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The Nepal Digest Tues Oct 7, 1997: Ashwin 23 2054BS: Year6 Volume67 Issue 1
Today's Topics:
PM Thapa - A Factual Profile
In the Name of the People
Nepal's Easy Access to U.S. University Degrees
Buddhists in Nepal are over 55%
Volunteering in Nepal
Road Infrastructure
******************************************************************************
* TND (The Nepal Digest) Editorial Board *
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* Chief Editor: Rajpal JP 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: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 16:56:09 -0400
From: "Roger Smith" <rsmith@supernova.net>
To: tnd@nepal.org
Subject: PM Thapa - A Factual Profile
Source:
------
The International Who's Who 1983-84
47th Edition
Europe Publications Limited
Nepal Who's Who 1997
Deepal Aryal - Chief Editor
Research Center for Communications and Development (RECOD)
1. Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa started his political career by executing
"underground student movement" in 1950.
2. In 1958, he was elected to the assembly and became Chairman of the
advisory council.
3. In 1959, he was elected as member to the Upper House.
4. In 1960, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forest and
Industry under the newly formed panchayat system.
5. In 1962, he served as Member of National Legislature and Minister
of Finance and Economic Affairs.
6. In 1963, he was appointed Chairman of the council of ministers and
Minister of Finance, Law, Justice and General Administration. During
this period he was instrumental in abolishing "Land-Birta-System"
and set strategies to promote land reform by consolidating
tenancy rights of the tenants. He was also responsible to bring
"Muluki-Ain" , through which he attempted to eradicate untouchiability
and strengthen Women's Rights to vote and other social rights and
activities.
To this regard he promulgated laws to protect the fundamental
rights of the citizen of Nepal.
7. In 1966, he was appointed Prime-Minister under the modified
constitution of Nepal. He was responsible to expand the coverage
of the constitution of 1962 and promulgated 2nd amendment to make it
people oriented.
8. In 1967, Prime-Minister Thapa released Mr. B.P. Koirala who was in
jail for 7 years. Mr. Koirala was released by Mr. Thapa at his
sole-responsibility and risk.
9. In 1967, then Prime-Minister Thapa tendered resignation from the
post of Prime-Ministership as he found that the long tenure
of One-PrimeMinister was undemocratic in the development of the
country. Prime-Minister Thapa tendered his resignation to the Nepali
people over the National Radio.
10. In October 1972, Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa was arrested and
imprisoned in Nakhhu-Jail when he
demanded Political-Reform by acting up 13 point resolution which
included democratic changes in the
constitution and restoring rights to the people with democratic
election, in the Itum-Bahal address to public meeting.
11. In March 1974, while arrested, Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa went for
21 days hunger strike demanding
major political reform in the country.
12. In 1979, Mr. Thapa was nominated to the National Panchayat
system. During this period, student
movement was strong against the Panchayat system. Mr. Thapa
was instrumental as PM in holding
people's mandate under the Royal Proclamation. The end result
was the people voted for
the improved and modified Panchayat System. In 1979
Prime-Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa
provided amnesty to all exiled political leaders and was
released from the prison. He also invited
those living outside the country.
13. In May 1980 the improved Panchayat system came into effect with
the introduction of adult
franchise in electing the representatives, election of the
Prime-Minister by the elected members of
the National Assembly. These were introduced in the improved
constitution of the Panchayat system.
14. In 1981, election of the above was followed. Mr. Thapa was again
democratically elected under the
improved election system from the Dhankuta district. Mr. Thapa,
was then elected Prime-Minister for next
5 years.
15. In 1983, the local, district and union election was completed
under the improved election system. During
the period the nation embarked into sustain ability of the
development works and consolidated
development programs such as Kulekhani Power System,
Myrshyangdi Hydro Power and Devi Ghat
Hydro Power. Besides, the Arun III was studied and a blue
print of the power generation was also
drafted. The Teaching Hospital , Nepal Television Network,
National Panchayat Building was also
designed and built with regard to constitution.
16. In 1983, the government was suddenly toppled due to the
calculated differences among the parliament
members and PM Thapa was ousted from the Prime-Ministership.
