The city has always been an engine of the country. People, jobs, intellectual life to the coffe houses. Where the people gather to discuss politics and gossip. Without the city we might not have had the opportunities to travel and now inspired by the ferries.
And yet city life is not easy. The start of overcrowding brought cholera in the past. While the modern city might be a haven for the youth to engage in the technological world and meeting up in coffee tables it is also a deeply unnatural and overwhelming place.
Some have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. just being in an urban environment researchers have found , impairs our basic mental processes and social life. After spending a few minutes on a crowded majeedhee Magu, city’s longest road the brain might be less able to hold memory and suffers from reduced self-control. When it is long been recognized that city life is exhausting. That’s one reason many have left their homes and fled to the neighboring countries India, Srilankan and Malaysia.
Sometimes while I walk, I wonder where do all these people get in the night to sleep. The locals and the expatriates. New research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.
Still for many of us Male ‘ city is home. Home is where the heart is. Our loved ones and family are here. Studies have demonstrated, for instance that hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows. And that women living in public housing are better able to focus when their flats overlooks a grassy or green courtyard. Which is almost absent in Male’. First of all many of us doesn’t even have a decent place to live eat and sleep with our families. My heart breaks when I mention this.
The Maldivians cross an important miles stone. Majority of the population reside in Male ‘city. For a species that evolved to live in small primate islands on the Indian Ocean, we are crowded into concrete jungles, surrounded by taxis, traffic and thousands of strangers. In recent years it’s become clear that such unnatural surroundings have important implications for our mental and physical health and can powerfully alter how we think.
The Maldivian life style is such that people who really work they work, and shift two- there jobs. While some remain voluntarily and forcefully unemployed. They work throughout the night, even doubt they get few hours of sleep. Coffee and talk all night at cafes is the latest trend. Yet many of us are up in the morning again going back to work. Interesting though.
If we look into ways to make Male city less damaging , the lives less stressful the good news is that even slight alterations ,such as planting more trees in the inner city or creating urban parks with a greater variety of plants and everyone holding hands to improve the social fabric and especially assist the youth for a healthy life style can significantly reduce the negative side effects of city life. Sounds like a dream. The mind needs nature and even a little bit can be a big help.
When we get out of Male’ city even for few hours most of us feel and we tend to say it’s relaxing and soothing. That’s proof to it. The question remains where is the space? Who is going to take the initiative to do it?
Yet I personally love this city my hometown. I could work all day wearing many hats, go for a coffee with a friend to talk gossip or an intellectual discussion. Go visit family or an elderly relative, return home cook, eat and be with my husband Hassan and have quality time with my one year old son Hawi Hasnain. And wind up a day going for a round in the motorbike the most common form of enjoyment in Male’ city. For me that’s quality of life. Yet thoughts might differ. How many of us will do the same here. Which might not be possible in a bigger city. So if we think positively Male city might be one of the most beautiful city to live yet with few alterations.
Only we the people of this country could make a change. As change seems to be the only thing permanent in our lives.
