891 5 - 11 January 2018 16 Pages Rs 50
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#891 5 - 11 January 2018 16 pages Rs 50 Game of thrones BHANU BHATTARAI he louder the clarification, Chair must be given one of the two addressing Madhesi grievances by the deeper the speculation. executive posts. That’s the deal amending the Constitution, Dahal TThis appears to describe between him and Oli.” is best suited to be the next PM,” Maoist Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Oli, widely viewed as the next he told us. “If Oli becomes the PM, statement that he will not form the PM, has neither confirmed nor he will create a divide between the new government outside his party’s denied the deal. He kept mum even hills and Madhes, and the country alliance with the UML. after UML General Secretary Ishwor will plunge into another cycle of After some NC leaders Pokhrel proposed him not just as conflict.” publicly backed the Maoist the PM but also the chair of the Yadav claims that Dahal has not supremo as the next PM, Dahal unified party. After winning a near- rejected the NC’s offer. “He is just clarified that the people have majority, the UML looks confident using it to strike a better deal with FASHIONISTA endorsed left unity and it would that it can rule Nepal even without the UML,” he says. “If the UML Stylists who made it big on social media be sacrilege to violate it even if the Maoists. does not show flexibility, Dahal open stores to woo more customers he benefitted personally. But NC This has made Dahal insecure, will do what he has done in the BY ZIYU LIN leaders have interpreted Dahal’s and he is bargaining to secure 50% past: ditch the UML to partner with statement as a message to UML of seats for Maoists in the unified the NC.” PAGE 8-9 Chair KP Oli: I will stay within party. The UML, given its strength, Although technical issues like the alliance only if I am made is unlikely to accept that demand. choosing temporary headquarters of the PM, or at least the unified This has given the NC a chance provinces, appointing the Heads of SEPARATED AT BIRTH party’s Chair. to drive a wedge between the two State and electing the Upper House Maoist spokesperson Pambha communist parties. seem to be delaying the transfer of Cartoonists in the Nepali media have had Bhusal told Nepali Times that Mahendra Yadav, Minister for power, the game of thrones playing a field day ridiculing and casting doubt Dahal is not toying with the idea of Drinking Water and Sanitation, out after the parliamentary polls is that the promised unification of the UML leading the next government with was one of the first NC leaders what is actually causing difficulties and Maoists will actually occur. the backing of the NC and Madhesi to propose Dahal as the new in the changing of guard. PAGE parties, but added: “Our party PM. “Given his commitment to Om Astha Rai 13 2 EDITORIAL 5 - 11 JANUARY 2018 #891 .com 28.6% ONLINE PACKAGES WHAT'S TRENDING he UML swept the local elections in is probably much higher because it is only mid-2017, and as a member of the an estimate based on official bank-to-bank TLeft Alliance went on to win a near- transfers and does not include money the 2.5 landslide in parliamentary and provincial million Nepalis working in India bring home. elections last month. Voters showed they Yet, as the graph below shows, we should were attracted by the Alliance’s catchy slogan not be uncorking the sparkling wine just yet. of ‘prosperity with stability’. The 28.6% figure is a national average: a We can’t comment about stability because breakdown by newly-formed federal provinces ONLINE TO OFFLINE the dramatis personae of Nepal’s never-ending shows that although Province 3 (which transition are the same. In the month after includes Kathmandu Valley) has a poverty Unlike traditional businesses, where shops turn to elections, they have shown no real change in headcount of about 12.2%, Province 6 and 2 social media to market products, new Nepali online fashion sites, having established themselves virtually, From Chitwan to Chiyoda their modus operandi. have MPI poverty rates of 51% and 48%. are planning to set up physical stores to promote their by Kunda Dixit But we can hold out some hope on the Nothing surprising there: we have always designs. Meet online designers Akash Shrestha and Go online to read our exclusive, most-read story of prosperity front. Well, maybe not wealth known that the mid-western mountains Meena Gurung who, after their success on Instagram, last week about why there are 10 times more Nepali creation as such, but certainly in reducing and the eastern Tarai have suffered from are setting up an actual studio that gives a better workers in Japan than 10 years ago. Watch the overall poverty. As the result of the latest topographical challenges and