Photo abuse by media

The first thing that I wondered after I visited the homepage of Minivan News today -- and after I read the attention-grabbing headline of "Mother arrested for sexually abusing her son" -- was if the woman and the child in the accompanying picture were really the people the article is referring. The woman in the picture is not facing the camera and cannot be identified but the child is facing the camera and can be clearly identified. It took me a few seconds to realize that they were not in anyway linked to the article.



Back in the 1990s the local daily Aafathis published a photo of two of my close friends while they were in a dhoni, on a fishing trip or while they were going for a picnic. They were in school back then and the people on the dhoni were mostly their classmates. A teacher was accompanying them. The article was referring to so-called bad boys (viyaa nudhaa kudhin or rogue children) and the photo had a caption to imply that the boys in the photo were indeed spoiled brats.

We now have freedom of expression but we have a long way to go before our newspapers and magazines reach the moral high ground.

Superstition in Burma and Maldives

An ancient pagoda has collapsed in Burma, just three weeks after it was 'rededicated' by the wife of the leading general of the ruling junta. Many people in Burma see this as a bad omen for the regime, as the junta is conducting a trial of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (On a separate note, today is the 64th birthday of Suu Kyi, and well-wishers can send 64 words of birthday greetings through the website http://www.64forsuu.org)

New York Times takes a look at the extent of superstition in Burma and how such incidents are interpreted as bad omens:

The superstitious generals may be consulting astrologers as well as political tacticians for guidance. That would not be unusual for many people in Myanmar, formerly Burma.

Previously, currency denominations and traffic rules have been changed, the nation’s capital has been moved and the timing of events has been selected — even the dates of popular uprisings — with astrological dictates in mind.

Consulting astrologers for major political events and decisions has been quite common in the Maldives too. Maldives Culture website has published several articles on how fanditha, the traditional form of black magic, is used in the Maldives. Black magic had been used in late 19th century during the political fueds of Athireege and Kakaage clans, which led to a major arson in Male'.

How the Maldivian public perceieves certain omens can be seen from this article in Maldives Culture. However, one of my favourites from the Maldives Culture archives are the stories that chronicle the adventures of Dhon Keyothi. In one episode, a woman offers a mango to Keyothi, to win his heart. The mango leads to some serious illness, even though it was just kept in the fridge, and Keyothi consults a black magician.

He says that if I had eaten that mango I would have gone mad, perhaps because the guy who made it may have missed out a word or misspelled it, and friendly romantic magic, intended to attract me to the woman, had turned into an evil sihuru.

'Customers should be careful they get the right fanditha,' he says. 'People think they are paying for a wedding, and they end up with a funeral.'