Meanwhile back on the database...

Latest news from the project is that I added another 800 islands to the database yesterday and lost 200 health centres in the process.

The project plan for phase 2 has been redesigned and considerably slimmed down with only two more trips planned and an official launch on May 10'th which is Maldives Childrens' Day.

More meetings with social workers and Dept of National Planning to discuss reporting requirements.

When not in meetings I've spent the last two days finishing the end of project report for phase 1, rather than finishing off the project.   I do believe I may have fallen into the unicef way of life.

Coast Guard boat sailing between Male' and Dhoonidhoo

On another note, the restuarant staff at the hotel have exhibited another bout of haplessness at lunchtime when the beef fried noodles I ordered arrived as beef fried rice, apparantly destined for another diner. I wonder if he got my chilli sauce as well since what I got was plain old tomato ketchup!

 

 

 

 
For no other reason than it's one of four streets on Male' I know the name of
 

Circular reasoning

Currently, mosques are the only places of worship in Maldives. I read in a newspaper here from last week that there was a proposal to permit places of worship for other faiths to be built in the country.


However one muslim leader noted that as Islam was the only religion in Maldives it wasn't necessary to allow this, which rather neatly brings closure to the subject.

 
A mosque on Male'

Abuse of a different kind

This time, it's abuse of the English language.

I was sitting in the unicef office yesterday and Latheef says to me, "Tony, can you explain what this means"?  From the look on his face I could see he felt some disquiet in what he was reading.  It was World Aids Day yesterday and he had found the following on an HIV/AIDS website.  As soon as I read the second line I could see the cause of his concern.

While male to male sex is often discouraged from a moral or religious point of view, from the public health perspective it is desirable to engage men having sex with men in an attempt to help them reduce HIV transmission; not only between men...

It was the use of the term engage which has been adopted in recent years by many people as a replacement for a much simpler word, talk.  The closest definitions of the word engaged for the meaning intended in the about sentance are

To attract and hold the attention of; engross: a hobby that engaged her for hours at a time.



To draw into; involve: engage a shy person in conversation.

But how much clearer it would have been to just write 'talk to'.  Somehow by engaging with people it conveys more importance in the engager and what they are saying.  I think it is probably meant to suggest that a two way discussion will take place but there is no guarantee that the engagee will actually be engaged.

What of course it does not mean in the context of the above is encourage men to become engaged to other men!

Unicef engaging the wider community

Child Sexual Abuse Act

There was a new child sexual abuse act passed recently in Maldives.

The act contained many good things to help protect vulnerable children, in particular young girls.

However one article was included which stated that if a girl is married under sharia law all the other articles in the act no longer stood because she is no longer considered a child but an adult.

I think under Sharia law in Maldives the age of consent is12.  It might have been increased more recently by legislation in the parliament, but the general feeling here is that the new act may do more harm than good.

So this is one of the reasons we are here and this place is where we doing it from.

Whilst checking on the age for marriage on the web, I stumbled upon this item in another blog