We need the 3R for waste management

Dear Friends,
This is the mountain of dump in our beautiful Male -- perhaps the tallest mountain in our nation. But this is not the salubrious kind that we would like to visit. Here the sight is deplorable and the stench unbearable. We are awed not by the splendor of the web of life, but by the hideousness of the way we humans destroy this web by mindless urban living.
We can become more mindful of our ways and allow our lives to be healthier and children to go to school unhindered. What kind of urban governance is this?

I would sincerely suggest that we begin managing our wastes more scientifically. lets base it on the 3Rs. Singapore is using it and Japan lovingly supports it. We can at least begin sorting out our garbage at the household level. The plastics, the metal and the biodegradable can be sorted by the households. This much effort we owe to our environment that nourishes and cherishes us. then we don't have to do this at the dump which will save us a lot of resources. At least a third of this must be biodegradable. In a nation where the soil is so effete, just imagine the humus we can gain from composting the biodegradable. We are just wasting nature's resources. Yes, there is gold in garbage -- if we attempt to find it. Our home-gardening and other vegetation can do so much with it rather than doing the alternative of dumping chemicals into our cultivation of fruits and vegetables and getting ourselves poisoned. We are destroying our nature unawares. Just inquire about whats happening in Thoddu and such islands where the soil has degraded to such a level that the luscious water-melons don't grow there any more. Can we please be kinder to our nation? It's not all about politics -- don't forget the environment that makes our love for dividedness thrive.

Modernity

The West invented modernity. It’s a contraption of a way to live that surrounds one with the ease of living and the luxuries of life. Modernization was linked to prosperity for the people. But that prosperity was fuelled  by the sense of competition and the invocation of human desire towards selfish ends. The production boom from the industrial revolution was underlined by the paradigm of materialism and later refined as capitalism. The goal was to get rich - as individuals and as nations - as nation states began to rise as a concept. The nation state also may be said to espouse the same sensibilities of the economic paradigm couched as the need for human freedom. That notion of human freedom nicely fitted with this underlying push for materialism - for it was attractive; i.e. it jived well with the needs of the ego for wanting to be better off than the other person. And so competition could become a mainstream fuel that drove the process. The promoters of it needed only to keep the idea of competition alive by giving attention to this innate and hugely attractive idea of each one having the ability to be better than the other person just by having more. Slowly this world view began to prevail as the reason for our being - slowly forgetting the more spiritual dimensions that behooves us to find meaning in our being.

This was a great and engaging recipe for modernization, whereas before, the comfort and luxury was only available for the kings and queens, while the servile subjects had to contend with the mere handouts. It is naive to imagine that the subjects didn't harbor secretly burning desires to have what they didn't - that glitter of life that was for the taking by kings and queens. The industrial revolution and its aftermath of capitalism provided the flowering for those secret wishes. And the modernization movement began. But still, given the innate human wish to be noticed, or better still to invoke the notion of relativity, the rich could not tolerate a complete absence of the poor. They had to be maintained in sufficient numbers or in sufficient mental state so that the rich could feel that sense of difference. What rich person would like everyone to have the same wealth? There has to be a difference to feel the difference.

So modernization does not really make us better off as a society unless these achievements are made share-able to all. But to find the governance that will enable this equitable sharing is like the search for a needle in the haystack. But we can if we as a society wakes up to this reality. But then how many people will think to this level of specificity working through the intricacies of cause and effect to reveal to oneself the truth of this reality. I would say very, very few and so the chances of this very few to make the change in the mindset of the huge numbers of voters in a nation are bleak indeed. We may have to be bracing ourselves for bearing with a century or more of such hardships before we see the light in the tunnel. But then that too is a chance in a million. But this can be different. If only we follow that superlative handhold we have in the spiritual truths we have in our midst.

That can save us!    

How serious are we about smoking reduction?.

The decision to ban smoking in certain public areas is a decision in the right direction. It should whey the conscience of our public on the seriousness of our policy directives. But can we be a bit more forthright in enforcing our rules and regulation? Public education plays the bigger part in any effort to change people’s attitudes and behaviors. If we truly know what we are doing to our lungs and to our brain cells by our actions we may reflect a bit more to allay some of our vain considerations to become wiser in our actions. 

