#227 24 - 30 December 2004 24 pages Rs 30

SETTING FIRE TO King’s visit off ANYTHING THAT MOVES: King Gyanendra’s visit to India has One of the 18 trucks bound been “rescheduled” because of the for Kathmandu that was death of former Indian prime minister set on fire near Hetauda on PV Narasimha Rao on Thursday. Highway hell Rao was the architect of India’s Wednesday morning. economic reforms and was prime minister 1991-96 after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He had been admitted to hospital after a heart attack two weeks ago and news of his death came at 2:30 pm just ahead of the scheduled departure time for the royal visit. King Gyanendra’s visit had been getting muted coverage in the Indian press and his interview in The Times of India last week was relegated to the entertainment section. Indian officialdom has leaked New Delhi’s message to the king would be that he mustn't be tempted to go it alone. They have also hinted that the army should be more aggressive in going after the Maoists, and even give up UN peacekeeping to do so.

Weekly Internet Poll # 167 Q. Should the UML stay on in government?

Total votes:650 Weekly Internet Poll # 168. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Do you believe King Gyanendra’s India visit will help resolve the Maoist insurgency? PRATAP BISTA TANKA KHANAL on the EAST-WEST HIGHWAY

n the eve of King buses, many had run out of money O Gyanendra’s visit to India, to pay for food. There are bombs the Maoists launched a hidden inside trees and boulders campaign to cripple the country by piled on the highways and are too blocking off all main highways in risky to remove. Central Nepal with booby-trapped “Driving was already risky barricades. because of accidents and robberies, For Kathmandu Valley, this is but the landmines have made it effectively another blockade since even riskier,” says Dhiraj Rai, a bus all four highways linking the capital driver. The Maoists are replicating to the rest of the country have tactics they used in western Nepal been blocked for two days now. last month by blocking highways and Shops are hoarding vegetables ambushing the army as it tried to and food, and queues have formed clear them. Seven soldiers were at petrol stations. killed in an ambush on the Jiri Early Wednesday morning, 18 Highway on Saturday. lorries on the East-West Highway All over eastern Nepal, along were burnt to cinders by the Maoists the East-West and Mechi highways, for defying their blockade. The tree trunks and boulders have army has been hard-pressed to blocked roads. The barricades are clear the barriers and carried out festooned with Maoist banners and heli-patrols along the main from the nearby forest the Maoists highways on Thursday. warn bus passenger through A day after six policemen were loudspeakers not to remove the killed in the first ever attack on a trees. “Don’t move them, we won’t be post inside Kathmandu Valley, the responsible if you are killed,” they chief of the Maoist eastern say. command, Comrade Badal, said Major Kosh Raj Ghimire from on Sunday, it marked the the Ilam barrack says it is difficult to beginning of the rebel’s ‘strategic clear the barricades because of the offensive’ phase. bombs and the danger of Maoist On a trip this week from ambushes. “There are so many of Pokhara to Biratnagar, we saw these obstructions, it takes time,” he thousands of passengers forced to told worried bus passengers on their spend cold nights huddled inside way to Mirik on Wednesday. l 22 CITY 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227

ABOUT TOWN Set in modern day India, Swades is a film that tackles the issues of development at FESTIVAL AND EXHIBITIONS the grass-roots level. It is to this India, v Life through the Lens Photographs by Kishor Kayastha at Indigo Gallery. which is colourful, heterogeneous and Till 15 January. 4413580, [email protected] complex, that Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh v Impression of Nepal A photo exhibition by Victor Klenov from 25-28 Khan), a bright young scientist working as December, 11AM at the Shambala Garden in Hotel Shangri-la. a project manager in NASA, returns to on a v Mass Timings at the Assumtion Church, 24 December 5.30 PM carol quest to find his childhood nanny. The film singing followed by Holy Mass, 25 December 9AM Christmas Day mass in uses the contrast between the highly Nepali and 4PM in English and Christmas Mass at Hotel Annapurna at 8AM developed world of NASA and this world in English back home in India, which is at the crossroads of development. Mohan’s simple Now Showing EVENTS quest becomes the journey that each one Call 4442220 for of us goes through in search of that v Pablo Neruda poetry reading in Spanish, English and Nepali, also the show timings screening of Il Postino at the film club Baggi Khana 4PM Sunday, 26 metaphysical and elusive place called December JAI NEPAL CINEMA ‘home’. www.jainepal.com v Christmas Eve Carol Service by the International Church on 24 December at 6.30 PM and Christmas Day Service on 25 December at 9.30 KATHMANDU AIR QUALITY AM, British School, Jhamsikhel. 5525176 The good news is that the concentration of particles below 10 microns in v 3rd Annual Wave Web Winner 2004 Website designing contest. Entry deadline 15 January. www.wavemag.com.np. Kathmandu’s air is not getting worse. The bad news is that it is already very v Citizen’s Call For Peace at Ratnapark in Kathmandu on 27 December at bad. In fact, PM10 concentrations in Kathmandu’s streets were still in the 10.30 AM. Come express solidarity towards the peace movement. ‘harmful’ range. But the two-day bandh did leave a positive impact. The v Haute Couture celebrate New years with a fashion theme this year at the worst areas are still Putali Sadak, Thamel and Patan Hospital. Yak and Yeti for more information and tickets contact 4248999 v The Chimney Exclusive dining with soft music and a seven course meal 12 - 18 December in micrograms per cubic meter. Source: www. mope.gov.np at the Yak and Yeti includes entrance to Sinners in Heaven.6PM to 10PM Rs 3,999/person and Rs 5,999/couple. 4248999 v Sinners in Heaven Yak and Yeti hosts their annual New Year’s Party from Good < 60 8Pm to 2AM for all the party animals. Rs 1,599 includes food and unlimited imported spirtits. 4248999 Ok 61 to 120 v New Year’s Eve at Dwarika’s Performances by ‘Abhaya’ and the ‘Steam Unhealthy 121 to 350 Injuns.’ Rs 3500/couples and Rs 2000/person including dinner and drinks. Harmful 351 to 425 4479488 Hazardous >425 MUSIC Putalisadak Patan H Thamel Kirtipur Bhaktapur Matsyagaun v Swinging this Christmas with the Mc. Twisters and the Divazzzzz!!! D.J session with J.J. and friends on 24 December 7PM onwards.at Moksh restaurant and bar, Tickets Rs 300, 5528703 NEPALI WEATHER by MAUSAM BEED v Christmas Jam with ‘Benaam’, 25 December 8PM at Himalatte We are switching satellites this week Spaghetteria and Café, Thamel. www.himalatte.com, 4256738 so we can see the fog over the Indo- FOOD Gangetic plains more clearly. This v picture taken on Thursday morning Christmas at K-too’s Christmas with Turkey shows the fog stretching from Assam and chocolate almond tarts at the Kilroys to Pakistan and lapping at the slopes restaurant till 3 Jan, Thamel 4700043 v of the Chure hills in Nepal. The wide Café Mitra and Lounge Bar presents a special westerly front over Afghanistan that a la carte Festive Season Menu from 24 was heading our way has been December till 31 December. 4259015 v pushed off northwards by the jet Christmas Eve at Dwarika’s BBQ, traditional stream. The fog is also present in Christmas desserts and welcome drink for Rs Kathmandu Valley and along the river 1,000 on 24 December. 4479488 v basins, but unlike the tarai the Special Christmas Dinner at Hotel Summit, 6.30 PM onwards on 24 and sun burns it off by mid-morning. 25 December. v Expect a further drop in minimum Christmas Dinner and Lunch on the 24 and 25 December respectively temperatures and warm afternoons at the Yak and Yeti. Rs 1175/person.4248999 for the Valley. v Christmas at Kilroy’s Smoked salmon, turkey and plum pudding till 3 January. 4250440, 4250441 v Bethlehem Christmas Eve dinner with live music at Hotel Shangri-la, 7PM KATHMANDU VALLEY onwards. Rs 1200 per person Lajimpat. 4412999 Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue v Super Star Christmas Day lunch with live music at the Shambala Gardens. 12PM onwards, Rs 720 per person at Hotel Shangri-la, Lajimpat, 4412999 v The Spirit of Christmas Sumptuous Christmas goodies at Hyatt Regency. 4491234 19-04 19-03 20-02 20-02 19-03

GETAWAYS v Christmas and New Year’s Eve at Dwarika’s with breakfast and dinner at the venue of your choice. $49 per person on twin-sharing and $75 for single.20 December to 5 January. 4479488 v Merry Christmas Package One night, two days with welcome drink, breakfast and dinner. Single room Rs 4,000 and double room Rs 5,100 at Le Meridien. 4445550 v Dream Holiday package tour to Malaysia for Christmas and New Year. Marco Polo Travels and Qatar Airways, 2012345, [email protected] v Tiger Mountain Lodge Attractive Christmas and New Year offers for expats only. 4361500 v Christmas by the jungle at Jungle Base Camp Lodge, Bardia. Special package and prices. [email protected] v Club Himalaya invites you to celebrate the sunrise of 2005 rather than the sunset of 2004 at their windy hills on 1Jan 2005, Nagarkot, 19 INTERNATIONALJesus Christ, the revolutionary24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227

he single most important even more political cast on the fact about the birth of story. The narrative begins with The politics of this year’s Christmas story T Jesus, as recounted in the the decree of Caesar Augustus Gospels, is one that receives calling for a world census—a almost no emphasis in the creation of tax rolls that will American festival of Christmas. tighten the empire’s grip on its The child who was born in subjects. It was Caesar Augustus Bethlehem represented a who turned the Roman republic drastic political challenge to into a dictatorship, a power-grab the imperial power of Rome. he reinforced by proclaiming himself divine. His census decree is what STAR AND STRIPES requires the journey of Joseph James Carroll and the pregnant Mary to Bethlehem, but it also defines The nativity story is told to the context of their child’s make the point that Rome is the nativity as one of political enemy of God and in Jesus, resistance. When the angel Rome’s day is over. The Gospel announces to shepherds that a of Matthew builds its nativity ‘saviour has been born’, as narrative around Herod’s scholars like Richard Horsley determination to kill the baby, point out, those hearing the whom he recognises as a threat story would immediately to his own political sway. The understand that the Romans were an occupation blasphemous claim by Caesar force in Palestine and Herod Augustus to be the “saviour of was their puppet-king. To the the world” was being people of Israel, the Roman repudiated. occupation which preceded the When Jesus was murdered by birth of Jesus by at least 50 Rome as a political criminal— a Roman puppet.) Roman imperialism at its everywhere. The United States years, was a defilement, and crucifixion was the way such In modern times, religion centre, questions might arise of America also understands Jewish resistance was steady. rebels were executed—the and politics began to be about America’s new self- itself as acting in the world with (The historian Josephus says story’s beginning was fulfilled understood as occupying understanding as an imperial good intentions, aiming at order. that after an uprising in in its end. But for contingent separate spheres, and the power. A story of Jesus born A ‘new world order” of George W Jerusalem around the time of historical reasons (the savage nativity story became into a land oppressed by a Bush. That we have this in the birth of Jesus, the Romans Roman war against the Jews in spiritualised and hated military occupation common with Rome is caught by crucified 2,000 Jewish rebels.) the late first century, the sentimentalised, losing its might prompt an examination the Latin motto that appears just Herod was right to feel gradual domination of the Jesus political edge altogether. of the American occupation below the engraved pyramid on insecure on his throne. In order movement by Gentiles, the ‘Peace’ replaced ‘resistance’ as of Iraq. The story of Jesus each American dollar bill, to preempt any challenges from conversion of Constantine in the the main motif. The baby Jesus come decidedly to the poor ‘Novus Ordo Seculorum’. But, as the rumored newborn ‘king of early fourth century) the was universalised, removed might cast a pall over the Iraq reminds us, such ‘order’ the Jews’, Herod murdered ‘all Christian memory deemphasised from his decidedly Jewish festival of consumption. A comes at a cost, far more than a the male children who were the anti-Roman character of the context and the narrative’s story of the Jewishness of dollar. The price is always paid two years old or younger’. Jesus story. Eventually, Roman explicit critiques of imperial Jesus might undercut the in blood and suffering by unseen Joseph, warned in a dream, imperialism would be sanctified dominance and of wealth were Christian theology of ‘nobodies’ at the bottom of the slipped out of Herod’s reach by the church, with Jews blunted. replacement. imperial pyramid. It is their with Mary and Jesus. Thus, replacing Romans as the main This is how it came to be Today the Roman empire story, for once, that is being told right from his birth, the child antagonists of Jesus, as if he that Christmas in America has is recalled mainly as a force this week. l was marked as a political were not Jewish himself. (Thus, turned the nativity of Jesus on for good—those roads, fugitive. Herod is remembered more for its head. No surprise there, for if language, laws, civic (James Carroll is a columnist for the The Gospel of Luke puts an being part-Jewish than for being the story were told today with magnificence and ‘order’ Boston Globe) 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 13 Bluebird Starting off as one of the first supermarket chains in 1985, Bluebird set the trend for many others to follow. The competition has proved beneficial and as a result, prices have gone down. A full-fledged departmental store offering a variety of popular food products, local and imported, it also has an audio-video section offering appliances and haS recently introduced branded items, sticking to the big brands like Nike, Reebok, Adidas, etc. “We do not sell many Chinese items as we would rather stick to investing in better quality,” says Binod Tuladhar. Giving customers a treat to look forward to, Bluebird is giving every shopper who makes a purchase of up to Rs 15,000 a free one night stay (valid for couples) at the Bluebird Hotel in Pokhara. Gemini Gemini was established in 1991 and they started out as the biggest grocery store in Kathmandu now they have expanded into two departmental stores with one in Boudhha and the other in Jawalakhel. Gemini was the first store to introduce computer billing and barcode scanners in Nepal, according to Jagdish Maskey. “Earlier people liked to go to shops and give the shopkeepers their lists. Now they prefer variety and choosing their own products; this is probably why the retail boom is happening,” Maskey says. Though facing some problems due to the traffic situation in Boudha, Maskey maintains that Gemini is booming. “Even with only 20 percent of business capacity we aren’t doing badly,” he adds. Saleways ‘We will make the difference’ is the motto of the new Saleways departmental store which is opening soon in Jawalakhel. Saleways plans to become the Walmart of Nepal and it seems to already be on its way with two stores already open in Pokhara and doing booming business. Saleways plans to expand to Kathmandu and beyond. Says Sudhir Pradhanang, “Organised retail is at a very nascent stage in Nepal right now, the potential is huge and we plan to cash in on it.” Sushil Pradhanang, Sudhir’s brother, adds “We are different and are planning to provide superior customer service with memberships and paying them back according to their expenses through various free packages and plans”. Metro Mall Metro Mall is now two years old, as possibly the first 24-hour department store not just in Nepal but the region. Located inside the Soaltee Complex, security was not a problem and the store catered to the all-night crowd at casinos and was a shopping paradise for the jet-lagged and nightbirds. Though it has a reputation for being more expensive, proprietor Bijen Jhochen insists his products are actually up to seven percent cheaper. “In Nepal, if there’s a road, there’s a shop,” explains Jhonche stressing the extent of the ‘shutter culture’ of the mom-and-pop shops. The market is completely laissez faire and the government doesn’t have restrictions on the number of shops on a street. “Every shop owner should be made to pay a minimum sum of revenue to the government every month,” he says, “That way you encourage both quality and healthy competition.” Namaste Namaste was one of the first supermarkets in Patan when it opened 12 years ago, now it is one of many. When Jeevan Shakya first opened his store, people used to think that supermarkets were only for the rich. “We have changed that attitude, and now people are becoming more aware of the fact that all sorts of products from all price ranges are available with us,” he says. Namaste did so well that it has expanded and moved to the former Hotel Narayani in Pulchok. (Its former premises in Jawalakhel have been taken over by Saleways). Shakya would like to keep his store open till midnight, but cites present security concerns. Namaste also plans to have a wine and cookie tasting with caroling for Christmas Eve. Shakya says “ This is the first time that we are organising such an event within a supermarket” Dexo Dexo has seen quite an expansion since 1986, when it specialised only in woollen garments. Now, it has music consumer items and a supermarket offering all grocery items. Located in Thamel, Dexo is always busy with late-night shoppers and the most popular spot being the liquor section which draws a lot of wine- lovers. Piracy has hurt the selling of original soundtracks and albums on cds and audiocassettes, but Dexo’s emphasis on quality has gotten loyal customers. 2 EDITORIAL 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227

