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Weekly Internet Poll # 122 Q. One year after the ceasefire, how would King Gyanendra you describe the country’s situation? defies Maoist threats to travel to Nepalganj on Total votes:1,240 Sunday Weekly Internet Poll # 123. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Should foreign ownership of Nepali media be allowed? Showdown

WELCOME: One of the 300 welcome arches going up in Nepalganj to welcome King Gyanendra this weekend.

RUDRA KHADGA

NETRA KC in NEPALGANJ announced a three-day bandh throne in June 2001, and is part of Nepali Congress said: “We have not starting Friday in four districts the tradition for a new king. The received any decision from the ing Gyanendra is a public adjoining districts. Violence has first two ceremonies were held in central committee, but we are not felicitation ceremony in risen: two policemen were killed in Biratnagar and Dhangadi last year. going to participate.” The UML’s Nepalganj on Sunday at a explosions this week and 30 security For locals, this is a time to lie Deb Raj Bhar said the felicitation time when student-led protests in personnel were injured on the low. “We have learnt not to expect ceremony was “quite meaningless”, support of republicanism are Mahendra Highway Wednesday. much from these official visits,” said adding: “It is very bad timing. All Kintensifying across the country. Security has been stepped up, with a local, Prem Bahadur Malla. this expense at a time when the More than 300 welcome arches choppers hovering overhead. Local NGOs, businesses, offices country is in crisis.” Student unions have been put up along the seven “Watch us, you will see from have been mobilised. VDCs and affiliated to the parties are planning kilometre stretch of road from the tomorrow how tight security will DDCs in the outlying areas, a protest program on the same day. airport to the stadium where the king be,” Regional Administrator, including districts in the Maoist Not everyone is so negative. will be honoured. Potholes have Rabindra Man Joshi told us. At joint affected areas have set up Purna Lal Chuke, a Nepalganj- been hastily plugged and roads meetings to coordinate security and preparatory committees to arrange based political analyst said: “This is widened. preparations, the main worry is the for people to travel to Nepalganj. a Maoist-affected region, and maybe But the mood in Nepalganj is low turnout. This is the third official The local leaders of the political when the king comes here he will subdued. The Maoist-affiliated felicitation ceremony for King parties say they will boycott the royal find out for himself how bad things Tharuwan Liberation Front has Gyanendra since he ascended the event. Krishna Man Shrestha of the are and help us.” l 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 2 EDITORIAL #182 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Trishna Gurung, Design: Kiran Maharjan Webmaster: Bhushan Shilpakar Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki, [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 Diagnosing Nepal MEDIA TYPHOONS The life expectancy in Kathmandu is 30 years more than in Mugu t a time when the country is suffering from multiple crises, we have been coming to Nepal neurosurgeons who suck out the media offer no choices for a didn’t need the distraction of yet another street fight, one that annually for the last decade in brain jelly. The construction healthy society. pits rival media houses in a knockout tournament. The losers an attempt to improve surgical boom in hospitals, nursing homes So what kinds of solutions are Nepali readers who have come to expect much more professionalism than was displayed on the front pages of the services in remote district hospitals. and research centres ensures that might be considered? To begin nationalA broadsheets this last week. This gives me snapshots to make medical harm will become a with, the massive concentration We can analyse the dispute on several levels. The first is content: Icomparisons and the most leading cause of death in Nepal, of royal wealth is not conducive the coverage of this media war was itself an indication of how easily significant one last month was the as is the case in developed to justice. When three of the media owners dumped journalistic ethics and independence to employ countries. most luxurious cars in the world their column inches shamelessly for a partisan cause. The separation GUEST COLUMN The most troubling discovery are purchased with public funds, of news and opinion went out the window: inflammatory headlines, Stephen Bezruchka is how little discussion there is what kind of message does that provocative intros, incendiary pictures and text was no different than about the conflict here, or any send to Nepalis? the role of the arsonists on the streets. Contrast this with the way the BBC covered the aftermath of the Hutton Report this week that construction boom in Kathmandu. consideration of what to do Then perhaps an emergency saw the resignation of its director. And let’s not hear any of those As a medical doctor and a about it. I found lots of needs to be declared to provide ‘we are Third World so we can be third rate’ excuses. student of population health, I am published works on the Maoist basic needs as enunciated by Essentially, this is a circulation war gone crazy. One side took the amazed at how many under- conflict, especially documenting King Birendra decades ago. The irresponsible step of piggybacking on an ongoing political student employed doctors there are in its history. Even Baburam focus of such programs have to unrest to hurt its rival by igniting jingoism and pseudo-nationalism. Kathmandu, as well as how many Bhattarai’s PhD thesis is available. be in Mugu, Bajura and Kalikot, Better examples of shooting oneself in the foot are hard to come by, brand-new under-utilised disease But there is precious little on the three least-healthy districts. even in this day and age. So far, we have been fortunate that the unrest did not spread like palaces there are that together potential solutions. The average length of life in a bush fire across Nepal’s tinder-dry polity. Even without the tempt the well to become sick. Yes, everyone wants peace. Kathmandu is 30 years more experience of the Hrithik Roshan riots, such tactics would have been Medical schools and various But how are we going to get than in remote Mugu. termed rash. But knowing what happened then, it was a decision of colleges of so-called health sciences there? No one even has a clue Nepal can take cues from incredible recklessness. abound to produce even more about how to start. Many see the Kerala state in India or Sri Lanka Having said that, one can have a rational debate about the pros resources to treat the worried well. need for a republic, which locally and pursue an social-welfare led and cons of foreign direct investment in media. Some countries have There are few practitioners in means Nepal no longer having a development program. Those no problems with it, others feel they need restrictions. But it is clear Nepal who minister to the sick, monarchy, and having some have been incredibly successful in that in an age of economic globalisation and satellite media, the days of national control are numbered. but instead there are surgeons who semblance of democracy. Others producing a healthy society, One can argue that since television’s transboundary footprint cut, physicians who diagnose, want a benevolent despot to rule despite a protracted civil war in puts it beyond national regulation, at least print media should be endoscopists who look around, them. Some fear the army is in Sri Lanka. Both countries have a protected from foreign ownership. Fair enough. But that is for our urologists who probe and control of the non-Maoist part of health status close to America’s. law makers to decide, the country. Discussions on peace must not mobs in patriotic There are signs and stickers begin with vibrant discussion of frenzy over an advocating peace. Maybe they the primordial problem: outdated wire service want the exploitation that existed increasing relative poverty, the news item on Lumbini. Even so, are we before the troubles began to astronomical gap between rich so weak and continue peacefully. If you don’t and poor and what to do about vulnerable that we know where your ship is going that. Nepal had peace from 1951 feel threatened by a then any port you end up in is to 1996, but that wasn’t enough. couple of foreign fine. Only the students are The guiding principle, should be owned newspapers? marching, but they have no John Rawl’s Theory of Justice in Canada has taken on answers either. They just want which inequalities are limited to and beat the next-door change. Politics here is almost a those which benefit the least US media juggernaut— not by shutting it out, dirty word, suggesting only advantaged. Begin by canceling but by being better partisan discussions. the royal order for Rolls Royces and more relevant. Nepal’s burgeoning media are and Jaguars. l The way to beat weapons of mass distraction, as foreign ownership is they cater to prurient youth in a Stephen Bezruchka worked in Nepal to be more society that is considerably more between 1976 and 1986. He is now professional, more salacious than a decade ago. Bent senior lecturer in the International credible and more Health Program of the School of Public independent. on creating a consumer society, Health and Community Medicine at the with a service-oriented culture, University of Washington in Seattle.

L ETTERS

holds the responsibility of looking after the relief work. All this does is strengthen the stick together and build a new nation. If the KingKING Gyanendra’s AND COUNTRY handling of the nation’s family even forsaking his personal luxuries, hand of those who think that extreme situation stays like this, we will be vulnerable state of affairs suggests that he has no the king must understand his own measures will solve our country’s deep- to external intervention. The king should take desire to rule the nation for long. As CK responsibilities and limitations. At a time rooted problems. power in his hands and help all of us to live Lal opines in ‘A king can’t do wrong’ when the country is in economic doldrums, R Khadga, Lazimpat safely. As things stand, that acronym for (State of the State, #181), the moves by there is no point in seeking Rs 142 million Nepal—Never Ending Peace And Love— the royal palace after he assumed the from an almost bankrupt exchequer to buy l It has been almost a year-and-a-half doesn’t stand a chance. throne is slowly and gradually pushing more cars. When will the king start looking at since the political parties launched their anti- Buddhi Pant, email the future of monarchy towards an the plight of the famine-stricken in western king demonstrations. Having started to inevitable downfall. Had our political Nepal? destroy the nation in the leaders been good enough, the people Ashish Sigdel, Bharatpur past 12 years, they now would have already revolted and want to finish the job. The reinstated their sovereignty. King l After reading the king’s interview in Royal Nepali Army and the Gyanendra has tried to capitalise on their Time, I was quite impressed and even dared CIAA should teach the stupidity, but the people are not foolish. to hope for a better future. But something leaders of political parties a Ultimately, it looks like it will be the did not seem right. The king has consistently good lesson before it’s too monarchy that will pay the price for the spoken about his concerns for the Nepali late. The Panchayati king’s actions. It would be in the king’s people but why has there been absolutely system used to be a lot and the national interest to hand over nothing to show for it? CK Lal in ‘A king can’t better than the democracy power to political parties and force the do wrong’ (#181) made me understand why. we have now. Democracy Maoists to join mainstream politics. I agree with Lal that it was not right for the is only for the politicians Rameshwor Kafle, email king to hike the palace allowances and but not for the public. import the luxury cars at the present time. Students, the ‘pillars of the l As usual, CK Lal in his ‘A king can’t Perhaps these purchases could be future’, are just pawns of do wrong’ (#181) reveals the true state acceptable if the palace coffers were also the narrow-minded political of the state. As the head of the family being engaged in charity, development and leaders. Nepalis should KIRAN PANDAY 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 NATION #182 3 Free competition and free press don’t always complement o one should beeach surprised aboutother the competition is accepted practice. instead of improving content to earn media market, lured by advertising growth how both sides in the raging media So, when The Himalayan Times reader loyalty, the mortal combat got potential. war have activated their Dirty Tricks (THT) and The Kathmandu Post (TKP) nastier. Sahara India, with interests in aviation, Depts. Bribing officials or hiring hoodlums got into a mutually destructive competition And when the anti-THT broadsheet trading and finance, is believed to be to control the market is standard operating to undercut each other on the newsstands cartel, Nepal Media Society, dragged out a contemplating a grand entry into Nepali Nprocedure in nascent capitalism. Cutthroat two weeks ago, all we could do was hope decayed debate about the birthplace of media mainly to safeguard its future price wars come with the turf. Maligning that better sense would prevail. Alas, Buddha into unnecessary controversy, it business interests here. The fate of the FM simply exposed the intellectual bankruptcy and terrestrial television of the Kantipur of our media moguls. When you stoop so Group, satellite telecast of Spacetime and low, you lick the dirt. The jingoism print escalated and the two sides burnt copies of ventures STATE OF THE STATE each other’s papers on the streets. of CK Lal A mob pelted stones on APCA House Kamana on 29 January, hurting one reporter. Mob publications would be in double jeopardy fury is unpredictable. Had the attack on if corporate India made a dramatic entry. THT claimed innocent lives, it would Merchants prefer not to incite violence: have been impossible to exonerate the instability is never in the interest of Nepal Media Society. The media cartel business. So, perhaps Nepal’s media couldn’t have chosen a worse time to moguls know something the rest of us resolve its longstanding rivalry with don’t. Otherwise, why dig up an obscure The Himalayan Times. The country is two-month-old story that had died a in crisis: the insurgency is into its natural death? eighth bloody year, the monarchists The current controversy has also raked are in no mood to relent, main- up another issue: can one media house be stream parties are agitating, trusted with the control of print, radio, students are raising republican television and the Internet? The Kantipur slogans. All we need is Group’s coverage of the present internecine warfare in the controversy shows exactly why such media to complete the picture monopoly is dangerous. The same vitriolic of total chaos. coverage of its rival media comes out of its Kailash Sirohiya, FM, television, print and Internet outlets. Jamim Shah, Mahendra In normal times, Kantipur would have Sherchan and Pushkar made a spectacle of itself by doing all this. Lal Shrestha must know But at the time of multiple crises in the they are playing with country, a media monopoly, in cohort fire. They are all too well- with a cartel that it dominates, could informed to claim unleash unimaginable disaster. This is innocence if their jingoism where the regulatory role of government had turned into a repeat of should be visible. But it isn’t. the media-instigated The issue of foreign investment in the madness over Rhitik Nepali media needs to be resolved once Roshan’s non-remarks. and for all. If we can do without it, let’s What spooked these legislate against their entry into our holy media heavyweights at this country. Television would be forced to point in time? The rumor in take up the Nepal One model of uplinking town is that Nepali media from India, the print shibboleths will be bosses are having sleepless saved from the competition and nights worrying about more degenerate into a series of Rising Nepals. Indian private media We have seen free competition and free competition over the horizon. press aren’t complementary. The media Several regional conglomerates are can’t be guided by market said to be eyeing the Nepali fundamentalism in a country like ours. l

of backwardness, some ‘Durbarians’ are probably the best indication about how far on behalf of all the eager beaver readers. IOJHA would like to applaud Suresh Ojha’s fanning religious extremism. It is not smart we will go to sell our souls for money and This is to spare him the trouble of having initiative (‘Silicon Valley to Kathmandu Valley’, for a 21th century king’s image to be seen profit. Greed has got the better of our to sit through another torturous evening #180). Only a handful of Nepalis return to using religion for legitimacy. And it is society, it has replaced our traditional tearing out his hair in exasperation trying Nepal with such a mission. Ojha’s optimism especially not smart to use Indian religious spirituality, compassion and respect for to write something readable. So, without amidst the grim situation that hinders extremism to shore up support. fellow living beings. If your reporter’s further ado, let us join Dixit as he sits visionaries like him is admirable. After Fundamentalists have no place in modern investigation is right, then a whole food through unappeasably horrible films about reading his article, it sounds like Ojha has Nepali society. This is a nation for all chain of officials, academics and overseas hobbits and elfs, wizards and Dark Lords, just started getting firsthand experience Nepalis, not for ‘Durbarians’. laboratories will profit from the export of because obviously he is not doing it for his dealing with Nepal’s bureaucracy that tends Ashok Neupane, email Nepali monkeys to America. The man behind own pleasure as he considers it his duty to work against those who plan to help the this plan, Mukesh Chalise, is quoted in your to watch the rotten movie and pass nation. Nepal always had great engineers. paper as saying “Common species should be comments in his precious column. Are you What Nepal lacks are business experts who IMONKEYING find it an outrage AROUND that the country that used for human welfare. There is no harm in still with me? Right, so Dixit watches the can compete in a challenging global IT market worships the Hanuman is even considering exporting monkeys.” That king of reasoning movie even though he himself is bored to and export IT services of significant scale exporting monkeys (‘Year of the monkeys’, is precisely why this trade is so morally death, and then goes through the horror of and quality. #180) for medical research in the west. It is unconscionable. That we allow a fellow writing about it, because of course, we’re P Thapa, Maryland, US primate, one reverred by our culture, to be never going to watch the movie without tortured and used as a guinea pig in medical his comments. Then he tries to draw a experiments that will end in a slow and weak parallel between the movie and the YubrajNOT YELLOW Ghimire’s research-type article ‘King’s painful death. country. Anyone can plagiarise and poke ADC or Singhal’s pawn?’ (#180) is right on. Mina KC, email fun, but talent and originality like director Ghimire bares to us readers the truth that Peter Jackson’s, who brings Tolkien back Nepal is moving backwards in every field. to life after half a century, is rare. Even if The actions of the king, the behaviour of ItBORED has befallen upon this humble reader to Dixit doesn’t like this stuff, he should the parties, and even the so called ‘People’s give Kunda Dixit an executive criticism of his respect it. War’ of the Maoists are no help. In this race latest Under My Hat ‘The Return of the King’ Sewa Bhattarai, email 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 4 NATION #182 Tale of two towns in the tarai The Tharu struggle to survive war, impunity and neglect NARESH NEWAR in BARDIYA

