Received: from mp.cs.niu.edu (mp.cs.niu.edu [131.156.1.2]) by library.wustl.edu (8.6.9/8.6.9) with SMTP id OAA26101 for <huestis@library.wustl.edu>; Tue, 31 Jan 1995 14:00:17 -0600 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA06976 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-dist); Tue, 31 Jan 1995 08:48:38 -0600 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA06972 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-list); Tue, 31 Jan 1995 08:48:37 -0600 Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 08:48:37 -0600 Message-Id: <199501311448.AA06972@mp.cs.niu.edu> Reply-To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> From: The Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> Sender: "Rajpal J. Singh" <A10RJS1@cs.niu.edu> Subject: The Nepal Digest - Feb 1, 1995 (18 Magh 2051 BkSm) To: <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> Content-Type: text Content-Length: 48370 Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 93
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The Nepal Digest Wednesday 1 Feb 95: Magh 18 2051 BkSm Volume 36 Issue 1
Today's Topics:
1. Letter To The Editor
KISS - Subas Shakya, Ph.D.
2. KATHA_KABITA
Hasya Muktak - Desh
Poem - Man a Wonder, Nobody Knows
3. KURA_KANI
Health - Sex, Prostitutes and AIDS
Education - Re: BudanilKantha
- A Vote of Thanks
- Tribhuban University
Environment - 10+ Ways to Develop Nepal
Politics - Re: Nepali Workers in Korea
4. JAN_KARI
Want to send money to my former Student
Nepali Cookbook
Engagement Congratulation
5. KHOJ_KHABAR - Looking for Y.R. Joshi
6. TITAR_BITAR
Immigration - Visa Restrictions
- Visa Denial, Help!
******************************************************************************
* TND Board of Staff *
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* Editor/Co-ordinator: Rajpal J. Singh a10rjs1@mp.cs.niu.edu *
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* +++++ Food For Thought +++++ *
* "If you don't stand up for something, you will fall for anything" -Dr. MLK *
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******************************************************************************
**********************************************************************
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 01:35:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Dilip Parajuli <parajuli@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: Budhanilkantha will have a place
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Dear Editor,
This is in response to Ashu's "dissatisfaction" regarding
Shyangjali(s) having been able to come to Budhanilkantha( through
government/foreign aid misguidance), "enjoy" the alleged A-level program
and then find their way out to AIIMS, IIT, Melbourne, Oxford, LSE,
Princeton,Chicago,Harvard,Stanford or whatever(this is not a commercial
from Bud. School). Pathetic, Budha "stole" such opportunities from other
schools this year and in the previous years. But this correlation has
very little resemblance to the "misuse of scarce national resources".
Sixty lakhs rupees each year(that's quite a lot, I agree); but 250
scholorship
students get the full share, comes 2000 rupees per month per student.
That's not much considering the cost of high school-education in the
so-called descent schools: a kathmanduite-family spends at least 2000,
lot more in some cases, for tuition only. Budha-student gets rooming,
boarding and supplies and tuition(including textbooks, writing
materials)for that 2000.
Why should a Syangjali be prevented from capital education and
then in turn foreign-education while others do not care about the
national development? Simply put, I don't give a damn about economic
efficiency if one says " Budhanilkantha is too expensive to reward rural
people for their academic exellence". As a matter of fact Syangja does
have a descent high school and I don't believe that it is because of
Budha's existence that this high school produces (a bitter fact around
the nation) P-sippers and G-smokers. Should you blame Budha's existence
for thousands of Pahadis' muglan(India in this case)-prasthan and their
teenage wives' "behal" back at home? Or for their diversion to Arabic,
Korean, Malaysian labor-force and more importantly the torture they get
while there? Or for 800 females, from a single village- ICHOK in
Sindhupalchok, at the brothels of Bombay? These tamangis are suffering
not because Budhanilkantha has grabbed their share of educational
opportunity but because "Rana-Sahebs"[we were told on our anti-AIDS
campaign at Helambu] have encouraged this flesh-trade.
I don't know much about Mathema's public-policy sharpness(only
that he is not too popular at TU) but I hope he is not the kind of person
as Dr. Tana Sharma- SLC Nepali text writer and well known critic- who
questioned the validity of Budha's existence back in 1984 when he was
denied the salary an expatriate (in this case British) received for the
post of school-head.
I don't say the school is beautifully managed at present but it
has nothing to do with the original objectives its creators had in their
minds. And I say, the goals weren't limited to " helping the poor" but
also to creat a "Bhanjyang" to receive a mix of cultures, traditions,
languages, their achievements in the respective fields, to "develop" their
localities.
