Island Chic’s Babble

I have always been uphappy with the speed my Chinese is going. I guess i should fear no more. I’ve just found my short-cut. All I need to do is read these out loud!

1. That’s not right ……… Sum Ting Wong
2. Are you harboring a fugitive?….. Hu Yu Hai Ding
3. See me ASAP……….Kum Hia Nao
4. Stupid Man …………..Dum Gai
5. Small Horse ………..Tai Ni Po Ni
6. Did you go to the beach? ……..Wai Yu So Tan
7. I bumped into a coffee table …….Ai Bang Mai Ni
8. I think you need a face lift …….Chin Tu Fat
9. It’s very dark in here …..Wao So Dim
10. I thought you were on a diet ……Wai Yu Mun Ching?
11. This is a tow away zone …….No Pah King
12. Our meeting is scheduled for next week ……….Wai Yu Kum Nao?
13. Staying out of sight ………Lei Ying Lo
14. He’s cleaning his automobile ….. Wa Shing Ka
15. Your body odor is offensive …….Yu Stin Ki Pu

There was probably one type of incidents/occasions in my life where it would have been a cooler to just be a man. (One such incident: Living in Singapore in the summer, I once had a roach that flew into my room. I moved out & slept on my couch for 2 days till someone else got rid of it for me). I know it’s a bit extreme and I probably shouldn’t have told the whole world about my wildest fear, but hey, I know at least 90% of us oestrogen dominant beings are with me on this!

Save for this unfortunate adversity in the presence of multiple-legged & disgusting living things that crawl in the dark, I honestly think its womanhood has its perks (FYI – this statement is naturally applicable to 3 out of 4 weeks in a month).

Here’s some on the plus side of being a chick…

1. Wear knee-high boots and be completely comfortable in them
2. Swing our hips when we walk (88 baby!)
3. We don’t get distracted by boobs
4. Able to multi-task/ juggle
5. Feel-good stuff (chick-flicks, gossip-magazines, bubble baths, manicures etc.)
6. Retail therapy (we can actually enjoy shopping)
7. Can wear pink/purple/orange or even neon green and carry it well
8. High heels
9. We can totally giggle
10. Absence of balls (hence can never be kicked in the nuts)
11. Can order ‘pretty’ drinks with umbrellas (Oh they are delicious!)
12. Help is readily available with stubborn bottle caps, heavy doors etc.
13. ‘Ladies first’ (especially in a queue)
14. Can cry (even in public)
15. Oh, and we can take a rest while we pee [Thanks @Crumbsey for this one]

Child abuse has always been a topic I’ve been passionate about. Being an island girl, I did witness my fair share of abuse of children which has somehow been accepted by many as ‘parenting’.

Whether it is due to the lack of education or the mere nature of the environment they live in, not much has changed since then. We still see cases of people beating up children under the disgusting disguise of ‘disciplining’ their children. It seems like the fact that the children are their own, gives them the right to raise them however they want, which I believe is not 100% acceptable. There is such a thing called ‘the rights of a child’.

I recently came across this video posted by a Maldivian (Sparexenith ) on CNN iReport and I couldn’t help feeling shameful that I belong to a country where such acts of inhumanity go undetected and unnoticed.

If this is how our parents think they are teaching children to grow up to be sensible human beings, responsible citizens who’d shape the future of their country, our parents can’t be more wrong! This is what causes our children to become rebels, lost souls without direction and purpose of life, who turn to alternative even dangerous means to make up for the special parts missing in their lives, like parental love & care.

When the old generations just cannot believe how the new generation has lost their values, respect for others and resort to violence, one should give a little thought to the ways and means which have been used to shape the personalities of the new generation. If you used violence to discipline a child, what you get back perhaps is violence as well!

It is a serious issue, which needs to be addressed in the Maldives & perhaps elsewhere in the world too. We need to educate families, teach people alternative ways to discipline their children, create conducive environments for children to learn the ways of life without enduring physical pain, whether it is inside their homes or outside.

Next time you hitting your child, please DON’T!

The hype about Google Wave, ever since its launch to the privileged few, have definitely been causing enough waves in the social media to create curiosity among the ignorant and not-so-tech savvy lot (I’m in there somewhere) to want it, no matter what!

The array of blog posts, twitter accounts created merely for the purpose of seeking Google invites & you tube videos ‘will clean your house for free’ for a Google Wave invite, are few examples of the level of enthusiasm Google Wave has brought about.

Anyway, I have recently jumped on the Google Wave bandwagon and I’m proud to say I didn’t have to pay for it on ebay or expose any body parts to do get it! A fellow tweeter, Rafiq Phillips was kind enough to send an invitation my way. Thank you Rafiq!

