What Image Opened Your Eyes to Human Rights?

14 Dec 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Social Babble
WITNESS is a nonprofit organization who promotes awareness on human rights and its abuse. For 16 years, WITNESS has used the power of imagery to promote human rights issues around the world through videos. They use video and online technologies to create awareness about human rights violations and “empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change”.

The organization was founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation.
I came across an interesting campaign launched by WITNESS on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They compiled a short video with some of their staff talking about the specific images that opened their eyes to the issue of human rights and its abuses around the world. It was very touching and made me think back in time to look for the exact moment that made me realize the extent of injustice and suffering around the world due to abuse of human rights.

As a child I watched a video footage of a husband in Bosnia, watching his pregnant wife brutally slaughtered in front of him. I failed to understand the politics behind such actions then, I still fail to see it today. Yet, I understand the need to do our bit individually to the collective efforts put forward by organizations like WITNESS, in its advocacy to advance human rights to stop the suffering of millions.

Join their campaign and contribute to this cause. Tell WITNESS:
“What image opened your eyes to human rights? Was it an image or video that gave you hope, or did it show you how much further we needed to go and inspire you to take action?”

Is Maldives becoming a criminal infested society?

12 Dec 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Social Babble

Previously I have written about the unfortunate consequences of gang rapists being let loose to harass the same victim freely and as they please. Now there’s a somewhat different yet similar picture seen in Maldivian government’s decision to let loose the inmates from prison without justifiable legal, psychological or social grounds.

It is indeed wise to prioritize the rehabilitation and correction of criminals to bring them back into the society as mentally healthy individuals rather than punish them and end up with even worse future criminals who are vindictive and looking for revenge. However, the important point that the Maldivian authorities have missed is the social impact of such a drastic step on the general population of Male’ at a time where social control is bordering on chaos.

Rehabilitating and providing proper correctional facilities to all sorts of criminals especially the young, is highly advisable and a responsibility that rests on the shoulder of the government. Nevertheless the current approach the government has adopted is definitely headed towards social disaster. Let’s look at a few follies we cannot ignore.

More than 100 prisoners have been removed from prison and moved to house arrest in Male’. Male’ is an overcrowded box no longer fit for a healthy lifestyle in any physical or social aspects. The skyrocketing crime rates with increased gang violence, theft, robbery and even murder is alarming. At such a critical situation of social unrest, injecting the tiny box with more than a 100 criminals will definitely worsen the current situation. This I say due to a few reasonable observations.

- The prisoners who have been transferred to house arrest has not been chosen through the existing parole system
- The current parole system is incapable of supervising such an overwhelming number of prisoners within the community in Male’ simultaneously
- The Police and the prisons have not had a proper coordination mechanism wherein information on the prisoners are shared and cooperation on their supervision is made more efficient
- The police is already overwhelmed and have declared no responsibility for its inability to properly supervise the criminals under house arrest
- Criminals who have been released have been arrested within less than 24 hours for committing more crimes

These are only few observations based on recent coverage on the media of the social situation in the Maldives and in Male’ in general. It is time that the government starts thinking more wisely before taking decisions based on principles. Although this step may in principle be justified, it may have a tragic impact on the country, if related law enforcements, supervisory, correctional and policing capabilities etc are unable to keep up with the change.

How do we improve our Public Service?

5 Dec 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Maldives Babble, Policy Babble
Usually stagnation is bad and change is good. However, human nature almost by default resists change when comfortable for too long with a particular way of doing things. Perhaps the Maldivian government is a good example.

It was a huge achievement for the Maldivian Democratic Party and its supporting parties to instigate a change in our system of governance after 30 of having the same President. As soon as in power, the new president has started a comprehensive overhaul of the government and public service. A major step in this process is the downsizing of our so-called ‘heavy’ government.

Government ministries have been reduced in number by eliminating a total of 5 ministries and combining the works of these Ministries to others. Thought this in principle is a positive step towards a modern government, it does not come with draw backs, especially if government fails to address the people affected by such a change.

