Sucks to be a local surfer in the Maldives

Sucks indeed. Local Maldivian surfers have a torrid time with political machinations and foreign intervention, and it only appears to be getting worse with the dictatorship of Abdulla Yameen and his ties to Burma and China.

Surfing aside, there's an interesting showdown going on over there between President Abdulla Yameen and the former democratically-elected president Mohammed Nasheed (the only democratically-elected leader the Maldives has ever had).

Yameen overthrew Nasheed much to the dismay of the UN and Amnesty International, then took control of the country by military force. He subsequently threw Nasheed in jail. Nasheed, who was a progressive politician, believed in climate change and planned to make the Maldives carbon neutral, is being represented by Amal Clooney - George Clooney's wife.

Meanwhile, Abdulla Yameen has opened up the Maldives to oil exploration, an interesting position for a low-lying country to take if climate science is correct.

In the pending court case he's being represented by Cherie Blair - Tony Blair's wife.

With all this shit going on in your country wouldn't you just want to nick off and get a few waves at the local?

wow Stu
We bitch and moan about our politics without pausing to appreciate continuous rule of law and relatively sedate changes in power.