About Me

Ever since I created my blogs in 2014, the Blogger had provided space titled “About Me” accessible from each blog for information about me that allowed readers to know who I am, along with contact information.  But it had disappeared when I deleted some posts from one of the blogs.  Given the potential usefulness of that info to readers, I had no alternative than uploading it as a post, or part of the blog – requests to Blogger administrators for help being in vain.  

I am from the Maldives and have been engaged in development-related endeavours for more than 35 years.  Based on the experience gained from these efforts, some of which mentioned in passing in these writings, I consider the important and critical problem outlined in them and the multitude of ramifications arising from it the ultimate stumbling block that impedes efforts for the betterment of human wellbeing on a global scale; the rest of the other factors in my opinion being of lesser importance.  

I completed graduate studies at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Hawaii, culminating in spring 1992 with a master’s degree focused on the development of small island states.  Ever since, I have been broadening my theoretical background and thus the scope of my understanding of the multifaceted issues of development.  Once back home, my involvements were with the broader issues of national development.  My initial background was in architecture, which I practiced for 12 years before the local conditions convinced me that I should hasten to broaden it, which led me to graduate studies.  The training I received as a designer also helped me to view issues both in detail and in perspective, and in conjunction with the wide background I acquired during and after graduate studies and still continue to acquire, this mindset helped me to dig deeper into development issues and finally arrive at the rather unorthodox but breakthrough insights detailed in these writings. 

I can be reached by phone at (960) 332-7488 most of the time between 0500 and 1900 hours GMT – that is, between 1000 and 0000 hours the Maldives local time (= GMT + 5 hours).  While I have not given my email address here to deter junk mail, for any party interested enough to contact me, a short phone call can easily solve the problem.  I can also be reached by mail at PO Box 2139, Post Office Building, Malé 20026, Maldives. 

9 – Development Concepts

Some Basic Concepts of Development

This piece is actually the appendix to article #1.  It is re-introduced here as an independent article for two reasons: i) its importance towards clarifying the nature of development, and ii) because people tend to not see it – being tucked away at the very end of the blog. 

Being able to understand basic concepts related to development is necessary to be able to understand many other aspects of everyday life; it will also allow one to meaningfully participate in many social forums – whether in informal conversations on issues or formal decision making – while enabling to weed out much of the BS we hear in such forums and hence avoid being simply misled or persuaded to lend support to or take part in making the wrong kind of decisions. 

We shall begin at the very beginning and proceed step by step, and define development simply as “the continued improvement in the access to the necessities of life, in addition to a better state of the natural and human-made environments and the scope for meaningful participation in one’s political culture.” 

And to simplify matters and outline basic principles, we shall limit our discussion to the italicized part of this definition, namely, access to the necessities of life.  (In reality, without this part being fulfilled, the remaining part will not be of much value – for example, someone who is starving or homeless will not be in a position to care much about one’s environment or be involved in any political culture.) 

“Access to necessities of life” in its turn has two sides to it: having money to buy them and their being available to buy.  These two aspects are intrinsically entwined, and (basic) development happens to the extent that those two conditions are fulfilled.  Let us take the second aspect first – availability.

Availability of goods and services to the general public happens when someone provides them, and that someone is usually the private sector.  Now, the primary motivator for the private sector is profit.  There is nothing wrong with this; selling what one can produce best (be it a good like the kind available in any shop or a service like the expertise of a physician) at a profit and buying with the money gained one’s all other necessities is the norm on which all modern economies function.  We can conclude that it is due to a well-functioning private sector that people are able to access goods and services they desire – which is one aspect arising from our definition of “development.”  The other aspect arising from this definition or money, or jobs through which money is earned, happens when the private sector functions properly and provision happens – since provision leads to employment or earnings.  And to simplify the description of the development process, we shall limit our discussion here, once again, to the provision aspect alone.  Naturally, the right policies by the government will enhance both aspects and facilitate development. 

It is obvious that if there is no scope for profit, there will not be a significant private sector to provide the goods and services that people need, in particular their more advanced kind.  Such is the case in the outlying atolls of the Maldives, as people don't have sufficient buying power, meaning money to spend, and as populations are small and lack sufficient mass to generate scale economies.  And since the people do not have access to goods and services, even the most basic ones, they are labelled “undeveloped.”

It is clear that if people in such undeveloped areas are to have access to even their basic necessities, then someone must provide them, and not on a “commercial” basis.  This someone is the government in most cases.  Recall our early schools (Majeediyya & Ameeniyya) and health services (Central Hospital – now ADK); they were financed solely from the government's budget and people had access (although limited spatially) to those respective basic necessities.  In the relatively developed Malé now, the government can gradually minimize its role in those areas where the private sector can function in a self-supporting manner, and that is precisely what today's picture shows.  But this is not the case in the outer lying areas, and the government has to play an active role if people in those areas are to have basic necessities.  (And to do so requires organizations like STO, MTCC, and BML*** even at a loss commercially – given that their basic mandates are more important.)  But given that the government cannot, and should not, go on doing this for ever, forced development of those areas becomes necessary.  Thus adopting the right policies to rectify this deficiency and converting those areas that cannot support a well-functioning private sector to areas that can is the primary purpose of development policy – while temporarily taking the slack or filling the void arising from the lack of a well-functioning private sector.  It is clear that the perception people have about government intervention as efforts to cater people freely and indefinitely is a most misguided one.  Unfortunately, our current efforts are more like Yehya's behaviour than sensible and consistent policy – as they are not based on any sound theoretical understanding of the dynamics of the processes involved. 

The above is sufficient to show that mere “commercialization” without any thought to the complexities involved will create more problems than they solve (not to mention the suffering that such blind policy will produce) and that those who trump such dogma do not know what the hell they are talking about!  

