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The Nepal Digest Sunday 5 Apr 97: Chaitra 21 2053BS: Year6 Volume61 Issue 2
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* TND (The Nepal Digest) Editorial Board *
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* The Nepal Digest: General Information info-tnd@nepal.org *
* Chief Editor: RJP Singh (Open Position) a10rjs1@mp.cs.niu.edu *
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* "Heros are the ones who give a bit of themselves to the community" *
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Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 11:49:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Bikash@aol.com
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: The UN Park: More Fun and No Funds by Huta Ram Baidya
This article is taken from The (now-defunct English daily) Everest Herald of
20 September, 1996. It is a satire aimed at the frivolous ways (je gare pani
hunchaa-dangdung tarika) the Nepal International Center, the UNP ark
Development Committee, and some of the ministers have been functioning
regarding the sensitive issue of Bagmati River Pollution and Restoration. It
raises a question mark on the priorities, credibility and commitment of these
organizations towards river restoration in the valley by pointing out the
flaws in the Master Plan. Mr. Huta Ram Baidya is a Senior Agricultural
Engineer residing in Thapathali, Kathmandu. For the last five years he has
been raising concerns about the environment of the Bagmati River System via
various articles, interviews, and photo exhibitions. He resigned from the
Save Bagmati Campaign in 1994 and has continued to work on his own. Today, at
the age of 77, he is actively involved in advising a number of organizations,
young men a nd women to work on public issues and other engineering related
fields. H e also conducts research related to agricultural and rural
development at home. The UN Park: More Fun and no funds! By Huta Ram Baidya.
The U. N. Park. It has nothing to do with the UN Body. So do not be critical
toward the Family of nations, the UN. The present park idea seems to be
distantly (or maybe closely related) with an occidental proposal (of 1993)
"to establish a project along the riverbanks between Teku and Thapathali to
rehabilitate this area, breathe life back into the historic structure and to
create a new and unique historic environment for restaurants , shops, sport
centers, offices, guest houses, etc. And re-establish the former glory of
the river bank". The Teku Thapathali Research Program (Group), TTRG was
established a little later. It attracted NGOs and young Nepalis much the same
way as a piece of magnet attracts iron particles. Bagmati Basin Water
Management Strategy and Investment Program (WB) showed s ome interest in the
group. TTRG got the HMG approval to carry on the research work (date
unknown). A good report has already been published (Nov. 1994). This report
deals with temple complex architecture in great detail . It does not deal on
how to restore the river banks nor on how to "breathe life back " into the
Bagmati river.
Some one in the HMG got the noble idea to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the UN establishment with the 50th birthday celebration of His
Majesty King Birendra. Nothing objectionable. What was and is objectionable
is the unilateral Panchayat-cratic decision of the government to establish a
park in the middle of the Bagmati, Ganga, without any project documents or
Master Plan. Thus, a technically immature baby was born just outside the
Indra Rajya Laxmi Maternity Hospital at Thapathali, and christened as "The UN
park" on Poush 16, 2052 (Dec. 31, 1995). Honorable Prime Minister played the
part of a (male) midwife.
When the baby gains it adulthood in the three years time, it will
have 16 functional elements: a rich garden, paved walkways, car park,
children's park, swimming pools, circus, fair and exhibition space, protected
cultural and religious sites and many more. Most fascinating will be a n area
to accommodate donor interest and UN Memorial. The former glory of the banks
of "Granny Bagmati" will not be re-established. She will be tamed, trained
controlled within the limits with "No Flow Zone". She will have nominal
contact with Historical Panchayani to Juddha Ghat strip but w ill have the
autonomy to erode the Pachali Ghat when she gets wild. Granny will have no
contact with Raj Tirtha, one of the 12 tirthas of Buddhists.
The UN Park will annex about 50 percent of Bagmati Territory. The
baby, when it comes of age, will be 3.5 km long extending from Sankhamoo l
to Teku Dovan. This is one percent of the total length of the Bagmati System
(which is 360 km long up to Kotwaldaha). It is not much, is it? And as per
the present rough estimate, 350 million begged, donated and perhaps borrowed
money, will be invested on the Park within three years time (100 million per
km). Let the Park-nurse-on duty and others, you, me and all pray to God to
not to send back the 1993 flood.
If God listens to us, it will be great fun for us Kathmanduites to
sing the glory of the UN under the Bagmati green wood and have a nice horse
ride. But the lucky one among us have already started having fun and doing
funny things. Don't you think that our Honorable Prime Minister had good fun
on that last day of year 1995 to play the role of a midwife, put the brick
baby into a dugout cradle and bless the new born with words " Though shall
grow and be prosperous in the middle of this Holy Bagmati? " And poor Holy
Bagmati, she did not understand a word spoken at the ceremony. She does not
understand English! So she did not react either way and moved on and on as
normal and she is still doing so. Humans had fun.
A day came on the 6th of Sept. 1996 when an NGO invited foreign d
iplomats, business magnates, "buddhijeebis", journalists, etc. For a
Symposium on the UN Park Master Plan". Honorable Foreign Minister was the
chief guest. Two very enlightening papers were presented. Mr. Convener then
declared the floor open for "Questions" with a very mild request to have
short questions because the minister had another important engagement. The
humble audience accepted the whip. Questions were not only very short, they
were limited to three. Answers were also very short. Minister gave his
closing remarks and said good-bye to everybody. So he had his fun and the
NGOs too. To me it was funny.
Who will not be stunned to read: "Now, it has become very urgent
that the possible donors are to be identified and their activity of interest
is made public in order to make the project financially implementable
(Guideline for the UN Park Master Plan May '96)."
Why it is so? Reasons could be this occidental style park proposal.
a) does not fit in with the development concept of foreign and Nepali
donors.
b) foreigners are hesitant because of the public criticism of the
river side heritage destruction caused by New Bagmati Bridge and nearby
Gopal Mandir projects, and would not like to hurt the feelings of Kathmandu
residents any more.
C) they perceive the park as ill-conceived, ill-located and
technically unsound and a luxury, etc. etc. and d) Nepali donors
hardly provide funds to destroy a venerated river like the Bagmati. It is a
sin.
i) It is time for the UN Park Steering Committee to reconsider the
priority objectives and strategies. Add Bagmati restoration as The First
priority objective and reshuffle other priorities. Consider restoration of
the Bagmati riverbed with less expensive and effective technologies like
gabion dams and traditional bio-engineering technologies, already in use in
this country. Make Bagmati variable and not 'fixed' with stone masonry in the
Zoning Classification. Honor the "Right of the Way" of the Bagmati. Render
unto the Bagmati all that Belongs to the Bagmati. The river is Sakti Devi
first and hydropower later. If not honored, Devis retaliate as at Naya
Baneswor (July 1993 and Aug. 1995), Santi Basti (Aug. 1996) and Kalimati
(July 1995).
ii) Honor the late philanthropic Nepali donors of the Bagmati river
heritage by inviting their present generations to a special meeting and
listen to them. It will give some wisdom to the Park Committee on how to make
best use of the present resources and the future ones, to bring back and
sustain the lost glory of Bagmati.
iii) If objectives and strategies are readjusted to reflect the
Nepali religious concept, donor organization will appear to fill up the fund
vacuum. Let HMG declare the creation of a well-defined Bagmati Restoration
Fund (kosh) with a bank account number.
iv) When strategies are changed, be sure the ministers also change
their strategies of fun making and find more time to spend with the people
and listen to them.
v) Make the present good master plan team multi-disciplinary,
stronger and better. These could be the donors' silent message to the Park
Committee. This valley is under a westernization process which cannot be
stopped. In this process, Nepali culture and heritage are disregarded,
destroyed, demolished or sold and smuggled out of the country. We unknowingly
and knowingly have done much to destroy the Kathmandu Valley civilization, or
allowed it to be destroyed. We have destroyed enough! Now no more.
********************************************************
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 16:22:36 +0900 (JST)
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: bpant@mcai.med.hiroshima-u.ac.jp (Basant Pant)
Subject: Feri bhetaula
Dear TND friends,
I am leaving for Nepal after completion of my fellowship and would
like to discontinue my subscription for TND. Although I was not a very
active participant, I really enjoyed being with you and would like to
congratulate the editorial board and others involved in this remarkable
work.
We are one of the very few privileged people who can communicate by
internet while most of our country people can not even read and write. I
have felt a common desire to do something for the Nepalese people among the
readers of this digest. Hope TND will keep this spirit of its subscribers
high and use this power for the benefit of those voices which we can not
hear but just feel. I will try to be with you again. Feri bhetaula.
B. Pant, MD, PhD
Department of Neurosurgery
Hiroshima University
March 14, 1997
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Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 15:28:11 -0500
From: deschene@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Mary Des Chene)
Subject: One reaction to SINHAS 1(2)
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
The following review of Studies in Nepali History and Society, Vol. 1, No.
2 (December 1996) was published under the column 'Taking Stock'in The
Rising
Nepal, 4 March 1997. Abstracts of the articles discussed here and the full
text of the editorial are available on-line at
http://jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu/~deschene/sinhas/index.html
Responses, especially from people who have read the issue, will be appreciated.
The goings-on in a veritable lab
by Hari Uprety
Here is a journal (Studies in Nepali History and Society, vol. 1,
no. 2, Dec 1996, published by Mandala Book Point) that challenges your wit.
Was Nepal ever a laboratory for ideas of others to be tested? An article
in this journal provides an insight of most donor minds before they
choose Nepal
as an aid target. Tatsuro Fujikura, currently on a research (sic) in
Nepal,
unearths the history of economic development and the rationale behind the
discourses that have taken place in Nepal. He examines the concept of
community
development and traces its history in a thorough manner.
The unnerving part is his disclosure of the early studies carried
out by
donors and their fascination with the uniqueness about Nepal. This was a
country
that was just opening up to the outside world just as other parts of the
planet
were being freed from the colonial clutches of empire builders. A country
with
numerous lifestyles in a relatively small geographical area, historically
independent and ready to enter the modernization era - one could not have
more
ideal 'laboratory conditions' for new ideas to be tested.
Numerous aid projects have come and gone, but the development endeavours
have not been able to yield much to the life conditions of the Nepalese,
except
mire them towards adject poverty. Only the development discourse has
changed,
and as a result, new ideas have continued to pour in. Each new idea has
promised
to be the panacea that the past one was not. From the first Village
Development
Project of yore to today's market economics, there have been many
development
courses charted out for the Nepalese by outsiders.
