A Message From FB Which Touched Me.....

The following is a letter I got as a fb message, after she went
through one of my fb albums. This is what I wrote under the attached photo.

"the struggle to survive...for once there was nothing to smile
about...but pain, hunger....poverty....finally the
loss......october 2001......a death and the divorce which followed....."
I am happy that ... my pain..and how I coped with the losses
helped you to deal with your own.

What we often forget is the strength within
us...put to the test,I know not just me but majority of us can deal with
the dissapointments, failures and losses we are confronted with. We have to resort to our strengths...ofcourse.

Thank you for sending me this
mail. I am posting only a part of your beautiful letter here...but there was a big lump in my throat for several minutes after reading your letter.
My hope is that you get the strength...to deal with lifes challenges. Believe in your self, like me you will be surprised with the amount of internal strength Allah has gifted us with.
The letter goes as such:
"....................Naz, i
may not know you very well and you may not remember me, but believe it (n i know many have already told you
this) you are one of the bravest people iv
known. I cant imagine the pain you wen thru. I know how it must have been to go thru a divorce and suffering and loosing everything, but i cant possible imagine you lost ur baby too, at the same time.

N got over all and carried on. I was afraid i will never be the same again. I was thinking i wouldnt ever smile again or trust anyone or maybe go insane. Bt i was holding on cos i had a daughter who
depended on me, n she was only ........... If i lost her, i dont know what cud
have happened. U truly are an inspiration. A very brave woman and im sure ur daughter wud b so proud of you. She's indeed very lucky to have you.

Ur life, that one album made me see life in a
different way. It gave me hope and reduced my problems to a small speck.
Im so glad and happy you are smiling again. May Allah bless you always and reward you for the struggle u put through to get to where u r now. :)
...............'

Thank you.....dear.

My answers on 'Friday with Masood' show last week

Here is a link to my interview on the DhiTV show 'Friday with Masood'. I speak on the topics of interest as stated in this blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBjGxG5Avnw

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Todays news is not good news!

How is it that things have come to this. Dhi TV staff attacked, blood drops of haveeru newspaper staff on our streets....whats going on!
http://minivannews.com/politics/2010/03/15/dhitv-and-haveeru-staff-attacked/
Is this the tip of an iceberg? What are we doing to unravel and dismantle the underworld....let not Maldives become a Monrovia, like this video shows....
We are already afflicted by drug addiction, do not let the gang lords take over our nation to chaos.
Let the colours unite to stop the violence and decide to do our part to unify this nation against all political, economic and social odds so that we get our right for peaceful existance.
Do not click the link below if you cannot handle the images...its not easy to watch these scenes of violence ...
Never should we allow things in our country reach this far. Prevention of such a state of affairs will happen with actions we implement today.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia

Increasing Incidence of Crime in the Streets of Male’: What Can We Make Out of It?

Everyday, our newspapers are unfolding stories which demonstrate immense psychological trauma and physical injury caused to innocent people by those who had attempted to harm or kill them.

A father and son walking out of a mosque is stabbed, a couple going on a ride is stopped and the wife gang raped, a youth walking down the street is knifed to death, businessmen attacked right before your eyes and robbed of hundreds of thousands of Rufiyaa. …this list appears to be endless and growing.
So how can we explain what is really going on? Who knows!
It will be very easy for me or for any one else to point a finger at an individual, an institution or the government and say, well you all have failed, and miserably at that.
It will be very easy for me to say, a particular political party is responsible for our dissent into chaos and crime. Even easier would be to say, all the heroin addicts are to be blamed for what is going on.
However, I would rather say a combination of factors may be contributing towards the increased incidence of crime in our country.

Unfortunately, even though it is two years or more since MaldivesResearch (http://www.maldivesresearch.org/policy/research.html) proposed to do a research on the issue of gang violence in the Maldives, the importance of doing such a research as a priority has not been acknowledged (either due to lack of funds to invest in a research of this nature...or due to lack of will to investigate the issue). Had the research been carried out when it was proposed and discussed (in my presence with the past and the present presidents of the Maldives on two separate occasions) by now we would probably be better equipped to comment on what is really going on, and there fore be ready with a concrete and holistic plan of action to address this distressing issue.
Instead, we chose to run amok in the wild trying to find a solution to the issue based on subjective understandings and interpretations some individuals may have regarding the problem and on how we ought to deal with them.

Meanwhile, precious life is lost in the precious time spent on mismanaging the issue, bungling it up just as we did with the policies regarding substance abuse management in the country. It does not matter that several hundreds of Rufiyaa may be wasted on investigating single cases, while we fail to look at the whole picture.
When the police shows to the public, weapons they have confiscated in raids from houses in Male’ such as swords, releases persons with potential training in terrorist activities into the streets of Male’, re-arrest those who are serving life sentences from scenes of crime, one has to wonder, what is really going on here? Who is putting all the pieces of this together? Would it all be ever put together?

Are we just going to be mute observers when our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers are killed or injured right before our eyes?
Or are we as concerned citizens going to raise our level of responsibility and do something to protect our society?
Why should we tolerate such a level of violence and crime as we are observing today? Should not the policy makers be looking at the loopholes in the legislature that is making violent criminals escape the legal system? Should not the police be making great effort to unmask those who may be behind organized crime that may be occurring in the country? Should not the family members be doing something more at a preventive level to stop their children from chosing the path of crime? Should we not be looking at why we may be afraid of diving deeper into the evils in our society? Are we afraid to be knifed to death if we raise our voices against those who are slowly destroying our society?
Justice has to be done…I cannot but imagine at this moment what must have gone through the 15 year old boys mind and heart when he and his father were mercilessly knifed nor what that husband had gone through when his wife was gang raped...right before his eyes...............!

Would return to blogging......

This is to just say...I am off blogging for the next few months...as I am going to be very busy ....but I hope to return to writing as soon as I can and express my thoughts and feelings on topics of interest to me.....!!!
Thanks!

Changing Flavours of Maldivian Cuisine: A Blog and Book on Maldivian Recipes

Since cooking is my hobby, I thought it would be great to document all that I routinely cook at home and make it into a book of recipes. Therefore, myself and Soba(who also love cooking and have shared her recipes in this book) had gone ahead with the idea and put our heads together in putting these recipes together. Here is a link to our blog, where we hope to publish atleast 40 out of our 250 recipes presented in Dhumashi.

http://dhumashi.wordpress.com/

About our book;

'Dhumashi is a book of Maldivian recipes which we hope to publish soon.In this blog we will be publishing a number of selected recipes from our book, some of which represent some typical Maldivian food which we routinely cook at home. Some are easy to cook recipes which we have prepared keeping in mind the changing life style and emerging food habits of the young and busy Maldivians.

This book is authored by the two of us; Aishath Ali Naaz and Soba Ahmed and is a result of sharing a kitchen for seven months. We wish to bring the changing flavours of Maldivian cookery through our book which has over 250 recipes in it.

We have tested and tasted these recipes. We hope it will be accepted by young people especially by students who live abroad who has to cook up good meals, real fast which retain the flavours of home. We have also presented some of our favourite traditional dishes .
Our hope is you get to enjoy our Maldivian cuisine as much as we do!'

Happy cooking!

Ramalhan Mubarik!

Wishing all my readers Ramalhan Mubarik!