Close My Eyes

I Coudn't have said this better than Mariah Carey did. Just wanted to share how I felt a little.......

I was wayward child
With the weight of the world
That I held deep inside
Life was a winding road
And I learned many things
Little ones shouldn't know

But I closed my eyes
Steadied my feet on the ground
Raised my head to the sky
And though time's rolled by
Still feel like that child
As I look at the moon
Maybe I grew up
A little too soon

Funny how one can learn
To grow numb to the madness
And block it away
I left the worst unsaid
Let it all dissipate
And I try to forget

Nearing the edge
Obvious I almost
Fell right over
A part of me
Will never be quite able
To feel stable
That woman-child falling inside
Was on the verge of fading
Thankfully I
Woke up in time

Guardian angel I
Sail away on an ocean
With you by my side
Orange clouds roll by
They burn into your image
And you're still alive
(You're always alive)

But I closed my eyes
Steadied my feet on the ground
Raise my head to the sky
And though time's rolls by
Still feel like that child
As I look at the moon
Maybe I grew up
A little too soon

For Simon...

I thought of your latest article on your blog when I saw this cartoon.
Cheers

The hoohaa about Drug Rehabilitation

Now that I am out of my blues, I just realised how politicised drug rehabilitation has become.

You have to ask the question, is it really that an American company has taken over , the length or something thing else? I think I will go with that 'something else' for now, but before that lets have a look at it...

People who have a problem with Americans taking over and imposing an american model,... think again, and know your stuff. Drug Rehabilitation Center in Himmafushi has been running the Therapeutic Model (TC) for the past few years. TC is a PURE American model. And guess what, the Co-ordinator Ali Shareef with another staff was directly trained in America by DAYTOP. And several counsellors were trained in Malysia (Pengasih)in this model , and couple more in Singapore (Pertapis) and yet a few more in Maldives itself by the Americans. So you have to think twice before you start the witch hunt, don't you think?

And if you think, that religion is going to be pushed out, I feel sorry for you. First of all, religion is a very persoanl thing, something between you and God. The other thing, the center has a mosque. Nobody can stop you from praying. and I seriously doubt that anyone is going to start up a church service in the mosque. Folks! get over you christinophobia!!!

The amount of money being spent on a client each month, That is suspiciously large. I do have my own reservations on that, and yeah the time period is a killing. You can't seriously think about giving it away for that long, I mean I am all for it for 5 years, heck een 10 year. In a field like rehabilitation, you need that much time to see if a program is working or not.

Hmmmm, I seriously wonder, whether NNCB as the governing and monitering authorty has the capacity to do so.

When I imagine NNCB I always picture a lot of puppets running amok, with their strings all knotted up.

This diameriCENAPS might be the best thing that is about to happen or the worst nightmare for Drug Rehabilitation for Maldives. Fingers crossed

So Blue

I am feeling so blue today. Don't know why. Somebody, anybody, I need a lift

Polygamy in Islam vs polygamy in Maldives.

If you look at the Qur'an (anybody done that recently?) you would see that, polygamy is not a right given to every muslim men or an order from god. It is simply PERMITTED in unsual instances.

If you deem it best for the orphans, you may marry their mothers - you may marry two, three, or four. If you fear lest you become unfair, then you shall be content with only one, or with what you already have. Additionally, you are thus more likely to avoid financial hardship. Surah Al-Nesaa', (4:3)

Look at the context or history of this verse. This verse was reveleaved after 'Uhud', where a lot of men died, their wives widoewed and children orphaned. Polygamy was purely allowed in order to protect the orphan kids. ALSO pay close attention to the latter part of that verse. You have to be FAIR to all the wives in all instances.

The same Surah verse 129 states that:You can never be equitable in dealing with more than one wife, no matter how hard you try. Therefore, do not be so biased as to leave one of them hanging (neither enjoying marriage, nor left to marry someone else). If you correct this situation and maintain righteousness, GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful. Here its crystal clear to me, as Human beings you can never treat all your wives equally.

