#37 6 - 12 April 2001 20 pages Rs 20 RAFTS AND KAYAKS 10-11 FIRST TANGO IN KATHMANDU 19 NEPALI ORCHIDS 9

EXCLUSIVE The nation speaks Two years after Himalmedia tried to gauge the mind of the nation, we’ve gone back to the Nepali people Rukum Kot Massacre to find out how they assess the state of the state. The Maoist insurgency has

BINOD○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ BHATTARAI eight policemen were killed in a road become more virulent, the government has little Nepal died on Sunday night. accident while rushing to Mujung) been at standstill, political infighting is worse, and parliament is paralysed. So, what do Nepalis Newars, Magars, Chhetris, Bahuns, • Maoists destroy an outpost in Darkha, think? We asked 4,000 respondents in the ahighlanders and Madhesis, from Dhading district, loot arms nationwide survey: different parts of Nepal were among the The rebels have now upgraded their • if they think the insurgency is the main dead on that remote hilltop outpost in capacity to outflank police and pick targets at problem facing the nation, or are they more Rukum. Some of the policemen were will. The National Security Council met on concerned about Kalapani • if it is belief in ideology that is behind the apparently butchered execution-style, after Tuesday to plan a response. “Because the support for the Maoists or is it fear, and they had surrendered. Nepal’s political government has been unable to form the how the problem should be resolved history does not have a recorded parallel to Armed Police, it was agreed that the army • if the country is going downhill and what’s Sunday night’s death toll. Only the should be engaged in six districts at least,” a taking it there infamous Kot Massacre of 1846 saw more source told us. The Royal Nepal Army, • if Nepal’s democracy is threatened and where that threat is coming from deaths on a single night. stationed at 16 vulnerable district headquarters Other questions: how the armed forces An upsurge in Maoist activities was after Dunai, now may even move into the should be handled, whether the constitution predicted, but the Chaite Dasain carnage countryside. Rukumkot is situated six hours needs to be re-jigged, and which party they surpassed all expectations. Also unexpected away from Musikot where the Army is would vote for if fresh elections were to be held was the frontal assault on the fortified stationed. “We’ve now agreed that troops today. The results will be published in Nepali Times and Himal Khabarpatrika on 13 April. barracks—the first major offensive since the should be engaged wherever there is a need,” Dunai attack last September prompted the the source added. The Army will begin taking Now, the good news police to pull back from hot spots. The positions in Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan, Jajarkot, dispirited policemen manning Rukumkot were Pyuthan and Kalikot if King Birendra, the Latest figures from the Nepal sitting ducks. It was a week of bloodshed: Supreme Commander of the army, gives his Tourism Board • Maoists kill 31 policemen in assent. The big question now is whether he

MIN BAJRACHARYA show that Rukumkot, take 23 hostage and leave will do that. Sections of the Army believe an despite hotel strikes, deteriorating security 14 hurt, no rebel bodies recovered anti-Maoist war is unwinnable, and will plunge and riots, 16 percent more tourists visited Maoists kill five policemen in Maina the country into a brutal civil war. Nepal in the first quarter of 2001 compard to • the same period in 2000. It could be tourism Pokhari in Dolakha district; police Nepalis from almost every ethnicity and After the killing fields of Rukum,

is finally on the rebound, or it is possible that down three caste group have been killed in the five years SUBHAS RAI last year was so dismal anything would be an • Maoists set off two minor blasts in of violence. Chettris head the list, with are we headed to the negotiating improvement. Or it could be both. Either way, Kathmandu Valley Magars following a close second, and then the number of Indian tourists also picked up Maoists kill two policemen in Mujung, Bahuns. But most of those killed have table, or more bloodshed? in the first three months of 2001. • Palpa, no rebel casualties (Another something in common—class. Those on the frontlines are poor village youth promised government does not have a mechanism to UML has successfully brought the winter better lives by the Maoists, and policemen meet even their basic socio-economic session to a halt, sabotaging the government’s THE HEAD COUNT who can’t find any other jobs and don’t have demands, let alone the major ones.” effort to pass a bill to create a paramilitary the clout to prevent a posting in insurgency What complicates the possibility of peace force to fight the Maoists. UML leader, areas. The official death toll in five years now talks is that no one seems to have a clear idea Madhav Kumar Nepal’s first comment on stands at over 1,600, and tens of thousands of of what the Maoists want. Certainly, there is Monday was not to condemn the attack in others are internal refugees. the much-publicised list of 40 demands, but Rukumkot, but to say that it was yet another The killings came at a time when the events of the past five years have made it reason for the prime minister to resign. government had just complied with the almost irrelevant. The government, too, has The government is boxed in. It can’t get a rebel demand for talks by releasing the a position: it is willing to negotiate stronger police, and without that, the Maoists, names of over 300 captured Maoists, and everything within the framework of the who consider themselves to be on a winning had begun taking the captives to court. The present constitution. At the moment the spree, will have no inclination to talk. According to the Human Rights Yearbook Documentation Centre of the Informal Sector Maoists’ Second Convention in February only thing that may be achieved by sitting Government officials say the Rukumkot Service Centre (INSEC), there has been at least one insurgency-related death in 52 of the had adopted a new doctrine called down at the table is for both sides to agree massacre is another reason why the country’s 75 districts since February 1996. About a third of the total deaths took place in Rolpa Prachanda Path, named after its leader, on rules of civilised warfare. paramilitary needs to be set up quickly. Ram and Rukum. which put forward a proposal for an all- The reason for the stalemate is that just Chandra Poudel said this week: “Police are Killings by the police peaked during the flushing-out operation, Kilo Sierra II, in 1998. party meeting to agree on an interim about every political force in this country— being trained and it will take some more Maoist casualties were highest in 1998 and 1999 and it took the rebels two full years, and 662 deaths, to regroup. The Maoists have been attacking police posts and mauling the police at will government to formulate a “peoples’ Narayanhiti, Singha Darbar, the communists months for it to be ready.” But he is being since early 2000. Since then, the police have been entirely on the defensive with Maoists constitution”. Many had seen these moves and factions of Congress and splinter groups— optimistic, he presupposes that the legal having killed about 100 more people than the police. Since January 2001, the figures are more by both sides as signs of moderation. So, was are all using the insurgency for petty party complications will be sorted out. The lopsided. Maoists have killed 75, and the police only 19. the Rukumkot offensive a sign that the wrangling. None of them seems to want to give ordinance to set up the force will become Commenting on the Rukum incident, a human rights activist just back from the Maoists aren’t interested in talks, or was it to the other advantage of taking credit for a peace defunct unless approved in parliament by insurgency-hit districts told us: “They had been quiet for some time, and this round of attacks may have resulted from the leadership’s compulsion to provide the armed cadres with some goad the government to the negotiating table? dividend. It is this shortsightedness and a Sunday. Caught between indecisive and action. All this is happening because talks are just not moving forward.” “Neither side is about to talk at this power vacuum at the top that is obstructing fractious political leaders in Kathmandu and The rebels are also taking more prisoners. The government says Maoists have taken 412 stage,” says Gopal Siwakoti Chintan, a the search for a solution. Maoists on the offensive, it looks like the so far, of which 26 had been killed. It also accuses the Maoists of withholding the whereabouts human rights activist and an advocate for Perennial infighting in the ruling party has Nepali people will have to witness many more of 131—a number that has gone up since the Rukumkot attack. Maoist prisoners are reportedly dialogue. “Maoists, because they think they paralysed the government, allowing the main Rukumkots before the two sides feel it has got sent to labour camps, something which even human rights groups don’t talk about. are winning every battle. And the opposition UML to go for its jugular. The to the point where they have to talk.  worldlink 222 EDITORIAL 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES

26 CHAITRA In the spring of 1990, the Nepali people got together to regain what had been forcefully taken away from them almost thirty years ago. It was a People’s Movement in its true form. All sections of society rose in unison, and broke the chains of a tyrannical system. And then we called upon the political class to build a system to suit our democratic aspirations. In retrospect, it appears that our faith was highly misplaced. We should have prompted and monitored our leaders better. It is little short of miraculous that democracy still survives, though barely so, despite the abuses it has been subjected to over the years by the political class. Our politicians turned out to be pygmies with pretensions of being giants. It has been a decade of shattered dreams, lost hopes and wilted aspirations. Our leaders have failed to deliver everything they promised—peace, governance or development. In fact, they haven’t even tried seriously. The ruling party seems unwilling to rule. The opposition appears incapable of offering alternatives. The ultras haven’t come to terms with the reality of a OS small country not being able to afford a drawn-out war without serious STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL consequences to its sovereignty. By brutally killing innocent policemen on duty in Dolakha and Rukum, the Maoists displayed the ugly face of mindless violence. And then there are the chakka jams and bandhs to put up with. We all seem to be in a tearing hurry to reach the precipice and fall off it. Socialism by any other name The executive is not functioning. The legislature is being held at ransom. Much of what goes on in the name of the fourth estate appears to be fanning the fire of confusion all around. True, the judiciary is still functional, but it can never be a substitute for governance. A case in point is the court order The confusion among India’s left movement seems to be giving asking the government to reinstate Tilak Rawal to the post from which he our Nepali comrades a glimpse of their own future. was unceremoniously sacked. The verdict is clearly based on the merits of the case, not on those of the individual concerned. And now it is the NEW DELHI - BP Koirala’s Atmabrittanta take a united stand. Like their comrades with fads that once prompted AJP Taylor to government that will have to face the consequences. is now available in English. Having been the elsewhere, Indian leftists are also divided by term Fabianism the “socialism of snobs”. In At times like these, it’s tempting to fall for easy options. The no-option captain of the ship, it was perhaps natural the same ideology. One participant counted place of Marx’s faith in the proletariat, option of “either the Royalists or the Maoists” that is being bandied about is that BP should record his journey on the at least 22 streams of communists and Fabians put their faith in the nobility of the clearly a trap. Anything worthwhile is never that clear-cut, seldom so easy. struggle for democracy in the choppy about fourteen factions of socialists labour elite. It is because of a similar Reality is far more complex and requires constant effort. The old dictum— waters of Nepali politics. But the book is recognisable at the national level in India. attitude that the socialist movement in eternal vigilance is the price of liberty—is as true today as when it was first more than just that: it is studded with By the end, the acrimony between different India consists primarily of towering leaders enunciated by John Philpot Curran over two hundred years ago. interesting insights into international factions of the left was so intense that all without any followers. The way out is perhaps backwards, but not to the place we have left. We trends and events that buffeted Nepal. they could agree upon was to disagree on Indian communists too are treading a need to go back to basics and embrace the principles that fuelled the One such is his disillusionment with the all substantive issues. No wonder then similar path. Leftist leaders with giant egos People’s Movement and made 26 Chaitra possible. The goal of Nepali international socialist movement, and at that the final resolution is full of pious learn to lord over the presidium, and leave democracy has to be the upliftment of the last man in order to enable him to one point, he appears exasperated by the intentions, but little or no common to set up separate houses as soon as their become a respectable citizen of society. socialists’ preoccupation with “projecting programme for united action. supremacy is questioned. This is a common Democracy entails government by the majority, but of and for all the their image”. Even the academics appeared wary of trend in South Asia’s left movement. A people. The mechanics to achieve that goal are still intact. An independent BP is even more dismissive of Indian taking the bull by the horns. While people participant from Pakistan expressed it most election commission, the rule of law, and periodic elections have shown that socialists who sought his help to fight their like Aijaz Ahmed, Jayati Ghosh and eloquently when he pointed out the we are capable of being masters of our own destiny. All we need to do now elections. For Nepali readers, it is reassuring Vandana Shiva pontificated endlessly about tendency among his comrades back home to is to make sure that the vital ingredients missing from our democracy— to learn that the Indian socialists supporting the pitfalls of globalisation, no one cared, or “build separate mosques with their one-an- accountability and sincerity—are restored to make it really effective. the democracy movement in Nepal were dared, mention, let alone denounce, the all- a-half bricks”. We have seen that just hoping for the desired to happen doesn’t merely paying interest on an old debt—the powerful C-word—Capitalism. Since All this must have prompted the Nepali lead anywhere. That is perhaps the most important lesson to Nepali Congress government had extended globalisation is merely the third leg of the delegation to start playing unity games in remember this 26 Chaitra. All of us have to become the change that financial assistance to them in the 1960s. capitalism stool (with the other two being Delhi. In the lobby of the venue, comrade we want. Back to basics, then. Had BP been alive, would he have been liberalisation and privatisation), slashing Jhalanath Khanal of the Communist Party asked once again to help revive the socialist wildly at globalisation with machetes is not of Nepal (UML) was seen trying his best to PSY-OPS movement in India? going to yield a political programme. The entice self-proclaimed ‘independent Indian socialists are in disarray today. issue of globalisation may please the Global Marxist’ Hari Rokka back to the fold. This has been a good week for photo- The one-time Young Turk Chandra Greens, but it fails to inspire the common Comrade Jhalak Subedi of the Communist ops. And psy-ops. Our leaders first had Shekhar has retired to his designer farm in woman on the street. It was such flirting Party of Nepal (ML) was mellow in his Bhondsi. The party of George Fernandes battle-hardened pictures of themselves criticism of his party’s bugbear, the CPM OS taken at a memorial service for slain was led by a former Miss Miranda House (UML). Delhi-based sympathisers of the policemen in Rukumkot, chatting up the caught on camera promising a quid pro Maoist movement in Nepal were being hungry cameras. The irony of this self- quo for a cash donation to her party. The civil to both UML and ML leaders. The serving publicity amidst carnage was lost atrophy in the socialist movement has confusion among the leftists of India on everyone, including the cameras. And pushed the likes of Mulayam Singh seemed to be giving our comrades a then we saw the greatest example of Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram glimpse of their future. Unfortunately, domestic ingenuity since the Nepal Army Vilas Paswan into caste-based power there was nobody from the Nepali used leather canons against the invading politics. The socialists in India have sunk Congress to learn lessons from the British. The CPN (UML) this week so low that they look towards rank disarray in Indian socialism. paraded the first-ever Nepali-built aircraft opportunists like VP Singh for Does the left-of-centre really believe and took it around town for wind-tunnel leadership, while those who did not that its ideas are truly worth fighting testing (see picture, left). We don’t know if want to put up with all this mess have for? If it doesn’t, then it will continue the honourable prime minister was quietly opted out. to be squeezed in the middle by the impressed with the aeronautical skills of However, between bouts of ultras of the left and the right. To the comrades. If we can manufacture ideological constipation and rhetorical dream of rainbows is one thing. But to

KIRAN PANDEY effigies of 767s, it will only be a small diarrhoea, Indian socialists are still prove that LPG (Liberalisation, step to make them fly. Or, at least glide. The point our dear comrades were capable of showing flashes of political Privatisation and Globalisation) is trying to make is unimportant, since they’ve been trying to make it for the last common sense once in a while. One such pure gas, all forces with leftist six months. And to counter this over-exposure of an Austrian charter operator, was the People’s Conference against inclinations need to form a broad- we won’t mention the L word in this space. Ever again. Globalisation they organised in New based coalition and go back to the Delhi on 21-23 March. The meet turned people. More than a decade after the out to be a rainbow gathering of reds of restoration of democracy, shouldn’t Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd every hue, greens of varying shades, and that be the common minimum Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Pulchowk, Lalitpur Mailing address: GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal the blue and white collars of activism and programme of the forces that made the Phones: (01) 543333-7 Fax: (01) 521013 academia. The flaming red of Bihari People’s Movement a success? But this Editor: Kunda Dixit Maoism, the romantic pink of Awadhi question can only be relevant if the Desk editors: Deepak Thapa, Samuel Thomas, Anagha Neelakantan socialism, the rosy crimson of Malayali Nepali Congress still considers itself to Editorial: [email protected] Marketing, circulation and subscriptions: [email protected] Marxism and the blushing scarlet of be democratic socialist, and Communist www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press (01) 521393 Bengali Leninism were all there— Party of Nepal (UML) continues to agreeing to sit together, but refusing to believe in pluralistic Marxism.  NATION 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 333 “The issue about unmet deadlines is nonsense” —Ram Sharan Mahat Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat spoke to NT about the mid-year economic figures, donors, and

the prospects for the rest of the year.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ framework of our policy. There is the Ninth Plan, other government documents thought that it would be useful to make use of army personnel on and the draft aid policy. Donors don’t pull us in different directions. That said, secondment—to act as revenue police for the short term. The army won’t be it’s true this does not work perfectly in practice. there forever and when there they will work on a rotational basis until we have our own properly trained and equipped revenue force. But that policy framework has not been finalised yet… But that alone does not take care of the revenue collection problem. Yes, but there are other documents to work with and it does not mean that There is large-scale income tax evasion. I have begun tightening collection we don’t have any policy for aid. You have the Ninth Plan document and the and have already issued special instructions to revenue officials. We have a agenda for priority actions presented at the Paris meeting. work plan to speed up collection and to get new taxable areas inside the You have new deadlines for meeting missed commitments. Are you net. There are also the non-tax revenues where you need to make extra

