Simon Sahreef in his blog http://www.randomreflexions.com/, says “someone pointed out in one of the comments on this blog that Maldivians were the brainiest people in Asia. There is a lot of truth to this claim.”
Just two years ago I remember reading an extended article on the Aafathis which started with the sentence ‘Ceylon meehunaa khilaafah dhivehinnakee gaige hangaduge kula madu badhan kula akah dhaa sifa reethi baekeve.’ When a child is born aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters all line up to see if it is 'fair' - 'ey baby dhontha?'
All tribes, clans and nations have an instinctive tendency to believe in the supremacy of their genetic stock, appearance and intelligence. But I sometimes wonder if we Maldivians are not taking this a little too far. For us, Srilankans are ‘orin’; Indians are ‘indiaa meeheh (pronounced in a very demeaning and derogatory tone); Bangaldeshis are ‘bangaalheen (almost a subhuman species). Years ago while in my seventh standard, I learnt from my ‘social studies’ text book that we Maldivians are ‘Aryans’. Several Maldivians including senior figures among politicians and civil society have on several occasions bald-facedly declared that we are brainiest lot in the region.
Most Maldivans that I know stand only a few inches taller than 5feet and show no visible signs of blonde hair or blue eyes - physical features of Hitler’s Aryan race. No Maldivian I know have published even a well recognized scientific article let alone making new scientific discovery. I can never think, even in my wildest dreams, the day a Maldivian would earn international recognition as an authority in any academic field.
Let’s accept the reality. We are juvenile-tuna-harvesting Austroloids and Dravidians slightly dwarfed by several hundred years of malnutrition that learnt even their ‘ABCs’ from Srilankans during the 1960s. Greek gods would have no reason to be envious of our looks and Einstein wouldn’t have definitely raised an eyebrow even if we could all combine our brains. So instead of arrogating to ourselves qualities that we don’t have, lets accept the reality and brace ourselves for the long and arduous task ahead of us before we could even start thinking about calling ourselves a civilized nation.
Just two years ago I remember reading an extended article on the Aafathis which started with the sentence ‘Ceylon meehunaa khilaafah dhivehinnakee gaige hangaduge kula madu badhan kula akah dhaa sifa reethi baekeve.’ When a child is born aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters all line up to see if it is 'fair' - 'ey baby dhontha?'
All tribes, clans and nations have an instinctive tendency to believe in the supremacy of their genetic stock, appearance and intelligence. But I sometimes wonder if we Maldivians are not taking this a little too far. For us, Srilankans are ‘orin’; Indians are ‘indiaa meeheh (pronounced in a very demeaning and derogatory tone); Bangaldeshis are ‘bangaalheen (almost a subhuman species). Years ago while in my seventh standard, I learnt from my ‘social studies’ text book that we Maldivians are ‘Aryans’. Several Maldivians including senior figures among politicians and civil society have on several occasions bald-facedly declared that we are brainiest lot in the region.
Most Maldivans that I know stand only a few inches taller than 5feet and show no visible signs of blonde hair or blue eyes - physical features of Hitler’s Aryan race. No Maldivian I know have published even a well recognized scientific article let alone making new scientific discovery. I can never think, even in my wildest dreams, the day a Maldivian would earn international recognition as an authority in any academic field.
Let’s accept the reality. We are juvenile-tuna-harvesting Austroloids and Dravidians slightly dwarfed by several hundred years of malnutrition that learnt even their ‘ABCs’ from Srilankans during the 1960s. Greek gods would have no reason to be envious of our looks and Einstein wouldn’t have definitely raised an eyebrow even if we could all combine our brains. So instead of arrogating to ourselves qualities that we don’t have, lets accept the reality and brace ourselves for the long and arduous task ahead of us before we could even start thinking about calling ourselves a civilized nation.
14 comments:
Maldivian innovation stopped at the foah valhi (Even this tool I suspect has its origins in India)
If we had brains we would have mechanized the huni gondi-- something that's long overdue considering that we have more coconuts than brains (functional or dysfunctional) in the Maldives.
inovation is the best tool of a brainy person which is easier and better than inventing the wheel again :)
First we had 100% literacy.
