The wait is over. I finally have a new skin on my blog – Deep Fry Philosophy. Thanks to none other than AhmedZahid for a great design, and Shahuru for some good advice on shifting and altering many display items that never caught my eyes.

Colour scheme is the same as it were. Yellow and Black are still strong on the ‘header’. This time though there is a colourful ‘footer’ for the page.

Among other changes are on page hierarchies and links. Buttons on the top are now shrunk into three key categories that are most viewed. The links page, although is more or less the same as it were, is to take shape in a few weeks time to accommodate the variety of links there were on the home page before. Don't worry if your link is missing cos they are expected to surface later on. Guestbook and downloads pages are now accessible only from the footer. These were less frequent pages so I guess it is ok.

The introduction that was on the homepage is no longer visible. I endeavour re-populating the ‘About’ page to include an introduction. The ‘About’ page is perhaps a more ideal spot showcase my online presence elsewhere (i.e. twitter.com and facebook) and to have my CV nested. Changes seen now reflect this idea.

Finally this blog is about to move over to http://deepfryphilosophy.com in little over a week. This is to pave way for my professional blog at http://abdullayasir.com.

Doesn't matter what situation I may be in, nothing stops me from reading a well articulated text. Dommu posted an excerption from a larger text that he is working on [Link] and I left a comment:

Dommu,

Contrary to your postulation that no one else would find the story interesting, it really is for me. While I only have 3days to hand in my dissertation, I couldn’t resist but read your post. The excerption is well articulated and I can only imagine how interesting the larger text would be.

You are so correct in that our little islands are connected with the metropolitan world in the global system with profound economic, social, psychological and biophysical implications to both our islands and the metroples.

Everything else scooped out, my best read for the day comes from the about page of a blog under construction [Link]. It reads:

Dear Reader
In many ways the work of a critic is easy,
we risk very little,
yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement,
we thrive on negative criticism which is fun to write and to read,
but the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things
the average peace of junk is probably more meaningful then our criticism designating it so,
but there are times when a critic truly risks something and that is in the discovery, and defence of the new,
the world often unkind to new talent, new creations and new need friends. This is a beginning of a new experience, from an extraordinary point of view, from a singularly unexpected source.

Can you “rock me to my call?”

“anyone can write”,
not everyone can become a great artist but a great artist can come from anywhere, it is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius who are reading in this site who is this critics opinion, nothing less than a finest reader in this site. I will be returning from time to time to this site, hungry to read and write more.

My message to him is simple: Samah, this is absolutely a quality piece of writing. I cant wait to read more of your posts, of this quality of course.

Maldives Health cited Ihsana Ageel's dissertation for her degree in Master of Social Science in Psychology at the University of Waikato. The dissertation was on the theme of ‘Drug Rehabilitation and Practice Dilemmas in the Maldives’ and was an interesting read. Her study concentrated in investigating policies and its correlation to psychological interventions in practice.

Substances are a serious business in our little country; what is so very unique in the Maldives though is that, without a reference to a particular group, substance is used for political maneuvers and that this changes the context for use, misuse and ab(use) as she terms. Studies such as Ihsana Ageel’s (2006) are imperative, but with added local workings. I now long to re-work the literature review with politics threaded into.

It is time for a new look and time for a new theme. I asked the famous graphic designer Ahmed Zahid for a brand new concept for my blog and here goes a beautiful piece of work by him; a big thank you from me.

He said:

“Black and yellow is the header... which i wanted to be very powerful.
Rest is all white.

Yellow is for Y. For Yasir. As is fry, and philosophy... which is what your blog is all about. Isn’t it?

I think abdullayasir.com is a better name for domain Your blog name could be Deep Fry Philosophy.

Deepfry is also ok. But yours is about philosophy... so that has to be there somewhere,” Ahmed Zahid.

http://www.yasir.us/ is where my blogging began and it deserves this beautiful skin by Ahmed Zahid. Then on http://www.abdullayasir.com hopefully I will launch a community type project which will be a selection of automatic mirroring blogs and an open forum. As recommended by Zahid I have moved my entire website to http://www.abdullayasir.com and changed yasir.us as a pointer instead. With this shift I hope to surface the community project on a completely different domain.

From a global warming context, in the Maldives, there is a clear gap in policies, legislation and planning (in a simple sense is the implementation of policies).

Contrary to Mohamed Nasheed, the opposition leaders’ claim that global warming is the best deal that Gayyoom has ever had; today, it is the worst deal President Gayyoom has, that shows an irresponsible approach over an essential national objective.

Though CBC threaded a fair closing statement that the Maldives’ survival rests on source markets, the documentary video report lacks any serious substance on the thesis of global warming or on any other theme.