atariya and Sohanpur in the daughters. They plead with us to fertile plains of the Karnali in help them trace lost relatives. “All Bardiya district are just a few we want is to know if they are dead kms apart. Villagers in both places or alive,” says 50-year-old Dil have suffered and lost relatives in Maya Tharu. A feeble looking old Sthe conflict. In Satariya, the man nearby has waited two years indigenous Tharu community is in vain for his son to come home generally supportive of the Maoists, after security forces picked him up while in Sohanpur they aren’t. from his radio repair shop at Driving into Satariya, the local Motipur. “If my son is dead, I just guide gets nervous. “This is Maoist want to see his body so I can territory, it is risky, please be careful cremate him, we will be satisfied with your questions,” he warns as with the truth,” he says. we reach the quiet, isolated village. A teenager, looking cold and Two hours drive west of Nepalganj, indifferent, stands out in the many families here have willingly crowd. He gestures that he wishes sent their children to join the to speak privately. Entering a Maoists. No coercion, no forced nearby house he latches the door. recruitment. He is silent for a minute, then says: Because of this, Satariya has “People here support the Maoists suffered retribution from the but we have to be careful because security forces and many Tharus there may be informers,” says have disappeared. No one suspected Buddhi Tharu. The 17-year-old of being a Maoist ever returns after lost his sister, two years older than being taken in for questioning him. “She was unarmed when they around here. Bardiya has the highest arrested her. Yet the next day, number of disappeareds in Nepal. Radio Nepal announced that she Parents gather around us with was carrying a gun.” It’s been a year photographs, some with just since the family saw her. Buddhi

ALL PICS: MIN BAJRACHARYA negatives, of their missing sons and believes she is dead. “If she died,

t’s sad to leave a place after nearly four years. Sadder still, things are so gloomy, Parting shots from our columnist before he relocates hope so distant. It’s frightening that this public felicitation ceremonies and ban the law, they should be prosecuted. But this country has yet to figure out how it wants to republican student meetings. is up to the courts, not the publishers of be governed. My own firmly held LakThose who agitate on the streetsleavingrival papers, who risk trampling on hard Iconviction is that most Nepalis would like against the monarchy aren’t exactly won press freedoms because they’re worried what they were promised after the Jana harbingers of hope either. Is it really about losing money in a circulation battle. Andolan in 1990—democracy, democracy enough just to chant slogans, fight with Shame on you all. and more democracy. But increasingly, the police and organise discussions about The Maoists also depress me. They have they’re lapsing into sullen silence about the republicanism? No, it’s not. A republican little new to say and only repeat old choices on offer, and who can blame them. state is a tricky thing. Moving from one nostrums that haven’t captured the popular It’s simply not true that democracy has form of government to another takes imagination in the past. They have failed here. The mutterings of those who patience, compromise and a clear sense of influence, even control, over large areas of prospered under the old Panchayat system where one is going. There must be a plan the countryside but they seem more are that has the overwhelming support of the concerned with petty authority there than HERE AND THERE hollow people whose lives and certainties you wish with demonstrating their ability to Daniel Lak and to change. That isn’t the case right now. government fairly or ably. unhelpful. Another reason for gloom is the Last and least, our dire development And it’s been clear for months now that unforgivable behaviour of most sector. Nepal’s two most influential donors, there can be no return to authoritarian mainstream media outlets at the moment. Britain and America, now do more to monarchy. The country is worse off than it Happily, this newspaper and its sister support civil war than stop it. Others are soon. The best we can hope for is was before 4 October 2002. The king’s publications are excluded. The agitation content to let projects stutter or stop generational change. The young people of recent interview to Time magazine just against The Himalayan Times and completely while writing ever more today are going to do a better job, I just added to the air of gloom. The monarchy is Annapurna Post is a risky game that can convoluted and pointless reports. Hats off at know it. Never trust anyone over 30. l in real trouble in Nepal, and those in favour backfire against those who play it. If the least to the European Union for threatening Daniel Lak is moving to Miami, Florida and will be of the institution must do more than hold two newspapers are indeed in breach of to pull out if things don’t improve here writing for the Nepali Times from America. 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 NATION #182 5

From l-r: Father showing a picture of his disappeared son, heavy security checks along the Bardia highway, Tharu villagers in Sohanpur anticipating a crackdown by security forces anytime soon, Liberated Kamaiya Shelter. then she is a martyr who sacrificed want is peace and to be left alone,” her life for a good cause,” he adds. says 23-year-old Rosan Chaudhary Buddhi is confident the Fear,Down the not highway support in Sohanpur who, along with other young Maoists will win the war. “If they it is a different story. Here, the Tharus, runs a community forestry can achieve so much in just eight Tharus don’t want to be associated user group that helps generate “No Maoist or politician years, imagine the impact of the with the Maoists at all. The death income for the villagers from the revolution in another 20,” he says. of so many of their people has been forest products. did anything for us.” Several members of his family are too heavy a price for the “We don’t need this war. We either sympathisers or active community. Despite the arrests have no expectations from the members of the Maoist party. His and disappearance of at least six Maoists,” says Rosan, who doesn’t uncle was recently shot by security people in their village at the hands believe that the Maoists are really forces while at a Maoist cultural of the army, they do not support fighting for the Tharu. “The program. Two cousin sisters who the rebels. government can do a lot by joined the Maoists as militants have But this doesn’t mean they bringing education and also disappeared. The family is not support the security forces either. development programs so our sure whether they are still alive. They fear them more than the young people get an education Buddhi’s family and other rebels because the army patrols and will not be lured by the Tharus here were easy recruits for arrest innocent villagers and accuse Maoists,” adds Rosan. “We are no the Maoists. The formerly landless them of being Maoists. “When the longer naïve, we know what is villagers are now in charge and own soldiers come here, they make a list good for us.” Despite the big tracts of farms redistributed of Maoists based on information disappearance of his father, he has equally among the most given by our own people. There no intention of supporting the The Tharu kamaiyas were supposed to have been liberated from bonded impoverished families. “The is no Maoist in our village,” says rebels. labour five years ago. They have no desire to join the Maoists, but the jamindars don’t even dare look into 22-year-old Ram Prasad Tharu, The army now seems to be kamaiyas are fed up of the frequent harassment by soldiers at the whose father was disappeared by Liberated Kamaiya Camps in Bardiya, Kailali and Dang. our eyes,” says Buddhi. “They used learning its lesson and doesn’t treat “We freed ourselves, no Maoist or politician ever did anything for us,” to own the whole village and gave the security forces. “He was a every Tharu as a potential Maoist. says Devi B Tharu, chairman of the Freed Kamaiya Management us only a small share of the crop simple hardworking farmer and Ekaraj Tharu, a radio journalist Committee in Shantinagar along the Bardiya highway. He runs a slate- that we cultivated.” not into politics at all.” His family who broadcasts an educational making factory to support his family. “I no longer have to worry what time to The landlords have abandoned went to the Chisapani Army program in Banke, has been wake up and I can go anywhere I please,” says Devi of his family’s new- found freedom. their farms and now live in Barracks, but was told his father motivating his community to go wasn’t there. They never found But not all kamaiyas are as fortunate. The land they were granted by Nepalganj. Most have no savings to school. Not a single Tharu has a the government is not enough to grow food on. Many kamaiyas say that left. The Tharus who are still loyal him. government job here and he thinks they were better off working for their landlords. “I had no problem working to their jamindar masters are Tharus in this village still own only education will change things. under my jamindar. There is more hardship, but today we don’t even have threatened by the Maoists not to their land and most of the youth “We have never been treated enough to eat,” says Lahani Tharu, a 25-year-old ex-kamaiya whose visit them or give them a share of go to school and colleges and help equally,” he says. “And now we are jamindar was forced to let her go because of government penalties. their parents on the farms. “All we Two years ago, Sita Tharu’s husband was dragged away by the security the harvests. in the frontlines facing the bullets forces who accused him of being a Maoist. He never came back and Sita is and dying like dogs.”l looking after her five children by herself. Sita says freedom has made her community more vulnerable to harassment by the Maoists and the army. Names of some of the people quoted “I’d rather not have my freedom,” she says. “Who will help me to bring in this article have been altered. up my children, feed and educate them?” Her 15-year-old daughter is now forced to go back to working as a kamaiya to feed her mother and siblings. She sends them money and clothes from her landlord’s house. 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 6 NEPAL IN THE FOREIGN PRESS #182

“Sign the humanAmnesty International’s rights two-member team hasaccord” just visited four districts to look at the human rights situation. One of the members, Elizabeth Rowsell, shared her field experiences with Nepali Times. Nepali Times: How bad is it? is extremely grave in Nepal. It is almost certain to Elizabeth Rowsell: This time we went to Nuwakot, become a catastrophe unless the international Kabhre, Sarlahi and Dhanusha to investigate reports community, the government, civil authority and of extra judicial killings, disappearances and abuse others take action now. We urge both sides of by the Maoists. We found substantive evidence of this conflict to sign the human rights accord. alleged extra judicial killings by the security forces too. We are extremely concerned, that on the face of What if the army refuses? the evidence, a policy of the army to kill suspected The international community has to urge the Maoists seems to be emerging. government to sign the human rights accord as soon as possible, even unilaterally. There have But aren’t the Maoists also doing it? been over 200 disappearances in the country Yes. We investigated reports of killings by the since the end of the ceasefire in August 2003. Maoists, including one GTZ worker in Dailekh, But when families go to the Supreme Court to try reportedly because she was an informant and and lodge habeas corpus petitions, the another woman because she had a brother in the authorities deny arrest. Instructions must be army. The Maoists still appear to be targeting issued about the rules of engagement. Shooting civilians and non-combatants and indulging in people dead who are suspected to be Maoists human rights violations such as extortion, and not first arresting and charging them with abductions and executions. recognisable crimes must be stopped immediately. Security forces must behave in line Which side is more guilty? with the constitution of Nepal and ultimately with We don’t make comparisons, it’s not about who all the international standards to which Nepal is

KIRAN PANDAY commits more human rights violations. The situation a state party. To sign or not to sign ? KUNDASigning DIXIT the HumanDonor Rights pressure has beenAccord growing ever wouldgovernment be to goodconvince the PR army thatfor it hasthe governmentEven so, human rights activists say that since they grudgingly agreed to a $70 million to seize the initiative and sign the accord first as the legitimate state party, it is the duty of ith hopes receding for an early World Bank budget support in November. since and gain the moral high ground. The the army to be more responsible than the ceasefire, pressure is building up for The EU statement this week warned of serious army needs to clean up its tarnished rebels. One diplomat told us: “If the Maoists the government to at least sign a draft consequences for development assistance if Ne- international image, which activists say could signed first, it would be a PR disaster for the accord on human rights so that more innocent pal’s parliamentary crisis dragged on. impact on future UN peacekeeping duties. government.” Wlives are not lost and the conflict is conducted Activists say the Maoists indicated during The army argues that donors and human Under the accord, there would be according to international humanitarian the ceasefire last year that they were willing to rights groups are putting disproportionate monitoring teams in the field that can be norms. sign the human rights accord. Rebel leader pressure on the forces for violations, and say quickly deployed to conduct on-the-spot Nepal’s international donors, human Prachanda, in a surprisingly soft statement on Maoist atrocities don’t come under as much investigation of incidents. It could minimise rights organisations and domestic civil society Thursday, welcomed the EU’s call for a scrutiny. “We know what we have to do, we distortions and inaccurate field reports as well are lobbying hard to convince the army that it ceasefire and a negotiated settlement. He reit- are sensitive to human rights, but these as protect citizens from harm. And when is in its own interest to sign the accord and erated his group’s acceptance of any UN me- criticisms are theoretical. We are fighting a the peace talks do restart, it will help in con- remedy the bad press it has been getting for diation or facilitation towards that end. guerrilla war, the ground reality is different,” fidence-building and safeguarding the disappearances, extra-judicial killings and Human rights activists have urged the said one senior military source. ceasefire. l deaths of civilians. They argue that the draft accord prepared by the National Human Rights Commission doesn’t contain anything that Nepal hasn’t already ratified in various key international treaties. For its part, the army has been trying to clean up its act, announcing last week that it had jailed and discharged 25 soldiers, including a major, after investigations of serious rights violations. At another press meet on Thursday, Liz Rowsell of the Amnesty International team, which completed inspections in several districts last week, urged both the army and the Maoists to sign the accord. She told us: “The situation is extremely grave in Nepal. It is almost certain to become a catastrophe unless the international community, the government, civil society and others take action now.”(See interview above.) French ambassador to Nepal, Claude Ambrosini who is looking after the interests of the current European President, Ireland, met the prime minister on Monday with other EU ambassadors, urging greater attention to human rights and brought up the subject of signing the accord. But officials told us the army was still not completely convinced, and signing now could undermine morale in the MIN BAJRACHARYA field and be seen as an admission of guilt. IN THE CROSSFIRE: A woman from Dang being treated for bullet wounds at Bheri Zone Hospital in Nepalganj. 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 NATION #182 7

JournalismGross distortion in the coverage of the mediavs war vandalism by newspapers on both sides is itself an indication that the casualty has been journalistic professionalism probe by the government. (APCA). If it is showing so much CAPITAL LETTER The Nepal Media Society should eagerness to pursue the case of Yubaraj Ghimire be seeking due process, not duress Kantipur’s TV license and the through street protests. In fact the detention of its managing director, it society should be at the forefront of should also investigate the alleged illowing black smoke from decrying violence instead of irregularity in the APCA investment. burning tyres on the streets instigating it. By taking to the All the CIAA did was write to the this week joined with smoke streets, the society has shown that it government to come out with a from burning copies of The doesn’t believe in the rule of law. clearcut policy on foreign direct Himlayan Times and Annapurna What next: stoning of each other’s investment in the media. Is that BPost over Kathmandu’s streets. The offices? And what if the street really the CIAA’s job? tyres symbolised protest against protests escalate out of control? Whether it is the CIAA or the ‘regression’, while burning The CIAA also has a role in media, exceeding the limits of newspapers apparently financed by triggering the backlash against THT authority is counterproductive. It is Indian investors seem to augur the and its publishers, the Asia-Pacific what has brought us to this sorry beginning of a ‘swadeshi’ movement. Communications Association state. l Foreign direct investment in the Nepali media is a crucial issue with wide ramifications. To be sure, the entry of the two newspapers in the Nepali media market was not straightforward. While the government’s declared policy doesn’t exactly welcome foreign investment in media, successive past governments have chosen not to enact laws against it. This has left a loophole for any foreign group with professional or other interest to enter the Nepali media market. Certainly, the investment of The Himalayan Times (THT) and Annapurna Post (AP) and the role of local partners are not a hundred percent kosher. But the Group of Four who form the Nepal Media Society need to be pulled up for their brutal attack and boycott call against their rivals. THT was launched two years ago. So why this protest now? A week before the ugly street scenes began, The Kathmandu Post (KP) joined the price war against THT by slashing its price to Rs 1.50 from Rs 4. While The Kathmandu Post fell into the trap laid by THT, its action triggered fear among fellow members in the Nepal Media Society of unfair competition which may drive them to extinction. This is not a healthy media trend. In fact, gross distortion in the coverage of the media war itself in the newspapers of both camps have shown that the casualty is the professionalism that was evolving in the media sector in the past few years. Even the statement made by the prime minister and the government spokesman on the issue were selectively quoted by newspapers of the two sides depending on their allegiance. The issue of foreign invesment in the media therefore merits an urgent debate followed by the formulation of a clear policy. Such rules should be guided by longterm national interest, but also allow healthy competition that will enahance press freedom and benefit the readers. If the THT or AP should be investigated at all, it should be on reasonable evidence of having made the investment illegally. That can be done with a petition before the Supreme Court by the aggrieved party, or the setting up of a judicial 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 8 #182

