Posts
Attorney General Husnu Suood has taken a decisive step towards preventing anti social behavior by presenting to the Majlis a bill on the subject for the first time ever in the Maldives. The bill along with another related bill on gang violence will lay a comprehensive legal framework to address the twin issues.
Suood’s initiative brings to the top of the national agenda a grossly neglected area of social development –a neglect that has cost the nation heavily in terms of skyrocketing juvenile delinquency and uncontrollable crime rates. The magnitude of the social cost can easily be estimated by comparing Maldives crime rates with those of Singapore where a comprehensive program to shape the behavior of its citizens has been in place ever since its independence in 1965.
Police statistics show that the number of arrests in Maldives among ‘children’ below 18 years rose from 209 in 2001 to 564 in 2007. This increase is fuelled by drugs for which 164 people under 18 were arrested. For the related crimes of theft and violence 158 and 160 people were arrested respectively.
Study after study has shown that the usual route to crime is: School dropout --> hanging around street corners --> smoking --> drugs --> Gang formation --> serious crimes.
Many experts believe that children’s habits of staying awake till late at night and going out without parental supervision contribute to anti social behavior. The bill presented to the Majlis will address this and other similar issues.
21 comments:
Quote:Study after study has shown that the usual route to crime is: School dropout --> hanging around street corners --> smoking --> drugs --> Gang formation --> serious crimes- Unquote
while this could be true to cetrain degree based on our current understanding, i think the true causes are:
- early marriages, especially the uneducated(which could be the starting point)
- bad parenting (from the very childhood)
- irrelevent education that is in the system- if todays children (tomorrows parents) are provided with relevent education which recognizes the value and beauty of life and which encourages us to contribute to the improvement of the society, with the realization that an individuals wellbeing/integrity can and will only be as good as his/her surroundings.
- youths deprived of essential entertainment (progressive and constructive i mean)
- overpopulated, stressful, abusive environment,
- selfish motives that establishments (political, religious, monetary) manifests
- huge profits behind the drug trades- monetary problem.
- a culture that is heavily conditioned with western and eastern empty values.from bad/dominating guys that are depicted in the hollywood movies to war games and the seemingly harmless kumkum, kasaghties etc.
- lack of access to resources (theft).
as long there are rich and poor, theft and burglaries are inevitable.
i could go on! but its pointless. UNLESS we are ready to transform the whole fabric of the society i.e our deeply held values and beliefs, there will not be an end to this misery.
today we are only talking about surface problems and its all nothing but patch works.
Hope it will have the desired effect. This has indeed been a neglected area for so long.
I know that the MDP government thinks a gender dept alone will do the job and got rid of the Gender Ministry [ :( ], but in my view most of these problems, from violence to drugs, has an underlying gender issue. The fact is that traditionally society and families want men to "perform masculinity", so these young men are actually doing that, being acting macho and all.
Of course we would need some surveys and scientific findings to establish this but my own observations lead me to feel that there is an underlying gender issue here. I would greatly appreciate if you share your views on this from the gender angle, Dr. Waheed.
Thanks.
Let's hope this is the begining of the change for the better.
I agree with Stewie as there are numerous underlying causes other than dropping out from school and hanging out in street corners etc.
It is essential that we reevaluate the whole education system. As the parents are victims of the poorly planned out education system they remain ignorant of modern thinking and technology, and because our social norms and values and pretty much based only upon eating, shitting, gossiping, and reproducing, the children of said parents are not motivated (without fault from themselves) to strive to better themselves through learning and hardwork (hardwork is an important factor parents in many western societies instill in their children).
Secondly there is the vital geographical issue in the Maldives. Because the government of the past 30 years (I refer to only these 30 years because it was when we were most exposed to modern knowledge and technology, and had means by which to spread this knowledge amongst the people, which should have facilitated our journey to prosperity) consisted of the same generation of ignorant parents who were only interested in stuffing their pockets with riches that they were content with crowding the capital to the point that Male became one of the most congested cities in the world. We have lost the value of privacy so much so that we can't even appreciate it anymore, it quickly evolved to the point that we could no longer respect privacy at all (be it your own privacy or others').
That would drive me to a street corner as well, perhaps join the little gang smoking in a desperate attempt to find a pasttime outside of the uncomfortable environment of home.
I am keen in knowing who does all the pictures and graphics for all your posts? and where do you get all that material? Basically, it is very good!
Drop out from school,hang around street corner,smoke tobacco and other drugs,join gang,serious crimes,get caught ,face justice, then go to Husnu Suood and co. for help. Suood helps the gangster get free. Oops. Now Suood is AG , so can't get his help directly.
Smacks of Maldivian hypcrisy.This so called lawyer Husnood represents typical MDP activist.He was running about defending all the drug lords,criminals in this coutry to get rich and overthrow Qayyoom in the name of bringing justice to the people.Then comes over and tell us that he is the most apolytical.Man are you talking to nuts ar are u nuts.Tell me man.People like you and the immature Anni have destroyed this nation.Enough of u.You Adduans are idiots.
Thanks to Stewie and Jinni for sharing their valuable insights, wich are quite accurate in my opinion. The factors they identify must be adressed in finding a comprehensive solution to drugs.
