News1 min ago
Welcome Back? ....not Me.
This is an awful place, full of surly whining Muslims interested only in what they can get from the infidels, (imo). Nothing to shout about by the Express or this baroness.
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I've been to the Maldives about a dozen times.
I don't know much about their human rights violations. Not many people do because, with one or two exceptions, foreigners are generally not permitted to visit the islands that are inhabited by the Maldivians. You can only stay on resort islands where the only Maldivian residents you will encounter are the resort staff. The only places where there is a mixture of tourists and Maldivians are the capital island, Malé together with the adjacent Hulule island on which the main airport is situated. Neither of these are tourist islands but two thirds of the Maldivian population lives on Malé and it is open to visitors. There are also some islands in the southernmost Addu Atoll. Here lies the island of Gan where the UK had a base until 1976 and there are about six or seven large islands connected by causeways. This area is quite unlike the rest of the Maldives. The islands are larger, there is an airport on Gan and the former UK naval and air base has been converted to tourist accommodation. On these islands tourists can have a roam round and encounter locals. There are also one or two tourist islands which have a nearby residential island and I visited one during one of my trips.
Unless things have changed dramatically since my last visit (in 2011) then I cannot possibly see how the country meets normal standards of human rights. The population is fiercely controlled. People cannot travel between islands without permission, they must work where they are told to, I would estimate that over 95% of women do not work. There are jobs available but they all seem taken by men. The only working women I saw were a few in the resorts, usually on "front office" type work and some at the airport. It is a 100% Muslim nation and despite virtually their only source of foreign income being tourism, they don't really greet their guests with the welcome you see in other parts. Of the few genuine locals I have spoken to (as opposed to resort staff, many of whom hail from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) most of them seemed to resent the way tourism has encroached on their country to such a degree. I cannot honestly see how their return to the Commonwealth will provide much of a boost to the UK.
I don't know much about their human rights violations. Not many people do because, with one or two exceptions, foreigners are generally not permitted to visit the islands that are inhabited by the Maldivians. You can only stay on resort islands where the only Maldivian residents you will encounter are the resort staff. The only places where there is a mixture of tourists and Maldivians are the capital island, Malé together with the adjacent Hulule island on which the main airport is situated. Neither of these are tourist islands but two thirds of the Maldivian population lives on Malé and it is open to visitors. There are also some islands in the southernmost Addu Atoll. Here lies the island of Gan where the UK had a base until 1976 and there are about six or seven large islands connected by causeways. This area is quite unlike the rest of the Maldives. The islands are larger, there is an airport on Gan and the former UK naval and air base has been converted to tourist accommodation. On these islands tourists can have a roam round and encounter locals. There are also one or two tourist islands which have a nearby residential island and I visited one during one of my trips.
Unless things have changed dramatically since my last visit (in 2011) then I cannot possibly see how the country meets normal standards of human rights. The population is fiercely controlled. People cannot travel between islands without permission, they must work where they are told to, I would estimate that over 95% of women do not work. There are jobs available but they all seem taken by men. The only working women I saw were a few in the resorts, usually on "front office" type work and some at the airport. It is a 100% Muslim nation and despite virtually their only source of foreign income being tourism, they don't really greet their guests with the welcome you see in other parts. Of the few genuine locals I have spoken to (as opposed to resort staff, many of whom hail from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) most of them seemed to resent the way tourism has encroached on their country to such a degree. I cannot honestly see how their return to the Commonwealth will provide much of a boost to the UK.
NJ; Surprising you returned so often! We had spent some time in Buddhist Sri Lanka prior to our stay in the Muslim Maldives, the people of the former were so kind & generous in comparison to the surly Maldivians. Here is an extract from a Human Rights watch report;
' There was hope for improvement in the human rights situation in the Maldives after joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih defeated then-President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom by a wide margin in September 2018. Solih took office on November 17 and vowed to implement judicial reform, restore fundamental rights, and investigate the murder of a political activist and the forced disappearance of a prominent journalist.
Solih’s election followed a sharp deterioration in rights protections in the first half of 2018 after the Yameen government imposed a state of emergency for six weeks, arrested two Supreme Court justices, and detained scores of opposition activists under counterterrorism laws. The Yameen government had also expanded its use of an overly broad anti-defamation law, as well as laws aimed at curbing peaceful protests to arrest and intimidate media and government critics. Religious extremists and thugs, some linked to prominent politicians, targeted dissenters and those perceived as deviating from Islamic teachings....'