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oing on nine years, this conflict is degenerating into a G competition between the two warring sides to be nastier than the other in tormenting non-combatants. This year they beat their own national record on disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture. They now seem hell bent on breaking world records. Nowhere is this more evident than in the blatant use of children in Nepal’s armed conflict. The party that has been most insistent on calling for United Nations mediation is the one that is recruiting children directly from their classrooms, forcing them to join militia training, closing schools down with threats, and menacing teachers. As a result, the country’s education system is now in shambles, the remarkable progress made in the past decade in raising the country’s literacy rate is seriously jeopardised. Even in conflicts more vicious than ours, we have see an unspoken agreement between belligerents not to target children and schools. But in Nepal there has been a cynical and deliberate attempt to wreck the school system. Day care centres are bombed, children are used as cannon fodder and education turned into a theatre of war. As we have seen in Africa, conflicts reach a virulent, irreparable phase when children are taught to kill. As our report from Rolpa in this issue (p 4-5) makes it clear: parts of Nepal are now in this phase. Forcing children into war is the worst form of exploitation. The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child make the recruitment of anyone under 15 a war crime. The Option Protocol, to which Nepal is a signatory, has raised that age threshold to 18. The Maoists may say they are not the government, but non-state parties are also bound by the conventions and the leaders of armed groups can be brought to justice and tried for war crimes in future. The Maoist’s disingenuous argument that they don’t force the children to join them, “they come voluntarily” is unacceptable. The Conventions prohibit recruitment: whether it is forced or voluntary. If the warring sides in this conflict can’t stop this senseless bloodletting, the least they can do is fight by the rules. The use of children in war, their removal from classrooms to work as porters, sentries, spies, cooks or fighters is not allowed. Turning schools into barracks, as state security is doing in some places, is wrong. Luckily, children are much more resilient than we adults think. With an ultimate homecoming to a peaceful Nepal, they can grow again. But what kind of Nepal are we leaving behind for them?

MOHAN MAINALI

L ETTERS

TERROR definition of terrorism. Journalists But I wonder why she repeatedly homophobes among government, Daniel Lak’s treatise on terrorism like him have always bent over called Chandra Shamsher the legal community and the was interesting ‘One era’s terrorist’, backwards to justify terrorists, and ‘Maharaja’? That didn’t sit well by police. Next month’s ruling by the #225). He is quite right that those this is the latest example. What me. Is this an attempt by a Rana Supreme Court will show whether we who are called terrorists today do does he call the injuring of 37 family to put their stamp in Nepali will go back to the dark ages or not. become friends of different people at the Sanchaya Kosh history? Let’s hope not. countries or different parties and building in a Maoist bomb last Suvash Thapa, Kathmandu G Upreti, email leaders sometime later. But it can month? What is the drilling of also work the other way around. Pari Thapa’s wife’s legs? What of GAYS GREAT PAPER Bin Laden was friend of US the killing of teachers like Mukti In your latest issue, #227, you have I am not a very regular reader but I leaders when he was fighting Nath Adhikari in Lamjung given us an entire page 8 on gay think this is the best paper that against the Soviet Union, but at (‘Teachers at the frontlines’, rights by Manjushree Thapa comes out of Nepal by a long shot. the end of Cold War they #225). The Maoists have (‘Reverse lens’) and Ulhas Rana I do not read the vernaculars but suddenly turned him into a terrorised Nepalis to force them to (‘Happy to be gay’). Was it really your translation of the Nepali press terrorist. obey their diktat. They terrorise worth the whole page? As long as makes up for it and most of your Western leaders are quite them to hand over their children people do what they have to do paper is great with such good good at this sort of thing. However, and money. Their methods are as behind closed doors with the bolt writers like CK Lal, Majushree as far as Nepalis are concerned, brutal as the Khmer Rouge. Wake locked, who is really bothered? It is Thapa and my favourite, Kunda the Maoists deserve to be called up, Mr Lak. their moral right and nobody is Dixit. terrorists because they have J R Pandey, email trying to infringe on their privacy. S Thapa, email terrorised the general public in a But, are the majority of the Nepali way that has never been seen in l Hats off to Krishna Shah for society willing to accept them and l I was intrigued to read in Nepal’s history. Even if one her courage and selflessness give them a pat on the back? Kunda Dixit’s Under My Hat hastens to use the terrorist tag, (‘Enough is enough’, #226). Your Nepal’s gay community is at least (‘Before we go, the main points they should at least be called interview with the heroine of ten years ahead of its time, if not once again’, #226) that ‘murderers’ and should never be Dailekh shows that there are still more. In short, we understand your International Corruption Day was forgiven for their gruesome killing Nepalis who are willing to risk problems and our sympathies are observed in Kathmandu with tactics. Instead of implicitly giving their lives to defy the Maoists. with you, but the reality is that you ‘special talk programs, rallies, tyre- positive signals to murderers. Mr Shame on the motorists of are a minority and considered by burning, street riots and arson’. Lak, you should live in places like Kathmandu for not standing up to the majority of our society to be Good to see that Nepal is catching Dailekh to understand what they a Maoist banda and enjoying two abnormal. Yes, in due course of up with America on this front. Go have done to poverty-stricken days holiday. Shame on the time you will be accepted by one for it, Nepalis! Maybe one day people. It may be just semantics political parties who cower in the and all. George Bush will become your for you because you are in a capital and bring out masal julus Krishna Shah Dr Amrit KC, Bishalnagar president. privileged position far away, but against the king. Shame on J Swan, email many Nepalis like me have to government officials who don’t CHUGHTAI l Thanks to Manjushree Thapa bear the burnt of their atrocities. dare go to the countryside without Sangeeta Thapa’s piece in your and Ulhas Rana for their bold and l Stop, Kunda Dixit. I have B Raj Giri, email an army of security. Krishna Shah art section ‘Chughtai’s Nepali forthright articles on sexual freedom nearly choked twice on my and the women of Dailekh have connection’, #226) was an in Nepal. We can pride ourselves on breakfast in the past two weeks l It is easy for Daniel Lak to split shown us all that they don’t need interesting read and made me having one of the least taboo- reading your paper backwards. You hairs from his liberal high horse guns, they have lots of guts. interested in the painter and I ridden societies in South Asia, but are becoming a health hazard. about the politically-correct J ayant Jha, New Delhi even researched him on the net. there are still holier-than-thou Gwen Sharpe, email 3 NATION Embrace Nepal’s diversity24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 n the space of a month, King Let’s replace exclusionary Nepalipan with an inclusive Nepaliyata of religious, linguistic and cultural plurality IGyanendra has inaugurated the Second World Buddhist also scheduled to meet, will not icon of culture, rather than just Mahendra that the King of Nepal fundamental principal of Summit in Lumbini, be amused. the ruler of territory, was seen in deserved to be the king of Panchayat patriotism built participated in the re- The VHP-affiliated Vishwa France in 1830. Louis-Philippe, Nepalis everywhere. The notion around Nepalipan, everyone enactment of the marriage of Hindu Mahasangh bestowed son of Philippe d’Egalité who of Nepaliya national identity struggling for the restoration of Ram and Sita in Janakapur and upon the king the title of ‘World supported the revolution of and Nepaliyata was very soon democracy was also hounded performed a puja at the Gadimai Hindu Emperor’ and together 1789, took the Bourbon throne. replaced with the idea of Nepali by the establishment as an ‘anti- temple in Bara, the biggest with the RSS and BJP are But instead of assuming the nationalism built around the national’. animal-sacrifice ritual in the collectively referred to in India traditional title of ‘King of ethnicity of Nepalipan. The biggest failure of the world. as the Sangh Paribar, which is France’, he chose to describe Nepalipan was a de- post-1990 order has been its opposed to secular politics and himself as the ‘King of the territorialised identity: anyone inability to replace exclusionary wants to establish a French’. This chauvinistic who swore by the crown, wore STATE OF THE STATE Nepalipan with an inclusive fundamentalist polity in the patriotism later led to two great daura-suruwal-topi (or sari), Nepaliyata of religious, CK Lal world’s largest democracy. The wars in Europe. spoke Nepali, and professed linguistic, and cultural palace bureaucracy has to be Jang Bahadur Kunwar saw Hinduism remained a Nepali plurality. However, after In all three sites, India’s careful about hob-nobbing this at work when he became irrespective of citizenship. October Fourth, the royal Sangh Paribar has a political with this lot, and understand the first oriental potentate to Nepal was the fatherland of predilection for a monolithic agenda to pursue. By accepting its implications for Nepal’s own visit Europe in 1850. The ideas everyone true to Nepalipan. Hindu orthodoxy has re-asserted the significance of Lumbini, the multi-religious and multi-ethnic he took home lay dormant in his Compared to the adherents of itself. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) status. dynasty’s century-long rule only prescribed Nepalipan, people The French don’t have a king wants to prove that it is opposed Over-doing the monarchy’s to emerge later when symbols of living inside Nepal for anymore, but a monarch to ‘foreign’ religions like Hindu antecedents is already a new Nepali nationalism were generations were deemed to be continues to reign over the Christianity and Islam, but is rattling Nepalis who do not forged. lesser Nepalis if they happened United Kingdom. If the illusion tolerant of ‘Indian’ faiths like believe in the superiority of one The coterie of émigré to believe, dress, speak, or of cultural emperorship isn’t Jainism, Sikhism and religion over another. Relying on Nepalis who descended into worship differently. Since the discarded, Nepaliyata will have Buddhism. religion for political legitimacy Kathmandu after the Shah primacy of the crown was the to learn to live without the The purpose of Bibaha is extremely risky business. Restoration of 1950 impressed most prominent legacy of Panchami festivities in A king who sees himself as an upon then Crown Prince Nepalipan. l Janakapur last week was to create a Hindu solidarity for politicos to face the electoral challenge across the border in Bihar where a general election is due soon. The BJP is also flexing its muscles for the UP by-elections. The Sangh Paribar hopes to cash its Nepali connections for better electoral prospects in our neighbouring states. It’s unlikely that the palace bureaucrats don’t understand the political significance of the presence of Sangh Paribar fire- breathers like Ashok Singhal and Vinay Katiyar in Janakapur. King Gyanendra’s association with them, albeit indirect, is sure to have sent the wrong signals to Congress I-led ruling coalition in New Delhi smack before his ten-day visit to India that begins on Thursday. Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow and Rabri Debi in Patna, whom King Gyanendra is 4 NATION 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227