MIN BAJRACHARYA confident they can be met, especially looking at the Rastra Bank? efforts for collection. The revenue picture is not always clear in six-month Where is the country heading—politically? Events taking place at the central bank don’t matter much. Disruption at statistics, because advance payments could have been counted. I hope better sense will prevail among all political forces. Nobody will benefit the top management does not mean the things won’t move. There are people at Despite growing exports, businesses are not confident about if we resort to extra-constitutional methods or ignore the constitutional process. the working level. Our policy has not changed. investing. One reason is security and another is delays in duty- That will only strengthen the hand of those forces that don’t believe in the Yes, but it does not make people very confident… drawback payments. parliamentary process. Mainstream political parties should follow the letter and Confidence is about perception. I have been in touch with the concerned There are problems with the duty-drawback scheme. Until last year spirit of the constitution and resolve their differences within its framework. people, including international agencies, and they have not indicated that they there was no system like the one we now have. Export businesses used to Economically? are worried. import raw materials duty-free under bank guarantee. The drawback The general indicators are not bad. There is good growth, foreign exchange They may not have said that directly but how can you let a system requires them to make payments at customs points and get reserves are sound, export is satisfactory and so is growth in the non-agricultural government fiddle around with an institution as important as the reimbursements later, based on the certification of the export. The sector. Inflation is also at a record low level. The main problem is on the finance central bank? problem is an insufficient budget and it will be rectified soon. and the fiscal side. The government’s liabilities have increased tremendously, There must be continuity. Something went wrong in the past but that does How soon? especially recurring costs. Such increase will be unsustainable over time. The not mean that we continue to live with that problem. We should now worry First, we’ll try to expedite the payments. Second, we expect to make wage, pension and security bills and debt-servicing obligations, and non-plan about how the situation can be improved. some policy changes, which will take time. I can’t say when the problem expenditure have all increased. Capital efficiency is low. Even though there has will be resolved but I take the concerns of the exporters seriously. been some growth in revenue, internal resources have not been able to match Development spending remains low and regular spending, high. growing expenses. Mismanagement of public enterprises and institutions are Yet you still predict five-six percent growth. What about security, any new plans to address it? other problems. We need to strengthen general governance, administrative and Six percent growth is very possible because the non-agricultural sector has Security remains a problem. That is why new foreign investment management ability. Some of our principal exports may be facing problems very expanded and agriculture is good. Growth is not a function of public investment has been shy. alone. We have a bumper crop. Exports are good, so is industrial production and soon and new investment has to be attracted. India is taking bold steps towards liberalisation. How do you plan the services sector. Our predictions are based on the survey of the National Last week we said you got a “low pass” from donors—some might say an achieve- to tell investors to come to Nepal when they may soon be getting Accounts Division of the Central Bureau of Statistics. Development spending is ment in these trying times. How did you manage that? better deals in India? only a small part of the total picture. Again, even that is not very low but at a It was not a question of a “low pass”—you have been very unfair. Nepali Investors get a better deal in Nepal. Why do you think they come comfortable level. Secondly, data on direct payments made by the donors to media tends to belittle government performance and you are no exception. to a small market like ours? We have to provide new foreign investors suppliers and contractors are not reflected by the treasury accounts. After The meeting was held on our initiative, not because donors wanted it. extra incentives. They will come if we have a comparative advantage. (Laughs.) those numbers come in, by year-end, you’ll see development expenditure is Its purpose was to understand each other better, exchange ideas and to reiterate not as bad as it appears. But right now maybe we’re beginning to lose that, dividends our commitment to reforms now underway. Donors appreciated the way we have are taxed when India is slashing them… been moving. You cannot expect things to move in a mechanical way, particularly You mentioned at the donor review meeting that you had reports on only about But our corporate tax is still much lower and import tariffs are under adverse circumstances—adverse political conditions are not very helpful. 180 projects. Why can’t you make donors report on time? still very low. Here, everything can be imported under the open The overall political development and societal situation reflects on the perfor- The donors don’t have to make reports. The reports did not come from generalised licence and access to foreign exchange is easier. mance on the economic front. government institutions and departments for many reasons—delays in beginning the projects or because they may not have begun to spend when the report was Now that India is offering other advantages, such as policies We’ve learnt that though donors went away smiling, privately some prepared, delays in account keeping. dealing with labour, what changes can we expect here? of them are unhappy that things are not happening. How do you I’ve formed a working group to study the implication of the explain that? The army is patrolling customs checkpoints to check revenue losses, budgets of neighbouring countries to see how we have to cope. We Like what? Give me specific examples. People are critical about security in but the central bank’s recent figures show that collection isn’t far off target. are studying the implications of the Indian budget and will adjust to the rural areas. But you cannot blame a finance minister for that. The revenue target for this year is high. There are leakages and revenue the new situation in appropriate ways.  policing is inadequate. We don’t have as many trained people as we need. We You have missed the deadlines for bank reforms and we hear the loan from IMF’s Poverty Reduction Growth Fund (PRGF) has been delayed because of delay in preparing the interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper… The PRGF has been delayed. The IMF representative told me that though all documents required for it are now ready, they need time to study them. We’re “Cosmic Air... on a tight schedule now. That’s why we couldn’t put our PRGF proposal to vote on 9 April. On our side, the preconditions for the PRGF have more or less been just love to fly it.” met. But things can’t happen mechanically. You’ve seen the financial sector reform process, the problem of the board of directors at Nepal Bank Suresh Acharya Limited where decisions could not be taken on time. The time frame was President not realistic. It has taken much longer than expected to appraise the bids for Federation of Nepalese Journalists the [management of the] Rastriya Banijya Bank though people have been working day and night. Producing results is much more difficult when social "As a journalist, I know how difficult and political issues are mixed up. it is to maintain a consistently high level of work. It takes intellect, So do we assume that nothing has gone off the rails as yet? discipline, courage and a strong Generally, yes. The issue about deadlines not being met is nonsense. determination. Deadlines cannot stand alone, they are influenced by social and political issues. These were the same qualities I Take the management contracts. You know the position of the trade unions, you discovered in the people of Cosmic Air. They have a strong work ethic and are know what the Public Accounts Committee has said and what the board of thoroughly professional. That is why I just directors of the Nepal Bank Limited have been doing. It took a lot of love flying Cosmic Air." persuasion and work to get them to agree to the plan and they have nominated their representatives to appraise the bids. These issues were not SAAB 340 anticipated while setting deadlines. How critical are donors about missed deadlines? We are more concerned than the donors about meeting deadlines and finishing work as soon as possible in order to produce results. For donors, often the project may be the only one they have to worry about. For us a project’s Why fly Cosmic Air’s SAAB 340 Aircraft? failure is a failure for Nepal as a whole. 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You could be on your way to a fantastic holiday. Winners will be decided through lucky draws every two weeks (March - Aug 2001). carpet. Donors have different priorities, how do you satisfy all of them when you Sales & Reservations: Heritage Plaza, Kamaladi, Kathmandu. Ph: 241053 (Hunting Line), 244955, 244026. Direct: (Reservations): 246882, 241052, 247121, 247132. Fax : 241051. E-mail: [email protected] ~ Web Site: www.cosmicair.com don’t even have a policy on foreign aid? Ktm. Airport: 474783. Pokhara: (Sales): 061-32039, 26680. (Airport): 061-31601. Bharatpur: 056-24218. Bhadrapur: 023-21179. Jomsom: 069-29424. Tumlingtar: 029-69201. Nepalgunj: 081-23380, Biratnagar: 021-24898, Bhairahawa: 071-20919 We have a policy—all donor concerns and priorities have to fit within the 444 NATION 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES Micro-credit’s mixed blessings

percent in the formal sector and up had to sell a hen given by my to 25 percent in semi-formal sectors mother when I delivered a child,” like the NGO-supported savings- says Sanu Devi Pudasaini of Gita credit organisations. Despite the Nagar in Chitwan. healthy policy guidelines, the Though families rely on their insensitiveness of banks is blamed for women to get loans and other this state of affairs. financial services from micro- The Agriculture Development finance institutions (MFIs), women Bank of Nepal (ADB/N) is one of still have to ask men for the amount the first finance institutions to they require for their group’s reach out to the poor. The success compulsory savings and to pay the of its Small Farmers’ Development interest on loans. And, in the Programme that provides collateral- savings groups too, women’s voices free loans can be attributed to the and leadership are often neglected fact that it allows both women and as long as there is participation by the very poor to avail of loans. That men. On the other hand, as these ALL PHOTOS: HEMLATA RAI HEMLATA ALL PHOTOS: is significant in a country where loans are directed only towards The notion that micro-finance is an effective means of increasing access of almost 70 percent of rural farmers agriculture-related enterprises have less than half a hectare of land, operated from family homes, critics the poor to institutional credit and that it works for everyone, everywhere, and women don’t have legal like economist Meena Acharya property rights. claim that micro-credit has

is under increasing scrutiny. Most of the NGOs which act as helped the “domestication of ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ financial intermediaries and also women” in that it has increased ○○○○○○○○○○

HEMLATA○○○○○ RAI long been tossed around as the magic have not only caused programme rural poor to institutional loans. other micro-finance institutions the workloads for women. t is only 6:30 am, but the 23 tool for poverty alleviation. There are overlaps (some women in Chitwan Another government policy focus on women. Some of these The micro-finance sector has women members of the Kopila over one hundred NGOs in Nepal were found to be participating in up requires all commercial banks to genuinely want to improve women’s other problems as well. As most of the iSaving Group of Hasuliya working with rural communities to to three savings and credit groups), invest at least 12 percent of their access to micro credit, while others MFIs are donor driven it has created VDC in Kailali District have improve their access to institutional but has also limited opportunities for total loan portfolio to priority- seem to prefer women as their heavy dependence on donors, risking already gathered together for loans. They encourage people to come the rural poor. But to their credit, sector lending like agriculture and target groups because a ‘gender the health of micro-finance services in their monthly transactions. in groups and collect the scattered Nepali advocates of micro credit are at least 3 percent of this ampunt sensitive’ approach to poverty the country. But the phenomenon is Today, they will deposit their resources available in their own at least honest in accepting that must go to the deprived sector. reduction appeals better to donors. global. The World Bank estimates compulsory monthly savings of Rs villages so they can make use of those the availability of easy loans to the Yet for all of the government’s Micro-finance has effectively that only one percent of the total 10, pay interest on loans (of funds when the time arises. poor is only one aspect of reducing interventions and the involvement established that women can also be MFIs in the world are sustainable, all under Rs 5,000) they have taken But the notion that micro-finance poverty and improving their social of the non-governmental sector sources for the expansion of family others are heavily donor- and some might apply for further is a really effective means of increasing position, instead of projecting it is studies show that the desired businesses, but their reliance on dependent. As a way out of this loans. They are not all literate, access of the poor to institutional as the panacea. results are some way from being male family members has not been dependence some of the MFIs and yet they apply for loans and repay credit is coming under increasing Government policies are in place achieved. A Nepal Rastra Bank effectively reduced. Women are still micro-finance intermediaries have them on their own. scrutiny. Even people involved in to encourage the micro-finance study shows that about 80 percent dependent on their husbands, expanded to attract funding from This early morning exchange micro-finance doubt if their strategy is sector; the rights granted to NGOs of the agriculture credit is still fathers and, in some cases, sons to commercial sources. at Hasuliya would gladden the actually reaching the bottom 5-7 by the Financial Intermediary Act to sought from the informal sector decide if they should apply for At the same time, donors heart of Prof Muhammad Yunus, percent of the poor. Their distribute loans to the rural poor is a (basically village money-lenders) loans. “As my husband did not give demands for a professional the Bangladeshi economist who concentration on areas that are rare legal arrangement found where the interest rate is as high as me the money I needed to deposit approach rather than a welfare- devised micro-finance as what has accessible and often not that poor worldwide to improve access of the 60 percent against about 20 as my compulsory weekly saving, I outlook is pressuring MFIs to

HERE AND THERE by DANIEL LAK Patriarchal means poor y wife has a simple solution to many of the world’s problems, from A place that doesn’t value women’s contribution and lets men get poverty to drug addiction, crime to traffic jams. “Just shoot twenty- m five per cent of the men, and then put the rest on notice, shape up or away with sloth, arrogance and general misbehaviour is doomed to

you’re next,” she says, usually with a waggle of a finger in someone’s face. The deprivation and backwardness. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

percentage varies, according to how annoyed she is with the world’s male ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ population on that particular day. value of work done by women is classified, in traditional societies, as a social She has a point, even if her remedy seems more likely to cause civil war commodity, not an economic one. This includes toiling in the fields, raising between the genders rather than improve men’s often ghastly behaviour. We are children, and preparing food. Selling surplus farm produce and handicrafts are a rum lot, we males. We are the warmongers, the rapists, the thieves and the borderline “work” but nothing done by women is as important, according to fundamentalist zealots. We drive our cars badly, spend huge sums of money on tradition, as what men do. drugs, alcohol and tobacco and drop dead from self-induced diseases at an “Little more than a pack animal” is how one activist friend describes the alarming rate. We smash property, indulge our worst emotions in the name of reality for women in west Nepal. That is probably the country’s worst case politics and cause trouble for others almost as a matter of course. Years of scenario but even the more egalitarian places here are far from social equality and experience in the poorer parts of the globe have convinced me that there is a dignity. As a result, an entire society remains poor and underdeveloped. Half of direct relationship between the status of women and the level of poverty in a the population (and the census should tell us if Nepal is still one of the few places country or society. If one is low, so is the other. It is self-evident. in the world where women don’t live as long as men) downtrodden, a nation A friend returns from remote western Nepal and speaks of women who wracked by poverty and underdevelopment. Some day we may discover that the work nineteen hours a day, doing all of the family labour. Men sit around, two facts are not unconnected. Not just in Nepal either, but everywhere. The listening to radio news bulletins and debating the political situation in debate over womens’ property rights, now sadly obscured and possibly scuttled Kathmandu. They pay attention to their wives when they need something, by the parliamentary impasse, is about more than who gets a share of the family ignore them otherwise. They buy booze with money earned by women. farm. It’s about human rights and modern, universal values like equality and Drunk, they often beat up the very person whose earnings they’ve respect for others merging with what’s still relevant in tradition. Fixing what’s squandered. A place that doesn’t value the contribution of women, and lets wrong, keeping what’s still right as a constant, transparent process. men get away with sloth, arrogance and general misbehaviour, is doomed to reality that can lead to reform. Even the most socially blinkered cannot What really worries me is that the slow pace of change might lead to more deprivation and backwardness. Patriarchal means poor. It’s that simple. deny data gathered painstakingly in villages, towns and cities across the women thinking like my dear wife. I sometimes ask her how she would choose The good news is that the upcoming census in Nepal will enquire into kingdom. Asking women about their lives and making that information who lives and who, er, doesn’t. “Simple,” she says, usually with an unsavoury various aspects of the lot of women. For it is only awareness of the ground public will lead to real change. And development won’t be far behind. The grin, “I close my eyes and go ‘eenie, meenie, minie mo....”  NATION 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 555

BP’s books ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ For readers who want a unique perspective on the political evolution of South Asia from 1940-1964, two books by Bishweshor Prasad Koirala, Nepali statesman and litterateur, are now available in English and in Hindi. Atmabrittanta: Late Life and Recollections, a 324-page memoir of Koirala’s life (in English), begins with his family’s exile during the Rana regime, his political sensitisation in Banares and the start of his political activism along with the luminaries of the Indian National Movement. The 260-page Jail Journal (in Hindi) consists of the jail diaries of BP from 1960-1964, part of the time when he was incarcerated at Sundarijal Jail after King Mahendra ousted him in a royal have to have regular interactions and limited opportunities for coup, bringing BP’s brief tenure as prime minister (1959-60) and build rapport with their clients expansion. Their growth is of Nepal’s first elected government to an end. they look for easier modes of constrained by the limited financial Both books were released by Chandra Shekhar, former transportation, which the tarai skills of the members, unavailability prime minster of India and a long-time friend of Nepali offers. There is also the fact that of the capital needed for expansion Congress leaders, at a function in New Delhi. donor agencies demand efficiency and a lack of creativity in invest- in their operation and fund ment plans. None of the savings and Yen for Melamchi

management, and the hills yield credit organisations we met had ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ slow results. Yet, they face the made investments apart from The $464-million Melamchi Drinking Water Project got a paradoxical situation that though issuing loans to members, although much-needed boost when the Japanese government their recovery rate is over 95 some of the groups had already committed to loan assistance of Rs 3.29 billion to provide percent (against the ADB/N’s collected amounts that could not WHO standard potable drinking repayment rate of 45 percent) be utilised by their members. Also, water to the Valley. and though they charge higher since generally most group members The amount, from the Japan interest rates, they are still invest in similar projects, Bank for International display efficiency in credit manage- generating activities and monetary running losses. For instance, the competition among them is so Cooperation, will be used to ment. Three of the bigger NGOs transactions, and that in turn Gramin Bikas Bank, a Nepal intense that the price of their construct a water treatment that have replicated Bangladesh’s boosts their confidence in taking Rastra Bank initiative that lends product declines. For instance, 27 plant near Sundarijal, where Grameen Bank model are already credit. However, this ‘client only to poor women, enjoys a 98 of the 31 members of Bishal water obtained from the tailrace developing into development banks. confidence’ is a fragile percent rate of recovery yet Chowk Women’s Community of the 26-km tunnel constructed But their institutional health isn't phenomenon that needs suffers a fast erosion in its capital Bank in Bharatpur raised layer under the Melamchi Diversion always good news for their target continuous backup to maintain. base due to a high 10 percent hens and because of that Scheme component, will be groups. “International experience “The poor and the marginalised overhead cost. neighbouring Bharatpur Bazaar converted into safe drinking shows that when an MFI develops are willing to take risks, but However, the main reason saw the price of eggs plunge from water, which will ostensibly cut into a bank, they usually shift their continuous success of their MFIs are confined to the tarai is Rs 130 per crate to Rs 90. down the high prevelance of water-borne diseases among focus from the poor to where investment is needed to maintain a lack of creativity. Since the However, the main challenge Valley residents every year. there is profit,” says Namrata their confidence. As soon as they majority of the NGOs working in to micro-finance activities for While donors, including the lead donor agency ADB, have Sharma, Managing Director of suspect that the credit they have the micro-credit sector borrow now seems to be from the Maoist agreed to extend their support, the World Bank is keeping Centre for Micro-Finance, an taken is not yielding, they the concept and model of the insurgency. Units of the Small mum about its share of $15 million—for the privatisation of organisation working for the backtrack,” says Harihar Dev Grameen Bank that was designed Farmers’ Cooperatives Limited the Nepal Water Supply Corporation. development of MFIs in Nepal. Pant, Executive Director of for Bangladesh’s urban slums, have been attacked by Maoists The dependence of MFIs on Nirdhan Utthan Bank that started they are suitable for Nepal’s tarai alleging that they charge the poor No more money donor money is perpetuated by the as a micro-credit NGO and later only. So far, they have not been high interest rates; the Nirdhan ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ very nature of the measures these turned into a development bank. able to modify the concept to Utthan Bank has put a hold on its There’s bad news for the country’s ‘political sufferers’. institutions adopt to overcome the But for all that, micro-credit meet the needs of the hills plan to expand to the hills Sources say the Finance Ministry has rejected former prime shortcomings of commercial banks activities are more successful in the although the success of the Small because their staff have been minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai’s request for additional in serving the poor with credit. tarai plains than in the hills. Experts Farmers’ Cooperatives Limited mishandled; and the Gramin funds for the Committee to Provide Financial Help to Political ADB/N and commercial banks are point out that is because the tarai (the SFCL, which is what the Bikas Bank has slowed down its Sufferers of which he is the chairman and sole member. accused of being anti-poor in terms enjoys easy access to a market where Small Farmers’ Development expansion to rural areas after Bhattarai, whose committee was to wind up its work by 2 of their collateral-based lending and micro-credit clients can get Programme becomes when the some of its branches were May, has asked the Ministry for Rs 50 million to disburse to their non-communication with the immediate returns for their management is handed over to the vandalised. Quite ironic that, nearly 650 political sufferers before the May deadline. About poor. As opposed to the detached products. However, that may not be local community) shows that people since the Maoists are all for 8,500 people have applied for funds from the committee attitude of banks towards their the sole reason for confining micro- in the hills to are willing to take risks. increasing women’s participation since it was established in 1991. smaller clients, MFIs approach and finance activities to the plains. The Then there are the semi-formal in social life, and micro-credit The committee has doled out a total of Rs 170 million to encourage the poor, especially problem lies in operational groups, which operate across the was proving to be one way 3,658 people from various parties who were either jailed, women, to initiate income technicalities as well. Since MFIs country but have limited outreach towards that end.  exiled or underground during the Panchayat period. Families of those killed are also entitled to the funds. Nepali Con- gress leaders and party workers have received the bulk of Call: 560675 or 560775 the money—more than Rs 120 million.