Now we are reaching a point where every Maldivian is an Islamic Scholar (one wonders if it's even appropriate to have these two words together.. perhaps Islamic Ignoramus is a more fitting combination)
As for scientific progress, a number of Maldivians have already made huge discoveries in the area of herding goats on small coral islands.
Maldivian models, singers and actors range in hundreds. Look around you, watch TVM.
So you are not entirely correct. We have scholars, we have "local" beauties, and we have are hugely fond of juvenile tuna brains hot out of a garudhiya pot.
Maldives forever. Independent. Clean. Islamic.
from the 3 years i spent in a international school i was the top of the class every single year.. there were atleast 30 different nationalities in my classes. mostly Asians...
Heh. I totally agree with you. I disagree with Simon (and most Maldivians, like you say) that Maldivians are brainy or even easy on the eye.
Asia is a big place - China, South Korea, Japan and India are making great strides in the fields of sciences and churns out recognisable, measurable intelligent output unlike Maldives ever has. Our bookstores are stacked full of mythical tales and religious fatwas.
And in the looks department, there is nothing much that really differentiates us from Indians or Sri Lankans.
hehe you are comparing Maldives with the biggest countries in the world. of course we are nothing compared to them..
but still i do believe there are pretty smart people from the Maldives.
I think you should include the full paragraph from my post:
"Someone pointed out in one of the comments on this blog that Maldivians were the brainiest people in Asia. There is a lot of truth to this claim. After all we've got students achieving top honors in colleges and universities abroad. So relatively speaking, we may appear to be smarter."
hey dear....u r not correct...maves vara balafin thikan....maldivian people are completely different from other people in this region.okm I agree that there are also people who r like Indians or srilankan....but not all...arab , african, and arab-Europe features are found in the maldives....u wanna bet...come and met me
It's INDO-ARYAN you dickhead
get your facts straight before mouthing off next time
Hi, Ive read your post and some aspects of what you have written down;I totally agree with. Maldivian families/parents and people (sadly, even in this modernized world)still suffers from the "South Asian disease of racism". It is still there,though it is not blatant discrimination.Maldivians have yet to see and believe that outside this country,chocolate,brown and dark skins are the new fashion and beauty of this world.
And about the social studies book you had in 7th grade, I think it says we descended from the Aryans from the ancient Harappa and Mohajandro of India. It is different from the platinum blonde, blue eyes Aryans.
True, we have been very isolated, with no exposure to the outside world, these islands merely being a haven and resort for shipwreckers and early sea-fares. S(Heck, we were only on the world map after the second world war, and are we still not more than a few splashes of ink from a busy cartographer on the world map?)
I do believe that Maldivians are proud of our lineage, looks and heritage. This is understandable though. Smaller island nations (ex. the Faroe Islands and other small states) have always been strongly nationalistic and proud- we have to be if we are to remain and independent and unique.
I have been to an International school with people from over 89 different countries- and people think that Maldivians are truly beautiful and teachers think that we are intelligent-whats more, they even say that "its because of all the fish".
True, we are lazy.Some poet once said that "Dhivehin beynunvaanee udun paanaa maamui veheyshey" meaning that we live and idle lifestyle-understanble once again because we live in a sunny country with pretty much nothing to do.
I agree with you that we have to be tolerant and be free of this discrimination (which is of a wierd sort, because however much we are "people with open arms to travellers etcetc) we do have this extreme sense of discrimination for beauty. We do have to let go of this poor mentality, yes.
But like I said, I still stress that we are very,very different from the rest of the continent.The closest we have with India and Sri Lanka is our food,our looks and maybe bits of culture.
Other than that, we lead our own unique lifestye. And we are capable, and even good-looking.
please visit,
we are aryans!
http://maldives-ancestry.blogspot.com/
m17 haplogroup is high in maldivians. J2 and m17 accouts 75% maldivians.
haha, maldivians are of indo Aryans stock. indo aryans are not necessarily blond and blue eyed people. indo aryans are ancestral north indians and we have lot of central nofth indian genes according latest genetic research. so what?genetic research indicates maldivians have very little African ancestor. the fact is maldivisn did nto decend from ancient tribes of andaman islands and aturolesia.
There so many talented, educated young people out there. More than half of the society is most of the times either "nice vefa" or wasting their time and money on coffees like there is no tomorrow. It's sad that the only invention which the public knows about is a babukeyo kafaa
machine.
Post a Comment