Privatisation has its own point but I won't be convinced until
someone comes up with good-enough effects (of privatisation) to
couterbalance the special features the school currently bears. It is
ironic that criticism should come from those who have been able to get
education at one or more of those `elite' schools (the category does
include Budhanilkantha). Then great difference, of course, is that many
of such are Kathmandu day schools with no scholorship program and , as
such, can only cotribute to Nepal's greatest structural weakness and
greatest source of socio-political injustice- namely the socio-economic
disenfranchisement of the great majority of its rural population.
Budhanilkantha was a genuinely liberating force under the
Panchayat system and would be a tenable project under the democratic
government- communist government properly so-called. The budget is heavy
compared to other institutions, but until the people of Humla, Jumla,
Kalikot and Bajura count for as much in the minds of the leaders or the
`future' leaders as those of Kathmandu, claims to the high moral ground
of democratic and free-market rectitude will continue to seem very
hollow and Budhanilkantha, at least as it has been for the last 20 years,
WILL still have a place.
Dilip Parajuli.
**********************************************************************
From: rshresth@black.clarku.edu (RaJesh B. Shrestha)
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
From: tuladhar@unixg.ubc.ca (Anil Tuladhar)
MAN A WONDER, NOBODY KNOWS
He claims himself, the best creature
Never peers through own nature
All the time, everywhere ignorance he shows
Why he is born here, nobody knows
Every event shows its own reason
So flowers bloom in a certain season
He just enjoys all lily and rose
Why they are bloomed here, nobody knows
This wonder coming from darker cave
Now wonders to undulate on deBroglie's wave
Uncertainty since Heisenberg shows
When, where what happens, nobody knows
He lands on moon approaches Mars
Formulates laws for various stars
But near Black-Hole even Time slows
What is causing everything, nobody knows
-ANIL
**********************************************************************
From: Shailesh R. Bhandari <sbhandar@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>
Subject: Hasya Kabita
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 14:37:52 -0500 (EST)
DESH
Malaai mero desh ko maayaa chha
Kinaki desh ma prakriti ko chhaya chha
Ani malaai mero desh ko maaya chha
Kinaki,
Taauko vari chaya nai chaya chha.
*****************************************************************
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 09:36:15 -0500 (EST)
From: "Jacqueline R. Francis" <jfranci@emory.edu>
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Letter to the editor
Hey, it's me again--that annoying bedeshi who needs a courier. I'm still
trying to send a small amount of money to one of my former students in
Surkhet District, mid-west Nepal. Probably can deposit the sum in a
Kathm. branch of her bank.
I'd appreciate the help of anyone going to Nepal in the next couple of
months.
Thanks
Jackie
(404) 321-6821
*******************************************************************
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 10:04 EST
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: Problems with Visas for Nepalis
To: Nepal@cs.niu.edu, h430p6@edv1.boku.ac.at, sharad@forestry.auburn.edu,
VISA RESTRICTION FOR NEPALESE US-VISITORS
===========================================
The US consul seemed to much harder than before in restricting visas to
Nepalese.
On given Jan day, the Consul is not packed with Nepali applicants as before.
Only 20 were there wherease last year I saw 60+. Perhaps the Rs 1000
application fee has dissuaded those who apply for visa 63 times in the hope
they will just tire of such persistence.
Of the 22 applicants, only 2 were given visa: a student with $19000
scholarship and another Fellow with $ 25000 fellowship.
I saw all kinds of rejections this year. Someone showed about Rs 7 lakhs of
money and he was told young people had very little social connection back home
so they were likely to stay in US.
One very capable medical professional lady who spoke excellent english with
demonstrated confidence was re jected because the "international" medical
organization that sponsored her had done so to one another Nepali who did not
yet return in the prescribed time. She was told, "your application is fine but
unless you can demonstrate that the person sponsored by your organization is
physically back in Nepal how can we believe this organization's vouchsafe?"
Another was well-heeled business man who got a "international leo of the year
award" in NY in August but he went to US on a visitor visa in September and
instead enrolled in a language school and then a regular school in NY and
still cannot speak good english. The consul demanded to know what he told the
immigration authorities at the port of entry when he showed up after the award
ceremony for his purpose of visit. He could not articulate his answer and he
did not give reasonable counter to the implication that he may have misled the
authorities, so his application was refused.
Another person had a american sponsor who was going to take a Nepali to cure
him of his ankle swelling but despite the physical presence of a white face he
was refused. Some brought their white face source who got polite answers why
they were refused.
Outside the consul office, a source in the USEF said the visa granted was
reduced 30% this year, USEF monitors differenct forms of academic exchange of
US Nepali scholars.
Another anecdotal information was than 3 years ago those medical practitioners
who passed the US medical licence test in Karachi and the telephonic
interviews used to be welcomed with open arms as cheap fillers for general
physicians in the state and federal funded medical welfare programs. This year
at least six such Nepali qualified doctors have been refused visa.
