If a government falls in paradise, does anyone hear?

A month ago a radical coup in an island string nation in the Indian Ocean passed with the world barely noticing. To most people the Republic of Maldives is nothing more than a glorious tourist resort. Nestled some four hundred kilometres off the Indian coastline it is home to over one thousand coral islands that collectively form the smallest Asian country in both population and land mass. But on Tuesday 7th February just after noon, the country’s first elected President, Mohamed Nasheed, was ushered into his office and forced to resign at gunpoint according to his own account.