but Mr Moosa (and I’ve no idea if he’s right or not) is convinced Mr Zahir is behind the threat.

The text of the threat is worth repeating for those who missed it, simply because it is so Neanderthal and unpleasant and tells you a fair bit about the people who run the Maldives once they are out of the clutches of their slick UK PR agency, Hill and Knowlton, whose top man once span for Tony Blair.

Try spinning this: “if i ever see u, i will f***ing kill you, you better watch ur f***ing back, id like to see you try and reply back to me u dumb motherf***er. who the f*** do u thnk [sic] you are. i know where u live so u better not go far from ur house in london cos i will f***ing shoot u.”…

Read the rest of the post for his speculation on the strategic reasons for British government sponsoring talks between the government and the opposition in the Maldives and using a bit of game theory he suggests;

“If Gayoom’s regime reads the Brit moves the same way Indian intelligence apparently does, and the Brits are seen to have an ulterior motive, then they might find Gayoom digs his toes in and the whole plan backfires.”

Related;
Zahir's Wife Received UK Police Caution
UK police warn wife of Maldives policeman over threat
Adam Zahir Cautioned By British Police
“The British police were able to act on the email because it was sent from a ‘blueyonder’ account, which was traced to Zahir’s London property. The email account was registered in Adam Zahir's wife's name, Husna Latheef.”
British Government Calls For Peaceful Evan Naseem Day

The coming clash of China and India

China has been recently courting the countries of South Asia;

“According to a report this year by Dr. Mohan Malik, professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, ‘Beijing is skillfully employing economic and military means to draw Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka into China's orbit.’

‘Beijing's main objectives are said to be access to raw materials, commodities, natural resources and access to South Asian markets for Chinese goods and to expand China's influence in the region. However, China's support for India's smaller neighbours suggests that gaining access to markets and natural resources is not the only reason behind Beijing's South Asia policy: Beijing also wants to make a point on the limits of Indian power,’ he adds.

''In fact, aiding "India-wary" countries in South Asia to "concircle" (contain and encircle) India has long been an integral part of China's strategic calculus. As a rising maritime trading power, Beijing is also seeking once again to project force into the Indian Ocean in the manner of the fleets sent out under the command of Admiral Zheng He nearly 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty,'' Malik concludes.”

Related;
China's top advisor meets Maldivian president
American and Yugoslav to be deported
Work to commence on new museum funded by the Chinese

A recent episode Foreign Exchange;

“China is modernizing economically; that no one denies. But there is a great debate about whether that economic modernization is leading to political change. Is China reforming its political system? To discuss this issue we’re joined by Hongying Wang, who is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and also at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Let me ask you; a statistic that is often bandied about, 87,000 protests in China last year compared with 10,000 ten years ago--what does this mean? Is it the sign of political unrest that some are reading it to be?”

Dictators Watch- Burma

Google News Corporation

Google has started a new feature- News Archive Search. I tried searching for Maldives news items- some interesting things came up (slight spelling corrections made below);

“Holland Evening Sentinel - NewspaperArchive - Jul 7, 1952, THE BENIGHTED MALDIVES LACK CIVILIZED WOES; Now that the Maldive islands, in the Indian ocean, have adopted a republican form of government, it is obvious that something ought to be done to bring the benefits twentieth century civilization to the inhabitants. The MALDIVES, known chiefly to stamp collectors, seem to be singularly backward. They have no relations to speak of with other nations, and hence no cold war tensions. They have no television, and only a few automobiles, limited to one' of the inhabited islands. They have no crime and no jails. The islanders never need aspirin or pheno-barbital. The people, it seems, spend most of their time fishing, fashoning lacquer work, making rope and collecting. They've never learned to get stirred up over things. When the time comes to change their government, they don't make a lot of fuss and speeches; they simply tell some- ody to sit under a palm tree and up a constitution. It's something of a mystery why these benighted people have not tried before this to improve their sorry lot and learn how to enjoy he boons we civilized people take or granted. There's a possible answer which we hate to consider, .faybe they're smarter than we.”

Native Revolt In Maldives Is Disclosed; LONDON, Jan. 8 1959 (AP)--Angry mobs swarming from a canoe armada have wrecked and burned offices of the native Government on a remote ...

Reno Evening Gazette - NewspaperArchive - Dec 7, 1934, Maldive Islands lack a sultan Until recently this Indian ocean archipelago had a ruler, Sultan Shamsudeen Iskander, who paid tribute to the British government of Ceylon. Caught trying to substitute an absolute monarchy for the established representative government of the MALDIVES, he has just been dethroned by King George V. "Dreamers who long for an Idyllic Island existence would find their dreams punctured by a visit to the Maldive Islands says a bulletin from the Washington, D C headquarters of the NATIONAL Geogiaphic Society.

…Tourists are warned against sleeping on the islands, as they, even more than natives, fall prey to strange complaints…; climate more than anything else, has hindered the development of these islands, especially their foreign intercom se "Only seventeen of the two thousand Islands are inhabitable, …But even agriculture In the MALDIVES has its drawbacks. Natives have to fight armies of rats which menace their cocoanut crops. All the rice consumed must be imported, and is so expensive that only the wealthy can afloid It …..So frequent are wrecks on this and other Maldive Islands that the governor of Ceylon, in granting Ceylon's, and therefore Britain's protection to the MALDIVES, stipulated that, In return, the islanders must aid all Europeans wrecked on their atolls. "In spite of bad climate, bad water, and other obstacles that would discourage most people, the eighty thousand Maldive Islanders live fairly comfortably. Most of them are short, dark copper in color, Intelligent and Industrious They weave their own cloth, and their own boats and nautical Instruments They are skilled navigators and spend much time on the water fishing for bonito. Several of the islands maintain training schools for sailors Maldivans are Mohammedans and occasionally make pilgrim voyages to the Red Sea …

"Native products are peddled among the Islands in native boats, but all trading with foreign countries is done from Male Island, capital of the group. Male, or Sultan’s Island, Is one of the nine inhabited islands ol a group of fifty which compiise Male atoll. On its small surface, less than one square mile In extent, aie crowded trees, houses along sandy streets, foits, the Sultans tomb, and the dethroned sultan's wall-enclosed palace One thousand of Its approximate five thousand Inhabitants are soldiers. "Coral patches and tide lips make one side of Male Island inaccessible, but the harbor on Its east side, protected by a rough breakwater is good. Once a month, two-masted sailing vessels leave for Colombo, Ceylon, with mail, reaching there in three days If the monsoon winds are favorable, sometimes not for thirty days, If they are unfavorable. In August 01 September boats leave for Ceylon, and Calcutta India, carrying principally coir yarn Male Island reaches its peak of activity and excitement when the annual foreign tiaclers call in March. Natives who have brought their product from other atolls gather on the shore to hall ijith delight ships from Ceylon, Sumatia, and Chittagong, India. Duty, consisting of bags of rice, red handkerchiefs, and other commodities such as onions coriander seed and cummin seed, was formerly presented to the Sultan and his government officials "To watch Maldivians do their equivalent of Christmas shopping is to witness a colorful sight. Foreign traders purchase from them large quantities of bonito, which is in great demand in Sumatra and Ceylon. They also buy tortoise shells, coconuts, coir yam, woven glass mats, and cowrie shells used as currency by some Asiatics. In return, the islanders receive rice, dates, salt, curry- stuff, leaf tobacco and betel nuts. They prize red and white checkered handkerchiefs, coarse white cloth, and colored waist cloths. Chinaware and Indian pottery go over big. Although they make a kind of sugar from cocoanuts, they are glad to get coarse brown sugar. They will also trade their cowrie shells for small quantities of steel, thread and brass."

Arundhati Roy’s Question

It is now 4 days to the Dropping Knowledge forum.

Arundhati Roy’s questions about the future of non-violent resistance and armed struggle. “What is effective?,” she wonders. “What is the right thing to do?”.Here is the video.

Related;
Civic Power and the People’s Rights: Nonviolent Action for a New World, Speech by Jack DuVall, President, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

Political activism with a flick of the joystick

‘We can do anything we want’

Police brutality continues in the paradise-breaking news from the Maldives;

"Shaheedha told Minivan News: “Myself, Aniya and Eva were sitting in Republic Square, outside the police headquarters. Two policemen came up to us and told us to leave. Aniya said she could not because, as an MDP official, she was waiting for the MDP delegation to come out from the police headquarters. I said I could not leave because I am a reporter and I am reporting this incident. A plainclothes policewoman then came and hit Eva on the shoulder. Aniya and I held hands and lay down. They started to drag us along the ground by our hair. Aniya was kicked and about five policewomen picked her up by her hair and threw her into a police van. I was then dragged into the van. A policewoman sat on me. I asked her, ‘why are you doing that.’ She replied, ‘we can do anything we want.’

Aniya told Minivan News: “While we were in the van, a policeman opened the door and said something very rude to me. Then he punched me in the face with his clenched fist. The punch landed on the left side of my face. My face is now bruised and swollen. The male police officer then told the female cops: ‘Take them to a dark alley and dump them.’ They took us to a side street near the Maldivian Ports Authority. Shaheedha was pushed out of the van. I was thrown out. Then the police drove away and left us there.”

What continues to amaze me is that how a large segment of the population remains silent in the face of gross violation of their own fundamental rights.