The discussion above also makes the primary role of public enterprises abundantly clear.  The fact that such enterprises have a profit-making role is a secondary concern, though it may be an important one.  This importance arises not so much from its contribution to the government’s budget as from the fact that the government, already burdened with numerous demands, cannot continue to support them in their basic and mandated roles indefinitely.  Therefore making profit where they can is important to the extent that they can cross-subsidize and work in those areas where they cannot make a profit without burdening the government.  We saw above that this is necessary for the development of the rest of the economy.  It is well and good if they can make contributions to the government’s budget (which would help ease the burden on it due to the demands from other sectors) but the basic mandate of such public enterprises or the very purpose for which they were established in the first place should not be compromised. 

Unfortunately, this broad and important purpose of public enterprises is lost on most people, including those in government high office.  To their limited thinking, especially those who return with degrees in related fields from abroad fresh from universities (where such differences are usually not taught) public enterprises that do not make a profit have to be scraped!  Inexperienced young people who return with such degrees and are appointed for one reason or another as CEOs of those very enterprises have the same ignorant attitude!  It was not once or twice that I saw them proclaim on TV that the most important goal of the enterprises they head is increasing shareholder value, which boils down to maximizing profit.  (I believe that such people should be removed from those jobs regardless of what advanced degrees they may have or what political connections; they can cool their heels somewhere else until they gain enough experience or, more importantly, clarity of understanding of the purpose of those enterprises.)  This is not to say bureaucracy and inefficiency, not to mention corruption, are to be tolerated, though we know that these characteristics are often associated with them.  In my opinion, such deficiencies do not arise from the inappropriateness of their basic mandates but from mismanagement; the lack of clarity of goals being a crucial reason for such mismanagement.  This in its turn arises from the fact that such guidance should have come from the government agency mandated for that purpose, but which agency itself is so confused about its own role in the national economy that it cannot even guide itself, let alone be able to guide someone else to the right path!  (See my 1998 memo labelled “Plan’g Min Role Redirection.”) 

We can see from the above discussion that there is a crucial difference between public enterprises and their commercial cousins – the primary goal of public enterprises is not just profit maximization above all else, whereas it is the basic purpose of commercial enterprises.  As would be clear, there is nothing wrong with profit maximization; it would also be clear that it is a well-functioning private sector that is responsible for what we call “development.” It is, however, important to remember that there is a certain path that should be taken before an undeveloped nation can transform itself into a developed one.  Those who have studied only theories in institutions of higher education and lack the relevant knowledge and experience ought to know that this has been the most crucial factor for those nations that we now call “developed.”  For example, World War II had decimated virtually all European industries and it was the establishment of government funded, and run, public enterprises that helped those nations to get on their feet.  In the USA, it was the construction of interstate highways that enabled it to grow and be the world leader, and they were federally funded and maintained, even now! The four East Asian “Tigers” – South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore – did not grow and catapult to world fame by relying solely on the private sector; their private industries were heavily subsidized and/or otherwise supported by their governments.  Even corporations like Airbus and Boeing (regardless of what the latter claims about its free market practices) are subsidized by huge research grants and defence contracts. And yet while those who come with degrees fresh from universities talk loud about corporations, they do not seem to have a clue about how the real world works but keep making ignorant statements and misleading others! 

In sum, public enterprises in developing nations cannot be judged by the same standards used to judge private corporations in advanced nations; methodology of the latter cannot be applied arbitrarily to the former.  Similarly, the basic goal of public projects in developing nations is to get the nation to grow, not merely to make profit; they should be viewed accordingly and not through another viewfinder.  

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***  For the acronym designations, please Google, "STO Maldives," "MTCC Maldives," "BML Maldives," etc. 

8 – Nasandhura Landslide

Landslide of Nasandhura High-Rise into Deep Sea

Below is the body of a self-explanatory letter (slightly improved) I sent to President Yameen

I am obliged once again to bring to your notice yet another possible blunder by your Government, namely, the possible landslide of the planned 25-story structure on Nasandhura site, along with a large chunk of the Airport Ferry Harbour (with its sea-floor), into deep sea beyond the reef’s edge. 

The reasoning underlying this concern is as follows:  

1)  Coral reefs are made of calcium carbonate and, while good in bearing compression loads, are very weak when subject to tension – typical of most brittle materials. 

2)  The hammer-piling being carried out on the site will subject the area to such tension and will lead to forming hair cracks of various types in the rock base, a worst case being the cracks joining together to form concentric faults (crack surfaces) parallel to the reef’s outer vertical face. 

3)  Given this, a heavy building load coupled with vibrations due to motor vehicle movements will tend to make the faults / surfaces more distinct and may help the land mass underneath the structure – from the land-side edge of the foundation and at an angle of about 45º perpendicular to the site, and along the length of the structure – to slide into the deep sea beyond the reef’s edge.  If this happens, the landslide will not only take with it that portion of the Airport Ferry Harbour in front of the site along with its sea-floor, with the potentially huge loss of life and property, but will also get deep sea to move inland to the north side of Ameer Ahmed Magu along the length of the site.  The attached sketch would clarify the concept and help the layperson to understand the risks involved.  

I am not saying that this scenario will definitely occur; only that it is a likely possibility – actual outcomes will depend on the strengths and interplay of the responsible forces.  I am also not an engineer, but I do have a good foundation in engineering basics, including soil mechanics. 

Given the stakes, I urge you to get an evaluation of these concerns by an experienced geotechnical engineer instead of leaving the fate of an important part of Malé to the whims of a site supervisor. 

The above is, of course, besides the craziness of building ever higher structures in a tiny island of only 2 km² that is already filled to the brim with structures (refer to Google Earth, locate Malé – 4º 10' N, 73º 35' E – and magnify view) and congested with poison-spewing motor vehicles, and the havoc your bridge will bring about in not-too-distant a future.  

7 - The Bridge – Formal Notification

The Bridge – Formal Notification to Authorities

The two articles on this blog related to the bridge currently under construction, namely, posts titled “1 – Hulhumalé and the Bridge” and “3 – Yameen and the Bridge,” along with the post titled “2 – Positive Socio-Political Atmosphere,” had been sent to Mr Yameen in January 2014, to the President’s Office.  The envelop was addressed to his name (and not to the President of the Maldives) which, according to custom, would render that he personally opens the envelop. 

