where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

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where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Tas » 28th Oct, '10, 12:50

Bit on par with getting a chinese or arabic symbol tattoo saying you are a wanker (or if you're in Qld a straight up penis tattoo on your back....a story from last week).

I don't really know how to load the video in here...

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-new ... utostart=1

Disgust as couple mocked during Maldives wedding ceremony October 28, 2010 - 12:42PM

The Maldives express 'shock and disgust' over a video of a Swiss couple being mocked and insulted by a celebrant during a ceremony at a luxury hotel.

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The Maldives expressed "shock and disgust" yesterday after a video surfaced of a Swiss couple being mocked and insulted by a celebrant during their marriage ceremony at a luxury hotel.

In the video, posted on YouTube several days ago, a couple can be seen seated opposite the celebrant as they renew their wedding vows at the Vilu Reef hotel, which charges $US400 ($A411) a night for the use of its honeymoon suite.

Speaking in the local Dhivehi language, the celebrant calls the couple "swine" amid a host of other insults during a hateful profanity-laced tirade littered with often bizarre personal and religious-tinged taunts.

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The celebrant makes sexual remarks about the couple throughout the ceremony.

Muslim-majority Maldives, a nation of 1192 tiny coral islets scattered some 880 kilometres across the equator, is one of South Asia's most expensive holiday destinations and is popular among Western honeymooners.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed said he was "horrified" to see the video.

"I was shocked and horrified," Shaheed said when contacted in the capital of the atoll nation, Male. "I could not see the entire video because my children were around and I didn't want them to hear the bad language that was used.


Unbeknownst to the couple, the celebrant says their marriage is illegitimate in his own language.

"This is a rip-off of the couple who in good faith went to this resort to renew their vows. This incident will damage the reputation we have built over the years for professional quality service.

"I expect the hotel to refund the money and make a full apology."

Vilu Reef general manager Mohamed Rasheed said the hotel had apologised to the couple who had the ceremony on October 11 and had taken disciplinary action against those involved.

The disgraced celebrant has been suspended and the hotel company, Sun Hotels and Resorts, said in a brief statement it had asked the police to investigate.

"We have apologised to the couple as well as to the general public," Rasheed said when contacted by telephone. "The man had used filthy language. Otherwise the ceremony was OK."

He said the resort, a typical Malidivian island fringed by turquoise water and white sand beaches, has been conducting marriage ceremonies for a decade.

The hotel offers ceremonies to renew wedding vows on its website, saying couples can "seal your everlasting love" as "the Maldivian sunset transforms the sky into a kaleidoscope of romantic hues"

Guests pay $US1300 for the ceremony with the services of a celebrant thrown in.

The local Minivan newspaper said the man conducting the ceremony was pretending to read traditional marriage vows off a piece of paper, but was instead holding an employment contract for employees at the hotel.

"Various types of insults about the woman and the man, their clothing and demeanour, are being spoken throughout in the form of a running commentary in a sports video," the Minivan News website said.

AFP
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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Pinklepurr » 28th Oct, '10, 15:57

Not condoning what the psycho celebrant did, but why would you renew your vows in a language you don't even understand? What meaning could it possibly have for you?
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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by baloo » 28th Oct, '10, 15:59

Pinklepurr wrote:Not condoning what the psycho celebrant did, but why would you renew your vows in a language you don't even understand? What meaning could it possibly have for you?
Isn't that like Westerners filling their houses with Asian religous statues and other artwork ? Or getting Chinese/Japanese/Hindi character tattoos ?
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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Kooky » 28th Oct, '10, 16:02

I can't find the "really shouldn't giggle but I did" smiley.

I read a couple of weeks ago that some celebrants in Oz have been using the wrong wording and 80% of marriages reviewed could technically be invalid. Hmmm, remind me, where did we get married...?

