#375 23 - 29 November 2007 16 pages Rs 30

Weekly Internet Poll # 375 BANNER HEADLINES: Prayer flags flutter at Boudha on Thursday, the Q. What should be the first priority of the day elections were supposed to be winter session of parliament? held. Political deadlock has Total votes: 4,800 jeopardised the peace agreement signed a year ago this week.

Weekly Internet Poll # 376. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. How optimistic are you that elections will be held within 2064?

KIRAN PANDAY Peace postponed

ANALYSIS by KUNDA DIXIT By next week, the first meeting of announcing a two-month agreement that would give the the constituent assembly would agitation just as the election Maoists at least 30 percent hen ex-US president have decided to abolish the commission was finalising the representation in the constituent Jimmy Carter arrived in monarchy. logistics of the polls and assembly. WKathmandu on It’s not hard to see who presenting two proposals in The house vote, instead of Wednesday he could be forgiven benefited the most from the parliament that took 25 days to paving the way for elections, has for thinking that Nepal is exactly postponement of the polls. By deliberate when time was running delayed it further, endangering where he left it during his last constantly coming up with new out, were all a lead-up to this. seven-party unity. The winter visit in June. conditions for elections, the To be sure, the NC has also session of parliament was In fact, things have regressed. Maoists gave the monarchy been stubborn and is pulled by postponed so the three leaders The euphoria of the peace accord breathing space. its own radical rightwing. But at signed a year ago this week has This week, Pushpa Kamal least the NC and UML want polls, evaporated. Six months ago, the Dahal categorically stated that and on Wednesday committed EDITORIAL country was at least looking elections were no longer in the themselves to holding it before Conceptual continuity p2 forward to elections and closure. Maoist agenda. Indeed, in April. But how are they going to Now, even polls look uncertain. hindsight it seems that was the get the Maoists to go along? could come up with a power- We’d all have voted on plan all along. Resigning from the The Maoist conditions of sharing formula. As things Thursday if things had gone right. government in September, parliament abolishing the stand, it doesn’t look likely that monarchy before polls and as well they can resolve the stalemate by as a fully-proportional election, next week. and a brand new set of sub- If Jimmy Carter comes back demands are not the issue. The in April 2008, it's likely Nepal real sticking point is a will be exactly where he left it gerrymandered power-sharing this week. 2 EDITORIAL 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375

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Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur editors(at)nepalitimes.com GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 Hangover of war www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 Let’s help the Maoists join the mainstream

ournalists, political commitment is not expressed in election. The NC is not that keen CONCEPTUAL CONTINUITY workers, businessmen are any of the internal party on elections, but the real obstacle The ‘New Basis for New Unity Concept Paper’ that Pushpa Kamal J still being targeted by the documents, and it is urgent for is the Maoist party. It’s an irony Dahal presented before a gathering at the Malla Hotel on Sunday Maoists. They continue to be them to convince everyone about that the party that made the this week is another vivid example of his party’s muddle- threatened, abducted, their beliefs in pluralism and constituent assembly election its headedness. It also exposes ongoing tension between hardliners disappeared and killed. Tourists non-violent politics. The party main agenda is itself trying to and ultra-hardliners in his party. and ordinary citizens are being still hasn’t got over the hangover sabotage it. The reason for this is The five-page single spaced document, unfortunately, doesn’t extorted. of war. not hard to find. help save seven-party unity but will invite continued disarray and more uncertainty about elections. Which is probably the intention. Last month, 14 pilgrims aged To be sure, the party that in Maoist leader CP Gajurel told Dahal states categorically that the Maoist party no longer sees the six to 64 were severely beaten up the past didn’t even want to hear a meeting at JNU in New Delhi election as a priority. We had known that all along, but this is the and attacked by knives in about peaceful struggle or earlier this year: “We have a first time that he has given it in writing. parliamentary politics has seen a battle-hardened army and The reason elections are not a priority, let’s be blunt here, is GUEST COLUMN dramatic transformation. They automatic weapons. We will win that the Maoists fear they are going to be routed. Not because the Prakash Jwala used to repeat Lenin’s famous the elections. If we can’t win, we other six parties are brilliantly popular, but because the comrades dictum that parliament was a won’t go for elections. And if have seriously undermined themselves by not giving up the tactics of violence and threats. The YCL kangaroo court that publicly place for “bourgeoise feudal class elections are announced without pronounced five people guilty of murders and bombings and the Kalikot. Their crime? Deigning to to chatter”. The Maoists our agreement and participation abduction of hospital staff this week were just the latest examples. worship at a temple. themselves once called we won’t let the polls happen.” Dahal’s paper also proves that the Maoists are adding new We understand the Maoists parliament a “mutton shop What could be plainer than that? conditions and escalating their demands so as to make elections are still trying to make the selling dog meat”. The 2005 Chunbang plenum impossible. For example, they want to review all past agreements, transformation from jungle to But this month we saw them of the Maoists concluded that the including the 12-point memorandum of November 2005. Why open parliamentary politics. They have make use of parliament as a place party couldn’t capture state that can of worms now unless you want to torpedo the peace process? The paper also wants the Ministry of Peace scrapped expressed this commitment in to debate whether to vote out the power through force of arms and replaced with a Peace Commission. Ram Chandra Poudel has the peace agreement and many monarchy. They finally saw a use alone, and decided to go for an been a disaster, but how is adding another layer of bureaucracy other accords since then. But this for a legislature. But we still have agreement with the seven parties. going to help the process along? to see whether this was the result This is what made the 12-point The upshot is that even if the winter of a genuine belief that agreement of November 2005 session of parliament next week agrees parliament is an institution possible. By the time of the on declaring Nepal a republic and on full- representing the people or Kamidanda Conference last year, proportional elections we will be closer to elections. whether they just want to use it the Maoists had deduced that It is time for all seven parties to for tactical political advantage. they could win in an election. By realise that if they don’t announce an There is no doubt the Maoists at the Balaju extended central election date by next week’s session of are republicans. But the committee meeting this year the parliament they will have failed to honour declaration of a republic has been Maoists evaluated the ground the mandate of the People’s Movement. The pushed back because of their situation and decided that they NC and the UML will also have to ask actions. If the elections had been couldn’t win in an election. The themselves whether it is their mutual mistrust and policy infighting within their allowed to happen on 22 reality now is that the Maoists parties that is aiding the Maoist agenda. November as scheduled perhaps don’t want elections under any On Sunday, the Maoists began to today we’d already be living in a circumstances. pressure the government to agree democratic republic. In fact, the Maoists wouldn’t with parliament’s directives. You don’t usher in a republic mind turning the current Leaders lashed out at the “big just by singing revolutionary parliament into a constituent media” for being critical of songs or wearing t-shirts. The talk assembly. But we must make sure their party. It’s time for the is that the Maoists don’t really we bring the Maoists out into the comrades to engage want a republic, and their actions open and create conditions for in some self-analysis about why that may be have benefited the royalists, no them to take part in elections. We so. How come their cadres involved in the one else. What is the real story can’t let them run away from Birendra Sah and Prakash Thakuri murder and behind this, is it that the extreme mainstream politics. abduction are still free? How come the party left and the extreme right always hasn’t yet apologised? Or do they think a find a common cause against Prakash Jwala is the UML MP revolution is never having to say you are from Rolpa. This is a translation sorry? democracy? Our main destination now is of his piece this week in the constituent assembly Himal Khabarpatrika. ROBIN SAYAMI

