EXPLORING 'DEVELOPMENT': SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN ADDU, MALDIVES
AMINATH THEEMA MOHAMED
THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ANTHROPOLOGY
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO
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This master's thesis in social anthropology explores local opinions and experiences of a state-led tourism development initiative in Addu Atoll of the
Maldives called the Herathera project. The Herathera project is articulated through a specific government discourse on development. Through in-depth interviewing and participant observation this thesis reveals that although Addu people are highly sceptical and unsure whether the Herathera project would bring development to the region, they accept and support the government discourse that measures benefits to the community through a narrow economic lens that only defines development as increased employment opportunities as a result of tourism development. I argue that the narrow understanding of development used by the government fails to account for the social factors that limit Addu people benefiting from the Herathera project. I further argue that community development could be fostered through an active process of the community re-imagining the possibilities for their development.
IV Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I thank the Hulhudhoo community members and
Herathera workers that participated in my research. This thesis could not exist without their participation and interest. I thank Mr. Hassan Zahir (Zero) and Mr.
Ibrahim Noordeen for accommodating me at Herathera and for making my stay in
Hulhudhoo comfortable and safe. I also thank Kalhumaguge family for their generous hospitality.
I would like to acknowledge the timeless support of my supervisor, Prof.
Teresa Holmes for her thorough readings and insightful recommendations. I would also like to thank Prof. David Murray for his timely comments and feedback. I am grateful for Prof. Daphne Winland and Prof. Paul F. Wilkinson for their participation in my thesis defence.
I would like to say a special thank you to Ms. Stasha Labonte and Ms.
Momina Afridi. I give warm thanks to my family and friends who provided endless support and encouragement.
v Table of Contents
Abstract iv Acknowledgement v
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1 Theoretical Context 2 The Discourse of Development 2 The Anthropology of Development 7 Theories on Subjectivity 10 A Critical Reading of Marx 15 Postdevelopment Theory and Practice 18 Methodology 21 Ethical Concerns 31 Organization of Thesis 33
CHAPTER TWO: Locating Herathera 35 Geography 36 Locating Herathera within Changing National Economic Development Agenda 38 Conclusion 52
CHAPTER THREE: Exploring Individual Opinions and Experiences 54 Introduction 54 Addu's Political Relationship with the State 59 How Individuals Understood, Experienced and Explained the Herathera Project 71 Conclusion 84
CHAPTER FOUR: Subjective Accounts of Addu's Socio-Economic Past 87 Introduction 87 A History of Labour 89 A Subjective History 91 The Use of Subjective Accounts 92 Subjective Histories of Addu 95 Multiple-Narratives on the Socio-Economic History of Addu 97 British Occupation: Forced Displacement and Loss of Livelihoods 109 The Subject Position of 'Tourism Worker' 116 Conclusion 117
vi CHAPTER FIVE: Exploring Alternative Development Trajectories 120 Introduction 120 Acceptable Workers 122 Identifying the Addu People in Need of Employment 124 Acceptance of the 'Tourism Worker' Position 128 Development Only for Those Who Deserve It 133 Negotiating Postdevelopment Pathways 144 The Community Economy of Hulhudhoo 149 Conclusion 156
CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion 159
Appendix A: Map of Maldives 166 Appendix B: Maps of Addu Atoll 168 Bibliography 170
vii CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
This thesis explores subjective understandings, opinions and experiences of a state-led development initiative called the Herathera project. The Herathera project involved the construction of a 600 bed tourist resort in Addu atoll. It is expected that this project will bring socio-economic development to a marginalized region of the
Maldives called Addu by developing tourism in the region, thus providing employment opportunities to Addu people. I conducted my fieldwork during the construction phase of the resort among the targeted beneficiaries of this project in a small island community called Hulhudhoo located near the area allocated for the development of Herathera.
The idea for the Herathera project came out of current state discourse around national economic development in the Maldives. This discourse emphasizes the importance of developing the previously marginalized and rural areas of the country and posits tourism development and increased employment opportunities in tourist resorts as the solution to the social and economic problems faced by the marginalized regions of the country. However, research findings showed that many people from
Hulhudhoo may not be able to gain employment at the Herathera resort. Hulhudhoo has a large population of youth male drug addicts and this makes these people
1 unemployable at the resort, thus insuring they are unable to benefit from the project.
If development is understood through the lens of employment, the Herathera project will fail to develop Hulhudhoo community.
In this research I consider why employment in the tourism industry is presented by the government as the only viable option for Addu people's development and why many Addu people accept the government discourse on development and construct all their hopes and dreams for the future through this discourse. I also explore how alternative possibilities to development could emerge from a community that is accepting and supportive of the dominant development trajectory. I use scholarly works on the theory and practice of development and on the concept of subjectivity to explore these questions. I argue that alternative possibilities for socio-economic development of Addu can only emerge from an active process of re-imagining the concept and practice of development. This chapter will consider the theoretical approach taken and the method utilized in conducting this research.
Theoretical Context
The Discourse of Development
European thought has shaped a globally dominant understanding of development. Chakrabarty defines European thought as the intellectual and theological traditions of Europe that brought about the phenomenon of political modernity, such as the rule by modern institutions of the state, bureaucracy and
2 capitalist enterprise (2000: 4). Political modernity was the distinct, unique and idiosyncratic experience of one region of the world, Europe, but has today become the framework for realizing the future of all societies.
European ideas about modernity are informed by a belief that all societies will experience a natural progression from a traditional or barbaric state of being to a modern and civilized state, similar to the historical development of Europe. This understanding of historicism was used by early modernization theorists such as
Rostow (1960); who postulated that all countries go through five basic stages in a linear fashion; moving from "traditional society" to an "age of high mass consumption," the end point of economic modernization. Similarly, Alexander
Gerschenkron (1962) argued that economic development goes forward in fairly determined stages and that by adopting technology developed in "advanced" countries, "backward" countries could skip several stages to achieve development. In this context, the European experience of progress is seen as the only viable and desirable option available for all societies. A historicist understanding of progress only allows for one route, one linear model that takes 'time' and 'progress' as the two axes. This view holds that although different societies had different forms of social organization and differences in material wealth, over time, all societies will become modern like Europe.
Thus, modernist ideas of development assume that all societies will follow a linear path to development. It is assumed that Europe has already reached the goals of
3 this development but that some societies are slower than others in achieving their own
'development'. In the post-colonial era of the mid to late 1900s, newly formed nation- states (the end products of colonization) found themselves placed on this linear graph depending on their development status. Modernist ideas about development measured each nation-state's position in this graph by placing values on their social, political and economic practices or systems. "Historicism thus posited historical time as a measure of the cultural distance (at least in institutional development) that was assumed to exist between the West and the non-West" (Chakrabarty 2000: 7).
This dominant understanding of development informed development practice after World War Two, when the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) were established to help rebuild the economies and infrastructure of
Europe that were destroyed in the war. Europe's success at recovering their economies after the war created the idea that the newly formed nation states could also benefit from financial assistance as this would encourage these nations to develop faster. The end result of this process of development was to be the creation of economies in newly formed nation states similar to that of Europe at that time, and the idea was that all societies could achieve that status through capitalism and modernization.
Although scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank (1971) and Walter Rodney
(1972) began writing against the modernist approach to development in the early
1970s, this view of development and progress dominated development theory and
4 practice without much criticism well into the 1980s. Nevertheless, by the late 1980s the project of development was challenged by those who felt marginalized and excluded from it and by scholars who provided empirical research that demonstrated the failure of many nation-states to progress along this linear path (Booth 1985, Sachs
1992, Ferguson 1994, Crush 1995 and Escobar 1995). Development was simply not taking place as anticipated. Thus the discourse and practice of development came into crisis because what was considered 'development' and what was expected to be the outcome or end result of development was not apparent in the locations targeted for development. Intellectual debates around a so-called development impasse emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to the emergence of a concept of
"antidevelopment" (Booth 1985, Sachs 1992, Ferguson 1994, Crush 1995 and
Escobar 1995). Such scholarship on development as 'discourse', in the Foucauldian sense, exposed development as a historically specific project originating in Euro-
American industrialized nations after 1945 that not only produced the notion of a
"Third World", but also created an extremely efficient apparatus for producing knowledge about the "Third World" and the exercise of power over this geopolitical region (Escobar 1995: 9).
Nevertheless, the development that the World Bank, IMF and other international development organizations such as the Asian Development Bank and
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) advocate for the Third World continue to conform to this Western idea of development and progress. Escobar
5 (1995) argues that this development continues to be considered the magic formula for progress in the Third World countries that have been created and identified as underdeveloped by development organizations. These organizations use tools to measure the progress of nation states and to place these nations along the linear path towards development. Categories such as the list of Least Developed Countries
(LDCs) that was defined by the United Nations in 1971 arrange countries according to specified criteria such as the country's income1. Aggregate figures such as Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) per capita figures collected annually measure a country's progress. For example, the Maldives was declared the fastest growing economy in
South Asia by Asian Development Bank based on the country's GDP figures (ADB
2002: 1).
This dominant view of development is not only enforced through international lending institutions, but has been taken up by Third World governments in their development planning. Today, Euro-American cultural beliefs about progress and development influence ideas about and project of development that take place in non-
European places, or the so called Third World. Thus, this specific understanding of development and progress does not belong solely to Europe, but is also utilized by subaltern scholars and non-Western governments in their projects of development.
1 United Nations identifies LDCs based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita figures and other development indicators such as; "the economic importance of non-traditional activities."
The Anthropology of Development
Ethnographic works on the impacts of tourism and economic development on local communities have argued that discourses of development hide or silence the real lived experiences of local communities by presenting development in aggregate economic terms (Escobar 1995; Ferguson 1994; Mitchell 2002; Mosse 2004).
Academics have pointed out that development projects promoted by development organizations or governments may not get at the real economic problems faced by those who are identified as the target population. Instead, they argue that development models are used to achieve social control, expand bureaucratic control, reproduce hierarchies of knowledge and erase the local, while naturalizing poverty, objectifying the poor and depoliticizing development (Ferguson 1994; Ludden 1992; Scott 1998;
Skaria 1998; Tsing 1993).
Timothy Mitchell (2002) uses the concept "development objects" to explain how official reports produced by international aid agencies such as the World Bank,
IMF and US AID produced a specific image of the space and population of the nation- state, Egypt, as a self-contained and empirical object, natural and concrete, that stands apart from the discourses that described it. Mitchell compares the images presented in these reports with other official statistics and argues that these reports
7 did not get at the real economic problems experienced by the people. For example,
Mitchell argues that rural Egyptian women were unlikely to attribute their economic problems to population growth, as did the World Bank, but rather would find far more serious the insecurity of their futures, their meager share of local, national, and global resources and the political and economic powerlessness that prevented them from altering their condition (2002: 218). Mitchell's study revealed that the dominant discourses that shape development may obscure the sources of problems faced by poor and marginalized people who are identified as those in need of development and thus may not be able to come up with a solution that works for the people.
With this in mind, my research project posited that possibilities for development could best be understood through exploring local and subjective experiences, opinions and understandings about the process and benefits of development. Thus I decided to conduct my research on the Herathera project, going to Addu while resort construction was underway in order to talk to the local population involved to identify how they were negotiating the project and to learn about their experiences and expectations of this process of development. In the past, government intervention in Addu's political and economic affairs did not have a positive outcome and was not received well by the locals. Therefore I expected that this new initiative would receive much criticism and even possibly rejection by the local population. Through such an exercise I hoped to identify some of the gaps,
8 silences and limitations in the official discourse around development. I also expected to find some alternative solutions to Addu's socio-economic marginalization.
What I found out in the field was that, although individuals were criticizing the project from many different angles and held multiple, varied and highly critical opinions about the project, they did not contest the basic tenets of the discourse informing the project - that tourism development would bring development to Addu and that, through employment, Addu people can benefit from the project. These two ideas were accepted as truths by the participants in my research.
My experiences in the field have led me to ask why the people of Addu do not question dominant discourses of development and what this might mean for Addu's socio-economic future. How have we come to understand tourism as the solution to
Addu's economic problems? What historical factors contributed to the development and maintenance of this discourse that values tourism development over all other forms of economy and livelihood? What historical factors contributed to the idea that
Addu people are best off working in tourist resorts? Why have Addu people accepted their social position as employees in the resort? How is development defined and understood through the state discourse? In what ways does this development trajectory marginalize some Addu people from development? How does this trajectory limit possibilities to development? Why are people not considering other alternatives to development? Why is economy and economic development only understood through the lens of tourism development? If everyone accepts and agrees
9 with the dominant discourse that equates economic development with tourism development and understands individual and community benefits through employment at tourist resorts, how could we envision alternatives to development?
Theories on Subjectivity
Theoretical work done around the concept of subjectivity provides a useful perspective from which to understand why individuals involved with the Herathera project were not questioning or rejecting the dominant discourse. By exploring how anthropologists have approached this idea in the past and how the understanding of subjectivity and dominant discourses have developed and transformed over time, we can better understand the opinions expressed by those individuals who participated in my research. An enhanced understanding of the relationship between subjectivity and dominant discourses have helped me to move beyond the question of why participants accepted the dominant discourse and to explore the question of how we could envision alternatives for development where the local beneficiaries are supportive and accepting of the dominant development model.
Studies on subjectivity have largely been concerned with looking at the ways in which individuals within subordinated groups are able to resist domination (Abu-
Lughod 1986, Boddy 1989, Scott 1985). Until the 1970s, feminist scholars used ideas around 'false-consciousness' to explain why a marginalized or suppressed group seem to accept their position (Mahmood 2005: 6). In recent years, however, scholars
10 have begun to look for instances of resistance in seemingly suppressive practices, arguing that the subordinated resist dominant order by subverting the hegemonic meaning of cultural practices and redeploying them for their "own interests and agendas" (Mahmood 2005: 6). This argument complicates former explanations of why some people seem to accept their subordinate position, suggesting that there are negotiations and contestations happening everywhere and that if we look closely enough we can find such acts of resistance in the most unlikely places. For example,
Janice Boddy approached the practices of a women's zar cult in northern Sudan as an expression of subaltern gendered agency where zar possession served as "a kind of counter hegemonic process" (1989: 7).
Timothy Mitchell (1990) and Saba Mahmood (2005) argue that such studies continue to approach power and domination by positing a subject who seeks liberation from oppressive forces. Timothy Mitchell (1990: 547) notes that studies on power and domination continue to seek an autonomous subject or groups that can be taken as 'historical agents', while Saba Mahmood (2005:7) argues that feminist scholars continue to locate agency in the political and moral autonomy of the subject and in counter-hegemonic processes . According to Mahmood, even in instances where an explicit form of agency is difficult to locate, there is a tendency among scholars to look for expressions and movements of resistance that may suggest a challenge to domination (2005: 8). Thus, she also maintains that the anthropologist's task of identifying an act as one of "resistance" is highly problematics because it can
11 be used to describe a whole range of human actions that may or not be targeted at opposing hegemonic norms (2005: 9).
Initially, my research too followed this trend of attempting to identify instances of resistance and negotiation to the dominant discourse on development. I understood the Herathera project to be situated within a dominant state discourse around economic development and progress and formulated by the state without much consultation with those who are the intended beneficiaries of the project.
Therefore, I assumed that during my fieldwork I would find instances of resistance to the dominant discourse that presented the Herathera project as the solution to Addu's socio-economic development problems. I had thought that this project would be contested and negotiated at many levels by individuals holding multiple and contradictory views about the project. I went into the field hoping to trace these subjective opinions articulated in the location where the project is being implemented.
I wanted to disprove the dominant discourse by showing how the Herathera project would not be able to bring socio-economic development to Addu and to show a better route to realizing the future for the people of Addu. I imagined that alternative possibilities to development would be located where such negotiations take place.
Thus, I went to Hulhudhoo to identify acts of resistance.
My research findings pushed me to dig deeper and further explore the relationship between subjectivity and dominant discourses. I found the answer to my questions about the lack of resistance to development discourse among my research
12 participants in the work of Foucault. Foucault (1978, 1980,1997) argues that the subject is a form that is produced through (and not external to) relations of power.
Thus the subject is formed within the same field in which dominant discourses operate, but the subject is also a free agent who is able to traverse the field in multiple ways, in other words these positions are not imposed but negotiated. At the same time, dominant discourses do inform and influence how individuals understand their position. Power is not an external force that impacts the individual, but the individual interacts with multiple forms of power in different ways, and in this process both the forms of power and individual position within the field may be altered. The individual is not above or external to the discourse but the individual is created through the discourse. Butler (1997) uses Foucault's insight to show how becoming a subject is tied up with being subjected. Power works not merely to dominate or oppress existing subjects, but also to form subjects. The self is formed through accepting and renouncing the external forces that exert power over it. This understanding of the relationship between subjectivity and dominant discourses helps explain why those involved in the Herathera project were accepting of the development trajectory offered by the project, while being highly critical of the project.
Scholars studying development projects and their impacts on local populations have used theoretical work on subjectivity, but many of these scholars have been influenced by the idea of the autonomous subject who is able to resist domination.
Mosse argues that much of the critical literature on the anthropology of development
13 takes the failure of development interventions as self-evident and sees development not as a policy to be implemented, but as domination to be resisted - as such, resistance is celebrated (2004:642-643). Mosse suggests that these instrumental and critical views have blocked the way for a more insightful ethnography of development (2004: 643). He proposes that the new ethnography of development should focus on how policy regulates social life and makes subjects and citizens, not by repression and control, but through a productive power that engenders subjectivities and aspirations (2004: 643). Using this insight in his analysis of the relationship between development policy and practice, Mosse argues that the
"governance brought by development schemes cannot be imposed; it requires collaboration and compromise" (2004: 645) and that "[programme success depends upon the active enrolment of supporters including 'beneficiaries'" (2004: 646). Thus, development is not simply imposed but negotiated.
Such negotiations do not necessarily emerge from the grassroots level in the form of covert or overt forms of resistance, but are often adjustments made at the policy level by governments and development agencies to ensure local support. Tania
Li argues that reputation and legitimacy are a scarce resource for governments and that claims to success are always fragile, and counter-claims about development outcomes are "points of political leverage" (1999:299). Therefore, acceptance of development projects by beneficiaries is essential for policy makers. Dominant discourses of development cannot exist apart from the multiple ideas and opinions
14 around development that operate in the society. Discourses require public support to stay dominant. Sayer argues that development projects need "interpretive communities"; they have to enrol supportive actors with reasons "to participate in the established order as if its representations were reality" (1994: 374). Therefore,
"authoritative interpretations have to be made and sustained socially" (Mosse 2003:
646). Such an approach to the study of development projects suggests that the relationship between subjectivity and dominant discourses and the relationship between the central government and the local beneficiaries are relational, and not oppositional. This provides a framework of analysis that allows me to better understand why my research participants did not reject the dominant development trajectory that posited tourism development as the solution to Addu's socio-economic problems, meanwhile expressing much criticism about the Herathera project.
A Critical Reading of Marx
My research findings also left me with the more practical question of how alternatives to the dominant development discourse could emerge in a community where the local beneficiaries were supportive and accepting of the dominant development model. During my research I learned that the Herathera project posed some limitations to Addu individuals benefiting from it. The main obstacle identified by my participants was access to employment. Employment opportunities were identified by the government as the main deterrent to socio-economic development in
15 Addu and the Herathera project offered employment opportunities as the solution to
Addu's socio-economic problems. But many of my participants worried that Addu people, or more specifically Hulhudhoo men, may not be able to gain stable employment at Herathera because the community was known to have a high population of male youth drug addicts and the resort management would not be willing to keep any employees that tested positive for illegal drags. Thus, a large portion of the community may be marginalized from the benefits of the Herathera resort. This creates a paradox where the targeted beneficiaries may in fact be the population that gets marginalized from the benefits of the project. The potential for further marginalization of Addu people from socio-economic development led me to explore the idea of alternatives to the dominant development discourse and trajectory.
The government initiated tourism project posited employment opportunities as the main and direct benefits that the community members would gain from tourism development in Addu (MTDC, About Us). The public company in charge of the project, the Maldives Development Corporation (MTDC), was mainly focused on providing employment opportunities by creating about 900 jobs at Herathera. Most of my participants understood employment as the main and intended benefit, while other benefits such as the possibility of opening a tourist shop were expressed as far fetched, nevertheless a possibility for a few individuals. Given the potential barriers to employment for some Addu people, I wanted to know why the government
16 focused so heavily on increasing employment opportunities in Addu and why Addu's development is understood through this lens.
A possible answer to this question can be found in a critical reading of Marx by Dipesh Chakrabarty (2000). Chakrabarty argues that it is the development of capitalist relations that has changed our understanding of human labour. Using
Marx's critique of capital, Chakrabarty argues that the values of individuals in capitalist relations are understood in narrow terms, as the benefits to individuals in a capitalist society are only understood in their ability to labour. Chakrabarty uses
Marx's concept of 'abstract labour' to explain how this happens, explaining that Marx made a distinction between 'real labour' and 'abstract labour':
'Real labour' refers to the essential heterogeneity of individual capacities. 'Abstract' or general labour, on the other hand, refers to the idea of uniform, homogenous labor that capitalism imposes on the heterogeneity, the notion of a general labour that underlies 'exchange value'. It is what makes labour measurable and makes possible the generalized exchange of commodities (2000: 91).
The "real" here does not refer to "the naturally different endowments of different, ahistorical, individuals" but "must refer to different kinds of "social," which could include gods and spirits—-and hence to different orders of temporality, as well"
(Chakrabarty 2000: 92). In the capitalist mode of production, then, the "real" workers who have unique and varying beliefs, capacities, interests and talents are reduced into
"abstract" labourers who are only defined by the homogenous activity they do and how much they can produce through this activity over how much time. In this way,
17 the value of the individual is understood through his ability to labour and the benefits to the community are understood through individual participation in wage labour.
If we value individuals in Addu using this idea of abstract labour, many would be considered useless to the community's development, since drug addicts are identified as unemployable by the resort managers. The failure of the project to improve the socio-economic conditions of Addu would be understood as a failure in people's capacity to labour. Since employment at Herathera was not an option for many in Hulhudhoo, the possibilities for development and experienced economic benefits to the community can only be achieved if we are able to move beyond the idea that the community could only develop through increased wage employment in the tourism industry.
Postdevelopment Theory and Practice
Critical engagement with theories of subjectivity provides an explanatory framework that allows me to explore the reasons why the participants in my research accepted the government development trajectory. Nevertheless, given the issues of employment and employability of Addu people at the Herathera resort, it became clear to me that the project may in fact fail; both in terms of the government's objective of increasing employment opportunities for Addu people and also in bringing the kinds of socio-economic development that the participants hoped to achieve. Thus I wanted to know how alternative possibilities to development could
18 emerge from a community that is accepting and supportive of a dominant development trajectory that has the potential to marginalize them further from development. Since dominant ideas about development are not only enforced from above, but also imagined and sought from below, alternative possibilities can only emerge through an active process of re-imagining the possibilities for development.
Subjectivities are informed by the discourses that operate in the community, and so we must keep in mind that new ideas do not emerge from a vacuum.
Postdevelopment theory provides a window for considering an active process of re-imagining development futures. Postdevelopment theory involves both a deconstructive project of unhinging notions of development from the European experience of industrial growth and capitalist expansion (Escobar 2004, Gibson-
Graham 2004) and a practical project of creating the conditions to enlarge the fields of credible experiences and widen the possibilities for social experimentation (Santos
2004: 238-39, Gibson-Graham 2005). The objective is not to give up on development but to imagine and practice development differently (Gibson-Graham: 6). The postdevelopment project for the Hulhudhoo community of Addu could involve a project of expanding the understanding of community development to mean something more that just increased employment opportunities.
