Instead of 99 year lease it is time to introduce freehold, open the Maldives to the world

Things you only hear in Malé 😅 "Let's meet somewhere quiet," said with a completely straight face, in a city where even the quiet café has a drill going next door. "It's just a short walk," which somehow includes three construction sites and a man carrying a fridge on his shoulder coming the other way. "Majeedhee Magu is a shortcut." It is not. It has never been a shortcut. And my favourite. "I'll just find parking near the shop." Brave. Very brave.

Every house has a phone charger. Some have five. Yet the moment my battery hits 3%, every single one has quietly gone somewhere, probably a secret meeting with the TV remote and the scissors. They all come back the next morning when I'm at 100%.

Rain started around sundown and just didn't stop. By night half of Malé's streets were little canals, with water getting into homes and shops. Orange alert, sandbags out, pumps going all night. Stay dry and safe, everyone!

This is how our timing works! A meeting at 10 means 10 is when we start asking who's actually coming, and a bit later someone would suggest tea 😅 Now that in the context of important things doesn't sit too well!

Tourism has been amazing for us, no question. But resting the whole economy on one sector is like building a house on one stilt and hoping the tide behaves. The pandemic showed us what happens when it doesn't. Slogans won't add stilts. Skills, money and steady rules might.

So OpenAI, started partly as a counterweight to Google, will now sell its models on Google's own cloud, right next to Gemini. Rivals by day, roommates by night! Would you rent a shop from the guy selling the same thing next door? @OpenAI @googlecloud #AI

So the state spends MVR 114 for every 100 it earns, and a Majlis committee decides the Speaker needs an extra MVR 22,000 a month. More than three minimum wages! Ministers' car money goes up to MVR 17,000, councillors get MVR 5,000 more. Tighten your belts, folks. What'd you get?

#̢̛ͥ̀̽̽ͨ̌̓͆̇̀̽ͦͨͫͯ̏̎̇̈̚͜҉̕͢͏͡҉̸̶̛͢͡҉̵̨̭̳̘̹̫͔͖̜̠͖̫̲̖̱̤̻̖͉͢͞͡ͅͅ͏̸̷̢͑̊̀̐ͣͭͭ̉͂ͨ̽͒̊̎͛ͪ̊̎ͩͧ̀͝͠͠͏̸̵̵̷̵After spending some solid time with both @claudeai Code and @GeminiApp , Opus 5.5 is still my favorite over Gemini Argon 4. The code quality is just crisper, and building with it feels genuinely effortless. #AI #SI #Gemini #Antigravity #Claude

Unpopular opinion: a press conference isn't transparency. Someone talking at a podium is communication. Transparency is me looking up the actual contracts, procurement decisions and audit responses myself, late at night, in my pyjamas, without having to ask anyone nicely.

Our building lift is so polite it stops at every single floor on the way down, just in case someone wants to get in. Nobody ever does. Seven floors, seven doors opening onto empty corridors, seven awkward little pauses. I could have walked it twice! Does yours do this too?

Government and Eagle Hills have agreed terms for a 500-hectare waterfront and marina on Rasmalé, with the final contract expected around Republic Day. 54,000+ jobs estimated, for a country our size. I'll happily read every page when it's public. What would you want to see there?

38 scam cases last week and nearly MVR 388,000 gone, police say. Good news, over half was recovered. Still, if a stranger is in a hurry to take your money, maybe don't be in a hurry to give it! english.sun.mv/109686

We're a country that's mostly sea with some islands sprinkled on top, and somehow we're meant to know what every boat out there is up to. Illegal fishing, trafficking, someone needing rescue. Can't handle what you can't see. Good partners sharing good data go a long way!

Ras Malé could bring in serious dollars, and I'm glad we're trying. But every time we "decongest" Malé, someone quietly picks up a bill nobody writes down. Usually a mum in a two-room flat. I wrote a longer piece on who pays, and what would help. Who paid in your family? xitter.cf/ithadu/status/21121384…

Malé rain gives you about four seconds of warning. Just enough time for every scooter on the road to pull over, dig out a poncho, put it on inside out, and set off again right as the sun comes back. Perfect timing, every time! Has anyone ever actually stayed dry?