The world’s largest Muslim nation Asian futures grapples with economic growth JAKARTA --There is a familiarity to the but has been cursed with a history of excellence will foster economic growth. It Pashupati Shamsher, Prakash Chandra chaos outside the Seokarno-Hatta dictatorship and the plunder of a may have done so for a brief period and it Lohani, Mohammed Mohsin, Mohan Man airport. Touts, taxis and tour operators nation by outside powers through their may work in a test-tube experiment like Sainju, Harka Gurung. Former Finance swarm around visitors just like they do at native agents. Singapore, but in Indonesia the resulting Minister Yadav Prasad Pant who died Tribhuban. Tourism is booming in Indonesia gained formal prosperity failed to lift all boats. this week was also one of them. Indonesia and there are rich pickings. independence in 1949 and showed the Rulers tried to divert the attention of A decade after the East Asian potential of emerging as a quasi-socialist the people by raising racist fears of economic meltdown, Indonesia has STATE OF THE STATE nation under Soekarno. But his anti- Chinese dominance that resulted in some begun to recover from the shock and communism didn’t satisfy Washington of the worst pogroms in the world. The shaking of the tumbling rupiah. Its vice- C K Lal during the Cold War. He was sidelined culture of violence has transcended president felt confident enough to make by a more pliant highly ambitious traditional Javanese tolerance and is now ‘Oil for forest’ and ‘Oil for education’ The drive to the city of Jakarta offers a Suharto through a bloody coup in 1965- metamorphosing into Islamic militancy proposals at the OPEC summit early this dramatic view of stunning contrast of 1966. Suharto ruled the country for three in a country with the world’s largest month. From a UN seminar on democracy office towers soaring over a sea of decades with an iron hand. Muslim population. The frustration and governance to a global summit on shantytowns. In Kathmandu, we now only Present president Susilo Bambang of a seething youth population feeds climate change in Bali next month, the have brick shantytowns. Yudhoyono is Suharto’s protégé. into this. world has begun to assemble in Indonesia is the fifth most populous With the help of what were known as A stroll along the streets of Jakarta Indonesia. country in the world, and 3,000 of the the ‘Berkley Mafia’ of US-educated with its signs in Romanised Sanskrit is a The ASEAN Summit this week in archipelago’s 14,000 islands are thickly advisers Suharto rescued the economy constant reminder of things that can go Singapore had as its slogan ‘One inhabited. It takes four hours to fly from from the brink of collapse, but over three wrong with Nepal. We too had our ASEAN at the Heart of Dynamic Asia’. Irian Jaya bordering Papua New Guinea in decades built an elaborate system of version of the Berkley Mafia when And at the heart of ASEAN is its most the east to Aceh in the west where some of crony capitalism. The pathologies of graduates of western universities were populous nation, Indonesia. What the islands are only 30 km from India’s Indonesian politics can all be traced to a brought back to Nepal by King Mahendra happens here will affect us all, yes even Andamans. This huge country is blessed naïve belief in the doctrine that mixing and King Birendra in the sixties through here in Nepal, in some way or other in with enormous natural resources, political passivity and technocratic the seventies: Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, the coming decades. 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 3

LLL ETTERS

ELEPHANT POLO paid their fees, the attitude changed dramatically. The author of Elephant Polo, Cas de Stoppelaar, This is only a brief summary of one should be congratulated (‘Dutch elephant’, #373). organization dealing with volunteers. This has In the same issue you have a guest column by resulted in foreigners, myself included, beginning Tobias Denskus (‘Donor amnesia’) which sheds to lose trust in Nepalis. Certainly not all Nepalis a paradoxical and ironic light over the peace- are this way, but I have become skeptical. This is consultant turned translator of Elephant Polo. Is a problem for the entire country, and thus should the translator a gifted consultant, able to engage be taken seriously by all Nepalis. fully in understanding the complexity of Nepal Brittany Sears, email and capable of translating Elephant Polo in an effortless stint at the same time? CK LAL Alternatively, is the gifted translator the CK Lal’s ‘Pitfalls of praying alone’ (State of the embodiment of de-contextualised peace industry, State, #373) is an absolute reflection of myself. I which invaded Nepal after April 2006? Denskus’ thought and wondered how you knew so much article seems to suggest the latter. Was the UN- about me before writing it. Lal successfully consultant/translator a person aiming to engage depicts the true feelings of the Nepali diaspora with the Nepal-grounded, conflict-affected, fly- and its families back home. over people or was he more a mere spectator fly- I have been in Australia for nine years and by on a short-term, commercially attractive have never ben able to celebrate any of the mission? festivals with my family. Though our hearts and It seems that the real work of the UN minds belong at home, somehow we find excuses consultant is translating Nepal’s complex not to go back. There are four of us. My elder realities into digestible practice based policies brother is in the US, myself here in Australia. Our turned fiction. This begs a question: is translating two sisters, along with their spouses, are trying to fiction for the ‘happy few’ more important then a fill the big gap we left behind. Thanks, Lal, for your thorough engagement to further what the ‘many perfect insight into our angst. unhappy’ in Nepal desperately desire: peace? RJ, Melbourne Denskus would probably suggest that the ‘inhabitants of aidland’ at the end of the day CK Lal seems to think Girija Koirala has (unconsciously) decide to please the happy few. leadership skills (‘Who is cornering whom’, #374). The translator of Elephant Polo could not be That is news to us Nepalis. Why can’t the press a better example of Denskus’ observations and understand how much harm arguments about the GP has done to Nepali ‘peace industry’ in politics since 1990? Actually ‘aidland.’ The book it is us Nepalis who are launch of Elephant Polo cornered by leaders like highlights the these. We are also cornered paradoxical irony that not by the media which seems only the author, to have a blind spot when it representatives of the concerns politicians. So UN-led peace industry, what do they do? They their well-wishers that blame King G. Just Denskus writes about. The because we won’t accept ‘inhabitants of aidland’ the monarchy doesn’t cannot only produce mean we will accept these fiction. They can present failed leaders. Lal is too and celebrate it amongst kind to them. themselves as well, Pashupati Neupane, perfectly proving Denskus’ Syangja points. This side-story of MONEY Elephant Polo makes De I totally agree with Aruna Stoppelaar’s novel more Uprety’s perceptive ironic and tragic than the article (‘Money is not the reality of Nepal already is. answer’, #374). Money is Frank de Lange, UK nothing, but everything comes under money. So how come no one has analysed where all the I totally agree with Tobias Denskus and his money that was spent in Nepal on malaria TB and keen sense of how ‘aid’ for the downtrodden is HIV/AIDS prevention went? actually being spent in Nepal in the name of the Dwarika Maharjan, email ‘development and peace process’. It is about time there was a genuine assessment of how the TOURISM spending of this hard earned tax payer’s money All right. Nepal can easily reach that longtime goal is justified. It is appalling to see how ‘aid’ is of 500,000 tourist arrivals by air by 2010. How? being spent on extravagant purposes both by (Artha Beed’s ‘Tourism déjà vu’, #374). donors and their domestic partners. This top- Drastically reduce those extremely high landing down approach for development never worked. fees at TIA, get rid of any visa fee for tourists S Ranjit, Kathmandu staying up to 90 days (right, you’ll get heaps of backpackers flying in. Well, they drink. They eat. GAP YEAR RIPOFF They need accomodation.) Get rid of all motorized After reading about the problems faced by traffic at Durbar Square, Thamel and other places volunteers in Nepal (‘Gap year rip offs’, #372) I where feet are the only means of transportation. had to write to you. Having travelled in both Asia Mainly that taxi lobby’s wings have to be cut. and Africa, I was immediately struck by a sense Triple the budget for international advertisment of safety and comfort upon my arrival in Nepal campaigns in close cooperation with Indian almost one year ago. Though I was supposed to Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Thai Airways, stay only five months, something about the Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Ethiad and others. Forget friendly, smiling faces made me stay longer. I about Nepal Airlines completely. Declare “Visit taught English, made a library, travelled around Nepal Year(s) 2008 / 2009 / 2010”. the country. Then, I began to work with INFO Rolf Schmelzer, Cologne Nepal that organizes placements for foreign volunteers as Volunteer Coordinator. I had responsibility, freedom, and variety in my work. CORRECTION: Then, things went very, very wrong. I arrived The author of the piece ‘Slave labour’ (#374) at work one morning to an e-mail from two of our translated from Nepal is Madhav Dhungel. volunteers placed in Prabatipur, Chitwan. There had been a horrific sexual harassment incident in the home where they were staying with INFO’s LETTERS host family. What followed was a long saga of Nepali Times welcomes feedback. Letters should be misunderstanding between my employers and I brief and may be edited for space. While pseudonyms over the question of refunding the volunteers who can be accepted, writers who provide their real names and contact details will be given preference. Email pay 125 euros a week to be in Nepal. The letters should be in text format without attachments incident opened my eyes and I saw the with ‘letter to the editor’ in the subject line. organization for what it was: a business, a money-making enterprise, disguised as an NGO. Email: [email protected] Volunteers weren’t valued, appreciated or Fax: 977-1-5521013 Mail: Letters, Nepali Times, respected. Prior to arrival, the volunteers were GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal. promised the moon but once they got here and 4 NATION 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375

Sky-highNepal’s with best-run airlineBuddha marks ten years

Starting this issue, Nepali Times selects a Company of the Month on the basis of criteria such as making progress towards management excellence, social accountability, vision and environmental consciousness.

uddha Air’s Birendra Basnet still remembers the day Bwell. It was November 1997 and his first aircraft was arriving on a ferry flight from Bombay. As he drove his car down the airport road on the straight stretch from New Baneswor, he saw a plane about to touch down. The tail stabiliser lights illuminated the blue-and-beige Buddha Air logo. “It was the proudest moment in my life,” Basnet recalls. “I felt a PLANE SPEAKING: Buddha Air’s great sense of accomplishment.” managing director, Birendra Basnet, Today, ten years later, that stepping out of one his airline’s fleet sense of accomplishment is even of Raytheon Beechcraft 1900Ds at greater for this Budanilkantha Kathmandu airport on Wednesday.