And below is the response (Answer to Private Individuals’ Letters) I received a few days later: 

As I mentioned at the end of the second boxed piece in the post titled “4 – Rifat’s Personal Mission,” the destructive process (generated by inappropriate Government policies) will be irreversibly accelerated by the farce of a bridge currently under construction, and its vastly negative impacts will keep mounting exponentially over the years and decades to come, and in all likelihood, will push the nation to the brink of collapse – given that any factor that negatively affects Malé will have a matching negative impact on the nation as a whole.  And given this, the inevitable futility of any efforts to remedy the situation will effectively preclude any of my future involvements with any Maldives governments. 

If it is a consolation, the Maldives will not be the first nation that jeopardized its future by the stupidity of its ruling class and others who have a say about where it is headed – by their ignorance and refusal to listen to reason when pointed out by those who have better pertinent knowledge, and by their choice of self-interest over the longer-term wellbeing of the nation; human history is replete with such examples.  

“Survival of the fittest” is not just a convenient cliché to spice-up conversations; it is an expression of the harsh reality of our existence on this planet.  Thus societies that do no have the brains and willpower to understand the reality of their world and act decisively to the demands of that reality will perish.   

6 - Plan'g Min Role Redirection

Adopting Modern Concepts of Planning and

Redirecting the Role of the Planning Ministry

This was a working memo I sent to Mr Gayyoom in 1998 preliminary to an unrealized discussion.  New material were added to it in 2013 to further explain the “Generic Model” and how it relates to “strategic planning,” which is indispensable to nations and businesses alike; this was besides a piece that underpins the necessity for systematic change that is vital for the survival of any entity faced with a fast-changing and complex world.  All what Mr Gayyoom did in response to the memo was to rename the then “Ministry of Planning, Human Resources, and Environment” “Ministry of Planning and National Development” and remove HR and Env functions from it – as if changing the name of the ministry would get things done; it never occurred to him that it is people with the motivation and relevant knowledge and experience who can get things done and not a mere name change – even if it is a more appropriate one. 

Most important in the process: understanding the proper role the Planning Ministry [PM] should be playing in the national economy, and understanding that it is a central ministry, and as such, that it should not be behaving like a line ministry, as it currently does. 

To understand what this means, we have to understand the nature of planning in our modern, fast-changing world. 

To achieve this understanding, we can look at planning thru a matrix that relates its two defining elements.  Define planning; explain matrix quadrants.

To date, there is a total neglect of tasks in quadrants II, III, and IV.  Let’s take a look at current tasks of PM: 

     Work of Statistics Section >> Bureau of Census/Stats

     Work of Planning Section >> Programming & Budgeting

It can be seen that the main functions of PM for the past 20 years fall within the first quadrant of the matrix.

But getting the functions of the other three quadrants moving is a necessary condition if we are to face and solve our increasing range of problems.  To do so, PM has to learn to play a facilitative role instead of a competitive one.

But instead of being facilitative and get the functions of other line ministries moving in the right direction, as it should be the proper role of PM, to date, it has chosen to compete with line agencies.  Examples: Physical Planning ... Environment... Reef Management... Human Resources...

This behaviour doesn't indicate a grasp / understanding of nature of planning, especially in our fast changing world. 

Because of this lack, to date, PM has not been able to play the vital facilitative / guiding role that it should be playing in the national economy. 

In the meantime, our problems keep increasing, unabated. 

Therefore, to begin moving in the right direction with planning in the Maldives, the starting point is a clear understanding of modern concepts of planning, which would lead to a new awareness, which would in turn help change the way we look at planning and the role of the Planning Ministry in the national economy.

The technical underpinnings of the relationships between Planning Ministry and line ministries on the one hand, and between aspects of planning on the other, thus the basis of the organizational concepts suggested, follow. 

Organizational Concepts

The starting point even here is the nature of planning.  Most important here is the inherent interconnectedness among various activities that are the realm of planning, and the ebb and flow among them over time.

Two relationships can be identified [diagram below left]:

That between PM and line ministries [radial arrows]

That between line ministries [concentric arrows]

The relationship between PM and line ministries describes two polar levels of planing: a strategic level [mainly at PM, aimed at identifying / sketching out appropriate policy to achieve our national goals in view of constraints and opportunities] and an operational level [mainly at line ministries, aimed at implementing those policies].  And neither end of the planning spectrum can be carried out by either party alone; cooperation between them is essential.  The implication is that the work of line ministries would have to fit under a framework determined by national goals rather than each performing independently and the outcomes compiled to form what is now called a “national plan.”

For effective/efficient organization we can also identify three core aspects: economic, social, and urban & regional [see: “OPPD Policy Memo: Objectives / Functions / Organization”].

These aspects in turn lead to several functional / sectoral / planning areas, each of which analyzable in terms of its goals and techniques used to achieve them [Generic Model].

Summarized diagrammatically, these relationships are:

Although the three aspects and their interrelationships are inherently interwoven, for implementing them, they've to be delegated to a number of line / operational agencies.  The lack of continuity arising from this necessary disruption should be compensated for by the needed coordination and integration. [Cf: “Integrative Planning,” p3/pa2]  Generating that coordination / integration should be a central task of PM, which currently isn’t even aware of that vital task. 

Where I Fit In

The essence of planning and its core aspects and levels are captured in above diagrams.  Taken together, they form the ideal guiding framework for the practice of planning.  But PM now lacks capability to execute such a framework.  Thus building the planning capability of PM and guiding the process in the right direction [within limits of what PM should and should not be doing] has to be the starting point to put planning in the Maldives on the right track.  It is to help achieve those ends that I've been preparing over so many years.  

The focus of my efforts would be mainly in the neglected three quadrants of the diagram above, known as innovative functions of planning; first quadrant involves allocative functions.  As the description of the functions of the work in these four quadrants shows my work will be characterized by a high level of fluidity.

Significantly, there's no strict separation between allocative and innovative functions; each flows into the other dynamically and continuously.  Moreover, it is the way the innovative side is handled that will transform the quality of the allocative side into effective outputs. 