Year Zero is already here for Rolpa’s child militia Giving children a

JB PUN MAGAR in ROLPA

here were seven of them on T the trail to Thawang, boys and girls carrying heavy home-made shoulder bags. The biggest was barely four feet tall, must have been 14. He was carrying a Chinese radio with the antenna pulled out. There was a comb in his shirt pocket and his hair was slickly groomed. In a voice of authority, he asked: “Who are you?” We said we were journalists on our way to Thawang. “Do you have a pass?” We replied that the head of the people’s government in Mijhing had told us to get a pass further on. “Ok,” he replied. He was Comrade Sahas, the leader of the group of Maoist child militia. One of the girls, Comrade Bhabana who looked PICS: JB PUN MAGAR 13, asked: “How are things over LORD OF THE FLIES there, are there any enemies (Above) With a .303 slung over his shoulder, Comrade Waibhaba leads a group of Maoists in Rolpa. He claims to be 15 but his friends say about?” They were on sentry he is younger. duty, checking the papers of (Below, left) Kami Pun and Ramtel Gharti were recruited from their school and managed to escape from the Maoists on their second try. (Below, right) On sentry duty on the road to Thawang, we ran across this bunch: Comrade Sahas (second from left), Comrade Akrosh (in red everyone who came up the shirt) and Comrade Bhabana (extreme right). valley or working as messengers and porters. Once they found out we were harmless, the children opened up. Sahas said he was studying in Grade Five and has been taking part in Maoist abhiyans since 2000. Bhabana was in Grade Three when the Maoists said if she didn’t join the militia her parents would have to join the People’s Army. They said they would take her for a month but Bhabana hasn’t been home for a year now. “They had said I’d only have to cook but I am carrying grenades and guns,” she says. The curse of geography he ‘Resource Curse’ is a glib bit of Let’s stop using it as an excuse for underdevelopment T developmental theory that says any poor country that possesses great natural wealth is less likely to become world’s richest countries. India too fits exploration remains a distant dream. In world while so many others in the region prosperous than a place without into this mould in an odd way. Put short, there’s no gold in the hills that we were wide open? It’s because access petroleum, minerals or timber. It’s an simply, India has little left in the ground know of. And for that, we should be became a resource, a natural resource. easy thought. or above it that anyone else covets. There pleased. Because it’s not resources And a curse. Look at Angola, Nigeria or Venezuela. are minerals and oil and timber but not themselves that curse a developing These days aid and development Oil hasn’t helped them become stable, nearly enough to go around, to have much country. types play that role. Using as local equitable democracies. Arguably, in the impact on development. Agriculture It’s the penchant of greedy local elites contacts members of that old elite, they last remains the country’s mainstay but to steal everything that isn’t nailed down, control access to Nepal and they do it case, manufacturing and creative industry are then to come back for the nails. And boy with a similar if unintentional HERE AND THERE petro- catching up. In other words, Indian brain does Nepal have that elite problem in rapaciousness to the old feudals. India Daniel Lak dollars power is becoming its natural resource. spades. The top people here–not all of may be the land that locks this country, have So whither Nepal within the paradigm them but many, and going right to the very but it can be managed more easily than wrecked a country where peaceable of the ‘Resource Curse’? Well, the top–have plundered and stole and the plethora of multinational agencies elections were once a hallmark. kingdom appears to be well placed. It pillaged and–yes–raped as much as ever that preside of Nepal’s decline. On the flip side, Singapore. A country doesn’t have many resources. they could. In earlier days, they did take In short, if Nepal is ever to change, it with nothing, a city state in a Hydroelectricity doesn’t really count timber. But mostly they stole the labour of needs to be far more open to the wider swamp plagued by ethic riots and because it is so costly to extract, so labour the people, and managed Nepal’s world than it ever was. It needs to build overshadowed by two huge neighbours intensive and rather controversial. And geography to their advantage. bridges and forge relationships through with the same communal problems. A the age of viewing hydro-potential as bags Being landlocked means that those diplomacy, disaporas, trade and culture. recipe for disaster you might say. But of money just waiting to be opened is who control and manage access to outside These must be based on equality, not aid Singapore’s lack of resources has made it long past. markets and ideas own immense power. partnerships that owe more to feudalism turn to its people for wealth production, It’s generally agreed that leaving That’s what the elite did here for than anything else. and they’ve responded gloriously. forests standing and managing them for centuries. Why else would Jung Bahadur A good start would be to stop using the The swampy island at the tip of the community benefit is better than Rana and the British collaborate in curse of geography as an excuse for Malay peninsula is now one of the lumbering. There are few mines and oil keeping this kingdom sealed off from the underdevelopment. l NATION 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 5

No stitch in time

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Garment industrialists will not toast cheers 2005 as a happy new year. Reason: from 1 January 2005, Nepal’s garment quota for export of fighting chance ready-made garments to countries like the US will be scrapped because of the WTO. That will mean almost all the remaining 30 garment industries in the country will have to close shop. The death of the annual Rs 6 billion industry will also mean a big loss for the national coffers that had been getting 35 percent of its earnings from garment exports. peoples’ education, actually There was sufficient warning. The industry and the overnment Doublespeak they are given military training,” have both known this was coming. “That is the reason we had been says ex-Maoist, Mahesh Buda. alerting the government to do something since years ago,” says Kiran On 19 September, Maoist leader Prachanda issued a statement in which Some of the more motivated Sakha, President of Garment Association of Nepal (GAN). “But he said his party hadn’t abducted innocent civilians and this was against children end up participating in unfortunately, nothing was done and here we are helpless when our party principles. That same day the Barachhetra Secondary School in battles and in executions. In industry is dying.” Rolpa’s Badachaur was deserted (see pic) . April, a 12-year-old student The end of the quota system means the Nepali garment industry None of the 300 students came to class because the head of the dressed in his own school has almost lost its lifeline because it cannot compete with giant local people’s government, Comrade Agni, had ordered that all children uniform shot a head police regional exporters like India and China on pricing. Situated far from from Grade Five and above would have to join a “special people’s militia the sea as it is, Nepali garments already have a hefty transportation training”. The parents refused to send their children to school. officer on duty in the Rolpa markup. That was the reason GAN had suggested that the government But the children were not safe even in their homes. The next headquarter of Libang. He had a rush to build a dry port near the border and an Export Processing morning, the Maoists went house-to-house and picked 12 students from light machine gun in his school Zone (EPZ). Grades 8-10 and took them bag. “We chased him, but he With the financial assistance from the World Bank, the away. The only ones who melted into a crowd government did build a dry port near Birganj but there is no sign of evaded the forced of school children so we couldn’t an EPZ. “Without an EPZ we don’t have the infrastructure to build recruitment were children shoot,” recalls capacity as an exporter in the quota free era,” says Sakha. whose parents had sent Rolpa’s police sub-inspector, Garment industrialists had also pressured the government to them away at night. Gyan Bikram Shah. request the US government to provide duty free access to Nepali Despite Prachanda’s Across Rolpa’s schools there garments in the American market. But the bill for such a provision has pronouncements that are contradictory slogans on the been gathering dust because lobbyists of an American company forced recruitment was (Panda Energy) wants a dispute, over the Bhote Koshi hydropower against his party’s walls: ‘It’s a crime to be project it has invested in, to be resolved first. principles, a meeting of illiterate, let’s enroll all children GAN executive members said Republican senators close to the Maoist student wing in Thawang last December had decided to go above five’ and ‘Let’s take up Panda Energy are blocking the bill and holding the Nepali garment ahead with a campaign under the slogan: ‘One School, One Strong arms to ensure a people’s industry hostage. More than 90 percent of Nepal’s ready-made Militia’. A few months later, a Maoist student leader vowed at a public education’. The Maoists say they garment production is exported to the US market earning $100 meeting in Banke to meet the target of putting together a 50,000-strong are preparing their own people’s million this year. Although this is down from $140 million in 2001 it is army by giving school children guerrilla warfare training. curriculum which includes a big source of employment and cash for the beleagured What we see today across Rolpa is this policy being implemented. military studies, Marxism and government. Since 2001, 70 percent of the 125 garment factories The result is that villages and schools are emptying. Leninism, economics, culture have closed down. and even something called

The work is hard, sometimes commander of Powang, Prem ‘socialist aesthetics’. Middle Marsyangdi suspended ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ there is all-night sentry duty. Bahadur Chhetri, admits In Badachaur, Tilak Gharti ○○○○○○○○○○ Sahas’ duty is to make sure they desertions are becoming a and Hom Bahadur Pun had been Construction work on the Middle Marsyangdi, one of the biggest current projects in the country, has been suspended indefinitely due obey his orders because he gets problem. “Poor kids, they getting threats that they must to Maoist threats. The German-funded 70 megawatt project in his orders from “higher up”. He can’t cope and they run away,” join the militia, so one day they Lamjung had ground to a halt since 6 November when Maoist rebels behaves like a class bully. The he says. packed a set of clothes, got Rs bombed a vehicle. The civil contractor, DDC-JV stopped work just like children are surprisingly open Ten-year-old Ramtel Gharti 500 from their parents and ran it had several times about their hardships and from and his friend, 12-year-old away. They reached Butwal, and previously. the tone of their voices and body Kami Pun were forced to join like thousands of children from The Rs 14 language it is clear they are not the militia two months ago. western Nepal, have by now billion project is here out of their own free will. They gave the guerrillas the crossed the border to India. owned by NEA Along the trail in Rolpa, we slip and fled along jungle paths “They used to come with their which has now meet many child militia who are by night, but were caught by guns to the classrooms everyday decided to suspend Maoists because they had no another sentry in Kasala. As and say you have to join us, so the work abiding by the project choice. None of them look punishment, they were forced we ran away,” Tilak told us in consultant, happy, they haven’t seen their to carry loads of shoes and Butwal, adding that 10 of his Fischner’s, parents for a year or more and are uniforms, but managed to classmates have been forced to recommendation. homesick. Most say they’d rather escape again. A dozen children join the Maoists. “The contract go back to school. One 14-year- had been forced to become Teachers in Rolpa’s schools agreement requires old told us quite openly, and whole-timers in Gumchal, all of are powerless to stop recruitment us to do what the consultant says,” said the head of the Middle oblivious of Maoist reprisal: “I’ll them deserted and fled all the and in fact have to join their Marsyangdi project, Shashi Bahadur Shrestha. NEA officials said they wait another month or so, then way to India. students in many of the military have taken the idea of the project suspension positively because I’ll run away.” Hom Bahadur Pun is a training camps. Saligram Subedi otherwise they would have to pay a hefty penalty of Rs 2.5 million Desertions are common, and Grade 10 student who has just is a teacher at Mijhing’s every day to the civil contractor. But now that the project has been attrition in battle has decimated returned from a Maoist abhiyan. Suryodaya School and has been officially suspended, the NEA will not have to pay that amount. The run-of-the-river project, which was designed to meet Nepal’s Maoist ranks in the heartland of He says his group was trained forced to participate in Maoist power needs by 2005 is already delayed by two years. Now that the Nepal’s revolution. Maoist to drill, use guns and lay booby- abhiyans. Subedi says: “Their project has been suspended for an indefinite period, there is a leaders Prachanda and Baburam trap bombs. “When the argument is that this is war, and danger of power cuts as well as the cost of restarting the project at a Bhattarai have repeatedly issued comrades say they are taking everyone including teachers and future date. statements saying their forces the children to give them students have to help.” l adhere to the Geneva Conventions and will not recruit child soldiers. But here in Rolpa, it is clear that child soldiers “Many like us died in Beni” have become the focus of the Maoist movement. Local commanders deny they are LIBANG—In June, a raggedly-dressed emaciated young light in the mountains, bullets whizzing everywhere.” forcing the children to join them, boy appeared in the Rolpa headquarter. He looked Ras Bahadur, Bhagyaman’s friend from Grade arguing that the children want to tired, hungry and was crying. Seven, was also in Beni. He recalls: “We cowered in become whole-timers and come Rolpalis who had fled Thawang and had been living a ditch, my friend Shere was hit and died right in willingly. “They join us in the as refugees in Libang could barely recognise 14-year- front of us. There was blood gushing out of his abhiyan and they are interested old Bhagyaman Roka who they remembered from their stomach, one of the dai’s came and took him away in joining the people’s army,” village as a healthy young lad. Two years ago, in a kokra, some of the younger boys were crying.” Bhagyaman ,studying in Grade Six, was taken away with The Maoists used the children as porters, and says Maoist Area Eight member, seven fellow-students from Jelbang School. They during the battle massed them at the opposite end Bibek Bista. accused the students of stealing, stripped and beat of the town as a decoy to fool the soldiers guarding The Maoist strategy seems to them for three days. “I fainted many times, then they the base to expend their ammunition. “Many like us be that early brainwashing will made us cook for the guerrillas in Thawang,” died,” says Ras Bahadur matter-of-factly. Those who create future guerrillas: after all, Bhagyaman (left) recalls. survived had to carry heavy loads of looted guns within four years many of them Later, the boys had to drill and were taught how to and ammunition, he recalls and the army was will be adults. But judging from use guns and throw grenades. Together with many other shooting at them from helicopters as they retreated the morale of many of the school children, they were used as porters to transport from Beni. children we encountered in rice, ammunition and grenades in the attack on Beni in A few months later, Bhagyaman and Ras Rolpa, most would quit if given February. “There were bombs exploding everywhere that Bahadur decided to desert the Maoists and in June, the chance. Local Maoist night,” Bhagyaman remembers, “there were flashes of finally made their getaway to Libang. 6 BUSINESS 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 Willing to go after defaulters

NAVIN SINGH KHADKA It’s getting ugly as the battle between Nepal Bank and its powerful defaulters enters a new phase epal Bank Limited has Defaulters say their businesses problem of non-performing Indeed, government us. The CIAA did find there was N tried just about everything have suffered because of the assets of public-sector banks like officials and even businessmen hanky panky and collusion to recover bad loans: it country’s conflict and argue that Nepal Bank Limited and say prominent defaulters are so between the defaulters and bank took the defaulters to court and there are legal ways to address Rastriya Banijya Bank. In his powerful that they have officials. even tried naming and shaming the problem. “Nepal Bank interview with us, Amatya succeeded in knotting the The business community is them. should have adopted procedural didn’t hide his contempt for the recovery process in legal divided over the pressure being That didn’t work, and now its methods instead of blacklisting World Bank, and even accused it tangles. The stay orders that the put on defaulters. Most are aggressive expat manager has businessmen and recommending of corruption. courts have issued at the against Nepal Bank’s moves to written to foreign embassies in such harsh measures,” says World Bank’s country petition of the defaulters have stop visas, saying it is high- Kathmandu not to grant visas to Chandi Raj Dhakal of FNCCI. director Ken Ohashi expressed prolonged the process. handed. Others support it. “It is defaulters and is asking the Other defaulters who surprise over Amatya’s Bank officials say they have the public’s money, it is their government to impound their declined to be named had a comments. “If there is any been forced to take strict action savings that will go down the passports. procedural problem with the evidence of corruption, we because the CIAA was also drain,” says industrialist The bank even wants Nepal request to embassies to stop would be happy if he came dragging is feet. “Had the CIAA Rajendra Khetan. He says Rastra Bank and the Ministry of visas. “The bank should have forward with it,” he told us. taken action against one official, defaulters include some “big Finance to request the royal asked the Nepal Rastra Bank to Ohashi argued that the financial who had lent the money boys” who are leaning on the palace not to invite the request the foreign embassies sector reform was the violating the banking norms, it chambers of commerce to save defaulters to official functions. not to grant us the visa,” said government’s plan and that it would have sent the right their skins. Already, there has been an one defaulter. Some lawyers also was the government’s decision message at the right time,” said “The business community is agreement among Nepal’s have problems with the visa- to introduce the foreign one official. 40,000 strong and it is certainly donors to avoid social contacts ban. “This move has no legal management. At the CIAA, commissioner not going to defend the 200 or so with willful defaulters. standing,” former attorney “There are competent Nepali Basu Deb Lamichhane told us defaulters,” Khetan told us. Nepal Bank’s high-profile general, Sushil Pant told us. bankers for such reforms also,” his office had interrogated more Other businessmen say the defaulters are crying foul, “Legally, the bank can’t sent a he said. “But since they have than a dozen ex-officials and defaulters’ argument that they calling the moves letter like this, nor can foreign social and family relations with board members of Nepal Bank. are hurt by the conflict doesn’t unconstitutional and are embassies entertain them.” the business community and “It is true that it took some time, hold water because others are preparing to fight back. The row Nepal Bank officials say they political leaders, it would have but we were just trying to do a exposed to the same conditions has split the business made the request to stop visas been difficult for them to deal thorough job,” Lamichhane told and have managed to pay their community and put the only after exhausting all other with the situation.” loans. embassies in a fix. means. “We sent them request But even with the foreign The Public Accounts At the heart of the storm is letters, notices and asked them management team, Nepal Bank Committee of the dissolved Nepal Bank’s CEO, J Craig to sit for negotiations has only recovered Rs 5 billion parliament had in 2000 raised McAllister, whose letter to the repeatedly,” says Ajay Nepal, of its Rs 20.74 billion in bad the issue of willful defaulters at ministry reads: “There is no Nepal Bank’s public relations loans in the past two years. “We a time when the blacklist had single action that would be more officer. “They just ignored it, could have done much better if only 20 names. But since the effective in demonstrating that is why we have been forced only we had support from the investigation did not go support to the banking system to adopt these tough measures.” judiciary and administration,” anywhere, the list has now more and the efforts to chronically Nepal Bank officials believe says a senior bank official. than ten times that number. l overdue loans from willful they are running out of time “There has been no hearing on defaulters than action by the because they have only seven cases we have filed against palace.” months before the renewed defaulters.” The fight has gotten personal contracts of the expat and degenerated into name- management ends. “If we wait calling between McAllister and for the Rastra Bank and the Nepal’s Bank’s biggest defaulter, ministries, nothing is going to Piyush Bahadur Amatya of happen,” said one banker. Pokhara’s Fulbari Resort, who Defaulters, like Amatya owes the bank Rs 2.18 billion. blame the World Bank for The other 36 defaulters in Nepal backing Nepal Bank to arm- Bank’s list owe the bank Rs10 twist the defaulters. Indeed, the million or more. World Bank is behind the An irate Amatya told us in financial sector reform program an interview: “The foreigners are which aims to bolster the trampling on the law of the banking industry by, among JCraig McAllister, land.” (see interview, below) other things, addressing the The CEO of Nepal Bank MIN BAJRACHARYA “Why only pick on me?”