Related;
Medical report of another victim
Even Angels Ask! Corruption of Public Discourse in Islamic Countries

A master-dispenser of illegal spoils

The Economist has an obituary of the ex dictator of Paraguay Alfredo Stroessner;

“For 35 years, from 1954 to 1989, Alfredo Stroessner ruled there. Under him, although he brought electrification, asphalt roads and friendship with America, the place became yet more isolated and benighted. The economy was based on contraband: whisky, cigarettes, passports, coffee, cocaine, luxury cars, rare bird skins, anything, until the unofficial value of Paraguay's exports was said to be three times the official figure. The style of government was a spoils system, underpinned by terror of a vicious network of spies and secret police. Foreign policy was a buddies' brigade with other dictators—Videla of Argentina, Pinochet of Chile—to co-ordinate counter-terrorism and assassinations. And the most famous tourist was Josef Mengele, the fugitive doctor of Auschwitz, riding into a village in the Paraguayan wilderness to be welcomed and protected….

His main machine of power was not the army. Although he was a distinguished soldier, rising to brigadier-general by the age of 36, and indeed had done nothing else in life since he was 17, he did not trust military men. He himself had skilfully ridden the divisions in the army to seize power from a civilian president in 1954. His policy was to keep the officers sweet with a cut from the smuggling revenues or a share of the contracts for his grandest project, the Itaipu hydroelectric plant built with Brazil on the Paraná. Some cronies amassed fortunes. General Andrés Rodríguez, who eventually overthrew him in what he contemptuously called a cuartelazo, or barracks revolt, built himself a replica of the Palace of Versailles…

…Paraguayans as a whole, however, were much slower to be disillusioned. It was true that he treated the country as his fief, to the point of picking out teenage girls for himself when he presented school diplomas; but he paid for the girls, set them up in houses, and gave their relatives money. You could argue that the Itaipu project left Paraguay with only 2% of the energy and 15% of the contracts; but that 15% had given the country, for eight years in the 1970s, the highest rate of growth in Latin America. General Stroessner was a master-dispenser of illegal spoils. Yet the dark truth of his Paraguay was that he co-opted even his opponents into that system with him.”

Eric Rasmusen offers an interesting anecdote;

“One former American ambassador to Paraguay, Robert E. White, remembered General Stroessner as darkly brilliant at profiting from others’ mistakes. Once, Mr. White recalled, the Paraguayan ambassador to Argentina had gambled away the embassy’s entire budget. The ambassador was immediately summoned to Asunción and was handed a confession to sign. General Stroessner then promoted him to foreign minister. “He could never have an independent thought or deed after that,” Mr. White explained.”

The above is a common denominator of all dictators. The sad story is how otherwise decent people remain silent in the face of such corruption and abuse of human rights and let people corrupt to their bones sit in the offices of government and parliament.

Related;
Ex-Paraguayan ruler dies in exile
Alfredo Stroessner: revisiting the general
Timeline: Paraguay
Even Angels Ask! Corruption of Public Discourse in Islamic Countries
Development as Accountability
Corruption of Legitimacy

Some Maldives related news;
Allegations of Corruption Against Top Ministers
ADK Hospital Leader; a clear-cut case of corruption
Sixteen Reasons why President Gayyoom Should Face Justice
Two Promoted In Kinbidhoo Health Centre Following Political Pressure

A New Maldives in Pictures

Photos via ZERO X.

It is heartening to see that democratic space seems to be widening. But the trend these days of authoritarian leaders seem to be let individuals and small groups express their anger- the motto goes something like this, ‘you can express discontent but just don’t get organized’

Related;
Government Ends Hulhudelhi Dispute With Promise Of New Harbour; predictably another island is now demanding a new harbour.
Government Accuses MDP Of Breaching Westminster House Agreement
How Not To Hold Talks
Photos of recent demonstration in the south of the country

Rice Trade in 16th Century Southern India

“It is worth stressing one again in the context of the south-west coast that the channels for the movement of rice, one of the more important on this circuit, were well defined. Thus, while Kanara rice found its way annually to the Persian Gulf and Muscat, not much made its way to Ceylon, except when the Portuguese Estado intervened to direct a fraction of the thither. Again, while we know of extensive trade in rice between Bengal and the Maldives, not much by way of Kanara rice, which had to travel a much shorter distance than that of Bengal, was exported to these islands. One part of the explanation lies in the re-export of Kanara rice from Malabar to the Maldives, but we must also bear in mind, besides the tastes and preferences for specific varieties, the fact that Bengal shippers and traders had a strong motivation to trade in the Maldives, given the importance of the return cargo, cauris.”

- The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500-1650 by Sanjay Subrahmanyam, pp.57-58, thanks to Google’s Book Search.

Related;
Subrahmanyam columns for Outlook India
Sanjay Subrahmanyam on Nandy: secularism, convivencia, millet system

A Government Free Island Declared

In the Maldives, an environmental protest by the islanders of Huludheli, continues for the 3rd day with the people locking up all the government buildings in the island;

“The island office has been boarded up, the fishing dhonis remain in their moorings and the jetty has been closed to outside visitors.

Welcome to Dhaalu, Hulhudheli, where one of first public strikes in the Maldives’ history has commenced in one of its smallest communities.

For fifteen years Hulhudheli islanders have complained that coastal erosion is threatening their very existence. On Saturday, their patience with government inaction finally snapped.

Hulhudheli’s 741 inhabitants downed tools and declared the island a government no-go area. The atoll chief, the police and the army have all been warned not to set foot on Hulhudheli.
”

More photos of the beach erosion.

This is how a protest in another island was ended.

A Tale of Two Small Countries

This August 13 marks the notorious Black Friday in the Maldives. There is still a long way to go till the country becomes a decent democracy.

In another small country, Seychelles, things seems to be going smoothly at least on the democratic front;

To the casual eye, Seychelles seems both fortunate and well-governed. The 115 islands, most of them uninhabited, cover a mere 445 square kilometres (175 square miles) of the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar, and enjoy several advantages over most of the rest of Africa. The weather is never extreme. There is no malaria. The islanders have free education and health care. Their multiracial society is pretty harmonious. With GDP at around $8,000 a head, there is almost no discernible poverty.

But this standard of living has come at a cost: the IMF says its public debt is too high and may be unsustainable. Mr Michel's main opposition, the Seychelles National Party, which scored 46% in the elections, claims that Seychelles, per person, is the world's most indebted country; with some $590m of external debt for just 82,000 people, it is certainly one of them. A black market in foreign currency already exists as speculation persists that the government, unable to meet its obligations, may be forced to devalue. Basic consumer goods sometimes run out. If, as the IMF predicts, GDP falls by over 1% this year, Mr Michel may find his next five years in power more testing than he had hoped.

The country needs more ways of making money. In the cold war, it was easy. The Seychelles played each side off against the other, remaining a member of the Commonwealth as well as the Non-Aligned Movement and taking military aid from the Soviet Union while leasing a satellite tracking station to the Americans. Since those streams of revenue dried up, the main Seychellois streams of revenue have been from tourism—leasing land to foreign hoteliers—and from tuna: the government earns about $200m a year from selling tuna-fishing licences to Spain, France and South Korea.”

For Discussions; Does bigger neighbors have a role to play in promoting democracy in small countries?
* Figures above from WDI 2006.

Related;
Fisheries Sector in of Seychelles and Maldives
“We’ve Been Lied To For 30 Years”
The Impact of Globalisation - a Maldivian Perspective
Virtual Seychelles
Australia and the South Pacific: roles and responsibilities; lessons from pacific

The Story of the Toddy Thief

Dhivehi Observer’s editor explains why he calls Mr. Gayoom, president of Maldives, Golhaabo;

“Toddy 'is the sweet sap of a variety of Asian palm tree used as a beverage, either fresh or fermented'. Toddy collecting is a long standing traditional occupation in the Maldives, but despite being hard and risky, it does not provide a substantial income. In fact, they are classed amongst the lowest income earners. To collect the toddy, the flower casing (bud) is cut at the top end before it blossoms and an empty coconut shell is hung to collect the drip (sap). It can take several hours to fill a shell, which usually has a capacity of about 500 ml. This coconut shell collector is locally called 'Golhaa', a word that originated from snail shell because it looks like a coconut shell according to linguists. When filled, the collector, known locally as 'Raaveriya' (toddy collector) or 'Ruh Araameeha' (palm tree climber) climbs up the tree and empties the toddy into a container made of two coconut shells in a vertical configuration, called 'Raa Badhi'. Raaveriyaa then walks around the island selling the toddy by the glass, and if he cannot sell his daily collection, it is cooked to make liquid sugar called 'Dhiyaa Hakuru', which the Maldivians love to eat with rice, coconut and dried fish, in addition to being a main ingredient for several local sweet dishes, such as cakes and sweet breadfruit dessert, among other.

The addition of 'bo' to 'Golhaa' to form 'Golhaabo' came as follows. Down South, in an island, there was a notorious thief, who would drink the hard collected toddy from the Golhaas before the toddy collector could climb up and fetch it. When the people of the island found out about this person, they named him 'Golhaabo', where 'bo' literally means 'drinker', because he steals from the Golhaas and drinks the toddy, taking away the hard earned produce of the toddy collector. People of the island made fun of him and soon he migrated to Male', the capital but even in the capital people shouted 'Golhaabo' at him every time they saw him and in retaliation, he would scream abuse at the people and even sometimes run after small children (in the same way now Golhaa Force, Gayyoom's militia police, runs after and beats the hell out of our youth when they chant 'Golhaabo Faibaa' (Get Off Golhaabo) during demonstrations and gatherings). In fact, it was this old man who was named 'Golhaabo' initially, after being tortured by Gayyoom several times for no reason, that went near the Presidential Palace and shouted "It is true I stole and drank the toddy of a destitute poor toddy collector, it is true I stole his hard earnings, but I was hungry, but look at you 'Maumoon', you are drinking the produce of every single Maldivian, so the title Golhaabo is more suited for you than me, you are the real 'Golhaabo', not me, you are stealing mercilessly from the poorest of the poor". After this incident, the poor soul was tortured, injected with tranquilisers and has been held captive at a mental institute after declaring him insane.”