My job has to be functionally with PM, but symbolically separate from it.  For while help build planning process [its strategic side would be mainly in PM and operational side mainly in line ministries], I have to repair the damage done and overcome the negative feelings created by the competitive attitudes of PM to date.  And most innovative functions, which is the area of my main focus, are also generally beyond current perceptions of "planning" for most people in the Government circles; their having come to understand planning as tackling the allocative functions [which lend themselves to programming and budgeting].  The redirection of the process therefore calls for a change of perceptions, attitudes, and behaviour.  Thus the issue has as much psychological connotations as it does have technical ones.  Moreover, while the fruits of innovative functions are generally realizable in medium- and long- term horizons, they should be begun at present.  This is similar to someone having to undertake lower education at present if higher education is hoped for in the future. 

It can be seen that while the task is essentially one of planning, it goes way beyond the perceptions of planning, both at present and also likely near future.  For this and above reasons, I suggest my job be located at the Office of the President while my work has to be stationed at the Planning Ministry.  Needless to say that all I do would be in full consultation with the Planning Minister. 

Explaining the Generic Model of Planning (added in 2013) 

Planning can be defined simply as the sum total of techniques used to achieve desired goals (within a given timeframe).  The Generic Model is the matrix that results when looked at these two defining elements of planning as to whether they are known or unknown.  The four quadrants of the resulting matrix describe the following four states (which can be called “planning environments” or circumstances under which the planning would take place): Q-I: in it both goals and techniques are know; Q-II: goals are unknown but techniques known; Q-III: goals are known but techniques unknown; and Q-IV: both goals and techniques unknown.  The planning function in the last three quadrants focuses on clarifying the unknown goals and/or techniques.  When goals are clarified and techniques developed, the task in question would take on characteristics of Q-I and is dealt with accordingly. 

In quadrant one (Q-I) both goals and techniques are know and the planning behaviour in it would be routine or “business as usual,” mostly involving the allocation of resources to designated purposes – including "system-maintenance" functions and extrapolating existing practices into the near future with no significant changes.  This represents the allocation function of planning.  But in the other three quadrants (Q-II, Q-III, & Q-IV) the planning behaviour has characteristics that are very different from those in Q-I, since either goals or techniques, or both, have to be newly discovered.  The work in these three quadrants would thus be characterized by innovation, and represents the innovation functions of planning. 

The Generic Model provides a framework for systematically facing the challenges of our fast-changing world, as opposed to our currently haphazard Yehya-like behaviour. 

Planning Behaviour in Quadrants II, III, & IV:    The nature of the prime planning task in these three quadrants would render the process highly dynamic and "mobilizing" characteristics, since this would involve bringing people and/or expertise together to facilitate the definition of goals and developing techniques.  It is not an easy task; it is by and large an uncertain process.  And it demands a large amount of reading and research to discover theoretical underpinnings of range of problems at hand; it calls for knowledge of similar cases in other countries and requires reading about them or going to where they originated; it necessitates discussions with professionals knowledgeable of similar cases; it needs interactions with the public to discover the social and/or political interests involved, thus help make the outcomes sustainable; and it mandates laborious search for funds to finance the endeavours.  In short, planning in uncertain environments involves much effort and time for thinking and discussions, and is pervaded by trial and error.  Therefore how haphazard or efficient the planning efforts in uncertain environments would be will depend upon a number of factors, political and/or public support being key factors in determining their success or failure. (edited)

Quoted from “On the Nature of Planning in a Changing World,” p 3 (1993)

The functions of these three quadrants constitute strategic planning – aligning the nation to the demands of a changing world; action to bring about the functioning of the nation closer to the realities of its new setting.  If it is not thus aligned, it will experience a host of problems which might endanger its very survival.  (Corporations go bankrupt for this very reason: their failure to align themselves to new realities of their business environments.)   Such alignment mandates the replacement of outdated thinking, practices, and behaviours (which would have been effective in bygone times) with those suited to the new circumstances.  And such alignment cannot be generated by individual agencies acting on their own and out of synch with each other, but only by a central agency which has the capacity to identify and set the right direction, bring disjointed elements on board, create functional harmony among them, and attain unity of purpose – in short, a well-functioning integrated system of effective planning. 

5 - A Summary ...

A Summary …

Based on Excerpt from My Recently Updated Résumé

This summary provides a glimpse into a sizable global problem that in all likelihood forms the single biggest impediment to our development process.  The solution mentioned is long-term and applicable to all nations, while what is suggested in the writings mentioned in the footnote is of immediate nature and specific to the Maldives.  (Please focus on the latter; this summary is only an overview.)  You'll find some more of my recent development-related writings on this blog. 

October 1997 – To-date

The direction of my thinking had changed following an insight of earthshaking proportions that I gained in 1997 and expanded and perfected since, and, coupled with my ongoing experience in our development setting, I had come to the conclusion that development efforts would be to a large extent in vain without overcoming, or at least minimizing, the massive ill effects of the problem underlying that insight.^***   As a result, my subsequent work had been directed towards that end.  The essence of that problem is that while our ability to understand the world and interact with others is dependant on the information bases in our brains, they are largely unique to each individual and, as a result, that there is no adequate common ground for people to smoothly interact among themselves for optimal, even satisfactory, societal functioning.  To make matters worse, people do not have a clue that such a problem even exists.  The ramifications of the problem would therefore have devastating impacts globally and make it arguably the worst enemy of human wellbeing.  The nature of this problem and a realistic albeit partial solution to it are explored in the writings on my blog aimed at international readers: www.rifatafeef.blogspot.com.  As explained there, this solution lies in a rather small but crucial improvement to the world education system, which necessitates both the awareness and the support of world academics / educators which are currently lacking.  (People cannot support a concept that they don't know exists.)  To help rectify this situation, the writings have been sent to some 35,000 of them in 103 universities in 22 nations in the core areas of education, philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science, and communication. 