Nepali Times: What do you say about Nepal Bank Limited’s Nobody is talking about how bad it is for business. Even the recent move to request foreign missions not to grant visas World Bank, that claims to be running the country, is ignoring to loan defaulters? the impact of the crisis on the business. Piyush Bahadur Amatya: It’s an unconstitutional move. This shows how foreigners are trampling on the law of the land. In Some say despite your troubles, you are still living lavishly. other words, they don’t give a damn about our rules and Buying new cars and building houses. regulations. If it were not so, they would have never dared to ask Who do you think is spending on new houses and cars? It is the the royal palace not to invite them. banks which have been lending in non-productive areas like housing and vehicle loans. They have stopped spending in But defaulters like you have ruined the bank. What else industries that generate employment and benefit the economy. could it have done? This move is a part of corruption. International agencies like the Does that mean you will never repay the loan? World Bank are funding such moves. It’s a well-organised I have always said that I will repay the loan. But why did they MIN BAJRACHARYA corruption of the World Bank to get our economy in its clutch. cancel the 12 year rescheduling that the bank had earlier But today everyone knows that wherever the World Bank enters, granted to me? Other hotels got the extra time to repay the In the list of Nepal Bank Limited’s there is corruption. loans. Soaltee got 17 years to repay its loan. Yak & Yeti got defaulters, Piyush Bahadur Amatya tops eight years and now Hyatt has 20 years. So, why pick only on the list. He owes the bank Rs 2.18 billion. This is getting vicious. Do you have something personal me? The bank’s management had recently against the expat consultants managing Nepal Bank? No, it’s not personal. It is the outcome of immoral people who What is your next move? requested Kathmandu based foreign have ganged up against us. I have challenged the bank’s moves against me in the court. I missions not to grant Amatya and other have filed many cases including defamation. I have been defaulters visas. In an interview with So, tell us, are you going to back the money you borrowed? remaining quiet because my cases are still in the court. But, What can I do when the situation is out of my control? When now this is not just against me. The whole business community Nepali Times, an angry Amatya reacts to there is war going on, or if there is an earthquake, I can do has been offended. We are going for class litigation now. For the bank’s move. nothing. Such circumstances can arise anywhere in the world. that purpose, a cell has been formed at the FNCCI. BUSINESS 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 7

Architect honoured

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Nepali architect Sarosh Pradhan has won the young Architect’s Award 2004 from Misrule of law Nepal in an annual Focus Countries Architect of the Year Award for South Asian architects given by JK Cement Ltd in India. The government arbitrarily destroys firms it has problems with Pradhan had been nominated by the Society of Nepalese Architects (SONA) for f you are Raghu Pant, the Minister of government with the flimsiest of excuses. before a short-term Minister lest he, in a the construction of the prize-winning design Labour and Transport, what would you That fear so paralysed the publishers’ fit of righteous anger, made them legally and construction of the voluntary group, I do to ultimately save face? You would business plans that they were finally able non-existent. Tewa in Dhapakhel. The Award includes a put on a Minister-knows-best cap to to band together to get rid of it by getting To be sure, few would mistake citation, trophy and Rs 40,000 cash. Three cancel the registration of a private sector a clause of their own in the 1990 Lumbini Overseas, the firm whose Years ago Tom Crees won the award for the Riverside firm. constitution that says under no registration Pant cancelled, as a model In circumstances can the government corporate citizen. The allegations against The Springs Resort and the STRICTLY BUSINESS Commendation Award went to Dipak Man doing cancel the registration of any media it are damning: it extorted lakhs of money Sherchan and Rosha Marahatta Ashutosh Tiwari so, you house. from job applicants, it sent more than respectively. This year’s recipient from would And no matter how Nepal continues 1,500 undocumented workers to South India of the Chairman’s Award for make that firm’s investors’ money to rank in various indices of global press Korea and it evaded taxes. Although these Outstanding Contribution to Architecture worthless, throw its employees out on the freedom, that clause continues to assure malpractices may also exist among 400- went to J M Benjamin from New Delhi. Past streets, damage its relations with all non-profit and for-profit media houses plus ‘manpower’ firms, the fact is that winners include big names like Charles suppliers and clients and show all others that whatever problems they may Pant’s ministry hasn’t proven any of Correa, B V Doshi and Hafeez Contractor. who is boss. have with the government, those allegations against Lumbini in The Award Presentation function is planned But winning the battle would also cancellation of registrations a court of law, much less shown to be held in Bangalore in February 2005 and is promoted by J K Cement Ltd. mean losing the war, which, as a Marxist, through diktat by the Ministry of what ‘special circumstances’ (as Raghuji would know. Through his action, Information is never going to be stated in Section 21 of Foreign his silent signal would be that the one of the outcomes. It is rather Employment Act of 1988)

Dabur’s new brand government of Nepal could arbitrarily odd that while the warranted the cancellation of

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Dabur has destroy private firms that it has problems private sector media its registration. This provides a unveiled a new with, even if that firm’s in a cut-throat is thus shielded from window for Lumbini and brand identity competitive market. Instead of sorting government other business bodies to through a new out these problems by fighting its case to arbitrariness that mount a legal challenge logo and the finish in a court of law to establish threatens their against Pant’s action, if positioning impersonal precedents to deal with existence, private they still have energy left statement similar cases in future, the government sector firms–who too to do so. ‘Celebrate Life!’ could interpret the law itself, decide are in the same But for Pant, a larger that it says what’s legal and illegal as though it were business of using question remains: If the reflects the a court and then take actions in the name private money as ends justified the means, as company’s vision and mission. The restructuring of the company’s brand of some vague public good. investment, in this case, then, how identity has given birth to a portfolio of five For somebody who once ran his own providing different really is his action powerful brands: Dabur - the healthcare paper, Pant should have known better. employment, supplying from that of the Maoists or the brand; Vatika - the herbal beauty brand; Only 15 years ago, owners of fledgling goods and services to those who pay for Panchayatis who too think that arbitrarily Anmol - the value for money brand; Real - private sector media houses in Nepal them, paying taxes and keeping the trampling upon the rights of those who the fruit beverages brand and Hajmola - lived in constant fear of having economy going– continue to have no they do not like is justified in the name of the tasty digestives brand. registrations cancelled by the Panchayat choice but to ultimately kneel down even righting perceived wrongs? l 8 RELIGION 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 A Buddhist path to peace A Nepali monk in Thailand speaks of lessons from there in resolving the insurgency

BHIKKHU SUGANDHA

left Nepal to study Buddhism of small reservoirs with important positions in the Thai in Thailand as a 15-year-old connected irrigation schemes, civil service. Why waste the I novice monk in 1975. At that allowing the poor farmers of the resource of such courageous time Thailand was at a similar northeast to grow a second crop and committed young men? state of development as present- of rice each year. Electricity There is a lesson for Nepal day Nepal. South Vietnam, Laos, reached the remotest of hamlets in all this. Following the and Cambodia had fallen to the and with it came a school and a Buddha’s teachings, the path to communists within a few days clinic. resolving the present conflict of each other. The ‘Domino A Thai government soldier lies in addressing the following Theory’ predicted that Thailand on patrol in the jungle told me six points: would be next. I was residing at once: “We don’t need to shoot 1 The economy. Poverty is a root a royal monastery under the the communists. They are cause of violence and the patronage of the present fellow Thais. When I meet them Buddha himself pointed out: “If KUMAR SHRESHTHA/NEPALNEWS.COM Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. coming down from the a ruler allows poverty to He was quite influential and mountains or going to the develop, it will lead to social The King and Queen, many top village for supplies and we all strife, so it is his responsibility Well done, Nepal Thai generals and senior to avoid this by looking after members of the national the poor.” government would visit him for 2 Negotiations. The Buddhist A Sri Lankan diplomat was impressed advice and inspiration. I had way of solving conflict by with the Second World Buddhist Summit become fluent in Thai and so peaceful means is carried in gained an insider’s the Buddha’s own life when he held in Lumbini last month understanding of the gave practical lessons in seriousness of the situation. The tolerance. The Second World Buddhist Summit proved to be one of the most military and the government representative Buddhist Conferences that I have attended 3 Nonviolence. The Buddha T were not as concerned with the always instructs his followers to anywhere: Buddhists, friends of Buddhism, admirers of the Buddha and his serene teachings and a cross-section of peace-loving people of communists in neighbouring be true pacifists by telling all faiths. countries as they were with the them: “Conquer anger with The participation of the Nepali national leadership led by the communists and sympathisers love, conquer evil with good, king (seen above paying his respects at the Maya Debi shrine), within Thailand. conquer greed by giving, and prime minister, ministers, senior officials and spiritual leaders expressed Many brilliant Thai conquer lies with the truth.” by their very presence the impor- university students had fled to 4 Patience. The Buddha NEPALI PAN tance attached to this event and the jungles in northeastern instructs his followers to the objectives. I have not Ananda W P Guruge Thailand to support a domestic advance themselves by witnessed such a strong and Thai Maoist guerrilla force. practicing loving kindness, sustained presence of the national Their weaponry was supplied leadership even in countries with predominantly Buddhist populations. compassion, appreciative The Summit aptly began with a detailed presentation on the from outside as was their gladness and equanimity. contribution which the teachings of the Buddha, the venerated son of training. But the villages in the 5 Forbearance and forgiveness. Nepal, have made to world peace, culture and civilization. Del- ‘pink’ parts of the northeast The Buddha says: “The words of egates were deeply concerned that Lumbini, as the holiest site of gladly supplied food and other a fool are best stopped by Buddhist pilgrimage, had to be better developed and the goals set requirements to the rebels. They responding to his anger and out by U Thant had to be achieved expeditiously. were an ominous threat verbal onslaught by oneself My first visit to Lumbini via Nowgarh railhead in India was in 1956 precisely because they had local remaining calm, not by harsh riding a seatless, rickety truck, hired at an exorbitant price. My family of support. measurers. This will not lead to seven took hours to reach Lumbini through a harsh treeless terrain. The They declared many parts of one’s opponent thinking he can road was a dusty, sandy, gravel track. At Lumbini itself there was only the Thailand ‘red’ where it would be take advantage of one’s Ashokan Pillar with the famous inscription and the Maya Debi Temple in very dangerous for civil servants a dilapidated condition. As far as our eyes could see there were only two ‘weakness’, forbearance is a trees: the Bodhi tree and the tree by the Maya Debi Temple. or governmental staff to go. The sign of real strength, unlike the In I969, when I was in Kathmandu on UNESCO business, officials Thai military often engaged the Bhikku Sugandha deceptive ‘strength’ of a fool.” made a valiant effort to get me to Lumbini. Rains had cut off every militants in bloody firefights. I 6 Tolerance and amity. The access to Lumbini. The next year, when I did get there on a jeep from often followed my teacher to the know who they are, I just show Buddha teaches his followers to Kushinagar, Lumbini was still deserted but for two monks. red zone trying to help villagers them my new wristwatch, or let have religious tolerance and The Lumbini today is a tribute to the persevering dedication of the who were secretly sympathetic them listen to a Thai song on peaceful coexistence with government of Nepal. Every single tree which makes Lumbini such a to the communists. We were my new radio then they give up followers of other religions. pleasant environment was planted and watered by hand. That alone is an threatened and on one occasion, being a communist.” If the leaders of the achievemant. The master plan is an idealistic grand conception, we a bomb was detonated on the Thai Communists began government or Maoists practice need it to direct us to greater action. It has saved the site of Lumbini and route where my teacher passed their insurgency because they these values sincerely, it would preserved the surrounding area in a higher state of ecological balance after visiting a monastery. were so angry with their but it is not set in stone. guarantee peace in Nepal. The Kwaak Young Hoon, on a mission funded by UNDP, has envisioned My senior colleague, a government that they were ruler’s actions are of far- the evolution (rather than the creation) of the World Peace City of British Buddhist monk, Ajarn ready to give up their young reaching consequence since Lumbini, the Biswashantinagar. The adoption of this vision by the Brahm, who was in Thailand lives. But restraint on the part they affect his own kingship as Summit and its endorsement by the national leadership of Nepal marks during 1970s has written in his of the government helped to well as the fortune, fate and another step in the progress of Lumbini. Such a centre of spirtual, book, Opening the Door of Your prevent their anger from destiny of his subjects who are cultural and educational significance, radiating to the world, the wisdom Heart and other Buddhist Tales becoming worse. Forgiveness, almost entirely dependent upon of the Buddha, needs to be very carefully planned with the participation of Happiness, how the Thai through an amnesty, gave them him. By his exemplary action of a wide circIe of national and international stakeholders. government addressed the a safe and honourable way out. the king, the leader, influences, The most pleasing decision of the Summit, heartily endorsed by the Maoist problem. Brahm says the Solving the problem, through for good or bad, for weal or woe, national leadership, was to develop the entire region with a special Thai military and government development, made the poor the material as well as the emphasis on Kapilabastu, Devadaha and Ramgram. A comprehensive took a three-pronged strategy: villagers prosperous. The Buddhist Circuit, connected with the Buddha’s life, will invite pilgrims and spiritual condition of those who other visitors to spend more time in the area and help raise living villagers saw no need to live under his rule, and he thus standards of the local people. 1 Restraint: The military did not support the communists influences and determines There are other ideas: getting local people to craft miniature attack the communist bases, anymore: they were content their happiness or misery. replicas of the Maya Debi panel and Buddha statues with clay from though every soldier knew with the government they Perhaps the ancient wisdom of Lumbini itself as a sacred souvenir that pilgrims can take away. This idea where they were. already had. And the the Buddha who was nurtured of hotel entrepreneur, Ambica Shrestha, has a lot of merit. 2 Forgiveness: Throughout this communists themselves began on Nepali soil can solve the The other immediate measure is to change the entrance and exit to dangerous period, there was an to doubt what they were doing, current problems. l enable pilgrims and visitors to pass through the area between the two unconditional amnesty in place. living in such hardship in the existing monasteries and the canal where local traders could sell flowers Phra Sugandha (Anil Sakya) is a Nepali 3 Solving the root problem: New mountain jungles. monk who is assistant secretary to the and incense as well as religious souvenirs. It is now a bajar which the roads being built and old roads By the early 1980s, there majority of visitors miss when they follow the official entrance and exit. l Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, His being paved in the region. The were hardly any insurgents left, Holiness Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara. This article is excerpted from a theme Ananda W P Guruge used to be Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United States and King of Thailand personally so the communist leaders also supervised and paid for the gave themselves up. They were paper he presented at the UNESCO and is Dean of Academic Affairs at University of the West in the US World Buddhist Summit in Lumbini construction of many hundreds not punished but offered recently. RELIGION 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 9

