World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

How stupid can he be!

As we are all in a football mood, thought I’ll share this. Seriously what was the referee thinking.

Step away from political cannibalism

It was disappointment upon disappointment last night (NZ time). First, weeks of anticipation was dashed as I could not hear or see our team taking on Turkmenistan in the AFC Challenge Cup. I could hear Voice of Maldives online and there was no live streaming on TVM. More disappointment followed either side of half time as Turkmenistan scores, first from a defensive lapse and then through a penalty.  Oppo provided some relief and hope with his well taken penalty, after Ashfaag’s sublime run. But it was  dashed shortly by Tom’s reckless challenge inside the Maldives penalty area. A player of his calibre should know better.

The loss to Turkmenistan almost closes the door on qualification. We now have to win the remaining two games and wait for other results to go our way. There is still some hope even if we do not win the group, because the best second placed team from qualification also goes through. Right now Pakistan leads this pack with 5 points and +6 goals. Maldives need to win the next 2 and score a couple of goals to make this a reality. We have the potential, all we need is application.   It is true that as in previous tournaments’ our preparations haven’t  been  the best, but this is not the time to point fingers. It’s time to play ball. Whatever corner of the world we live, we are with the team, and the whole Maldives is behind the team.

While we are at it, let’s take this opportunity to step away from political cannibalism,  and show some solidarity. I would like to see Anni, Maumoon, Hassan, Gasim and Yamin sitting together cheering our team on Thursday.

This is inhuman. Who is responsible?

As part of the PhD full registration process, I gave a seminar today on my proposed research topic, urban transformation of Male’, which focuses on the social aspects of  urban livelihood. The seminar went well and I got very good feedback from the audience of students, professors and Maldivian colleagues at Victoria Uni. One of the questions put to me by a member of the audience related to the expatriate workforce in Maldives, about their living conditions, and what their presence meant for the urbanisation process and congestion in Male’. My simple answer was that they lived in terrible conditions and that I find their living conditions shameful.

I come home from Uni, boots up the computer and go online to see these photos published by Haveeru in their News in Pictures section.

 

(photos: Haveeru Online)

At first I thought that they were photos of a slum area in India or Bangladesh, and then I read the caption. It turns out this is part of an expatriate living quarters on the land where Furugan Mosque used to be.  This is quite appalling. I know that some Male’ families are living in dire conditions but the living conditions of some of these workers are beyond human. If we want someone to do all the dirty work that us rich, developed, proud Maldivians don’t want to do, at least we have to look after the people who get these jobs done for us. As long as these people are here it is our moral responsibility to look after their welfare. We wouldn’t ask less if our people were in a similar situation in some foreign land. They have not come to Maldives on their own. Each single worker is brought to the country by a Maldivian, and that person should be held responsible for their welfare and well-being.

Drugs and extremism ticks away in the concrete jungle of Male’, ready to explode. This is another stick of dynamite, the fuse has already been lit.

An afternoon with Monet

One of the exhibits

It was such a great feeling to be finally able to view the work of some of the greatest impressionist painters of the 19^th century  at Te Papa, Wellington. The Monet and the Impressionists exhibition showcases over 55 paintings from one of the finest collections of 19th century French paintings held by  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Apart from Monet’s renowned works from series such as Water Lily, Haystack and Rauen Cathedral, the exhibition also had masterpieces by Renoir, Cezanne, Degas and other impressionist painters.

 

Impressionist paintings displays effects of light and atmosphere and a brightness  that sets them apart from the art of that century. The term impressionism was derived from the painting, Impression, Sunrise by Monet.  The use of colours, mainly pastels, and the depiction of light throughout the paintings is simply breathtaking.  The short brush stabs that make up the paintings, looked pixelated from up close, but opens up to a vibrant picture with a heightened sense of reality from a distance. The paintings are truly a balm to soothe our frayed sensibilities during these times of innumerable crisis.  The exhibition runs at Te Papa till 17 May 2009.

Monet collection from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Earth Hour and Politics of indifference

I wasn’t surprised that some people refused to join the Earth Hour events in Male’ yesterday. Our thinking, our beliefs, our entire lives have become so politicised over the last couple of years that our vision has become arrogantly myopic. The funny thing is most of us do not really know what we stand for. We refuse to believe and accept that there is a thing called common good and respect. Respect for authority, for community, neighbours, friends and family. We believe in our own righteousness and a wanton desire to secure rights and fulfill our needs beyond anything else that we fail to see that we once belonged to a society that valued and respected each other.  Where did we go so wrong? Who do we blame? What do we do? Or are these the results of a democracy that came too soon for us? More importantly, does anybody ask these questions?

Local government without civil society

“It must be realised that the idea of local government is a decidedly Western notion which is intimately tied to the history of capitalism in the West, reaching its post-Fordist phase from the middle of the 1970s onwards, during which the role of the state was increasingly seen as a hindrance to economic development. Now that many Third World countries are currently in a transition phase to democracy, the notions of local government and local autonomy are fed into national political rhetoric and often used as such in façade politics.

It is often conveniently forgotten, for example, that ideas like local government or local autonomy presuppose a phase of nation-building first where a civil society is firmly constructed. Also there was a phase of welfare capitalism during which the state provided the safety net for those threatened to fall outside the boat. Now, local governments in the Third World run the risk of falling prey to globally organised capitalism because economic and political safety nets have not yet been constructed and their civil societies are weak, not having been preceded by a process of nation-building nor by a phase of welfare capitalism. It is tragic that, at the moment that many Third World countries are finally starting to get rid of undemocratic regimes, the national state is robbed of its importance.”

Frans J. Schuurman, 2000, Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained? Development Study in the Twenty-first Century, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 21, No.1 (Feb 2000). pp. 7-20

Dragons and other Fantastic Creatures of my childhood

Dragons and ot…

By Faizaan Faisal

Book Preview

What if you win this world, what then?

Yeh duniya agar mil bi jaaye is perhaps the hardest hitting song about life and our yearning for more. There is lesson in this for all of us.

 

Saahir Ludhiyanvi writes, sung by Mohamed Rafi and delivered on screen by Guru Dutt. The song is from the 1957 film Pyaasa which was included in the list of Time Magazine top 100 movies of all time in 2005. A must watch.

 

 

The song as translated by ekantapadhika

 

A world of palaces, thrones and crowns

Where Man becomes  the foe of Man

Where greed of wealth rules the day

What if you win this world, what then?

 

Every being lies wounded, every soul athirst

Eyes glazed with worry, hearts heavy and depressed

What world is this, bewildered, distraught?

What if you win this world, so accursed?

 

A world where  Man is but a throwaway toy

Teeming with corpses and skeletons

Where life is a struggle and death is cheap

So you win this world-what then?

 

Where youth roams around in aimless distraction

And bodies adorn themselves to be bought and sold

Where love is but a sordid transaction

So what if this world is in your hold?

 

A world where humaneness has no place

Where loyalty and friendship means little or naught

Where love is shorn of all nobility and grace

Winning this world, you don’t win a lot.

 

So burn it to ashes, blow it all up

Push it aside ,  far away from my sight

Let me withdraw, it is all yours to keep

For a world like this, I will not fight.

Will this guy be banned in the Maldives for too much dancing?