Gayoom loses power in Maldives: First change since 1978
News is coming through the wires that Mohamed Nasheed (also known as “Anni”) has beaten incumbent president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in a presidential run-off in the South Asian country of Maldives. If the official preliminary reports are to be believed, this will mark the first change in the leadership of Maldives since 1978, and bring an end to Asia’s longest serving president.
Although Gayoom won the first round of elections (the first democratic elections ever held in the country), he failed to obtain over 50% of the vote which he needed to secure the victory, leading to a run-off with the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate. This time, it looks like Nasheed has the upper hand and has secured 54% of the vote.
Now looking at Nasheed’s picture, I can swear I’ve met this guy when I lived in Maldives back in 2003! I was speaking to a former work colleague there too a couple of weeks ago and we both agreed that the guy’s name definitely rang a bell. It is very possible as my main contact and sponsor in the Maldives was Nazim Abdul Sattar, another of the founders of the MDP and someone who has had a few run-ins with the government in the past because of his support for bringing democracy to the country. After a long struggle though, he must be elated to see democratic elections have finally come and the people have opted for change.
The outgoing president, Gayoom, was described by many while I was in Maldives as a “benevolent dictator”. They said he wasn’t really a bad president bleeding the country dry like some do, but that you really didn’t want to cross or oppose him. He gained power in 1978 and since then has only run referenda to continue his leadership. In these referenda there was no campaigning allowed by other parties, and no other candidate to choose from. You were simply given the question of “Do you want Gayoom to be president?” to which you could answer yes or no. Another problem I saw while I was there which would affect this was the freedom of information and media. There was one TV station, which was state-owned, one newspaper (state-owned) and I believe the radio station(s) were run by the government too. So you can see that people were only ever given the good news about Gayoom and so in the past they had no reason at all to question his leadership.
Things started to change in 2003 while I was there though. I remember calling one of my friends in the capital city, Male, in around October of that year. I was surprised to hear he had seen tanks on the streets of Male, and a curfew was in place after some pro-democracy protests had taken place. It was at that time that the government started more widespread tapping of phones and placed a ban on organised meetings of groups of people in the capital.
But it looks like, despite all that, change has finally come to Maldives. What the new president will do, and if his policies will change from that of Gayoom’s, we will have to wait and see. But the main thing is that elections have happened, and it looks like the change that some have been wanting for many years is taking place.
Zetalube Drags Okinawa, October 19th
Yup, it’s that time of year again when the quick cars in Okinawa make their way up to the north of the island to Nago “circuit” and try to get traction on the ice rink they like to call a drag strip/racing circuit. Those of you who know about Nago circuit, either from my posts before or through personal experience, will know how slippery that place is. It is partly due to the fact that the surface up there is coral-based like the roads were up until a few years ago here. That’s fine for the most part until it rains. However, over time even in the dry the surface gets slick to say the least. Plus, here in Okinawa the drag strip is a pitiful 150m (not even 1/8 mile). The reason is that we don’t really have a 400m (1/4 mile) stretch of straight road here in Okinawa without a set of traffic lights, a sharp turn at the end or a high probability of a drunk driver pulling out of a blind turn into the road without looking! So with the short stretch of track to race along and the slippery surface, getting traction can be much more important than having a big turbo to make power. This is where the AWD cars have a big advantage, and with a new turbo setup and a couple of other extras in my car I was eager to see how it would perform.
On a personal point of view, right up until the last second I was debating whether to go. I had a creaky wheel bearing (yet again!) which was sounding pretty bad and I was more than a little worried. Although it would give me a secret weapon in the race (nobody would be expecting my front left wheel to come off midway down the track and start rolling towards them!). Unfortunately, someone at the circuit informed me that this would be a one-time only weapon and so I would have to choose my moment very carefully! So I woke up at 6am to see rain coming down and dark skies ahead. Checked the weather radars though and they looked pretty clear for the north so I decided to jump in the car and head up there.
