Conference Tourism, Sight-Jogging, Devastation-Tourism, and Airport weddings to spice up the Maldivian tourism industry!

Instead of just talking about new concepts of tourism it is time that we start implementing such ideas in our islands. At a time when the outlook on tourism and other economic activities are bleak it is perhaps wise to broaden our tourism options so that we can attract a wider variety of tourists to our islands. Following is a list of tourism-ideas that we could develop with relatively little effort and investment.

1. Conference Tourism: Demolish “Dharubaaruge” and build a ten storey conference facility that could cater for all sorts of conferences. Another option could be to develop a resort close to Male that is completely custom designed to host conferences and accommodate delegates. The island of Aarah which was previously used as a Presidential retreat is an ideal island to develop in this was as a Conference Resort. Either way we could promote Maldives as a relatively affordable and attractive venue for hosting various conferences and business meetings of multi-national companies.

2. Sight-jogging: Male lacks interesting tourist attractions and activities. How about introducing a service called “Sight-jogging” for those tourists who are fitness fanatics. This isn’t an original idea of mine. In fact, if you’re a fitness-conscious athlete who is also a tourist traveling in Rome; you might want to sign up for “sight-jogging”. Sightjogging offers visitors a chance to put on their jogging shoes and take a guided tour of Rome’s main attractions. Multilingual trainers/guides will meet you at your hotel and take you jogging along predefined routes based on your interests (be it artistic, historic or naturalistic). We could adopt this idea for Male and take the tourists around Male in a predetermined route that will include all interesting tourist attractions in Male’.

3. Devastation-Tourism: On the aftermath of the crippling tsunami, we had the opportunity to preserve one of the devastated islands as a tourist attraction - a place where tourists could pay to visit and see for themselves the devastation of a tsunami. If we don’t have such an island now, then we could recreate such an island with a museum of photos and artifacts from the tsunami devastation. If this is not possible, how about promoting the Tsunami Monument near Lonuziyaraikolhu as a genuine tourist attraction. We could build a small souvenir shop near the tsunami-monument and sell souvenirs and tee shirts all related to the tsunami. This too isn’t a new idea of mine. If you are in the United States, then check out “devastation tourism” with a bus tour operator Gray Line New Orleans. The company gives a 3-hour “Hurricane Katrina” tour of the hurricane devastation of 2005. Tour route includes visits to Canal Street, the Superdome, and some of the neighborhoods affected badly by the disaster.


4. Airport weddings: How about allowing tourists (both local and international tourists the facility to get married at the Male International Airport. This idea is already in practice at Amsterdam Airport. This innovative tourist-idea at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is to get married there. Whether a couple met on a flight to Bangkok or just wants to be able to go straight from ceremony to runway for their honeymoon, Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) offers travelers the opportunity to get married at the airport. How about doing some research on this service and implement it at the Airport Hotel at Male International Airport? I’m sure even Maldivians who want to travel abroad for their honeymoon after the wedding would use this service and get married and even host the reception at the Airport Hotel before going for their honeymoon (possibly at the Airport Hotel or another local resort or even going abroad). Airport Weddings seem a cool and new idea indeed.

This list has just four ideas but there are numerous new ideas to broaden our tourism scope – ideas such as medical tourism, sports tourism, developing Dhoonidhoo Island as a resort for locals, building four or five storey buildings (hotels) at resorts, etc.
Conference Tourism, Sight-jogging, Devastation-Tourism and Airport weddings could be the start of many such new ideas for our tourism industry.

Will Obama speak in the Maldives?

There are reports that the new American President, Obama, will give a speech from a Muslim capital within his first 100 days. The New York Times says "The list of Islamic world capitals is long, and includes the obvious —Riyadh, Kuwait City, Islamabad — and the not-so-obvious — Male (the Maldives), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Tashkent (Uzbekistan). However I believe that Maldives would be an ideal choice for many reasons:

1. Probably one of the only two 100% Muslim countries in the world.

2. Small and fragile country that, some environmental scientists say, could be wiped out from the face of the earth in another 50 to 100 years time. Due to this reason, Obama could use the same speech to attract world attention to the importance of environmental controls and legislation.

3. Being a founding member of SAARC, we could use our position as a Muslim country, to establish and amicable and working relationship with Afghanistan. Perhaps bring a refreshing perspective into it.

4. For the same reason in point 3 above, we could also work with Pakistan to counter the threat of terrorism and to bring Muslims and the US together.

5. The exoticness of Maldives could also add a different dimension to the speech and make it more effective in getting the message across.

