Whoo boy. Nutso times in the Maldives. I guess the president wasn’t bringing in enough cargo cult money for the sea level “send us money we’re sinking” scam being perpetrated on the world. I said previously that Mohamed Nasheed’s claims were BS because while El Presidente was asking for money to “save” the Maldives from sea level rise, claiming “Carbon dioxide emissions are going to kill us,”, they were building new resorts and airports for the tourists.
Maldives leader ousted ‘at gunpoint’
By Reuters, Malé
The ousted president of the Maldives, credited with bringing democracy to the Indian Ocean islands, said yesterday he had been forced out of power at gunpoint, prompting clashes between police and angry supporters.
Police tried to break up the protests with tear gas and baton charges as former president Mohamed Nasheed’s party said he too was “beaten” by police.
…
“Yes, I was forced to resign at gunpoint,” Mr Nasheed told reporters following his party meeting a day after his resignation.
…
The political tumult, like most of everday Maldivian life, was far from the tourists who stream to the chain of mainly coral islands, seeking sun and sand at resorts that can command $1,000 a night.
Full story at the Financial Times.
Looks like they have bigger problems now than imagined sea level rise, like rioting in the streets. Whoops, there goes the tourist season, I can hear the phones ringing at travel agencies worldwide.
I believe what he means by “beaten by the police” is “they caught me committing fraud, fair and square”, not a physical thing.
It sure sucks to be a passive passenger on a fast-moving tectonic plate, huh.
“beaten by the police” in this context means “caught red-handed”, much as Bernie Madoff was beaten by the justice system.
More likely something to do with this:
The Maldives last week ordered all resorts to close their spas. A conservative Muslim party had claimed the facilities were being used as brothels. The tourism industry vehemently denied the claim and pointed out that any ban on spas would be ruinous for the economy.
Six days later, the Maldives president lifted a ban, saying investigations had established they were not being used for prostitution after all.
I’m glad i don’t live there.
like him or not.. this could be big problems for democracy in the Maldives..
Democracy concerns me more than climate change..
“Barry Woods says:
February 8, 2012 at 11:07 am
like him or not.. this could be big problems for democracy in the Maldives..
Democracy concerns me more than climate change..”
Not really this is more “democracy in action”… 1 person, 1 vote, 1 time…. democracy is a horrible system and sane people want to be as far away from it as possible.
Barry Woods says:
February 8, 2012 at 11:07 am
Democracy concerns me more than climate change..
Ultimately climate change is being used to get rid of personal freedom. It is about control. Control of what kind, how much and at what cost you can get energy. If I can control all that I can control you.
Look at the [way] Russia controls the gas to Europe. It is used as a sword over there heads.
Love the spa closing comment. The Muslims, of course, simply do not like the idea of women no being completely covered around other men. They claimed prostitution, when they wish they could simply enface Sharia Law.
What are they sinking about?
Coral islands: they grew there in the first place (in shallow water on subsurface volcanoes) and will continue go grow with any sinking of land or rising of seas.
I received an ‘Urgent’ email from Bill McKibben of 350dot org.
as follows:
“President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a friend and ally of the
climate movement, is in danger, and when our friends need our help, we
respond. Sign on to tell world leaders to do what they can to keep him and
his people safe.
Dear friends,
Our fight is a global fight, and early this morning one of our greatest
allies, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, was ousted in a military coup.
He’s under house arrest at the moment and could be in serious danger.
[3]We’re collecting signatures on a petition that we will deliver to key
secretaries of state and foreign ministers to make sure there’s pressure
on the coup leaders to keep President Nasheed safe.
On our action page, you’ll see a video of President Nasheed at the
Copenhagen climate talks–it was one of the great moments of the 350
movement. We also pasted an account of the coup from inside the
government. Click Get More Info on the page for both. The Maldives was on
course to become the world’s first carbon-neutral nation, a beacon for the
rest of the planet; but for the moment, all that matters is the safety of
our dear friend and his colleagues.
Days like today remind us how hard this fight will be, and how many
setbacks we’ll see on the way. They also remind us that we need solidarity
above all else. If you’re a praying person, include Pres. Nasheed and his
family in your prayers. We know that all of you are action people–[4]so
here’s that sign-on link again.
With respect,
Bill McKibben and the 350.org team.”
Having heard this guy in the flesh he’s just like any telly-evangelist.
However:
Autonomous_Mind tweet: (thanks Josh)
@mark_lynas 1st, he resigned after protests at arrest of a judge. 2nd, the VP took control. 3rd, he has been released and has gone home.