Therefore the only sane conclusion you can make here is that polygamy is not permitted.
Now you out there. Some please convince me that this is legal in islam? (other than the mentioned instance?) .Especially wahabi's and the adhalath parteys.

Only in Maldives

I was having Tea With Zues in Cloud 9 (apparently his favourite hangout). Our usual Wednesday morning brunch, when he pointed a little place on Earth called Maldives. He was amused. I looked down as saw a poorly dressed old man limping making rounds in a flash neighbourhood of Male'. All he had on him was a book and a "fanny Pack". I looked closer to at Zues' object of amusement. Af first glance there was nothing funny or remotely amusing about him or his actions. If you asked me it was rather pathetic and I said so. Zeus said, Look closely and listen to him. The next house he entered, he asked the lady of the house for a donation towards his son's medical bills. She inquired more information. He seemed mostly at loss to explain, showed her the book. it was full of names and addresses and amounts, which I assume is money pledged or donated to the cause. She again inquired after the health of the "son" He hesitated and went onto a "practiced" speech of the ailments of his son, followed by a history of himself and hi inability to support his countless sons and wife. The lady of the house took pity and gave him something for his misery, judging by the smile on his face, she must have donated quite a sum. He hurried out and went into the next. This kept on for sometime. Comes lunch time, he goes into a house, and comes out. Not the same old desolete man. But dressed in nice clean almost new clothes, walked briskly with no sign of a limp into a fancy restaurant. I could not believe my own eyes. He sat down with three other men. They inquired after his "business". He replied "going great, I topped yesterday's record today". Ah, I said to Zues, thats what makes you laugh. Human misery and manipulation, you can only see the finest in the Maldives. This is my amusement these days, Greece is so boring compared to the tiny Maldives, where the daily human drama and amusement was plenty. But watch some more, and laugh no more!I looked down again, this time, another man with the same kinda book was making the rounds in the same neighbourhood. He wasn't as old or as garsihly dressed as the former. By the looks on his face, he wasn't doing too well. He went into the previously "exploited" household and asked the lady of the house. She replied, I already helped out a guy today, I can't afford to support all of you!. He finished his rounds and went to a big buidling with a red roof. I assume some kind of medical facility. The minute he walked in, he saw a group of people hugging. moaning and wailing. By his reaction, I assume it was his relatives or friends. He rushed to them and joined in the hysteria. It seemed, his son has just passed away (God bless his soul). I turned to Zues and told him to put a sock in it, for I had seen enough!

Women from the TIME's 100

I just thought I'd revist the issue of women in history, unlike some people would think , women are not cowards or helpless. BUT I am also not blind enough to say that they didn't need a hand from time to time. If you want to scroll down, I have listed a bunch of women who manage to get their name down in history. READ slowy HIS_STORY. not HER-Story. So these women have managed to do something to be noticed by the more dominant powerful men to be included in their story. Don't worry I am not some bra burning lunatic. I am just a simple lunatic.

My immediate concern is for the Maldivian women. Coz that is what I am, atleast for now. We might like to think that, women and men are equal in the maldives, that they are given equal status. What a load of crap! In the political arena they are either used as eye candy or used for attention grabbing statement. and yeah don't forget, as nice coloured, and scented "bubbles" that can be popped anytime and anyway desired. You think I am deluded? Ask any women that have joined the work force. Ask them about the sexual innuedos, the dirty jokes, the not so subtle comments targeted at the pretty secretaries and assistants. Oooh yeah now you gonna say that they deserved it. Yeah right! Don't get me started here. Just how many offices / departments/organisations and ministries have a policy on sexual harrasment? or even a policy on employee rights? call me crazeeeeeeeeeeee and name a few, just to show me up.

anyway gotta go to work, perhaps I should limit my ramblings. Here is the list that was promised earlier on. They are all linked to their original articles.