Well, the US consul seems to be acting under the rules that require them to
treat all potential applicants as potential immigrants and it is upto the
applicant otherwise. Only in the past years there was a lot of "good-faith"
interpretation of such rules with increase access to computerized data bases
and increasing anti-immigrant sentiments in the \merican populace, the Consul
is viciously efficient and since his interpretation is the last decision and
no framework is laid out for determining individual profile, there is at least
the theoretical possibility for grand abuse. Story still abounds that one can
buy visitor visa from US consul nepali employees for Rs 70,000 and student
visa for Rs 4 lakhs.
Visa restrictions have been so badthat among the 520 diversity visa "chittha
wallahs" in Nepal, only 20 have filed applications because the others could
not find some green card or citizen sponsor who would guarantee their economic
vitality until they find a job. Kind of a Catch 22, aint it.
A word of advice for all thsoe contemplating a Nepali visit: if your
transcript is less than A average, or you have transferred to a lesser grade
or program, or have taken semester leave for work, or have changed one's
original purpose of US visit (e.g some come as tourists and end up as
students, these guys are computer black listed and neither do they get return
visas nor do their spouses or any other inivitess get visas no matter how
legal they are in US. There are a lot of these Nepalese with truncated
academic career.
While the rejection of a US visa is personally traumatic to individuals and
families who have put in years of efforets putting together transcripts,
moneys, tickets, and dreams to be shattered before the US consul's NO, there
is growing evidence that a smaller and smaller portion of the Nepali
undergrads who make it through the us consul door fumble into economic
realities of US's 50 times value of Nepali rupees and screw up their studies.
I think Nepali undergrads are as smart as they come along but they are
extremely underequipped to handle the financial stress that comes from the
extreme poorness of our counttry even if they are the richest buggers in
Nepal.
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
Sex,Prostitutes,and AIDs
========================
A vegetable vendor who rents an apartment in our cousin's place n Ason told me
that they are increasing competition from new vegetable vendors who have been
forced to take up vending vegetables rather than their bodies in Ratna Park
because of the increaseing perception that Nepalese prostitutes have aids and
are not worth the sex.
Interestingly a study done by Brown University team of demographers and public
health professionals (Messr Shyam Thapa,Ph.D; Pushpa Bhatt, Ph.D; Sushil
Nyeupane, Jean Braker, and Matt Fredman), 1 percent of the commercial
prostitutes are said to be tested positive for HIV virus.
47% of the Nepali prostitutes have some kind of venereal disease, mostly
involving vaginal discharge of blood and mucus; 37% had vulvular inflammation;
24% had actual sores on their genitalia, and 4% had urethral infection.
28% had no sexual disease.
Naturally 50% of the prostitutes had less than high school education
Most prostitutes were under 21, unmarried, having begun in sex at 16.
40% of the prostitutes never use a condom while 2 % always insist on a condom.
The main reasone why condoms are not used is because the clients object to the
deadening sensation of sex with a condom.
Most of the prostitutes are in the business in supplement income from their
Dickensonian labor in the foreign dollar increasing garment and carpet
business. Most of the Nepalese women are non-Kathmandu resident and the study
makes clear that this scale of blatant prostitution in Kathmandu is a recent
phenomenon.
Although formal studies are not available, there is also increasing report
done by NGO called ABC, for instance, of HIV infected Tamang prostitutes that
are sent back from Bombay annth other brothels in India to die and
infectedother poor Nepalese in the health-service deprived Nepali hills of
Sindhupalchow and Dhading.
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
KATHMANDU IS CLEANER
====================
Believe it or not Kathmandu is much cleaner this year than last year.
No longer does one sees ofal and decaying detritus overflowing the german
yellow garbage containers but one sees much smaller and more frequent blue
containers that are easier to be reached to throwin garbage and lot of Indian
trucks made into garbage trucks. All of them have a Nepal-Bharat double jhanda
as a sign of mutual cooperation (read, nepal begging India, cause rich King
Bire is too kanjoos couple of crore for the very town he lives in).
There is talk in the valley media of a dumpside behind the Dakshinkali mound
where we have picnics, called Maudole or Seti Gaum panchancyat. The UML have
promised some crores of development aid to mitigate harmful effects and the
site is supposedly fre3e from water resouces for kathmandu populace and the
Air Transport have no objection as it did to an earlier site. There There are
reports of local people getting damn mad of "not in our back yard" and some
ward level communist leaders have been forced to resign.
Whahappens, the waste disposal concern of Kathmanduites is receiving top leve
level concern from the communist leadership. Word is that future Kathmandu
Mayer Keshav Sthapit is being availed a helicopter to hunt for garbage sites.