With regards to Mr Nasheed’s resignation, it hardly surprising the country’s general leadership forced the issue given Mr. Nasheed had unconstitutionally ordered the arrest of the Chief Judge Mohamed for releasing a government critic (i.e. a political prisoner jailed by Mr. Nasheed’s cronies).
One must consider that Maldives Supreme Court and the Judicial Services Commission said Judge Mohamed’s arrest was unlawful and called for his release. Moreover, one cannot fault the police or the army for rebelling against Mr. Nasheed’s unconstitutional actions. (For facts see “Fall from grace for Maldives’ democratic crusader” by Olivia Long at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16925741)
Lacking any constitutional authority for jailing critics I would hardly describe Mr. Nasheed as a “democratic crusader”. The issue of how Maldives should be governed, however, I leave the people of that nation to settle among themselves.
With the regard to issue of any threat of the Maldives “sinking” due to climate change. I would suggest there is solid scientific evidence that sea levels surrounding the Maldives are not rising. Indeed there is good evidence Maldives sea levels have decreased by 20-30 cm (8-12 inches) over the last thirty years. And, moreover, that Maldives sea levels were 50-60 cm (20-24 inches) higher 1000 to 800 years ago.
For evidence supporting this assertion I would suggest one read: “New Perspectives for the future of the Maldives” by Mörner N.-A.; Tooley M., Possnert, G (7 May 2003).
You can find the study at the Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives . Just go down to Source 21 and pick up the PDF. The report is also available on line at http://www.sciencedriect.com [Global and Planetary Change 40 (2004) 177-182]
In the discussion the paper states:
“In the IPCC scenarios, the Maldives were condemned to disappear in the sea in the near future (e.g. Hoffman et al., 1983; IPCC, 2001). Our documentation of actual field evidence contradicts this hypothesis.
Tide gauge data have been cited in support of an on-going rise of mean sea level (Singh et al., 2001). Tide gauge records, however, do not provide simple and straight-forward measures of regional eustatic sea level. They are often (not to say usually) dominated by the effects of local compaction and local loading subsidence. With this perspective, our multiple morphological and sedimentological records appear more reliable and conclusive. Besides, satellite altimetry does not record any significant rise in global sea level in the last decades (Morner, 2003a, Fig. 2). In order fully to investigate the situation, however, available tide gauge records, now extending from 1990 to 2002, were re-examined. This reveals a total absence of any rising secular trend (Morner, 2003b).
A recent sea level fall of the order of 20 to 30 cm in the last 30 years is most surprising. Both rates (>10 mm/year) and amplitudes (20 to 30 cm) are much higher than expected. This sea level fall must represent a regional eustatic change confined to the central Indian Ocean. In the central Indian Ocean, eustatic sea level lies well below the geoid surface because of an exceptionally high rate of evaporation (Morner, 2000). Therefore, if this evaporation increases further, sea level will fall regionally (i.e. just as recorded in this
paper).
We, therefore, propose that the sea level regression recorded in our observational data is the effect of increased evaporation. This fits with an increase of the NE-monsoon in the last decades as recorded in so many islands; not least in Addu Atoll. It seems significant that Pfeiffer et al. (2001) recorded a marked environmental change at about 1970 in the stable isotopes of corals from the Chagos Islands (south of the Maldives). They interpreted this in terms of decreased precipitation linked to the monsoonal circulation.”
The paper concludes:
“In the region of the Maldives, a general fall of sea level occurred some 30 years ago. The origin of this sea level fall is likely to be an increased evaporation over the central Indian Ocean linked to an intensification of the NE-monsoon.
Furthermore, there seems no longer to be any reasons to condemn the Maldives to become flooded in the near future.
Besides, at about 1000–800 BP, the people of the Maldives survived a higher sea level by about
50–60 cm.”
Regards,
Kforestcat
temp says: “Not really this is more “democracy in action”… 1 person, 1 vote, 1 time…. democracy is a horrible system and sane people want to be as far away from it as possible.”
Democracy has failed because our “democratically elected” leaders are corrupt all over the world and their strings are being pulled by corporations and radical groups.
The people run the system all right, but only those people with obscene amounts of money. Voting is now just another scheme to placate the masses and give us the feeling that we matter. In actuality we don’t matter, and our “choices” of leaders we are given to vote for are a joke of the highest order.
When Rentiers Fail …
I knew him in Liverpool – we were at the Poly, now Liverpool John Moores University – graduaing in 1989. Then, he seemed most unlikely to be on the graft. His predecessor as President [30 years in the job and (probably) never rigged an election] one Gayoom, might have been – but Mo? – well, not the Mo I knew in Liverpool.