Eleanor Roosevelt (First lady)

Eleanor shattered the ceremonial mold in which the role of the First Lady had traditionally been fashioned, and reshaped it around her own skills and her deep commitment to social reform. She gave a voice to people who did not have access to power. She was the first woman to speak in front of a national convention, to write a syndicated column, to earn money as a lecturer, to be a radio commentator and to hold regular press conferences...

Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister)

She was the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century's last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world — Margaret Thatcher played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any would have occurred without her.

Margaret Sanger

Her crusade to legalize birth control spurred the movement for women's liberation.She taught us, first, to look at the world as if women mattered. Born into an Irish working-class family, Margaret witnessed her mother's slow death, worn out after 18 pregnancies and 11 live births. While working as a practical nurse and midwife in the poorest neighborhoods of New York City in the years before World War I, she saw women deprived of their health, sexuality and ability to care for children already born. Contraceptive information was so suppressed by clergy-influenced, physician-accepted laws that it was a criminal offense to send it through the mail. Yet the educated had access to such information and could use subterfuge to buy "French" products, which were really condoms and other barrier methods, and "feminine hygiene" products, which were really spermicides.

Aretha Franklin (The Queen of Soul)

Her reign has been long. Born in 1942 in Memphis, Tenn., she started recording when she was just 14. Since then, she has had 20 No. 1 R. and B. hits and won 17 Grammys. Her breakthrough album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), was a Top 40 smash. Three decades later, after Motown, after disco, after the Macarena, after innumerable musical trendlets and one-hit wonders, Franklin's newest album, her critically acclaimed A Rose Is Still a Rose (1998), is another Top 40 smash. Although her output has sometimes been tagged (unfairly, for the most part) as erratic, she has had a major album in every decade of her career, including Amazing Grace (1972) and Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985).
Her reign has been storied. She sang at Martin Luther King's funeral and at William Jefferson Clinton's Inaugural gala. She has worked with Carole King and Puff Daddy. The Michigan legislature once declared her voice to be one of the state's natural resources.

Martha Graham (Dancer)

Graham was far from the first dancer to rip off her toe shoes and break with the rigid conventions of 19th century ballet. America in the 1910s and '20s was full of young women (modern dance in the beginning was very much a women's movement) with similar notions. But it was her homegrown technique — the fierce pelvic contractions, the rugged "floor work" that startled those who took for granted that real dancers soared through the air — that caught on, becoming the cornerstone of postwar modern dance. Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris — all are Graham's children and grandchildren. (Taylor and Cunningham even danced in her company, though they later repudiated her high-strung style.) Her methods are routinely taught today in studios the world over, but you need not have studied them or even have seen any of her dances to be influenced by them. They are part of the air every contemporary dancer breathes.

Oprah Winfrey (No introduction needed)

Lucille Ball (Coemdian)

Ball's dizzy redhead with the elastic face and saucer eyes was the model for scores of comic TV females to follow. She and her show, moreover, helped define a still nascent medium. Before I Love Lucy, TV was feeling its way, adapting forms from other media. Live TV drama was an outgrowth of Broadway theater; game shows were transplanted from radio; variety shows and early comedy stars like Milton Berle came out of vaudeville. I Love Lucy was unmistakably a television show, and Ball the perfect star for the small screen. "I look like everybody's idea of an actress," she once said, "but I feel like a housewife." Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason were big men with larger-than-life personas; Lucy was one of us.

Estée Lauder (buisness women )

, Josephine Esther Mentzer, daughter of immigrants, lived above her father's hardware store in Corona, a section of Queens in New York City. She started her enterprise by selling skin creams concocted by her uncle, a chemist, in beauty shops, beach clubs and resorts.
No doubt the potions were good — Estée Lauder was a quality fanatic — but the saleslady was better. Much better. And she simply outworked everyone else in the cosmetics industry. She stalked the bosses of New York City department stores until she got some counter space at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1948. And once in that space, she utilized a personal selling approach that proved as potent as the promise of her skin regimens and perfumes. A little business that sells in 118 countries and last year grew to be $3.6 billion big in sales. The Lauder family's shares are worth more than $6 billion