It’s not for no reason that George Bernard Shaw defined a cigarette as a white long cylindrical object with a fire at one end and a fool at the other. Our young smokers may not know about this foolishness for they are enticed by the social macho or cool image of the smoker and so we may be doing a grave injustice to them to not make our case of the dangers of smoking or its implications to others - their friends, partners, and even young children who may be getting the brunt of the second hand smoke that spews out of the cool-dude smokers mouth. The parents that smoke need to understand that their children will follow their father's footsteps and in so encouraging them, introducing these young bodies to a future of ill health. True, our role models are our parents, our national leaders, our film stars, and our talented soccer players but our national team, just like those other heroes we wish to emulate, don't show the role model of a clean health chit when it comes to smoking. How much better could they be if they did not smoke? Yes, we will never know. But when the hurting starts, it will surely be much too late. Our public education programs must do much more than put a solitary doleful spot on TVM and for that momentary drop of advice to soon be obliterated by the barrage of other adverts that glorify the ego.  On our streets, we need define our no smoking “sarahadhdhu” much more clearly, raise awareness more persuasively, and seek to strengthen our enforcement more wisely. 

Youth are by nature mostly risk taking – thus, dangerous undertakings always seem exciting to us in this moment of exuberance in our life. And so there are few in their youth who would shun excitement. But who gets the windfall and perhaps the last laugh? It’s no doubt the shrewd tobacco companies! They take us daily for a ride with the Marlboro man – yes a slow journey to the grave, all the while showing the video of a life that is fraught with pleasure and fun. Young people of Maldives, let’s not allow the ego to dictate terms to us by making us deny the ravages of smoking. Don’t believe that it can be a lucky strike, or it will be a smooth ride with the Marlboro man or a romantic journey on that Camel? In fact, this enticing white long cylindrical object is the only thing in the market, when used exactly as advised, will kill you. How useful is that? The ways of the Ibilees are deceitful, delightful, and deadly.

Knowing and realizing

What's the difference? Sometimes we utter the exclamation, "Oh, now I realize what that means!" 

Knowing is just an accumulation of information in our minds - a bank where our knowledge account keeps piling up. But realizing requires something more than this passive process. It requires an experience that gives meaning to that knowing. For example, a woman might know about child birth, its related process and the seeming trials and travails of this profound event, but until she has that baby herself she will never fathom the intensity of that intrigue, the bliss, the agony and the joy that accompanies it. Yes, for me this is just knowledge but for my wife it is a realization. Another example is about goodness as a life concept and the potential benefits of it; but it is only when we practice goodness that we experience the joy of it and the satisfaction that it brings in the form of peace and inner harmony. Until we live it we cannot truly believe the content and emotions associated with such reverence so as to make us believers. Religion is also in the similar vein a practice of morality in its essence as we have come to accept that as what comes from God must be the truth. But unfortunately, there is in many of our minds scepticism clouding this truth. On a cloudy day, even the surety of the sun is obscured and for someone who didn't know that there was a sun behind that cloud will continue to believe that there was no sun and only the clouds exist.  Such are clouds that keep us from realizing. Realizing this to be so is in itself a profound realization. Self awareness and the consequent journey to personal enlightenment are possible when we take such leaps. That is the practice of it through an understanding of its moral basis and how it meshes in with the oneness of all creation, we start experiencing the message it has for us - the reality behind the rituals. 
Sometimes it takes a leap of faith to move from knowing to realization. That is the most intrepid event for many of us. We want to know what's in it for us for sure before we take the leap. Of some things we will never know with that certainty of scientific rigor - but then scientific knowledge is in itself tentative and waiting to be disproved, and form the realm of actions that we take because society has shown the validity of it. 

Realization is needed for us to mature and be the responsible minds of tomorrow

Brawn or brain

Are people solutions or are ideas solutions? Our lives in a democracy must be led by ideas and ideals. Gone are the days when strong men led human beings as just strong men by brawn rather than by brain. Such situations were characterized by power and privilege where the leaders led by charisma, character or cruelty. In the tables turned in times of democracy where we the people are in the lead, brawn cannot be the fuel that propels a society. It must be philosophy and ideals that must be the vehicle of our propulsion. But we the people who hold the reigns must be aware that we indeed hold the reigns. It’s not an opportunity to sell that power to the brawn again for people to be corralled like cattle. If that enlightened thought is beyond us, hope of a better tomorrow is surely out of our reach.

