746 20 - 26 February 2015 20 Page Rs 50
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#746 20 - 26 February 2015 20 page Rs 50 KENJI KWOK Three novice monks ritually seek alms on the streets of Patan on Thursday, which was also PILGRIM’S PROGRESS Losar for the Sherpa and Tibetan people. TRUTH, RECONCILIATION AND JUSTICE The government forms commissions on truth and disappearances, but victims families are not satisfi ed with provision for amnesty. Meanwhile, in London, the trial of Col Lama is set to resume next month. GADFLY ANALYSIS BY DAVID SEDDON BY OM ASTHA RAI CLIMATE PAGE 19 AND HEALTH Gong Xi Fa Cai ARNICO PANDAY Because of the Chinese Three international conferences New Year, this issue of Nepali in Kathmandu this month aim at CLEARING GETTING RID OF SOOT Times does not include the weekly edition of China Daily. reducing black carbon emissions THE AIR BY HELENA MOLIN VALDES to mitigate glacial retreat and AND ARNICO PANDAY EDITORIAL PAGE protect public health. 2 PAGE 6 2 EDITORIAL 20 - 26 FEBRUARY 2015 #746 CLEARING THE AIR n international conference in Kathmandu to hold local elections for nearly two decades this week on Brick Kilns Policy and has made local and national politicians less AAdvocacy could not have been held in a accountable, encouraged patronage and the more appropriate venue. Delegates from around protection of the construction mafia. The result the world discussing the social and environmental is the plunder of the Chure, illegal sand mining, cost of the industry, looked out through the boulder exports, bus and tanker cartels holding windows at a vista blighted by brick factories. the public hostage, and brick kilns that flout What used to be bucolic terrace farms across the labour and environmental laws. Valley have turned into an ochre dust bowl where This month, Nepal is showcasing its failures in ant-like men women and children toil alongside a series of international conferences organised by mules carrying bricks to be fired in furnaces. ICIMOD and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition Bricks are very much in the news these days. A (CCAC) to look at how soot particles from brick report in The Guardian last week spotlighted the kilns, crop burning, vehicle emissions and other working conditions of brick kiln workers in Nepal, chemicals are not just affecting the people’s health especially children. Entire families work in these and hurting farmers, but also accelerating global kilns, and the children help their parents just as warming and glacial retreat in the Himalaya. they would lend a helping hand in the farms back As Arnico Panday and Helena Molin Valdes home. Although the job is seasonal and hazardous, KUNDA DIXIT argue on page 6, the emission of short-lived income for the families of kiln workers is better carbon pollutants like soot particles can be than many other rural professions. Efforts to mitigate long-term climate change tackled locally, and addressing this would not just mitigate The underlying reason for poor working conditions are well and good, but we need much more climate change, but also improve public health and make of brick workers, however, is the same as that for migrant more efficient use of energy. This means regulating brick workers being cheated by fellow-Nepali recruiters, or young urgent efforts closer to home to clean up. kilns, adding chimneys to household stoves, looking at crop women being sold to brothels by their own relatives. It is burning practices and reducing forest fires. also why a transportation cartel doesn’t care to improve bus The black carbon particles floating around in the services and fixes prices. All a result of governance failure, Thames River had turned into a sewer 100 years ago, Asian Brown Cloud in our region do not respect national weak regulation, political protection of organised criminals, politicians acted only because the stink made it impossible boundaries. Prevailing winds from the Indo-Gangetic plains impunity and the lack of accountability. for parliament to sit. Or, only when elderly politicians are blowing up pollution trapped in its inversion layer The solution, therefore, has to be structural, not started dying of respiratory failure caused by pollution from in winter to the mountains. The smog is getting worse as piecemeal. It lies in mustering the necessary political will coal burning did British legislators pass the Clean Air Act. India’s standard of living rises. The decision to make the to be responsive to the health and environmental concerns There will also come a time when pollution in Ganges navigable for seagoing barges to bring in imported of communities. When greed and selfishness become a part Kathmandu Valley will get so bad it will shorten