#45 1 - 7 June 2001 20 pages Rs 20 YAKYETIYAK New comic strip starring an existential yeti and a talkative yak. 18 Soon, the monsoon 10-11

EXCLUSIVE Trade blues Business leaders from Nepal and India are meeting in New Delhi 11 June to iron out problems trading problems before the bilateral treaty comes up for automatic renewal later this year. The FNCCI is taking a study that among other things proves India’s concerns KATHBANDHU about Nepali “problem” exports are unfounded. India has been insisting up to 35 percent value-addition. The FNCCI says the 1996 treaty has benefited both sides so there is no need to change it. Currently 250 Nepali companies are qualified to export to India but of that only 50 are actually exporting. Only 10 do substantial business. Value addition won’t affect genuine exporters only fly-by-night businesses on both sides. Call Nepal The UML’s Madhav Kumar Nepal is the happiest man around, having forced the country to shut down for three days to fight Girija Koirala on his behalf. He told a radio talk show the forced strike was a “resounding success” even though he dodged a question on why his party didn’t go for hunger strikes instead. Nepal said the public’s response to the strike was “phenomenal” and his party is planning more bandhs. If you want to give Madhav Nepal a piece of your mind, call him at 278712 (o) or 544373 (h). Net tax

Nepal’s Internet connectivity is supposed to be the best in South Asia. It is the cheapest Internet in the region, except for India. And Nepal was cited at the recent Least Developed Country conference in Brussels as the developing country with one of the best Internet access. All this is now threatened by a government plan to tax the information technology industry to death. Falling revenue and increased administrative spending have forced the

government to get its tax men to target all SUBHAS RAI potential sources of revenue, and the axe seems to be about to fall on Internet Service Providers (ISPs). p. 12 Æ Hotline: 523050 one world...

...one link

Internet Access | Email | Fax2Fax | Web Hosting | Domain Registration | VSAT Networks | WAP Services | Software Development 222 EDITORIAL 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Editor: Anagha Neelakantan, Design: Swosti Rajbhandari, Kiran Maharjan [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Marketing: Sunaina Shah, Anup Adhikary [email protected] Circulation:Sanjeev Pradhan [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-543333-7, Fax: 01-521013 Printed at Jagadamba Press: 01-521393 LONG LIVE THE KING The national anthem is anathema to our revolutionary friends. They say it promotes a personality cult (coming from them, this sounds somewhat odd) and that it exhorts Nepalis to keep reproducing (now, that is a problem). Besides the Monarch, Chairman Prachanda is the only one actually mentioned by name in our national anthem (“prachanda pratapi bhupati”) so the Maoists should actually have nothing against it. But, seriously, how does it help anybody in Nepal to be so pig-headed about this? We commissioned an unauthorised translation of the original Nepali words composed by Chakrapani Chalise 80 years ago to pinpoint exactly what is the problem with our national anthem:

His Majesty, upright and solemn Nepali, Exceptionally powerful monarch. May His Majesty always be blessed with success. Let the Lord in Heaven grant him a long life, Let his subjects multiply, And let us exalt him with a hymn of love and praise All of us Nepalis together.

Percival Landon, the English hagiographer of Chandra Sumshere OS Jung Bahadur Rana, writes in his book (Nepal, Constable, 1928) that the words of Sri Man Gambhir were rendered after the royal bandmaster (a STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL certain Mr A M Pathan from British India) had already composed the music. As it turns out, the words bear an uncanny similarity to God Save the Queen, while the tune marches in step with the French anthem, the Marseillaise. As with God Save the Queen, our anthem too seems outdated in an age of constitutional monarchy. But it may be worthwhile mediocrity.com.np for republican-minded Nepalis to note that these words from a bygone era should today be construed to refer to the symbol of Nepali nationhood It is the mediocrity of the middle-class that feeds the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. and not just to the person of His Majesty. We agree on one thing, though: let us take out that bit on multiplying. espite stark differences in income levels public schools is as shallow as the neglect by Our comrades must note that a and standards of living, the Nepali elite the community and government. Where did completely closed proletarian utopia is no dand its middle class have a lot in the dictators of the proletariat and their more possible in a globalised world. Cuba and common. Nationalistic hubris, paranoia of progenies go to school? Most private schools, North Korea are exhibits in glass cases. The HUTDOWN OR ELSE people from the plains, and an excessive on the other hand, have consciously stayed out aim should be for damage control by opting for S - - attachment to the achievements of ancestors are of politics, and chased mammon. The the lesser of available evils. Before beating up After a well-deserved three-day traits that define an acceptable person in operating principle there is not social justice, the principals of allegedly Indian schools, the vacation, our politicians are back on Kathmandu’s high society. And these are exactly but freedom of choice. Profit being their prime Maoists should have analysed what the the job this week working with the values that we, lower down the class ladder, motive, promoters of private schools seldom consequence of their action would be: force renewed vigour to demolish attempt to cultivate in order to become have any interest in creating a concerned Nepalis to study in Indian schools in India.