School graduate who forayed from MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA being a middle class farmer in Morang to becoming the owner of and Nepal’s passenger volumes. overcome the crisis that transparent book-keeping. You northeast with equipment and Nepal’s most trusted airline. At $5 million apiece, the saved us.” have to strive for reliability and operations, but had to back out Since 1997, Buddha Air’s fleet capital investment was steep, but The airline’s main mantra, integrity,” says Basnet. “In the when the venture took too long to has expanded to seven aircraft, its the airline saved on maintenance says Basnet, is never to airline business, if you take take off. route map now spans the country costs and reaped the benefit of compromise on two things: staff shortcuts, you are gone. You have “We’ve now prepared a five- from east to west. being the first private domestic morale and maintenance. Indeed, to be in it for the long-haul.” year strategy and we are much Asked to rank the main factors airline in Nepal to invest in new Buddha has the lowest crew Basnet reads a lot, and he more focussed about what we that made Buddha excel, Basnet equipment. turnover of any airline in Nepal listens to the experts: engineers, want to do,” says Basnet. Buddha counts them off on his fingers: The first few years were at a time when companies are accounts people, admin staff, IT will concentrate on the domestic “Lots of luck, lots of hard work, difficult. New private airlines hemorrhaging pilots and staff to specialists. Basnet’s office has market which isn’t yet saturated, being realistic, having a good had sprung up, Necon had just foreign airlines. glass panels on all walls so the it is looking at bigger turboprops, business plan and taking care of brought in used ATR42s and As other airlines folded due staff sees him and he sees the an expanded fleet and after that to our staff.” Cosmic was flying SAAB340s. to poor management or low yield, staff. His table is paperless. On a start connecting Nepali cities to The airline selected the twin- The war intensified and tourism by 2002 Buddha was soaring computer, he constantly northern India and South Asia. engined turboprop Raytheon went into free fall. “Those were again. It inducted two more monitors fleet deployment, “We aren’t going to expand, or Beechcraft 1900D, but realised the hardest years,” Basnet recalls, Beechcrafts and was paying performance, occupancy, yield. add jets just for the sake of it, we only later just how lucky it was “and that is when we realised creditors regularly giving the But things don’t always go will build on our strengths,” says with the choice. The 19-seater was our biggest asset was our staff. It airline a lot of credibility. Today, according to plan. Buddha Air Basnet. “But we have to keep the right aircraft at the right time was their dedication and hard it fully owns three of its 1900Ds. dabbled with trying to help a growing, if we don’t we’ll with its performance, capacity, work to help management “You need proper and new airline startup in India’s stagnate.” BUSINESS 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 5

Yadav Prasad Pant, 82

○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Compensation dilemma Nepal’s first PhD in economics in 1952 and former finance minister Yadav Prasad Pant died last Victims' families get financial relief, but what should the criteria be? week in Bangkok at the age of 82. In a long and illustrious career, Pant also served as a senior economist with the UN ESCAP ne of my professors used damages - from the Maoists, pressing, you have to take away in Bangkok, was Nepali ambassador to Japan and to give this example: whose cadres draw salaries from that much from other public- minister of commerce, supplies, finance and water Say that three adults the government. benefit activities such as building resrources. Pant authored more than two dozen O go to a restaurant. The first person Moreover, the government did a school or a health clinic. books including Problems in Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Trade only orders the food. He will not clarify the basis which But when you talk to most and Co-operation in South Asia and Some Aspects of Economical neither have to eat it nor pay for formed the rationale for its Nepali politicians, the . Planning it. The second person eats the decision. Given this sort of disconcerting thing is that they do ordered food. The third is around murky decision-making process, not seem to be worried about

Open till late what if a physician is beaten up running out of money. Nor are ○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and killed tomorrow, with some they particularly concerned about Shangri-la Development Bank Pokhara has started an evening STRICTLY BUSINESS group not admitting anything ways to raise it by effectively counter and will soon introduce ATM cards to its customers. The Ashutosh Tiwari bank will also open its first branch in Dulegauda, Tanahu. The beyond the point that its cadres mobilizing domestic resources. bank has been working with various international remittance fired the bullet? How will her Somehow they seem assured that services for easy money transfer, and is active in 10 districts just to pay for it. How will these after-death compensation be the donors will be there, in the throughout Nepal. three people behave? And how is determined? By the loudness of name of strengthening democracy, their situation different from the protests on the streets? to pay for various governance- one in which each person chooses By dispensing the usual related reforms. So, if giving away NEW PRODUCTS his own food, eats it and pays for rhetoric about how great the need a million here and a million there it out of his own pocket? for harmony in Nepal is, the in the name of making peace will RUBBER: Praxis Trade Link has I remembered this lesson on government may try to evade such make everyone happier, why introduced Inspiral and Skinless Skin Love Condoms in Nepal. learning that the government has questions. This evasion allows it quibble? Inspiral condoms come with just set aside Rs 1 million for the spiral design and Skinless Skin Love Condom is designed for family of the slain journalist long time pleasure. The dotted, ribbed, contoured, and scented Birendra Sah. On the face of it, condoms come in kiwi, lavender and jasmine flavours and are providing relief money at a time available in drug stores. of distress is noble. After all, who but a heartless bean-counter is VERSATILE DRINK: United Spirits Nepal going to be against it? formerly known as McDowell Nepal has Though giving away money to continue to go for easy Besides, with every 11th adult introduced White Mischief Vodka. The does not solve the bigger mystery compromises, especially when it Nepali male working abroad to drink is triple-distilled from silent sprit of disappearing journalists, it can get away with paying for other take care of his family’s private and carbon filtered for clarity and purity. does provide immediate relief to needs in Nepal, our politicians White Mischief is being touted as a people’s crimes by using public “young, light, trendy, versatile and the family, while the government funds. But as the custodian of face little incentive to be prudent enjoyable drink that helps you loosen up.” appears to have done something public money, and even in its about how they spend public respectable. Still, if you put interim avatar, it owes us all an funds for public goods such as WIN WIN: Rumpum noodles, emotions aside and start thinking explanation on what its basis for hospitals, schools and community manufactured by Asian Thai Foods about the implications of such a spending public funds is, centers. has introduced a new scheme decision, complications come up regardless of what the funds are Thus, with scrutiny on ‘Rumpum Rich & Famous’. In this quickly. used for. spending lessened, and with other coupon based scheme, consumers The Maoist leaders icily Such an explanation also people’s money available to give can win cash prizes up to Rs 100,000. accepted that their cadres were clarifies one more thing: where away, our politicians can go on Lucky winners who win Rs 10,000 involved in Sah’s murder. Their the money to be distributed is paying for the cost of one and above will get a chance to be group’s actions with another included in a lucky draw to have their acceptance alone makes it coming from. Public funds, after picture on the noodle packet. unsettling that the government all, are limited. And if you want group’s money, and continue to did not ask for a formal to give away Rs 1 million to some buy us further make-believe explanation - let alone claim cause, no matter how noble and harmony. “Conflict children are doubly disadvantaged”

Tove R Wang is the head of Save the same level. So what will happen is that the number of Children Norway and the chair of the children who don’t go to school will keep going down but we will reach a barrier when we count the children in conflict Rewrite the Future campaign that is areas. So we are challenging international donors through a working with the 40 million children who campaign to invest more on children in conflict and fragile are out of school in conflict-affected states. We are working in 20 countries and Nepal is one of countries around the world. She was in the five countries in Asia. Nepal last week and spoke to Nepali Times MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA about why children in conflict areas need How does the status of children here compare to, say, Aceh? ministry of education estimates 62,000 additional teachers One of the things that strikes us about Nepal is that through are required. But the higher the quantity, the more special attention. the conflict years we had some access to the war zones and challenging maintaining the quality will be. we could conduct programs. Still, the needs for education Nepali Times: What is the reason for your special focus on are not being met, the ministry (of education) thinks the What are you focusing on in Nepal? children in conflict areas? percentage of children not going to school is 13 percent, we We work in 14 districts with government schools with a Tove R Wang: Major donors are reluctant to invest in think the figure is much higher than that–maybe about 30 comprehensive program that includes teacher training, countries that are in conflict and in a fragile state. They percent. mobilizing the community and encouraging children’s expect good strategies and firm plans and a system that Nepal has got a lot of attention in the past year because participation in education. After all, children are smart; we works, and obviously conflict affected areas are usually the country is coming out of conflict and there is a peace should learn to listen to them more. I have heard that some poorly governed. Children in these countries have an even process. But what is not so well-known is that there are new children have actually helped mediate between teachers greater need for education and the support that education conflicts arising for instance in the tarai. So it’s not that and the Maoists to reopen their schools. brings to restore social stability. So they are doubly there is peace and everything is now going to be all right. If you involve the community from the beginning of the disadvantaged in a way: they don’t get education and they We believe that if the government and NGOs and local process then they will participate and we get immense are affected by conflict. communities work together it is possible to significantly support. Essentially, its not poverty that people are fighting increase the number of children going to school. but lack of knowledge. We are also involved in ensuring Do you think we are on track to meet the MDGs? that children are a zone of peace. The Millenium Development Goal wants all children to have But are there classrooms to accommodate all the new access to education by 2015. There is no way we can reach children? The government’s response? that goal unless we invest in and concentrate on children in The only way to solve that is by paying attention to training It’s not very helpful only to criticize but to see what is conflict-affected areas. The trend of the past years is that teachers. A key factor for quality education is a good teacher. working and move from there. Giving education to children the number of children not having access to education is It’s nice to have a nice building as well, but if I had to is not rocket science, it is about political will. And for us it going down, but the portion of the children not having choose, I’d rather have a good teacher. And it is more costly is being able to demonstrate that we can do it in difficult access to education in conflict-affected areas is at the to upgrade a school than to upgrade teacher training. The parts of the world. 6 FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375