Over aged ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Wet & Wild Summer Senior bureaucrats, worried about being indicted for Every Saturday at Godavari Village Resort falsifying their ages, are in a scramble to retire even as they “correct” their ages on their personal documents. As the Centre for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority investigates cases where senior government officials have reduced their ages on paper to gain a few more years in the civil services, reports say at least 300 officials have “corrected” their ages. The Corruption Control Act 1961 says those guilty of such action can be imprisoned for 2-6 years or fined or both. They would also have to resign from their posts and forsake their pensions. Senior civil servants began reducing their actual ages on paper after the new Civil Services Act 1992 made it mandatory for civil servants to retire after 30 years of service. The Act was amended in 1999.

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was a human being with all the attendant foibles.

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has been at the core of Nepali political sloganeering in one form or the other from the time of Padma Shumsher. It was enshrined in the Panchayat constitution and today’s ultra-rightist pratigamis would be in no hurry to renounce it if they manage to get back to power. If the election manifestos of all political parties look the same, it’s not a coincidence. Nepali political realities dictate the formulation of the same set of policies and campaign promises, albeit with wider liberty when it comes to the choice of language. That’s why politics has always revolved around personalities. And that’s why a clearer understanding of BP the person becomes vital to the current debate. Going through BP’s Jail Journal and Atmabrittanta, one goes on a rare BP Koirala Koirala with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. journey to the bottom of Nepali WWW.NEPALICONGRESS.ORG.NP WWW.NEPALICONGRESS.ORG.NP politics. But there are abrupt jerks “Does having something good to say reference point for any meaningful restrict his pro-Jaya Prakash Narain while addressing a leader almost every system itself. While the Nepali that obscure a clear understanding of about BP Koirala make us all discussion, however, is an activities during the Emergency. other Nepali knew by different Congress in exile was oscillating the man. The narratives are replete ‘Kangressi’?” you ask in your editorial acknowledgement that BP was a Having met BP a few times as a variations of his first two initials. between its policies of armed with profound contradictions and (What would BP have done, #36). It human being with all the attendant student, I was struck in particular by Moreover, when you consider struggle and peaceful agitation, the enigmas. For instance, the jailed ex- is a sad commentary on the state of foibles and frailties. his sharp memory. On one occasion, that BP’s closest aides were either communists were tacitly being premier repeatedly refers to a our politics that such a question While discussing what BP might he simply picked up on a conversation lifelong allies in good times and bad encouraged by the panchas to supporter who, by the way serves as should even be asked. However, I have done amid today’s national we had had two years earlier. His or the primary source of his expand their organisational base the palace’s principal nominee in the believe BP himself created the malaise, we also have to go back to personal warmth and I-feel-for-you political downfall, there are grounds inside the country as a upper house of parliament today, in conditions that make the question the much older debate over whether demeanour, in my view, was in to question why his aura left no counterweight to the Congressis. highly flattering terms despite his infinitely relevant. the events of 15 December 1960 marked contrast to the nature of his room for those wishing to live in The result: the panchas didn’t face apparent realisation that the young BP Koirala may have come as the would have taken place had Subarna politics. Was BP overly arrogant the grey area. BP succeeded in too many problems in turning the man may not have been acting as an best blend of intellect, foresight, Sumshere Rana been invited to form and implacably self-righteous when projecting himself as the man of the results of the national referendum intermediary in an entirely above- probity and fortitude in a leader that the government. We also cannot it came to his political convictions? people, but he could not live up to of 1980 in their favour. I cannot board manner. In doing so, BP may Nepal could ever hope to see. But the avoid asking ourselves whether BP’s I don’t know whether he possessed the public perception that he was abandon the belief that the best- have been demonstrating a rare ability fact that this attractive admixture was decision to return from exile in India those traits in any greater measure tailor-made for the moment. BP’s organised communist group of the to appreciate a person’s personal just too good to be true became with his national reconciliation policy than most of us do. I don’t think rabid anti-communism, flowing time, the Marxist-Leninists, voted qualities in isolation from his possible evident early on. BP immediately in 1975 was actually the direct BP was so naive a politician as to from his firm conviction that no in large numbers to retain the motives. However, BP himself made a established himself as a highly outcome of his understanding of the deliberately let a sense of other Nepali political force could Panchayat system simply to forestall monumental misjudgement by failing polarising force in Nepali politics. For impending geopolitical changes in intellectual superiority pervade the represent the true free will of the the emergence of a BP-dominated to understand that King Mahendra, a full understanding of BP and his South Asia and the implications for discussions he held with colleagues people, was a major obstacle to multiparty system. Since BP’s early too, possessed the ability to dissect contributions, we need to work Nepal. Can we really ever be and contemporaries. Nevertheless, the full blossoming of democracy, endorsement of the referendum the multiple elements of one’s harder to de-deify him. This does not confident that the national there must have been something in which has left its poisonous result, over the initial opposition of personality and manipulate each one mean that every political move he reconciliation slogan was not BP’s the man that never allowed a close effects to this day. important party colleagues, was of them in keeping with that person’s made must be subjected to clever exit strategy from Indian Prime associate like Ganesh Man Singh to The main beneficiary of BP the guided by his willingness to values, attitudes, needs and Khrushchevian denunciation. The Minister Indira Gandhi’s attempts to move any closer than “Koiralaji” anti-communist was the Panchayat compromise with the rightists than expectations. In the end, BP was left with the reds, it served to breathe wondering why a king with whom he new life into the partyless polity. thought he had established a fairly As the hardliners consolidated good rapport would move not only to their position in what was supposed oust him but also subject him to the to have been a reformed Panchayat suffering of imprisonment. To many, system, BP’s options in reaching an the answer was obvious early on: it accommodation were obviously was BP’s politics, not his personality, limited. Although BP was too human that put the king off. not to have felt a sense of betrayal BP’s single-minded effort to until the very end, he was too present himself as the embodiment consummate a politician not to have of the Nepali aspiration for life, understood that politics was the liberty and the pursuit of happiness accumulation of deception and was perhaps his greatest drawback. prevarication. I wonder what course This consistent effort alienated his history would have taken had BP lived allies in other political parties and at the time of the Jana Andolan. Even intimidated his adversaries. More if he had succeeded in shedding his importantly, it overwhelmed his legendary anti-communism to join supporters in the Nepali Congress hands with the United Left Front to in such a way that the surname overthrow the Panchayat system, Koirala, and any proximity to it, has would the comrades have trusted him become the shortest cut to the top enough to go the full distance? of the party hierarchy. In death, BP Personally, I am still willing to believe eventually succeeded in transform- that BP would have been Marich ing himself into the personification Man Singh Shrestha’s greatest ally. of the Nepali quest for personal His youngest brother already had one freedom, which, whether we like it foot on the Panchayat boat and his or not, remains his greatest legacy. eldest son did try his best to help the An ideal does not lose its intrinsic Jana Andolan Pratikar Samiti. worth just because it isn’t universally In terms of BP’s political idolised. In this sense, you are correct: philosophy, democratic socialism or you don’t have to be a ‘Kangressi’ to social democracy, however you put it, say good things about BP.  NATION 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 777 Living in fear

Clockwise from left: Factory guard with spear—the one-line defence against gun-weilding dacoits; dacoits killed by the police in Nijgad; and a factory in the Birgunj-Pathlaiya sector. Last year, after Maoists attacked factories in the area, the business community had met local authorities and requested security for people and businesses. They even made recommendations to the government on what could be done to increase security in the country. Finally, the government is getting ready to act and has formed a committee to come up with an Everyone realises that all organs effective policy and take action. of the state, political parties and But since the Finance Ministry police, are hand in glove with was not represented at the criminals. UML’s Shah says that meeting, it seems unlikely that people had met the earlier there will be funds to fulfil the Inspector General of Police (IGP) committee’s recommendations. Many say the rampant crime in Bara and Parsa districts, the face of modern, and asked him to take action, but The easier recommendations industrial Nepal, is thriving because of an active nexus between criminals, he refused on the grounds that have already been implemented in these very criminals were helping Parsa and Bara. One was to

political parties, the police and the local administration. the administration provide security provide mobile security forces at ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ to the people. He said the police night and to give these forces would only take action once they wireless sets. The cost of all this MOHAN MAINALI/ prosperous area looks bleak.

Maoist hand in it. Industrialists Tuntun was a good friend of started causing problems for the was to be borne by the private ○○○○○

CHANDRA○○○○○○○○○○○ KISHORE The Chief District Officer Rajendra Khetan and Padma Jyoti, former Nepali Congress minister administration. sector, but substantial ance restaurants in Birgunj do (CDO) of Bara, Dolak Bahadur who have been campaigning for and now leading dissident, Khum The police do accept that there improvements are yet to be seen. not have dances any more. Gurung, does not deny outright better security in these areas for Bahadur Khadka, and that is political interference and that this In fact, the problem has spread to dThere are singers who belt out that crime is on the rise and slowly long also say attacks on factories are Khadka had met Tuntun a few disrupts the working of the police. nearby industrial areas as well. songs, but the dancers are missing. taking its toll. The local Superin- not the work of Maoists. Jyoti’s days before he was killed. But locals and businesspersons are As another dimension of the It is not because no one is tendent of Police (SP), Shyam spinning mill was attacked thrice in Not only Indian dacoits, people not ready to blame the police or the same problem, political workers interested or that there are no Krishna Tamrakar, thinks other- the past year. who have been sentenced to 20 local administration for these from all major parties now routinely dancers available. Until some time wise—he says the crime rate is As in other places, this area too years in prison also receive political problems, although that seems more enter factories, ask for donations, ago, restaurants used to be packed neither very high and nor is it rising has its share of labour problems. patronage—among them are Asarfi, because they do not want to get beat up workers and destroy with all sorts of people. The local very fast. It is the nature of Because of this there are those who Sattan and Rajbali. District into trouble with the police. machinery. The distinction administration concluded that they crimes that has become serious, believe that attacks on factories president of the UML, Ram Now it seems the Maoist issue between criminals and politicians were hangouts of criminals, and and criminals have become very could be the handiwork of Chandra Shah, asks how these too has begun to cause problems for is getting blurred by the day. The banned dances in the restaurants in strong and to a greater degree dissatisfied workers. But this theory people move around freely if they the police. As long as the police are politician-criminal nexus is an effort to clamp down on crime. than people had earlier suspected, has few takers. Thakur admits aren’t protected by the ruling party. busy running after the Maoists, getting stronger, and without But has that made any he says. there is a problem between Shah says that these criminals criminals have a field day. strong and resolute action by the difference? The police now question On 3 February, a prominent management and labourers but it always try to be close to the ruling Businessmen do not see a very government, such as allowing the anyone out after 11pm. Even those local businessman, Shrawan Kumar is not so bad that workers would party. That, however, doesn’t mean bright future if such a situation criminal justice system to run its with licensed weapons are not Rungta was almost kidnapped, carry out criminal activities that only the ruling party shelters persists. Industrialist Khetan goes course, things can only get worse allowed to carry them around at sending shockwaves throughout against the factories. criminals. No party is clean; it is to the extent of saying that if in the future. night. The local administration has Birgunj. That came just 10 days just that criminals find it more there is no change in the ordered that transportation of all after five dreaded criminals had The border convenient to cosy up to the situation, it won’t be long before (Translated from Himal Khabarpatrika, goods be stopped between 11pm been shot dead by the police in the One thing is certain—people near party in power. civil war breaks out. 12-26 February, by Anup Adhikary.) and 4am, and the police have been jungle near Nijgad. the border areas are the easiest and The alliance between politicians given the right to fire on those who Who are responsible for these most common victims. Dacoits and and criminals started during the flout orders. The police patrol the crimes? “The Maoists?” Last year, smugglers from the Indian side Panchayat regime but has become NOW AVAILABLE Birgunj-Pathlaiya road at night. Yet, Maoists attacked installations of more widespread in the years since commit crimes and escape across The long out-of-print classic Land and there is no sign that crime is Surya Tobacco, Nepal Lever, the porous border, making arrests its demise. And it is getting stronger Social Change in East Nepal: A study of decreasing in these areas. In fact, it Colgate-Palmolive and other very difficult. But that works both every day. A prime example is Jalim Hindu-tribal relations by Lionel Caplan is is on the rise. multinational companies for the ways. Sources say that over 200 Miya of the Nepali Congress. No now available in bookstores. This Labourers are looted in simple reason that these companies dacoits and smugglers have moved one in Parsa is prepared to accept second edition contains a new chapter in factories. Kidnapping has become represented a form of “neo- to the Nepal side and are living here that he is even remotely a political which the author describes changes common. People in Bara and Parsa colonialism”. And they had no under political protection. Political personality, but he was at the after the abolition of the kipat system. live in perpetual fear since they hesitation in claiming responsibility parties need criminals in their fold recent Congress convention in A pioneering analysis of Limbu-Bahun relations don’t know who will be kidnapped for these attacks. It was after those to provide muscle power and money Pokhara, representing Bara District. that combines depths of historical understanding next. Even the police do not feel attacks that the crime rate shot up, during elections. District president He is very active in the party, has a with intensive anthropological fieldwork. Caplan safe in these areas. but no one believes that it is the of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party lot of political influence and knows argues convincingly that cleavage between these two communities The Birgunj-Pathlaiya-- area was Maoists who are behind the other (RPP), Gopal Giri, says all political all the Congress big guns. The point arose not so much from cultural difference as from confrontation over the most attractive place in the crimes now taking place. parties have criminals in their ranks. is that he is a known criminal and land. In particular, Caplan offers a valuable analysis of the kipat country to set up factories. Over CDO Gurung says there is However, district president of the has several cases filed against him, system of communal land ownership. His detailed investigation 250 factories, large and small, have nothing to link the Maoists to but remains untouchable. demonstrates that in east Nepal land was inextricably linked to social Nepali Congress in Parsa, Rajendra change, and provides essential historical background to the debate on been set up here and they conduct these crimes. There have been Bahadur Amatya, denies that his The opposition is not far relations between janjatis, caste Hindus and the Nepali State. billions of rupees worth of business. incidents like the attack on Nepali party shelters criminals. But when behind in befriending criminals. Over 25,000 people are directly Congress Minister Surendra asked about the famous Indian Inar Yadav is a powerful person in ON THE FIRST EDITION THE BOOK IS IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE NOT ONLY FOR THOSE WHO ARE ENGAGED IN PROFESSIONAL employed in these factories. This is Choudhary’s house, but these were dacoit, Tuntun Singh, Amatya the district UML. Cases are ACADEMIC STUDIES, BUT EQUALLY USEFUL TO ADMINISTRATORS, SOCIAL WORKERS AND PLANNERS. also the most most important entry motivated by political reasons. admits to having heard that Tuntun pending against him in the courts, DRONA RAJAURE & DILLI RAM DAHAL and exit point for cargo in the People in the area like to make a is being provided political shelter. but since he is a member of the THIS THOROUGH AND WELL-CONCEIVED STUDY HELPS FILL SEVERAL GAPS IN THE LITERATURE ON country, all the more now with the distinction between such attacks Tuntun Singh had been living in UML, nothing can be done. ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN SOUTH ASIA... ADDS TO OUR COMPREHNESION OF THAT AGE-OLD PROCESS UNDER WHICH NON-HUNDU COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH ASIA HAVE BEEN SLOWLY BUT EFFECTIVELY development of a huge dry port in and others of a criminal nature. Birgunj for the last year and a half, Triloki Choudhary of the UML SANSKRITISED. Birgunj. A Trade Promotion Umesh Chandra Thakur is when, one day, people from India was arrested for dacoity, but all LEO E ROSE Centre was to be set up here director of the Triveni Group came on motorcycles and shot him the UML did was ask him to soon. But that is now past and the which suffered heavy damage in the vacate his public post. No other YET ANOTHER HIMAL BOOKS PUBLICATION dead on a Birgunj street in broad HIMAL ASSOCIATION, PHONE: 542544 future of this once-very- past year, but he does not see a daylight. People from Birgunj say action was taken. 888 NEPALI ECONOMY 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES BIZ NEWS ECONOMIC SENSE by ARTHA BEED

