Short Writing. 1 - Departure

Hey you minions! I haven't rylogged in ages, i know. But on my defense I've been really busy sleeping and being the slob of the century. Its hard work, you know. Plus Smallville, Friends, WWE happened. Speaking of which, Wrestlemania 28 today, What is UP?!

Anyway moving on.. This post is an attempt to start writing short stories and stuff again. In my roleplay writing days, I used to write a lot. Then I got off it and concentrated more on social issue related articles and stuff. I know I'd probably suck at it by now but I thought I'd start trying to write again like earlier. Just for the heck of it, yeah. :P So this is a one shot. I named it Departure.
 So here you go (PS:- if anyone still reads this shit, criticize me. Thank you.) :-

“Do you know where you are going to go or what you are going to do when you get to Manhattan,” Ray asked unloading the last piece of luggage from his Porsche into a trolley . They had just reached the Los Angeles International Airport.
‘I don’t know,’ replied a tall fair skinned brunette emerging from behind the car. ‘I really haven’t made any plans. I just need to get out of here. This city suffocates me, you know?’  
‘Yea its understandable, I guess.’ Ray replied starting to steer the trolley towards the departure gates. ‘It just won’t be the same without you. Mayfair, this city, me... But you know, we’d get used to it. I’m going to promote Jenna to the new CEO , of course you’d still be a co founder of Mayfair but I guess I can run it by myself. At the rate things are going it practically runs by itself so I won’t have to do much either way. You don’t worry Charli, we’d manage without you. You just take care of yourself and get settled.’
‘Stop rambling Ray. I’m going to miss you too,’ Charli whispered placing her hand gently on top of Ray’s and looking directly into his eyes and smiling slightly. ‘And thanks for dropping me off by the way. I know how awkward things had been between us the last couple of months after the breakup. But there is no one else that I want to spend my last hours in LA, so I m just glad you are here’

‘Aw, it’s okay. All that’s behind us now, right? We are just good friends and that’s how it should be, right?’ Ray responded breaking the eye contact as his stomach clenched a bit. ‘You know, I still remember the day you came to LA.  You were this fifteen year old goth who ran away from home and moved to the big city. Mrs. Felton, my next door neighbor found you in the street the very same day and practically adopted you.  ‘
‘And here we stand, seven years later. So much has changed, hasn’t it? I’m no longer the fifteen year old goth.’ Charli said mimicking Ray with a slight smile playing into her lips.  ‘Not really, Charli. You may not be the same girl that you once were. You have changed but the situation hasn’t, has it? You are still running away from life. How long are you gonna keep doing this?’
Charli frowned. ‘Don’t try to change my mind about this. This is something I have to do. I need a new start. A clean break. To go to a place where people don’t know or judge me. You know, new people, new city. It would do me good. And Manhattan might just be the thing for me.’

Ray smiled and said, ‘Well I hope you find what you are looking for Charli.’ Charli nodded and replied,  ‘Yea me too. And you know Ray, I can always spot your fake smile.’  She chuckled sadly before reaching out and hugging him. ‘ That’s the last call. I better be off. I’d miss you!’
‘And me, you. Call me’ He said hugging her back. ‘And you know, good luck with life in Manhattan. Take care’ ‘You too,’ Charli said before breaking off the hug. She planted a soft kiss on his cheek and started walking towards the departure gates, turning back to raise one hand in farewell. And as Ray waved at her forcing a grin, he knew that he would always love Charli Grant. 

BYE minions. Have a great April.  

Healthy Habits for a Healthy Environment

Environmentalism or environment protection moment as we know it originates back to mid 19^th century. In Great Britain in the year of 1863, a set of laws were passed to fight air pollution in the name of British Alkali acts. As we move on to the 20th century, the environmentalist movement became even more popular. This was around the time in which animal rights or wild life activism originated due to the impact caused by the extinction of passenger pigeons. President Woodrow Wilson of America and the Nazi Government of Germany was particularly active in this animal rights activism.

