#33 9 - 15 March 2001 20 pages Rs 20 KHURSANI SPECIAL 10-11

19 Under my hat RECIPES FOR DISASTER 20

RAMYATA LIMBU IN MADICHAUR, ROLPA EXCLUSIVE ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ut here in the remote hills of mid- Western Nepal, it is difficult to Delhi sneezes… oimagine we are in the middle of a war Indian finance minister zone. This is an idyllic land: the clear, cool Yashwant Sinha did not to have Madi River flowing past ripening fields of a SAD—special additional wheat; cabbage plots watered by sprinklers; duty—in his budget proposal goats and cattle being herded to pasture; this year, but has introduced village women carrying gagris of water from the Today, there is peace. But it is a peace of acquiescence. another acronym that could still spring; children returning from school. It could be a sad story for Nepali be anywhere in Nepal. But this is Madichaur exports, especially in Ward No 1 of the Junkot Village manufactures Development Committee, and it is under using high Indian complete control of the Communist Party of raw material Nepal (Maoist). content. He will It wasn’t always this peaceful here. Till replace two years ago, the villagers were getting caught countervailing in the crossfire between the guerrillas and the duty charged on police, and the valleys reverberated with the RAMYATA LIMBU export prices with sound of gunfire and explosions. The Maoists a flat 16 percent had started systematically attacking the remote on the Maximum police posts, killing enough of them for the Retail Price police to withdraw to their fortified district Ruins of police chowki at Ghartigaon destroyed in a Maoist attack in March 2000. Fifteen policemen died. (MRP). This could headquarters in Libang, three hours’ walk lead to a cost away. Today, there is peace. But it is a peace of “Since the police chowki pulled out a year- slung over their shoulders watch a volleyball ones who lay ambushes along the village trails. difference as high acquiescence. No one actively in disagreement and-half ago, life has been peaceful,” says game between Maoist cadre and village youth It is also their job to interrogate strangers, and as Rs 20,000 per with the Maoists can survive here. Mansaram Pun, the pasal-owner. “We used to in the local school grounds. Members of the collect levies from villagers, businesses, ton of Nepal-made So the women cook and clean, collect be caught between the Maoists and police. We militia swagger around in camouflage uniforms teachers, and government officials. toothpaste water. The elderly stay at home taking care of were constantly in fear of our lives and police and captured police boots and belts, they “When we’re not on duty, we often lay exported to India. the grandchildren. There is a marked absence harassment. We couldn’t go anywhere.” smile, shake hands with villagers and talk. down our guns to help on community farms, Companies in Nepal that use of young men. They used to traditionally Today, Mansaram and his wife are left alone as “We were never underground from the with construction projects and give the raw material imported from migrate to “Kalapar” (India) from here for long as they pay their “tax” of Rs 100 a month people,” says 27-year-old Comrade Bidrohi as peasants a helping hand when they need it,” India would be hit the hardest seasonal work—there was never enough food to the Maoists, feed them, put them up, he raises his fist to a passing group of says Comrade Sujhav, as he prepares bamboo because the duty-drawback is to get by on what the arid fields produced. But attend Maoist gatherings and work schoolgirls in the widely acknowledged stakes with his khukuri to repair the roof of a low and is almost eaten up by since the fighting started five years ago, there occasionally on small bridge-building and communist greeting, lal salaam. “We are villager’s house. It is hard to believe that this transport and other unseen has been an even bigger exodus of young men. road-repair brigades. underground only from reactionary forces.” soft-spoken farmer leads an 11-member squad costs of moving goods in and Afraid of being victimised by the police or “Everyone in the village extends support in His comrades are high school drop-outs, semi- that has been trained to kill with his khukuri out of Indian border towns. recruited by the Maoists, most able-bodied cash or kind. You can’t be different. There’s literate farmers, disillusioned Nepali Congress in the name of the People’s War. “MRP could have a serious men have stayed away. Along the village fear. They have the guns,” says Mansaram. The and left parties supporters. They patrol the impact on our exports,” says trails, the children go to school clutching Madhichaur police post is abandoned, its rugged terrain that surrounds the village. If Æ Contd. on p2

Sandip Ghose of Nepal Lever, copy-books under their arms past the tiny wooden beams used to dry clothes. No longer there is any DHURBA BASNET Nepal’s largest exporter of bazaar with its pasal, a tailor shop and threatened by government security forces, suspicious soaps and detergents. The branch offices of the district agricultural members of the Maoist militia are relaxed. movement of sellers of toothpaste would also office and the government veterinarian. Civilians in sarongs, young women with .303s police, they are be hit hard. Colgate-Palmolive is Nepal’s top toothpaste exporter.

(For more on the budget: p 8) Government’s peace offensive ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

BINOD○○○○ BHATTARAI Human This was the first sign of life from a moribund government in a long time. It has become rights groups quite unusual to see the ruling Nepali Congress being proactive: and there it was the have named a NOC, NOC government meeting a longstanding Maoist precondition for talks by releasing the team of five Magar children and the hospital in Rolpa that never treated anyone. Nobody wanted to tell us why six names and whereabouts of their captured comrades as a prelude to releasing them. consisting of Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Daman Nath Dhungana, Sindhu Nath Pyakurel, tankers carrying diesel Suddenly, there are fresh hopes for talks again. “We’ve done everything needed to Sudip Pathak and Gauri Pradhan to facilitate peace talks. But no one has any illusions create an appropriate environment for talks,” Ram Chandra Poudel said on Tuesday. that the negotiations will be long and arduous, and will probably be accompanied by adulterated with over 50 percent “I’ve made the request, they now have to establish contact.” some escalation in violence. “I sense better preparedness in the government, which is a kerosene took three days to off- The 300-plus names on the list include those under preventive detention and in positive sign,” says Gopal Siwakoti Chintan, a human rights activist and lawyer. “At best load their fuel into the Nepal Oil jail. But conspicuous by his absence is well-known Maoist Danda Pani Neupane. The they may meet and agree on a code of conduct for conducting the insurgency and Corporation’s storage tanks government explanation is that those not on the list could be those arrested under counter-insurgency. Politically the two sides are still poles apart.” near the Tribhuvan International aliases, or unidentified rebels killed in ‘encounters’, or those killed by the Maoists Going by Prachanda Path, the Maoists now want an all-party interim government to themselves in internal purges. (The government has also asked that the rebels reveal rewrite the constitution. That would integrate them into the power structure, giving more Airport. But we found out the the whereabouts of 131 people abducted by the Maoists.) say in whatever happens thereafter. It is unlikely the government will agree to that NOC and tanker owners were The government move follows close on the heels of the announcement of the because it says Nepal’s constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy are non- haggling about the bribe. The Maoists’ new Prachanda Path doctrine that lays down a new direction in their revolution negotiable. While some see the demand for an interim government as softening of the government set up an inquiry that many saw as a mellowing of their previous hardline position. The government had earlier Maoist stand, the new Maoist doctrine adds an “armed mass struggle” to its commission on fuel adulteration to respond, and what better than to make public this list. For his part, Poudel admitted strategy. Some analysts read this as a classic Maoist “hammer-and-anvil” plan to spread he couldn’t figure out Chairman Prachanda: “We see confusion in Maoist thinking, they chaos and confusion in urban areas, forcing the government to spread its forces more to file a report in a month. Three have to be clear about their position for talks. Sugar-coated words alone will not do.” thinly. Adding an urban insurrection to its rural base areas would make a deadly months ago. Looks like Depending on how the Maoists respond to this government overture, the plan is to have combination that could be used as a bargaining chip to push through its demands for business as usual. p 8 informal meetings to iron out preliminaries like logistics, naming of delegates and constitutional change. deciding the agenda. That would lead to round two—of real political bargaining. The official toll: 1563 dead—1018 Maoists, 278 civilians, and 267 police personnel. 

world link as in issue 29 222 EDITORIAL 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES VIEWPOINT What the Left can right rom relatively small beginnings on 13 DHURBA BASNET February, 1996, the Maoist “People’s fWar” has, to use their own phrase, “moved from peak to peak”. The Maoists have LOOK WHO‘S EVIL NOW marked this achievement by christening their revolution the “Prachanda Path”, and the When the devotees of the Sakyamuni in the Kushan empire, nearly government by the formation of an armed two thousand years ago, set about carving two giant statues of the police force. For the first time in the last half a Buddha on the rock-conglomerate escarpments of present-day century “development” is gradually being central Afghanistan, little did they know what would be wrought in the pushed to the back seat. In a very unexpected first year of the third millennium. way, the Maoists have provided the most By ordering the destruction of the two towering statues in telling critique of the relevance of the mode Bamiyan (it is not entirely clear that they are totally destroyed at the and meaning of “development” practised in moment of going to press) and hundreds or perhaps thousands of Nepal over the past decades. Raising the Maoist flag in a school playground others scattered about in the moribund museums and The People’s War is Nepal’s first home- archaeological sites around the country, the Afghan leader Mullah grown insurrection with an explicit ideology appeasement of the peasantry have all been can breed local “strongmen” particularly when Omar and the Ulema as a whole have shown themselves to be a) and a pan-Nepali coverage. Over the past five used to good effect to mobilise local financial ideological conscientisation, political and intolerant, b) anti-intellectual and anti-knowledge, c) anti-history and years the Maoists have built an impressive, and combative resources to allow them to financial accountability, and reconstructive anti-heritage and d) ignorant of economics. functionally efficient network of decentralised procure arms and ammunition from outside development at the local level remain weak. Given that Sakyamuni himself was born in present-day Nepal, area-based guerrilla organisations capable of Nepal and maintain a reliable cadre base. The Maoists also appear to be plagued with and given the large Buddhist flock in this country, it is natural that the mobilising hundreds of youth at the local level. brutal strategy “liquidation” of “informers” and problems of organisational, tactical and destruction of Buddhist iconography hits us harder in the heart. These organisations appear to be built on the other “dubious” elements has in the short term politico-strategic nature. But the fact is that While the soul of Himalayan Buddhism is Mahayanic and Vajrayanic base of poor peasants and the occupational nullified the danger of subversion from within. the central government bureaucracy appears to and the period the Bamiyan Buddhas epitomise, Gandharan, both caste groups, something no political The logistical capability of the Maoists in be losing its tenuous hold on the Nepali nevertheless have the underpinnings in the message of the organisation in Nepal had attempted at such a terms of propaganda, recruitment, training, countryside. If there were an election in the Sakyamuni, which is the display of karuna, the feeling of scale before. The mass of aspiring, partially deployment (both for combat purpses and for near future it is doubtful whether full (not to compassion for fellow creatures. educated and unemployed youth have been propaganda) and “hiding within the masses” talk of fair) elections could be held in the What the Taliban of Afghanistan have done by destroying the the breeding ground for Maoist recruits. The has, by all accounts, been remarkably effective. Maoist-affected districts. Buddhistic heritage of the country is show lack of karuna on an strength of the Maoists has been the historic Whether the Maoist force can continue doing The Maoist People’s War has radically unimaginable scale. Firstly, it is lack of empathy for the devotees and weakness of the Nepali state. They have so in the event of an all-out war declared by altered the balance of political power within artisans of nearly two millennia ago, who built these images, long capitalised on centuries of isolation and the state is really a moot question. Nepal, and by implication, called into question before Islam and its anti-idolatry message slipped into the rugged underdevelopment of the remoter regions. The Maoist leadership has its share of the entire political and economic development mountains of Central Asia. Secondly, it is lack of understanding for Ideological cooption, extortion, loot, and problems. A decentralised command structure strategy of the country. The issue is not

the greater mass of humanity, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, who all DHURBA BASNET share in the ownership of these images. Lastly, it shows complete disregard for the interests of the Afghans themselves, who were custodians of this heritage for the rest of civilisation and who (in better times) benefited economically from the Buddha’s existence. At one time, Bamiyan’s Buddhas and the nearby lakes of Band-e-Amir were the greatest tourist attractions of Afghanistan. The place will be no more than a place of mourning. There is one lesson that can be derived at this moment of desecration, as the Sakyamuni would also perhaps have advised us. It is to learn that there is that dark patch in each of our souls, which if Left to right: Vice-Chairman of Thawang VDC, Kalam Rokka (Nepali Congress), portering in Libang; Bhim Kumari Budha of Jagriti; allowed out by the confluence of social forces, can erupt as mob Man Kumari Pun, wife of Maoist ‘martyr’ Comrade Kshitij; and ex-Gorkha Hasta Muni Pun. action at the mass level. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong brought out the mob with his cultural revolution and destroyed the great gumbas of Æ Continued from page 1 Tibet. In 1992, a Hindu mob violated the Babri mosque, barely 200 At the entrance to the village, local cadre are marking Martyr’s Day with strength. There’s a silent terror.” Upadhyay, like many government the inauguration of a memorial gate. Even the Maoists have not been able officials languishing in Libang, has time on his hands. His court doesn’t get km south of our border in Ayodhya. We in Nepal, too, must keep to resist the Nepali penchant for building ceremonial gates at every too many cases after the formation of Maoist People’s Court and parallel guard against being manipulated by forces which allow similar opportunity. This one is a tribute to the 41 Maoists who have died in Rolpa government. The Peoples’ Court metes out stern justice for practices like actions to take place. in the five years of Peoples’ War. “The blood of the martyrs has not been polygamy which is prevalent in these districts. Alcoholics are punished, shed in vain,” says 22-year-old Man Kumari Pun, a member of the Maoist and Rolpa is nearly dry. Village drunkards have sobered up. Mahila Sagathan (women’s organisation). “I mourn the loss of my husband, Health workers, water supply and agricultural technicians, however, but this is not a time for sentiment. It’s a time to transform sorrow into still have jobs to do and are tolerated by the Maoists. Says Rishi Ram strength.” Man Kumari has a five-year old son, and she is self-confident Bhandari, an agricultural expert who has worked in Rolpa for the past 12 and forceful: “If the need arises, I can pick up a gun. My husband died but years: “Farming hasn’t been affected. The people seek advice regarding there are thousands to take his place. We shall continue the war against farming, seeds and crops, even for their community farms,” says dictatorship. We are fighting the nokarshahi pujipati barga, pratikiryabadi Bhandari. Before the fighting began, Rolpa and the neighbouring district of kukurharu.” That is the party-line for “bureaucratic capitalist class and Rukum used to be known as the vegetable “seed banks” for the rest of reactionary dogs”. Nepal, exporting up to Rs 20 million worth. That has been reduced to a Man Kumari is one of hundreds of local women in the militia that is 20 trickle. Health is faring almost as badly. Even before the insurgency percent women. Many other women are active in the Mahila Sangathan. flared, Rolpa ranked 60th out of Nepal’s 75 districts in human Comrade Barsha is one of them. “I don’t have to carry a gun,” she tells development with an average lifespan of 52, and an infant mortality rate us. Seated amidst a group of women, who shade themselves against the of 130—much worse than the national average. Seeing the need, the hot afternoon sun with towels, Comrade Barsha and her colleagues wait for Maoists have allowed government health officials to work in Rolpa. “As others to arrive for the opening of a memorial gate. “We used to be long as they’re convinced that we’re not informers, they allow us to carry restricted to the household, the revolution has made women aware of our out our work,” says health official Chitra Jung Shahi. rights to education, property, to equal treatment.’’ The Nepal Human Even so, fighting has driven off many others, and only half the 200 Development Report ranks mid-Western districts like Rolpa as the least health personnel posts are filled. Even before it began functioning, the What we must remember in these intolerant times is that not all gender-sensitive in the country. Talking to women like Comrade Barsha, it district hospital in Reuwai, an hour’s walk from Libang is derelict and Muslims are Talibans, and Islamic nations have condemned the is obvious this will now change. abandoned, a symbol of corruption, mismanagement and neglect. The It is hard to tell, when there is so much revolutionary talk around, what nearest hospital is in Dang, two days’ walk away. Women volunteers desecration of the Buddhas. And without being cynical, let us remind the silent majority really thinks. There are those who just want to live continue to carry out anti-polio vaccination, and Vitamin A programmes. ourselves the Taliban is a CIA creation via Pakistani ISI deep in the quietly, and if any of them had dissident thoughts, you don’t hear them. But the general health conditions haven’t seen any dramatic improvement. Cold War years when the goal was to fight the Evil Empire. Look who Hasta Muni Pun is 57, and as an ex-Gurkha soldier in the Indian Army, he The Maoist have also disbanded a women’s savings credit scheme by is evil now. And it is US-led global geopolitics that has pushed the has seen it all. He tells us: “I don’t want to die, so I do what they say.” warning off local activists supported by foreign funds. Maoists looted the Afghans into a corner with sanctions, and the Talibans have reacted Hasta Muni is a Nepali Congress supporter, and one of very few who papers of the savings group and sent back development officers with returned to his home village from the safety of Libang after the Maoists stern warnings. “It was a necessary step,” says Comrade Ajay, a former in the only way they know how. Speaking of which, whether the spread the word that no one would be harmed. But the message is clear— school teacher and going by his bearings, a fairly senior district leader. Bamiyan Buddhas (there are two of them) are or are not on the World you won’t be harmed as long as you behave yourselves, so not too many “Such programmes, entirely foreign funded, undermine the People’s War.” Heritage Site list is irrelevant. The list is just a wish list. But the have take up on the offer. Hasta Muni is keen to talk, and his suppressed The Maoists may mete out free justice, support local households, and Buddhas are a heritage, as much or more (because of their antiquity) feelings well out: “I have seen war. You can’t gain power without war. There build bridges, but they acknowledge that it will need much more to address than the Taj Mahal. This was the kind of crisis where the new director will be a war. People will die. Villagers will die. Both the police and the the people’s demand for development. Comrade Ajay continues: Maoists threaten, and subdue the people.” Hasta Muni’s wife looks worried “Development is necessary for the people here. But it has to encourage of Unesco, should have jettisoned all other commitments, hired a jet that her husband is talking too much and cautions him to keep quiet. self-reliance and be free from foreign funding which encourages corruption and flown to Kabul on a rescue mission. Appointing a special Most other Nepali Congress supporters haven’t dared return to their and parasitic tendencies.” He is critical of road projects like the highway representative is the old way. It does not suffice in the age of global villages and are refugees in Libang, making a living breaking stones and currently being built from Libang to Madichaur by the army. “This road is cultural crimes against humanity. working as porters. The district headquarters is secured by a 200-strong not being built with the people in mind. It will make it easier for the police force and an army battalion has been brought in as part of the government to infiltrate into our stronghold,” says Comrade Ajay. But so government’s effort to increase security after the attack on Dunai in far, they have allowed the road to go ahead because they don’t want to September. But even Libang is not safe enough for Bhim Kumari Buda who risk taking on the army. Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd is followed by police bodyguards wherever she goes. Bhim Kumari is in the While some in Madichaur are wholly committed to the cause, others Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Pulchowk, Lalitpur Maoists’ most-wanted list in Rolpa, accused of being an informant blamed keep a low profile, and try to figure out which way the wind is blowing. At Mailing address: GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal for the deaths of more that a dozen of their comrades. “It’s certain death if the moment it is blowing in the direction of revolution. Comrade Ajay and Phones: (01) 543333-7 Fax: (01) 521013 I return. But I refuse to surrender to them, or to pay them any insurance his colleagues are confident that the people are with them, and they will be Editor: Kunda Dixit money,” says Bhim Kumari. A staunch Nepali Congress supporter, she patient about waiting for their fight to result in better living standards. He Desk editors: Deepak Thapa, Samuel Thomas, Anagha Neelakantan heads Jagriti, a women’s empowerment programme ( reportedly) set up by gives us a parting thought: “Every year the people’s trust is growing. If we Editorial: [email protected] the government to provide relief to displaced Nepali Congress supporters. continue to be honest and stick to our ideals, they will come over to our Marketing, circulation and subscriptions: [email protected] For Rolpa district judge Nilkantha Upadhyay, the surface calm is side. Yesterday, we didn’t have much. Today we’ve grown, we have an www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press (01) 521393 deceptive: “Hidden behind the peace, I think they are building up their army, a system.” 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 333 by PITAMBER SHARMA The issue is not whether the Maoists will prevail, it is whether questions of equity and