Nepal will not benefit unless it is prepared for regional free trade KHADGA SINGH tariffs for the import of these goods by no research in this regard,” says Hasta member countries, no deals were struck Dabadi, Executive Director at the Whathen the SAARC heads of state afterbecause some SAARC member SAFTA?FNCCI. “Without such a study, we are met in New Delhi in 1995, countries had not done their not in a position to say if we will benefit they signed a charter that homework. Those who did, discovered or lose from SAFTA. Such studies require (among other things) promised to they could play by easier bilateral rules, massive investments which we can’t eradicate poverty from the region by and didn’t need to get bogged down in afford.” W2002. One-fourth of the world’s poor a regional framework. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist still live in South Asia. If SAPTA was a disaster, can to figure out that landlocked Nepal’s Compared to such wishful SAFTA be any better? SAFTA plans to exports face a logistical problem, thinking, the South Asian Free Trade boost the present five percent intra- especially when it comes to exporting Area (SAFTA) plan may be less SAARC trade by phasing out tariff to a third country via India. Transit and ambitious, and therefore more likely barriers and quota restrictions for goods transportation time inflates the price of SUBHAS RAI to succeed. But if Nepal isn’t prepared between member countries over a 10- goods that are usually available in South for free trade, it won’t benefit from it. year period. The clock will start ticking Asian countries at a much cheaper price. If we couldn’t even act on the benefits for Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives to “There are problems with transit and Indian products that will flood that revenue.” of the 1995 South Asian Preferential reduce their tariff rates to zero to five transportation,” says economist market not Nepali products. There But there will be one winner: the Trade Arrangement (SAPTA) that was percent between 2006-2016. India, Bishwambar Pyakurel. “These add up have been exceptions like Nepal’s ghiu Nepali consumer. And if that can supposed to boost intra-regional trade Pakistan and Bangladesh will get five the cost of our exports and minimise and noodles, but with SAFTA in happen here, it can also happen in other on a commodity-wise basis, it is unlikely years to implement the new tariff our comparative advantage.” place, regional economic giants could South Asian countries. Nepali we will take any advantage from regime. Sri Lanka will have six years. India is Nepal’s biggest trading cut into Nepal’s comparative producers must sharpen their SAFTA. Nepal may well bring tariff barriers partner to which we export around Rs advantage. competitive edge, not just because of Economists supported the SAPTA down because it has already signed the 30 billion worth of goods annually. This Nepal must have a strategy if it is SAFTA but also because of WTO. idea, but consumers and traders did not draft SAFTA agreement. The same could have reached saturation since to benefit from SAFTA. If not, we’ll “WTO and SAFTA will complement see any discernible changes. “The good applies to other SAARC members. On India produced just about everything lose out regionally and in the domestic each other,” says Prachanda Man news was that SAPTA came about paper, the idea looks lucrative. With Nepal makes, and given its economies market too. Lowered tariffs for Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the earlier than expected,” says Rajendra tariff rates at zero by 2016, South of scale, would find it expensive to imported products will mean regional Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Khetan, the president of the Nepal Asia—home to one-fourth of import Nepali products. In such a foreign goods will inundate the Supplies. “That is why the trade rules Britain Chamber of Commerce and humankind—will indeed be a huge situation, even if India lowers its tariffs market. If those products are better and regulations we are changing will Industry. “The bad news is that the market for member states. for Nepali goods under the SAFTA quality and cheaper, they will wipe help us cope with the situation.” negotiations among member countries Theoretically, everyone stands to gain. provision, Nepalis would not be able to out domestic production. “In such a If the opportunities presented by for tariff concessions went pretty slow.” But practically, countries will only gain compete with Indian manufacturers. scenario, the country will face a lose- WTO are the same as SAFTA but on a In the last nine years, barely 5,000 if they are prepared. What is true for India could apply lose situation,” says Pyakurel. “Local bigger scale, then the risks will also be items were tagged with concessions in Nepali officials still haven’t figured to other South Asian markets. Under producers will suffer loss because of a bigger. This means Nepal has to gauge an entire region of 1.5 billion people. out which commodities will be SAFTA, if the tariffs are brought down decline in export and sales. The and calculate how we can take And even after the agreement to lower advantageous to us. “There has been to zero in all SAARC nations, it will be government will also start losing advantage. l

STRICTLY BUSINESS MediaAshutosh Tiwari isPrivate the media reactsmessage to competition with a cry-baby mantra of nationalism uch can happen in two weeks. journalists, to upgrade printing share of the advertisement pie. The Saturday after this technology, and to market and Since they cannot share this column covered the distribute newspapers. Good Nepali worry publicly, they have to have it beginning of the newspaper war, The journalists today enjoy greater job wear the daura-suruwal of Himalayan Times (THT) responded mobility. nationalism. Nice trick, but print Mto The Kathmandu Post’s price-cuts, Readers also have a wider media is no more sensitive to and reduced its price by 50 percent choice and advertisers have a pick. national interests than, say, building to Rs 1. This marked a further victory Newspapers have competed with one hydropower dams or running for readers and advertisers of both another and with other forms of trainings of Nepali journalists paid newspapers. But THT’s move turned media for subscribers’ fees and by foreign funds. Saying that out to be the last straw for the Nepal advertising rupees, foreign investment in print- Media Society (NMS), a trade media is detrimental to Nepal’s group of private-sector sovereignty is an insult to the Nepali-owned newspaper intelligence of Nepali readers. publishers, and it swung It also misleads others as to into action. Not in a how the ad market works. competitive, business-like As Pratyoush Onta argued way, but in a raw, crude, in this paper two years ago emotionally-laced cry-baby when THT first appeared on mantra of nationalism. the scene, no commercially- Through full-page ads, run newspaper, no matter it attempted to turn people how well funded, can hope against THT and its sister do well in any market by publication Annapurna Post offending local sensibilities (AP) about a wire service (see: ‘What to do when big news item that THT had brother knocks’, #55). The published last November logic of the ad market, about the proceedings of a and most therefore, acts as an in-built conference in India. A few have done well. Indeed, the Nepali deterrent against any newspaper days later, it changed its tactics and print media sector is growing like issuing outrageous claims. That started to assert that foreigners any other commercially driven means, if anything, both THT and (translation: Indians) should not be industry. All these are positive AP have no choice but to be more allowed to invest in the “sensitive” achievements that should help Nepali than other newspaper. Nepali print-media. That doing so build the self-confidence of those Meantime, we can rest assured that would pose a threat to Nepal’s who run newspapers in Nepal. just as Nepali society’s ijjat does not sovereignty, and, as the TKP editor Against this backdrop, the depend up on what Miss Nepal Prateek Pradhan (who earned a argument that print-media sector is wears, Nepal’s sovereignty too does degree in journalism in New York) too ‘sensitive for national interests’ not depend what the what the owners put it, would lead to the to allow foreigners to put their of private-sector newspapers say to ‘Sikkimisation of Nepal’. money in is a convenient piece of protect their own interests. Before 1991, there were only two fiction. It is propped up to safeguard As for the argument allowing broadsheet dailies: Gorkhapatra the narrow interests of the NMS foreigners run print-media would and The Rising Nepal and the state byaparis, who, doubting their own lead to the ‘Sikkimisation of Nepal’, ran them as it still does. Now there abilities, worry that foreigners might all one can say that the good are more than 12 broadsheets, all just run newspapers well and give editors seems to have too little faith run by private money which has better value to readers and in his compatriots to make decisions been invested in attracting talented advertisers, thereby decreasing their for themselves. l 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 NATION #182 9

SUNIL POKHREL Tarai crudeRed tape snarls The king and the people need each other ing Gyanendra used the word ‘people’ 25 times in the full text of epal is not just rich in exploration the 2,300-word interview that appeared on the online version of hydropower, it also has big for oil and gas in Royal role deposits of oil and gas. the Time magazine last week. The thrust of the interview was Theoretically, the Nepal tarai is a vast Nepal contained in one sentence: “Stop saying ‘me’. Say ‘us.’ Stop saying ‘party’. repository of subterranean Say ‘people’.” Nhydrocarbon. But arcane tax laws and KHe concludes the interview by saying: “If the people are happy, the lack of political will have hindered king is happy. And my fear is that we might be heading for a ditch if the prospecting. Gyawali says several other oil people, their grievances and their betterment are not thought of. I put Experts at the Department of companies had shown an interest in myself in their shoes every night.” Mines and Geology say the northern prospecting. In fact, France’s CGG part of the Ganga Basin has ideal carried out aeromagnetic and seismic tally with laws in neighbouring LONDON EYE The interview probably leaves a geomorphological conditions for oil reflection surveys along the tarai. countries. Robin Raj positive impression on a reader not deposits similar to the ones found in During the Indian blockade in 1989- Gyawali asks testily: “The success closely following Nepali politics. But Assam. The presence of gas seeps in 90, Panchayat leaders made some rate in oil prospecting is 10 percent, for those of us involved in researching and analysing the Nepali political Muktinath and along the Himalayan political capital out of sloganeering there is a huge risk factor. How can law scene, it does not appear any different from what the Kangresis, Emales, midhills also prove that there is that Nepal should find its own oil. But makers treat oil in the same way as something down there. Analysis of rock officials say political leaders have noodles?” The Income Tax Law 2058 Maoists and others have been saying. In short, the king is sounding like a samples from Dailekh and Dang never been really serious about has defined a strict timeframe to politician. strongly indicate the presence of looking for it. “We are so mesmerised recover the capital cost of exploration, King Gyanendra reiterates his desire to play a “constructive role”. It petroleum. Indian test drills in the by hydropower, that we only paid lip which is not the case in India where may now be time for us to evaluate whether his role so far has been Ganga plains south of the border have service to oil and gas,” admitted one the prospectors are not required to pay constructive or not. Independent commentators and scholars, within also shown positive traces of official. taxes during the recovery period. Nepal and outside, will do that, and history will judge if their assessment hydrocarbon deposits. The government finally called for The legislation further proposes “There is oil in Nepal, and we international bids and in 1997 the US- a 10 percent repatriation tax with 30 is correct. have had oil prospecting contracts, but based Texana Resources proposed to percent income tax and a 100 percent But the real question is there have been all kinds of explore Block 3 in Nepalganj and bank guarantee. But the Ministry of whether politics is the arena bureauractic hurdles in getting the oil Block 5 in Chitwan. By that time, the Finance is said to be reluctant to for a constitutional monarch out,” explains Bharat Mani Gyawali, Maoist insurgency was already budge. to play a constructive role. chief of the Petroleum Exploration creating problems and Texana backed Cairn has written to the department Promotion Project. out, using the force majeure clause. saying that unless the laws are Can a king address the The tarai and Siwalik along The company couldn’t get hold of the changed it doesn’t see any viability suffering of the Nepali Nepal’s southern border have been explosives required to create the prospecting for oil and gas in Nepal people by playing politics? Is divided into 10 exploration blocks of artificial seismic waves to test for and has decided to pull out. “Our laws, politics the way to serve and 5,000 sq km each. In 1989-90 Shell deposits, official say. red tape and the bureaucratic hoops speak on their behalf? Nepal BV carried out test drilling in The Department of Mines and that we make foreign investors jump A constitutional king’s Block 10, including geochemical Geology then held talks with Cairn through are the biggest deterrent to analysis of seep samples. The Energy PLC which has experience potential investors,” says Gyawali. “Our role is to address the concerns company also carried out a gravity and prospecting in South Asia, and the demand for oil is growing, there are of the people by being non- seismic survey to map out possible group agreed to resume exploration refineries right across the border from political, or by rising above deposit sites. However, an exploratory work. But Cairn is said to be unhappy Nepal. We must have a strategy and well turned out to be dry. about Nepali tax laws which do not get moving.” politics. Not to be dragged l into day-to-day controversy, but to remain above it. Let the politicians deal with politics, the monarch’s role should be to be a role model for development, to set new standards for charity and relief that others can follow. Adding luxury cars to the palace’s fleet of limousines sends the wrong message at the wrong time. Approving a higher budget for the royal household when hundreds of thousands of Nepalis are grieving is inappropriate. An ideal move for King Gyanendra at the present time would be to set up a charitable trust in his brother’s name and in memory of relatives slain on 1 June 2001, financed by their assets. But who is going to tell the king? Royals in other countries have set examples by being patrons of charitable institutions and development causes. In a country devastated by war, with hundreds of thousands internally displaced, thousands orphaned and bereaved, such a royal role is even more urgently required. Once such an initiative is launched, there will be no shortage of philanthropists and charities inside and outside Nepal who will pour in counterpart funds for relief to support such a pious cause started by none other than the monarch himself. Britain is a country which members of Nepal’s royal family visit every year. It must have come to their notice that in Britain the members of the royal family raise hundreds of millions of pounds for charitable causes to make up for what the state spends on them. We in Nepal should have a foundation modeled on the ‘Prince’s Trust’ which raises money for charitable causes that bring immediate relief to the disadvantaged. By all accounts, King Gyanendra is an intelligent man. But intelligence may not be enough to change the course of history and redefine the role of the 21st century monarch as he wants to do. That needs wisdom, statesmanship, social commitment and sincerity. A lot of it is also about perception, and the public’s perception should be of a monarch who is above rhetoric, who is not just playing politics. Our politicians have done that for too long. The king and his family need to be involved in activities that directly benefit the people, and for once really put themselves in the people’s shoes. l Robin Raj is a London-based researcher. 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 10 CONSERVATION #182

Purists don’t like the ethnic chic that goes with modern architectural restoration in Patan IdentityMUDITA BAJRACHARYA crisis

BEFORE AND AFTER: Two wings of the Chadaun Chapal Chhen in Chyasal Tole in Patan before and after restoration in 2001.

