'minivan' media- on paper only!

I bumped into this bright young kid friend working in a private radio/tv station. She aspires to be a journalist after completing her a ‘levels.

‘You know, you guys are ***ing on our head in the name of independent journalism. We want facts and only facts and no opinions. ..’ I blurted out and went on and on about expressing our frustration with the media. In her defense she told me this

‘You know, we can’t show certain colours, people, pictures and read particular news’. Some of you may not be surprised to hear that but I was shocked.

What?!! Did they specifically instruct to do so?’ I asked her

No, it’s done very subtly and I want to get out from this circus and i’m not gonna do journalism. Changed my mind you know’. She said

Listening to factual, objective, well analyzed news and reports are a dream; we thought we realized with the new constitution. Truth is far from it and the whole media is guilty of playing partisan politics in the name of national interest and independent media. Each and every news channel is like a mouthpiece of a certain party. I guess its time we demand for a law on independent media.

The Perfect Honest to the Core and Willing to die for National interest MPs, will need a little push to pass such a law, before we lose our sanity.

Fat salaries, blood, money and the vote!

Maldives is a country where you would not find a single correlation between fat salaries to public officials and improvement of the sorry situation we are in, even if you spend 100 lifetimes to search for it. Take a look at how money and blood is squeezed from our systems (literarily and figuratively) for the past decade. In this decade we have lost count of how many times the salaries, perks, benefits to public officials are raised. 

 For instance, number of tourists coming to Maldives is at an all time high reaching nearly a million. Yet, Maldivian businesses are begging for dollars. The banks do not have funds to give loans for ordinary citizens. Where is all the money?  Maldivian businesses (especially tourism) using every available resource in the country to make profits,  are happy to keep a paltry amount for salaries in our banks and stash the rest in foreign banks, leaving  our economy, ordinary businesses and citizens dry. 

MMA and the police (government) are like sleeping beauties, while the great Maldivian robbery is taking place in broad daylight. And the good old parliament neatly stacked with tycoons by us- thanks to selling of the vote, would not lift a finger, even if our blood is squeezed alive. Anyways, it is squeezed everyday, by the jobless, aim less youth addicted to drugs and a world of crime. Still the big boys irrespective of colour and office are happy counting their fat salaries instead of passing necessary bills (and sentences) such as criminal procedure code and evidence act, currency regulation act etc. Practically, we are paying the price for selling the vote with blood and money.

In this scenario you might ask which party to vote in the upcoming council election? The best you can do is be colour blind and focus on the task of finding who has the capacity, integrity, ethics to do a decent job for your island and you will be lucky if you find one. The least we can do is not to sell the vote and demand for right resource allocation instead of wasting it on pleasing and pampering the mighty and the powerful.

Taming the citizens in charge of Artificial Citizens

A friend of mine told me nowadays the fisherman does not bring the whole catch at once to the fish market- to control the price of fish and by the end of the day sometimes he has to throw the excess into the sea! That’s from the primary level. 

When you look at the tertiary level the topic that appears in most headlines is 'shortage' of dollars and the resulting black market. (A little bit of research here and there (wiki, tourism ministry, stats) gave some figures. Basically, on average a tourist stays for 8 days and spends about 755 dollars (or foreign currencies). From July- September 2009 tourist arrival is 44332, 52388, 50396 respectively.  A rough calculation on how much dollars (or foreign currencies) should be entering into the country from July- September gave a staggering 1.2 billion; 1.2 billion in foreign currencies should be circulating for various transactions within the tourism industry alone in the Maldives!)

You might say we are corrupt from top to the bottom.  Of course we are and we will be fools if we expect power brokers in high places to address such issues in a society that flourishes on nepotism, greed and all the vices you can name.

Anyway, that got me to thinking and I stumble upon this e-book on power and accountability while googling.....  It is based on United States, but it’s worth a read if you are interested in taming the wild corporate tigers and businesses.  A quick skim through the book gave the insights below

• A company or registered business (Artificial citizens) accepts the benefits, rights and protection of the system to pursue profits.
• In return it is an obligation and a responsibility of the entity and its owners to conduct their business in a manner that is consistent with public welfare.

If we want a vibrant society that is based on justice, fairness and equity, it is the business of the public to see that the above ideals are a reality. Sadly, civil society action on corporate accountability, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility is almost nil and we need to change that. 

References

Power and Accountablity by Rober A.G Monks and Nell Menow

United and on top

It pays to be united. Who would miss the opportunity to be in the top of the lists of any feasibility study on investments, projects, plans, schemes?    For an answer check the results of last referendum on administrative islands. Anyhow, now on, Addu will be referred as the largest island in the Maldives in terms of size and most probably with regard to trade, commerce and industrialization as well -in the near future. Congratulations!

Atoll Facts: before and after Presidential Decree (2010/15) on inhabited islands of the Maldives

Atoll Total inhabited islands before decree Total inhabited islands after decree Atoll population (census) 2006 Largest natural island/district(s) in the atoll (area in hectares) Male 1 1 46,647 Male'  197 Ha 16 14 19500 Baarah 248.8 Hdh 16 13 22,186 Hanimaadhoo  259.5 Sh 16 14 14679 Milandhoo 125.5 N 13 13 14,042 Kedhikolhudhoo 218.7 R 15 15 19138 Fainu 50.1 B 13 13 11,993 Goidhoo 113.5 Lh 5 5 11205 felivaru 42.5 K 9 9 10,009 Kaashidhoo 276.5 AA 8 8 6246 Thoddoo 142.2 Adh 10 10 8,679 Dhigurah  42.8 V 5 5 2162 Felidhoo * 11.8 M 9 8 6,499 Kolhufushi  75.6 F 5 5 4713 Nilandhoo 49 Dh 8 7 6,740 Kudahuvadhoo 67 Th 13 13 13938 Kadoodhoo 78.2 L 12 11 14,464 Gan 516.6 Ga 10 9 12188 Kodey 104.4 Gdh 10 9 18,485 Vaadhoo 167.3 Gn 1 1 10193 Fuvahmulah 420 S 6 1 29,020 Addu (hithadhoo, feydhoo, maradhoo, maradhoo feydhoo district) 622.8  Total 201 184 302726 Source: Presidents Office, DNP

Lessons from Worlds’ most expensive ‘concrete junkyard’!