social justice can continue to be ignored.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○ whether the Maoists will prevail, the economic exclusion and exploitation championing the cause of the issue is whether the questions—of also needs to be addressed. underclass, the poor, the deprived and equity and social justice, of access to The creation of the armed the dispossessed. “Societal resources and opportunities for better police force signifies a fumbling transformation” has been their main livelihoods—that they have raised can resolve to meet force by force. This ideological plank. They want Nepali continue to be ignored. One may can only lead to the perpetration of nationalism strengthened to withstand disagree with the Maoist methods of violence at a much larger and the onslaught of “Indian “revolution”, but it is hard to disagree intensified scale. It conveniently expansionism”. But all these points are with the legitimacy of the questions sidesteps the central issue of the central also to the Maoist agenda, and that have been raised. The on-going need for a deeper structural change one would have expected a fitting squabble and stalemate in the in the body politic. There is response to Maoist extremism from national legislature makes an political procrastination and the political left, a response that interesting, and indeed ironic bankruptcy in economic policies would go beyond the rhetoric, and contrast to the larger ramifications and programmes. This is hardly outline an alternative political and of the Maoist People’s War for the surprising in a government wedded economic agenda and actions to prevailing political, economic and to market reforms, indiscriminate achieve those ends. Instead, the left social status quo in Nepal. liberalisation, and “mobilisation” political parties have proved to be dumb, confused spectators caught between friend and foe. If any political formation in Nepal has the capability to pull the carpet from under the feet of the Hits FM Maoists, it is the organised left with its roots in civil society. That capability has to derive from a clear understanding of the possibilities of structural change within a democratic system. Such a political, economic and social agenda and programme would provide the basis for political action both within and outside parliament. This would, of Maoist martyrs’ gate at entrance to Madichaur course, demand a return to a DHURBA BASNET politics based on ideology, a The government’s response to the and “empowerment” of commodity rare in Nepali left Maoist insurgency, instead of bringing communities under the “benign” politics today. a paradigm shift in development watchful eyes and guiding hands of The Maoist People’s War has thinking—political, economic and the donors; the Maoist insurgency fundamentally questioned the social—has not been serious, not is simply a meaningless irritant in credibility of Nepal’s mainstream constructive, and not innovative. The the otherwise smooth road to left. It is doubtful whether a debate the Maoist People’s War capitalist “development”. Clearly, dialogue devoid of an economic and should have initiated within ruling even the mindset to deal with the political agenda would really circles has unfortunately been limited crisis is absent. contribute much to the resolution to the search for a symptomatic rather Left out of the Maoist insurrection, and it than a systemic treatment of the issue. Unfortunately, it is the response of the would be up to the left political The violence and terror perpetrated moderate left to the Maoist People’s parties to make a singular by Maoists as well as the government War that has been the most contribution by negotiating such an forces need to be deplored and all enigmatic. They have consistently agenda, and bringing the nation back effort needs to be made to end it. But called for “structural changes in the from the brink of a civil war in which the “quiet and sustained violence” political and economic system”, and, there would be no winners.  endured by Nepalis because of at least in theory, the left has degrading poverty, of inhuman remained vocal in the struggle for a (Pitamber Sharma a former professor of corruption of political, social and society free of exploitation, and in geography at Tribhuvan University.)

LETTERS GREAT PLOUGHMAN A classic example is provided by Pico living in Nepal. At last week’s The announcement of Prachanda Iyer, who, during his visit to North Tibetan New Year police tried to Path, the ‘new’ ideological lodestar Korea in 1990, discovered that the stop the celebrations at of our insurgent Maoists, can be great leader Kim Il Sung was not just Baudhanath. While in the past the construed to mean a number of a ‘great comrade, great man and government has bowed to pressure different things. Firstly, at a more fighter’ to his people, but also a from China to curtail political prosaic level, it can be seen as a ‘great thinker, politician and activities of Tibetans, this is the first blatant attempt to put a fresh, strategist...a great man and father of time they have tried to stop a nationalistic spin into what the people...the sun of the cultural New Year’s celebration. undeniably remains a nation...peerless patriot and Activities such as tossing barely flour tired, imported national hero...all- in the air, dances, Buddhist prayers revolutionary model. triumphant, resolute and and rituals, speeches by prominent Secondly, it can be incomparable members of the Tibetan community, interpreted as a shrewd leader...eminent Marxist- and the installation of a temporary move towards what Leninist and outstanding shrine with the Dalai Lama’s photo Umberto Eco calls a military strategist’. displayed were forbidden. ‘semiological guerrilla ‘Prachanda’ is already a It is very disheartening that we warfare’. Given the tragic rather flattering nom de have to face such treatment in a association of Maoism in guerre of Pushpa Kamal democratic Nepal. In the last few the past century with such Dahal, whose own canonisation as months even traditional dances in monumental follies as the ‘great signaled by the announcement of schools and halls have been called leap forward’ and the ‘cultural the ideological offshoot deserves a off. What harm can a dance do? I revolution’, our Maoist high special epithetic celebration. At the sincerely hope that the government command’s desire to sanitise their moment, I can think of only one will be more tolerant in future and bloody insurgency through a clever epithet—one that has the added change its attitude. We have lived piece of semiological/linguistic virtue of resonating with Hindu in peace in Nepal and there is no surgery is understandable. But mythological connotations—capable reason to harass us when we are more interestingly, Prachanda Path of doing justice to his newfound, celebrating a cultural event. is perhaps a highly ambitious bid of homegrown greatness: The Great Tenzing Jigme Tuladhar Chairman Prachanda to ascend Ploughman. Can you think of others? Kathmandu Red Olympus and rub shoulders Ram Limbu with the likes of Marx, Lenin, Stalin Sydney CORRECTION and Mao. In the special section on Thamel History tells us that the TIBET (#32) the proprietor of the Good apotheosis of Communist leaders is As a Nepali citizen of Tibetan origin, Earth Bookstore is Swaroop Singh generally accompanied by an I have seen our government showing Basnet and not a Newari poet as embarrassment of epithetic riches. growing intolerance towards Tibetans erroneously stated. -Ed 444 NATION 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES There are no official estimates about the number of porters, and certainly Sharing the load no way of knowing how many porters

have died or gone missing.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ missing while portering. During the freak storm of 1995 in the Nepali Himalaya, 42 Nepalis were officially declared dead, and many more are believed to have perished. “Cases like this have occurred time and again. But there has been no official effort so far to record them and compensate relatives for their loss,” says Adhikary. Trekking agencies say that claiming a dead porter means a lot of hassle, so they don’t report what is after all only replaceable manpower. Industry sources put the ratio of trekkers to porters is 1:2 for the average 100,000 trekkers who visit Nepal every year. Trekking agencies hire porters at random every trekking season and very few agencies have staff porters. But even they are employed on a daily wage basis. Individual travellers also hire freelance porters along the trekking trail. “Most freelance porters are simple villagers. For decent money they often carry excess weight, which is hazardous,” says Parsuram Dhungel, a trekking porter in his mid-twenties from Sankhuwasabha. The major concern for porters Sal Bahadur Rai rests his load on a tokma and porter activists is safety, the and surveys the Arun Valley where his elimination of exploitation and village Diting lies; and, facing page, support for such measures from all delicately negotiates a Nepali-style stile. concerned parties. So far, there has JEFFREY HERSCH/THE MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE JEFFREY HERSCH/THE MOUNTAIN been no direct support from the

SALIL○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ SUBEDI namlo—a tumpline, distributing the of the world. Rescue Association of Nepal (HRA) government, and national planners he trekking season has begun, load over the vertebrae and neck Porters in the Himalaya suffer four and the Nepal representative of the have traditionally underestimated this and climbers and trekkers muscles, calves and thighs, and heave times as many accidents and illnesses as International Porter Protection socio-economic enterprise. However, tfrom all over the world have their way along. It is known that this a Western trekker. In case of a fall or Group (IPPG). Nepali law states that provisions made for the mountains of Nepal style of haulage goes back 15,000 years sickness on the trail, a porter’s life is at The IPPG, a volunteer-based should be made for the security of equipped with hi-tech trekking in time, long before pulleys, levers and risk. “The group just abandons us. We advocacy organisation run by trekking porters, they should be gear, professional medical advice wheels were invented. have to walk all the way back without mountain specialists and workers provided with personal protective and plenty of insurance. But Locally known as bhariya, the any help, and often only with partial from around the world, has laid out equipment including shoes and whether they are out on a “tea- porters in the Himalaya, men and payment,” says Dhuni Maya Tamang five guidelines on how to keep clothes depending on the weather, house” trek or an organised one, women, are at the moment lifting of Dhading. porters safe (See box). The HRA at and that the management little will they know or be informed loads exceeding 60 kg and So far, insurance for porters is its two aid-posts at Pheriche (employer) is responsible for their about the state of their humble transporting that for 7 hours at an virtually non-existent. During natural (4,200m) and Manang (3,500m) rescue when required. companions—the porters. average of Rs 80 per day. “People say calamities at high altitudes, porters’ provides medical facilities to porters “Law? After one trek, the next Trekking porters carry their it’s a tough job. But one has to make chances of survival, or even getting and trekking staff at a minimum thing we have to do is look bhari in all sorts of climates and a living,” says 38-year-old Dhunja compensation for injury or mutilated consultation charge of Rs 50. “But desperately for another trip. terrain, with sparse clothing, Tamang of Dhading, a freelance body parts, are low. “A direct most of the time we waive the fee for Otherwise we will be in a terrible footwear like flip-flops and plastic porter (as opposed to the staff porters helicopter rescue of a single person porters,” says Adhikary. situation, without money. If we had SHARAD RANJIT bags as protection from the snow. of trekking agencies) for over 15 costs up to $2,200. You can easily There are no official estimates good laws we wouldn’t be facing such With the bhari supported on the years. This ancient practice of hauling understand why porters become the ill- about the number of porters, and problems,” says another trekking bent 50-degree switchback of the and transporting goods is a pointer to fated ones,” says Prakash Adhikary, certainly no way of knowing how porter Chandra Bahadur Tamang spine, the porters clutch the the state of the economy in this part chief executive of the Himalayan many people have died or gone from Dolakha. Porters have little

HERE AND THERE by DANIEL LAK An ill wind from the West Without excusing the reprehensible vandalism of the Taliban, one

nother round of outrage from the “international community”, wonders about the hypocrisy and the incompetence of Western leaders. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ this time over the admittedly dreadful acts against the giant ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ aBuddhas of Bamiyan, by the Taliban regime smashing statues and forcing women back into the western petroleum interests stood to make money from the construction of in Afghanistan. Taliban apologists are telling us that medieval times. But that’s out of ignorance and a gas pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan. The international posturings the destruction is an act of defiance, even fanaticism.” She reminded of me how President Bush Jr and occasional actions of our Globo-cops in Washington, London et al helplessness, in the face of international sanctions took office in January and immediately imposed a ban have got us precisely nowhere in almost every intervention that they’ve that are largely hurting poor Afghans. This is a on American overseas aid money to going to family undertaken. Was it the relentless bombing of Serbia by NATO planes in spurious argument, but I do have serious problems planning or womens’ health groups that have anything the late 1990s that toppled Slobodan Milosevic and his corrupt and evil with the way “the west” handles those it perceives at all to do with abortion. “With that, he condemned regime? No, it was a Jana Andolan, Serb-style, followed by free and fair as its enemies. how many thousands, how many hundreds of thousands elections. Meanwhile, his democratic successors have a shattered country Set to one side the very real vandalism going on of poor women to die at the hands of back street to rebuild and a growing problem with Albanian gangsters in the UN- now in Afghanistan in the name of a Prophet who butchers. And why did he do it? Is he opposed to abortion? protected enclave of Kosovo, fuelling world demand for arms, drugs and probably would not have allowed the statues’ Maybe, but why doesn’t he have the guts to ban it in his contraband. Mark my words, Slobo, or his much worse counterparts on the destruction since they aren’t being worshipped by own country? Why does he pick on our poor women?” She fascist right, could well be back. As for Saddam Hussein, he’s still there, anyone. Set aside the powerful and understandable has a point that must be put to Mr Bush. having outlasted two, possibly three, British Prime Ministers and similar grief among scholars and the world’s Buddhists, not Then there’s the role of the west in encouraging number of American presidents. True, George Bush Sr did see his son beat least in Nepal. But am I alone here in detecting a radical Islamic behaviour in modern Afghanistan to Uday Hussein to high office. But that’s only yet another mark of how the note of hypocrisy from the United States and some serve a redoubt against Soviet expansionism in the outrage of the “international community” has enhanced the status of yet other protesting voices. I also wonder if the verbiage hottest days of the Cold War. All the warring another evil dictator. doesn’t conceal a deep political incompetence mujahideen groups, whose internecine squabbling None of this is to excuse even one iota the behaviour of the Taliban. among the current crop of western leaders when faced with a powerful led to the rise of the Taliban in the first place, got encouragement, They have done wrong, and destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is challenge abroad. money and weapons from Washington, London and the rest. As for the reprehensible. Equally, I refuse to accept that the self-righteous words of First the hypocrisy. A Nepali friend who works to improve the lot of Taliban, they were supported, at least subtly, in their early days in Bush, Clinton or Blair, can mask their own countries’ responsibility for the women put it to me succinctly and savagely. “The Bush administration in those same Western capitals, ostensibly because they brought an demons their countries may once have helped create, and have certainly Washington is worse than the Taliban,” she declared. “The Afghans are element of peace to a battered Afghan countryside, in reality because that sustained with their hatred and opposition.  NATION 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 555 from Dolakha.

Preventing illness and accidents Porter-related issues are moving Arterial sclerosis ○○○○○ The higher and more remote your trek, the better equipment and into the limelight, though, and things ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ shelter you have to provide, especially in winter. The International are happening since the first ever Last monsoon, a landslide at Krishnabhir on the Prithvi Highway cut the capital off from the rest Porter Protection Group (IPPG) recommends the following guidelines: conference on porters was organised of the country for two weeks. Experts now say even one downpour can trigger off a bigger z That adequate clothing be available for protection in bad weather six years ago by the Himal landslide, disabling Kathmandu’s supply-route for weeks. Krishnabhir, 82 km west of and at altitude. This should include adequate footwear, hat, Association (“Hard Livelihood: Kathmandu, has already seen landslides after last week’s rainfall. A stretch is covered with gloves, windproof jacket and trousers, sunglasses and access to Conference on the Himalayan mud and debris, and the bulldozer deployed to clear the highway is of little use due to blanket and pad above the snowline. Porter”). A series of conferences have continued slippage from the hills. Closer to Kathmandu, 50m of Paryabhir, near Malekhu, z That leaders and trekkers provide the same standard of medical been organised by the IPPG and a Dhading also experienced landslides earlier this week. care for porters, as they would expect for themselves. photo exhibition held last autumn. A Last monsoon, the government promised to build two protection walls along the z That porters not be paid off because of illness without the leader or calendar has been published Krishnabhir section of the Prithvi Highway, one 180 m long, 6 m wide, and another, 40 m long trekkers being informed. and 5 m wide. There has been no work as yet on the project. Maintenance workers of the z That sick porters never be sent down alone, but with someone who portraying the life of a porter (from speaks their language and understands the problem. which the pictures accompanying this Department of Roads at Krishnabhir say it will take another two months to clear the mud and z That sufficient funds be provided to sick porters to cover the cost of article have been taken). Recently, debris—two months before they can start building those walls. their land rescue and treatment. 35 porters gathered in the capital

More on to share their experiences and Kofi Annan comes to Nepal ○○○○○○○○○○○○

needs at a two-day workshop ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ jointly organised by the UN General Secretary Kofi Annan’s last-minute decision to visit Annapurna Conservation Area Nepal on a two-day tour 12-13 March is being interpreted as a Project (ACAP) in association diplomatic success. The government expects Annan’s tour to with the IPPG, called the give a push to its proposal to develop the Kavre-based UN “Sustainable Tourism Training Training Centre into a UN Regional Peacekeeping Centre. Workshop for Trekking Porters.” Annan’s visit to the training centre comes on the heels of other The workshop exposed high-profile visits, by Mongolian president Natsagiin participating porters to ways of Bagabandi, Chinese defence minister General Chi Haotian, tackling their problems, informed and British defence minister Geoffrey Hoon. them on issues related to mountain Before Nepali soldiers go on peacekeeping duty overseas, they are trained at the centre at tourism, as well as their safety on Kavre for six months with counterparts from foreign armed forces. If Annan’s visit provides the treks. “We are trying to educate hoped-for impetus to transform the Kavre training centre into a peacekeeping centre, Nepal will porters. Portering should evolve as soon host a Multi-Platoon Training Exercise. The Ministry of Defence in Kathmandu says 625 professional work and porters given Nepali soldiers are serving in the UN force in Lebanon, 225 in East Timor, and a few others in their dignity and rights,” says Tara places like Kosovo or Congo as observers. There are also over 100 Nepali police personnel Gurung, Senior Conservation serving in UN-related missions. The number deployed is significantly down from about the all- Officer of ACAP. “Since portering time high of 2,400 in 1995. Nepal first sent soldiers on peacekeeping duty in 1958 to Lebanon, is an important part of the Nepali three years after Nepal joined the UN. economy, we encourage travellers

to employ porters and support the No Indian meat and fish

○○○○○ tradition. But that doesn’t mean ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ porters have to be exploited, like Europe isn’t the only place anxious about diseased livestock. Eastern Nepal, too, is worried in is happening at large in the the wake of about 100 deaths last week due to an unidentified animal-borne disease in country,” she adds. neighbouring Siliguri, 38 km east of Kakarvitta. Bordering towns in east Nepal have banned “What I like is that things are in import of meat and fish from India. Damak Municipality was the first to impose the ban, motion. Attitudes are changing, followed by Ilam, Mechi, Biratnagar, Kakarvitta, Dhulabari, Itahari and Dharan municipalities. people are talking and doing Outlets selling imported meat and fish will be fined up to Rs 15,000. JEFFREY HERSCH/THE MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE JEFFREY HERSCH/THE MOUNTAIN something to tackle the present The fears seem to be valid. Nepal lacks facilities to diagnose the blue tongue disease, bargaining power, as supply is usually escape from drudgery and situation of porters,” says Ben Ayers, suspected to have affected animals in Siliguri. For now, Nepalis have to rely on reports of greater than demand. Agencies hiring discriminatory wages back in the the IPPG USA representative and Indian laboratories for identifying the cause of death. Blue tongue is communicable, attacks porters normally tend to put porters village. “I have four kids and three are coordinator of the Porter Clothing liver and kidneys and can kill animals within 36 hours. Humans are vulnerable, too, through on the defensive by threatening to fire in school. I took a long break of nine Bank—a non-profit initiative to lend consumption of contaminated meat, and if not treated properly the disease takes only 36 hours them should they demand more than years to look after my kids. Now I plan donated mountain wear to porters. to kill a person. the price set by the group or agency. to go and carry loads because I need Although modern transport—Tata Hill towns like Ilam have also banned meat from tarai districts like Jhapa and Morang, due Though portering is the backbone money to support my kids,” says 30- trucks, Russian jeeps, Canadian Twin to fears that meat and fish could be contaminated due to their proximity to Siliguri. Residents of of the trekking industry and a life year-old Titi Maya Tamang from Otters and the Mi-17 helicopters— Jhapa, Sunsari and Morang regularly shop for cheaper goods in Indian towns like Jogbani and support system for thousands of Shertung in Dhading, whose husband and porter-friendly suspension bridges Siliguri. The ban has received a mixed response from locals, but meat sellers in Biratnagar Nepali families, there’s no is also a trekking porter. (which have been used a great deal by sub-metropolis pressurised the local authority to revise its total ban and check imports only. organisation or union of porters— Portering might be one of the few yaks and mules transporting goods at According to the Morang Meat Association, Biratnagar alone consumes 110 quintals of meat they don’t even have the time to come enterprises where women and men cheaper rates) are now available, products a day, worth Rs 1.7 million. together and talk. By its nature, receive equal pay. But they are not free porters still show their strength and “There is no need to panic yet,” assures Pravin Shakya, meat specialist with Third Livestock portering doesn’t allow co-workers to from sexual harassment from the daring. Nepali porters are praised the Development Project at the Department of Agriculture. The government says that the blue sit in one place and talk things over. sirdars. “What can you do? Sometimes world over for their efforts, their tongue disease has not travelled to Nepal yet, but without laboratory facilities to confirm the However, the Trekking Worker’s you see your own sister or wife being daring feats, and in surviving the disease and a proper mechanism to check import of diseased animals the claim is feeble. Association of Nepal (TWAN) does verbally harassed by the guides and harshest of conditions. It is said that if Government statistics show that Nepal relies on Indian imports for 90 percent of the buffalo raise issues concerning porters and sirdars. But because they are our portering were an Olympic endurance meat and 75 percent of goat meat consumed annually. other trekking workers. employers we can’t really be rude to weight lifting event, the Nepali porter

Women join portering as an them,” says Chandra Bahadur Tamang would win all the medals.  Third party for verification

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Four international human rights organisations working with the Nepal-Bhutan joint verification WIN A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS team at the Bhutanese refugee camps in eastern Nepal have demanded the involvement of a third party, particularly the UN High Commission for Refugees. The four rights INGOs—Human Rights Watch, Lutheran World Federation, Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and Enter the Grisham Game Refugees International—are consultants to the UN. Together with the Centre for Protection of All you do is: Minorities and Against Racism and Discrimination in Bhutan (CEMRAD-Bhutan) they have Read Grisham’s latest, A Painted House. Write a forwarded their recommendations to the Nepali and Bhutanese foreign ministers. They said 50-word review, and another 50 words about your that the initiation of the joint verification process has brought a sense of “hope and optimism” favourite page in Nepali Times. Send it to us by to refugees awaiting repatriation. But they expressed concern that various Bhutanese rights groups working in the camp areas are being pressurised to refrain from activism. The groups 15 March with proof of purchase of any book from suggested that the presence of international monitoring bodies like the UNHCR was important United Booksellers and Bestseller Café in the to carry out verification in accordance with international standards and to uphold the rights of Ganesh Man Singh Building, Thamel. approximately 100,000 Bhutanese in the camps.