Postdevelopment scholars have contributed useful insights as to how we can imagine and practice development differently. One of Appadurai's (1991) contributions to postcolonial scholarship is the idea that there are other histories and
19 modalities of being modern than the one that has characterized "the West." The objective of postdevelopment projects should be to look beyond the modernist conception of development to explore what other possibilities may be available for us. Santos calls for: 1) a "sociology of absences" (2004:240) that confronts the forms of "non-existence" that have been created by Enlightenment thinking, where Third
World economies are understood through a lens that only focuses on what the society lacks; and 2) "a sociology of emergences" which inquires into "the alternatives that are contained in the horizon of concrete possibilities" (2004:241). Santos's ideas have been put into practice by Gibson-Graham (2005) in a small income poor municipality in the Philippines called Jagna. Gibson-Graham approach the practice of postdevelopment with "a language project of representing the economy as diverse" and "an action research project of negotiating postdevelopment pathways" (Gibson-
Graham 2005: 1)., In Jagna the newly decentralized local government worked with the community in "exploring the possibility of alternative development pathways that build on what the municipality has rather than what it lacks (2005: 9). Gibson-
Graham explains that the task is to focus on what has been disqualified, and rendered invisible, unintelligible, or irreversibly discardable and to make the non-credible, the non-existent present as alternatives to hegemonic experience (2005: 5). The scholarly contributions to the emergence of a postdevelopment theory and discourse provide a
2 J.K. Gibson-Graham is a pen name used by two economic geographers to represent their joint authorial personality
Methodology
I conducted my primary ethnographic research on Hulhudoo Island of Addu
Atoll and spent a preliminary period in Male', the capital island, where I collected documented information about the Herathera project and the national economic development plans. The main methods utilized in my research included participant observation, in-depth interviewing and document analysis. I have used government reports and reports produced by major development agencies, such as the Asian
Development Bank, in analyzing the official and dominant discourse on developing the Maldives. I have also relied on documented history in trying to understand the socio-economic and political history of Addu. Unfortunately, there is little documented history on the Maldives and, what there is, is very difficult to access.
Therefore, I have relied primarily on oral accounts of local history collected during my conversations with participants in my research. The historical information
3 A literature review of the existing documents are provided by Leonard Kulikov and made available on the International Institute for Asian Studies website:
Although I am from the Maldives, I developed this research project prior to visiting Hulhudhoo or meeting anyone who lived in Hulhudhoo or had worked at
Herathera. I learned about the project from information posted on the internet, which included the contact information for the manager of the construction project. I contacted the manager and explained my research interest and desire to do fieldwork in Addu. Being from Addu he was very supportive of my research from the start.
Later I learned that he was an old classmate and good friend of one of my uncles. It also turned out that he has worked with my father in the past. These relations, and many others that I cannot fully comprehend, made my entry into Hulhudhoo easy and welcoming. The connection that I made with the manager also influenced who I met and established relations with in the field.
I conducted fieldwork for this research during from June to August in 2007.1 spent the first six weeks in Male', where I was born and raised and where my family still lives. While at home, I read newspaper articles, internet websites and official documents about the Herathera project and about tourism development in the
Maldives in general. I also went to the Tourism Ministry (MTCA) and the Maldives
Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) and asked for more information about the project.
During this period I learned a lot about the Herathera project and also about the larger national agenda on economic development. I also watched television news reports
22 and witnessed and participated in public discussions around the project. These discussions happened in my home, on the street and in cafe's that I frequented. These discussions were often politically charged and were opinions expressed by
"bystanders" in this process of development. The people that I talked to in Male' were not from Addu and had no intention of working at Herathera. They were more interested in the politics around the project than in any possible benefits to the Addu people.
The preliminary period spent in Male' and how I experienced the Herathera project during this period influenced the kinds of questions that I first asked when I had the opportunity to talk to with people in Hulhudhoo. The experiences I had in
Male' also shaped my assumptions about the factors that would be of importance to people involved with the project in Addu. For example, since the issue of government involvement in Herathera and the fact that individuals could own shares in the development were much debated in Male', I thought these issues would be significant to the participants in my research. I later found that there were other more important questions that I should explore; specifically, why tourism development is uncontested and why Addu people do not question their position as workers in the tourism industry.
During my initial period in the field, although I knew a lot about my research topic, I was hesitant and nervous to leave the comfort of Male' where I had family and friends. In Male' I knew where to go to get the information I needed and I had the confidence of knowing how to speak to different people using varying forms of the official dialect. I had never been to Addu, I did not speak the local dialect and I did not know anyone in Hulhudhoo. The cultural capital that gave me confidence in
Male' would be quite useless in Addu. I was not sure how the local people of
Hulhudhoo would receive me and how I was expected to behave in Hulhudhoo. My accent, dialect and mannerism would give away my identity as a person from Male'.
Although I look the same, the way I talk and act would make me an outsider in Addu.
Nevertheless, I felt that it was important to conduct a portion of my fieldwork in
Addu so as to discover how people from Addu who were involved in the Herathera project understood, experienced and articulated the project. I wanted to explore these individuals' hopes and dreams for Addu's socio-economic future and where they located this project in reference to this future.
I learned about the socio-economic history of Addu and Addu people's present concerns for development from the various people I met in the field, who I will refer to as the participants in my research. I did not choose these participants, nor do they represent a random sample that can stand for all Addu people. Many chose to actively participate in my research independently and out of their own interest in the issues that I was exploring. They became participants in my fieldwork through relations that I established and the networks I was able to build while I was in
Hulhudhoo.
24 During the months I lived in Hulhudhoo, I spent the day in Herathera and came back to Hulhudhoo around 6 pm. I usually spent time at the project office or sat at a long tea table that stood on a veranda in front of the office. Workers came in groups to have their tea at this table in the morning and afternoon and this gave me the opportunity to interact with them. As a woman, I was not expected to go to the construction sites unattended. My interactions with workers were possible at this table where management, female administrative employees and male construction workers met and mingled with each other.
I observed Herathera as a delineated area that was spatially organized by gender and job status into different spheres. My interactions with workers were limited and informed by this spatial organization. The construction site had a small two room administrative office where the construction manager, project manager and the administrative staff worked. When I first arrived, I was taken to this office and introduced to the women who worked as administrative assistants. There were about eight women employed at that time. Most of them had completed high school in the last few years and this job was their first form of employment. Herathera had just hired them to be trained to work in Human Resources and Front Office when the resort opened. Other than that, all the workers in Herathera were male. There were about 600 men employed for various areas of construction work in Herathera at this time. These men only came to the project office for medical assistance or to get
25 permission to leave the site. During the day, these workers were distributed along the
4 kilometre area that would become Herathera Island Resort.
During the first few days of my research in Addu, I stayed in the office and talked to the administrative assistants. However, the sheer number of men who were employed in the project, and also the fact that most tourist workers are male in general, meant that ultimately I mostly interviewed men. During the period I spent in
Addu, I developed close and personal friendships with women working at the project and thus I did not feel comfortable asking them for formal interviews and asking them to sign consent forms. However, since I spent a lot of time with these women, their opinions about the Herathera project did influence the questions that I asked and the analyses that I have done in this thesis. I was able to interview some older women from Hulhudhoo who were not employed at the project, but whose opinion has been very useful for my research.
The tea table that stood on the office veranda was used for mid-morning and afternoon tea by the project staff. The workers had a cafeteria in another building, but during tea time some workers had tea at this table. They were usually, but not exclusively, group leaders and those in managerial positions. These workers usually came in groups. When one group left, another group would occupy the table. The office assistants would have their tea together and I usually sat with them. Often the managers would join us or we would share the table with another group of male workers and this allowed me to observe and join in the different kinds of discussions
26 that went on at the table. The tea table is where the workers of different job status and gender interacted. This is where I learned the most about the project and the worker's concerns about it. My interactions with the local construction workers were limited by the spatial segregation that only allowed the workers and I limited room to manoeuvre within the space of Herathera. I gained access to Herathera through the managers and therefore I felt that I should remain in the same sphere that they occupied. In addition, as a woman, I felt that I should respect the boundaries that other women in the area maintained.
These segregated spaces, based on status and gender, made forming relationships independently in the field quite difficult. Only some construction workers felt comfortable sitting at the tea table while the managers were having tea.
Therefore, I was able to interact with a relatively small percentage of people who worked at Herathera. Only a few workers talked to me without being formally introduced by the manager, therefore, my interactions were limited by the manager.
In this way, during the first few weeks of my stay in Hulhudhoo, the manager hand picked my research participants.
On my second day at Herathera, I was sitting in the office reading a book, when the manager walked in and asked if I had met anyone to interview yet. When I answered no, he asked one of the office assistants take me to meet a security guard called Baaree. Baaree was elderly and seemed to have the time to talk to me. This was a general pattern during the first few days of my research, as the manager only introduced me to older members of the Hulhudhoo community who were working as security guards at Herathera. He might have thought that I was more interested in historical information or perhaps the security guards were the only people who had the time to talk.
During my fieldwork, whenever I introduced myself as a researcher, I was asked what kind of historical information I was looking for. Often I was told that I should meet this or that person 'who knows a lot of history'. I later found the historical information and stories that I had collected from the older members of the community to be very useful when trying to make sense of Addu's current situation and the possibilities for Addu's socio-economic future. For example, I found the life stories of Zubair, a local business man, very useful because he linked his subjective life experiences with specific historical and political events. I also found Solihbe to be a very useful source in this regard. Solihbe is in his sixties and has recently moved back to Hulhudhoo with his wife after many years of renting rooms in Male' and working in the tourist resorts nearby. Solihbe's children had finished their education in Male' and Solihbe was happy to have the opportunity to work in Herathera and live in his wife's old family house. His wife's house was beside some famous historical sites in Hulhudhoo and Solihbe told me many stories about Hulhudhoo's past to help me understand his opinions about Hulhudhoo's socio-economic present. I have relied heavily on these two participants when writing about the political and economic history of Addu. The moment of introduction was also the moment where my subject position in the field became defined. For many individuals I spoke with, a researcher is understood to be a person who collects historical data. I was not the first researcher they had encountered. Their previous experiences with researchers determined how they identified my position in the space. I did want to know about the history of
Hulhudhoo, but that was not the only focus of my research. Because my identity and position appeared already defined and fixed from the start, I had difficulty communicating my research topic in a way that made clear what kind of information I was looking for. I felt constrained by my position in the field.
After talking to a few older employees and those in managerial positions, I wanted to learn more about the perspectives of younger workers on tourism development in Addu. However, I was unsure of the appropriate way to go about introducing myself to the other workers. Up until this time, the manager had always mediated my interactions with the participants and I did not feel comfortable breaking away from this established pattern. I felt trapped in the subject position that I had assumed when I arrived and I did not know how to break from the boundaries that seemed to be placed on me.
The opportunity to break from this cycle and the position that I had taken on came through two developments. In my second week in the field, I was introduced by the manager to Solihbe. I had the chance to talk to him a few times every day when he would come to the project office and so I had the opportunity to explain my research interests in detail and was also able to interview him. Realizing that I did not know a lot of people in the community, he invited me to lunch at his house one weekend. At lunch I met his wife and her mother. Solihbe's wife took an interest in my research and introduced me to other women in the community who had strong views about the tourism project and the community's stake in it.
That same week, I was walking home from Herathera when I was stopped by a man on a motorcycle who offered me a ride home. He appeared to be in his late twenties. He looked familiar and I assumed he worked at Herathera. I had often been offered rides home by Herathera workers which I usually accepted. These encounters usually did not allow me to introduce myself and my research interest. When this man dropped me off at the house where I was staying, he explained that he was related to the family I was staying with. I felt comfortable talking to him, so I quickly took the chance to introduce myself and ask for an interview. He readily accepted. This was my first opportunity to get an interview without any mediators and this interview opened up the door to multiple other interactions with younger workers that happened outside the Herathera work environment, in Hulhudhoo. I was able to break from my status by moving out of the delineated space in Herathera and by starting independent interactions in Hulhudhoo.
All my interviews were conducted in Dhivehi (the official language of the
Maldives). Some participants chose to talk in Addu bas (the dialect of Addu region) because they were more comfortable talking in their regional dialect. I became
30 familiar with Addu has during my stay in Hulhudhoo. Nevertheless, if I did not understand a certain work or phrase my informants were helpful in translating those terms. All my informants were fluent in the official Dhivehi dialect as well. The interviews were conducted at Herathera at the tea table when it was not busy, in a vacant office building, and in Hulhudhoo either at the house in which I was staying, at coffee shops, or at the homes of my informants.
Ethical Concerns
The two main ethical concerns that I had about this research was that the research involved politically charged discussions and that these discussions often involved information about the use of illegal drugs. Although political talk has become popular and accepted in Maldivian public life, the political views of individuals are a private matter and individuals may be affected negatively if their political views become publicized. I did not ask any of my participants about their political views and their opinions about illegal drug use. Discussions about politics and drug use were always initiated by the participant and never encouraged by the researcher. Thus, such discussions only emerge from the participants desire to share such opinions. I also decided not to include any discussions on personal accounts of illegal drug activities. I have only included discussions around general concerns about the social effects of illegal drug use and trade in the community. I have also made sure that individual identities were kept confidential by using pseudonyms.
31 Nevertheless, the fact that these topics are discussed in my research may make readers hold false assumptions and generalizations about the community as a whole.
In this regard, I would like to stress that the opinions presented in this research do not belong to the whole community, but only represent the individual views of the specific participants in my research.
Organization of Thesis
This thesis is organized into six chapters. The theoretical understandings and the methodology presented in this introductory chapter inform my research and the analysis that I present in the following chapters. In Chapter Two I locate the
Herathera project within the government discourse on economic development and explain how this discourse presents tourism development and employment in the tourist industry as the solution to Addu people's socio-economic marginalization. In
Chapter Three I provide research participants opinions, understandings and experiences of tourism development to show how individuals who criticize the project at multiple levels continue to accept the trajectory of development proposed by the state discourse. In Chapter Four I provide a socio-economic history of Addu from the subjective points of views of my participants to show how Addu people became involved in the tourism industry and to show how the state discourse on economic development may have become accepted and naturalized by Addu people.
In Chapter Five I consider possible limitations to the kinds of development that the project hopes to achieve at the policy level and that the locals hoped to achieve at the
32 practical level. I also explore the possibilities for realizing alternative possibilities to development. The final chapter provides a summary of the analysis and conclusions drawn from this research.
33 CHAPTER TWO
Locating Herathera
Thinking of development in terms of discourse makes it possible to maintain the focus of domination—as earlier Marxist analyses, for instance did—and at the same time to explore more fruitfully the conditions of possibility and the most pervasive effects of development. (Escobar 2005: 5-6).
This chapter provides a background to the development project under scrutiny. I will provide a short description of the geographical location where this development project has been implemented and locate the project within the changing national economic development agenda. The objective of this chapter is to show how the state discourse which informed the Herathera project presents tourism development as the solution to Addu's socio-economic problem. In the chapters that follow, I explore how individuals understand, experience and form opinions about this discourse and the project, and consider why individuals may accept the trajectory for development offered by this discourse. In the final chapter I look at the possible limitations of understanding development through this lens and consider possibilities for "enlarging the field of credible experiences" (Santos 2004: 238-39). Therefore, this chapter is an essential pre-requisite to the chapters that follow.
34 Geography
This section locates Addu region, Hulhudhoo community and the Herathera resort site within the political and economic geography of the Maldives. My research is concerned with the government's plans to develop a region of the country that has had very specific historical and political relations with the central government and socio-economic involvement in the country's tourism industry. An enhanced understanding of the geography that positions Addu region and Hulhudhoo people within the polity and economy of the Maldives is essential in order to get at the specific social, political, economic and historical factors that influence Addu region and Hulhudhoo community's development.
The Maldives consists of over a thousand small islands placed in the shape of a long chain that spreads from north to south across an area of about 100,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean. The islands are naturally arranged into rings of islands surrounded by a lagoon. These are known as atolls. For administrative purposes these atolls have been grouped into 20 administrative divisions which are also referred to as atolls. The capital island, Male', remains a separate administrative division. Male' is situated in the central region of the country and Addu Atoll is the southern-most atoll of the country.
Local communities thrive in about 200 islands of the Maldives. Each island is an administrative unit that belongs to a specific administrative atoll. These atolls are organized and monitored through the Ministry of Atolls Administration of the
35 Maldives. Since the beginning of 1970s, about a hundred uninhabited islands have been leased by the government for tourism development. Until recently, tourist resorts could only be built on uninhabited islands, separate from local communities.
The local population is dispersed across the northern and southern extremes of the island chain, while tourist islands have largely been established around the central region at close proximity to the capital island, Male', and the international airport.
Addu Atoll, where I conducted my fieldwork, is the southern-most region of the country and this atoll has seen little tourism development in the past4.
I conducted my fieldwork in the island community of Hulhudhoo, located in
Addu Atoll, which is both a naturally formed atoll and an administrative division.
Addu consists of several large islands ranged around a deep lagoon. The atoll is naturally split into two wings; one on the west and one on the east5. Today the local population identifies seven separate island communities in Addu. The islands of Gan,
Feydhoo, Maradhoo-Feydhoo, Maradhoo and Hithadhoo are located on the west wing of the atoll and are connected by causeways. Meedhoo and Hulhudhoo are located on the same land mass in the north east corner of the atoll. The term "island" in the
Maldives refers to both naturally formed land masses surrounded by water and also to administrative units that may be located on the same land mass. In this way, some land masses could have two island communities living in separate villages or
4 See appendix A: Map of the Maldives 5 See appendix B: Maps of Addu 36 administrative units. Each such village is referred to as one island. Meedhoo and
Hulhudhoo are on one land mass, but constitute two islands because each community is administered separately.
There are multiple other islands in Addu atoll that were traditionally used for agriculture and primary resource extraction and different individuals gained rights to these islands by providing services to the community (for example, as a teacher) or by holding government posts (for example, as an island chief). Some of these islands appear in some maps while in others they do not. Some of these islands are recognized officially while others are only known locally. Nevertheless, these distinctions were significant and important for the local population in the past and may have significance even at present.
Herathera is a chain of islands connected to Hulhudhoo by land fill. Today the group of islands that constitute Herathera is collectively referred to as Herathera
Island. However, until recently, Herathera was an area in which different individuals and families held rights to the resources of unconnected and multiple islands or sections. Thus, in this area the number of naturally formed islands and the number of officially and locally distinguished islands has changed over the years. Significantly, many of my informants saw Herathera as not one island, but a group of islands that previously belonged to the community.
37 Locating Herathera within Changing National Economic Development Agenda
Recently, an Asian Development Bank review of the Maldivian economy stated that, although the country had been identified as the poorest in South Asia in the early 1970s, it now had the highest per capita income in the region (ADB 2002:
1). The tourism industry that developed in the Maldives beginning in the early 1970s is seen by many to be the main factor that brought about this impressive shift. By
1997 tourism contributed to 34% of the national GDP (ADB 2002: 2). The number of tourist resorts increased from 17 in 1978 to 87 by 2004 (MPND 2005a: 1). During this period the GDP per capita increased from US$ 377 to US$ 2,261 (MPND
2005a: 1). Thus, in the Maldives, Tourism is popularly celebrated as "the goose that lays the golden eggs" [>ZZ % Z^» 2>1>\.
Interest in tourism development arose soon after the nation gained independence from Britain in 1965. In that same year Maldives became a member of the United Nations and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). During this period, international development organizations began to talk and write about the
Maldives using the language of development, identifying the Maldives as a place that was in need of development. In addition, these organizations proposed the path for development and progress that the Maldives should take.
Tourism was introduced to the Maldives by a few industrious individuals in the early 1970s. At this time, tourism development has not yet entered national
38 development planning. In fact, a survey report produced by a UNDP fact finding mission in 1966 advised against tourism development. On the topic of tourism the report states:
The Mission does not share the opinion expressed by some people in the country that development of tourism will lead to an early increase in net foreign exchange earnings. Male' is not on the main sea or air routes of the world [and].. .the climate for most of the year is not pleasant... [Tourism development] would involve considerable capital investment which the country can ill afford... (UNDP 2004: 78).
But by 2007 tourism and related services contributed 28% of GDP.6 This report was published and made available at local bookstores in 2004; thirty-eight years after the initial survey as a testament to the success of tourism in the Maldives.
On the back cover of the report it states: "One can only pass judgment on the courage, determination and efforts of the Maldivian people in the development of their nation only by comparing this report to the reality that is today" (UNDP 2004). The report also includes a message from a UNDP representative who expresses his awe at how much the Maldivian tourism industry has achieved since the first UNDP commissioned report on the Maldives. The success story is important, as it provides legitimacy and encourages public support for the current government that has been in power since 1978, and under which the tourism industry has flourished. Both the initial UNDP survey and the recognition of the success by the international
6 U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of South Asian Affairs, http://www.state.gOv/r/pa/ei/bgn/5476.htm community are used by the state in their discourse about the economic development of the nation. Although the Maldives did not follow the development trajectory proposed by the UNDP in 1966, the trajectory that was taken; that is, developing international tourism, is in line with the broad objectives for development identified by the UNDP, such as; increasing net foreign exchange earnings (2004: 76).
The story of how tourism started in the Maldives is much celebrated and most
Maldivians are familiar with it. When I went to interview Mr. Hussain Afeef, one of the prominent figures in the tourism industry, the first thing he said was not to ask him to tell the story again. This particular history of tourism is well summarized in a book published by the Ministry of Tourism and Maldives Tourism Promotion Board.
In this story, in October of 1971, an Italian travel enthusiast called George Corbin visited the Maldives and saw the potential for tourism development (Niyaz 2002: 5).
He partnered with a young local entrepreneur to organize the first tourist group to visit the Maldives (Niyaz 2002: 7). The group, which consisted of twenty-two
Italians, including writers and photographers, opened the doors for international tourism in the Maldives (Niyaz 2002: 7). These writers and photographers introduced the Maldives as a tourist destination to the outside world.
According to this story, it is a few industrious individuals and a foreign traveler who successfully developed tourism in the Maldives. This story fails to mention the countless number of Addu people who left their homeland and family to work at the tourist resorts located near Male'. The story does not include the historical conditions that forced almost half the population of Addu to leave their homes and families and move far away to work in tourist resorts as wage workers.
The story does not explain what kinds of economic relations and forms of livelihoods replaced wage work in the tourism industry. Nor does the story explain how tourism development in the centre of the country has resulted in increased regional inequality where the central region has developed at the expense of the outer atolls. As I will explain later, in this official version of the story, economic success and socio economic development is understood through ideas of modernization and progress that have become dominant and almost universal in the post-World War Two development era.
Although tourism is argued to be the best thing to happen to the Maldives, the benefits of tourism have not been equally experienced by all Maldivians. Since tourism development started, the central region has undergone rapid growth, while the economies of the northern and southern regions have remained relatively stagnant.
In the early years, the economic rational held by the Maldivian government assumed that even those economic activities that seem to benefit a small percentage of the population will do good to the whole community because, over time, the benefits of the economic activity will 'trickle down' to marginalized peoples and regions. The government's rational for focusing development in the central region was expressed by my informants using an allegory; ">£*/.£ X~/ A^ 5s??s>s>" [water only flows from one end of the eaves trough]. Eaves troughs are used to collect water that falls 41 on the roof, as the water is collected in a big barrel. Without an eaves trough there is no effective way to collect water, since the water will run down the roof in any direction. Just as the eaves trough is understood to provide a central location for collection, Male' is seen as the central location where resources will get collected for maximum effectiveness.