Being aware

In this world of form we are constantly buffeted by the attractions of materialism -- things. This is the outside world that we are immersed in during this short sojourn in this world. We have to pass on some day and that is as sure as the sunrise tomorrow. But as we live our life of form from day to day we tend to forget that we have a spiritual entity also embedded within ourselves. Life is always a balance between these two aspects of our being. 

Now about awareness! We all know that to live meaningfully requires that sense of awareness. However the awareness that we are mostly concerned with is that of the world of form - the outside world. We seek to know and be informed about what is happening on the other side of the world, in far off galaxies of the universe, or down in the depths of our oceans, and of the terrestrial effects of global warming that will wreak havoc on this earth if we don't watch out in our avaricious actions, and so on. All this is fine for daily living and for us to project ourselves as informed individuals. They say information is power and that is what we do to gain control of our Dhuniya.  But what we forget often is that the true power of our being comes from an awareness of knowing our inner selves. Of this unfortunately, most of us are unaware. This is the other end of the continuum where we must see ourselves as spiritual beings rather than human beings. We are better spiritual beings when we are better aware of our strengths and weaknesses on the inside - the insecurities we harbor in the depth of our subconscious and their origins, what fears make us retract into ourselves and make us antisocial, what jealousies and anger rise to the surface when our ego cannot have its way. All this relates to understanding ourselves. But this understanding can only happen when we can find the time to reflect in silence because the busy mind that is concerned with the world of form can never grasp the supernatural - that universal mind or super-awareness that we call God. We can only touch that warmth of His love when we seek to spend time in silence, away from the busy traffic of our mind. That is perhaps the wisdom behind prayer - for us Muslims - to reflect five times a day in silence and in proximity - shoulder to shoulder -- with those of our same sensibilities, imbibing the totality of the positive aura generated by all these spirits that are similar to ours within this physical yet spiritual space of the mosque. Those moments make us feel as one - for this is the spirit stirring to be felt by the otherwise insensitive minds that quickly revert to the Dhuniya as soon as we are out and about in our homes and workplaces. 

So can we actively begin to become more aware on the inside? That way we become a more tolerant society? For when we begin to notice and confront the imps and monsters inside of us we will attempt to subdue them and in the process discover that all of humanity is truly one – and the awareness that hurting another person is tantamount to hurting oneself.

Can we clean up Male City?

Today Friday, all Friday mornings are good for walking as it takes a while for Male city to wake up and the streets are quite walkable -- at least devoid of the zipping cycles that might just take away my elbow to the doctor. But believe me I think I have to call up the Mayor to say they have to buck up on keeping our city clean. The littering seems to be getting ever worse. Not a spot without trash! and the drains where the cover is broken -- and that, in so many places -- one can mistake these for trash bins -- packed with pet bottles, wrappers and plastic bags filled with God knows what! and of course the ubiquitous red spit. I tell you it's pathetic our state of this physical environment. -- perhaps those of us old enough can see the difference! Where do we begin to clean up. Some may say at the top. But I say it's the elected council. Guys, don't do this to us when we give you so much of our tax money. Its just not fair is it?  This is our city, and you are not setting an example to the youth and children observing all this as their heroes (grown-ups) litter the street with impunity. And they learn fast from us. Mind you cigarette wielding pedestrians too crush their filter butts on to these same pavements -- as if the new tobacco legislation was a thing to be laughed at. What a pity in our land of democracy! 

Those officials of the government who ply about in their cars may not observe with the pedestrian's eye perhaps! So why would our youth care? And this was right there evident in action during my walk. I saw a young lady with a nice buruqa and colorful well fitting rest of attire tear open a supari packet and after lazily dumping the content into her painted mouth then looked around a couple of times to drop that empty sachet on to the street -- of course to be lost in a myriad such sachets also strewn about her. That's just it. When I asked her politely how she can consider doing this inconsiderate deed to her own environment, I only received a blank look and then before I could move on to supply her with some environmental advice, she stepped into a taxi that stopped by and quickly disappeared from the scene - glad perhaps of getting rid of this nosy old guy!! So what should we do my friends to save our city -- to make it a healthy Male?