You can win: Spring climbing

○○○○○ One paperback a month from United Books for the next 12 months. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Twenty-two mountaineering teams have been permitted to climb in the Nepali Himalaya this Mail your entries to: spring although more teams are expected to join as the climbing season progresses. Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has permitted ten expeditions, including two NT GAME, PO Box 7251, Kathmandu Indian expeditions to climb Everest (8848m) by the normal southeast ridge. Baba Munindra Pal, an Indian national without a leg will attempt to climb Everest. Leader of A United Bookseller and Bestseller Café competition, in the 7-member Handicapped Expedition 2001 India, Pal will attempt to reach the summit by May conjunction with Nepali Times. 31 when the climbing season ends. A 12-member Indian Army expedition led by Col SC Sharma will also attempt Everest while Biviane Cuo will lead the first Chilean women’s expedition to the peak, the Ministry of Tourism says. Apart from the Indian and Chilean teams, three American, two Spanish and one expedition each from Japan and Germany will attempt the 8848m peak. The Ministry has permitted five teams to climb Makalu (8463m), 4 teams to climb Amadablam (6812m), one team each to Himlung (7126m), Kantega (6779m), and to Mansalu (8163m). 666 NATION 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES

The craft of graft TULSI○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ DAS MAHARJAN of seven years would get a lumpsum for themselves. If money is given to (Translated from Mulyankan) of Rs 50,000. As of mid-July, 2000, these financially well-off people, fter Girija Prasad Koirala a total of Rs 150 million had been this becomes some sort of a became prime minister for distributed to 3,268 people. business. Did these rich political athe first time in 1991, he sufferers fight for democracy to gain formed a one-member committee to Who qualifies? financially in the long run? Were provide financial assistance to all After the 1950-51 revolution, a they really serious in their fight or political sufferers under the similar committee had been formed did they fight because they could Panchayat regime. Two-time prime in 1956 to provide help to people make money later on? Did they minister, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who had been persecuted for their fight for their own selfish greed and was the sole member of this political beliefs. The five categories not for the sake of democracy? committee called the Committee to of sufferers were: The 1956 committee defined Provide Financial Help to Political 1) families of people murdered by “sufferers”, much more clearly in Sufferers. By declaring himself a the Rana regime and who were that all people who suffered under political sufferer, Bhattarai withdrew financially devastated; the Rana regime and were Rs 75,000 from this committee’s 2) people disabled while fighting financially weak, could qualify for fund. When Bhattarai was prime against the Rana regime; money. The committee of 1991 minister last year, Prime Minister Bhattarai: Rs 75,000 Koirala: Rs 75,000 3) people killed fighting the Rana does not differentiate on the basis Koirala also received Rs 75,000. regime; of the financial status of sufferers, Other leaders of the Congress, the late The treasury is being looted in the name of the 4) people who fell ill while fighting and states that anyone who has Mahendra Narayan Nidhi, Ram the Rana regime and who were suffered will get financial help. This

Chandra Poudel and others also politically repressed, and all parties are guilty. in a bad financial situation; and means that rich people who suffered ○○○○○○○○○○○○ received Rs 75,000 each. Congress ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 5) people who had to give up their in some way, even if they do not leaders who received lesser amounts but that it was to disburse financial the ex-officio member secretary, with sentenced for life, or jailed education, their business or jobs require it, can get financial number in the hundreds. assistance to everyone who had Sushil Pyakurel and Rajesh Gautam as continuously for 10 years. Close because of the fight against the assistance from this committee. The It is not only Congress leaders suffered under the Panchayat regime. the members. relatives of people murdered for Rana regime and were still financial help such people take is in who benefited from this fund. This meant that the sole member of The UML-led government was political reasons would also receive a affiliated or active in politics. fact pocket money for them. Leaders from all major parties have this committee, Bhattarai, could toppled after nine months and a primary sum of Rs 5,000. However, The main point that has to be Again the 1991 committee is at some time or the other received provide financial help to anyone at his new committee announced. The this was stopped after 1995, by which noted is that all people who fell in silent on people disabled in the cash from this fund. The late Man own discretion. Anyone close to the Congress-Rastriya Prajatantra Party time 2,244 people had received the above categories had to be from fight for democracy in 1990. Take Mohan Adhikari (CPN-UML), KP committee member could benefit government once again went for a assistance totalling Rs 7.5 million. a very weak financial background, the case of Tara Khadka of Rukum. Oli (UML), Modnath Prasit financially. In the very first year the one-man committee with Bhattarai According to the new guide- meaning that they had to be very, On 6 April, 1990, the police fired (UML), Pradip Nepal (UML) and committee distributed heading it. The committee was to lines, it was decided that the very poor. The Bhattarai committee upon a crowd demonstrating for Radha Krishna Mainali (ML), all Rs 15 million. wind up its work by 2 May, 2000, families of political sufferers who provides help to all people who democracy at Darbar Marg and he received Rs 75,000 each, while In the middle of 1992, the but it seems the committee is still were murdered would get a suffered under the Panchayat was injured in the left leg. As he Jhala Nath Khanal (UML), Amrit cabinet drew up guidelines for the functioning, and still in the lumpsum of Rs 100,000, people regime irrespective of their financial did not have enough money, he Bohara (UML), Madhav Kumar committee, and expanded it to process of emptying the national jailed for over 7 years continuously situation. This means that even rich did not get proper treatment. He Nepal (UML), Ishwor Pokharel include two others: Omkar Prasad treasury and helping out all its would get a lump sum of Rs 75,000, people qualify for money from the now lives in a social centre run by (UML), Keshab Badaal (UML), Shrestha of the Nepali Congress near and dear financially. people jailed for 5 to 7 years fund. This is where the trouble lies. St Xavier’s and has no relatives to Bharat Mohan Adhikary (UML), and CP Mainali of the then-UML. continuously would get Rs 50,000, It is all right if the government look after him. He is now leading CP Mainali (ML), Hiranya Lal The same year it was decided that Who can benefit? people jailed for 3 to 5 years and the committee provide financial a hard life. His left leg has been Shrestha (ML), Lok Krishna the tenure of committee members The committee decided that help continuously would get Rs 30,000. help to political sufferers who lost amputated. He did not go to jail Bhattarai, Narayan Dhakal (UML) would be three years. In 1994, the would be provided in two forms— If the jail sentence was not everything in their fight for but sacrificed a lot for the and Devendra Lal Shrestha received cabinet decided to extend the primary financial help, and a continuous, people jailed for over 7 democracy. People who have no country. But under the present Rs 50,000. Lila Mani Pokhrel committee’s life by another year. lumpsum amount. A primary years would get a lumpsum of Rs money, are downtrodden, and have committee’s categorisation, (United People’s Front) received Rs After the mid-term elections that year, amount of Rs 3,000 is given to 50,000, while those jailed for no means of surviving should be Khadka does not qualify for 30,000 from this fund. the UML formed the government, anyone who had been jailed for between 5 and 7 would get Rs provided financial help. In fact it is compensation in any way. When the committee was and the members of the committee three years, or in exile or under- 30,000 and between 3 and 5 years the duty of the government to help Khadka says that he has formed by cabinet decision in 1991, were replaced. Nar Bahadur Khand ground for a total of seven years, would get Rs 20,000. People in these people, but not people who already applied many times to the it did not lay out any parameters became the chief, Mitharam Sharma, while Rs 5,000 is provided to those exile or underground for a minimum suffered but are rich enough to fend committee, in fact he has

BARBS by BARBARA ADAMS Promising everything to those who have nothing Will the wrath of the gods wreak revenge on the people of accoutrements and libations

this sacred Valley for sullying it with prurient billboards? obliterate the moon, the stars and ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ most of the sky, as well as the only flouted—like the zoning laws, the the family-run corner shops. the health) allow them on huge bits of eye-soothing green still building codes and all the other Supermarkets offer so much choice hoardings all over the Valley? Are the remaining in Kathmandu. regulations we have. So they have that one stands paralysed, unable to health risks confined to only those Visitors to Nepal are shocked that proliferated unchecked, with the make up one’s mind. who can afford television sets? These Kathmandu is so disfigured by Bagmati Bridge area into Patan Why do we need 35 brands of hoardings promise everything to those billboards. Wonder what UNESCO, turning into one big phalanx of soap and 10 different kinds of beer? who have nothing. The which was once reconsidering its billboards—most of them for There has to be some competition, manipulative depictions of fancy decision to have Kathmandu on the alcoholic drinks of various sorts. but this is overdoing choice. Why whiskeys with westernised women list of World Heritage Sites, would Even Darbar Marg is not spared—a should the world’s second poorest in suggestive poses aimed at people think of the burgeoning billboards in large hoarding that soars at its country cater to the whims of the who can’t afford them. this town of historical treasure. How

MIN BAJRACHARYA northern end vies with the maybe one percent nouveau riche, Areas under Maoist control are has a valley that was an Asian gem y friend arrived for lunch tourists visit a city that is a garbage- silhouette of the Royal Palace. instead of producing affordable, cheap, dry. This has been one of their most been allowed to deteriorate into a the other day, pink with ridden imitation of Times Square? One of the worst offshoots of and wholesome consumer products appreciated programmes. People have modern Sodom and Gomorrah? m indignation. “You know I Kathmandu’s beautiful old brick walls capitalism is the visual hideousness it and medicines? to pay a Maoist tax, but they praise Those who hide behind the humble counted 24 obnoxious oversized are saturated with exhortations to buy leaves in its wake. The free-for-all I miss the good old days when the anti-alcohol drive. Nepali women socialist philosophy of BP Koirala billboards between Patan and your buy buy. There is scarcely a house or a market unleashes unbridled there was no choice. If you wanted who used to be beaten by drunken show little love for preserving house. There were no billboards when wall left undefiled along the streets. consumerism and wastage of which beer there was Star and it was good husbands, and forced to see their Nepali culture, history, and this I was here 20 years ago. It was so This vulgar defacing merges and advertisements symbolise the greed, enough. If you stuck to soft drinks children go hungry because the once gleaming and universally beautiful then, you could see the blurs with the ugliness all around avarice and desire to own more of there were squashes and fresh lemon: grain meant to feed children was admired emerald Valley. So, like Himalaya from practically every part and happily disappears from the everything. The problem is that most choice enough. Why did democracy distilled into raksi are all praise for the Biblical retribution, will there of Kathmandu.” consciousness. (Which is of what is advertised is out of reach have to become an excuse to deface the Maoist prohibition be “fire and brimstone” here too to He is right, of course. Somehow, probably not what the products’ and unattainable by most pedestrians every available wall and roof of this While tourists complain, and the punish us for our callousness? Will living here, we tend to overlook the promoters intended.) and commuters in the streets below. once-grand town with ads for rest of us wear blinders, the the wrath of the gods wreak revenge ugliness and it takes a visitor to offer Coating these old brick walls with Growing up in the USA, I avoided products that only the rich can afford? Kathmandu elite glides under these on the people of this sacred Valley perspective. Where can one cast one’s hideous commercials would be buying anything that’s advertised. It Why does the government which hoardings in their four-wheel drives for sullying it with prurience? We eyes in Kathmandu anymore without declared a criminal offence in any was a useless personal statement, but a took the big step to ban liquor and past streets choked with smoke and could buy time by tearing down the being exposed to vulgarity, and crass other country. But even if it was a statement nevertheless. All my life I cigarette advertising from radio and festooned with billboards. billboards and giving our town commercialisation. Why should criminal offence here, it would still be have avoided supermarkets, preferring television (because they are bad for Advertisements for various some breathing space.  NATION 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 777 appealed to them so many times all he could to work against the the total), Rs 30 million to 588 of VIEWPOINT by PRAKASH A RAJ that the people working in that movement. After the restoration of the UML (19 percent), Rs 5.7 office always tell him that he does democracy he presented false million to 155 people of the not qualify in any way and statements to the committee, got Sanyukta Jan Morcha (3.5 percent), therefore will not be eligible to himself certified as having spent and Rs 2.8 million to 63 people of receive any money. Instead they more than seven years in prison the ML (2 percent). Lessons from the Andes are rude to him and tell him to go and collected Rs 50,000 as Jhala Nath Khanal (UML) and beg in Ratna Park, maybe he compensation. received Rs 50,000 rupees although will get some money there. Another person who presented he stayed only four years, six According to him, he has so far false statements seems to be Prime months and 22 days in prison. He is received only Rs 3,000 from the Minister Koirala. The official a rich man and does not need this committee, that too when the papers published by the committee money. Chandra Bhandari (ML) is UML was in government. mention the period spent by the supposed to have spend more than There are many people like present PM in jail but these do not seven years in prison. According to Khadka who have not received any add up to seven years. Yet he took the official papers of the committee, help from the committee. All Rs 75,000. Everyone knows that he he actually spent only two years, because they are not affiliated to a is a rich man and does not need the one month and 11 days in jail. He given political party or because money as badly as other people. received the primary amount plus they do not fall into any of the This is a tragedy, in the sense Rs 75,000. categories as made by the that here we have the leader of the In the same way, the official committee. It seems most of the ruling party who has ruled for the book states that Lok Krishna people who have received any longest period after the restoration of Bhattarai (ML) spent only seven

Nepal: Rs 50,000 Oli: Rs 75,000

The Prachanda Path is deliberately named after the Shining Path. Nepal’s rulers need to study the history of the Peruvian insurgency and look at how they can reverse the historical

neglect of the peasantry and address the roots of the crisis. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia: There are strong reminders of home in this landlocked South American country. The Andes loom to the west, just like the Himalaya to our north, but here in the sweltering Amazon basin just 450 m above sea level it feels uncannily like Chitwan. La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at 3,627 m is 14 hours away by road. Like Nepal, Bolivia is also multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, but it is five times larger than Nepal, it is rich in minerals, and it has a per capita income several times greater than Nepal. Ten

KIRAN percent of the population are whites descended from early Spanish settlers. Next door is Peru, which has similar topography: the Andes like the high Himalaya, the Sierras like the amount of money have got it on democracy presenting false statements months and 27 days in jail but Mahabharat and the Amazon plains like the Tarai. the basis of political affiliation to a just to receive a sum of money which received Rs 50,000. Hari Rokka And Peru also had the Shining Path movement (Sendero Luminoso) which erupted in particular party, the party in power he is not entitled to. If this is not (formerly ML) received Rs 75,000 1980 and raged for 12 years in the remote and arid altiplano of Peru. It was led by a or through personal relations with corruption then what is it? rupees but it is not stated how long revolutionary Peruvian academic teaching at the University of Ayacucho, Abimael Guzman. the authorities or with members Another leader, Bimalendra he stayed in jail. There are many similarities between the Andean plateau and the mid-western districts of and officers of the committee. Nidhi (NC), as stated in the official Prakash Koirala of the Nepali Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan and Jajarkot where our own Maoists launched their insurgency in People who are affiliated to records of the committee, spent Congress from Morang received Rs Feburary 1996. And like his comrade in Nepal, Babu Ram Bhattarai, Guzman came from a the major political parties and only 10 months and 16 days in 50,000. Prakash Koirala of the NC middle-class background, was a top student and also a PhD. Guzman’s doctoral thesis who are rich enough have abused prison. In the same book it is stated from Sunsari then received some was on the status of the indigenous Andean people in a state dominated by whites and the system more than anyone that he received the primary amount of money. Again Prakash mixed-parentage mestizos. The Senderistas were mainly indigenous people, although else. The ruling parties have amount and Rs 50,000. Koirala from Sindhuli received the their leaders like Guzman tended to be white or mestizo. abused the system to a great Dev Prakash Tripati was once primary amount, and it has been Within three short years, Comrade Gonzalo (Guzman’s nom de guerre) had chased extent. People have presented in the Communist Party of Nepal, stated that he spent two years, nine off a demoralised Peruvian police from his stronghold around Ayacucho. The Army was false statements to the committee but later joined the Nepali months and three days in jail. Is it called in, and the insurgency raged on till 1992 when Guzman was captured and and received money. A classic Congress. No one knows for sure the same Prakash Koirala who is ignominiously caged like a lion for the benefit of the media. In the 12 years that it example is that of Bipin Koirala whether he was in prison in 1986. mentioned in three different places dragged on, 25,000 Peruvians were killed, and the country lost half its GDP. David (NC) of Sindhuli. When the The officials papers show that he or are they different people? Scott Palmer, writing in his book The Shining Path of Peru (St Martins Press, New York, Panchayat system was instituted, was in prison for four years and Most amazing is the fact that 1994) states that the government in Lima did not take the Senderistas seriously in the Bipin Koirala was against it. seven months but he received five ministers from the Panchayat beginning. When the army did get involved, it was to take brutal and repressive Because of this he spent a total of Rs 50,000. regime too received Rs 50,000 measures in rural areas in which the Andean peasants were caught in the crossfire. one year, three months and six Of the Rs 150 million each: Prayag Raj Singh Suwal, This strengthened the local support for the Senderistas who were suffering from days in Nakkhu Jail. Later, he distributed so far, more than Rs Megh Bahadur Shrestha, joblessness, inflation, lack of government and corruption. joined the Panchayat regime and 110 million was distributed to Singhadhoj Khadka, Bakhan Singh Sounds familiar? Palmer says the other factors that fed the Shining Path revolution was during the 1990 movement he did 2,376 Congressmen (73 percent of Gurung and Parsu Narayan that the indigenous Andean peasants were not integrated into Peru’s social and economic Chowdhary. This just shows that mainstream, and they felt left out. In the beginning the Senderistas took action against the committee is not doing its corrupt officials and won populist backing, in urban areas they identified key opposition work properly.  figures and intimidated or killed them. They tried to neutralise grassroots leaders from the moderate left. Towards the end, there was a personality cult surrounding Comrade Gonzalo ... where (Reprinted with permission from the Nepali-language monthly, who launched purges against suspected spies. After 12 years of war, according to Palmer, Mulyankan. Translated by Anup the peasants were fed up and felt that the Government could take better care of their needs. Friends meet Adhikary.) An important lesson for Nepal is why the revolution did not spread to Bolivia, a landlocked country, and the poorest among the South America countries. Here, in Santa Cruz, I asked several Bolivians if the objective conditions for revolution were not the same in Bolivia as in Peru. But Bolivia was different: it had initiated largely- successful agrarian reforms in the 1950s, the country’s decentralisation policy had devolved decision-making to the grassroots and also 20 percent of the national budget for local development so the peasants felt they were being heard, and there was considerable popular participation at the local level. One of the classic studies of the Shining Path by Simon Strong, Terror and Revolution in Peru (Times Books, 1992) concluded that there was less of a chance for Sendero-type revolutions to succeed in countries like Bolivia and Ecuador because they had strong peasant organisations, more responsive central governments, and successful agrarian reforms. Our own Prachandanistas seem to have borrowed a leaf or two from the book of Comrade Gonzalo, and their strategy show remarkable similarities to the Sendero Luminoso. It will be important for Nepal’s government and rulers to also study the conflict and look closely at the need to address their own legitimacy, at reversing the historical neglect of the peasantry and genuinely addressing their grievances by giving them political space to join the mainstream.

