prices going high

A new year came with high hopes and blessings from loved ones and peole around us. However the signs so far are showing an ill omen. The past year also was an unhappy year for msot middle class and lower class citizens in terms of finance. Fuel prices were fluctuating and remained higher than avaerage throughout the year, while rents and prices of bare necessities went on increasing alarmingly.

The head lines on the second day of new year was marked by the record high fuel prices. It would again cause an increase in prices of many goods and services as most are dependent on fuel. The taxi fares which were increased last year by transport authority may escalate this year as a result of increase in fuel prices. Increase in price of any goods or services agitates the land owners of Male' and they think that its a sign that people are getting more money and hence they start to increase the rent.

Its not rocket science to understand why prices are going high, but I always relate economics to the very basics. In basic economics it says wants are unlimited and reosurces are limited and this leads to demand and supply. Rents are going high because the demand is more than the supply. Rents are the main factor for increase in prices of many other goods. So how can we increase the supply. Well the central authority or the government can do this by building flats and housing units enough to reduce demand. In many cases the flats build are not to ease the demand but to resolve public outcry over the government's negligence. This escalates the problem as corruption becomes the foul play in distributing such flats or lands. So if the government builds enough housing units within a short period of time the supply will be enough to ease the demand and hence to reduce prices.

Also land owners need to think in a rational manner to avoid the abuse of unfortunate people who dont have lands in Male'.

Why is it so difficult to quit quitting?

I often hear the words " I quit" and sometimes I find it hard to believe that while some can quit things often others find it hard to quit.We often find hard to quit a stronger commitment such as a relationship or something we are obsessed with. Some quit their studies and some quit their jobs and some quit their life. Some even quit quitting. Sometimes we see that it becomes difficult to quit quitting in politics. Some politicians quit quitting and can remain in their position for 30 to 40 years.Why?. I feel its not because they are mad or bad, but because they are sick. May be its a psychological disorder.

Hmm what im trying to say is that if this is a psychological disorder then we must treat quitting and being unable to quit as psychological origin. I asked a friend of mine who quit his blog and he says there is no apparent reason(www.thoughtsunboxed.blogspot.com). Man, Im gonna miss your blog.There goes quitting, but i bet you, my old friend you have quit for a reason.

Lets look at a few more examples of quitting. The new maldives quit from an old regime due to frustrations mound over them as a result of failures of the regime in bringing reforms. Well quitting if u get furstrated is a sign of good health. But the regime however is unwilling to quit and this shows there is a psychological disorder in those who refuse to quit. Another mate of mine quit her studies and career because her health is not sufficient to continue it. Well so my friends quitting is not a problem as long as u do it for a healthy reason, but being unable to quit quitting is a big problem.Think about it if u cant quit quitting .Thats when you really need a psychiatrist.I should quit my quit quitting idea now, other wise I may become a psychopath.

My friends,Bondhu, Machaa, Bhai and Mahathiyaa

In our little country we have got many friends from neighbouring countries. I always used to think about them and I used to encounter with them when I go for my frequent coffee or tea or breakfast at the various cafes, kadas and hotaas and restaurents. Most of the time I come across with them in hotaas.

Thinking about why there is such an influx of legal and illegal immigrant workers and reasons for them to come to Maldives is not a suprise. In a place where discrimination towards certain types of manual labourers such as rubbish collectors, waiters and construction workers and a young aged population with no interest in such work is one reason perhaps. But also the greedy buisness people who could save their penny easily by getting cheap labour could be another cause.

No matter whether they are illegal or legal or from which ever natioanality they are happy people. They do donkey days of work and get only one hoilday in the week which of course is evident when we walk around Male' on a friday evening. When ever I enter a hotaa they usually come and ask what do I need. Sometimes when I tell them cool water in dhivehi they bring normal water and viceversa. I am not sure whether it is because they dont understand the dhivehi language or because they have a motive of getting satisfaction by being irritative and assertive. Some customers talk to them in a raised voice, with threatening vulgar dhivehi words, and treats them in a more unethical manner which some may say as animal like treatment. No wonder why many of us Maldivians find it irritating to be polite and thankful to people who serve us.May be Maldivians have become such arrogant and unpolite people because they may feel disgusting to thank a dirty manual labourer. Some even avoid these friends in consideration with hygiene. Well it is of no suprise when such tough men work like donkeys without any breaks to refresh they would of course smell like goats. Moreover being not well enough to spare a deodorant or a good quality soap with theier earnings is another reason or perhaps not being provided with enough freshwater to cleanse their body in their traditional bathing style in rivers as their bosses dont like to see a fat water bill.

Hmm strangely no body bothers about whatt goes in the kitchen, except when an occasional hair in a bajiyaa or a piece of boakibaa is evident while savouring the hot an spicy delicacies. Many such kitchens are also infested by roaches and rodent aliens as well and our friends never bother to kill or chase them. May be they feel empathy towards such aliens in their surroundings and want to show others it is inhumane to victimise gods creations.Well its of no suprise as the hotaa is both a bed room cum bathroom cum hotaa. In the night our firends who are not given places to sleep put tables in the hotaa together and spread a sheet on them and sleep over these tables. Sometimes their washed clothes including their undies may be seen hanging on a rope near the corner of kitchen. Well still they are happy and they continue to enjoy the day heat and ocasional rain and the tropical climate, Maldives which of course is the paradise to a person who only enjoys the physical environment.

