J i F: February 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

The Maldives is an archipelago of 1,192 small coral islands. Of the 200 inhabited islands, one third have fewer than 500 inhabitants. The extremely dispersed and fragmented population of about 370,000 people (a third of which is said to live in the capital Male) makes the development problems of the Maldives unique. In addition, the survival of the country’s low-lying islands is threatened by the constant rise in sea levels due to global warming.

Buoyant average GDP growth of up to 6 – 8 per cent year over the last decade driven by investment in the tourism sector with low levels of inflation until recently has been a distinctive feature of the economy in recent years. Significant progress has also been achieved in human and social development over the past two decades. Credible macroeconomic and public investment policies as well as a largely favourable external environment has facilitated this progress, lifting the Maldives from being one of the 20 poorest countries in the 1970s to one that shares many characteristics of a lower middle-income country today.

The small size of its economy, which is largely dependent on tourism and fisheries, makes the Maldives vulnerable to external shocks as witnessed by the economic recession following the tsunami of December 2004. In spite of the relatively low death toll after the tsunami, the country’s economy was badly shaken. Financial damage was estimated at 62% of GDP or $470 million, aggravated by a non-tsunami budget deficit of approximately $80 million in 2005 due to a significant fall in revenue from tourism.

The country lacks land based natural and mineral resources; as a result virtually all economic production is highly dependent on imports, creating a heavy dependence on foreign exchange earnings. Intensive agricultural production is limited because of the poor quality of soil (porous, deficient in nitrogen and potassium) and the limited availability of fresh water. All staple foodstuffs, basic necessities and items for the tourism industry are imported.

Anonymous hackers attack US security firm HBGary

HBGary's website was replaced with a logo and statement from Anonymous

Online activist group Anonymous has targeted an American security firm that claimed to know the identities of its leaders.

The secretive organisation is being investigated in several countries over strikes on Visa, PayPal and others.

Over the weekend Aaron Barr, head of HBGary Federal, said he had discovered the names of its most senior figures.

The group retaliated overnight by breaking into the company's website and hijacking his Twitter account.

Anonymous, known for being a loosely-knit group, has been involved in a number of high profile online protests and attacks in recent months.

In December, the group launched a campaign in support of Wikileaks that disrupted services at MasterCard, Visa and other companies that had withdrawn support the whistle-blowing website.

The strike led to police investigations around the world, and a number of arrests in Britain and the Netherlands.

Although the individuals who make up the collective claim they do not have a traditional hierarchy, Mr Barr told the Financial Times that he had infiltrated the organisation and uncovered the names and addresses of several senior figures.

He said he did not intend to hand the information over to the authorities unless forced to, but did plan to present his findings at a conference in San Francisco later this month.

The attacks began shortly after his claims were made public, with a sustained attack that targeted him both personally and professionally.

Mr Barr's Twitter account was filled with a sequence of racial and sexual slurs, along with a string of personal details such as his mobile phone and social security numbers.

Meanwhile, a message on the company's website said that Anonymous had "seized" HBGary's operation in order to defend itself.

End Quote Anonymous statement

"You brought this upon yourself," the statement said.

"Let us teach you a lesson you'll never forget: don't mess with Anonymous."

The group said it had gained control of all the company's e-mail, erased its files, taken down their phone systems and placed copies of many internal documents online.

Mr Barr could not be contacted for comment, but the hacked site was later replaced with a placeholder page.

Anonymous, which started as an offshoot of the notorious 4Chan internet messageboard, has been linked to a number of virtual and real-world protests over recent years.

As well as the Wikileaks attacks, it also orchestrated strikes on government services in Tunisia and Egypt in support of popular protests in those countries.

It has also launched vociferous protests for the right to uncensored access to pornography online and taken action against an anti-piracy firm hired by Bollywood studios.

It is involved in a long-running battle with the Church of Scientology, amid claims that the religious group stifles dissent.

The loosely-organised group has previously claimed it has no real leadership, although some individuals have come forward from time to time to explain their motives.

One, known as Coldblood, told the BBC in December that "thousands" of people had joined the protests to support Wikileaks' right to publish the US government's classified diplomatic cables.

"We are trying to keep the internet open and free but in recent years governments have been trying to limit the freedom we have on the internet," he said at the time.

Coldblood confirmed to the BBC that he was among five people arrested across the UK last month as part of the police investigation into the Wikileaks protests.

Carbon-neutral goal for Maldives

One-third of the Maldives' economy depends on tourism

The Maldives will become carbon-neutral within a decade by switching completely to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, its leader has said.

President Mohamed Nasheed told the BBC the Maldives understood better than most what would happen if the world failed to tackle climate change.
His tiny country is one of the lowest-lying on Earth and so is extremely vulnerable to rises in sea level.
He said he hoped his plan would serve as a blueprint for other nations.