(Prakash A Raj is a Kathmandu-based writer who recently visited Bolivia as a consultant for the IUCN.) 888 NEPALI ECONOMY 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES BIZ NEWS ECONOMIC SENSE by ARTHA BEED

Taking stock

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index took a 22 The long monopoly percentage point tumble last week, leading to fisticuffs at the exchange between retail buyers and sellers, brokers and officials of the exchange. Around 1 pm, 28 February, trading The new Indian budget cements economic reforms—but there are was going on as usual, when investors began banging on the niggling hints of protectionism that should worry Nepali industry. glass panes separating the trading floor and the visitors’ gallery. Blue chip banks, whose prices had been on a or many in India, the Indian than what they are retailed at. tea growers were eyeing the Indian downswing for the last three months, were falling even lower, finance minister’s latest budget Equally worryingly, our days of market. How profitable the tea faster. Investors say the 27 brokers at the NEPSE are fixing fperformance was close to a generating revenue through the industry will remain, and for how prices in collusion with NEPSE officials. Trading has become saner since, and both the Nepal perfect ten. The mood in industry trade in gold are numbered. The much longer is something to think Stock Exchange Ltd and the Securities Board (SB) are circles is jubilant—the Sensex, the new budget has lowered the import about. looking at what could have gone wrong. “There’s more that index of the Bombay Stock duty on gold to a mere IRs 250 per To be sure, budgets are could be done about transparency at the level of Exchange (BSE), registered a 177- ten gm. This, combined with the statements of intent, and what the transactions and corporations,” says Damber Prasad Dhungel, chairman of the securities board. That says point increase. easing of foreign exchange people behind them have in mind it all, really. A cursory look at the prices and volume of stocks traded over time reveal that some bank Nepal can learn a lot from this regulations, ensures that there’s might be quite different from the stocks are changing hands several times faster than others—something the SB is now looking into. “We’ve budget. Firstly, that maybe we little reason for gold to find its way interpretations put forth in offices met brokers and investors and all have agreed to ensure that more information is available to all investors should acknowledge that reforms into India from Nepal. The long and factories in Raxaul or Jogbani. and brokers,” says Madan Raj Joshi, general manager of the NEPSE. are here to stay and secondly, that monopoly of gold imports on But still, it is hard to be persuaded Analysts agree that some banks are selling faster and in larger volumes as compared to others, for no the model is globalisation. We need government revenues is over. We that we won’t be affected by this apparent reason, and that this could be the place to start investigations. Among them are the Bank of to formulate bold new labour laws need to find another product to budget. The changes to the Kathmandu (BOK), the Nepal Bangladesh Bank (NB) and the Nepal Industrial and Commercial bank (NIC). NIC, which appeared on the charts selling at a high of Rs 610 in mid-July 2000, was trading at Rs 710 in and we can easily nick a few ideas create the right combination for Customs Tariff Act—the new December. On 28 February NIC stocks plunged to Rs 430. NB bank stocks have seen a similar trend—the from India as to how to make them smuggling. guidelines related to the MRP and price climbed from Rs 1,505 last July to reach Rs 3,050 in December, only to tumble to about Rs 2,100 industry-friendly. We need to set in The Indians even have a sense imports—will probably hit us the last week. BOK shares sold at a high of Rs 1,000 last July, shot up to Rs 1,600 in December, and tumbled place educational loan schemes and of humour about their hardest. We’ve seen how long it to Rs 1,040 on 28 February. rationalise the taxation system. defensiveness. The Indian finance takes official notification to get Banking stocks in Nepal have followed a path similar to IT stocks at exchanges in overseas markets, Now for the bad part—the real minister, Yashwant Sinha, from Patna to Raxaul. There will be and the soaring prices were partly driven by a “boom syndrome”. The lack of effective monitoring, mis- meaning of the Indian budget for attempted to liven up the some anxious moments for Nepali interpretation of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) directives and lack of corporate transparency are other reasons the future of the Nepali economy. proceedings when he came to businesses before they know the that explain the freak price movements. NEPSE officials said that misinterpretation of the NRB directive to Import regulations have been “edible oils and allied imports”: exact changes that will affect them. banks to have Rs 500 million as paid-up capital reserves by the end of this fiscal year partly fuelled the tightened to provide Indian “We shall move swiftly whenever We also must wait for more boom. The directive has since been re-interpreted to mean that this amount could also include reserves, industry with the protection it’s any perceptible threat on account fine-tuned analyses in the Indian and this sent the stocks tumbling. And that came on the heels of the realisation on the part of investors been demanding, and a new of imports is noticed.” press to see other repercussions the who expected to receive rights and bonus shares that it would not be as straightforward as they hoped. provision requires that the There have been huge increases budget may have for us. This Beed maximum retail price (MRP) be in the customs duty on various has gone on a little about the

Still diluting diesel indicated on exports to India. This forms of edible oils and refined oils, negative impact of the budget on ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○ means trouble for many Nepali as well as crude oil imported by Nepali industry. There’s a glimmer The long-overdue government inquiry on fuel adulteration has not yet presented its report, and predictably, rampant mixing of diesel and petrol with subsidised kerosene goes on. (See Nepali Times, # industries, because their products vanaspati manufacturers. Indian oil of hope, though—the Indian budget 19). Since that appeared, we have learnt that six tankers fully laden with diesel that arrived at the Fuel will now have to meet the MRP lobby in India has got out of a is pro-business, is strategically Depot near the airport in Kathmandu from stipulations laid down by Indian slippery situation, where their targeted at achieving a specific Amlekhganj on 3 March were found to excise laws. These are pretty stiff business was apparently threatened growth rate. Nepal might well have been mixed with over 50 percent non-tariff barriers, which require by imports from Nepal. benefit from the spillover. We saw a kerosene. Usually the Nepal Oil that importers have to declare the There’s even more disturbing boom in our economy when India Corporation looks the other way if the retail value of goods. Interestingly, news for the long term for Nepal— went into the first phase of adulteration is “only” 30 percent. But this the creation of this barrier is duties on agricultural products have economic reforms—we can only time, there was disagreement about the contrary to the WTO’s rules on also been hiked. The import duty hope this will happen again.  price with NOC officials, who reportedly valuation, which stipulate that the on tea alone has been doubled. refused to unload the fuel unless they were value of goods be determined by the Here, domestic production is close Readers can post their views at paid Rs 20,000 per tanker, according to [email protected] NOC sources. Tanker owners said they logistics of the transaction, rather to outstripping demand, and Nepali would pay Rs 5,000 per vehicle, and the bargaining continued until drivers, loaders and the administrators at NOC’s Fuel Depot all wanted their share. This pushed the price up to Rs 25,000 per tanker which the tanker owners had to reluctantly part At Himalayan Shangri-La Resort, Dhulikhel with. When contacted, a senior official at Every Saturday the fuel depot, Kamal Dhungana told us: “We have no provision to return the fuel if it is adulterated.” Which means the half-diesel, half-kerosene has now been “diluted” with the depot’s 700,000 litre diesel Reach Dhulikhel and your picnic begins in one of the most beautiful place on earth. tanks and passed on to gas stations in the capital. Next time you see thick black smoke billowing from the Just relax and enjoy, start your day with Breakfast and bridge-up your lunch back of your fancy diesel four-wheel drive you know why. With our mouthwatering Snacks in the rhythm of Madal Have our Chef's 7 Course Special Lunch Menu

Channel Nepal still on And you will surely dance with joy. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○ Additional attractions: Own Secluded Picnic Spot, Children's Park and Play The Ministry of Information and Communication (MOIC) has renewed the satellite broadcasting licence of Ground, short hiking and Pilgrimage to kali Temple amidst serene landscape the Spacetime Network, which had earlier been cancelled on 3 January. The licence was cancelled by a and Himalayan Panorama, Bingo game and so on!!! controversial decision by the then minister in charge of MOIC, Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta. The company was charged of squatting on its license issued about eight years ago. The same criterion was not applied to another company, South Asian Broadcasting, which had not started preliminary work towards beginning Per Person Rs. * 400 (nett) broadcasting via satellite, while Spacetime’s equipment had already arrived at the border customs office. MOIC sources said the old decision was reviewed after Spacetime applied to the Prime Minister’s Office HIMALAYAN SHANGRI-LA RESORT with evidence of the arrival of the equipment at Birgunj weeks before its licence was cancelled. The ministry was totally unaware of this. Dhulikhel: 011-61611-12-13, Fax: 011-61621 The MIOC decision and its eventual reversal once again point to the discretionary authority that City Office Tel: 427837/ Fax: 430839 broadcasting laws grant the ministry, which is effectively both the licensing and regulatory authority. (*Conditions apply) Generally, once a company is licensed, it becomes the effective owner of the allocated frequency forever, as there are no rules for the periodic auction of broadcast licences or frequencies. Nepal also does not have rules barring cross-ownership of media, such as a newspaper organisation owning a radio or television station. Channel Nepal, Spacetime’s satellite channel, is to begin broadcasting within a few months.

Excellence in industry

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has instituted an award to WANTED MARKETING EXECUTIVES recognise excellence in industry and is seeking applications from its members. The award has a grandiose Himalmedia, Nepal’s premier publishing group, is looking for Marketing Executives for its name—the National Excellence Award—and will be assessed against the Total Quality Management standard. It will measure industry leadership in terms of policies and commitment, management and operations in Kathmandu.Eligibility: Graduates in any field, although those with media operation systems, and overall results in terms of consumer satisfaction and relationships, employee experience will be given preference. satisfaction and, of course, the bottom-line. Small, medium and large organisations will be assessed separately, and the FNCCI says the prize “may” be awarded annually. Any takers? Send in a detailed CV before 10 March 2001, by fax, email or hand delivered, addressed to

Radisson prize the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○ Marketing Manager, The Radisson Kathmandu has been awarded the 2000 Radisson President’s Award. The annual prize is Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, given by the Radisson Hotels & Resorts in recognition of “consistency in exceeding guest expectations,” says a company press release. Radisson Kathmandu was one of four hotels in the Asia/Pacific region that Pulchowk, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal, were awarded. Phones: (01) 543333-7, Fax: (01) 521013or email to: [email protected] NEPALI ECONOMY 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 999999

Convenient conventions ○○○○○○○○○○

A○○○○○○ NEPALI TIMES REPORT regional connections and also simpler uch has been written visa formalities. about the fragile nature of Nepal’s new and still reasonably m Nepal’s tourism industry. well-kept convention venue, BICC, And recent events have been has the capacity to host a Non- responsible for much caution and Aligned Movement-sized summit. In pessimism. But there’s hope in one addition, major hotels in Kathmandu sector of the hospitality business and Pokhara have facilities compa- which has been growing steadily, and rable to any city in the region. “The promises to help break the seasonality gap is our inability to go out in a big cycle in arrivals. If all goes well, Nepal way to get MICE travellers,” says could be bursting at the seams with Rana. NICA is an association of about Nepal could turn into a major convention tourists. 20 major hotels, airlines and travel destination for convention tourism. It is beginning to happen already. agents. The Nepal Tourism Board

The Birendra International acknowledges the potential of MICE MICE is a mighty nice way to go. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Convention Centre (BICC) is hosting but has yet to focus marketing on this ○○○○○○○○ a large conference of educators later “new” product though it has rafting trips, or mountain flights—has Most top hotels are now getting this year. Education International supported NICA participation in no regional parallel. But most ready to accommodate conference (EI)—the Brussels-based global union promotion. “We’ll begin to make importantly, costs are low and a groups. Shridhar Acharya, Managing for the teaching profession—is having MICE presentations to Indian convention here can be many times Director of the Godavari Village its Third World Congress 25-29 July. corporates this month,” cheaper than in India, Resort, an upmarket property 14 km The House of Rajkarnikar is helping says Mohan especially if held in the south of Kathmandu, says: “We had organise the mega-event, including an Bahadur Parsai, a low-tourism season. on an average one conference a day Bluestar Hotel in Thapathali was the Malhar rooms can seat about 380 Education Exchange Exhibition at the manager at NTB. MICE could be the last year. This year also looks good, venue for most of Kathmandu’s classroom-style and accommodate venue. Over 350 delegates from the “We’re already first product since but all depends on how we deal with seminars and conferences. It has six 1,000 for cocktails. The Lal Durbar EI from 150 countries are expected to doing a little to RD Tuttle’s IRs555 issues like the hotel strike and meeting and exhibition halls and its Convention Centre’s Regal I & II at attend. In addition there will also be spread the word.” package that helped security.” Godavari’s proximity to the offspring, Bluebird Pokhara, also has Yak & Yeti can accommodate 950 for representatives of EI’s partners, and What Nepal to attack the city gives it a distinct advantage. “Our similar capacity. But competition is cocktails and 360 in classroom-style observers. offers to incentive seasonality factor head clients commend us for the relative closing in. Large hotels like the Yak & seating. Radisson’s largest hall can A convention of this scale would travellers—quick treks, on. Our tourists come isolation and tranquillity,” says Janaki Yeti have added new facilities and accommodate 800 for cocktails. The mainly September to late-April, and Shah, executive director. Just in case even smaller ones like Narayani in brand-new Hyatt Regency also has the slack sets in from May . “This is some guests may be unhappy for not Pulchowk have added the function similar facilities. when we need tourists the most,” says being able to shop and unwind, the rooms. The BICC can seat up to With so many places to choose NICA’s Rana. “The low rates will also hotel provides a free shuttle service to 1,044 persons at its main hall and from, organisers who do their rounds benefit companies granting travel come to town. It is this upswing in the gallery (generally for observers), and can get the best deals. Generally, incentives to employees or conference conferencing market that explains why has four smaller meeting rooms that hotels don’t charge for space if meals ‘budget’ organisers.” even a “village” resort has four can take between 50-100 people. are to be served. They also offer Clockwise from left: Soaltee “function rooms”, with capacities BICC also has capability to offer corporate discounts on room tariffs if Holiday Inn, Yak and Yeti, the ranging from 20-180 persons theatre- simultaneous translation into six conferences are organised in the same Godavari Resort and the Birendra style, and facilities that compare with languages. hotel. It is this competition that has International Convention Centre. any 5-star hotel. The facilities at big hotels are forced almost every hotel worth its There was a time when the getting bigger. Soaltee’s Megha and name to build meeting rooms. bring in more guests during the peak monsoon, when western tourists barely trickle in. Traditionally, Indian tourists fill Nepal’s hotels in the summer but their numbers are also dwindling. The EI conference will have on-site catering, which means those in the business will have something more to do than just serve food at weddings and bratavandas. Travel agents and taxi drivers will get seagrams more business, mountain flights more passengers and some groups may even decide to extend their stay to sneak out to Pokhara or Dhulikhel— increasing tourist receipts and spreading money around. Nepal’s tourism industry, which has been in a tailspin since late-1999, could definitely use more of such events. And though large conventions are still rare, they could well emerge as a new “product” to help Nepal diversify and sell more than just adventure and culture. “Adventure does not bring in the top dollar, conventions can get us people who expect quality and spend more,” says Subodh Rana, president of the Nepal Incentive and Convention Association (NICA). Adventure serves a purpose, it takes tourism income to villages. “But big money is in meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE),” he adds. Nepal has some distinct advantages over its South Asian neighbours for going the MICE way. Now with the Lauda 767, even Royal Nepal has adequate seats for flying people in, not to mention direct connections provided by other airlines such as Transavia, Austrian, Qatar and Gulf that fly in from Europe and West Asia. There are roughly 20,000 air seats available each week. Connections in East Asia are also well served by Royal Nepal, Singapore and Thai, among others. Nepal has 101010 FOOD 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES

The world’s hottest chilli, chemical weaponry, and why one enjoys a hot dish more than once in its journey through the body.

