It could very well have been the fault of the fence!

I surely do not agree with the old Dhivehi saying (it could well have come from another language for all I know) that goes ‘Eh fulhah mathin fummaali bakari aneh fulhah mathin ves fummaalaane.’ (Meaning: A goat that jumped over one fence would do so over others)

Well I would say that the goat would keep jumping over fences if they were all of inadequate height. What if the goat was placed behind a good fence high enough to keep it in? Would it still jump over? I would not think so.

We use the saying negatively to imply that a person who had once broken a relationship, left a job etc, would do it again. But what do we even know about this person or what this person had gone through in the previous relationship or job? What if this person was put through hell then? Is this not equivalent to asking what if the goat was placed behind a good fence?

Well, maybe we should think twice before putting such ideas in the textbooks of our school-children. Everything that has been handed down to our generation as having been used in our language does not necessarily deserve a place in our children’s textbooks. Such notions instil in our kids an inclination towards judging people without even knowing who they are or what the situation was really like. And this does not help them to become open-minded, which is required of them wherever they go.