The Nepalese may not be unaware of this phenomenon. Many tourism
products like trekking and rafting were first initiated in Nepal. Such
diversified products were a remote possibility for the others in the
region when
Nepal was in the midst of it all. And, one will not find it surprising if
other
tourism buffs come to the country to tell the country how to go about
promoting
Nepalese tourism. Indeed, there is something extremely charming about the
country for outsiders, especially for those that want to drop in an idea
or two
before they leave.
Obviously, those who find it their business to test their ideas
are on
the lookout for 'ideal conditions.' For others, the question may have an
ethicial dimension about using not only a few humans but a whole nation
and the
diverse and polyethnic society in it.
What about the host country? How could it ever voluntarily offer
itself
to be a wholesale guinea pig? Was the country pressured into offering its
'laboratory' facilities to outsiders, or was there some cold calculation
on the
Nepalese part when they did so? Answers to these questions many be
available
only when the Nepalese perspective of things are studies. Fujikura offers
only
the donor viewpoint in his study.
But what has been done so far is not without results, and hence,
interpretation. Hindsight does have the benefit of bringing things
clearer to
light. Nepal has just ushered in democracy when all this started
happening.
There was the lack of manpower to get things done (There ware just 7,000
civil
servants to take on the responsibility of managing the affairs of the
whole
nation, something a large business house can easily employ these days).
So any
help to deal with the new situation could have been welcomed, especially
in the
background of a new and foreign polity just being introduced (sic).
Another explanation could be more down-to-earth. The Nepalese
renenue
sources were not very forthcoming to finance the development that needed
to
reach villagers. The expropriation from a lucrative trade being conducted
through Nepal had been going to the government coffers until a little bit
earlier. The trade route had been completely bypassed due to the opening
up of a
parallel route through Darjeeling in India. This was an economic sanction
of a
severe kind on the fledgling nation-state, whatever or whoever brought it
about.
On the other hand, the opening up of the polity, and, to some
extent,
the economy, was surely going to create a lot of inflated aspirations
needing
financing. This did coincide with a worldwide development discourse
taking shape
after the war. The Marshall reconstruction plan of Europe had given
credence to
the belief that development was possible in the rest of the world if
similar
steps were taken. World organisations like the U.N., the Bretton Woods
institutions and development agencies set up shop to deal with the global
situation. Since the country could not do anything radical to come out of
the
shackles of a revenue crunch, it may have had to resort to looking for
development aid. And this was new economic challenge for the Nepalese.
There may have been strategic overtures aimed at reducing
dependence on
only one country, brought on by the closure of the trade route, through
establishing relationships with third countries, even if the method of
doing so
was limited to seeking aid from them. Given the alternatives available
then, its
readiness to accept itself as a laboratory for development ideas to be
tested
might in fact have been a very good strategic move by the Nepalese - an
agreement of sorts to live in symbiosis - you test your ideas while we
get on
with ours. If aid is an (sic) economic term, then Nepal did benefit by
diversifying its economic dependence while its needs were rising but was
facing
a virtual embargo.
But, then do development ideas have no other functions, apart
from
giving countries the strategic maneuverability they want? What about
development, the original raison d'etre of the aid regime? Obviously,
they do.
The country was desperately looking for development, but there was no way
for it
to develop. There were too many constraits, as Fujikura himself says that
too
many ideas were being tested for them to bear fruit. The only economic
benefit
to the nation seems to be the continuous flow of money to fill up the
country's
budget and balance of trade deficits, all the time increasing the
country's
appetite for it.
This brings us to another viewpoint. That money was fulfilling
the
inflated aspirations brought on by the opening up of the country to the
outside
world.It was creating a marketplace for the demand for and supply of
goods and
services to interact. Later on, infrastructure did get built to some extent.
The country seems to be in a position today where, seemingly, it
does
not need any aid for infrastructure. It is just opening up the sector to
private
investments. Whether this is the time to do so or not may be a matter of
debate,
but the constant push towards the market economy has indeed produced
results,
whether for good or for bad.
If one views the Nepalese development endeavours in this light,
one may
understand the reason for several of the national questions that puzzle
the
Nepalese from time to time. One of them is the Arun III puzzle.
The World Bank decided to pull out of the 402 MW Arun III bydel
project
at the last moment. It had declared its intentiion to foster the private
sector
and pull out of huge government projects only a little bit earlier. In
its own
studies, it must have seen that Nepal had turned itself into a viable
market for
the private sector to explore.
Most of the explanations made available by policians and others
either
pointed to the damage that might have occurred to the environment, or
costs the
economy might have incurred, or even the ideology of the political party
in
power then. This is utter nonsense. Arun III will be here, despite the
environment or the political ideology. The private sector will build it
when it
sees its profitable enough for that. It is only a matter of time.
Therefore,
declared ideas might not have worked, like Furjikura would like to see
it, but
the money flowing into the economy was doing its bit all the time.
Infrastructure projects taking the industrial status is proof.
Bikash Babu Pandey's article discusses the Arun III scenario in
another
light - whether hydel projects benefit the local people as much as it
does those
in other parts. It is natural for him to be concerned about local
benefits
because he is a well known man in rural Nepal as one who installs tiny
generators in villages and provides poeple with the light they need. He
sees
hydel projects as an opportunity to take development to remote parts by
supplementing them with irrigation and other components. But with
infrastructure
going to the private structure, his may turn out to be an impossible
proposition. His acceptance of hydel projects as industries should
confirm the
wishfulness of his dream.
Bhushan Tuladhar gives ideas on waste disposal - a burning
problem of
the day. Katherine Rankin studies the Newar community and issues relating
to
their presence in the marketplace. Shizu Upadhya reviews five well known
studies
on women and sees their (sic) status raised in some respect while in
others they
still have a long way to go.
Kamal Adhikary's article, exclusively on the changes of names of places,
is a conspiracy theorist's dream. He sees traditional names being changed
into
new ones as an act of hegemony being perpetrated by the Nepali language.
The fact is Adhikary does not provide enough work to substantiate
his
accusations with. Giving just four examples in a twenty-page commentary
(Tansing
changed into Tanse, Rangdi to Ramdi, Arungkhola to Arunkhola and
Arebhanjyang to
Aryabhanjyang) and then come to such a sweeping conclusion and still get
published may speak of the editorial policy of the new journal rather
than his
standard of study.
This is reinfored by Mary Des Chene's editorial providing
credence to
such ideas. For her, Prithvi Narayan's ekikaran of the Nepalese
territory,
Bhanubhakta's ekikaran of the language and today's bikas efforts, she
called it
the third ekikaran, all have hegemonistic tendencies. These are bold
claims. The
fallacy of it all is that they were made after islating historical
phenomena
from the past, bringing them to the present, dissecting them by using
currently
available tools and getting disgusted by the results.
Prithvi Narayan Shah might have been more appealing for such
minds had
he preached post-modernist universal values and left the medieval
principalities
to be gobbled up the advancing British. The very fact that Nepal is a
viable
nation-state, that it was not until the the unification, should speak a lot.
Indeed, there were pitfalls, some of them natural many of them man-made,
but they do not seem to be getting any attention. Instead, the publicized
strategic gains have come under her attack. Don't other countries have
histories
and does the past always come under such banal attacks?
It is natural for one to be frustrated by the slow pace of
development
and offer ways to provide a better alternative. She does not. Instead in
her
words, "...unveil the bikas machine, examine its parts, dismantle it, and
build
something better." Yet build what she does not say. And, which forces
gain in
the dismantling process may be too far-fetched an idea for her. She
leaves the
details to those within the machine to sort out.
Indeed, jump out of the frying pan, for it it too hot.
Hari Uprety works for The Rising Nepal and is the author of Crisis of
Governance: A Study of Political Economic Issues in Nepal (1996)
published by
Centre for Governance and Development Studies, Kathmandu.
******************************************************************
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Litter on trek
From: rshresth@BBN.COM
Cross-posted from SCN:
---------------------
To all potential trekkers in Nepal - and anywhere who cares anything
about the Himalaya:
Do something about litter you see on trails: cigarette packs, sweet
wrappers, plastic bags. If you start picking them up and getting rid of
them, your guides will too. And if you are using porters, ask that they
do not litter.
When I was trekking recently, I decided that someone had to make a start
and begin picking up litter. My guides - Suksing and Baksing - were
surprised but followed suit. Soon, they were doing it without my
example. We ended the last day of my 19-day trek, the last bit through
Shivapuri Wildlife Preserve and part of the popular Helambu trek, with
four large bags of wrappers, plastic bags, etc, etc. This is not
counting the several bags that we burnt along the way before we got to
Shivapuri.
Needless to say, Suksing and Baksing got astonished stares and questions
from their fellow Nepalese along the way but they stuck with the garbage
detail. And I am happy to say that we made a difference. We left the
trails we went through cleaner than when we started.
Maybe the Nepal Tourism Board could encourage more guides and porters to
clean up trails they go through by paying a few rupees for every kg of
garbage brought out to check points. After all, the parks collect fees
from trekkers. Sharing some of this would encourage trekking agencies,
guides and even villagers to do more to keep the mountains clean.
Oh, I had to draw the line at cleaning up villages. Whenever, we drew
near to a village we had to stop picking up litter since the sheer size
of the problem made it unmanageable just for a three-man garbage detail.
So we confined the clean-up to the more remote trails where litter was
doubly glaring in the splendid setting of forests and mountains.
Do something! You can make a difference.
Lee Geok Boi
***************************************************************
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 12:00:37 -0500 (EST)
From: ShreeS@aol.com
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - March 13, 1997 (29 Falgun 2053 BkSm
Please Help!! I do'n't know If this is my problem, or AOL's problem. I get
the message saying AOL can not display all the text because it is too long.
I need to download text format to read complete text. When I download and
try to read I do not get full text.
*************************************************************
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 97 16:32:27 CST
From: mahesh <MSHAH1@UA1VM.UA.EDU>
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - March 13, 1997 (29 Falgun 2053 BkSm)
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
hallo the truthseekers of the world!
how are you?
I would like to know about kundalini yoga and i am also looking for
true guru who can help me to understand and practise on this yoga.
if anybody has any information about it and the guru,please guide me
to that divine world.your help will be the path of my longing for
self-realization. i have read some books about kundalini,written
by Gopi krishna,vivekananda,aurobindo,rajnesh,c.g. jung and john
woodroff.they are really praiseworthy.If anyone recommend good books,
i be glad to read that.thank you. Let-all of us live in peace and bliss!