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^***  For some details of the process of this transformation, please refer to the boxed account on post below labelled “4 - Rifat's Personal Mission” under the sub-title “The Evolution of My Thinking.”  For an elaboration on the central problem and what can be done about it right now in the context of the Maldives, see Part Three of the post below labelled  “2 - Positive Socio-Political Atmosphere.”  The account given in it is further elaborated in my (Dhivehi) pieces labelled “Majlis Letter One” and “Last Explanation,” which have not been uploaded to this blog yet, but given that the PDF prints of all my development-related writings have been emailed to several hundred people on my (local) mailing list, they would be already available to quite a number of Maldivians.  

4 - Rifat's Personal Mission

Rifat’s Personal Mission

The writings on this post fall into three groups: i) the evolution of what I’ve called my “personal mission”; ii) the evolution of my thinking over time; and iii) scanned material from my efforts to undertake graduate studies.  They will provide a glimpse into my efforts to put things in the Maldives on the right track.  They do not, however, include my earlier efforts in the filed of physical planning and design (Dec 1978 thru July 1989).  For a short  account of work during that period, see the doc labelled “OPPD History and Challenges”; it has not been posted on this blog yet, but was emailed to everyone on my local mailing list at the time of its writing (Aug 2008).   

The Evolution of My Personal Mission

My “personal mission” has evolved over time in response to successive challenges I found myself facing, and has gone through several stages.  It began while I was still a student of architecture in Egypt in the mid-1970s, with the awareness of my huge responsibility as an architect in a nation, however small, then without any architects or civil engineers, and reached a crucial milestone a decade ago^(***) with the awareness of the gravity of the conclusion that could be drawn from the overview of what I call the “development problem,” sketched out in “Integrative Planning” to begin with (October 1997) and later expanded in “Majlis Letter One” (April 2005) and an extended summary of it, labelled “Last Explanation.”  (Subsequently, the third part of the post titled "2 – Positive Socio-Political Climate" below (2013) and the boxed piece just below, titled "The Evolution of My Thinking," also expound on the same illusive concept.)  In a nutshell, this conclusion is that given that the world education system produces people with rather narrow specialized knowledge bases; given that national development is an all-encompassing endeavour that requires a command of a broad knowledge base; and given the discrepancy arising thereof, that there is hardly a person capable of coming up with viable, comprehensive policy in a broad, multifaceted endeavour as national development.  (This lack is one root cause of many of our current problems; another being the lack of an enlightened and effective political leadership.)  Once again I rose to the challenge (as I did way back in 1978 to the lack of a physical planning and design function in the Maldives Government, and in the Maldives in general; see “OPPD History and Challenges”) of addressing the mentioned discrepancy (also educating the political / technical cadre) by preparing myself for facilitating the formulation of viable national policy that can meet our future demands as well as solve our current problems and avert sizable hazards looming ahead – outcomes of misguided Government policies, many of which went against even basic common sense let alone any sophisticated theoretical analysis.  

The effort began by striving for (see the scanned docs below) and obtaining a masters degree with a focus on the development of small island states (many policies viable for larger nations are not suitable for smaller ones – this is another source of our inappropriate policies, since our school leavers by and large have to go abroad for college education in which the theories of numerous fields carry the implicit assumption that the economies they function in are large, and thus return home without understanding the difference) and a thesis titled Strategies for Sustained Socioeconomic Development in Small Island States.  Since then, I have come a long way on the road of preparing myself to face current challenges (but, see the last sentence of this boxed piece for the final status in this regard).  It includes efforts for expanding the scope of my knowledge base through first gaining formal backgrounds in basic economics and finance and management in the US (after completing graduate studies) followed by further efforts to gain adequate backgrounds in other core areas such as sociology, psychology, social psychology, communication, ecology, and other related fields.  In addition, I also undertook a significant amount of thinking and writing, which led to the transformation of my outlook radically.  The post “5 – A Summary …” above captures the conclusions I arrived at; it also highlights the staggering complexity of the “development problem” mentioned above.  

The role I assigned for myself and its underlying rationale is given in the post labelled “6 – Plan’g Min Role Redirection," above.  While this would sound strange, the existing conditions at the top circles in successive Maldives Govts render such self-assignment necessary; for they have/had a rather retarded understanding of where the world is headed and the need for forward thinking.  A case in point is the response I received from our government when I started studying architecture in the early 1970s after obtaining the needed qualifications through self-studies and financial support from a well-wisher, and requested financial support to supplement the meagre allowance of the scholarship provided by Egyptian Government (to the Maldives) (they call it "assistance," not a scholarship): "You were sent to study religion; we don't need architects in the Maldives; come back!" – my emphasis.  (For many, this would be unbelievable now, after a mere four decades, and I may likely be accused of right-out lying.)  Naturally, I did not return home as ordered but completed my studies, albeit under extremely difficult conditions, and went on to establish the physical planning and design function in the Maldives Government.  This was, I have to add, with a positive attitude of mind from the then newly elected President Gayyoom – which attitude did not last very long, as pressures of office which he did not know how to cope with mounted, and gradually turned into a hindering and thus destructive force.  A second case in point and reflective of my current effort is that Mr Gayyoom did not ask me to establish a physical planning and design function in the Government; it was I who suggested the idea to him and with his support (and the then favourable attitude) went about the task on my own initiative; not only that, many were sceptical of the need for the effort.  

In similar fashion, hardly anyone seems to (or even wants to) understand the nature of the "development problem" outlined above and the kind of action that it demands – if we are to successfully face the challenges of our fast-changing and complex world.  (This is, again, a situation in which existing states of mind are hard-put to comprehend what is being proposed, which state of mind may change again in another couple of decades – this is the nature of progress, to understand which one has to only contemplate the most famous of such cases: the Galileo fiasco.)  My current effort is aimed at overcoming the limitations imposed by the "development problem" and paving the way for an optimal development effort.  It can also be seen to operate on a very much larger scale than the earlier one, though both would be similar in many ways.  Crucially, the new effort also would operate in a similar sociopolitical environment in which ignorance prevails and politicians are dug-in in their self-centred and short-sighted ways.  Luckily, the current effort would also include effective measures for changing a large part of those long-ingrained destructive attitudes.  And yet, in spite of a few sporadic successes, the new effort has a long way to go to realize its potential, which is currently being laid to waste – in spite of the fact that the long-term survival of this nation will almost certainly depend on it; for the logic underlying this last statement, see third part of "2 – Positive Socio-Political Atmosphere," the top of this piece, and last part of "6 – Plan’g Min Role Redirection," beginning with "Where I Fit In" and including the quote by Michael Crichton.  In general, the top echelons in successive governments of the Maldives do not know what they should be doing, though everyone now talks loud about "development" and go about implementing action about the long-term negative consequences of which they have no idea.  This is not surprising, given the difficulty of accurately assessing the outcome of any development effort (for a glimpse into this, see last paragraph of the post labelled "3 – Yameen and the Bridge," below) which in turn arises from the very nature and complexity of the "development problem" described above. 