A DO commentator thinks that people identifying Mr. Gayoom as ‘Golhaabo’ represents a political maturing of Maldivians- which we find hard to accept.The culture of small island communities may also explain the popularity of ‘name calling’.

* The picture shows 'Raa Badhi'- the small container for toddy collection made from coconut shells.

Related; Peter Boettke has an interesting post on tension between rational choice theory and anthropology.

Prostitution Cartels

Tyler Cowen asks, “Should prostitution be cartelized?”

It’s effectively a cartel in some parts of the world;

“The police have arrested ten foreign nationals for alleged involvement in prostitution…

“From what we gathered from the investigation so far, it appears that they are sending the money made from prostitution to their agents in their country…The individuals themselves are paid by their agents. The investigation is still ongoing and the full report will be made public very soon,” a police spokesperson said.”

In countries with large relative expatriate populations it will be extremely difficult root out prostitution.

Gan Island- Used to be a British Base

Dhivehi Observer is running some old Times articles on the Maldives;

Gan Aft Agley (Feb. 23, 1959)

"It is difficult," pontificated the Times of London two years ago, "to imagine either extreme nationalism or a scrupulous addiction to neutrality arising seriously in the Maldives." Seldom has the Times been more wrong. Unceremoniously kicked out of their sea-air bases by newly independent and neutralist Ceylon, the British decided to set up new bases farther south on the placid island of Gan in the Maldives, a splatter of palm-fringed dots in the Indian Ocean 400 miles from Ceylon. There are only 93,000 Maldivians—nut-brown, peaceable folk who have been under the wing of the...”

Those who served at RAF Gan have their own website- Royal Air Force Gan Remembered.

THE PASSIONS & PERILS OF NATIONHOOD (Mar. 11, 1966)

“FOR sheer and pervasive fervor, the love of nationhood has no equal among contemporary political passions. Independence is the fetish, fad and totem of the times. Everybody who can muster a quorum in a colony wants Freedom Now—and such is the temper of the age that they can usually have it. Roughly one-third of the world, some 1 billion people, have run up their own flags in the great dismantlement of empires since World War II, creating 60 new nations over the face of the earth. In the process they have also created, for themselves and for the world, a congeries of unstable and uneasy...”

Didi-Dee & Didi-Dum (Sep. 14, 1953)
“Most nations take years and shed much blood running the political gamut from monarchy to anarchy. But in the placid, unruffled Maldive Islands, which lie some 400 miles southwest of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, these things are done more calmly. Last January, after centuries of autocratic rule under a sultanate, the Maldives became the world's youngest republic by simple popular vote (TIME, Jan. 12). There was no trouble whatever; the sultans had long since tired of their confining work, and Amin Didi, the man the Maldivians unanimously elected to serve as both President and Prime Minister in the...”

Newest Republic (Jan. 12, 1953)
“The familiar strains of Auld Lang Syne swelled up from a sprawling cluster of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean last week, but the singers were not celebrating the New Year; they were merely singing their own national anthem. After years of autocratic rule under Sultans known as the Golden Feet,* the Maldive (rhymes with small hive) Islands had just become the world's newest republic. Queen Elizabeth herself sent the Moslem islanders a message from another island, wishing them "good luck, fair winds and calm waters." A British cruiser stood by to fire a salute, and thousands of...”

Amen for Amin (Feb. 1, 1954)
“THE MALDIVES Soon after the gentle people of the Maidive Islands abolished their centuries-old sultanate and elected Amin Didi their first President (TIME. Jan. 12, 1953), they began to regret it. Amin Didi was chock-full of reform plans—he wrote a new anthem to the tune of Auld Lang Syne; he abolished purdah and designed a new Mother Hubbard for women to wear; he forced the men to elect women to the legislature; he built an elaborate handicraft shop, despite the fact that rarely more than a half dozen tourists a year visit the isolated island chain (pop. 90,000) southwest of Ceylon. But the...”

Related;
Maldives History articles
History of British Empire
The Expelled People of Chagos Islands - evicted to make room for an American military base in Diego Garcia, just south of the Maldives

Do Some Countries Lose Out in Cultural Trade?

“Every culture represents an equilibrium among current economic and social forces”
-Eric Zones

According to UNESCO, three countries - the United Kingdom, United States and China - produced 40 percent of the world’s cultural trade products in 2002, while Latin America and Africa together accounted for less than four percent. So this implies to UNESCO head that;

“However, “while globalization offers great potential for countries to share their cultures and creative talents, it is clear that not all nations are able to take advantage of this opportunity,” said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. “Without support to help these countries participate in this trade, their cultural voices will remain marginalized and isolated.”

Even the Pope is worried about globalization. Pope Benedict’s 2007 encyclical will address “ethical and spiritual questions posed by the process of globalization.”

I’m not sure whether Daniel Cohen’s observation (cited at Café Hayek) that globalization adds to cultural diversity is generally shared among the general public. The title of the book reminded me of the comment made by Jagdish Bhagwati of the difficulty he had getting a publisher for the French edition of his book, In Defense of Globalization- he had to include an additional chapter on capital flows.

As for me, growing up in the Maldives one is bombarded in a sense by the culture of the neighboring giant, India. A large number of Maldivians understand the Hindi language- learned through watching Hindi films. I think it adds to the richness of the local culture and doesn’t make me less of a Maldivian.

Related;

INTERNATIONAL FLOWS OF SELECTED CULTURAL GOODS AND SERVICES, 1994-2003

Does culture need protection?- Podcast of the Day

When justice becomes a joke

“… (But) Judge Abdul Baree Yoosuf refused to grant the defendants the right to obtain a lawyer. In fact when one of the defendants Areesha Ali requested a lawyer the Judge replied that the trial was now over and convicted them for 4 months imprisonment just minutes after the proceedings began.''
- JSC Ignores Petition Against Summary Justice

Related;

Final report of American Law Professor Paul Robinson on Penal Law & Sentencing Codification Project for the Maldives

Bridge Academy in the Maldives- American high school students learning about human rights in the Maldives

The Island of Minicoy – India

In one of the islands in the Indian territory of Lakshadeep, the language spoken by the people is the same as that of Maldivians and yet in no time in history were the islands under Maldives rule, though there have been close cultural ties.

How the language of Minicoy came to be referred to as Mahl;

"The Lakhshadweep Administration refers to Divehi-bas as Mahl. This is due to a misunderstanding on the part of a British civil servant who came to Minicoy in the Twentieth Century during the time of the Indian Empire. The official asked a local what his language was and he said "Divehi-bas". The Englishman looked confused as he had never heard of this language. Noticing this, the islander said "Mahaldeebu" as he knew that people on the subcontinent referred to the kingdom to the south (the Maldives) by that name. The local name was and is Divehiraajje (Kingdom of Islands) and the language is Divehi-bas (language of the islands). The English official recorded the language of Minicoy as Mahl."

Related;

Globalization and the Maldives in the 14th Century & Today

Sohar; In 1981 the Irish adventurer Tim Severin wanted to build a replica of the ships that sailed the spice route 1,200 years ago. When he was looking for a reliable supervisor, Dr. Jones recommended Ali Manikfan to Tim Severin. Thus Ali Manikfan was given the responsibility of making the ancient Arab trading ship a reality. Ali Manikfan took this mission as a challenge and went to Oman to direct the team of carpenters. It took one year to build the 27 metres long ship and four tons of coir were needed to sew the planks of its hull, in the same way that ancient Maldivians had built ships

Republic of Hill & Knowlton

The UK Telegraph reports that the government of Maldives is using the services of Hill & Knowlton UK to improve its image overseas;

“The Maldives government has enlisted the services of a former Labour spin doctor to try to improve its tarnished image abroad.

Tim Fallon, a public relations expert who was seconded to Tony Blair's election team in 1997, is in charge of the Maldives account for the Hill and Knowlton PR agency.

There are some striking similarities between the New Labour spin machine and the tactics used by President Gayoom's autocratic regime

In May 2004, six months after Hill and Knowlton accepted a £13,000-a-month retainer, the government opened a "strategic communications unit" which almost daily pumps out press releases trumpeting the dictatorship's paper commitments to reform.”

We all have heard about the case of ‘babies in incubators’ during the first gulf war;

“More than 10 years later, I can still recall my brother Sean's face. It was bright red. Furious. Not one given to fits of temper, Sean was in an uproar. He was a father, and he had just heard that Iraqi soldiers had taken scores of babies out of incubators in Kuwait City and left them to die. The Iraqis had shipped the incubators back to Baghdad. A pacifist by nature, my brother was not in a peaceful mood that day. "We've got to go and get Saddam Hussein. Now," he said passionately….

The Kuwait government had to find a way to "sell the war" to the American public, who were interested, but not deeply involved. So under the auspices of a group called Citizen for a Free Kuwait, which was really the Kuwait government in exile (the group received almost $12 million from the Kuwaiti government, and only $17,000 from others, according to author John R. MacArthur) the American PR firm Hill & Knowlton was hired for $10.7 million to devise a campaign to win American support for the war. Craig Fuller, the firm's president and COO, had been then-President George Bush's chief of staff when the senior Bush has served as vice president under Ronald Reagan. The move made a lot of sense – after all, access to power is everything in Washington and the Hill & Knowlton people had lots of that.”