17. Between 1983-1990, Mr. Thapa made piquant remark on the National
Politics of Nepal, the character
of the system and urged the people to be characteristic,
disciplined yet firm to restructure the national
development of the country. Mr. Thapa bitterly criticized
those adverse political forces and gangsters
who wanted to doom the fate of the nation by misguiding people
and central level authorities. He urged
the people to condemn such activities in order to strengthen
the political and economic development
process in the country.
18. Surya Bahadur Thapa's statements were quoted on many leading
national newspapers. There was an malicious attempt to assassinate
one of the editors (Padam Thakurathi) who widely
covered Mr. Thapa's views. The editor
was shot and lost an eye. An attempt was made to assassinate
Mr. Thapa while traveling through
Jhallari, West Nepal and he was cordoned by the local people to
save his life. (This incident is
known as Jhallari-Kanda).
19. In 1985, the nation faced the Bomb-Scandle. Surya Bahadur Thapa
was charged for the bomb explosion. The
explosion of the bomb in National Panchyat Building led to death
of one parliament member and caused damages to
the building. Mr. Thapa's house was ransacked by the police but
the government could not prove the charges.
20. In 1990, Multi-Party system came into being. Mr. Thapa started
the National Democratic Party (NDP/RPP)
and became the President/Chairman of the party.
21. In 1991, Communists made an attempted to assassinate Surya
Bahadur Thapa during his public address at
Banepa of the Kavre district. Mr. Thapa had to take support of
the police to protect his life.
22. In 1991 election, he was not allowed to address the people and
his vote booth was captured forcing him to lose
the election.
23. In 1994, Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa was democratically elected to
the Party Chief for the next 4 years.
24. In 1994 by-election, Mr. Thapa was democratically elected to the
House of Representatives.
25. In 1995, his party actively supported the congress to form the
co-alition government. Mr. Thapa, as the
president of the party played the lead role.
26. Elected Prime Minister of Nepal for the 3rd time by the House of
Representatives, PM Surya Bahadur Thapa led
NDP/NC/NSP coalition government in October of1997.
Other Information:
I. Former Prime Minister, Current Chairman and President - National
Democratic Party (NDP)
II. Date of Birth: March 21, 1928 Muga Village, Dhankuta
Family: Beloved wife - Mrs. Sushma Thapa
Son - Mr. Sunil Thapa
Daughters - Ms. Sabita Thapa, Ms. Sarita Thapa, Ms. Sabina Thapa
III. Education: Muga Sanskrit Pathshala - Early Education
Padmodaya High School - Matric
University of PB - I.A.
Allahabad University - B.A.
Kurukshetra University - Hon. Doctor of Literature
IV. Honors and Awards:
a. National: Nepal Shreepad I
Tri-Shakti Patta I 1963
Gorkha Dakshin Bahu I 1965
Vishesh Seva Padak
Daibi-Prakob Piditoddar Padak 1968
Subha-Rajya-Vishek Padak 1975
Om Ram Patta 1980
b. International: Order of the Federal Republic of Germany
Order of the National Du Merite France
V. Inspiration: Family
Nepal's Rural Environment and Poverty
Indian Independence
Democratic Movements in Asian Countries
Revolution of 1950 in Nepal against
the Rana dictatorship
VI. Belief: "Democracy can not be flourished without proper
protection of nationalism, human values
and human dignity in a liberal environment."
VII. Hobbies: Gardening and a voracious reader
Source:
------
The International Who's Who 1983-84
47th Edition
Europe Publications Limited
Nepal Who's Who 1997
Deepal Aryal - Chief Editor
Research Center for Communications and Development (RECOD)
******************************************************************
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 18:16:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Pramod K. Mishra" <pkm@acpub.duke.edu>
To: The Nepal digest Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: In the Name of the People
Dear Editor,
All over the world, much has been committed and sacrificed in the
name of the people. Diana recently died in a love chase--the love of the
paparazzi for her face and scandal and her love for her billionaire-- but
was deified and tears shed in the name of the lepers, the landmine victims,
the sick, and the people. Mother Teresa lived, many Hindus of India blaim,
converting the poor and the helpless, but received and died in the name
of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying. But these are saints and
humanitarians, whose measure of compassion is unmeasurable.