These days, the talks of creating other cities like Male’ is the buzz word. Nobody knows how the Majlis will decide on the issue of granting, another island(s), except Male’, city status by law. The purpose of this post is not to marvel, at the sincerity and commitment of those Mps (especially from the atolls) to meaningful regional development. The million dollar question is do we really want to repeat the Male’ experience? 

Male’ is the health capital, educational capital, infrastructure capital, industry and commerce capital, political capital ...etc of the Maldives. The residents and non-residents alike are paying the price of someone putting all eggs in one basket by squeezing everything under the sun in this tiny place.   There seems to be no end to the rat race for using each and every square meter of land in Male’ for housing shops, offices, Godowns, workshops.....The trees, sun and fresh air have no place here and the ‘ sunny side of life ’ belongs to tourists only, in this part of the Maldives. 

To make it worse, the generations who started families before 30-35 years have to worry about housing for their children, grand children, and even great -great children. The children have nowhere to go except -the sea maybe? Thus each and every person who has even a tiny bit of land wants a 10 storey building that may not be even fit for chickens and pigeons, no matter how shiny and velvety, the inside is! It is sad to say, but Male’ could be, one of the most expensive concrete junkyard in the world!  Previous governments (even current power brokers in the parliament - except one member  maybe) gave a blind eye to the situation.  For instance, we inherited countless regulations on food safety, cleanliness and selling expired items but no such thing to regulate housing for dwelling purposes. 

The previous government initially did try to ease the burden on the City of Male’ and its permanent residents by committing to development of regions and reclaiming land in Male’ itself, followed by villingil and Hulhumale’. Again the objective of this post is not to talk about what went wrong with meaningful regional development or how much of the reclaimed land for Male’ were used fairly and equitably, to provide housing for the residents of Male’.

I guess when you really think about it, none would want to repeat the Male’ experience  because progress of any kind at the cost of trees, sun, fresh air, open spaces, quite residential areas separate from commercial hubs is not worth the price. 

There are so many lessons to be learned by developing regions and cities in the story of Male’. Future councils and planners need to think before making another million dollar mistake by concentrating each and every service in one island. Even the people in bigger islands need to embrace the idea of moving for specialized services; They can go to India for medical purposes and Malaysia for education -right! There is no reason why similar movement within the Maldives cannot be generated. After all sea is part of our life. Perhaps that’s what people are saying in this referendum. We do not want to repeat the Male’ experience!

Everybody hates 'bed tax'!

It’s strange! It is not this governments’ idea that Maldives should be divided into regions and developed by creating 4 or 5 urban areas where quality services are available. The creator of the policy and ‘champions of decentralization’ (aka previous government on the advise of countless local  and international experts) disowning their own creation is a bit of a mystery. Look into each and every plan developed by previous government and you will find the same thing emphasized, magnified again and again in bold letters. 

Everybody hates bed tax! That’s why honourable mps in the majlis got rid of it from the  balance sheet of their companies by law! Who would entertain the idea of indefinitely paying 80 percent of their income as  'bed tax' to live like refugees in a match box size flat with no air or natural light just to get  a decent education, health services and jobs? 

So have a heart! We too want live in our own home  and where decent education, health services and jobs are plenty. We are giving up one for the other and that should change for democracy in the Maldives to work.

Note: Really wonder who gives policy advice to some mps. Anyone with presidential aspirations can say bye bye to their hopes if they angered the citizens of most populated and largest islands in the country.

The whole thing might backfire!

So far the noise regarding the referendum on islands proposed as one administrative unit is rather minimal with comments like there should be a law on referendum, and some groupings do not make sense etc.  Lack of proper laws is one aspect that stands between us and economic progress; but who is interested in passing such laws. Sometimes it seems that the problem with us is we have too many lawyers and criminals and ‘capitalism without ethics loving politicians’ rather than economists, engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs etc. (I know it’s a contradictory statement-we need honest lawyers and politicians. Don’t laugh.)

Living in a tiny island with a population barely reaching 500 is expensive and risky. You may have to hire a boat for couple of thousand Rufiyaa, even to buy a Panadol or staple food items like rice, floor.., If you can’t wait for a day or two, to get it.  Cost to maintain such an island to government is quadruple or even more because the basic services have to be provided in spite of it being available from a nearby island within a 10 minute boat ride. We have solved none of these extraordinary problems requiring ordinary solutions. The end result of this neglect is few people being transferred to the first world while half of the majority is in the third world and the other half is in the prehistoric era.  

Nevertheless, the government is not doing enough to educate the people on resulting benefits or loses of the move. Some talk on the ‘ if and possibilities’ is not enough. The people have the right to know the Hows and the Whats! Perhaps the government itself is not clear at the moment about what hardships will be eased up; except that, all will be able to reap the benefits of economics of scale and low transaction costs. In theory, to ensure success of any major change, it’s a must to provide some benefits (cheap ferry services within the administrative unit?) at the initial stage. Otherwise the whole thing might backfire!

Related link: Islands proposed as one administrative Unit (island) for the upcoming referendum: Population before and after merger

For more go to Resource Page