Some spin on behalf of rich countries may not be so much of a problem. But spinning for poor undemocratic countries using public money has real costs on the development.

"We are working to assist the government in a process of engagement with international institutions which we believe will ultimately be to the benefit of all the people of the Maldives."

Related Links:

Struggle for democracy exposes the dark side of paradise islands

Sun, sea and single malt

Hill & Knowlton Still Spinning For The Government

Climate Change as Terrorism

Lowy Institute, a think-tank in Australia has a new study reflecting on the security implications of climate change;

“In this Lowy Paper we argue that there is no longer much doubt that the world is facing a prolonged period of planetary warming, largely fuelled by modern lifestyles, which is unprecedented in human history in terms of its magnitude and probable environmental consequences. With a few notable exceptions, even sceptics now seem prepared to accept the validity of the basic science underpinning climate change forecasts.

Crucially, however, there is no consensus about appropriate strategies for dealing with the consequences of climate change, primarily because there is no agreement about its seriousness for international security. The reality is that climate change of the order and time frames predicted by climate scientists poses fundamental questions of human security, survival and the stability of nation states which necessitate judgments about political and strategic risk as well as economic cost.

The central problem is the rate at which temperatures are increasing rather than the absolute size of differential warming. Spread over several centuries, or a millennium, temperature rises of several degrees could probably be managed without political instability or major threats to commerce, agriculture and infrastructure. Compressed within the space of a single century, global warming will present far more daunting challenges of human and biological adaptation, especially for natural ecosystems which typically evolve over hundreds of thousands and millions of years.

Our principal conclusion is that the wider security implications of climate change have been largely ignored and seriously underestimated in public policy, academia and the media. Climate change will complicate and threaten Australia’s security environment in several ways. First, weather extremes and greater fluctuations in rainfall and temperatures have the capacity to refashion the region’s productive landscape and exacerbate food, water and energy scarcities in a relatively short time span. Sea-level rise is of particular concern because of the density of coastal populations and the potential for the large-scale displacement of people in Asia….”

It’s fashionable for leaders of small low-lying countries to complain about developed world causing havoc on the earth’s environment- it goes something like this, ‘why should we have to be the ones to pay for the lifestyle of the rich world’. I doubt whether any one living in a coastal community seriously considers that global warming is a real threat- all the talk hadn’t had much of a behavioral change on such communities to prepare for their inevitable fate as depicted in the media and in research.

Related:

It's Getting Warmer- Thomas C. Schelling

Prices and Quantities in Climate Change- John Quiggin

A Test of Our Character-Paul Krugman

Alaska feeling effects of warming earth

Letter from Maldives- Not sinking but drowning; But burning less oil to keep air cool so ice stays ice and the seas don’t warm is too expensive and roundabout a way to meet the danger, Mr Mendelsohn thinks. Wouldn’t it be cheaper, he asks, for Maldivians, and those like them, to move?

Podcasts;

A Panel discussion on Climate- from the Environmental Summit of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University

Collapse- Jared Diamond

Even Angels Ask! Corruption of Public Discourse in Islamic Countries

Most often commentary on the problems of reforming Islamic societies are led by lawyers, theologians, orientalists and philosophers- only rarely you hear from economists. I would recommend reading Timur Kuran and Albert Hirschman.

In the following quote Kuran tries to explain one of causes of the problem (Islam and Mammon, by Timur Kuran, p.143-144);

“The relevant mechanisms are developed in my book Private Truths, Public Lies, though within a general context rather than the particular one of Islamic civilization. It shows how inefficient social structures can survive indefinitely when people privately supportive of change refrain from publicizing their dispositions. The motivation for such preference falsification is the desire to avoid the punishments that commonly fall on individuals who enunciate unpopular public positions. One of its by-products is the corruption of public disclosure. This is because of individuals choosing to misrepresent their personal wishes will also, to keep others from seeing through the falsification, conceal their perceptions and knowledge pointing to the desirability of change. It follows that unpopular structures sustained through preference falsification might, if the conditions last long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The transformation would occur partly through population renewal: in the absence of criticisms of the status quo, the society’s new members would fail to discover why change might be beneficial. The argument applies to both the privileged and the underprivileged. If public disclosure treats a social structure as optimal, even its victims may fail to see how its destruction would improve their lives.”

So the real issue becomes how do we move away from the vicious equilibrium caused by the bandwagon effect under which preferences and ideas inimical to the status quo remain unexpressed? Edmund Burke was right after all- the only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.

Related Podcasts;

Spiritual Classics: Islam- The Qur'an is the holy text of Islam, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and taught by his Companions and Successors. Contemporary interpreters like Abdullah Saeed see signs of flexibility in the Qur'an itself and believe its ethico-legal content should be interpreted within a modern context. From New York, Reza Aslan discusses key concepts in the historical development of Islam. And Canadian author Irshad Manji looks to 8th century Islam for a liberal precedent. Abdualla Saeed is a Maldivian national.

What is Enlightenment? In 18th century Europe, the Enlightenment was a great movement of thought valuing freedom of expression and the pursuit of knowledge. But was it, in fact, rather narrow? Did it close off as many possibilities as it opened? This week we hear from an enemy of the Enlightenment, the Australian philosopher James Franklin

Maldives Update

Finally some internationally coverage of the events in the Maldives. BBC reports from the country;

“Police in full riot gear quelled the demonstrators outside the court, reports the BBC's Dumeetha Luthra at the scene.

At one point they suddenly turned on one of the BBC's team members.

Without provocation they squirted pepper spray into his face, and threatened him with violence and prison…”

EU also released a press release;

“Over the last months, the Maldivian security forces have repeatedly cracked down on peaceful gatherings in Male. The EU is very concerned over recent numerous arrests of peaceful demonstrators by security forces. These arrests create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among the civilian population and go against the spirit of the Government’s Road Map for the Reform Agenda published in March 2006.

The EU considers freedom of expression and freedom of association fundamental democratic rights which only serve a purpose if the people can exert these rights free from fear and intimidation.

The activities of the Maldivian Government’s security forces cast serious doubts on a full commitment to the reform process.

The EU calls upon the Maldivian Government to act in the spirit of its Road Map for the Reform Agenda and to create a favourable atmosphere for the political reforms it has committed itself to.

The EU considers it important for the government at this stage clearly to show the people of the Maldives a more accommodating approach to political opposition. As it does for the opposition to engage constructively in return.”

More coverage at Minivannews and Dhivehiobserver.

Let them Hate as long as they Fear

What kind of a sick mind would commit an atrocity on a harmless group of poor islanders? The kind that believes in the motto of Caligula, ‘Let them hate as long as they fear’. Here is the video.

Asian Centre for Human Rights had the following piece recently on the trial of the opposition leader in the country;

“…The trial is not so much about Nasheed who has been accused of “sedition and terror” but in reality, it is a trial of President Gayoom and his false proclamation about the democratic reforms. President Gayoom and his seasoned advisers should know that conviction will not make Nasheed a terrorist but will expose the State terrorism in Maldives where President is the judge and jury. The conviction will expose that President Gayoom, the longest serving dictator in South Asia, has no plans to give up power and much vaunted “Roadmap for the Reform Agenda” announced on 27 March 2006 is nothing but a ploy to buy time and to pave the way for convicting Nasheed….

First, President Gayoom and his cronies should be taken to Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan where sit-in-protests and clashes (more violent than in Maldives) with police is a common place and part of the democracy irrespective of how illiberal the countries might be. The best place at the moment is Delhi where hundreds of medical students have been holding protests against anti-reservation and there have been many violent clashes…”

Related News;

Courts Use Summary Justice To Convict Demonstrators

Does Gayoom Believe That Fear Can Wipe Out The Freedom Movement?

Four Year-Old Girl Arrested For Unlawful Assembly

Call for Action Against ‘Drug Kings’; Lobster catchers found 1,697 plastic bags packed with cannabis (hashish) in Maavuru lagoon near Alifu Alifu atoll- 1.6 tonnes of hashish in a lagoon!

Counterfeit Notes Found in the Safe of a Government Company; Over Rf. 1,000,000 (US$78,000) of counterfeit notes were discovered last month in a MIFCO vault in Gaaf Alif, Kooddoo, where MIFCO operates a fish freezing facility.

Dhidhdhoo Fishermen Dump Tonnes of Tuna in Atoll Office

Tiny islands, big intrigue; Concerned about China's growing interest in the Indian Ocean, a body of water and region that New Delhi considers to be its own sphere of influence, India is strengthening its already close military cooperation with Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny, low-lying coral islands strategically located about 300 miles off subcontinent's southeast coast. (Asia Times)

Linguistics and Cultural Roots of Innumeracy

Via Arts Daily comes the interesting story Pirahas tribe in Brazil who’s culture and language is brewing a storm among academic linguists and cognitive psychologists;

“Since 1977, the British ethnologist at the University of Manchester spent a total of seven years living with the Pirahãs -- and he's committed his career to researching their puzzling language.

The reaction came exactly as the researcher had expected. The small hunting and gathering tribe, with a population of only 310 to 350, has become the center of a raging debate between linguists, anthropologists and cognitive researchers. Even Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Steven Pinker of Harvard University, two of the most influential theorists on the subject, are still arguing over what it means for the study of human language that the Pirahãs don't use subordinate clauses….

