Advice, thoughts on living in Male, Maldives
 

Wanted the advice, thoughts of people who have either lived in Male or spent time there. Girlfriend and I (Americans) have received an offer to teach English in Male, and while I am excited I am a little reticent to take my girlfriend given the recent political instability and the supposed rise of religious fundamentalism. Thoughts, advice from seasoned travelers as well as from Maldivians on living in Male?

Thank you!

Welcome to Fodors; You have posted on the very slow/generic 'Travel tips' forum.

You will do better if you re-post over on the Asia Forum and tag it for the Maldives. (see the 'Change Forum' pull down menu? - click that link and it will take you over to the right board)

Google is your friend. I have not been there (it draws more Europeans than North Americans) but international news media have reported on political unrest for several years, especially with India. More generally, it is known that the government has pursued a policy of isolating tourists from the indigenous populations. None of that is a signal to stay away, but you should understand how different a culture you might find yourself in.

I would suggest that you look for some ex-pat forums rather than posting here on Fodors which is primarly a tourist forum.

You could also try Lonely Planet's Thorntree Forum which has a wider base and includes a branch specifically on Living and Working Abroad.

There are many places in the world that do not enjoy total stability and for which the news media reports what it wants to report. 'News' media being what it is today. More of a 'sensationalist' media than about actual 'news'.

Having said that however, I would not choose to live and work in S. Africa for example. I use a simple formula to decide if I would be willing to live in a country. If houses have bars on the windows I don't want to live there. If every second house has an 'Armed Security Response' sign on their front yard, I don't want to live there. The latter of course means ruling out Beverley Hills.

This site seems to get reasonable numbers of responses.
http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=195