t a time when the city cores building’s owner, is part of a new It is an age-old debate between tear it down. In its place today is a sustaining so we don’t have to of the Valley’s town are seeing generation of house-owners at the how much compromise is too much five-storey building with a concrete depend on donations from a revival of traditional forefront of a Newari architectural in the struggle between heritage skeleton and a traditional brick and guthiyars,” he told us. “People architecture, some heritage renaissance in Patan. But instead of conservation and modern living. tile façade. The guthi rents the floors should be glad that we didn’t conservationists are worried that new being praised for his effort, he is Should we be thankful that there is out to businesses, shops and make it like a concrete box, we are restorationA techniques are not true getting criticism from at least some respect for the past, or functions to finance its festivals and true to our traditions.” to the original building designs. conservationists who say it disturbs aim for a purity of form that may other pujas. Patan Mayor Buddhi Raj In the centre of Patan, a 400- the harmony of the old town. never be attainable? Guthi member Babulal Bajracharya admits that some guthi year-old street front building was Chapal Chhen at Chhaya Bahal Maharjan brushes aside criticism buildings in his historic town are torn down recently. It wasn’t was a 300-year-old guthi building that his new building is not in being demolished and the new replaced with a modern glass and in Patan in which the Jyapu Samaj harmony with the city’s old heart. structures are not rebuilt according concrete block, but a modern conducted rituals and bhoj. The “We have rebuilt it independently to traditional designs or five-story apartment with a brick two-storey structure was falling apart in a traditional style, and it is part of dimensions. But he adds: “We façade, tile brick roof, traditional and in 1999, the guthi decided to our effort to make the guthi self- appreciate the collective effort of carved windows and doors. locals in Patan to preserve their Krishna Maharjan, the traditional architecture, and we don’t want to discourage that.” In Chyasal Tole, 300-year-old Tadaun Chapal guthi buildings belonging to the Byanjakar Samaj were demolished three years ago and the traditional mud and mortar buildings were replaced with modern structures. The reconstruction and designs were overseen by the German-aided Urban Development through Local Effort (UDLE) project. Many guthiyars donated money for the reconstruction, and locals contributed voluntary labour. The chairman of the Chyasal Tile Sudhar Samiti, Govinda Man HOW ORIGINAL? This five-storey guthi building at Chapal Chhen at Chhaya Bahal ALL PICS: MUDITA BAJRACHARYA Byanjakar justifies the replaced a two-storey original, and the chairman of Ward 21, Babu Lal Maharjan (inset) restoration: “The previous 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 CONSERVATION #182 11 planners and architects are thankful that there is at least some sensitivity to the past, even if it is not 100 percent pure. Heritage conservations need to balance the outside look with the changing lifestyles of house-owners and their need for modern interiors with higher ceilings, more light, more ventilation and better insulation against noise and heat. Increasing economic pressure Jharana Joshi, and the fragmentation of joint conservation officer at UMEDP families have resulted in the vertical subdivision of houses, damaging structure was weak and used up their original character. In the a lot of space, we have changed absence of technical supervision, the interior while keeping the municipal oversight and the lack of exterior character of the subsidies for conservation, more buildings,” he said. Indeed, there and more houses are reconstructed has been an effort to conserve the rather than renovated. original brick masonry and retain Dilendra Raj Shrestha of Third GOOD AS NEW: The restored Ward 8 building and ward chairman, Prem Maharjan (inset) the essence of Newari World Guest House in Patan has architecture in Chyasal. renovated his neo-classical house, Archaelogy, the Town Development scoff at Austrian architects who blocks adjacent to it. But Jharana Joshi, a and says: “We must prioritise Committee and the priorities of restored the eastern wing of the Joshi says traditional houses conservation officer with the houses according to period and state various donor-assisted projects have Patan Museum with visible steel have their drawbacks: they are dark, Urban Management and of dilapidation and have a clear clashed in Patan, creating confusion. beams to make the structure damp, have low ceilings and leaky Economic Diversification Project vision about what is realistically There is resistance to take earthquake proof. roofs. But many of these can be (UMEDP) doesn’t agree. “It is a achievable.” Shrestha has overseen responsibility and many urban For Jharana Joshi at addressed with glass windows, great loss to replace the Tadaun the renovation of an old guthi house house-owners simply use loopholes UMEDP, a model for true damp-proof foundations and Chapal with a drastically with help from UNESCO into a in the law to rebuild without any restoration should be like the water-resistant roof tiles. “In different structure, it has altered bed and breakfast pension in Patan thought to conservation. rebuilding of the Ward 8 addition, we can take advantage the architectural history of the that is true to the town’s historical There is an added consideration: building. It is true to the original of the insulation properties of the place.” heritage. In future, this could be a which historical period should proportions, using the same local thick walls with mud and mortar In this tug-o’-war between sustainable model for income from restoration be true to? In restoring materials so that conservation construction,” she adds. conservation and modern heritage tourism to finance more the Patan Durbar Square, for does not become a caricature of Ward 8 chairman, Prem architectural preservation, it is restoration. At present, Patan’s instance, does one go back to the the building that it replaced. Maharjan is happy with his hard to say when the threshold bylaws encourage the adoption of pre-1934 earthquake, or restore the Indeed, the Ward 8 building building. “We nearly went for a of genuine heritage restoration ‘traditional Nepali style’ but fail to temples and buildings to the with the vegetation on its roof is cement building, because we has been crossed. And at a time explain what these are. southern-European styles adopted an exact replica of the two-storey thought it would be more durable, when there is so much The overlapping responsibilities by the Ranas with stucco window house it replaced, and is dwarfed but decided on the brick face and destruction going on, most town of the municipality, Department of borders and venetian blinds? Purists by hideous concrete apartment traditional elements so that we could set an example for others about our heritage.” l 12 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF RICE 2004 Wild about

ice production is arguably the most important varieties. As the science of plant breeding developed, countries, economic activity on the planet. And, for those who organisations, institutes and even some private companies also yawn and ask what an international year tag can shared their varieties. Countries all over Asia have introduced Rachieve, it may be useful to go back to 1966, which FAO plant variety rights legislation to protect their biological assets declared International Rice Year. That was also the year the and, as part of this process, laid claim to the rice varieties they Green Revolution started sweeping across Asia, the great leap can justifiably call theirs. forward in rice that built the foundation of food security and l Nutrition. While most people prefer rice polished white, ricerural stability that Asia needed for its subsequent economic a small but growing minority like it brown. In its white form, development. the grain lacks micronutrients essential to human health. Most So will the current rice consumers get these micronutrients from dishes they eat COMMENT International Year of Rice with rice, rather than from rice itself. Poor rice consumers, Ronald P Cantrell help give birth to another who can’t always afford the meat and vegetables they should revolution in Asia’s rural have with their rice, often suffer from poor nutrition. Scientists areas? 2004 will see Asia awash with rice festivals, rice confer- are now working on developing rice varieties that are high in ences and rice workshops, allowing this simple grain to attract iron and vitamin A, the developing world’s two worst dietary the attention of the media, politicians, government officials and deficiencies. hundreds of public and civil organisations. l Water. Using traditional irrigation methods, producing Perhaps 2004 will be the year when the people of Asia one kg of rice can take up to 4,000 litres of water. Today, half realise that we share one common value or belief: a deep of Asia’s developed freshwater resources are used to irrigate appreciation of rice. More than politics, religion or culture, rice rice. Now is the time to develop technologies to allow farmers is the one thing that truly defines Asia, and there is no doubt to grow as much rice they do now using much less water. that the food that defines the region is already undergoing some l Rice research. Funding for public-sector rice research at revolutionary changes. the national, regional and international level is stagnating, and No one can sustain economic development without finding the interest that the private sector has shown in recent years a way to lift rice farmers out of poverty. This is an especially appears to be waning. In the heyday of the Green Revolution crucial challenge for the world’s two most populous nations: from the 1960s to the early 1980s, the rice-producing nations China and India, and the country with the largest Muslim of Asia managed to maintain annual yield increases of 2.5 population, Indonesia. percent and production increases of over 3 percent. However, There are other revolutionary changes and challenges: starting in the middle of the 1980s, yield growth has slowed by l The sequencing of the rice genome. Some scientific almost half, and production growth has almost disappeared. As experts called the sequencing of the rice genome more a result, the rice-growing rural communities of many Asian important for mankind than the sequencing of the human nations are increasingly restless, trapped in poverty and genome. Much of this knowledge looks like it will be in the urgently in need of new strategies and fresh ideas to help them public domain and so available for researchers throughout the improve their lives. l We are developing world to use without the restrictions imposed by private ownership. Ronald P Cantrell is the director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, the Philippines. what we eat l Ownership. For generations, farmers freely shared 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 #182 13 There is another reason to protect Nepal’s wetlands: they are repositories of wild rice varieties

ost Nepalis do not need to set aside a latitude of wild rice growth reported in the Nijgadh in Bara. Many of these wetland sites, collect their seeds called tinna/tinni rice that year to ‘celebrate’ the importance of world. important habitats of wild rice, are being are eaten during the Chhat festival and fasts rice—it’s already their staple diet. In Nepal, various species of wild rice are degraded because of encroachment for like ekadashi. In the Lumbini area, wild rice MIndeed, rice is the main food for more than found in the plains, the Pokhara valley, conversion into rice fields, fishponds, extended (O rufipogon) has been culturally associated half of humanity. Archaeological evidence from Kamalpokhari in Palpa, Bulbule lake area in settlements and sedimentation. with the tarai ethnic communities. central Thailand shows that human beings Although local communities use wild rice In Nepal, farmers have developed and have cultivated rice for the past 6,000 years. during religious and cultural occasions, they grown more than 95 local aromatic and fine In Nepal, rice fields make up 325,000 are not fully aware of the value of these wetland rice varieties. Kaski district alone used to have hectares, accounting for most of the genetic resources and often consider it a weed. more than 75 local varieties. Today only 11 country’s total cultivated land area. Nepal’s Government policy has also not given enough varieties are widely grown. The remaining are Jumli marshi dhan is a cold tolerant variety importance to the conservation of wild rice, being replaced or discontinued because of that is the world’s highest-growing rice— and these habitats may soon be lost forever. modern, higher yielding ‘improved’ seeds. cultivated at altitudes of nearly 3,000 metres. Nepal has four species of wild rice of Farmers in Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve used We will hear a lot about rice in 2004. which one is an upland species and the to cultivate multiple varieties of rice to reduce But for us in Nepal it is important to look at others are mostly found in tarai wetlands. crop depredation and damage from wild the places from where this resource was taken A weedy wild rice sometimes occurs in tarai animals. These varieties have now been and locally developed by farmers over wetlands mixed with cultivated rice. The wild replaced with modern ones. centuries. The last of our wild wetlands still relatives of rice grown are important because Despite the potential of wild rice, little has hosts this diversity. Wild rice species occur they contain the original genetic material of been done to study its significant traits and in the Himalayan foothills, Asian river deltas, cultivated rice. Although it is fit for human breeding habits. The government seems more Caribbean islands, Amazon River basin and Wild rice from Ajingara Tal in Kapilbastu consumption, it is not cultivated because interested in importing new modern hybrid inland swamplands of southern and western harvesting is tedious. Wild rice is usually seeds than conserving native wild rice species. Africa. Although rice is found mostly in tropical Surkhet, Kapilvastu, Nepalganj, the Lothar harvested for cattle feed. To protect Nepal’s wild rice and its genetic areas, the existence of one species (Oryza forest of Chitwan, the Kankai Irrigation Every year from October-December, the resource for posterity, we need to protect our rufipogon) in Pokhara and surrounding the Headwork area of Jhapa, the Sundarpur people around Ajingara Lake in Kapilbastu tie wetlands where they grow. l Bulbule Lake area of Surkhet is the highest Agricultural Farm area of Kanchanpur and cloth and plastic bags on wild rice plants to (Sameer Karki)

ifty years ago,Our a Japanese agricultural rice consultant arrived in Nepal to advise farmers on the latest agricultural techniques. He Freturned home earlier than anticipated, saying there was nothing he could teach Nepali rice farmers. The production of rice was good, the taste even better, and entire families sustained themselves using traditional methods to plant an astounding variety of rice: Gudgude Marsi, Thauli, Mansara, Anadi, Rajbhog, Krishnabhog, Samundra Pheenz, Phalame. Franken-rice At Nepal Agricultural Research Council All that glitters may not be gold (NARC) Bhola Man Singh Basnet, says this year Last year, 67.7 million hectares of genetically modified crops Nepal has recorded the highest yield ever: 2.9 tons were grown all over the world. Although most of the crop was of per hectare. But 79 percent of the rice fields grow the four main commercial kinds—soyabean, maize, cotton and high-yield hybrid rice, which means local varieties canola—it seems transgenic rice is going to be a major produce are being driven out. The International Rice of the very near future. And it won’t be long before the transgenic Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines rice seeds arrive in Nepal. preserves 1,800 local Nepali rice germplasm in a There are already over 160 patents granted or pending for refrigerated earthquake-proof vault. The gene bank various strains of GM rice. They contain genetic information includes the rich Tilki from Dang and the aromatic from the DNA of other species to give the rice traits ranging Jetho Budo from Pokhara. from bigger grain to insect resistance. The latest big thing centres on ‘golden rice’—containing a daffodil gene that “Local varieties are important because they are produces beta-carotene, a compound the human body converts disease, drought and insect-resistant,” explains to vitamin A. Basnet. IRRI’s Green Revolution rice provides It’s not commercially available yet, but many see golden rice higher yield, but lack the adaptability of local seeds. as the answer to the over one million child deaths each year In Kathmandu, some of the more popular and the 300,000 cases of blindness caused by severe vitamin improved varieties found in the market include A deficiency. Biotech giant Monsanto has even announced it will Khumal-4, a fine non-glutinous rice and give away free licenses to use its patented technology for golden Manjushree-2, another popular fine rice. rice and other genetically engineered rice varieties in order to Thaichung-176 is a glutinous rice very popular in help with these problems. Kathmandu, particularly among the Newars to MIN BAJRACHARYA However, all that glitters is not gold. In addition to the usual make chiura and jand. Nepalis prefer the less sticky arguments against GM crops, critics of golden rice protest that non-glutinous rice because it is easier to eat with the Pokhreli and Jeera Maseeno are more popular among even with the added nutrients, it would be nearly impossible to get the required vitamin A from a normal serving of rice. Some fingers. the middle- and higher-middle class, while Basmati are sceptical of the longterm effects of the crop—a valid concern Those eager to sample Nepali rice needn’t varies according to quality. Khanal’s personal considering some of the other GM ‘miracles’ gone wrong in the worry. It’s Binita Khanal’s business to know where favourite is Jeera Maseeno: “It’s good for my entire past. Others doubt that it can really be adapted to local growing local varieties are grown and make them available to household, my employees and my children alike. We conditions any time soon. A few even see golden rice as a Kathmandulays through her direct selling Bazar all eat the same quality of rice and Jeera Maseeno is Trojan Horse that is to be sent into the developing world to get Enterprises Network which provides pulses, tea, oil, average.” people used to the idea of GM foods before less benign crops spices, rice and more bought directly from the Her own experience has been that rice grown in are introduced. producers. the belt spanning Sundarijal to Panauti tastes best. Since over half of the world’s population’s staple diet is rice, There are four main Nepali rice found in To those who want to sample different varieties of the argument that golden rice and other fortified strains may be Kathmandu: Mansuli, Pokhrali, Jeera Maseeno and rice, the old quarter of Asan and Mangal Bazar have the solution to current malnutrition problems is compelling. l several varieties of Basmati. The most popular is a lot to offer. The ancient shops sell an astounding (Jemima Sherpa) Mansuli which is cheaper with higher yields. variety of rice piled into old oil tins, and the vendors will guide you through the properties of each rice. l 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 14 PR0FILE #182 A new biography celebrates the life and works of one of Nepal’s Lain’s legacy artistic giants