Tyrants and autocrats of all hues, too, rule and crush and stomp
their populace in the name of the people. Riding on your moral high
horse, you shout, "In the name of the people . . ." and your every
conspiracy, no matter how heinous, becomes valid; your every speech, no
matter how filled with lies, becomes sacred; your every law, no matter
how crushing and draconian, turns into an article of faith for the
people. Indispensable for the safeguards of the people's lives and
property. A must to guarantee the rights of the people.
And so in a democracy and free market system also, you mouth
"people" and "the working class," but secretly adhere to ideas and
systems that fill the coffers of the feudal lords and capitalist maniacs,
in this case the Third World kind, who looted and amassed in the
don't-ask-don't-tell days of Cold War dollar flow. And the people watch
the screen and believe your words and shed tears of long- distance pity,
worship, and kindness.
Take for example, Nepal and the leaders who keep the
"In-the-name-of-the-people" alive in their every sentence. The Congress
Party of B. P. Koirala made a popular start by invoking the people,
adopted democratic soicialism as its its politico-economic agenda, but
sent the sons of big landlords with sizable landholdings particularly in
the Terai to the conferences of International Socialism. It might have
been an article of faith with B. P. to proclaim socialism at the time in
line with his closeness with Indian socialists such as J. P., Lohiya, and
such. But after his death, the gap between words and deeds yawned among
the Congress leaders. And now when you look at the Congress Party of G.
P., K. P. and Ganesh Man, you find a nexus of pandits and landlords, the
scions of those whom in the free-for-all of 2007 B. S., the Congressy
Cadres threatened and extorted money for party use. And the third voter
bank with the Congress are the duped people of the Terai. Terrorized by
the Rana regime, silenced by the Panchayat, they easily support the
Congress as a party that outwardly shows a soft corner toward India.
These people of the Terai, floundering in the world of caste, ritual, and
political dispossession, think that this "soft corner" means them, their
welfare, their culture. Adherence to India means commitment to their
cause. True, many leaders of the Congress speak impeccable Hindi or
Maithili and what have you by virtue of living in exile in India, but
proficiancy in speech and knowledge of culture are taken as examples of
commitment.
There was a trader near our village. In the days, when the
jungle of the eastern Terai was untouched and innocent tribes such as
Sataar, Dhimals, Khabash, Tharus, Tajpuria, Gangai, and Rajbanshi lived
in them and worked the fallow land for livelihood, in those days, this
trader, arriving from a desert Indian province with nothing save a brass
pot and torn rug, made himself learn the local languages. In a few
years, he mastered quite a few languages, even difficult ones such as
Dhimal or Satar languages. He spoke with a Satar in Satar language, with
a Dhimal in Dhimal language. Delighted to find this outsider speaking
their language, all the tribals came to him to sell their crops, buy
salt, kerosene, and clothes, and borrow money. Everyone else knew that
the trader duped the tribesmen in measurement, price, and interest, for
he was the only one who knew the numbers and letters. But the tribesmen
never understood the difference between language familiarity and economic
interest.
People in whose name slogans are invoked very often turned into
these credulous tribesmen. Whether these people come from the plains or
the hills.
And then we have the dominant communist party of Nepal. By name
and raiment, communists, believing in the priciples of socialism,
people-oriented, poor-oriented, working class advocates of working class
people. But now, many accuse them of hiding tyranny under their sleeves,
joining forces with the rightist party to stifle free speech and social
movement. At least, the anonymous article, written (it seemed from an
analysis of its content) by an English-school educated Panchayat
ideologue of the defunct "PANIJABUS", the notorious think tank of the
Panchayat era. It would be interesting if someone does a thorough
analysis of this article in order to compose the personality of its
writer(s).
The people of Nepal are in danger. Their life and limbs are
under attack. Their rights violated, their houses burned, their property
looted, their heads chopped off. And so the present Nepali ruling
communists in line with their rightist partners want a new law, a new
weapon (actually an old weapon) to combat what they call terrorism.
Whose terrorism is it? Who has created such a havoc?
