Simon Shareef's Open Salon Blog

Remembering Beslan

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:08:24 -0400

Exactly 5 years ago on the 1st of September 2004, I watched, shell shocked and in horror as images of the terrible events taking place in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia unfolded. A group of armed terrorists surrounded a school and took hostage over 1,100 people, mostly women and some 700 children - some just babies.

The terrorists herded the hostages into the school gym where they were left deprived of water and food. The terrorists also took the lives of several people and threatened to blow up the gym if their demands were not met.

On the third day of the siege the Russian forces stormed the school using tanks, rockets and other heavy artillery.

When the dust settled the lives of 334 hostages had been mindlessly extinguished. Among them were 186 innocent children.

I will never understand the purpose of wars and terror attacks and I do not intend to understand them. I do not want to know why 186 innocent children had lost their lives. There cannot be a higher purpose more worthy than the lives of children, and indeed that of any child. There simply cannot be any justification for such an atrocity.

To remember the massacre at School Number One in Beslan, I present to you this heart-wrenching documentary I found on Youtube.

My heart aches thinking about all those children. The ones that died and the ones that will live the rest of their lives carrying the burden of grievous memories. Seeing their terror-stricken little faces I freeze in absolute despair and helplessness.

And now, I cannot hold back the tears anymore.

Books, books, but none valuable

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:08:35 -0400

This post about the lack of original educational or entertainment books in the native language of the Maldives. The language is called "Dhivehi".

Walk into any local bookstore, make your way to the Dhivehi language books section and if you are like me you’ll be thoroughly disappointed. There are quite a number of books but there is a lack of original Dhivehi language works on offer. And what is already on offer are either outdated or utterly devoid of any educational or entertainment value.

It appears that we haven't progressed in our literary department for quite some time now. I am always delighted seeing some of the old classic folk stories in print. But then I am also shocked when I see that day after day the number of religious books appears to be on the increase. And it is rather alarming that some book stores are entirely dedicated to religious literatures, both in Dhivehi and English. The fundamentalist religious propaganda machine is well oiled and makes the few translations to Dhivehi of cheesy English novels look pathetic.

Yes, the number of religious titles is staggering and more so when you consider the sheer amount of rubbish that is printed on those books. In the children's section (or perhaps it was right next to it) I found such horrifying titles as "The punishments of the grave", where the author expounds upon the wicked punishments meted out to those that sin and stray from “true” Islam and “Hell – who wants to be saved?” – the contents of which is anyone’s guess.

In my opinion such books ought to be rated "R" and moved into a special section labeled "Violence and Gore (Adults only)". But we can always count on absolutely no one raising an eyebrow about the matter given our fear of criticizing Islam in any of its forms (violent or peaceful).

I have to ask you, dear reader, what could possibly be the educational value of these books? What benefits will our society reap when our children and curious adults read this garbage? If we cannot find original works that will diversify and enrich the spectrum of literature in Dhivehi perhaps we can have some foreign language works translated. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pick up, say, some of Shakespeare's works in Dhivehi? Impossible? I say we should try. How about a book on modern history or the journal of François Pyrard’s time shipwrecked in the Maldives? Maybe a couple of real science books talking real science bereft of religious parallels (forced or otherwise)?

I think it is time the government embark on a programme aimed at broadening and exposing our minds to the diversity of the world's knowledge and great literary works by initiating a massive translations project. I’m not suggesting that there are not enough English language titles available but merely that the cost of good, imported books makes it difficult for them to reach most corners of our country. Add to that the fact that quality of English language skills of many students graduating from grade-schools throughout the country leaves much to be desired. In any case, such a project will fund authors and translators or maybe their work could be purchased at a premium and reproduced. It might even provide training to promising writers. Such a project will aim to create a society that can write freely and openly – a society that loves to read books, not just trash magazines.

Having said all that I do realize that Dhivehi language is not the richest of languages and certainly not apt at describing the world beyond ours. It is not modern and lacks the linguistic tools to deal with technology and science. But we have seen many new words introduced in recent times therefore we should take this as a challenge. Get new words coined if we have to. They might not be in common use in a few months but years from now we would have a richer and more powerful language along with a delightful diversity of books.

I realize too that a problematic hurdle we face is the arrogance and narrowness of religious conservatism. But if we can show a dancing local girl right after a hard-line religious programme on TV why cannot we have a Dhivehi language book about the dinosaurs? Or a book on world war 2, or one on space and the universe?