As far as environmentalism today goes, it is one of the most HIT topics of the day. There has been a startlingly great rise in the number of environmentalist activists fighting for this noble cause. People and NGOs, are making great efforts to conserve our ecology and even world governments are financing major environment protection projects to fight threats like global warming and ozone depletion.

While this is indeed, a pleasant improvement what I believe is true change can be brought by working at the root level. When we look at our country Maldives, being a collection of coral reef islands we might be one of the most environmentally challenged nation of the modern world. And while making the global world aware of our situation and persuading them to decrease major emissions from factories in order to decrease global warming and sea level rise would indeed help, there are some things we could do ourselves.

We could start simply by recycling our waste. Most of us on our way back from work or school, buy something to eat. Typically, the shopkeeper would give us whatever products it is in a plastic bag. We take our food out of the bag and throw the bag on the road. As we all know the blue or red plastic bags that we all use, is really light. If nothing inside it can fly really easily with the air. And sooner or later it ends up in our seas, in our beaches wrapping itself in the corals, the rocks, sea turtles even dolphins suffocating them and taking them to their death. And whats worse is plastic bags which contains of polyethene are non biodegradable and would take more than a thousand years to decompose. Are we ready to take the responsibility for the damage this would cause to our environment? Can’t we simply carry another bag made of a cloth which we can take whenever we go to a shop and even if it is a plastic bag, why cant we simply reuse the same plastic bag instead of throwing it. Atleast then, the number of waste plastic bags will decrease. I was present in the World Environment day rally of 2010 organized by MHTE last year June and I saw a clearly disturbing scene. People who were screaming for the rights of sea turtles and other creatures and our biodiversity were throwing empty plastic bags after eating pop corn into the street. Isn’t this hypocrisy?

A different but clearly related problem is waste disposal. We blame the government for not giving us a proper waste disposal system but what we must understand our leaders are also not miracle workers. Sure, they are flaws in the regulation of waste disposal in thilafushi but that system is also there. Then why cant we simply dispose our waste bag into the allocated place (Kuni gondu) so that it can properly be transported to thilafushi itself instead of dumping it across the corner in front of someone else’s house, polluting the air of the whole region? If you walk near the YDP stadium in Maafanu early in the morning you can literally count tens of garbage bags every other corner but people, the ‘Kuni Gondu’ is not even a five minute walk from there.

Another problem is cigarette butts. We might not notice in our everyday busy lives, but those who read this when you go out today into the street just stand in a public place in the road or near a park or near a traffic light and just look at the ground beneath your feet and just observe the number of cigarette butts. Research proves that cigarette butts take as long as nine to ten years to fully biodegrade and some researchers believe that these never really decompose. And the thing about cigarette butts in male’ is they normally find themselves into the gutter and in the long run back into our sea water making it toxin.

Guys, the truth of the matter is if there is a rally or a protest regarding the cutting of a certain old aged tree most of us ‘environmentalists’ would go there and scream our guts out but do we know how much we are damaging our environment by simple unhealthy habits like the few that I have listed above? A simple action like throwing away a cigarette butt or a plastic bag can cause a change reaction or a butterfly effect which might cause tones of suffering for our environment.

BE HUMANE. PROTECT, PROMOTE AND PRESERVE ANIMALS.

BE HUMANE. PROTECT, PROMOTE AND PRESERVE ANIMALS. - AAIZ, ECOCARE MALDIVES.MV

Since the arrival of mankind on our planet, we have colonized the four pinnacles of earth and declared ourselves masters above all other species. Armed by our status as Homo sapiens sapiens priding with the power to think and extraordinary brain power altogether, humanity has rule this planet for centuries with great power. But with great power comes responsibility. Therefore, we have a great responsibility towards other animals that inhabit earth for they too are the rightful inheritors of our planet.

Animal rights have justifiably become a really big social issue in today’s world. Environmentalists and naturalists all over the world have risen to advocate the rights of our fellow creatures. The most basic and vital right that all animals deserve is the right to life, in the context that no animals should be killed without reason. This doesn’t mean we all have to turn vegetarians or anything. Guys, I am not saying that you shouldn’t turn vegetarian for medical reasons but in an environmental perspective being vegetarian cause more damage than good. This is mainly, because for the continual survival of animals and humans alike, we need to maintain the delicate balance of life that we call the ecosystem.