A wisp of a man from Gorkha named Babu Ram Bhattrai. A Brahmin
indeed from an impoverished family (as all Brahmins are supposed to be,
but most these days have become opportunists and corrupt), he stood Board
first in his School exams from his far-flung district high school. He
studied engineering, did his PhD from South Asia's top school JNU and
refused to be a bureaucrat or a functionary of a national or
international NGO. (If I had stood Board first, I might have become
stinkingly rich, who knows, by foul means) For a time, he taught in a
Kathmandu college, but gave that up, too, so he could keep the
mainstream communists in line, those who, according to him, had given up
their ideology and become bourgeois politicians. In the name of the
people . . .
But who should one trust? Whose invocation of "the people," the
people themselves should undertand as true and sincere and efficacious in
the long run? The Congress? The Communist Party of Nepal? The Rightist
Panchayat Party? Or, the militant communist groups that, following
orthodox Marxist line, are ready to use violence to get to their end,
including Dr. Bhattarai?
As long as hunger remains in the belly or bodies exposed to the
elements, we will always have Babu Ram Bhattarais and Mother Teresas.
One examines the world's misery from a materialist perspective and the
other spiritual; one takes aim at the root and the other focuses on the
consequences. In this day and age of Globalization of voting and freedom
of buying and selling, does Dr. Bhattarai, in spite of his fierce
sincerity and vows of poverty, think that he can bring about violent
overthrow of the political structure in India-bound Nepal? First, India
has to go his way, only then he can hope for anything in Nepal. Look at
Nepal's history. Indian politics has stymied, inspired, controlled,
stimulated, and guided the political structure in Nepal, including the
Cold War beneficiay Panchayat system. And in India, from Nexalism to
contemporary militancy in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, violence as a method
of achieving social and political justice hasn't shown any sign of
gaining mass base and support. In order to achieve anything beyond just
publicity and small success, wouldn't it be better to educate the people
of Nepal first so that whenever some one says "In the name of the
people," people would know the difference between a fraud and a messiah,
between words and deeds?
******************************************************************
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 20:42:37 +0545 (NPT)
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: sinhas@mos.com.np (Pratyoush Onta)
Subject: an article from Kathmandu
The following was published in The Kathmandu Post on 26 September 1997. A
shorter version had earlier appeared in Across, No. 2 (August 1997). The
argument is extracted from my "Activities in a 'fossil state': Balkrishna
Sama and the improvisation of Nepali Identity" published in Studies in
Nepali History and Society, vol 2, no. 1 (June 1997).
The Politics of Knowledge
Historicizing Love for Nepali
by Pratyoush Onta
Dominant national rhetoric would have us believe that Nepalis have
expressed an attachment towards the Nepali language since a long time ago.
This is how nationalism writes its own history but social historians
interested in historicizing Nepali nationalism itself need to recognize
that the love expressed for the Nepali language in Nepal is of recent
vintage. In a recent article, the Indian historian Sumathi Ramaswamy has
argued that "the attachments expressed towards a language are subject to
negotiation and change" and the power a language "exercises over a specific
body of people is itself culturally constructed and historically
contingent." This argument is central to my essay as well.
At the very outset, I should clarify that my aim is not to describe
the history of Nepali language per se. Many historians of Nepal have done
so in the past and their work has just been synthesized in a useful manner
by researcher Purnaprakash Nepal 'Yatri' in his book, Nepali Bhasako
Aitihasik Mimamsa (2053 V.S.). Instead my focus is on the process through
which the Nepali language came to occupy a central place in the dominant
cultural identity of Nepalis over the last 100 years. The rise to the
dominant status of the Nepali language over this period is usually
described as a state project. While it is true that without the support of
the Nepali state, the language would not have risen to such a level of
dominance, it would be a mistake to allow too much agency to the state
alone. The agency of many Nepalis whose life and work consolidated the
Nepali language through contributions to its literary corpus needs to be
stressed as well.