************************************************************
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 13:41:34 -0600 (CST)
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
From: kradhikary@mail.utexas.edu (Kamal R. Adhikary)
Subject: Ramesh's article
Dear Editor,
I read the article of Ramesh Shrestha on Gurkhali diplomay. I
liked the article and I would like to reproduce it with your consent to the
Asian Studies Web page:
http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/nepal/
Would you mind it I reproduce it with a proper acknowledgment? I would
appreciate your reply. Thanks.
Sincerely,
kamal
%%%%%Editor's Note: Any TND articles can be reprinted with due %%%%%
%%%%% credit to original media and a citation of %%%%%
%%%%% "The Nepal Digest, TND foundation". %%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
*********************************************************
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 12:34:09 +0100
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: lo12@cornell.edu (Lazima Onta)
Subject: essay by P. Onta
The following article was published in the K. Post of March 17, 1997 (i.e.
beginning of the SASON conference at the Tribhuvan University).
Vacuous Erudition: Testimony to Mediocrity
Pratyoush Onta
In the post-Jana Andolan period of Nepali history, one that the Canadian
anthropologist Mary Des Chene has called the janajati-yug, the social science
scholars of Nepal have had to encounter a somewhat intense debate on the
subject of Nepali nationhood and identity. While this debate in its entirety
resists simple characterization, we might for our purposes, state that the
definitional certainty regarding the one-nation, one-language Nepali
identity exuded by the Panchayati state (euta des, euta bhasa variety) is
under serious
questioning. The central pillars of Nepali nationalism during the decades of the
Panchayati Raj - monarchy, State-Hinduism, Nepali language and Rastriya
Itihas as the national history of Nepal - show cracks as a result of
attacks from
various ethnic quarters. This phenomenon of re-defining Nepali nationhood along
variously different terrains is an important part of the cultural politics
in contemporary Nepal and a not-to-be-neglected facet of what 'democracy'
has meant in post-Panchayat Nepal.
However, anthropological scholarly research has been, putting it mildly,
slow at producing significantly detailed studies of the janajati-yug Nepal. To
date, except for Des Chene's 65-page article that appeared in the premier
issue of Studies in Nepali History and Society in mid-1996 - one that examined
some Tamu (Gurung) publications for the arguments they have made in the
current redefinitions of Tamu identity and in articulating a new, more
inclusive, Nepali identity - no detailed examination of this subject has
appeared in scholarly publications on Nepal. To be sure, the attention of
many foreign and native academic scholars has turned to this subject but so
far we have seen a lot of superficial and insightless works.
Foreign researchers who pontificate on nationalism and ethnicity in
Nepal from Europe or America, rehash old gatekeeping concepts of the
sociology of Nepal without feeling the need to adequately inform themselves
about both the substance and the limits of post-Panchayat identity-centred
discourses, both oral and written, and their historical roots in Panchayat
and pre-Panchayat cultural politics. Hence we get an agent-less history of
how old hill Hinduism became State-hinduism in the Panchayat era or banal
references to the dominance of the Nepali language without a demonstration
of how it is that both hill Hinduism and the Nepali language achieved their
hegemonic status in Panchayat-yug Nepal. As in the case of State-hinduism,
the agency of Nepalis whose lives and works gave the Nepali language and
the Nepali national imagery associated with it the high and almost
undisputed status during the Panchayat era is neglected and ultimately
undermined in analyses which basically remain historically naive and
uninformed. In their haste to package ignorance for professional gains,
relevant published sources in various Nepali languages continue to be
neglected by foreign researchers even as they are aware, surely, of the
existence of this corpus.
If the scenario is that bleak with respect to most foreign
research on Nepal on the subject of ethnicity or nationalism, the
corresponding story for Nepali academic researchers is equally depressing.
While much has been
written in newspapers and magazines, one searches, in vain, for insightful and
sustained academic discussions on the subject. The few examples of academic
writings that have been published are cliched and slogan-like and are, by
no means, substantive critical analyses of the subject. Some scholars have
called
for decentering notions such as 'national unification' or 'hinduization' or
'sanskritization' - darling themes of Panchayat-yug anthropology of Nepal - with
a bottom-up approach without providing examples of what the latter means or
feeling the need to demonstrate, in detail, the process through which discourses
of 'unified Nepal' sustained their hegemony here and their effects. Hasty calls
for the placement of ethno-planning - a concept whose specificity is left in a
conspicuously non-defined state - at the centre of all policy prescriptions
without a sustained analysis of the historical demography of Nepal and the
future implications of the prescribed policy, constitute bad academics.
From
these examples it seems as though the work of Nepali scholarship on this subject
is to replace one set of cliched slogans with another more politically correct
one.
And there are other examples of Nepali works that not only fail to
provide readers with sustained analyses, but also fail to propose a clear line
of argument about the subject of Nepali nationalism or ethnicities. In fact, to
be blunt, they have no argument to propose. The most recent example of this has
come from the pen of Ramesh Kunwar, a senior anthropologist at Tribhuvan
Univerity, in the form of his 1996 book entited Ethnicity in South Asia. In
a
15-page chapter with the heading 'Ethnicity in Nepal', Kunwar reviews and cites
various studies but fails to provide any original analysis or argument of his
own before ending with an obeisance to the banal theme of Nepal's "unity in
diversity". After several readings of this chapter and the rest of the book, I
have to conclude that the erudition supposedly demonstrated by his in-text
citations of other scholarly works and a long bibliography at the end of the
book is in fact vacuous to the core. Instead, the citations and the bibliography
actually stand as abysmal testimony of Nepali intellectual mediocrity, and of
its inability to comprehend and use relevant scholarship on the subject to come
up with an insightful viewpoint on the current cultural politics of Nepali
identity.
Given what is at stake, both in terms of scholarly understandings of
Nepal and the social realities of many Nepali lives, this state of
scholarship is both reviling and unacceptable. While some might think that
the above characterization of scholarship on the current cultural politics
of the Nepali
identity is too dismal, I have seen little evidence to think otherwise, and I
would be much obliged to anyone who can direct my attention to any studies that
prove me wrong.
From my point of view, the challenge that lies ahead is quite clear:
scholars ought to be producing historically informed works on national identity
politics of Nepal if they want to even begin to understand the janajati-yug
Nepal. The previously mentioned study by Des Chene is one good beginning of what
I mean: she not only discusses the contents of recent Tamu publications
as far as the question of Tamu language and identity are concerned, but also
shows why it is necessary for social analysts of Tamu discourses in janajati-yug
Nepal to have a much broader knowledge of the making of the Nepali
identity. This kind of approach supercedes the current "my tribe, my ethnic
group" focus of most anthropologists of Nepal and begins to open
discussions about the Nepali
national culture and its alternatives that escape various types of
essentialisms. This is a challenging task which anthropologists of Nepal,
both foreign and indigenous, will have to execute in the years ahead. The
alternative
is to incarcerate oneself and the relevant scholarly community inside variously
vacuous academic jails. Perhaps the 4-day conference of sociologists and
anthropologists of Nepal that begins from today in Kathmandu will give some
thoughts to this matter.
Lazima Onta-Bhatta
Department of Anthropology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
email: lo12@cornell.edu
***************************************************************
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 16:21:41 EST
To: tnd@nepal.org
From: REFGID@library.phila.gov
Subject: http://www.nepal.org/ re: namita kiran's poem
I read Namita's poem with avid interest. Although it's simple, it's
quite telling. As Wenders put it:"The yanks have colonized our sub
concious." Or as Jimmy Reed put it:"Bright lights big city's
gone to my baby's head." I don't blame her. That which controls your
eyeballs controls your mind, to quote Timothy Leary. The whole
advertisement industry rests on this premise. What is not to like
about America? It's a system that attracts the best and brightest
from four corners of the world. Presumably, Namita is a beneficiary
of this system, as most Nepalese students are. To trash America is
to bite the hand that feeds. That feeds dreams, imagination,
aspirations. Calls to mind the whole bit about the westward expansion,
the bit about manifest destiny. Makes us embarrassed about her
country's relative backwardness. I'm sure she's embarrassed, or why else
would she trash her country with such wanton, youthful abandon. Perhaps,
she's just got the taste of American life. Apparently, she's young,
wild and free. Perhaps she feels invanquishable. Youth does that to
people. Or may be she's discovered the taste of "guinness" beer, or
she identifies with characters in "Seinfeld, or Friends", or perhaps
hundreds of small things have opened up her world of possibilities.
Or perhaps she is in love. It's a wholesome feeling. Oh how I envy
her. I wish I could be her age again.
And yet, every silver cloud has a dark lining (my own twist). We
live in an age where nationalism's gone the dodo's way, where it's
easier to like strangers than one's own family and friends. Joyce
never liked Ireland. Neither did Beckett. Yet Ireland pursued them
wherever they went. A country punishes its own intellectuals more
severely than those from abroad. It's damn tough to make it in
one's own country. Perhaps, that's why those two irish authors
lived in exiles. This in part explains the brain drain. I am sure
many intellectuals shed loads of crocodile tears for their
god-forsaken country, while both their feet are planted in the
U.S. soil. Hypocrites?! In the end, man acts according to his/her
self interests, whatever philosophers or sociologists or economists
say.
Ms Kiran is on an existential quest.She wants to forget the past, or
wants to pursue her "American dream". Hell, we don't know what
"America" is: it's an open-ended proposition. It's not romantic land
in Cole or Rockwell's paintings. It's not the land of honey & milk.
Those are idealizations. More to the point, it's merely a backdrop
against which Ms. Kiran has to sort out her feelings, fight her
own demons, come what may. The battles may be ugly, the scars deep,
the wounds disabling. Though if she fights a good fight, she might
find her own "America".
The irony may be that she'll come to appreciate her nativeland more and
more against the backdrop of this overarching America. Though she might
be embarrassed by her country, America will remind her of it, although
punishingly and constantly. Or rather Nepal will pursue her no matter
where she goes. There's no escaping it. She will have to deal with it.
May be not now when she feels inperishable. May be once she starts to
think about her own mortality.
I , for one, believe that when they couldn't find "El Dorado", they had
to invent "America" so they could keep going. Such is the human nature.
***************************************************************
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 20:25:34 PST
To: webmaster-tnd@nepal.org
From: Debangsu Sengupta <debangsu@chinet.chinet.com>
Subject: Greetings from New Delhi, India
Namaste and hello.