Indeed, the debate over the people of the Maici River goes straight to the core of the riddle of how homo sapiens managed to develop vocal communication. Although bees dance, birds sing and humpback whales even sing with syntax, human language is unique. If for no other reason than for the fact that it enables humans to piece together never before constructed thoughts with ceaseless creativity -- think of Shakespeare and his plays or Einstein and his theory of relativity…

Linguistics generally focuses on what idioms across the world have in common. But the Pirahã language -- and this is what makes it so significant -- departs from what were long thought to be essential features of all languages.
The language is incredibly spare. The Pirahã use only three pronouns. They hardly use any words associated with time and past tense verb conjugations don't exist. Apparently colors aren't very important to the Pirahãs, either -- they don't describe any of them in their language. But of all the curiosities, the one that bugs linguists the most is that Pirahã is likely the only language in the world that doesn't use subordinate clauses. Instead of saying, "When I have finished eating, I would like to speak with you," the Pirahãs say, "I finish eating, I speak with you."

Equally perplexing: In their everyday lives, the Pirahãs appear to have no need for numbers. During the time he spent with them, Everett never once heard words like "all," "every," and "more" from the Pirahãs. There is one word, "hói," which does come close to the numeral 1. But it can also mean "small" or describe a relatively small amount -- like two small fish as opposed to one big fish, for example. And they don't even appear to count without language, on their fingers for example, in order to determine how many pieces of meat they have to grill for the villagers, how many days of meat they have left from the anteaters they've hunted or how much they demand from Brazilian traders for their six baskets of Brazil nuts.

The results, published in Science magazine, were astonishing. The Pirahãs simply don't get the concept of numbers. His study, Gordon says, shows that "a people without terms for numbers doesn't develop the ability to determine exact numbers."

His findings have brought new life to a controversial theory by linguist Benjamin Whorf, who died in 1914. Under Whorf's theory, people are only capable of constructing thoughts for which they possess actual words. In other words: Because they have no words for numbers, they can't even begin to understand the concept of numbers and arithmetic.“

Some Thoughts and Links;

At Language Log there is an interesting discussion of the issue with author pointing out may be Gordon is pushing it a little too much with his Whorfian spin. Dan Everett’s email response is also illuminating.

I listened to this song of the the Piraha people (the people do not call themselves Pirahã, which is not even a word of their language), it didn’t sound that strange to me. I really don’t how much you could generalize from the culture and language of a very small tribe in the Amazon. What was more surprising to me was that they had no concept of art or drawing in their culture- look at the drawing of the cat above.

Language from Yanyuwa Country; a tribe of Australian aboriginal people. Hear is podcast discussing their culture. Diwurruwurru - The Message Stick; the Piraha people should have a website like this

Maldives: The Dhivehi language and Thana Script, A Dhivehi-English Dictonary, Historical and Linguistic Survey of Dhivehi

Exploring the Mathematical Brain / The Mathematic Brain- a brief introductory podcast /A Cerebral Basis For Number Sense /

Economics of Witch Hunting; an earlier post on a related field.

Of Beauty Contests

The first Miss Maldives
beauty pageant was held in the country in 1953 (the person who organized it, the first president of the country Mr. Amin Didi was overthrown and died eventually of the injuries inflicted). In early this year the government’s Information Ministry gave permission to hold a beauty contest in the country but later its Home Affairs Ministry released a press release stating:

…“whoever was organizing the beauty contest not to go ahead with it.”

“We will carry it out as a normal fashion show,” he said, adding that two much had been spent already on the event."

So the event was eventually held as a fashion show. For some religiously inclined people just changing the name is sufficient to appease them. What did you think of the rebranding of the ‘War on Terror’ to ‘Struggle Against Violent Extremism’. Here a blogger takes a Taoist interpretation of importance of words in the war of terror. It will always be difficult to win a war declared on a technique.

Above pale into insignifance what the people have to go through to bring about a genuine democracy and basic freedoms in the country.

Related; Celebrating Miss Pakistan- definitely the world is more complex than it appears.

Economics of Witch Hunting

I used to think black magic and mysticism were unique to small isolated communities. It seems that magic is something unique to human culture all over the world. One of the best such documentaries I’ve seen is the award wining National Geographic film, ‘The Great Indian Witch Hunt’. Apparently in the Indian state of Jharkand government had to enact a law banning witch hunting;

“In the interiors of states like Bihar and West Bengal, ‘witches’ or ‘dains’ and their children are still hunted and killed. Witch-hunting is one of the least talked-about acts of violence. The murder of individuals and entire families accused of witchcraft is common in other states too, such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. From 1991 to 2000, over 522 cases of witch-hunting have been registered in Bihar alone”.

The following is an official version of the trial of a black magician who was sentenced to death in the Maldives;

“The black magician's trial was held at the Civilization Club on Tuesday 7 April 1953; "The judge conducted a very broad and generous investigation, and the jury found that Huvadhu atoll chief Veeru Ali Didi had been murdered. He was given a mixture of brewed tea and poisonous fish. The tea had been prepared by Nilandhoo Hakeem Didi and Viligili Anees (who died before the trial). Acting under instructions, Anees had written an evil spell on very poisonous fish and boiled it in water. The water was then used to make the tea.

The truth of this incident was clearly proven to the jurors when Hakeem Didi repeatedly confessed without any hesitation. He said he had told Anees all about the black magic and how to do it. He knew the poisonous fish could kill a person, and that if a black magic spell was written on it and then the fish was boiled, the person drinking it would surely die."

Most intriguingly the puffer fish is also used by blacked magicians in Haiti and is associated with zombie magic. The poison found in the fish is said to cause progressive limb paralysis while maintaining consciousness- which has the potential to be used for future space travel!.

In Africa even the high profile believe in the power of witchcraft;

“A recent presidential commission on “satanism” in Kenya, headed by an Anglican archbishop, blamed the country’s floods and droughts on devil worship. Your correspondent once interviewed a defector from Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA movement in Angola. Having delivered a credibly detailed factual account of human- rights abuses by Mr Savimbi, this well-educated man declared that he now feared for his life because Mr Savimbi turned into an owl every night and was then able to fly anywhere in the world.”

The latest edition of the BBC series, ‘In Our Time’ discusses the role of fairies and magic in western culture; In what way have fairies changed in guise and purpose throughout history? How did ancient fairy lore sit with the Christianity of the Middle Ages? How were fairies appropriated for the purpose of the 16th century witchcraft trials? And why did fairies obsess so many Victorian artists and writers?

Related Links;

- Poverty is related to witch killings in Tanzania; The victims are typically elderly women and the killers are often relatives. Predictably enough, Edward Miquel finds that there are more witch killings when extreme weather conditions cause poverty. After all, witches are believed to cause bad weather. In Tanzania, witches are also suspected to cause disease, but an increase in disease does not seem to increase the number of witch killings. This raises the possibility that the women are not scapegoats. Instead, when times are tough, some women are being murdered to avoid the costs of supporting them.

- Some of the Horrors of Pre-Modern Society- a post by Tom Palmer

- A shocking video of an exorcism in the Maldives, it comes with the following warning;
“what you are about witness is real, horrific and a controversial video. This video should not be abused and must be used solely for educational and research purpose. It has been claimed that this is an authentic video of an exorcist practicing exorcism on a subject who has been a victim of an evil spirit. Heart patients should avoid this at all costs.” (browse down on the right side until you come to the post titled Exorcism Purification ).

- Poscast interview with Wade Davis, a noted anthropologist and ethnobotanist; it’s the most insightful podcast I’ve listened to, talks about such topics as how literacy can be a bad thing in tribal societies, the links between caffeine and industrial revolution, looks at American society and politics from an anthological lens and his comments on the drug war almost sounds like that of an economist.

- In the blogosphere I could find only two blogs that border on anthropology and economics; This Blog Sits at the and Social-Political Culture of the Muslim World. Comments welcome.

The Right to Tell

“There has never been a famine in any country that has been a democracy with a relatively free press.”- Amartya Sen

Today is the World Press Freedom Day. Pablo has a set of links on their blog. I would add the World Bank publication ‘The Right to Tell’ to the list.

In Maldives the day was celebrated with;

“…riot police assaulted three international press freedom monitors on Wednesday evening, following a government crackdown on World Press Freedom Day celebrations in Male’.

At least six people were also arrested including Minivan sub-editor Nazim Sattar, who was detained while translating for the foreign delegation as they spoke with ‘Star Force’ police.

Vincent Brossel from Reporters Without Borders, Thomas Hughes from International Media Support and Sadaf Arshad from the South Asia Press Commission are part of an international delegation currently in Maldives to assess the state of the media.”

There is large gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to press freedom in a lot of places across the world.

Clinton's Speech on Disaster Reduction

"Indeed, I often think about one of the nations that I have worked hard to help in the tsunami, the Maldives, a small country with only 130,000 people for which I have developed a great affection. My successor in interest at some future point will not have to worry about them anymore; we will just take a bunch of boats and take them away as their little nation vanishes under the water.

...if you want a disaster prevention system that works, we have to address this. We have to do more to address the underlying causes of vulnerability."

- President Bill Clinton

Endangered Wonders of the World

Maldives is listed as one of the 7 most endangered natural wonders in the world by the lastest edition of the Newsweek;

"It might not seem possible for an entire country to sink, but that is exactly what is happening to the Maldives, a nation of 12,000 islands that contain some of the richest marine life in the world. With more than 80 percent of its land less than a meter above sea level, the Maldives are particularly at risk from the rising sea levels caused by global warming. The 2004 tsunami, which devastated the country’s infrastructure, has already erased some tiny atolls and the country’s maps have been redrawn. Conservationists hope to prevent further erosion by regrowing damaged coral reefs."