IN LONDON Some swear by it,

○○○○ ESTHER○○○○○○○○○○○○ ADDLEY he Mayan Indians had the some sweat after right idea about chilli: eat it eating it, but there with great caution, but inflict it on those you don’t like without is no denying that mercy. Unfortunate enemies of chillies give Nepali the tribe would retreat from food its distinct battle under a hail of the spicy peppers, though it is not recorded character.

whether the Mayans then ran SUJATA○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ TULADHAR after them to pick up their fruity here is no specific food that weapons, which they also used, could be termed Nepali except presumably rather bruised, tthe generic daal bhat tarkari, as currency. but there are plenty of dishes whose But when it came to their mere mention can put foreign cuisine the Mayans really knew tongues on fire while making a how to treat chilli with respect. Nepali’s mouth water wildly. There They even had a word for it: is nothing better to stimulate the huuyub. That is, to pucker one’s noontime mind of a snack-minded civil servant than achar or a hot mouth and take a sharp intake of MIN BAJRACHARYA dish with chiura. Your mouths breath after taking too large a longer detect the chilli burn. His when your insides are being burned your mucus membranes, and has watering already? That’s called the bite of a chilli. method was replaced in the 80s to a crisp, however. Neither does it a large surface area to absorb Pavlov Effect. Chillies have always occupied with a rather more scientific test explain why we continue to eat the capsaicin.”) Kathmandu being a red hot the more hardcore end of the based on liquid chromatography, curries and chillies in ever-increasing Despite my request for the melting pot is also a connoisseur’s cookery scale. Few other seed but chillies are still measured in strengths when the sensation is often hottest dish on the menu, delight. From authentic Newari fruits, after all, hold the dubious Scoville units. To give some so very unpleasant. however, Mir is anxious to stress dishes, to influences blown in from distinction of having been used as measure of the Tezpur chilli’s eye- This has to do with the fact that the flavour and enjoyment of the hills of the east and the west instruments of torture. Powdered watering pungency, jalapeno that capsaicin also prompts the spicy dishes is not due only to and the plains of the south, one chilli has traditionally been used peppers merit about 5,000 points release of endorphins, the body’s their chilli content. “Hot curry can get anything and everything. as a weapon in India, to on the Scoville scale. The Tezpur natural painkillers and “feelgood” has chilli but also cloves, And a lot of it is very spicy. Sanyakhuna is a Newari dish particular effect when thrown in scores 855,000. hormones. In fact, capsaicin and cardamom, cumin and nutmeg. It that cannot be anything but spicy the eye of an attacker. It also One might, in fact, be well chillies in general are full of is these spices that really bring hot. It is a broth of dry fish, salt, oil forms the basis of pepper sprays, placed to prosecute a chef serving health-giving properties. Chillies out the aroma and taste. If you used increasingly in place of other up Tezpur con carne for grievous contain twice as much vitamin C use chilli in too great a quantity chemicals by police forces to bodily harm. This is because the as citrus fruits, and the dried fruit it just burns and it spoils its restrain offenders. way we “taste” chilli in dishes is is an extremely rich source of taste. Chilli’s hotness is different But it seems the chillies we not entirely to do with our sense vitamin A. Even its “pain” to the spicy hotness. If you put a have known until now have been of taste. As Dr Len Fisher, a inducing qualities can be clove in your

feeble things, mere kormas biophysicist and food writer from beneficial, since repeated mouth it

○ compared to a killer vindaloo Bristol University, England, exposure to capsaicin dulls burns, but it’s ○○○○○○○○ waiting to be sampled. Scientists notes, the suspicion that eating a the pain receptors. This a different recently unveiled a variety of raw chilli is all about pain has a allows curry fans to eat type of pepper that makes all that has gone strong basis in chemical fact. increasingly hot dishes, burning.” before seem about as spicy as a “The tongue is the thing that but also explains the Rocky cucumber—and what’s more, it picks up taste: sweet, sour, salt, efficacy of capsaicin Durham, does not even come from the new bitter and umami,” he says. “Your cream in treating executive chef at world where the fruit originated. mouth is also full of pain conditions like arthritis. the Santa Fe restaurant pep This new pepper, the naga receptors that will send nerve Kalim Mir, proprietor chain in London and an jolokia or Tezpur chilli, is so hot signals to the brain. The chemical of the award-winning Darmar expert in Mexican and New it is reputed practically to induce capsaicin can bind to these pain restaurant in Manchester (England’s Mexican cuisine, is in emphatic heart failure in anyone who hasn’t receptors and set them off like a famous “curry mile”) explains the agreement. “To talk about chillies grown up with its intestine- switch so your brain is preference for chillies in hot only in terms of heat is the same as stripping qualities. And it is interpreting them as pain and countries like Mexico and India by talking about wine and only not from New Mexico or the damage to the tongue.” their sweat-inducing property. Chilli mentioning the alcohol. “His Caribbean, but from India. The The chemical does makes you perspire, he says, which favourite chilli, “this week”, is the Mayans may have liked their not get less potent cools down the body, allowing you comparatively mild chipotle, “a food spicy, but put during cooking, and to eat more chilli. hard wood smoked, dried them up against a is also extremely To illustrate his point, he jalapeno”. “It’s great in soups and bunch of kids from the resistant to being prepares a vindaloo, a dish loaded sauces,” he says. “It gives this banks of the Brahmaputra broken down in with chillies that he admits is wonderful smoky heat. There are river in Assam, north-east the intestinal entirely inauthentic (“I don’t think so many ways to use chilli to India, and they would tract, which is the word vindaloo exists in the explore with: some that have been be ordering another why one can Indian dictionary”) but nonetheless smoked, some are dried, some are pint and making a dash enjoy a very hot serves up with enthusiasm to drunk toasted, blackened, burned before for the bathroom like the dish more than once in its Manchester revellers. The original they are used. The important thing rest of us. journey through the body. The dish, an appetising vegetable is to get a depth of flavour into the The reason behind the Tezpur capsaicin burn will be detected on vindaloo, he decides is not spicy food rather than just concentrating chilli’s almost inedible hotness is its any mucus membranes, such as the enough for testing purposes; it on the heat.” extraordinary high concentration of inner nose, eyes and sex organs, comes back from the kitchen with a And so what future beckons for capsaicin, the chemical in chillies hence the advice to wash very liberal sprinkling of alarmingly the Tezpur chilli, now officially the that produces their characteristic thoroughly after preparing chillies scarlet ground chillies on top. “Have hottest in the world, twice as burn. Chilli heat is measured on a and before using the bathroom. As that bit there, then you’ll be strong as its nearest rival in sliding scale developed by Wilbur Fisher notes delicately, “once sweating,” he says. “If you don’t Mexico, the red savina Habanero Scoville, a chemist working for the capsaicin binds to a receptor it you’re not normal.” Sure enough, (which scores 577,000 on the Parke Davis pharmaceutical binds very strongly and is rather within minutes the photographer Scoville scale)? It seems its culinary company, in 1912. His hard to move.” But, he adds and I are huuyubbing heartily. uses are to be eclipsed by its pain- “organoleptic test” involved five reassuringly, capsaicin does not (Fisher’s advice for dealing with inducing properties: scientists from volunteers sampling a sugar actually cause any damage to the chilli burn, incidentally, is to eat the local defence research solution containing ground chilli body, despite sometimes dessicated coconut. “It’s a solid that laboratory in Tezpur hope to use it paste in increasingly dilute emphatically giving that impression. is oily enough to take up and hold as the main ingredient in a new concentrations, until they could no This knowledge is little comfort the capsaicin and keep it away from tear gas.  (Guardian) FOOD 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111111

Kathmandu’s red hot melting pot and chilli powder, and other exotic higher climes, Thakali food seems eating. There are some families for rapid healing of ruptures during Which chillies are the hottest? spices, which is boiled until all the to be designed to keep warm during whose pickles are labour.” Kathmandu markets offer a wide ingredients dissolve into one the long windy winters on the Kali famous far and Chilli is also variety of chillies of all shapes, unrecognisable translucent reddish Gandaki Valley. Dishes like wide. “There is supposed to colours and sizes. Arguably, the mass. It is only eaten after it cools Aalunkhu (soup with dry meat and a family I boost blood hottest of them all is the jire chilli, down and resembles jelly. Takhala white flour balls) can be so spicy know which circulation, or the bird’s eye chilli, and, is also prepared using the same that they actually serve as a central is believed and helps according to those who have procedure but with water buffalo heating system for the body. One to have maintain survived to tell the tale, it can be meat, including the skin. Both are spice that needs mention here is been body like swallowing a live grenade. Its dishes that Newari people just can’t the timbur ko chhop, which is a using the heat. Not origins are traced to Jiri (in Dolakha do without during Kathmandu double whammy of ground spicy same surprisingly, district) and legend has it that it is winters. Chhwela is roasted buffalo timbur berries, with chilli powder pickle for the sale even hotter than Mexican chillis. meat, garnished with generous and salt. Just goes to show that it the past of pickles Jyanmara chilli, as its name amounts of spices—mainly chilli is not just chillies that give twelve soars in indicates, is bloody murder, and is powder. Haku (black) chhwela is a Nepali food its zing—timbur can years. Every winters. A used sparingly for its taste, variant of chhwela that can be even be just as potent. time a woman great especially in pickles. As the sahuni hotter than regular chhwela. The momos that Kathmandu gives birth in any analgesic and in the famous bara shop in Patan A delicacy at the famous lives on cannot, in their turn, do house, they send for antiseptic, chilli is Darbar Square puts it: “The Hunacha’s Pasal at Patan Darbar without a chilli sauce. The achar is pickle from there,” says also believed to jyanmara is too hot. It sets your Square is aalu tarkari (potato a paste of chilli, garlic, tomatoes Pramila Shah, another pickle strengthen the body’s immune mouth on fire and smoke comes out curry). Fiery red in appearance and and salt, and you can have a supplier. system, normalising blood pressure of your nostrils.” equally fiery in taste, the dish thousand variants of the sauce in Research has shown that chilli and protecting against heart Then there are varieties with attracts masochistic people who little shops across the Valley. is highly advantageous to the body. disease. “My own grandmother, who similar appearances like jhene chilli nearly have smoke coming out of Discerning momo buffs follow the And this is partly explained by Amit lived till 95, was very active and or the red cluster pepper, the dhorke their ears, but love every minute of trail of good achar, and the spicier Gupta, a homeopath, who says: had an amazingly good memory chilli and the chhuche chilli or cone it. Then there is tama aalu, made the better. “Pickles might not do the body till 90. We suspect that her daily pepper. In the presence of such with bamboo shoots and potatoes Then there are the pickles. much good together with excessive diet of scorching hot chilli sauce worthies, the common capsicum or and considered to be more Almost all pickles must have spices and oil, but chilli has ulcer- that nobody else ever touched must bell pepper is considered a delicious with that extra green chilli chillies, but there are pickles made healing properties and is very good have done it,” says Amit Gupta. vegetable rather than a spice.  floating on top. The greatly solely from chillies. These are the relished gundruk ko jhol (gundruk mothers of all pickles: pure red hot soup) is a generic dish eaten by lava coming out of a volcano. almost all Nepalis. Made from These must be handled with care. fermented and dried green Sarala Bhattarai, a pickle supplier vegetables, usually radish leaves or for the WEAN cooperative says: spinach, it goes with anything and “Even if the pickle is not very hot, everything provided the gravy has the combination of vinegar and whole lapsis and is mined with chilli gives a good colour to the large red chillies. product.” So the scary-looking One community that cannot be pickle bottle may not be the ignored when we talk of hot Nepali spiciest, but one can never tell.

food are Thakalis. Coming from the The proof of the pickle is in the

○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ epsi calsberg 121212 TECHNOLOGY 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES handset systems. Since the trading network operators and small of stocks on office computers is software companies do not prohibited by many companies, cooperate, it just won’t work,” he The wireless war employees often buy and sell shares notes. The increased bandwidth on cell phones in the privacy of the that will come online in the next

Asia battles it out over a mobile Internet. toilet or outside on the street. The few years carries high stakes for the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ challenge for WAP will be to spread of WAP technology. to convince all 600 members of the overtake both. occasionally even office space or a coordinate among mobile operators Goldman is convinced that by the WAP Forum to drop their Analysts say i-mode is a difficult direct investment from DoCoMo. and small companies that offer time bandwidth increases, WAP commonly developed standard in model to export. Mobile operators DoCOMo pays about 90 percent of services to ensure timely payment will already be deeply entrenched favour of the i-mode.” With the will find it difficult to duplicate its the revenues to content providers. and allow instant delivery of stock as the default operating system for expressed intentions of both business model, since they cannot In South Korea, telecom quotes and other information. wireless Internet access. standards to adopt the new exert the absolute influence companies have started adopting a “A successful wireless-Internet Tarr, the venture-fund manager programming language XML, some DoCoMo does over handset similar strategy with their wireless service sits on a three-legged stool,” with three phones, is less convinced. level of convergence between i- manufacturing, the mobile network services. Sister companies LG says Tarr, who runs a $100 million “It is too early to predict since we mode and WAP appears inevitable. and small innovative companies Electronics and LG Telecom, for fund called M-Werks that invests in just don’t know what sort of DoCoMo hints that it might supplying content. As a network example, coordinated development of wireless start-ups in South Korea environment such wide bandwidth

make i-mode compatible with operator and handset manufacturer, handsets for their network and and Japan. “If the manufacturers, will give us,” he said.  ○○○○○○○○○○○○

THOMAS○○○○ CRAMPTON WAP, and export its handsets as DoCoMo totally controls two of recently started cultivating a more HONG KONG - Greg Tarr was early as 2002. Global roaming three aspects of the business. This friendly, open and generous attitude awfully upset about his new would be impossible for DoCoMo’s allows for a smooth integration of towards content providers. In terms of Internet-enabled telephone when he Japan-specific standards, and so the proprietary handset technology speed, South Korean operators are unsuccessfully tried to log on to company has started groundwork with a proprietary network and well ahead of DoCoMo in territory text services offered for his late- for exporting i-mode with purchases makes for easy coordination for that many analysts say already qualifies model Nokia telephone, designed of minority stakes in mobile carriers billing consumers for using specific as 3G. All operators run systems that for WAP, or wireless application and deals with content providers services. As for content providers, sprint at a maximum speed of 144 protocol, services at a Hong Kong around the world. In addition to DoCoMo makes the barriers to kilobits per second, compared with i- restaurant. His other mobile phone reported talks with carriers LG entry very low and offers mode’s snail-like pace of 9.6 kilobits only works in South Korea, but Electronics and SK Telecom Co in exceptionally generous returns. per second. goes online almost instantly and South Korea and C&W Optus in Small companies interested in Several systems are based on allows Tarr to check the weather, Australia, DoCoMo has already selling innovative content to i-mode variants of WAP, but Korean trade stocks and play games invested in the carrier KG Telecom customers receive assistance and carriers have developed proprietary online. Tarr, manager of a in Taiwan, KPN Mobile NV in the venture-capital fund in Asia, uses Netherlands and Hutchinson 3G in a third phone in Japan, the wildly Britain and has signed a popular i-mode handset. memorandum with the media and Many Asians have the Internet in Internet giant America Online Inc. their pockets. High cellular phone Most significant and telling, penetration rates and a relatively low however, was the Japanese density of personal computers make company’s $9.8 billion purchase of Asia fertile ground for mobile Internet a 16 percent stake in US-based growth. Companies, technologies and AT&T Wireless Group announced approaches are battling it out, country last week. DoCoMo promises an by country, on exactly how it is to be operational American version of i- delivered. Experiments into regulating, mode by the end of next year. transmitting and selling mobile This grand globe-conquering Internet services are well under way, strategy cannot be countered by a with a range of business plans already similar WAP tactic, because WAP launched and modified—or even tried isn’t owned by any single company. and discarded. But the WAP Forum’s membership The single most successful foray already reaches around the world into wireless Internet has been and includes the largest Japan’s i-mode telephone. A teen manufacturers of mobile-telephone fashion craze since its introduction equipment such as Nokia, Ericsson in February 1999, the service, sold and Motorola. Instead, WAP by NTT DoCoMo, is a serious supporters rely on convincing revenue source, one that it plans to consumers, software developers and export to Europe and, on the heels phone companies that it is already of a major deal last week with the de facto mobile-telephone mercantile AT&T, to the US very soon. Nearly standard. You could think of i- one in 10 Japanese subscribes to the mode as a one-company, tightly service. Its cute offerings—cartoon engineered service, like America characters and electronic pets— Online’s proprietary software, and have been tempered by sites offering WAP as an open system, like the news, financial information and Internet. I-mode provides specific, directory services. Subscribers to i- carefully chosen, consumer-targeted mode check into the wireless services, while WAP allows entry service an average of 10 times a day into an often chaotic universe. “You each, but people in most of Asia, may visit a bad website, but that Europe and the US, face frustration doesn’t mean you dismiss the attempting to use the much-touted Web,” Goldman said. WAP system. Misleading advertising deserves I-mode rocks while WAP has much of the blame for WAP’s floundered, it would seem. But tarnished reputation, he said. “I Scott Goldman, CEO of an would be a lot happier doing my organisation that promotes and job if more realistic expectations coordinates the development of had been promoted,” Goldman WAP, says: “Comparing i-mode to says. Among the wireless Internet WAP is like placing apples next to ads aired recently in Asia is a oranges. If the service is bad, don’t humorous Nokia TV spot with complain to WAP, complain to people speaking into video cameras your mobile telephone service as if they were telephones and provider.” Goldman runs the WAP making phone calls from their Forum, an eight-person credit cards. “It’s like watching organisation based in California Baywatch,” Goldman says. “If I that coordinates the over 600 believed all women should look like companies actively involved in that, I would live my life developing the protocol’s standards. disappointed. WAP supporters Any description that pits i-mode believe that their system will set the against WAP is erroneous, fundamental standards for the Goldman says, since the creator of wireless Internet into the future. i-mode, DoCoMo, is also a member But independent analysts suggest of the WAP Forum. “I-mode is a that newer standards could replace very successful service that is both WAP and i-mode in a few literally and metaphorically on an years. In addition to convergence island,” Goldman said. “DoCoMo toward XML programming may be strong and powerful, but it language by both sides, the highly would be mighty difficult for them adaptive Java language may WORLD 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 131313 it. But the pirates’ ship was also wrecked, the agent said, and was discovered by a group of unnamed divers in the 1990s. Raiders of the lost arks What roused SAHRA’s told, nevertheless, and it goes back India, Clive was investigated by the suspicions was the assertion that nearly 250 years. British parliament in 1773 on his the remains of the pirate ship were Robert Clive (1725-1774), an return from India. His wealth led lying conveniently beyond South army officer who later came to be to allegations that he had abused Africa’s territorial waters. known as Clive of India for his his power. Clive committed suicide South Africa claims military exploits in India, had been the next year. jurisdiction over cultural heritage hand-picked to establish Britain’s The fact that Clive’s Gold and in both its territorial waters influence in the Indian Ocean. He most of the other valuables that which extend 12 nautical miles set sail from England with a fleet of went down were never recovered (18.52 km) offshore, and the five British East India Company meant that the Dodington came to contiguous zone which extends a ships on 22 April 1755 to carry out be viewed as a ‘treasure ship’, further 12 nautical miles. “At this his mission. though the exact location of the distance (of the pirate-ship While Clive stayed on his wreck was unknown for more than wreck), conventional diving is flagship Stretham, he put his 200 years. It was the patience of impossible because average water personal fortune in gold aboard the two men—David Allen and Gerry depth is around 200 metres,” says ship Dodington. The first half of van Niekerk, then holders of the Gribble. “Furthermore, the the voyage was uneventful—other only permit to salvage the site— likelihood of finding the wreck of GEMINI than the fact that the Dodington, that led to the discovery of the a small wooden vessel on a being the superior vessel, easily ship in 1977. A large number of virtually limitless expanse of There is much looting from some 2,200 wrecks overtook the others—the Pelham, artefacts that were recovered seabed with no reefs upon which Edgecote, Houghton and Stretham. were later donated to the it may have been wrecked—or

lying along the South African coast. But after rounding Cape Bayworld Museum. upon which to base a modern ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Agulhas off the coast of South Twenty years later, a report underwater search—is less

RUSSEL MOLEFE IN JOHANNESBURG ○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ sale gold coins that their us with their find, we would Africa shortly after midnight on in The Times of London about probable than finding a needle early 250 years ago a haul of anonymous sellers claimed were probably have negotiated an 17 July—almost three months the auction of 1,200 gold coins in a haystack.” gold coins sank to the part of a booty once belonging to equitable division of the coins after setting sail—the Dodington touted as Clive’s Gold raised Clive’s Gold could be the tip of nbottom of the ocean off the Robert Clive, the 18th century between them and the state struck a reef near Bird Island in SAHRA’s suspicions, according the iceberg. Gribble believes there coast of South Africa. On 1 March, British general and empire builder. which would have allowed them Algoa Bay. Records show that of to Gribble. Neither the is much looting from some 2,200 405 of them were handed over to SAHRA mounted a challenge in to legally dispose of their share,” the 270 crew on board, only 203 anonymous sellers nor the wrecks lying along the South the Bayworld Museum in Port the courts arguing that the coins says John Gribble, SAHRA’s made it to Bird Island where they auction house linked the gold African coast. Elizabeth–-a third of a consignment were illegally removed from South maritime geologist. spent a few months stranded. coins directly with the wreck. “It’s one wreck per kilometre of 1,200 coins that have come to be African waters. It enlisted the “The fact that they opted for a They eventually built a boat But a United States-based agent and we hear of looting from the known as Clive’s Gold. support of the London auction cloak-and-dagger approach clearly named Happy Deliverance and acting for the sellers came up wrecks. Lack of resources makes The coins would not have house Spink and Son, which refused illustrates a lack of respect for sailed to Mozambique where they with a vague story about a group it difficult to police the wrecks returned to South African hands to return the coins to the sellers South African law and the rights of were rescued. of pirates having stumbled upon but we hope the situation will had it not been for alert staff at the after hints of impropriety came to the public to enjoy and learn about The loss of the gold did not the Dodington just as she was improve,” says Gribble. But that South African Heritage Resources light. In an out-of-court settlement their heritage,” Gribble adds, stop Clive from amassing ever more going down. The pirates, the will not solve the mystery of Agency (SAHRA) in Johannesburg. with the prospective sellers, South referring to the fact that the wealth—and the greed proved to be story went, made such a clean Clive’s Gold—not unless the They noted that in 1997 a London Africa received 405 coins. “Had the mysterious sellers were never his downfall. One of the most getaway with the gold that none anonymous sellers want to tell a auction house planned to put on discoverers of the treasure come to identified. There is a story to be corrupt colonial administrators in of Dodington’s survivors knew of more believable tale. (Gemini)

Dopey Bard?

