Voice of Maldives Islands

A friend of mine told me nowadays the fisherman does not bring the whole catch at once to the fish market- to control the price of fish and by the end of the day sometimes he has to throw the excess into the sea! That’s from the primary level.  When you look at the tertiary level the topic that appears in most headlines is ' shortage ' of dollars and the resulting black market. (A little bit of research here and there (wiki, tourism ministry, stats) gave some figures. Basically, on average a tourist stays for 8 days and spends about 755 dollars (or foreign currencies). From July- September 2009 tourist arrival is 44332, 52388, 50396 respectively.  A rough calculation on how much dollars (or foreign currencies) should be entering into the country from July- September gave a staggering 1.2 billion; 1.2 billion in foreign currencies should be circulating for various transactions within the tourism industry alone in the Maldives!) You might say we are corrupt fro...

It pays to be united. Who would miss the opportunity to be in the top of the lists of any feasibility study on investments, projects, plans, schemes?    For an answer check the results of last referendum on administrative islands. Anyhow, now on, Addu will be referred as the largest island in the Maldives in terms of size and most probably with regard to trade, commerce and industrialization as well -in the near future. Congratulations! Atoll Facts: before and after Presidential Decree (2010/15) on inhabited islands of the Maldives Atoll Total inhabited islands before decree Total inhabited islands after decree Atoll population (census) 2006 Largest natural island/district(s) in the atoll (area in hectares) Male 1 1 46,647 Male'  197 Ha 16 14 19500 Baarah 248.8 Hdh 16 13 22,186 Hanimaadhoo  259.5 Sh 16 14 ...

These days, the talks of creating other cities like Male’ is the buzz word. Nobody knows how the Majlis will decide on the issue of granting, another island(s), except Male’, city status by law. The purpose of this post is not to marvel, at the sincerity and commitment of those Mps (especially from the atolls) to meaningful regional development. The million dollar question is do we really want to repeat the Male’ experience?  Male’ is the health capital, educational capital, infrastructure capital, industry and commerce capital, political capital ...etc of the Maldives. The residents and non-residents alike are paying the price of someone putting all eggs in one basket by squeezing everything under the sun in this tiny place.   There seems to be no end to the rat race for using each and every square meter of land in Male’ for housing shops, offices, Godowns, workshops.....The trees, sun and fresh air have no place here and the ‘ sunny side of life ’ belongs to ...