I just read a report on our Daily News Paper, Haveeru Online, regarding the culture of lack of motivation now prevalent among the staff ‘stranded’ by this act of downsizing without proper measures taken to utilize them fully within the system. Staff in some of the eliminated ministries still sitting in their old buildings, now with an authority that sits in a different building, with basically no responsibilities, no work to be done etc. can be quite disheartening. Even in the case of physical transfer, no measures taken for adjustments into the new environment, new line of work or responsibilities etc. can even de-motivate staffs who were previously high performers.

For this reason, I say no policy must be implemented without proper analysis of its impacts on the stakeholders and its environment. No change is usually good unless these aspects are looked into before the policy is implemented and remedial measures taken in cases of possible failure. Hence this is a time for quick action by the new government to do damage control and come up with a plan to motivate the de-motivated. This is how they can do it.
1. Comprehensive mandates for the 14 government ministries must be compiled and made public as soon as possible

2. Each ministry must be developed with a mission statement and a vision of how a the particular mandate of the Ministry is to be fulfilled and towards which goals

3. Confusion in names, mandates, services rendered etc and outdated information available on the web must be streamlines with well developed information channels. Each ministry must develop its websites with clearly indicated information about the ministry, its departments, the responsibilities undertaken by the ministry etc.

4. To maximize the productivity of the human resources available within the public service, ministries must be reshuffled according to people’s area of expertise and academic backgrounds.

5. New staff must be only recruited to the public service if there are no staff available for rotation from other ministries or departments, whose utility could be higher by a transfer. For e.g. if Mohamed has a degree in public finance and is a director at the environment research center (who basically is frustrated that he makes no use of his intellect in the job he’s doing currently), he must be moved to the Finance Ministry as soon as the opportunity arise rather than recruiting a new staff to the Finance Ministry.

6. Though public service is not operated as a profit making business, there has to be Key Performance Indicators which can show the level of performance of a particular Department. These KPI’s should be the basis of a department’s performance and all staff must work towards achieving highest productivity in terms of efficiency of carrying out their tasks.

7. Efficiency does not come from having excess human resources, it comes from being able to generate productivity with as less human resources as possible.

8. There has to be a clear line of command within all ministries with no duplication of channels of command or responsibilities as to not confuse the lower level staff. If there are two bosses who order around one secretary, the poor guy is never going to get any work done as he will spend half of his day trying to balance the work for both bosses and not to piss any of them.

9. There must be harmony developed under each ministry among all its departments. The budget section is not an entity unto itself and neither the administrative department or the corporate department etc. All the departments are working for a common goal of the Ministry which in turn is working for the collective good of the nation. So the public service’s responsibilities are only a means to an end and not an end in itself.

10. As I have previously written, promotion and personal progress of public servants must be based strictly on meritocracy.

These are only a few among the many steps we need to take in order to improve our public service which has been lagging in its performance for quite some time now. This is the time for change. The government must realize the importance of this matter and act swiftly before our public service charge into looming disaster!

Download free National Geographic Wallpapers

4 Dec 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Internet Babble

National Geographic has perhaps the most beautiful collection of nature related photography on the web.


In addition to a number of breathtaking photographs from the National Geographic Magazine, there are a number of screen savers and desktop wallpapers available for free download in categories such as Adventure & Exploration, Animals, History, Landscapes, Nature & Weather, Patterns in Nature, People & Culture, Science & Space, Travel and Underwater.

Download free wallpapers and screen savers to decorate your desktop with these beautiful images from the pages of National Geographic magazine and photographs from highly talented photographers from all over the globe.

          

What do you want to do before you die?

1 Dec 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Random Babble
If you knew that you had only a day to live, what would you have done? If you knew you had longer, would you have done the same thing or would you have lived differently?