Lain Singh Bangdel’s ‘Struggle for Democreacy’, 1990, painted in Nepal (left). Bangdel with BP Koirala and his wife, Manu Kumari in London in 1960 (below, left) and with Indian director Satyajit Ray in Kathmandu in 1987.

to some of his best works like the Muna-Madan series, Mother Nepal (1953), Pensive Mood (1955) and Famine in Bengal (1856-59). He was influenced by existential writers like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Bangdel met Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and began leaning towards an abstract style influenced by nature. Bangdel and Manu Kumari corresponded and in 1953 he proposed to her. She wrote back confused, concerned what her parents would say. She was the eldest child of Chatra Singh Thapa, a descendent of General Amar Singh Thapa. They were married in Paris during spring. In 1957, BP Koirala came to SRADDHA BASNYAT his other passion—words. He passed his time in Calcutta Bangdel met Europe and met Bangdel. He came the entrance exams to the University many influential people and made again in 1960, when the couple rom the son of a Darjeeling tea paintings. As a young boy, of Calcutta. Dad Ranglal who would lasting friendships. Among them: were living in London. Koirala tried estate clerk, he eventually Bangdel waited for Teej when he have preferred his son to be a doctor dramatist Balkrishna Sama who to persuade Bangdel to return to became an artist-scholar could paint colourful motifs on or teacher, gave Bangdel some rebelled against his Rana ancestry Nepal but the Bangdels had plans recognised at home and abroad for the walls of the festival’s money but told him he’d be on his and Satyajit Ray, whose artistic to migrate to Canada. Then in his immense contribution to the maitighar. His upbringing in a own. cinematography made strong social 1961, while on a state visit to FNepali art. The life and work of Lain Hindu family, and schooling by In July 1939, Bangdel headed statements, became Bangdel’s close London, King Mahendra asked Singh Bangdel is the subject of Protestant and Hindu educators to Calcutta, his first serious move friends. Bangdel when he would return to Against the Current: The Life of Lain taught Bangdel to respect all toward studying art at the Calcutta At the age of 31, Bangdel had a Nepal. Bangdel felt committed. Singh Bangdel Writer, Painter and religions. But father, Ranglal, Arts College. Calcutta was a place chance to go to Paris after General Unsure of their decision, the Art Historian of Nepal written by didn’t allow him to play with the where young intellectuals, artists and Kaiser Shamsher JB Rana, impressed two came to Nepal where their only established Nepal-hand Don children of common labourers, politicians came together in war-time by Bangdel’s portrait of Balkrishna child Dina was born in 1963. For Messerschmidt with Bangdel’s having worked hard to raise his pre-independence India. In an Sama, gave him Rs 5,000. On route the next three decades Bangdel daughter, Dina, currently an art family’s status. It was during his effort to create an identity for he spent four months in London. dedicated much of his time to the historian at Ohio State University. enforced solitude that Bangdel himself, Bangdel changed his There he became reacquainted with Royal Nepal Academy, making the Messerschmidt, an anthropologist began to sketch—his inspiration surname from Rai to Bangdel, the Manu Kumari Thapa whom he Nepal Association of Fine Arts who has spent nearly 30 years in found in nature’s unparalleled name of his clan. knew from Darjeeling and Calcutta. efficient and co-founded the Nepal Nepal, was intrigued by Bangdel and palette. But for all this social and He toured museums and galleries, Art Council. He also turned himself approached him about writing a In high school during the political activity around him, losing himself in the works of into an art historian and was biography. “Lain wrote like a painter, 1930s, Bangdel was influenced by Bangdel got through school relying Leonardo de Vinci and Rembrandt. fascinated with Kathmandu’s he used the pen like a brush. Now three Nepali intellectuals: poet on his art and writings to express his Paris was overwhelming. unique heritage which had been little I’m painting him in words,” says Dharnidhar Koirala, Parasmani deep humanitarian concerns, Everything was new—the language, studied and was falling prey to Messerschmidt. Pradhan, a Nepali language teacher remaining apolitical. In 1945, he art, techniques, styles. Bangdel antique smugglers. So Bangdel set Growing up in a Nepali migrant and Suryabikram Gewali, graduated at the top of his class, and learned French and began to paint out to document Nepal’s ancient family in Darjeelingtown, as they collectively known as ‘SuDhaPa’. continued to live and work in again in a tiny studio apartment. heritage, particularly stone called it, Bangdel remembers a feeling Gewali introduced Bangdel to the Calcutta for several more years. Winters were bitterly cold but he sculptures, producing books like of disconnect, of rootlesssness, that 19th century poet Bhanubhakta Bangdel produced three novels survived, sometimes on a single Early Sculptures of Nepal (1982), was later reflected in his novels and Acharya and Bangdel discovered between 1948 and 1951. During apple a day. These trials gave birth 2500 years of Nepali Art (1987) and Inventory of Stone Sculptures of the Kathmandu Valley (1995). His most popular and most important book, however, was Stolen Images of Nepal (1989), documenting 300 missing religious objects from Kathmandu. Bangdel died during Dasai of 2002. He wrote and painted to the very end. Against the Current by Don Messerschmidt is due to be released this month. Order forms are at Mandala Book Point for the special limited edition available only in Nepal at Rs 850. l 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 ASIA #182 15

tend to gain disproportionately from notorious for attacks on and gaping regional disparities. All these ANALYSIS high levels of opposition disunity, persecution of religious minorities, factors make for a robust fight in the Praful Bidwai rather from their own popularity.) besides vandalism and rabid next elections. To win an absolute India’s ruling Vajpayee’sCrucial to these efforts is the intolerance. Eleven years ago, the gamblemajority on its own, the BJP would Indian National Congress’ decision BJP and its associates razed to the have to win 50 percent more seats party faces a ith the announcement by not to go in alone and to explore the ground a 16th century mosque in than it currently holds. There is no India’s ruling coalition broadest possible coalition with Uttar Pradesh, which they regarded way it can do this—short of a wave fierce time at that it will ask for the other parties. The Congress party, as a symbol of the Muslim conquest in its favour and its allies’ agreement the upcoming dissolution of the Lower House of which has ruled India for more than of Hindu India in the Middle Ages. to concede constituencies to it. Parliament on 6 February, the 45 years of the 56 years of (Historians have a very different, The BJP has a limited base, polls W 1999 scores. However, the country is all set for national independence, until recently used to multicultural, multi-religious, view mainly in central and western India. opposition cannot win the electoral elections to get underway probably consider itself the natural party of of India’s past). As for the NDA, it reached a race unless it can project an five months before the term of the governance and was loathe to form Less than two years ago, the saturation point in a number of alternative set of policies and visions House ends. By all indications, it coalitions. Recent defeats in three Hindu-nationalists butchered over states where it holds a good amount that are of relevance to, and catch will be a contentious, sharp and important state assembly elections 2,000 Muslims in the state of or majority of seats. It will not be the imagination of, a majority of the bitter fight. Contrary to appearances, have jolted the Congress out of its Gujarat in retaliation for the burning easy to better this performance. The population. It has yet to work out a the Hindu-nationalist, right-wing arrogance and complacency. alive of 60 Hindu-nationalist cadres opposition, by contrast, has a much common minimum program or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not It is now negotiating alliances in a railway train—for which the higher chance of improving on its manifesto. Nor has the opposition about to sweep the polls or win a with other parties from Kashmir in victimised Muslims were in no way been able to form a single common clear parliamentary majority on its the north to Tamil Nadu in the deep responsible. India’s religious front. (IPS) own. south and from Maharashtra in the minorities, some 180 million l The ruling multiparty National west to the seven small north-eastern people—or bigger than Brazil’s Democratic Alliance (NDA), which states. A third reason why the population—have never felt more the BJP dominates, might be hard coming elections will be closely insecure than under the BJP’s rule. put to repeat its performance in the fought is that in India, the party or The opposition sees the BJP as a last elections in 1999. Prime parties in power tend to suffer the major menace to India’s secular Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee disadvantage of incumbency. In the Constitution and pluralist himself has warned his party that the past 30 years, a ruling coalition has democracy. The BJP has also electoral battle will be fierce. There been returned to power at the promoted brazenly elitist are several reasons for this, and at national level only once in two neoliberal economic policies, least four are important. consecutive elections. The Indian which have destroyed public First, the NDA is a shrinking voter prefers to punish parties rather services and undermined food entity, unlike five years ago. In the than reward them. security while further enriching past 15 months, six of its original 22 The BJP/NDA rode on the anti- the already rich. constituents have quit the alliance, incumbency wave in 1998, when the In the last three years of including regional parties from ruling centre-Left coalition NDA rule, India’s GDP growth southern Tamil Nadu state and collapsed. Today, the NDA faces the slowed down. But much worse smaller organisations representing incumbent’s disadvantage. Finally, was the rise in unemployment, groups like Dalits (untouchables) the BJP has sharply polarised Indian especially in the rural areas where from eastern Bihar state and farmers society and politics as never before. 70 percent of India’s population in the western part of Uttar Pradesh, There are two main lines of division: lives. The economy only absorbs India’s most populous state. one along the issue of religion and about a third of the new entrants The biggest blow to the BJP was politics, which the BJP mixes into the job market. But the incomes the breakdown of its alliance in dangerously; and the other, on of the top tenth of the population Uttar Pradesh with the strong Dalit economic policies with sharp class have substantially increased— Bahujan Samaj Party and that party’s biases. creating what the government decision to oppose the BJP tooth The BJP is an ideologically crudely terms the ‘feel good’ or and nail in the coming elections. driven party that stands for Hindu ‘India Shining’ factor publicised in Second, the anti-NDA opposition is supremacism and a Hindu state, expensive television and print making serious efforts to form which will privilege this 80 percent advertisements. alliances so as not to divide its vote. majority. The party is closely tied to India has never experienced such (Traditionally, ruling parties in India extremist and violent organisations sharp income polarities or such

China is determined to launch it’s own interplanetary quest officials have hailed the country’s first manned Scientific Administration (NASA), to set up a spaceSpace flight on 15 October last year as a “giant race moon base by 2020 and use the mission as a leap” and declared that China’s space program springboard for future manned trips to Mars was going according to timetable. and beyond. Unveiling his blueprint for space “Although the Chinese government has yet quest in January, Bush invited other countries to list its moon-probe program as a government- to participate in the program. “The vision I funded project, space experts have made outline today is a journey, not a race, and I call preparations for the project as it is almost certain on other nations to join us on this journey in a to be approved,’’ said a Xinhua news agency spirit of cooperation and friendship,” Bush said. recently. The government’s nod to the As the third country to send a person in programme could come as early as March, when space after Russia and the United States, China the National People’s Congress, or China’s clearly ranks high on the list of countries that Parliament, convenes its annual session. ANTOANETA BEZLOVA in BEIJING are aiming for space exploration. But if history In December, state media already quoted is any judge, China may well decide it wants to hina, a nascent space power, has been development of its lunar probe and preparing Sun Laiyan, deputy director of China National walk down its own road. Before sending shying away from accepting US for the country’s second manned space flight. Space Administration, as saying that a lunar- ‘taikonaut’ Yang Liwei in space last year, 30 President George W Bush’s invitation After an extended break over Chinese New probe satellite was scheduled for launch by years after other nations have sent man in orbit, for space-faring nations to join his country’s Year, the training programme of 14 astronauts 2007. An unmanned lunar landing by 2010 will China rejected cheaper and quicker mission to Mars—and is now making clear that will resume in March, according to the Beijing follow it some five years before the deadline alternatives to putting a Chinese in orbit. Cthe United States will not be alone in its Youth Daily. It quoted Huang Weifan, director of envisaged by Bush for the United States to return Beijing turned down US President Ronald interplanetary quests. In December, China research at China Astronauts Selection and to the moon. Reagan’s 1984 invitation to launch the first announced it would embark on one of the most Training Institute, as saying that the ‘Shenzhou Under an ambitious scheme also announced Chinese into space on the US space shuttle ambitious space programs this year by 6’—China’s spacecraft scheduled for launch next in December, Bush wants the US and later declined a similar offer from Russian space agency, the National Aeronautic and President Boris Yeltsin. (IPS) launching 10 satellites, beginning year—would carry two people on board. Chinese l 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 16 INTERNATIONAL #182