Mid-year economics

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Consumer prices are at an all-time low and exports continue to grow. Development spending has slowed down and regular expenditure is growing faster than the pace of A litigious country revenue collection. That’s the summary of the central bank’s seven-monthly report on economic performance. The National Urban Consumer Price Index grew by two percent in comparison to the The world’s largest economy can get away with being 4.6 percent growth in mid-February 2000. Prices were kept low by a slump in food and fond of the courtroom, not us. beverage costs, down by 2.6 percent compared to the 1.2 percent growth in ne of Bhupi Sherchan’s most been able to conduct business. The groups and other socially accepted the same period last year. Prices in popular poems, “Yo hallai cellular licence holder is also bodies decide such cases. This habit of the non-food group also grew slowly ohalla ko desh”, calls the concentrating on understanding the getting into litigation for even little compared to mid-February 2000. country a land of rumours. An towers that is the judiciary rather than issues is embedded in our national Though exports have continued to improvisation today would say “Yo communications towers. Writs and psyche and being replicated on a grow, the rate of growth has slowed muddai muddai ko sahar”—a city petitions have now become the Nepali national level. Every day there are down. The growth in mid-February full of litigation. way of operating. more cases being filed in courts was 21.8 percent compared to 41 The reinstatement of Nepal The sad fact is that the judiciary, across the country. percent in the same year-earlier Rastra Bank’s governor by the which has thousands of cases to The world’s largest economy can period. Exports to India grew by 29 Supreme Court has added another handle, is often pressurised to hear get away with being fond of the percent and sales in overseas dimension to the power of litigation. cases of national importance. Due to courtroom, but too many instances of markets by about 16 percent. The A non-functioning government the stringent time lines they are legal battles in our case may not give slowdown in exports resulted from a downswing in garment and carpet sales. saddled with intra-party rivalries and presented with, they have to give the right signal to business and foreign Pashmina sales continued to grow, reaching Rs 5.82 billion in mid-February. The trade inter-party feuds has resulted in the preference to such cases over and investors. Fighting things out in court deficit has shrunk by about three percent, mainly due to a slowdown in imports. legislature becoming yet another above others pending. So, now we’re must be taken more seriously than it is The government spent more money up to mid-February compared with the spending inefficient system. The executive is even interfering in the work of the now—and be only the last resort. To last year. Most of that money was spent on recurrent expenses, mainly pensions and practically controlled by the judiciary. Hundreds of our citizens reduce the instances of the legal mess, salaries. Regular spending shot up by almost three times the money spent on legislature as appointments to key face problems now, as the courts it is important that before any act is development projects. Development spending grew by about nine percent while regular posts revolve around the power are forced to spend their time on promulgated a thorough study be made expenses grew by 24 percent. The high spending and low internal revenue generation centres at the legislature. An issues of “national importance” at to anticipate and iron out provisions has led to a budget deficit of Rs 5.91 billion, which was plugged by issuing saving ineffectual parliament cannot make the expense of their duty to serve that might prove contentious. For bonds and treasury bills, and foreign cash loans (Rs 2.6 billion). The government also the executive work, and so everyone is the common person. instance, there is a case pending which overdrew Rs 1.8 billion from the central bank. By law, overdrafts from the Nepal Rastra now resorting to the judiciary. Historically, our society has loved will decide whether the two percent Bank have to be brought down to Rs 1 billion by the end of the year. Sustaining business and economic litigation. This has generally been Tourism Service Charge is applicable The Balance of Payments surplus, based on numbers until mid-December 2000, activities and encouraging their associated with the division of also to Nepali citizens, because was Rs 4.57 billion. Despite the narrowing of the trade gap a decline in decline in net growth requires a suitable, conducive ancestral wealth and stories of long domestic tourists do not come within services income has lead to a current account deficit of Rs 3 billion. The foreign environment. The strength and core drawn-out legal battles between the ambit of the legal definition of exchange reserve in mid-February was Rs 106 billion, enough to pay for imports for competence of business lies in doing brothers or with uncles remain an tourists. All that is needed to avoid 11 months. business, not in getting into legal important facet of our society. Citizen such situations is proper homework. entanglements. Currently there are The legislature must function and

Unions challenge strike ban scores of issues of national and the executive must be alert, the

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○ economic importance that are judiciary should be the last resort. If Nepal Independent Hotel Workers Union and the Nepal Tourism awaiting the verdict of courts. The the judiciary is going to be the form of and Hotel Workers Association have jointly petitioned the court hotel owners went to court, and now governance, then the legislature might seeking an annulment of the government’s decision banning labour is fighting a legal battle. The as well allow the courts to run the strikes in hotels and tourism businesses. The government banned dealers of Indian vehicles who government and the country.  strikes in hotels on 15 March, the day hotel workers demanding a understand only the nuts and bolts of 10-percent service charge had begun what was to have been an automobiles are deep in a judicial Readers can post their views at “indefinite” strike. Unions say the new government rule is against saga. It has been months since they’ve [email protected] the provisions of the constitution and the labour and trade union acts. The petition also claims that the right to protest is guaranteed by both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and conventions of the International Labour Organisation.

New pack for Dabur’s Real

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Dabur Nepal has begun marketing the Real Mango Nectar, a fruit juice brand in 200ml consumer packs. The company says Nepal’s market for non-aerated drinks is 0.5 million trays per year and it hopes Real Mango will help the firm get a 20 percent share of that within a year. The competitors in this segment are Frooti and Rio. Real Mango comes in 27 packs per tray and each 200ml pack retails at Rs 15. Dabur Real Mango manufactured in Nepal is also exported to Indian markets.

NTC may lose Rs 500m

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) says it could lose up to Rs 500 million this year because a large number of international calls are being diverted off its network by users of Internet applications. The state-monopoly says there has also been a drop even in local telephone usage (hence revenue) after the government began licensing of Very Small Aperture Satellites (V-SAT) users and service providers. Employees at the telecom monopoly—which is in the process of being de-bundled into a group of smaller companies—say Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use V-SAT applications not just for data transfers but also for voice-telephony, a charge the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) says is unfounded. NTA adds that it has begun monitoring V-SAT usage.

The cost of a bandh

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) says 191 incidents of bandh-like activities took place in fiscal year 2000/2001, leading to disruption in tourist arrivals for a total of 950 hours.

On average about 2,200 tourists INDIA TODAY visit Nepal during the tourism season and stay for a little over 12 days. By that count a day-long bandh affects the plans of 27,280 tourists, NTB says in an advert pleading organisers to think about other forms of protest. The tourism receipts in 1999, which was a good year, totalled Rs 11.76 billion. NTB says Nepal could lose about Rs 30 million each bandh day, a severe blow to an industry that contributes 3.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and 15 percent of all foreign exchange earned. The industry also employs over 200,000 people.

NEPALI ECONOMY 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 999 ○○○○○○○○○○○

SALIL○○○○○ SUBEDI Dendrobiums, Oncidium,

f you have only marvelled at the Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilums, Orchids could prove to be the backbone of Nepal’s floriculture industry.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Orchid○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ power rhododendrons in bloom , you’ve Vanda, and Renon. iprobably missed the orchids. These “Local orchids have definitely Herbarium and Plant Research dealers in Thailand, Korea, Taiwan say government policy is not clearly epiphytes and terrestrials, rather gained a foothold in the market Centre in Godavari has been and Japan and Nepal’s chamber of defined. Unlike for other agricultural innocuous looking for most of the compared to imported ones in the last conducting experiments on tissue commerce has also identified the enterprises, there are subsidies for year, are on their annual bloom, and two years,” says JB Tamang at the Cut culture propagation. The results have Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong transportation and packaging and Japan as possible export markets. floriculture products but most Entrepreneurs say that all it now entrepreneurs say this hasn’t really requires is a committed collective impacted businesses, which are effort. “We are looking for ways to usually small scale. A fund set aside by start a joint venture to tap the the government to grant loans of up international market for our flowers,” to Rs 25,000 to floriculture says Rai. The sixth annual floriculture entrepreneurs has also not been exposition this year, at the end of really effective. “Even for a small April, will have foreign investors and loan one has to go through a lot of floriculturists participating, he says. legal hassles like bank guarantees, But before going international, approvals and so on,” says Standard the industry needs basic requirements Nursery’s Shrestha. can even cultivate new hybrids of Nepal boasts an estimated 450 Flower Wholesale Market facilitated been implemented by the Department like cold store and transportation Most flowering plants and exotic plants like orchids. Now all we varieties of sunakhari from the plains by FAN. This reflects an increasing of Plant Resources to regenerate over facilities, a good marketing strategy flowers were brought in to need is a culture that appreciates and up to an altitude of 2,500 m. About capacity of Nepali nurseries to 50 species of orchids. and financial assistance for floricultur- Kathmandu from Darjeeling and understand the aesthetics of plants 350 are classified as ornamental produce better quality flowers. The Nepali enterprises have estab- ists. Though the horticulture industry Kalimpong. “Now the floriculture and flowers like orchids,” says orchids, but only 20 percent of these drawback is time-consuming growth lished links with large Asian orchid has received priority, entrepreneurs industry has developed so much we Shrestha of Standard Nursery.  slow-growing perennial herbs are and a yearly bloom, and so imports grown, collected and sold—in the bring in profits without much effort. 150 or so nurseries registered “But imported orchids can bring in with the Floriculture Association diseases that harm vegetables, citrus of Nepal (FAN). and deciduous trees and plants,” But orchids are slowly becoming remarks Basudev Karmacharya of the popular in Nepal, and efforts are on to National Herbarium and Plant try and market them systematically. Research Centre in Godavari. “We Floriculture in general has grown must produce enough for the local hugely in Nepal in the last 15 years. market and slow the rate of import,” “It is definitely encouraging. It has not he adds. even been a year and I have a good Experts say that in the long run market. At least one in ten people asks ornamental plants like orchids could about orchids. It has to do with a be the backbone of the floriculture growing interest in exotic flowers,” industry, especially with a good says Usha Rimal, who has a nursery in international marketing strategy the Balaju industrial area. which ensures that local people also But there’s a difference between benefit. If orchids at a city florist’s cost asking and buying, and the market for a bit, locals now use sunakhari as orchids hasn’t really grown fodder for their cattle. FAN president significantly. “People prefer cheaper Rai is positive about the prospects for and easily available cut flowers like orchids and other flower exports from carnations, gladioli and roses,” says Nepal. “We don’t have any special Jyoti Pradhan of Women in programme for promoting orchids Floriculture (WIF), which has an in particular. But we’re optimistic outlet in Kamaladi. Mid-January to about the growth of the flower mid-May is the orchid flowering business and orchids will play an season in Nepal, but it is uncertain important role,” he says. how much the market will pick up Nepal, at the moment, is at a this year. The president of FAN vantage point in terms of meeting the reasons: “They require time and are international demand for orchids as difficult to grow. And since orchids most countries have stopped exports haven’t gained mass appeal, nurseries to prevent extinction of some species don’t see immediate returns.” and to prevent hybridisation and the Orchids are also more expensive dilution of others. It’s been three than other flowers—an orchid stem decades, for instance, since India with flowers can cost up to Rs 100, banned exports. Most of India’s compared to Rs 20 for a cut rose. It orchids are found in the tropical means that only people with a real forests of the north-east and the passion for the flower will buy it. western ghats, and indiscriminate “Normally people who buy flowers extraction for export had put several don’t care whether it’s an orchid or species on the threatened list. something else as long as it looks Until locals don’t see a profit beautiful and fresh,” says Santosh from the plants they now feed their Ballav of Wizard’s Fresh Flower Shop cattle, they don’t see conservation and in Kamaladi. That said, it isn’t much propagation as livelihood options. of a risk to stock orchids, and it does Government efforts in identification, make good money-sense to buy them, documentation and conservation too as they keep their bloom for about a have been feeble, and it is only month in favourable circumstances. through initiatives of private nurseries The most popular varieties here are that orchids are being preserved and Cymbidiums, Cattleyas, marketed. However, the National 101010 ADVENTURE 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES Nepali kayakers go exploring Four Nepali kayakers just explored the Likhu Khola for the first time. INKA TROLLSAS, who walked the valley trail alongside them, believes more such expeditions are needed. PICS: RAM HARI SILWAL/DHRUBA SHRESTHA PICS: RAM HARI SILWAL/DHRUBA team of four Nepali countries where he’s been on Achyut Gautam, a raft guide who remembered having seen such kayakers explored the serious expeditions. Late last year grew up in Leti, a small village close boats before, when a few aLikhu Khola in he kayaked the well-known grade to the Likhu Khola, and I walked foreigners came along this route Okhaldhunga last month. This IV Dudh Kosi, with an interna- the trails along the river valley. on their way to explore the Dudh was the first time that a river in tional team. With all this Gautam planted the seed of this Kosi. Nepal was explored by Nepalis. experience behind him Ram has the expedition in Ram’s mind—without The team was terribly excited The river is extreme and only for confidence to explore Himalayan him, it wouldn’t have happened. and couldn’t wait to get to the experts. With a put-in at 1,700m rivers, and wants to inspire other The expedition took ten days. river. None of them had seen it and finish at 400 m, it is one of Nepali kayakers to do the same. We started from Kathmandu 15 before, and no one had any idea the steepest rivers ever run in The other kayakers on the February, taking the local bus to what it would be like. The Nepal. It was an unforgettable expedition were Dhruba Shrestha, Jiri. From there we walked along expedition’s knowledge of the experience for all involved. Binaya Lama and lndra Thapa. the Everest Base Camp trail for river came from maps and advice Ram Hari Silwal, the leader They are all river-guides and two days to our starting point in from people from the area. At of the expedition, grew up next to amazing river runners. This team Kenja. Two porters carried the Kenja, the river looked great for the Trisuli river where he started has worked together on Himalayan four kayaks and in every village kayaking. Ram and his team had his rafting career at twelve. He is rivers over the years. They know they were asked what they were picked the perfect time of the year now twenty-five and is one of the each other’s skills, they’ve been in carrying. Some thought they were for the expedition. most experienced raft-guides and challenging situations on the river submarines, and one person It took five days to get down kayakers in Nepal. Kayaking has together and are good friends—an guessed they were flying to the confluence of the river with taken him to ten different ideal team for the expedition. machines. Some people the Sun Kosi. The first three days were very difficult. The river is Do dams really threaten rafting and kayaking in Nepal? steep, and the many landslide areas in the valley made both the Economically Nepal might be a poor country but in terms of natural water resources, Nepal is the second kayaking and the walk challenging. richest country in the world after Brazil. The masses of fresh water that run through the country is an important resource and can be used in many ways. The first that most people think of is the construction of hydropower Many of the rapids were projects. People talk about the possibility of generating enough electricity to not only meet Nepal’s needs, dangerous and a lot of them were but also to export it, which will earn the country much-needed foreign exchange. not navigable—the team had to Kayakers and people in the rafting industry almost uniformly oppose such suggestions. There are even walk around them. Other parts of petitions going around Thamel demanding that dam-building be stopped. It seems to me that signing such a the valley were beautiful, with petition is like saying there should be no development work in Nepal. romantic gorges, waterfalls and The Likhu Khola expedition showed us what the building of a dam means to many people in remote parts caves. The next two days were an of Nepal. It doesn’t only mean electricity. It means that a road will be built to their village. And with a road easy paddle down the river, and comes the possibility of getting to a hospital without walking for days, or getting work in different places, the trails along it also became were heavy and very difficult to villages where we could get some getting newspapers and being connected with other people in ways that are difficult now. less dangerous. control, and it was only the food. The people around the What if rafting and electricity companies were to work together? It might sound crazy but it could be The expedition was self- expertise of the team that averted Likhu Khola were extremely possible. There’s a perfect—and most likely unintentional—example by the Leti Bridge on the Likhu Khola. sufficient, which meant that many possible accidents. It would friendly and helpful. There are plans to build a dam on a 3-km stretch where rafting and kayaking are impossible. Downstream of the dam, rafting will remain an option. Of course, such an undertaking will be very difficult, but it isn’t sleeping bags, shelter, first aid, have been impossible to fit The river trip ended in impossible. —Inka Trollsas food, cooking pots, etc, were enough food in the boats for the Harkapur, where to our surprise carried in the boats. The boats whole trip, so we camped close to the army had just finished building a road. This was good news—no more walking, and navigating the way back would be someone else’s responsibility. Twenty-three hours, a breakdown and a minor crash later, the bus arrived in Kathmandu. There’s much scope for future expeditions by Nepali kayakers, and they are necessary if the rafting industry is to grow. In the high season the rivers are positively crowded. There are “traffic jams” on the upper Bhote Kosi—inevitable when a couple of hundred tourists are rafting the river the same day. There are pepsi thousands of unexplored rivers in this county and plenty of kayakers to do it. What is needed for future expeditions is financial support. It will be in the interest of Inka Trollsas is xxxx rafting companies and the Nepal Tourism Board to support Nepali kayakers in exploring their own rivers. The Likhu Khola expedition cost Rs 45,000, and 80 percent of this was funded by the kayakers themselves. ADVENTURE 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111111 Shooting Nepal’s rapids

JANAKI○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ GURUNG came down from the surrounding dventure tourism in Nepal mountains and invited them to has gone through many their homes. “It was particularly afads. Today there is bungy apt that shepherds should come jumping, para-gliding, hot-air down to rescue us on Christmas ballooning and even skiing down Eve, and it was the best dal bhat I Everest. But back in the 1960s, have ever tasted, then or since,” when organised trekking was just he recalls. beginning, some of those who had From such humble beginnings, to plod through semi-tropical the rafting industry today has valleys on their way down from grown beyond recognition. The the mountains thought it might Nepal Association of Rafting be fun to sit in rubber rafts and Agents (NARA) says some 26,000 take a ride down Nepal’s wild people went on organised white rivers. For many years, it just water rafting trips in Nepal in remained a wistful dream—no 1999, and this number is growing one could actually drum up the by about 15 percent a year. The courage to get into the raging Association says rafting today uncharted torrents in flimsy inflatables. One person who wanted to give it a try was Col John Blashford-Snell of the British Army who at that time was commissioned by Emperor Haile Selassie to find a better way to get ore from the gold mines of the Blue Nile to the more accessible ULTIMATE DESCENTS roadheads in Ethiopia. Shooting the rapids of the Blue Nile in inflatables in 1968, Col Snell and Col John Blashford-Snell

his team found out the hard way SALIL SUBEDI that it was difficult enough to get makes up about a quarter of the

out of those rapids alive on a raft, tourism-generated revenue and “The Sherpas said we’ll climb Mt Everest anytime, but this is madness.” ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ even without being laden with employs over 2,000 Nepalis. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ gold. Then in 1974, Col Snell was Some of the larger NARA fabulous rapids of the Marsyangdi Chhedyup Bomzan of Drift Col Snell says the trend in Nepal Col Snell is now chairman of asked by some adventurer friends members can earn as much as Rs have been blocked by the Nepal says he does not oppose is towards run-of-the-river the England-based Scientific to bring one of his Blue Nile rafts 6 million annually. reservoir and intake areas near dams, but if rivers are blocked schemes and not high dams, Exploration Society, which to Nepal to see if he could use Autumn is the best season for Abu Khaireni. Mid-sections of the there will be no rafting. Says which offers hope: “A hydropower conducts ecological and them here. Sure enough, they rafting because the rivers are still Kali Gandaki, after it takes its Bomzan: “We may not be the plant will block off certain areas conservation exploration in were brilliant, and the roller- high with the monsoon run-off. great swing eastwards, will never biggest contributor to tourism, of the river, but the river still has various parts of the world, coaster ride was so thrilling the February-May is also good be the same again for rafters with but if rafting is hit, other to flow, and there can be special including a study of Bardia’s wild team returned the next year to because of melting snow. Most the commissioning next year of businesses will also be affected.” provisions for rafters.” elephant population. shoot the Trisuli. There were no rivers in Nepal are Class III-IV, the 144-megawatt Kali Gandaki trained Nepali rafters in those which in the international A Project. days, so the expedition used the classification for rafts and kayaks But there are organisations only people who were game: is moderately difficult. Depending like the Nepal River Conservation Sherpas. Recalls Snell: “Sherpas on the remoteness and the Trust, headed by Megh Ale, one are great climbers, but the difficulty of a river, costs can of Nepal’s foremost professional trouble was, they couldn’t swim. vary. A two-day rafting trip along rafters. The Trust organises They said we’ll climb Mt Everest the Trisuli can be as low as $70, development projects, livelihood anytime, but this is madness.” while a nine-day trip on the Sun activities and water supply The Trisuli rafting expedition Kosi can cost $ 350. systems for villages along rivers. of 1975 went so well, and it was But there are problems: the Col Snell is happy that there that the history of white proliferation of fly-by-night organisations like the Nepal River water rafting in Nepal can be said rafting companies has brought Conservation Trust and other to have begun. Snell remembers down standards and profit professional rafting agencies are one Christmas Eve when their raft margins. Security is a concern, turning their attention towards capsized on the Narayani and too. But the longer-term threat to conservation. “It’s good the WAVE they were beached next to the white water rafting is the initiative to create awareness river. They were celebrating with inevitable trend towards building about the potential benefits of a Christmas feast of biscuits and hydroelectric power plants along white water rafting has come from Khukri Rum, when shepherds Nepal’s rivers. Already, the within Nepal.” ULTIMATE DESCENTS ULTIMATE 121212 TECHNOLOGY 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES the real world. Artists such as Mark Napier of art collective Potatoland have developed interfaces that stray as far as Mapping the Internet possible from the everyday conception of the internet. Shredder is a net-art feature that takes a web page of your choice and mashes it up into something else entirely. It’s also possible to combine approaches: to trace the connectivity of the internet over a geographical map of the world as we have pictured it since Magellan. At www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/ casa/martin/internetspace/ gallery.html images from Martin Dodge’s own work are shown on the geographical locations of IP address density, in the UK and elsewhere: a visual illustration of the epicentres of the new economy. His gallery also points to http:// socrates.berkeley.edu/ %7Ezook/domain_names/ to view images from Matthew Zook’s work on domain name ownership by geographical location. The visual awkwardness of some of these maps echoes the difficulties solved by Harry Beck in the 1930s, when he revolutionised the map of the London Underground by fudging the actual locations of the stations. Certainly the prettiest maps of the Internet are those that have nothing to do with The geographers of the Net claim the task of mapping the to let you browse the web and most interesting about the pictures, where the websites are based: Bell shoot your friends at the same time? given that the members are able to Laboratories and the Cooperative

web is as complicated as unravelling the human genome. Games are, of course, already build the landscape in any way they Association for Internet Data ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ blossoming into virtual worlds: so choose, is how much these top- Analysis have some of the most

much so that online geographers down images resemble the street- colourful examples.