We start almost from scratch... and it is quite pointless for us to go to yesterday's technologies

President Mohamed Nasheed

Heightened fears for lowering lands

Country profile: The Maldives

Mr Nasheed was due to announce the plan formally after the screening of a new film on climate change, The Age of Stupid, on Sunday.
The Maldives is made up of a chain of nearly 1,200 islands, most of them uninhabited, which lie off the Indian sub-continent.
None of the coral islands measures more than 1.8 metres (six feet) above sea level, making the country vulnerable to a rise in sea levels associated with global warming.
'Starting from scratch'
"We understand more than perhaps anyone what would happen to us if we didn't do anything about it or if the rest of the world doesn't find the imagination to confront this problem," Mr Nasheed told Newshour, speaking by telephone from the capital, Male.

"So basically, we don't want to sit around and blame others, but we want to do whatever we can, and hopefully, if we can become carbon-neutral, and when we come up with the plan, we hope that these plans also will serve as a blueprint for other nations to follow.
"We think we can do it, we feel that everyone should be engaged in it, and we don't think that this is an issue that should be taken lightly."
It is estimated that the Maldives, which has high levels of poverty, will need to spend about $110m a year to make the transition to renewable energy sources.

Asked how it could afford this, the president said the country was already spending similar sums on existing energy sources, and he expected to recover the extra cost within the decade.
"We start almost from scratch, we are having to go for new investments in almost all areas and it is quite pointless for us to go to yesterday's technologies," he said.
The Age of Stupid stars British actor Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in a devastated future Earth, watching archive film of the planet and asking why more was not done to combat climate change.
The film's producer, Franny Armstrong, told the BBC the Maldives had set a good example to the developed world.
"I think the challenge has now been laid down by the Maldives, a very poor undeveloped country," she said.
"So now it's over to us, to the rich countries."
An international climate change conference is due to be held in Copenhagen in December to debate initiatives for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon recently urged the world to strike a "conclusive carbon emissions reduction" deal at the conference.

National Geographic - Maldives Trip

Photo: Underwater cabinet meeting in Maldives

Dire state: The president of the Maldives publicizes climate change.

The Maldives are disappearing into the ocean. So says President Mohamed Nasheed, who in October 2009 strapped on scuba gear and held a cabinet meeting underwater with 13 government officials. They hoped to call global attention to climate change, which Nasheed considers a grave national security threat to this paradise of some 1,200 coral islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean.

One year later, I flew halfway around the world to join President Nasheed, climate scientists, renewable energy experts, marine conservationists, and sustainable tourism advocates gathered on the eco-resort island of Soneva Fushi to help save the country and perhaps the rest of the planet. (The irony of riding a carbon-spewing plane to attend a conference on how to reduce carbon emissions isn’t lost on me. More on that later.)

Educated in maritime studies, 43-year-old Nasheed is dashing, well-informed, and frequently compared to Barack Obama, who took office around the same time. Nasheed had boldly announced plans for the Maldives to become the world’s first carbon-neutral country. He spoke to me in the shade of a palm tree just a few feet from the warm, clear ocean that one day might swallow his nation. I asked him if he really thought it was possible for the Maldives to generate all its power from wind, solar, and tidal energy.

“Absolutely,” Nasheed said. “We no longer have the luxury of debate. For us, climate change is real. We are already relocating people from 16 islands affected by rising seas to other areas of our country.” While the ocean hasn’t yet claimed any island in the archipelago, rising sea levels have caused salinization and depletion of the freshwater supplies on some, forcing localized evacuations.

Mark Lynas, Nasheed’s climate change adviser, added: “We can generate the alternative energy to power this country by 2019.” But Lynas, a research associate at Oxford University and author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, offered an apocalyptic warning. “If we fail to act now, there will not be any living coral in the Maldives within 30 years, and the Maldives themselves will be wiped off the map by the end of this century.”

Tourism, done right, can help save the Maldives from a watery end. On the front lines of this battle is Sonu Shivadasani, the founder of Six Senses, a company that operates high-end resorts and spas under a banner of “intelligent luxury.” Two of them, Soneva Fushi and Soneva Gili, are in the Maldives. The notion that sustainable tourism can be a catalyst for a greener future is not new thinking, but Shivadasani is determined to take it to a higher level: resorts that are not just carbon neutral but carbon negative—removing more CO2 emissions from the atmosphere than they release into it.

“We have designed this to be a biodegradable resort,” the eco-hotelier explained as we dined on line-caught jack fish poached in a ginger-lemongrass sauce in Soneva Fushi’s treetop restaurant, reached by a rope bridge that hangs above the organic garden that supplies the kitchen. He walked me through the operations, ranging from production of biochar—a charcoal substance created from natural waste that removes CO2 from the atmosphere in a process known as carbon sequestration—to serving only sustainable seafood according to Marine Stewardship Council guidelines.