For the above and for many other reasons, we suggest that the government Maldives approach the US embassy and try to arrange a visit to the Maldives by President Obama.
Maldives could indeed play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the United States and the Muslim world.

Are we depending on India too much!

Though most people generally welcome the prospect of mega-Indian companies investing in various sectors in the Maldives, there are some voices who express concern that India and Indian mega-companies are being given too much control of our commerce sector and that this could, in the long run lead to the detriment of our national security and political independence.

The new government of President Nasheed (pic) should be commended for opening up our business sector and attracting foreign investment, but some analysts say that more effort should be put in to attract investors from other countries and regions such as the United States, Europe, Japan, China, the Middle East and more.
In a related story, Indian media reported that, India, the second-largest wheat producer in the world, recently eased a near 16-month-old ban to export 29,177 tonnes of wheat flours to Maldives.

"The prohibition imposed on export of wheat flour shall not be applicable to export of 29,177 tonnes of wheat flours during 2009-10 to Maldives through PEC Ltd," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a notification. The shipment of wheat flours to Maldives followed the announcement by Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Akhilesh Prasad Singh in December 2008 to export up to two million tonnes of wheat to friendly nations.

While India seems to be doing a lot to help Maldives ride the current wave of economic depression, it has to be said that we should not depend too much on India, lest we lose everything if India pulls the rug from under our feet if we do or say something that the Indians do not like.

President Nasheed – a benevolent (loving) dictator!

When President Nasheed declared Muleeaage as the official residence of the President, political critics such as Dr. Hassan Saeed said that it is unconstitutional to do so without amending the law. Wasn’t it Dr. Hassan who said that we could hold the Parliamentary elections even without ratifying the Elections Law? Wasn’t it Dr. Hassan who said that we can deal with drug addicts in contravention to the law because he felt that it was an ethical thing to do?

When it is convenient for Dr. Hassan, he says that it is alright to overlook the constitution and when someone else does so he is quick to criticise. If one follows the letter of the law to its full extent then it could be argued that President Nasheed should have waited for the amendment to the law before unilaterally deciding to move to Muleeaage. But we have to look at the spirit of the action. I’m sure that Dr. Hassan too would probably have moved to Muleeaage if he were elected President.

The same is true about the criticism coming from political foes such as Dr. Hassan regarding the declaration of provinces. We all agree that these things need to be incorporated into the law, but sometimes, depending on the political climate, the leadership of the country needs to move faster than the parliament who often drags its feet.

I would like to believe that we have embarked on a journey of “change” that needs daily – if not hourly – action and that we can’t wait for a Majlis who thinks that they are above everything (including the people of this country).

Judging from the signs I see, I think that President Nasheed is a benevolent dictator – the type of dictator that is actually good for a small country such as ours. Before you start shouting at me, let me give two examples of benevolent dictators. Number one that comes to mind if Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. He sometimes stifled his political foes but above everything else he worked hard and brought prosperity and sincere goodness to Singapore. Not a single Singaporean will argue that Lee Kuan Yew was a bad leader even though he was sometimes “dictatorial”.!

The second example of such a leader is former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed – two very similar leaders who put country first. Look at the results of their labour. Singapore is now officially a “developed” country, and Malaysia is expecet6d to be a “developed” country by 2020.

At a time when the Maldives and the Maldivians aspire to be the “Singapore of South Asia”, we have to have a decisive leader who doesn’t get entangled on the legal mumbo jumbo and rather take action first and worry about the consequences later. Such a leader would instinctively know what’s best for his country and act accordingly. We can never reach such height if we have legal fanatics such as Dr. Hassan or (Kutti) Nasheed at our helm.

Shout at me or verbally attack me for what ever you like, but I’m willing to stand on one limb and defend this controversial argument of mine. If you disagree with me it’s your problem, not mine.

As far as I’m concerned President Nasheed is a benevolent dictator – the type that we should welcome and trust. I agree that he is a bit rusty. But who wouldn’t be in the situation he finds himself in. Give him time and I believe that he would make us the next Singapore and put us really on the world map – not as an environmental casualty that Gayyoom portrayed us to be, but rather as a country with a solid economy and a dependable social support system and an ethical population that trusts in each other.

By the time we reach that level we would have ended our preoccupation with politics (as the Singaporeans have done) and start concentrating on economics and hard work and reaping the fruits of our labour. That’s our destiny, and I believe we have a leader who can take us there.

Nasheed should engineer a way to be invited to the white house and meet President Obama!