Trek tax ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Samaya, 21 November “We tamed the Maoists” Pokhara and its environs are once more terrorised by a Maoist extortion drive. The Maoists had Interview with UML leader Madhab Kumar Nepal in All this has created uncertainty about elections ever being held.The been forcing trekkers to cough up Himal Khabarpatrika, 17 November prime minister is responsible for the postponement of the April date. money ever since the start of the The Maoist leader Prachanda is responsible for the postponement of autumn tourist season. But lately the November date. And Sher Bahadur Deuba even said elections Your own colleagues said they were against the cooperation with the the extortion has spread to Maoists in the special session. should be postponed. We don’t know who will be responsible if They didn’t say that when they spoke to me. They must obey the elections are postponed again. But maybe we’ll find out soon enough. professionals and ordinary party’s decisions. They shouldn’t speak in support of the Congress, citizens. instead they should be happy the UML proposal was adopted. So there is a real confidence gap among the seven parties? Even though the Maoists say The NC and the Maoists need to have a they have given up violence, most Hasn’t the parliament’s proposal made working relationship. Both have to figure out people are still too afraid to lodge elections even more difficult? why they don’t trust each other. We aren’t a complaint. Even if they did, the The peace process won’t progress unless we happy with the way the NC is running the police wouldn’t do anything. The take the Maoists along. The UML bears the government either. They interfere even in our police know what is going on but responsibility of not letting the Maoists return ministries, security is deteriorating, crime is on haven’t done anything. to the jungle. If the Maoists are against the rise, development is at a standstill. We The main target is the elections, we can never be with them. Our think there should be improvements. Annapurna Conservation Area proposals have helped the election process, where there are 500 trekkers every not harmed it. We averted the possibility of the Is that why there is talk of a leadership Maoists quitting parliament, and the Maoists change? day. The Maoists have openly set are now convinced that the peace process is I don’t want to get into that now. That time up ‘donation’ collection centres the only way forward. hasn’t come. But parliament has sent a in Birethanti at the gateway to the message, and the government should take it Annapurna region, in Ghorepani But how can the proposal be implemented into account. and at Chame in Lamjung. without the NC’s consent? Although it’s all supposed to be That consent has to happen. You can’t talk How? voluntary, most trekkers are about the parliamentary process and not follow The message is that the NC doesn’t have a forced to pay. its directives. The NC has the responsibility majority. This means the prime minister also When local journalists because it is leading the government. doesn’t have a majority. There has to be reached the collection counter, complete change in governance. If not, you can KIRAN PANDAY the Maoists said they were So how come the proposal to declare a guess what will happen. republic at the first session of the constituent assembly, to which the collecting “donations for building UML had earlier agreed, not moved forward? So there is a crisis in the alliance? a new Nepal.” Some trekkers paid I just don’t know. No one discussed it with me. We don’t want to weaken the alliance. But unity means taking the up readily, but others were country forward. Unity is for progress not to take the country downhill. reluctant. Each trekker ends up The Maoists have said they will exert pressure for the proposals to be paying about Rs 2,000 at various adopted. What will be the UML’s role in it? What is more important for the UML, unity with the Maoists or the collection centres in the If it is peaceful, there can’t be any objection. But if anyone tries to seven party alliance? Annapurna circuit. The Maoists disturb the elections, we will oppose it. We will take it up in The seven party alliance is most important, left unity comes within are collecting an estimated parliament, in government and in discussions among the seven that. We are close to the NC in basic democratic values, we are close Rs 1 million a day along the parties. We’re not taking to the streets. to the Maoists in seeking fundamental change in society. trekking routes here. Although trekkers are only FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 7 supposed to pay once, Norwegian leading to agreements, the talks trekker Ina said in Pokhara: “They are centred around one party make you pay in every place.” Ina using parliament as a strategic said she paid out a total of Rs venue to threaten to go to the 1,400 in various places to the streets unless everyone agrees to Maoists. their point of view. The Maoists want parliament Sahana Pradhan declaring a republic and a fully-

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ proportional election system. The Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan NC doesn’t agree and the two have interviewed by Navin Singh been trying to sort it out with Khadka on BBC Nepali Service, some help from the UML and Jana 15 November Morcha this week. The idea is to have a political agreement so that We hardly see you and the the winter session of parliament prime minister meeting. But can announce an election date. we see him meeting foreign But the likelihood of that diplomats all the time. happening looks remote. I know of no other country where Instead of compromise, the foreign ambassadors can meet the NC and the Maoists are busy prime minister so easily. I don’t trying to isolate one another by know if this is because we are a bringing other members of the small country. This is very alliance to their side. The Maoist surprising. The prime minister leader Prachanda has said should first try to solve our elections are no longer his party’s country’s internal problems priority. The Maoists have also Alright, heads means elections, tails means no elections. through our own efforts and then announced that they will disrupt he should sound that decision off parliamentary proceedings if the Rabindra Manandhar in Nepal, 25 November foreign ambassadors. He should house doesn’t agree with their be conveying our decisions to demands. Baburam Bhattarai has them instead of taking their bluntly said parliamentary QUOTE OF THE WEEK advice. politics has harmed his party.

Even while there are outstanding disagreements over Criminals involved“ in looting in Nepal under the guise of the Madhes Movement the two Maoist conditions, the “ get sanctuary in India. This is enough proof that India is out to weaken Nepal’s party has raised new conditions: national unity. removing the prime minister and declaring a republic from the streets. Analysts say the Maoists have been emboldened by their Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal in www.himalkhabar.com, 12 November alliance with the UML in the special session and now want to improve their bargaining SELECTED MATERIAL TRANSLATED EVERY WEEK FROM THE NEPALI PRESS position. Maoist policy is being set by the hardliner factions led by Ram Bahadur Thapa. Analysis say the Maoists want an upper hand now because they think the party will otherwise suffer irreversible loss. MIN BAJRACHARYA Meanwhile in the tarai the Are you implying that the JTMM and Sadbhabana (Mahato) prime minister’s decisions are moving ahead with a blatant are influenced by some separatist agenda. If this agitation foreign diplomats? escalates it will be a threat to the That’s true to some extent because country’s sovereignity and will nowhere else do foreign further support the separatists. ambassadors have such easy access to the prime minister. I ask for an appointment with the prime minister from time to time, that is how it works. But it’s difficult to get an appointment, whereas ambassadors are meeting him all the time.

So how do you coordinate foreign policy issues with the prime minister? I have repeatedly said to the PM that all foreign affairs related issues will be dealt by the foreign ministry and not by his foreign and foreign affairs advisers. Those advisers are not the foreign ministry.

What was his response? He always says he will think about it. But old habits die hard you know.

Talk, talk ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Abhiyan, 19 November

Talk, talk, talk. The biggest accomplishment of the seven party alliance leaders for the past three months is to talk. But all that talk is now meaningless. The growing gap between the NC and the Maoists indicates a big crisis ahead for the country. Instead of 8 DHARMITES

Spiritual retreats are still one of Nepal's m MeditatingMeditating inin ’’MM

IRENE PERONI the war years, when tourism expected to remain totally silent could be sensations from her accepting it, it eventually collapsed, it was in fact for the duration of the retreat. past–until one day she breached disappears.” meditation tourism that kept the Vipassana literally means ‘to the number one rule, ‘don’t kill’, Another very popular “Kathmandu, I’ll soon be seeing industry alive. see’. to show him that the ‘sensation’ option, though a rather more you,” sang Cat Stevens with his Marjolijne Blankevoort, a 25- The regime is tough, but for was pretty real. relaxed one, is provided by warm, persuasive voice back in year-old from Holland, attended a Marjolijne the benefits made it “When I showed him the Kopan Monastery, an oasis of 1970. The British songwriter’s 12-day retreat at the Vipassana worthwhile. dead bug, we both started peace on a hill not far from captivating tune led a whole Meditation Centre in “Even though I don’t think laughing,” says Marjolijne, an Bodhnath, where the 10-day generation to dream of this Budanilkantha last spring. Now, Vipassana can rid you of airport security coordinator in courses are attended mostly by mystical city, a sacred place seven months on, she remains suffering, it certainly gives you a Amsterdam. But the westerners. Here you are packed with temples and enthusiastic about the experience. way of dealing with it,” she told ‘miraculous’ thing, as she allowed to talk in the shrouded in a thick cloud of The rules at the centre are Nepali Times. “You can do so by describes it, was that while afternoon. You can even chat incense. draconian: wake-up call at 4AM, seeing the suffering, going meditating she sometimes with the monks at the sunny The myth has never been 11 hours of meditation a day, no through the suffering, accepting stopped feeling the discomfort tables outside the cafeteria. completely dispelled. Over 10,000 physical or eye contact, no sexual your own suffering and letting on her scalp. Louise Nielsen, a 29-year- people a year, more than half activity, no reading, writing or go of it.” “The same thing goes for old from Denmark, is very foreigners, still flock to the many taking notes, no intoxicants, She recalls a funny episode: suffering in general,” she adds. happy with her time at the Buddhist meditation centres in music, make-up, jewellery or during the course, she was “Through meditation you are monastery. “I made quite a lot the valley to satisfy their craving charms. What’s more, observing plagued by head lice. Her teacher able to rid yourself of the pain of friends here,” she told us for a spiritual experience. During ‘Noble Silence’ means you are told her the cause of the itching you feel. By noticing it and just before leaving Kopan.