The capital island, Male' is also the economic centre of the country and the place where political power and government are concentrated. The central government is connected to the outer islands through atoll offices and island offices headed by chiefs who report directly to the Ministry in charge of Atolls administration. Education and healthcare services too have become more advanced in the capital island and there has been a significant demographic change where large numbers of people from outer atolls migrate internally to the capital island. Today, a third of the population, over 100,000 people, live in the tiny 2.5 sq. km island capital of the country. Census records for 2006 document an annual population growth rate of 5.73 for Male' while the rate of growth for the country as a whole was at a much lower level of 1.69 (MPND 2006). This significant difference shows the continued movement of people from outer atolls into the centre. The fact that today almost 30% of the population live in the congested capital where the population density has reached over 39,000 people per square hectare shows the unequal distribution of resources in the country (MPND 2004: 10). Male' is the epicentre of the nation because it contains the best employment opportunities, educational and health
42 facilities and public infrastructure. Nevertheless, for the immigrant, living in Male' is quite difficult. Land in Male' is owned by a few families that were originally from
Male' and the few who immigrated and sought land early during the migration boom.
Most immigrants from outer atolls rent rooms and small apartments from Male' land owners. The cost of rent has escalated over the years without any form of rent control.
Addu Atoll has also experienced a drastic change in population demographics since the late 1960s and early 1970s as a large portion of the population moved to the capital in search of employment, education and health care. People from all regions of the country were lured by the flourishing tourism industry in the central regions of the country, near Male'. But for the inhabitants of Addu, it was not only the attractive prospects in Male' that pulled people to the centre, but also a push from the atoll that forced people to migrate.
The Maldives was a British protectorate from 1887 until July 25,1965.
During World War Two, the British had a naval base in Addu Atoll and later, from
1957 until 1971, the British Royal Air Force was also stationed in Addu . During these two periods, Addu people moved from an economy of subsistence agriculture, fishing and trade to wage employment at the British bases. When the British exited
Addu in the early 1970s, a large population of Addu lost their livelihoods. Tourism development started in the central region during the same period and many from
Addu moved to the centre to take up these jobs. The complex reasons for this outward
'Avalanche Press http://www.avalanchepress.com/AdduAtoll.php 43 push will be explained in full detail in the third chapter where I explore the historical significance of tourism development for Addu.
Today, Hulhudhoo Island of Addu has a population of just over a thousand people. More than two thirds of the Hulhudhoo population has moved to the centre to find work in tourist resorts and other sectors that flourish in Male'. According to 2006
Census records, Hulhudhoo today has a negative growth rate of-3.71, the lowest in the region. Many houses in Hulhudhoo have been abandoned and are in disrepair.
Little infrastructure development has taken place in Hulhudhoo in the last thirty years. The government argues that lack of employment opportunities are the reason for this socio-economic demise of the island and the atoll in general (MTDC, About
Us).8
It was because of the historical lack of employment opportunities in Addu and recent movements of Addu people to work in the tourism industry in the central regions of the country, that I became interested in conducting research on the
Herathera Resort Development Project, a state-led tourism development initiative that promises to bring socio-economic development to Addu by developing tourism in the region. Herathera is located at the southern end of Hulhudhoo Island. It is argued that the construction of a resort in Herathera will provide employment opportunities for people from Addu and bring socio-economic development to Addu region. The
Maldives Tourism Development Corporation, http://www.mtdc.com.mv 44 government hopes to encourage Addu people working in resorts near Male' and living in congested rented rooms under harsh conditions to move back home and take up jobs in Herathera. It is important to understand the discourses and policies that gave birth to this project, because these discourses shape the perceptions of the Addu people and their hopes for the socio-economic development of Addu region.
The Herathera initiative stands in stark contrast to past development strategies employed by the state where economic development and specifically the tourism industry was concentrated in the central region. However, the new initiative is not a stand-alone project that defies the national policies. The Herathera project came out of a new discourse around national development that gained in strength in the aftermath of the December 2004 Tsunami. The Tsunami displaced nearly 10% of the population of the Maldives (Mohamed 2006: 1). Thirteen island communities had to be evacuated to other nearby islands (Mohamed 2006: 1). Through their experience with providing assistance to tsunami affected communities, the government came to the realization that their old strategy was not viable. A centralized system of authority and a development plan aimed primarily at the central region would not help the nation prepare for future catastrophes. Small island communities situated in rural areas did not have the resources to deal with the aftermath of the Tsunami and a centralized system was not able to provide emergency services to multiple rural locations. The Tsunami brought issues around safety and sustainability to the
45 forefront. The nation had to come up with a development plan that took future environmental catastrophes into account.
During this recent period, the realization that outer atolls may not have the capacity to deal with emergency situations and the fragility and isolation of small islands were brought to national attention. The national development plans that came out of this period stressed the importance of regional development and population consolidation. The Seventh National Development Plan 2006-2010 emphasized the importance of developing regional hubs and a Population and Development
Consolidation Program (PDCP) that had been conceptualized some years back was put into practice. According to the Ministry of Planning and National Development
(MPND), the concept of population and development consolidation was first proposed in 1998 by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom as a strategic option for sustainable development and protection from the threat of sea-level rise (2007b: 2).
Nevertheless, it was not until after the December 2004 Tsunami that the government was motivated to take the first practical move to fulfill this strategy. Through this policy small island communities are to be relocated and integrated into larger island populations. MPND states that the decision to relocate would be made by the community as a whole and each family would be compensated by the government
(2007b: 3). The consolidation program is linked to the Safer Island Development
Programme (SIDP) that came out of post-tsunami experience. This program plans to build safe islands that are better prepared for natural disasters in each region. Ideally consolidation was to take place on these safer islands (MPND 2007b: 5). The
Herathera Development Project was brought forward as part of this larger discourse around regional development that emerged in the aftermath of the December 2004
Tsunami. The main driving force of the project was the idea that if employment opportunities are created in Addu Atoll, people from Addu would return home and this would eventually lead to the socio-economic development of Addu region.
In addition to the shift from centralized development policy to an emphasis on regional development in national development policy papers, more specific policies on tourism development have also shifted in recent years. This shift is evident in the
Third Tourism Master Plan 2007-2011 (TTMP). In addition to a focus on aggregate signifiers of economic development such as GDP figures, the new plan has a strong emphasis on tourism benefits reaching a larger percentage of the local population. In a recent article, the Ministry of Tourism stated that "the thrust of the Maldives Third
Tourism Master Plan is on expanding and strengthening the Maldives tourism as an instrument of economic and social development in a manner that benefits all
Maldivians in all parts of the country" (MTCA 2007). The plan is to bring tourism to all corners of the country so that more Maldivians can take part in the industry and more regions benefit from it.
In this plan, tourism is re-created as a national socio-economic development project. Far from being a private endeavour that benefits the nation economically, the government now envisions tourism development as linked to socio-cultural
47 development. The government is shifting away from highlighting economic success measured in aggregate figures and is now emphasizing the importance of the everyday individual who, through participation in the tourism industry, contributes to and, at the same time, directly benefits from national economic development.
This new turn on tourism policy is also closely tied with the post-Tsunami discourse of safety and sustainability, as tourism development has become tied to the national agenda of regional development and population consolidation. In 2006, in order to alleviate the burden of relocation on the government, a policy was implemented that linked the consolidation program with tourism development
(MPND 2007b: 4). Under this policy, the government awards the vacated islands to private corporations for resort development (MPND 2007b: 4). In exchange, the cost of relocation and host-island development are to be borne by the private corporation
(MPND 2007b: 4). By doing this, the tourism industry and private entrepreneurs no longer just provide employment opportunities for local populations, but take on a more active role in developing the community. Thus by creating a link between the tourism industry and the post-Tsunami discourse on national development, tourism becomes more than just an industry and tourism developers become more than just employers.
With tourism development tied to the national development agenda, the government has taken on a more active role in the tourism industry. The Third
Tourism Master Plan emphasizes greater partnership between the state and private companies. The idea is that both the government and private sectors are working for the betterment of the community and therefore, a greater partnership will lead to better outcome for all. One way that government participation has increased is through direct government investment in the industry as the government has partnered with both local and foreign corporations to develop resorts. The Herathera project was developed through such a public-private partnership called the Maldives
Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).
The Maldives Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) is a public company formed on 55% public investment and 45% state funding. Any individual holding Maldivian citizenship can own shares at MTDC. Shares were sold at an affordable price and the number of shares that an individual could acquire was limited so that well off individuals will not be able to dominate share ownership and the interests of the company.
This new shift in the roles of tourism developers and the government is more clearly understood through an analysis of the MTDC website9. Herathera was the first resort to be developed under the Third Tourism Master Plan and was the project that gave birth to the MTDC. The new discourse on tourism development is clearly evident in the MTDC website. The website shares the government's emphasis on increasing the percentage of local beneficiaries of tourism development. MTDC
9 http://www.mtdc.com.mv explains that one of their aims is to take tourism to all the corners of the Maldives that are currently untouched by the industry so that resorts operating in those areas would provide both direct and indirect benefits of tourism to the local community (MTDC,
About Us). The idea is that the local population will directly benefit through increased employment opportunities. MTDC shows their dedication to the development of the local community by celebrating Herathera as a resort that is built wholly by a local workforce: "Among the key features of this development is to use
100% Maldivian labour in the building process to ensure that the economic benefits of the development phase and distributed into the local community" (MTDC,
Development). Furthermore, the aim and mission of the company is to run these facilities with 100% Maldivian staff in the immediate future (MTDC, Development).
MTDC promotes itself as the "new vision for Maldives tourism" (MTDC
2007). This new vision is explained through the concept of "Maldivianization" that was coined by MTDC. Under this vision each and every Maldivian citizen is to become a shareholder in the company. MTDC issued shares at the affordable price of
MRF 100.00 or USD 7.78 and limited the number of shares an individual can acquire to 100 shares per person (MTDC, About Us). Many of my friends and family bought
MTDC shares because, for the first time, it was affordable and accessible. In the past, ownership of the Maldivian tourism industry was limited to a few local individuals and international corporations. MTDC explains: "We believe that opportunities must be open to Maldivians of all walks of life to effectively share ownership in the
50 company. It would be our pleasure and privilege to have shareholders working for the company..." (MTDC, About Us). Mr. Hussain Affeef, the Chairman of MTDC, explained that his dream was that eventually everyone involved in the tourism industry is a member of MTDC, so that they are working in a resort that they have ownership of (Interview on August 15, 2007).
The website also emphasizes MTDC's sense of social responsibility in developing the local community. MTDC states: "The damage to the social fabric created due to difficulty of getting employment close to home is an issue that MTDC is concerned about. As such the company has planned its business activities in a way which will counteract these predicaments to create healthy, happy and economically stable families within the Maldivian community" (MTDC, About Us).
Finally, the importance of stable employment opportunities for the continued development of local communities is stressed by MTDC. "MTDC firmly believes in the importance of creating sustainable job opportunities for Maldivians...[and]
MTDC understands the need for training and development required for the individuals within the community to become successful and useful employees for the tourism industry" (MTDC, About Us).
In this way, tourism development is presented as the one and only solution to local community development. Tourism is seen as the driving force that will bring about all other developments. MTDC states that the resorts are planned to inject appropriate levels commerce into the local economies (MTDC, Development). For
51 example; a resort will facilitate the development of a market for arts and crafts, transport facilities, tourist shops and excursions. The tourist resort no longer just provides employment opportunities, but takes on the responsibility for the socio economic development of local populations. Thus, this discourse presents tourism development as the magic pill that will fix all social ills.
Conclusion
I have argued that the concept of development used in conceiving the
Herathera project belongs to a specific understanding of progress that emerged first in
Europe and has become adopted by development practitioners and governments in the global South. The Maldives became identified as a place that was in need of development when the Maldives was joined by the United Nations (UN) and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and started to be discussed in relation to other nation-states. The unexpected success that the Maldives had in developing international tourism in the central region of the country has made tourism development appear as the development solution for all regions of the country.
Tourism development has become equated with economic development in national development planning and there is little reason for anyone to question this. In the following chapters I show how this dominant discourse of development has become accepted and naturalized by individuals who have been identified as the beneficiaries
52. of the Herathera project. Although the approach taken by the government to develop
Addu through tourism may seem fool proof from the outset, an in-depth analysis into the lived realities of Addu people involved with tourism development show that there might be some serious limitations to this approach. This chapter provides a background to the issues that I will deal with in the following chapters.
53 CHAPTER THREE
Exploring Individual Opinions, Understandings and Experiences
Introduction
In this chapter I will look at how the individuals I interacted with in the field understood and experienced the Herathera project. As discussed in Chapter Two the
Herathera project came out of recent developments in national economic development plans and, therefore, the official government discourse around development and progress informs the project. The dominant discourse articulated in official government documents and in the Maldives Tourism Development Corporation
(MTDC) website presents Herathera as the solution to Addu's socio-economic problems by offering those who want to benefit from the project the subject position of "tourism worker." Based on my research in Addu and in Hulhudhoo, this thesis explores individual opinions, understandings and experiences of the Herathera project in order to explore the kinds of development that the beneficiaries of the project were seeking and to assess what the project offered for the Addu people involved. My approach to this topic is informed by prior studies of development projects that also aimed to bring benefits to poor and marginalized communities (Mitchell 2000, Mosse
2003, Ferguson 1995 and Escobarl994). These studies reveal that projects perceived at the level of the government or aid agency and informed by dominant discourses
54 around development may not get at the real problems faced by those who have been identified as in need of development. Following these works, I decided to explore the possibilities for development at a location where development was taking place. Thus
I conducted research in Hulhudhoo in order to talk to the people involved in the
Herathera project and gather accounts of their experiences, opinions and understanding about the Herathera project and the benefits they hoped to gain from this form of development.
Following Foucault (1979, 1980, 1997), I approach the theoretical concepts of subjectivity and discourse with an understanding that the subject is created and functions within the same fields in which discourses operate . By exploring development at the subjective level of the individual, I am not trying to make a distinction or separation between official discourse and subjective experiences.
Instead, I am working from the perspective that the subject is informed and influenced by dominant discourses and that dominant discourses do not exist apart from the multiple understandings that people may have of them. In the case of the
Herathera project, I am interested in how individuals interact with the dominant discourse of development and progress at a subjective level and how they thus make sense of their position within the project.
Based on my knowledge of political, historical and social factors in the
Maldives and in the region of Addu, I expected that the people identified as the beneficiaries of the Herathera project would challenge and reject the dominant
55 discourse of development. Thus, prior to beginning my research, I had intended to explore how individuals contested and negotiated the subject position of tourism worker, within the specific image of Addu as a location where tourism development was to occur. The specific socio-political and historical factors that informed my approach to this project, as well as my limited understanding about subjectivity, led me to hold broad assumptions and expectations about how my research participants would experience, understand, and react to the Herathera project. However, through interviews I learned that, although many people criticized the project, their opinions did not conflict with the idea of tourism development as the solution to socio economic development. None of my informants questioned the basic tenet of the dominant discourse that heralded tourism development as the great solution to Addu's socio-economic marginalization.
As explained in the previous chapter, the government is heavily invested in
Herathera resort project through 45% share ownership in MTDC. The project is also a product of recent changes in national development policies. For these reasons, I understood and approached this project as a state-led tourism initiative. The fact that the state was involved in tourism for the first time struck me as the most significant aspect of the project. I had learned that Addu had a turbulent and difficult history with the central authorities in the past and I assumed that history would influence how individuals experienced the new state involvement in Addu's socio-economic development. When I arrived in Hulhudhoo, I already knew about this history. But I
56 also began hearing many criticisms directed at the government for failing to follow up on their promises to Addu people. Thus, I reasoned that their opinions about the project and their ideas about development would be closely linked to their past experiences with the government (and their past experiences working in the tourism industry). Individuals I encountered in the field seemed to have very strong political opinions regarding the current government's role in Addu's development (or underdevelopment). Since I mostly heard criticisms and negative accounts about the government and their involvement in Addu I assumed that most people would be critical of, and thus reject, the government's discourse around the Herathera project. I took for granted that the local discourses around the Herathera project would be critical of tourism development and that, through these criticisms, I would be able to find the "real" solution to the socio-economic problems faced by these people. I imagined that I would come out of the field with a clear plan for an alternative development strategy based on the accounts of my participants.
Through my interactions with individuals over a period of two months I slowly realized that the ways in which individual opinions are formed and subject positions taken in environments of socio-economic relations of dominance are not as simple and straightforward as I had imagined. I had read the critiques and learned about the limitations of research done on the topic of power and subjectivation in the past, where academics naively assumed that those who held subordinated positions were either unaware of their subordination (false-consciousness) (see Mahmood
57 2005: 6) or were aware and thus contesting and negotiating their position through overt or covert means (Boddy 1989, Abu-Lughod 1986, James Scott 1985). So I was well aware of the problems associated with actively looking for acts of resistance in places where it may not be apparent (see Mahmood 2005). But, initially, the criticisms and pessimistic opinions that were expressed by my informants, both about the government and about the project, led me to mistakenly identify the Addu people
I encountered as people who were in fact rejecting and resisting the dominant discourse. Over time, though, as I interviewed and spoke at length with participants in my research, I realized that, although individuals were critical of specific aspects of the project, they did not reject the idea that tourism development was the solution to
Addu's socio-economic problems
Through this experience I came to realize the complexity of individual subjectivity. I learned that an individual is influenced by multiple discourses and experiences and a single factor such as political affiliation could not determine his or her subject position in relation to the Herathera project. The position taken by the individual may change in different contexts and situations. In addition, I also came to realize that although these individuals were criticising the project it did not mean that they were rejecting the dominant discourse. In fact, what I found was that, although my participants criticised the project at multiple levels, they did not reject the basic tenet of the discourse; the idea that tourism development would bring development to
58 Addu and that the role of individuals in this development was to become employees at the resort.
Addu's Political Relationship with the State
Before I go into more detail about how the various individuals that participated in my research understood and talked about the project, I will explain why I had readily assumed government involvement and public investment would be deemed important, significant, and problematic by Addu people involved in the project. My assumptions were based on my understanding of the political relations between Addu and the state in the past and in present day. The historical development of political relations between Addu and Male' was violent and turbulent. The transition from a decentralized monarchy to a centralized republic involved a violent uprising where the southern region, including Addu, temporarily seceded from the
Maldives. This violent history still remains fresh in the minds of Addu people and also this temporary show of disloyalty by Addu people to the State is still fresh in the minds of many Maldivians.
The Maldives became a British protectorate in 1887. A treaty was signed that stated that the British would not interfere with the internal affairs of the country. At this time, the British were mainly interested in controlling the waters of the Indian
Ocean. The Maldives was a monarchy and the form of governance was not centralized. Each island community had the right to their own self governance (Saeed 2003: 57). In the past, the southern region, including Addu, was called Suvai Deeb and was considered separate from the rest of the islands, which together formed Mai
Deeb (Saeed 2003: 57). The three atolls in the south; Addu, Huvadhu and Fuah
Mulah have three different languages or dialects of Dhivehi that are distinct from that which was spoken in Male' and the rest of the country. Saeed argued that this was an indication of a strong sense of separate identities in these atolls (2003: 61).
The stories told by my participants also attest to the fact that Addu was a relatively independent region in the past. Zubair is a local business man in
Hulhudhoo. Although he only owns a small shop on the main road in Hulhudhoo today, his family has a long history in the trade of goods. While telling me stories about his father, Zubair explained that Addu people traded directly with Ceylon
(modern day Sri Lanka) and Cochin (in India) and also with the neighbouring atolls without any interference from the central authorities in Male'.
During the period from 1887-1965 when the Maldives existed as a British protectorate, the form of governance changed considerably. The power exerted by the central government increased and the formerly independent communities in Addu and elsewhere slowly lost their autonomy to self-governance and trade.
During World War Two, the British found Addu atoll to be an ideal location to set up a secret base, essential to defend the Indian Ocean against Japanese forces.
The British officials communicated with the officials in Male' to set up this base.
However, the government in Male' did not consult with the people of Addu before
60 giving permission for the British to come and build a military base in Gan Island
(Saeed 2003: 58). By the time the officials from Male' arrived in Addu to assist the
British, the British had already begun surveying the area (Saeed 2003: 58). The people of Addu did not welcome the British and were increasingly becoming dissatisfied with the central government's involvement in Addu.
During this period the main occupation of the people of Addu was the trade of locally produced goods such as coir rope. With the advice from a British lieutenant, the government designed a centralized trade arrangement where all atolls were to trade with the government in Male' and then the government would in turn trade with
Ceylon (Saeed 2003: 59). In a letter to the editor that was published in the Times of
London, Afif Didi explained how the centralized arrangement disadvantaged Addu people:
Our main export from these islands was dried Maldive fish which we sent to Male for sale in Ceylon. Payment was made to Male in Ceylon rupees but we were forced by Male to accept Maldivian rupees in return. One Maldivian rupee is worth only half a Ceylon rupee and we had then to buy what food we could afford from Male at Ceylon prices. (Didi 1959).10
Traders from Addu were not happy with this arrangement and they continued to bypass Male' authorities in their travels. Solihbe, an elderly employee at Herathera, encouraged me to learn more about the history of Addu and told me many stories that
http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_suvadive_afif_letter.shtml 61 he remembered. Solihbe once told me a story about how a Hulhudhoo trader avoided the central authorities in his travels:
Elhahishige Dhonmaniku was the most well educated and wealthy man in Addu during his time.11 He had six ships that he used for trade. He would fill his ship with cowrie shells and coir rope and travel to Ceylon. At Ceylon he was supposed to sell the products to a Maldivian government official who would then sell the products in the Ceylon market at a higher price. That's how the government took taxes at this time. One time, he traveled to Ceylon with his ships and instead of selling the products to the appointed man he traded directly with Ceylon. He then received news from Male' that because he did not follow the proper bureaucratic channels, the then financial minister was planning to punish him with lashes until his skin came off and exile him to some far away island. He sent his ships home and instead of going home, took his money and went on to Saudi Arabia and stayed there for two years. He kept up with the news at home through people who traveled to Mecca for Hajj. After two years he learned that the government has changed and that the financial minister no longer had his position. So he safely returned home.
This story shows that people in Addu did not readily accept the centralized form of governance into which the diverse communities in the Maldives were slowly being drawn. This brought Addu people into conflict with the State shortly after the end of World War Two. This conflict is locally known as the Addu Gadubadu.
During the first period of British occupation in Addu from 1941-1945, the Maldivian authorities attempted to control the payment of food given to local labourers by the
British by having a government official act as middleman in the exchange (Saeed
111 could not determine the exact period when Dhonmaniku lived. According to Zubair, Dhonmaniku was much older than his father, Ali Didi who was alive during the World War Two. I also learned from Solihbe that his wife's mother was the granddaughter of Dhonmaniku. 62 2003: 59). The central authorities were also influencing local politics by exerting the power to appoint or dismiss local authorities (Saeed 2003: 59). In addition, during this period, the central authorities were considering the sale of Gan Island to the
British in exchange for a motorized boat that would help them to administer the atolls more directly (Saeed 2003: 60). The people in Addu were becoming dissatisfied with all these direct influences by the central authorities in Addu affairs. Within two years of British arrival for the second time in 1957 to establish a naval base in Gan, there was an uprising in Addu and the three southern atolls of Addu, Huvadu and Fuah
Mulah were demanding their own government, separate from the Maldivian state
(Saeed 2003: 61). They called themselves ZZ^ZZg i^.^^4- **?•)> [the United
Suvadive Republic] and had their own flag and passport. The President of the new state, Afif Didi declared and publicized their existence in the London Times:
We wish to make it clear that we have set up a Government unanimously elected by the will of the people. We are a State of 18,000 people willing and able to support ourselves in spite of Male. We are now the United Suvadive Islands. (Didi 1959).12
Although Afif Didi maintained that "the presence of the British in Addu Atoll had absolutely nothing to do with the will of the people to break from Male" (Didi
1959), the British supported the secession in the beginning, and the new republic attempted to maintain their nation from 1959 until 1963 under heavy retaliation from the Maldivian government. The British ended their support of the new republic in
12 http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_suvadive_afif_letter.shtml 63 1960 after signing a new agreement with the Maldivian government. In 1963 they announced that only those who were under the sovereign authority of the Sultan of the Maldives would be employed in British facilities (O'Shea 2008).13. This was the final blow for the United Suvadive Republic since Addu people's livelihoods and independence depended on the jobs available at the British base.