During his three-decade-long rule, President Gayyoom managed to visit a number of countries. He was seen at such high-profile places as the Downing Street and lectured at the United Nations. But one very important place that he was never invited to was the White House. It would be a great public relations coup for the new President (Nasheed) if he were able to engineer a way to be invited to the white house and meet President Obama.

President Obama has stated that the US is not an enemy of the Muslims. He has yet to show any substantial policy shifts to prove this claim, but being a hundred percent Muslim country, Maldives can play a bridging role of some sorts to bring the US and the Muslims to a common platform.

We could invite President Obama to visit and give a speech in the Maldives, calling for US-Muslim friendship. President Nasheed could then visit the White House and lecture at some of the US Universities or even at the US Senate. If this were to happen it wouldn’t be the first time that a leader of a relatively small country plays a prominent role in bringing the US and the Muslims together. We can recall the role of the former King of Jordan as an example. How about President Nasheed lending a hand in this? And, in return, the United States can help us in our development.

I would love to see our president sitting with the US president at the White House. That would indeed signal a quantum shift in world affairs. That would be a sign that the “Change” that we have all been seeking has indeed come. Yes we can!

Are we going to see a futuristic land reclamation project in the Maldives?

(Extracts from the article on http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5604464.ece)

British newspaper Times online version quoted President Nasheed as saying that he recently met a visitor from Dubai! A businessman from the global investment company Dubai World - the company responsible for such futuristic land reclamation projects in the United Arab Emirates as the Palm Islands and the World — had come to discuss the possibility of building underwater resorts for tourists in the Maldives. Times reported that the President was reluctant to discuss the details of this meeting.
Are we going to see a futuristic land reclamation project in the Maldives? Perhaps the reclamation of a whole atoll such as Vaavu Atoll – as suggested in this blog?

(For a reference on the reclamation of Vaavu Atoll suggested in this blog, please visit http://mohamedbushry.blogspot.com/2009/01/building-ultimate-mega-island-for.html)

Let’s make Saturday and Sunday as the weekend and Make Friday a working day

Just like the Maldives, Malaysia is also a Muslim country. But is Friday a holiday there? Does Islam ask us not to work on Fridays? No! It only asks us not to work during Jumma Prayer time. It also asks us to start work and seek Allah’s blessings after the Friday (Jumma) Prayer.

Even though Friday has been a holiday in the Maldives ever since the country embraced Islam many centuries ago, we are now seeing many young people do not seem to have any inner respect for the holy day or for even Islam. They see it as a day to sleep till late and to wash their motorcycles and idle.

Coming back to the example of Malaysia, I have seen Malaysian Muslims in Malaysia and I have also seen Malaysian Muslim students in England while I was studying there. Our university had given a mosque for Muslim students there but Maldivian students were only rarely seen in the Mosque whereas Malaysian students were seen there in large numbers. One cannot become a good Muslim by force. It has to come within.

Here I would like to suggest that for worldly economic reasons we can follow the example of Malaysian Muslims and make Saturday and Sunday as the weekend and Make Friday and a working day. We can give the lunch and prayer break for everyone to go for Friday prayers.

It will be nice to see people flocking out of the work places and going to the mosques. After Friday we will then have a long weekend to look forward to (Saturday and Sunday).

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a devout Muslim and I would like this generation to evolve in to a generation who loves and respects and practices Islam in its true sense – not just on the superficial level. Think about this deeply without rejecting the idea without a thought. We don’t become good Muslims just because Friday is a holiday. It has to come within and it is time that we open our minds and our souls to new ideas that will broaden our horizons both in this world and in the hereafter. Again, think about this deeply without rejecting the idea without a thought. Let’s make Saturday and Sunday as the weekend and Make Friday a working day.

Gayyoom and family leaving Maldives for good and migrating to Egypt

A confidential source tells me that former president Maumoon A. Gayyoom and his family has completed all arrangements to migrate to Egypt. According to my source, Gayyoom and family have bought a mansion there and have shipped all their good to Egypt and made their flight reservations for 31st January.
My source tells me that Gayyoom was planning to live in the Maldives but he changed his mind after threats from parliament member (Reeko) Moosa Manik who said that he will take Gayyoom to court for human rights violations.
My source tells me that Gayyoom may change his travelling date but he and his family will travel to Egypt shortly. Gayyoom plans to live in Egypt and visit Maldives depending on the future of DRP and depending on his political future.