Elsewhere I have described how projects of improvising the Nepali
language and the national history of Nepal written in the bir (heroic) mode
were first started by a small group of expatriated Nepalis in British India
in the early decades of this century. The Nepali language was first
promoted by this early generation of Nepali nationalists as their unifying
motif within an overall agenda of improvement and progress of the Nepali
jati. Since the mid-1920s Darjeeling-based Nepali language activists such
as Parasmani Pradhan, Suryabikram Gyawali and Dharanidhar Koirala made a
decisive effort to rename their language as Nepali and worked toward the
creation of a respectable corpus of literary works written in Nepal. This
work also involved a conscious politicization of the Nepali community in
India. Hence it was hardly palatable to the powerful Rana rulers of Nepal
who did much to ensure that the work of Nepali jati activists in British
India did not 'contaminate' the sensibilities of Nepalis within Nepal. But
despite Rana control, the work of Nepali jati activists based in India did
reach Nepal and was read by a small group of intellectuals on whom it had
enormous influence.
For an understanding of how the Nepali language and literature
were fostered within Nepal as part of the project of building a national
Nepali culture during the first half of this century, we will have to look
at the work of many people who contributed to this project. A complete
social history of the circumstances under which various social agents
accomplished the enrollment of the Nepali language for their projects of
imagining the Nepali nation can not be written given the current state of
our knowledge. However, we can begin to see the terrain that requires study
by focusing on the early life and work of Balkrishna Sama (1903-1981), one
of the founding fathers of modern Nepali literature and one of Nepal's most
articulate nationalists.
Balkrishna Sama: Sama first sought personal attachment to the
Nepali language in his early childhood. In a dominant milieu where the
social legitimacy of this language and his personal emotional investment in
it were both open to mockery and interrogation, Sama initially experimented
with culturally familiar literary forms of the Nepali language as his way
to negotiate a minimum but critical attachment to it. He thus mainly wrote
poetry in traditional rhymed verses. By the early 1920s, Sama had begun to
define his Nepal as a place lacking "pure" Nepali culture. As he developed
as a writer in the next two decades, Sama began to make the Nepali language
the center of his search for a new national identity for Nepal. As the
power the Nepali language exercised over Sama and his own personal
attachment to it became greater, an increasingly more confident Sama
explored this relationship in a culturally and literally novel form of
dramas or plays. At this point in his career, he was greatly influenced by
the work of Gyawali and other Nepali jati activists based in British India.
Sama's plays and other writings, products of his own attachment to
the Nepali language and embodying his own imaginations of the Nepali
nation, proved to be particularly important media with which the literary
and intellectual elites of Nepal could generate and celebrate their own
attachments towards the Nepali language. Sama used, for instance, his
meditation over the Nepali language in his play Mukunda Indira to claim a
culturally 'pure domain' for Nepal, separate from the colonial 'debauchery'
of Calcutta. For other cultural elites this play embodied a heavy dose of
Nepali patriotism. In addition Sama also taught what he wrote to his
students at the Darbar School. In the 1940s and the 1950s, Sama contributed
to the elaboration of bir history through full-length and short historical
plays such as Bhakta Bhanubhakta, Amarsingh, Nalapanima, etc. These plays
were performed in different places and were important media through which
lessons on Nepali nationalism were dispersed.
As Sama's written corpus in the Nepali language grew in size,
larger historical contingencies following the end of Rana rule in Nepal in
1951, contributed to the Nepali state's increasing enrollment of the Nepali
language and literature into its own projects of imagining the Nepali
nation. In this context his works earned a wider readership through their
inclusion in the curricula of educational institutions and through general
dispersion in the print and radio media. Hence Sama's works contributed to
not only the process through which Nepali language reigned power of
attachment over the population living within Nepal, but also to how
particular ways of imagining the Nepali nation, its literature and history
gained legitimacy in post-Rana Nepal.
Conclusion: Through the kind of inquiry discussed here, we break
open the isolated (but fertile) research field of Nepali literary history
and begin to locate the place of Nepali language and literature within the
social history of Nepali nationalism. Our research into the social process
through which the Nepali language and literature were increasingly included
in the production of the dominant Nepali national culture and identity will
jointly illuminate the work of those individuals who made Nepali language
the vocation of their lives, and the work of the Nepali state which has
taken upon itself the task of being the chief nation-maker in the recent
decades. Such research will help us understand the process through which
love for the Nepali language and national history were first socially
constructed in specific individuals in early part of this century within
Nepal through the influence exerted by the work of India-based Nepali
nationalists and only later inculcated in a larger group of Nepalis through
the use of the nationalized education system and the media.