Now, that I am on Google Wave, having seen the long video explaining what Google Wave is, reading like a kajillion blog posts about it, tweeting about it for weeks…I am thinking….now what? Since it only has limited number of owners, I only have few Google Wave friends and almost all of them are either on MSN, Gtalk, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr.

Here’s how my online presence works…

Skype – for close friends I want to have video/voice chat with

MSN & Gtalk – for friends I interact with almost every day (for eg. chat while working)

Facebook – Stay up to date with people I ALREADY know and share photos, news, organize events etc.

Flickr – Share photos and interact with people I have not necessarily met but whose work I enjoy

Twitter – Interact with anyone and everyone who has an opinion on something which is of interest to me, catches my attention, or is interesting in general

Linkedin – For professional acquaintances, to stay up to date and for networking

As we can all see, these are a lot of networks and it requires me to remember many passwords. So it seems like Google Wave is the end to all of this multi-verse online presence! Google Wave is supposed to converge all this into one big bundle of joy! I can talk, share documents, photos, maps, videos, organize events, brain storm and …blaah blaah all on just one account. Sounds perfect doesn’t it?

But then…I was thinking. On Google Wave, so far it seems like I am at a loud social gathering of some sort…where dozens of people are trying to talk to me about 10 things at once, show me pictures of their kids, work places, while others are want me to listen to this new song that came out, showing tid bits of movies they have recently watched, location of this new cool restaurant in town etc. There’s about 120 people on a Wave with everyone talking and cutting in everywhere, and have absolutely no idea what we are talking about at this point. Joy!

I am just wondering, is this how it’s supposed to be, or is this just the initial hype? Are we eventually going to get used to it and find a system among all that chaos? Are we going to get comfortable with the idea of letting go of all these different networks to keep everyone we know in the same place? Is it going to make our lives easier and more efficient? Is it the one mega-application we have always secretly dreamed of? Is it going to bring an end to the online chaos or begin creating even more chaos? I guess We will just have to wait and see!

I wanted to write this post based on a really weird dream I had recently. It’s quite funny but I promise you, I have a point!

In this dream, I was travelling in China and I get to a really beautiful beach city (I assumed it was Sanya City) and the sea was so beautiful, just like the crystal clear waters in the Maldives. I was so thrilled!

I was walking along a bridge looking down into the beautiful waters just enjoying the moment. The water was so clean and clear, I would be able to see a needle on the bottom! I was really impressed. Suddenly I reached a point where the bottom of the sea was covered with dark grey and brown dead animals, fish, garbage and all sorts of unpleasant stuff. I stared at it in horror and was about to turn back when I realised that they all looked a bit unnatural. I took a closer look and realised that it was all artificial! There was even a board the middle of the huge pile that says “This is what happens when you pollute our beautiful waters…save it while you can”.

Funny enough, I woke up as soon as I got the ‘message’. Lying on my bed half asleep, I laughed to myself because it was just so unbelievably weird! Of all the things in the world why would I dream of that? Perhaps it could be because of all the environment related tweets I’ve been reading recently!

Anyway I was just wondering about what I saw… was it really so strange? Or was it actually quite realistic? Will policies like that work? Is fear and intimidation a potentially more successful approach to get people to take note of something? Or is better to stick to more subtle ways? If we saw entire countries being washed away, islands sinking, rivers drying up, animals & trees dying, entire populations of fish vanishing etc. will we stop and think to ourselves? Will we reconsider? And then I thought, oh wait…it’s all happening right before our eyes even now and that hasn’t really stopped us from harming the very environment we are living in…which perhaps wouldn’t even be liveable for the generations to come.

Photos from – http://www.markgibsonphoto.com/ and http://www.ians.in/

Although blogging used to be a hobby, I can’t really call it a hobby anymore because I hardly blog. Who’s to blame? Twitter!

Ever since I’ve started tweeting (@islandchic) I just can’t bring myself to blog anymore. Here’s why.

• Brevity – tweets are shorter (limited to 142 characters) and therefore it takes less effort to tweet than to blog
• Tweeting is instant, you could tweet something almost as you are thinking it! Blogging takes some amount of thinking if not careful planning.
• Interaction – Like amateurgourmet says a twitter stream is like a chatroom while a blog is like a magazine.
• Up to date – On twitter anything that’s older than a few hours is old news. Whatever is streaming at the time is mostly the most up to date stuff that’s happening around the world
• Diversity – Not that blogging doesn’t involve diversity, but you gotta love Twitter for the job it does in shrinking the world into a tiny little ball! Here’s an example from my twitter stream: @infoholic tweets “The new world is fun. An Australian guy tells a Maldivian girl from China that an American guy is in Dubai & suggests they meet”.
• Retweeting – Sharing what interesting news or information you see on twitter happens with one click!
• Visibility – you gotta love twitpics. You are now able to share with the world what you are seeing/ doing almost instantly

These are only some of the reasons why I prefer tweeting to blogging. But my opinion is very much biased on the basis that I am just plain lazy! Basically blogging takes more effort and I’m making excuses for the fact that my blog has been idle for weeks!

