American Navy Ship in Addu

The second American Navy ship arrived Addu yesterday in less than three months. In the first week of December 2008, much bigger American navy ship turned up in Addu and conducted training with Maldivian military personals in Gan. “The navy was carrying a fresh and young fleet of American soldiers to Afghanistan”, said man who did not want to be identified. During their stay in Addu, they granted many high-tech machineries and amours to Maldives National Defense Force.

The ship that arrived yesterday is marooned few kilometers east of Gan. There was a sightseeing trip around Addu and Fuvahmulah yesterday by US soldiers on a helicopter. “What was happening around, we saw a helicopter flying across Hulhumeedhoo yesterday evening around 17:40”, an astonished woman inquired. Feelings are mixed among the civilian population in Addu. Some see presence of US Navy ship in Addu as a pride and opportunity, while others are skeptical about their frequent visits to this region.

“What is American Navy doing here in Addu, you guys get bucks like $10s and it is a good business for local people right?” mocked a RAF personal spending his holiday at Ocean Reef in Gan. Further he said everything has changed since we left Addu and quote as saying Hithadhoo has totally changed. Number of RAF personals, who were based in Gan during the World War II, visit Ocean Reef to refresh six decades of their memories.

Indeed, both countries being powers in world stage in terms of arms and economic growth, they exploited the poor and small countries like Maldives. “We are not happy with RAF personal’s concern over American navy presence in Addu either, just dive and see how much iron and waste had been dumped into our coastal areas, especially south of Gan” stated a Hithadhooan.

However, the pains of RAF presense in Addu during WW II exist even today although much appreciation went their way as they left. For a country like Maldives, sovereignty and protecting national pride is upmost and anything that may interrupt these may harm the feelings of people especially who bore the burdens of RAF presence six decades ago.

Posted by Hulhudhoo Today on 10:32 PM. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Feel free to leave a response