That maybe, but I don't think each and every home makes one feel AT home by default. Since leaving Maldives a second time in the course of four months, I feel desperate to return. Not because the country is a beacon of freedom and healthy living, but because it's my land: the land where I need not feel compelled to keep my opinions to myself because they aren't welcome.

Home certainly isn't where you make it. It's where you're in your elements. It's where you're not suppressed surreptitiously by way of communal disenfranchisement. It's where I mingle with people whose collective fate I partake in. In this home I am not perturbed by my unwillingness to contribute to its betterment, but rather by the proverbial landlord's failure to recognize me and my responsibilities within the household.

What a country Maldives would be if politicians recognized the importance of empowering its people so that they may commit more vehemently to the household chores.