We need more historically specific studies before making broad
sociological generalizations regarding the history of Nepali nationalism in
the twentieth century. More detailed studies should gradually generate a
body of knowledge that will make a macro-level description of this process
possible. In the meantime, agency-less history of how the Nepali language
and literature came to be one of the dominant markers of the Nepali
identity or one in which the Nepali state is given excessive agency in this
process should be critiqued for their adoption of a clearly inadequate
methodological approach to the study of this phenomenon.
*************************************************************
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 18:10:30
Subject: Request for Specifics
From: across@across.wlink.com.np (SANGITA)
Hi! I heard about your electronic magazine. I'd be pleased if you
could send me details about it. We too run a bilingual
(Eng+Nep) magazine called ACROSS. We run regular features on
Women's issues, health, politics, sports, entertainment & book
reviews. Besides that we cover various other features depending
upon the responses & articles we get. Thank you.
Sangita Rayamajhi
Editor/Publisher
*****************************************************
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 97 11:10:47 -0700
From: Shera Selzer <shera@pop.erols.com>
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Subject: (no subject)
My daughter is currently a student at the university in Cairo, but their
computer system is outdated and making research difficult, thus I am
attempting to research volunteer, internship or apprenticeship
opportunities for her in Nepal, as she plans to travel there in January
1998. She is an art major and very interested in working with artisans
or learning about local medicinal and healing techniques as might be
available by working side by side in the practice of Tibetan healing. In
adition she is very interested in the environment and would welcome any
volunteer opportunities in maintaining Himalayan ecosystems. Please
forward any and all information to Shane Selzer :saselzer@uns3.auc.eun.eg
Thank you very much for any guidance you may be able to give.
********************************************************
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 7:56:09 CDT
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu (The Nepal Digest)
From: Bhuban Pandey
Dear Netters:
We like to wish you a happy Bijaya Dashami.
Thanks.
Bhuban, Prabha and Bhumika Pandey
Austin, Texas
*******************************************************
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 08:09:48 -0700
From: internat <internat@jscc.cc.al.us>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Nepal's Easy Access to U.S. University Degrees
When Nepalese students fly into Birmingham, Alabama, to attend Jefferson
State Community College, they are taking the first step on the road to a
U.S. university degree. For less than $3,000 per year in tuition and
fees, for over thirty years dozens of Shreshthas, Khans, Bastolas,
Mallas, and other young Nepalese students have begun their university
degrees in this College. Two years here followed by two years at one of
the nearby universities has been the plan they have followed to get a
Bachelor's Degree and then they have gone on to even higher degrees at a
wide variety of universities all over the U.S. If you know of people
contemplating an American university degree, I can send them advice on
how to get a student visa and how to gain admission to this College.
Meanwhile, check us out on our homepage at
www.jscc.cc.al.us
or send me an e-mail (Attention:W. F. O'Rourke) at
internat.jscc.cc.al.us
or send me a fax (Attention W.F.O., International Office) at
205-853-0340
***********************************************
From: Bhikkhv Seevali <BS4@soas.ac.uk>
To: The Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu>, NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 15:51:33 GMT
Subject: Buddhists in Nepal are over 55%
Dear Sir,
Please include this message in your coming Nepal Digest.
As Ms. Julie wrote in your issue of 27th September 1997, that
Buddhists in Nepal are only 6%. According to Nepalese government it
is not even 6% but 5%. This is a wrong information about Nepalese
Buddhists. We Nepalese Buddhist strongly belive that there are 55%
Buddhists in Nepal. Not only before democracy 1990 during Pancayat
period but also in present day government is ignoring the religious
freedom in Nepal. According to them who ever celebrate Hindu festival
is Hindu not Buddhist or else. Such is a propaganda. If this is the
case then who live in the west and America do celebrate Chrismas. Are
they all Christian. Not at all.