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Lichtgestalt » 28th Oct, '10, 16:02

Pinklepurr wrote:Not condoning what the psycho celebrant did, but why would you renew your vows in a language you don't even understand? What meaning could it possibly have for you?
It's easier for the man. He can fool his brain into thinking he is ordering beer ;)

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by canuck » 28th Oct, '10, 16:34

baloo wrote:
Pinklepurr wrote:Not condoning what the psycho celebrant did, but why would you renew your vows in a language you don't even understand? What meaning could it possibly have for you?
Isn't that like Westerners filling their houses with Asian religous statues and other artwork ? Or getting Chinese/Japanese/Hindi character tattoos ?

and english people wearing baseball caps

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Scrummy Mummy » 28th Oct, '10, 17:05

baloo wrote:
Pinklepurr wrote:Not condoning what the psycho celebrant did, but why would you renew your vows in a language you don't even understand? What meaning could it possibly have for you?
Isn't that like Westerners filling their houses with Asian religous statues and other artwork ? Or getting Chinese/Japanese/Hindi character tattoos ?
I have to say I cringe at Buddhas being bought in M+S and used as house decorations......

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by cromasaig » 28th Oct, '10, 18:01

Scrummy Mummy wrote: I have to say I cringe at Buddhas being bought in M+S and used as house decorations......
Me too. But why should we? To play Devil's Advocate (just for a change), why is that any less acceptable than buying one on your travels in Thailand/wherever? As Baloo points out, it has no spiritual significance either way.

I guess if you're an atheist (which I consider myself to be), then it's a purely ornamental object. I find it hard not to conclude that the difference I feel when I look at an M&S decorator Buddha, rather than, say, my little silver Ganesh statue I bought in Mumbai is just snobbery.

Of course, mine is tasteful, dahling...

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Scrummy Mummy » 28th Oct, '10, 18:09

I think religious figures as decoration GENERALLY are odd, TBH, unless it means something to you.

I presume you bought Ganesha because when you saw it you thought of me.....

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by cromasaig » 28th Oct, '10, 18:24

Well, you're more consistent than me, then. Or Mr C, who despite an atheism that's much more vociferous than my own, insists on hanging medieval icons over the bed. (It's all about the history, apparently.)

Odd man. Especially when he told the boys when they asked about the pictures that it was 'Naughty Jeebus'. We had Words about that one.

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Lili Von Shtupp » 28th Oct, '10, 18:42

Unless you buy your Buddha figure in Thailand. The Thais believe that the statue itself is inhabited by an animist spirit that has a personality all its own. According to local lore, grumpy spirits have sent disease, swarms of bees and other nastyness to the homes of those who would disturb their statue. At the very least, customs will fine you for removing a religious object from the country, which is technically illegal.
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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Kooky » 30th Oct, '10, 05:55

Back to the plot - the Maldives obviously take their tourism very seriously. The celebrants have been arrested.

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Snaffled » 30th Oct, '10, 09:17

They absolutely should take their tourism seriously. It's pretty much all they have economically.
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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Scrummy Mummy » 30th Oct, '10, 10:55

Makes you wonder how many other people paid $1000+ plus to be mocked - lots of angry law suits, I imagine.....

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Lichtgestalt » 30th Oct, '10, 14:52

Scrummy Mummy wrote:Makes you wonder how many other people paid $1000+ plus to be mocked - lots of angry law suits, I imagine.....
I bet they are all gonna watch their old videos and let them be translated to see if they were mocked too ... well at least there is a reason to watch them [smilie=w00t.gif]

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Re: where not to go for your Wedding in the Maldive

Post by Pinklepurr » 30th Oct, '10, 18:51

baloo wrote:
Pinklepurr wrote:Not condoning what the psycho celebrant did, but why would you renew your vows in a language you don't even understand? What meaning could it possibly have for you?
Isn't that like Westerners filling their houses with Asian religous statues and other artwork ? Or getting Chinese/Japanese/Hindi character tattoos ?
Well no, not really. These are vows etc and a ceremony that is supposed to mean something to the people involved but apart from their own words to each other cannot mean anything if they do not understand it, it may as well be total gibberish (or abuse as this was).

The religious statues and the like are decorations and that is all many people think of them as, without meaning. Tattoos on the other hand...I never understand why you would do it if the symbol is not something that means something to you.



Edit: As for the celebrant/s being arrested, where do they stop? There were a lot of them involved in it. It wasn't just the guy doing the talking, the others participated as well.

Anyone else think it is a mega rip off as well. Thats a lot of cash for sitting on sand, a cocktail and "planting" a tree? I could think of a lot more to do with $1000.
Last edited by Pinklepurr on 30th Oct, '10, 20:42, edited 1 time in total.
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