After three days of my listening tour, it was apparent that the knowledge and most of the technology exist for the Maldives to become the exemplar of a fossil-fuel-free country, albeit a tiny one. But the air travel question nagged at me. Big jets bring tourists to these islands, and small seaplanes ferry them from the capital of Male on to some 90 resorts spread across 550 miles of dark blue ocean and light turquoise atolls. On the eight-seater plane taking me to my next island stop—Soneva Gili in North Male Atoll—I sat beside the only local on the flight, the country’s vice president, Mohammed Waheed. I asked him point-blank about how they will deal with all the flying, and if eco-friendly Maldives is only for the well-heeled jet set.

“The global aviation industry is already doing advanced research on flying with renewable fuel,” he said. “But they will not be ready to meet our 2019 deadline. So we will have to offset the carbon emissions of interisland flights until there is a better alternative. Our low-volume, high-end tourism strategy maximizes economic income and minimizes the environmental footprint.” He noted that their strategy proved risky during the worldwide recession and that the country is now permitting affordable guesthouses. “This won’t change our commitment to going carbon neutral. But it will generate more income for local communities,” Waheed said.

The politician’s deft deflection of my questions only highlighted the obvious: So far, there are only partial solutions, particularly to the issue of long-distance air travel. Yet tourism provides the most compelling justification for governments to protect their natural environment.

On my last morning, I donned a mask and fins to swim among giant manta rays—some with 20-foot wingspans—feeding on plankton less than a mile from the large wood-and-thatch villas on Soneva Gili. The mantas gathered at a coral “cleaning station,” where wrasses, gobies, and other small fish picked the rays’ gills clean.

It was an underwater Serengeti with white-tipped sharks, hawksbill sea turtles, and schools of powder-blue surgeonfish swimming by. This shallow-sea encounter brought to mind Lynas’s grim prediction that in 30 years there could be no living coral here. I calculated what that would mean for the marine life surrounding me, whose survival depends on the reef.

Something the president of this imperiled country said came back to me: “We do not think that the Maldives going carbon neutral will save the planet, but we will be able to say we have done our part.” His clear challenge to the rest of the world: Do yours.

Top 10 Politicians in the World

10. Margaret Thatcher (Former Prime Minister of U.K):

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex. This firelady from United Kingdom has a clear conception for whatever she promulgates. Famous for her stubborn and arrogant style, she is a symbol of a principled approach to personal freedom.

9. Thomas Jefferson (Third President of U.S):

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. A respected educator, a powerful politician and a nerd curious to explore his surroundings. Jefferson is the author of Declaration of American Independence. One of the greatest minds in World politics and the founding father of Democratic party, he always emphasized his followers to obtain great ideas.

8. Al Gore (Former Vice President of America):

A hunk with a geek reputation and addict of Information Technology, this distinguished gentleman of politics demonstrated great leadership by instituting a federal program to wire all schools and libraries to the Internet in America. No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.

7. Martin Luther King Jr. (Civil Rights Activist of America):

Spokesperson of his mind, he is considered as GOD among black people. In his perspective life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others? A personality filled with bravery and determination, he was the icon for black people and was passionate to provide them an equivalent status as the white possesses in society. According to his point of view blacks should not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of the character.

6. Adolf Hitler (Dictator of Germany):

Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle. If you do not fight, life will never be won…wow wow wow, bravo, superb. Despite some people see him as an evil and terrorizing element, he was a man with vision and mission. He was a genius in motivating Germans to achieve their goals, whether it requires devastation.

5. Vladimir Lenin (Russian Revolutionary):

Son of a Russian nobleman, this Russian think tank was inexorable symbol of passionate working. His concept of political correctness and ideological struggle was irresistible. Sometimes – history needs a push.

4. Abraham Lincoln (Former U.S President):

An unifying portrayal of political face, this great man is admired for his statesmanship. His ideas have not only benefited the forthcoming generations till today but would continue to bear an indelible mark on the upcoming generations as well. True believer of democracy, once he quoted – As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

3. Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of USSR):

This Nobel Peace Prize winner is a pariah of common people. He is an accumulate figure of change and hope for a stagnant system, motion, creativity and amazing equilibrium. His concept of playing by the rules and revolution of the mind regard him as a hero. His heroic journey of hardship and triumph is enough to define him as a political superstar.

2. George Washington (First President of America):

Well, character of this person could be described by using the traits of honesty, intelligence, perseverance, endurance and strength. Referred as Father of America, he will be always remembered for his salient contribution in fighting for, creating and leading the United States of America in its sputtering days.

1. Sir Winston Churchill (Former British Prime Minister):

What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terrors, victory, however long and hard the road may be. For without victory, there is no survival.This legendary head of political ring was also a prolific journalist, writer as well as an adventurer.