This recent, turbulent history of Addu was one main reason why I had assumed that Addu people would not be too happy with government interference through involvement in tourism development in Addu. Because the people of Addu had such a negative experience with government interference in the past, I had assumed that current government involvement in Herathera would lead to scepticism about the project.
There is also another reason that I had assumed that Addu people would be sceptical of the Herathera project. This has to do with the fact that experiences with developing tourism in Addu atoll in the past have not been very successful. Although tourism development in the outer regions is presented in the MTDC website as a new initiative of "Maldivianizing" the industry, this is not the first time the government has proposed tourism development in Addu, nor is it the first time the idea has been developed at the policy level. The government first introduced the idea of tourism development in Addu when the current President won the elections in 1978. During
http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_suvadive.shtml 64 my fieldwork I heard numerous examples of how tourism projects have failed in
Addu. Most of the people telling these stories blamed the government for failing to keep their promise and for placing too many bureaucratic obstacles in the way of tourism development in Addu.
Multiple attempts have been made to develop tourism in Addu. Zubair told me a story about an attempt by an Addu business man called Mohamed Saeed to build a resort in Gan. Zubair explained that Saeed was an intelligent and innovative man who utilized every resource he had to develop this resort. Saeed artificially constructed white sandy beaches in Gan and spent millions of rufiyaa (Maldivian currency) to make his dream a reality. He was successful in building the resort but his initiative failed because he was unable to bring tourists to his resort. Zubair reminded me that a resort cannot profit without tourists. The main obstacle to his initiative was lack of an internationally accessible airport in Addu. The government had continuously failed to keep their promise to open an international airport in Gan. As
Zubair continued to describe Saeed's attempts at tourism development, he raised this issue:
So he made this Holiday Camp but how can tourists get here? When they arrive in Male' International Airport they may have to wait days to get a domestic flight to Gan airport. The domestic airplane is so small that they are not even be able to bring their entire luggage with them. When they finally get here they have to wait for their luggage for some more days. Tourists come here to relax, so they would not want to spend so much time traveling. (Interview on July 9, 2007)
65 According to Zubair, Saeed did everything in his power to make tourism work in
Addu.
Saeed even tried to bring his own flights to Addu, but the government would not give him permission. This is why it didn't work here. He kept spending on tourism development in Addu until he became so poor that he did not have enough money to eat. (Interview on July 9, 2007)
I came across the same story, in an article entitled "What is the secret that keeps yesterday's richest Addu person empty-handed today?" in a website that is critical of the government {Majid's Pages: 2001).14 This article explained that Saeed got permission to operate the resort in 1984 and the lease agreement indicated that
Gan airport would receive bi-weekly flights that would bring tourists to the resort.
But in fact no flights arrived at Gan airport and he was unable to get any business
{Majid's Pages: 2001). Saeed was quoted in the article as saying:
Finally I decided to bring the flights myself, privately. At that time I had the means to do it. I travelled to New Zealand and negotiated a deal with a private flight operator, and organised scheduled visitor arrivals to Addu. However I failed to obtain the necessary government authorisation [from Male] {Majid's Pages: 2001)
This story blames the government for failing to keep their promise and for placing bureaucratic obstacles in the way of tourism development.
http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/raf.shtml 66 This story identifies one main obstacle to tourism development in Addu as tourist access. There is only one international airport in the Maldives, which is located beside Male'. Tourists arrive in Male' International Airport and have to take a domestic flight to Addu's regional airport in Gan. Before I went to Addu I had a very limited understanding about Addu people's discontentment about the government's failure to make Gan airport international. I felt their expectations and demands were a bit unrealistic considering how small the Maldives is in comparison to other countries. But through interviews I found out that the government publicly recognized this as an obstacle to Addu's development as early as 1978 and had promised to upgrade the Gan airport and make it an international airport.
Zubair remembers the first time President Gayyoom promised Addu people their own international airport.
When Maumoon became elected as President [in 1978] he traveled to all the islands. If I remember correctly, I believe it was the 17th day of his Presidency that he came. He said in front of all Addu people, in each and every island, that his biggest priority was to bring the people of Addu out of the socio-economic demise that they had fallen into since the British left. That is true. When the British left we no longer had medical facilities, we suddenly stopped getting wages from the British, and so we really were in a socio-economic demise. He promised to develop an international airport in Addu in a way that Addu people can benefit socially and economically from. A lot of parties came to Gan to look at the existing airport and competed in the bid to get the project to develop Gan airport. After a while the government seemed to finally have found the right person to take the project. The government had a lot of praise for this man who had a lot of experience in developing airports all over the world. So people in Addu were really happy and hopeful. But then after a while we heard that this man was no longer good enough to take on the project. The
67 government had no praise for him now. Apparently he had no qualification and nothing more than a desk in an office building in Singapore. After some more time, the government announced that they have decided not to give the airport to any party for development and that the airport will only be used for domestic flights in the future. (Interview on July 3, 2007).
In addition to these recent issues, it should be noted that during British occupation, Addu atoll had the only airstrip in the country, used by the British Air
Force. Some have argued that the runway was functional at the time of British departure and could have been developed into an international airport. Mohamed
Ameen describes the airstrip in Gan and the aircrafts used by the British in great detail in his book entitled; Maldives under a Cloud of War (1949). Chapter Eleven of the book has been translated and presented by the Maldives Culture website.15 Here,
Ameen describes the experience of large war crafts using the airstrip during the
British occupation:
Suddenly the incoming aircraft interrupt our reverie. The great warplanes, praised on radio and in newspapers, have at last appeared. Such excitement! As these four-engine mammoths of war come into view, we are suddenly experiencing the undeniable reality of something we could only imagine!
Ahaa! Here they come, looming noisier and larger with each passing moment. The leading plane is only a tiny butterfly when we first see it. As it approaches, others appear, and suddenly all three are overhead. Then we lose sight of them completely until they descend gracefully onto the runway.
http://www.maldivesculture.com/dhiveh04.html http://www.maldivesculture.com/dhiveh04.html During Addu Gadubadu, the Maldivian authorities dismantled parts of the military airbase that existed in Addu so that people in Addu could no longer use it. Instead of developing this pre-existing airbase, the government built an international airport near
Male'during the mid 1960s.
Overall, then, government involvement in Addu's economic development has been at best erratic in the past, and the government has been highly criticised for failing to deliver on their promises. These stories about past government failures have a lot in common with the discourses that surround the Herathera project. The
Herathera project is accompanied by promises and plans by the government to make
Gan airport an international airport. When I traveled to Addu to do fieldwork in June
2007,1 took a domestic flight to Gan airport. At this time, the airport was still operating at a domestic level, but the roof of the terminal building had a big sign post that declared the airport as "Gan International Airport." This gave people some proof and hope that their dreams were finally becoming realized. With the opening of
Herathera, Gan airport has been upgraded from a domestic to an international airport.
The first international flight landed in Gan on December 24, 2007, bringing 71 tourists to Herathera Island Resort (Haveeru Daily, Dec 24, 2007).
At the beginning of my fieldwork, I also thought that people's opinions about the project would be influenced by another resort development in Addu promoted,
http://www.haveeru.com.mv/english/?page=details&id=20277 and partially funded, by the government. Vilingili Island located in the south east corner of Addu has been earmarked for tourism development for the last twenty-eight years. The government had called for proposals from tourism developers to develop
Vilingili on multiple occasions but either the government was not satisfied with the proposals or the construction of the resort would begin and come to a standstill after some time. The most recent development in Vilingili has been a government partnership with Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts in January of 2005. The resort construction was still ongoing during my fieldwork period and people were not satisfied with the pace of the work.
Newspapers and news websites have argued that the government has used
Vilingili as electoral bait to ensure the support of Addu people, which make up almost one third of the population. This sentiment is shared by Zubair as well.
People here refer to Vilingili as the voting box. Every five years when it is time for election, the government would start talking about building a resort in Vilingili. Twenty-eight years later, Vilingili is still not a resort. (Interview on July 9,2007).
Hassan, a Herathera employee in his late twenties, who was very opinionated about tourism development in Addu and the government's role in it explained:
Vilingili has been developed under multiple tourism master plans. The buildings constructed under one plan have been demolished and rebuild without any tourists actually setting foot. (Interview on July 10,2007).
70 All of these experiences of government development led me to assume that most Addu people would be highly sceptical of the Herathera project and would reject the idea of developing tourism in Addu. However, through interviews and conversations with participations in my research, I learned that, although many did have doubts about the project, their criticism did not necessarily have to do with the government's involvement in Addu. Moreover, and more, importantly, their opinions did not conflict with the idea of tourism development as the solution to socio economic development. None of my informants questioned the basic tenet of the dominant discourse that heralded tourism development as the great solution to Addu's socio-economic marginalization. Nevertheless, their more general criticisms are useful to consider if we are to understand the limitations that the dominant discourse and approach may have for realizing the kind of development that the project is proposing and the kinds of development that the individuals hope to achieve. In the next section I provide ethnographic examples of the kinds of opinions, criticisms and experiences that my informants shared with me during interviews.
How Individuals Understood, Experienced and Explained the Herathera Project
When I first heard about the plans to build a resort in Herathera and the formation of a public company to undertake the project two things stood out to me.
One was the fact that the state was getting involved in the tourism industry. In the past, tourism has been largely a private endeavour, where local private entrepreneurs
71 may partner with another local party or with an international hotelier to build a resort.
This was the first time a public company was undertaking tourism development.
Second was the fact that all Maldivians had access to ownership of MTDC, the public company in charge of building Herathera. For these reasons I wanted to explore local perceptions and expectations that have come about as a result to these changes to the tourism industry as the local people experience it.
I planned my research around these two factors. I asked such questions as: what is your opinion about government involvement and investment in tourism? How do you feel about being employed by a company that is partly owned by the state?
What do you think about being able to invest in MTDC? To my utmost surprise, most people I interviewed and interacted with did not find these factors to be all that important, nor did these factors figure when they expressed opinions about the project. Many were sceptical about the government's involvement in the project, but at the same time they did not see this as a state-led project. Their criticism had little to do with government involvement. In fact, many informants did not recognize the government investment in the project as something unique or different. In other words, for them, the fact that the government was invested in Herathera did not make it a public project.
Hassan makes a clear distinction between working in resorts and working for the government. Traditionally, tourism developed as a wholly private industry.
Government offices are located mainly in Male' while resorts were located outside 72 Male' in nearby islands. For these obvious signifiers and other reasons, employment in the tourism industry and in the government is talked about in mutually exclusive terms:
Hassan: I have always been very interested in tourism. I have never been interested in working in sarukaaru (the government). I want to work with different kinds of people. Theema: What is the difference between working in tourism and sarukaaru? Hassan: I don't know why or how to explain why. But it feels very different. Theema: But isn't Herathera partly owned by sarukaaru? Does that make Herathera different from other resorts? Hassan: No. I still see Herathera as any other private resort. Herathera more importantly belongs to the Maldivian people. Sarukaaru is not like that. It works for a specific people's benefit. (Interview on July 10, 2007).
From Hassan's perspective, the ideals that MTDC stood for and the general approach taken by the project (for example, public share ownership) does not conform to how he imagines the government works. He can accept the idea that this project is different in the sense that it involves more of the local population. For example, there is local investment and local labour. But at the end of the day,
Herathera is still a resort and will function like a resort, which may be very different from how he imagines the government works.
Shareef and his wife are in their early twenties and they have been working at
Herathera since the project started. Shareef had worked in tourist resorts before he took this job at Herathera. He understood the Herathera project to be the same as any
73 other tourism endeavour. He saw that the project was being undertaken by well- known private entrepreneurs who were valued for their own success in the tourism industry. Shareef believes that the Herathera project will secure him a job in the future because he has faith in the individual who was responsible for managing the project. Shareef explained to me:
I have confidence in this because Noordeen [the project manager and prominent figure in the tourism industry] is involved. He will make sure this succeeds. Noordeen guaranteed that this will work out. (Interview on July 12, 2007).
By opening the sale of shares to the public at an affordable price, MTDC hoped that the workers in the resort would also be the shareholders of the company
(MTDC, About Us). A sense of ownership is appealing from both a business and social perspective. Nevertheless, I realized that although investment in MTDC was open to the public, the local workers in Herathera were not necessarily the same
"public" who was investing in the company. None of my participants expressed interest in investing nor did they tell me about buying MTDC shares. Therefore, I could not explore this idea of ownership that the company hopes to create. The individuals I interacted with may not find ownership to be appealing or possible, although this was deemed very important by the MTDC in their vision for the future of tourism industry.
http://www.mtdc.com.mv/index.php I asked Zubair his opinion about the government's involvement in Herathera and what he hopes the community will gain from this development. From my previous interactions with Zubair, I knew that he was highly critical of the government in power. Nevertheless Zubair assured me that the Herathera project will be a great success. He did not believe this because he has faith in the government that has invested in the project, but he had faith that the opposition party will ensure that the government in power would follow through on their promise this time (Interview on July 9, 2007).
Zubair believed that the recent changes in government policy with regards to tourism development are a direct result of the recent developments in the political environment of the country (Interview on July 9,2007). It was only recently, in 2005, that political parties were allowed and oppositional voices given any form of recognition in the Maldives. In 2003 anti-government demonstrations calling for reform became frequent when a prisoner was killed in jail after alleged brutal torture by the prison staff. Opposition groups came out voicing their concerns about how the nation was being run and political parties were finally allowed in 2005. Today, four parties have been registered. The current president heads DRP (the Dhivehi
Rayyithunge Party) and MDP (the Maldives Democratic Party) is the largest and most well-supported opposition party.
The Maldives is a presidential republic, where the president is the head of the government. President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom has been in power since 1978.
75 Until recently, the Majlis (parliament) was unicameral and consisted of 50 members;
2 members from each administrative atoll and 8 members elected by the President.
The ruling regime had complete authority over the Majlis. Today, Majlis members are able to align with different political parties, although a multi-party election has not yet taken place.
Zubair is a supporter of the opposition party, MDP. He believes that the change in the government development agenda is a direct result of the formation of a multi-party system and the emergence of MDP as an oppositional force.
Zubair: I don't think the government has any intention of developing the south. Theema: So why is [Herathera] happening? Zubair: These people called MDP started coming out and making their voices heard. Even in the atolls, people started coming out in the thousands, voicing their concerns. So the government has no choice but to do this. That is the reason why this is working now. People in this island will not vote for Maumoon anymore. People were not just staying here without fighting for change because they didn't know any better. It is because they didn't have any power to change the situation. Now that the party system has been established people are no longer afraid, those who were silent all this time have suddenly become talkative. (Interview on July 9, 2007).
Zubair is highly critical of the government and the government's promises to bring development to Addu. Nevertheless, he is quite confident that the Herathera project will be a success. His belief in the project derived from his understanding that recent political developments have made the centralized government in power less powerful and domineering than before. The government is now closely monitored by the opposition parties that will ensure the government keeps their promises.
A similar sentiment was shared by Muiz, a Hulhudhoo local in his early twenties:
Sarukaaru is only doing this because they have been forced to do it [2'j}}'5gj>'\. If he [the president] wanted to do this, he had all those years [to develop tourism in Addu]. (Interview on July 8, 2007).
The opinion that the current government never had any intention of developing Addu is one that was shared by many individuals to whom I spoke. An alternative opinion as to why Addu has remained marginalized from economic development during the last thirty to fifty years was expressed by Mr. Hussein Afeef, the chairman of MTDC. I asked his opinion on why the government has not made much effort to improve Addu's economy since the British left and he said:
When the British left, most people from Addu moved to Male' and started doing business. There was no point in developing Addu. I also see the other side. Addu people have not done anything to improve the condition of their region. Addu business men have houses in London [England] and Malaysia. Not even their children visit their homeland. I would rather blame these Addu people. If they won't even go to Addu, how do they expect the government to? Addu people abandoned their homeland. That's the cause for their poverty, not the government. (Interview on Aug 15, 2008)
Today, a few individuals and families from Hulhudhoo are popularly known for their success in accumulating great wealth. They have established successful businesses in Male' and have bought land in Male' and in other countries. Hussein's argument is that since these people are not doing anything to develop Addu region,
Addu people have no justification for blaming the government for their marginalization.
Unlike Zubair who believed that Herathera would be a successful resort,
Shareef was not even sure that the resort would open. During my interview with
Shareef, he expressed a lot of uncertainty about the project. His position on this was quite surprising to me because I knew that Shareef was one of the first people in
Hulhudhoo to be employed during the construction phase of the project. He had held a stable job at Herathera for the last two years and his wife was the first female employee of Herathera. He was quite certain that he had a job in the resort when it opened. But Shareef was not completely convinced that the resort would open, even though he was given assurances by the management that the resort would be a success. Nevertheless, as he explained, he wasn't completely deaf to the voices of the other people who talked differently about it. I asked him why he was so unsure about the fate of the resort and he said:
You know the people who hang around in the harbour and talk too much? They say that the resort is not going to open. They say this is a publicity campaign for Maumoon [President] and that the resort will only open if he gets re-elected. A person that came the other day said that if the resort does not open, the buildings are going to be taken over by the government (Interview on July 12, 2007).
78 Solihbe introduced me to the local concept of shakku which describes feelings of distrust, suspicion and uncertainty that many individuals hold about the project
(interview on June 27, 2007). Muiz described this feeling well when he expressed his thoughts about the project:
I am still not too clear about the government's agenda. What the government says and how things happen in Herathera don't mesh. It feels like something some people are doing because they have an ulterior motive. I am still not sure how this is going to pan out. We are all very scared. I hear so many different stories and it is so hard to figure out what is right or what will happen in the future. It is hard to decide. I need to see some things happen and then I will believe. I want to see tourists arriving and everyone with jobs and a good salary. That is what I want to see. Then I will believe this is real. (Interview on July 8,2007)
One of the reasons for these expressions of shakku is because of Addu's past experiences with tourism development. Shareef did not believe that the project would be successful even if the resort opened. He gave the example of a resort in Gan island of Addu that only receives a handful of tourists every few weeks. He explained: "I am not saying that the resort would not open or that tourists won't arrive, but look at
Ocean Reef in Gan. That resort is open, but it's still a big failure" (Interview on July
12, 2007). He feels that Herathera will be a failed project like all the other tourism initiatives in Addu in the past.
Individuals were also not too sure that the resort would result in actual employment opportunities for their community. These feelings are a direct result of
79 the various experiences that the individuals have had since the inception of the project.
The official discourses that surround the Herathera project identify the local communities in Addu and the southern region as the main and direct beneficiaries of the project. But, during interviews, many participants explained that they did not feel they had much to gain from the project. They did not see themselves as the beneficiaries of the project. Hassan explained;
Although Herathera is in Addu, it is not going to be beneficial for Addu people, especially not for people from Hulhudhoo. A person from Hulhudhoo has a harder time finding a job at Herathera than any other person. (Interview on July 10, 2007).
These opinions are linked to personal experiences. Hassan explained why he did not believe that the project will benefit his community:
When the project was starting, I was one of the first ten people to apply for a job at Herathera. But it took one year and ten months before they gave me a job. I don't know why I didn't get the job before. There are a lot of people in Hulhudhoo who want employment but can't get a job in Herathera. There are many people from other islands with less capacity brought to work in Herathera. (Interview on July 10, 2007).
Hassan's personal experience in trying to find employment at Herathera partly informs his stand that Herathera is not a project that will bring development to his community.
80 Initially, there were initiatives that suggested that the project might be able to integrate and encourage full participation of the community. Hassan told me about an incident that happened right before construction began:
A well known Hulhudhoo business man who had invested in the Herathera project met with the community. He explained that the project required enough fresh bread for 600 people everyday. He wanted to know how much bread the community could supply and asked different households to quote how much they could provide on a day to day basis. The island office was given the task of organizing the supply of bread from multiple households. By the next day, the decision had been revoked and the job of supplying bread to Herathera was given to one single party (Interview on July 10, 2007).
Hassan saw the initial plan of including the whole community in the production and supply of bread to Herathera construction workers as a great way to allow the community to benefit from the project. The plan was more participatory and included a large portion of the population. By introducing such an idea to the community, the community had been given some hope and a sense of belonging. By participating in the project and supplying fresh bread to the workers, community members could feel that they were part of the project and that Herathera was truly their project. But when the project management withdrew their initial offer the community felt deceived.
Such experiences make individuals and the community sceptical and critical of the project. They also make individuals refrain from holding too high expectations about the resort and their future livelihood and socio-economic development of the community.
81 Although Shareef has held a stable job at Herathera and has been assured future employment, he is careful to plan his future life in Hulhudhoo. Shareef and his wife moved to Hulhudhoo when they learned about job opportunities at Herathera.
Shareef had a stable job in Male' but decided to move home where his family lived and where he did not have added expenses such as rent and where life was more comfortable. Although Shareef has been involved with the construction phase of the project since its inception, he is still not willing to accept his employment with the company as a permanent job. Shareef understood his job at the project as a temporary form of employment that will end soon. When I asked him about his plans for the future, he said that when the construction phase of the project ended he planned to go back and work in a resort near Male' (Interview on July 12, 2007).
Many individuals were unable to envision Herathera as an initiative that will be permanent or sustainable. They are mostly happy and content with the employment they currently have at Herathera, but do not admit to making long term plans to stay in Hulhudhoo. Baaree, an elderly security guard, is content with his job at Herathera and he is happy that two of his sons are also doing construction work at
Herathera. I asked Baaree, whether his three grown up sons working in resorts near
Male' would be returning to take up jobs at Herathera.
I think they want to return. They have been telling me that, but they will not come back unless they find similar jobs as room boys or waiters here. Before we moved to Male' to find work, now the direction will change. But they won't come until they find jobs here.
82 They won't give up their jobs until they are sure they will find stable jobs here. (Interview on June 30, 2007).
Baree emphasized his thought with the use of two rhetorical statements:
s~s f-^ss~'ss> s-^s •—'* ./VJW s»s~s s~s> [They will move just like fish travels to find food] and, y>^j -~»-v~^e S~*>~*>~J ^»—-»^»-«" "2-Sy) [You should only take flight when you've sighted a solid rock to land on]. (Interview on June 30, 2007).
Baaree explains that people will naturally move towards resources just like fish move towards food, but, at the same time, before they leave they have to make sure that their destination has the resources that they are seeking. Most Addu people want to move back, but they are unsure that the employment opportunities that they want are available for them at Herathera. Baaree and his six grown up sons have all been involved in the tourism industry, and he feels that tourism and working in tourism has helped his family. He hopes that tourism development works in Addu and that most people can have the opportunity to move back (Interview on June 30, 2007).