Life is short, unpredictable and capricious. To live happy and to fulfill your dreams, you have to know what you want out of life. Here’s an idea. Make a list of a 100 things you want to do before you die and slowly try to tick them off as you get to do them. It doesn’t have to be overly ambitious or anything, just things that make you feel good about yourself. Things that you would have done, if you knew you were going to die very soon!
Here’s the story of 4 guys attempting an epic list of 100 things to do before you die on their website http://www.theburiedlife.com/

Ben, Dave, Duncan and Jonnie left home in the summer of 2006 to complete their list of 100 things to do before you die. For every item they accomplish they help a stranger with an item on their list. According to the website, 47 items have been crossed off the list so far and more than 50 strangers have been helped with their life goals. You can join the network and share your list on their website as well.

Perhaps, I’ve started my list with the most ambitious ones first! Nonetheless, I’m sure of what I want out of life. Whether I get there or not is a different story altogether. Like 50 Cent says “Get rich or die trying”! Here are 10 things from my list of things I want to do before I die. I’d consider myself lucky to tick off any.


1. See the Seven Wonders of the World with the man I love
2. Take at least 10 kids off the street and educate them
3. Make a lasting positive impact for my country & its people
4. Give my siblings everything I never had during my childhood
5. Help my parents fulfill at least one big dream of theirs
6. Do a PhD at Harvard
7. Learn at least 5 foreign languages
8. Have my own Newspaper column
9. Own a swimming pool
10. Be a good wife and mother

Try making your list and start ticking them off. Good luck fulfilling your dreams!

How Maldives can climb out of its fiscal dark hole

26 Nov 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Policy Babble
As the world sinks deeper and deeper into a full blown global recession, countries the Maldives will suffer extensively due to reduced spending on travel and leisure. More than 1/3rd of the Maldives’ Gross Domestic Product comes from its tourism sector and any negative trends in revenue from tourism could lead us to impending financial doom.

Maldivian government’s overly optimistic attitude towards ‘possible’ revenue from international donors and profit from tourism and fishery industry, government has allowed obscene spending, especially in the public sector.

As the current President Nasheed and Finance Minister Hashim proposed the new budget for the financial year 2009, all I could think of, were the reasons why the budget will push the country deeper and deeper into the deficit situation we are already in.

My outlook is hardly of quantitative nature. However I’d like to mention a few reasons why the budget may fail to address the existing fiscal and monetary situation in the Maldives.

The Problem
1. Though it hasn’t affected the Maldives in a bad way yet, the global recession is going to reduce our tourism revenue to a significant extent

2. Government has already been overly optimistic regarding revenue from both tourism and fisheries sector performance and these may very well disappoint us
3. As the economies of our most important donors are headed towards recession, we may be unable to get the expected amounts as foreign aid

4. Due to the increasing deficit and distraught nature of our balance of payments, IMF and World Bank are going to be hesitant with their development assistance
5. Any more loans from commercial banks would be ‘applying salt on existing wounds’

6. Waiving off import duties on diesel, medical supplies, essential foods, though a much needed step in helping the Maldivian public, will adversely affect the financial situation
7. The government pension scheme for old people and the medical insurance for 1/3rd of the population will further disorient the revenue status

The Solution
As we go through a transition period from one presidency to another as well as a different approach to the way we are governed, it is hard to expect a ready-made, short term solution to the vast array of economic issues we face today.
Any possible solution(s) will have to be thoroughly researched and the costs and benefits of policies explored. Similarly, a holistic and long-term approach towards the situation must be adopted at a national level with help of donors, development partners and consultants.

1. Imposing a Corporate Tax. This is no easy task given the need to enact appropriate laws regarding the tax, elite opposition towards such a tax and the lack of capacity within tax collecting authorities. However, this will eliminate the flat tourism bed tax and make it progressive, helping to reduce the existing income gap.