○○○○○○○○○○○ TIM○○○○○ GUEST servers, LinkGuard is close to Arpanet node in 1969 (See have started to map them. plans of real cities. The real beauty of all these e call it the web, but is completing the map, which it www.cybergeography.org/atlas/ At http://awmap.vevo.com is a Gibson’s far-reaching vision was maps is that they tell us that that the right description? compares in complexity to the arpanet1.gif ). The issue is not as fascinating series of satellite images surprisingly simple: a city made from despite the garish colours, over- w What does the Internet human genome. It claims the map simple as it might sound: after all, of the development of Alphaworld, light. But there are plenty of people usse of Flash animations and look like? A British company will allow people to examine for the what is the Internet? Is it the a truly virtual 3D world constructed who see no reason why cyberspace misspelt text, the web is still full of working on the problem it calls first time how clusters of websites cables? The servers? Or something entirely by its members. What’s should look like our experience of the future. (Guardian) “linkrot” (the estimated 10% of all link and interrelate. less tangible? hyperlinks that lead nowhere) But this is not the first attempt At www.cybergeography.org/ decided the only way to tackle the to map the Internet. Many others atlas, Martin Dodge, author of issue was to map the entire web. have worked on the problem, right Mapping Cyberspace, curates a Using 40 separate one- terabyte from the first sketch of a single museum and gallery with a huge range of approaches, from conceptual atlases through geographical charts to maps of individual websites and surfing patterns. The most immediately fascinating are the range of artistic interpretations at www.cybergeography.org/atlas/ artistic.html. Scrolling down, it is clear how much these works of art have shaped the way we picture information-space. From the familiar, pioneering light- cycles and Master Control Program of Tron, the classic science fiction film, and later glittering green information- corridors in The Matrix, it also reveals startling discoveries such as hybrid actual-virtual constructions of ‘transarchitect’ Marcos Novak. Breathtaking towers of information are grafted on to actual glass, steel and light at www.centrifuge.org/marcos. The site also reminds us that the concept emerged from a much older imagination-technology: the book. When William Gibson first described console cowboys jacking into cyberspace, it sounded much more thrilling than the reality of what we now know of as browsing HTML pages. Researchers are exploring ways of returning to the drama of Gibson’s vision by modelling the Internet as a world unto itself. At http://map.net you can explore an internet web directory mapped on to a 3D visual landscape—a kind of Luke Skywalker buzzes Yahoo!sville. How long it will be before games companies extend their interfaces WORLD 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 131313 The return of Dr Strangelove

IN WASHINGTON ○○○○○○○○○○○ ABID○○○○○ ASLAM Fifty Russian diplomats have been expelled, old Cold War he news evoked the Cold War years. An American FBI agent warriors are returning to key positions in the cabinet. Just

arrested in the woods near bluster, or is a chill wind really sweeping through Washington?

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ t ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Washington for passing secrets to Russia. Within weeks, the White independent of the US-dominated Negroponte, as US Ambassador to the White House Press Secretary Ari House and Kremlin announce tit-for- NATO and wants to expand Siberian United Nations, and Otto Reich, to Fleischer says Bush’s actions reflect a tat expulsions of diplomats. oil and gas exports to Europe. “An head the State Department’s Latin new “realism” in US foreign policy. It even eclipsed the sensation argument in Russia is that Putin American operations. Both are veterans To the casual observer, that “realism” caused by 13 Days, a rare political film represents the only effective, of former arch-conservative President might seem redolent of the Cold War from Hollywood, released earlier in functioning entity in Russia: its Reagan’s partly covert war against nuclear cat-and-mouse games the year, about the 1962 Cuban intelligence and security apparatus,” Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista famously satirised in Stanley Kubrick’s missile crisis. Russia under Krushchev says Friedman. “Washington may be government in the 1980s. They 1964 Dr Strangelove—a mad scientist was said to be positioning nuclear signalling that it knows all about avoided prosecution when Reagan’s keen to drop a nuclear bomb over warheads minutes’ flying time from Russian espionage… and that Putin is successor, Bush Sr, pre-empted Russia. Some Russians see Washington. It nearly took the not nearly as clever as is supposed.” investigations of the so-called Iran- Washington’s stance as an excuse to world to the brink of a nuclear war. Other experts say Bush is trying Contra affair, in which weapons were abandon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic But the Cold War is over. So why to distance himself from his illegally sold to Iran and the money Missile Treaty. Bush says he will pick a fight with Russia? predecessor’s preference for avoiding used to fund anti-Sandinista guerrillas. abrogate the pact if Russia doesn’t So what if the Soviet Union no quarrels in the hope of keeping Russia If the US Senate confirms their agree to changes allowing Washington longer exists, says George Friedman, on track to the US free-market appointments, the men will join what to build a national missile defence. founder of Stratfor, an intelligence- model. After a reasonable interval Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) calls a Defence Secretary Rumsfeld has gathering firm—suspicion between Bush’s policy might look quite similar “rogues’ gallery” of political and twice called Russia a “proliferator” of the former rivals lives on. “On the one to Clinton’s. Similar conjecture intelligence operatives with shady nuclear arms—rhetoric not heard hand, Washington and Moscow are surrounds Bush’s other foreign policy pasts. The appointments are seen as from such a senior US official since collaborators, building a new, liberal Stanley Kubrick’s famous satire on the Cold War nuclear cat-and-mouse games challenges, including Iraq, the Korean intended to isolate moderates like the end of the Cold War. Bush also Russia, part of the US-led Yevgeny Primakov counters that the President Vladimir Putin is trying peninsula, and China and Taiwan. Secretary of State Gen Colin Powell, reportedly plans to slash funding in international system. On the other US “cannot do without Russia. This to reassert Russia’s influence in Bush’s initial noises are belligerent, to who also figured in the Iran-Contra 2002 for US programmes that help hand, the espionage war continues is why it is impermissible to talk to us international affairs, primarily in its show—as one Democratic scandal. In contrast to Vice-President pay for the safekeeping and unabated.” US President George W as if we were a banana republic.” former states. He has also vowed to Congressional aide puts it—“we’re Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary destruction of Russian nuclear Bush, he adds, is saying “that Russia, Russian dependence on the US has clinch new arms deals with Iran and tough, we’re really, really tough.” Donald Rumsfeld—Nixon-era foreign weapons. Critics see the funding cuts as a power with dependencies on the declined—“investment is no longer oppose US plans for a national missile A mellower future aside, some in policy hawks—Powell supports as risking an irreversible shift from United States, should not engage in flowing into Russia, Russian defence system. Putin, a 20-year KGB Washington worry about Bush’s sub- continuity with Clinton’s foreign policy cooperation to confrontation on espionage efforts of this magnitude.” motivation to please the United veteran, welcomes EU efforts to cabinet appointments. His latest and shows no enthusiasm for the disarmament issues. Dr Strangelove, Former Russian Prime Minister States has declined,” Friedman notes. develop a defence capability nominees for key posts include John national missile defence system. we presume?  (Gemini)

International Criminal Court

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ An international criminal court capable of trying suspects Mutiny island, tourist bounty on genocide and war crimes charges should be ready in The Hague by next year, one of its key advocates said over

ANTHONY○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ BROWNE more isolated, with just three visiting the weekend. But Philippe Kirsch, chairman of the ICC or more than 200 years it has passenger boats in 1997. preparatory commission and the driving force behind the been famed as one of the most It earns foreign currency by selling court, said that it would not be able to try crimes fremote communities in the Pitcairn stamps, which used to be committed prior to the court’s creation. “Asking states to world. Its legendary history has popular with collectors. But now approve a court which would have been able to look at inspired several films. Its collecting has fallen out of fashion. past crimes would have been a pretty tall order,” population of 42, all descendants Pitcairn children usually go to school Kirsch said. of the mutineers of the Bounty, in New Zealand when they are 16— His comments came even as former Yugoslav President only have contact with the outside and increasingly they refuse to return Slobodan Milosevic, who has been indicted by the UN War world through the occasional to the island way of life. Christian Crimes Tribunal, was fighting off arrest on domestic charges passing ship, mail that comes once said: “Pitcairn is on its last legs. If of corruption and abuse of power. The UN court accuses every two months and a single anything can attract our youngsters Milosevic of crimes against humanity for atrocities alleged to satellite telephone. back, this development is it.” have been committed against ethnic Albanians by forces There is no harbour, no landing Two square miles in size, under his command in Kosovo in 1999. strip, and their nearest neighbours are Pitcairn is a rugged volcanic The ICC will be a permanent court based in The Hague almost 1,300 miles to the east. It has outcrop with a half-crater rising to and would replace ad-hoc tribunals like those that have a courthouse that has never seen a First Mate Fletcher Christian led his 300 metres, girded by coastal cliffs. been set up to deal with crimes committed in Rwanda and trial and a prison that is used for rebels to isolated Pitcairn Island in It is the only inhabited island of the the former Yugoslavia. It would have powers to try storing three life jackets. But now British colony of the Pitcairn suspects on charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes Pitcairn Island, a volcanic outcrop 1790. Two centuries later their Islands, which also includes against humanity and aggression, once that offence is girdled by crashing cliffs and children hope to rejoin the world. Henderson, Ducie and Oeno. The satisfactorily defined.

surrounded by untouched coral atolls islands were inhabited by Canada’s Kirsch, who spearheaded the approval of the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ has voted to end its isolation and join ○○○○○○○ Polynesians between 800 and 1600 court’s founding statute at a conference in Rome in 1998, the outside world. Islanders have something good comes out of it.” Theirs is a way of life that is unique AD, and then abandoned. They said the bid to put the ICC on its feet was gaining agreed to let a New Zealand The plans, by Wellesley Pacific, and an international treasure.” The were rediscovered in 1767 by a momentum. “Twenty-nine countries have now ratified the construction consortium turn it into involve an international airport with a company has promised to have no British naval officer, Philip statute a major tourist destination, with two 1,200-metre runway on the island of more than 30 visitors at any one time. Carteret, and Pitcairn was named which is airports, its own airline, a four-star Oeno, one of the last undisturbed Executives from Wellesley held after the sailor who first sighted it. more than hotel and two lodges. coral atolls in the world. Two aircraft two meetings with islanders, the first Its present inhabitants are four times Tourists will be tempted by the would connect it to Tahiti and New of which was hostile. By the second, descended from the eight mutineers of the empty beaches on the uninhabited Zealand. Oeno would have a four-star the islanders were more welcoming. the Bounty, and 12 Polynesian number atolls, lagoons, scuba diving, the hotel with 30 beds. There would be a The deputy governor of Pitcairn, a women they brought with them in that had UNESCO world heritage site of the second runway on Pitcairn itself, and British official based at the High 1790. On a voyage from Tahiti to the done so a nearby bird sanctuary island of two lodges. Changes would be made Commission in Wellington, New West Indies, the crew, led by first year ago,” Henderson, and the rusty anchor of in Bounty Bay so that boats can land, Zealand, visited the island to talk over mate Christian, mutinied against their he said on An anti-Milosevic poster HMS Bounty in the capital and Pitcairn would have a small the impact of the plans. In the dictatorial captain, William Bligh, and the Adamstown. But most will probably fishing industry with a processing referendum last week, 22 adults voted set him and a number of sailors adrift sidelines of a strategy meeting of ICC proponents. “In come just to gawk at the locals and plant. Roads would be improved, in favour, and only six against, most of in a long boat. Bligh eventually March 2000, there were seven and now there are 29 so soak up the legend. sewage and water systems installed. them older people concerned about reached land, while the mutineers obviously there has been exponential progress. 139 Though welcomed by most Wellesley has demanded exclusive the impact of tourism. sailed the Bounty to uninhabited countries have signed the statute which is the first step islanders, environmentalists warn the development rights for the islands, but But most islanders are worried Pitcairn where they scuttled the ship. towards ratification so it seems clear that within a year or development could devastate the says it will give the inhabitants 10 the community will soon become They avoided the death penalty so the statute will have entered into force and the court island’s unique plant and animal life. percent of profits. Its development unviable if nothing is done. The because their community was not will exist.” Mayor Steven Christian, a brochure says: “Difficult and expensive population has dwindled from discovered until more than 20 years Sixty countries must ratify the statute for the court to descendant of chief mutineer Fletcher access has made involvement in a around 230 in the Second World later. In the mid-nineteenth century come into being. Among those that have already done so Christian said: “The community larger and exciting world almost War. The island used to be a they were moved to Tahiti, but are G7 powers Germany, Italy, France and Canada but the decided to go ahead and see what impossible. The wonderful hospitality, regular stop-off point for ships and many of them eventually returned glaring absentee from the list is the United States, one of happens. It shows that someone out humour, courage, personality and made money selling handicrafts. But to their isolated island. Soon that only seven countries including China and Libya, which there is thinking of us, and giving us a sense of community of these people the decline of liners and growth of isolation itself looks like becoming voted against the statute in Rome. (Asian Age) hand along in the world. We hope must not be detrimentally affected. air transport has left Pitcairn even history.  (The Observer) 141414 ASIA 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES per cent of DPC output. Enron has advertised in local newspapers that costs would amount to $0.08 per kilowatt if the MSEB used 90 per cent of the plant’s capacity. Neil McGregor, DPC president and CEO rejects calls to scrap the Dabhol plant Power Play at this juncture, saying it would send The largest power contract in Indian history continues to “conflicting” signals internationally. “The state government will also have

be mired in controversy, and is costing the state dearly. to bear in mind the opportunity cost ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ of doing away with the project, agreement signed eight years ago. every kilowatt of electricity (which equal only a fifth of MSEB’s capacity especially when the state is facing Enron was among eight power adds up to the $18 million dollar and affect its finances. an acute power shortage,” he said. projects given the nod in the first wave monthly charge) is a whopping Despite the objections, the then He suggests that the government of economic reforms in India in the three times higher than what is chief minister Sharad Pawar of the could direct its Power Trading early 1990s. The giant MNC today offered by other local sources. Congress party pushed through the Corporation or the National provides electricity to Maharashtra MSEB’s own gas-based plant at project and a deal for a first phase Thermal Power Corporation “to through its Indian subsidiary the Uran, near Mumbai’s new port, 740-megawatt plant was signed in purchase Dabhol’s power and Dabhol Power Company (DPC), is lying idle and can produce 1993. Then 1995 state elections saw incorporate it in the national pool which operates the Dabhol power power at a little more than 4 the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena and sell it to various states.” plant with gas imported from the cents a kilowatt. alliance come to power, and accused The MSEB is considering a tariff Middle East. India’s leading industrial Enron’s rates don’t bode well for Pawar of corruption over the Enron hike, which will further antagonise state is not short of electricity but a state that is going through a severe case. The new regime first cancelled consumers. But, according to the state lacks ‘peak power’—when demand cash crunch. MSEB, which is blamed and then re-negotiated the agreement energy minister, it would have to pay surges during factory hours. for being inefficient, ran up losses of after Enron chief executive officer $4.1 billion in compensation if the The 20-year power purchase $350 million in the last financial year. Rebecca Mark flew to India for a project is scrapped. There is a cheaper agreement requires the state-owned And its cheque to DPC for $5.4 meeting with a top Shiv Sena leader in way out: a clause in the contract states Paying the high cost of foreign power. Power plant in Maharashtra. Maharashtra State Electricity Board million bounced in mid-December. Mumbai. The result: the tariffs were that if the court detects illegalities in DANIEL O’LEARY/PANOS PICTURES DANIEL O’LEARY/PANOS (MSEB) to pay Enron $18 million a All of this should be no great news not lowered but Enron earned the the contract, it can be set aside. DARRYL D’MONTE IN MUMBAI

