Our salvage is within us

My friends tell me that all the woes of Maldives lie in the leadership. That allegation seemed to be a bit narrow-minded and so on a recent occasion we had some deeper discussion on this. Our spirited debate on the causes of our national anguish and despair ultimately revealed a broader net beyond just that of leadership. We came to place the reasons for this on the selfishness of other people, the pervasive and polluting global environment, on tourists and tourism, our uncaring parents, hedonistic friends, the cunning and pervasive media, and of course on selfish politics.

The common thread in all this as I reflect, is the placing of blame outside of ourselves. This attitude, one could say, is borne out of human nature --- to be defensive and not hurt ourselves or feel vulnerable. Maybe we feel our leaders are there to do things for us and we are entitled to wait passively for the mandatory handouts doled out. Thus we have learned to live on patronage. Over generations, this attitude has perhaps become hardwired into our DNA. And why not? This seems to be the most natural way to survive. The strong take the stage to govern and the obedient serve, in a continuous replay of the divine rights of kings so to say. So even with all our deep reflection and reasoning on the woes of our nation, we can only come up with those that absolve us from the blame.

But perhaps this is what needs to be worked on – changing our primeval defensive human nature to an attitude of civilized acceptance of our part of the responsibility. Otherwise, what is the meaning of democracy? Our nation has now espoused democracy with a new constitution and independent institutions to guide it; but without a matching mindset of a democratic attitude in ourselves, we will be wasting the freedom that this new call of governing gives us. So, could it not be that the cause of our anguish is of our own making – the fabrications of our own mind? We witness despair because we continue to feel the sense of helplessness that centuries have nurtured in us, but still it is an aspect of our “reality” that our national mindset still harbors. The profound change in concept that democracy brings must be fathomed to value its opportunities. We must realize that democracy turns the pyramid upside down; that leaders are now the servants of the people, and unless the boss can direct the servant, we are bound to have the servant dominate us. This notion of people supremacy must be stamped into our minds, and that we must be wise employers, who can invite and persuade difficult servants into doing a good job in our household.

For that we must learn the boundaries of rights and responsibilities inherent in democracy and not take its advent into our midst as an invitation to insolent arrogance (a misplaced notion of freedom) but rather respectful tolerance. Our youth must learn that building a responsible polity is what will get them to a safe berth of a good community in the future they will inhabit. And our leaders must provide the space for the youth to start being that – by leaders demonstrating the good example and role model in democracy and just what is so different in this new scheme of things to what was before.

Good citizenship begins at home.

The hallmark of a good citizen is good character. Within the remit of this good character comes the inherent social values that aid in building a compassionate society-- truth, honesty, respect, commitment, caring, concern and love. Clearly, these are the prerequisites to having a happy community that we all yearn for. The voice grows louder that our Maldivian society is loosing that value-based character we had, and a tipping point may arrive when the very fabric of our society may soon flail in tatters in a case that is unredeemable. In this kind of a situation, a reversion would indeed be a painfully uphill task (or perhaps even an impossible one) that can take generations yet again to build. But there is hope for us if parents wake up to the insidious external influences facing our society. The tidal wave of globalization that Maldives too is experiencing must be viewed with caution and wise reflection. We should not be bowled over by it in ignorance or blinded by its intense glitter. We can't blame the children later for their learned irresponsibility if parents don't exercise their parental prerogative and don't model that good behavior today. But children are the citizens of tomorrow - no one can dispute that - and it is the degree of responsibility that parents are willing to exercise that will leave for their children later a safe and happy society; every parent will have to make the exit one day leaving the child to make it in the world by themselves ultimately. So an immediate imperative is to build caring and character building home environments where parents wisely exercise their parental prerogative. To avoid tears later, parents please take heed!

