Category Archives: Random Thoughts
How do you want to be treated?
We have all being through rough patches in life. Or have we?
It is being human to often generalize our feelings and experiences as the norm and believe that the expectations and feelings of others are also similar in fashion to our own. This is the reason why we have a virtue to treat others in the manner and fashion that we would want us to be treated. This is not true for this day and age.
We should treat others not in the way that we would want us to be treated, but in a manner and fashion that they would want to be treated. Therefore it is important for us to first take a moment to listen, to understand and to find out about the one we want to do something for.
This is perhaps what has changed. The mindset shift that is required in order to build community today.
Another effing day
Some days
Are meant to be
Painful, yet pleasant
For you did your best
In the end
The buck stopped
Right on your big toe
The one that hurt most
Assumptions
Expectations unlimited
In scope and in sizes large
No body really fucking cares
Withering Life
I thought she was looking for a reason to have a fight. It was definitely what I was looking for – a reason to fight. That was what it turned out to be. Full of stress. Trying not to be negative. In the end, it was a lie. It was a horrible day. Yet, we agreed and pretended that it was a beautiful one.
We had fought. We did fight. But now it is too much. We would rather not. So it is now a waste of time to even give it a try. The beauty of putting a fight is not there anymore. Because the love has withered and the kindness has waned.
There is now no reason to believe. That the moments of high tension will be cherished. As they were. So the moment of truth is now. As we try to pretend that nothing has changed. When everything has.
Life goes on. Without the passion and joy that used to make it so beautiful.
Time to pack up and go
When the time comes to leave
there comes a hesitation
Unfulfilled dreams and hopes
That have kept you going
For we have not
prepared ourselves
for this eventuality
in body mind and soul
That is the reason why
we must always be ready
to pack up with a Smile
when it comes to that eventuality
It is your ability to move on
that has given the momentum
to advancement and prosperity
that puts you in a better place
Some do not realize
when their time is up
that there is a better place
waiting to happen when you pack
Go go go my friend
just go and never turn back
for there is nothing like moving
to a dream bigger better and unknown
The Looming Fear
It is scary
Very scary and frightening
A dark hole that is approaching
From all around; near and far
Right and left
It’s full of darkness
The kind that is suffocating
That make nothing possible
Sunshine is history
The storm is brewing
Beneath the skies
Making the world go bonkers
There is nowhere
It is everywhere
There is the smell of hate
The end of all things beautiful
Inside and beneath
The hall of fame
There is a dark cloud
That has taken over
The good of life
The beauty of love
The sweetness of caring
The reason to Smile
Why the subject of so much hatred?
Why I am the subject of so much hatred? How can I change that?
This is a thought that occured to my mind some time during the day today. It occured to me to write about it because it passed my mind a few times today. It was something that was said to me, something that happened during the day, something that brought about a feeling that there was mistrust, suspicion and discomfort by my existence.
I was told by a dear friend, a long time back when I was going to start my job as a headmaster, that I should refrain from entertaining people who brought me stories of what was said in the staff room. He said that it was mostly someone trying to make a mark, or wanting a favor in return; that the staff room was a place where people expressed their emotions and that it was not always meant to be said to the person who it was referred to. I believed him, and I practised it all my life as a headmaster, as a schools administrator and later in my life as a servant to many.
I love to speak my mind and have done so with friends and those who find my thoughts provocative or challenging. However, I live in a society where it is a near-sin to speak one’s mind. The group think is the norm unless you have the affluence to be arrogant and distasteful.
Plight of Teachers and Schools (2)
The school principal who spoke to me said that the school has not paid it’s electricity bill for the past several months, and that the electricity provider has threatened to disconnect the power supply. It is now very likely that the children will be forced to stay in the scorching heat without fans, from the beginning of next year.
Not only that!
The school budget sanctioned administrative expenses (idhaaree hingumuge kharadhu) for this year had an amount less than 1,000.00 Rufiyaa for the whole year. The travel expenses allocated was not enough to buy a one way ticket to Male’. And the capital expenditure approvals take months and would be usually sanctioned toward December, which means the items cannot be bought.