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and communication companies—an month in a fixed ‘charge for capacity’ to the state government, which new administration’s blessings for the As many as 16 public interest power struggle in western $86-million penalty for failing to even if it does not purchase any ignored warnings when it first plant’s second 1,444 MW phase. lawsuits have been filed against the India is heating up, fuelled by provide electricity on demand at its electricity. It pays another 8-11 negotiated the deal with Enron in Now a Congress coalition is back DPC project since 1994—each acourt cases, allegations of new gas-powered plant at Dabhol, million dollars for actual power it 1993. Back then, critics predicted that in power. New chief minister Vilasrao focusing on the legality of the power exorbitant charges, rumours of 300 kilometres south of Mumbai city. buys. Altogether the multinational consumers would have to pay a high Deshmukh spoke in January of purchase agreement. All but one, filed corruption, political posturing and The fine came after the Texas- takes home $35 billion over 20 price for electricity. India’s Central cancelling the contract, but has since in the Supreme Court by the Centre calls to pull the plug on a $1.9 billion based multinational tried collecting years—the largest such contract in Electricity Authority, which supervises changed track—now he too is talking for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), electrical plant. millions of dollars from India’s federal India’s history and one of the state-run electricity boards, had of re-negotiating rates. have been rejected. The courts have The row re-ignited early March government when the state biggest in the world. reservations. Even the World Bank, Enron defends its charges by cancelled similar contracts in when the Maharashtra state government failed to meet its What annoys critics is that the which often advocates privatisation of blaming the MSEB for not using more precedent-setting cases in Indonesia, government fined Enron—one of the financial obligations under a fixed ‘per unit’ cost to the state utilities, refused to fund the project, of the DPC capacity to reduce overall Pakistan and Turkey. In Pakistan’s world’s biggest electricity, natural gas controversial power purchase government of nearly Rs 8 ($0.16) for arguing that the Dabhol plant would costs. Currently, MSEB uses only 53 case, it was with Enron. (Gemini)

by MIYSUO NAKAMURA

OPINION Superpower troubles

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Washington - India’s “rising ambition” to be a “global superpower” will lead to its continued nuclear standoff with Pakistan, strain its relations with China and complicate its ties with Russia, Japan and the West, the Islam and democracy US National Intelligence Council has said. John C Gannon, chairman slamisation and democratisation of the Council, added: “Global trends conflict significantly in India. have been developing hand in hand Huge population and technology-driven economic growth virtually iin South-east Asia in recent dictate that India will be a rising regional power. Unevenness of decades. These trends are converging internal economic growth, a growing gap between rich and poor, the fractious nature of its politics, all cast doubt on how powerful India will to promote and strengthen Islamic be by 2015,” he said. civil society in most of the South-east “As India’s population grows to over 1.2 billion by 2015 and Asian countries, regardless of the Pakistan’s from 140 million now to about 195 million, the challenge to differences in the Muslim majority- governance clearly will not be helped by great investment in nuclear minority equation. programmes,” he said. The Council, which briefs the US president Indeed, Islamic civil society has daily, includes members of all US intelligence agencies. “In 2015, been one of the essential components dynamism will be strongest among so-called emerging markets, in the recent popular demands for especially in the two Asian giants, China and India,” Gannon said. democratisation, which in turn is “Internal conflicts stemming from religious, ethnic, economic or making possible a greater public role political disputes will remain at current levels or even increase in for Islamic civil society. In Indonesia in number. The UN and regional organisations will be called upon to An Islamic civil society leader as head of state, and the lady in waiting. manage such conflicts,” Gannon said. (Asian Age) particular, where the fall of Suharto’s dictatorship was followed by the Islamic civil society in south-east Asia is asserting itself

guarantee of the freedom of expression General Overambitious ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and association, political parties as aided by rapid economic growth, an emergent middle ○○○○○○○○○○○○ Islamabad - Pakistan’s military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has

well as non-government organisations class and growing popular demands for democratisation. decided to bring in a controversial constitutional amendment ○○○○○○○○○○○○ and people’s organisations have ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ empowering the country’s president to dismiss an elected government flourished enormously. South-east Asia contains the world’s largest population of In Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, the former leader of the Malaysia Islamic Youth and dissolve parliament. Musharraf gave a broad outline in this regard Muslims—about 200 million, or roughly one-sixth of the world’s total, a much Movement, who had been designated by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as to two legal experts during a cabinet meeting, the Dawn said. “The larger proportion than the Arab Muslims. his heir apparent, was gathering political momentum by introducing the idea of amendments may come a few months before October,” it quoted Numerous significant social developments in the region’s Muslim civil society into the political arena of his country. In the mid-1990s, civil society sources as saying. communities have contributed to the assertiveness of Islamic civil society: became the catchword for trans-ethnic aspirations for a democratic, transparent October 2002 is the deadline set by the Supreme Court for rapid economic growth, the emergence of the middle class, the resurgence and accountable government, challenging the established alliance of oligarchs Musharraf’s government to hold elections. The restoration of article of Islam, and growing popular demands for democratisation, all in the among the three major ethnic groups—Malay, Chinese and Indians. 58(2)(B) of Pakistan’s constitution is bound to raise controversy as the same article was voted out in 1998 during the regime of Nawaz Sharif. context of the increasing globalisation of the world economy and the use of With the downfall of Anwar following his arrest in September 1998, and Presidents in the past had used it to dismiss elected governments. information technology. subsequent conviction and imprisonment, “civil society” has become a forbidden The amendment includes empowering the president with several While most of the Muslim populations in the 10 nation-states in South-east term in public in Malaysia, though it is used continuously by the opposition. At a powers, to be executed in consultation with the proposed seven- Asia share a common heritage deriving from Malay Islamic civilisation and time of political and social ferment in the region, it must be remembered that member National Security Council (NSC), consisting of Pakistan’s languages, they differ greatly from each other in many other aspects, most Islamic, or any other religious, civil society is potentially exclusive, and can service chiefs and civilian officials. It would also empower the president profoundly in their experiences of colonisation and de-colonisation. The stimulate the countervailing rise of other civil societies based upon other to appoint service chiefs. These powers were transferred to the prime development of pro-democracy movements that recently culminated in religions. The extent to which a particular civil society encourages social minister through the 13th amendment during Sharif’s regime. Indonesia and Malaysia deserves special mention. harmony or, conversely, foments inter-group conflict depends on the depth of its The military regime denied reports that it plans to change the In Indonesia, nationwide student demonstrations and urban riots from commitment to democratic principles. constitution, generating concern that it is seeking to cement its place March to May 1998 forced President Suharto, in power since 1968, to step A number of Islamic intellectuals and political leaders in South-east Asia are in power. An official statement said media reports of the cabinet down. Vice President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie assumed the presidency, emphasising that Islam and democracy are compatible and that Islam debate on the 1973 constitution, suspended after the 1999 military coup, were premature and speculative. promising democratic reform to strengthen civil society. After the June acknowledges pluralism as a basic human condition. It is hoped that this view Speculation over constitutional amendments increased after 1999 general elections, Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the largest will prevail in Muslim South-east Asia and eventually in the entire Islamic world. Musharraf said he had no plans to retire as chief of the army in Muslim voluntary organisation in Indonesia, was elected the fourth Meanwhile, we should be prepared for the development of a variety of Islams and October this year. Sources in his government have said time and president of Indonesia. for internal strife among them. (IPS) again that the easy option left for him to remain in power was to get This development represented a dramatic turnabout: a civil society leader elected as president by the national parliament and the provincial was made the head of state. Today the newly-reborn democracy in Indonesia is Mitsuo Nakamura, a retired professor of cultural studies at Chiba University assemblies. They have said that he could bring in the necessary faced with the challenge of whether a civil society leader in power is capable of in Japan, has written widely on Islam and Indonesian issues. He is the constitutional amendments to empower himself with more powers after overcoming the resistance and sabotage of conservative elements at large in author of the recently-published book, Islam and Civil Society in South-east getting elected. (Asian Age) implementing the agenda of reform. Asia, published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 151515 Some time ago, Dal Bahadur the compulsory teaching of Hamal’s darbar Buda, Purna Bahadur Buda, Sanskrit will be continued.

at Libang Rudramani Pun and Chitra Bahadur · The struggle for the

○○○○○○ “There never was such a situation” ○○○○○○○○○○ Gharti, all members of the peoples’ nationalisation of private schools Budhbar Saptahik 28 March Former minister and senior Nepali Congress leader, Jaggannath Acharya, in Saptahik militia in Dhubidanda VDC of Rolpa, will continue. The struggle to Bimarsha, 30 March gave up their guns and migrated to make all schools self-sufficient and Any first-time visitor to Libang will India in search of work. Apparently, reliable will be carried forward. In my 52-year-long political life, there has never been a situation like the one we are always enquire about the darbar that they are currently in India. The fees of all private educational facing now. Politics is moving the wrong way. After democracy was restored 11 years has come up there. People are According to our sources, nine institutions should be decreased ago, I now see there is no leader with the vision. It is not only the Nepali Congress interested to find out more about the other militia members in another by at least 50 percent. More leaders who lack vision, all political parties of the day are the same, whether they are in owner of the darbar in Libang. The village in the district have also moved facilities must be provided to all parliament or not. If there is no vision, how can anyone expect any positive action to be owner of this darbar was a very to India. The identity of these nine is schools and the rights of the taken? After the advent of democracy, some work has been done in communication and ordinary person until 1995. He came not known yet. Migration of militia teachers and other employees transportation, but it is just too little to talk about. I am not saying that nothing has been from a very poor family and was members to India is slowly on the rise. must be guarded. done, but that more could have been accomplished. Politics has now become a very almost a non-entity in Libang. This This is resulting in increasing · The party must struggle to rid dirty field, and the rot has set in. Religion is being misused for short-term gains, society person is none other than the former frustration among the party cadre, colleges of all their problems and is tearing at the seams and nothing looks positive today. Lawlessness has set in. This minister and present MP Surendra and is giving rise to questions about increase the efficiency levels of is not a good sign. This is not going to benefit the people or the nation. Hamal. Hamal has been an MP since the People’s Movement and the these colleges. In such a short time, nothing positive has happened. The state of the nation is 1994 and until a fortnight ago was a People’s War. The Maoist top brass · The problems of the technical deteriorating rapidly and this is surely everyone’s concern. People have become minister too. It is well known that are doing all they can to suppress colleges must be solved and frustrated and they are losing their self-respect, and everyone is terrified. People should Hamal is very close to the this information and not let it they should be allowed to get serious now and seek a way out of the present situation. The tragedy is that party Maoists and the Maoists have, spread among the party cadre. function properly. workers have started aligning themselves with their respective leaders, they do not care directly or indirectly, helped him · The struggle against corrupt about anything, and only follow what their leaders say. All leaders in all parties have during general elections. Now in Future plans of people, against the system of become very egoistic. This has not benefited the country. No sector seems to be the span of seven years, Hamal commissions and against the

functioning properly. Now it has become such that the Maoists are running some parts has become a millionaire. Maoist students

○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ blatant misuse of power must be of the country, other parties are either in the House or on the streets. Even in such a Amrit Bahadur Gharti, District Jana Ahwan, 30 March carried forward. situation our leaders do not realise the magnitude of our problems and act. When are Development Committee (DDC) · The 15-point demands will be they going to put their brains to work? president of Rolpa, who is also from The 15th national convention of the modified and grouped with earlier I came back to the country with BP [Koirala], when he began his national the Congress says, “Until a few years All Nepal National Free Students’ demands and then presented. If reconciliation move. Today, it is not enough to just find consensus in the party. It isn’t ago, Hamal was poor and his financial Union (Revolutionary) was held these demands are not met, then only parties represented in parliament that are capable of running this country. Parties a 15-day or an indefinite bandh outside parliament too have to get their act together, find a consensus and act fast. If a recently. The third full meeting of the organising committee was also held will be called for. consensus is not reached fast, then forget the future of democracy, because even this · The government should invest country’s prestige is going to go down the drain. It is sad that the party that struggled under the chairmanship of Devendra Parajuli 19-21 March. On 26 March in senior secondary education. the most for democracy cannot run the country because of constant infighting. This is The struggle to make this really very sad. Earlier, the infighting used to take place about issues, policies and a press release issued by Parajuli, the head of the students wing of the happen will continue. thought. BP and Matrika Prasad used to be at loggerheads on the basis of their political · The number of colleges affiliated philosophies and ideologies. Today, it is because the present leaders have not been Maoists, stated: “Since the second meeting we have greatly grown to Tribhuvan University should able to provide relief to the country, have not been able to implement programmes. It is be increased and a separate of concern to everyone that there are quarrels for posts and positions within the Nepali politically and ideologically, and the struggle has also grown. We have university for technical education Congress, but if the party elections had been conducted in a proper manner, then this should be established. problem would have been solved. Today the infighting is not for political philosophy or achieved a lot in this time. We have achieved a lot in terms of local · The struggle for students to get a ideology but for positions and posts, for money and the power it brings with it. This is 50 percent discount on all not going to benefit anyone. agitations, week-long bandhs, the Hrithik Roshan incident and elections essential commodities and Even if Koirala and Bhattarai are perceived to be people without vision, who can the services will continue. people turn to? This is a very serious question. Bhattarai tried to do something earlier MIN BAJRACHARYA to different students’ bodies. The ANNFSU (Revolutionary) was very but that proved unsuccessful. We should still thank him for taking a step, though. I feel status was not very strong. Now in successful in the elections to students’ that the consensus of parliament is not going to be enough now. Now you have to take such a short time he has constructed a Maoists establish bodies. This success has led to the

the consensus of forces outside parliament too. We have to look for an all-party solution palace in a place like Libang. Just bank ○○○○○○○○○○○

growth of the party cadre and the ○○○○○ and agreement. If we do not make this move now, we should not expect a solution. The imagine what he must have built and students’ political thinking, their 27 March situation will not improve and everyone will be all for the worse. By saying this, I do not collected in Kathmandu. There are Punarjagaran, understanding of party ideology and mean that the Maoists and the ML should have the kind of government they want. Now many people who have worked with philosophy, their capabilities, their The underground Maoists have all political parties, all intellectuals, civil servants and other people, whether inside or me for a long, long time and our leadership skills, and their grasp of been running cooperatives for the outside of parliament should get together and work. If we cannot do that, democracy will financial positions have not become international events and political past year in Rukum and Rolpa. be in danger. If we come together and work together, then this country will benefit much better. All of a sudden, Hamal thought. It has also led them to Now they have established a bank tremendously. If corruption is controlled or destroyed, then we will achieve a lot in the has become a millionaire. Either he understand the defeat of the in Jajarkot and have called on all fields of tourism and agriculture. We can make full use of our hydropower capabilities must be earning more than Rs reactionary opportunist movements people to conduct their business and sell power to India. 100,000 a month, or this is all due to and organisations and has proved that with this particular bank. If our leaders had vision, in the past 11 years we would have made great progress corruption. This is what the general these organisations are not there for This bank, in Dandagaon in and the country would not have been in such a sad state. Now it is very difficult for the public in Libang thinks.” the benefit of the common man. Jajarkot, is a cooperative bank which Congress to take proper care of the country. This is because everyone has become Incidentally, Hamal has built a These achievements have raised the all the people from the village have self-centred and selfish and looks out for themselves only. Why did the Panchayat very big house in Ghorahi in Dang, party and the morale of the party invested in. This bank provides loans regime go? Not because there were so few Panchas, but because they were showing and another big house in Khungri cadre to an all-time high. This was the at 13 percent and pays 11.5 percent the same attitude as the leaders of today. Trust is a lost commodity. I am not saying that Village Development Committee assessment of the party meeting.” dividends on deposits. Branches will democracy will not remain. All I am saying is we have to act now and act together fast. (VDC) in Rolpa too. He’s bought a The Marxist-Leninist-Maoist- soon be opened in Khalanga and Lah lot of property in Kathmandu as well. Prachanda Path philosophy has now VDCs too. The primary areas of Some people in Libang sarcastically been completely accepted by the concentration will be the collection remark that perhaps Hamal built the QUOTE OF THE WEEK students’ organisation. This will help and processing of herbs, honey and big building there to keep an eye on in providing direction to the great ghee, the development of the wood the Maoists. It is said that Hamal had I have tried to dislodge Girijababu from the government several times. I have learnt many things from him but people’s liberation war that is taking industry and raising goats. This is earlier said that if he built a house in the one thing I have not learnt is how to oust somebody from his post. place. This will also take the students’ the first bank that has been set up Libang, people would definitely say he —Sher Bahadur Deuba in Ghatana Ra Bichar, 28 March body to greater heights. This will help by the Maoists. was corrupt and had made his house strengthen the party organisation, Last year the Maoists opened a with his ill-gotten wealth. It seems destroy the cancer in the education cooperative financial institution in now that people are going to accuse sector, and deal with the struggle Jaljala VDC of Rolpa which was him of being corrupt anyway, he against fascist organisations. Keeping active in Jaljala and four neighbouring might as well build a very big house. this in mind the students’ body has VDCs. That cooperative granted drawn up a plan concerning their loans at 15 percent and paid eight Peoples’ militia activities for the next six months. percent on deposits. Immediately after

throw away guns Some of the decisions made are: this, the Maoists opened a second ○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○ · 500,000 new members and cooperative in Sisne VDC in Budhabar, 28 March 50,000 new party cadres will be Rukum. Both these cooperatives recruited. 7,000 new party were primarily involved in It has been learnt that the Maoists are committees will be formed. vegetable farming, cattle-breeding facing a very big problem. They have · Meetings, gatherings and and cottage industries. established their government in some workshops will be held. The minimum amount required districts of the country. To control · The 16th convention will be held to open an account in Maoist-run these districts they formed a “peoples’ in Kathmandu this September. financial institutions and banks is only militia”, which is the equivalent of a · The issue of revolutionary Rs 1,000. Such financial activities police force. Now, it seems that many education will be studied and come after the establishment of a members of these peoples’militias are a peoples’ debate will be Maoist people’s government and giving up their guns and going to India carried out. people’s army in these districts. The in search of work. They say that it is · The struggle to abolish the singing Maoists have established their own not possible to live with guns stolen of the national anthem in schools, Morality!!! Who is he to show off by using a term that does not exist in the Congress dictionary? courts, land revenue collection from the police nor is it possible to the struggle to abolish the lump- offices, and other offices required Dristhi, Weekly, 3 April earn a living by looting local people. sum payment of school fees and for governance.