To anon 3:27,
I do the graphics myself. the basic material (photos and line drawings) are from the internet. They are cropped/re-shaped/combined/merged/adjusted/transformed using CorelDraw.
Hilath,
That there is a gender angle is beyond any doubt. Take this simple fact: 95% of all drug addicts are male. Why?? I think it has a lot to do with how parents treat girls and boys diffrently. If one does research on this perhaps we could identify some tools for drug prevention.
Husnu Suood, lawyer for drug barons and gangsters. Now what is he saying as AG?There must be a catch. When he leaves office(and that will be soon. Anni cannot trust arch foe Munavvar's brother)he will be again defending drug barons and gangsters.Maybe more clients as a result of enforcing the new law.Suood will always put his own interest first. Before the country, Government or MDP.
It is macho to smoke.
Root Cause of the Problem: OVER-POPULATED and OVERCROWDED CAPITAL CITY and COUNTRY.
Whatever angle you look at it, this is the problem. Dropping out of school, hanging out with nothing to do, bad parenting, smoking crack etc., this is all due to the dense packing of 100s of thounsands of people like a chicken shack!!! For God's sake, Maldives is becoming a human Chicken Shack!
Control your population!!! Look back 20 years and consider the scale of social problems. Do we need to say anymore? Soon you'll be overtaking Bangladesh, if you keep producing children at this rate. Your country cannot afford this much of a population. Eventually, you'll turn into another Somalia!!!
jinni said, "hardwork is an important factor parents in many western societies instill in their children".
Clearly jinni hasn't been around many western societies. Go around any major western city and spend a night in the less glossy parts and you'll soon come across those kids who have been taught "hardwork"!!!
jinni is also quite unware of the tax money that western societies are having to spend "looking after" these hardworking kids and the damage they cause every day and night!
Don't make such generalisations without knowing your facts!
It's true that Maldivians are real lazy buggers. That's inherent in the society and I seriously doubt you can ever get rid of that.
You may dream about becoming Singapore or something like that, but you haven't got the faintest idea of how much discipline and hardwork is needed to get there. The Chinese are a hardworking lot!
I pray we are successful in eradicating gangsterism.
When Anni said he will arrest 6 drug lords, it was like he was issuing a threat to the DRP, PA and Yamin called his bluff, saying, Come On, I challenge you to do it, but what Yamin was really saying was - Anni you can't do it because your power has depended just as much on drugs links, so go ahead and arrest drug lords and destroy yourself... Yamin knows Anni can't do it... If this is so, this is sad, because it means, no matter what Suood says, drug barons from opposition can't be touched or else drug barons or ex-drug barons on good side will be dobbed in as well, no doubt Yamin has proof. The proof is their, but the more proof you have the dirtier your own hands.
The Mexican President has deployed 50, 000 soldiers against the drug barons of Mexico, and still Mexico's drug barons appear in the top ten of who's richest in the world and control Mexican Government behind the scenes.
I have no doubt Yamin has done a lot of dirty things he is a ruthless man, but to get him for anything will require waging a political war against the whole system, the judiciary, the security, the customs etc...It would be a long, costly, economically devastating war which Anni's Government might not do, it may bring the economy down and make the problem worse as revenge will come in the form of attacks on more innocent old people and children. I say, we need this war to cure the cancer in our society, let's do it, let's push for it as the other alternative is we are living in fear all the time, fear of Yamin. The whole community has to be rallied to win this thing, everyone has to be committed to it...We need to start a movement to end this thing... The
@ Anonymous July 24, 2009 5:10 PM
I admit I haven't travelled a lot, but I do have acquaintances from the west.
I was talking about the values in the mainstream the west, mainly parts of europe.
For example - It is against British culture to be rude.
But that doesn't mean there aren't rude people there.
Deviance is prevalent in all societies, simply because we are not perfect beings.
anon: July 24, 2009 5:00 PM
The over population and increased in reproduction is directly related to bad parenting and lack of relevent education+ early marriages. My grand father did not have much education to tell my father to slow down things and start investing of relevent education. Today, still kids are waiting to be turned to 18, so that they can just marry a guy hardly known from Joalifathi's. These kids starts having babies, out of social obligations and there is no care for the future of it..
I think these problems go hand in hand.pretty much!
2 comments to this article could not be displayed as they amount to contempt of court and judges -a cognizable offence under Maldivian law.
Yep, social deprivation and over population are correlated; no doubt about that. There's even an extreme sketch of this somewhere: a long time in the future, humanity will have grown to total morons, simly 'cos the stupid ones procreate much faster than the rest. The cleverer brains by default will just go extinct!
This is where government intervention is needed. I'm not saying we should castrate the buggers, but something a little less radical needs to be done to reduce the overpopulation of these islands. We've already surpassed our resources by a large margin.
How about the leaders and those in high offices stopping all their anti social behaviours and making volatile comments on the media.This will be a good beginning for the others to follow on...
nice to see these posts, thanx to the blogger, keep up the good work , blogging has a special position in maldives journalism , sooner or later more ppl will have more blogs,
Post a Comment