How the state could get at least RF one billion if everyone paid Mudhalu Zakath

I have a friend who owns a grocery shop. Every year he pays Mudhalu Zakath. He has to take stock of his grocery shop and the goods in his go-down. Last year the value of the goods came to about Rf 1500,000 (one and half million Rufiyaa). Now he has to sum the total of the cash in his bank accounts. Last year it was Rf two and half million. This meant that his total valuation for the year was Rf 1.5 Million plus Rf 2.5 Million (total of Rf 4 Million).

One has to pay Mudhalu Zakath once a year. The amount is 2.5% (two and half percent) of one’s total valuation. On that basis my friend had to pay 2.5% of Rf 4 Million – which came to a figure of Rf 100,000 (One lak Rufiyaa).

My friend is a small businessman. Imagine the amount of money that the treasury would get if all of us paid Mudhalu Zakath. Take an average resort operator who has about one resort and some other side businesses. On average a Maldivian resort would generate a clean profit of at least one million us dollars per year. Add this to the value of the goods in the resort that are to be sold. The value of the stock would be about usd three million. Now add the savings that this person would have in his bank accounts – perhaps about usd two million. This would come to a total of usd six million. Now Mudhalu Zakath for this person would be 2.5% of usd six million – which would come to about Two million Rufiyaa. This means that a small resort operator would have to pay about Rf 2 Million per year as Mudhalu Zakath.

This figure would be much higher for resort operators such as Villa and Universal. If the government – and in particular if the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and the Finance Ministry could come up with a system to collect Mudhalu Zakath from everyone, I estimate that the treasury would get at least Rf one billion per year just from Mudhalu Zakath.

Collecting Mudhalu Zakath is something that is binding on any Islamic government. It is the duty of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs that the leaders in the government and the general public are made aware of the importance of Mudhalu Zakath and how the proper collection of Mudhalu Zakath would help solve many of our economic ills.

Building the ultimate mega island for the Maldivians!

Vaavu Atoll is the smallest administrative atoll in the Maldives. There are about 19 islands in the atoll but only five of those islands are populated; and the whole atoll has a population of only about two thousand. But the government has to bear the overheads of an Atoll Office and many Island Offices and Schools and Power Houses and other infrastructure to support only 2000 people scattered across the seas of Vaavu Atoll. This is bad economies of scale. This is also against the spirit of decentralization.

Here I would like to put forward a predictably controversial proposal. I propose to relocate the 2000 people of Vaavu Atoll to a bigger atoll, provide housing for the residents and compensate them adequately. After this relocation, I propose to reclaim the whole atoll by doing deep-sea dredging. The reclaiming should be done to a height of at least ten feet above sea level. This landmass would be big enough to accommodate at least a population of three hundred thousand.

This would be a huge landmass (one island) - the ultimate safe-island which could accommodate almost 300,000 people. We could open for international bid and get a foreign party to reclaim and then build the infrastructure in this island.
This huge island could have mega facilities such as a huge transshipment harbour; huge international airport, large international university, many international schools, world renowned marine and environmental research centre, and industrial facilities and factories of all sorts. It could also have all the top-brands of hotels such as Hilton, Intercontinental, Sheraton, etc. The large island could also have factories to build cars and motorcycles and boat-building yards as well. Adjacent to the transshipment harbour, it could have dry dock facilities and farms too.
Like in Dubai we could sell land and housing plots and apartments and office space to international individuals and international organizations from there. This would be a multi-billion dollar project that could bring incredible revenue to us.

Government from 8am to 4pm and shops from 8am to 6pm?

It was a bold and meaningful change. Changing the working hours of the civil service is something that was needed. The current working hours of 7.30 to 2.30 is outdated and unproductive and impractical. The new working hours of 8am to 4pm is more in line with the working hours of other countries.

When the change comes into force on 01st February, the salaries and allowances of civil servants would be increased too. The government seems to be streamlining the civil service to make it smaller and more efficient. It is better to have ten efficient staff rather than have one thousand inefficient staff. This sort of streamlining can make our civil service smaller and more efficient and we would be able to pay much better salaries to the staff too.

It was reassuring to hear president Nasheed speak about his government’s economic plans. It was indeed refreshing to have a leader who understands what economics is all about. We have had enough of a half-cooked sheikh who pretended to know economics but was really clueless.

As we implement the new working hours for the civil service (8am to 4pm) it would be nice to change the regulation on service hours for shops as well. How about 8am to 6pm for the shops? Eight to twelve and then 1.00pm to 6pm. That would be nine hours. The current hours of 9am to m11pm also come to a total of about ten hours if we deduct the lunch and prayer breaks. So how about 8 to 6 for the shops?