DAY OF THE IMPRISONED WRITER November 15, 2004
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MALDIVES: FOUR INTERNET ACTIVISTS IN PRISON
Artist and businessman Naushad Waheed, who is serving a fifteen-year prison sentence for sending an email to the human rights group Amnesty International, has written the following poem about political repression and poor prison conditions in the Maldives:
The Rule
Everything is not What it seems to be While you walk Soft sand, caressing bare feet There’s a soul Crying out for help While you roam In a packaged resort hotel Behind palms And the soaking sun Those innocent smiles and exotic charm Despair lurks among natives on the run And there are those Without voices Abused, tortured and forced To surrender all freedom, all choices While we meet Serve and help you unwind Our sisters weep Crying for freedom and peace of mind Surreal images abound Island life sold as the elixir Another Paradise just found Beneath the feet of a dictator Sunrise and a lazy breakfast Relax and soothe you While beatings and torture last Throughout your midnight blues Everything is perhaps not What it seems Spare a thought Search your mind, while you walk on that beach |