My dear bondhus and bhais and machaas and mahathiyaas, with your ways and your life and your labour, how could we ever live without you????

to a special someone

your my dream
your my everlasting friend
there is no one else who can take your place
your name is engraved in my heart in gold

you remember those happy moments we had together, dont you?
those moments are like precious diamonds and i will always cherish those moments
the simple happiness of those perfect moments will always remain with me
with the light of the early day and the quite words i pray i always remember you

when i think of you my soul gets revived
and i want to burn in the desires of your wild dreams
but too much love is not good
I love you so much, and have the fear of loosing you
it makes me to have a distance with you
but i dont want to have this distance any more
loosing you may hurt me, but its unbearable for me to be away from you
please let me love you again and again and forever

your ever loving friend
Ibs

Condeming the attack on 29th September in Sultan Park

well its not easy to sit without disseminating my thoughts about the recent criminal act of terrorism in Male'. I just wondered about Maldives and lots of thoughts came to me. First thing which came to my mind was rule of Sultans in Maldives. Our history tells that lots of cruel things were done in Sultans Palace where Sultan Park is now. This included killing people and burrying them in huge earthen ware pots which we call "GULHI".Well then our society transformed from the Sultans era to a new modern world, and I thought why this cruel acts again. I could only think of one reason, some of us are still having the thinking we had centuries back. Islam is our respected religion and some of us have grown in to radical fundamentalists over the years. I recently met 2 young fellows who are studying to become lawyers and had a chat with them. I was suprised by their arrogance against west and non muslims. They even claimed that non muslims money and wealth are to be grabbed and they are our enemies. I have to debate with them for hours instead of my busy schedule, and they were so much drenched in this they refused to beleieve anything I told. well in the end I have to vanish from the scene as a kafir ( anon beleiver in Islam). I was so outraged.

Yes of course our beloved prophet Muhammad(PBUH) was born in a desert and his followers were mostly nomadic Arabs. But the religion he brought was to the whole world. So it doesnt mean we have to bring sand from desert to our islands and live a desert life. Fundamentalists view are such that we have to live such a life. Of course for the love of prophet we can do things he had done and surely we wil get blessings for that. But we should know the limits of it. By doing things exactly the way it was done thousands of years ago will not be very relevant at this modern age. Consequently Countries like Saudi are also not following such age old traditions. How can we say that sending childrren to schools doesnt agree isalmic views. Its totally wrong as our prophet asked those non muslims caught in War of Baduru to teach muslim children. He never said non muslims cannnot teach muslims. By not sending our children especially girls to school our economy will get affected as we will not have enough man power to boost our growing economy. Besides keeping women confined to home will elevate poverty and hence such familys will become more and more poor leading to more social problems. The root cause of all this problems is socio economic. As peopple with such extremist views arent earning enough their deprivations lead to frustrations which they show as anti ssocial behaviour against societies well mannered people.

We have to curb these fundamentalist ideologies from our society without any delays. It is spreading like fire in the society. These fundamentalists usually target school leaving age children and teenagers. So we need to satrt an awareness campaign to school leavers. There are 2 problems we need to make school leavers aware, thats is DRUGS and FUNDAMENTALISM. We also need to give career guidance to students. I sometimes wish we could have open day awareness programmes for schools in such issues. Our Education Ministry needs to be more proactive to promote hidden curriculum in schools.

I wish a beter Future for my beloved Nation, the peceful and serene Maldives.

2100 infantry and the culpresco fiasco

In every government office those who pass olevel or Alevel and join are paid 2170 Maldivian Rufiyaa as a salary.Hence I call them the 2100 infantry.These are a bunch of young and vibrant, people with huge potential.Sadly in our system of good governance and good practice many of the people above director generals are corrupt and uneducated.They have been promoted not on basis of merit, but on their ability to puff air in to senior level people like ministers and deputy ministers.Sometimes if you become the personal caretaker of such people you could immediately get a good promotion. Be aware that sometimes you may be asked to do shopping for your boss or clean his car.If you dare to do this go ahead for a promotion.
Hmm... well the culpresco fiasco is now used by 2100 infantry to escape from their bosses.
In a particular case the boss comes worried.
Boss: have you send that chack to bank yet?
21ooinfntry guy: no sir not yet!
Boss: Why are you so careless! What are you doing in office?
2100infantry guy: Sir im very busy doing all filing and stuff
Boss: you always come here and waste time
2100 infantry guy:Sir actually that check got "culpresco"
Boss: really! then you better hurry and clear the "culpresco" and get it done.
2100 infantry guy: yes sir Ill do it as soon as possible
Boss: you should have told me it got "culpresco",
Well this was the begining of culpresco fiasco. Neither the boss nor his clerk knows what culpresco is.However the clerk got a good excuse and easily escaped from the lashes of his whip.but he was able to make a fisaco of this regarding his boss. So what good is it to keep educated people under the control of such people.Well just because of their experience and dedication I guess, or rather loyalty to a senior or influencial person. Anyways such humiliations go on everyday in our office environments.But im really offended by the culpresco fiasco and hope our 2100 infantry will find better excuses.

sterotyping, an unforgivable crime

Growing up in a society with so many restrictions and living in a monotonous society for a long time makes a person ignorant in terms of respect and accepting individual differences. However outside exposure and spending sometime in a multi cultural and multi racial society would open our eyes in to the real world. People are different, not because they choose to be. God has created us differently as a test of patience and humanity of us. However in the Maldivian society, people get labeled in various ways and are criticized and even abused. However we all should remember that God created all of us equal and in Gods eyes all are equal, except for his or her good deeds. So if we keep on doing this it’s a shame and we should not encourage racism and hatred in our society. Let’s not be labeled as racists.