Pilgrimage tourism

Now that the tourism industry is finally picking up again, the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Center (HBMC) has decided to highlight the potential of meditation courses and of pilgrimage trips by calling a conference on ‘Value of meditation and pilgrimage in Nepal’. “We are currently holding meetings with the Nepal Tourism Board to find ways of collaborating,” Antonio Pascual at the Thamel-based centre told Nepali Times. “Developing this sector would benefit both the Nepali people and the government.” Pascual says that even at difficult times for Nepal, westerners never stopped coming to attend Buddhist retreats. He is currently working on some statistics, but says that the flow has been pretty much constant even through the years of political unrest. The event is scheduled to take place at Hyatt Regency Hotel on 16 December from 4-6PM, and is expected to attract people from the tourism industry as well as expats, diplomats, NGOs and students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the co-founder of Kopan Monastery. Presentations will be given by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), the HBMC and NTB. Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche will hold a speach. Refreshments and a Tara dance performed by the nuns from the Khachoe Ghakyil nunnery will close the conference. Irene Peroni MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 9

main tourist draws

RAJESH KC MManduandu

“People are very nice and open to western people like this you, because this experience approach. They like to makes you all go through understand before they believe different moods–sadness, in something.” melancholy, happiness–and that These retreats, although makes you feel a lot closer. We short, are sufficient to teach will definitely keep in touch and people compassion and make support each other if we have them aware of their questions about what we have responsibility for the happiness learned here.” and well-being of others, she Ani Karin, a soft-spoken says. woman wearing the dark red “When I look at the faces of robes of a Buddhist nun, people who leave at the end of a explains the huge popularity of course, they look very calm and Buddhism in western countries. peaceful, and there is a glimpse “In Buddhism, it is through of real compassion in their eyes, debating and questioning that which is wonderful, I think. It one comes to wisdom,” says the means they really take something Swede, who has been teaching at personal from here, for their Kopan for many years. “Most whole life.”

JOINING A MEDITATION COURSE

Kopan Monastery Seven- or ten-day introductory retreats run once a month from March-October. Price is respectively $80/110, food and lodging included. A more advanced, one-month course runs in November each year. Most participants tend to have some previous experience in meditation. Other courses available. www.kopan-monastery.com, 977-1-4821268, [email protected]

Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Center This is Kopan’s drop-in centre in Thamel. They offer free yoga classes (7-7.45 AM, Mon, Wed, Fri), free daily meditation classes (8.30-9.30 AM and 5.30-6.30 PM Mon-Fri) and an introduction to Buddhism (10AM-12PM Sat, Rs 400, lunch included). Tailor-made meditation courses for small groups available upon request. http://fpmt-hbmc.org, 977-1-4700895, [email protected]

Nepal Vipassana Center – Dharmashringa Two monthly ten-day retreats are held all year at the centre in Budanilkantha. Longer courses as well as short courses for former students are also available. A free donation is usually made at the end of the course. http://www.np.dhamma.org; city office: Jyoti Bhawan Kantipath, 977-1-4250581, [email protected] 10 NATION 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 We are what we eat Seeing neither The middle class is getting wider midriffs

fter binging during the Dasain festival, many urban Nepalis are examining their girth and are trying to figure out a way A to work it off. Nearly 40 percent of Nepali children may be underweight, but being overweight is also becoming a serious health hazard in Nepal. In a way it reflects society’s inequities, but it goes beyond that: lack of awareness about a balanced diet, the advent of junk food, society’s increasingly sedentary lifestyle. The middle class is getting a wider middle. A visibly overweight patient with diabetes and hypertension was being checked up recently at a Kathmandu hospital by an obese cardiologist. The patient was overheard telling relatives later, “Looks like he doesn’t follow his own advice.” NEPALIPAN While walking in remote Aruna Uprety Mustang last year, I used to ask for millet chapatti and beaten rice for my meals. My 19-year-old guide and porter was embarrassed–it hurt his reputation that his employer ate local food and not packaged instant noodles. Across Nepal, from Mustang to Mahendranagar, the changing food habits of Nepalis are leading to many health problems. Obesity and related cardio-vascular diseases are among them. In the villages, it is still rare to see overweight people and that is simply because they have to walk and work in the fields. But even there, the spread of roads and bus transportation means people are getting less exercise. Combine this with an increased carbohydrate intake and you have a recipe for fat buildup. In Kathmandu and other urban areas, obesity has now become an epidemic. Till a generation ago, being overweight was regarded as a sign of prosperity. Today it points to potentially serious health problems. Cardiologists I know obviously don’t practice what they preach. They are themselves overweight, suffer from high blood pressure, and have borderline diabetes. Another colleague who regularly advises his patients to practice yoga fails to do so himself, although he seems to need it more than his patients. In countries like India and China, obesity was virtually unknown until the introduction of a high-fat, western-style diet. With a per capita income of $7,700, China is facing an unprecedented health crisis due to obesity among youngsters. Public health specialists in India are worried that changing food habits may have exacerbated the genetic Cooking Nepali food in a far-away Dasain proclivity of many Indians to cardio-vascular diseases. In order to make food tasty, we use a lot of oil and then consume too much of it. A taste of home In addition to that, we drink lots of sodas, and eat nything could have brought it on. I had personal quest to find the raw materials for a Nepali snacks, packaged food been up since 6AM that day and hadn’t meal to celebrate the festival. I searched the net to and other highly eaten. It could have been all the walking get any sort of lead: looking for South Asian stores, processed, sweet, high-fat A in the hills around Heidelberg all day. Or it restaurants and businesses. Two Indian restaurants foods. We end up feeling could have been that Dasain was two days were listed. nauseated because of away, and for the first time in my life, I was Then I remembered–on my first night here I ate at over eating, and then go by myself. a pizzeria run by Punjabis in the Chez Michel to health workers to ask Whatever the reason, I area. The next day I headed to the for digestive medicines. was headed back to pizzeria, the staff told me to go to This habit is passed on Strasbourg and I was an Indian store two streets away. to our children who may aching, literally, for The store had a giant green sign: later develop heart dal bhat and ‘Indian Store’. The familiar, problems, diabetes, and tarkari. Before pungent smells of incense and high blood pressure. comingto France, I South Asian spices filled my ‘We are what we eat’ is daydreamed about the nose. They had everything: one of those truisms that cheeses, the pastries, the yellow dal, cumin, cilantro, couldn’t be truer. What you ingest coffees, and everything in turmeric, fenugreek seeds and directly affects your health. What between. But today, for the vegetables. first time, I had this deep comes in the way is our most primal The next night, I spent two yearning for Nepali food. It hours cooking the trinity of instinct: to have our taste buds was my stomach’s way of Nepali cuisine: dal, rice and stimulated. The trouble is, the tastiest telling me that I was homesick. vegetables. I only had two pots so foods are also the most harmful: deep Something had to be done, it took longer, but it was entirely fried items, fatty foods, refined this craving was not going to be worth it. It took me less than 10 carbohydrates, salty snacks, etc. shaken. I could easily get all DULL BAT: May not look minutes to gobble up what I had It is only when patients get their first the produce to make Nepali scintillating, but it tasted great. cooked. stroke or heart attack that they decide to food, it was the spices that I wasn’t with my family. change their food habits. Unfortunately, worried me. Where would I get cumin, cilantro, There was no red tika on my forehead. I was flat for some even such a warning is not ginger, turmeric and chilies? There were no Nepalis broke. It wasn’t a masterpiece of cooking. But I was enough and they go back to their I knew in this city of 700,000, the seat of the eating the food I’ve known since childhood, and in unhealthy eating habits. z European Parliament. that moment it felt like home. z With was 48 hours to Dasain, I started out on a Rachana Dixit in Strasbourg MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA NATION 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #37511 Political uncertainty is wiping out Tarai forests nor trees and Chure forests

