754 17 - 23 April 2015 20 Pages Rs 50
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#754 17 - 23 April 2015 20 pages Rs 50 DOR BAHADUR BISTA AVALANCHE MORE EQUITY Kesang Tseten’s ANNIVERSARY new documentary ON EVEREST investigates the BY OM ASTHA RAI disappearance of Nepal’s foremost 31 CHILDREN anthropologist 20 LOST THEIR IN MEMORY years ago FATHERS Surya Bahadur Thapa BY DAVID DURKAN (1928-2015) PAGE 16-17 PAGE 19 PAGE 7 SARA LEVINE clients to the top. of eight Nepali guides were busy Despite the attention to fixing ropes and ladders on a insurance and compensation, new, hopefully safer route up BACK TO WORK the disproportionate risk that the the Khumbu Icefall as heavy 300 high altitude workers face unseasonal snowfall engulfed s the mountaineering altitude workers, the Nepali while employed every year on Mt Everest this week (pic, above). community prepares to guides have gone back to what Everest has not diminished. The More than 300 climbers are Amark the first anniversary they have to do for a living – least-paid workers are still doing waiting at Base Camp for the of the Everest avalanche tragedy risking their lives to fix ropes, the most arduous and dangerous route to be ready and the weather last year which killed 16 high ladders and ferrying rich western work on the mountains. A team to clear. 2 EDITORIAL 17 - 23 APRIL 2015 #754 THE 2072 CONSTITUTION Even for their own self-interest and self-respect, top politicians would do well to end this farce ith the Nepali new year comes progress by being a federal, secular new hope that there may finally republic. What the leaders of the main Wbe some progress on finishing parties have failed to fathom is that their the pending business of writing a new delay in writing the constitution is calling constitution. The public is fed up, and if into question the institutionalisation of their opinion still matters, the politicians these agreed guiding principles. will do something about it. Although for the sake of balance we We don’t want to say that the tend to generalise and lump all political political parties should finish writing the parties together for equal blame on the constitution during 2072, because they may constitution delay, it is clear that the take that to mean they have another year current obstruction is mainly from the to do it. Nepal’s rulers must realise that a Maoist-led 30 party opposition alliance. It political transition cannot go on forever, is a blocking action for the sake of it: the and even for their own self-interest and losers don’t want a constitution that is not self-respect they should now end this farce made during their watch. Their stand on and allow the country to move ahead. ethnicity-based federalism may once have That will happen when Nepal gets been a progressive one, but it has been a democratic constitution that doesn’t roundly rejected by the public – the latest exclude any citizen. Every Nepali must be in the Baglung by-election in which what guaranteed equal access and say in every remains of the Maoist party got less than state institution. It is hard to imagine 10 per cent of the vote. who would be against that, so it’s just a Earlier, Maoist Chairman Pushpa disagreement of how we are going to get Kamal Dahal had already got the message there. from the low turnout of his own cadre The main agenda of the April 2006 at a mass rally he called last month to pro-democracy movement was peace and protest the Supreme Court decision to development. After that, all main political reject amnesty provisions in the Truth forces also agreed that this ethnically and Reconciliation Bill. Then a three-day diverse country could make most rapid nationwide shutdown enforced by the 30- YOUR SAY www.nepalitimes.com MIGRATION Nepalis have to pay to get to I fear that once the constitution is You are right. I, too, am a Very sad fi gure for nation development their work destination, and once promulgated, these thugs will go back journalist and have been on many THIS WEEK (‘Belabouring the obvious’, Editorial, there: they are disrespected, to doing what they do best: bickering, of these trips where the males (it #753). abused, overworked and underpaid. fault fi nding, obstructionism, foot is always males) act uncouth. But Jagat Limbu Meanwhile, everyone from manpower dragging, etc. Anything but citizen their behaviour is not the issue, agencies, the governments of oriented governance. Now would that right? The issue is whether it is It’s weird how we don’t even countries involved, and even the be too much to ask for? ethical for journalists to accept these question the obscene amounts of airlines and travel agencies profi t Namah all-expense paid trips. Sure, I too money that manpower agencies charge from naive countrymen looking to go am guilty of having accepted such migrant workers (‘Zero