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Shakespeare may have written on drugs. The Bard was “Foreign” Britain linked to drug-use by forensic analysis of pipes found in his Conservative leader William Hague is ranting home at Stratford Upon Avon. Although the evidence was circumstantial, scientists from the Transvaal Museum in

again—but many Tories are annoyed. Pretoria said the results were a revelation about drug use in ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○ 17th century England. ○○○○○○○○○○

NICHOLAS○○○○○○ WATT sought and protected and advanced in Two of the 24 pipes they tested bore traces of cocaine, illiam Hague last week concert with their neighbours than the first time the drug has been found in Europe and dated upped the stakes in the apart from them.” pre-19th century. Others had traces of myristic acid, a w pre-election battle when Hague sparked the row during a hallucinogen derived from plants, and traces of cannabis he came close to playing the race hardline speech in which he pledged and tobacco. “The cocaine found is card with a provocative warning to lock up all asylum seekers and really quite remarkable,” said Dr that Tony Blair wants to turn rounded on Blair for destroying Francis Thackeray, a palaeontologist Britain into a “foreign land”. Britain. To the delight of his audience, who co-wrote the article in the South To the fury of “one nation” some of whom waved union flags, African Journal of Science. “Cocaine Tories, Hague reached out to the Hague said a second Labour term was recorded in Europe 200 years hard core on the right of the party would make Britain unrecognisable. ago, never this early,” he said. He to warn of the dangers of a second Labour’s Britain would lead to: “The was also excited about the can- Labour term in office. “Let me take Royal Mint melting down pound William Hague nabis. Hemp was widely used for you on a journey to a foreign coins as the euro notes start to ropes and even printing land—to Britain after a second circulate. Our currency gone forever. parliament. He attempted to brush seekers while their claims are Shakespeare’s early works, but term of Tony Blair,” Hague told The chancellor returning from aside such gloom in Harrogate, processed is inhuman and impractical there was little evidence that it the Tory spring conference in Brussels carrying instructions to raise insisting that he can win by and would cost billions and take years. was smoked. “Apparently no chemical Harrogate as he warned of the taxes still further.” appealing to Britain’s “hard- What would he do meanwhile?” The analyses have been undertaken to determine what sub- prime minister’s determination to He said: “It’s your last chance to working mainstream majority” who Liberal Democrat leader, Charles stances other than tobacco may have been smoked in destroy Britain by surrendering vote for a Britain that still controls its have been hit by Labour’s “stealth Kennedy, said Hague’s speech was England during the 17th century,” he said. “Was hemp used more powers to Brussels. own destiny.” Hague adopted a harsh taxes”. Behind the spin, however, “not common sense but complete as a hallucinogen in Elizabethan times?” he asked. The use of such a loaded term, tone on asylum seekers. He said: “The the Tory leadership knows it nonsense.” “The last time William One of the arguments supporting the theory that which was designed to appeal to next Conservative government will cannot win the election and should Hague let himself and his party run Shakespeare was a dope-head and a genius is his work. grassroots Tories who appear to be assess the validity of asylum claims concentrate on drumming up riot on this theme of so-called “The Bard uses complex imagery of darkness, poison and growing increasingly disillusioned within weeks, not years. And, where support among grassroots patriotism and defence of the such, as in Sonnet 27, “a journey in his head” Dr Thackeray with his leadership, was condemned applications are unfounded, supporters, two million of whom nation, he lost the Romsey said, with even the dark lady of the sonnets a possible by former deputy prime minister immediate deportation will follow.” stayed at home in 1997. byelection. He should have learnt reference to the creative but dangerous forces of drugs. “In Michael Heseltine. Heseltine, who His remarks, which exasperated “one Under the influence of the the lesson then that British people Sonnet 76 he refers to the ‘invention of a noted weed’ which admitted over the weekend that he nation” Tories at the conference, were Euro-MP Daniel Hannan, his new are not taken in by his thinly veiled may have been a reference to cannabis,” he said. “In the had faced a “dilemma” in deciding a clear attempt to enthuse hardcore hardline Euro-sceptic speech writer, little Englander sentiments and same sonnet, he refers to ‘compounds strange’ and the whether to vote Conservative, said Tories who appear to have given up Hague is reverting to the tactics of populist propaganda,” he added. word compounds is a known reference to drugs,” he said. he disagreed with the speech, which on Hague’s leadership. A series of last spring when he lurched to the Even the outgoing US “But I think Shakespeare, who may have experimented, is echoed a growing feeling of recent polls which have given Labour right in the run-up to the local ambassador raised doubts about the saying he would rather turn away from these substances. I xenophobia in Britain. an emphatic lead over the elections. Cabinet ministers lined wisdom of distancing Britain from the would not read it as an endorsement of drug use.” Responding to Hague’s fear that Conservatives were reinforced last up last night to criticise Hague. EU, saying such a move would The pipe fragments were examined using gas Labour would turn Britain into a week by one showing that few Tories Jack Straw, the home secretary, damage Britain’s relations with chromatography with the help of his co-author, Inspector “foreign land”, Heseltine said: “We believe they can win the election. condemned his pledge to lock up all Washington. In an interview on Sky Tommie van der Merwe of the South African Police Service’s disagree. Does anyone seriously think The poll, carried out by YouGov asylum seekers while their claims News, Philip Lader said: “For 50 years Forensic Science Laboratory. They were loaned by the that France is a “foreign” country? Or Opinion Research for the Observer, are processed. “It is difficult to it has been the American Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which took issue with the that Germany is a “foreign” country? found that more than three-quarters know whether this is based on government’s policy that a Britain slur on the playwright’s moral rectitude. “People love to “These are great giant nation states of Tory activists believe they will lose abject opportunism or deep-seated more deeply engaged in Europe is come up with reasons for saying Shakespeare was not a fighting for their self-interest and they the election. More than a third believe personal prejudice, which is worse,” good for Europe, good for Britain, and genius,” Ann Donnelly, the curator, said. (The Times) believe their self-interest is better Hague should resign early in the next he said. “Locking up all asylum good for America.” (Guardian) 141414 ASIA 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES wife and son of Estrada, scions of incumbent politicians, former elected officials, former government Mainstreaming the Left appointees, some movie stars and a

IN MANILA ○○○○○○○○○○○○ MARITES○○○○ SISON fugitive from US justice. f present-day Philippine politics The emergence of left-wing parties Many have the traditional tools were a boxing match, says an is the latest in the Philippines’ of the Philippine political arena— ianalyst here, it has now entered a big names, patronage systems and

crucial third round as the 14 May long-running political saga. lots of money. For instance, Llamas ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

local elections nears. ○○○○○○○○ says Estrada’s doctor-wife, Luisa The first round was the political machinery not just for the mainstream politics, we’re no Ejercito may gather enough impeachment trial on corruption next three years, but for 2004 when longer marginalised or peripheral,” “sympathy” or “underdog” votes as charges against then President she runs for president. This will be he said. The emergence of party-list she runs for senator. There’s the Joseph Estrada in December, which an early presidential election for groups has infused fresh hopes in an added element of money, something led to his ouster 20 January , says her,” he said. electoral system long dominated by Estrada and his party have plenty Ronald Llamas, campaign manager Arroyo, who was Estrada’s vice political parties built on of. Infighting within Arroyo’s of the party-list group Akbayan president, took over the presidency personalities rather than ideologies Aquino, Arroyo and Ramos. fractious People Power Coalition which is taking part in the coming from him in January, and will be or policies. Traditional politics (PPC), as the ruling group is called, poll. The second round in the president until his current term produced leaders like Estrada, a pragmatic reasons. “It’s about time. In heated debates, differs widely from the just months into her match, he adds, was the popular ends in 2004. The May poll has populist leader who won by a huge previous elections, despite our decision of leftist groups to stay administration, is another factor. revolt against Estrada in the same also encouraged new political margin in 1998 but soon got bogged insistence that no meaningful away in previous elections after the Arroyo must prepare for an election place where Filipinos threw out groups to participate in the down in charges of corruption and change could result from elections, Marcos era ended in 1986. These that will gauge her government’s former dictator Ferdinand Marcos electoral process, an uphill battle in incompetence, and even Arroyo. people continued to participate,” past decisions are seen to have popularity, even as she tries to gain in 1986, and which is now called a political arena dominated by old During the impeachment trial Ocampo wrote in the political isolated the left in sweeping legitimacy. Some Filipinos say they the People Power 2 revolt. names and families. The May vote against Estrada, many Filipinos said magazine Newsbreak. “Most people political changes at the time. wanted Estrada out, but didn’t The next political test—both for will also test whether, after two they were tired of politicians who still want elections.” Ocampo says many in the left necessarily want Arroyo in—she was the less than two-month-old successful, peaceful uprisings against offered promises but failed to deliver. The idea, he says, is to also believe now that “political the constitutionally mandated administration of President Gloria unpopular governments, Filipino Apart from Akbayan, among those mainstream the left. “We are education has already made a lot of successor, though. Macapagal Arroyo and Philippine voters have wised up in choosing who have joined the political fray are mainstreaming it in national politics gains,” adding that “the people have “People are looking for democracy—is the May elections, their leaders. Bayan Muna (Country First), a newly- but at the same time it still offers reached a higher level of political alternatives and leadership,” said where over 17,000 seats from mayors For groups like Llamas’ left-of- established party of militant groups change,” says Ocampo. “The awareness.” Sceptics say calls for Llamas. “Many are neither pro- to senators are up for grabs. “The center Akbayan, the election offers dominated by leftist leaders. Political administration slate is supposedly new politics have been made time Estrada nor pro-Arroyo. If she wants elections will be a vote of confidence a chance to mainstream a non- activist and former political detainee running on new politics. We want to and again before, like in 1986. A to win as president in 2004, Arroyo or no- confidence for Arroyo and her traditional political group into Satur Ocampo says the left, which has show just what new politics is all motley group of candidates met the has to prove herself worthy of the administration,” Llamas added. “We national politics. “If we get 1-2 long shunned the electoral arena, is about.” The decision to participate in 28 February deadline for filing for position accorded her by People shall see if she can consolidate her million votes, we’re into running in the party-list race for the elections, which evolved after candidacy. The list includes the Power 2.”  (IPS) OPINION by CHUNG HLEE Cinema hall wars Indonesia....signed his diktat.” ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Much as the Washington ISLAMABAD - After fighting over Kashmir on the diplomatic front Consensus focused on financial for decades, Pakistan and India have taken their dispute into film Asia’s newpolitik theatres. A series of films released in the past few months by the liberalisation, deregulation, free established the Bangkok International capital movements, privatisation, and Pakistani film industry—Lollywood—have themes centred on Banking Facilities in the hope of stable macroeconomic policy as the alleged human rights excesses by Indian security forces against becoming a regional financial centre, keys to development, today’s political the people of Indian-administered Kashmir. despite the fact that local financial consensus is on free elections and the Not all associated with Pakistan’s film industry agree that the institutions were ill prepared to political empowerment of the hitherto medium should be used for political purposes. “We should use handle massive flows of capital. oppressed, without sufficient attention the popular medium of films to reduce rifts and differences Nor are institutions the same as being paid to the institutional among people,” says Ejaz Gul, managing director of the laws on paper. In comparison with underpinnings of democracy, such as a government-run National Film Development Corporation. He Thailand, Indonesia had an adequate functioning judicial system, an believes that films have potential to create wars. Journalist provision of prudential rules and infrastructure of political parties, and Najeem Haider Zaidi, who works with a Pakistani news agency, regulations. But it lacked effective other constitutional arrangements. agrees: “Peace is not an isolated effort made by governments.” legal and accounting systems, so those The effects may be equally But a large number of cinema viewers in Pakistan think that Voting in Indonesia. rules and regulations could not be sobering. The economic Washington Lollywood’s new productions, Terey Piyar Mein (In your love) and properly enforced. consensus took for granted the Musalman (Muslim), are a fitting response to similar films made Finance and democracy are not The case of Korea is equally presence of institutions necessary for by the Indian film industry. Terey Piyar Mein, which has been in instructive. By 1997, Korea had functioning free-markets or assumed twins. Yet parallels exist. “liberalised” its financial markets by that once government intervention

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ eliminating government credit was removed such institutions would JAKARTA - Political crisis has was that it struck the “miracle” allocation and management of emerge. What actually followed, as replaced financial crisis in Southeast economies that maintained sound commercial banks. But financial countries embarked on financial Asia. President Estrada of the macroeconomic policies and carried sector reform made it possible for liberalisation, was an institutional Mission Kashmir poster Philippines, who never mastered his out far-reaching financial the chaebols, the large vacuum that, when combined with office, was removed in a bloodless liberalisation. What went wrong? conglomerates that dominate volatile international capital playing since December 2000, is about an Indian Sikh woman coup aided by mob rule. Now Some analysts proclaim that Korea’s economy, to increase their movements, incited crisis. Today, who falls in love with a Pakistani man during a visit to Sikh holy Indonesia’s President Wahid faces liberalisation was “inappropriate” or control over non-bank financial liberalisation of the political system, shrines in Pakistan. Her Pakistani lover follows her to India, possible impeachment; so, too, may “disorderly.” Something similar to this institutions. Reform thus without strengthening its ability to where he is caught by an Indian army officer, also in love with the Taiwan’s president. Thailand’s new complaint is now made by critics who strengthened the chaebols’ internal absorb the shocks of political struggle, woman. The film ends with Kashmiri militants helping the prime minister assumed office say that countries like Indonesia and capital market and weakened the seems to incite instability, too. Pakistani escape and cross into Pakistan with the woman. surrounded by scandal, Malaysia’s the Philippines are too sprawling and banks’ role as monitors of corporate The lessons of Asia’s financial In keeping with the Pakistan government’s allegations politics seem more unsettled than at undisciplined to adopt democracy. behavior. Similarly, in the crisis and its current political crisis against Indian security personnel in Kashmir, the film shows the any time in twenty years. The trouble in the 1990s arose Philippines, financial liberalisation, seem clear: in economics, removing Indian army officer torturing the Pakistani man in jail. “I am glad Southeast Asia’s boom years are out of an unexpected confluence of by and large, benefited large family- government intervention without that Pakistan has finally started using cinema for rousing feelings gone, but this is not to say that they vulnerable domestic financial systems owned corporations, increasing establishing needed institutional of nationalism in the young people,” says Begum Tasadduq, an have vanished forever, for the causes of and volatile international capital their monopoly power by easing preconditions may deliver crisis, not elderly woman who watched the film in Islamabad. “The this instability are not hidden. Today’s movements brought about by the access to bank credit. growth; in politics, credible government should patronise such efforts that portray the true political turbulence, indeed, has the globalisation of financial markets. Southeast Asian policymakers institutions to check and balance each feelings of the Pakistani nation,” she adds. She was referring to same roots as yesterday’s financial Rapid globalisation, however, came are not the only people responsible other are as vital to democratic the high popularity of Indian films Roja, Border, Mission Kashmir storms: inadequate, unsound, and about only in part through for paying insufficient attention to stability as the ballot box. Here a and Refugee in the Pakistani home video market. These films unformed institutions. Unless these technological advances. Another establishing institutions necessary hopeful sign in today’s political are banned on the grounds that they are “Indian propaganda”, but institutional gaps are addressed, Asian crucial factor was the notion—proved for a free-market financial system travails is found in the potent role are rented out secretly. societies will not get back on track. too simplistic in the event—that free and the neglect of the danger of played by Southeast Asia’s once tame Terey Piyar Mein is not producer Shahzad Gul’s first effort to Of course, finance and democracy capital movements can just replace regulatory capture. The West and press in reporting corruption scandals. cash in on anti-India sentiment in Pakistan. A year ago he are not twins. Yet parallels exist: capital controls. For a country to international institutions also For independent media is a vital produced the highly successful Ghar Kab Aaogey (When will you without the checks and balances of benefit from free international played a pervasive role by institutional check far too often return home?) that dealt with subversive activities, allegedly sound domestic institutions, the global capital movements, however, it promoting the so-called absent across the Pacific. Other carried out by Indian intelligence agencies in Pakistan. Gul did winds of political liberalisation must have, inter alia, sound and Washington Consensus that defined powerful institutions, however, must not mention that he was helped by the Pakistani Army’s Inter unsettle former authoritarian strong financial institutions to economic orthodoxy in the decade take root for democracy to function Services Press Relations department. Terey Piyar Mein was also made with the technical support of the military’s public relations regimes, much as economic prevent panic movements of capital preceding Asia’s crisis, which has properly.  (Project Syndicate) globalisation wreaked havoc on and withstand systemic shocks if continued ever since. “The pictorial department. The military’s press relations wing has also given The author is Professor of financial and technical help to state-run Pakistan Television in the weak financial institutions. Indeed, such movements occur. symbol” of the Washington Economics, University of Hawaii at important lessons can be drawn The simplistic equation of Consensus, quipped C Fred filming of the popular drama series Angaar Wadi, (the valley of Manoa and visiting professor, flames), which deals with the operations of the Indian security from Asia’s economic crisis of 1997- financial liberalisation with financial Bergsten, “was the colonial posture European Institute of Japanese forces in Kashmir. (IPS) 98 for today’s political tumult. deregulation was at the root of Asia’s assumed by the Managing Director Studies, Stockholm School of The irony of Asia’s economic crisis crisis. Thailand, for instance, of the IMF as the President of Economics. FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 151515 Maoists want biggest tragedy is that this new path [the former chief minister of Sikkim has been called the “Prachanda instrumental in the Indian annexation

monarchy Path”. This shows how shameless of the Himalayan kingdom]. ○○○○○○

It’s protocol, Guilty until proven ○○○○○○○○○○ Veteran communist leader Mohan they are. It shows how much they The Maoists have accepted the stupid innocent Bikram Singh in Budhabar, 28 have fallen. Amazingly, they have fact that the model of the February presented Prachanda Path in the revolution needs change to some (Excerpts from interview with (Excerpts from interview with same league as Marxism, Leninism extent and have agreed that the new Taranath Ranabhat, Speaker of Bharat Mohan Adhikari, the House of Representatives) standing committee member of and Maoism. This shows capitalist model will be similar to the one After the second national conven- and downtrodden behaviour. It is espoused by Comrade Madan Ghatana Ra Bichar, 28 February CPN-UML.) tion of the Maoists, it appears that Sanghu, 26 February anti-Marxist, anti-Leninist and Bhandari eight years ago. This there have been changes in their anti-Maoist. Is it in any way going shows that the Maoists are flexible line of thought and that they have to make them rightists in the long in their thoughts and working to a Q Parliamentary sessions have been stalled. How Q Can’t you remove the prime minister through a chosen a new path, what they have run? Or is their long-term goal certain extent—they accept the fact do you view this situation? vote of no confidence, which is a called the “Prachanda Path”. geared towards becoming rightists? that revolution will not have a A This calls for serious thinking. The events taking constitutional process? To this end they want certain The press has reported how fixed model, but at the same time place, not allowing the House to function A A vote of no confidence is a political issue. demands to be met—the end of the Maoists have been praising their saying that the people’s properly, are of grave concern. I consider myself We are not saying that a Congress government constitution, the end of the Prachanda and Prachanda Path for revolt is an integral part of the a serious politician too, and therefore I think the should not be formed. We strongly believe parliamentary system and the end some time now. Are they now revolution is only going to drive present happenings are not good and will send that since the Congress has a majority in of the elected government. It following a personality cult and them in circles and is not going to out a very bad picture to the people. parliament, they should form the government. therefore seems that the Maoists Q What do you think is the way out of the present Corruption is a civil case. This is an worshipping one person? Is this improve their image. are bent on strengthening the hands what they have fought for? This The second convention has situation? accusation against a person. Since the PM is of the monarchy. They have made A The only way out, as I see it, is for a dialogue involved in a case of corruption, we demand seems to be the beginning of the shown that there will be the monarchy the centre of their among all parties concerned. There is no other that he resign on moral grounds. If the courts downfall of the Maoists. centralisation of thought and force way out. declare him innocent, he can return and we demands, and if the above demands in the people’s war even as it is said Q It seems a dialogue has failed. Now what? will welcome him. But just having a majority are met, it means that there will be South Asian there will have to be new thinking A I do not think the dialogue has failed, none of does not mean that you can do everything and only one force left in the country— on the political and war fronts.