THIS PAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL SELECTED FROM THE NEPALI LANGUAGE PRESS CULTURE 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111777 SAVING FAITH by DESMOND DOIG Rape in eternity he loveliest women in all of I wonder whether they would not look better left as they are: two Kathmandu valley are

undoubtedly Ganga and Jamuna, lovely women who have borne with fortitude the rape of the centuries.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ t ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ the two life-size gilded statues that grace a courtyard of the old Malla There were gems in their belts and the globe, they give pleasure to those statues on royal tombs. We were in palace at Patan. They stand as necklaces, their armbands and bangles. who own them and perhaps tell, in Mul Chowk when he said it, not a lissomely poised as Bharatnatyam Their coiled hair was painted and their isolated way, of the glories of the guard in sight. dancers, bejewelled and bare-torsoed, some believe there was colour on their Malla palace of Patan from whence Bamboo scaffolding now creeps their skirts draped about their legs in a eyes and lips. All this has gone. There they came. One would wish them across the magnificent façade of manner suggesting movement. Divine remains a suggestion of their golden back, of course, in the main courtyard Patan’s old palace. Foreign and Nepali dancers. Sister goddesses of mighty scarves. Their heads are bare, the called Mul Chowk, where kings of old experts are helping to restore one of rivers that bear their name. Givers of objects they held are remembered only held court and worshipped. All about the country’s greatest treasures, but bountiful harvests. The answer to the by the spikes that supported them. are buildings of intricately carved and short of a miracle they may have prayers of a saint of old. Visions of a Ganga, the object of my sketch, has a painted wood. Struts supporting the arrived too late. True, there are Newari artist who epitomised all that deep dent above her right knee and pagoda roofs depict many Bhairabs and craftsmen in Patan who still can is beautiful in women. Did he use a metallic bruises where her scarf has Matrikas. From latticed windows, produce great works of art, who can model? Was there a woman so been rudely pulled from her ladies of the court watched the copy with skill and restore with exquisite in all the land? No one will shoulder. But still she smiles resting proceedings below, and one can still brilliance. But is there a master who ever know. The centuries keep their lightly upon her tortoise, a vision of imagine their whisperings and laughter. can return Ganga and Jamuna to their secrets well, or have carelessly triumphant beauty. Do the golden sisters ever speak? original magnificence? And sneakingly, forgotten them. Now the ravages of Ganga and Jamuna stand beside For me, the Mul Chowk at Patan I wonder whether they would not modern time threaten the very the entrance to a seventeenth century is a sad example of a disease that has look better left as they are: two lovely existence of these lovely goddesses temple to Taleju, the royal goddess. swept the world, not only endangering women who have borne with fortitude who should delight the worshipful Vandals have stripped the door and its the temples of Nepal, but the art of the rape of the centuries. Two and the merely curious as long as torana of almost all their detail. The every land. A visitor from England told heavenly creatures who remind us of their city endures. little which remains gives an idea of me of how in the royal chapel of an age when Patan was the city of Ganga and Jamuna once wore how fabulous the original must have Windsor there are now almost as many artists. A city called Eternity Itself.  jewelled headdresses and gilded been, a concourse of deities and guards as tourists, because given half scarves. They held symbolic objects in mythical beasts that somehow failed to a chance, your blue-rinsed lady and (Excerpted with permission from their hands and behind them were guard themselves against human your jean-clad youth will snap In the Kingdom of the Gods, screens of fabulously worked metal. assault. Somewhere scattered about marble fingers or toes from the Harper Collins, 1994.)

NEPALITERATURE by MANJUSHREE THAPA The machine part turned to the queue. “Is that right, was that his place?” The queue replied, “We don’t know.” Narayan Dhakal “But that was my place.” Enraged, the machine part took me by the neck and threw me out of line. “Off with you, bastard, goon.” Emptied of emotion, emptied of AN OUTSIDER’S KATHMANDU thought, emptied of sensation, I had been discarded. Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I stood seven paces from the o contemporary writer evokes the joined the queue behind me. Perhaps they too wished to survive. Perhaps queue, in an impotent form. The queue was long. Out of primordial outsider’s experience of they were aimless travellers like myself. For a while I was overcome with terror, I couldn’t return to hang onto its tail end. Those two females were nKathmandu more skilfully than happiness. But this thought didn’t prove correct. I found out later that they hurtling off with food trays, looking at me slyly, as they had before. My Narayan Dhakal. In his stories, novels, and didn’t feel any of the terror of being homeless. They were mechanical hands and feet were shaking peculiarly. essays, Dhakal shows—often with excruciating, painful honesty—how it pieces of this city machinery. At that time a spruce, natty group was heading to the site where food feels for rural migrants to be adrift in an indifferent city, bereft of any And then what happened was—I spent a long time absorbed in was being distributed. A few city parts stood in front of the queue, at the sense of belonging or community. thought. I was thinking about life. It is my weakness to think in this way. In site where food was to be handed out. They were giving the queue a This early story shows Dhakal at his most lyrical, depicting the city the meanwhile I had become one of the unfortunates of the city. I had no lesson in orderliness: metaphorically as a machine relentlessly churning out some strange, idea that the queue had moved five paces ahead. “Please approach with civility. We are eager to be at your service. If inscrutable civility. It is the title story of Dhakal’s collection Sahar Yantra. “Oh mister.” From behind, the two girls scolded me in English. you are patient, we will have no difficulty serving you.” “Hajoor.” My face had no form at all. Another machine part addressed the natty group. “And why are you “You don’t know how to behave?” not in line? Please come through the line.” THE CITY MACHINERY “Hajoor.” An angry person in the natty group shouted wildly: “We’ve never, in The city stands proud, its forehead decked with multi-hued civility. It has A terrific noise and laugher erupted from all four directions. Time was all our lives, stayed in control lines. Why should we do so now? We’d in its possession some profound slogans, which I didn’t understand early five steps ahead of me; there were five steps between me and time. rather not eat. We’ll stay hungry. Isn’t that so, friends?” on, or at any time. The females behind me thundered, “Doesn’t the hick even know how to The city parts suddenly began to aim looks at each other. The I came to the city as a traveller. Since then I’ve been roving its every say sorry?” countenance of the natty group was as pure and clear as the sun. The footpath and alleyway, curious. I’m hungry. Again I was shoving my face towards a deep hole. I was looking at my city parts were dumbfounded at their intrepidity. At this particular juncture, I was soaked through with sweat. The entire own presence, shapeless in the fog. My vision became darker and darker. From another corner, another sound struck my ear: “Rebellion! Buck sky was covered by a sparse layer of clouds. The crowd was swelling. I “Move along, quick. Be hard and fast.” up, rebellion!” stood like a traveller-corpse in its midst. I’ve never known where I began. “Hajoor.” I turned to face that side. A few intellectual looking people were Neither is it known where I’ll end. But the city is far more mighty and “Really a poor boy.” heartily supporting the natty group. A storm of crisis was encircling the cunning than we. It has stolen many opportunities from me. It has “Really a poor old withered man.” city parts. endangered the futures of many travellers. The city owns a pair of After that they took five steps, moving up mechanically to join the tail A short while later, a shrewd machine part approached. “Oho, I didn’t cymbals. No one in the world screams louder than it. end of the queue. recognise you. Intellectuals such as yourselves.” My own shape, at any time, always remains in obscurity. Now I was two steps behind the queue. Another machine part also showed up. “Why should you trouble with At some point I found myself joining the tail-end of a queue at the The crowd threw up all kinds of violent sounds: “Look at him. Such queues; queues are for the people.” At that time I silently memorized city centre. That’s right, I’ve never been able to trace my form at all. I withered cheeks! Really a poor old withered man.” Everyone started to look the word ‘people’ and looked at myself and at the crowd. have to survive: other than this, I have no other resolution, reaction or alert. “Please approach, please approach, please approach.” counsel. I don’t have the historicity of the city. That’s why I’m hobbled, Pointing to the two females, a man behind me shoved me out of the The intellectuals were at the peak of victory. I watched on resolutely. I’m diseased. Carrying a diseased life, I have to drag on with profundity, queue. “Eh mister! This is my place. I was behind them from the start.” Perhaps because their opinions had been established, this was a like an obedient pupil. I accepted my impotence and went to stand behind him. historical start for them. The atmosphere was filled with joy. The city parts When I first entered this city I became anxious about the Suddenly a commotion erupted behind me. “Eh mister, eh mister.” were gleaming with happiness. The entire crowd and the queue was insignificance of my travel. I hadn’t come here the way western tourists An intrigue had started against me in earnest. Among many reasons turned to them. leave home, in order to experience the splendours of nature. A whole for such an intrigue was perhaps the fact that my face gave no indication I was being tormented by the urge for a cigarette. I took out a desert was spinning in my head when I arrived. I had no trait to help me of good breeding. My face was like that of the poverty-stricken. The city stub that had lost all its tobacco, and headed towards the take up an urban trade. Perhaps that was why the city mistrusted me. perhaps saw me as a sign of danger. In this sense I was even an outlaw. Or intellectuals. They were exhaling smoke from the long cigarettes Neither did I have the kind of house that ardent nature lovers own, a my ways didn’t match the city’s; there were no city civilities to be seen in stuck in their mouths. house that would allow me to wander the city without fear. I had no sense my eyes. In any case, an intrigue had been hatched against me. The two “Hajoor, allow me to light my cigarette.” of beauty to offer the city. females who had wedged in front of me were smiling at me slyly, as though They were unnerved by my request. “Hunh?” Suddenly, at that point, what was happening was that all the people they’d discovered my prime weakness and wanted to demoralise me. I was “Allow me to light my cigarette.” around me were beginning to look at me suspiciously. I was lessening gritting my teeth in anger. “Eh—no. Please light it elsewhere.” within myself. No one else had joined the queue till then. A few people After a while I went to stand in front of the females. “This is my place,” I “Hajoor.” I stared at them in surprise. Their eyes had all at once had been scared away by the length of the queue, and a few people were sputtered. become like an aggressive tiger’s. They looked me over from head to loitering about without getting in line. From time to time, they all looked “Is your name written on it to say it’s yours?” toe. at me in exactly the same way. “Everyone knows I was standing here till a while ago. You skipped “Nonsense! Disorder! Don’t you know any manners? Why are you An idler asked me, “You look new to this place! When did you ahead and took my place.” standing there?” come?” There was no fear in their voices: “We haven’t encroached on anyone’s My whole body quivered with the tremors of an earthquake. I left “It’s been a few days,” I gave a short reply, and turned the other way. place.” there limp. I couldn’t last there long, so I mechanically crossed over For a while I faced the sky, and patted my gaunt face. A kind of crowd had formed around us. After a while, a machine part to the wide road. The crowd was thickening. By and by, two females came and looked showed up. “What’s happening, what’s happening,” he sputtered. There was a crowd in the road, and in that crowd, violent eyes from the queue to me, then exchanged glances and laughed. They I pointed in front of the girls. “Everyone knows that was my place.” were stalking me.  161616 SPORTS 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES

Kournikova ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ How the arrogant have fallen Anna Kournikova has yet to win a singles title. She hasn’t even played competitive tennis since February because of a decisions plus inside knowledge on although the Aussies won the first foot injury. But even in a dot-com economy downturn, Internet how much water has been poured test easily. company higher-ups are still throwing cash at Kournikova. into the pitch before a game. The The turning point of the tour was The Russian tennis star is endorsing Terra Lycos, operators latter, of course, affects decisions on Steve Waugh’s decision during the of the lycos.com Web portal. They plan on a new commercial whether to bat or bowl if the toss is second Test at Eden Gardens in in heavy rotation during the NCAA men’s basketball won. Many tosses were won and Calcutta to invite the Indians to tournament. Kournikova’s compensation wasn’t disclosed, opponents invited to bat—enough follow on. Another day and a bit at to worry the sceptics. the crease and 300-odd runs would Away from home, the only sides have given the Indians the impossible Australia beat were the comparatively task of scoring nearly 600 runs to win weaker Test playing countries – or to bat out over five sessions on a Zimbabwe and New Zealand. To be deteriorating pitch, to survive. regarded as ‘champions of the world’, So what prompted the decision to series wins in the sub-continent and in enforce the follow-on? The self-same South Africa are mandatory. With arrogance. Why play a five-day test neither included in the string of 16, when one can finish it off in three and the tag of Undisputed World spend a couple of days relaxing by the Champions, though close, required a pool? The first test had been wrapped bit more work to make it stick. up in three days, so why not the It was all right to start counting second. No one could have possibly the resurgence of Australian cricket foreseen the VVS Laxman innings following the wins against Zimbabwe. of 281. An innings of such But to conveniently forget a loss to magnitude will probably never be lowly Sri Lanka in September and seen again. But unfortunately for Australia’s 16 straight test and 10 one-day win- October 1999 as a temporary Australia it did happen. run was rudely halted in India where the hosts aberration stamped the team with a Several instances of Aussie handed the favourites a shocking 2-1 defeat. No new arrogance. arrogance have been seen during the cricketing nation can call itself world-beaters until This arrogance was typified by past 12 months. The worst and most the sniggering smiles of fast insulting act of arrogance towards the

it proves itself in South Asia. bowler Glen McGrath and the opposition was, arguably, the blue ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○ rude sledgings of batsman Ricky tinted hair-do sported by Collin

IN MELBOURNE, ○○○○○○○○○○○

BARNEY○○○○○ REID Waugh. So when the team reached Ponting. The West Indies, under Miller in the Test against the West n less than 10 days—actually in India in January for a three-Test the captaincy of Clive Lloyd and Indies in Sydney in January this year. three very bad afternoons—the series, the only question mark for then Viv Richards did prove to Would he have come up with that imighty Australian team, those who dared doubt the be undisputed World Champions. idea had he not been successful in the proclaimed by some as world superheroes was over their batting, They beat all the test-playing preceding Tests or if it were the cricket champions, were made to which had displayed a weak nations both at home and Australians who were losing at that but remember, she once told a group of drooling teens, “You bite the dust. underbelly at critical times. away between the mid-1970s point in the series? It looks doubtful. can’t afford me, boys.” Steve Fund, Lycos’ vice president of Any side that can win 16 test But then the aggressive left- and late 1980s. But they were Was India the beginning of brand marketing, says she’s “the only celebrity I know who matches on a trot must be doing handed batsman Adam Gilchrist, the never arrogant. the end for the Aussies? had a virus named after her,” referring to the recent e-mail something right. Hostile, accurate and team reminded itself, had carried the In contrast, on the eve of their Unlikely—Australia will bounce virus that infected millions of computers. And here’s more disciplined fast bowlers, sending down middle order through impossible departure to India, both captain back, but hopefully with less of big news for so-called “Annamaniacs”, devoted fans who ball after ball at torrid pace to situations several times during this Steve Waugh and McGrath were the arrogance displayed over the made Kournikova the Internet’s most popular athlete: Her cowering batsmen, backed by Shane successful period. India? No sweat. talking about increasing the tally of past 12 months. (Gemini) site, kournikova.com, might make a comeback even before Warne, supposedly the best leg But 16 consecutive test wins, no wins with a 5-0 drubbing of she does. Lycos is negotiating with her representatives at spinner in the world, gives Australia a matter how impressive it may sound, England at the Ashes encounter in BARNEY REID played cricket for Sri the Octagon sports agency to take over production of her most formidable attack. must be accepted with some caution. England this summer. India was Lanka. He later played cricket in official site. The tennis star’s site was previously handled And there is no better fielding side For 11 of these victories were achieved only talked of in passing—a 3-0 England and Australia and is now a by Broadband Sports, which went out of business earlier in the world—the game’s best all- at home. Wins at home are dulled by victory over India was preordained. cricket coach and freelance writer this month. (Sports Features) round fielder is batsman Mark factors such as home-town umpiring It didn’t turn out that way, based in Melbourne.

Meanwhile, coach Terry Lamb in 1986 became the first player to play is set to become the latest casualty in every game on a Kangaroo tour of in Wests’ crisis. The rookie first England and France, today said he grade coach admitted this week knew of Hopoate committing the act Rough play that he was aware Hopoate had on St George Illawarra skipper Craig been using his finger during Smith earlier in the season. A Sydney British back did it to him on the 1992 definitely pushing. I was matches. During Hopoate’s hearing, newspaper claimed Lamb had Kangaroos tour. disgusted. I couldn’t believe it. I he had said that it was reasonably replayed the incident during Hopoate had claimed he was only know it’s a tough game, but common to be touched in the video sessions and laughed at it trying to pull up the shorts of the there’s no room for that.” region of the testicles. Lamb, who with players. (Rugbee.com) North Queensland players. The Hopoate’s defence lawyer said National Rugby League disciplinary Bowman had slowed play by committee disagreed and found the holding Hopoate’s leg after a Tongan player guilty of tackle. Bowman replied to the unsportsmanlike interference. NRL QC: “If I held your leg, would judiciary commissioner Jim Hall that give you the right to put described the case as the worst he had your finger up my arse?” experienced in his 45-year The club was to appeal the involvement in rugby league. “I’ve decision, but decided not to. Hopoate never come across a more disgusting apparently lost more than 10 allegation than I’ve had to deal with kilograms in the past week through now,” he said. He looked at video worry and today tendered his footage and heard testimony from resignation, almost certainly ending Peter Jones, Paul Bowman and Glenn his controversial career. The former Morrison of North Queensland, who Test winger received a payout from John Hopoate of the Wests Tigers gives an opponent the "wedgie". all claimed Hopoate had inserted his the Tigers, but his career in rugby finger into their bottoms during play. league looks over with officials from An Australian rugby league player The former international the other 13 NRL clubs today saying quits after he uses particularly insisted he had just tried to give they would not be chasing his services. Jones and Morrison a “wedgie”— He is also unlikely to play overseas,

unsportsman-like tactics on the field. pulling their shorts up their with only five games this season, he is ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○ bottoms—to make them play the ineligible to play in England. “I n Australian rugby league Bowman filed a complaint. ball quickly. He also claimed he did sincerely regret that anything I may player, John Hopoate of the Hopoate fought the contrary not put his finger up Bowman’s have done has caused stress, anxiety aWests Tigers, quit the game conduct charge but pleaded guilty to a bottom. Jones said: “It wasn’t a and disappointment to everyone after he was banned for 12 weeks minor charge of striking. Hopoate was wedgie. That’s when your pants are involved with the Wests Tigers. I am for putting his finger up players’ also involved in a vicious brawl with pulled up your arse. I think I know distressed to think that I have been bottoms. Hopoate was cited and opposition player Glen Morrison the difference between a wedgie and the centre of a controversy creating charged with “contrary conduct” by which led to him being sin-binned. someone sticking their finger up my intense media attention that has the National Rugby League Hopoate is the first player accused of bum.” Bowman said: “There was reflected adversely on the image and judiciary after the North inserting his finger in another player’s pressure there. I know he wasn’t morale of the Wests Tigers club,” Queensland team led by Paul bottom since Bradley Clyde claimed a doing it accidentally. He was Hopoate said in a statement. 181818 CITY 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES ABOUT TOWN CLASSIFIED