In the beginning of my interview with Hassan he declared that Herathera was not for Hulhudhoo people and that they had nothing to gain from it (Interview on July
10,2007). After talking about various experiences he had with the project thus far, I asked him whether he really saw no benefits for Hulhudhoo people from Herathera in the future and he said: "Well, if tourist shops open or if tourists come on excursion to the island, maybe we will benefit" (Interview on July 10,2007). Hassan's main 83 problem was that he did not believe Hulhudhoo people will get stable employment at
Herathera. He believed in the benefits of tourism development and employment at resorts in theory but did not think that he personally or his friends would be the ones to get those benefits.
Although many people had concerns and uncertainties about the Herathera project and their ability to participate and benefit from it, they all accepted that employment in the tourism industry was the ideal vocation for them and that if the
Herathera project succeeded, it would bring socio-economic development to the region (although some people questioned their ability to personally benefit from it).
Conclusion
I learned two important things through this exercise of exploring how the individuals I interacted with understood and experienced the Herathera project. First, although individuals held multiple, varied and highly critical opinions about the project, they did not contest the basic tenets of the discourse - that tourism development would bring development to Addu and the idea that, through employment, Addu people can benefit from the project.. Secondly, I learned that although my participants believed that tourism development was the solution to economic development problems in general, they did not feel that they specifically would benefit from Herathera as individuals or as a community. Individuals
84 understood the project differently, formed opinions for multiple and complex reasons and felt positioned differently than I first expected. The positions they took with regards to the project had to do with their political standpoint, their past experiences with tourism development and their personal experiences since the inception of
Herathera. Nevertheless, the subject positions taken did not contradict the popular stereotype of Addu people as tourism workers. Most informants agreed with the dominant discourse that tourism development would bring economic development to
Addu and that Addu people should ideally work in the tourism industry. Their concerns about the Herathera project had to do with how well Herathera will serve the stereotypical image of Addu people and the naturalized assumptions about tourism development. Those who held pessimistic views about the project argued that the
Herathera project will fail to bring tourists to Addu and that Addu people will not be employed at the resort. These opinions did not contradict their belief or acceptance that tourism development could bring socio-economic development and that Addu people should ideally work in the tourism industry. In the following chapter, by mapping out the socio-economic history of Addu, I address the question of why these two ideas may have become naturalized and uncontested.
In making this argument, I am not trying to underplay the concerns that individuals had about the Herathera project. The concerns and scepticisms expressed by my participants are important in considering the real lived experiences of tourism development and the actual benefits that individuals hope to achieve from the project.
85 The opinions presented in this chapter will be taken up in Chapter Five, where I consider the different concerns and expectations for development held by individuals.
The chapter will also explore the obstacles to socio-economic development for Addu people that the Herathera project may not be able to solve and consider a broadening of the term development and the term economy in a way that enables us to consider these other concerns and expectations held by my informants.
86 CHAPTER FOUR
Subjective Accounts of Addu's Socio-Economic Past
Introduction
This chapter explores the socio-economic history of Addu from the subjective points of views of my participants, drawing on their experiences and memories. The larger purpose of this discussion is to explore the kinds of development the beneficiaries of the Herathera project hope to achieve from it and to assess what the project offered for the Addu people involved. In a previous chapter I considered how the Herathera project and Addu people as beneficiaries are located within the official discourse on development. The official discourse on development equates and reduces Addu's socio-economic development to the establishment of tourism in the region and identifies the benefits of development as increased employment opportunities in the Addu region. Addu people that participated in my research agree with this development trajectory and their position as workers in the tourism industry.
This chapter explores the historical transformations through which Addu people became workers in the tourism industry and how Addu people have come to accept this position in Maldivian society.
I hope to accomplish two things in this chapter. My first objective is to show how Addu people became involved in the Maldivian tourism industry. I do this by
87 mapping out the historical developments that transformed Addu's economy from a diverse subsistence economy to an economy dependent on wage work in the tourism industry. My second objective is to explore the aspects about Addu's past that are valued today. The dominant development discourse and the lived realities of many
Addu people present employment in tourism development as the only route to development. By exploring Addu's pre-capitalist past, I hope to expand the concept of development to include factors that Addu people value in their community. By asking my participants about their past, I was able to move beyond the limited concept of development articulated in the dominant development discourse (that only values Addu people as tourism workers and that presents development as increased employment opportunities) and expand on the idea of development and what development could mean for Addu people. By telling stories about Addu people's past and comparing that with their present, the participants in my research identified the things that they valued and the things that they did not like in their community.
By taking the concept development (^^^) out of the dialogue, I was able to explore alternative ideas about development and Addu people's hopes for their future. In their historical accounts, my participants stressed the values of self-sustainability, voluntarism, communalism, and political autonomy, values that they argued the community had in the past. In this chapter I show how these aspects of community were expressed by my participants and the historical developments that led to their demise. 88 The exercise of mapping subjective opinions about Addu's past provides a window to explore alternative possibilities for Addu's socio-economic future. In the following chapter I provide an analysis of how this future could be realized. In this chapter I aim to show the existence of ideas about development (other than increased employment opportunities) and what a developed community may consist of. Thus, this chapter lays the groundwork for the analysis that I will do in the following chapter.
A History of Labour
The history that I present in this chapter is also a history about labour. The government discourse on development offers Addu people, the beneficiaries of development, the subject position of "tourism worker." The subjective histories presented in this chapter show that Addu people had multiple skills, interests, values and capabilities that they utilized towards multiple ends. But today, development depends on Addu people's ability to provide wage labour for the tourism industry.
Chakrabarty (2000) argues that it is the development of capitalist relations that has changed our understanding of human labour. By presenting subjective histories of
Addu I hope to get at these skills, interests, values and capabilities of Addu people that have been deemed unnecessary for capitalist social relations. Samuel Knafo
(2002) shows that labour is an open, creative and subjective process through which people relate, and give form and meaning, to nature. If we discern how these
89 subjective expressions come to be historically channelled into constraining forms such as wage labour we are able to get at a representation of labour that is more than simply wage work (Knafo 2002: 146). We are also able to get at the social forms that constrain the capacity of individuals to express their subjectivity (2002: 146).
This chapter explores how Addu people became wage workers and how the tourism industry became the "last resort" for Addu people. Marx (1977) postulated a new kind of commodity called labour power in his exploration of the historical and political development of capitalist social relations. In Capital (1977), Marx explained that labour power is the mental and physical capabilities existing in human beings that are exercised whenever they produce use-value. This commodity does not exist in nature, but is produced under specific conditions. Roseberry (1997) notes that two conditions are necessary in order to create labour power: firstly, the person who possesses the capacity to work (the labourer) must be free to sell it on a limited, contractual basis to the possessor of capital, and secondly, he or she must have been
"freed" from ownership or control of the means of production, and from participation in a community of producers, and must therefore sell his or her capacity to work to survive (1997: 35). In this chapter, through my participants' narratives, I will explain how Addu people lost the forms of livelihood where they were in control of the means of production and how they were channeled into providing wage labour for the
British Navy and Air Force, and later for the tourism industry. The British occupation of Addu during World War Two and the centralization of the Maldivian government
90 during the same period placed constrains on Addu people's autonomy over their economy and governance, creating conditions for disabling Addu peoples multiple forms of livelihood. Through this historical transformation, Addu people were made to accept the subject position of 'wage worker.'
A Subjective History
The subject position of 'wage worker' is not simply enforced on Addu people.
The position was created through these historical processes and Addu people assumed this position through their involvement in these processes. In other words, the subject position was created through the discourses and relations of power that operate in the society. Chakrabarty describes history as a "contradictory, plural, and heterogeneous struggle whose outcomes are never predictable, even retrospectively, in accordance with schemas that seek to naturalize and domesticate this heterogeneity" and at the same time, as a disciplined and institutionally regulated form of collective memory— with the grand narratives of rights, citizenship, the nation-state, and public and private spheres (2000: 43). This chapter will show that the subjective histories of my participants exist within the more regulated and official form of grand narratives. At the same time, individual accounts converge and diverge from official accounts of
Addu history in multiple ways. In presenting subjective histories of Addu, I am not attempting to reject the official or documented history about Addu's past or about the development of tourism in the Maldives. I recognize that individuals' understandings
91 of history are very much influenced by dominant discourses. But how individuals experience, understand and make opinions about the dominant discourses vary. I believe that it is in the multiplicity of experiences, understandings and opinions where we may discover new possibilities and ways to think about Addu's socio-economic future.
The Use of Subjective Accounts
I approach the mapping of Addu's history through subjective accounts with the understanding that individual understandings of the past are often informed by the issues that individuals are concerned about in the present and their hopes for the future. Through subjective accounts I was able to discern the issues about development that Addu people value and were most concerned about.
I use individual experiences, memories and interpretations in constructing this history of Addu. Nord explains that while memories may be constructed in culture and preserved in books, museums, or other public forms, but they come alive in the minds of individual people (1998: 409). My aim in writing this chapter is to get at the multiplicity of experiences, memories and interpretations of Addu's history, with the hopes that it provides new possibilities and tools to think about Addu's socio economic future. Historian Carl Becker's (1932) work emphasizes the importance of history for the present. Nord explains that for Becker, "good history must be useful history, living history, history that does work in the world" (1998: 409).
92 The recognition that our memories and our histories are inevitably shaped by present needs is worrying for historians because this brings about the question of what kinds of "use" history is put to (Nord 1998:410). History has often been used for projects that try to politically advance a community by making historicist arguments that attempt to provide the "real truth" about the history of a community.
Such projects are problematic because they create an imaginary and false link between a story about the past (history) and the present political project of a group.
David Scott (1999) argues against these kinds of historicist assumptions when looking at how Sri Lankan history is being written. Scott is concerned about the ways in which the-truth-about-the-past is mobilized to guarantee cultural-political claims in the present (1999:17). He looks at the historical reconstruction done by Gunawardana
(1979) in his essay, "The People of the Lion," where he traces the Sinhala people's origin - a history that goes beyond the more recent past when "Sinhala" was reconstituted as the "race" of a people (1999: 94). Scott explains that Gunawardana's essay is taken as the truth about Sinhala people's past and that it has become politicized and mobilized to make claims about the community in the present (1999:
94). Scott reads this essay as a text framed by questions demanded by its own politico-discursive present (1999: 94-95). Scott argued against the prevalent view that assumes that history is objective and reflects what really happened in the past.
Through an analysis of how the Sinhala past has been used to make claims about the present, Scott argues that our knowledge about the past cannot be understood as fixed
93 since history is a reflection of present day concerns rather than a true depiction of the real past.
The history that I present is not an attempt to get at the "real" depiction of the past, but rather explores what about the past concerns people today when considering the socio-economic development of Addu. The larger goal of taking history into consideration in writing this thesis is to consider how the past becomes important when considering individuals hopes and aspirations for the future.
In presenting this subjective history from the grass roots, I do not intend to partner with a specific political project. My attempt is to present the multiplicity of experiences of past and present that influence individual's ideas about the future. My concern has largely to do with the economic development of Addu. Nevertheless, social and political concerns are integral and have much to do with the economic issues at hand. Therefore, I have no intention of attempting a break between the economic, the social and the political issues that are important to Addu people. Social and political issues figure into and are an integral part of Addu people's hopes and expectations for socio-economic development of the region. In the following section,
I present subjective accounts of Addu's socio-political and economic past.
94 Subjective Histories of Addu
Solihbe's wife Sameera'tha decided that I need to meet the elderly women of the island. She did not think that I was getting useful information about Hulhudhoo's past and present condition from hanging around the Herathera resort construction site.
She asked me to come visit her in the afternoons so that she could introduce me to the elderly women of the community. I noticed that in the afternoons many women dress up and go for leisurely walks and meet with other women. There are various shady areas on the streets where women sit and talk. There was a shady tree beside the house in which I was staying where I often saw groups of women talking. I had been very curious about them and wanted to talk to them, but was uncomfortable introducing myself. Thus I was very glad when Sameera'tha offered to help.
I was introduced to Latheefa on one of our walks. She was sweeping in front of her house when we got there. Sameera'tha asked Latheefa whether she was done working for the day and explained that I was there to get some information from her.
Latheefa said she had just finished her work and asked us to come inside the house.
Once inside the house I learned that Latheefa was a widow in her sixties who supports herself by teaching Quran and religious studies to children in her home. She also rents out rooms in her house where she lives by herself. Resort construction in
Herathera has brought in workers from other islands into the community and most of these workers rent rooms or houses in Hulhudhoo.
95 I learned my first, and maybe most important, lesson about understanding and writing about history from Latheefa. "I can only tell you the things I remember"
Latheefa said when I asked if she could tell me about the history of Hulhudhoo. I found this statement very useful in trying to understand history as a subjective interpretation of an event or experience. Latheefa has set the limits of her ability to present a history of Hulhudhoo and Addu. Her narration is limited by her ability to remember her experiences. Following her statement, Sameera'tha extends the boundaries of Latheefa's narration by adding: "You could also remember what other people before you experienced, from the stories they've told you."
The history narrated by Latheefa is based on subjective interpretations of what she remembers from her past experiences and from the stories told by others about a past that she did not physically experience. The history narrated is a subjective history that only belongs to Latheefa. Nevertheless, Latheefa as an individual is influenced by the larger discourses about Addu's history and these discourses influence her interpretation of her past. In other words, Latheefa's subjective understanding of history does not exist in a cultural vacuum, but exists within a particular and dominant history of Addu. At the same time Latheefa is the one who decides how the history will be presented to the researcher. She has the choice of selecting and emphasizing certain events, while downplaying or omitting other events. Through these narrations, I came to understand that the importance that the narrator gives to
96 certain events in the past has much to do with her concerns about the socio-economic present and future of her community.
In the following section, I will present narratives from my participants to portray socio-economic histories of Hulhudhoo and Addu region. These individual narratives are similar in many ways, but often diverge from and contradict each other.
I will also compare these narratives with what has been documented about Addu's past to show how local understandings about history differ from and challenge documented history. Finally, I will provide some background on individuals' opinions about the present socio-economic condition of Addu and their political standpoint on the issue of Addu's development to show how individuals' representations of history are in many ways linked to their present day concerns.
Multiple-Narratives on the Socio-Economic History of Addu
During interviews I asked individuals to describe how people in Hulhudhoo used to live and make a living. Most informants chose to tell stories that were told to them by their forefathers or stories about specific incidences that most people are familiar with, that is, events that are part of the community's collective memory.
What was considered history by my informants was usually the most significant moments in Hulhudhoo's collective past. Stories that are repeated over generations tend to be unusual or rare events that can be relegated to a place outside the sphere of normalcy. These were neither everyday events, nor were they stories about everyday people. Nevertheless, these stories tell us something about an individual's opinions about their current socio-economic conditions and his or her expectations from socio economic development.
Hulhudhoo's history was often told to me through stories about well known and well respected historical figures. These stories depict Hulhudhoo as an affluent, influential and wealthy community. By showing the researcher that their past lives were "better," individuals are able to explain why their present is less ideal and their hopes for socio-economic development. The different stories emphasized different aspects of life that made the past better, for example the sharing of material wealth and political participation.
While I was in Hulhudhoo, there were two historical figures that were repeatedly talked about in a celebratory way. These figures are Elhahishige
Dhonmaniku and Kalhumaguge Ali Didi. The stories about these two figures show how Hulhudhoo community's social and economic development in the past were directly linked to specific individual's wealth, education and participation in national politics.
Elhahishige Dhonmaniku is known as the most affluent and educated person in Addu Atoll.19 Solihbe told me the story of Dhonmaniku when I visited his home for lunch one day. Solihbe's wife, Sameera'tha, is the granddaughter of Dhonmaniku
I was not able to find out the exact period of time when Dhonmaniku lived in Hulhudhoo. According to Zubair Dhonmaniku was alive about eighty years ago. 98 and still lives on the land that she inherited from him. Solihbe explained that
Dhonmaniku had six ships that traveled internationally. These ships were filled with cowrie shells (a widely accepted medium of exchange in South Asia at that time) and coir ropes made from coconut husks and sailed straight from Hulhudhoo to Ceylon
(present day Sri Lanka). Documented history from 1947 indicates that the main occupations of women in Hulhudhoo were making coir ropes and harvesting cowrie shells (Ismail Didi: 117). Dhonmaniku sold the products that were made locally by
Hulhudhoo women in the Ceylon market. In exchange he would bring home soap, cloth, and other locally valued and needed commodities. Dhonmaniku's trade enabled the exchange of local goods for much needed products. Dhonmaniku's story depicts an affluent community that was participating successfully in international trade about a hundred years ago and documented history showed that that this occupation was still viable and vibrant even in 1947 (Ismail Didi: 117).
International trade was not unique to Dhonmaniku or to the history of
Hulhudhoo. Ibn Batuta's (2004 [1829]) travels to the region between 1325 andl354 provide one of the oldest documented descriptions of the Maldives.20 Ibn Batuta was a world famous Arabic traveler and explorer whose travels covered most of the
Islamic world. Batuta's description of the Maldives show that the country was heavily involved in international trade during this period of the fourteenth century. Batuta
Batuta 2004. The Arabic manuscripts on these travels were first translated to English in 1829 and the Dover edition that I reference is an unabridged republication of the 1829 translation. explained that the Maldivian coir rope was well-known in the region and was used to build ships in India and Yemen. The Maldivian coir ropes were in great demand because they were indestructible and more durable than iron nails. In addition, Batuta explained that each island community caught the fish of its own island, which they then salted and exported to India and China (Batuta 2004: 178). In this way, each island had direct control of its trade and had independent international trade relations without state intervention or any form of centralized trade. This was not necessarily due to the isolation of island communities. Batuta explains that the people of one island recognized the people from the neighboring islands that belong to the same atoll or group and that any vessel that attempted to enter an atoll needed to show who they have on board before passage was permitted (Batuta 2004: 176). At the same time, the island communities were organized around a centralized governing body headed by a Queen.
Solihbe's story shows that Dhonmaniku's achievements was not only felt on an individual level, but was experienced by the whole community. Solihbe explained that Dhonmaniku learned about different kinds of farming techniques and introduced different varieties of fruits and vegetables to Hulhudhoo. Solihbe's wife Sameera'tha is the great granddaughter of Dhonmaniku and she showed me her backyard, which she inherited from Dhonmaniku, where, even today, fruits that do not exist anywhere else in the Maldives can be found. Dhonmaniku is argued to be the first person to
100 introduce mango trees to Hulhudhoo and maybe even to the Maldives. Today, mango trees are abundant in Hulhudhoo and mangos from Hulhudhoo are sold in Male'.
Dhonmaniku also harvested fish in the local ponds and distributed these fish to the community during low-fishing-season and at times of hunger. Thus
Dhonmaniku contributed to the socio-economic well-being of the community and his wealth was appreciated by the community at large. This account also shows that the community looked up to local figures in times of need, rather than the central government. Wealthy locals ensured the well-being of the whole community. The community in this sense existed as a sustainable unit.
Dhonmaniku also became well-known and appreciated at the national level through his contribution in the field of technology. It was Dhonmaniku who established the first printing press in the Maldives. Solihbe showed me around the ruins of Dhonmaniku's house and the annex where Dhonmaniku used the printing press. He explained that the printing press was later taken to Male' where the central government used it for quite some time. The story about Dhonmaniku is also a story about a wealthy, healthy and affluent collective past. The story depicts Hulhudhoo as a community of well educated traders who ensured the well-being of the whole community.
For Zubair, it is specific individuals that make a community great and renowned within the nation. For him, one way that development is measured is in how much power and influence local individuals were able, in the past, to exert on national politics, i.e. political participation. Zubair told me a story about his father,
Kalhumaguge Ali Didi (Interview on July 8, 2007).21 Ali Didi was a direct descendant from the royal family in Male'. Ali Didi's mother was the daughter of a royal prince who was exiled to the south. Ali Didi was sent at a young age to live among the royalty in Male'. He became highly educated and, on return, was appointed Hulhudhoo's island chief. Ali Didi's relationship with the royal family and his position as island chief improved the relationship between Addu and the central authorities during his leadership. Zubair told me that Ali Didi had a chest full of letters that he received from the royal family and various government officials during his lifetime. Ali Did was informed and involved in the political decisions taken by the central authorities during this time. Zubair believes that because of Ali Didi's close relationship with the royal family, the whole region became noble during that period.
Although Ali Didi's relationship with the central authorities was a personal relationship, Zubair argued that this benefited the whole community because Addu was able to participate in and influence politics at the national level. This stands in stark contrast to the post-World War Two period where Addu attempted to secede from the Maldivian central government and form their own nation-state.
Zubair argued that Addu people were more affluent in the past because they had a more direct relationship with those in power and were able to participate in the
21 Zubair does not remember when his father was born or which year he died but he remembers that his father was alive until the end of World War Two and that he died when Zubair was about 12 years old. 102 country's politics. Zubair does make a direct connection between political participation and Addu's development when he talked about the Herathera project.
Zubair believes that the Herathera project would be a success because the oppositional political party, MDP, was pressuring the government to develop Addu
(July 9, 2007). Zubair believes that the majority of Addu people support the MDP and that it is this support that is helping Addu community develop (July 9, 2007). By supporting MDP, Addu people are able to indirectly influence the government's development activities.
Zuabir's stories about the past emphasized the political and economic autonomy of Addu people. In the past, Addu people had ownership and rights to the resources that were found in the region. Addu people were also able to sustain themselves on the consumption and trade of resources that were available in abundance. As discussed in the previous chapter, the main reason for Addu's attempted secession from the Maldivian state in 1957 was their loss of autonomy in trade.
I found that, for some participants, nutrition and availability of sustainable sources of foodstuff was a big factor when considering socio-economic well-being.
Olhuala (yam) was described by informants as the staple food of Addu people before flour, sugar and rice became available. Solihbe explained that, in the past, locals ate olhuala that were either grown in their own yards or in farmed plots around the island
(Interview on June 27, 2007). He also noted that olhuala grew in abundance in Addu
103 and was a main source of nutrition in the past. The islands have the muddy and swampy soil that is ideal for its growth. Most islands also had allocated plots all throughout the island for the different families. Olhuala can be used to make a variety of food products including flour and sweets. Bread fruit, coconuts, fish and sugar made out of coconut palm sap were also main ingredients in their diet. Zubair explained that Addu was famous for producing two sugar products from the coconut palm, called fukkaru and meera, which they traded with nearby atolls (Interview on
June 26, 2007). While describing the different kinds of sugar products that Addu people historically made from the coconut and tree sap and traded with nearby atolls,
Zubair stated: "•SZZ-lSsZ "s-?" ^-'sZ-Z-Jsl s"Z* >£*J>" [People of this atoll have never even dreamt of hunger] (Interview on June 26, 2007).
These stories about Addu's past emphasize the sustainability of the community. Zubair did not explain how individuals increased their personal wealth through the trade of fukkaru and meera, but emphasized that the community had access to an abundance of resources that enabled them to trade these products.
Therefore, these stories emphasize community sustainability that was valued in the past. By emphasizing that in the past hunger was not a problem faced by Addu people
(not even in their dreams), Zubair legitimizes his image of an economically viable past for Addu. He explained that Addu was historically a very resource rich atoll.
Zubair explained that Addu people had access to the islands of Gan, Villingili,
Maamendhoo and Odessa in the past and that Addu people never experienced hunger 104 when the whole nation was in a great depression during the First World War. In the past there were enough natural resources available that they would never go hungry.
Zubair explained that today Gan and Vilingili are no longer accessible to Addu people. They belong to the state. Also due to forced relocation, the fertile lands in
Maamendhoo and Odessa were given up for housing.