This will also broaden the existing tax base and bring into the tax net a variety of businesses and enterprises. However, deciding on a minimum threshold for the eligibility of tax should be chosen extremely carefully as to reduce the burden on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
2. Developing the private sector and stimulating growth within the sector to promote voluntary economic activity. As a huge sector of the society’s economically active population is complacent and sitting with low salary government jobs, we must create a trend towards transfer to the private sector. Making small business processes easy and government assistance (even if not direct financial assistance, making regulations which will encourage commercial banks to do so) can also stimulate more progressive private sector activity.
Another possibility is to use more opportunities created through diplomatic missions on people-to-people contact within neighboring countries. Retailers in Sri Lanka, Traders in Malaysia, Exporters in India, Travel Agents in China can contribute to a huge extent towards the development of our own private sector, if existing opportunities are fully utilized by the people, which currently do not work so ideally.
3. Moving to a performance oriented public sector. This is a much necessary step in reducing government expenditure on our disproportionately huge public service. Instead of forced downsizing, moving into a system of meritocracy and creating a culture of efficiency within the public sector will help reduce the number of staff. Rather than employing 5 people to do menial secretarial jobs, develop one skilled person who can do the job quicker (We all know that our civil service is highly oversized and we can afford to downsize, provided that people have better options available in the private sector)

4. Reducing government wastage. There are numerous areas we can apply this. Starting from over-paid high ranking government officials, extravagant national celebrations, overseas trips, over spending on diplomatic missions to unsupervised overtime allowances for government employees. This in no way reflects the need to complete cessation of the factors mentioned, I am merely indicating a need to control, downsize or reduction based on situations where the costs outweigh the benefits.
5. State owned enterprises like STO, MTCC and MTDC should not be owned by the state. The state should rather be a regulator and not both the regulator and shareholder. This should increase their level of performance (of course with favorable legislature and regulations). It will in turn help the government once the Corporate Tax is imposed.
6. Adopting non-conventional methods to raise revenue. Though this will not be a significant amount, it will be a positive step. Such methods would include a variety of fees, licenses, fines etc. I’ll only give a few examples.

o There are numbers of land plots lying idle, owned by citizens registered on islands but living in Male’. Government could take yearly fees on them.

o Fees could be taken on the use of public space for the purposes of construction, events etc.
o State owned-land utilized for economic activities generating little profit, can be evaluated and based on opportunity cost and leased/auctioned for the most profitable commercial use.
7. Stimulate economic activity within island communities (for e.g. Re-vitalizing industries like handicrafts, making souvenirs etc.). This is a very important step, as there are a significant number of economically active Maldivians sitting idle with nothing more than house hold work on the islands. Given proper opportunities to generate income, they could be an asset to our economy.
8. Reduce the money leaving the country through expatriate worke
rs. This is a major issue that need’s government’s urgent attention. Approximately 80,000 foreigners work in the Maldives at various levels of economic activity, taking away a considerable amount from our GDP. Leaving aside the social implications of such a huge number of foreign workers who are paid extremely well, especially at higher levels in the tourism sector, the financial and economic implications are many. Hence comprehensive policy measures must be taken to reduce the number of expatriate workers and to keep the money within our country.
These are only some of the problems we have and some of the ideas I think could help ease our economic problems in the long run. You opinion and ideas on these are most welcome and appreciated.

Maldives beyond the beautiful beaches…

25 Nov 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Travel Babble

As soon as one hears the name Maldives, people associate it with beautiful beaches and luxurious resort islands. Few people are aware of the customs, traditions, ethnicity, lifestyle and folklore in the Maldives.

Here are some websites I came across, which offers a pretty interesting array of information on the Maldivian people, folklore, industry and crafts, scripts, rituals and island life etc. Although, not all of these sites have very up-to-date information in some of the areas, I’d consider it a good base of basic information on the Maldives for those interested.

It’s definitely worth having a look.

Maldives Culture

Maldives Ethnography

Maldives Recipes

Inner Maldives


Island Chic’s 100th post!

24 Nov 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Random Babble

Yoohoo! Today is a day for celebration. My blog reaches its 100th post!  

Though I did my first post on the blog in June 2008, I officially started writing regularly in August. Since then I’ve been posting regularly, almost on a daily basis, on anything that interests me.