MOVIES Discount on international publications ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Aquamarine Enterprises British Film Festival 19-25 April, with free screenings of Billy Elliott, Elizabeth and LA including World Bank Group, Zed Books, WHO, Manufacturer, exporter, wholesaler of Nepali Without a Map. All at 6pm at Gopi Krishna Cinema Hall, Chabahil, in the Krishna Hall. Kumarian Press, ADB, CENS, Kit Press, Intermediate gems and silver jewellery. Showroom at Organised by the British Embassy, British Council and Nepal Britain Chamber of Commerce. Technology, ASM Group. Also supply worldwide Basantapur. POBox 1529. www.aquamarine- Sponsored by Nabil Bank and Gopi Krishna Movies. 410798 Internet directories, trade show directories, nepal.com. [email protected]. 244567. Nepali and Hindi movies online ticket booking at www.nepalshop.com journals, books, magazines, trade information of Micro International New Creative Works general interest. Everest Media Int’l Services. EATING OUT Manufacturers and suppliers of shields, trophies, POBox 5443, Dillibazar. Tel 416026. Fax 250176. medals, mementoes, plaques, educational Exotic coffee and Nepali food Jatra houses a café, reading [email protected] materials, souvenirs, and other products. room, a dark room, craft shop and an art gallery. Saat Ghumti, Exotic orchids and dwarf azaleas for sale Tripureswore. POBox 25162. Thamel. www.jatranepal.com 433859 extremely sophisticated. Call Dinesh or Pinki at [email protected]. Movenpick ice cream Exotic desserts at the new ice-cream 424877 or email [email protected] [email protected]. 262071. lounge on Darbar Marg. Soaltee lunch buffet at the Garden Terrace Restaurant. The momos are here. Where are you? Yamaha keyboard and Oscar mountain bike International cuisine, salads, soups, desserts. Rs 700 for full For the best and most tasty momos remember us. for sale Yamaha PSR320, 64 keys. Inputs: MIDI buffet. Rs 450 for soup, salad, dessert. Rs 300 for salad. Rs 450 for children under four ft. Bagbazaar Swadista Momo. Near the Aradhana sustain. Rs 15,000. With catalogue. Oscar Taxes applicable. complex. mountain bike. Aluminium frame, 21 speed, plastic mudguards, detachable front wheel, lock. Eight Organic vegetable market and lunch Special vegetarian organic lunch every Sunday at Why use MoneyGram to send money to months old, hardly used. Ring Girish or Salil the Summit Hotel, Kupondole. 10am-12.30pm. Rs 350+tax. Also enjoy Summit food week- Nepal? It’s a fast, safe, easy, reliable and conve- evenings at 353963. Email [email protected]. round at the Patan Museum Café. 521810 nient way to receive money in minutes around the Authentic Sekuwa (BBQ) at Dwarika’s Hotel every Friday from 6.30pm. Meats, vegetarian world. EasyLink, [email protected]. Car for sale specialities, and desserts. Rs 699 per head, Rs 1,299 per couple, nett. Reservations www.visitnepal.com/moneygram. 416239, 420985. Mitsubishi Lancer ’75 model, but in top condition. Very low mileage. Cheap! Email recommended. Traditional dances in the courtyard. 479488 Kathmandu Ornaments [email protected]. Giant deli sandwiches and homestyle American dinners Daily specials. Over the All kinds of gold and silver ornaments. New Rainbow Restaurant. Opposite Pilgrims Book House, Thamel Take Away and delivery. Baneswore. 494541, 498999. Fancy wedding cards and all offset and 426518 screen-printing chemicals and materials. Dolphin Guest House Indian Thali at the Pilgrims Feed ‘N’ Read Restaurant in Thamel (next to Kathmandu Contact PBI Traders, Baghbazar, 246061. Guest House). Also enjoy South Indian dishes, Tibetan snacks including Thukpa. 5pm-7pm Modern accommodation with rooftop garden. Excellent value and friendly service. POBox 12170. amidst the garden ambience of flowers, trees, and marble sculptures by Akhilesh Rai. Sorbin Optics Ban tole. Thamel. [email protected]. 424942 Remember for sunglasses, frames, contact Printing Media lenses and solution. 226194. Also Comfort DANCE Printing, book-binding, paper-ruling, hit-print, Optics, Chhetrapati, Thamel 266119. exercise books, and paper-cutting. DJ Bishwas every evening at the Rox Bar, Hyatt Regency. Live Jazz Sunday, Monday, Hotel Sharma Ganagabu, discount for Ranamukteswore. Shyam Krishna Dangol. 247759. Wednesday, and Thursday. Latin nights Friday and Saturday. Hyatt Regency, Taragaon. groups, students, long-stay. Bath attached, 491234 One World Travel and Trekking hot water, TV, STD, ISD, parking, room service, Sunday Night Fever Free dance classes every Sunday by dancemaster Andreas Lehrke. Experience Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. Kamaladi, near restaurant. Also DK Sharma Travels and Tours. Salsa, swing, tango and more. The Piano Bar. Hotel Yak & Yeti. 8.30pm. 248929 China Southwest Airlines. 422783 435478. 350770. [email protected]. [email protected]. MUSIC Tamrakar Opticals, Navajyoti Classical Music Night Nine Nepali artistes perform in the Patan Museum. Deepjyoti Boarding Secondary School, Kalimati. 9am—7pm. Doctor available. New Tickets Rs 500 at Dexo Music, Thamel (249726) and Jamal (257431); Patan Museum Café; Gongabu. Highly qualified teachers. English fashionable sunglasses, frames. Optical parts Café Pagoda (536629); and East Meets West Music Centre, Thamel. 8 April, 6 pm. atmosphere. Library facilities, equipped lab, and repairing. 274196. computer education, fine arts, martial arts, electron- Cho: devotional songs to cut through the self by Ani Choying Dolma in aid of the Arya ics, music, dance. Hygienic boarding facilities. Naya Lito baby food and Nitti Gritti Porridge. Tara School. 8 April, 5.30pm. Hyatt Regency, Baudha. Tickets Rs 700 at Fire and Ice, Thamel 353677. In all major department stores. (250210); Dragonfly at Mike’s Breakfast (414395); Simply Shutters at Baber Mahal Revisited (253337); Hyatt Regency, Baudha (491234). Organised by the Nuns Welfare Foundation in Camera World collaboration with Nepal Woman Crafts, Nepali Times and Mera Publications. We sell Nikon, Minolta, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, [email protected], www.choying.com Ricoh. We repair all kinds of cameras. New Road. For insertions ring NT Marketing at The Shangri La Jazz Bar Cadenza (Tuesday and Thursday), Irish music by An Saine 221083, 242861. 543333-36. (Wednesday and Friday). Special this month French chef Phillippe Carpentier and Narayan Gurung’s special menu. 412999 Live shows at the Red Onion Bar Various bands every evening. Lazimpat. 416071 QUICKWORD by CROSS EYES Unplugged guitar Syabru Lama at the Coffee Shop, Hotel de l’Annapurna. Every evening QUICKWORD ANSWER 26 7.30pm-10pm. 221711 HOUR Jazz by Cadenza at the Upstairs lounge, Lazimpat. Every Saturday, 7.30pm-10pm. 25- Rs 200. WIN A Kishore Gurung plays classical guitar at the Chimney, Hotel yak & Yeti. Every evening INFOCOM 8pm onwards. 248999 MILLENNIUMWORTH CD Classical Sitar Pilgrims Book House auditorium, Thamel. Sundays, Tuesdays and RS 1500/- Fridays 7pm to 8.30pm. Rs 300. The most convenient and economic way to surf the internet MEDITATION Learn practical techniques of Sri Chinmoy meditation by disciple Santosh. Free every Saturday 5pm-6.30pm at Pilgrims Book House, Thamel. 424942 The crossword is discontinued as of this There were no correct entries to MARTIN CHAUTARI week. Watch this space for the next contest. QW#26. Photo Journalism in Nepal moderated by Yubaraj Ghimire, editor Kantipur Daily. Participation open to all. Unless noted, all discussions in Nepali. 10 April, 5.30pm at Martin NEPALI WEATHER by NGAMINDRA DAHAL Chautari, Thapathali. Tel 246065. Fax 240059. POBox 13470. [email protected] For inclusion in the listing send information to [email protected]

on FM 102.4 DSES- 04-04-2001 0500 GMT Mon-Fri 0615-0645 BBC World Today Sat 0615-0645 BBC Science in Action Sun 0615-0645 BBC Agenda The sporadic rains of the past week will stop, according to satellite pictures. Pressure charts say the same—the Daily 2045-2115 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf]]] low-pressure system roaming along the western Himalayan foothills for the last couple of weeks has moved toward the Bay of Bengal. This means the cloudy mass of air over Tibet will swoosh down to the low-pressure Daily 2245-2300 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf]]] area, bypassing Nepal. The dry weather is bad news though, as the electricity corporation, feeling the effects of the winter drought, has already announced load-shedding. What to expect this week: rising mercury and sunny days with the Valley’s minimum temperature into the double digits and the maximum around 30 Radio Sagarmatha degrees. P.O. Box 6958, Bakhundole, Lalitpur, Nepal KATHMANDU Tel: ++977-1-545680, 545681 Fax: ++ 977-1- 530227 Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue E-mail: [email protected] www.radiosagarmatha.org 30-10 29-11 30-10 31-11 30-11 ARTS 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES 191919 TTww oo ttooTTaannggoo

The passionate Argentinean dance form has

come to Kathmandu.

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ALOK○○○○○ TUMBAHANGPHEY Immigrants from all over the world economic exclusion. It’s ironic, o you saw Marlon Brando in were moving to Argentina. They were then, that it is now identified with Last Tango in Paris. But what met by the music of Argentina’s native the upper class and is as much a sis the tango, really, other than Indians, which is similar to much symbol of Argentina as Borges, a quaint relic of the last century, like Andean music with its wind Maradona and maté. the foxtrot or the waltz. A simple instruments and the charango, an But these are also qualities that answer: a language to communicate Andean stringed instrument. make it a universal obsession. “I your innermost emotions to your Argentina never depended on mining prefer the tango to any other dance partner. There’s nothing quite like it. or plantation agriculture, so because it is about everything we One almost needs to be born doing descendants of enslaved Africans could ever feel,” says Truss, a Dutch the samba, or “winding”, Trinidad- weren’t as involved in the woman who has been attending the style. The salsa and the merengue are development of Argentinean free Sunday night lessons by Andreas a bit, well, bubbly. Tangoistas, as one culture. But, like in neighbouring Lehrke at the Yak and Yeti. A might want to call them, insist their Peru or Brazil, the sounds of their professionally trained dancer, dance is capable of expressing every quarters was one of the elements Lehrke, a German, lived and feeling known to humanity. Die-hard that gave rise to the tango. travelled in Argentina for several dancers may take the passionate and The tango was invented by lonely years, and in the process lost his introspective art form as their ideology immigrants and people who know the heart to the tango. Lehrke took with several “Maestros de Tango”. says. Lehrke is trying to get people to several stage productions and for life, but there are also people dance often remark on the sense of his first dance steps with a German Lehrke started teaching dance in shake off this impression: “The tango teaching internationally. Rodriguez known to saunter into a class or on to loss and nostalgia that pervade it, and folk dance group in Hannover and Cologne in 1990. He may have fallen does not necessarily need to be taken has studied with famous tango the dance floor for an evening, dance, how it is a way to express the range of later received intensive training in in love with the dance in Argentina, but so seriously—although there are masters and participated in enjoy it thoroughly and not obsess. human emotions. Some even see it as modern ballroom and Latin Nepal is where Lehrke has applied his people who live it as the philosophy of numerous shows including Not bad for a dance that a way of addressing and working out American dances. He studied knowledge—three-and-a-half years their lives.” He’s referring to his two choreographing a production of The originated in Buenos Aires’ back-alley issues that cannot be addressed music in Cologne, where he was ago, this multi-cultural dancer came to companions Doña Piedra and Luis Threepenny Opera at the Municipal brothels and bars in the late 1800s. publicly, like state violence and also trained in ballet and modern visit a friend here. It didn’t take long Rodriguez who will be here 11–13 Theatre in Wuppertal, Germany. dance. His first experience of for him to decide to live here and teach April to do a workshop on tango and “Social” tango is not as HAPPENINGS tango was as a musician in a tango Nepalis to tango. It’s unfortunate for give a recital on 14 April. The duo is melodramatic as the tango on stage, show. Then, one of the dancers Lehrke’s dreams that there are far more apparently so dedicated that they “live and Lehrke feels that’s the way it wasn’t available for a few expats than Nepalis in his classes, and tango, sleep tango.” Piedra is trained should be. “Tango should be enjoyed performances, and Lehrke filled in, that Nepalis who do come are more in various African dances, modern and it’s not always possible to be so learning the choreography in just a into doing the cha-cha, the swing or dance and classical ballet. She worked serious,” he says. The tango workshop few days. the salsa. Sangeeta Pandey regularly as a choreographer, dancer and actress will try to do exactly this—erase all Impressed, Lehrke decided to attends the classes and she too prefers for several years, but since the early that anxiety and bring more people to visit Buenos Aires. He went to salsa and swing, rather than tango. 90’s she’d been devoted to the study the dance. The more the merrier. numerous times and met and studied “Tango for me is a bit too serious,” she of tango, developing and directing After all, it takes two to tango.  MIN BAJRACHARYA OUTSTANDING NEPALIS: Awardees at the Tuborg Outstanding Award 2057 , 2 April—(l-r, in white shawls) athlete Baikuntha Manandhar, climber Babu Chhiri Sherpa, musician Nati Kaji Shrestha, singer Koili Devi.

Sharp MIN BAJRACHARYA PROTEST BY FIRE: Members of the CPN(ML) student wing demonstrate at Tinkune-Koteswor demanding 50 percent student concession on transport, 1 April. MIN BAJRACHARYA BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: To mark the 11th anniversary of the declaration of the Free Zone of Patan during the 1990 People’s Movement, the CPN(UML) felicitates those who provided shelter to activists then. 202020 6 - 12 APRIL 2001 NEPALI TIMES NEPALI SOCIETY Under My Hat MIN BAJRACHARYA by Kunda Dixit

f there is one trait that makes us stand out in immigration that Nepalis the international community of nations, it travelling abroad are now Rakshya iis the Nepali’s ability to spot a dark eligible for a free body massage. This cloud behind every silver lining. You can is a new public service to make all Nepalis 30-year-old Rakshya Pandey wants to show that trust us to see another tunnel at the end of feel relaxed and stress-free as they embark on a when it comes to media production houses,

the tunnel, to harbour suspicions that the journey to greener pastures. Our airport masseurs are Nepalis are up there with the best of them. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is so professional they even go through your wallet and count ○○○○○○○○○○○○ actually a potty full of poo. your money for you. The gender-segregated massage he media production scene in visualisation to actually producing What makes us such chronic pessimists? parlours are curtained off and you can request the Nepal is a motley crew of the story.” In just the short time Psychoanalysts have put forward many theories to explain reflexologist on duty for a heavy muscle-toning rub, a tvisionaries and the that it has been around, Vista is medium-intensity tickle of the visionless. It would be great if already a success story, and a armpits, or a special scratch of there were more of the former good example for young Greener pastures a hard-to-reach itch (“A little and less of the latter, but entrepreneurs. to the left. Slightly to the unfortunately what we mostly Rakshya has an MBA degree why we have convinced ourselves that the grass is always right. Lower. Up a bit. Yeah, ahhhhhh.”) see are commercials with from Philippines Christian greener on the other side. To begin with, it is. Take it from When we get to the other side, immigration mediocre production values. University and is planning on a me, our grass is overrated. They have far better grass out officials fuss over Nepalis like we are VIPs on a state Some are different, noteworthy Masters degree in economics. At there. On a recent grass-sampling trip it suddenly dawned visit. They study every page of our passport as if they for their superior concept and 30, and without any business on me that there is no reason for all this negativity since were reading the latest John Grisham novel. And as professional execution. That is background, Rakshya could well Nepal is finally taken seriously by the rest of the world. soon as they find out that we are from the land of Lord when one spares a thought for have been a cog in some While in the old days someone with a Nepali passport Buddha, Arniko, Sagarmatha and the nine-coloured the people behind them. Like multinational, clawing her way up. would not even deserve a second glance, these days being a impeyan pheasant, they take us to a special cubicle to Rakshya Pandey, who owns and But she preferred to come back to production houses here and the Nepali gives us special treatment at airports around the get to know us even better. There they engage us in a runs Vista Entertainment, Nepal and try her luck here sad part is that even the few that world. And it begins even before we reluctantly bid farewell metaphysical conversation with deeply philosophical “Nepal’s first complete media instead. “When I finished my are here have foreign nationals as to our beloved motherland. questions like: “What is it you are doing here?” to production house”. degree I was offered a job in a the top brass. I want to prove that Vista Entertainment is nine big multinational corporation in Nepalis can do it too,” she adds. Getting a visa is a process a bit like being stopped at which you answer: “I am on a spiritual quest for the months old, and has already Singapore,” she says, without Rakshya is certainly off to a the gates of heaven: St Peter wants a complete inventory meaning of existence, for the roots of altruism, love and done six commercials for some name-dropping. She has dabbled flying start. She plans to produce of all your worldly possessions, a listing of all the sins compassion.” Or they look into our eyes and want to of the top brands here—Wai Wai in this and that—been active with television serials, do some social you have ever committed in your current life, and wants know “How long are you going to stay?” and we reply: instant noodles, De Max beauty an environmental group and marketing and maybe even try her to know if you have a passport that is valid for at least “What is time, if not a twinkling of an eye, a measure soap, and Aqua mineral water. taught marketing—but she never hand at films. And aside from all six months. At the pearly gates you are asked if you are, of our mortality?” They want to plumb the mysteries of The difference, as Rakshya puts strayed far from the marketing that she is an inspiration for have ever been or intend to be a member of the their own and our existence, the raison d’etre, the joie it: “We’re not just an ad agency. communications field. After her Nepalis studying abroad—come Communist Party (ML-PP/M) and if the answer to any de vivre, and the hors d’oeuvres. And the last existential We are a fully operational one- last job in advertising she realised back to Nepal where their skills of the three questions is yes, then you can go to hell. question: “Do you have any grass on you?” Your stop production house that does this was her calling. “There are and commitment can be put to Once you get your visa you head straight for the airport answer: “Sorry, didn’t bring any—thought it was everything from concept no well-organised professional the best use.  because St Peter might change his mind. And it is after greener on this side.” 

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