Outlines of viable policy can be found in numerous writings of mine – all of which were emailed to several hundred people on my local mailing list at the time of their writing.  Particular mention should be made of the following: “Spatial Policy, Effective” (which laid the foundation for our current tourism development policy); “Education Curriculum, More Effective” (identifies some of the serious flaws of our current education system, which in turn are the root source many of our current ills, thus require urgent attention); “Viyafaari U’sool” (dwells on some of the serious downsides of indiscriminate leasing of our strategic infrastructure to foreign concerns); Habitat-II Report: Strategy for Sustainable and Equitable Development” (The Maldives National Report for Habitat-II Conference, Istanbul, 1996) which outlines an effective development strategy for the nation, little of which had been implemented to-date and the downsides of which failure can be seen in many of our current ills; and “OPPD History and Challenges” (OPPD is the acronym of  Office for Physical Planning and Design).  In addition, the articles on this blog to-date also must be mentioned; apart from this post, they are: “1 – Hulhumalé and the Bridge” (dwells on the meaning and dynamics of the development process and the role of the public and private sectors in it, in addition to the health and environmental hazards of building the said bridge); “3 – Yameen and the Bridge” (elaborates on the bridge aspect of the previous article); “2 – Positive Socio-Political Atmosphere” (underscores need for policies beneficial to the nation as a whole rather than those in the service of idiosyncrasies of the ruling elite); “5 – A Summary …”; and “6 – Plan’g Min Role Redirection (outlines theoretical basis of a guiding framework for effective national development in lieu of the currently prevalent haphazard and ineffective practices).    

Importantly, the path for initiating an effective development process also became clear in 1997 with the crystallization into a sharp focus of a long-standing dense fog of perceptions regarding the nature of the “development problem,” namely, the realization that people with specialized education (not to mention those without any formal background in any relevant field, as is often the current practice) cannot by themselves, and without a clear and overarching guiding framework, generate effective national development policy; for the logic of this statement, see the documents cited at the beginning of the first paragraph above. 

Although the direction we should be taking – especially the first critical/vital steps towards a more effective development process – has been clear for a decade now ^(***) and in spite of the evident and dire need of the nation for adaptive changes to face our complex world, Mr Gayyoom has been adamantly blocking the path to progress and turning a blind eye to our very real problems – as if they are non-existent or as if tackling minor headaches can take precedence over the long-term wellbeing of the nation.  For the past eight years (since 1999) I have been trying, through explanations and clarifications, to get him to understand the logic of the situation outlined above and to get him to act on it – but to no avail.  As a result, I have been forced to take this issue to the Majlis (Parliament) (to members individually) in April 2005; see "Majlis Letter One."  (It should be mentioned that this latter effort also was in vain, akin to “drawing lines on a watery surface,” as goes our old adage.)  It could be stated with fairness that it was the cumulative outcomes of such inappropriate and inflexible behaviour on the part of Mr Gayyoom that was largely responsible for the subsequent massive public unrest, which ultimately led to his downfall – much like the gradual build-up of pressure and final blow-up of a steam engine when all pressure-release valves are blocked.  

It would be appropriate to mention here that in view of the foregoing behaviour on the part of the elected representatives of the nation, namely, the head of state and Majlis members (in fact, successive heads of state and successive rounds of Majlis members) and also a significant number of young people with higher education, plus several elderly statesmen and an article to the general public – to all of whom various facets of the case had been put forth, and after having tried to put things on the right track for the better part of my adult life, in particular over the past 20 years on a purely voluntary basis, there is nothing further I can do if the short-sighted indifference about the future continues to be the behaviour of our rulers – even if the nation goes under, which will most likely be the case the way things are going.  (And once critical mass is achieved in the momentum in that direction, absolutely nothing we do can stop it.)  This process of destruction will be vastly and irreversibly accelerated by the farce of a bridge currently under construction – its hugely negative impacts will keep mounting over the years and decades to come, and in all likelihood will push the nation to the brink of collapse.  And given this, the inevitable futility of any efforts to remedy the situation practically and effectively precludes any of my future involvements with any Maldives governments.   

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^(***) This piece was originally written in September, 2007; updated several times, latest being March 2016.  

The Evolution of My Thinking

[Regarding Societal Interactive Processes]

Ever since I returned home after my first degree and started working in the Maldives government in December 1978 (see OPPD History and Challenges), I have been experiencing a growing unease for the lack of meaningful / constructive dialogue among my colleagues, myself included, that lead to positive outcomes.  For years, I had no clear idea of the underlying reasons for this failure.  Then, in 1997, I did some systematic thinking, which lifted the fog from my mind. 

I began with a physician – how he/she manages to achieve positive results, ie, cures an ill patient.  Obviously, the answer lies in his/her ability to understand the intricacies of the functioning of the human body and how outside agents intervene to disrupt the physiological functions of its systems.  It is therefore the theoretical knowledge and practical experience acquired by the physician via academic education and training that enables him/her to solve the problem of the patient’s illness.  The same basic/simple logic is applicable for professionals in other fields of specialization. 