But through the constant propaganda of far-right religious institutions we have been conditioned to hypocritically disregard and dismiss scientific facts thereby making a book on dinosaurs, say, susceptible to attack and ridicule. Perhaps education as a whole in our young, formative years is to be blamed. But I suspect the laidback attitude of those at the in charge of literary progress must take a fair share of the responsibility. It is a good thing that many of us are fortunate to study abroad in far more advanced countries. But ask any Maldivian student of a foreign university, current or former, whether they took any interest in the arts, culture and history of their host country and you'll be mostly disappointed. Ask them if they had ever visited the museum and you will get the same reply. Many graduates return home without having their worldview expanded despite years away and the education gained.

And yet, I feel it is still not too late to change things within this country. If we can fight to establish a democracy like no other in the Islamic world and if the progress and evolution of Dhivehi language can be attainable then the only obstacle left is to find the courage to stand up to attacks from fundamentalist religious groups. It may be impossible to reproduce some philosophical and scientific works without stirring controversy and it may be tough and frightening (and even violent) but there will come a point in time when we simply must fight to preserve our history, culture and heritage and progress with the world and secure our future.

And do it too in our own Dhivehi language.

Notes: here's a sampling of books I found in one bookshop.

Translation of titles from left to right:

"Playing and Listening to Music" - a book claiming this activity is haram (forbidden)
"The truth about Jinns and Satan"
"Hell - who wants to be saved?"
"Is it ok for unmarried men and women to hold hands?" - a magazine article claiming this is unacceptable

On joining India's security grid

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:08:07 -0400

This post is about the controversy and the false alarms raised by some regarding a military security agreement between India and and its neighbour the Maldives.

By signing an agreement to be part of India's security "grid" we are not selling out to the giant in whose backyard we make home. Nor are we paying with our independence and sovereignty just because we were provided financial assistance from them. And neither is India seeing a threat in a build up from Beijing. We cannot simply throw around these assumptions just because there is an agreement. This is a serious matter. The agreement, in my opinion, has to do with a far more serious and deadly threat.

That threat is global terrorism by extremist Islamist groups.

If you've read this Indian Express article you may have missed a key point. In the article it says that India has already undertaken a project to install radars along its entire coastline. The Indian coastline is no joke, it is vast and so is ours. Question is why now?

Why has it suddenly become so important to place radars in every single atoll and to carry out regular sorties over us on top of providing 2 permanent helicopters to enhance surveillance capabilities? I've been told that the helicopters were a deal made under the previous government. That leaves the radars. Surely we didn't become paranoid overnight. What "suspicious movements" and swift "response to threats" is the article really talking about?

After the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, information from interrogations and intelligence has revealed plans by the perpetrators of the said attack, the Lashkar e-Toiba, is planning to launch attacks on India and other targets (Maldives included) from our own islands. We simply don't have the capabilities to keep watch on our entire coast.

As you might have known, there was a Maldivian national involved in the Mumbai attacks. The LeT and Al-Qaida are recruiting Maldivians. This threat has already infiltrated our country, recruiting many young men (and some women). We have become the new breeding ground for Islamist terrorists. I don't understand how and why we don't take these things seriously. It is our stupidity to think that India is somehow huffing and puffing because of the Chinese presence or that they are offering protection from the disbanded LTTE. It is our narrow mind that tells us that India is interested in our meager income when their economy is set to grow despite the global meltdown. All this is diverting attention from the real problem.

If anything we should be terrified and worried about the invasion of militant Islamist groups and their ideologies in this country. This threat is far more stealthy and belligerent and as we are finding out even today it has already infiltrated our society. If anything we will lose our identity, sovereignty and independence to militant Islamist extremism. We should not forget that our own military forces battled just such a threat on the island of Himendhoo 2 short years ago.

And yet, it seems people like MP Mohamed Nasheed and several others have suddenly discovered a new-found nationalism stirring up for all the wrong reasons. Where is your patriotism and demand for independence when our identity and security is being slowly robbed right under your noses? The resounding silence from parties that ought to be concerned about this threat of militant Islamist terror says it all. We don't know what we want and we dare not speak out against anything to do with militant Islam.

A taxi driver's sentiments about the Taliban put our views regarding militant Islamist extremism in clear perspective for me. He was angry that the "brothers" of Taliban are been slaughtered by infidels. Don't worry dear driver, one day we will have our own Taliban if people continue be stupid and silent, I wanted to say.

I support strengthening and guarding our coast and our islands from threats and I'd rather have it implemented by India than any other country. And until the details of this agreement become clear we should not start pretending that suddenly we have our nationalistic interests prioritized and talk about loving our flag and our heritage and what not.

Frankly, it all sounds embarrassing.