MIN BAJRACHARYA democracy. With friends like these, agreeable and acceptable. citizen. What they actually produce are And even if pricey private schools were to cut democracy does not need enemies When the qualities to aspire for are so economic robots: persons aware of their rights, their fees by two-thirds, we in the lower- of the ultra-left, or the ultra-right. pedestrian and parochial, there is no need to but ambivalent at best of their responsibilities middle class will still not be able to afford On one side are the pundits of the give anything our best. In academics, towards society. them. Such a cut will benefit the elite kids who Nepali Congress who don’t know that economics, social, literary or even sports getting SOBS (Students of Boarding Schools) will pay even less! Would it not be more they have outlived their usefulness to by is enough. Like buffaloes happily chewing the parrot popular slogans of parlour patriotism, sensible to tax these education factories society. They have ruled the country cud in the mud of a drying pond in the late chic environmentalism and genteel social dispensing “quality education”, and then use for most of the time since the summer afternoon, the Nepali middle-of-the- service. But the free-market is their main the proceeds to improve facilities in public restoration of democracy, and with road class wallows in the cesspool of its own mantra. SOBS are taught to seek value for schools? May be then we induce Honourable their unbridled greed and incessant collective mediocrity. With our puny dreams money. The child, the sick, the old, the dying Ishwar Pokharel’s son back to Nepal, and squabbling have squandered just and small sacrifices, we ridicule mass-based and the poor—‘non-economic persons’ —do prompt him to study in Nandi Ratri. Riot police wait for showdown about everything that they ever fought politicos and expect false heroes to release us not figure in their world-view. Not all private The demand for free education up to during shutdown on Tuesday. for. Arrayed against them is a rag-tag from our suffering. Our yearning for simplistic schools are created equal. A ‘boarding school’ tenth grade in all public schools is equally bunch of bickering lefties for whom the meaning of democracy has come solutions to complex social problems, our in Patan (Baitadi) and a private school in Patan puerile. Free education, if not supported by down to deflating tyres of bicycles belonging to vegetable vendors and devotion to the done ways of doing things, our (Lalitpur) are as different as a government compulsory schooling and mid-day meals, office peons. longing for a divine saviour whenever faced with school and a private limited school. But both benefits only those who can afford to pay How utterly symbolic that the motorcycle our comrades decided to a challenge, our dissatisfaction with the present are mass-producing foot soldiers of global the fees anyway. Free education does not torch this week happened to belong to the Bangladesh Embassy. After and desperation about future, and our eagerness capitalism by creating consumers. Private work in a society where caste and class all, by declaring an unprecedented three-day nationwide shutdown-or- to jump to quick conclusions--these are all links schools are addressing the quality gap with an often coalesce, and grinding poverty makes else they proved that their role model is the hartal superpower of the of a chain of fatalism that keeps us in bondage. ideological filling of free-for-all capitalism. formal schooling a luxury for children who subcontinent. And when Comrade Nepal tells the press that he has been You would think that a relatively young No wonder, the Maoists see this as an must work to make a living. deluged with phone calls from fellow-comrades congratulating him on ideology like Maoism would be free of such ideological war for the minds of the young. So, To improve the quality of education in the resounding success of his lovely bandh, he is too busy basking in the shackles of socialisation. But Nepali followers of their solution: if there are rats in the house, public schools, the challenge lies in attracting glory to ask if people stayed at home because they shared his political the Great Helmsman exhibit the same traits as burn it down. They are using an axe where a students back by restoring power to it once vision, or because they didn’t want their motorcycles cremated on the the rest of us. It would be too much to expect scalpel would do. This madness has been again. Maybe we should ask all public officials streets. (Never underestimate the power of the Kathmandu’s salaried otherwise. Their concerns are as superficial as characteristic of Maoist methods wherever (elected, selected and appointed—including class to stay at home at the slightest provocation.) the Nepali elite, their preoccupations are as they have risen: Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ward Chairpersons and Army Generals) to Jhal Nath Khanal in a chat with us last week (p. 3, #44) let out the real peripheral as those of Nepali bourgeoisie, and Cambodia, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh. But the send their children to public schools. After reason the UML forced the country to close for three days. He said: we they love obfuscation as much as the ministers agitation against private schools in Nepal all, it’s a fact that no government official— have to be on the streets otherwise the Maoists will be there. (Or words to we see everyday