Devotees arranging Christmas decorations at Assumption Church in Dhobighat this week (left) and a Nepali Mary in a sari and pashmina. PICS: KIRAN PANDAY A season to be jolly Christianity in Nepal The Christian missionaries came to Nepal over the Himalaya from Tibet more than 250 years ago. They were Tyrolean Capuchin monks NARESH NEWAR and education sectors, reaching epsecially to reach and wrote in their chronicles how Kathmandu Valley was the dirtiest out to the backward, poverty marginalised communities who place they had every visited. rom the remote corners of stricken and illiterate Nepalis in fall between the cracks. NLT is Banke, Kailali, Dhangadi to They called on the Malla kings of the Valley and presented the F remote areas. the only organisation that King of Patan with a telescope. For decades after that as the Gorkha the streets of Thamel, Among the best-known are operates the leprosy services conquest began, Nepal was closed to outsiders especially beef-eating Nepali Christians are busy the Jesuits who were one of the centre in southeast Nepal, that Europeans. preparing to celebrate first to arrive after 1951 and they has the highest prevalence of But by the early 18th century, more missionaries came in from Christmas, their Dasain. Some established themselves in the leprosy. Over 20 percent of British India and their first group of local converts were from the Newar Hindus and Buddhists as well country by starting the boarding hospitals and clinics in Nepal community. However, Christianity did not spread much after King will join in festivities on the big school, St Xaviers in Jawalakhel are run by Christian charities. Prithbi Narayan Shah came to power who saw the religion as a threat to national security and suspected Christians of being British spies. day. and Godavari. They were The numbers of Christians European missionaries and newly-converted Newar Christians were Christmas is done in Nepali followed by the United Mission in the country is growing. With style. In the nativity scene, Baby asked to leave the country. King Prithbi Narayan also strictly banned to Nepal (UMN), a collaborative less than 30 Christians in late the conversion of Hindus into Christianity. Jesus is dressed up in a bhoto body of several global 1950s, the number of believers inside a doko, the Three Magis There is still a lingering distrust of Christians as proselytisers missionaries. It made its own increased to 200,000 in 1990 among Kathmandu’s officialdom. Even after Nepal opened its doors to are decked up in daura suruwal. mark by establishing some of the and now is estimated at one the outside world in 1950 and Christian missionaries poured in they During the weekend prayer best public and community million, making up nearly four were under strict surveillance which still did not allow conversion. The sessions, everyone takes off their hospitals, launching literacy percent of the population and law carried a sentence of three years for the preacher, one year for the shoes, squats on the floor and programs, agriculture one of the fastest growing in the convert and six months for the baptiser. Many were persecuted during prays in Nepali. Even “praise development activities and so world. There are churches now the 1980s. the Messiah” is recited as “jai on. It also became one of the in almost all the 75 districts of During the Panchayat regime, a large number of Christians were persecuted and 300 pastors were jailed for proselytising. Many were mahasi”. first international NGOs to Nepal. subject to police brutality and there are records of atleast one The New Testament was first pioneer development work in Among Christians, the translated into Nepali in 1821 missionary having been killed. Church-goers had to keep their Nepal. Today, it is the second- Catholics have been working religious identity a secret and missionaries were effectively by William Carey and is now largest employer in Nepal after towards Nepalising being translated further into 12 underground. the government with the largest Christianity. “Our religious After the People’s Movement of 1990, the new constitution granted indigenous languages. “Nothing number of expatriate and Nepali differences do not affect our religious freedom. When the Nepali Congress (NC) came to power it is foreign about Christianity staff working in UMN’s projects culture,” explains Binod instituted democratic reforms, including freedom to practice any anymore,” says church-goer around the country. Gurung, president of Nepali religion. The government introduced a law that allowed freedom of Sujata Rai from Jawalakhel, “We Other Christian charities like Catholic Samaj. “We were religious practice. Today, voluntary conversion from one religion to are all one big family of Caritas, International brought up as Nepalis and have another is legal. Only forced conversion is considered illegal. With Christians.” Fellowship (INF) and Nepal a close affinity with Hindu and more tolerant laws and policies in place, Nepali Christians today feel very much at home. “Nepalis are a tolerant community and we no Christians have earned a Leprosy Trust (NLT) have also Buddhist friends and we often positive reputation for longer have any fears unlike during the Panchayat days,” says Silas been doing exemplary work in celebrate each other’s Bogati, parish priest from Assumption Church. involvement in social, health health and education— festivals.” l 10 #227 DIASPORA Little Nepal flourishes24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004in Nepalis in the Special Autonomous Region are going places

DAMBAR K SHRESTHA abiding lot,” says Ganesh Ijam in HONG KONG of the umbrella organisation of Nepali associations here, the here used to be a time Hong Kong Nepali Federation. T when this was still a Among the Nepalis who British colony when the have done very well for only Nepalis here were British themselves is ex-British Gurkha Gurkhas, their families and the Tej Bahadur Rai who is into occasional Manang trader. construction and runs a company providing security But after the law that Kishan Rai, the editor and allowed anyone born in Hong services. He is also the publisher of the Nepali-language Kong before 1983 eligible for chairman of the Hong Kong weekly, Everest permanent residence, many Nepal Chamber of Commerce children of Gurkhas have and has invested in a decided to live here. As hydroelectric project back conditions in Nepal deteriorate, home in Nepal. Prakash more and more Nepalis have Pun is also ex-Gurkha and has a decided to stay on, and the similar portfolio of companies number has now exceeded in construction and security 50,000. services. Between them, Rai Vibrant, laissez faire Hong and Pun employ a thousand or Kong has made many Nepalis so people, are involved in prosperous. From newly-arrived building some of Hong Kong’s Prakash Pun owns the Gorkha pavement trinket sellers to landmark high rises and have Construction Limited established millionaire real annual turnovers of hundreds estate developers, the Nepalis of millions of dollars. Dipak locations in Hong Kong’s of Hong Kong now have a strong Khadka and his brother run business district. “It was just presence. There are Nepali FM Pacific Crown Engineering and hard work, pure and simple,” Rai stations Nepali newspapers and employ 350 Filipino, Chinese tells us when asked the secret of magazines, Nepali is taught in and Australian staff. his success. 16 government schools and Many of these entrepreneurs Harimaya Gurung runs the there are six special Nepali started from scratch in Hong well-known Nachghar Resturant schools. Nepalis have stood for Kong, and still have a soft spot in the Jordan neighbourhood, local elections and Chinese for Nepalis giving them which brings in Nepali singers candidates print fliers in preference in jobs if they are and dancers for performances. Nepali to woo voters. qualified. Y B Rai came to Hong Mohan Limbu and his friends “Nepalis here are now Kong 10 years ago and worked studied information technology treated like Hong Kong citizens, in a Chinese restaurant. Today and run the successful HSM and we have also shown that we Rai owns six franchises for Computer Institute. Rajendra Tanka Sambahamphe and Pashan Tamu have launched a website about are a hard-working and law- Uncle Russ Coffee in prime Shrestha runs a string of Nepalis in Hong Kong, www.hknepal.com

Tej Bahadur Rai, CEO of the Sunkoshi Construction Company Ram Li Rai, a Nepali businessman Nima Gurung does brisk business on the footpaths of Kowloon who owns a store in Yun Long Seeking asylum

here have been several waves who have paid middlemen up to Rs illegally in a restaurant in Yunlong T of Nepali migration to Hong 550,000 for jobs in Korea or Japan admits he is not a refugee, “I just want Kong. Not all have been but are dumped here without money, to regularise my stay here, and legitimate. But the latest is the tickets or passports. claiming to be a Maoist victim seems trend for Nepalis seeking political The cheated Nepalis name a to be the easiest way of doing it.” asylum in Hong Kong claiming certain Sarita Gurung of Hattigauda But there are some genuine that they are being persecuted in Kathmandu as being involved in Maoist victims among the illegal back home. the racket. Says Sukra Raj Gurung Nepalis here, like Raju Shrestha of The Hong Kong authorities do of Lamjung, “We gave her Rs Thankot. He had two houses and not recognise the Nepalis as 300,000, now it’s gone and we have some property but says he left it all refugees, but they can apply to the no way of going back. So we are because the Maoists accused him of UNHCR office here which, if applying at UNHCR for refugee being a spy and feared for his life. “If approved, allows them to stay while status.” In the application, most I was sure I wouldn’t be killed if I went Sukra Raj and Biraj Gurung who were abandoned by a Nepali labour their papers are being processed. If claim they fled their villages in back home, I’d go back tomorrow,” recruiter in Hong Kong. Both have applied for refugee status they are deemed not to be Nepal because of Maoist extortion Raju says. refugees, Hong Kong police or threats. The UNHCR office here says it Royal Nepali consul general in refugee status,” he adds. deports them. A group of illegal Nepalis in can’t reveal the numbers who have Hong Kong, Hemlal Bhatarai, says Says Ganesh Ijam of the Hong In the past, year there has Hong Kong live in a tiny room and applied for asylum in Hong Kong. But he has no official information about Nepali Federation, “We know this is been a steady rise of Nepalis do odd jobs in Nepali restaurants as nearly all the applicants have asylum seekers. “We know of people emerging as a big problem, the claiming refugee status and the cooks and guards. They have to be reportedly cited fear of Maoists, and who have been abandoned by only way to stop it is to crack down number is now estimated to be vigilant about police raids at their none have said they were forced to labour middlemen, but no one has on unscurupulous middlemen who more than 600. Most are Nepalis workplaces. One Nepali working flee because of state security. The notified us about those seeking abandon their clients here.” l 11 DIASPORAHong Kong 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227

ALL PICS: DAMBAR K SHRESTHA A Nepali school in Hong Kong teaches Nepali and even has non-Nepali There are more than 50,000 Nepalis in Hong Kong, out of a total population of 7.5 million. students, like Filipina, Michelle (second from left).