Unlike Zubair, who saw Addu's political and economic past to be more prosperous in comparison to the present, a travel log written by a government official in 1947 described Addu people as a poor, backwards people stuck in their traditional ways (Ismail Didi 1947: 54). The travel log, entitled Dhonthukalaage Addu Dhathuru
(Dhonthukala 's Travel to Addu), was written by the Maldivian Under-Secretary of the
Department of Trade, who was popularly known as Dhonthukala. At this time the department of trade was the government body that dealt with imports and exports and regulating and levying duties and royalties. During his travel to Addu he acted as a representative of the state and advocated the official stand on economic development, education and health to the people of Addu. In his descriptions, Dhonthukala appeared to be very much influenced by the official or state discourses on development, progress and Addu's place in the development of the nation.
In his travel log, Dhonthukala described Addu people as a lazy people who did not do enough work to develop their livelihoods (Ismail Didi 1947: 54-55).
Maradhoo Island of Addu Atoll was described as having healthy palm trees and fertile soil. On this island each house was separated by fences and had a big yard
105 where bananas, papayas and chillies grew in abundance. Each household also had a plot of yams near the house. After describing the abundance of natural resources on the island, Dhonthukala stated that the islanders did not seem to do enough or engage in any work to grow these products (1947: 54). Although he saw a community that was well-sustained, he did not believe that the people were developed because they did not seem to be doing anything to improve their condition, for example, to increase their agricultural output. He stated that J^Xr j-ZZ-'s «»,•££• 2Z>$c "5~s-'s $™Z*"
[the people of Maradhoo Island [in Addu] are a poor and backwards people stuck in their traditional ways]. Dhonthukala's views about progress, modernization and economic development influenced how he interpreted what he saw.
It is interesting to note that Dhonthukala's emphasis was on labour and he thought about in terms of people working their land to produce goods. Dhonthukala did not believe that self-sustainability was enough or important in development. In his opinion, development was measured in how much labour people put to increase their output.
When I asked Latheefa to tell me about the history of Addu, I did not specify what kind of history I was seeking or what about history I was concerned with. I wanted to find out what about the past Latheefa was most concerned about today. In her narrative, Latheefa's mainly focused on education and nutrition. Unlike the
106 stories that celebrated Hulhudhoo's wealthy past, Latheefa sketched a less affluent picture of Hulhudhoo. She described the poverty that many people lived in when she was a little girl. Latheefa explained to me that Hulhudhoo was not really a resource rich island in the past and that most people were very poor when she was a young girl. Latheefa explained:
We did not use to have olhuala in abundance. In my memory only a few houses had it. Those who did not have olhuala would wait in the homes where olhuala was being cut that day with the hopes they will get some. Even bread fruit was not abundant back then. And fishermen did not catch a lot offish back then because boats were not mechanized and people had row boats and did not manage to catch tons offish like they do today. (Interview on July 8, 2007)
Nevertheless, her story also stressed the value placed on the fertile land and the trees that grew on the land. She explained that they had a few learned men at that time who would teach Quran and religion. But people were so poor that they had no money to give to the teacher for his services, so the teacher was given some land from plots of land that belonged to the community or local government [bandaara gandu gandu]. Her story emphasizes the fact that, although Addu as a region might have an abundance of natural resources, not all people had access to the trees and the land and therefore might have been poor and hungry. At the same time, Latheefa's story also hints at ideas of communalism and voluntarism that existed in Hulhudhoo. The fact that learned individuals were willing to teach at little or no benefit and the fact that the community or local authorities were willing to give away community land to local
107 educators shows that, although there was inequality in access to resources, there were also systems that worked for the benefit of the whole community. Also, Latheefa's statement that people actually waited at other people's homes in hopes of receiving food shows that in times of hunger rich people with resources and material wealth were willing to share with those who were poor.
Voluntary work and sharing of resources were important features that ensured the sustainability and development of the community. The teacher's job of educating children was not a form of employment but a service to the community. Individual families did not have to pay the teacher for their children's education, but instead the community as a whole provided compensation for the teacher's services. This story emphasizes the benefits to the community from the teacher's services, rather than the income the teacher gained. In Latheefa's story about olhuala, it was not an individual's wealth that mattered but how that wealth was distributed to the community.
Unlike Zubair's description, that celebrated the affluence of Addu's past,
Latheefa stressed the lack of development in the past. She described how they did not have soap to clean themselves, or enough clothing or electricity. She explained the lack of development in the past through a description of the development that she believes Addu people have today. On the other hand, Zubair explained the lack of development today through a description of the affluence of the past.
108 British Occupation: Forced Displacement and Loss of Livelihoods
In 1941, during World War Two, a secret naval base for Britain's Eastern
Fleet known as "Port T" was established in Addu Atoll's Gan Island.22 Gan was an inhabited island when the British, locally referred to as the Ingireysin, arrived in
Addu. Zubair told me the story in great detail (Interview on June 26, 2007). He explained that the population living in Gan (in the south-west corner of the atoll) was moved to Meedhoo, located at the north end of the western wing of the atoll. Some people from Gan were also relocated to two islands formerly known as Maamendhoo and Odessa (now considered part of Hithadhoo).
According to Zubair, the Royal Navy left Gan after the war and the displaced community moved back to Gan because their houses and property were still intact.
But the Ingireysin returned in 1957, this time to establish the Royal Air Force and
Gan became "RAF Gan," a base that was used intermittently until 1971 (Eastern
Fleet: Britain's Secret Base).23 This time, the community in Gan was moved to
Feydhoo (the island north of Gan) and the population in Feydhoo was moved further north to Maradhoo Island.
Avalanche Press http://www.avalanchepress.com/AdduAtoll.php ' Avalanche Press
(1977: 784). The historical developments that influenced Addu people's livelihoods also influenced the population demographics through forced displacement and migration. Roseberry notes that "the historically specific laws that Marx referred to do not develop mechanically, but through the actions of human agents" (1997: 37). In
Addu's history of displacement and migration, people were first internally displaced to accommodate the British and later driven to the central region to find employment.
The establishment of the naval and air force base not only internally displaced the Addu population, but also impacted the livelihoods of the people. The British presence in Addu transformed the way of life in irreversible ways. Before contact with the British, Addu people had access to the atoll's most resource rich areas. Gan,
Maamendhoo and Odessa were resource rich areas from which Addu people sought livelihoods. Addu was blessed with rich soil that produced yams, coconut palms and many varieties of fruits. Zubair explained to me:
Ingireysin were not only occupying Gan, but they also were also stationed at [multiple locations across the atoll]; Maamendhoo, Hithadhoo, Koatey, Villingili, Herethere, north end of Meedhoo, Koduhuraa besides maa kandu and kuda kandu. (Interview on July 3, 2007)
110 With British occupation, certain areas were closed off and Addu people could no longer farm or forage in these resource rich areas. Zubair explained that when people were forced to relocate and housed in new areas, they often populated and destroyed fertile areas that were more useful as agricultural or foraging land (Interview on June
26,2007).
In addition to taking away their fertile lands, the British occupation also impacted Addu people's trade. Zubair explained that the Ingireysin blocked the two entrances to Addu, at maa kandu on one end and Gan kandu near Gan on the southern side (See Appendix 2). They placed a net at these entrances and permission from the
Ingireysin was required to enter the atoll. Addu traders could no longer travel freely to trade between atolls and to trade internationally.
Thus, with the coming of the British, the Addu people had to give up their multiple livelihoods and diverse trade relations locally and internationally. With such constraints on their livelihoods, Addu people were left with very limited options.
Solihbe explained that, when the British arrived for the second time in 1956, they employed young men from Addu for labour intensive jobs at their base in Gan
(Interview on June 27, 2007). The workers were paid every two weeks. Many chose stable employment at Gan over fishing, which was seasonal. Employment at Gan also gave Addu people wages and the wages became desired and valued because people were able to purchase goods from the Ingireysin using the money they earned.
Solihbe described the changes that took place in this period as people learned how to
111 drink tea and prepare food using flour, rice and sugar (Interview on June 27, 2007).
These products were not part of the common man's diet in Addu prior to the arrival of the British. Solihbe noted that people started wearing sandals and that infrastructure developed as tin roofs and cement walls replaced thatching made out of coconut palm leaves.
Zubair told me that he used to travel by ship to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and
Cochin in India to trade for goods before the British occupation. But, between 1965 and 1975, the locals could only trade with the Ingireysin (Interview on July 2, 2007).
Zubair explained that the Ingireysin issued trade licenses to eighteen Addu traders and only these people were allowed to trade and sell products locally (Interview on
July 2, 2007). During this period Zubair had a trade license. In order to sell goods locally, he would first place an order with the Ingireysin who would import the products he asked for from Singapore.
I would place an order of what I wanted and deposit 50% of the price of the goods and they would bring the products from Singapore; roofing material, staple foods, onions; we used to supply all the onions needed in Male'. Trade was good. But our ships were left idle and deteriorated during this period. (Interview on July 2, 2007)
In this way, trade could only happen with the British acting as middlemen. This took away from the autonomy of Addu traders and made them dependent on the British.
In the later period of British occupation, Addu people's attempted secession from the Maldives placed more limitations on Addu traders. Zubair told me that their
112 passports were no longer deemed valid and they were afraid to travel in case they got into trouble with the Ceylon government (Interview on July 2, 2007). After the
British left Addu, Addu people attempted to resume their trade with Ceylon. But
Zubair explained that by that time, the sarukaaru had enforced trade licensing and only those with a trade license could trade internationally (Interview on July 2,2007).
Zubair tried to acquire a license but was told that he was not approved.
According to Solihbe, education and boat building were the two areas that remained stagnant during this period (Interview on July 27, 2007). Schooling was formally enforced during Mohamed Ameen Didi's presidency (1953), but Solihbe explained that little effort was made to develop education in the region and few realized its importance (Interview on July 27, 2007). The fishing industry deteriorated during the period of British occupancy because many chose stable wage labour at the
British base over seasonal fishing. The fishing boats and the big ships that traveled internationally were also left to deteriorate over this period and were in disrepair and were no longer in working condition by the time the Ingireysin left.
When the Ingireysin left in 1969, Addu people lost their primary source of income. At the same time, their prior forms of livelihood were no longer viable, as they no longer had the resources to travel, trade and fish and they no longer had access to the fertile lands.
Zubair stated that, when the Ingireysin left, all their resources and infrastructure remained intact (Interview on July 3,2007). Zubair claimed that the
113 Ingireysin left behind enough material to run the base for five more years; the hospital was stocked with enough medicine for everyone in the atoll, the oil tanks were filled to the brim and even the pen that they used to write with was left in its place on the table (Interview on June 26,2007). But, according to Zubair, sarukaaru (the government) decided that these resources were best utilized in Male' and thus transported everything to the centre and auctioned off many of the items. Zubair maintained that the sarukaaru even sold the trees in the islands and the underground cables used by the British to communicate between the islands in Addu (Interview on
June 26, 2007).
An alternative argument is found in Dhonthukala's travel log where he describes how the Ingireysin destroyed most of the infrastructure and also took all their resources back with them (when they left Addu for the first time) (Ismail Didi
1947: 69-71). Dhonthukala also claimed that Addu people stole and destroyed the resources left by the Ingireysin when they were first stationed in Addu (Ismail Didi
1947: 71).
The contrasting positions taken in the two stories are significant because the economic status of Addu at the time of British departure is important in determining what caused the socio-economic demise and economic marginalization of Addu.
Many people from Addu, like Zubair, argue that the British helped Addu to develop by providing them with infrastructure that could have helped them improve their economy (Interview on June 26,2007). But he also argues that the central authorities
114 chose to rob Addu of their resources and utilized them to make Male' prosper. On the other hand, Dhonthukala's claims that the British did not intend to help Addu people after they left the atoll and that, even if some resources remained, Addu people destroyed them. By making such an argument, the central authorities are able to wipe their hands clean of the issue of Addu's socio-economic demise.
Both stories agree that the economic condition that Addu people were left in after the British left was undesirable and not sustainable. Evidently, many people were forced to leave Addu during the period that followed. The large number of Addu men that moved to Male' were absorbed into the tourism industry that emerged in the early 1970s. Zubair told me that when the Ingireysin left there were not a lot of options to make a living in Addu (Interview on July 9, 2007). Many people moved to
Male' during this period because there were more options for jobs in the central region of the country. Many people from Addu found jobs in the resorts that were just opening around Male.' Addu people were considered to be ideal for resort jobs because they knew how to speak English and the customs of the British and they also knew how to serve foreigners (Interview on July 9, 2008).
Solihbe states that:
When the Ingireysin left Addu we lost our jobs. Around the same time tourism started in Male' atoll, so everyone left and the island was left to deteriorate. Little infrastructural development took place in Hulhudhoo between 1978 and 2004 when I lived in Male:' During that time I visit home every 5-10 years and each time I saw that nothing has changed while I was gone. There has been some development in the last three years since I have been back, especially in the fishing
115 industry. There were two big fishing boats in use when I came and now four more boats are in operation in the island. (Interview on June 27, 2007)
The Subject Position of 'Tourism Worker'
Addu people assumed their subject positions as workers in the tourism industry through the historical developments that created the conditions for disabling
Addu people's prior forms of livelihoods. When the British occupied Addu, Addu people lost access to the resource rich areas of Addu atoll. Addu people were no longer allowed to trade freely with other countries and with other atolls. As they lost their autonomy to trade, their ships deteriorated over the years. The centralization of the Maldivian government also worked to inhibit Addu's development by taking away Addu people's autonomy over their resources and trade. These factors forced
Addu people to provide wage labour at the British base in Gan. Addu people became used to working with foreigners during this period and, when the British left, their prior forms of livelihood were no longer possible as their boats were in disrepair, they did not have access to the atolls natural resources and they did not have permission to trade internationally.
116 The stereotype of Addu people as ideal workers in resorts developed through their historical relationship with the British. During the British occupation (1941-45 and 1957-75) Addu people worked at the British base in exchange for wages. Addu people became familiar with foreigners and working for foreigners. When the British left, tourism was just starting in the central region and the socio-economic conditions in Addu were beginning to force a large number of people to move to the central region to work in this emerging industry. There was a significant number of Addu people working in resorts and, due to their previous experience with the British, it was taken for granted that Addu men only work with "dhon meehun" (the white people) (Saeed 2003: 62). It is not surprising that this stereotype continues to be invoked. Addu people still make up the majority of workers in the tourism industry.
The "tourism worker" is only one very specific stereotype given to Addu people.
Conclusion
The history that I present in this chapter shows that, among the participants in my research, development was not only understood through the lens of employment.
It is clear that Addu people value other factors such as the self-sustainability of their community, political and economic autonomy, voluntarism and communalism.
Through historical developments that disabled prior forms of livelihood, Addu people have come to accept their position as workers in the tourism industry. The specific project of Herathera, and Addu people's position in it, is only understood through the
117 lens of employment because these other factors are not part of the definition of development presented by the government discourse that informs this project.
Nevertheless, these historical accounts show that these factors are valued when individuals think about their community's development.
Labour, as wage labour, was not an important factor in Addu's history. In fact, in earlier years, the concept of wage labour did not exist as we understand it today. It is clear from the stories of participants in my research that, even though individuals provided labour (for example as teachers in the community), the value of their labour was not measured in how much they earned in return, but in the service they provided to the community. Individual wealth was valued in how it was shared and distributed to the community. Individual power (political) was measured in how it transformed the community's position within the country and how it helped the community politically, not in individual benefits. Wage labour only measured the value of labour in terms of wages earned. By focusing on individual participation in wage labour, the government discourse overshadows the importance of the community's self- sustainability, wealth distribution, political and economic autonomy, and voluntarism and communalism in the community. These factors were important for my participants, but they were only able to articulate these values outside a discussion about the specific Herathera project, because the discourse that informed the project did not articulate the concept of development through these terms.
118 By exploring Addu's pre-capitalist past, I was able to expand the concept of development to include factors that Addu people value in their community. By asking my participants about their past, I was able to move beyond the limited concept of development articulated in the dominant development discourse (that only values
Addu people as tourism workers and present development as increased employment opportunities) and expand on the idea of development and what development could mean for Addu people. These narratives pave a path to explore "development" beyond the limited scope of capitalist economy and modernist ideas about progress.
In the final chapter of this thesis, I will explore the possibilities of enlarging Addu people's possibilities for development by considering ways to move beyond the official discourse on development that reduces Addu's economy to tourism and reduces Addu people to employees of the tourism industry.
119 CHAPTER FIVE
Exploring Alternative Development Trajectories
If history is but a tale of unfolding moral purpose, then each link in the genealogy, each runner in the race, is only a precursor of the final apotheosis and not a manifold of social and cultural processes at work in their own time and place. (Wolf 1982: 5).
Modernity can no longer be treated as the Great Singularity, the great attractor towards which all tendencies ineluctably gravitate, the path to be trodden by all trajectories leading to an inevitable steady state. Rather, "modernity and its exteriorities" .. .should be treated as a true multiplicity, where trajectories are multiple and can lead to multiple states. (Escobar 2004: 255).
Introduction
As considered in earlier chapters, government discourse on development in the Maldives equates Addu's economic development with the development of tourism and understands Addu people's position in the economy as workers in the tourist resort. Addu people are to benefit from the Herathera project by becoming employees of the Herathera resort. As I have shown, this discourse is accepted by the Addu people that participate in the Herathera project. Nevertheless, a closer look at the
Hulhudhoo community shows that many people who desire and identify themselves as possible beneficiaries of the project may not be employable at the resort. The reason for this is that the Hulhudhoo community is known to have a high population of male youth drug addicts and the resort management would not be willing to 120 employ drag addicts. The government did not take the problem of drug addiction and other related social problems such as theft and violence into consideration when the project was conceived at the policy level. But these issues have become a problem at the ground level where the project was implemented.
By exploring the issue of employability of Addu people in Herathera, it became clear to me that the Herathera project may in fact fail, both in terms of the government's objective of increasing employment opportunities for Addu people and also in bringing the kinds of socio-economic development that the participants hoped to achieve. This chapter explores how alternative possibilities to development could emerge from a community that is accepting and supportive of a dominant development trajectory that has the potential to marginalize them further from development.
I argue that dominant ideas about development are not only enforced from above, but are also imagined and sought from below. Thus alternative possibilities can only emerge through an active process of re-imagining the possibilities for development. Furthermore, subjectivities are informed by the discourses that operate in the community and so we must keep in mind that new ideas do not emerge from a vacuum.
Postdevelopment theory provides a window for considering an active process of re-imagining development futures. Postdevelopment theory involves both a deconstructive project of unhinging notions of development from the European experience of industrial growth and capitalist expansion (Escobar 2004, Gibson-
Graham 2004) and a practical project of creating the conditions to enlarge the fields of credible experiences and widen the possibilities for social experimentation (Santos
2004: 238-39, Gibson-Graham 2005). The objective is not to give up on development but to imagine and practice development differently (Gibson-Graham: 6). The postdevelopment project for the Hulhudhoo community of Addu could involve a project of expanding the understanding of community development to mean something more that just increased employment opportunities.
In this chapter I consider ways to expand our understanding of economy and development that will be more inclusive and that could promote community development in Addu. I will first explore for Addu people in need of development, the limitations to achieving this development. I will then consider how Addu people continue to understand development within the narrow economic lens of the tourism industry, while, at the same time, taking into account other ways of being and ways of survival that exist in Addu.
Acceptable Workers
This chapter begins by looking at the ways in which the Herathera project may in fact marginalize Addu people, barring them from the kinds of development that the project hopes to achieve at the policy level and that the locals hope to achieve at the practical level. Here I will focus specifically on the issue of employment.
122 Employment opportunities were identified by the Maldives Tourism Development
Corporation (MTDC) and the government as the main obstacle to economic development in Addu. The project planned to establish a 600 bed resort in Addu atoll which would require about 900 employees to run. Through in-depth interviews and participant-observation in Hulhudhoo island of Addu, I learned that there were certain limitations to Addu people gaining stable jobs at Herathera. As explained in previous chapters, the Addu people that I interacted with had many concerns about the possible benefits of Herathera project. Most people accepted the government development discourse that posited tourism development as the solution to Addu's socio-economic marginalization and their position as tourism workers. Nevertheless, they were not sure that these objectives would be realized by the project or that Addu people would experience socio-economic development through this project. Participants in my research expressed concern that Herathera resort will be reluctant to employ men from Hulhudhoo because a large percentage of the male population are known to be involved in illegal drug use and are addicted to drug use. According to my informants, the percentage of male drug addicts in Hulhudhoo may be anywhere between 40% and 90%. Along with drug use, the community experiences other social problems such as theft and violence. In this chapter I will look at how drugs, theft and violence create limitations to Hulhudhoo people gaining stable employment and experiencing socio-economic development.
123 Although the Herathera project offers employment as the solution to Addu's economic problems, it is assumed that it is up to Hulhudhoo people to help themselves by becoming acceptable workers. I will argue that the Herathera project conceived at the government policy level, using a mainstream economic model, marginalizes Addu people and Hulhudhoo community by identifying them as unemployable and undeserving of socio-economic development. The project does not identify the reasons for their unemployability as social issues that need to be addressed at the time the project was planned. By failing to consider the social issues that exist in society, the project fails to help those who are in need of development.
Identifying the Addu People in Need of Employment
Government discourse argues that the socio-economic marginalization of
Addu is due to a lack of employment opportunities in the region. Herathera project hopes to solve the problem by creating 900 new jobs in the region. Thus I was interested in determining who, in Addu, were in need of employment.
One of the questions that I asked people while doing fieldwork was how
Hulhudhoo people make a living. Most people proudly proclaimed that Hulhudhoo people were successful traders. Hulhudhoo people are also popular for their success as traders in Male'. Most individuals I interviewed also asserted that the majority of the shops that line the main street in Male' were owned by Hulhudhoo business men.
This success is only experienced by some families that have managed to establish themselves in Male'. So, the popular image of the Addu trader only applies to Addu people living in Male'. There were very few shops and business in Hulhudhoo. When
I was in Hulhudhoo I noticed only one restaurant, a tea house, and a few shops. Most of the people that live in Hulhudhoo either depend on remittances from family members working in resorts in the central region or on seasonal fishing.
On arrival in Hulhudhoo, I was very impressed by the beautiful fishing boats in the harbour. Hulhudhoo is a very well known island for their success in fishing.
One of Hulhudhoo's boats was famous for always winning the national record for most catch each year. But the period I spent in Hulhudhoo was low season for fishing and most boats did not go out to fish. Many fishermen were out of work or had joined the Herathera workforce. There was a serious shortage offish in the community while
I was there. With fishing only possible seasonally, tourism was expressed as the only viable option for any Addu person wanting to make something of himself.
When I went to Hulhudhoo to do fieldwork I was told by participants that there were no men with any potential there. On many occasions, elderly members of the community in particular described Hulhudhoo's younger population as a useless generation lost to drugs. I was told that anyone who would measure up to anything was already in Male' making a living and supporting their families by working in a resort or by running a business. In Hulhudhoo I was surprised to find that many young men and women were unemployed. Most households were only receiving
125 income from individuals who worked at Herathera. For many of the young people I interacted with, their job at Herathera was their first job.
I tried to find employment statistics on how many people in Hulhudhoo were formally employed. I could not find any existing employment statistics for
Hulhudhoo community specifically, but I was able to obtain some aggregate figures.
The official census records published in 2000 showed that 50% of the population were not economically active in the Maldives (ADB 2002: 7). This figure was higher for women, where 60% were recorded to be economically inactive. The Maldives has a large youth population and census records from 2006 show that youth (ages 18-35) make up more than a third of the population (MPND 2007a: 4). Of this youth population, forty percent of women and twenty percent of men are unemployed in the
Maldives (MPND 2007a: 4). At present only 50% of school leavers are able to gain entry into the labour market (MPND 2007a: 4). With such a bad track record for the nation as a whole, it was not surprising that most people in Hulhudhoo appear to be unemployed.
