Thoughts

The Ship sailed slowly towards the island, piercing through the sound of the calm seas. The moon shone on the deck in full glory, with tranquil splendor that would shame the best cinematographic scenes from the original James Francis Cameron's Titanic film. One could have sworn that the rushing breezes whispered the words so gracefully sung by the powerful soprano of the most acclaimed female singer who can effortlessly slide from whispers into F-natural so effortlessly. "Far across the distance, And spaces between us, You have come to show you, go on..." Such was the blanket of blissful serenity that encompassed the vastness of the oceans. The time, however, was before the time of the 882 ft long Ship whose closest competitor to the throne was simply half her size, graced her belly in the oceans. This ship carried King Olaf of Kenilworth. King Olaf was sailing from the east, returning from his holy pilgrimage to the remoteness of Arabia. Standing by the railing...

Einstein once stated, "Imagination, not knowledge, is the true sign of intelligence."Long before him, Socrates famously said, "I know I am smart because I know I know nothing." To be honest, both of those things made me scratch my head. So I started to wonder: What does it mean to be smart? And what does it mean to be "intellectual"? This question bothered me for one simple reason: people are eager to call others "intellectual" or "stupid" in ordinary interactions, frequently without any context, compassion, or kindness. I didn't think this was fair or even true. So, I did what any curious person would do: I looked for answers. How do people define an intellectual? I asked folks from different backgrounds what they think an "intellectual person" is. Their answers were as different as their jobs. The Businessman: "An intellectual person is someone who makes sense of things and helps others understand them." The Au...

A news article on Haveeru Online caught my attention today ( http://www.haveeru.com.mv/?page=details&id=114841 ), not because of the fees mentioned in the article, but because they have a website online which publishes "official minutes of meetings" of the council. It achieves two things: 1. Transparency - the minutes of meeting show individual stances taken by councillors on specific issues. Their constituents can actually know what they said in the Council Meetings. It's a great thing to do and I salute Male' City Council for taking this initiative. 2. Accountability and disemmination of information about Council's Activities - this is agaisnt the trend of the current political climate and again, I commend for this initiative by the Male' City Council. The question now is, will they continue this in the future? I hope so, and urge them to do so. Even if only for the sake of instilling the "democratic values" in the rest of the councils. ...

The fundamental aim of any business can be expressed as “maximizing profit for the shareholders.” There are several ways of achieving that. However, those goals and targets should be reached through widely accepted moral norms within the society including adherence to Laws governing business conduct, and employ fair trading to achieve the goals of the business through legitimate and just means. It is also about doing what is right and refrain from doing what is wrong in carrying business activities. Although some aspects of business ethics differ from society to society due to different laws governing different societies, the broader aspects of Business Ethics are still the same across all the societies in general. Some examples of Business ethics are conflicts of interest issues, corrupted and fraudulent procurement practices, abuse of confidential and critical business intelligence information, deliberate ignorance of applicable laws, ignoring responsibilities towards the emplo...

‎ Not Sustainable Development. Definitely NOT. July 17, 2011 “1,658,266 cubic feet of marshy soil will be removed from the Maakilhi wetland area to build the Convention Center for the SAARC Summit, according to the EIA report. And for backfilling the area, 4,145,665 cubic feet of sand had to be mined from Hithadhoo lagoon. A reliable source has confirmed that the sand is being extracted from an area already planned for future reclamation...” And someone asked me today if this is sustainable development. That question came from Ahmed Nizam—Maavahi NGO founding member and the current President of the Maldives NGO Federation—during a Facebook thread. That question brought back a lot of memories. I remember the night well—not because it was an ordinary public consultation, but because it revealed just how flawed the entire process was. What was meant to be a space for open dialogue ended up showing exactly why public participation in decision-making still has a long way to go. It wasn’t co...

My ranking of Apple products lie somewhere between utter rubbish and expensive toys, but I have to admit, Steve Jobs is a great visionary and a genius at his trade... and inspiring too. Steve Jobs Lays It Down For Playboy http://gizmodo.com/5821429/that-time-in-1987-when-playboy-interviewed-steve-jobs iPlayboy — In 1987, a young, brash Steve Jobs sat down with the world's preeminent gentleman's magazine. With yesterday's launch of the Playboy Commission , an editorialized guide to Heff's archives, we can take a look inside the mind of Mr. Apple. Depending on whom one talks to, Jobs is a visionary who changed the world for the better or an opportunist whose marketing skills made for an incredible commercial success. In jeans and worn sneakers, running a company that prides itself on having a mixture of Sixties idealism and Eighties business savvy, Jobs is both admired and feared. "He's the reason I'll work 20 hours a day," says one engineer. O...

We’ve all seen it—during election season, our social media feeds light up with posts, reels, livestreams, and hashtags. Candidates are suddenly everywhere. From parliamentary hopefuls to council candidates and even presidential contenders, everyone seems eager to connect, engage, and "listen" to the people. But here's the real question:  where do they all disappear to once they’re elected? I find it incredibly frustrating that the same people who flood Facebook timelines and TikTok feeds to ask for our votes go completely silent when it’s time to answer real questions or provide updates about their work. Let me be clear—this isn’t just an abstract complaint. I’ve personally tagged several elected officials on issues that fall directly under their mandate.  Addu City Council members , including the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, and Councillor Hussain Hilmy, have been completely unresponsive. Not even a simple acknowledgement. And it’s not just at the local level. Take  Mohamed ...