I am Debangsu Sengupta , a high school student in New Delhi, India.
Sometime back, me along with two of my friends over the Internet, in USA
and Netherlands , decided to team up and do an educational web project
on the Himalayas. We plan to cover every aspect of the Himalayas - well
atleast as much as possible. We intend to cover the Indian, Nepal, China
and Bhutan Himalayas. We are quite serious about the project, and work
is already underway.
I came across your website while looking for information and really
appreciated ur site. We would be very grateful if you can help us out
with our project by contributing material, of general or proprietory
nature. Material can be in the form of text, stories, pictures, audio,
video etc. Appropriate Credit will be given for ALL contributions,
proprietory and otherwise, on our website.As we mentioned earlier, this
is an educational , non profit project.
We will really appreciate ur help. We will also be very grateful if you
can direct us to other possible sources of information for our project.
Kindly reply to this email and we will send u details about our project
which you probably will be interested in knowing.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Kindly reply to the email address below.
Regards
Debangsu Sengupta
debangsu@chinet.chinet.com
***********************************************************
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 19:30:28 -0600 (CST)
From: TSHRESTH@MSUVX1.MEMPHIS.EDU
Subject: Panche for PrimeMinister ??
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Dear Editor,
Please allow me to vent my sad feelings about the recent political
events in Nepal. I just cannot believe it that the Panche-Mandale-Thugs are
now not only in the government but also the Prime Minister. This is the time
of shame and infamy in Nepal. What is happening to us ? Are we, as a nation,
really going down the drain ? Is all the blood and tears spent for democracy
in vain ? Who is responsible for this inglorious turn of events ? Down with
all of them. Sadly yours - Tilak B. Shrestha, Memphis, Tennessee.
**************************************************************
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 22:46:55 -1000
From: Mahendra Lawoti <lawoti@hawaii.edu>
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: An interesting artilce
The second choice : Localization
By Aditya Man Shrestha
The alternative to globalization is localization.
In other words, we base our development
primarily on indigenous strengths and potentials.
Instead of going wild with globalization, we
should tune our development to local realities.
This does not mean a return to the pre-1950
isolation. But we must underline the fact that
the Nepalese did survive albeit with illiteracy,
without population control, subsistence
economy, political suppression, social injustice
and without communication facilities. Even if
some cynics advocate that we return to this
period, it will not be possible. We have come
too long a way for that.
The second choice should, in fact, emphasize our
national potential for development. Let us
go straight to some brass tacks. Take water
resources, for instance. Instead of rushing for
big projects we can graduate ourselves by taking
up smaller ones. We throw ourselves at
the mercy of foreign capital and control when we
choose big projects. But in the case of
small or medium projects, Nepal can handle them in
terms of capital, technology and
capability. In other words, we should not become
too ambitious and go for thousands of
mega watts to make billions of rupees. We should
go for projects that we can afford and, on
which our engineers can proceed without hitches.
In tourism, our approach should be more benefit
oriented. Our doors should not be as wide
open as they are today. Just by increasing the
number of tourists, our country will not
benefit. We should discourage low cost tourism.
The industry has become a victim of price
cutting. From the environmental and cultural point
of view, we have realized that the number
of tourists should not be unmanageably big. In any
case, even though we may desire a big
number, we do not have the means to bring them
here. So, a moderate target would be a
practical solution.
In development, we are frustrated because we have
become too ambitious. We are setting
targets not according to our needs and capability
but according to what others have
achieved. We often sell dreams to our people
without meaning it. We promise to turn Nepal
into a Singapore without understanding what it
really means. Is it necessary for Nepal to
become Singapore? Firstly, it is not necessary for
our survival and happiness. Secondly,
there is no commonality in pre-requisites between
the two countries.
Singapore is an outcome of free accessibility to
the world, imaginative leadership,
benevolent dictatorship, free enterprise and
freedom from cultural bondage. Nepal, by
contrast, embodies a geo-political island,
conservative and dull leadership, an economic
colony and a cultural limbo. With such strong
differences and hardly any commonality, it will
be deceptive to believe and make our people
believe that these countries will be at par at a
certain point of time.
What I am basically asking for is a rethink on the
development approach to make it
sustainable in our context. In other words, it may
not be necessary to tie our economy with
the globalization process if we lose more than we
gain from it. A moderate growth
dovetailed with equitable distribution is
preferable to a fast growth with big gap between the
poor and the rich. The emphasis should be more on
human growth than on growth itself.
Going by this prescription, we should be enforcing
compulsory primary education with a full
national coverage rather than making it free and
keeping it limited to a section of society.
The resources currently going to higher education
will have to be diverted to the lower level
to achieve radical transformation of society.
In medical facilities, priority should go to basic
health care opportunities with national
coverage instead of specialized medical
facilities. The impact of an all pervasive health care
system will be seen, over time, in lower infant
and maternity mortality, higher birth control,
better immunization coverage, lesser disabling
incidences, and finally, greater life expectancy.
Specialized medical facilities are meant for the
top class because the bottom mass cannot
afford them. The long term benefits of basic
medical provisions far outweigh those provided
by specialized hospitals. Such expensive
facilities should be left to the private sector whereas
the government should concentrate on the basic
medical structure.
The objective should be to create a sustainable
society rather than a sophisticated one. In
this context, public investment in urban areas
should be completely stopped. All resources
should be diverted to villages to increase their
carrying and retaining capacity. Urban
investment is, on the one hand, creating more
pollution, while on the other, it draws more
and more people to these centres. The existing
development trend is neither making urban
centres sustainable by over-investment nor is it
making rural life sustainable by
under-investment. So the process must be reversed
to make the larger part of the country
sustainable.
Above all, we need to reframe the political
process to encourage decentralization of power.
We need to challenge the representation process
without challenging the fundamental
democratic structure. We can make local
communities more powerful by curtailing the
power of the centre. In other words, we should aim
to empower the people rather than their
representatives. The representative system that we
have adopted is not representing the
people in the real sense. Once we make local
communities the centres of power and
development, the whole approach to national
development will be changed.
So, the second choice before us is to go slow on
development but remain firm with our
roots. The bulk of the Nepalese people were not
affected by the 1989 Indian blockade of
oil because their lifestyle was not dependent on
oil as such. The impact was visible only on
urban people. That was only an eye-opener to the
kind of dependency we would like to
create for ourselves in future. The choice is
ours. It is the blurring of choice that hinders the
development process and lands us in trouble.
Mahendra Lawoti
MSC 740 Tel: (808) 943 6168 2732 Kolo Place
1711 East West Road Fax: (808) 944 7955 Apt#304
Honolulu, HI - 96848 Email: lawoti@hawaii.edu Honolulu, HI 96826
********************************************************
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 15:28:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Bikash@aol.com
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Service, Service Baby
Service, service, baby!!
by ashu
Let+s face it, even before reaching their peak, days of
manufacturing are over in Nepal. Except for a handful of products with
relatively locked-in markets (such as those of Helambu apples, cassettes of
lok-geet and so on), no matter how well Nepal produces a (consumer) good,
the post-1991 India can and will produce a higher-quality version of the
same thing [through its superior production/distribution system] at
competitive prices.
If you don+t believe me, then spend some time interviewing any
shop-keeper anywhere in Nepal. You+ll find that from incense-sticks to
toilet soaps, and from carbon-papers to flash-light batteries, Indian or
India-collaborated goods have been luring customers away from most SUDDHA
Nepal-made products. Worse, Nepali products are widely perceived to be (and
in most cases, frankly, are) shoddy and third-class.
That being a bitter indicator of truth, where then lies the edge
for Nepal+s companies? In service, service and nothing but service. Yet the
irony is: if you, as a customer, do business with most private Nepali
companies, you+ll soon discover that, to them, service is just another dirty
word. So much so that, you+ll end up wondering how else do private Nepali
companies hope to prosper when the very practice of customer service makes
them uncomfortable and/or defensive. [Cultural reasons? Social factors?
Sheer laziness? What?]
A WHITE-COLLAR EXHIBIT: A few months ago, a friend was having
problems with e-mail connections at his (Lazimpat ko) office. He called the
vendor, and was told that the guy in charge of the Internet division was
out. Explaining the difficulty he was having, the friend left behind his
name and number, but received no call back all that day and the next. He
called again on the third day, and was assured that an engineer would soon
be sent.
The engineer came, fiddled with the wires and the key-board, but
basically ended up shaking his head. Yet, neither acted concerned nor
promised further help. Palpable was his attitude that it was probably
beneath his dignity to have been sent on this sort of a mere
+service/repair-mission+. Nothing helpful got done, and a few days later, my
friend had no choice but to dump the vendor in favor of its rival.
A BLUE-COLLAR EXHIBIT: Likewise, two months ago, another friend
was having a one-story house built near Kathmandu. Her biggest complaint was
that she couldn+t get her Nepali workers to do the PRECISE kind of
technical-work she wanted done. The slope she wanted on the bathroom floor
was just not +slopey+ enough for water to drain easily. Placement of the
windows was slightly crooked, the ventilation in the kitchen left much to be
desired, the door-CHUKULS were awkward to operate, and on and on went her
list of complaints.
Yet, every time she and her husband raised their concerns with the
technicians, they were met with much resistance with an occasional ly
grudging compliance. Finally pissed-off, the friend shrugged off her
patriotism, fired all the Nepali workers, and brought in a team of Bihari
laborers, who, she says, at least show up on time, work quietly and deliver
PRECISE pieces of work -- without making her feel stupid when she tells them
how she wants certain technical details taken care of.
MORAL: Unless our collective attitude to providing service,
service and nothing but service changes for the better, economic
liberalization notwithstanding, there isn+t much we
Nepali-citizen-card-holders can hope -- as businessmen, entrepreneurs,
general managers, employees or consumers -- for our own enterprises. [A
slightly different version of this has been submitted to The The Kathmandu
Post as a "post platform" piece.]
************************************************************
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 15:56:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Rabindra Tripathi <rabi@scisun.sci.ccny.cuny.edu>
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Subject: WWW Info Exchange with Kids in Nepal (fwd)
Rajpal dai,
we received this messaage from canada. Can you include it in next edition
of TND?