Related Links:

- Ocean Jewels, NASA

- Tsunami Added Height to Atolls

For Hedonists it is without Parallel

Forbes last year had a list of the world’s most expensive resorts, one of which is in the Maldives;

And certainly, if any unlucky seaman found marooned in the Maldives in the 18th century was told that in the 21st century people would be willing to pay $10,000 to spend the night there, not to mention thousands more to travel there, he would have thought you had been spending too much time at the grog barrel.

Or take the newest property from One&Only Resorts, the One&Only Maldives at Reethi Rah, which was developed in conjunction with Kerzner International, a five-star hotel and resort operator. Here, guests enjoy the 109-acre island resort and its 12 private, white-sand beaches, and take their pick of the 130 guest villas. Some are on the beach, some over the water and some have their own pools--but each one comes with a "villa host" available around the clock to make sure the Champagne is properly cooled, or to test the pool water before anyone takes the plunge. Nightly room rates here start at a comparatively reasonable $930 during the holidays. But to avoid the riff-raff entirely, plunk down $1 million, which buys five days of room, board, Champagne, wine, tennis, diving and one spa treatment each for you and your 200 nearest and dearest.

It is said that Sol Kirzner invested some 150 million dollars at Reethi Rah which probably set a new standard in the Maldives. Sol Kirzner was named Hotelier of the World last year. The title is from an advertisement for a resort.

Let a Thousand Blogs Bloom

Reporters Without Borders has released a handbook for helping startup blogs on how to stay anonymous and avoid government censorship. On protecting your emails the handbook says;

"Most governments now have the means to spy on electronic messages. The “cyberpolice” in repressive countries use it to spot and arrest political opponents and many Internet users have been thrown in prison for sending or even just forwarding an e-mail. A political dissident in the Maldives was given a 15- year jail sentence in 2002 for corresponding by e-mail with Amnesty International. An Internet user in Syria has been in prison since February 2003 for forwarding an e-mail newsletter."

I learned about it via DeadParrots and RConversation.

The Art of Running an Electricity Company

Male, the capital of Maldives has one of the highest densities of any city in the world; some 80,000 people live on an area slightly larger than 1 square mile.

In June 2005, newspapers
reported the following:

State Electric Company or STELCO day before yesterday announced that it would reduce electricity charges during July. The company did not say by how much it will reduce fees but STELCO’s managing director Abdul Shakoor hinted that the price may reduce from 20 to 30 percent when he said that the changes would be made possible with the use of intermediate oil. About 60 percent of STELCO’s expenditures go to fuel, according to him. The change of electricity prices will not only be brought to the capital Male where around 100,000 people or about a third of population reside at any given time, but also in outer island communities.

Just recently newspapers reported the following:

State Electric Company (STELCO) has said that they are trying to raise the price of electricity to overcome the losses caused to the company.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Managing Director of the company Abdul Shukoor said that comparing the price of oil in the market and the price of electricity, the company will have a loss of Rf 50 million per year. He said that Rf 100 million is also not enough and that about Rf 140 million is required.

“For the coming year also subsidy Rf 50 million will be required. Otherwise we cannot manage,” Shukoor said

Well in three months if there is such a reversal of fortunes of a government owned company, it is left to one’s imagination what could happen to the resources of the state. Maybe Lynne Kiesling should make a visit to the Maldives to see how electricity companies are run in this part of the world.

Remembering Evan

In September 2003, a young Maldivian was brutally tortured to death in the government prison island. The head of this government recently visited the United States; the photo with former President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative was on the president’s office website for over a week.

“ ….the NSS force took Evan in there and they must have shackled him. We heard the sound of metal restrainers being put on. Then they began to beat him. Evan was just the first prisoner they beat that night.

We heard Evan crying out with pain, 'Mother! Father!' he kept on calling out loudly. Then there was no sound. The NSS took Evan out and brought other prisoners in, and chained them together in a line…

The NSS officers handcuffed Evan's hands together above his head and wrapped a tarpaulin around his body. They lifted him up with a pulley so his feet just touched the ground. He was beaten and when he stopped making any sound, they threw water over him and resumed beating him again. They kept beating him with a measuring rod and police batons for a long time after he stopped making any sound.

The Corrections warden said Evan was faking and being tricky, so they put fire on various parts of Evan's exposed arms as they continued beating him. They also broke a chair against his head. Evan was probably already dead by this time.

While the NSS were killing Evan, the other prisoners whose names had been called were being tortured and beaten. The NSS took Evan's body away…”

Violence in The Maldives

Paul sends an urgent email; violence is growing in Male, the capitol of the Maldives, on the anniversary of last year's pro-democracy rally. The main opposition leader, the pro-democratic Mohamed Nasheed, was arrested during a peaceful protest. Others had to be dragged away:

Mohamed Nasheed, who heads the Maldivian Democratic Party and is a vocal opponent of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was leading a 600-strong rally when he and four colleagues were encircled by riot police and whisked away.

"It was a peaceful protest until some undesirable elements joined ... and they started to get a bit unruly," acting government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said by telephone from the island cluster's capital of Male. "We had to take Nasheed away for his own safety.

The objective of this handful of political extremists is clear: They want to destabilize the economy at a time when national efforts have been geared to attaining full recovery after the tsunami, and to stir up violence and hatred on the streets, instead of participating in the democratic process.

The photos here tell the entire story. I am unable to connect with the government's Voice of Maldives feed.

Here's a backgrounder on the Maldives. Check back here for updates throughout the day.

The Maldivan Democratic Party appears to have more, but in the Divehi language, not in English.

UPDATE: Paul sends in another email:

The whole thing is pretty grim: police mercilessly beating children, pregnant women, without any mercy. People have been dragged out of mosques.

The government has no regard at all to the constitution... it gives the right for people for free assembly...

I don't understand these so called ministers and others prostituting (that may even be an insult to prostitutes) for such a murderous regime. Maybe I have learned from a different book than theirs, that there is such a thing as human rights.

Like in Saddam's Iraq when the government turns on its own people, who is there to help?

Sadly there has been little or no international press coverage. Meanwhile the government run media put outs this charade of false news.

Getting High in Paradise

The following accounts tell the grim story of the drug abuse situation in the Maldives:

My mother first introduced me to sex. A family friend abused me for money to support her mother�s drug usage. I was abused at the age of nine years. As my mother was an addict she sent me with a man asking me to do whatever he says. There I was abused. I came and told my mother about it and she pretended that she didn�t know that he was such a bad person. After that I heard mom encouraging him for the act saying that I might deny, as I was a child. My abuse was one main reason I had to use drugs in order to avoid stress. Thereafter sex is nothing precious for me. I had sex when I was 12 years old with my boyfriend. Later as I started using drugs I wanted to support my addiction so I got into a relationship with a dealer. My boyfriend does not allow me to be with many addicts or to go and buy drugs from others. I mostly use in my room at home with my boyfriend.

-female drug user

Wife of a brown sugar and hashish oil abuser had the following story:

On those days when my husband had taken a lot of drugs I ask my children not to irritate Dad. Not to make him promise to do anything for them or give anything to them. Because I know that he will not be able to keep the promises he makes to the children.

Sometimes I felt like killing all of my children and myself. There were days when I was not able to afford basic needs. Like a sanitary napkin when I have my periods. I go out in the night and collect plastic bags and make pads for myself. On such occasions people approach me thinking that I am a prostitute. I had no way of supporting my three children and myself so I had two affairs. They were with people who approached me when I go out at night to collect �things�.

My in -laws blame me for my husband�s drug use. They say that he uses drugs because of me. I feel very heavy inside as I feel that there is nobody who understands me. The fact that I do not have my husband by my side makes the hurt more. After my husband was taken away this time I felt lonelier than ever before. We were much close physically and mentally this time than any other time.

In Maldives the legal system interacts to make drug situation more complicated as the following story of a 19 year old boy illustrates:

I was dependent on brown sugar by the age of 16 and started stealing from home and outside. I used to steal from shops, mug people on the streets, cheat people for money and even begged on the streets. I continued like his until I was caught robbing a shop and sent to jail for two weeks and the brought to house arrest.

I was sentenced within a week and was banished. During my banishment, I used cologne and alcohol. I was brought back to house arrest after one year and then released after six months.

The above quotes are from the UNDP sponsored first ever comprehensive study of drug abuse in the country, Rapid Situation Assessment of Drug Abuse Situation in the Maldives 2003. Though the approach and the sampling used could have been better, it illustrates the grim situation facing an entire generation of Maldivians. Newspaper reports constantly remind of ever worsening of the situation. The Government�s response has been to spend more money on rehabilitation, getting more committees set-up and even praying to God for deliverance from drugs.

For Discussion & Comment: How could the Maldives effectively control the drug abuse situation in the country? Legalization is not an option- Maldives is a 100 percent Muslim country where all forms of alcohol and drugs are banned for locals. Quoting John Stuart Mill, "Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign" will not work.

Here is good survey of illegal drugs from The Economist. Here are drug policy experts on the blogosphere; Mark Kleiman, Drug War Rant of Pete Guither and Vicesquad.

Here is a recent story from New York Times Magazine about drug abuse, My Addicted Son.

Tsunami and Human Stupidity

Maldivian opposition newsmagazine The Dhivehi Observer had the following satirical joke related to the tsunami disaster that struck the Maldives and the region on the December 26th 2004.