It’s a country that dazzles and disappoints, where one finds miracles and monsters,“All the free education butand health no easypoor does answers not mean a life of Castro’sCOMMENT care gives a certain balance,” said aCubasqualor. Even World Bank Lydia Chavez prominent writer. “Their work is less president James Wolfensohn valuable,” he said referring to the acknowledged in 2001 that Cuba pesos Cubans earn in an economy had done a “great job” on n a rehearsal studio, a young sustained by dollar remittances from education and health care. Cuban ballet dancer turns through the foreign diaspora. But “it’s not a More recently, in discussing the the air, pivoting as though some total disaster because people have this Bank’s 2004 report Making invisible power has unfurled him in an balance.” Services Work for Poor People, arc. Then, without pause, he leaps So, unlike the East Europeans officials put Cuba among countries Ionce, twice and I gasp at the height of who overthrew their corrupt political like Sri Lanka, Costa Rica and his grandes jetés and then gasp again leaders in 1989, and some Latin China that “managed to achieve a because his pointed toe is heading Americans who did so more recently level of outcomes in health and right for a barre. in Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador, education that are extremely Welcome to Cuba, a country that Cubans have failed to rally against favourable.” This winter, the dazzles and disappoints, where one Castro. Yes, Castro jailed 75 Cuban government reinvested some finds miracles and monsters, but no independent journalists and others in of its income from tourism in easy answers. Cubans recognise the an April sweep—that is the monster upgrading schools that deteriorated contradictions as readily as any in him. But other dissidents remain in the years following the loss of outsider. Yet even as inflation rises free. That is the contradiction. Soviet aid. “Cubans are still and the 77-year-old dictator tightens Moreover, unlike other luxury- endeared by that,” said one percent. “If they had just given it out the embargo. We have a self- Internet access and closes the loving Latin American leaders, Cuban Western diplomat. equally to the entire Mexican imposed embargo. We limit economic openings that encouraged officials do not flaunt lavish lifestyles. Amazingly, many Latin America population,” Deverajan says, “it ourselves.” self-employment in the mid-1990s, it Among Latin American countries, leaders fail to make the connection would have reduced poverty by 13 More precisely, Castro limits is unlikely that Cubans will turn only Chile and Uruguay rate better between reducing poverty and their percent.” Cubans. They want to breathe, but Castro out before he dies. than Cuba in Transparency own popularity. Compare Castro’s Examples like this abound in life with a patriarchal tyrant can be The rabidly anti-Castro Cuban International’s corruption index. But campaign to improve schools to a Latin America, but it is a mistake for suffocating. Younger Cubans often exiles clustered in Miami argue that it this could change as dollars become poverty reduction program waged Castro to think that Latin America is sound like well-educated teenagers is fear that holds Cubans back, but hard to resist and Cubans use them to by Mexico’s Institutional the competition. Cubans don’t think with parents who are too strict. that’s not true. A visitor in Cuba finds cut through ridiculous bureaucratic Revolutionary Party during a six- it is. Their touchstones are Madrid, They want to travel, publish what many ready to complain, but the hurdles. Already, the dollar has year period in the 1990’s. Paris and New York. An educated they want, dance when and where palpable fear and visceral hatred created a divide in living standards Mexico spent 1.2 percent of professional with a wife and two they want and experience the world rampant in El Salvador and Chile in between those who have greenbacks GDP per year to provide basic children takes a breath when he as Castro experienced it. the 1980s is absent in today’s Cuba. and those who don’t. services to communities in Mexico. recalls a trip to Spain. “It’s hard to “It’s not my fight,” says one 28- Instead there is a kind of paralysis – Despite a moribund economy, According to Santa Deverajan, the explain how I felt when I went there. year-old Cuban, referring to the born of a mix of loyalty, fear and Castro still delivers what the majority director of the World Bank’s It wasn’t like another world or political battle of communism versus indoctrination—as they grudgingly of Latin American residents fail to World Development Report 2004, another planet; it was like another capitalism that keeps him trapped on wait for Castro to expire. get—free health care and education some studies showed that the galaxy.” With family in Spain, he the island. “I’m a new generation. I Unlike many of Latin America’s and a relatively drug and crime-free program could have reduced could immigrate, but he doesn’t want to see as they had the chance freely elected governments, Castro has environment. With more than 40 poverty by as much as 64 percent. consider that option seriously. “This to see.” l (© Project Syndicate) actually provided his constituents percent of Latin America’s population Instead, the money was doled out is where I want to live, but 5 percent Lydia Chavez, a Professor at the with public services—and without living in poverty, Cuba stands out as to municipalities based on political of the way things are run has got to University of California at Berkeley, is earning a reputation for corruption. an example of a country where being loyalty, so poverty fell by only 3 change. They blame everything on now editing a book about Cuba. Money flow for water challenged USCold foreign War aid budget cast he European Union has come under fire from NGOs over a new initiative to fund water resources. The European Commission, takeswell over a decade. a familiar Under his plan, militaryroute spending, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), adopted a proposal which already constitutes roughly one-half of the world’s to allocate $1.2 billion to improve access to water and sanitation for total military expenditures, would rise by some seven the Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) bloc. The group comprises percent, to $402 billion in FY 2005, which begins 1 T79 countries. Forty of these are considered to be among the least October. developed countries (LDC). They are economically vulnerable and That figure does not include an anticipated $50 billion heavily dependent on EU aid. The Commission’s proposal follows, in part, a commitment made more that the administration is expected to request to at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg fund military and related operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2002 to deliver on the millennium development goal of halving the later in the year. The projected deficit for FY 2005 now number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic stands at some $521 billion, an amount so great that even sanitation by 2015. About 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking JIM LOBE in WASHINGTON the normally deferential International Monetary Fund water, and 2.4 billion people to sanitation. Despite progress towards (IMF) warned recently the United States is approaching a these goals, the Commission says funds remain scarce. Officials say a f the ‘war on terror’ is beginning to look increasingly fiscal crisis that threatens global financial stability. further $52.2 billion is needed to meet water and sanitation targets. Countries considered critical in the war on terror will The Commission had launched the ACP Water Fund last May, but like the Cold War, then President George W Bush’s the proposal was rejected by the European Council, which brings fiscal year 2005 foreign-aid request will not change that see significant increases in credits and aid, some of it from together the heads of state or government of the 15 member states of impression. While Bush proposes to increase funding for the Economic Support Fund (ESF), a category of security the EU and the president of the European Commission. The council the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and anti-AIDS assistance used during the Cold War to give support to was divided over the source of the funds. The source remains Imoney for African and Caribbean countries, he is also key geo-political allies. ESF will increase by more than 20 controversial. Money for the new initiative will be taken from reserve cutting funds for other key humanitarian and development percent to more than $2.5 billion if Bush’s proposal is funds of the EDF. ACP countries receive EU development aid through accounts. At the same time, the president is asking Congress approved. Pakistan will get nearly $700 million under the this fund. In 2000 member states allocated $15.8 billion to the fund to increase military and security assistance by more than plan, while aid to Afghanistan is slated at $1.2 billion. over five years, but kept $1.2 billion in reserve pending a mid-term review of the EDF. The review is expected later this year. $1 billion. Those two categories, which include anti-drug The increases in military and ESF funding will come The Commission says the new resources being provided through aid and proliferation categories, would make up nearly largely at the expense of humanitarian and development use of this reserve fund can promote new initiatives, provide technical one-third of all US foreign aid under Bush’s request, roughly assistance, whose core programs will be reduced by about assistance, build research and management capacity and “provide the same percentage of total foreign aid when the Cold $400 million in 2005. The new request also proposes only the flexible source of funding which is often the missing link in War reached its height during the 1980s. $200 million in FY 2005 for the Global Fund to Fight financing of sustainable water and sanitation-related programs.” But Under Bush’s proposals, credits for foreign militaries AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Congress last year civil society groups here say the Commission’s initiative will harm ACP to buy US weapons and equipment would increase by approved $550 million to the fund despite the countries. (IPS) l some $700 million to nearly $5 billion, the highest total in administration’s objections. l (IPS) 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY #182 17

Where diseases are concerned, NanoIt’s no small divide matter Jump potentialthe unexpected will happen STEPHEN LEAHY in BROOKLIN, CANADA we trap, enclose, and trade wild ANALYSIS animals, such as civet cats, which esearch in nanotechnology is thriving in developing countries but David Cavanagh seems to be the scenario that led to high-profile criticism of the new process from the likes of Prince SARS in humans. When a virus has Charles and Greenpeace will hurt investment and threatens to create been associated with its host for a a “nano divide” between rich and poor countries, says a new report. Despite its fantastic sounding name, the technology is actually very cientists long anticipated that very long time, it mutates to a form Rpractical for developing countries, where existing methods of treating an influenza virus will spread— that grows well without killing its sanitation, for example, do not actually work well or are very expensive, as now appears to be host, which would be a pointless says Abdallah Daar, from the University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for happening in Asia—from wild birds to outcome from an evolutionary Bioethics. “Nanotechnology could be better and cheaper, as well as being humans, causing a pandemic. But few standpoint. A well-understood serious. On occasion, however, the predictedS last year’s SARS epidemic, a example is that of influenza viruses in virus mutates to a lethal form that pneumonia caused by a coronavirus. wild fowl, where the virus causes can kill almost 100 percent of its Prior to 2003, coronaviruses ranked infections that are hard to detect. victims. It is a highly virulent very low on the scale of important But if an influenza virus jumps influenza virus such as this that is human diseases, mostly being from, say, ducks to chickens, there devastating chickens in parts of Asia. associated with the common cold. may be lethal consequences. The That influenza virus has also But we have long known that virus is not well adjusted to the “jumped” from the chickens to those coronaviruses can cause dreadful chicken, and some strains of the virus who look after them, killing some diseases in domestic animals. We “go berserk.” It is possible that the people. The influenza viruses simply haven’t learned our lesson. SARS coronavirus does not cause established in humans for several Indeed, events of the last couple serious disease in its natural, wild decades originated from bird viruses. of decades—the AIDS viruses animal hosts. Our problem arose The chronic fear of health authorities transferring from monkeys to man, when we enabled the virus to move is that, by chance, another avian followed by their global spread, being from its normal home into us, by influenza virus will mutate and just one example—should have “farming” civet cats and other spread from person to person to convinced us that, where diseases are animals. spawn a global pandemic. a profitable industry for countries in the South,” said Daar, one of the co-authors of the report published in the UK journal Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter at the level of atoms and molecules. Where biotechnology involves manipulating genes, the basic units of the genetic code, nanotechnology could potentially use atoms to build a gene. Over the past four years, the United States has invested several billion dollars to develop the technology. The market for nano products and services is predicted to reach $1 trillion by 2015, according to the US National Science Foundation. Countries like China, India and South Korea have well-established nano research centres and commercial products on the market. Thailand, Philippines, South Africa, Brazil and Chile are not far behind, with their governments funding the new technology. China is testing a nanotech bone scaffold in 26 patients. India plans to use quantum dots in a fast, low-cost diagnostic tool for treating tuberculosis. India is also commercialising a US-patented “nano particle” drug delivery system, while Brazil hopes its “nano magnets” can be used to clean up oil spills. But if calls for a moratorium on nano products by Greenpeace and Canada’s ETC Group are heeded, it could mean the end for nano in the South. “Just because ‘nano materials’ are small doesn’t mean they’re safe,” says Pat Mooney, ETC’s executive director. In 2002 the group began a campaign to ban commercial production of new products from nanotechnology until more research is done on the risks. concerned, the unexpected will Many human viral diseases have Human SARS might never have Regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe have begun happen. After all, the “jumping” of not been with us very long, perhaps spread to the extent that it did looking at the issue and to fund research. In the next few weeks, new viruses from wild animals to humans only 10-20,000 years. Most probably, (killing 800 people and devastating studies will be released saying some nanoparticles do pose a danger, is more common than we like to the viruses came from the wild economies) if the problem had been says Mooney. Daar and his co-authors acknowledge that nanotech could pose some risks. But they worry activists’ “fear-mongering” will result in think. animals in whose environment we openly acknowledged, with the a debate raging over the risks to the North, while any potential benefits to All types of virus strains or were encroaching. In other words, World Health Organization involved people in the South will be ignored. Mooney’s group plans to make a formal variants exist, somewhat akin to dogs the SARS outbreak was not a novel from the outset. Similar failings have proposal for an international convention on the evaluation of new existing as different breeds. event. Chinese researchers have exacerbated the consequences of technologies at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur, Veterinarians and farmers have long detected antibodies to SARS-like today’s bird-origin influenza Malaysia in February. (IPS) known of a coronavirus that can kill viruses in 2 percent of people from epidemic in Vietnam, Thailand and l 90 percent or more of young pigs. whom blood samples were taken in elsewhere. Some countries that have Less well known is the fact that cats 2001, a year before the disease first the greatest reservoirs of viruses with and dogs are infected by a coronavirus occurred. Many animal traders tested “jump potential” are ill-equipped that can also cause disease in pigs. in 2003 in a market in the epicentre politically, socially and institutionally The cat coronavirus can cause of the SARS outbreak also had the for the world to have confidence in lethal abdominal disease in cats, while antibodies, again with no history of them. some strains of the chicken disease. This shows that the SARS Humans will continue to push coronavirus cause kidney disease virus has jumped species, from against our existing boundaries, rather than just bronchitis. There is animals to man, on other occasions, whether out of necessity, curiosity, simply no room for complacency with benign consequences. pleasure, or greed, so more virus where viruses or bacteria, for that The difference in late 2002 was, jumps will undoubtedly occur. We matter, are concerned. perhaps, that people were infected must trust the WHO and its Evolution, whether of microbes with a variant that “went berserk” associates to come to our rescue, as or humans, involves pushing at the and grew too extensively in humans. it did so admirably with SARS. But margins, going a little bit further than It was bad luck. It is also possible those involved in human and yesterday or last year, driven by the that, again by chance, a benign SARS veterinary medicine must no longer need to find additional sources of virus from a civet cat mutated after it remain aloof from one another. food. Humans, unlike other creatures, infected people, becoming highly Recent events have made crystal may also desire more of everything. virulent. Both aspects of this clear what we already knew—that Whatever the reason, we invade other scenario—a virus jumping to a human and animal viruses are not creatures’ space by, say, cutting down strange host and then mutating to a mutually exclusive. l forests. devastating form—are familiar. (© Project Syndicate) As we come close to other Waterfowl commonly spread David Cavanagh is the head of animals, their viruses come closer to influenza viruses to chickens, Coronavirus Group at the Institute for us. The outcome can be the same if although the outcome usually is not Animal Health, UK. 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 18 FROM THE NEPALI PRESS #182 have to walk for three hours to agreement with Unlimited New

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ reach the nearest bazar where the Media Company to train RajdhaniBad medicine, 31 January cheapest rice costs about Rs 40 per 1,500 youth for medical kg. The food shortage is so acute transcription. The commission was Sub-standard drugs are being sold that the women hide in their supposed to pay Rs 25,000 per throughout the kingdom and it neighbour’s house to avoid feeding youth for nine months of training. Solutions and could risk the health of Nepalis, guests. There is danger of famine in Although the private company warns the Department of Drug 14 VDCs if the food shortage shut shop in six months, EPC Administration (DDA). During an worsens. Nanakali Malla’s husband made the full payment of more responses investigation of pharmacies in drowned while fishing, and now than Rs 20 million. Narayanghat, Butwal and her family of seven faces starvation.

Krishnanagar, drug inspectors “For many nights we have gone to

○○○○○○○ found sub-standard medicines were bed hungry,” says Malla. A few ○○○○○○○○○○ being sold that could even cause years ago, the local women were NepalNew Samacharpatra strategy, 3 February fatalities. The investigation started able to earn cash by selling land after the department received and cattle but the the rebels CHITWAN – The five agitating complaints of ineffective drugs prohibited these transactions. political parities have a new policy being sold by Indian companies About 4,000 families from 30 to focus the movement in 10 that were not authorised by the VDCs in the district have already districts that are directly connected DDA to supply medicines in migrated to India. The remainder to Kathmandu. Their strategy is to Nepal. According to procedure, lives in misery and terror. The Food ‘hit the highways’. A meeting of foreign pharmaceutical companies Depot Corporation has been trying district committee chairmen in have to register with the DDA for to distribute subsidised rice, wheat Chitwan decided that the permission to sell drugs in Nepal. and maize but the Maoists created MIN BAJRACHARYA movement would mainly be Sher Bahadur Deuba in Deshantar, 1 February Of the 6,000 brands, more than obstacles. The local women say if centred along the Prithbi and half are imported. Fake and something is not done quickly, they Tribhuban Rajpath. Chairmen of The king’s recent remarks that appeared in his interview with substandard drugs come in will all die of hunger. Chitwan, Gorkha, Tanahun, Time fanned the flames that razed the country. He appears to through the open border. The Dhading, Kaski, Nawalparasi and be in no mood to reconcile with the political parties of the latest investigation uncovered 11 Lamjung concluded with a 19- dissolved House of Representatives or to provide a solution unregistered companies involved in No○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ investigation point common agenda. They to the current crisis. He shows no indication that he is ready illegally supplying towns along the Spacetime, 3 February hinted bandhs may be announced to correct his unconstitutional move. The king seems to think Nepal-India border. These drugs in these districts. The district he does not have enough power in a multiparty democracy may have also penetrated the hill Just when the CIAA began leaders of five political parties have and the present constitution. areas. I don’t think he wants to be an absolute monarch. But the investigating possible corruption in decided to forward their advice to situation doesn’t allow him to be an active monarch either. If the Employment Promotion the central body, suggesting a 10- their words are to be believed, the Indian government and Commission (EPC), the day general strike to ‘thrash leaders of the political parties are for a constitutional Dying○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ of hunger government began the process of regression once and for all’. monarchy and the multiparty system. Rajdhani, 1 February dissolving the body. The According to Devi Gyawali, district I have always been a well-wisher of the king: as prime corruption watchdog started its secretary of CPN-UML, motorcycle minister, I tried to accommodate many of his interests. I was KALIKOT – In Khalagaun and investigation after obtaining proof rallies, mass meetings and rallies will criticised for doing that. The king desired the prestige that Padamghat, the state food depot that the EPC was involved in a be organised alongside bandhs. came with his monarchy. I gave utmost importance to that but has not supplied rice in four years. corruption scam for a training (Nepalnews.com Translation his real desire is now apparent—to become an active king. I The men have all migrated to India program worth more than Rs 20 Service) didn’t realise that till I was sacked. and those left behind—women, the million. An official with the CIAA The Maoists have not accepted the existence of other aged and children—are weak with said that the commission had

political parties. Even if the latter showed their willingness to hunger. The women can’t travel