Healthy heart in love and life

The 29th September was World Heart Day. It’s a very important day for all of us! Why is that so? Because we are all living now to be older and so need to take care of the organs that keep us alive. In other words, if you don’t take care of your heart, you will die much sooner, and may deprive Maldivian society of the magnanimous contribution you may contribute to it if you were to live a bit longer. Actually, there are two ways of looking at our blessings of being alive; is our lives to be lived for our own personal benefit or for the benefit of others? Of course, which one you select is your own choice, but I can only suggest to you to start feeling the joy of service to others. So even just for that, trying to live longer for the benefit of Maldivian society would be a very wise decision that we all could really cherish in our collective conscience.
But of course turning away from this ethereal aspect of our lives as some of us would like to believe because it seems unimportant or too distant a possibility, the mundane aspects are also important, and particularly more so for the more hedonistic. In this age of non-communicable diseases, the need to lead a healthy life throughout our lives – including the period we call old age is as important as being healthy when we are young. We just don’t seem to know it because old age comes after being young, and when young, the idea of old age never occurs to us because we are young. In fact we even divide society into two distinct groups called the young and the old, without giving an inkling of thought to these two aspects being on a continuum. When we are young, we can afford to think this way, because of the vanity that pervades our very being, but when the wisdom of life lived dawns on us, what we did to our bodies in those vain and narcissistic days cannot be redeemed. It will be too late. As they say, no need to cry over spilt milk!

The heart that gives us these blessings of life must be cared for, just as we would for any other organ of our body. Unfortunately, keeping the heart healthy requires a good preventive regimen of daily action on our part. No pain no gain they say, and often this entails having to give up some of the things that we hold close to our “hearts” (what a contradiction!!): things such as smoking (we may delight in the ‘style’ it projects, as we burn our insides); those tasty fried and fat-loaded, and the sweet foods (keeping cautious of the Macs, the potato chips, and the cokes etc), and of course the constant batch of worries that some of us seem to indulge in daily. This worry is the stress factor in life that is the most worrisome for the onset of heart disease. The smoking that can give you a clot in your cholesterol filled artery can be the final plug too. How can we get away from worry and the stress it generates? First of all worry is 90 percent your own mind’s fabrications. If we can learn to accept that and become more aware of the profile of our worries, we can eliminate it or never ever let it bother us. So you will just have only 10 percent of the worries left to deal with.

I guess this blog is getting too long already, so let’s talk about how to deal with worry in another of our meetings. So please take care of your heart through this multi-faceted prevention regime, and be sure it will serve you well and long. We all need each other to live long -- to give your voice to creating a healthy community of Maldivians.

Getting out of our bind

With democracy blowing like a fresh morning breeze through Maldives, to truly feel the difference it brings to our hearts and minds, we need to breathe this in deep and long and feel the energy it gives us. It is said that a democratic culture shatters the bonds and shackles of oppression. These shackles have always been a part of Maldivian life as evidenced from the writings of our history - both from those indegenous and those foreign. For us it has been a long history of kings and queens who filled our lives with fear and intrigue when it came to the discussion of the distribution of power in our society - nowadays called politics. Since 2008 all this seemed to have come to an end - at least on paper. And it is time that our hearts and minds begin to internalize the ideals of democracy. What is the ground-breaking split with that past this new concept of democracy signals? How has the power of the people transformed and what is the blessings of the precious vote that we have for selecting the best people to lead us? All in all one word describes the essence of this new found freedom. Its called responsibility. It is said that with great power (that comes with this freedom we call democracy) comes also the need to exercise great responsibilty. Needless to say, this power used without the rationality of responsibility will land us again into an age of oppression . Let's exercise this responsibility with the foresight and resilience that can build a similarly resilient society in Maldives. Let's wake up and become true stewards of democracy!

Community harmony: the essence of development

Community harmony is the essence of development really. And the result of harmony is happiness and contentment. But what keeps us away from this harmony is that very human aspect of desire, which fuels greed. This desire is manifest in us as the greed for power, fame, money and control; and ultimately the finality of possession – we just don’t seem to feel satisfied unless we “own” whatever we desire. Unfortunately, that is the essence of desire; we can’t seem to enjoy something just by beholding without owning. Because we see our material world’s “resources” as scarce, we scramble for whatever we can get of this seemingly short supply. But in doing so, we alienate each other by being competitive rather than cooperative. The resulting feelings of not getting what we want emerge as anger, hatred, jealousy, and resentment. These burn up our insides and continue to keep the fire of discontentment and longing burning inside us as long as we don’t achieve what we desire or observe others succeeding. How can we find peace and harmony when a fire of resentment is burning within us? We need to squelch this for love and sharing to permeate, which is the actual yearning of our inner selves. Where is the solution to reducing desire? This seems anathema in an age when materialism is our goal. But there is no way around this to peace unless we can learn to change our daily habit of fueling our selfishness to a task of serving others. Just experience the joy of unconditional giving! Try it actively, and experience a pleasurable shift in our consciousness.

