A Morley Safer Classic: It's a Long Way to Furudu | 60 Minutes Archive

Introduction to the Story00:02

The 60 Minutes broadcast opens by noting that from time to time oddball stories turn up in the program. The story is titled "It's a Long Way to Furu" and began when the team was in Singapore a couple of months earlier. They decided to visit a place no one they knew had ever been to, the Republic of Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

The Maldives Overview00:30

The Maldives consist of a succession of atolls in the Indian Ocean, extremely remote and beautiful beyond description. They lie well south of India and a bit to the left. The Maldives' best known contribution to the world is the word "atoll." There are a thousand islands, but only 200 of them are inhabited. In the world power struggle, they are non-aligned. There are 130,000 Maldivians scattered across 500 miles of ocean. They speak their own language and a bit of English.

The country has the highest divorce rate in the world, though no one quite knows why. Both men and women are decent to outsiders. For a long time, the only way to contact the Maldives' only diplomat, its UN ambassador, was to leave a message at a stamp shop on 57th Street in New York. Most of the world recognizes the Maldives, but only India, Pakistan, and Libya maintain embassies in the capital city of Male. The United States has an honorary consul, a Maldivian named Rashida Dei, who said she applied for the job. The great seal of the United States now resides at Mandu Derugi on the main Magu, the main street of Male.