KUNDA DIXIT in UDAYPUR smugglers in the Rautahat corridor money for. The community forests most are now fully engaged in trucking During the conflict years, the at risk are in the Chure range ou start seeing them just the timber out of the tarai to Maoists took Rs 15 per cubic ft of adjoining the plains, which are after forking off at Patlaiya India. timber sold as 'tax'. Despite the extremely vulnerable to erosion Y into the East-West Birendra Sah, the journalist peace process, the Maoists are still and therefore are the ones that Highway. Tractors, lorries, even who was abducted and killed last taxing timber. “Timber smugglers most need tree cover . bicycles, parked on the dirt roads month in Bara, had been are also bribing some user group Says the official: “The sal leading out of the jungle on investigating these gangs. ”The members,” says one user group forests of the eastern Chure are in either side. They are heavy with lawlessness in the tarai has chairman here, “but it is getting a critical state. If we don’t do sal logs. encouraged the timber mafia, and difficult to tell who is a smuggler something about it, Udaypur will This used to be the famous everyone is afraid of speaking and who is a Maoist.” be a desert in 10 years.” char kose jhari, the thick out,” says a former DDC member hardwood jungle that separated in Rautahat’s Chandranigapur. In the mountains from the plains. Dumriya, local officials say up Migration from the hills to 700 bicycles carrying small Healthy hills and from across the border in logs cross the border into India In complete contrast to the Chure and the tarai, the community forests in the the past 40 years hasdecimated every day. midhills are thriving. In Chitlang Valley, Makwanpur, mountains that till 20 years the trees. “Even if some tractors are ago were denuded and landslide-prone are thick with The worst destruction has caught, you can openly see the broad-leaf trees and pine (pictured). The local community manages the forests and allows villagers to collect deadwood once a month. The VDC earns up to always happened during periods driver paying off the guards,” Rs 500,000 a month by culling the forest and selling timber, and the money is of political transition–the 1980 says a farmer in Rautahat’s ploughed into education, health and road maintenance. referendum, the post-1990 Dhamura. In his village, there is On the Dharan-Dhankuta highway, the Charikot-Jiri road and on the way restoration of democracy and this even a saw mill and a depot from Syangja to Pokhara logs harvested from community forests are piled past year. selling illegally felled trees only neatly by the roadside to be taken to the market. Across Nepal’s midhills, the forests are healthy and thick. Community user groups have been using the Ironically, the forests were 500m off the highway. money from timber sales for local development work. much better protected during the Rautahat’s DFO Mahendra Today, a quarter of Nepal’s forests are managed by local communities. The ten conflict years. There has been Chaudhari shrugs it all off: “What dense jungles on the slopes above Chitlang are even better protected than a full-scale plunder taking place do you expect when the prime national parks, and the only complaint of villagers here is that wild boars and since the ceasefire and the start minister, the ministers and leopards have become a menace. Last year, in a misguided step, the government stopped handing over forests for community management. But of the peace process. parties are all busy looting the such is the demand for community forests that some 5,000 local groups across “They have SLRs, we don’t country? The rot starts at the the country are managing forests even without proper papers (see interview). even have .303s. They have top.” Kunda Dixit in Makwanpur, with additional reporting by Pranaya SJB Rana pickups we have to patrol on Although community forestry foot,” says Bhakta Bahadur has been a notable success in the Regmi, a forest guard at the mountains, only 2.5 percent of the district forests in the tarai is managed and forest office in Simara. protected by local communities. The highway robbers and “After 20 years of protection, most community forests now have large, mature trees and the gangs GOING GOING GONE: Tarai woods are being plundered in are buying off greedy members of broad daylight by timber user groups,”admits one district smugglers, but even the official in Udaypur’s Gaighat. community forests of the Chure Earlier, a user group would decide like this one near Gaighat are on a policy–what kind of thinning. timber to sell and what to use the KUNDA DIXIT “Let’s go from 26% to 100%”

The Federation of Community Forests middle of community forests, and the houses Users Nepal (FECOFUN) comprises the that they live in are made from fine young 14,000 or so community forest user groups trees needlessly chopped down. In around the country. (l-r) Bhola Bhattarai is Shaktikhor in Chitwan, 300,000 cubic feet of general secretary of the federation, Navaraj forests were cleared for cantonments. This Dahal and Thakur Bhandari are members. was a huge mistake. They told Nepali Times that the proportion of community managed forests should be So what is your strategy for the future? taken to 100 percent. Bhola Bhattarai: The lesson we have learnt from the past 30 years of community forestry Nepali Times: The war is over, community is that the best way to save the forests is to forests should be thriving, but we see them hand over their management to local being decimated. communities. Just a week back, a timber Bhola Bhattarai: The government has poacher was stealing wood from a

stopped handing over forests to PICS: MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA community forest. The chairman of the user communities after the war, no one knows group happened to hear of it and rushed to why. But there are about 5,000 local is a huge problem with the government, and groups have always been inclusive. There the spot. The poacher beheaded the communities who have started managing forests are not a priority anymore. has always been 50-50 female participation, chairman with his khukuri before rushing off forests on their own even if they have no and there are groups with only women in to hide in the local police station. Irate locals documents. So, it’s not true that woods are Navaraj Dahal: While handing over the them. They are very active. surrounded the police station and stoned the dwindling, in fact they are expanding every forests, they talk to one or two officials. poacher to death. The chairman’s last words day. This has made Nepal green again. They are the only ones who know about the There are reports that Maoists have forced were “Kill me if you will, I won’t let you cut Still, only 26 percent of all forests in the forest, the community is not a part of the user groups to give them a cut from forest this tree.” He was a true martyr. country are community managed and we process. This is the wrong way to do it. yield. Any truth to that? have a lot more to do. Bhola Bhattarai: Surprisingly, no. Back Thakur Bhandari: We now need to go from 26 Thakur Bhandari: The problem has never during the war, the Maoists were very open percent to a full 100. Nepal’s forests need to What are the post-conflict problems you been money. Forest user groups have about extortion, and they did take a lot. But be managed by local communities face? money in the banks, but communities now, it has gone down although there are everywhere, not by the government in Bhola Bhattarai: There is always the haven’t figured out a way of using the places where it still continues. As they say, Kathmandu. problem of smugglers and poachers. But money, and greedy officials have old habits die hard. that is mostly in nationally-owned forests. If sometimes used it for personal benefit. Bhola Bhattarai: Nepal’s community forest is you have an entire village watching over Navaraj Dahal: On the Maoist topic, there is a success story replicated all over the world. the forest with sticks and knives, poachers How are you tackling these problems? one little problem though. The Maoist This is one sector where Nepal is showing are less likely to target those forests. There Thakur Bhandari: Our community user cantonments have been built right in the the way. We should build on it. 12 INTERNATIONAL 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375

and ‘climate-ready’ crops for market-focused farmers. The Gates/Rockefeller AGRA initiative is planning to take on not just Africa seeds and soils but its policy and trade infrastructure. The G-8 are 2008 curtainraiser pushing for new Centers of It will be a year of living Excellence in such fields as genomics, informatics, dangerously, especially nanotechnology, and synthetic biology around the global for the world’s poor South. The likes of Clinton, Google and the Millennium Village are pressing for new public/private partnerships introducing a new era of philanthro-capitalism that will allow them to take the lead from governments and intergovernmental agricultural institutions. Bilateral and multilateral support for agriculture are being re-organised and these adjustments over the next year will come to a crescendo at the OECD’s Conference on Aid Effectiveness which will be held in Ghana in September 2008. However, bucking the trend is a World Bank/FAO-sponsored innovative review of international agricultural technologies (still in draft and under intense corporate attack) that emphasizes socio-economic solutions and criticizes past technological hubris. Much to its own surprise, FAO has recently come out in favour of organic agriculture, stating that agro- ecological strategies can meet local and global food security challenges. The genetic engineering and fertilizer companies are deeply unhappy. In the midst of the debates over new technologies and hen the UN Framework will keep the major crops (rice, either rebuild plant DNA and/or climate change in the first place climate change, the UN Convention on Climate wheat, maize, and potatoes) rejig industrial-strength microbes are asking the world to trust them Biodiversity Convention will W Change convenes in viable in Punjab, the Pampas, to do the job. to get us out of their mess. conduct its first review of Bali in two weeks, governments plains and prairies. It’s just a matter of boiling The international agricultural agricultural biodiversity in more will be told that the five hottest Second-generation agrofuels, down corn stalks and rain forests infrastructure is also facing a than a decade in two high-profile years of this century will be the industry claims, will provide into carbohydrate raw materials. crisis in 2008. The World Bank’s meetings in 2008. five coldest of the next century. maize, sugarcane, and palm oil British Petroleum and Royal internal review has lambasted it Industry and foundations are Climate change is already producers with higher prices and Dutch Shell have joined with the for neglecting agriculture and has properly fearful that the ongoing shifting crop patterns, pests, and South governments with new US Department of Energy and called for new resources and new sequence of food scandals, the diseases. Agribusiness claims this trade opportunities and energy venture capitalists to inject relationships. The just-released hubbub over agrofuels, and the sources. The food/fuel crunch is more than $1 billion into World Development Report alarm over climate change could coming just in time for industry synthetic biology research during focusses on agriculture for the stir up a popular campaign to GLOBAL WARNING to trot out its latest technology: 2007 alone. first time since 1981 and has take back control of the food Pat Mooney synthetic biology (extreme The global market for joined the call for new resources system.z genetic engineering) in order to agrofuels is expected to rocket and institutional cooperation. make sure there is food and fuel from $22 billion in 2006 to The FAO’s harsh (and Pat Mooney received the Right is rendering less commercial enough for all. $150 billion by 2015 and the justified) external review is also Livelihood Award in 1985 and is the crops grown on marginal lands Industry is prophesying the share of cropland sown to feed calling for major institutional and 1998 recipient of the Pearson Medal of nonviable. Global warming will Carbohydrate Economy—the cars will grow from two percent partnership restructuring. The Peace for his work in agriculture and the preservation of biodiversity. force an estimated 1.4 billion theory that biomass can be to 12 percent, meaning that the Consultative Group on Pat Mooney will be speaking at the rural people off the land and into reduced to carbohydrates that can rate of food crop yield International Agricultural 24th Pani Satsang on ‘Impact of New urban ghettos. Global warming make everything from food and improvement must grow by 50 Research (CGIAR) is conducting Technologies and the Commodification is creating space for agribusiness fuel to books and car bonnets. If percent now just to keep from its first systemwide review in ten of Manufacturing’ at Yala Maya Kendra to paint genetic engineering and we’re running out of petrol and increasing the ranks of the hungry years. Desperately trying to look Patan Dhoka at 4PM on Friday, 23 heaps of new fertilisers as the the planet is running out of beyond today’s 850 million. The ‘with it’, they are all now talking November. The talk is organised jointly technological silver bullet that clean air, synthetic biology can very industries that engineered about second generation agrofuels by Water Nepal and Nepali Times. REVIEW 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 13 Democracy activist becomes customs officer Into oblivion Durga’s journey Fighting Alzheimer’s to