Some of the reasons how being vegetarian destroys this delicate balance stands thus:-

1) For starters, when people stop eating animal products we solely depend on plants for our food. This causes of overusing plant produce and thereby, limiting the food of the very animals we are trying to protect.

2) Plants are important for life. And if we stop eating animal produce, then plants would be the sole source of nutrition. And therefore, chance of plants going extinct is there.

3) Animals contain necessary proteins which humans can’t get from any plant anywhere in the world. So it is vital for our well being to eat animals.

4) The environment would get polluted if the number of plants decreases drastically and efficient gaseous exchange is not taken place.

So the answer is definitely not, turning vegetarian then what is the answer? It is the use of the methods of sustainable development in protecting animals too. For example hunting animals for fun, culture, pride, games should be stopped immediately. Even the animals we need to kill to eat, we should use efficient breeding methods.

For example: – In order to get chicken meat, we should not kill the baby chicks and a pair or two of a hen and a rooster should always be there for the sole purpose of breeding therefore more of this animal will continue to be born in this world. If we take another example more relevant to our country, where fish is the primary source of food, overfishing should not be practiced and fishing of entire shoals of fish should not be allowed and fishing in certain regions can be stopped in order to insure the survival of the species. I would like to take an example of a sad event that took place a few years back. A bunch of fisherman from the island of, HDH. Dhidhoo in order to challenge the Maumoon administration threw loads of freshly caught fishes into the Atoll office in protest to the decrease in the price rates at which fish was sold to foreign ships etc. I feel that this was a major violation of the rights of these fish as all of them had died for no reason and it was a great loss in an economic perspective too.

In less trivial issues than their right to life, animals should also be treated with kindness. Some of you may ask, why? They are just animals. Why should we treat them kindly? The simplest answer that I could give you is we are human. And one of the basic characteristic of our race is humanity. Being humane. And as humane beings we should be kind to those creatures who are our fellows in sharing this earth. We can be kind to animals by showing basic gestures like feeding some milk or a piece of dry fish to a hungry street cat or simply by avoiding hurting any animal in any possible way.

Protecting animals are very important for our survival. We are all part of the same ecosystem, the same cycle of life in which each factor or element depends on the other. The truth is, we need these animals to survive ourselves. So we should protect them for our own sake if not for theirs. Nature has made us all its sons and daughters irrespective of our nation, color or even species. Therefore we should all be able to coexist peacefully enjoying the fruits of Mother Nature.

THE ARTICLE CAN ALSO BE FOUND IN
http://ecocare.mv/be-humane-protect-promote-and-preserve-animals/

Also Check out
www.ecocare.mv
For many other important environment related, information etc.

Prayer

This post goes out to the victims of the dreadful hiriyaa incident. May allah bless the four students who drowned to death, forgive their sins and grant them the fruits of heaven. May allah let Nazim be among the bravest of martyrs and grant him blessings and gardens of paradise as well as all our wellwishes. Oh, Allah give the families of those who died the strength to move on with their lives and heal and may they find solace in the loss they've sustained.
A very special prayer goes out for the kid who survived the incident and watched her best friends and principal die infront of her very eyes. May she find the strength to move on with life and may her faith strengthen.

My Word Against JFK

Hey people, if there are any people left D: sorry, i was out for some time. had no muse to write, really.

President Kennedy (May 29 1917 - November 22, 1963) a famous president amongst Americans of the past and today and also known to the whole world. I myself have heard President Kennedy's several times and folks I've got to tell you that almost 90% of those times it was in relation to his world famous quote, ' Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country,'

I don't pretend to differ with Kennedy entirely, in this quote. Indeed it is true. It is important to ask in every step of our lives, what we can do for our country. because our country is very important, to be very honest i don't believe there is anything which is more important than your nation, your motherland. Therefore in each step of our waking lives, we should ask ourselves what we can do for our country? What all contributions we can make for our nation? What we as citizens can do to make our motherland a betterplace? What are our duties towards our sacred homeland?