Schools have indeed become a burden, just like the teachers. Maldives has become so overwhelmed by the cost of democracy and good governance, that schooling has become unaffordable.
President Waheed is reported to have said on teachers’ day, that he will do everything he can, for teachers. But what can he do? Possibly, nothing!
Presidential hopeful Mohamed Nasheed “Anni” is also reported to have said that he will give a banana and a glass of milk to each school kid every morning. More promises are likely to be made as more join the race and start the campaign tours.
Going by the past 20 years, especially the last seven, it is highly unlikely that schooling will offer the kind of access to quality education that will make future generations productive and competitive citizens capable of a decent life. We will be going back a century in terms of human development. Good education will be out of reach of the ordinary and the average Maldivian. Monarchy will be back – in the guise of democracy!
(to be continued)
Plight of Teachers and Schools in the Maldives
The other day a principal of a school called me up on the phone. The person was looking for me to facilitate a donation to buy computer systems for the school lab. The conversation dragged for ages, and it was about things that did not concern the donation in anyway.
Teachers have become a burden to the government budget due to its sheer numbers. Teachers take home a salary slip that has a sum total of less than that of labor category staff at a so called indepedent institution of the government – such as the human rights commission; or other organs of the state such as the judiciary and the parliament.
I was reminded of a teacher who I bumped into on the street the other day – in fact, it was the teachers’ day. He had just come out of the teachers party, and I was waiting for my daughter to come out of the same premises where she had been to a friend’s birthday party. This particular teacher had done his teacher training, done his degree and his post graduate diploma and has served the nation for over 18 years, and on this day of celebration was complaining of having to take home much less than a fresh graduate would doing an administrative job in one of those divine commissions or one of the more sacred state bodies.
I tried to explain to him like a good samaritan, how the payroll of teachers was already a burden on the government, and how even a minor adjustement in teacher salaries could nose dive the country into a dark hole of debt for our children and their children. However, his complaints continued, how teachers were paid so low and were denied of even their legal right to overtime.
The teachers assosciation which was formed to represent teachers and advocate for the rights of teahcers is the leading member of the coalition that came into power after the February 7th resignation of President Nasheed. Their leadership is busy with the ongoing political crisis and the upcoming elections which will have to be won – for the sake of teachers, they will argue.
(to be continued)
I am NOT shocked
I am shocked at the number of people who are announcing how shocked they are at the killing of Dr. Afraasheem Ali, on social media and mainstream media and in various forums. I would say, those of us who are shocked must have been in a deep sleep.
This country has been on the road less traveled to anarchy and a virtual killing field for the past six years.
The singular responsibility for the state of the nation and the fear driven into the people has to be borne by the country’s legislative authority or the parliament which is also the circus for the political leadership of the nation. It is not only the fear that is driven into the general public, but the freedom, convenience and space created for those who are used as instruments to drive fear into the general public, that has been so evident during the past six years.
It isn’t shocking to know that an MP and a leading scholar is slain to death. It wouldn’t be shocking to be told that the Speaker of parliament, the Chief Justice, or a former president or the sitting president is slain to death. We have had calls for their death and we seem to be fine with it. That is democracy to us. A life has no value as long as it is not of your own. That is the reality of the nation that we live in today. So why do we say we are shocked?
The very people responsible for the state of our nation today, will take this opportunity to create more space for them in the limelight that this incident has created for their populist advantage. Most of those people are in the parliament of the nation, or control the comedian-like characters who act for them in parliament. They show that the way forward is one without respect to any other, without humility and without values. They also insist and have the show and their acrobatics televised live, so that they may dignify the new order in the minds of children and young people.
I am NOT shocked.
Dr. Afraasheem will be laid to rest, just five years from the day he returned to the country as a scholar. At the time, he said he had three things that he wished for – to continue to lead prayers, to spend time in preaching and to spend time in gaining more knowledge.
And the interesting thing is that today, the parliament found a good excuse in the incident to stay home and take rest.
Past post:
Afraasheem: what a fantastic story
Smile and Let Smile 