Given that it is the high-level knowledge we gain that enables us to unravel the complexity of any situation at hand, it follows that a person without the appropriate knowledge will not be able to bring about such positive outcomes.  As a result, persons versed with knowledge in one field also cannot apply it to other fields to bring about positive outcomes.  Stretching this logic further, it should be now clear that there would be significant barriers, at the very least, for people knowledgeable in specialized fields to engage in meaningful / constructive high-level dialogue that are necessary for effective cooperation among themselves to solve complex problems of today’s world, since each person’s knowledge would be limited to his/her specialized area and since their over lapping areas would be hazy for most of them – as they are usually unlikely to have knowledge of those areas. 

This thinking was dwelt-on in my 1997 paper labelled “Integrated Planning” – in it I likened the behaviour of specialized people trying to unravel a complex problem (in that paper, “planning”) to that of seven blind men trying to describe an elephant after each one touches only one part of it.  This is a global problem in today’s world in which education transcends national and geographical boundaries.  Thus a large part of the problem has its roots in world education, which currently lacks the awareness that such a problem even exists, let alone its devastating global impacts – for more on this topic, see my blog aimed at world educators www.rifatafeef.blogspot.com. 

How world education is at least partially linked to this problem is spelt-out in that paper.  Notwithstanding this awareness, and in spite of the awareness of the psychological connotations involved (also explicitly dwelt-on in that paper) in the earlier years following the paper, my efforts were limited to the local context, in trying to convince the local political cadre as well as an increasing number of people with college degrees from abroad of the nature of the problem we have at hand.  An assumption implicit in that effort was that when the nature of the problem was spelt-out explicitly and in irrefutable terms, people would begin to see the light of the day.  Not so, definitely!  Further, in spite of the psychological and socio-psychological nature of the problem, both psychologists and sociologists with whom I talked were not cognizant of the fact that a significant part of the problem falls into their domain, thus that it is their responsibility as well to find a solution to the problem. This failure in turn led me to delve into psychology, and also sociology, with handsome dividends. 

It began to be clear that our problem has much deeper roots than it appears.  More specifically, it became clear that the problem, although much aggravated by specialized education, is fundamentally rooted in the way the human mind works.  (But let's keep in mind that specialization is a necessary condition for human advancement, in spite of the increasing drawbacks as the world is becoming more complex and holistic thinking is increasingly called for – my complementary blog addresses this issue.)  Given that what is in the third paragraph above can be generalized further to state that humans make sense of the world based on the information bases in their brains, the implications at societal/global level become staggering.  Not only are we born into different cultures and sub/microcultures with wide variations among them and thus with different information bases due to them alone, each of us is also different by virtue of our brains being structurally unique in spite of many broad similarities.  These structural differences in turn lead to truly unique experiences; no two person’s subjective experiences of a given event are thus likely to be the same.  And such subjective experiences in their turn become an integral part of one's information base, and so on ...  The sum total of the variations among information bases arising from these process lead to unique human beings and thus unbridgeable mental gaps among people.  I can think of no way to counter the downsides arising from these mental gaps than to equip people with the tools needed to narrow those gaps in their encounters with fellow humans.  This aim can be achieved to a significant degree by instilling in young children an attitude to communicate with their fellows and adults with empathy and by teaching the youth the basics of both communication and associated psychology – both process are complementary; thus they are highly unlikely to work in isolation, that is, when one or the other is implemented alone. 

[But I’m not suggesting that the Maldives pursue this line of action at this juncture – for the simple reason that currently we don't have the capability.  Instead, we should wait for the more advanced nations to come up with the formula, and we could then adapt it to suit our needs – in the same way we adapted (rather adopted wholesale which, given their inconsistency with numerous realities of the local setting, forms the root cause of a significant number of sizable social problems, thus are in urgent need to be rectified – see my paper labelled "Education Curriculum, More Effective") virtually the whole of our education system from the world education system.  (This is an area I am actively involved in currently; for details, see my blog that targets world educators  www.rifatafeef.blogspot.com.)] 

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This piece was originally written in April, 2012, and modified a bit subsequently.

Scanned excerpts from my letters to the US Government and the East West Center in Honolulu in trying to obtain a scholarship to undertake graduate studies at the University of Hawaii: 

Scanned excerpts from my application forms to the University of Hawaii and the East West Center:

Better legibility of the scanned material can be achieved by enlarging the webpage by pressing the “+” key on the keyboard while holding down the “Ctrl” (control) key; this can be repeated several times to achieve the desired magnification.  The original size of the webpage can be reverted to by pressing the “-” key with the “Ctrl” key as many times as was done for enlargement.

It would be clear from these documents that I embarked on graduate studies (and continued with subsequent studies mentioned above) in order to be able to face the dire conditions in the Maldives and not merely to obtain a master's degree – for which I was in no need to practice my initial profession of architecture.  Too bad all that efforts and knowledge and skills and experience – which I doubt anyone else in the world would have, especially as relates to the Maldives – are to be laid to waste.  

3 - Yameen and the Bridge

Yameen and the Bridge: Disaster in the Making

It is very sad that none of the members of the media or the several hundred educated people of this nation to all of whom my article about this topic has been sent are not uttering even a whimper of protest against the national disaster currently in the making – building a bridge between Malé and Hulhumalé, which by any standards will be an unprecedented and irreparable disaster.  

The article pointed out the following extremely alarming facts in four overlapping areas:

1)  the built-environment of Malé (total area less than 3/4 of a square mile, some 80% of which is built-up and the remaining 20% being taken by roads and a handful of open spaces) is currently congested to the brim by structures and motor vehicles (nearly 42,300 in 2012, of which 85% were motor cycles; current population figure stands at more than 185,000); one can hardly find parking space on the mostly narrow roads and moving about on them is becoming increasingly dangerous;
2)  increasingly tall structures (up to 10 stories) are being built adjacent to each other without any space in-between and, as a result, severely limiting air circulation across the whole island;

3)  motor vehicle exhaust fumes are toxic and dangerous to health, and contain the poisonous gases of carbon monoxide and dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, not to mention heavy metals such as lead, which have long-term retarding effects on children’s brain development, in addition to the potentially cancerous particulate matter; air pollution has already made the air we breathe, the most essential/basic element for sustaining life itself, highly unsuitable; this is not to mention the noise pollution and ground water contamination from an increasing number of vehicle repair shops sprinkled indiscriminately all around the island; and, importantly, 

4)  much of this had happened in the relatively brief period of only 10-15 years. 