state neglect. sensory experience for customers who are increasingly video where Nepalis and Japanese discuss the new challenges faced by workers from Nepal. wave of the Multidimensional Poverty Index The survey results offer an explanation about opting for diverse Nepali designs. Read story: page 8-9. (MPI) survey conducted by the National which dimension of poverty in each of the Most reached and shared on Facebook Planning Commission in 2014 shows, Nepal provinces contributes to deprivation in that has seen the incidence and intensity of part of Nepal. For instance, Province 2 has the Most visited online page poverty fall by more than half – from 59.3% highest number of poor, but is not monetarily (see Guest Editorial in 2006 to 28.6% in 2014 as poor as some of the others. The plains below) . region is kept back by housing, energy use, Nepal’s #1 export: people (see page The figure of 28.6% is slightly higher nutrition criteria and chronic floods Editorial 14-15) ‘2018 should be when a new federal government than the national rate for income poverty of . under a new, inclusive Constitution starts creating 23.8%. The reason for this is that MPI takes There are entrenched pockets of conditions for Nepalis to work and live in Nepal.’ Read into account a diverse range of parameters deprivation in Nepal, and the largest this new year’s editorial and follow our continuous to measure deprivation: it goes beyond contributors to national poverty overall is BUILDING KATHMANDU coverage of Nepal’s migration-based economy at just income figures to factor in nutrition, the high dropout rate and nutrition – factors nepalitimes.com. education, child and maternal mortality, underlined by targets that Nepal did not meet It's not just overseas migration, tens of thousands of Most popular on Twitter household energy use, along with roofing for the Millennium Development Goals. labourers fl ock to Kathmandu from all parts of Nepal and flooring of a house, sanitation and water Measuring poverty is one thing, and beyond, driven by opportunities to earn. Follow us supply. alleviating it is another. Nepal’s poverty rate as we take you to Jhamsikhel to meet one young family A stable Nepal in 2018? from Bardia living and working in a tiny, bare concrete by Yvonne Pande What is surprising is not that poverty has gone down in the last decade despite poor room in the under-construction Hotel Kutumba. Read has decreased dramatically over the last governance. The new government in the new ‘The Nepali people value political stability, and they story: page 5. know fi rst-hand the cost of not having it. If the political decade, but that it has decreased despite year has a chance to ensure stability so we can parties know that, they should not let the people down chronic instability and poor governance augment accountability, improve governance, this time.’ This optimistic op-ed was popular among under successive regimes since the end of and address the structural poverty that stems LONG BEFORE STABILITY readers and generated numerous comments on our the conflict in 2006. One of the reasons is from discrimination and neglect. website. Go online to read the feedback, and send in the $6.1 billion that Nepal receives annually Go online for full report: Stability for uncontrolled infl ation, your own thoughts. from overseas workers, although the figure www.npc.gov.np/images/category/Nepal_MPI.pdf migration of youths and incompetent governance was always there (' A stable Most commented Nepal in 2018?', Yvonne Pande, #890). And such stability will continue to remain QUOTE TWEETS in this New Nepal. Too early to say anything about the Left Alliance ('Shape of Kunda Dixit @kundadixit Chitwan to Chiyoda There has been an things to come', Kunda Dixit, #890). At this exponential growth in the number of Nepalis stage, it is the game of bargaining, within migrating to Japan. Read and watch video about UML, Maoist (Centre), between them, why this is happening and the challenges it is throwing up in this exclusive @nepalitimes and as well as between Madhesi parties. It would be better if the bargaining game suryaparsad upadhya @UpadhyaSp ends quickly, and the inclusion of one or An excellent article. The same can be said the other Madhesi party in the government about NRNs and other South Asians who used is good for relatively more stable polity. a similar loophole in the UK in the nineties and brought cooks to run their restaurants K. K. Sharma and made a lot of money from Nepali cooks coming to UK Yes, the UML and Maoists may have Nepali Times @nepalitimes Edmund Hillary passed away 10 years ago, but their share of blame but to exonerate the legacy of his work in Nepal lives on, writes @ the NC, as this article seems to do, is to lisachoegyal in her column So far so good miss the forest for the trees.