2012: A tImELiNe

I know it has been a while since I blogged, and honestly I have no idea why I am writing a blog post today. I’ve been wanting to get a new look for my blog, but I seem to be preoccupied with other things. Since today is the last day of 2012, it would only be fair if I wrote a memo of how 2012 turned out to be for me, before I go on criticizing politics or writing poems. So here goes.. 

Looking back at 2012, it’s been a good year. Gained a lot of experience, got new friends, did a lot of travelling. 2012 has been a year of a lot of changes, and amendments. A year with both happy and sad memories. Grateful for the good memories of 2012 and learning from the rest, here is hoping 2013 will be a better year!

Happy New Year 2013~

Our education; what went wrong?

Our education; what went wrong?

Back in those days, it wasn’t really necessary to be educated. At a very young age all the children would go to a see ‘edhuru be’ (teacher) to learn to recite the holy Quran, with their ‘voshi filaa’(piece of wood where they wrote and studied). And this was just enough.

Back then, it was alright even if you cannot count or read a letter that was addressed to you. However times have changed.

“Changed”; very much indeed.  

But what we question ourselves today is whether this change had taken a step forward or taken couple of huge milestones backward.

There was a time when girls were not allowed to go to schools and they remained home taking care of the house chores while the boys only attended school. But today, girls are blessed with the opportunity to have a proper education with the privilege of actually going to schools and being accessible to educational facilities.

Remembering the time when black and white turned to multicolor, the very few schools those days have increased in the past years. Not just in Male’ (the capital) but to other islands as well.

The education system was divided into 3 main categories of ‘pre-school education’ (kindergarten), ‘primary education’ (elementary) and ‘secondary education’ (middle/high school) and was this was then only well established in the capital only. The other islands, hardly had a single school and very few education centres. In addition to the few schools in the islands, their educational system was moderated in ‘Dhivehi’ (the local Maldivian language) until recently all schools changed to English medium of education.

A teacher training facility was established and many Maldivians took the opportunity to go through teacher trainings and have begun to pursue their careers as teachers and today, even as lecturers.

In Male’, the schools set for secondary education had various subjects offered and the students had the option to choose what they wanted to study. However the schools in the islands were still unable to do the same. They did not have the resources to set a science laboratory or funds to accommodate enough teachers for those subjects. There was a big difference between the educational system in the capital and other islands. The competition to accommodate to better education increased, and more people migrated for the purpose of this ‘better’ system of education. Which effectively also lead to the concentrated population in the capital.

This was a concerning issue for the policy makers in the educational field and the policy planners and thus is today. The schools in islands needed to have the same level of educational expertise as the Male’ did. However, till today the schools in the capital have been given more priority over the schools in those islands.

We then emerged to the time when it was proposed that books and educational items were issued free to all students and that students had no longer to pay for the exams, which indeed was a light of hope to the unfortunate who could not afford to pay the examination fees.

Despite the partially balanced educational system, the students in the islands were still left with hardly a choice of what they wanted to study and few lucky students whose families migrated to the capital or students who got the opportunity to stay in the capital were studying what they wanted whereas with the most qualified and dignified teachers.

With the introduction of International schools, there was a choice for anyone to transfer. Well, once again, the ones living at the capital were more likely to have been gotten the opportunity to do so.

An year later, at a point where the issue of unbalance nature of educational system within the islands had not been completely stabilized, the discussion of new educational system had begun.

It was proposed that the all schools would comprise of all the levels of education and also there would be no separate gender-based schools.

Today, even with the number of trained teachers, the schools have started to face the lack of teachers with the demand to teach every level (all the grades). Some schools don’t offer those varieties of optional subjects anymore due to few students in each level.

‘Dhivehi sarukaaruge gazette’ (The government newsletter) have published on separate volumes with announcements for available positions for teachers.

Moreover, the fact that all the students of different age are attending at the same session and that too the gender being mixed has brought out some negative impacts on their behavior of the students.

What now we see is that some parents have made the decision to home school their children instead of taking them to school.

The biggest question now is, are we heading backwards? The concerning issue is that we might slowly be heading backwards and without knowledge the generations to come may have to start over.