PASSAGE OF TIME: Durga Thapa preserve a long-lasting love (then KC) at a pro-democracy rally “When I look away I forget what yellow means, but I can look again. Sometimes in 1990, again in 2006, and last there’s something delicious about oblivion.” Fiona, who somehow gracefully week at Tatopani Customs on the approaches the ordeal of Alzheimer’s dementia, philosophises. Chinese border. She makes one-half of the couple in Sarah Polley’s directorial debut Away from Her, an achingly beautiful portrait of a marriage that is remarkably successful yet injuriously flawed. It’s a film that is thick yet thoughtful and deep years later, the same photographer with emotional truths. snapped a photo of her during the There might be something delicious about oblivion, but there’s something April Uprising as she chanted pro- else altogether despairing in the experience. We begin with a depiction of a couple who have lived decades together, with the comfort and solace of long democracy slogans on the streets. matrimony. They have afforded themselves an idyllic and quiet retirement, At 39 and the mother of a young enjoying each other’s company, and son, Durga has been a customs living in a cottage away from the officer at the Tatopani Checkpoint CRITICAL CINEMA world. That quietness and peace is on the Chinese border for the past A Angelo D’Silva disrupted when Fiona begins to show signs of Alzheimer’s. In one early year. Having been a social worker scene, she places a frying pan with charities like Sahara Group, into the refrigerator, an instance that is both softly funny and terrifyingly activism comes easy to Durga. That foreboding, before her husband, Grant, returns it to its rightful place after she is why she took it upon herself to departs. intervene on behalf of the cyclists. These small and mounting “My parents always told me: be occasions lead to diligent in your work, always be an episode that ready to do more than is expected propels Fiona to of you, respect your elders and have place herself in an affection for those weaker and assisted-living PICS: MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA facility. Just as her smaller than you,” recalls Durga, Alzheimer’s steals hen five participants the Nepal Trust that is working to and it looks like she is following away her mind, the of the Edinborough to upgrade health posts in the the advice well. memory of Grant’s Everest Cycle Humla district. But it is difficult for a person of past indiscretions W surfaces and Challenge Program got stuck for The Chinese must have integrity to be posted in a place that colours the two days at Chinese customs at thought Durga was just like any has become a hotbed for smuggling narrative. Some Kodari last week because of other Nepali customs officials and crime. “I feel really sad seeing things that we wish insufficient documents, an they have been used to seeing in how people are exploited to become to banish from assuming Nepali official came the past. They weren’t prepared carriers and only the small fish ever memory can have a across the border to help rescue for a determined, fire-breathing get caught,” she adds. stubborn persistence. The them. pro-democracy warrior. One year after the April thought crosses Durga Thapa may not be tall, Readers will be familiar with Uprising, what does she feel about one’s mind-and she doesn’t speak Mandarin, but Durga Thapa because of the iconic the democracy she helped win plagues Grant’s-that it didn’t take long for her to picture of her taken by Min Ratna back? “I am not happy with the way all this is a plot convince the Chinese officials to Bajracharya during the 1990 our leaders are squandering our cooked up by Fiona to punish him, let the cyclists go. The five People’s Movement. She is the gains. For the country to be especially as she adventurers were on a grueling student who leapt into the air democratic our leaders have takes to her fellow resident, a mute but insistent gentleman she cares for. What 10,000km tour from Scotland to with a double victory sign at a to practice democracy first,” she follows is Grant’s effort to preserve his relationship with his wife, to keep the Chomolungma to raise money for democracy rally at Asan. Sixteen adds. memory of what they have together alive and ultimately to keep her happy and comfortable. Julie Christie, who plays Fiona, is the picture of grace and poise. A veritable veteran of cinema, she returns with exquisite skill and execution. When her character asks Grant how she looks, he replies “Direct and vague, sweet and ironic,” perhaps teasingly, but exacting in its description of Christie’s impressive performance. Gordon Pinsent, playing Grant, has a rich baritone that matches his retired professor role. He masters that seeking glance, gleaning meaning from Fiona’s every pause and utterance. The pair make an intelligent and warm couple, all the more tragic for the alienation that threatens to part them. Director Sarah Polley sprightly avoids clichés for the most part and accomplishes something that approaches perfection—a particularly impressive feat, considering she is still in her twenties while her subjects are times over older. Away from Her is adapted by Polley from a short story by Alice Munro, and much like that other movie adapted from a piece of short fiction, Brokeback Mountain, we are given a pair of astoundingly fully-realised characters with a depth that surprises. This one, too, is also about the stubbornness and hurt of love. Love, of course, is hardly an uncommon subject for cinema. But generally our attention is drawn to lovers in their youth, when the act of loving can come so easy as opposed to the seasoned affection of a pair together for over forty years. Not often are we presented with a depiction of a couple in the later half of life, with history and habit maturing into a rich and fulfilling relationship. Sarah Polley shows us there are many lessons to be garnered from our attention to our insistence on loving and living through decades, even if she looks at it with a serious and unromantic eye.

Away from Her Director: Sarah Polley. Cast: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinset, Olympia Dukakis, Grace Lynn Kung. 2006. 109 min. 14 CITY 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375

ABOUT TOWN In Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new epic Saawariya, EXHIBITIONS two star-crossed lovers are consumed by their ™ The Work of the Wind by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Ambrosini at desire for each other. An artist at heart, Raj, arrives Siddhartha Art Gallery, Babar Mahal Revisited, till 27 Nobember. 4218048 at a quaint picturesque town only to meet Sakina, a ™ Foliage an exhibition of paintings by Bidhata KC at the Shambhala Garden shy enigmatic young woman one starry night. Raj Café, Shangri-la Hotel, 25 November-1 December. wants to win Sakina’s heart but is unable to accept her haunting past and their friendship pulls him into EVENTS a whirlwind of desire, madness and romance. ™ Amazing Grace a film about anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce, by Michael Entertainment Apted, 23 November, 6.30 PM at the Lazimpat Gallery Café. 4428549 Call 4442220 for show timings at Jai Nepal

™ Bamako a film by Abderrahmne Sissako, Quest www.jainepal.com presented by Candid Society at Alliance Francaise, 7PM on 23 November, admission free. ™ Twenty-fourth Pani Satsang on the impact of new technologies and the commodification of ;xeflutfdns" ;ljwfg+ lgdf0fsf{ nflu ;ljwfg;efsf+ ] manufacturing by Pat Mooney at Yala Maya g]kfn ;/sf/ Kendra, Patan Dhoka, 4PM on 23 November. lgjfrgdf{ ;xefuL eO { cfkm}+n] 5fgsf] kltlglw| dfkm{t ;"rgf tyf ;~rf/ dGqfno ™ On the Waterfront a film by Elia Kazan, ;"rgf ljefu presented by Cine-Sankipa, on 26 November. 4466956 gof F ;ljwfg+ lgdf0f{ u/f }+ . ™ School Bullying a talk program by Niti Rana, 27 November at The New Era, Battisputali. 9851023958 ™ Education for the new Nepal a presentation by Sister Cyril, winner of the Padma Shree Award, 29 November, 11AM at the Shangri-la Hotel, Lazimpat. ™ AWON Christmas bazaar at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 1 December, 10AM-4.30 PM, Rs 100. ™ Bingo Nights at the Welcome Food Plaza, Darbar Marg, starts 6PM every Monday. 2337201 ™ Play and Learn German at the German Info and Culture Centre, Thamel. 4700832 ™ Toastmasters a communication and leadership program, organised by Kathmandu Toastmasters Club every Wednesday 6PM at Industrial Enterprise Development Institute (IEDI) building, Tripureswor. 4288847