Garbage disposal figures in the party manifesto of top things to do. The
previous Congress govt of Girija was perecieved to be decidedly
anti-Kathmandu, primarily to thwart Ganesh Man panel from getting any credit
and that included spiting Ganesh Man's political alter ego PL Singh.
On an early morning, I took a walk around New Road and Tundikhel and I was
actually suprised to see Municipality sweepers sweeping the streets and
sidewalks of dust and garbage and the garbage trucks actually coming topickup
garbage and surprise, surprise, with the hoar frost settling the night smog, I
actually smelled the fresh smell of grass and fresh vegetables the Thimi
jyapus had set shop from Bir Hospital to Ratna Park.
Ameliorative steps to counteract air pollution is also apparent and they are
bound to have incremental positive effects. These include: the banning of
Vikram tempos to New Road despite theri hadtal; the raising of tariffs on
import of reconditioned TOYOTA corrollas; the increased presence of "newer"
Indian made taxis (when did you last see a taxi under 20 yearsin Nepal?)
supposedly more effluent friendly and politically correct forthe Indian auto
producers; the greater frequency of effluent testing, a big inconvenience to
the taxi drivers who allege that even the Hartridge effluent machine is a
reconditioned machine that can be made to read passable number for Rs200-300
ghus.
One also sees increasing presence of traffic police in every street corner,
increasing a sense of security and enforcing more one-way driving. One
wondersif pollution actually increases with more driving, it certainly
distributes effluents more widely.
The steep price of taxi transport will certainly be a economic disincentive to
use auto vehicles,. A Paknajol-Jawalakhel trip cost Rs 125 on meter, last
year, it was 45 ruppees.
There are also some reports of cooling the macro economic boom of Kathmandu.
Already there are reports of decline in rate of tourist increase, the export
earnings from big labour users: garment and carpet industry. All this could
translate into a cumulative decline in the rate of effluent increase in
*************************************************************
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 14:55:27 -0500 (EST)
From: William Pusateri <pusateri@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us>
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - Jan 27, 1995 (13 Magh 2051 BkSm)
Gentlemen, I like the way you have placed the opening pages of TND at the
end of the contirbuted articles. I always thought the opening pages
were too long anyway. Now if someone wants to see the articles it is not
necessary to scroll through so many screens. Yet if there is interest in
reading them they are now placed at the end. A very practical change.
***********************************************************************
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:32:49 -0500
From: rshresth@black.clarku.edu (RaJesh B. Shrestha)
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: 10+ ways to develop Nepal [part II]
Cross-posted from SCN:
---------------------
twong@hal.com (Tony Wong) wrote:
> I think corruption is a big problem in most poor underdeveloped countries.
> Nepal is not the only one. I have been to Nepal recently and it is poor.
> I am a Chinese myself and there were many many corrupted Kings in our
> history and we got rid of them by revolution most of the time. You will have
> to pay a high price to fix these problems.
>
> Tony Wong
>
Revolution is certainly one way to 'clean out the cupboard' but there are
better ways. Nepal is lucky enough to now have a democracy. Nepalese
politicians with a genuine interest in the future of their country will
ensure that a good proportion of their budget is spent on education and
training. This is the only really effective way of dealing with many
of the ills of developing countries. An educated people will not allow
themselves to be ripped off by unscrupulous and corrupt officials.
Grahame Smith
Dhamy u thad
Namaste
********************************************************************
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:33:07 -0500
From: rshresth@black.clarku.edu (RaJesh B. Shrestha)
From: jana@pogonip.scs.unr.edu (Jana Dunn)
My sister-in-law, Mira, (my husband's sister) has been unable to get an
F-2 visa; perhaps someone who has been in this situation can offer
some advice.
Mira is in Nepal living with her mother-in-law. Her husband
is living with us in the U.S. and is on an F-1 visa. He has been
here since last summer.
Mira has applied for the visa twice and has had it denied twice. The
third time she attempted to apply she was told that her application would
be rejected and that she shouldn't waste her time and money.
The staff of the consular post has told us that Mira's visa application has
been rejected because she does not have sufficient ties to Nepal to ensure
her return. We disagree and feel that she and her husband do indeed
have strong ties to Nepal and would return to Nepal at the end of his
studies. Mira, in fact, would probably return sooner due to family
obligations.
Mira submitted the following with her application:
a sponsorship letter from us and our bank statements
a copy of her husband's assistantship contract
I-20
a letter from her husband describing his familial obligations
a letter from the univ's international student advisor
a letter from her husband's counselor
Our congresswoman FAXed an inquiry to the embassy; we were told by the
embassy staff that the inquiry has been answered but we have not
received the answer yet.
Where do we go from here? Can we appeal the decision? Is there
a governmental office that can assist or advise us?