According to government censor about 30-40 years ago there were about
28% Buddhists in Nepal. In 10 years time this droped to 13% and
forllowing censor was 5% only. Why is this. Is all Buddhists in
Nepale under family planning or what. Such is a propaganda. Due to
this we Buddhists in Nepal have no rights. A month ago a Japanese
monk was murdered brutaly. No investigation took place. Why is this?
Lumbini, Birthplace of the Buddha, has become a bagging bowl for all
Nepalese politices. Why is this. We demand religious freedom in Nepal.
May all gain peace and harmony. May all beings be kind and
compassionate. May all beings rejoies the joy of freedom.
Seevali
Lumbini Nepalese Buddha Dharma Society (UK)
Founder President.
********************************************************
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 11:39:02 -0400
From: Krista Guenther <klguenth@cousteau.uwaterloo.ca>
To: info-tnd@nepal.org
Subject: volunteer
I'm interested in offering volunteer services in Nepal. Could you please
send me some information.
Thank you
sue wiebe
5212 Fillinger Cres.
Nanaimo, B.C.
V9V 1H7
Canada
************************************************************************
From: PRAFULH@aol.com
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 09:55:31 -0400 (EDT)
To: info-tnd@nepal.org
Subject: volunteering
Try to see Fr. Eguene Watrin who runs volunteering service in Kathmandu. I
used to live in Godavari Alumni Association based in Kathmandu. His old
number used to be
011-977-1-4(or)2-13057. GAA is located behind Malla Hotel at Thamel. Goodluck
*********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 15:13:38 -0700
From: Shari McLaren <mclsh01@cai.com>
To: info-tnd@nepal.org
Subject: Volunteering in Nepal
I vistied Nepal exactally 2 years ago and fell in love with the country
and its people. Today I am looking to return to Nepal for an extended
visit, offering my time and services to volunteering activities (e.g.
teaching.)
Please forward inforamtion on how I can obtain further information.
Thanks,
Shari McLaren
***************************************************************
From: B.J.Coupe@newcastle.ac.uk
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:59:18 -0700
To: info-tnd@nepal.org
Subject: Road Infrastructure
I am an MSc student in Transport Planning/Traffic Engineering at
Newcastle University currently undertaking research for my dissertation
topic. I am interested in looking at the environmental impact of the
major new road infrastructure links to the Annapurna region and would be
grateful for any known sources of information or contacts in order to
develop this possible project further.
Best regards
BEVERLEY COUPE
****************************************************************
From: rainbow@argonet.co.uk (Mr Tristan Dorling)
To: info-tnd@nepal.org
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 97 10:03:41
Subject: TND Foundation services
Hi there, please could you send me information on the services offered by The
TND Foundation. Thanks. Yours, Mr. Tristan Dorling, (Chairman) Rainbow Charity
for Homeless Children (Nepal).
%%%%%%Editor's Note: Please visit the site http://www.nepal.org %%%%%%%
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***************************************************
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 20:59:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: RA3371@aol.com
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Looking for Nepalis in Macon, Georgia
Hi Everybody,
I am Rajesh Acharya. I have been transfered to Macon, Georgia for a six
month assignment. I have been living here for about 2 weeks and have not
been able to find any Nepalese in this city. Would appreciate it if readers
out there knew any Nepalese living in this town.
My home e-mail is: ra3371@aol.com
My office e-mail is: rajesh.acharya@gecapital.com
PS: The company I work for, General Electric is actively seeking candidates
with a Management Information Systems (MIS) degrees. The candidates
preferabley should have strong practical experience (co-op, intern etc.),
strong leadership background. Please forward resume's as soon as possible
to my office e-mail (preferable) or mail resume's to:
Rajesh Acharya
4411 Northside Dr # 27B
Macon, GA 31210
*****************************************************
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 07:41:23 +0545 (NPT)
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: sinhas@mos.com.np (Pratyoush Onta)
Subject: article from Kathmandu
The following was published in a special supplement of The Kath Post
brought out to celebrate Ganesh Man Singh's life.