Raju Shrestha from Thankot works illegally in Hong Kong while his application for asylum is being processes by the UNHCR

businesses and his wife Daya Hello Annapurna and Asia Magar owns a beauty parlour. Telecom provide radio feeds Kishan Rai, who brings out the from FM stations in Nepal Everest Weekly, says: “The paper which can be accessed through is for the Nepalis in Hong Kong internet and telephone. Tanka to read about what is happening Sambahamphe and Pashan in Nepal and also to strive for Tamu have started unity among Nepalis here.” www.hknepal.com a portal There are other newspapers: providing all necessary Sunrise weekly, Nepal Post contacts and information about monthly, and Namaste HK. Hong Kong Nepalis. l Self-made restauranteur, Y B Rai, runs a string of six franchises in Hong Kong for an American coffee shop chain. 12 SHOPPING

Dikta Lama, co-owner of United Brands displaying her wares

ALL PICS: KIRAN PANDAY

AARTI BASNYAT and SHREYA MUKHERJEE

he shopping and retail boom in the capital is hard to miss, even without the holiday season. Department stores and malls offering high- T quality consumer products have managed to rope in quite a few locals. This means they are less dependent on Indian shoppers and tourists as they used to be. Shopping All in all, the Kathmandu consumer has become more quality-conscious and have gotten used to the convenience of shopping under one roof. And the supermarket chains and malls are responding to this booming demand. The latest to hit the markets are branded products. Labels, specialising in international brands has opened up sister outlets like Pepe on New road and Adidas on in paradise Durbar Marg. By bringing in their own imports from Europe and India, stocking trips to wholesale markets in Bangkok and Singapore have gone down. Most trade in A consumer boom has gripped Kathmandu as cheaper clothing and knock-off designer goods has been replaced by the Tibet trade. Bluebird and Namaste, for shoppers discover affordable and convenient malls instance, now have exclusive sections for branded goods owned by Labels. “Businesses in Nepal have lacked creativity and originality,” says Bijen Jhonchhe, owner of Metro Mall, Dot com shopping Soaltee Mode. Shop owners are now spending a lot more For all those who want to be able to money on improving the ambience of their stores and shop in their pyjamas with a hot mug of providing customers with a hassle-free, convenient coffee, there is always shopping on the net. Muncha.com began as a shopping shopping experience. website in May 2002, currently selling “Nepalis are becoming very brand conscious and about 7000 products including various prefer buying quality products,” says Dikila Lama, co- electronic and home appliances and owner of United Brands, specialising in mountaineering food products. Muncha House also gear and casual wear. United Brands gives shoppers the offers money transfer services from the US to Nepal and a photo web site choice of buying top-notch, authentic brands like that converts digital images of Jansport, Low Alpine, Eagle Creek, Ground, etc. “It is products into a printable format which necessary for the locals to be exposed to original, genuine is attached to every delivery. Initially products,” says Lama. Opened only two months ago in targeting people outside Nepal, it Thamel, the store has found upscale customers not only has recently taken into account locals as well. in tourists but in the local crowd as well. “We have made the web site more The market in Nepal is reaching a stage where it user-friendly for the locals,” says could possibly become a free port like Dubai and Amrit Tuladhar, founder of Muncha.com Singapore. If more store-owners invest in creating a The food and rations section is a shopper-friendly atmosphere and selling genuine recent addition to the web site, where rice, dal and common spices are sold products, the tourism industry should be welcoming this at standard market rates. Muncha also advancement with open arms. provides free delivery for members As Kathmandu shoppers become more sophisticated, and is one of many other online supermarkets have had to find innovative means of shopping experiences that are emerging attracting customers. All in all, a good thing for the for the net savvy Nepali who is too busy to go to the store. consumers as not only will they have a one stop shopping experience but also quality products at quality prices. 14 SPORTS #227 2004’s little-known winners24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 No one knows why but in today’s world many find football the only area of identity in which they recognise themselves and in which they really believe

separation that is dominant in today’s Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world. ttt It is not a chemical miracle. Enthusiasm and delight are the drugs for this cure. The 11 players of each team are many more than 11. In each player, a whole crowd plays. These are rituals of affirmation of the humiliated, both men and women, boys and girls. Little by little, women’s football has been carving a larger space for itself in the sports media, where for the most part men cover men and don’t know what to make of this invasion of women and girls. On a professional level, the development of women’s football today has found a certain resonance. But there is no echo, or only enemy echoes, from the game that is played for the pure pleasure of playing. In Nigeria, the women’s team is a national treasure and source of intense pride. It is ranked among the top in the world. But in the Muslim north of the country, men are against it because the sport draws

KIRAN PANDAY maidens into depravity. In the end they accept it, though, EDUARDO GALEANO the semi-finals, in a series of unknown and without any by urbanisation run amok. because football is a sin that in MONTEVIDEO surprises, against every famous players. They are errant Enrique Pichon-Riviere, an can bring them fame and save prediction and all evidence and teams, playing in foreign lands Argentine psychiatrist and their families from poverty. n football, rarities occur. In was the crowd’s favourite. and before empty stands. The passionate student of human In Zanzibar and Sudan, the a world organised around ttt village of Sakhnin, in Galilee, pain, can confirm the brothers of these female I the daily confirmation of The Arab team Bnei Sakhnin and never had anything like a efficiency of football as a players, guardians of the family the power of the powerful, the Chechen team Terek Grozny, stadium, though the Israeli therapy for the illnesses born of honour, administer beatings to nothing is rarer that the blazing champions of Israel and government promised one a scorn and loneliness. This sport punish this mania of their coronation of the humiliated Russia, have certain things in number of times. Terek played is a shared endeavour, played sisters who think they are men and the humiliation of the common with the Iraqi team. in the Grozny stadium, which in teams; it contains an energy enough to dribble a ball and crowned. But in football, at They are all teams that in has been closed since Chechen that can greatly help the commit the sacrilege of times, this rarest of events does some way represent people who independence fighters planted a scorned to love themselves and revealing their bodies. Football, happen. don’t have the right to be what bomb beneath the seat of the save them from the solitude a game for men, denies women Indeed, in 2004 a they want to be, that suffer the country’s Russian-picked which they feel condemns fields to play and practice. The Palestinian team was the damnation of living in president. And in Iraq, there are them to being perpetually men refuse to play against the champion of Israel for the first submission to a foreign flag, only battle fields, no football incommunicado. women. Out of respect for time in history and for the first stripped of their sovereignty, fields are left. The occupation In this regard, the religion, they say. Maybe so. Or time in history a Chechen team bombed, humiliatedand pushed troops, which at this point have experience of Australia and maybe when they play, they was champion of Russia. In the to desperation. already forgotten the pretext for New Zealand is very revealing. lose. Olympics, the football team of And as if this were not their criminal invasion, have There, the native languages do ttt Iraq, convulsed in war, won enough, all three are modest converted sports areas into not have a word for suicide for Across the ocean, in Bolivia, game after game and made it to teams, poor, nearly or completely cemeteries or hospitals. the simple reason that suicide there is no problem. Women Where the Baghdad stadium did not exist in aboriginal life. play soccer in the towns of the once stood, now there is a A few centuries of racism, high plains without taking off military base holding American marginalisation, the violent their numerous skirts. They tanks. The Iraqi team trained in eruption of consumer society wear over them their coloured fields where flocks of sheep and its implacable values have jerseys and are still able to grazed. succeeded in making the rate make goals. Every game is a ttt of suicide among aboriginal party. Football is a free space A powerful symbol, a great youth the highest in the world. open to these women, prolific mystery; no one knows why Given this terrifying in children, overwhelmed by (though theories abound) but in panorama, with such deep slaving in the fields and mills today’s world many people find roots, and such broken ones, no and subjected to frequent football the only area of identity magic potion can act as a cure. beatings by their drunk in which they recognise But the testimony of those husbands. They play barefoot. themselves and in which they admirable people working The winning team is given a really believe. Whatever the against death does concur on sheep. So is the losing team. reasons may be, collective one fact. The results of this These silent women laugh and dignity has a lot to do with the therapy are quite surprising: it laugh more throughout the passage of a ball flying through seems capable of reviving lost game and continue laughing the air. feelings of fraternity and uncontrollably throughout the I do not mean only the belonging. Sports, especially banquet. They celebrate communion the fan experiences football, is one of the few together, the winners and with his team each Sunday from places that can provide shelter losers. No man would dare set the stands of the stadium, but to those who have no place in foot inside. l (IPS) also, above all, the game played the world, and it contributes in the paddocks, in the little significantly to re-establishing Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and novelist, is the author of fields, on the beaches, the few bonds of solidarity broken by The Open Veins of Latin America and public spaces still not devoured the culture of alienation/ Memories of Fire. SPORTS 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 15 From bahadur to chef Nepalis have found a niche running India’s Chinese restaurants

ALOK TUMBAHANGPHEY in PUNE

Long and straight What I did to get back on line

he last couple of weeks we concentrated on the biggest golf event One of the Chinese dhabas in Pune run by Nepalis. Suraj Sonar who runs two Chinese eateries T in Nepal. Now we get back to some tips and rules of the game. During this year’s Surya Nepal Masters, I felt I was hitting my f Tanka Tiwari had a choice, family loans and expenses. He driver better than ever before. I was averaging 295 yard drives with almost he’d still be in his village in has become a respected earning 85 percent of fairway hits. That is quite something for any player and an I Bajhang walking from home member of his family. For now, even more remarkable achievement for me. I have always hit the ball long but have been quite wild. Well, the sudden change was an to school every day. But the his most difficult task is to adjustment I made recently, and I will share how with you. streetwise 12-year-old is keep his emotions at check. It In recent months while I have been working hard to straighten out my working hard to support doesn’t matter that he couldn’t drives, these are a few things I consciously worked on. himself and his family. go home this Dasain, “I will go Making an effort to keep the Like tens of thousands who next Dasain maybe,” he says, TEE BREAK spine at the same angle until have fled the conflict back eyes misty with memories of impact. This promotes a lot of home, Tanka works as a waiter happier days. Deepak Acharya balance in the swing and avoids in a dingy kitchen in this Hem Bahadur Pun had a those big slices and hooks. western Indian city that dishes stark choice. He was in eighth Ensuring shoulders and hips are fully turned. I concentrate on this out suspicious Chinese food. grade in Rolpa when the when taking my club back. This is what brings the big muscles into play. He works 12 hours a day, but is Maoists came to recruit. They Using the bigger muscles. On the downswing, I worked on ensuring I cleared my left shoulder and on turning my hips. This helped avoid not complaining. Back home, abducted the entire class and unnecessary hand action and instead allowed the bigger muscles to power he may have been killed by the forced them to attend political the ball through. security forces for being a indoctrination. Afraid Hem Pune and employs eight Nepalis. This distance and accuracy has proven very useful for me and a lot of suspected Maoist or forcibly Bahadur might be forced to join Each stall makes a minimum of people who’ve played with me recently are quite amazed with my length recruited by the rebels. the ‘People’s Army’, his father IRs 2,000 every evening. Even and accuracy. Had he been an Indian sent him to try to join the though he graduated from Pune See if these tips apply to your swing and can help you improve and citizen, child rights activists Indian Army. Hem Bahadur University, Suraj doesn’t mind enjoy the game more. Don’t hesitate to discuss and practice these with may have rescued him from his wasn’t selected and he didn’t starting small. “I’m earning here your professional golf instructor as well. miserable working conditions, want to suffer the indignity of and its honest earning. I don’t but he is just another Nepali returning to Nepal empty- have to worry about security,” he Another decision on the rules of golf: migrant worker and he’s lucky. handed. So he joined other says. There are many occasions during a round of golf where you end up in There are countless Hem interesting situations that leave you puzzled as to how to proceed. Here is Things could have been much Nepalis as a cook’s helper at a one example. worse for Tanka. roadside Chinese food stall Bahadurs and Tankas in Pune Two balls end up close to each other in a bunker. A’s ball is just an Food and lodging are taken here. Luckily for Hem Bahadur, and the numbers are increasing. inch away from B’s ball but A’s is further away from the hole. What is the care of and Tanka saves most of his employer is a Nepali and an “There are around 5,000 here proper procedure according to the rules of golf? the IRs 1,500 he earns every educated one, Suraj Sonar. from Pokhara alone,” says Dilip In this situation B, who is nearer to the hole should mark his ball and month. His uncle comes every Sonar is an Indian-born Pandey from Palpa, who worked lift it, and should be aware that he may not clean his ball. Since both once in a while from Mumbai to Nepali whose father served in his way up from dishwasher to balls were so close, A, while playing the shot can alter the lie where B will collect his wages from the the Indian army. Suraj saw now own two food stalls that replace the ball. If the lie is altered, B, in equity, is allowed to have the employer. It’s better that way. If opportunity in India and employ 12 fellow Nepalis. lie given to him before A’s shot, and should recreate the original lie as he was allowed to keep the decided to stay, though he Dilip’s family has joined him near as possible and place the ball under rule 20 – 3b (iii). money, he may have frittered it visits his retired father in and his sons go to English This rule sounds quite complex, and most golfers are surprised that B schools here and speak was allowed to touch the sand prior to making the shot. away. Nepal every now and then. Next time you are faced with this situation during a competitive four His savings will help pay Suraj has two food stalls in Marathi. l ball match, be confident that you can apply this ruling. This and all other rulings are available under ‘Playing the Game’, followed by the ‘Rules’ link at www.usga.org Do have a browse through when you have some free time.

Deepak Acharya is a golf instructor and Golf Director at Gokarna Forest Golf Resort & Spa, Kathmandu. [email protected] 16 FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 ‘Comrade

Maoist ideologue from Baburam Bhattarai writing under his alias in Janadharana, 16 December On peace talks Our party has never been against a progressive political outlet and the peaceful solution of the ongoing civil war. But, there is no meaning and relevance of the proposal of talks by the Deuba-UML government that is just a rubberstamp of the royal army. Extending detention of people from 90 days to one year through the Terrorist and Destruction (Control and Punishment) Ordinance, the increase in the expenditure of the royal palace and the army are proof about where the real authority and the intention of the government is. Even the common people have understood this fact. That was the reason our party’s recently held central committee meetings decided to sit for talks only if the people’s sovereignty is has had a central state power. guaranteed and if there is So, under no circumstance will reliable international there be any agreement on the mediation. continuity of the monarchy and the mercenary royal army. If someone tries to make any Talks with king compromises, he/she will be Our party cannot even trashed in the history books by imagine relinquishing such a the Nepali people. That is why historic, revolutionary and our proposal to hold talks with sacrificial movement to those the king in an open manner and who have been against the with the help of international country and the people. This mediation must be understood is the first movement of its as our efforts to bring the type in more than 200 years monarchy out from behind the of history ever since Nepal curtain. If anyone thinks

Rocks: Defiance

Nepal, 26 December

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

It is important for the king to have public backing whenever he visits a foreign country. If the parliament had been restored, the Royal visit would have been more honourable and made more of an impact.