○○○○○○○ examined the case and was ○○○○○○○○○○ deal with the rebels, the Maoists continue to physically attack because of the weather and Homeless people associated with the parties. They have not shown preparing to file a case against some Kantipur, 1 February restricted movement imposed by officials of the EPC. their commitment to democracy, so there is no way we can the Maoists. “We are gradually join hands with them. We’d rather go with the king. But that No sooner did the news of the NEW DELHI – Nepali children are losing all the food and water in our alliance is not going to be at the cost of the parties’ CIAA investigation come out, the fleeing their villages to escape villages,” says Sulchina Shah. Till a principles and values. But if the Maoists show they are government started the process of conflict. More than 100 children few months ago, there was a small committed to democracy and give up violence, we could join dissolving the EPC that has Prime who don’t have proper addresses grocery shop in the village where them too. Minister Thapa as its chairman. and names of parents have ended locals could buy food at reasonable The king doesn’t gain by blaming the parties. After all, we The EPC had reached an up in orphanages in the Indian are Nepalis. In a democracy, it is common to see the positive prices and on credit. Now they and negative aspects of political leaders. The people can punish them. Some say there have been no leaders in Nepal. So, should we import our leaders? We make mistakes, but they can be corrected. Article 127 was meant to clear hurdles, not add complications. Constitutional experts and drafters of the constitution have reasons to say that the king violated that constitutional provision when he made his move on 4 October 2002. True, I failed to hold elections on time. I accept my mistake. All the parties had recommended that the elections be postponed so I had little choice in the matter. I am not sorry for dissolving the House of Representatives. That was my compulsion. I consulted Girija Prasad Koirala on extending the state of emergency and he had no problem with it at the time. I also brought the issue up in an all-party meeting, where again it was met with no opposition. But when the proposal was registered in the parliament, they demanded its withdrawal. How can national security be treated like that? Should they not have thought that the move would bring the morale of security agencies down? Moreover, the ruling party should have helped the government. Instead, it created obstacles. The dissolution of the parliament was my own decision. The king was not involved. Protestors and Prime Minister During my recent meeting with the king, I proposed three House on fire: National pride ideas to resolve the present crisis. I told him that Girija Prasad Koirala was in favour of the restoration of parliament Hand: Foreign investment in media and that five parties are for an all-party government under the Rajdhani, 1 February leadership of Madhab Kumar Nepal. I said that although my QUOTE OF THE WEEK party’s primary demand is the reinstatement of my government, I have no problems if the king agrees to the “It’s appalling that student leaders are trying to dictate terms to political party heads.” reinstatement of an all-party government. The king didn’t react. He just listened. – Hiranyalal Shrestha, independent politician, in Janbhawana, 2 February

SELECTED MATERIAL TRANSLATED EVERY WEEK FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 FROM THE NEPALI PRESS #182 19 capital. “I came from Taruk district,” says 14-year-old Rahul who can’t remember the names of his parents. Manoj, another child, says he too came from Nepal but he does not know the name of his village or how he came to New Delhi. “So many requests come to Unhealthy us to return these children back to their villages, but without proper introductions and addresses, we have difficulties releasing them Deshantarjournalism, 1 February from the orphanages,” said Durga Prasad Aryal from the Migrant state and the Maoists use children: government and the Maoists was The publishing business of daily newspapers that has flourished they are often forced to work as meant to guide the conduct of under multiparty democracy has suddenly become an unhealthy Nepali Friends Group. In the past competition. This is evident in the row between APCA which year, the organisation has helped message bearers, informers and even both fighting sides. It included publishes The Himalayan Times (THT) and Kantipur Publications. 60 women and children to return bear arms. The state has used young human rights instruments that the The Nepal Media Society (NMS), made up of Nepali publishers, but lack of documents and proper children as informants. government has signed. The has given its full support to Kantipur publications. It has targeted introduction makes it difficult to Since the ‘People’s War’ began, Maoist rebels had also pledged that THT for publishing a misleading article about Buddha being born get authorisation from the courts about 300 children have lost their they would show their support in India, thus hurting the national sentiments of the Nepali people. to repatriate the children. lives. More than a 1,000 are and assistance to the proposal But it seems the real issue is over the low price of THT and its The organisation recently disabled because they were caught presented by the commission. We sister publication Annapurna Post. It is undeniable that these rescued about 45 Nepali children in crossfire or stepped on landmines repeatedly hear or sometimes even two are the largest selling dailies. In terms of circulation, THT is from Apollo Circus and sent them planted by both sides, according to a come across an incident where regarded as the top selling English language daily newspaper back home to Nepal. “It takes report from Child Development even the minimum level of human due to it’s price and has little to do with news, quality or design. months to clear the legal process Society. More than 1,500 children rights have been violated or Nepalis own less than five percent of APCA’s share, which has have been orphaned, over 10,000 breached. Citizens are denied the been dogged by controversy even before THT was launched. and produce documents for their The Himalayan Times, initially sold at Rs 2, dropped to Rs 1 release,” says Aryal. At times, when left homes and migrated to towns right to live their life with self- after The Kathmandu Post lowered its price from Rs 4 to Rs 1.50. finding evidence of their and to India. About 70 percent of respect and dignity. It is important The fight between these two publication houses has embroiled whereabouts is difficult, UNIFEM the schools in the Maoist affected to protect such basic rights as student unions and political parties. The issue has already helps to hand the children over areas are closed. Despite constant education, health and the freedom become politicised, what with the public burning of THT and through ABC Nepal, a calls to declare children as zones of to move unhindered. Freedom of Annapurna Post. The Nepal Media Society justifies their actions, Kathmandu-based NGO. peace, the government has not given expression should be there without saying political parties were responsible for acting against ‘anti- any direction to prevent them from any prejudice. If these are not national’ broadsheets. APCA, however, believes that Kantipur

being party to this conflict. The least respected, then the country will Publications is behind the entire exercise. ○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○ it could do is declare schools as zones slide further. The EU has stressed Meanwhile, Kantipur has complained that the government has Rajdhani1,500, 31 orphans January of peace. the importance of an all-party not taken any legal action despite such a national protest against government, immediate these two newspapers. Whatever the reason, this kind of Babita Rawal, a four-year-old from parliamentary elections and unhealthy competition could destroy a newspaper industry that had just started flourishing in Nepal. It is natural to protest against

Humla, is waiting for her mother. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ EU pressure improvement in law and order. a publishing house whose finances are not transparent. Readers She doesn’t know that the Maoists Excerpts from editorial in (Nepalnews.com Translation want APCA to be clearer about its financial dealings and Kantipur killed her after she refused to pay Kantipur, 4 February Service) Publications to compete in the market in a healthy manner. them a donation. In Jajarkot, six- year-old Sinam Acharya’s mother Pressure from the European Union was shot to death by the army for (EU) to improve the human rights violating the curfew. She had situation in the country makes it stepped out to fetch some water. clear that the international There are many Babitas and community is closely monitoring the Sinams in Nepal today. The rapidly deteriorating situation here. conflict is an orphan factory. The Observers have taken this in the UN has introduced a convention light of the diplomatic community’s on child rights to make the state strong support for the National accountable for the protection and Human Rights Commission security of children, but in Nepal (NHRC). The memorandum of there is no sign of the government understanding prepared by NHRC doing much for them. Both the during the ceasefire between the 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 20 HISTORY AND CULTURE #182

As the Second World War ends, ex-British Gurkha Bharati Gurung, 92, continues his recollection of the Armisticeperiod after the war: the bounty on Hitler,and India’s after independence, the division of the Gurkha army and later, his involvement in a Gurkha welfare office in Nepal. Bharati Gurung’s story is part of the testimony of Gurkha soldiers, translated from the Nepali Lahurey ka Katha by Dev Bahadur Thapa for Nepali Times. fter the armistice it was proclaimed that whoever with the British. There were two generals—one for the British While fighting a few of us made a pact that those who caught Hitler would be offered crores in reward. A and the lived would go to the homes of dead comrades and console handful of us were selected to capture Hitler. To our other for India. There were instances when one brother their family. Harka Bahadur Thapa of Gorkha, Shankar Deb consternation, we found out that all German survivors of the remained with the British whereas the other was in an Indian Thapa of Palpa and myself pledged to do that. In the long war looked like Hitler. A number of them regiment. I fell in the lot of the British and went run, I survived but those two laid down their lives in the wereA caught and questioned. They turned to serve in Malaya and Singapore. No sooner did Greek war. On my return to Nepal, I visited Harka Bahadur’s out to be fake Hitlers. Later, we found out we reach there, war broke out against the family home in Gorkha. He was very recently married and had he had already committed suicide. bandits. There were huge stocks of weapons no children. His mother was very old and as soon she heard Subash Chandra Bose had a different abandoned by the Japanese and the British. the news she wept. Later, the village people came and idea from those of Gandhi and Nehru. They Even Chinese were adversaries in that guerrilla consoled her saying not one but so many people all over the preferred a gradual, peaceful approach, Bose war. world lost their lives. was for driving them out. At that moment Life was full of hardship in the jungle. The Moved, I came up with a proposal to establish a Gurkha the Japanese had captured three Gurkha place was infested with malaria besides wild welfare office. Some servicemen gave a month’s salary . battalions and made them prisoners of war in animals, serpents and scorpions. The war Subsequently a group of army personnel accompanied by top Singapore. Bose joined hands with some lasted nine years and troops from New class band toured Singapore, Malaya and Canada to raise Gurkhas to fight alongside the Japanese. So, Zealand, Fiji, Australia and Britain took part. funds. The largest amount was collected in Canada. I served Gurkhas were fighting in both the British and The Fijians were bigger in size than others, the for seven years in the welfare office after my retirement from the Japanese armies against each other! The size of their boots were much bigger. They the army. My experience in the welfare program made me face Japanese continued fighting in Asia even after had rendered much help to Gurkhas, so it was situations where there was no one to collect pensions. In one the German surrender. ordered from above to send them a suitable present. instance all three brothers were killed in the war. None had We came back to India on leave as soon as the war in What could be the present from Gurkhas other than the married and after the demise of their parents no one was left Greece was over. We danced and sang on the ship on the way khukuri? I had been assigned from the army to present them to collect the money. In another family in Bhirsi in Gorkha, back since the war had come to a close. Since we had no with a khukuri made of silver. They showed us exceeding all five brothers were killed: three brothers in the Second madal we resorted to beating tins throughout our sea journey. respect. World War and two in the jungles of Malaya in 1948. It took three full days and nights to reach Karachi. In those days Pakistan did not exist. It took another three days and BIGBEN nights for us to arrive at Dehradun by train. We went home on three months’ leave, but before that we had to go through a purification ceremony in which we had to gulp cow urine three times a day for seven days and were allowed only one meal a day. We gave a quarter or half a rupee to the priest who gave us cow urine. The Rana regime of the day required people to observe the ceremony. I wasn’t Cartoon joint venture yet married. My wife is still here with me. Bigben is theBigben symbol of the cooperation between Biggyan, an There were several generations in the army. I have seen a 8th grader from Chitwan and Bernard, a travel writer and grandfather, father and grandson serving in the same unit. The expedition leader. Bernard taught art in Europe, and drew street grandfather was mess sergeant, father a sergeant and grandson scenes wherever he went. Last year Bernard taught Biggyan the basics in watercolours and this year they started doing was in training. It was now time for the British to leave India cartoons, some mildly satirical. and riots erupted between Hindus and Muslims. Hindus “I realised that Nepal has very few creative started killing Muslims and vice-versa. It was a war of a more cartoonists,” says Bernard. “I was dismayed at seeing your difficult nature. Hindus suspected that British were siding national papers sporting mostly poor American cartoons.” with the Muslims and made the British their target. We Bernard hopes the cartoons will instill self-confidence in patrolled the streets with machine guns and grenades. The Biggyan and be a vehicle for his creativity. Welcome to the riots in Bombay were quelled. world of Demo the yellow rhino, the long-awaited Nepal tourism mascot, and his other friends. Then came the moment of dividing Gurkha troops into To be serialised in this space in Nepali Times every week. British and Indian regiments. Under that arrangement six It's raining rhinos! regiments were to stay with India and the rest four would go 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 SPORTS #182 21 Golf for beginners I Free instruction for those who always wanted to take up golf, but ddin’t know where to start on’t believe the propaganda, golf is actually simple and easy to down the road all the way back to play. You place a small hard ball on the ground, and hit it with a Barcelona. long club. In as few hits as possible, try and get it into a cup in a Even today, if Cruyff makes the small hole in the ground marked by a flag. most banal remark, it’s treated by DA standard golf course has 18 holes, usually between 100-600 yards Reign in Spainthe Catalan people as if it’s a Delphic long, each with a tee where the first hit is made, a fairway of grass, and a utterance. Gieling insists that there smooth grass green where the hole is located. Such a simple game would is still a naivete about Cruyff and TEE BREAK soon be unfashionable. Who would speculates that his humility is Deepak Acharya aspire to be good at something so attributable to his background. He easy? Thus exotic terms have been was 12-years-old when his father added to make the game appear more glamorous. died. His mother was forced to work, Here is a guide so the uninitiated can enlighten themselves and understand the mysterious terms used by the golfing fraternity to make this cleaning the locker rooms at Ajax. simple game appear so complex. In the mid-1990s, the relationship with Barcelona soured. Basic terms for a golf course’s features: He was sacked as trainer. The defeats Tee – The starting point, the beginning of the hole, where you hit your first and setbacks lend pathos to his story. of many shots to try and get the ball into the cup. This is a flat area Cruyff now lives in the hills above identified by two markers spaced a few yards apart. There are different tees A new documentary chronicles Dutch Barcelona and still doesn’t speak a on each hole for men and women of different playing abilities. Nowadays footballer Johan Cruyff’s legendary word of Catalan. His gift as a each hole has four sets of tees, the furthest from the hole being the black footballer was that he mastered the tee markers for men’s championships and professionals, slightly closer to status in Barcelona the hole—blue markers for normal men players (that is, if any male golfer GEOFFREY MACNAB art of being in the right place at the can be considered normal), white markers for seniors, men’s beginners, right time. l (© The Guardian) and better juniors and ladies, and the closest to the hole red markers for n early 1970s Catalonia, the Then, simply because he and his ladies and beginner juniors. resentment against General wife liked the name, they decided Franco was profound and deep. to call their new son Jordi. This, it One of the few public places where turned out, was the name of the the people could speak their own patron saint of Catalonia and was Ilanguage was the Nou Camp, the forbidden under Franco’s laws. Barcelona football stadium. That When Cruyff tried to register the was why the arrival of the Dutch birth, the clerks told him he should footballer Johan Cruyff to play for call his son Jorge. He refused. As Barcelona in August 1973 was Jordi had been born in Holland, treated almost as if it was a second the authorities were powerless to coming. stop Cruyff using the name. “But “This gaunt, gangly little fellow he was not aware of the immense who smoked like a chimney gave us political meaning of the name,” back our pride,” says an elderly Gieling says. Catalan interviewed in Ramon At a Given Moment is not a Gieling’s new documentary, Johan conventional sports documentary. Cruyff: At a Given Moment. Although the film ends with a long A series of coincidences helped interview with the footballer, cement the Dutchman’s Gieling’s real focus is on the relationship with the Catalan Catalan people who are invited to public. Cruyff’s wife was heavily share their favourite Cruyff pregnant. The birth was induced a moment. few days early, so he could play in The film opens with Cruyff in the most important game of all, shirt, trousers and loafers kicking Fairway – A well manicured, closely mown area between the tee and the against Real Madrid at the green, usually between 30 to 60 yards wide, and down the center of the around a ball on a patch of grass direction you should be hitting the ball. Fairway grass is cut quite short Bernabeu. Largely thanks to Cruyff, high in the mountains. He tells the and kept in good condition to make play easier by rewarding a straight Barcelona won 5-0 in a game that kid in goal he is going to blast the shot from the tee. The reward is a golf ball which sits nicely on top of the even now few Catalans can talk ball, hits it and it spirals off into short grass and is easier to hit with control. about without getting goosebumps. the sky. We then see it bouncing Rough – Less well maintained areas of longer grass on either side of the fairway, placed with the intention of making shots that were not hit on the fairway more difficult to play, as the ball sinks down into the longer grass. Bunker – A pit filled with sand. It is much more difficult to play a shot from a bunker, so these are fiendish obstacles placed in strategic areas to make the game more challenging and difficult. Hazard – Hazards include water bodies, ditches, drains and bunkers which are again placed to make the game more challenging, forcing a golfer to take into account strategies of avoiding these hazards. If you cannot hit your ball out of a hazard, you play from outside the hazard and add a one shot penalty to your score for that hole. Out of Bounds – Outside the allowed area of play. For example, if you hit your ball into the neighbouring rice paddy field. In this case you have to add two shots to your score for that hole and hit the ball again from the same place. Green – A flatter, smoother area, with very short evenly cut grass that allows the ball to be rolled towards and hopefully into the cup placed in the ground. This cup is 4.5 inches in diameter and is marked by thin pole placed in its center topped with a flag.

