Maldives - a sinking feeling

Recently the president of Maldives along with his cabinet members held the world's first underwater cabinet meeting to send a S.O.S message to the world on the imminent danger this beautiful island nation is facing.
A string of coral islands in the Indian Ocean, south-west of India, the Maldives are one of the world's most desirable holiday destinations, renowned for its exotic marine life, relaxing beaches and luxurious resorts.Three of the archipelago's 280 inhabited islands have already been evacuated.
As per oceanologist Maldives as a nation would cease to exist and disappear from the face of the earth by 2100 due to rising sea levels.This is a problem which is just pertinent to Maldives , their are other island nations which are at the same sea level and could be facing the same danger.Its just a question of awareness and that's exactly what Mohamed Nasheed ,president of Maldives wants to do - spread awareness and save his countrymen from total annihilation in the next 90 years or so.
Readers might find this funny but Maldives has in their federal budget line a plan to "buy another nation" it sounds both funny and desperate and that's exactly what the situation is.
The fact that Maldives will meet its watery grave in about a century is not surprising, considering that the highest point on this island nation is just 2.4 meters or 7.8 feet above sea level. More importantly, its average height is just 1.5 meters above sea level, which means that a rise of just 1.5 meters in the ocean level will submerge 80 percent of the island.
I am pretty sure everyone would understand the logic of why sea levels are rising because of more emission of green house gases and the subsequent melting of polar ice caps/glaciers.However there is one more element of the oceans / water bodies expanding because of rising temperature , due to which they would encroach into island nations.
The country had a GDP of US$ 1.4 billion which is roughly 2% of Bill Gates net worth , out of sheer desperation the island nation is building an artificial island - Hulhumale which would host close to 80000 of the Maldives people.It is a stop gap arrangement and a way to buy more time unless the rest of nations do something about it.
The sinking of the island is inevitable as the Green house emissions wont reduce dramatically in the next 50 years , hence something should be done on a global scale to accept the beautiful people of Maldives in some countries.It has to be a collective effort and planned out effort.
Like the former president of Maldives said "What is our fate today , will be yours tomorrow".....

The White Masai

Just finished reading "The White Masai" a true life story of Corinne Hoffman , a Swiss national who fell in love with a Masai from Kenya.Its truly an extraordinary love story which surpassed the racial and cultural barriers.
What is even more amazing , is that Corinne herself was handicapped in communicating in English whilst she travelled first to Kenya with her boyfriend.Its a story of love at first sight and how two individuals in spite of coming from two different backgrounds stayed together and communicated with each other using sign language and broken English.
The novel unfolds into the daily struggle faced by the Masai people and how daily existence is a struggle , makes one feel privileged to have what we have in our respective lives.It also makes the reader think whether people can fall in love at the first sight and how does one find out who / what is the best possible situation for us to be in ....all though I had my one set of questions in terms of how could the protagonist - Corrine fall in love in a second and also than was able to justify her decision to stay and settle in Kenya...leaving behind a very luxurious lifestyle in Biel,Switzerland.
The novel has been made into a movie and was a hit in the foreign language film category.Its a must read for those who believe in hope , the power of love and want to make the world a better place.
Anyways the novel does have a twist at the end ...and makes up for a nice read overall...

Lookout for more reviews coming up...