Holiday Inn at Athireege - Hypocrites or what?

All we here these days is that there is environmental damage due to deep piling at Athireege where the 15 storey Holiday Inn is at its early stage of construction. It's on TV Maldives, its on the radio, its on all the print media, its on the internet. Bloody hell! You cannot get away from it.

So what the hell is happening? Is there substantial structural damage or has this fiasco got a more sinister plot? The Environment Ministry's hell sure that there is environmental damage? If so, where is this damage? Damage to nearby buildings, whether structural or superficial, should come under the jurisdiction of the Construction Ministry, me thinks. If there is reef damage due to deep piling, then surely Environment Ministry should be able to show some sort of evidence of this instead of just saying that they do not agree with deep piling. Minister Mauroofu Jameel had said that there is no structural damage to nearby buildings. Perhaps he should have explained what he meant by structural damage and superficial damage. Almost every house in Male' near a construction site has suffered superficial damage to it. Hairline cracks of walls are not uncommon and bursting of water pipes etc is all too familiar in Male' which really is one massive construction site. Shouldn't work be halted in those construction site as well if damage is done to the house next door or does this apply only to the houses of government big shots?

My other question is where is all the media when poor peoples houses are damage? Where is Haveeru and TV Maldives? Where is Bluepeace? Where is the Environment Ministry? I have never seen a poor person being interviewed by the TV, radio or print media about damage (superficial or structural) to their property due to construction being carried by a neighbour. But now that it is the house of the Chief of Protocol, the whole media is having a field day. What fucking hypocrites!

I have also heard several versions of this sorry tale. That Sato has bought all the civil engineers of Maldives so that is why they have been silent about this issue. The other side of the story is the Chief's house has got all their windows onto the eastern side and therefore they do not want this building to go up so that is why his pal Salley of Environment Ministry is creating all the fuss. Check the photo on top. I don't particularly care which version is true or not. I am just fucking mad that we poor people get a raw deal from this government and this self-righteous media of ours while government top officials have the media licking their arses.

Construction Site

and so the story goes...

So I am still alive, Golhabo is still the President, the Maldives is rotting under the sun, and the whole world is full of shit.....nothing changes eh? Yeah, I am still around and believe it or not, life has not changed an iota except I am back with more books and more trips to the library and more meetings with a bald headed half-drunk old geezer for a supervisor...interesting life!

Of course the obvious, ultimate and that one in a billion dollar question that everyone's been asking me..Why have I not updated my blog? As if they care? As if they had been having sleepless nights and losing the hair on their head because they have been tossing and turning on their pillows unable to get Wynken, Blynken and Nod to visit them because they have not read my blog... What a load of merde!

And still our beloved God, Golhabo (or in DO terms, Pharoah Golhabo I) still reigns supreme in his pharoahdom...while the opposition shivers and shrivels into an unbelievable heap on the ground, soon to disappear for good. Or yeah, lest I forget, the Three Musketeers keep battling on....and next year is election year? Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? Yeah, the next year IS election year and our beloved god would be re-elected for life

...and so the story goes..

Carpe Diem! ..

" the pitiful state of the Maldivian Web Media?"

My letter on The Pitiful State of Maldivian Web Media by Minivan News

'Allow me to contribute my humble opinion to this debate. It is all very well for the Minivan News to criticize Maldivian web media such the Dhivehi Observer for being sensationalist and focusing on “petty private arguments” as opposed to the idealized notion of the mainstream press – the positivist assumption that the careful collection of facts presented in official and impersonal language after a good objective investigation somehow leads to the truth. I do agree that this does provide factual information for those who have no knowledge of the situation.

However, on the contrary, tabloid websites such as DO use everyday conversationalist tones, which in a way lead to a more egalitarian relationship with the ordinary person on the street. In another word, there is no pontification.

In the Maldives I believe that there is a need and room for both. We need the careful analysis of facts that provides understanding and belief. The Minivan News is in this sense a remarkable source for those who are fortunate enough to understand the excellent English language that you use. However, for the ordinary Maldivian we also need websites like the Dhivehi Observer who use the language of the common man/women and had single-handedly exposed some of the worst crimes of this regime from raw information- something that some times no amount of empirical fact-finding investigative journalism is able to unearth.

Sir, Minivan News should concentrate on doing what it claims– being an independent news source for the Maldives – and bringing factual information for the people of the Maldives instead of spending time on slamming other web-based media. If DO or Factmaldives want to walk on a different path, then let them do so. After all, isn’t democracy about having the freedom to choose and shouldn’t that choice apply to journalism as well– whether to be a tabloid journal or to be with the mainstream press?'