Vajidhu, ritual bleeding ceremony

Maldives Culture special report
The Dhivehi Radheef says: 'Vajidhu or vajjidhu is done by people in Maldives to fulfil a vow (nadhuru) or for other reasons. It is also a traditional entertainment. The songs of vajidhu (vajidhu vaa lavabai) are the second part of the baburunetti series of songs, played on drums and tambourines (baburu in Dhivehi means negro, or black African). When the vajidhu tambourine is played, people stab themselves with a sharp instrument until they bleed.'The Radheef implies that vajidhu is the latter part of a bigger ceremony involving percussion music and other songs. There is no mention of the use of trance techniques by people performing the ceremony.These recent photos of a vajidhu ceremony were taken in northern Maldives.

Lynching of Mohamed Amin

The closing scene of a previous and more barbaric transition of power in the Maldives. The president of the first republic Mohamed Amin Dorhimeyna Kilegefan was lynched by the mob pictured above, with the active encouragement of the regime that seized control from him in 1953. This Kilegefan died of the brutal injuries sustained in the attack. Following prolonged assaults on a horrific scale, his bloodied and fully naked body, still alive and reduced to a bag of broken bones, was thrown into one of the boats pictured above. He survived a few weeks and in that time he was tried by a self-appointed kangaroo court and sentenced to be put in irons for life. He was shackled and died in that sorry condition- a testament to how Maldivians treat their deposed leaders.

Bill Gates Not Enthusiastic Over $100 Laptop Project

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates spoke out against the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) project and vision to place a low level Laptop PC in the hands of all poor people in developing countries around the world. The method for garnering such a low price tag comes from a design that excludes a hard drive and utilizes a “small” display screen. Mr. Gates was unimpressed with the initiative, and also insisted that PC users required a Broadband connection to be productive, something poor countries lack. Here in the US it is estimated that only 24 percent of rural America has Broadband, so I imagine that in poor countries around the world Broadband is something they simply can not fathom, let alone actually acquire.
“The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk … and with a tiny little screen,” Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington.“Hardware is a small part of the cost” of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support.
Puzzling even more was the above quote in reference to a small screen, while Microsoft itself is working on a small screen display PC called Origami which was announced just a few weeks ago and covered here.

Awful Plastic Surgery

what did Naomi Cambell do to the bridge of her nose? That doesn't look like mere shading to me.It looks like the bridge of nose been built up with some sort of implant.furthere more, her nostrils look as if they have changed the shape.

The Urban Witch

Saddam Hussein sat through another day of boring proceedings during his trial on Wednesday. He spent most of the time staring into space daydreaming, and planning how he can look even more like Nick Tortelli from Cheers.

Mel Gibson spent this week promoting the announcement of his new film Apocolypto, and planning how he could look even more like Saddam Hussein.

Mini-skirt fashion
A young girl in a mini-skirt says to a friend, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could wear skirts like the English Prep school girls!'
She is only worried about one thing - not being able to have her school uniform above her knees.
'It was incredibly hard for her to bend over because of her mini-skirt.'
She wants uniforms as short as evening dresses, fashioned in a way that everyone will notice.
A girl gets off the Viligili ferry and walks towards the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital. Because of her short dress, most of her thighs are exposed.
'... the material was so transparent that you could make out the curves of her body.'
After a while, when she walked up to a group of young boys she began to pull down parts of her dress, stretching it. She tries very hard to lengthen the dress.
Why the hesitation to be in front of others in a mini-skirt, if you choose to wear it?
If instead she wore a dress more suitable for the Maldivian environment, discreet and considered appropriate by Maldivian society, then she would not have to pull at the hem of her dress to feel covered.
A tall girl is in one of the stalls of the Society for Education. Her dress was about a handspan above her knees.
Due to a collision with a child in the stall a paper file in her hand fell to the floor.
It was incredibly hard for her to bend over because of her mini-skirt.
She slowly pushed it behind a desk with her foot and at last picked up the file.
Many people ridiculed her about it and the next evening she wore a shalwar-kameez.
Dressing appropriately for the place and occasion makes you feel comfortable and avoids embarrassment.
A young girl who was watching a weekend show was complaining there were too many men staring at her.
She didn't think about the reason. She was wearing a dress that was shorter than Maldivians usually wear, and the material was so transparent that you could make out the curves of her body.
It is very important to dress in a discreet way to avoid ridicule and suggestive glances from others.
Maldivian society approves of such discretion.