The objective of the Herathera project is to provide more job opportunities in
Addu Atoll. When the project became public, many in Male' started debating whether
Addu people working in resorts near Male' would choose to move back to Addu and take up jobs at Herathera. MTDC does present the Herathera resort as an opportunity
126 for Addu people living in Male' to move back home (MTDC, About Us) . The popular stereotype of Addu families shows a displaced and separated family unit, where the father spends months at a time away from his family while working in a resort, while the mother and children live in a crowded rented room in Male'. There are multiple social problems that arise from such displacement and disintegration of the family unit. The government believes that Herathera will provide a solution to the social and economic problems faced by many people from Addu, including those living in Male' and working in resorts near Male'. The public company in charge of the Herathera project stated in their website:
"The damage to the social fabric created due to difficulty of getting employment close to home is an issue that MTDC is concerned about. As such the company has planned its business activities in a way which will counteract these predicaments to create healthy, happy and economically stable families within the Maldivian community" (MTDC, About Us).25
Thus, the project has been presented as the solution to Addu people who live in congested rented rooms in Male' who want to return to Addu to take up similar jobs back home. It has been, in effect, presented as the solution to all the economic as well as social problems faced by Addu people everywhere.
Through my interactions in the community, I came to realize it was the youth living in Addu that were in dire need of employment. While people in Male' and the
http://www.mtdc.com.mv http://www.mtdc.com.mv government were debating whether Addu people working in resorts near Male' would want to move to Addu and what that would mean for the tourism industry in the central region, they have often overlooked the thousands of people that were currently living in Addu. Many people imagine Addu as a deserted and desolate place that exist apart from the Addu people who have abandoned it. In Hulhudhoo I met middle aged men who had never held a formal job and many school leavers who had not worked in years. These were the Addu people who were most marginalized from experiencing socio-economic development.
Most people I interacted with in Hulhudhoo hoped to gain employment at
Herathera. They wanted to be part of the development project and saw themselves as beneficiaries of the project. In the following section I will present life stories to show how individuals became employees in tourist resorts and how they may have come to accept this position.
Acceptance of the "Tourism Worker" Position
In this section I will present life stories of how individuals became involved in the tourism sector. The purpose of presenting these stories is to show how the role of resort worker is assumed by individuals naturally, but also out of necessity. The stories show how individuals accept this position.
128 By the time a young man finishes high school, he already has a network of friends and family who work in resorts who encourage and facilitate their entrance into the industry. Moving to Male' was the first step towards becoming a tourism worker. Most of my informants moved to Male' at a young age in order to get a better high school education or to seek employment at a resort. Ilham26 told me his story very briefly at the beginning of our interview:
Here is what happened. I went to Male' to study when I finished fifth grade in Hulhudhoo. When Addu people go to Male', they have to rent places to live. It is difficult to live in Male'. I was living with my stepmother. In eighth grade I got kicked out of the school because of my behaviour. My family did not seem to care about this at all. One day I was walking by the water front and there was a boat from Club Med resort at the harbour. A friend of mine had told me that it was very easy to get a job at Club Med. So I thought I'd get on that boat. I did not have an appointment or interview set up. When the boat arrived in the resort I just walked up to the reception and told them I was looking for a job. They told me that they only had the janitor position open. I said I would take the job. That is how I got my first job in a resort. (Interview on July 2,2007).
Solihbe's story is similar in that he also went to Male' for education and later to work in a resort.
I first went to Male' when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I did not go for any specific purpose. I went because I wanted to see the capital island of the country. But luckily, I got the opportunity to stay in Male' to get an education. After I finished high school I came home for a visit. I wasn't planning to stay in Hulhudhoo then, but my sister asked me to stay a while longer. So I thought I might stay and get married. I got married and we had a child. I realized that I needed to
Ilham was in his late twenties and had been living in Hulhudhoo for about five months when I met him. And he told me that he was waiting to get a job at the tourist shop in Herathera when it opened. 129 support my family. So I had to go back to Male' to get a job at a resort. (Interview on July 15, 2007).
Neither Ilham nor Solihbe compared their choice of working in a resort with any other options for employment that may or may not have been open for them.
Working in a resort and living apart from one's family was understood as an acceptable choice. Solihbe explained:
We always dreamt of a day when we could earn a living while living at home, with our wives and children. But we didn't take this idea so seriously. For us, it has always been accepted that we would have to go away to make a living. (Interview on July 15, 2007).
Individuals also receive encouragement from family and friends to take up resort work. Many young men are directed towards employment at tourist resorts straight out of high school. Ahusan, a Herathera employee in his early twenties explained:
I first went to Male' in 1993 when I was about 10 years of age. During that time a lot of people from Hulhudhoo moved to Male. My younger brother died because he could not get required medical attention in Hulhudhoo. There weren't good health facilities here. When my brother died, my father decided that the whole family should move to Male'. Due to lack of services, we felt forced to move to Male'. I came back in 1998 for the school holidays and then started to come back each year. I really enjoyed life in Hulhudhoo. In the later years of high school I lost interest in school. My father and brother were working at Lhohifushi resort at that time and they pushed me to work there. I did not actually like working there. Since then I have worked in many resorts. (Interview on July 20,2007).
Baaree was working as the captain of a boat that traveled between atolls when he was encouraged by a relative to get employed at a resort. He had been working on boats
130 for many years when he decided to find employment at a resort (Interview on June
26,2007). He felt that working on the sea for so many years was making him frail and weak. So he wanted a less strenuous job. He took up a job as a room boy at the resort where his relative worked and stayed at that job for one year.
For most individuals finding employment at one of the eighty plus resorts near
Male' does not seem to be difficult. But what struck me as significant was the fact that most of the jobs these men secured were very low-skilled and, most of the time, I found that these men were not able to keep their jobs for very long. Also, there did not seem to be much room for promotion to better positions. Jobs were lost just as easily as jobs were given. Resorts could hire individuals for low-skilled jobs without much training or any academic credentials. The ease with which individuals were hired also made it easy for them to quit a job and move to another resort whenever they wanted. It also made it easier for resort management to replace workers. Ilham's story shows the instability of low-skilled employment at resorts.
I worked in Club Med for about fifteen days. But the work was really bad so I quit. After that I went to work in a Safari Boat. But I felt sea sick so I quit after about a month. Then I went to Kanuhuraa resort because my brother managed a tourist shop there. I worked at the shop for about eleven months. Then the resort management decided to operate the shop themselves. So I had to leave. Then I went to Raa Meedhupparu. I stayed there for two years. But I had some problems with my supervisor. He was trying to get me fired so I quit. Then I went to a tourist shop in Olhuveli resort. I stayed there for more than two years. I like working in tourist shops the best. But they would not give me leave to go to Male' so I quit again. Then I went to Full Moon resort as a waiter. While I was working there I heard about Herathera and my sister told me that her husband would get a tourist shop when
131 Herathera opened. So I decided it would be best if I came back home to Hulhudhoo. Now I am waiting for Herathera to open so that I could work in my brother-in-law's shop.
Working in any one of the resorts near Male' did not make a big difference to the Addu men that I interviewed. All resorts offered similar low-skilled jobs and they would most likely be working with people from their home island. They had to live away from their families and could only visit once a month (if they lived in Male') or once every three months (if they lived in Addu).
The flexibility of employment in tourist resorts near Male' could have possibly benefited workers because they knew they could always find work in a resort. But employment at Herathera offers a lot more than just a tourist job.
Herathera offers Addu people an opportunity to give up their rented rooms in Male', rebuild their dilapidated houses and move back to Addu with their whole family.
People could work at Herathera during the day and come back home to their families in the evening. The participants in this research agreed that this was something that most Addu people desire. Solihbe explained:
People who left Addu thirty years ago, who have land and houses in Male' are settled there. They might not want to move. But I think the young people living in Male' are thinking of alternatives to the life their parents experienced in Male'. They are trying to move back. I know two young couples who are planning to move back. They have already started building houses in Hulhudhoo. (Interview on June 27, 2007).
Muiz, a young man in his twenties, shares Solihbe's sentiments. Already we have people who have given up nice jobs in other resorts to come here. They are doing manual construction work under the hot sun to build this resort. Once the resort starts operating well there will be many more who would want to move back. I never thought I would ever do manual labour, but here I am and I do not care, because I can live in Hulhudhoo. (Interview on July 8,2007)
Development Only For Those Who Deserve It
Stable employment at Herathera is a requirement if people are to return to
Addu, as there are not many other employment options available for people in Addu.
Although most people agreed with the government's plan to bring economic development to Addu through tourism development and accepted their position as workers in the resort, many were deeply concerned about factors that may stand in the way of tourism development in Addu and their participation in it. For example,
Shareef worried about what would happen to the resort after the 2008 presidential elections (Interview on July 12, 2007), while Hassan wondered whether the new management that takes over the Herathera resort will still be committed to employing
Hulhudhoo people, rather than foreign labourers (Interview on July 10, 2007). These seem to stem from the concerns of some participants that Herathera resort will be reluctant to employ men from Hulhudhoo because a large percent of the male population were known to be involved in illegal drug use and were addicted to drug use. Along with drug use, the community experiences other social problems such as theft and violence. The association of Hulhudhoo Island and its members with drugs, theft and violence might make Herathera management distance themselves from the community.
Many participants in my research feared that, because of these issues, the
Herathera management might employ people from other regions to work at Herathera, meaning that Hulhudhoo people with their multiple social ills would continue to live their marginal lives. As I have described in Chapter Three, many individuals were highly sceptical about the potential benefits of Herathera for Addu people and especially for Hulhudhoo people. Many felt that Herathera would further marginalize
Hulhudhoo people. They felt that they have become stereotyped as violent drug addicts who steal and therefore have been made less ideal candidates for employment at Herathera.
Participants in my research became more worried about Hulhudhoo people becoming marginalized from Herathera when a rumour spread that the resort management was planning to physically separate the Herathera resort from
Hulhudhoo. The area where the resort was being constructed was connected to
Hulhudhoo through land fill and the plan was to create a channel of sea between the two islands so that Herathera was only reachable by boat. The rumour was that the resort management wanted to separate Herathera from the local community because they were concerned that the resort would face problems with drug trade, theft, and violence from Hulhudhoo (Shareef July 12, 2007). The construction managers had already experienced theft and violence at Herathera. When I first arrived in Herathera many people were talking about a number of television sets that were stolen from the site. I also heard stories about construction material disappearing overnight and miraculously appearing in local shops in Hulhudhoo. Consequently security guards were placed at the entrance to the construction site and all workers needed permission from the project office to leave the site. Individuals and their motor bikes were checked for stolen items before they were allowed to leave.
Research participants held varying views about the issue of drugs, theft and violence. Hassan argued that the Herathera management was making too big a deal out of an issue that existed everywhere.
Theft is normal in most resort construction sites. But issues of theft are made [by the management] to be a really big problem. I don't think unusual amounts of material are being lost from the Herathera site but they make it a big issue. (Interview on July 10,2007).
Hassan also maintained that Herathera was only losing small items such as nails and the incident with the television sets was an isolated case. In addition he reasoned that the money they have to spend on increasing security, and especially the cost of physically dividing the land mass will be astronomical compared to what they were losing due to theft. Solihbe saw the problem from another angle. He was worried about the safety of the resort for tourists and he was also worried about maintaining the image of the Maldives as paradise on earth. He told me a story:
135 The French Ambassador and his wife used to come once every three months when I used to work at Kurumba Village resort as a receptionist. This was the late seventies. They used to drop their bags in their room, open all doors, set up a hammock outside and lie there all day and night. I asked them why they slept outside. They told me that this was the only place on earth where they can totally relax and feel peaceful because they did not have to worry about theft, robbery, guns or knives. Maldives was called paradise back then. I worry about Herathera because it is going to be so hard to maintain that kind of atmosphere for tourists here. They'd need to have a really good security system. The island has so many issues. The tourists would want to drop their stuff all over the beach and go around without worrying. (Interview on July 15, 2007).
Most of the resorts in the Maldives are physically separate from local communities because they are built on separate islands. But the new plan for tourism development emphasized cultural tourism and greater interaction with the neighbouring communities through activities such as tourist excursions, trade of local artefacts and cultural shows. If Herathera becomes associated with drugs, theft and violence, the resort management would not be encouraging tourists to visit
Hulhudhoo. Shareef felt that if Herathera becomes separated, it would be just like working in any other resort (Interview on July 12,2007). Shareef had a one year old child and was looking forward to coming home to his family every night. If Herathera becomes a separate island that might not be possible and he might only get to see his family once a month like in any other resort.
The possibility of physical separation aside, the biggest concern for my participants was whether Herathera resort would be willing to employ Hulhudhoo people who are stereotyped as drug addicts. I was conducting fieldwork during the construction phase of the project and the management in charge of construction did not enforce drug testing on their employees and was also willing to employ recovering addicts (i.e. those who had returned from a drug rehabilitation centre and were going through recovery). But the new management that was planning to take over the resort when it opened had strict rules about illegal drug use. During the last two weeks of my fieldwork, the participants in my research were going through the interview process for employment at the soon-to-ber-opened resort. Although they were already working for MTDC at the construction phase, they had to apply to work at the resort and go through interviews. The new employment contract for Herathera stated that employees must be willing to submit to random drug testing and that illegal drug use would be reason for expulsion. Many individuals were intimidated and worried about the interview process. When the Human Resource representatives for the new management came to Herathera, even those who were confident about their position at Herathera became worried. They started wondering whether the
Herathera management actually wanted to employ them. I asked Hassan whether he had applied for a job yet and he exclaimed:
I have worked in many well renowned resorts in my life. I have experienced the relationship between staff and guests in these award winning resorts. Herathera is only going to be a three star resort, but the application procedure for Herathera is harder than in most five-star luxury resorts. (Interview on July 10,2007).
137 Hassan felt that the standard of employment at Herathera has been set too high. He worried that Hulhudhoo men would be unable to fulfill the job requirements at
Herathera. Hassan stated:
If they are going to bring up the drug issue when deciding on whom to employ, they will have to close down all the resorts in the Maldives. That is because the majority of youth in the Maldives are drug users. (Interview on July 10, 2007).
On an informal level, everyone I interacted with agreed that Hulhudhoo has a large percentage of illegal drug users. It was not possible to ascertain exactly what percentage of the population was addicted to drugs because there are very limited official statistics available. The first comprehensive drug study on the Maldives was published by a local non-governmental organization called FASHAN with assistance from the Narcotics Control Board (NCM) and the UNDP (FASHAN 2003). This report stated that approximately 33,864 people were using drugs in the Maldives, which accounts for roughly 15% of the population (FASHAN 2003: 69)27. The most commonly abused form of drug is a crude form of heroin locally known as brown sugar or hakuru. The most recent document on drug use in the Maldives is an ethnographic study done by JOURNEY, a local non-governmental organization run by and for recovering addicts that contains first hand accounts from individuals who are currently involved in illegal drug abuse and those who are in drug recovery
Unofficially, and in the public arena, drag prevention workers and the general public argue that at least 40% of the Maldivian male youth population are using illegal drugs. (JOURNEY 2007). The document provides very limited facts about drug use in the
Maldives.
The Herathera project offers employment as the solution to Addu people's socio-economic marginalization. However, if the resort enforces strict rules as to who is employable at the resort, a large portion of people in need of jobs may not be able to gain employment at Herathera. This creates a great gap between the expected and the realized outcome of the project. If Addu men are deemed unemployable and denied employment at Herathera, they are once again marginalized from socio economic development.
The Herathera project had been able to employ members from the Hulhudhoo community during the construction phase without any official inquiry into employees' participation in illegal activities. Informally, many people told me that a majority of Herathera workers used drugs. At the same time, the management did not raise any issues about drug problems at Herathera. In my last week at Herathera, one worker came up to me and asked if I would interview him. Ahusan introduced himself as a recovering drug addict. I asked him how long he has been working at
Herathera and he explained:
I have now been working at Herathera for over two months. I started five days after I returned from rehab. I am really happy. I was among the first to get a job here over two years ago [when the project started]. But then I got busted and went to rehab. When I came back, they still gave me a chance and I got busted again. And they have given me a job for the third time so I am really happy. The managers here asked
139 me to come back because they really want to help me recover. They have been really supportive. (Interview on July 20, 2007).
Ahusan's experience at Herathera has been very positive. He felt that the management really cared about his well-being and recovery and he also explained that having a steady job kept him busy and away from drugs (Interview on July 20,
2007). Ahusan felt that Herathera was a really good opportunity for recovering addicts to maintain their recovery. He was very happy with his job at Herathera but he was also very worried that the new management may not be willing to employ him. I asked him about his interview process for the new resort job and he explained that the new employers asked him whether he has been involved in any illegal drug use. Since he had been caught with drugs on many occasions and was now publicly going through recovery, he decided to be open about his past involvement with drugs
(Interview on July 20,2007). He hoped that by coming clean and showing his dedication to recovery, his new employees would see him as a reliable and trustworthy person deserving of employment.
Although Ahusan had gone through drug addiction and believed that stable employment was helpful in maintaining recovery, he did not believe that drug addicts should be given employment opportunities at the resort (Interview on July 20,2007).
He believed that drug addicts would cause too many problems for the resort. I asked him what kinds of problems and he explained that it would be problems of theft and violence (Interview on July 20, 2007). I became concerned about this issue during the last few weeks of my fieldwork, as I began to see a contradiction in the project and its promised benefits. I realized that the project had the potential to offer employment, while at the same time rejecting a large portion of the population as workers. I began to ask people why the project has been planned in such a way. I wondered whether the project planners had considered the social issues (illegal drug use, violence and theft) that exist in the community when planning such a huge project. I saw that the construction managers were open and willing to help recovering addicts, so I thought they might be interested in looking for ways to make the project work for the people of Hulhudhoo.
A group from JOURNEY, a local NGO involved in drug prevention, visited
Hulhudhoo during the period when I was discussing this issue with my participants.
They were looking for volunteers to participate in a one month training workshop.
The volunteers would be trained in counselling and in conducting drug prevention work at the community level. I met with this group and told them that they should talk with the managers in Herathera to see whether they would let some Herathera workers attend the workshop. The group met the management and had a very positive discussion and the managers promised to let a few of the administrative staff attend the workshop.
Ideally, I saw this as an answer to the problem of employability at Herathera. I imagined Herathera could work as a rehabilitative community that would welcome recovering addicts and provide counselling and support to the employees. In this way,
141 employment at Herathera would mean more than an individual's ability to labour, but would also bring benefits to the community through individual participation in rehabilitation. I had such a positive discussion with the group from JOURNEY and the management about the issues at Herathera that I decided to voice my ideas to anybody that would listen. The next morning I came to Herathera and started talking to some workers who were sitting at the tea table about my idea. They all looked at me and started laughing. They told me that they had seen me with the "drug- awareness people" yesterday and started laughing again. I asked them what was so funny. This incident and the discussion that followed made me realize how local people understood their problem with drugs. They did not believe that the community's problems with drugs had much to do with awareness. They explained that everyone, even a small child, in Hulhudhoo knew about drugs and what it does to people. The real source of the problem was not awareness, but the supply and availability of drugs. They argued that people used drugs because they were available and because they had nothing else to do in the community. They blamed the government for failing to control the entry of drugs into Hulhudhoo. Zubair expressed this sentiment in an interview:
The government made guns illegal. And they are able to make sure no guns get into the country. If they can do that, they should be able to stop the drugs from entering too. They are not doing a good enough job keeping the doors into to the country secure. (Interview on July 8, 2007).
142 The same argument was made by many people over the last few weeks of my fieldwork. They did not feel that drug prevention and drug rehabilitation work were impacting a significant portion of the population. In fact, I asked Ahusan how many recovering addicts were in the community. Ahusan told me that there were only three addicts that had gone to a rehab facility in Gan Island and were still 'clean' (Interview on July 20, 2007). Ahusan explained that the biggest obstacle to recovery is community support. He told me that he felt the most defeated when he returned home from rehab and heard a community member say: "He would not last five days"
(Interview on July 20,2007). I later found out that the Herathera management refused to let their workers attend the drug awareness training workshop. They explained that they could not afford to lose the workers for a whole month. The community blamed the government for allowing the drug problem to escalate and for not trying to control the situation in Hulhudhoo.
The social problems of drug addiction, theft and violence were well known in
Hulhudhoo. Nevertheless, these issues were not considered when the government and
MTDC planned the project at the policy level. I came to realize that the Herathera project, as conceived in Male' at the government level, had failed to realize the social issues that stand in the way of benefiting the people that were in need of development. The project was planned from a purely economic standpoint and did not consider the social factors that will influence the outcome of the project.
143 Therefore, I argue that the Herathera project further marginalizes Addu people by barring them from participating and benefiting from projects of development. The further marginalization of Addu people living in Addu is not going to help develop
Addu communities develop economically and socially. The Herathera resort itself may succeed by employing people form outside the atoll and by disassociating itself from Hulhudhoo. But this will do little to develop the community of Hulhudhoo.
This economic marginalization is not understood by the government or by the majority of the community as a problem that needs to be solved at the policy level.
Most people argue that those people identified as drug addicts, or thieves were not deserving of employment at Herathera. Even Ahusan who feared his past involvement with drugs would hamper the possibilities of getting a job at Herathera felt that drug addicts should not be welcome at the resort.
Negotiating Postdevelopment Pathways
How can we think about community development when a large portion of the population has been identified as undeserving of development, by the discourse and by the community itself? How can possibilities for development emerge from a community that is accepting and supportive of a dominant development trajectory that has the potential to marginalize them further from development? I am concerned with the socio-economic development of the Addu people living in Addu and I argue
144 that since dominant ideas about development are not only enforced from above, but also imagined and sought from below, alternative possibilities can only emerge through an active process of re-imagining the possibilities for development.
Subjective positions taken on the issue of development are informed by the discourses that operate in the community. New ideas do not emerge from a cultural vacuum.
Therefore, alternative possibilities for Addu people marginalized from employment at the Herathera project could only emerge from the community actively seeking alternative trajectories to development.
Postdevelopment theory provides a window for considering an active process of re-imagining development futures. Postdevelopment theory involves both a deconstructive project of unhinging notions of development from the European experience of industrial growth and capitalist expansion (Escobar 2004, Gibson-
Graham 2004) and a practical project of creating the conditions to enlarge the fields of credible experiences and widen the possibilities for social experimentation (Santos
2004: 238-39, Gibson-Graham 2005). The objective is not to give up on development but to imagine and practice development differently (Gibson-Graham: 6). A postdevelopment project for the Hulhudhoo community of Addu could involve a project of expanding the understanding of community development to mean something more that just increased employment opportunities.
I considered how such a project could take place by exploring a case study of a postdevelopment project that took place in the small income poor Municipality of
145 Jagna in the Philippines. The Philippines has undergone a process of decentralization where administrative power and budgetary responsibilities have been transferred to the local governments who are now responsible for the development agendas of the community (Legaspi 2001). In Jagna, the local government has started working with the community, exploring alternative development pathways. The approach taken by the community has been to "build on what the Municipality has rather than what it lacks" (Gibson-Graham 2005: 9). In partnership with the local government, Gibson-
Graham28 worked with a research team in exploring the possibilities for community development in Jagna.
