When one deposition is profitable for elites and the other is a burden for them

I was drinking my water this morning, the way I like it - room temperature with ice cubes floating on top. Not too cold, not too warm. Just right. The simple pleasure of getting something exactly how you want it, in a country where so much feels out of our control. That question about depositions keeps echoing in my mind. Who do you side with when one choice benefits the powerful and the other burdens them? We see this play out every day here - in the way development projects get approved, in who gets the tourism concessions, in which islands get infrastructure first. The elites move between their air-conditioned offices and luxury resorts while we navigate the rising costs and crowded ferries. And then I see these travel ads - 'Budget Maldives for only RM249!' - and I wonder who this paradise is really for. Foreigners can fly here for less than it costs me to visit my family on another atoll. They get the postcard version while we live with the contradictions. The same sea that brings tourists on yachts brings us flooding during high tide. The same beaches they photograph for Instagram are where our children play, watching the inequality wash up like plastic bottles. Yet we keep finding our small comforts. The perfect glass of water. The shade of a coconut tree. The laughter shared with neighbors on a hot evening. These moments sustain us, even as we watch decisions being made that don't include us. Maybe that's our real resilience - not in grand protests, but in these daily acts of claiming our dignity, our preferences, our right to define what matters. We're not asking for much. Just to be considered when the powerful make their calculations. To have our burdens acknowledged, not just their profits protected. And to drink our water exactly how we like it, in the country we call home.