Rachel Carson

She was always a writer, and she always knew that. Like Faulkner, Fitzgerald, e.e. cummings, Millay and E.B. White, 10-year-old Rachel Louise Carson, born in 1907 in the Allegheny Valley town of Springdale, Pa., was first published in the St. Nicholas literary magazine for children. A reader and loner and devotee of birds, and indeed all nature, the slim, shy girl of plain face and dark curly hair continued writing throughout adolescence, chose an English major at Pennsylvania College for Women and continued to submit poetry to periodicals. Not until junior year, when a biology course reawakened the "sense of wonder" with which she had always encountered the natural world, did she switch her major to zoology, not yet aware that her literary and scientific passions might be complementary

Diana, Princess of Wales no intro necessary right?

Anne Frank

Along with everything else she came to represent, Anne Frank symbolized the power of a book. Because of the diary she kept between 1942 and 1944, in the secret upstairs annex of an Amsterdam warehouse where she and her family hid until the Nazis found them, she became the most memorable figure to emerge from World War II — besides Hitler, of course, who also proclaimed his life and his beliefs in a book. In a way, the Holocaust began with one book and ended with another. Yet it was Anne's that finally prevailed — a beneficent and complicated work outlasting a simple and evil one — and that secured to the world's embrace the second most famous child in history.

Helen Keller
She altered our perception of the disabled and remapped the boundaries of sight and sense

Marilyn Monroe
She sauntered through life as the most delectable sex symbol of the century and became its most enduring pop confection

Mother Teresa no Itro needed right?

Emmeline Pankhurst

The Victorian Englishwoman marshaled the suffragist movement, which won women the right to vote

Rosa Parks

We know the story. One December evening, a woman left work and boarded a bus for home. She was tired; her feet ached. But this was Montgomery, Ala., in 1955, and as the bus became crowded, the woman, a black woman, was ordered to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she remained seated, that simple decision eventually led to the disintegration of institutionalized segregation in the South, ushering in a new era of the civil rights movement.

24's Back!

whoopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. its back, Jack is back. For those fans out there, this season looks to be great.

On a more serious note, last season was about Moslem/middle east terrorists. Well the beggning of this season looks that way too. as hamza said, china is out. But if you look deeper, the chain reaction is building up, everyday americans against muslims. not necessarily driven by hate, but by the unknown and fear. The survival instinct kicks in. the government rounding them up. Sound familiar? I faced this personally during 9/11, still have a bitter taste in my mouth when i think back.

THATS why this is just entertainment. am going with the flow...... as crazy as ever, Jack you are the man.

sorry for being crazy for a min, but then again i am INSANE

Women!

I always wondered what role women would play in politics in this new era of political turmoil. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Women have been like bubble. you know they are nice to look at and play with and then POP off they go.
In MDP, there have been a few. lets see, Jennifer rose to the horizon in the beggining, got herself arrested. there was talk for a few days or so, then interest in her waned off, atleast locally. There were no big banners or campaigns run on DO or MDP to release Jennfer or a website. Now that she is back on the scene still making only tiny waves. Don't forget Maria. She rose to the surface like the purrrfect bubble and now has gone "pop", anybody know what she is upto and where she is? and lets not mention Shehy, it was too fast a process to analyse.Look I am just a normal average Maldivian, I only know as much as the next person. If there were other women, they worked too much from behind the scenes.
Did you know that this Phenomena is not limited to only MDP? DRP is about the same. Ofcourse more protection is there. But lets see Mazeena is off and you hardly hear about Dhiyana. maybe you hear a little bit about Azima. but thats about it.
to put the coffin in the nail, DO or its writers seem to think that, calling males by a female name is an insult. for example, Jameela and latheefa. These are perfectly good names, nothing wrong with. Why should it be made to an insult? are you insulting the people of the names? or perhaps the gender? You have to think twice if it is the male gender you are insulting!
I can't put my finger on this whole thing, but there is something seriously wrong here. will ponder more on this
peace out