Regards,
-Rabi
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 15:51:39 +0000
From: L. McKinley <lmckinle@sfu.ca>
To: chautari@scisun.sci.ccny.cuny.edu
Subject: WWW Info Exchange with Kids in Nepal
Exhanging Information with Children in Nepal
We will be starting an interactive WWW project for kids in our area
called Adventure Everest Online--where students will be following a 7
week Everest climb which starts April 15. In some of the web based
activities kids will be researching aspects of life in Nepal and
comparing to their own country, customs, etc. Are you able to help us
find children from Nepal who have web access to exchange information
with our students....or can you direct me to someone who might help.
Thank you!
Linda McKinley Phone: (604)205-2660
Education Coordinator e-mail: lmckinle@sfu.ca
MC2 Learning Systems Inc. http://www.mc2.sfu.ca
Burnaby BC Canada
********************************************************
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 17:11:51 -0500
From: deschene@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Mary Des Chene)
Subject: NSG Discussion Series Schedule for April
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Centre for Social Research and Development
Martin Chautari/Nepal Studies Group Discussion Series
NOTE: From 1 April this series will meet every Tuesday at 5:30 pm. Meetings
are at the
premises of Martin Chautari, Thapathali, Kathmandu (tel: 246065).
Program
27 March 1997, Thursday (in Nepali)
Wildlife Conservation in Nepal: Where are we now?
Dr Pralad Yonzon, Resources Nepal
30 March 1997, Sunday (Kathmandu Book Society)
Ideas for a New Book Shop
Kanak Mani Dixit, Himal
1 April 1997, Tuesday (in Nepali)
Photojournalism in Nepal: Its Achievements and Shortcomings
Usha Tiwari (Freelance photojournalist), Gopal Chitrakar (Gorkhapatra)
and Bikas Rauniar (Kantipur)
8 April 1997, Tuesday (in Nepali)
The Role of Nepali Communist Parties in the Parliamentary System
Dr Surendra K. C., Dept of History, TU
15 April 1997, Tuesday (in Nepali)
The Global Village in Nepali Literature: A Discussion
Led by Khagendra Sangraula
Nt. Participants should read Samakalin Sahitya No. 25 (special katha issue)
beforehand
22 April, Tuesday (Kathmandu Book Society)
Tourist Guide Book Industry
Madhab Maharjan, Mandala Book Point
29 April, Tuesday
Civil Society: Thinking about Nepali Specificities - A Discussion
Seira Tamang, Hari Sharma et al.
If you plan to be in Kathmandu during April or in subsequent months, drop
by Martin Chautari premises on Tuesday evenings to participate in our
discussions.
If you want to present a research paper in the months of June, July or
August, please contact P Onta by fax: 977-1-223194. State the title, preferred
date, and include your email address.
For further information about events at Martin Chautari click on "Other
Activities of the Center for Social Research and Development" on the first
page of the SINHAS Web Pages:
http://jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu/~deschene/sinhas/index.html
***************************************************************
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 21:04:36 EST
To: tnd@nepal.org
From: GURKHA1@aol.com
Subject: ANA CONVENTION UPDATE
HOSTED BY THE GREATER BOSTON NEPALI COMMUNITY
July 4th Weekend, 1997
Dear Friends (All Nepalis and Friends of Nepal),
Following is a Tentative Agenda along with many details of the various
programs we are organizing. Also included are names and E-Mail contacts for
the various people who are organizing the many activities. Please contact
these people if you are interested in participating or have any ideas. We
strongly encourage and expect your participation. You can also contact Shyam
Karki at skarki@mcls.rochester.ny.lib.us or
Bhupesh Karki at bkarki@lynx.neu.edu for other information/ideas you may have
towards the convention.
TENTATIVE PROGRAM FOR THE 15th ANNUAL ANA CONVENTION HOSTED BY GBNC
JULY 3 --- THURSDAY:
5 PM -- 10 PM: Registration
Welcome: Socializing/Cash bar
7 PM -- 10 PM: Nepali Dinner at the Cafeteria sponsored by GBNC
9 PM --11 PM: Poetry Recital/Contest
JULY 4 --- FRIDAY:
7:00AM -- 8:00 AM: Nepali Friendship Run (5 mile jog/walk)
9:00AM -- 10:00 AM: Welcome:
Breakfast
GBNC Address by President (Bhupesh Karki)
ANA Address by President (Pramod Sharma)
AARATI Dance
10:00 AM -- 11:30 PM: FORUM I: Bridging the Gap (Primary Theme of Convention)
(see attachment)
11:30 PM -- 1:00 PM: Lunch
1:00 PM -- 2:00 PM: FORUM II: Working in Nepal (see attachment)
2:30 PM -- 4:00 PM: FORUM III: Maintaining Nepali Heritage among Young
Nepalis in America (see attachment)
4:30 PM -- 6:30 PM: Sports (Soccer/Basketball/Volleyball/Badminton)
7:30 PM -- 9:30 PM: Formal Banquet (Nepali Food)
10:00 PM -- 1:00 AM: Dance conducted by a professional DJ
JULY 5 ---SATURDAY:
7:00 AM -- 8:00 AM: Aerobics for early birds
9:00 AM -- 10:30 AM: FORUM IV: Health Care Issues in Nepal (see attachment)
10:30 AM -- 12:00 PM: FORUM V: Hydropower Forum (see attachment)
12:00 PM -- 2:00 PM: BBQ Lunch
2:00 PM -- 3:00 PM: FORUM VI: An Americans Viewpoint of Nepal
3:15 PM -- 4:45 PM: FORUM VII: Womens Issues (see attachment)
5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM: Coming Together (see attachment)
6:00 PM -- 8:00 PM: Dinner on your own
8:00 PM -- 10:00 PM: Cultural Program and Farewell (see attachment)
ATTACHMENTS
FORUM I: Bridging the Gap
Every year during the July 4th weekend The Association of Nepalis in the
Americas (ANA) helps bring together a large group of Nepalis for a
convention. These conventions are attended by a diverse group of Nepalis
living in North America and is a fair representation of Nepali population
living in America and Canada. There are several ways to distinguish the
different kinds of Nepalis. One glaring difference is the number of years
they have lived away from Nepal. There are those who are recent arrivals such
as students, workers, professionals. This group consists of those who have
not been here for more than ten years. And then there is the second kind,
which consists of those who once may have also came here as students, workers
and professionals, but have remained behind as citizens and residents of the
US or Canada. These two groups can learn a lot from one another. They are
almost a mirror image of one another separated only by a time line. While
some may have overcome the difficulties of adjusting to a new country and
culture, others are in the process of doing just that. To some, the memories
of the life they left behind in Nepal are relatively recent while to others
these memories are part of their past. Some are thinking of starting a
family here while others raised a new generation of Nepalis here.
This forum is an attempt to bring these two groups together. The forum will
consist of representatives of both sides. This panel will discuss issues
such as: The importance of maintaining their language; What does it mean to
be a Nepali here? The challenge of raising a family in a culture so different
from the one they grew up in; What is it like to be away from home when one
is a student? The choices they have made that are relevant to this
discussion, etc. The panelists along with the moderator of the forum will be
involved in the final outcome. The forum will also provide opportunities for
the audience to ask and answer questions and comment on the panel
discussions. The forum will create an atmosphere that will help the two
groups understand each other. This is a great start towards Bridging the Gap
between the two afore-mentioned Nepalis in North America.
If you are interested in this forum, please contact:
Bibek Chapagain at cbibek@lynx.neu.edu
FORUM II: Working in Nepal
This will be a forum of young, energetic Nepali students or working
professionals who have plans to go back and work in Nepal in the near future
or at a later point. The objective of the meet is to bring together visionary
students, recent graduates and 'young professionals' and create a forum where
they will share their ideas, experience and vision. A basic database
containing each participant's name, address, area of interest and expertise,
and any immediate or future plans to work in Nepal will be prepared after the
meeting and given out to participants. It will also be made publicly
accessible through the Internet. Such a database could be updated annually
during future ANA conventions.
The motivations for such a forum are quite obvious. As more and more skilled
Nepalis go back to Nepal and work there, they will benefit from working
together with other people who come from the same background and share many
common interests. This is where such a database proves invaluable. The forum
will have 4-5 speakers. The ideal speakers are US college graduates who know
the nuts and bolts of going back and working in Nepal and have practical
advice to offer. Each speaker will talk for 5-10 minutes
and the floor will be opened for questions. The program will be approximately
1hr long.
We are looking for speakers for the forum. If you accept the challenge of
talking to fellow Nepalis about your experience and offering them advice,
please contact:
Shree Krishna Pandey at skpandey@mit.edu
FORUM III: Youth Forum
The Youth Forum will bring together young Nepalis from various professional
and/or academic backgrounds to discuss the issue of returning to our homeland
after education and practical training in the U.S. Do we have an obligation
to return to Nepal and work to help develop the country? Or will we be more
effective in bringing about crucial changes and advancements in Nepali living
standards by providing assistance while residing in the West? We will hear
from folks who don't see the need at all to be affiliated with Nepal and its
development and feel that they should have every right to choose to settle in
the West and assimilate into the Western way of life. On the other hand, if
the "cream" of Nepali youth leave the country with no intention to return for
good, will the future of the country be in jeopardy?
The forum will be held in the form of a debate. Two panels of three speakers
each will represent the two sides of the issue: 1) We will have two speakers
each who will represent the two sides of the issue present the following
views: a) We have to return to Nepal; b) We don't have to return to Nepal. We
will make every attempt to make the panel as diverse as possible, both in
terms of age and background. We are seeking speakers who will be interested
in defending one of the above mentioned sides.
If you would like more information or would like to participate please
contact:
Rabi Karmacharya at karma@mit.edu
FORUM IV: Health Care Issues in Nepal
We are organizing a forum that will deal with relevant Health-Care issues in
Nepal. Please stay tuned for further details on this Forum. In the meantime,
if you would like more information or have any suggestions please contact:
Sapana Pathak at sapanabu@acs.bu.edu
FORUM V: Hydropower Forum
The Hydropower Nepal Committee (HNC) is organizing a forum with "Formulating
a Coherent Strategy for Nepal's Hydropower Development for the 21st Century
and Making It Work" as the main topic. The forum's goal is to bring together
the perspectives of (1) HMG/Nepal, (2) Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), (3)
World Bank, (4) Private sectors (Butwal Power Company, Himal Power Ltd.), (5)
Independent thinker well versed with the issues related to Nepal's
hydropower.
The potential panelists are the Ramesh Nanda Vaidya (member of National
Planning Commission), Binayak Bhadra (former member of National Planning
Commission), Govinda Raj Bhatta (Executive Secretary of Water Energy
Commission Secretariat), Ratna Sansar Shrestha (key person at Himal Power
Limited), Rhett Hurless (key person of Panda Energy International), P.P.