speechifying on the evening suffers from a more fundamental flaw—that not even a cabinet minister—can afford to that effect.) The UML strategy therefore boils down to this: paralyse news. All of these attributes are on vivid display of mixed-up priorities. pay the fees of private schools from their parliament, paralyse the streets. Maybe the UML should find out why that in the agitation against private schools by the To start with, do the Maoists seriously salaries alone. And five-star schools will pay leftist bastion in India, Kerala, has banned bandhs. No form of protest is student wing of Nepali Maoists. Private schools think that Nepali students of Rupy’s taxes just like five-star hotels. legitimate if people are forced out of fear to obey. We don’t agree that you re-opened, but the agitation is far from over. International will rush back to Padmodaya? Nepali communists prefer the time- force others to agree with you. This isn’t a spontaneous uprising like it The Maoists are right about one thing In all probability, they will catch the first tested bourgeois way of creating a spectacle was in 1990. This isn’t People Power, it is just Power At Any Cost. By through: our schools are sick. available flight to rather than making an impact. So the being on the streets, the UML is just showing the ultra-violent left that it Government-run public Bangalore, and start singing student wing of main opposition party CPN also matters. schools suffer from politics. Jana Gana Mana with even (UML) sets chairs of District Education The result of all this is that Girija Koirala ends up being equated with Teachers do not teach, they more gusto in some Officers on fire. Students affiliated to CPN democracy. This is dangerous not just for the UML, but also for the spend their time in preaching frightfully expensive private (ML) burn microbuses to obtain concession country. If Koirala goes, as he soon must, does it mean we bid good bye the doctrine of the political school in Kodaikanal, fares. Students swearing by Maoism to democracy as well? The Prime Minister has brought this curse upon party that they are affiliated Ootacmund or Mercara. If vanadlise schools. Is this about education? himself, his party and the nation by clinging on when there were several with. The Maoists are taking the Elite’s Co-ed were to No, it is about power. And the middle-class chances for a graceful exit. But greed rules. With three major multi-billion full advantage of public be closed, their Nepali manufactures apology for one or the other rupee government contracts pending, the kickbacks to be made on those school teachers, collecting students will fill the of them. It’s a minor miracle that the mess procurements seem to be a powerful inducement for his cronies to one-third of their meagre Bhadrapur flights and journey isn’t worse. It is the mediocrity of the convince him to hang on for a bit longer. salaries. Their concern for onwards to Kurseong and middle-class that feeds the Maoist the quality of instruction in Darjeeling. insurgency in Nepal.  NATION 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 333 COMMENTARY by KANAK MANI DIXIT Need to know g]kfnL ast month, the International tongues of Nepal must be protected tunnel of societal crisis. Here, the Labour Organisation organised and the country’s cultural diversity same newspaper is read across the la media blitz to alert Nepalis of preserved, it is only Nepali which can spectrum, from the government the ills of child labour, giving us, serve as the cultural springboard on secretaries to the ministers, the among other things, the sobering the national plane. If Nepal is the shopkeepers, the academics, and information that one in a hundred chosen nation-state structure within the labouring class. Nepali is a child workers in the world today which to try and deliver prosperity to fine tool for social change, it only is a Nepali. The campaign was a Nepalis, then our economic dynamics, has to be recognised as such. good idea, and the print adverts cultural advance, and social cohesion International agencies which were nicely done. But why did the will have to be supported by the have power over resources seem ILO national office decide to do it Nepali language. to have neglected Nepali in the all in English? It could have been Newar, myopic belief that it is an An organisation addressing an Limbu or Tharu Bhasa, if history establishmentarian language, excruciatingly real national had been otherwise. If history had without considering that this can problem, which requires the mass been other-otherwise it could be changed. It is this neglect of public to be sensitised, decides to even have been Tibetan, Chinese, Nepali that, to some extent, impart the message in a tongue English or Hindi. But Nepali it is, explains why there is no sense of that the public cannot understand. and we have got to work with it. urgency to rescue public schooling, Why would the UN agency do English is an overwhelmingly which has been in free fall for a something so breath-takingly important language, and it is true decade. One reason may be that the inappropriate as this? we will not progress without medium of instruction is Nepali. The labour agency is only one of accessing the world of ideas and While the English-speakers revel in many to have erred on the side of communications that is available visions of Nepal entering the IT era, English. Expatriate development through English. Today, it is no one is really bothered by the fact