I don’t have a particular theme for my blog, but I enjoy writing about public policy as it is my area of interest. Also I write about politics, society and development. I have a few posts about online apps and some about Google, mostly inspired by HoTsTePPa, who is my blog guru. I’ve had a few posts on love and relationships which were very popular as well.

Though I’m not a professional blogger, I enjoy this as a hobby and I consider it a great learning opportunity. Also I have enjoyed tremendous support from my friends and random readers who have encouraged my writing as well as offered me extremely constructive criticism, which I appreciate very much!

Two of my biggest supporters HoTsTePPa aka DChetty and Elliptically Speaking are highest on the list! Thanks guys.

Some more encouraging visitors I wanted to mention; Pearl of Africa, Subtitled Dreams, DieDie, Bugs, Hilath, Kalhusoru, Princess Knight, Jojo, askme, Dhivehi, Haanee, Sacchu, Fara and Moditoo. Thank you guys!

Maldives mourns the demise of its second President, Ibrahim Nasir

24 Nov 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Random Babble
Maldives is mourning the demise of the country’s second president, Mr. Ibrahim Nasir who had passed away at the age of 82 on Saturday. He died while undergoing treatment in Singapore, where he had been residing since he left the Maldives in December 1978.

Ibrahim Nasir was born in 1926 and had served the Maldivian Government at various positions. He served as the Prime Minister of Maldives during the Sultan Mohammed Fareed Didi’s reign, from 1957 to 1968. He was later elected as president of Maldives which was the second time the Maldives became a republic. He served as president from 1968 till 1978.

This national hero, who had been an enigmatic leader in Maldives, successfully pioneered many of the lucrative areas of development in the Maldives we see today. He introduced services and industries which are now the backbone of our country.

He introduced modern education, developed the Maldives’ judicial system, established our Airport, introduced modern communication in the country (established Radio and Television Maldives), and most importantly, laid the foundation for the modern day tourism industry we see today. We owe a huge part of our appreciation towards the successful, world class tourism industry, to his introduction of tourism in the Maldives through the opening of the first two resorts Vihamanaafushi (renamed to Kurumba Village later) and Bandos Island Resort.

For these reasons and many others that we are hardly able to observe today, we must appreciate this national figure as a national hero, and ensure that his name is not forgotten in the dusty pages of Maldives’ history. We must keep his service to the country alive in our stories to our children and let him be a source of inspiration.


Download popular fire-fox add-ons

21 Nov 2008 Author: Island-Chic In: Internet Babble, Random Babble
I’ve always been a huge fan of firefox and when Hotsteppa introduced me to the world of firefox add-ons I was as excited as a child with a new toy (let’s make it a huge box of toys!)
Since then, I’ve been totally hooked! I’ve using many of the add-ons from the huge array of cool add-ons. They really make my online experience a lot easier and stylish too!

You can choose your favorites among hundreds of firefox add-ons which are categorized as below.

· Alerts & Updates
· Appearance
· Bookmarks
· Dictionaries & Language Packs
· Download Management
· Feeds, News & Blogging
· Language Support
· Photos, Music & Videos
· Plug-ins
· Privacy & Security
· Search Tools
· Social & Communication
· Tabs
· Themes
· Toolbars
· Web Development
· Other

Mind you, once you start, it’s highly addictive! However I highly recommend some of the very cool add-ons I’ve already tried. Satisfaction guaranteed. :-)

Stylish Gmail Skins
Firefox Tab Scope
Facebook Toolbar
Colourful Tabs
Cooliris
Fast Video Download

Download any firefox add-on of your choice and discover a whole new browser experience!

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About this blog

Being a public policy enthusiast, I tend to dab into a lot of public and social issues, especially in the Maldives. Economic development, social cohesion, climate change and advocacy against child abuse are issues I am most passionate about.

Still, I do babble quite a bit about politics in general, entertainment, social media, travel and the internet. I try not to stick to one area and you’ll find an array of humorous cartoons and random ranting about my experiences!


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