First article, after a bit of a delay!

Well since today is December 26, I decided that my first article will be about the day being celebrated as Unity Day. Well, as everybody is very well aware of, this day is being celebrated because of the unity displayed by Maldivians all over the country on the day of the asian tsunami of 2004. Its been 5 years now, but, still, a lot of people are suffering from that disaster. Well, I decided not to really talk about these people or what they are suffering right now, but rather, the point of actually celebrating this day.

Are Maldivians really this united, that we celebrate such a day? To be honest, I don't believe it, and for good reasons too. The only days I have seen all Maldivians united, even if it was for the sake of being sarcastic or hypocritical, it was on the day of the Tsunami and the days which followed, and also, during the SAFF Championships. If a person is to think about this clearly, it is really not what we can call ideal Unity.

This is the definition of Unity as on Wikipedia, a website I just can't stop loving.

Unity is defined as the state of being undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.

Now I find the last part very interesting. With nothing wanting. Does that rule out the SAFF Championships, because we did want a lot from that competition, not just the trophy. During the SAFF Championships, were people united in the a way which supports the Wikipedia definition, or was everybody just hyped about the tournament. I mean come on, our national team is participating in a major tournament, we are hyped during the world cup to a very great extent, so imagine what would happen during one where our own team is taking part.

Maybe we thought we were very united at that time, but in reality, maybe we were not. Let's talk about the disaster itself. In terms of Maldivian history, we had never faced such a disaster, or suffered from so many destroyed homes and lives. In terms of statistics, what we suffered was actually nothing compared to countries like India and Indonesia, but I won't argue. Yes, everybody was very united that day, helping each other out, and so it goes. However, that last part of the Wikipedia definition causes some problems here as well. Clearly, a lot of people that day, worked with self interest as their main motive....

Of course the army had no choice there, no problems. But the private sector is what causes this unity to not really exist at that time. According to interviews given by the vicitims themselves, more could have been done easily to rebuild homes and such, so it's been 5 years, and still, 1600 people are homeless. I thought if the so called unity amongst people like on that day existed, these people would now be living a better life with new homes. Many worked however, to promote their image, for marketing themselves, business, and to earn deals with two-way benefits. However, on the outside, these people were happily helping out the people.

Finally, I have a feeling that somehow, many people have actually stopped caring about the tsunami victims. Nobody usually voices out their opinions nowadays except when an election is close, and well, their lives are becoming hopeless with every passing day. One may say that this is exactly why they celebrate Unity day, to remember these people. Ok, we have done that for the last 5 years. On the 27th, well, people get on with their lives and simply forget.

Conclusion? The only time I thought there was true Unity in the Maldives was on November 3rd, 1988. Maybe even the next time we are all truly united, we will be at war.

Why start a blog?

I have never really thought about blogging in the past, although I always used to hear how great the service was. However, recently, I felt the need of starting a blog, which I can say is due to current events and so on happening in life. So what are these events? Thats what I'm going to share on this blog, with anybody who reads it.

So what kind of information am I going to share here? Well, mostly, its quite random, from ideas and views on very little aspects of life to much greater and wider events. I am from Maldives, so I feel I should talk about it too, which I will, a lot. Personally, I feel that the views of people from Maldives are too confined to their little world of Maldives, and not really reaching out to anybody anywhere else. So what is my description of that little country? Although this might turn out to be offensive to more than 350,000 people, I feel that Maldives is quite frankly, a burden to the rest of the world. We will get onto that later.

Well, to anybody reading this, that's the kind of topics I am going to be writing about. It maybe quite interesting to some, maybe offensive to others, but still, I assure you that it doesn't really matter to me what you think about it. I will reply to any comments in the posts I feature here.

Also, to the people who may not really know me, I am your average 17 year old dude from the smallest country in Asia, writing about stuff outside his reach in another country some kilometers away. Yes, I am still studying, (Oh Joy!) and I feel like I have been doing so for a century or even more. Of course I am going to be telling a lot of people to read my blog, well, mostly people I know, so for now, expect to see something interesting from now onwards on this blog.