Celebrating Ganeshman against Fatalism
by Pratyoush Onta
I don't know when I first heard the name of Ganeshman Singh. But I remember
that one of the first things I heard about him at a very early age was his
daring escape from a Rana jail in the summer of 1944. I heard about this
historic event from my grandfather, the late Ganesh Raj Onta (1910-1995),
who was a fellow inmate in the same jail. The better-known Ganesh Man,
member of the Nepal Praja-Parishad, was serving a life sentence and the
little known Ganesh Raj (whose name has all but faded away from nationalist
histories of the anti-Rana movement), member of the so-called Raktapat
Committee, was serving a 12-year sentence for their various anti-Rana
activities. They had both been imprisoned since the early winter of 1940
when the Rana administration led by Juddha Shumsher cracked down
mercilessly on all kinds of anti-Rana political activists. I no longer
remember the details of what my grandfather told me of the great escape but
remember vaguely his telling me that those who remained in the prison, like
him, were further tortured by the Ranas in an attempt to extract
information about how the escape had been planned and about Ganesh Man's
subsequent plans.
Although I was born barely 60 metres from what in recent years has been
called his Chaksibari residence, I did not get to see Ganeshman in public
until much later. Like many others of my cohort who were born in the
mid-sixties, a time when the Panchayat system was consolidating itself, I
came to know of his incarceration in the hands of that system only later.
Before Thamel became a tourist ghetto, as I and many of my childhood
friends played marbles and 'seven stones' on the street in front of
Chaksibari, I recall how especially deserted the whole compound used to
look. At that young age, little did I realize the significance of Ganesh
Man's continued absence from his home (he was in exile in India for almost
a decade) and of his commitment to anti-Panchayat politics. Little did I
know then that the very same compound, some twenty years later, would be
the site where anti-Panchayat forces would find their strength for the Jana
Andolan. I happened to be away from Nepal during the Andolan and hence
missed the opportunity to see Ganeshman in public at the pinnacle of his
long political career.
The last occasion when I saw him up close was when he visited our house
following the death of my grandfather in October 1995. He said a few kind
words about his senior during that visit.
Like many other hundreds of thousands of Nepalis, I paid my last respects
to the Ironman of our time on September 18th and 19th. As his body was
being taken out of Chaksibari for its last trip around the city, I noticed
that among the people who constituted the funeral procession, a motley
crowd of lilliputian politicians from all the camps of the present Nepali
political landscape was also present. Masters of the Panchayati system and
diehard Congressi and Comrade types - those chiefly responsible for making
a complete mockery of the achievements of the Jana Andolan - were all
there. It is a cruel irony that those who were responsible for
incarcerating Ganeshman for years during the Panchayat era and who partly
built their political careers by calling him 'anti-nationalist', were never
themselves incarcerated as part of a much-needed act of cleansing for this
nation after 1990. It is doubly ironic that the chief political actors who
did virtually everything to marginalize Ganeshman from national politics in
the last five years are now doing their 'Ganeshman's loss is irreparable'
dance.
Hence it would be completely depressing to let this group of hypocrites
define - or more likely hijack - how the memory of Ganeshman should be
celebrated in this nation. If we let those party politicians chiefly
responsible for the stunting of democracy in Nepal construct a schema
within which Ganeshman's legacy is to be captured, we would have failed to
honour the giant once again. If we are to make sure that his legacy is
itself not incarcerated by the mediocrity of today's party politicians, I
suggest that we celebrate Ganeshman as an icon not just for the political
field in Nepal but for our entire social fields. This would not only be a
fitting tribute to him, but also a necessary strategy for the generation of
hope in these desparate times.
There might be many ways in which we can rescue ourselves from the
malignancy of fatalism eating away the social body of the Nepali nation.
One way in which Ganeshman's legacy could be used for this purpose is to
remind ourselves and our posterity of the darkly fatalistic age in which
Ganeshman began his political life. The fatalism in which we find ourselves
steeped at the moment is by no means more fatal than what pervaded in this
society in the 1930s. Our own desparate times are by no means more
desparate than the late Rana era. If Ganeshman could rise from a society
drenched in hopelessness, so can we. His life and work, should be a giant
beacon of hope for people from all walks of life: we too can be the masters
of our own destiny. For that to happen we only need to muster up the kind
of courage and patience that Ganeshman possessed.
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