Adhikari (key person at Butwal Power Company), Bikash Pandey (currently
graduate student at UC Berkeley), Tjaarda Storm van Leeuwen (World Bank
official).
For more information, please contact:
Sunil Shakya at sshakya@lynx.neu.edu
FORUM VI: An Americans Perspective of Nepal
We are currently preparing this forum. Please stay tuned for further details.
FORUM VII: Womens Forum
The topic for the Womens forum will be Empowering Women: Issues and
Challenges. The goal is to discuss relevant issues towards advancing the
interests of Nepali Women with an emphasis on the following topics: (a)
Educational Opportunities and related economic benefits (employment
opportunities, Access of getting loans, etc. ), (b) rehabilitation measures
for women in danger (i) cultural health and legal protection (ii) women
choice of reproductive rights (iii) The dismantling of dowry practices (iv)
property rights for women in Nepal. The Womens Support Group in Boston
along with some other Nepali women around America are preparing this
compelling Forum. We will have more details in the near future.
If you would like to participate or have any ideas please contact:
Sabeen Bania at 9262sbani@umbsky.cc.umb.edu
COMING TOGETHER
This will a One Hour program where official representatives from Sister
Organizations from the United States and Canada will describe their
communities to the rest of us. In doing so all of us will get the opportunity
to know more about other Nepali communities in the United States and Canada
substantively. We believe that this program fits in very well with the theme
of this years Convention Bridging the Gap. We are currently in the process
of talking to Sister Organizations to participate in this program.
If you are an official representative of a Nepali organization in the Unites
States or Canada, please feel free to contact:
Bhupesh Karki at bkarki@lynx.neu.edu
CULTURAL PROGRAM
We are currently seeking acts for this year's Cultural Program and would like
to receive input from those who are interested in participating. If you
would like to participate or have any ideas, please feel free to contact:
Prabhat Adhikari at padhikari@vhb.com
Please stay tuned for further details in April:
1. Details on the Convention Venue in Boston
2. Childrens Programs
3. Pre-Registration
4. Registration
5. Housing
6. Sports
AND MUCH MORE.
Sincerely,
The Convention Planning Committee
**********************************************************
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 19:40:21 PST
To: a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu
From: Koenigs <skoenig@redrose.net>
Subject: nepal recipe
Hello,
I am in the 7th grade in Pennsylvania. We are learning about Nepal.
I would like to make a food dish from Nepal. Maybe a bread? Do you
have a tasty recipe to share? Please send to me at
skoenig@redrose.net
Thank you! Valerie Koenig
*********************************************************
From: Shrestha Purushottam <puru@pflaphy.pph.univie.ac.at>
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 21:40:03 MET-1MEST
Subject: Re: Return to Nepal
Dear Editor,
The Nepal Digest
For your kind information , I have completed my Ph.D degree on
natural science/ aquatic plants, from the University of Vienna and
am returning to Nepal by next week, 30.03.1997.
I am sincerely grateful for your courtesy in mailing the TND. I
enjoyed and benefitted by this excellent ''Bhaichara''or
''electronic hand shake''. I wish all the best for its longevity and
competent performance in the future days.
I anticipate to see Rajpalji and other concerned on your Nepal visit.
For the friendly network in Kathmandu, my add. is at the bottom.
Sincerely yours
Purushottam Shrestha
Post Box: 7004, Kathmandu, NEPAL
Tel. (00 977 1) 2 25 076 ( R)
%%%%%Editor's Note: Please accept our well wishes and Bon Voyage! %%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
*************************************************************
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 22:23:32 -0500 (EST)
From: atuladhar@clarku.edu
Subject: Forest Change in Nepal: New Data, Old Questions
To: THE NEPAL DIGEST <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Dear friends,
I am sharing some preliminary observations from my research on forest
change in Nepal to get some feedback from your experience in the field.
For simplicity sake, i have kept these observations very stark, those with
detailed questions may contact me.
NEW DATA
===========
The observations below are based on time series analysis of weekly
satellite imagery of the greenness index (Global Vegetation Index)
collected from 1983 to 1990 and composited to 16km by 16 km pixel (square
area coverage on the ground).
The results are "preliminary" because this represent only the first stage
of analysis, the observations will be verified repeatedly with a variety
of other techniques.
The data is "new" of Nepal because the last country wide scientific survey
done by satellite was in 1980s, we have several sub-country wide remote
sensing as follows: satellite and aerial photo of Terai in 1990/91 by
FinMap and Topo Survey; country wide aerial photos in 1990/91 and 1978/79
by Fins and Canadians with Topo; and several project level of aerial
photo. Most of the "data" n discussions ensuing from them are based on
interpolations from these data and they are not always "educated guesses"
even if made by World Bank types of Energy Commision of Nepal.
Preliminary Findings
=======================
Below are rankings of various spatial units based on forest recovery
rates. For this, forest recovery rates has been taken as the Greenery
Value of the Landscape in Spring from march to May. The reasons for this
is that this season corresponds to the maximum water stress for the
growing season of all plants in Nepal and non-woody vegetations with their
shallower root system are less likely to contribute vegetation greening
than tree vegetatons with deeper root system.
Forest Recovery Ranking by Ecological Regions
-------------------------------------------------
1. Mountains (Highests)
2. Hills
3. Inner Tarai
4. Terai
5. Kathamandu Valley (Lowest)
Forest Recovery RAnking by Development Regions
-------------------------------------------------
1. Western (Highests)
2. Midwest
3. Eastern
4. Central
5. Far West (Lowest)
Forest Recovery Rankings by Zones
-------------------------------------
1. Gandaki (Highest)
2. Sagarmatha
3. Karnali
4. Mechi
5. Dhawalagir
6. Lumbini
7/8. Narayani/Janakpur
9. Bagmati
10. Rapti
11./12. Seti and Bheri
13. Mahakali
14. Koshi (Lowest)
One other significant findings that all these spatial units showed a net
INCREASE IN FOREST RECOVERY. It was only at district level resolutions
that some decreases were noted.
Old Questions
=================
1. Does these findings agree with what you have observed and
experienced in the field? These feedback are more valuable to me than what
we have all heard ...."that all forests are decreasing all over Nepal...
and will continue to do so... until all accessible forests will be gone by
1990" as all the desktop consultants of world banks have told us since the
1980s.
2. If forest recovery is really an empirically corroboratable
obsrvations, does the ranking make sense? For instance, forest change
seems to be fastest in Mountains where there has been the fastest
depopulations and slowest in Kathamandu Valley where there has been tthe
fastest population growth rate.
However, the rankings of Development REgions does not seem to follow any
such neat explanation. Should not the least populated and least developmed
Far West have the highest forest recovery and not the Western area. Or is
this only an ecological phenomena correlated with the wettest rain the
-Pokhara corridor gets?
3. The "Forest Rankings by Zones" raises several questions some of
whose answers I expect to get from foresters, ecologists,
environmentalists, geographers and other Nepali who hail from these areas.
Is Gandaki having the highest forest recovery purely due to high rainfall,
if so why does Kosi which is also a very wet zone of Nepal have the lowest
forest recovery rate?
We hear of vast forests surving in Karnali primarily due to
inaccessbility, but why does Sagarmatha have high forest recovery?
Sagarmatha, by Nepali standards, is quite accessible from all that
mountaineers climbing Everest, park activities in the mountains to some
pretty deforested areas in Terai Udaypur, Siraha and Saptari.
I am sure many of you have many answers and explanations as well as
questions. i sure look forward to learning from you all.
With thanks
Amulya Tuladhar
Clark University
************************************************************
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 23:32:35 -0800
From: Sanjay Shrestha <s_shrestha@geocities.com>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Correction on earlier article (New Year in Chicagoland)
Dear Editor:
Please post this article on your upcoming issue. The earlier article
mailed on 3/23 is incorrect. Thanks in advance
regards,
Sanjay
> Chicago land Families and students invites you to attend the 2054 New Year
> Celebration.
>
> Date: April 13, Sunday
> Time: 4:00p to 10:00p
> Venue: Viceroy of India Restaurant
> Banquet Hall
> Devon Ave, Chicago.
> Registration fee: $13 (includes snacks, dinner and entertainment)
>
> Early registration is encouraged. Dateline is April 11th.
>
> For more information:
> <Rahi Gurung> rgu131@nwu.edu 773-275-5024
> <Sanjay Shrestha> s_shrestha@geocities.com 773-275-2541
*****************************************************************
Forwarded by: bikash@MIT.EDU
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Fwd:Job Announcement Socio-cultural advisor, Nepal
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 02:24:51 EST
The position described below is available for the Kali Gandaki
Hydroelectric Project, a 144 MW run-of-the-river hydro project with
associated infrastructure, now entering the construction stage in Nepal.
While the project is moderate in scale, the project's impacts on resettlement
will be relatively minor (approx. 12 households), with additional households
being affected to a lesser degree during construction and possibly
operations.
The position would be for a one-year term. A portion of the time would be
spent in Kathmandu and the remainder at the site which is located between
Butwal and Pokara. Key responsibilities include training and advising the
Project's Environmental Unit, ensuring the Construction Contractor complies
with the environmental contract clauses, monitoring the environment,
assisting in Acquisition Compensation and Rehabilitation Programme (ACRP)
work, implementing socio/environmental mitigation, and working with local and
regional parties to coordinate mitigation. Compensation would be competitive
and commensurate with experience and education. The position is immediately
available.
If you are interested in the position, or know someone who is, please contact
me (John Garcia) or send a resume with salary requirements to GANDA1 @
AOL.com, or fax to 415-789-9245. Alternatively, you can send hard copy to my
offices at: GANDA, 3152 Paradise Drive, Tiburon, CA, 94920. Tel:
415-789-9242. Decisions regarding the filling of this position must be made
very quickly so I need any responses or inquiries within one week from
tomorrow (Mar. 31).
Thank you for your time. --John Garcia
The following is the job description approved by the Nepal Electricity
Authority and the Asian Development Bank:
Advisor & Trainer:
The focus of the Advisor & Trainer will be to ensure that the socio-cultural
and socio-economic impacts of the project are minimized and that agreed-upon
mitigation measures designed to address these impacts are fully and
competently implemented. Additional responsibilities of the Advisor & Trainer
include: management and training of local staff (approximately 10), namely
the Socio-Economist/Anthropologist and the Community Relations and Liaison
Officer; design and oversight of technical field studies, including the ACRPs
to be conducted for the transmission line towers and the revised Power House
footprint; and ensuring that good community relations are maintained.