the concerned parties have said so. Also, it has anything that pleases you. the monarchy. Therefore it seems Soviet Federation

○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ What the latter will be has not not reached a point where the problems are Q Why can’t you gather dissatisfied MPs of the that the Maoists are working on Budhabar, 28 February been spelt out. They ask a question intractable. I am trying to get the different parties Congress and move a vote of no confidence? behalf of the monarchy and are but do not provide an answer. to sit down for a dialogue—I have met leaders of A To save this country from corruption and to willing to do anything to strengthen Instead, all that the papers show is the opposition and leaders of my own party in this save democracy, everyone has to come It is necessary to analyse some of that institution. It seems that they that they will continue with their regard. Even the PM is keen on a dialogue. together. We have been telling the Congress the main points in Comrade want the monarchy to take power present thinking and actions, which Everyone is worried, even the opposition. that they should not shelter people involved in Prachanda’s paper presented at and rule the country. seems to contradict the new Q. What is the view of the opposition? corruption, people who have civil cases filed the second convention of the The protection of the present thinking that they plan to A. Well, they are still sticking to their earlier against them. It is a case of corruption, and Maoists held recently. Firstly, the demands. They too want an end to this problem. action should be taken, regardless of who is parliamentary system or the incorporate in their models. There national convention accepted the They too are worried, but it is not too late yet. If involved. We must all protest this and take constitution is not our present is nothing new except that a fact that the paper presented by the ruling party and the opposition get together action. The help of MPs from all parties is concern, nor is it of the Maoists personality cult seems to be taking Prachanda not only provides and hold a dialogue, then everything will be being finished off. If the present root, and they want Prachanda to direction to the communist forces solved. This will benefit the country and system is finished off and the be the president of some state that “Having a majority does in Nepal but that the manifesto parliament. monarchy rules the country, then might be formed of some areas in Q. Do you think the present parliamentary session also provides new direction to all not mean that you can do there will be a new system in place the new “Soviet federation” they will end now? communist forces in the world. It everything and anything and that is what concerns us. There want to form. This is a brief A. I do not think such a situation will arise. We are is a broad paper, they said, and will be a new dictatorship and that analysis of the second convention the officials who can call for or adjourn that pleases you.” is why protection of the present applicable to all leftist forces. parliament. of the Maoists. system is of utmost concern. If Second, the paper not only tries Q If parliament goes into recess in such a situation, necessary for this. to unite various communist forces what will happen? what the Maoists want prevails, the Q If the PM does not resign, what is the in Nepal, it also provides direction Maoist red corner A That will be of no benefit for the country or alternative? monarchy will be all-powerful and

democracy. If parliament does not meet in a A The stand taken by the PM is against the for communist forces in the 21st for inspector ○○○○○○○○○○○ democracy, then it becomes a peculiar event. century. This paper has the force to ○○○○○ working of a democratic parliamentary system. 27 February From all points of view, parliament must sit in This will create more problems in the long run take forward not only the Janadesh, session, and every party should be serious about for the country, democracy and the people. revolution in Nepal but is also this. We have to get parliament working and There is no alternative for the PM, and all he capable of taking forward a The Maoist people’s court issued functional.nevertheless. can now do is resign. If he persists with the type revolution of the whole world. a 35-day warrant against police Q On one hand parliament is not functioning, and on of behaviour he has shown, then this will only Third, it accepts the fact that there inspector Govind Pariyar in the other the royal seal has not been applied to create more problems. If he is innocent, he were some hindrances to the Ramidadda yesterday. Inspector bills passed by parliament. What is your opinion? can go to the CIAA, give his statement and communist system because of Pariyar has been asked to report A Recently, a newspaper article accused me of return. If he is proved innocent we will welcome deficiencies in the thinking of Stalin to the people’s court within 35 being guilty with regard to the status of the him. He is only creating more problems for and that these deficiencies hurt days. In mid-January, 6 out of a Citizenship Bill. If I am termed guilty in a personal himself and the country in the coming days. manner, there is no harm, but calling the Speaker He should take this seriously. It will be communist movements to an total of 9 people coming from guilty is problematic. Only a person who has not beneficial for him. extent. Fourth, it accepts that the Dolpo were arrested with 65 kgs read the constitution will call a Speaker guilty. On Q Will you be able to remove him by taking to revolution taking place worldwide of hashish. The arrested were sent the issues of ordinances, the constitution has the streets if all other means fail? will put in place a new system, to the district police provided a lot of power to the Speaker. At present, A. After being involved in the Lauda issue unlike any that we have seen so far. headquarters. One among them, the Supreme Court is discussing the bill in question. Koirala should resign. We have raised this Fifth, it declared that the people’s Dhan Bahadur Thapa, ran away Therefore, I cannot comment on it. issue in parliament. war and revolution would have to with 25 kilograms of the take a new turn, change to an contraband and hid it in the there will be no other players left. extent and evolve into a new model. house of one Singh Bahadur QUOTE OF THE WEEK The direction taken by the Sixth, that the theory of greater Gharti. Inspector Pariyar was second convention of the Maoists India being pushed forward by some informed by Chandra Bahadur The possibility of re-election is out of the question. The Nepali Congress has a majority, and can govern for points to their downfall and also Indians will have to be helped along Khadka and Bal Bahadur Khadka five years. Re-elections will be the downfall of the Congress and there’s no way we’ll let that happen. demonstrates how low they are for a “South Asian Soviet of the whereabouts of the hidden —Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai in an interview concerning Prime Minister G.P. prepared to stoop to fulfill narrow Federation” to come into existence. contraband. Pariyar then got Koirala’s troubles with governance. Punarjagaran. 27 February Tuesday self-interests. They have stated that Seventh, it declared that no party together with Tilak Bahadur they are prepared to get together or grouping will be accepted as a Thapa and Lal Bahadur Thapa with any party to form an interim party and that this will be done on and sold the 25 kgs of charas. government. This means that they the basis of the political direction The Maoist people’s court are prepared to join hands with the provided by the communist got wind of this and a case was Congress, the RPP or the NSP to movement. Eighth, Prachanda Path filed in the people’s court. A form an interim government. This was accepted, and placed on the couple of those involved were further means that they are same plane as Marxism, Leninism arrested by the Maoists, and the prepared to join hands with and Maoism. Lastly, the need to role of inspector Pariyar clearly reactionary forces and are impatient form local area governments and established. Those arrested were to get into government. This the need to carry the revolution released on bail after posting a exposes the characteristics, forward was recognised. security of Rs 20,000 each. The thoughts and the opportunistic A dangerous point put forth by Maoist forces are on the look out behaviour of their leadership. Not the Maoists in their second for Pariyar and if arrested he will only are they prepared to accept convention is the formation of a be released only after posting Rs the leadership of the monarchy, “South Asian Soviet Federation”. 200,000. The people’s court has but are also prepared to join The Maoists used to call themselves made this notice public and has hands and form a government nationalist, but by advocating the asked Pariyar to report within 35 with reactionary forces. idea of a South Asian federation days. If he does not present If this is not a big political they have proved themselves to be himself within 35 days, then his downfall in the name of revolution slaves of Indian Imperialists. To property will be attached and the or People’s War, what is it then? talk of a Soviet federation is to court may be forced to sell his Anyone can figure that out. We prove that you are a slave of the property to recover the surety humbly ask the Maoists: “Is it for Indians. In whatever way you look amount. Orders have been given The sign says: Prachanda Path. these very reasons that they at it, this thought of the Maoists is to the Maoist forces to arrest Janadesh, 6 March 2001 sacrificed their members?” The giving birth to a new Lendup Dorje Pariyar immediately.

THIS PAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL SELECTED FROM THE NEPALI LANGUAGE PRESS 161616 CITY 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES ABOUT TOWN CLASSIFIED

MOVIES Namche Nepal Tours and Travels ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Hostel for students and working people Guhaar! Written and directed by Deependra Gauchan and Leena Vihtonen, Guhaar! (Help!) is an Immigration to Canada, New Zealand and Comfortable and homely hostel available at entertaining TV series that brings together a communication expert from Europe and Thul Didi from a Australia. Package tours to Thailand, China, Siphal, Ph: 481577 Nepali village. Together, they start making videos. 11 March, Sunday, 9.30am–5pm. Russian Culture Singapore. 436456, 436465. Centre. Free lunch and morning and afternoon tea. Sponsored by Finnish Embassy. Organised by the Inter-Cultural Film Society. Reserve a spot on email [email protected] or ring Prem Basnet at 481659, or namchenepal.com The most intricately carved statues in Susi Groeli at 537551 Kathmandu. Nepali and Hindi movies online ticket booking at www.nepalshop.com Edit your video projects at Mila Productions handmade Nepal, #211, Sanchaya Kosh with experienced editor. Also contact for Building, Tridevi Devi Marg Thamel.253361 EATING OUT productions and consultations. 492143, http//handmadenepal1.tripod.com Authentic Nepali Sekuwa (Barbecue) Regular Friday night Sekuwa in the lamp-lit courtyard 98103.1122. setting of Dwarika’s Hotel. Select your own appetisers, momos, salads and choice of meats, as well as GEM Ornamental Emporium delicious desserts. Package includes one free drink and lucky draw. Reservations recommended. 479488 Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Sale!!! for reliable, trustworthy jewellers who provide Barbecue at the Ropes The first barbecue open for lunch everyday. Over 20 dishes to choose Don’t miss our sale—stationary shop a full guarantee on every item of gold. from, served with splendid views of the Himalayas. 12 noon-2.30pm at the Sky Terrace, Hotel Everest. immediately A to Z educational store. New Reservations recommended. 488100 Baneswor. 491603. Admissions open Organic vegetable market and lunch Special vegetarian organic lunch every Sunday at the Nobel Academy Higher Secondary School for the Summit Hotel, Kupondole. 10am-12.30pm. Rs 350+tax. 521810 Hotel Sharma Ganagabu, discount for academic year 2001-2002, nursery to class VIII at Exotic coffee and delicious Nepali food at Jatra that houses a café, a dark room, craft shop, and groups, students, long-stay. Bath attached, the Nobel Academy junior wing. 490232. an art gallery. End of Saat Ghumti, Thamel. www.jatranepal.com. 433859 hot water, TV, STD, ISD, parking, room service, We now proudly announces Bachelor’s Weekend Brunch Mixed cuisine with a salad bar & desserts at The Fun Café, Radisson Hotel. restaurant. Also DK Sharma Travels and Degree programme In Engineering and Every Saturday 10.30am-2.30pm. Rs 550. 411818 Tours. 350770. [email protected] Management Chulo Batta Local Nepali cuisine buffet lunch with live Nepali music at the Sunrise Cafe, Hotel Yak & Yeti. Rs 700+tax. 12 noon onwards. 248999 For insertions ring NT Marketing at 543333-36. Indian, continental, and oriental cuisine, Kadhai food and curries now at the Hotel Yak & Yeti, prepared by the world-class chef Arun Kumar Tyagi who has 10 years of experience in five-star QUICKWORD 23 by CROSS EYES cooking. 248999 HOUR 25 EXHIBITION WIN A Wangden carpets of Tibet Exhibition and sale of carpets from the Wangden INFOCOM Valley in Tibet. Called “Wangden Drumse,” these carpets are technically and MILLENNIUMWORTH CD aesthetically distinct from the more common “Drumse” or “Gamdrum” carpets RS 1500/- produced in the rest of Tibet. They are commonly believed to be the first type of knotted pile rug woven in Tibet. 24 February—25 March. Indigo Gallery, Naxal. 413580 The most convenient and economic way to surf the internet Euphoria The fifth solo exhibition of Pradeep Yonzon, one of Nepal’s few Terms and conditions experimental photographers. Sunaula Hall, Soaltee Crowne Plaza. Organised by the 1 The contest is open to everyone, except employees of Himalmedia Pvt Ltd Chomolungma UNESCO Centre and Soaltee Crowne Plaza. Until 14 March. Everyday and Infocom Pvt Ltd. from 10am–6pm. 428392 2 In case of more than one correct entry, the winner will be decided by lucky draw. 3 Entries have to reach Himalmedia, by 5 pm, Tuesday. MUSIC 4 The winner will be announced in the coming issue. Peter Rowan live Two-time Grammy nominee bluegrass musician whose career spans 35 years. 5 The prize has to be collected from Himalmedia within a week of the One of Bill Monroe’s original “Bluegrass Boys”, the band that lent its name to this genre of music. Rs 750, announcement. Please come with an ID. and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity. Italian buffet dinner at the Patan Museum Cafe 6- Across Down 7pm for an additional Rs 450. Reservations must be made by Wednesday 5pm. Saturday, 10 March 7pm 1 Playthings, and thongs (4) 1 The Old Father waits for no one (4) Patan Museum Courtyard. For tickets and reservations, contact Ajit Thapa or Rabindra Thapa at Indigo 2 Stuff quilts are made of (4) 2 Origins of the lustre (4) Gallery, Naxal. 413580 9 Mesopotamia neo (4) 3 Rein in yak sharply (4) 10 Bin Ezra for one (5) 4 Several dampers (6) DANCE 11 Concoction inventory (4) 5 Good, in Harlem perhaps (3) QUICKWORD ANSWER 22 Classical Nepali dances based on Buddhist and Hindu epics and the Tantric pantheon at the Great 12 Life as a tale, teller: ______(5) 6 Play by the rule (5) 13 Has 32 words for ice (6) Pagoda, Hotel Vajra. Every Tuesday, 7pm. Rs 300. 271545 7 Steak-like Walker (5) 15 Nuclei material (3) 8 Colossal clasher (5) Ballads and dances of old Tibet performed by Tsering Gurmey and Tsering Paljor at the Naga 16 A yam _____ two rocks (7) 10 What lumpens here did after Theatre, Hotel Vajra. Every Thursday, 7pm. Rs 400. 271545 18 Barman, or Morse perhaps (7) Christmas (6) Traditional dances every evening at Dwarika’s Hotel courtyard. Drinks from two bars. No entrance 21 A pea for your simian thoughts (3) 14 Improves the road, charge, however reservations are recommended for diners. 479488 22 Loved Dorothy to death (6) incompletely (6) Sunday Night Fever Free dance classes every Sunday by dancemaster Andreas Lehrke. Salsa, 26 Pub unfriendly (5) 17 Transformed rights (6) Swing and more. The Piano Bar, Hotel Yak & Yeti. 8.30pm. 248999 28 Exploding star, quieting down (4) 18 Algorithm format (5) 29 Prefers these kinds perhaps (5) 19 The cruellest month (5) 30 Dangerously Close Liaisons (4) 20 Hits a high (5) EVENTS 31 Mother’s threat, “or ____!” (4) 23 Roll-over, rolled over (4) Rescheduled Son et Lumiere at the Ram Mandir, Battisputali. Please bring your tickets dated 24 32 Angry and hurting (4) 24 Omega, and on (4) February. Only the performance is rescheduled, not the dinner. Further info at Dwarika’s Hotel. 479488 25 Great mutt of Europe (4) Poetry reading Young poets read original work in Nepali and English. Open house. Thursday 8 27 Just a little one (3) Of the eight correct entries, the March, 4pm. Jatra, Saat Ghumti, Thamel. 433859 lucky winner is Pravin Lama. Health Expo 2001 at Bhrikuti Mandap, Exhibition Road. 11am-7pm, 8 March. Entrance Rs 20 for adults and Rs 10 for children. 632770. To send in your entries, please fill in the details below and fax to 977-1-521013, or email to [email protected]. Entries can be dropped off at Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur. MARTIN CHAUTARI Name...... “Women and sexuality in Nepali art”. Discussions led by Ashmina Ranjit, a contemporary Nepali female artist. Participation open to all. Unless otherwise noted, presentations are in Nepali. 13 March Ph...... email...... 246065, Fax: 240059

For inclusion in the listing send information to [email protected] NEPALI WEATHER by NGAMINDRA DAHAL

on FM 102.4 DSES- 06-03-2001 0600 GMT

Mon-Fri 0615-0645 BBC World Today Sat 0615-0645 BBC Science in Action

Sun 0615-0645 BBC Agenda It’s time to sound the all-clear signal over the subcontinent. As evident from the satellite picture above, the low pressure area over northern India has moved on, and a massive high-pressure system is making its Daily 2045-2115 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf]]] presence felt. And looking westwards there is not any significant weather front in sight as far away as the Mediteranean. The sun is moving north, the days are getting longer, and we will start to see the first signs of Daily 2245-2300 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf]]] spring storms in some parts of the midhills. High Himalayan valleys will cloud up towards afternoon, with occasional flurries. Otherwise, Kathmandu Valley will start seeing a warming trend as far as minimum Radio Sagarmatha temperature is concerned which has been unseasonally low this week. P.O. Box 6958, Bakhundole, Lalitpur, Nepal KATHMANDU Tel: ++977-1-545680, 545681 Fax: ++ 977-1- 530227 Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue E-mail: [email protected] /]l8of ] ;u/dfyf www.radiosagarmatha.org 26-05 27-06 27-07 25-07 27-07 CULTURE 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111777 SAVING FAITH by DESMOND DOIG Of divine street walkers ods no longer walk the wily tantric saw through his disguise was to become the first king of gstreets of Kathmandu, or if and bound him with a spell which he undivided Nepal, interrupted him. they do, there is an was prepared to break if Kalpavriksha The sage rose to meet the boy and insufficiency of powerful tantrics to promised wood from the celestial tree regurgitated in his hands, recognise them, or perhaps the from which to build a large building. commanding the boy to eat. The cosmopolitan crowds make The promise was made and kept. A young prince refused and dropped recognition impossible. huge three-floor pagoda building of the mess to the ground where it Indra, the Lord of Heaven, unusual design was constructed splashed his feet. himself visited Kathmandu to steal perhaps as a monastery or If he had eaten as commanded, flowers from a garden for his dharamshala or a temple, no one is the saint said, there would have been mother’s devotions, but was quite sure. Certainly it was never nothing the prince couldn’t have discovered and taken captive. consecrated, though today there is an achieved. However, since the sacred While his elephant searched the image of Gorakhnath at the centre of vomit had touched his feet, they city for him, his mother descended the ground floor. would lead him to success wherever from heaven to find her son, and Gorakhnath was a great they went, a prophecy that came true. when she disclosed to the people Shivaite sage who is connected with Gorakhnath today is patron saint of who their prisoner was there was many wondrous legends. By the king and Gurkhas. much apology, much rejoicing and meditating at the entrance to the Not only was the wood from the the inevitable asking for a boon. hole of the Serpent King, who celestial tree sufficient to build a large Probably the last occasion of brought rain to the valley, he house at the very centre of deities mingling with humans in caused great drought and Kathmandu but there was enough left Kathmandu was in the early pestilence. Centuries later, he was over with which to construct several seventeenth century when the meditating in a cave below the other houses in the area. They all celestial tree Kalpavriksha, came in palace of the Gorkha, when the stand to this day, at their centre the Gods no longer walk the streets of Kathmandu, or if they do, human form to witness a festival. A child Prithvi Narayan Shah, who Kashta Mandap, the house of wood,

from which the city of Kathmandu is there is an insufficiency of powerful tantrics to recognise them. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ supposed to have taken its name. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ All three storeys are open sided the Kashta Mandap, a dwelling for which grew out of its roof. The the shrine while thousands watched with railed balconies on which Buddhist priests with a stunning other is that Ganesh was seen from the high plinths of temples wandering ascetics or pilgrims could painted door at its entrance, several levitating under the tree and so the near the Kashta Mandap. rest. On the first floor are two panels votive Buddhist chaityas, great stone temple made provision for him to Indians know the Kashta Mandap that illustrate the life of the Buddha, Garuda and Hindu temples, the come and go through the roof. well. It was where, in the film Hare which suggest a Buddhist beginning. most famous of which is the Ashok Whatever the real reason, there Rama, Hare Krishna, Zeenat Aman However, in the valley of Kathmandu, Binayak, worshipped by both it stands today, within a few feet of danced while assorted hippies pulled Buddhism and Hinduism coexist so Hindus and Buddhists. the Kashta Mandap and considered on chillums and the famous Dum closely that from the time it was built, Strangely, this entirely gilded so sacred that the king comes in Maro Dum was born.  between 1620 and 1639, the house of temple has no finial: it is open to procession to pray there wood was probably intended for the skies in commemoration of two immediately after his coronation at Excerpted with permission from people of all beliefs. beliefs. One is that the shrine was the old palace, a short distance In the Kingdom of the Gods, Kasthamandap (left) and surrounding structures Harper Collins, 1994. MIN BAJRACHARYA There are, in close proximity to originally under an Ashoka tree away. The present king walked to