With the help of the research team, each Barangay or ward in the
Municipality initiated community discussions to identify their development needs and produced a detailed "needs map" (Gibson-Graham 2005: 10). The outcome of this initial exercise did not produce diverse and colourful representations of development needs (as hoped), but instead "executed a subtle conversion of a rich and diverse presence of barangay attributes into a monotonously stylized representation of lack, for which outside assistance was the only solution" (Gibson-Graham 2005: 10).
Gibson-Graham argued that this was an intriguing example of the "hold of monocultural logics," where "the participatory and potentially inspiring barangay
Gibson-Graham is a pen name used by two economic geographers to represent their joint authorial personality
This raises an important question: How can we imagine alternative pathways to development if the local community involved in the process is unable to think outside mainstream development discourse that emphasizes on absence and lack? In the case of the Municipality of Jagna, the research team's approach was to shift the conversation towards assets that the community had that could be utilized towards projects of collective development (Gibson-Graham 2005: 11). Through such an exercise, the community was able to come up with a very different map of "assets"
(Gibson-Graham 2005: 11).
According to Gibson-Graham, the practice of postdevelopment can be understood as "a language project of representing the economy as diverse" and "an action research project of negotiating postdevelopment pathways" (2005: 1). Gibson-
Graham argues that the dominant discourse of development derived from
Enlightenment thinking has created a language of development that focuses on "lack" and "absences" (2005).
In the Philippines the dominant discourse on development prescribes economic growth derived from exports - attracting foreign industrial investment, supporting export-oriented agriculture and the export of contract labour (Gibson-
Graham 2005: 9). One-sixth of the population of Jagna depends on incomes generated by Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs). Gibson-Graham challenges mainstream
147 development that holds capitalist economy and productivity as the only dynamics that will produce economic development and argues for a diverse economy, in which
"what is usually thought of as the mainstream economy - market transactions, wage labour and capitalist enterprise - is joined by all the economic "others" that sustain material survival and well-being (2005: 12). The diverse economy includes transactions, labour and enterprises that would not be accounted for in a capitalist economy, such as underground and informal market, gift giving, household flow, theft, poaching, volunteer work, house work, family care, neighbourhood work, reciprocal labour, and communal enterprises. Such an approach shows how the community is able to survive and sustain when only a small population is involved in formal market activities and wage work. Gibson-Graham states that
[t]his.. .indicates that there is a thin veneer of capitalist economic activity underlain by a thick mesh of traditional practices and relationships of gifting, sharing, borrowing, volunteering, and reciprocated individual and collective work... Daily activities are met, life course and cultural events are celebrated and community enacted. These rich mesh works of relationships are the economic practices that have been rendered non-existent, "non-credible alternatives to what exist" by the monoculture of capitalocentric thinking. (2005: 16).
Gibson-Graham calls these alternatives that sustain the majority of people in Jagna the "community economy" (2005: 16). The objectives of postdevelopment from this perspective are twofold, involving both a project of making the diverse economy visible and valuable and also a project of strengthening and enlarging the community economy (Gibson-Graham: 17). In addition to giving value to the non-capitalist activities that exist in society,
Gibson-Graham also proposes that certain community practices could be expanded by constructing locally based enterprises, using surpluses that exist in society, for example, individual life savings and communal land and property (2005: 17). Gibson-
Graham explained that migrant savers who have returned from overseas contract work interested in redefining portions of their savings as a surplus that can be invested in community enterprises (2005: 18).
I will now take a preliminary look at the community economy of Hulhudhoo in order to consider how we can think about giving value to the non-capitalist activities in Hulhudhoo. It is my contention that this will also help us to widen the scope of development in Addu.
The Community Economy of Hulhudhoo
When I learned about the experiences of lack of employment and livelihood opportunities in Hulhudhoo, I wondered how people in the island were surviving on a day to day basis. At the outset, no one I saw seemed to be suffering from hunger. No one seemed to be homeless. Everyone looked relatively healthy and well dressed.
Many had motorcycles and cell phones. There was an obvious lack of infrastructure development and formal forms of employment. However, Hulhudhoo has a thriving fishing industry, with about six big mechanized fishing boats, that brings in a
149 considerable amount of money during the fishing season. There are a few government jobs available at the island office, mosques and at the health centre and schools, but other than that there are not many places where one might go to seek employment.
Herathera was the main employer at Hulhudhoo at the time of my fieldwork. Given all of these factors, I wanted to explore the idea of diverse economy in this place and consider how, given the kinds of economic activities that exist in Hulhudhoo, people survived on a day to day basis.
Considering the large percentage of people that might be addicted to illegal drug use and may be using drugs every day, I was led to ask how these people were supporting themselves. Hassan explained that many people stole things to support their drug habit. He explained:
Drugs cost Rf 100 each day. An average person only makes Rf 100 each day. So they are forced to steal things. They would sell everything for Rf 100 even things that are worth much more, just so they get their piece for the day. The violence that we see today is also a result of drugs.
The FASHAN report estimates that the minimum amount spent on drugs per day
(median value) is 190 Ruffiya (2003: 41). On average, individuals working in
Herathera only make between Rf 115 and 150 per day. The FASHAN report also states that, out of the 195 users interviewed, 41% claimed that they supported their drug habit with their employment incomes, 29% by selling drugs, and 23% were
Most construction workers at Herathera were paid between Rf 3,500 and Rf 4,500 per month supported by friends and family. Only 9 individuals stated that they had resorted to theft.
I also learned that many people sold things in the informal or underground market. One day, Ilham was showing me around the island. He took me to some abandoned houses that were in disrepair and in which there were few remaining material items. I was not surprised by the condition of these houses until Ilham pointed out to me that all of the houses were missing brass doorknobs, door hinges, tin roofs, and even iron nails. He explained that there was a market for scrap metal and that people stole these things from houses and sold them in the informal market. I also heard from Sameera'tha that her neighbour's roof was stolen while they were fast asleep.
In addition to participation in informal market activities such as the selling of scrap metal, there are also other forms of'strategic' economic activities that people engage in and that sustain the community. I was in Hulhudhoo during the low season for fishing and so there was a felt scarcity of fish in the community. There was a fisherman living in the house adjacent to the house in which I was staying. On days that the fisherman caught fish, his wife would bring a portion of food that she prepared from the fish to the family living in the house. This form of food sharing was an aspect about the Hulhudhoo community that people valued in the past. Solihbe told the story about Elhahishige Dhonmaniku who distributed fish from his pond during periods of hunger and Latheefa told us about how people waited at the houses
151 where olhuala was being cut so that they may get a share of the produce (Interview on July 8, 2007).
I also found instances of voluntarism. For example; I found out that Ilham, who was unemployed at that time, was giving rides to a worker at Herathera everyday on his motorbike. He did not ask for payment and felt that it was not a burden on him.
He explained that it took him less than five minutes to drive the person to work, while it would have taken over forty minutes if the person had to walk. In fact, I was offered rides to Herathera by most people who passed me on my way to Herathera.
There are many other examples of gift giving, volunteering, family care, food sharing and reciprocal labour that I could mention here that would demonstrate the importance of non-capitalist activities in sustaining the community. A community development project could explore the non-capitalist activities that exist in this community, that help maintain the survival and material well-being of the community and make them visible and valuable aspects of the community economy.
Gibson-Graham's (2005) work taught me that alternative possibilities can only be realized through community members actively working together to find alternatives that work for them. In addition, postdevelopment thinking and the case study taken up by Gibson-Graham both show us that alternatives to labour centered development are effectively taking place alongside mainstream development trajectories, and are also realized in partnership with government bodies.
152 Two events or development that I learned about made me more hopeful about
Addu's socio-economic future. One of these events was relayed to me by the chairman of MTDC, Mr. Afeef during an interview (on August 15, 2007):
We were in Equator Village one day when a group of about eight women showed up. They had a two page letter requesting some computers. They were a women's committee in Hithadhoo Island and wanted to teach computer courses. I asked them why they were not interested in doing something that will give them money like traditional thatching (fcmgivinuri) or making handicrafts (aitheri masa 'kai). They said that they didn't know how to do any of those things. So the next day, we shipped them some computers and then contacted some people from Baa Atoll to teach these Addu women how to thatch, make coir rope and handicrafts. We told them that we needed 800 bundles of thatch to use as roofing material at Herathera. We would pay Rf 70 per bundle, so they can get Rf 56,000 for 800 bundles. Now it's up to them to produce the goods. The ball is now in their hands. (Interview on Aug 15, 2007).
This is an example shows how local participation in Herathera has been redefined and expanded to include activities that do not fall under "wage employment." This example also shows how greater participation and communication between local population in need of development and development planners at the policy level have led to real and felt solutions to local development needs.
I came across one other development on Facebook.30 I was introduced by a friend to an open group31 on Facebook called "Empowered Communities: Local
30 Facebook is a social networking website where individuals can join and participate in special interest groups that hold discussions and disseminate information,
[U]nder a centralised system of administration, communities have little control over available resources for service delivery and local development. Proposals may or may not be funded. Resources may or may not be allocated to local priorities. This leads to unmet expectations, frustration and lack of interest among citizens... (Discussion Board, the Concept of Local Governance).33
She also argued that the development function of the Ministry of Atolls Development was actually very limited and that it was more an administrative structure that governs the activities of Atoll Chiefs and Katheebun (Island Chiefs) (Discussion
Board, The Concept of Local Governance).34
In her email to me (on August 3, 2008), Aisha explained that a few years ago, a well-meaning Minister was put in place as the Minister of Atolls Development and he saw local governance and decentralization as a solution to many of the problems the communities faced. He made a lot of noise about corrupt and undemocratic island chiefs and island development committees that are appointed by the central
32 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7715670670&ref=ts 33http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7715670670&ref=ts#/topic.php?uid=7715670670&topic=3292 34http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7715670670&ref=ts#/topic.php?uid=7715670670&topic=3292 154 government and argued that services, even basic municipal services, are not being delivered to the islands. He then put together a team to work on local governance.
Aisha was a proud member of this team. Due to the work of this team, discussions took place with government agencies and political parties about the possibility of decentralizing the government and enforcing local governance. There was also considerable media coverage of their work on the issue of local governance. As a result, the public started talking about grassroots democracy and the concept of elected island and atoll councils. However, Aisha reported that, sadly, this Minister was transferred and thus the Local Governance Act has been gathering dust for quite a while. It is now with the Ministry of Legal Reform and is being "revised." However, these efforts did achieve a milestone in that they necessitated a chapter (albeit only one page) on local governance in the current constitution awaiting ratification by the president.
Thus,, although there have been setbacks, the concept of local governance has entered public debates in the Maldives and has been included, even though minimally, in the new constitution. Today, people like Aisha are working at the grassroots level to make this concept relevant and appealing to both central governing bodies and to local communities concerned about their development.
Conclusion
155 This chapter has shown how a development project conceived at the central level, using purely economic models of development, may not be able to foresee or account for social issues that could stand in the way of expected results. Development policies conceived at the central level ignore and are unaware of social, political, economic, environmental and historical factors that could act as barriers to the planned trajectory for development.
I have argued that although the Herathera project offers employment as the solution to Addu's economic problems, it is assumed that it is up to Hulhudhoo people to help themselves by becoming acceptable workers. The Herathera project conceived at the government policy level, using a mainstream economic model, marginalizes Addu people and Hulhudhoo community by identifying them as unemployable and undeserving of socio-economic development. The project does not identify the reasons for their unemployability as social issues that need to be addressed at the time the project was planned. By failing to consider the social issues that exist in society, the project fails to help those who are in need of development.
The fact that a majority of people in need of employment may be marginalized from benefiting through the Herathera project creates the need to explore alternative possibilities to development.
This chapter has argued that alternatives to mainstream development projects can only be fully realized through communities actively working together with governing bodies and mainstream development projects to look for solutions that work at the local level. Each community should be understood as a unique and distinct entity.
As I have shown, my participants involved in the Herathera project only talked about development and the economy in terms of the government discourse of development that sees community development occurring only through increased employment opportunities in the tourism industry. However, on a day to day basis the
Hulhudhoo community relies on other aspects of community life, such as voluntarism, food sharing and participation in the informal market. These other aspects of community become important when we consider the fact that many from
Hulhudhoo may be marginalized from participating in and benefiting from Herathera.
The government discourse on development offers a very limited definition of development that only values individuals based on their participation in wage work.
By identifying Hulhudhoo people as unacceptable workers, the discourse recognizes
Hulhudhoo people as undeserving of development. When I asked individuals about their hopes for development through the Herathera project, they too understood and explained development through the narrow definition of employment. But when I asked them about their communities pre-capitalist past, many individuals were able to go beyond the limited conception of development as individual participation in wage work and emphasize on issues such as political autonomy, voluntarism, communalism and community self-sustainability.
157 The initiative taken by Aisha and her colleagues by exploring the possibilities for local governance and the initiative taken by Mr. Afeef to teach local women how to produce the goods needed for the Herathera resort and give them the autonomy to dictate how much they produced show that it is possible to experience alternative developments within an existing dominant development model. It also shows that such alternatives do not necessarily emerge from grassroots resistance movements but can emerge through dialogue between local beneficiaries and policy makers. In fact, these examples prove that my idealistic vision of Herathera as a rehabilitative community for Hulhudhoo's drug addicts may not be such a silly idea and that it could potentially work for the benefit of the community and the Herathera resort.
Nevertheless, such alternatives can only be realized through an active process of re- imagining the community's development future and therefore must come from within the community and the discourses that operate in the community.
158 CHAPTER SIX
Conclusion
The Herathera Island Resort officially opened its doors to international tourism on December 24, 2007 when the first international direct flight carrying 71 tourists for Herathera resort landed in Gan International Airport (Haveeru Daily, 24
Dec, 2007). Many in Addu celebrated this historic event. A middle-aged woman attending the celebrations stated that "[t]he dream has come true. Now please fill the island with foreigners" (Haveeru Daily, 24 Dec, 2007). The participants in my research had been sceptical and concerned about the two issues that this woman raised; they were not sure that the resort would actually open and they were not sure that even if the resort opened it would be successful in attracting tourists. With the resort officially opened, the goal was to bring tourists to the island. However, the success of Herathera was short lived. Soon after the resort opened, occupancy declined to fifteen percent (Evans May 24, 2008). The failure of Herathera did not stem from obstacles within the Hulhudhoo community and their social problems of drugs, theft and violence. Instead it was due to obstacles in nature as the waters surrounding Herathera have a high percentage of sea grass growing and this makes the beaches of Hulhudhoo less than picture perfect. Tourists complained about the dirty beaches and so the Herathera Island Resort management employed over fifty 159 staff just to clean up the grass and maintain the beaches (Ibrahim, February 10,
2008). By May of 2008, the public company in charge of Herathera, the Maldives
Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) had opened bids for the sublease of
Herathera Island Resort and a local private company called Yacht Tours leased the island for 20 years. The company changed the name of the resort and began operating as a private business. The company did not make any commitments to local development or to employ local workers.
The Herathera project was a government initiative designed to increase employment opportunities in the economically marginalized region of Addu. The government discourse on development saw the lack of employment opportunities as the main deterrent that hindered the economic development of Addu. The government posited employment opportunities as the main and direct benefits that the community members would gain from tourism development in Addu (MTDC, About Us). The public company in charge of the project, the Maldives Development Corporation
(MTDC), was in charge of constructing a 600 bed resort that would create employment opportunities for 900 people.
In the past, tourism development in the Maldives was mainly focused in the central region where it has been a great success, making the Maldives one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. Addu people make up a majority of local tourism
Mohamed Ibrahim, Telephone Interview in February 10,2008 workers in the country. Therefore, Addu people had no reason to oppose the development that was initiated by the government in Herathera. However Addu people did have concerns and criticisms about the project for a number of reasons, including the past experiences of failed attempts to develop tourism in Addu.
Addu people's participation in the project was mainly perceived to be as workers in the tourist resort. The position of tourism worker was not contested by the participants in my research. Nevertheless, they worried that people from their community may be marginalized and barred from participating in Herathera as employees because of their involvement in illegal drug use. Hulhudhoo community has been identified to have a large population of illegal drug users and the resort management are not willing to keep drug users in their workforce. The community faces other social problems such as theft and violence and most people link these problems to the problem of drug use in the community. Many people feel that these social problems in the community would make resort management reluctant to involve Hulhudhoo community in their resort. Therefore, although Hulhudhoo people may be supportive of the dominant trajectory of development, they may actually fail to participate or benefit from it.
With this in mind, I considered how alternatives to the dominant development trajectory could be realized among a people who were accepting and supportive of it.
I argued that alternative possibilities can only be realized through community members actively working together to find alternatives that work for them. This could
161 only happen if the community is able to look beyond the dominant discourse of development that is hampering their community development further.
The Herathera project was successful at the policy level because it led to the establishment of a tourist resort in Addu atoll and created job opportunities in Addu.
MTDC was created as a public company to develop 15 new resorts covering all corners of the country. MTDC was not planning to manage and run the resort in the long term. Therefore, from the perspective of their objectives, the project was a success. Nevertheless, the resort failed to attract tourists, mainly due to an environmental factor (excessive growth of sea weed), and Addu people lost their hopes of successful tourism development in Addu.
Scholars studying development projects and their impacts on local populations have used theoretical work on subjectivity to argue that dominant discourses on development are not simply forced on local populations but that dominant discourses have to be made and sustained socially' (Mosse 2003, Li 1999, Sayer 1994). Such studies offer an explanation as to why Addu people were supportive of the Herathera project in the beginning and also indicate that their support is necessary for the maintenance of the dominant discourse of development and the continued practice of development.
Due to the fact that Herathera had failed to bring many tourists to Addu and the recent change in Herathera management, many from Addu have started participating in discussions around the issue of Addu's development. During the one year period that I spent in Toronto analysing and writing this thesis, I was surprised to find the emergence of multiple Facebook groups actively discussing solutions to
Addu's economic marginalization. The discussion questions taken up in these groups vary from specific questions such as: "Why is Herathera buying goods from Male' when everything is available in Addu Atoll and how can we stop this?" to more general questions around Addu development such as: "Are we benefiting from
Herathera?". The Facebook group "Stop racial discrimination in Herathera Island
Resort" argue that the Herathera Island Resort has employed more foreign labourers than locals and that the resort management are discriminating against them.37 A group called S.Hulhudhoo asks why Hulhudhoo Island has been marked as an island full of drug addicts.38 These expressions of subjective opinions show that the government may be losing Addu people's support and acceptance of the Herathera project.
Although the Herathera project succeeded at the policy level in terms of establishing a functional resort in Addu and by increasing employment opportunities in Addu region, the private company that is in charge of the resort does not operate the resort in a way that Addu people had hoped. Many in Addu are discussing
Stop racial discrimination in Herathera Island Resort. Facebook Group. Electronic Document, http://www.facebookxom/home.php#/group.php?gid=7445999307, accessed on August 28,2008. 37 Stop racial discrimination in Herathera Island Resort. Facebook Group. Electronic Document, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=7445999307, accessed on August 28, 2008. 38 S.Hulhudhoo. Facebook Group. Electronic Document, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4670908281, accessed on August 28,2008. 163 whether and in what ways the resort is helping their community develop. If the resort does not buy locally produced goods or employ local people, Addu people may not be able to benefit, even if the (now mainly private) tourism industry in Addu succeeds.
Today, many individuals are voicing their concerns in the public arena such as on Facebook group discussion boards. These voices provide a discussion around what kinds of development Addu people seek and identify the ways in which the Herathera project has failed to deliver those kinds of development to Addu people.
At present, Addu individuals are still assessing what the new change in
Herathera management means for them. Some argue that the government handed over
Herathera to a private business because they are only concerned about how much money the tourism industry brings into the country and does not care about those that serve in the industry, while others argue that a private business may be able to run the resort more efficiently and that Addu people may be better off with a private resort
-in owner who ensures that the resort succeeds. The Herathera project has also opened up discussions around larger issues that concern the community such as the amendments to the Maldivian labour laws that are argued to exclude 24000 staff working in 92 resorts of the country.40
Stop racial discrimination in Herathera Island Resort. Facebook Group. Electronic Document, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=48910388#/group.php?gid=7445999307, accessed on September 3, 2008. 40 Herathera Island Resort. Facebook group. Electronic Document, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16681039078#/topic.php?uid=5118359165&topic=4563, accessed on September 3, 2008. 164 These discussions provide subjective opinions and understandings about the government discourse on development and local assessments of development initiatives taken by the government. By exploring subjective opinions I am able to identify in what ways the Addu community still continue to support the idea of tourism development and also identify the development issues that Addu people are concerned about.
The recent activities taking place in public forums such as Facebook groups show that individuals are not merely accepting the government discourse and projects of development, but are actively engaged in evaluating the projects and thereby influencing future conceptions and practices of development. The discussions taking place on public forums do not represent instances of active forms of resistance, but I see these activities more as community evaluations of development projects that exist together with the official evaluations that may declare Herathera a success based on their criteria -mainly increasing employment opportunities in Addu. Since Addu people's support is required in order for the government to continue claiming
Herathera project a success these discussions influence the dominant discourse of development and the kinds of development practices that will take place in the future.
I argue that new possibilities do not need to emerge from outright resistance to dominant discourses and practices but can emerge through individuals actively participating in realizing new possibilities for their development.
165 Appendix A: Map of Maldives
INDIA ^» #W*nw Xffl m*»* tttAVA-Nrmtmjutu". -t Maldives
AT4M t * National capital
MAAmWIfNt »HOt> AIOU * A?«*U s/nown on (tie imp.
: MAAUIOSWAtMH If i ATOU , KAAIMJIFPOLIM ^ t '-
Mwru AfUl* INDIAN . ! OCEAN
; mmm . MALK j^ ATtiU,
AIM MAbft 1 • AT*» I
AmMan ATliU NORTH MALE ^^ j ATOIX """"* AlUfORT NM * m i-AKt* ATiH U I •' j KOU&MA&t i-t* * 1 ;. h ! A X OL :: A X i AKUi 1 i | i'fafr Atia 3 %%j- iw*v 4 Hemeere A*«U "4 i ADIHJ ATOLL ' ' «„ A&BUA^HX ft?! .. - : Source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/maldives_pol98.jpg This map shows the administrative divisions of the Maldives; known as Atolls. The administrative capital; Male' is located in North Male Atoll, in the central region and Addu Atoll is the southern most atoll in the country. Enlarged images of Male' and Addu Atoll are also shown. This map was produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and is dated 1998. Appendix B: Maps of Addu Atoll Demon Ismahii&hera • Point -,*t • Hulumfdu • r -» _, •,- Ht / i Kandu t He rate ra Hera • i former RAFlW^ •| • i' communications je|ty station '•. \ Addu Atoll f Hitaddut' \ \ Gass it* .f >-- K&lohera v submarine \power c*We Hankeda'' •. Mutikadu ,'; ., \ Maradu '-:j:,'fl • Fedu ' / ietti** -; f'willngill •irlitild •-. see enlargement, Gah left h'y., .'I'll.:' ."•'' '•.V Scale 1:260.000 Source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/addu_atoll_76.jpg This map was produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and is dated 1976. The map shows the areas that were important for the British base, such as; oil cables, submarine power cable and the main channels providing entrance to the atoll (Man Kandu Channel, Kudu Kandu Channel and Gan Channel). In this map, the islands Hulhudhoo and Meedhoo are identified together as Hulumidu. Herathera (spelled here as Heratera) existed as a separate land mass when this map was drawn. 168 Addu atoll Meedhoo Hithadhoo Hulhudhoo Maradhoo VtSgili Kandu Vtfigilt GmKmtfu Source: http://maldivesculture.com/mapf.jpg This map shows the islands that are inhabited today. 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