the lifespan coal for five new thermal power plants is just the latest of the job description of politicians, it may be unrealistic to of the capital’s residents, including policy-makers in Singha indication of the way the region is headed. expect the public interest to suddenly take precedence. Darbar. That is when they may act, but don’t bet on it. We welcome international efforts to address We may have to wait for rulers to finally realise that Enlightened self-interest was never one of the hallmarks of transboundary efforts to mitigate long-term climate change, the lack of action is affecting their own health and the our rulers. but what we need are much more urgent efforts closer to well being of their offspring. For example, when London’s Nepal’s prolonged political transition and the inability home to clean up the air. YOUR SAY www.nepalitimes.com BULLET AND BALLOT to traditional businesses. So it’s all a Prakash Dahal could go honeymooning THIS WEEK ‘Nepal’s Maoists have lost the tradeoff. in Everest with his third wife, PKD’s electoral mandate in the present Jyaure family could have jobs in PM’s offi ce, CA, but their contribution in stirring and BRB could fi nally make his Nepal’s socio-political transformation Having worked at various start- ‘sasurali’ happy. Thank you Maoists is undeniable’ (‘Bullet and/or ballot’, ups, re-start-ups, stop-downs, I can for showing the world how truly stupid Anurag Acharya, #745). What only add one comment: The product/ we are. transformation is the writer talking service needs to stand out. It’s not how Sasha about? There has been a lot of we deliver it. Some may do it in Nepali, negative change, which I would agree others in English while some in Bhojpuri There is still time for the ‘Maoists’ with. – it doesn’t matter. to re-think their tactics, re-unite and Poudyal N develop a coherent strategy for radical ANNA TENNE (46 LIKES) social and economic change based Most liked on Facebook While I disagree with what and MIRA RAI not on the reactionary notion of ‘social “I’m having fun” by Sahina Shrestha how PKD/Maoists went about their The guilt of having been part of a party inclusion’ but on the basis of class business, it is undeniable that they that killed some of her own brothers and struggle – maybe in opposition to a Most shared on Facebook have changed Nepali society. The only barrier that stood between him sisters? (‘Running all her life’, Naresh NCP-UML government (‘The rise and Nepalis are living longer by monarchy is no longer sacrosanct. and his ambitions. He had a plan. He Newar, #745) That surely is a thing to fall of the Maoists’, Om Astha Rai,13 Santa Gaha Magar and Ramesh Kumar People are learning to talk back to acted upon it. And here we are 19 years run away from. February 2015). The whole rhetoric of their superiors. There is a general later, almost to the date. I am sure if we Hurray ‘consensus’ is profoundly misleading Most popular on Twitter sense of equality and republicanism compare newspaper headlines from There is an interesting tid-bit half- and anti-democratic. Adventure Tourism: A billion dollar industry? (20 retweets, 13 favourites) which was unthinkable perhaps Feb 1996 and Feb 2015, the same buried in the story about Mira Rai: that David Seddon 20/25 years ago. I can list many issues of water, electricity, jobs — she was a child recruit into the Maoist Most visited online page other changes that I can see having dominate both ends of the time line. party and she was brought in as part of MUST SEE Running all her life by Naresh Newar (697 views) returned after more than 15 years, but Namah the Maoist effort to fool UNMIN and the Woody Allen movies are light hearted a sense of outspokenness is certainly government into thinking their army was romantic comedies, overfl owing with Most commented Lengthening the fuse, Editorial discernible, which is great. While the START UPS bigger than it was. So, now we know it simple dialogues and characters - and blood-soaked revolution, the atrocities You really have a Catch 22 situation, for a fact that the Maoists recruited child most importantly fi lled with easy to on innocents and even on their own don’t you? (‘Start-ups need staying soldiers, and they deliberately tricked guess clichés around every corner sympathisers, the child soldiers are power’, Ashutosh Tiwari, #745) the gullible UN peacekeepers. (‘Magic in the Moonlight’, Sophia Weekly Internet Poll #746 not defensible, but they did bring Investors don’t like to put money Jens Pande, #745). We, the fans of his work Q. Rate the governance performance of the NC/UML change. into an unproven idea, but to prove watch it expecting those very elements. coalition in the past year. N an idea you need some investment. Wow.