NEPALITERATURE by MANJUSHREE THAPA

and realities that flee like when I call you You have no citizenship now SOCIETY AND SENTIMENT only visions of placing your footsteps on flowers When eagles’ claws pounce instead on your movement of doves swimming in air Shyamal When questions come to you as to others KUMAR ALE your dreams become as misshapen as your country Society and private sentiment find equal place in the work of What was the colour of the sky last night? When the loneliness of harrowing nights lingers in you.... poet Shyamal: his commentaries on social injustice are Perhaps you were seeking immortality All you have right now are rays of moonlight deeply personal, and their expressions of suffering are firmly placing such words on a hangman’s rope? which set the whole earth aquiver grounded in the injustices which shape Nepali society. The There was a parade of black cats in the kitchen Neelam! Where you live right now the ill-omened calls two poems translated below are excerpted from his 1987 and in the bedroom apparitions of wolves and kites are a far way off collection Tapainharu Marfat. Written against Panchayat The top floor of the house was like a stadium If they were to close in, drumming against the ear repression, the first poem voices a scathing critique of last night what a pity! Your disposition would be caged artists who work as apologists for power—a critique just as there was a parade of ghouls in the libraries in screeches that shake the whole settlement timely today. and your poems in the wind Right now you rarely suffer nightmares Perhaps you had some business to tend to? My younger sister Neelam! The fleeting pace of your steps as I call you Last Night To spend nights beneath black coverings would bring me such solace Soldiers dressed in commands How frightening! How frightening! if it were used to crush malign paws were marching through our courtyard The night is deepening now, too Your laughter right now – ah! We couldn’t sleep last night This is what we’re thinking How pleasurable it would be for me if Acclaimed poet of this country! The terrain that a mother’s hand touches impenetrable towers were to catch on fire Perhaps you haven’t awakened yet from stupor is being erased in the silent night When situation places her ruthless marks on you In your poems we expected something is turning invisible if you could become a pride of lions and sought something understood nothing Uneasily today too mangle her ugly hands, ah! Then we might We couldn’t even close our eyes last night we light dry twigs at the windows sit by the edge of the courtyard and share stories Again, poet! Again, the same condition But all you have right now are At an hour of desperate suffering Oh! Silent night raw pencil marks in your accounts book we lit dry twigs at the windows and the hard shoes of soldiers The torments remaining with you are imperceptible now Perhaps you had a gala to attend? Must I keep loving you without speaking a single kind word Acclaimed poet! The second poem, below, is equally chilling in tone. A world- Buds are blossoming in your mind right now Perhaps you had a secret engagement? weary narrator observes, with love and anguish, a girl at the cusp You have with you unknown bruises Silent night of womanhood. With conflicted, dissonant tones, he augurs the and visions of dancing on beds made of flowers and the thick shoes of soldiers life of victimization that lies ahead of the young woman, and the state of emotional paralysis that perhaps lies ahead of him. Today, Shyamal ranks prominently among a number of This is what we thought all night as the weapons went mad creative figures that Nepal has sacrificed to NGOs, INGOs, The still courtyard where these children now crawl private businesses and other well-paying enterprises. This is a and the black shoes of brutal soldiers A Poem in my Sister Neelam’s Name great loss. Originally from Dailekh, and now working for the We walked away from the strain of our fears and the future When hope shatters to pieces UNDP in Nepalgunj, Shyamal is steeped in the complex Last night we couldn’t sleep at all dreams slide off cliffs realities of rural Nepal. His language is among the most During that long nighttime the make of life starts unraveling like a sweater sophisticated in Nepali letters. Frankly, the UNDP might better perhaps you had an old friend to catch up with? and after the design is marred no one remains serve the country by giving him six months’ paid leave each Or were you taking cover in some corner? yearnings set alight and the mind starts to burn.... year to contribute to the creative life of the nation. What was ringing in our sky at night? All you have right now are dreams 181818 SPORT 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES

Mother of ○○○○○○○○○○○ RAMYATA○○○○○ LIMBU “To run over the Annapurnas with n 13 February, forty runners will set off on what is only a backpack and local hospitality odescribed as the mother of to rely on is the definition of the all marathons in the Himalaya— The Annapurna Mandala Trail Annapurna Mandala Trail”—Bruno

2001. Recognised as one of the Poirier, French trail runner. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

most demanding races in the world, ○○○○○○○○ competitors, equipped with only a organiser Padam Ghaley, who Solidarity Assistance chart, stipulating backpack and counting on local organised a similar run with the assistance to any endangered fellow hospitality, will take off from Besi French trail runner Bruno Poirier racer—the slightest lapse will mean Sahar, Lamjung, at 820m, and make last year. “At Thorong Phedi (4,400 instant elimination. “The Annapurna their way around the Annapurnas in m), medics from the Himalayan Mandala Trail is real competition but eight days—a journey that usually Rescue Association (HRA) post in in the spirit of solidarity of the takes two weeks. Manang will make sure they are mountain people,” says Mandala International competitors, medically fit before they attempt Trekking’s Ghaley, who plans to including four Nepali athletes, the run up to the pass. If they’re organise a one-day Sankhu to one of them last year’s winner given a clean bill of health, they will Kathmandu Darbar Square marathon Nar Bahadur Shah, will run along be allowed to continue.” early next year. rice paddies at 800m and go as The Annapurna Marathon is This time his team of more than high up as the Thorong La considered more taxing than the 24 sirdars and Sherpas will get their (5,416 m) in Manang. The Everest Marathon (a one-day fair share of exercise, too. “Not only impressive 2,700 metres of event that begins from Gorak do they have to cover the distance but combined altitude difference is a Shep at 5,184 m down to they also have to follow international challenge that runners will have Namche at 3,446 m—a standards of timing, control and to endure on the trail. horizontal distance of 40 m). Just assistance, combined with the “The competitors will have a being fit and acclimatised aren’t efficiency and dedication that have day to acclimatise at Manang the only requirements runners made Nepal’s mountain people world village before they make their way have to fulfil in the Annapurnas. famous,” he says. While runners are up to the pass,” says event Runners have to sign the Racer expected to run from one place to another without assistance, thus preserving the spirit of the mountain trail in its simplest form, a technical team and light medical support will be provided by running doctors and nurses in collaboration with the Himalayan Rescue Association and Fishtail Air. And, to wash off the sweat, each runner will get a cake of Marathon man crosses a snowbound GhorePani Pass with Dhaulagiri in the background and, left, winners PADAMGHALEY biodegradable chemical-free soap— of the 1999 marathon Nar Bahadhur Shah(3rd from left), Pascal Beaury (4th from left) and Babu Raja courtesy of a Euro-Nepal soap Shrestha (extreme left).

PADAM GHALEY PADAM manufacturing venture. 

SURYA CULTURE 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES 191919 MIN BAJRACHARYA

If forcing people into celebrations wasn’t bad enough, the contents of flying lolas this week are a case for chemical weap-

ons inspectors.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ India and do not conform to any a pyre with Prahlad, her (pious) standards. Our investigation nephew who refused to accept his showed that there is no official father Hiranyakasyapa as the most monitoring of these chemicals. powerful creature on earth. Other Says Dr Jaya Prasad Baral, a legends have the young Krishna dermatologist: “Some of the playing pranks on Radha and her colours can cause skin irritation friends in the forests of Vrindaban but it depends on the amount of during this season—clearly the toxic chemicals in the colour.” inspiration of wannabe Krishnas For women, getting poisoned today, who see sexual harassment as isn’t the only cause for concern. justified by religion. The sheer wretchedness of the Anyway, for a long time, the full South Asian male finds numerous moon day in the month of Fagun has MIN BAJRACHARYA creative outlets on this day. Fagu been celebrated as the victory of Purnima literally means ‘the full good over evil, the beginning of

moon of the month of Fagun’. spring, and a celebration of life. ○○○○○○○○○○○ ALOK○○○○○ TUMBAHANGPHEY lead, nickel, and even traces of Among other things, the festival People in the tarai conduct religious he sentient population of this mercury. Some of these can leave ushers in the joys of spring. Spring ceremonies on the evening of the full country is divided between permanent harmful traces in the is all very fine, but the associations moon, burning effigies of Holika and tloathing Holi, Fagu Purnima, body if inhaled or ingested, others of virility appear exaggerated in the celebrate the day after, people in the and loving it, seeing it as a chance cause skin irritation and eye minds of many, who use the day as hills celebrate on the first day. And to get back at someone—anyone— infections. a free-for-all grope-fest. Stories yes, in the good old days, the colours MIN BAJRACHARYA and vent their mixed feelings about Krishna Kasaju and Mohan abound of women, especially used were vegetable extracts. the state of the world. The almost Kasaju are a father-son duo involved foreigners, being physically abused For the Thakalis of the Thak complete annihilation of cultural in selling colour and paint for the by unruly crowds of bhang- Saatsaya region in lower Mustang, significance aside, Holi is slowly past 25 years. They have a little intoxicated youth and fights Fagu Purnima, or Toran La, as they becoming more aggressive and shop in Bangemudha where they sell erupting between groups throwing call it, has its own significance. Here, appears to require a large-scale colours and paint of every kind. gutter water at each other. For Toran La is even more important deployment of dermatologists. “We used colour in our day too, but many women holi is a terrifying than Dasain. The festivities begin a If you think you’re a Wild Party not like today, when kids use just experience. “It’s fine playing on day before the actual full moon and Animal on Holi, smearing everyone any paint,” says the older Kasaju. the day itself, but guys start continue till the day after. Like at in sight with colour and hitting Asked whether they knew if throwing lolas many days before Dasain, family members gather them with those lethal little water metallic colours were harmful the actual holi. This is sad because together from all over and make balloons, lolas, think again. Lab Manoj Kasaju replies: “We know they throw them with such force merry. The men still wear the tests on two of the most common they are, but what can we do that it hurts terribly,” says Shovna traditional labeda suruwaal with raw colours, abir (red and yellow) reveal about it? It is the customer’s Shrestha of Patan. “It is harassment, silk turbans and women the nhukun high percentages of toxic heavy will.” The colours used today are but people don’t understand,” she chollo, the traditional Thakali female metals like chromium, cadmium, cheaply produced in factories in adds. Laura Gilchrist, a Britisher dress. An astounding variety of food turning into serious gambling affairs, who also celebrate Fagu Purnima, resident in Kathmandu for two years, items are cooked. The men and the festivities don’t seem as what they call Hola Mohallah, in a HAPPENINGS says she doesn’t budge from the participate in archery competitions wholesome as before. Jyoti Sherchan, manner similar to the mainstream house on Holi. and the women play paana (cowries) a former chairman of the Samaaj, fears Hindu celebration, but mainly to It wasn’t always like this. The and kai, a pebble-picking game. the dominant “modern” pan-Nepali strengthen communal harmony. Hindu scriptures, the Puranas, say The Thakali Samaj Ghar in culture might slowly be wiping out his Holi is a time for fun, colours that Holika, a legendary demoness, Kathmandu is trying to preserve these own. Says he: “The government needs and the ingestion of bhang, yes, but was burnt to death on this day. traditions, even if many of their to recognise Toran La as a festival of in the face of toxic colours, Although she had this nifty power members have permanently given up the Thakalis and give us an official harassment and the homogenising of of being resistant to fire, she was their ancestral homes in Thak Saatsaya. holiday, like they do for Dasain.” traditions, one wonders how long it burnt to death when she leapt into But the archery competitions are Likewise there are Nepal’s few Sikhs, will remain this way.  RAVI MANANDHAR RAVI BACK HOME: King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya on their return to Kathmandu from a state visit to China, on 3 March.

Sharp RAVI MANANDHAR RAVI AMONG CHILDREN: Queen Aishwarya chats with children after the inauguration of a new Canada-Nepal orphanage at Arubari, 5 March. MIN BAJRACHARYA NOT UNTOUCHABLE: Police get physical with Dalit demonstrators at Bhadrakali who were protesting delays in passing the Dalit Bill. 202020 9 - 15 MARCH 2001 NEPALI TIMES NEPALI SOCIETY Under My Hat Boiled Eggs a la Murgh (Special Non- by Kunda Dixit Veg Treat for Shooting from a new angle Eggeatarians) epali men are a bit insecure Ingredients: Tehrathum district. The roots of his pas- when it comes to food. One egg, or chicken, whichever sion go back to his school days when nUnderstandably so: they are Recipes comes first. reading about people like Bhanubhakta so used to dal bhat and achar Remarks: The Boiled Egg is a and Laxmi Prasad Devkota aroused his appearing automatically before particular gourmet delight reserved for curiosity—he wanted to see pictures of all them at mealtimes that they think for special occasions like Easter and these characters. “All we could see were food literally grows on trees; it Bishwakarma Puja. First make sure sketches, no one had pictures. doesn’t, it grows in supermarkets. egg was laid by hen and not a I hope my collection of contemporary So when their wives threaten to go velociraptor. Toss concerned egg into writers, musicians, artists and poets will on strike demanding a ten percent disaster pot of water and heat over simmering help future generations to know more service charge, there is in maledom flame. Careful, overheating may cause about those whose works they study,” says a general sense of panic. It is time egg to hatch. Roll egg from time to Ale. He leaves one class of dreamers we men learnt to fend for ourselves. time to ensure Thermal Equilibrium untouched, though, politicians. And why Men have to behave less like para- within the Epithelium. black and white photography? “Black and sites and more like para- When tapping from inside the white photographs preserve colour for a commandos and teach ourselves shell stops, you can be sure chicken longer duration than colour pictures jungle survival techniques that will little is dead, and the treat is ready to although they are more expensive to start allow us to make fire with a serve to an appreciative circle of family with. And besides, black and white photo- magnifying glass so we can prepare a and friends. TIWARI JAGADISH graphs look more artistic,” reasons Ale. feast of roasted beetles, rustle up a Kumar Ale has never exhibited his fine fungus salad with Thousand Instant Noodles with Spices works. The only thing close was a compact Island dressing improvised from the (For a family of six) Supari with Semtex disc with digital images of his works that body fluids of a carnivorous pitcher Ingredients: One 350 g plastic Ingredients: he carried when he went to Europe several plant, and for our just desserts, do a packet of noodles One 25 g raw areca nut “Not everybody with a camera is a photogra- years ago. Exhibition or not, his works have mouth-watering soufflé of red ant One 3 oz sachet of spices One heavy-duty nutcracker pher. A photographer needs to have a vision inspired many to come up with new ideas. abdomens in wild honey. One sledgehammer Three tons of Semtex explosives and direction,” says Kumar Ale, one of The poets he’s captured have given him Obviously there is a long way to Remarks: Variety is the spice of life, Remarks: After a hearty meal, there is Nepal’s young photographers. And the man inventive names—some call him Chitara, go for mama’s boys in Nepal. They and a daily diet of gum and water, nothing like a deep burp and a supari himself is no ordinary camera-slinger. Ale’s some Photo Shikari. need to learn to lead a hand-to- however wholesome, can get a bit to complete a traditional Nepali approach to the profession makes him He doesn’t make much money from his mouth existence from everyday raw dull. This is when BuyBuy chow-chow dinner. The problem is that a supari unique. For over ten years, Ale has been pictures, but Ale isn’t complaining. “I did materials found around the house. I from a neighbourhood pasal can come is so hard it needs a tunnel engineer shooting Nepal’s artists, litterateurs, poets not do this for money. This is purely have been testing some of these to the rescue. Tear open plastic pack to blast one into easy-to-eat pieces. and musicians, mostly in black and white. personal. The only thing I hope to get out of recipes in the safety of my own with your teeth, pour out contents, I have it on good authority that the “I vowed to capture at least one subject this is that it may inspire others to be kitchen, and they range from easy- and eat the little plastic eraser shaped supari is a multi-tasking nut that every day, not necessarily a famous creative and use their imagination for a to-do dishes to more exotic and like a Star Wars character that comes works as an aphrodisiac, an personality,” says Ale. Today he has images good cause. ambitious concoctions, and I’m free with every packet of BuyBuy. My astringent, an anthelminthic, an of over 1,500 people, ranging from musi- ” It’s clear that what pleases him most sure they will make my fellow men particular favourite is Darth Vader, antihistamine, an anti-ulcer agent cian Amber Gurung, to poet Madhav is being able to inspire creativity. The Royal to be more self-reliant, self- which has a delicate vanilla flavour, and even as an edible toothpick Ghimire, to some whose names aren’t Nepal Academy had previously stowed confident and self-centred. and a chewy texture a bit like which dislodges bits of previously- widely known—yet. The most important away the portraits of many of Nepal’s turkey meat. ingested instant noodles from thing about Ale’s work is that his subjects greatest writers owns. Today, drawing Pulverise noodles with sharp your molars. don’t have to pose. His pictures are taken inspiration from Ale’s work, they are on blows from a handy kitchen sledge- In some parts of Nepal, people when the subjects are going about doing display. “Every creator should follow a hammer, sprinkle spices to taste, toss even get married to suparis. Speaking whatever they do. certain line,” says Ale. He’s certainly got lightly to let ingredients mix, lob into of which, at this point in time I am so Ale is originally from Aathrai in the right angle. Chewing Gum open mouth and munch noisily. hungry I could eat my spouse. (To serve a party of one) Ingredients: A six pack of wrigleys or chiclets 3 fl oz of home-made Saliva Remarks: When the first pangs of hunger hit you after your wife/ mother/sister/aunt goes on strike, chewing gum (bubble gum will also do) is always an easy way to postpone starvation. In terms of fast food, gum constitutes an instant and gratifying meal that works by fooling the stomach that you are indeed eating something whereas in actual fact you are not. Thus tricked, the stomach goes to sleep and stops bothering you. AMBASSADOR wave Water with Aromatic Garnishes (To serve one hungry Nepali male) Ingredients: 1 litre of Kathmandu Tap Water Remarks: Another way to deal with a female-instigated famine within the household is to fill your belly with pure Himalayan tap water. Don’t boil or filter this liquid otherwise you will lose valuable protein-rich nutrients like micro-organisms, plankton and other unidentified floating objects. It has been shown that an average Nepali male chauvinist piglet does not really need food at all, but can live for the rest of his life on tap water since besides water it also contains enough hydrocarbons and amino acids to meet the per capita daily calorie requirement of all Nepalis, great and small.