Another important responsibility will be to ensure that training and hiring
criteria outlined in the Mitigation and Management Plan (MMP) are followed
and that local living and working conditions for workers are of acceptable
quality.
The Advisor & Trainer will reside in Kathmandu during the early parts of the
project and will then move to the Project Site once offices and logistics
have been set up. The position will be full-time for Year 1. It is possible
that the position will be extended beyond one year. The Advisor & Trainer
will report to the Environmental Manager, when the Environmental Manager is
on-site, and to the Project Manager otherwise.
**********************************************************
From: Rajesh Shrestha <shresth2@husc.harvard.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 12:00:18 -0500 (EST)
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: New website travel-nepal.com
Cross-posted from SCN:
---------------------
The Kathmandu Post published an article on "travel-nepal.com" website on
Sunday (3/23/97) in their local edition. This also appears in the
internet edition of Monday (3/24/97) in the ECONOMY section.
Corresponding URL of KtmPost is
http://www.south-asia.com/Ktmpost/1997/Mar/Mar24/mar24-ec.htm
Our Web site "travel-nepal.com" deals with the tourism and travel
industry of Nepal. All efforts have been taken to fill up this site with
information on hotels, travel agencies, trekking agencies, events for
Visit Nepal '98, general info for travellers, flight info, hotel
reservation and so on..
Please visit our web site (even better, bookmark it)
Comments/suggestions are most welcome.
Thanx.
Shailendra Dhakhwa, Binaj Gurubacharya and Devendra Suwal in Kathmandu
& Sanjay Bajracharya in US.
webmaster@travel-nepal.com
http://www.travel-nepal.com
Cross-posted from SCN:
---------------------
Is multi-party system a threat to Nepal? Is this system, which has
worked fantastically in the West, a solution to an asian country like
ours? Has this system worked in our neighbouring countries such as India
and Pakistan? How about the Asian Tigers such as Singapore and
Malaysia? They definitely don't have a complete multi-party system like
ours. And how about India? It has been multi-party since independence,
and it doesn't seem to have benefitted much, especially for the poor and
low castes. How about Pakistan and Bangladesh? Even these neighbours
aren't making much progress since the switch of power from military junta
to civilian elected politicians.
Now, how do we view our own country?
It surely is not benefitting much now, and it surely wasn't benefitting
much under the Panchayet system either. However, when it comes down to
choosing lesser of the evil, I would definitely vote for the latter.
However, having said so, I don't see the solution in the black and white
configuration of multi vs one party. There is a grey shade in between,
and I think we should start considering the grey shade in the political
spectrum. A close analysis of the Asian Tigers suggests that the success
in Asian societly lies in the old Confucian philosophy of the "emphasis
on the Society being prior to that of the Individual". That means, what
we are seeking is not a dictatorship, but a limited democracy, or
benevolent authoritarian system where the respected have the upper hand,
but the younger generation also have a voice and contribution. A close
analysis of the development of Singapore from a poor asian port in the
60's to a hub of the global economy in the 90's and the contribution of
Lee Kwan Iu on this city state perhaps gives some hope to the Nepalese
who are tired of continuous political rhetorics that are never fulfilled
and frequent elections that grind everything from daily activities to the
national economy to a halt. Jai Nepal!
Ngawang Karsang Sherpa
GSFA, Department of Architecture
University of Pennsylvania
207 Meyerson Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104--6311
**********************************************************
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 14:09:05 +0100
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: lo12@cornell.edu (Lazima Onta)
Subject: contents of the latest Nepali Himal
Just Published!!
Himal (Nepali bimonthly)
vol. 6, No. 5, Phagun/Chait 2053 v.s
Cover (Titles indicate subject matter; they are not exact translations):
Nepalis in India- In search of a Livelihood: Kanak Mani Dixit
Murderer Servants (in Delhi): Mitu Verma
Nepali Organizations in India: Ganesh Khatri
Nepali-India migration - the numbers: Dilliram Dahal
Nepalis in Assam: Krishna Bhattarai
Nepalis in Calcutta: Basanta Thapa
Features:
Health and the Legal Regime: Dhrubesh C. Regmi
Urban Sukumbasis: Sangeeta Lama
Hindu Temples of Pakistan: Photos and Texts by Salman Rashid
Reviews:
Birds of Nepal by the Flemings: D Thapa
Haka Haki - A Development Magazine: Abana Onta
Briefs:
Crazy Hats
Remembering Historian Dhanavajra Vajracharya
Listening Magazines produced by Media Services International
Wild Elephants: Gopal Guragain
Regular Columns:
Editorial, Letters to the editor, Ritubicar
Subscription:
Contact Himal Association
PO Box 42
Lalitpur, Nepal
Tel:977-523845; fax:521013
********************************************************
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Copy-Right Issues??
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 97 13:20:53 EST
From: rshresth@BBN.COM
Cross-posted from SCN:
---------------------
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knows of the title of the english translation of
Bhupi Serchan's work Ghumne Mech Mathi andho manchhe (cold Ashtray??)? I
am particulary interested in one of his quintessential poem which best
describes the vicissitude a man (or a woman) is bound to confront when
s/he changes the core ideology of living.
Also, I was wondering what would be the best approach to give this poem to
a local band? What kind of copy-right issues do I have to take into
consideration? How will I go about paying (if there are any) copy-right
fees? I have written a letter to Royal Nepal Academy but no one has (as I
would have expected) responded to it. I have therefore decided to contact
the guy who has translated his poems in English. He, I believe, is a brit,
holds a doctarate in Nepali Literature.
I, without any reservation, can say that no one has ever written better
stuff than Bhupi, nor anyone can ever write even close to his standards.
The man was an icon and a legend in himself.
I would appreciate your help. Thank You.
Bh@nu.Neupane
%%%%%Editor's Note: Salute to the late Bhupi! His writtings indeed %%%%%
%%%%% have touched many lives. We are not sure %%%%%
%%%%% who should be aproached for copyright issues, %%%%%
%%%%% but you may certainly contact Late Bhupi's %%%%%
%%%%% youngest daughter who is a student in Boston %%%%%
%%%%% area. She may be the right person to contact %%%%%
%%%%% here in US for royalty/copyright issues. I %%%%%
%%%%% believe the young lady's name is Boby Sherchan. %%%%%
%%%%% Would folks in Boston area convey the message %%%%%
%%%%% to Ms. Sherchan? %%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
*********************************************************
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Nepal: Land of Suicides...
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 97 14:40:43 EST
From: rshresth@BBN.COM
Cross-posted from SCN:
---------------------
A recent new release shows that the number of suicides in 1995/96 was THREE
TIMES more than the number of murders: 1614 suicides vs 498 murders!
This is certainly a social indicator to be alarmed about. Nepal's Hindu
philosophy shares with Heaven's Gate the curious commonality that teaches
that this body is just a vehicle for an eternal soul, so suicides is not
killing but mukti, moksha, or even nirvaan or a soul shedding a wardrobe.
But can we be complacent with this rate of suicide in our country? What
about more materialist explanations? Can this suicide rate be an indicator
of the hopelessness of most Nepalese caught between the conservative
demands of Hinduist world view in a poor country and the liberating
insecuirty of the promise of modernisation? Do most nepalese who commit
suicides feel the "samaj le ke bhancha" a greatern threat than real life
murderers? We do not ofcourse take into considerations the hundreds of
untabulated deaths of mothers due to lack of abortion and men who insist on
their Hindu prerrogative to use them for sex and not support them. The
latest estimates are that this sort of death, not categorized as suicdes,
are the greatest cause of death among women..
Wonder how others feel about this??
************************************************
From: "Mr Deepak Adhikary" <gtzcefe@icon.co.za>
To: <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Research Opportunity
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 10:03:11 +0200
Namaskar!
I am working in South Africa as a Senior Advisor, Small Enterprise
Development with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation(GTZ). My task
is to assist 6 NGOs( about 60 to 80 staff per organization) in implementing
entrepreneurship development programs and other support services.
One of my counterparts is on a look out for either a Ph D or Masters level
student majoring in entrepreneurship development, who could spend a year
doing field research in South Africa. If the student can pay for the
airfare( I know that quite a few universities can take the tab), the local
costs - rent and basic subsistence allowance will be paid by the host
organization in South Africa.
We are initiating a lot of field research on small enterprise development
as the environment is very conducive for such activities. South Africa is
quite modern in terms of infrastructure development, access to research and
is relatively easy to work, compared to other African countries.
If somebody is interested, they can contact me in the following address:
Deepak Adhikary
Senior Advisor, Small Enterprise Development
GTZ-CEFE Network for Micro Enterprises Project
P.O. Box 879 Strathavon 2031
Johannesburg
South Africa
Fax: + 27 11 4423 099
Internet: gtzcefe@icon.co.za
***************************************************************
From: Bhuban Pandey <bhubanp@admin.stedwards.edu>
Subject: Happy New Year!
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 10:31:49 CST
Dear Netters,
Wish you a happy and prosperous NEW YEAR.
Thank you
Bhuban, Prabha and Bhumika Pandey
***********************************************
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Nepal: Land of Suicides...
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 19:22:17 EST
Sender: rshresth@BBN.COM
Cross-posted from Nepal:
-----------------------
Ji Newa Kha wrote:
>
> A recent new release shows that the number of suicides in 1995/96 was THREE
> TIMES more than the number of murders: 1614 suicides vs 498 murders!
>
> This is certainly a social indicator to be alarmed about. Nepal's Hindu
I would feel good about the very low percentage of murders in Nepal
( 498/20000000)*100=0.0025% I guess a very very low rate compared with
any society.( Can some one post the rate of USA India, Canada, China
etc?). I don't think the suicide rate is disproportionally high compared
with any other country. (My guess, I don't know for sure). (Of course
ideally there should be non, neither murder nor suicide.) I fail to
understand the rationale behind comparing suicide rate and murder rate,
I think it is more common practice to compare murder rate with murder
rate of another time or another place and simmilarly suicide rate with
suicide rate of another place or time. For example one will not conclude
like " average Nepali are shorter that average Americans, Average
mountains are taller in Nepal than in America, so shorter the mean
population, taller the mountain of a country tends to be!!" (Wow I fell
like a PhD already).