Please respond via email. I will summarize the responses if appropriate.
If you wish to follow up to this posting, please follow up to alt.visa.us
unless you think the content of your posting would be of interest to
soc.culture.nepal readers.
Jana Dunn Subedi
jana@scs.unr.edu
****************************************************************************
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:34:59 -0500
From: rshresth@black.clarku.edu (RaJesh B. Shrestha)
From: shine@CAM.ORG (Sue Shine)
This is a great cookbook IN ENGLLISH, but good luck finding at your friendly
neighborhood bookstore:
The Joys of Nepalese Cooking
author: Indra Majpuria, M.A., B. Ed.,
Formerly, Lecturer in Educatin
10 A Professors' Quarters
Tribhovan University, Kirtipur,
Kathmandu
pub S. Devi
Lashkar (Gwalior)
India
******************************************************************
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 01:25:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Ashutosh Tiwari <tiwari@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: Engagement
To: Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
More than 150 Nepalis -- students, scholars, professionals, their
families and their children -- who make up the Greater Boston Nepali
Community (GBNC) in the Boston, Mass area
CONGRATULATE
(one of their "most likely to succeed in life" community members)
Anup Raj Joshi
on his recent engagment to
Miss Bhawana Sharma
The couple plan to get married in Kathmandu in May 1995, shortly
before Anup's graduation from the Harvard Business School's MBA program.
GBNC urges Anup's old friends and acquaintances (from St. Xavier's
High School Kathmandu, Harvard College, HIMAL magazine, Singapore and
elsewhere) to send him e-mails at ajoshi1@hbs.hbs.harvard.edu
saying:
"Anupji, badhhai cha hai, badhai cha!! Dampatya jiban falos-fulos"
(if you are over 30)
OR
"Anup, la la cha cha moj cha!! Ham-lai bhoj kahilay khoo.wa.u.nay?"
(if you are under 30)
:-)
namaste
ashu
******************************************************************
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 15:28:16 +0900
From: Gyaneswor Pokharel <g44329a@nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp>
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Subject: As per Ashu's request ? To post this article in coming TND issue?
Dear Rajpal and Ashu,
My Newsreader quit slow to catch the SCN postings, and it always
comes to Nagoya after several days of Time laps. Ashu is fortunate that
I could save his earlier posting, based on his later requests to SCN
readers. So, here is the article which you could not get published in
TND.
Regards.
GP
RE: Nepalis in Korea
Article: 3663 of soc.culture.nepal
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nepal
Subject: Ashu's comment
Date: 20 Jan 1995 16:00:28 GMT
Lines: 89
Forwarded message from Ashutosh Tiwari:
-----------------------------------------------------------
I still have to get over my shock at the gross mistreatment of Nepali
men and women in South Korea. On one hand, it's regrettable that
desperate economic conditions back home compel many otherwise able
Nepalis to seek DD (Dirty, dangerous) jobs abroad at niggardly
salaries. On the other hand, it's all the more heart-wrenching to
hear about Nepali men getting beaten up and a Nepali woman getting
raped in a foreign country.
I don't know about you, but as a Nepali, I was both humiliated
and angry to learn that 13 helpless Nepalis had to parade around some
Korean cathedral with signs saying "Please Do Not Beat Us".
I am not sure how Nepal/Nepalis or TND readers should respond
to this kind of tragedy, but surely we should not let this sort of
happenings pass by without our STRONGEST condemnation? Those Nepalis
may be poor and desperate, but surely they do not "deserve" to be
raped and kicked around by some callous Korean manager?
I think it would be some sort of an emotional balm for all of
us if we could express our outrage in SOME Way. If you feel about this
as strongly as I do, here's what I have in mind:
1) Write a letter to the South Korean Prime Minister, expressing
our collective outrage at the mistreatment of Nepali workers.
[I would be happy to draft the letter, and send it to the
Korean Premier next week). Please suggest whether I should send
it on behalf of the Nepal Digest Family -- editors and subscribers,
without putting the subscribers' names and e-mail addresses or
whatever.
2) Send a copy of that letter to the South Korean Ambassador in
Washington DC.
3) The idea here is not to get political and blame Korea. The
idea is simply to demand justice for Nepali workers in Korea, and
condemn the rape incident and the gross mistreatment of Nepali
workers.
4) I realize that writing a letter may set a precedent for other
activities later. But, hey, when injustice happens to Nepali
citizens abroad, with the foreign media playing up the story to the
hilt, should we -- Nepalis and friends of Nepal -- NOT
express our outrage at the whole thing through some well-followed means?