Linking to the past is about accepting our essence

Linking to the past gives us balance and a sense of security of knowing where we stand and what psychological resources to tap in our life ahead. So in that sense, this connection with the past is a primeval need of all human beings for growing up in a life of peace and security. Knowing where we come from gives us a sense of comfort and belonging. The whole idea of nationhood and home is related to this. In the case of Maldives, we have grown up with our sense of belonging as from this island or another, or this atoll or another. We always feel a sense of warmth and friendliness when we meet someone from our home island or atoll. This can be translated into how we feel about our family too. Even a distant relative makes us feel a sense of connection even though we may have never even met.

However, in this changing and mobile environement, this loss of contact with the past is becoming more of a reality, and many of us seem destined to live far away from relatives and childhood friends with whom bonds have or needs to be strengthened. In Maldives, the mobility and relocation by many to Male from the islands leave behind such loved ones especially the elderly who remain back in the island devoid of the loving touch their children and grandchildren could offer. For the elderly this can be emotionally devastating, and for the children who grow up without that time with grandparents unknowingly forefiet an evolutionary step of connecting with the past. The deficits of growing up in such emotional deprivation would show up in later life. The lack of appreciation or respect for the elderly, arising perhaps out of this lack of connection with them in the children's formative years is a gap that will be difficult to fill with the conscious mind. It is the subcounsious that nurtures such lasting feelings of love, affection, and respect imbibed during the formative years of childhood and youth -- that parents can encourage. One thing as sure as the sunrise of tomorow is that we will all grow in age and before we know it, we would be at the receiving end of that lack of appreciation that we ourselves were nurtured with as children. The continuum of life is real, tangible and inexorably sustaining; its time will indeed come for all of us. Lets think of appreciating the elderly and not divide ourselves into a dichotomy of youth and the old as two distinct categoriest that will remain that way for ever. Our Holy Quraan reminds us repeatedly to appreciate our parents (the elderly) and care for them with compassion, for they looked after us when we were young and helpless. Building a more compassionate Maldives begins with appreciating the past, and those who populated our lives in those times.

Moving to Carbon-Neutral

Development of a community depends on how critically it can look at itself. Most communities have their inherent values and mores, and often in cloistered social conditions, we loathe any external influences. But globalization has changed much of that. Maldives is no different. With opening to tourism in the early 1970s, external influences streamed into Maldives, and until now cultures foreign to us have taken over our minds  quickly – most of the time without much reflection of how such changes affect our fundamental social basis. One simple example among others, is the traffic congestion in Male. Motor vehicles are a very useful machine of modern invention – to go places quickly and make transport of goods and services more efficient. But in a place like Maldives, such rationality may not be quite so. Here we see the larger use of our motor vehicles for pleasure, and no doubt, pleasure in the right doses is necessary for human functioning. But when that pleasure is at the expense of another person’s displeasure or utter inconvenience, we are then stepping into the realms of rights and responsibilities in a democratic society. Recent publication in Maldives "To walk or not to walk: a pedestrian’s dilemma in Male", by Clean Air Initiative Asia, EPA-Maldives, and the World Health Organization, provides a peek into the substantive difficulties pedestrians face in Male where one may say an irrational pedestrian culture transformation is taking place. The consequences of injuries to pedestrians from speeding motor vehicles and the inconvenience of narrow pavements make walking in Male a growing physical hazard. In a country that is touting the plans for a carbon-neutral Maldives by 2020, the priority of making Male a pedestrian friendly city stands out stark.