But i believe it is almost equally important to ask ourselves and the state and the stake holders of the state and the society and the government and the parliament what the state does for us, Does the state fullfill our human rights? cause guys, lets get real here. If you are not content and if you don't get your wants satisfied you wont have the motivation to work as a humble and dynamic citizen for your country. When we scroll through the pages of history we also see something else. Most of the rebellious leaders who had gone out there and brought revolution to their countries were driven to do so because they were deprived of their rights. I m a huge fan of the nurture argument in the Nature VS Nurture debate, i don't have to be right but, its my belief that nobody is born as anything. We are what the society molds and shapes us to be. Therefore, nobody is born a freedom fighter or even a nationalist. We are made as such.

Besides, guys how does a nation prosper anyway? what is the real prosperity of a country. I believe that a nation prospers through the prosperity of its most important aspect, the population. As we progress, so does our country. Its a direct relationship. So we need to be given the basic rights by the state in order for us to progress hereby bringing our nation up the charts with us.

Rights and duties are like the two faces of the same coin, folks. And here is the thing about a coin. Many people have different views about it. A lot of people believe that head is opposite to the tail. But i think without the Head there wont be the tail. The head is part of the tail and the tail is part of the head. They are different, yes, they are very different. But they are also inseperable. The same applies to rights and duties. To explain the oneness of rights and duties I'd like to take a very simple example. We have the right to live but its our duty to serve our nation in our life. WE have the right to work, but its our duty to work for the betterment of our nation. It is our right to vote. But its our duty to vote to establish a better governance for our nation. As you'd have seen from the example we are empowered with rights so we can do our duties.

THEREFORE, in constrast to the statement made by JFK, i personally believe that asking what our country does for us is also very important because it is directly related in determination of what we can do for our country.

- AAR -

Change (Part 1)

One of the most amazing facts modern day science has brought to us is that no two people have the same finger print, not even identical twins. More than six billion people live in the world right now. Billions more have lived and died. And if god wills, billions more are yet to be born. And the fact that none of these people have different hand structures and marks enough to give various finger prints is definitely a wonder and a cause for amazement for someone who thinks. But looking even deeper into that then the face or obvious amazement this variation shows us, we realize that in our deepest nature god has made us different from each other. No two people are the same. Everyone is unique and precious.
Another amazing fact we see in our day to day life, is time. When a tiny baby is born into our midst we celebrate its tiny life and the happiness it brings to us. It is one of the most beautiful things we see in life. And a lot of us wish the baby to remain so, young and innocent. But this is not to happen. As time goes on it starts to walk, talk nonsense and with more time it also starts making mistakes. The baby that nobody yells at or gets angry at, at its young age starts getting scolded, starts getting reprimanded, starts knowing that he too has limitations. And as this child grows further he leaves the fruits of his innocent childhood and enters arguably the most stressful, hormonal inbalanced phased in anyone's life. The woes of being an adolescent. The child starts questioning the ways and norms of the society and sometimes the parents of these children wish that their child had remained small, as the apple of their eyes but its not to be. The circle of time doesn't stop here. The child matures and thankfully, leaves his adolscent ages to become adult, he becomes responsible, he entirely leaves his childish nature and enters life as men and start battling the tides of life. And here, even these people wish that they had been able to remain as teenagers or children, innocent and carefree. But then again, it is not to be. Days become weeks, weeks become months, months become years and finally the person grows old and falls into his sick bed and once again wishes that he was young and had all his organs functioning properly but time, time doesn't stop for anything but death.
From the cycle of time i had just aforementioned, comes another fact. Not only are no two people same but even one person doesn't remain the same. There is only one explanation for both these facts. one reality.. change. Life is all about changes and change is inevitable, unstoppable and whole.

Walking in isn't easy. Walking out is tough. Walking back in, its near impossible

- Aaiz