5) Sure, the letters may NOT achieve anything concrete; but
should that be the reason for NOT writing them in the first place? Is
our collective silence the right answer when really bad things are
happening to Nepalis abroad? [Cynics may say that bad things are
happening to Nepalis all over the world anyway, and may wonder whether
we should be writing letters on all of their behalf also. But such an
argument is just a stupid argument, not a relevant point for
discussion here!]
6) What do you all think? Is it a good idea to write letters
to the South Korean premier and the ambassador on behalf of the
editors and the subscribers of the Nepal Digest? Or, would that not be
proper? PLease send your concerns to TND.
Remember, the only condition for evil to triimph is for 'good'
people to do nothing!
Lastly, let me explain that personally I have no political
agenda or hidden personal motives in wanting to write the letters to
the South Korean Premier and to the Ambassador on behalf of the TND. I
should also explain that I have no relatives in South Korea; nor do I
have anything against South Korea too. I just happen to be a concerned
and outraged Nepali . . a private citizen of Nepal, . and I hope you
are as concerned and outraged about this whole thing too! That's
all. Of course, some of you may dismiss this as a naive effort -- but
that is all right . . . even a naive effort is better than a cynical
silence!
Please send your comments to TND as soon as possible. I'll
start drafting the letter by next Thurday, Jan. 26 '95.
namaste
ashu
******************************************************************
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 05:54 EST
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - Jan 9, 1995 (25 Push 2051 BkSm)
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Bimal Kesary Poudel
=====================
This is in response to Dr. Khagendra Thapa's request for info n contact
address of Bimal Poudel.
Bimal Poudel is back in Institute of Forestry or shortly due back, since I did
not meet him. His wife's family in Paknajol say he is back, and his campus at
Hetauda also say he is back while administrators in Pokhara have arranged for
his promottion to Reader. He is definitely ruled out as a IOF faculty.
Bimal left for Malaysia in 1987 to pursue his PhD n forestry (his personal
objective) on an offical MS slot although he had a MS in forestry from
Pakistan. Hehas been there since. I guess 7 years is normal for a phd, Many
thought he would not return.
Bimal does not have an internet address as internet are available to only 20+
mercantile customers and the Academic "Fellows" of the moribund RONAST. I
asked Sanjeev Rajbhandary of Mercantile why Nepalese in Nepal never reply on
internet, he said the cost was $3.5 a minute, the fax is cheaper!
Regards,
Amulya Tuladhar
<Atuladhar@vax.clarku.edu>
***********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 95 18:39:07 CST
From: sbshah@gumbo.bae.lsu.edu (Sanjay B. Shah)
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Re: Green Card Lottery Info. (Jan. 19 posting ?)
Dear Editor,
I would be grateful if you could kindly repost the above
subscription by Siskind (an attorney) in the coming TND posting.
My printer garbled the last page that dealt with the info. to be
sent and the address. If you think the info. is important enough
to merit a second posting, you could publish the whole text or
you could just send me the last two pages (of Jan. 19's bulletin).
Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks.
Sanjay
sbshah@gumbo.bae.lsu.edu
%%%%%Editor's Note: It will soon be posted again, thank you. %%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
************************************************************
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 20:14:11 -0500
From: rshresth@black.clarku.edu (RaJesh B. Shrestha)
From: rajendra@coos.dartmouth.edu (Rajendra P. Shrestha)
Since there have been some discussions here about economic
liberalizations and free market policies, I thought that the following
newsarticle (taken from misc.news.southasia) might be of interest
to some SCNers (not that it reflects my views though).
Indian Express, Jan 9, 1995
* * * * * *
* Cracks emerging in policy establishment
BOMBAY - Significant divisions seem to be emerging among the top India
policy makers in the government on the impact of economic
liberalisation on the poor.
In a remarkable letter to the Finance Secretary, Mr. Motek
Singh Ahluwalia, and others, the Indian Executive Director to the IMF,
Mr K P Geethakrishnan, has warned of the adverse consequences of
liberalisation.
His letter says that "in free market politics, there is no
place for compassion or sympathy" for the poor, while there
may be much at stake for the western countries pushing these policies.
The letter was sent from the IMF office in Washington on Jan 4,
1995. Mr. Krishnan had actively supported the economic
liberalisation in his previous appointment as the Union Finance
Secretary. He was Mr Ahluwalia's immediate predecessor. But now he has
suggested that India should learn from the turmoil in Mexico due to
free market policies.
He has pointed to the demands being made in Mexico that some of
those who pushed for liberalisation - especially former President
Carlos Salinas de Gortaribe tried for treason. Economic
liberalisation, the Mexican Opposition has claimed, has resulted in the
impoverishment of the country.
Mexico was held up as an example of successful economic policy
reorientation under the guidance of IMF, World Bank and the US.
But it is fast moving towards becoming a stark example of market
failure and inappropriate economic policies.