MUSIC ™ Fusion jazz with Inner Groove at the Moksh Restaurant and Bar, Pulchok, 23 November at 8.30 PM. 5523212 ™ Jazz at Jatra every Saturday 7PM onwards, at Jatra Café and Bar, Thamel. ™ Ciney Gurung every Wednesday and Rashmi Singh every Friday, live at the Absolute Bar, Hotel Narayani Complex, 7PM. 5521408

DINING ™ Weeklong festivities with Bella Italia on Monday, enchanting Asia on Wednesday and Mongolian BBQ on Friday at the Hotel Himalaya, 7PM onwards, Rs 499. 5523900 ™ Steak at the Olive Bar and Bistro, available for lunch and dinner at a-la-carte rates with live band in the evenings, Radisson Hotel. 4411818 ™ Vegetarian alternative at Stupa View restaurant and café, Boudha Stupa. 4480262 ™ Sunday Jazz Brunch Hyatt’s BBQ brunch with live jazz music at the Rox Garden, Hyatt Regency. 4491234. ™ Jazz in Patan with coffee, food, drinks, and dessert at the New Orleans Cafe, Jawalakhel, 11.30 AM-10PM. 5522708 ™ BBQ, chilled beer, cocktails and live music at the Kausi Restaurant and Bar, Darbar Marg, 6218490 ™ Crepes and smoothies taste our tempting crepes and fresh smoothies at The Lounge, Hyatt Regency from 4:30 pm till 6:30 pm. Please call 4491234 WEEKEND WEATHER by NGAMINDRA DAHAL ™ BBQ Unlimited at Splash Bar & Grill Radisson Hotel, Lazimpat, every Friday 6.30 PM, Rs 899 nett. The historical cyclone over the Bay of Bengal has finally worn out. Satellite ™ Cocktails and jazz with the JCS Quartet and a choice of cocktails at pictures taken on Thursday morning show that while the southern side of the Fusion – the Bar at Dwarika’s. 4479448 Himalaya looks sunny, the Tibetan plateau on the north is covered with high and ™ Lajawaab curry, kebab and biryani festival, every Friday, 7PM onwards at dry clouds, brought in by the northwesterly cold fronts. There’s a massive cyclone Café Horizon, Hotel Himalaya. 5523900 over South China Sea, which has drawn in hazy clouds from north India. Current ™ Starry Night Barbecue at Hotel Shangri-la with Live performance by features, however, are likely to change next week when the low-lying river plains Ciney Gurung, Rs. 666.00 nett. per person, at the Shambala Garden, every of the southern Himalaya start gathering foggy layers. Enjoy the mountain views Friday 6.30 PM onwards. 4412999 and bundle up for cold mornings over the weekend. ™ Kebabs and curries at the Dhaba, Thapathali. 9841290619 ™ Krishnarpan Nepali specialty restaurant at Dwarika’s Hotel, six to 22 course ceremonial lunch and dinner. 4479488 ™ Calcutta’s rolls, biryani, kebabs Indian cuisine at Bawarchi, Bluebird Mall Food Court. 9741000735 ™ Rediscover fine Italian cuisine at La Dolce Vita, Thamel, all new exciting menu. 4700612 KATHMANDU ™ Little Britain Coffee Shop fresh organic coffee, homemade cakes, WiFi internet, open all day, everyday. 4496207 ™ Pizza from the woodfired oven at Java, Thamel. 4422519 KATHMANDU VALLEY GETAWAYS Fri Sat Sun ™ Fulbari Resort and Spa, Pokhara Rs 10,999 for Nepali double, $219 for expat double, two days and three nights package, including transportation from the airport, welcome drinks, tennis and swimming, discounts on food and beverages. ™ Weekend Getaways at Le Meridian, Kathmandu, Resident Night 24-06 24-06 24-05 Rs 4,444 and Two Nights Package Rs 8888. Also includes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, spa facilities, swimming pool, steam sauna, Jacuzzi and gym facilities. ™ Escape to Shivapuri Heights Cottage great view, bird watching and more. 9841371927

For inclusion in the listing send information to editors(at)nepalitimes.com HAPPENINGS 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 15

KIRAN PANDAY ROUGH RIDE: A professional Nepali kayaker saves his kayak from capsizing at the Seventh Himalayan White Water Challenge organized by the Nepal Association of Rafting Agents at Bhote Koshi on Sunday.

KIRAN PANDAY LIGHT OF PEACE: Members of civil society light candles at a peace rally organized by Universal Peace Federation Nepal at BICC on Tuesday.

MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA DIVINE PLUNGE: The Chhat organising committee ferries the statue of the Chhat goddess across Rani Pokhari before taking it apart to mark the end of the festival on Saturday.

MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA CORPORATE LEGALITY: Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri launches law expert Bharat Upreti’s book Company Law at Hotel de l’Annapurna on Friday. 16 BACKSIDE 23 - 29 NOVEMBER 2007 #375 Like there is no tomorrow hen Girjau said last week “I’ll resign after

elections” some of his detractors rejoiced. But it www.nepalitimes.com W soon dawned on them that what Sanobabu was actually saying was: “I decide when elections are held.” So why is Delhi so miffed at Girjau? Ever since the prime minister’s public outburst against Amareshbhai there have been plenty of indications that Koirala is not listening to Lainchour. Mao buddies have moved quickly to capitalize on the icy relations. The Maoist statement on UNMIN mandate extension was a xerox copy of the Indian statement. Which is probably why Shyam Saran is not speaking to Ram Sharan these days, but to Comrade Lotus. Eavesdroppers told the Ass there was considerable bonhomie in the telephone conversation on Monday between the two. Is this also why South Block is sitting on accepting the First Niece’s candidacy as Nepal’s emissary to the Delhi Darbar? It doesn’t look like Shailaja (or the four other Maoist nominees) will be flying out anytime soon, even if they can get confirmed air tickets. The question is, when it is time to go, will Shailaja also fly cattle class like Suresh Chalise had to on the trans- Atlantic leg of his flight to DC this week? Baluwatar managed to get him an upgrade up to London, but after that our new envoy to Foggy Bottom was consigned to steerage. And Pampha Bhusal must be glad she isn’t yet in Paris, otherwise the seven-day banda that has brought France to a standstill may have been blamed on infiltration of the French trade unions by Himalayan Maoists. FG Don’t know who His Awesomeness was trying to impress by declaring that he was boycotting Tihar because it was a symbol of Nepal’s “patriarchal and feudal value system”. But his party comrades didn’t seem to have any qualms about 'celebrating' other aspects of Tihar like extorting money across the country in the form of revolutionary deusi chants. The comrades may have thought it was mighty smart to leave their cadre in charge of state-controlled media like Maobaddy TV, Radio Mao, Maopatra, The Rising Anew Nepal and the Revolutionary News Agency even after their resignation from government. Not satisfied, they’ve been setting up a network of Radio Republics all over the country. The trouble is, however much Mahara Babu tells them not to use the channels for propaganda, old habits die hard. The attitude is: “Listen to us, or else.” Needless to say, NTV’s ratings are plummeting and Kantipur and Image have benefited the most. FG The way the Young Communist Lawbreakers are going around beating up doctors, journalists, hoteliers and extorting trekkers, the YCL is becoming a huge embarrassment for the party brass who now spend all their time dealing with the fallout. It led one victim of the YCL’s jaw-breaking squad to quip from his hospital bed: “They are like tigers who came out of the jungle to be in a circus. But the trouble is, the tigers have escaped and are roaming the bajar.” FG This prolonged political transition is a time for everyone to rake it in as if there is no tomorrow. Nepali pilots flying for fat salaries with Indian domestic airlines need to have their licenses renewed by CAAN. But our uncivil aviation authority knows it has the pilots by their gonads. CAAN is sitting on it and is asking for one month’s salary from each of the 12 pilots as baksheesh. Sheesh. FG This from the Harrowing News Department: a Nepali returning to Europe who had a moustache on his passport that he had since shaved off was stopped at TIA immigration. No way you can board your flight, he was told. Later, the official in question (whose name the Ass has been provided in case the CIAA wants to probe) asked for 30K to let him board. The man refused and now has to wait till his moustache grows back.

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