The way in which global warming, negative environmental impact through tourism, green tourism, politics and corruption were muddled by CBC in the documentary video report ‘Trouble in the paradise', CBC has failed to provide any rationality of  irrationality over the contents of the report. Thus, the report does not carry the merits of a documentary video.

With some villas costing $ 2000 a night, Sonevafushi is undoubtedly an expensive and exclusive resort. The resort claims that the island is kept in its natural state and that billionaires and rock stars take some of their garbage (batteries, anything that is metal, and spray cans and deodorants) back home with them. By turning part of the island into an organic garden, Sonevafushi also aims at reducing the amount of produce that it imports and according to Andy Jones, Environmentalist at Sonevafushi, this would benefit the local economy as well as bring about environmental benefits. Richard Desome of Sonevafush Resort said: “we try to do it in a way that is friendly to the environment and to our guests”.

In 2005 and 2000 the resort won President’s ‘Green Tourist’ award, and in 2003 President’s ‘Green Leaf’ award for organising a "Soneva Nature Trip". While these are the highest honours that can be bestowed on a tourism business in the Maldives, does these so called “Green” awards stand the analysis of questioning; are they not green cons? Doesn’t Presidents ‘Occupancy’ award defeat ‘Green’ awards on the face of it?

‘Soneva Nature Trip’ referred herein is on the hypothesis of ecotourism when in fact ecotourism is ‘responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people.’ Sometimes it is defined as a sub-category of sustainable tourism or a segment of the larger nature tourism market and includes an interpretation/learning experience, is delivered to small groups by small-scale businesses, and stresses local ownership, particularly for rural people. One may wonder how well Sonevafushi sustains the well-being of local people.

Contrary to the claim that reduction on the import of produces yield environmental benefits, isn’t it economics that by pursuing such a strategy, Sonevafushi is able to save costs and more importantly increase its profits that is repatriated?

Visiting tourists and its management may feel good about the idea of shipping some garbage back as it gives a green ‘glow’ but what about the more carbon emitting and/or environmentally damaging processes that are involved in a tourism business? The video report’s postulation that tourists flying in on jumbo jets and seaplanes, food and wine flown, chilled champagne, electricity and air-conditioning are in fact impediments to the environment. There are studies that suggest that a flight from London to New York, per passenger, burns gas equivalent to a car driven for 1 whole year; thus airlines and seaplanes emit huge amounts of green-house gases. They are friendly to the guest but conversely unfriendly to the environment that Sonevafushi’s statement ‘we try to do it in a way that is friendly to the environment and to our guests’ isn’t working in any sense.

President Gayyoom’s appeal for international help is disproportionate to his own actions that traded off the opportunity and settled to build the new rectangular island near the capital at just 2 metres above sea level.  Sujau, head of Hulhumale’ Development Corporation (HDC) says that it is financial restrictions when in fact the cost per sq. feet of reclaimed land is only around Mrf 69 (inclusive of finance changes) of which the lowest to highest land sale was between about Mrf 360 to Mrf 1200 per sq. ft. These don’t square up as financial constraints even when roads and other public spaces are computed into the pricing.

Is it then glamour or something else that justifies President Gayyoom’s vocal? Mohamed Nasheed, the opposition leader’s suggestion that global warming is the best deal that President Gayyoom has ever had; that it can attract people and money that can be used for political gain and to remain in power is a feeble argument in all aspects.  Nations attempt averting global warming not through grants but through legislation to cut carbon emissions.  Should the Maldives embark on greener and renewable electricity, a consequence to the public will be extra costs on top of already high electricity prices.

Economist (2007) cited three distinctive ways for governments to persuade companies to constrain carbon: subsidies, carbon price and standards. Both subsidies and carbon price are not easy options for the Maldives because there is no tax system to handout money and that the government is inefficient in picking technologies for subsidies; where carbon price is concerned quantifying carbon emissions in tourism (with the exception of transport including flights, boats, and power generators) is difficult and blurred by the fact that tourism industry per se does not exist as it does not generate a distinctive product. Nevertheless, establishing a carbon price for flights, boats, and power generators within tourism is likely to cause resorts to seek more cleaner and greener sources of energy and electricity, thus cutting down on carbon emissions. The other plausible option is to discourage emissions by setting standards for products and processes (such as imposing energy-efficiency requirements for buildings, banning incandescent light-bulbs and etc…).