Girija P Koirala in Kantipur, December 22

SELECTED MATERIAL TRANSLATED EVERY WEEK FROM THE NEPALI PRESS FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 17 Laldhoj’ and Prachanda

otherwise, it would be a where there is no state and “The king can’t remain behind the curtain” fallacy. class. This concept comprises such crucial points that were Maoist chief Prachanda result in foreign interference is a On party’s goals discussed even at the times of in Nepal Samacharpatra, fallacious argument of the Marx and Lenin. Today, all 20 December brokers of imperialists and Like we said last year, our true revolutionaries, expansionists. Without dealing party’s ultimate goal is a including those with RIM, Excerpts from interview: with the present state of the people’s republic. Its basic must analyse the concept “We have never said we will civil war, the government’s talks interrelated concept is to seriously and come to a hold talks with the king only. for elections is a part of the transform it into a capitalistic conclusion. That is the reason What we meant was that it only conspiracy to invite genocide. people’s system, which is why the RIM-affiliated makes sense to talk to the one Since elections in status quo above the present revolutionary communist who is in control of the army and would be a part of the parliamentary system and party in the United States of the old regime. But one must regression, we will destroy that constitution and below the America and others have remember that we have been conspiracy. people’s system and the launched public discussions holding direct and indirect talks There have been arguments constitution we aspire for. The on the concept of the people’s with the major political parties, that the elections could pave final goal is a people’s republic and their authority. civil society and intellectual way for an elected government republic and a people’s Our party has also begun society also. with whom we could hold talks. elected constituent assembly intensive discussions on The king will either have to But the first round of peace talks is the means to achieve it. For preambles of Marxism, give up his control over the old was held with an elected this minimum and immediate Leninism, Maoism and regime and the army or we won’t government of Sher Bahadur program, we can join hands Prachandapath to enrich and allow him to remain behind the Deuba. Yet, the result only with parliamentary democratic develop the science of the curtain from where he has been exposed that he had neither the parties and move ahead. international proletarian pushing the country and the capacity nor the authority. As Toward that end, political revolution. For that, our party people to destruction. long as the royal army remains parties need to be serious. We has stressed the protection, In the absence of a reliable loyal to the palace, elections also appeal the general people use and development of the and acceptable-to-all mediation and democracy in Nepal will and civil society to exert proletariatrian revolution and an agreement on democratic only be showpieces. pressure in this regard. science’s three organs - system, we see no point sitting Our demands for a round philosophy, political for talks with any one’s table conference among all Prachandapath economics and scientific representative. There is also no political forces and civil society, socialism. In short the use of talks with the feudal the formation of an interim But we are committed to accept Our party’s central committee development and prosperity government that is there to government through the meeting any result of such elections. meeting last year had brought of ‘Malema’ (Marxism, increase the budget of the royal and the election for constituent Our movement is forth the proposal Leninism and Maoism) and palace and to bring black law for assembly still remain. By the nationwide today. In the rapid ‘Development of people’s Prachandapath is possible the royal army. time elections for the spread of such a revolutionary republic in the 21st century’. only if the lapses and Both the king and Deuba of constituent assembly are held, movement, it is natural that The proposal is about a drawbacks during the people’s the old regime do not have the arms of both the sides have mistakes may have been people’s republic, a new party, republic of Comrade Stalin are people’s base. As for us, our to be stopped. After the committed in some places. The army and regime which is of corrected. Standing on the foundation on the people’s level elections and, in line with the incidents in Dailekh are due to long term importance. The central committee’s proposal has been proved by the success results, the army and arms of a combination of conspiracy by essence of that proposal is of the development of of the people’s war in the last both the sides will have to be the old regime and the royal formation of a party, army and st people’s republic in the 21 nine years. The people’s managed. We can discuss army and weaknesses of our a regime of the proletariat. century, we need to develop governments in all the rural this in detail. own local cadre. But this does After that, the ongoing war the concept of Malemaism areas of the country also We are confident that the mean we have lost the people’s will stop, but the revolution and Prachandapath. Or else, prove our base. result of the elections of the sympathy. We have been trying will move on into new phases both of these concepts will That our demand for constituent assembly will be in to correct our mistakes and win until we attain communism become extinct. international mediation will favour of the republican system. their hearts and minds.”

continues, the scale of lawlessness will In the letter it is also mentioned that 19 places. For passengers, the security

Internal affair become uncontrollable . the rebel had planned to create checks have been the ultimate ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Drishti, 21 December obstructions in the East-West highway and harassment, they are enraged but don’t Maoist plans attack the security forces who come to dare complain. The check points haven’t

remove them and capture their weapons. improved security, in fact it is spreading There is no doubt that the police were ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ themselves involved in the Nabil Bank Drishti, 21 December The letter talks about the Maoist plan to anger against the security forces. “What robbery where the pistol used by the destroy industries and factories that have have they really achieved until now? Have robber belonged to a policeman. Intelligence services claimed that they Indian and American investment. they found anything they are looking for?” Although the police helped to recover have come across the activities and plans asks one irate passenger who had to get the bank’s Rs 6 million, they have not of Maoist rebels in Kathmandu. After Bus terror out of the bus at every check point. Even

on a short journey from Narayanghat to

○○○○○○○○ yet furnished any further details about receiving such information, the police ○○○○○○○○○○○○○ the incident. Even till now, the police headquarters have already alerted Samaya, 24 December Kathmandu, buses have to stop in at least have not been able to find those different units under it. According to a four places. The worst is for the buses involved in the loot: proof that the fax letter (symbol number 573) sent to For the last two years since the Royal going west from Jhapa. Passengers have to police department is failing in its duty. police stations by the headquarters, there Nepal Army was mobilised along the walk for about half an hour in Pathalaiya, In the last four months, there were 81 are around 300 Maoist guerillas working highway for security checks, bus travelers where the army believes the Maoists robberies where more than Rs 100 in Kathmandu Valley. They have been have been going through their worst smuggle arms from India. million worth of cash and items were divided into several groups. Each has experiences. The night bus travel to The security checks have adversely stolen. So far the police have been able around a dozen guerillas and they are Kakribitta, which is a 12 hour journey, affected transporters who have seen a to nab only seven robbers and there are given the responsibility of covering 25 now takes about 24 hours. Traveling from sharp decline in passengers, especially on indications the police were involved. areas in the Valley. any other city to Kathmandu is a night buses. In normal times two years On 11 October, policemen Balbahadur The same letter has the information nightmare. Tight security checks on each ago, over 400 buses packed with Pun, Amar Buda and Gyan Bahadur BK, that the rebels have plans to attack one bus have proven to be a never-ending passengers used to ply on the highways all of whom were based at the police Pawan Aggrawal of Satya Sai Kendra harassment. The heavy traffic jam along out of Kathmandu every night. Now more headquarters looted a grocery store at because he handed over two Maoist rebels the Mahendra and Prithibi highway lasts than half of those buses travel only in the Sitapaila. The police took legal action to the army. It also talks about the rebel’s for hours. It gets much worse at mornings and afternoons and they are only against Pun. His accomplices are black list that includes the name of the Nagdhunga while entering Kathmandu. half-empty. Most buses worry about walking scot free. Just a week after the former president of the Raj Sabha Even the ambulances carrying patients are reaching the destination before curfew Sitapaila robbery, another policeman, standing committee Keshar Jang stuck in road jams. The army was first time. Many buses that start in the evening Sudarsan Prasai, posted at the National Raymajhi because he had recently voiced stationed on the main highways after the from Kathmandu have to halt near the Investigation Department was involved the need for the active rule of the king. state of emergency was imposed two years forest areas while travelling to Chitwan in looting a house in Balaju. Even the Another letter from police headquarters back. Since then, the army has been and Hetauda where they fall prey to security force personnel have been (number 3991) has it that the Maoists are adding check points one after another and dacoits. associated with robberies in the city. On planning for a big centralised attack. For it’s the ordinary civilians who have to pay The army’s spokesman Deepak Gurung 17 October, some of those who robbed that purpose, the letter says, the rebels the price for national security. The bus to says: “The security force has to do its job. about Rs 45,000 from a house in have been transporting rations from the Kakribitta has to pass through at least 20 We have to make the passengers walk Budhanilkantha were dressed in army tarai to the hills. Special commands and security check points. Buses from during the checks as we can’t recognise uniform. If this dangerous trend routes have also been fixed for the work. Mahendranagar to Chitwan have to stop at Maoists from their faces.” 18 INTERNATIONAL 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227

Daughters in law

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ NEW DELHI—India, where extreme patriarchal attitudes prevail, is about to make a giant step towards gender equality by introducing a bill that will give women an equal share in family property. To be introduced in the ongoing winter session of parliament, the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill 2004, will remove discriminatory provisions in an existing law enacted in 1956 that ensured that only males inherited ancestral property. ‘’Studies clearly show that when women have access to resources it improves their power to make decisions,’’ said Saroj Pachauri, South and South-East Asia director of the international non-governmental organisation, The Population Council. Commenting on the bill, Pachauri said that some of the worst manifestations of gender discrimination in India such as female foeticide and dowry, particularly in northern India, can be traced to biased inheritance laws, which adds to the vulnerability of women. (IPS)

Invisible expatriates

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ SINGAPORE—Everyday in this tiny island republic of four million people, thousands of well-educated and highly qualified Asian expatriates quietly go about their work, often mistaken as locals. The number of Asian professionals working here, the bulk of them Indians and Chinese, has increased tremendously in recent years. Yet the public image of the expatriate here is largely that of a Caucasian on a well-paid job package that includes free housing, car, domestic help The US lead in and schooling for the children. attracting the In a country whose citizens are about 70 percent ethnic world’s best Chinese, 12 percent Malay and Study abroad students is eroding seven percent Indian, thus making a rich Asian ethnic mix, it is often difficult to distinguish SAM DILLON in NEW YORK the Asian expatriate from the locals. For Ravi, a Indian merican universities, by half. 586,000 foreign students were business analyst, this local tag gives more breathing space and helps a which for half a century Foreign applications to enrolled in United States person feel more at home. But Filipino engineer Raoul is not happy A have attracted the world’s American graduate schools universities, compared with about being asked often, because of his Filipino accent, ‘’Are you not best and brightest students with declined 28 percent this year. about 270,000 in Britain, the local?’’ little effort, are suddenly facing Actual foreign graduate student world’s second-largest higher The typical expatriate in Singapore is no longer from Western intense competition as higher countries but from Asia. Arun Mahizhnan, deputy director of the Institute enrollments dropped six percent. education destination, and of Policy Studies, says: ‘’The image of the expat has definitely changed, education undergoes rapid Enrollments of all foreign 227,000 in Germany, the third- colour is no longer white, because of the resulting influx of Indian (South globalization. students, in undergraduate, largest. Foreign enrollments Asian), Chinese and other Asian professionals.’’ (IPS) The European Union, moving graduate and postdoctoral increased by 15 percent that methodically to compete with programs, fell for the first time in year in Britain, and by 10 American universities, is three decades in an annual percent in Germany. streamlining the continent’s census released this fall. The countries exporting the higher education system and Meanwhile, university most students were China, South offering American-style degree enrollments have been surging in Korea and India but the annual programs taught in English. England, Germany and other global migration to overseas Britain, Australia and New countries. universities involves two Zealand are aggressively Some of the American million students from many recruiting foreign students, as decline, experts agree, is due to countries travelling in many are Asian centers like Taiwan post-9/11 delays in processing directions. That number is and Hong Kong. China has student visas, which have exploding—by some estimates it declared that transforming 100 discouraged thousands of will quadruple by 2025—as universities into world-class students, not only from the economic growth produces research institutions is a Middle East but also from dozens millions of new middle-class national priority and is of other nations. American students across Asia. persuading top Chinese scholars educators and even some foreign Traditionally most countries, to return home from American ones say the visa difficulties are including the United States, had universities. helping foreign schools increase tried to attract foreign students “What we’re starting to see in their share of the market. as a way of disseminating their terms of international students “International education is nation’s core values. But three now having options outside the big business for all of the other strategies emerged in the US for high-quality education is Anglophone countries, and the 1990’s, countries with aging just the tip of the iceberg,” said US traditionally has dominated populations like Canada and David G Payne, an executive the market without having to try Germany, pursuing a ‘skilled director of the Educational very hard,” said Tim O’Brien, migration’ approach, have Testing Service, which international development sought to recruit talented administers several tests taken director at Nottingham Trent students in strategic disciplines by foreign students to gain University in England. and to encourage them to settle admission to American “International students say after graduation. Germany universities. “Other countries are it’s not worth queuing up for two subsidises foreign students so just starting to expand their days outside the US consulate in generously that their education capacity for offering graduate whatever country they are in to is free. education.” get a visa when they can go to Australia and New Zealand, In the future, foreign the UK so much more easily.” pursuing a ‘revenue generating’ students will have far greater American educators have approach, treat higher education opportunities.” Foreign students been concerned since the fall of as an industry, charging foreign contribute $13 billion to the 2002, when large numbers of students full tuition. They American economy annually. foreign students experienced compete effectively in the world But this year brought clear signs delays in visa processing. But market because they offer b]zdf zflGt / ;Aoj:yf' sfod that the United States’ few noticed the rapid emergence quality education and the costs x'g ;sdf] dfq ljsf;sf ] ult overwhelming dominance of of higher education as a global of attaining some degrees in ltj | xg' ;S5 . o;y { ;dfhdf international higher education industry until quite recently. those countries are lower than in may be ending. In July, Payne “Many U.S. campuses have not the United States. Emerging zflGt, ;Joj:yf' sfod /flv briefed the National Academy of yet geared up for the countries like India, China and Pstf / /fli6o« lxtsf ] efjgfn] Sciences on a sharp plunge in competition,” said Peggy Singapore, pursuing a ‘capacity ljsf; sfodf{ ;xefuL x'g' ;a} the number of students from Blumenthal, a vice president at building’ approach, view study g]kfnLx¿sf ] k|d'v stJo{ xf ] . India and China who had taken the Institute for International abroad by thousands of their the most recent administration of Education. nation’s students as a way of >L % sf ] ;/sf/ the Graduate Record Exam, a During 2002, the most recent training future professors and ;"rgf tyf ;rf/+ dqfno+ requirement for applying to most year for which comparable researchers for their own ;"rgf ljefu graduate schools. It had dropped figures are available, some university systems. l (NYT) 20 CINEMA #227 2004, the 24 - year30 DECEMBER 2004 All of a sudden, Japan, China, Korea and Thailand have stolen Hollywood’s thunder his year, a Chinese film Kurosawa. The Matrix films Hero, topped the US box used Hong Kong fight T office charts for the first techniques. But western film time, despite already being industries have never banked on available on DVD. A lush kung the east to this degree before. fu film in the manner of Virtually every Hollywood studio Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has optioned an Asian project. it was directed by former Dark Water, The Eye and The cinematographer Zhang Yimou. Ring films unnerved Hollywood because they beat it at its own REVIEW game. They found new, subtle Mark Cousins and inventive ways of doing what producers in southern Screen International called California have spent a century it ‘one of the most eagerly perfecting: jangling the awaited films in Asian film audiences nervous systems. All history’. It also went to number of a sudden, Japan and Korea one in France and cut a swathe have stolen its thunder. Directors through the box office in many from these countries are using Asian countries. This is unheard the power of suggestion and of, yet Zhang’s follow-up, the turning the screw of tension to even more beautiful House of scare audiences profoundly. Flying Daggers, looks set to They build up tension more follow Hero’s extraordinary slowly, hint at unseen horrors breakthrough. Shot partly in the and use sound more evocatively. rust-red forests of Ukraine, it has Asian cinema, however, already broken box office records doesn’t merit our attention in China itself. merely because it has captured Something remarkable is Hollywood’s. Despite the happening in Asian cinema, and brouhaha caused by Michael Hollywood has cottoned on. Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 in ‘Check out the latest US movie Cannes this year, the lasting production slate and it is hard to impression of the festival was escape the conclusion that the overwhelming beauty of a Hollywood is turning Japanese,’ quartet of films from China, commented the Guardian in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. July. ‘And Korean. With a dash I have been going to Cannes for of Thai and Hong Kong thrown well over a decade but have in’. No fewer than seven new never seen audiences applaud versions of box office hits from the visual magnificence of an Asia are preparing to go before individual scene as they did western cameras. Tom Cruise is with House of Flying Daggers. developing a remake of the Hirokazu Kore-eda’ s Nobody Hong Kong/Thai horror picture, Knows was one of the greatest The Eye. Martin Scorsese is in works of observation that cinema pre-production with a new has produced. And although I version of Infernal Affairs, the had to stand throughout Wong Hong Kong Policier. A Japanese Kar Wai’s two-hour 2046, the thriller, Dark Water is being world it created was so ravishing reworked for Jennifer Connelly. I didn’t even shift on my feet. British director Gurinder Chadha Finally, Apichatpong is remaking the Korean feminist Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady crime comedy My Wife is a delivered one of the festival’s Gangster. greatest coups. While Hollywood This is not the first time that can easily ransack Asian horror Hollywood’s imitation of Asian cinema to renew its own cinema has seemed like flattery. techniques, it is unlikely ever to Star Wars borrowed from match the beauty of these four. CHINESE BOMBSHELL: Zhang Ziyi