On 26th Dec '04 early morning several hrs before the catastrophe happened, Honolulu Tsunami Monitoring centre have been trying to call our Meteorological Dept. monitoring centre at Male' International Airport, Hulhule but failed. They also got in touch with President's Office however it was informed that he's out of the island on a private vacation.

Finally they called Defense Minister's office, but Defense minister was out on his morning meeting. Thinking at least it's best to keep him vigilant on this, the Honolulu officials left the message with the person who picked up the phone to inform Defense Minister that there's a Tsunami coming from Indonesia.

On Defense Minister's return, the operator told Defense Minister Hon. Shafeeu about the call, said Mr.T. Sunami from Indonesia is arriving in 2 hrs. Defence Minister promptly took action to send a delegation to Male' International Airport with name boards ' Welcome Mr. T. Sunami � Indonesia�

Across in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the BBC reported, an Indian helicopter dropping food and water over the Islands was attacked by tribesmen using bows and arrows. The Indian government was relieved saying that the attack was a sign that they survived.

May be humans should learn from animals.

New Year Deluge in the Maldives

When I went to the office on that calm Sunday morning everyone was talking about the small earthquake tremor that was felt in the capital Male� at around 6.30 am in the morning. There was no acknowledgment of the earthquake by the government media yet banned opposition sites confirmed the earthquake and its links with Indonesian earthquake early in the morning. At around 9.35 am somebody shouted in horror that the sea was coming. We ran near the windows and my goodness, the sea was coming in like a torrent. The roads were flooded up to the knees and people were shouting, crying and screaming in shock. No body in living memory has seen such a thing.

Male� the Capital was spared most of the damage thanks to the Japanese built tetrapod breakwater across the island. The total number casualties is over 70 and some 40 people are missing. The number is likely to double when everything settles down.

One person from the Laamu atoll I met told about the horror he witnessed when tsunami came in. At around 9.30 in the morning while he was sitting near his beach front home, suddenly the sea disappeared for about half a mile. He could see the fishes gasping and struggling on the dry sea-bed. It stayed like that for about five to six minutes then the waves started coming in like a torrent. He was saved when he jumped on to a boat nearby.

Compared with other countries, Maldives is lucky that waves were not as high as that hit India and Sri Lanka. The 200 islands that are inhabited and some 80 resort islands are at their highest 3 feet above sea level.
When the shock had subsided most people were feeling angry at the way government handled the whole thing. The government established a Task Force at one of the schools (it might be more appropriately called a Confusion Force). The telecommunication system had broken down and even after 24 hours there was no contact and news from many of the islands. People asked why was there no early warning of a possible tsunami as everyone new of the massive earthquake that occurred off Sumatra. To make things worse some of relief supplies sent by the government to the islands had labels such as �complements from such and such a person� (this was the time of election campaign for the parliament). It is amazing that some senior government officials had the guts to do such a thing during a time of national disaster.

As the Maldives economy wholly depends on tourism (in Thailand tourism is about 12% of GDP and about 9% of employment), the Maldives can be said to be relatively the worst hit of the countries affected. We would need huge assistance from foreign countries to get back on our feet. But more importantly the country needs accountable leaders and prudent management of the country�s thin public finances. We cannot afford the current levels of waste and endemic corruption.

The best way one could help is to urge your governments to assist Maldives (probably in-kind assistance will be the most helpful in the short-term). Below please find the account details set up by the government for donation:

Name of the Accounts: Ministry of Finance and Treasury - Disaster Relief Fund
Bank: Bank of Maldives PLC, Mal�, Republic of Maldives
Bank SWIFT Code: MALBMVMV
Account numbers:
7701 - 147 900 - 002 (Foreign Currency)
7701 - 147 900 - 001 (Local Currency)
Assistance urgently required for relief operations: Water, Food (eg: Packet food), Medicine and Clothing.

Tsunami hits the Maldives

I have not been able to check in with Paul, our Maldives correspondent. The Maldives is a popular tourist destination this time of year. From a first-hand account:

The Maldives are pretty much in a straight line north to south.

"The tsunami hit right across the face of the Maldives. Some of the atolls and islands are anything from sea level to a maximum of 4ft above water....

"When we went back to the island where the airport is, there were many troops from the security forces. There is a Pakistani warship in town and its helicopter has been used to check out some of the outlying islands.

The water in Male had receded 75% from early this morning. Things seemed to be much better. But as the water recedes it has left all the silt and sand and debris. There has been lifting of all the paving stones and tarmac, it has ruined the transport infrastructure.

There is no determination whether the election will proceed or not. We are supposed to go out to the outlying islands on Tuesday, then stay after the elections to draft our report before returning on 5 or 6 January.

Amartya Sen and the War on Terrorism

I was surprised to learn that Al Qaida had planned to attack even the Maldives as mentioned in the 9/11 Report:

Furthermore, during the summer of 2001, KSM approached Bin Ladin with the idea of recruiting a Saudi Arabian air force pilot to commandeer a Saudi fighter jet and attack the Israeli city of Eilat. Bin Ladin reportedly like this proposal, but he instructed KSM to concentrate on the 9/11 operation first. Similarly, KSM�s proposals to Atef around this time for attacks in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Maldives were never executed, although Hambali�s Jemaah Islamiah operatives did some casing of possible targets. (p. 150, 9/11 Report)

Would it be ever possible to stop people like Al-Zarqawi graduating from delinquency to extremism and terrorism. The Noble laureate Amartya Sen seems to think so. Sen (age 70) is currently working on a book that focuses on the concept of identity:

"A person can be a U.S. citizen, of Malaysian origin, of Chinese racial roots, a Christian, a vegetarian, a tennis player, a good cook, a heterosexual but supportive of gay rights, a lover of classical music, a hater of opera, and a believer in creatures from outer space with whom it is �extremely urgent� to talk� preferably in English!� Each of these identities might be very important to an individual, he says, but a problem can arise when others use these identities to typecast the individual or to persuade or pressure him or her into being recruited into sectarian groups that are belligerent toward other groups. Identity-based thinking might seem innocent, he argues, but repercussions can be tremendously harmful.

What we need, Sen counsels, is �clarity of thought� to make the world a better place. It is particularly important to emphasize the role of choice in deciding what relative importance we would like to attach��have reason to attach��to our competing multiple identities. A Hutu who is being recruited to a group that torments Tutsis can try to see that he is also a Rwandan, an African, a human being. He can resist, Sen insists, �smallness being thrust upon him.�

If Bin Ladin is reading this he might understand this, after all he studied economics.

Globalization and the Maldives in the 14th Century & Today

Arab traders brought Islam to the Maldives in the twelfth century AD. The following quote from a famous Arab traveler, Ibn Batuta (1304-77 AD), looks at the Maldivian society of the time when he reluctantly accepted the post of judge or Qadi:

The people of Maldive Islands are upright and pious, sound in belief and sincere in thought; their bodies are weak, they are unused to fighting, and their armour is prayer. Once when I ordered a thief�s hand to be cut off, a number of those in the room fainted. The Indian pirates do not raid or molest them, as they have learned from experience that anyone who seizes anything from them speedily meets misfortune. In each island of theirs there are beautiful mosques and most of their buildings are made of wood�Their womenfold do not cover their hands, not even their queen does so, and they comb their hair and gather it to one side. Most of them wear only an apron from their waists to the ground, the rest of their bodies being uncovered. While I held the qadiship there I tried to put an end to this practice and ordered them to wear clothes, but I met with no success. No woman was admitted my presence in a lawsuit unless her body was covered, but apart from that I was unable to effect anything.� (cited in Islam: A Very Short Introduction, Malise Ruthven, p. 123)

It is hard to believe that an unknown stranger would be invited to become the Attorney General upon arrival. Maybe people trusted each other more in those times. Or maybe the Maldivians are so sincere that they never think bad about other people. Who would not love to be a dictator over such a docile group of people?

Here is a site devoted to the ethnography of the Maldives. The most widely read news media is The DO news bulletin published on the net which happen to be banned and the URL blocked by the government. The site has the highest number of daily hits per capita of any banned political site on the web. For more on the Maldives read Thor Hayerdahl�s Maldives Mystery.

Quote of the Day

A new cabinet Minister was recently assigned as Minister of Gender, Family Development and Social Security in the Maldives (shown in the photo). In a recent interview she was quoted saying the following:

�It is your (media�s) problem that you are promoting thin women and not looking at fat women (to find beauty in them)! Perhaps with the right medical attention those who need to thin needs to get thin�

I can�t see any sense why the media would conduct any program that promotes unhealthy dieting habits. Media should not air any programs that endangers health. We can still diet in a good way but I have to say that most of Maldivians� eating habits are not good. We eat too much hedhika (oily snacks)! We should eat more vegetables and fruits. We should also eat the right amount and not in excess. If this is so, then it�s not a very big issue. Everybody wants to look beautiful. If in this era people think thin people look beautiful, then people will try to stay thin�It�s not good to go hungry to become thin.�

Sad Maldivian Fact of the Day

In a recent speech, the President of the Maldives (Mr. Gayoom), quoted some alarming statistics on the prevalence in the Maldives of a rare hereditary disease called thalassaemia:

�Another health issue of great concern to the Maldives is that of thalassaemia. Nationally, one in five persons is a thalassaemia carrier and one in every 120 newborns suffers from this blood disorder. If preventive steps to reduce the incidence of thalassaemia in the Maldives are not taken, informed projections show that in 50 years� time, the cost of treatment could consume over 40 percent of the per capita health expenditure. And what is worse, half the country might have to become blood donors for the other half, a nightmare situation that would be quite unsustainable��

Thalassemia is a disease which was originally widespread in the Mediterranean Basin, South-East Asia and various countries in equatorial Africa�.The term "Thalassemia" implies a genetic disorder of an extremely heterogeneous group which is characterized by a reduced or erroneous production of hemoglobin, the respiratory pigment contained in the red cells. The probability of a child being born affected by Thalassemia Major - the most serious form of this genetic disorder also known as "�-Thalassemia or Cooleys Disease" - is a 25% chance if the parents are carriers, that is to say if both possess one of the two genes for erroneously coded haemoglobin in their cromosomic make-up� If up until now correct transfusion therapy has been the only available treatment for patients affected by Thalassemia Major, it is today possible to cure the disease by way of performing bone marrow transplant using a compatible donor and in this way replacing diseased cells with healthy ones.