Indian economic policy makers have been besotted with Mexico's
achievements joining the NAFTA and pushing policies that had the approval of
the IMF and the World Bank.
Hence for example, the talk of the need for India to join APEC
or ASEAN trade blocs and their uncritical acceptance of
patronising neo-liberal advice from all and sundry. Even the
Prime Minister of Singapore, no bigger than an urban tenement
block compared to India, had the gall to prescribe how India
should run its economy.
However, what is becoming clear now is that in Mexico, the belt
tightening that has been going on since the 1980s has not improved the lot of
the poor. Indeed, it was on New Year's Day last year, that the Chiapas rebel
broke out in Mexico, led by an organization calling itself the Zapatista
Liberation Movement.
At that time, it was dismissed by the Mexico policy makers as one of
those minor explosions that could happen anywhere particularly among Mexican
Indians in the interior. Their wishful thinking blinkered them from seeing
the Chiapas rebellion as an indication of the Mexian economy itself heading
towards a catastrophic crisis.
Almost, exactly a year later, the West is now preparing yet another
rescue package for Mexico - an $18 billion exchange stabilisation fund.
The Indian Executive Director at the IMF in his letter on the Mexican crisis
says: "The Opposition parties have indicated that they would like Salinas tried
for treason - for pursuing policies that projected an image of economic
stability during his final months as President.
"To qote Zedillo, Mexico's development demands that we recognise that
we are not a rich country, but a nation of serious needs and shortage. We
can not therefor identify ourselves with patters of consumption in wealthy
societies that have already resolved the disparities that still afflict us".
The rest of Mr.Geethakrishnan's letter suggests that he at least thinks
that there is a clear lesson for India in the Mexican experience.
Mr.Krishnan does not seem to be convinced that the free-market policies
started with the blessings of the US and other western countries in Mexico
has done much for the poor.
He says that the speed with which the western countries have
once again put together a rescue package for Mexico is dictated by
their own stakes in that economy.
India, too, is under external pressure to further the policies
of globalisation and the letter seems to suggest that there is a need
to pause and re-examine these polices before extending and
intensifying them further.
*********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 23:13:34 -0500 (EST)
From: Ashutosh Tiwari <tiwari@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: A Vote of thanks
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
My most sincere thanks to Laba Karki for his most recent defence of
the set-up of BKS. Since I have no interest in laying out my arguments for
the FOURTEENTH time, let me just say this:
Thank you Laba for your most excellent points. I am sorry to have been
spouting "crap" all this time without "[having understood] what [I] was
talking about." Please do pardon my "ignorance".
namaste
ashu
p.s. What a wonderfully easy world it would be if all the ideas I disagreed
with could be called -- quite evocatively -- "crap". Then again,
that's something to wonder about on another cloudy night . . .
**********************************************************************
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 05:58 EST
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
To: Nepal@cs.niu.edu
Tribhuvan University: Problems and Directions
==============================================
[The following is extracted from an audience former VC Mathema had with the
Chancellor Birendra]
Major Problems
1. Runaway enrollment growth [ seven fold in 15 years]
2 under financing and low levels of internal resource mobilization
3. Impact of the above two on quality of education.
[Note, it is very significant he did not mention politicization of the TU
hierarchy, a major problem perceived by faculty and students who see it as the
major threat to academic integrity.]
Measures Taken
Enrollment:
1. Regulate admission
2. Entrance Exams
3. Allow each Campus to set the enrollment target
4. Encourage affiliated (private) campus to take in more
students.
Underfinancing:
1.Obtain donor's assistance e.g WB $ 20 million and UNDP $ 600,000
2.Encourage cost recovery by hiking tuition, lab fees, fee for
itemised services e.g. Medicine campus charges separately
for MD students.
3.Encourage consultancy servicese.g. Department of Geography
4.Encourage other resource mobilization e.g. leasing land and
real estate by Shankardev and Fine Arts Campuses
5.Cut Expenditure e.g
Fire First class Administration officers
Discourage unnecessary tours of Agriculture campus
Remove all acting positions
Privitize cafetaria
Discourage new recruitment
[Missing is the suggestion to fire a lot of old log professors
like former Dean Saraswoti Rimal who do no teaching but just
grace 1-2 commisions that do not solve anything and there are
a lot of these occupying fat salaries and priviliges with no
productivity. I guess the VC is timid in front of the Professor's
Union of attracting the charge of being political.]
Improving Quality:
1. Conduct exam on schedule
2. Increase teaching days from 90 a year to 115 a yer
3. Check forged academic certificates: 600 frauds
exposed in Gorkhapatra but govt has neither
the machinery nor motivation to punish them.