> philosophy shares with Heaven's Gate the curious commonality that teaches
> that this body is just a vehicle for an eternal soul, so suicides is not
> killing but mukti, moksha, or even nirvaan or a soul shedding a wardrobe.
>
> But can we be complacent with this rate of suicide in our country? What
> about more materialist explanations? Can this suicide rate be an indicator
> of the hopelessness of most Nepalese caught between the conservative
> demands of Hinduist world view in a poor country and the liberating
> insecuirty of the promise of modernisation? Do most nepalese who
I get it now, it is all due to the same old bad Hinduism. I wonder if
the auther has done a study on suicide rate of Hindus vs, that rate
among people of other religions, over the same period of a same or
simmilar location? I presume great care has to be taken when selecting a
" control group" before conducting any data collection that would
ultimately lead to a very revolutionary idea like " Hinduism and Suicide
tendencies".
> suicides feel the "samaj le ke bhancha" a greatern threat than real life
> murderers? We do not ofcourse take into considerations the hundreds of
> untabulated deaths of mothers due to lack of abortion and men who insist on
> their Hindu prerrogative to use them for sex and not support them.
Oh another eye-opener- Only Hindu men take it as perogative, otherwise
in all other societies, religions women has been treated equally through
out the ages.
> latest estimates are that this sort of death, not categorized as suicdes,
> are the greatest cause of death among women..
I agree here with the auther that the rate of abortion related deaths
are very very high in Nepal and legalising abortion and state funding
the rape and incest related abortion may be helpful. (Well, my thoughts
to lower the abortion related deaths in Nepal, and it has nothing to do
with pro-life or otherwise debate, I tend to agree with pro-life camp in
many of their concerns).
Thank You Mr. Newa for not blaming Hinduism directly for abortion
ralated deaths. Or may be I have missed here some subtle link that the
auther felt a reader with normal intelligence could not miss.
> wonder how others feel about this??
Should I say more. Once I read an article written by a white supremist
group relating all of Americas social cultural economical ills to the
Jews and the blacks, and they used better logic. For the record still it
didn't make much sence to me.
(...and it is not a knee jerk reaction from a die-hard Hindu ( that is
how the auther may dismiss it) who wants to continue the Hindu haegomony
in Nepal. I support secular status for Nepal, eat hamburger here, and am
really proud of the ethinic and cultural diversity of Nepal)
Just my thoughts..
Mahesh Ghimire
************************************************************
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 15:49:42 +0700 (GMT+0700)
From: "H. K. Pradhan" <hsp57194@ait.ac.th>
To: ramesh@ksc15.th.com
Subject: Gurkha Diplomacy!!!
Dear respected Ramesh dai,
Namaskar. It was not at all surprising to read an overwhelming write-up
pointing out the weakness in the part of the organizers regarding the so
called special day for Bangkokian Nepalese. Yeah, I do not deny many of
the issues you raised. Rather I agree with you tens of times.
Nevertheless, there are also some of the issues on which I can not go
together with you. Many of your sentences are pinching and malicious,
which are not obvious from the surface.
Before going ahead, I would like to mention about your comment on the
number of AITians who were present that day. Going thru your sentences, I
felt as if we AITians (at least me) are people gathered at the hotel for
Pancha Vela during those so called King led Panchayat days. How cleverly
and cruelly you have put the sentence "about 150 students were transferred
(ferried in the TND, later) in three buses to the ORIENTAL". For your
best information please be informed that we had gone there on our own.
Regardless, of status, each head paid Baht 135 for transportation. Of
course, we did not pay for fooding. You should understand this and for
the next time before writing such sensitive things please be weaponed with
the right information. And more importantly, don't simply look graduating
students as beginners. Talking about Nepalese AI Tians, nearly all of
them had outstanding academic performance in Nepal and many of them are
even high government officials. In addition to this, if you see the AIT
award profile, most of them have been won by Nepalese students. You can
imagine how they are contributing to the recognition of Nepal. If you
probe more in them, you'll never ever find their contribution to the
nation lesser than yours (and what to remark about the global contribution
of our Nepalese faculty members?).
Secondly, you have emphasized a couple of times that you have been living
in this host country for the last 16 years and this reception was one of
the weakest presentation of the embassy people. Corollary to it, fooding
is one of the issues on which you have severely attacked. But is our
presence in this country just for the discussion on "DAL BHAT" organized
in the reception of a nation head? If yes, then it must be true what a
gentlemen said, "Nepalese are civilized, studied and then earned degrees
just for themselves and themselves, more precisely saying for DAL BHAT and
only for DAL BHAT"(Had been this wrong, an illiterate man wouldn't have
hold the position of science minister). I am sure, you will be upset
while reading this. But, I have arguments. Did
not you see any other ill activities going on around against Nepal. For
instance, did not you notice what was published in the Nation about Nepal
few months ago? Surely you did but you did not care. Because neither it
was interesting and nor it bother ed your personality.
Yeah, you are here for so many years, but how many times did you raise
such issues? Is it only the government which has to do all these things
(Of course, this does not mean I am supporting the corrupt/punishable
politicians of the present)? This would have been more important issue
than what you raised about. And if you had questioned the existence of
the embassy in this ground, I bet, many would have supported you and I
would be in the front line.
Also, have you ever felt the disorders going
on around RA (Bangkok), the only national flag carrier? I do not think
you are unaware about it (forgive me for my generalization). Did you ever
feel the disorders going on the RA schedules? Well, I think t hese issues
are more important for a country whose dependency on tourism is
significant. The damages it is causing each day on the prestige (what
ever has remained) of Nepal is irreparable. And I am sure, such
discussions would bring the right results which would give return at least
in the long run.
In addition to them, lets see back whether we have done something good for
our country which puts us in the capacity to debate about a party in a
class hotel. While complaining about DAL BHAT, lets not forget that the
money paid for this party is extracted from the poor who works the whole
day with bare foot, bare head and perhaps his whole body is hardly
covered. And he pays the land tax so that we can attend such parties
abroad, at the cost of his empty stomach, at the cost of his illiterate
children.
You have somewhere written about the way the host people respect their
king. Why not? The Thai king deserves such respect because he is serious
about the development of this kingdom. He has walked on the mud and sand
of this country. He has himself organized and led so many development
projects. It seems that he is all the time worried about the development
of this country (see just during your stay in Thailand, she has completely
changed her face). Don't you wish the same had taken place in Nepal. Well,
I do not want to say anything about Nepalese monarchy in this matter.
Nevertheless, it is worthy to mention that it is a stylized fact that
kings and people are praised/remembered for their deeds not because of the
birth, gone are those days. And please do not try to rejuvenate the past,
try to learn from it, instead).
You have been out of the country for the last 16 years, that must be the
reason why you do not know how the country has been institutionally made
vulnerable (although today only the hands are changed, not the habits).
Do not forget that the existence of monarchy (of course, including your
and mine) is only possible when there is a prosperous country. In the
absence of a sound economy, it is very easy to loose its independence
(forget about monarchy). Therefore, please do not bring just 'plain
slogan' that misleads not only us but to the monarchy, too. In fact (I
think), we need to criticize monarchy to save them and us, not the
unwarranted and tawdry appreciation. While reading your posting, my
memory pictured that young man who fell down from King Mahendra's statue
in King's way, in 2046. People like him were shot dead later.
Before they vanished deep into the blood, they were trying to stop the
barbarous police with their weak bare hands. Perhaps, you do not know
(or forgot) there was no peoples' prime minister on many of those days.
Do you think these men who gave their youth for democracy, will forgive
you for your expression?
Respected Ramesh dai,
See at the end of your arguments, you have mentioned about the Thai
"physicians.....themselves to themselves". I do not think it is any
body's mistake. It happens in any big party. Unless somebody volunteers
to introduce himself, it is not comfortable to talk with another, off
hand, just because he is a foreigner. Yeah, the situation might have been
pitiful for those who were already aware about it. But if you knew these
things at the moment then what were you doing? I wonder why you could not
be at least one Nepali who could have bridged the gap, or do you think
that all these formalities should be maintained by the so called
illtrained (in your words) diplomats?
And it was ridiculous to read your sentence that people passing behind the
king for "taking photo...some were laughing...". It is ridiculous not
because I am supporting the disorders and misdeeds and mishappenings
occurred that day, but it is because you are trying to be exception. Of
course, the arrangements were not flawless but how can you imagine that a
single person can control the whole mass which was full of highly trained,
educated and civilized people (!). Please try to realize the reasons
behind it. Is it due weakness of our culture, teachings or just because
of the organizer? I think we have been brought up like that. Intellectuals
who are aware about these c ulture did/do not transfer to the others as
the intellectuals and so called aware people never see back from where
they came at present. Forget about their contribution. Many times such
expectations are next to impossibility. Once they have safe future
abroad, they have hardly anything more than denouncing the happenings in
the country through a wire world.
This is why I believe unless a country has achieved certain level of
development we can not expect getting things right. In other words, one
should think about the problem in a holistic approach. When the
development is in 'patch', the result becomes something like that you/we
encountered in that reception. Perhaps this is one of the crux of life
that either one has to sallow such problems or do not pretend to be a
Nepali or he has to take initiation for a change (of course, this does not
mean, I want all the unschooled phenomena like disorders, mismanagement,
corruption, abuse of authority, poverty be synonyms of the word
'Nepalese').
Despite these undesired events, I had witnessed that His Majesty King
himself wanted people to stand behind their Majesties. He was in fact
enjoying with participants and the vice versa (after all, both parties
were there for this purpose, I guess). It was His Majesty himself who
asked attendants to stand behind them to get photographs, appreciating
peoples' feelings. Then how can you criticize this event. I can feel the
wa y you observed the situation but isn't it good enough to remember that
there is remarkable difference between the Thai and Nepalese culture?
In the end, once again I want to thank you and assure you that many of the
problems you pointed were genuine and they urgently need a redirection.
But what can you (we) do when you (we) are already responsible for the
weakness. Simply criticism against a
single person doesn't bring much change (if you really want change). If
you are really serious about Nepal and Nepalese, lets attack on the
root-cause, not at the apex. Lets think broadly. There are numerous
problems on which we can invest our time, m ind and resources. Today,
Nepal needs intellectual supporters not academic mercinary. After all she
did not give birth to us all, but with hope that we will all serve the
mother land. Perhaps, she never imagined that we will betray her like we
are doing today.
Thanx and best regards
Hari K. Pradhan
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