In a poor country like Maldives a bone marrow transplant is not a viable option for many; children suffering from the disease must undergo monthly blood transfusions and daily injections of iron chelating agents. Poverty combined with other related social problems make the situation worse as the following story illustrates:

�Fathimath comes from Himmafushi, an island in North Male atoll with a population of around 800. She is 20 years old, has already been married once, and has two children. Like many other young girls and boys in the islands, she was not lucky enough to complete her studies in the capital Male. The education facilities on her island do not provide tertiary education and hence very few get the chance to complete their studies.

Fathimath comes from a poor family of five children, and since she is the third child, the chances of her coming to Male to continue her studies were low. When she had completed grade seven, her family decided that she should get married and settle down. By the age of 17, she was married and was soon pregnant with her first child. By the time she was 19, her husband, who had been working on another island, had divorced her to marry someone else and she was left alone with two children to take care of. As there were very few job opportunities on the island, Fathimath was left with a job that did not pay her enough to take care of her two children and herself��. The Guinness Book of Records latest edition describes Maldives as having the highest divorce rate in the world.�

Here are some background statistics on the health sector in the country and more on how the disease is inherited.

Prisoner of the Month

A prominent Maldivian artist Mr. Naushad Waheed is being profiled at Writers in Prison for this month:

A cyberdissident and prominent artist in the Maldives, Naushad Waheed has been an outspoken critic of the government for many years. His latest arrest took place on 9 December 2001 in Mal�. He was held in Dhoonidhoo detention centre for about five months before being transferred to house arrest. On 14 October 2002 he was tried in the Criminal Court without access to a lawyer or the opportunity to defend himself and ten days later was sentenced to fifteen years. He was charged with treason, reportedly because of his involvement in public debates deemed critical of the government and correspondence with Amnesty International detailing human rights abuses�

The following Amnesty report comments on the dire states of the human rights situation in the country including the state of the criminal justice system:

�The courts apply a version of the Islamic Shari�a mixed with elements of the civil law of 1968 and its amendments. The modified Shari�a does not include amputation or stoning to death but sanctions floggings and the sentence of banishment to a remote island. The origin of banishment as a punishment in the Maldives reportedly dates back to previous centuries when rebellious slaves - brought back by some Maldivians from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca - were marooned in the island of Felidhu.

Under current regulations, the length of the banishment sentence may vary from eight months to one or two years but much longer sentences are reportedly also imposed. The prisoner is sent to live on an island with the local inhabitants. It is then left to the prisoner to earn money - usually through hard labour - to top up the meagre daily allowance given to him or her by prison authorities. This allowance is reportedly a very small amount of money hardly sufficient for one meal a day. Prisoners who cannot find work have to rely on the financial support of their relatives for subsistence�

Mohamed Nasheed, writer, politician and member of parliament advocating reforms, was arrested on 8 October 2001 and held incommunicado for several weeks. On 8 November, following a trial lasting only two hours, he was sentenced to be banished for two and a half years to a remote atoll, on charges of "theft" of unspecified government property. During his trial at the Criminal Court, he was not permitted access to a lawyer or to speak in his own defence. After the trial, he was banished to a remote island.� He was "expelled" from the Parliament in March 2002 on grounds that he had been absent for more than six months - while he was in detention.

�On 8 November 2001 he was taken to court where he was charged with the "theft" of "government property". The charge reportedly related to the purchase, apparently without payment, of several children�s copy books at an auction at the former residence of former President Amir Ibrahim Nasir in October 2001. Mohamed Nasheed was one of dozens of visitors to this auction. According to him, the official from whom Mohamed Nasheed inquired about the price told him the books were insignificant and he need not pay. Several other visitors who were buying other small items were also reportedly told they need not pay. However, Mohamed Nasheed was the only one who was charged with theft�A political motive behind his arrest was obvious. Prior to his arrest, he was outspoken in the parliament, advocating reforms. �Furthermore, Mohamed Nasheed�s computer was taken away for scrutiny�

For some lucky criminals being banished to a remote island may not be that bad after all as this article from CNN suggests. Anyway it is such a sad spectacle to see peoples� fundamental rights being violated in this age of democracy and the internet. Another MP seems to have become now in disfavor of the government.

Drafting a Criminal Code for the Maldives

Recently some controversy has been brewing with regard to a decision by the University of Pennsylvania�s Law School�s Professor Paul Robinson to cancel his �Criminal Law Theory Seminar� and replace it with the three-credit Maldive project:

�The seminar will revolve around a single project: drafting a new criminal code for the Maldives. The work has been requested by the Maldivian government and is sponsored by the United Nations Development Program. Because the Maldives is by constitutional mandate an Islamic nation and, as a matter of law, all citizens are Muslim, the code will be the world�s first criminal code of modern format that is based upon the principles of Shari�a.

After studying the existing Maldivian criminal law statutes and the criminal law principles contained in Shari�a, student teams will propose criminal code provisions and critique the proposals of others�.

Daniel Pipes and the blogger at LittleGreenFootballs (both of them are noted for their hatred of Islam) have been critical of Professor Paul Robinson�s consulting work. He defends his work saying:

I do criminal code consulting for many countries. A few days ago, one client, China, beheaded a person for embezzlement. (Worse than anything the Maldivians have done.) Should I now refuse to advise them further on what I think a criminal code should look like? Your strategy of willful disengagement seems an odd way of bringing greater justice to the world.

The Maldivians are in the midst great social change. A special parliament called to draft a new constitution met for the first time two days ago; disagreements among the members spilled into demonstrations in the streets�

I do not know how the Maldivian criminal code project will turn out. Like many criminal code projects, it may go nowhere. I have no power other than the persuasiveness of my advice, which, experience tells, is often limited. But is it an enterprise worth undertaking? I would think it shameful to decline.

Here is a Maldivian opposition group alleging the UNDP�s support in assisting human rights abuses in the country and a recent case illustrating the state of the criminal justice system in the country:

Criminal court says case against parliament speaker cannot be looked into
�Referring to the Justice Ministry�s Circular 98/3, a criminal case has to be investigated, and has to be forwarded to the Criminal Court by the Attorney General�s Office, the court said in a press release. The court said that a criminal case filed by an individual cannot be looked into by the court�

Still More Porn Lessons

The ever interesting Michael at 2Blowhards had the following post on the history of porn in Denmark:

Porn was legalized in two stages. The first, in 1967, lifted restrictions on print porn ("print" as in "text" -- novels, etc). The second stage ended restrictions on virtually all other kinds of porn.

While the business of erotic novels and such had flourished under censorship in a modest and illicit way, once this work was made legal everyone lost interest in it. The market for it collapsed.

Legislators took the second step -- making all other kinds of porn legal -- believing that the demise of text-porn was a trustworthy predictor of the move's consequences. Instead, demand for all these other kinds of porn (pictures, movies, etc) exploded.

Unsure what to make of this but ever-curious.

My take: I think one needs to look at a much broader level as well. Enacting a law is the typical default response from lawyers and politicians when they see a vice. But for laws to be effective there probably needs to be a social will to enforce those laws. To quote a great sociologist Emile Durkheim, �When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.� By hurrying to enact laws, we are also taking away responsible behavior as well.

Vice Squad from the Maldives

The local daily Haveeru reported in July 2003 the following story of a teenager who was fined for downloading porn over the internet:

An 18-year-old man has been fined Rf1,000 (about US$78) by the Criminal Court for downloading pornographic pictures from the Internet.

Haveeru has been informed that this is the first conviction of such kind in Maldives which has no cyber laws in force yet.

A cyber expert was present at the trial and the historic ruling on July 8 was passed on the context that under Maldives' existing laws, downloading pornography from the Internet amounted to "importing pornographic material into the Maldives from a foreign source," Criminal Court's senior magistrate Hassan Saeed told Haveeru on Thursday.

It is obvious the lawyer who tried the poor teenager did it for his own vanity and ambitious lawyers are the last thing a poor country needs.

The economist Steven Landsburg, in his book Fair Play: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values and the Meaning of Life gives the following advice to his daughter.

Surf the Internet. I�d much rather have you getting your pornography from cyberspace than by rummaging around your parents� bedroom.

In fact, I�m glad the net makes it easy for you to get ahold of things that other people would prefer you not to get ahold of. Family values crusader Donna Rice complains that �any child with a computer can access vile pornography in matter of seconds. And once they have seen it, it can never be erased from their mind.� You betcha, Donna. The Internet is the natural enemy of those who are out to erase other people�s minds.

Let�s be honest- access to pornography is not part of the cost of the Internet; it�s one of the benefits. The whole purpose of the Internet is to facilitate communication and to thwart those who would hamper the free exchange of information.

Lawyers will probably not understand it. For more on economics of vice see the excellent blog Vice Squad.