At this point before we point fingers or look around our shoulder for someone to blame, we need to rethink what exactly went wrong. We need to take a moment to follow those footprints that took an alternative path and to discover what went wrong.

This is the time to make it right. 

Barclays Premier League Trophy Tour

It was Saturday. My friend and I decided to go to One Utama to meet up another friend. The taxi stopped near the old wing. To our surprise we found that there was an ongoing event. So we decided to check it out.

Turns out that it was the Barclays Premier League Trophy Tour! The tents were nicely set up, with enlightening experience. We were each given a wristband with a special number and a barcode. The whole event was about half an hour, where we were offered the opportunity to learn about the Barclays Premier League, its most greatest moments, about managers, players, goals, saves; and also to experience the setting of a live match. The greatest of all was to get up close to the official Barclays Premier League trophy! The interactive experience ended with the chance to take away a customized photo as a souvenir of this day.

Barclays Premier League Trophy Tour’s main objective is to reward their loyal international fans through this interactive and free experience. The tour is stopping over a number of places including Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi.

This short, interactive session was truly worth its experience.

WhErE aRe We HeAdInG?

7^th February of 2012, that Tuesday morning when I woke up to see high traffic live feed on my Twitter and on Facebook statuses. I did not have the slightest clue that today was the day of ending the presidency of Mohamed Nasheed, since protests have been ongoing for more than a fortnight.

I, personally am not a fan of Mohamed Nasheed. However, I’ve wanted things to change and for things to work in a different manner. And on that thought, hoping for the change, we did change.

For all those reasons, for better or worse, what Mohamed Nasheed has done within his time as president must have gotten its reasons. He, as being elected as the president must have had a vision, and means to accomplish those visions.

But it all comes down to what happened today. Question lies if what happened today really brought justice? Our concerns remain as we saw the incidents and the outburst of today’s incidents. Mohamed Nasheed was not perfect, nor were any other former presidents.

As a citizen of the nation, one is to abide by the rules and the laws stated as of the constitution, as no one is above the rule of law. Taking the Chief Justice into custody outraged the public and declared that the President had acted unconstitutionally. Although word tells us that the Chief Justice is one of those corrupt judges who brought shame, the fact that the President acted unconstitutional was what mattered. There could have been ways to handle the issue than act unconstitutional and act over the judiciary.

The separation of powers enables the right to uphold the law and maintain peace and justice; However, the parliament being is a cheap market for the MP’s, we saw good examples of sided MP’s changing sides now and then. At this point we question ourselves why we chose those MP’s. I refuse to accept the fact that we cannot find 77 loyal candidates for all 77 constituencies, who would not hold on to ‘gifts’.

What in the eyes of children today were pepper spray in their schools, and the police and the MNDF protesting. The so called peaceful paradise was fuming with rage; with rubber bullets and guns.

Our thoughts go back to what the police and MNDF did today. Did they act within the constitution? They were acting regardless of what they were told. Did they uphold the law? What we saw today was that the Special Forces had acted within their political opinion and not within their duties and their obligations.

The right to democracy never meant heading out for protests every night as a pass time activity. Half of the protesters join the crowd not knowing what they were protesting for. We question ourselves what democracy means. Do we even deserve a democracy?

We blame the systemic failure of the parliament to hold the judiciary and the executive accountable. With the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed, question that floats in our mind is of what happened today. Was it a step backwards? The change yet to come towards the administration lies within the people and their respective representatives within their constituencies; not within the Special Forces. We now question ourselves to where we are heading. What we saw today was what we have long feared. Tyranny is not what the small nation; known as the peaceful paradise on Earth is to become.

GoOdByE tO 2011

2011 began with lots of love, close friends getting married and everything seems to be in its place at that time of the year. Days and months passed as we saw the sun rise and sunset. Celebrating birthdays and all occasions like we use to every year. Attending parties and other functions. Everything seemed to be in its place until the last months of the year.

The year ended with broken hearts, divorces, and lonely days. But with the hope that the beginning will be alright.

Have a blessed new year!