'Golhaabo' means one who steals mercilessly from the poor? :: Maldives News :: Dhivehi Observer

Editorial

'Golhaabo' means one who steals mercilessly from the poorest of the poor

By Editor in Chief, A. S. I. Moosa (Sappe'), 7 August 2006

DO readers must have read us referring to the murderous dictator of the Maldives as Golhaabo in many of our articles and reports. Many of our foreign readers, including international diplomats, have wondered for months what the actual meaning of Golhaabo is and why people address him by this specific title.

Golhaa is made out of coconut shell

Flower of Coconut Palm

The produce is stored in Raa Badhi

Basically the title 'Golhaabo' means toddy thief, one who steal the toddy of poor men, and is given to someone who mercilessly steals the hard earned living of innocent and poor people, the way Gayyoom is stealing the hard earned 'life' of thousands and thousands of Maldivians .

Toddy 'is the sweet sap of a variety of Asian palm tree used as a beverage, either fresh or fermented'. Toddy collecting is a long standing traditional occupation in the Maldives, but despite being hard and risky, it does not provide a substantial income. In fact, they are classed amongst the lowest income earners. To collect the toddy, the flower casing (bud) is cut at the top end before it blossoms and an empty coconut shell is hung to collect the drip (sap). It can take several hours to fill a shell, which usually has a capacity of about 500 ml. This coconut shell collector is locally called 'Golhaa', a word that originated from snail shell because it looks like a coconut shell according to linguists. When filled, the collector, known locally as 'Raaveriya' (toddy collector) or 'Ruh Araameeha' (palm tree climber) climbs up the tree and empties the toddy into a container made of two coconut shells in a vertical configuration, called 'Raa Badhi'. Raaveriyaa then walks around the island selling the toddy by the glass, and if he cannot sell his daily collection, it is cooked to make liquid sugar called 'Dhiyaa Hakuru', which the Maldivians love to eat with rice, coconut and dried fish, in addition to being a main ingredient for several local sweet dishes, such as cakes and sweet breadfruit dessert, among other.

The addition of 'bo' to 'Golhaa' to form 'Golhaabo' came as follows. Down South, in an island, there was a notorious thief, who would drink the hard collected toddy from the Golhaas before the toddy collector could climb up and fetch it. When the people of the island found out about this person, they named him 'Golhaabo', where 'bo' literally means 'drinker', because he steals from the Golhaas and drinks the toddy, taking away the hard earned produce of the toddy collector. People of the island made fun of him and soon he migrated to Male', the capital but even in the capital people shouted 'Golhaabo' at him every time they saw him and in retaliation, he would scream abuse at the people and even sometimes run after small children (in the same way now Golhaa Force, Gayyoom's militia police, runs after and beats the hell out of our youth when they chant 'Golhaabo Faibaa' (Get Off Golhaabo) during demonstrations and gatherings). In fact, it was this old man who was named 'Golhaabo' initially, after being tortured by Gayyoom several times for no reason, that went near the Presidential Palace and shouted "It is true I stole and drank the toddy of a destitute poor toddy collector, it is true I stole his hard earnings, but I was hungry, but look at you 'Maumoon', you are drinking the produce of every single Maldivian, so the title Golhaabo is more suited for you than me, you are the real 'Golhaabo', not me, you are stealing mercilessly from the poorest of the poor". After this incident, the poor soul was tortured, injected with tranquilisers and has been held captive at a mental institute after declaring him insane.

Golhaabo.. Addu Hiniku Procession

Let us now consider how merciless the evil and murderous dictator is and why this title is so suitable to him. He lives in a 56 million dollar palace when thousands upon thousands are homeless in the country. In addition to more than 5 other Presidential Yachts, he bought a luxury yacht for over 10 million dollars when more than half the children in the country do not have adequate access to even basic education and health services. He has killed Maldivians in cold blood and has been running this beautiful nation with an iron fist for over 27 years without any regard for the rule of law. According to our studies, he spends equivalent to the 1/12th of the earning of every Maldivian per year. Today, he claims that the GDP per capita of the nation is over 3000 dollars, but when promoted from least developed countries to developing status, he shamelessly campaigned and demoted the nation back to being amongst the 21 poorest countries in the world. And, according to UN statistics, more than 40% of the population in the country, which is Europe's top holiday destination today, lives under one US dollar a day and can hardly feed themselves or put a roof over their heads, forget education and health. That is why Maldivians call him 'Golhaabo', there could be no better description or title for this most brutal man in Asia.

It is important to note that in the Maldives, it is customary for people to have a nick name or a title. In fact, younger children would never call their brother or sister, with their names, there will always be a title such as 'Dhonbey' meaning fair brother or 'Thithibey' meaning cute brother or Dhontha, meaning fair sister and so on. And in many cases, most people will be referred to by their nick name in our society.