cost migration, there. LANDSCAPE OF FEAR offers and clearly, so are you. When GOPEN RAI (66 LIKES) really?’, Om Astha Rai, #753). Stories Bairagi Khukhuri The US and the European countries you speak of ethical behaviour, it Most liked on Facebook People collect garbage from the Bagmati of families in huge debts and labourers that swear by international conventions must apply across the board, no? River during the Bagmati Clean-up Campaign in getting swindled have become so CONSTITUTION on human rights have an obligation to Otherwise, we are all hypocrites. Thapathali on Saturday. common that we barely think twice This view point is one sided: the see that justice is served and that the Belakoboli after reading such stories. I was at the issue is not about ‘Homogenising the ‘high and mighty who robbed and killed Most shared on Facebook ASS Looking for Dor Bahadur Bista airport when I saw two coffi ns in the Nepali identity in the name of national with impunity’ during the war be indicted by Kunda Dixit space of an hour, it was heartbreaking integrity and fostering nationalism and taken to the International Court of Meow-badis were always somebody's pets. We need to send Most popular on Twitter and jarring. Migrant labour is going to ...’, which the author perhaps rightly Justice (‘Landscape of fear’, Foreign them back to their owners or to Belabouring the obvious, Editorial be the next big problem in Nepal in Hand, #753). (171 retweets, 60 favourites) feels is not a goal to pursue, but it is animal pond centers. This is the terms of its economic and sociological about the attempt we are seeing in Poudyal result of what happens if they are impact. creating divisive political units based left to run amok. (Building a better Most visited online page TR on chauvinistic ethnic enclaves - and Curious, did any Maoist leaders visit Zero cost migration, really? Mao’s trap, #753) by Om Astha Rai (821 views) this is precisely what will divide the Europe after the Col Lama episode? Bairagi Khukhuri These are mind boggling fi gures. nation (‘Nearing the goal’, Anurag Gaurav Nepali Most commented Forgive us our press passes Imagine the commission on those 2 Acharya, #753). by Tsering Dolker Gurung (17 comments) million plus workers. Any idea what Good to note that there seems PRIVILEGED PRESS percentage of Nepal’s 15-49 group to be some sort of near agreement Very well written and very true (‘Forgive (or any other breakdown) is working between the political actors. But us our press passes’, Tsering Dolker CLARIFICATION Weekly Internet Poll #754 abroad? whatever is agreed to by these Gurung, #753). But the brutish, Q. Will the ban on the use of plastic bags be In ‘Getting away with (almost) implemented? Rabi political elites needs to be tested in shameful behaviour is not limited only anything’, #753 the quote a referendum. The leaders do not to the Nepali press. Where does our attributed to Next Generation Total votes: 47 Instead of creating employment have the mandate to impose the arrogance come from when we have Nepal’s Martin Punaks was in our own country, the leaders are constitution on us. A referendum achieved naught? related specifi cally to donors happily sending our brothers and should be given for the people to Khagendra and volunteers that support sisters to toil in foreign soil. We need choose to endorse or not to endorse orphanages in Nepal. NGN takes leaders who can make the country a the constitution. Other countries have Bravo! This type of article with no position on the case that the place where all Nepalis can live and done it (for e.g. Kenya), there is no journalists holding a mirror up to Weekly Internet Poll #755 article discusses. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com fulfi ll their dreams. reason why we cannot. themselves was long overdue. Editor Mahendra BK Poudyal Guest Q. Should journalists go on sponsored trips? Publisher and Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Associate Editor: Tsering Dolker Gurung | Online Producer: Ayesha Shakya | Design: Kiran Maharjan Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd | Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur | GPO Box 7251 Kathmandu [email protected] | www.nepalitimes.com | www.himalmedia.com | Tel: 01-5005601-08 Fax: +977-1-5005518 Marketing: Arjun Karki, Surendra Sharma [email protected] | Advertorials: Ram Krishna Banjara | Subscriptions: Santosh Aryal [email protected] Nepali Times on Facebook Follow @nepalitimes on Twitter Printed at Jagadamba Press | 01-5250017-19 | www.jagadambapr.com 17 - 23 APRIL 2015 #754 EDITORIAL 3 party alliance fizzled out humiliatingly after the first day because of public outrage. By now the message must have got through to the Maoist hierarchy that their strategy of stoking identity politics and using threats and violence is not working.