Confess Even If Innocent

As Maldivian citizens, we've all been brought up with the notion that we actually have some rights, and that we are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, with the Maldives crime situation the way it is, the politicians have whittled down our rights to a very slender minimum. At the same time, the police have been given additional rights that would likely surprise or even shock the average person.

The end result of all this is an unfortunate lop-sided justice system that actually favors experienced criminals, while punishing the innocent. This is antithetical to the original purpose of our rights. The rights we think are intended to protect the innocent while punishing the guilty with a fair hand of justice.

In our current system, experienced criminals learn the inside secrets of the police and prosecutorial system as they get arrested and hassled again and again. They build up a resistance to police investigation and interrogation tactics, and are then less likely to become incarcerated. As they gain experience, they don't make the same mistakes when talking with the police, and become far more aware of their rights than the average citizen.

As a result of this ''on the job training'' of criminals, the police have constantly complained that criminals have too many rights, and that they have too few powers. The media portrays criminals getting off on ''technicalities'', enraging the average citizen. The politicians, at the behest of the average citizen, have gotten into action stripping away rights, and providing more powers to the police. As an average law abiding citizen, this seems like a good idea. Fight crime and all that. The problem is that this reduction of our rights comes at a significant price.

That price is that innocent citizens are woefully unaware of their rights, and the powers and tactics of the police. Should some unfortunate soul get caught up in the justice system they are likely to be eaten alive. An amazing number of innocent citizens have had their lives ruined by erroneous or malicious prosecution. In fact, some police interrogation tactics are so effective that innocent people often confess to crimes they did not commit.

EDO IS TO ODE'

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for

Today I have found you
and those who laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you
with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your effulgence
has lit a fire in my heart
for me
the earth and sky

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer

A MORTAL MATERPIECE

She sits before me, an infallible piece
A masterwork of bone, sinew, and skin
Defying perfection her fairest cheeks and feminine chin
Her form crafted and carved as a statue of ancient Greece

Lo! I would keep her hidden, a secret held unto me
Locked away to appease my most jealous heart
For it would cause a mortal cut if e’er we were apart
My soul she holds captive, her eyes contained the very key

But I could not withhold such beauty from the Earth
A prisoner to my selfishness, a fate yet undeserved
Her expert shape and classical features to all should be observed
Not all the gold of all the nations could match her shine or worth

So go my ornate masterpiece!
Go and share your radiant gleam
Go my Venus de Milo, my Winged Victory
And light the world with your achromic beam

A GOOD NIGHT STORY

With the progressive secularization brought about by modernization and by systematic attempts to destroy spiritual values, a vast majority of children live in a fear of many things they should not be.When we first started schooling and even before that we have been told of many stories. Some interesting ones you may find below; which creates unnecessary fear;

Foolhudhiguhandi – aiminabi meets this mythical figure showering with sand using a skull near a mosque. In the good old days people mostly women used to go fetch water to the wells in mosques. The story is built on a character with a long naval, who pokes it through the walls in aiminabi’s house while her husband is away.
It’s not amusing when you really don’t get any moral in these types of stories.

Safaru kaidha – A demon, actually transformed to a human get married to a woodcutter and get 3 children. The story continues, when a relative of the guy who is a black magician visits their house and finds out about the demon. Later he chants black magic to save him and blah blah blah. Later, this demon/women does abnormal thing in the gifili and takes away the children. Voila, there starts the fear of gifili. Moral- don’t get married to demons.OK, what about the stories you have heard about a aiburi or boaburi in the toilet, And the stories about people not going to toilet at night, Because of earlier experiences with a ghost. I bet, you have had this fear when you were schooling.

Santhi mariyanmbu – basically this story makes the children shut up. They are so afraid that this character would come while they are sleeping and plant teeth in each and every part of the body. The moral of the story is don’t speak or don’t ask for what you really want. Great.

Rannamaai – one the most bogus stories, every night a young virgin girl is to be taken to a sanctuary to be fed by a ghost, then the savior Abul Barakaath come from nowhere and puts this character in a bottle. Moral- no moral

source: pic