On the other hand, there’s a down side to twitter. Starting from spammers, sex-bots who keep following you, to people practically selling themselves, it’s all pretty annoying. Let’s leave that conversation for another time.

To be fair, let’s just sat Twitter and blogging are pretty much complement eachother. As you can see, I’m blogging about tweeting and tweeting about blogging!

Although I’m away from home, I like to stay on top of local news so that I know what’s going on. However, I must say that news from home has recently been synonymous mostly with just ‘bad’ news.

I just had a look at yesterday’s local Maldivian news. 6 out of 7 news items were on various forms of reported violence, unrest and social disharmony … some citizens of an island broke down the walls of a mosque and the island office, money was stolen for the second time from the Welfare Department’s safe, prisoners are creating havoc inside one of the jails, party administration office of National Party was broken into…..etc etc.

It is really sad to see what the Maldives is becoming today. The tolerance level of violence within the society a few years ago was significantly less compared to today where street crimes, gang violence and attacks have become part of life, especially on the capital. From the safest place on Earth we are slowly becoming a tiny, crowded & unpleasant crime box!

Perhaps the tourists are almost unaffected by these changes due to the isolated nature of our resorts. Our resorts are designed so that tourists enjoy maximum security and privacy while they are on holiday in the beautiful islands. Still, such a negative trend which possibly is getting worse as we speak can’t be a positive formula for the development of the country as a whole. At some point, this is going to seep through to the tourist resorts and finally spoil the one good thing we have – a robust tourism industry.

What Maldives offers as a product is a full package, one of beauty, relaxation, privacy, safety and enjoyment. The social cohesion and harmony Maldives enjoys is a major contributor to the factors I just mentioned. Losing the balance of this delicate mix could be extremely unfortunate for our country and it is time we address the situation with better policies. Amidst the numerous financial difficulties, climate threats and vulnerability, we must also pay attention to the volatile social balance in the country which has always been a major selling point of our tourism.

It’s indeed great that Maldives has embraced democracy in all its glory. Change has come to us. We now enjoy greater transparency, more freedom and a louder voice of the public. These are all reasons why we must NOT resort to violent means to solve our problems. Democracy is meant to be the solution to our problems, not the cause of more problems! It is time for both the government and the people of Maldives to think, and act before the very threads which hold this society together are broken in perhaps, much quicker than we expect…

- Human Rights Commission of Maldives in a press conference today, confirmed that a Maldivian was involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 and actually blew himself up as a so-called ‘jihadi’.

- According to the Ministry of Defence & National Security of Maldives, nine Maldivians possessing weapons were arrested in North Pakistan by Pakistani Police yesterday, who may or may not be involved in the war in Afghanistan.

Now, I’m seriously bowled over here. When did we become this? When did we become hopeless fundamentalists trying to blow themselves up in the name of God? When did we become killers and promoters of violence and war and not peace? How did the small 300,000 homogenous population of the Maldives become a highly polarised populace with westernized modern Maldivians going in one direction and religious extremists in the other? Where was that peaceful balance of lifestyle that allowed us to co-exist in homogeneity and enjoy the simple things in life?

Major trends in excessive use of drug, increase in crime rates and violence in the Maldives is now making the Maldives a domestic hell rather than a peaceful safe haven. According to the recent report of the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, on causes for increase in incidents of crime in the country, within the last year:

- 31.60% of the responders have witnessed the act of consumption of drugs being carried out
- 86.90% of the responders have seen people after they have just consumed drugs
- 38.70% of the responders have witnessed the trade of narcotics being carried out
- 59.70% of the responders have witnessed different forms of violence in progress
- 38.10% has had either their own or a relative’s possessions being stolen, robbed etc.

These statics are definitely alarming enough for our authorities and our society to realise the severe extent of social damage to our society. It is time that we take ourselves back to the peace loving nation we were before. It is time that we address the core issues creating and fuelling these escalating crimes at home and abroad.

Otherwise it is us and only us, Maldivians who will suffer the consequences. It won’t be long before our best tourist markets turn elsewhere for their relaxing holidays. It also won’t be long before our most sought after destinations refuse Maldivians entry to their countries or admission into the best academic institutes. The day when you get strip-searched at all airports just because one has the name ‘Mohamed’or ‘Ali’ is not all that far away either.

It is definitely time for a wakeup call…