Today we traveled to another island inhabited by citizens of the Maldives and a had a picnic on a private island in the same atoll. There are over 1,000 islands in the Maldives equipped with white sand beaches outlined with turquoise blue water and coral aquatic wildlife that rivals your TV's HD technology. The islands are magical, if these islands were around when Adam and Eve roamed the Earth I'm sure they vacationed here. Hadahaa, the island our hotel is on is a resort island and the Park Hyatt is one of the first resorts to be built in the Maldives. Tourism has taken over as the largest economies in the Maldives bumping down fishing or more specifically Tuna as its second largest economic driver. Learning about the current status of the Maldivian people was a refreshing experience as vacations today are treated synonymously with luxury.
Walking through Dhaandoo, brightly painted buildings caught my eye. Dhaandoo was our guides home island and he was born and raised there, he knew every inch of the island and basically walked us through his childhood. He showed us the local school and medical clinic that are government run and the houses built after the Tsunami from Indonesia hit the island. Tsunami was a new concept for them as they had never experienced a Tsunami in the Maldives before which baffled me. A small island that had never experienced 20 foot waves, destroying their homes EVER. This triggered my curiosity.
Later in the afternoon we visited a couple private islands. Small islands inhabited by a couple plants were like locations we see in TV commercials, magazine ads or in our dreams. We had a picnic on a lone island that belonged in a luxury commercial. One of the islands we visited had a small neighboring island adjacent to it. Our guide was shocked when he saw this as the last time he had been to the island it was one but due to the rising water level it's now two separate islands and in a couple years the islands won't be visible. You'll only know of its existence from the turquoise water outline. In another decade no one will ever know it existed at all. This triggered my curiosity further.
Meet Joy and Fin, they live in the luxury coral Oasis apartments in front of our villa. Home to many different kinds of aquatic wildlife, I've been watching them swim about, socialize and protect their coral reef. Unfortunately the situations described above aren't isolated as economic effects, human risk, or disappearing islands. Joy and Fin won't be living in the luxury coral Oasis apartments for much longer due to the landlords increasing A/C price or selling out to human entities that reclaim the island.
Although framed with a comical view, its real life. Fin and Joy's A/C prices are caused by the rising water temperature that bleach the coral reef and can no longer sustain life. In order to battle the effects of the rising water level, the Maldivian government has begun reclaiming islands to provide locations for its citizens and provide jobs. Reclaiming islands is done by filling sand from islands covered by water and building upon an existing island to create an island humans can inhabit. By reclaiming islands the Maldivian government is ensuring a habitat for its citizens and a way of life.
It's estimated many of the islands in the Maldives will no longer exist in 50 years but at the rate described by our guide, it'll be shorter than five decades. Some individuals may quickly throw blame at corporations and large resorts the Maldives in but remember tourism is the Maldives number one economy and currently providing resources and development for a young government formed in 1965. The government is pushing for further tourism claiming September 27 as World Tourism Day and the government has pivoted the tourism industry into a source of further development of waste and sanitation for its country.
During our conversation, our guide muttered five words that haunt me hours later, "we are not all equal". That quote still ruminates in my mind and jolts my heart like electricity, but why? I'm often considered the uptight individual who doesn't laugh at statements meant as jokes but are comical at someone else's expense. Ray put it nicely in Star Wars to describe my current state of mind, "something inside me has always been there but now it's awake" because my response to our guide should have been, "we are all equal." I don't believe your current state defines your status and if someone tells you otherwise they're part of the dark side army and follow the Supreme Leader, consider this your warning. Voicing my opposition after a joke isn't enough, wildlife, human life, the world as we know it is all is at risk if we don't act on what we believe is right for society and the environment. There's no time left, it's happening now, we are headed to become the society living on a space shuttle as seen in Wall E. Sure, Wall E was a cute movie but I get air sick, sea sick, car sick, walking sick so I'll definitely get space sick so my future cannot include space citizenship.