The Maldives has not implimented any policies on averting global warming and Abdullai Majeedh, Deputy Environment Minister may have possibly reiterated on this but admitting for corruption (misleading from a global warming context), even if it may be the case, is an unlikely event given that the President is his own brother; thus it is misquotation and foul play in video editing. As I think, the message he tried to deliver is that: humanity and our way of life is driven by chronically short-termist views: we prefer $ 1 today to $ 2 tomorrow; and, even more, we prefer it to $ 5 we won’t be around to collect a century hence; climate change must be viewed as an investment, a cost incurred now and in the coming few decades to avoid the risk of very severe consequences in the future; business is dominated by shareholder value: minimising costs and maximising returns so as to ramp up the share price without regard for a company's long-term health.

If predictions for global warming are correct, climatic warming will rise atmospheric temperatures beyond human comfort and sea temperatures beyond coral reef threshold, that are both counter stimulant to tourism. An increase of a few degrees could mean that European tourists may be able to get their sun tan from the comfort of their homes. Climatic warming is also likely to cause animal and plant species to die out. This is particularly a problem for the Maldives that is solely reliant on imports, but will the Maldives stand the length of time to witness it when the fate of the nation and its inhabitants is set through predictions for sea level rise by between 9 and 88cm in the next century.

Global warming occurs through greenhouse gas emissions. In 2000, world greenhouse-gas emissions by sector % show Transport: 13.5; Electricity & heat: 24.5; Waste: 3.6; Agriculture 13.5; Deforestation: 18.2; Production Industry: 13.8; and other: 12.9 (World Resources Institute, 2000). Many of these sectors are non-existent in the Maldives. With limited flights (an average of 25 flights in and out of the Maldives during the European summer), and electricity and waste for a million (locals + tourists), and also through reflection on country size, the Maldives can be regarded as one of the minor carbon emitters.

Newer construction, land reclamation projects for boat channels and harbours and the additional sewage and garbage from visitors, and mining coral reefs for building material and landfill do not produce greenhouse-gas emission per se, although these activities may threaten the Maldives’ environment. Protection of the environment is one of the three pillars of sustainable development. The 3 pillars of sustainable development (sustainable trinity) are Protection of the Environment: inputs to human systems from the environment and outputs to environment to be sustainable; Economic growth: including development in technology and the knowledge economy; Socio-cultural equity: including growth in human and social capital.

When Huges & Johnson (2005) states that sustainable development is more about social equity of current generations rather than efficient resource use and conservation of natural resources future generations; tourism development is necessary development for the Maldives’ inhabitants to come out of poverty, to globally enhance and increase awareness of local society and culture, to improve the environment and increase understanding of environmental integrity.

Hussain Shareef, Chief Government Spokesman’s claim in his interview on ‘Trouble in Paradise’ that the Maldives follows a very high environmental standard through awareness programmes and legislation is a misconception of the term ‘environment’. This misconception may have been inherited from the loosely constructed foreign consultations that the government received. While it was a privilege to have interacted unofficially with David Annandale, head of Murdoch University/Australia who together with Simad Saeed conducted a study on ‘Tourism and the Management of Environmental Impacts in the Republic of Maldives, March 1999’ its a pity that I am having to qualify the conclusions of their report for being weak, gross and ill founded when it suggested that preservation of the environment has been helped by the government’s policy to aim for high-class tourism with priority given to target markets. The report seriously lacked any social impacts assessment (SIA), which is an integral part of environmental studies for more than a decade now; the study failed to capture major flaws in the systems and monitoring mechanisms (refer the environment section of my blog post ‘Future challenges faced by tourism developers in the Maldives’. 

When environmental protection is a key element in sustainable development, sustainable tourism is arguably an oxymoron (paradoxical term). According to the WTO (2004):

“Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability” (www.world-toursm.org).

Thus sustainable tourism should: make optimal use of environmental resources; respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities; ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed; sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong political leadership; it is a continuous process and it requires constant monitoring of impacts and should also maintain high level of tourist satisfaction.

Here with is a bit about global warming and its correlation to the Maldives. A few other posts that clarify more on environment and eco-tourism is important prior to an analysis.

Dhivehi Observer recently presented a link to a video report produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. With a hot title ‘Trouble in paradise’, as a concerned citizen of the Maldives, I was really serious in wanting to extend any possible and necessary help to save my country.

What I saw from the clip however left more questions in my mind about the amount of flaws in it. Another issue was the irrational, weak and unjust connections that were presented in it. 

How global warming/climate change, environment and politics were muddled is definitely worth a review, both to enhance greater understanding and knowledge surrounding the very complex issues and to harness general awareness on climate change, environment, sustainability from a tourism context.

As an initial step, herewith is the narration of the 21 minute video, supplied as is, as support material to the review that is to follow shortly. - Download Now -