Mainland trip report
Hello there once again. Apologies for not writing an entry last week about this, but have been crazily busy recent. Each day am staying behind at work to try to help our debate team in preparation for the All Okinawa Senior High School English Debate Contest on November 3rd (everyone is working hard, although it saddens me to say in my final year at my school our prospects for victory are easily the worst since I came here; just looks like being a bad year for international stuff). And then the weekend just gone was spent preparing for and taking part in the Zetalube Drag Tournament, which will be talked about in the future. But this entry is about my trip up mainland Japan, so we’ll go back to October 8th…
I flew up to Kobe and then got the train through to Osaka where I would be staying for the first night. Osaka is also a great hub in the Kansai region for wherever else you might want to travel to. My accommodation, as per usual when in Osaka, was a capsule hotel. I’m becoming quite partial to these oversized coffins when I am in the mainland. They offer a bed, some privacy, your own personal TV/radio etc, and frequently access to a sauna of some descript. For Y3000 on average (about $30 or 15 pounds) you can’t really go wrong.
I could tell it has been a long time since I was on the mainland (probably close to 18 months since my last full trip up there) as a few things surprised me a little. As I travelled from Kobe to Osaka on the train I realised just how different some things are between Okinawa and mainland Japan. Housing styles (there actually are quite a few houses in mainland Japan, as opposed to almost everywhere in Okinawa being an apartment block), the type of agriculture you see as you travel along, the fact that in mainland Japan the majority of roads look to be well maintained… just lots of small things that add up to make a big difference. Going quickly back to housing styles, in mainland Japan a lot of the houses out in the smaller towns and villages are wood-based, as opposed to the thick and unattractive concrete in Okinawa. Although the reason for that is probably more practical than anything - Okinawa has plenty of typhoons and so the housing has to be built to withstand them. In mainland the chances of them coming are much rarer so buildings don’t have to be as strong. This is also the reason why, when they do hit mainland, typhoons cause a lot more damage than here in Okinawa, where they are seen as a nuisance more than anything. I want to write a small specific article about the differences between Okinawa and Japan in 2 specific aspects a little later, so I’ll move on for now.
Heading up to the mainland
Work is quiet this week; my students have mid-term tests and I really don’t have too much to do. A 3-day weekend is coming up in the Japanese calendar as Monday is Health & Sports Day. And it has been 14 months now since I last left Okinawa - quite a long time for me. With those things in mind, I have decided to book a late trip up to the mainland for a few days. I will be travelling up to Kobe airport tomorrow morning, and then heading across to Osaka from there. On Thursday I think I’ll head over to Nagoya where I’ll spend a few days. Never been to Nagoya and it’s always good to see somewhere new. Plus I’ll have the chance to catch up with a few friends, including one who I first met as a teacher when I was living in the Maldives. We go back quite a way so it will be good to catch up with her. And then on Monday I’ll travel back to Kyoto (probably my favourite city so far in Japan), before flying back from Kansai airport in Osaka to Naha on Tuesday morning. It will be a busy trip I hope, but that’s how I like them.
I’ll also be taking the camera up with me and will be snapping away at everything and everyone like a deranged crocodile! Will hopefully be able to get some decent shots. Not taking the tripod for the camera up as I want to stay marginally mobile so don’t expect any stunning night shots, but I’ll try and get some decent daytime pics for you. And there should be a good opportunity as it’s Nagoya Festival this coming weekend. The few people who live in Nagoya seemed to have no real idea that was going on, so maybe it’s not going to be the huge event I am hoping for, but it could be fun. On the festival website it gives some details about what will be happening, including a flower car parade, whatever the hell that is.
So it’s been a hastily arranged trip, but I’m looking forward to it. Accommodation will, as per usual, be done on the cheap. Have already found the names and addresses of a couple of capsule hotels in Osaka and Nagoya. There’s nothing like crawling into and falling asleep inside what is pretty much a large size coffin.
So expect another update early next week when I’ll hopefully have a tale or 2 to recall.
Photo of Evie
Another short post and a single photo. This was actually taken a couple of weeks ago but I’ve only just got around to posting it up here. I was out with a few friends on a Saturday night and had taken my camera out in case any decent photo opportunities came up. This one seemed like a good one so I snapped away. The subject is a Brazilian girl called Evie who is a friend of mine, and she has her arms around what looks in that shot very much like the Japanese horror character Sadako from the movie “Ringu“. Evie is really photogenic and has a very fun personality which comes out in this shot pretty well I feel. I want to get her doing some fashion or portrait photography one day as it will give me some experience of working with composition and might give her some shots for a possible portfolio.