' There was hope for improvement in the human rights situation in the Maldives after joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih defeated then-President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom by a wide margin in September 2018. Solih took office on November 17 and vowed to implement judicial reform, restore fundamental rights, and investigate the murder of a political activist and the forced disappearance of a prominent journalist.
Solih’s election followed a sharp deterioration in rights protections in the first half of 2018 after the Yameen government imposed a state of emergency for six weeks, arrested two Supreme Court justices, and detained scores of opposition activists under counterterrorism laws. The Yameen government had also expanded its use of an overly broad anti-defamation law, as well as laws aimed at curbing peaceful protests to arrest and intimidate media and government critics. Religious extremists and thugs, some linked to prominent politicians, targeted dissenters and those perceived as deviating from Islamic teachings....'
//NJ; Surprising you returned so often!//
Scuba and snorkelling are unrivalled, Khandro. That said, many of the resorts are now evolving into luxury spa resorts and have lost their original "no shoes, no news" philosophy. Most of the staff in the popular resorts are not indigenous Maldivians but I agree they generally seem a very unhappy race. Reading your report (and others) I'm not surprised.
Scuba and snorkelling are unrivalled, Khandro. That said, many of the resorts are now evolving into luxury spa resorts and have lost their original "no shoes, no news" philosophy. Most of the staff in the popular resorts are not indigenous Maldivians but I agree they generally seem a very unhappy race. Reading your report (and others) I'm not surprised.
"We spent some time in the Buddhist Sri Lanka prior to our stay in the Muslim Maldives, the people in the former were so kind and generous in comparison to the surley Maldavians" I spent quite a lot of time in Sri Lanka and the Buddhists and Hindus were spending most of their time knocking seven bells out of each other when I was there.
//I just hope its not the door creaking open for another influx of hostile people ready to immigrate into our country and add to our problems.//
That's not very likely, Theland. There's realistically only one way out of the country of any significance and that's by air. Most Maldivians on the outlying islands (some of which can be as much as three days away) do not have the means to get to the airport, let alone the fare to get anywhere by air. In any case they are not generally permitted to travel.
That's not very likely, Theland. There's realistically only one way out of the country of any significance and that's by air. Most Maldivians on the outlying islands (some of which can be as much as three days away) do not have the means to get to the airport, let alone the fare to get anywhere by air. In any case they are not generally permitted to travel.
Khandro - I am genuinely intrigued by your habit of lumping people together of one faith or ethnicity, and making a sweeping judgement about them.
Surely this flies in the faith of the tolerance and acceptance that your faith demands, and how would you feel if you were in group of 'surly whining Christians'?
Surely this flies in the faith of the tolerance and acceptance that your faith demands, and how would you feel if you were in group of 'surly whining Christians'?
Theland - // I just hope its not the door creaking open for another influx of hostile people ready to immigrate into our country and add to our problems. //
Please see my post addressed to your fellow Christian Khandro - the same applies to you - how can you decide that because people are from another country and / or culture, they must necessarily be hostile?
This does not chime with your faith at all.
Please see my post addressed to your fellow Christian Khandro - the same applies to you - how can you decide that because people are from another country and / or culture, they must necessarily be hostile?
This does not chime with your faith at all.
Khandro - // 1. You know nothing whatsoever about my "faith" //
Are you for real????
Along with Theland, you two virtually double-handedly occupy the Religion section with your endless hand wringing about how everyone else is doomed because they don't believe like you two do!!
//2. Can you give me a link to this group of "surly whining Christians"? //
No, because if you read my post properly before replying, you would see that the 'group' is hypothetical - a bit like your God!!!
Oh, and for the record, 'your faith' means the faith that you follow, not that you own it, although your posts and attitudes suggest that you actually believe that you do.
Are you for real????
Along with Theland, you two virtually double-handedly occupy the Religion section with your endless hand wringing about how everyone else is doomed because they don't believe like you two do!!
//2. Can you give me a link to this group of "surly whining Christians"? //
No, because if you read my post properly before replying, you would see that the 'group' is hypothetical - a bit like your God!!!
Oh, and for the record, 'your faith' means the faith that you follow, not that you own it, although your posts and attitudes suggest that you actually believe that you do.
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