It does not require one to be expert in anything to realize that this dangerous trend will continue at a very much accelerated pace if a bridge was built.  Cars, and even motor cycles, are symbols of prestige for most people, not just a means of transportation.  (This is the case in the developed nations as well.)  Given people’s self-image and a mindset of comparing themselves with others, this situation will worsen at an increasing pace over time as they see more people having better symbols of prestige, thus a bridge across the channel will be like adding petrol to a smoldering fire.  Individuals can be excused for thinking about themselves and cannot be blamed for wanting comforts they perceive to be desirable.  Who would not want to own a car and take the family for a drive over the bridge and across the channel?  It ought to be the role of the government to foresee these trends and guide people in the right direction.  Instead, it is forging ahead most irresponsibly with what will be the biggest disaster the nation has ever seen – apart from losing our independence. 

In this regard, I applaud Dr Waheed (who had made the bridge a campaign slogan in his election bid due to its appeal to an unaware public) for his courage to drop the issue after learning from my article its disastrous consequences and choosing the nation’s best interest over personal gain.  And Mr Nasheed also, after having made an issue of the bridge early in his campaign, had dropped the issue later on, probably having wised-up about the damage such a bridge will cause. 

But this does not seem to be the case with the Mr Yameen, who seems to be unconcerned about the damage building the bridge will inflict on the nation.  This is in spite of having sent my article to him, and his deputy Dr Jameel (who wrote to me earlier of his appreciation for my writings) together with many others in his camp.  Winning municipal/parliamentary elections, now that he is elected President, at any cost to the nation seems to be Mr Yameen’s only goal.  

I am not in the least surprised at this irresponsible behaviour of Mr Yameen – he campaigned on a platform to carry on Mr Gayyoom’s policies (policy? – sic!) which were in large part damaging to this nation over the thirty years of his reign; many of them were no more than about bolstering his hollow “’izzaiytherikan,” despite repeated reminders of their damaging impacts on the nation! 

All this is besides the stupidity of it all!  To allow tall ships to pass under across the existing short spans would make the “bridge” look more like an arch, and would dwarf the entire existing cityscape and make it totally out of scale to the existing surroundings, which would make it the biggest eyesore in the entire nation!  If a scheme of an openable span is employed with an eye to reducing this downside, the risks associated with it is huge: any mishap to the mechanism may take days or weeks to repair, in part due to our poor technological and organizational capabilities, and disrupt our very livelihoods and bring the nation to a standstill or suffocate us to death; for we import virtually everything from abroad, from all types of food and medications to supplies to the tourism industry on the incomes from which the nation depends on its survival, and that is the only reasonable route for supplies to reach us.  If that route is blocked, only Allah would know the extent of the very dire consequences we'll face!   

And we are in urgent need to invest heavily in the rest of the nation to generate equitable growth – where would the money come from?  If foreigners are to be involved, does that mean we allow ourselves to be practically enslaved, given the huge weight of the bridge in relative terms?  This, again, is an aspect that only a few people have any inclination or mind to think about, let alone being simply aware of.  

Cost-benefit analysis of any project can take account of only calculable costs and benefits; it can say absolutely nothing about the multitude of non-monetizeable downsides arising from the project – which are devastatingly huge in our case, given our tiny and fragile islands.  (To get a better idea, go to Google Earth, locate Malé – 4°10' N, 73°35' E – and magnify the view.)  This can be clearly seen from the account given above: none of the downsides mentioned – which are the more significant costs of the bridge to us, namely, the cost to human health and impacts on our fragile physical environment – have been taken into account at all!   And mentioned above are only what I could foresee with certainty!  There is much else I could only feel intuitively but cannot grasp, thus are not mentioned.  (It was similar / equivalent downsides of leasing our Int'l Airport to Indians that my article "Viyafaari U'sool" was about, but downsides that are sociopolitical in nature rather than health-environmental; moreover, while the impacts of the bridge are easy to visualize given their immediate nature and our being currently immersed in their general environment, those of the former are stretched over time and therefore almost impossible to imagine, not to mention the illusiveness of sociopolitical issues.)  Businesses that undertake such projects are mostly interested in their bottomlines, not much else; these "else" are lumped together under the benign-sounding rubric of "externalities," which is a convenient and "politically correct" but misleading term.  This is not to say that they are out there to deceive people; given the intangibility of externalities, most people, including those businesses that come forward to undertake the tasks, often have little or no idea of these illusive aspects and thus it is easy for them to downplay their ill effects or disregard them altogether and still have a clear conscience.  (This, let it be noted, is usually the case, although I doubt very much that the negative impacts of our building a bridge would escape their notice – for it would be clear to even a blind person, literally – which means that those at the Government high office would also have sensed it, but such is the power of self-deceiving psychology that in view of the ass-kissing behaviour ingrained in them, the fact would not most likely have even surfaced to their conscious minds: their blindness is a direct outcome of perpetuating ass-kissing behaviour ; if not blindness, then a self-imposed desire to abide by that behaviour to both avoid repercussions for a dissenting view and curry favour***; see my article on importance of a positive sociopolitical atmosphere for effective national development, below.)  It is abundantly clear that we at the receiving end of such projects are burdened with a huge moral responsibility bordering on sacred to be vigilant about all costs, and not be taken in by just the monetary costs of projects handed over by the contractors.

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***  Generally speaking, ass-kissing behaviour is the norm in totalitarian nations, portrayed by a favourite example, “Napoleon is always right”; Napoleon being the pig depicting Stalin in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.  In the Maldives, apart from being influenced by a culturally-politically induced and perpetuated ass-kissing behaviour, the problem is also embedded in the simpleton mindsets arising in large part from the inability of people with specialized education to understand complex situations, which is the current global norm and involve a multitude of diverse & entwined aspects.   As such, this part of the problem is also a global phenomenon, the root causes of and a partial solution to which is outlined in some detail in the articles on my complementary blog: www.rifatafeef.blogspot.com.