When you’ve finally managed to repeatedly hit the ball from the tee and get it into the cup, then play is completed for that particular hole. Round of Golf - You must play 18 holes to complete one round of golf. Each hole has all the features revealed above, and generally a full length Golf course has 18 holes. Smaller courses have 9 holes which are played twice to complete the requisite magical number of eighteen. (To be continued in this space next week.) Deepak Acharya is a golf instructor and Head Golf Professional at Gokarna Forest Golf Resort & Spa, Kathmandu. [email protected] 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 22 CITY #182

ABOUT TOWN BOOKWORM

FESTIVALS AND EXHIBITIONS v Bungadeo Jatra Paintings by Sharada Chitrakar till 15 February at The Heart Must Break: The Fight for Democracy and Truth in Burma Siddhartha Art Gallery, BaberMahel Revisited, 4218048 James Mawdsley Arrow Books, 2002 v Landscapes, people and places of Ghandruk village etchings and wood carvings by Caroline Coode and Elaine Marshall till 10 February Rs 600 at the Lazimpat Gallery Café, Lazimpat. 4428549 Within just 10 hours of entering Burma and handing out pro-democracy letters, v Almost Spring Hand-woven Dhaka exhibition, 11AM-4PM on 8 James Mawdsley was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment. Undaunted, he used his February at Rita’s Garden, Patan Dhoka. 10 percent discount. time in prison to challenge and defy the regime’s lawless assumption of power. He v Sadhus: The Great Renouncers Photographs by Thomas Kelly from 13-29 February at Indigo Gallery, Naxal. endured torture, beatings, hunger strikes and over a year in solitary confinement. This is the compelling account of his four years in and out of Burma. EVENTS v Discovering Buddhism Following the Buddha: The Four Noble Truths 7-8 February Details: 4249270 Email: [email protected] Courtesy: Mandala Book Point, Kantipath, 4227711, [email protected] v Rox Bar 3rd Anniversary Party 7 February dance 2PM till 2AM. Free Entrance. Hyatt Regency Kathmandu, Boudha Self Reflexology For Your Feet 10AM-12PM on 8 February. Above v CLASSIFIED Everest Bookstore at Babar Mahal Revisited. Buddha’s Feet, 4425931 The Lord of the Rings: Visit Femilines, the Exclusive v Aarohan Theatre Group presents Henrik Ibsen’s A Dolls House at Sama The Return of the King Lingerie Store for ladies Natak Ghar, Old Baneshwar. Weekends from 31 January till 14 March. undergarments, nightwear, bathrobes 4466956 The journey has ended, and what a ride it’s been. The three-picture Lord of the Rings epic is now complete and more. Ladies staff. Opposite v Broadway comes to Patan Dhoka American singer Alison Sibley after three quick years, and it seems like a whirlwind. Sajha Yatayat, Harihar Bhawan, performs at Yala Maya Kendra at 5PM on 10 February. Call for passes: Return isn’t just a triumph—it’s also a celebration. Pulchowk. Tel: 547428 5522113, 2110200 This film is everything a fan could want and possibly more. For three-plus hours, it entertains, enthralls LIVE IN STYLE! Arcadia Apartments in the heart of Thamel. Centrally MUSIC and awes. Its special-effects artistry is astonishing, v Not Just the Jazz Bar Chris Masand and The Modern Jazz every Friday and its story races to a rousing finish whose finale located, fully furnished apartments at and Saturday night. Shangri-la Hotel, Lazimpat, 4412999 puts other trilogies to shame. Without spilling any unbelievable rates. For details: Drummer’s Circle, percussion evening, 7PM on 20 January, Entry Rs 981026903, 4260187 v beans, be advised that it’s the kind of payoff that makes JAI NEPAL CINEMA 150. All at Moksh, Club Hardic Pulchowk, 5528703 you joyous to be a film fan—or could reawaken the fan Renting made easy: that’s been dormant within you after too many Call 4442220 for show timings. www.2letonline.com- Looking for a FOOD overheated Hollywood tamashas. www.jainepal.com v Love at the Jazz Bar Wine and five course menu place to stay- Log on to find the on 14 February. Shangri-la Hotel, Lazimpat, perfect house, apartment or even a 4412999 retail space that meets all your needs. Make an easy 1000 bucks by v Sunny Side Up BBQ lunch with live music Saturdays and Sundays. The Garden Terrace, Soaltee Crowne reporting a vacant property to us. Find Plaza Kathmandu. 4273999 out how- www.21etonline.com v Valentine’s Day Special candlelit evening at Get 10% exclusive discount on the Dwarika’s Hotel on 14 February. Rs 2,999 per normal subscription rate of couple. 4479488 Himalmedia’s publications Himal v Raclette and Fondue Traditional Swiss table cooking at the Chimney Khabarpatrika, Nepali Times and Wave 6:30 PM onwards at the Hotel Yak and Yeti, Kathmandu. 4248999 magazine. Only at the Grihini v Cupid’s Spell by the Pond Dinner, a bottle of wine (for couples) and Department Store limited, Baluwatar, dance through a silver themed 14 February at 1905, Kantipath. Phone: 4415186 Couples: Rs 1,200. Single: Rs 700. 4225272 Wanted : Nepali pilot, interested person should have experience for GETAWAYS ultra light aircraft with Rotax 582 v Shivapuri Cottage Dadagaon luxury package of gourmet meals, board and transport. Highland Travel & Tours, 4253352, 4253053 engine. Apply with cv, photo and contact address within 7 days to Avia v Golf in the Valley’s last pristine forest. Gokarna Forest Golf Resort & Spa 4451212 Club Nepal Pvt. Ltd., P.O. Box 13680. Modern houses for residential office KATHMANDU AIR QUALITY or flat. Contact 4720147,4721147 Most of the air we breathed last week was in the “unhealthy” category. No For Immediate Sale - 2000 model surprises there. In Putali Sadak, Patan Hospital and Thamel, the Hyundai Santro zip drive,full option, concentration of small particles of dust less than 10 micros (PM10) one hand drive,excellent were at levels that anywhere else in the world would be considered condition.Attractive price.Call unbreathable. If you breathe you die, if you don’t you die. The bigger 981030574. particles come from roadside dust, but the finer more harmful ones come 91.2 from diesel emissions and the smoke stacks of brick kilns on the city’s For insertions ring NT What you burn is outskirts. Unless we do something about them, we’ll be filling our lungs Marketing at 5543333-36. what you breathe. with these particles.

Good < 60 Average PM10 levels at selected points in Kathmandu Ok 61 to 120 25-31 January in micrograms per cubic meter. Source: www. mope.gov.np Unhealthy 121 to 350 Harmful 351 to 425 Hazardous >425

Patan H Thamel TU Bhaktapur Matsyagaun Putalisadak NEPALI WEATHER by MAUSAM BEED VIS -05-02-2004 04:00 GMT As this satellite picture taken on Thursday morning shows, the Indo-Gangetic fog is now shrinking bringing some sunshine to the tarai and inner-tarai valleys. The hills and mountains have glorious sunshine, and this pattern will continue during the weekend and coming week since there are no major westerly fronts on the horizon. Temperature Rise and shine is set to climb by a notch with the winds Get ready for a brand new day with BBC World Today. from the south. However, this will also bring in the haze that will obscure the sun Every morning on 102.4 FM from 5:45-6:15 AM somewhat. Frosty mornings for Kathmandu with hazy sunshine and breezy afternoons. Daily 2045-2115 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf KATHMANDU VALLEY Daily 2245-2300 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Radio Sagarmatha P.O. Box 6958, Bakhundole, Lalitpur, Nepal Tel: ++977-1-545680, 545681, Fax: ++ 977-1- 530227 E-mail: [email protected], 19-02 19-02 18-03 18-04 20-03 on FM 102.4 www.radiosagarmatha.org /]l8of] ;u/dfyf 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 #182 23 NEPALI SOCIETY HAPPENINGS

is fans think he rocks, but Amrit GurungAmrit’s of Nepathya is nectar probably less rock musician Hand more fusion artist. He is that rare breed who can manage ethnic responsibilities with global sensibilities. His music could easily fit into the hip new strains of the Buddha Bar and Café del Mar KIRAN PANDAY school along with the world’s best DIFFERENT FACES: A dancer removes his mask after the religious fusionists. procession for peace oranised in the capital on Wednesday. Purists accuse Amrit for Westernising Nepali music with drums, electric guitars and rock-style vocals. But those who feel music, know that no Nepali musician has ever been able to fuse folk elements into rock the way he does. His beat, rhythm and singing are all folk. Amrit owes his musical success to folk songs, especially to gaines (‘Gaines are us’, # 181). As a young village boy in Kaski, his first encounter with the gaines set Amrit’s young heart on music. Growing up, he began to question the social exclusion of the gaines. Last year, Amrit went to central FLAG BEARERS: Nepali students in Pune, India at the recently Nepal to find the best gaines in the country. They were brought to MIN BAJRACHARYA organised week-long “Nepal Festival” to promote Nepali culture and Kathmandu to participate in the among the audience. The gaines an instant hit in 1991, throwing the heritage. Gandharba Festival last week. For had travelled all the way from spotlight on Nepathya. The last hit the first time, young gaines had the their home villages to share their Resham confirmed his musical opportunity to sing before their role music in the city, but Kathmandu’s talent. Amrit’s latest feat was to turn models. “The transfer of skills and musicians did not have time to a little known mountain song craft from the old to new generation listen to them. Bheda ko Oon Jasto into a popular was heartening to behold,” says Amrit originally wanted to be a hit. Amrit. painter. Two friends, Bhim Pun Folk music is special to Amrit But Amrit and his friends were and Deepak Rana, now part of because, he says: “Only by saddened by the lack of Nepathya, coaxed him into preserving indigenous music can singing. His first song, Ey Maya we save nationalism.” Kathmandu’s well-known singers, l musicians and literary figures Timilai Parkhi Baseko Chhu was (Naresh Newar)

KIRAN PANDAY GUARD DUTY: Soldiers patrol the empty street in front of Singha Darbar during the Valley bandh called by the five agitating parties on Monday.

KIRAN PANDAY TRAVELLING LIGHT: Ricky Day Angrela(r) and Alain Honeyborene (l) land in Kathmandu on Tuesday, in the course of their microlight world tour to celebrate the 100 years of aviation. They will be flying over Pokhara this weekend.

MIN BAJARACHARYA BIRTHDAY PARTY: Deep Shrestha performs at a tribute to Nepali music legends at NTV’s 19th anniversary celebrations on Friday . 6 - 12 FEBRUARY 2004 2 4 #182

ost newspapers around the world enjoy today to publish any ox excrement we in China, as claimed by a Hong Kong and wolf-whistles from onlookers perched have sections that carry interesting like, and get away with it. These are newspaper last week. That report set off on trees in the vicinity of the Martyr’s snippets of news from a decade or so freedoms that we should defend tooth and protests in the streets of the capital during Memorial. ago in order that readers get an idea of how nail25 and never take for granted.Years Here is a which effigies of theAgo Hong Kong paper were www.nepalitimes.com much progress the country has made, what selection of news items from The Rise and set alight by protestors to ward off the chill. Sikkim is Sikkimised Mgreat strides society has taken, and how every Shine Nepal, circa February 1979: “We never knew he was from Thimi, but India today occupied Sikkim, telling the day in every way we get older and wiser. now that we do, we can’t let the Honkies Choegyal to “go take a walk”, official In this way, communities and nations PM Thapa sworn in claim our national hero,” said one protestor, reports from Gangtok said. pass their collective experiences from one Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa was shouting aggressive slogans. The move was greeted by howls of generation to another so that another cohort sworn in today for the second time as prime protest from the citizens of that landlocked minister at a function at the royal palace. Their Majesties grace Feu de Joie Himalayan kingdom that has often been Speaking to media newspaperpersons Their Majesties graced a feu de joie (French described by historians as an olive pip UNDER MY HAT afterwards, PM Thapa said he was working for ‘blaze away at the sky’) on the occasion of between two boulders. Many Sikkimese Kunda Dixit towards setting the world record for the Shivaratri, observing a grand tradition of the were distraught that they would have to most frequent prime minister and pledged Royal Nepalese Army in which soldiers line stop issuing postage stamps depicting rare of adolescents can make the same mistakes all to complete at least five tenures by the dawn up along the perimeter of Tundikhel and fire whales, but they were assuaged when told over again. Being the carriers of this nation’s of the next millenium. “You will see. I’ll still their muskets aimlessly with wild abandon. by New Delhi that their country’s name institutional memory, we in the media be prime minister in 2004,” he predicted, The military spokesperson said this year’s fue would henceforth be immortalised by the therefore take very seriously our public service amidst gales of laughter from the press corps. de joie was “spectacularly successful and a Oxford Dictionary as an intransitive verb responsibility of being newspapers of record. sign of things to come”. The army also meaning: ‘obliterated, wiped out, gobbled This is why we have taken the trouble this Arniko born in Nepal performed a ‘Beating Retreat’ (English for up, chomped off, made a part of some- week of going back in time to pick items of A birth certificate belonging to Arniko has ‘marching backwards in a disciplined thing bigger, or all of the above’. news from newspapers of yore that been found in a bahal in Thimi, manner’) parade which drew loud applause demonstrate our laughable early primitiveness conclusively proving that the famous Nepali and naïvete, and contrast that to the architect was in fact born in Nepal and not professionalism and press freedom that we

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