Opening of a tourist resort in Addu becoming a menace to the society!
For decades people of Addu fought for establishment of resorts in their home land. Addu people compose more than 50% of country’s resort staff. They hold higher positions in the management of the hotels right from top to middle management and then to service staff. Addu people are renowned for their courtesy while dealing with tourists. Their longing for a resort finally came to a realization when the recently established public company, Maldives Tourism Development Corporation, developed a resort at Herathera. Hundreds of jobs were created, many utilized the opportunity but the social cost is outweighing the benefits otherwise.Hulhumeedhoo and Hulhudhoo in particular is one of the black listed islands in the National Narcotics Control Board for illegal drug abuse. There is abundance of drug addicts in the society and they found the resort few steps from Hulhudhoo as an opportunity for them to stay “high” always. Most of the heroin addicts started getting soft drugs with the help of their companions based at Herathera secretly and in small quantity frequently. Studies show that the consumption of drinks is 6 out of every 10 working employees of the resort at Herathera.
However this partying phenomenon has now reached to an unpredictable level in Hulhumeedhoo particularly among the teenage community. There are confirmed reports saying that drinks are served in some of the restaurants in Hulhumeedhoo. Children as young as 12 years old are involved in these sorts of sinful parties, now regarded as a fashion among the youth. There are rumors of some middle aged men from both the islands having started consuming drinks. Certainly there are people but how many and which sorts of drinks they get from the resort are yet to be examined.
One would surely wonder how on earth the trouble-free passage of drinks from the nearby resort is possible. Post J Resorts management the consumption of drinks within the resort at Herathera and its free availability in Hulhumeedhoo were considerably low than its today. Many point their finger at the top management for weakening the control of drinks. They also accuse the drinking behavior of some of the management staff for the spread of drinks into the resort and to the nearby Hulhumeedhoo. If appropriate actions were not taken as quickly as possible then we would surely see the entire Hulhumeedhoo community submerge into a pool of bakardi!
Posted by Hulhudhoo Today
on 2:14 PM. Filed under
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with the dredging of the channel between herathera and hulhudhoo, this problem of smuggling alcohol to hulhudhoo should ease.
it wud not ease but there might be some difficulty in flowing of alcohole.
This doesn't surprise me at all. Again let me tell a story with experience. Before Herathera was open as a Tourist resort, I was in Hulhudhoo for a holiday trip, sometimes during August of 2006. There was a party held at the famous "boh-boa kanaa" restaurant to celebrate something (I'm not quite sure what the occasion was). There were young hulhudhuans drunk that night, where alcohol was freely available. Mr. Shaad being the owner of the restaurant, freely supplied the drinks to the youth regardless of age or gender. This party went on until dawn. I'm sure there are many Hulhudhuans who know about this. That means the island authorities know this too. They didn't stop this happening. Even though the country where I live is a non-muslim, so-called "western" country, they even have strict measures of who gets to parties and who doesn't. Under-age people are not even allowed to pubs.
Things have changed...Maldivians think its cool to be high on drugs and, to smoke and drink. They think that's how the westerners are. But unless you live in these societies you wont know how they are. Surely its a shame that we muslims behave even worse than non-muslims. Unless we think about this and change it for ourselves, there wont be any improvement to the situation.
The responsibility lie on the shoulder of every individual. The public who knew about drug addicts remained silent. So did the island authorities. So did the addicts themselves. Unless we (the public at least) speak about it, inform the relevant authorities about who does wrong, we better forget about having a change in the society. Whether he/she's your friend or a relative who abuses drugs, speak the truth to the police...Just for the sake of our society. Just ring the police and tell what you know...Now the government has changed...Police will definitely do something now...No one except you knows even if you call the police...keep it for yourself... Remember you are doing this for the betterment of our society.
I hope those who read this will do what they can, about this..
Many thanks
Azaa : Miah vure maa ragalheh nun mirashuga thibi mahaa choaru bodethi vagaun naa hakuruboaa kuththaa thah rashun beyru aruvaa levey thoa gadha alhaa massakaiy kureeyaa / Dhonalibey