{Most of these forgers are high school teachers, the
vanguard of grassroot communist activity in Nepal.}
4.Establish links with other university e.g Forestry
link with Yale
5.Conduct inservice training of faculty in research
e.g 600 teachers given research seminar
FUTURE DIRECTION
Enrollment Problem:
1.Widen entrance exam levels to all levels and faculty
2.Phase out Certificate program in 10+2 system
Underfinancing:
1.Increase cost recovery e.g 16% of operational budget for 95.
2.Explore much enhanced fee structure for technical campuses
3.Encourage sustainability plan e.g forestry campus now charges
for free electricity and residence use
4.Set minimum teaching loads and implement to cut overtime
(a toughie, old guys teach less 3 classes a week if they tach at all
and new recruits teach upto 28 classes a week)
Quality Improvment:
1.Activate newly appointed Deans to monitor quality
(HA ! Deans monitor political activity to ensure stability of
status quo other wise they just have fun, frolic, travel, and ghus)
2.introduce 3 year Bachelor program e.g. Forestry campust has a 4 year
Implement Full-Fledged Calendar:
Note The outgoing VC Mathema is credited with bringing some order to TU by
hiking the fee structure double, abolishing subsidy at the TU cafetaria, and
retrenching the Special Class officers in the Administration at significant
political costs. He has also tried with some success to make sure the exams
are held on time and students finish their program in prescribed time.
Given how deeply subsidized and entitled the TU population of faculty and
students are, the idea of making them pay for their service was wholly new and
he has been an iconoclast. It will be a long day before the TU becomes an
economically rational entity.
Girija brought Mathema a World Bank official and a former campus chief to
instill some financial discipline and this he did. let us see what the new VC,
rumoured to be Kamal Krishna Joshi, Kamal Prakash Malla, or Bal Krishna KC (a
biologist, a linguist, and a geographer) will do.
summarized by Amulya Tuladhar
Clark University
**************************************************************
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 95 08:13:36 EST
From: Subas_Sakya_at_USPRMG41@internetmail.pr.cyanamid.com
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: KISS
Dear Editer,
As a novice recently introduced to the internet, I have been reading books
and articles about the internet. I came across a term called KISS and I thought
it may be relevant to the TND participants regarding the discussion that's
currently taking place. This is a direct quote from the book called 'Crossing
the Internet Threshold' by Roy Tennant, John Ober and Anne G. Lipow.
"KISS: 'Keep it simple, stupid' is good advice to follow when posting a
message to an electronic discussion. State your problem, opinion, advice, or
whatever simply and directly. Assume that the people reading your message are
just as busy as you are and are just as likely to be frustrated rather than
inspired by long-winded, self-important postings. The respect of your colleagues
is much more likely to be won by a judicious use of the medium than not."
P.S. I would like to commend Mr Ashutosh Tiwari and his colleagues for their
effort in voicing their support for the Nepalese peoples plight in Korea. In
addition I sincerely hope all the Nepalese associations in the USA and abroad
would take part (hopefully have taken action!) making all the members inclusive
in this effort.
In addition I would like voice my support for ALL who have contributed to
the success of this news digest, especially Mr Rajpal Singh. Thanks.
Subas Sakya
Rockland County, NY
************************************************************************
From: "U.P.Rai" <MSRSDUPR@fs1.ec.man.ac.uk>
To: Nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 18:57:52 GMT
Subject: Mailing Address
Hello everybody,
Namaste!
I am looking for E-mail Address of Mr. Y R Joshi studying in Illinois
State University. I would appreciate if anybody could supply it in my
following address.
Sahayogko Laagi Dhanyabad
Uddhav Rai
Manchester University
Email: MSRSDUPR@stud.man.ac.uk
******************************************************************************
* Digest Contributions: NEPAL@MP.CS.NIU.EDU *
* Contributors need to supply Header for the article, email, and full name. *
* *
* Postings are divided into following categories that are listed in the *
* order below. Please provide category-type in the header of your e-mail. *
* *
* 1. Message from TND Editorial Board *
* 2. Letter to the Editor *
* 3. TAJA_KHABAR: Current News *
* 4. KATHA_KABITA: Literature *
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* 6. CHOOT_KILA (Humor, Recipies, Movie Reviews, Sattaires etc.) *
* 7. JAN_KARI: Classifides (Matrimonials, Jobs etc) *
* 8. KHOJ_KHABAR (Inquiring about Nepali etc. ) *
* 9. TITAR_BITAR: Miscellaneous (Immigration and Taxex etc. ) *
* *
* **** COPYRIGHT NOTE **** *
* The news/article posters are responsible for any copyright violations. *
* TND, a non-profit electronic journal, will publish articles that has *
* been published in other electronic or paper journal with proper credit *
* to the original media. *
* *
******************************************************************************
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