More a bit of a Mr. Clean, I thought. He was dead set on politics, even then.
Bit nutty about the cabinet meetings underwater – but did that get publicity? or not?
Do hope he doesn’t get ‘disappeared’ by the losers of the last election [Gayoom’s cronies/mob/old pals, etc.], or beaten to a cabbage.
The whole ‘climate refugees’ story about the Maldives – and the supposed need for Climate Funds to support this exodus – probably has something to do with the fact that the Maldives has one of the highest population densities of any country in the world, and an economy that won’t support them.
Must laugh at the McKibben letter. Did he also send condolences when Little Kim, that champion of low CO2 emissions and energy conservation for the ‘little people,’ died in North Korea?
Like many politicians in weak democracies or autocracies, Nasheed relied on populism. Getting billions of compensation for a non-problem is every populist’s dream – to give away money, without the pain of higher taxes, rising deficits or higher inflation. He should be credited with his creativity. Those at fault are the alarmists who gave such nonsense credibility.
If you are vacationing in ANY place called the “Islamic Republic of _______,” you should know what you are getting into. In 2011, maldives banned the display of crosses. Religion of Peace and all.
care factor = (λP/θ)*(1-1)
The French Revolution was democracy in action.
The Democratic People’s Republic of [place the name of your favorite thugocracy here] . . . Get it?
Democracy has little meaning without personal liberties and the rule of law, the two things which are most often sacrificed in the name of democracy.
I am married to a Maldivian and lived there for a couple of years. My children have had schooling there. It is a lovely place with lovely people. People eventually got so sick of the former President, Maumoon, after 30 years and got the courage to force him to free elections. Unfortunately, one reaction to electoral freedom was the creation of too many political parties. Over time most will disappear and the most relevant will remain. Do remember that Maumoon was also on the sea level rise gravy train and, despite the internal wealth in the country, managed to keep underdeveloped nation status for a long time, guaranteeing a flow of aid money, which was rarely audited and managed by the aid provider. Queue corruption.
Nasheed is an odd character in many ways. He was prominent in opposing Maumoon and is not corrupt in a ‘money’ sense. However, like a lot of politicians (and certain climate scientists) he is a bit of a sociopath I think. He seems to like being everyone’s friend. He thinks he is right. He makes odd decisions and I think gets hurt when others don’t see things as he does. My wife, talking to a friend of his from school, said he is the same as then. I personally did not see him as emotionally mature. He has little to complain about now. He jailed a judge who criticised his government. This led to conflict and strikes with the police, who eventually had a standoff with the army (NSS). Nasheed was forced to resign by the circumstances of his own actions. He does not appear to be “ousted at gunpoint” in any manner.
Nasheed, in his boyish “spirit of inclusiveness”, had, as his presidential running mate, Waheed, who is from a different party. So surprise surprise, he resigns and under the constitution, the vice-president is sworn in! Which is what is supposed to happen in such events. BTW, most Maldivians I know were embarrassed and ashamed of the puerile underwater cabinet meeting incident and most I have spoken to do not see sea level rise as a threat.
For people like higley7 above, Maldivians mostly ascribe to Islam and would self describe as Muslims – yes. However their personal, religious and political views are wide and diverse. They are a very educated people in general. All education is in English medium in public schools and most private ones. They follow Cambridge curriculum, which the English no longer follow to their loss. All the kids study to O levels (year 10) with most electing to continue study to A levels (11,12). As many as possible try to get a university education and because they needed to go overseas until recently, did have to rely on study aid, in most cases. They perform fantastically in upper education and are often in the top 10 percentile (high marks are highly regarded) as they are study hogs. PhDs are very common now for a population of only 300k. The law is required to be ‘Sharia compliant’ which covers economic, political, social and judicial aspects of Sharia.
I hope this background gives a little insight in this country and it’s people. They will work through this period and come out of it a bit wiser.
Patrick
“Religion of peace”? I learned all I need to know on 9/11 when all those millions of muslims stood up and said “Not in my name!” Or maybe not!
Did any of them speak out?
@Ed Moran
Did any of them speak out?
Yes. We did. Why don’t you try actually go talk to a Muslim and find out what he thinks of that kind of action. But perhaps you prefer a consensus – then you have “learned all I need to know”. Kind of like at skepticalscience.
What is it about blogs and Muslim countries which allows commenters to lose their manners and sense of perspective? Like Muslim = fair game. WUWT? FFS.
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