n movies from Beijing to disguise but it is also a luminous Kaige’s childhood friend, Tian I Hong Kong, actresses like end in itself. Zhuangzhuang (The Blue Kite). Zhang Ziyi and actors like By the time Marilyn Monroe laid Among the first films made by China’s sexual Tony Leung Chiu-wai fill the down her peroxide head for good in this group, known as the Fifth screen with heart-skipping beauty 1962, glamour was a goner. With sex Generation because it was the and charm. In May at the Cannes banished from the screen, it was left academy’s fifth graduating class, film festival, audiences swooned to these photographers to were social issue stories set in the Madame Mao would have had a fit for Wong Kar-wai’s romantic manufacture desire, to turn mortals countryside where all three and probably had someone executed drama 2046 and Zhang Yimou’s into deities. There are images of filmmakers were sent as teenagers latest swordsman epic, House of Zhang Ziyi in Flying Daggers that during the Cultural Revolution. Flying Daggers. make her look like an MGM pinup. Following the Tiananmen Square burgeoning glamour. around the world, inspiring imitators Although they could not be If she were still on watch, demonstrations and facing tough Just as Zhang and Gong were from Sofia Coppola to Lou Ye, the more different in story, sensibility Madame Mao would have had a fit restrictions at home, the becoming the toast of international Shanghai-born director of the and visual pleasures, what the and then probably had someone filmmakers ventured into more film festivals, Wong Kar-wai began visually lush Suzhou River and films share in addition to Zhang executed. Film production in China commercial terrain with stories that putting his glamorous stamp on Purple Butterfly. Though glamour is Ziyi is an extraordinary glamour was put on hold for several years could travel around the world. Hong Kong cinema. In films like a construction for these filmmakers, born from the tension between during the Cultural Revolution and Since he began directing, Days of Being Wild and Fallen it is also sincere. There is nothing release and repression. the Beijing Film Academy ceased much of the appeal of Zhang Angels, the characters are at once ironic about the downcast eyes and In the major cinemas of normal operations. Two years after Yimou’s films has rested in their glamorous and isolated, trapped in yearning mouths they immortalise. mainland China, Hong Kong the arrest of the Gang of Four in bold visuals and his equally bold their gleaming casings like flies in The slow sexing-up of mainland and, to an extent, Taiwan 1976, the academy began women. Zhang helped return amber. Maggie Cheung and Tony cinema in the past decade and a glamour is serious business. accepting undergraduates again. sex or at least its suggestion, Leung circle each other with half has occurred during what Much as it was in old Hollywood, Among the students in that first class to mainland cinema and adulterous longing in Wong’s 2000 headline writers are fond of glamour in contemporary were Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige greatly aided by his long-time romance, In the Mood for Love. calling China’s sexual Chinese film is a device and a (Farewell My Concubine) and star and lover, Gong Li, a Wong’s influence has reached revolution. l #227 21 CINEMAof the Asian film 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004

How is it that, despite the expressionless, at the centre of gentleness and stillness. occasional blink of recognition, the vortex. The bean shots are Though made in very the west has remained so blind computer-generated, the most different countries, the films of to Asian cinema for so long? satisfying use of CGI yet. The Weerasethakul, Zhang, Wong There has always been a sense in combination of such cinematic and Kore-eda share certain ideas which America and Europe modernity with martial arts about art. Just as the work of Ozu owned film. They invented it at choreography, photographic can be fully understood only by the end of the 19th century and splendour and centrally Zhang’s balancing its psychological so heady were the first decades enigmatic performance, makes aspects with more abstract of cinema that America and this scene, at once, a classic. Buddhist questions of space and Europe can be forgiven for Hong Kong director Wong stillness, so the influence of assuming that they were the Kar Wai’s 2046 goes even Buddhism can be seen in these only game in town. further. It, too, is a widescreen new films. It comes as no surprise, for film of seductively shallow- Despite the range of western example, that Zhang Yimou’s focus, surface patterning and cinema today, most of it House of Flying Daggers is so feminine beauty Zhang Ziyi assumes that movies are nar- beautiful. His Raise the Red stars again, this time joined by rative chains of cause and Lantern was visually striking two other great Chinese effect, that their characters have and he started as a actresses, Gong Li and Maggie fears and desires and that we cinematographer on the Cheung. Like Wong’s previous follow the film by feminine is a virtue in the same by money and market, cinema breakthrough work of modern film, In the Mood for Love, it is understanding these fears and way emptiness may be for would appear to be too busy to Chinese cinema, Fellow Earth. an evocative exercise in desires. The new films of Zhang artists. bother with questions of House of Flying Dagger, atmosphere and music, set in and the others make similar Every one of the great Asian philosophy. Other Asian nations however, maybe one of the most Hong Kong in the 1960s. assumptions but are less driven films in the pipeline evinces are proving that this is not the photographically distinguished At first glance, the Japanese by them and balance questions Taoist ideas of sex and space. In case. In Venice in 1951 and films ever made. In it, the director Kore-Eda’s newturn, of self-hood with Zen ideas none of them is gender Cannes in 2004, the audiences actress Zhang Ziyi, who starred Nobody Knows, is different from about negation and equilibrium. polarised. In all of them, space left cinemas with heads full of in Crouching Tiger Hidden the aesthetic worlds of Zhang This makes their beauty hard to is crucial. And the influence is dazzling images. But the Dragon, plays Mei, a blind and Wong. Set in present-day replicate in the west. acknowledged. Zhang, for greatness of Rashomon, Ugetsu, dancer in the year 859, who is Japan, it tells the story of a But Buddhism is not the example, has talked about the 2046 or House of Flying Daggers sympathetic to a revolutionary neglectful mother who rents an whole picture. Unlike Maoism, way Chinese painting has is, in the end, not to do with group threatening the Tang apartment with one of her which pictured a clear moral affected his work. His shots are imagery at all. Yes, they are dynasty. children and who, when she opposition between the good often very wide. Space and pictorially distinctive, but it is An early sequence takes moves in, opens her suitcases to workers and bad bosses, and landscape weigh as heavily their different sense of what a place in a large pavilion reveal two more. The former unlike Confucian philosophy in within the frame as the human person is, and what space and decorated entirely by peonies. A documentary director is which masculinity is noble and elements. Art historians have action are. l local captain suspects that Mei equally interested in stillness, femininity is not, Taoism is less long discussed the Taoist is a subversive and sets her a in shallow focus and in clear-cut. Morally it sees good component of such paintings. (Mark Cousins is the author of test. In the pavilion, he production design. within bad and vice versa. The As the art form most swayed The Story of Film) surrounds her with 100 vertically Thai director Apichatpong mounted drums. She stands in Weerasethakul’s film Tropical the middle, dressed in a coat of Malady is more enigmatic. In its gold silk, embroidered with first half a soldier befriends a turquoise chrysanthemums. young peasant man who lives in Presented with dishes of dry the country. They drift around, beans, the captain flicks one at a sit talking, grow fond of each drum. The camera follows it other. In one scene the soldier though space. As it strikes the puts his head in his friend’s lap, taut surface, Mei spins and in another the soldier licks his flicks the enormously long hand. As their growing sleeve of her coat in the eroticism looks as if it might direction of the sound. It travels become explicit, the peasant as the bean did and strikes the walks into the jungle. Then the drum in a rococo flourish. Then screen goes black: no sound, no the captain flicks another bean, picture, as if the film has and Mei spins and flicks again. broken. Then a second film Then another. Then a small begins. The actors are the same handful which scatter around but their situation is more fable- the circle of drums. Mei like. Tropical Malady is likely to responds to the percussive be seen as one of the most effect, her sleeves darting and experimental films of its time, soaring, her face still serene and but what is again striking is its revolution

Chinese glamour queens are replacing Hollywood stars in cosmetics ads. 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 23 The exorcist

ari Lal Giri began H conversing with spirits at the age of eight. By the time he was 16, he was a professional shaman driving the devil out of those possessed in the village of Katunje in Okhaldhunga.

MIN BAJRACHARYA Exorcism is not as easy as RUNNING OUT OF GAS: Cars line up outside a petrol pump on it seems, says Hari Lal. It Thursday as the Maoist blockades of major highways around the needs learning and patience Valley created fuel and food shortages. and a lot of energy leaping around to the beat of the dhyangro. “You can’t just go and call on some deuta to help you because it is actually the debis who are more powerful. The most powerful is Kali,” he says. Many villagers still trust the jhankri more than a doctor. A jhankri also needs to know about medicinal herbs because a lot of villagers come with simple ailments like stomach aches. Hari Lal learnt to deal with the Holy Spirit. But a night For a while, the spirits the spirits by making them security guard’s salary is not wouldn’t let him alone although RAJESH GURUNG listen to him. “Most spirits are enough, so he paints furniture he wasn’t a jhankri anymore. NO ENTRY: Maoists block the Prithibi Highway (Dhading) using booby-trapped trees and propaganda banners on Tuesday. of children or people who’ve by day to make extra money. “They’d hit me and drag me died young,” he says. “Spirits Even in Kathmandu, across the floor, they stopped do exist. They are like people used to come from far bothering me when they found shadows with no concrete and wide to seek his services. out I wouldn’t relent,” he adds. form. They come only if “The work just got too hard, the These days, Hari Lal likes the invited.” Hari Lal gave up spirits sap your energy, they solitude of his night work so he being a shaman 10 years ago don’t let you sleep,” he says. can contemplate on life and the and became a security guard. “If they come to talk to you, mundane matters of daily He converted to Christianity you can’t ignore them as they survival. l and still believes in spirits: become angry.” (Abha Eli Phoboo)

MIN BAJRACHARYA ICONS: Nima Rumba and Nalina Chitrakar perform at the Yak and Yeti after being chosen as the Icons of 2004 on Saturday.

KIRAN PANDAY IT’S A SECRET: Bhaskar Rajkarnicar and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari at the 10th annual general meeting of the Advertising Association of Nepal (AAN) at the Radisson on Sunday during which a new logo and awards were announced.

KIRAN PANDAY DIPLOMA HOLDERS: Samasthi Nepal gave away plaques and pashminas to people who excelled in the tourism sector at the Reporter’s Club on Friday. 24 24 - 30 DECEMBER 2004 #227 Back to the future

s we get ready to celebrate new year 2025, it is also a time for A us as a nation to take stock of how far we have advanced since the early part of this century when we were lost in the political wilderness of the Old Regime. In hindsight, it seems ridiculous, almost comic, how we blundered around aimlessly burning tyres in the streets in those www.nepalitimes.com naïve days of the new millennium. But today, as we get ready to usher in 2025 and celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Regression and 40 Years of the Great People’s War we pay tribute to the political myopia and official narrow-mindedness that has made Nepal what it is today. Sometimes it feels like we are caught in a timewarp as we UNDER MY HAT remember how in 2005 we Kunda Dixit willingly and whole-heartedly agreed to sacrifice our individual freedoms that we had misused for so long in return for the peace and silence that we have today under the Dear Helmsman. The last 20 years have shown that however low a country sinks, however chaotic its past, as the Carpenters said, tomorrow will always be brighter than today and yesterday all our troubles seemed so far away. Or was it the Beatles? Anyway, to mark the anniversary, we reprint with permission a selection of news items from the front page of the 1 January, 2025 edition of The Still Rising Nepal daily: Far-Out Ring Road To Be Built The government is leaving no stone turning over to start construction of the Far-Out Ring Road under grant assistance from the government of the Faroe Islands. Officials at the Department of Potholes said the Far-Out Ring Road was not a luxury but a necessity because the Outer Ring Road completed in 2007 had now become too congested. The new ring road will connect the satellite housing colonies that have come up on the summits of the mountains peaks on the valley rim, including Phulchoki, Shivapuri, Nagarjun and Chandragiri. Said the official, “It is going to be a highway in the true sense of the term and a marvel of civil engineering.” Helmsman Felicitates Kim Jong Il On the occasion of the National Day of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Helmsman has sent a message of felicitation to Dear Old Leader, Kim Jong II. In the message, the Helmsman has extended warm wishes for the personal happiness and continued prosperity of the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea. He further stated that Nepal and North Korea had a lot in common these days, and hoped that the bonds of amity and cooperation between the two great nations would be further strengthened in the years to come as they embarked on joint nuclear weapons tests while battling imperialism and hunger. Girija To Stand Again The Nepali Congress Central Committee meeting today decided unanimously to allow 102-year-old Girija Prasad Koirala to stand for Party President for the Tenth Term. “He is going to stand but in consideration of his advanced years, we are going to allow him to sit,” said his cousin, Sushil Koirala, 99. He added that Mr Koirala had convinced them that the NC would splinter again for the 14th time in as many years if he didn’t once more take up leadership of the party that is synonymous with democracy. He added: “Considering thE regression has lasted 25 years, we must carry on burning effigies in Ratna Park. If we don’t who will?”

CDO Regd No. 194/056/57 Lalitpur, Central Region Postal Regd. No. 04/058/59