agency managers and their English- Why did the ILO national office do this in English? mainly professionals who have that the Nepali office clerk or lowly ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ speaking Nepali counterparts and ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ some English, and future Nepali accountant cannot access the data- programme officers often suffer from Maobadi. They are forced to Nepal (mostly in India). So there is which had spread themselves in a administrators, politicians, processing power of the computer the delusion that “If I understand it, party only with the English- every reason to suspect the accuracy sprinkling across the country. journalists, activists, teachers, all where it matters because nobody then they will too.” The inability to speaking Kathmandu elite, and of their pontifications about their With the ‘nation building project’ must have adequate command of has bothered to standardise Nepali fathom the role of Nepali in Nepal is hence gain a fashionably warped own country. of the Panchayat years, spear- the language if they are to Devanagari. Nepal is in the midst of why vacancy announcements for view on what’s going on. They headed initially by King upgrade their thinking and a democratising radio revolution drivers and gardeners are put out in cannot get to the depth of the Mahendra, the young language productivity. But for the (good governance and all that), the Occidental tongue, why NGOs sociological churning in a country Kasto chha… rapidly expanded to serve as the foreseeable future, Nepali will be but most bikase bidesis in town do ubiquitously seek project proposals that is rushing to modernise while It is easy to understand why our governmental tongue and the link the language of communication, not know of this. Why? Because and reports only in English, why jettisoning its cultural moorings, diplomats and development language of the population. governance, planning, activism, the language of FM radio is diplomats are sometimes clueless and therefore reach for simplistic partners never get past the ‘kasto Much is wrong with this the courts, public education and mostly Nepali. Similarly, no one about political ground realities two-dimensional models of a chha’ and ‘dhanyabaad’ stage in linguistic evolution, particularly even (except right at the top) is concerned that there is next to because they only get a sample ‘fatalistic’ society. Nepali 101. The average stint of the fact that Nepali gained its business and trade. nothing in the name of children’s translation of papers that are the The dangers of consorting the average dip or dev is three to present supremacy at the expense As far as social cohesion is programming on Nepal local staple, and why innumerable with Nepal’s English-speaking four years, so there is hardly the of other national languages and concerned, whatever its provenance, Television. Because they do not manuals are produced on everything brackets over cocktails and at time to master the language dialects. For too long, the Nepali Nepali remains the single language for watch NTV. from midwifery to animal hus- barbecues cannot be overstated. enough to be able to break the language has been the preserve of the whole country. Before you turn All this displays, really, a lack of bandry—in English. For, while elsewhere in South Asia class barrier. But that is no reason the pre-eminent castes and classes your nose up at Nepali as the language empathy, and genuine interest in the The absence of the Nepali you can get down to a lower-middle to neglect the role of Nepali who have taken advantage of it to of the Bahuns, bear in mind that it is lives of Nepalis. The next time you see language in the upper echelons of class level in English, here the language in Nepal, and promote it move ahead in administration and in Nepali that the Limbu will speak to an advertisement, signboard, manual, the agencies, INGOs and even imperial language will deliver as a medium for social, economic various social sectors. For too the Tharu, the Rai to the Dolpopa, directions, instructions meant for the some NGOs skews the pitch for almost exclusively the urban and cultural advancement. long Nepali has been producing the Yadav to the Gurung, and the public at large—and notice that it is in Nepali development because of economic elite. Even some of our Because Nepal was never only literature—poetry and short Chhetri to the Newar. English—ask yourself whether this the unbridgeable semantic best scholars cannot communicate politically colonised, English did stories and novellas—when the A newspaper in Nepali crosses does not show disregard. For all distance this creates between the in English, leave alone politicians, not become the lingua franca of need now is to promote all the caste, ethnic and class Nepalis.  hakims and the masses. Many administrators and journalists. The the economic and administrative intellectual discourse through barriers among the literate bidesis, whether diplomat or possibility of having easy conversa- elites, as it did in the rest of the works in the social sciences. population. While in every other Kanak Mani Dixit was born a development-wallah, miss out on tions and developing friendships subcontinent. Until 1950 and the These are problems, but the South Asian country, there is a Bahun, and besides publishing the richness of the discourse in the with ‘locals’ is therefore limited to departure of the Ranas, Nepali answer is not to throw the widening divide between the Himal Khabarpatrika is Nepali newspapers, and so believe the urban rich. And most of the (formerly Khas Kura) itself was linguistic baby with the English-speakers and the Member Secretary of Madan that there is hardly any debate in English-savvy upper-class scions largely the language of the bathwater. If one is to look to the ‘vernacular language’ mass, Nepali Puraskar Pustakalaya, the the country about, say, the attended school and college outside expansionary parbatiya groups, future, while the myriad mother saves us from this pre-determined Nepali library of record.

LETTERS LUMBINI the stone slab, was a hoax planted by democratic Nepal must discipline We do not have any right to If truth be told, archaelogical finds a prescient tarai chieftain to claim WHAT NEXT? piece cataloguing the prime his unruly party members and ask deny citizenship to Nepalis. do not conclusively establish the Buddha for the future Nepal? We have been running our minister’s strengths as a Koirala the prime minister to stay Political parties must take the Tilaurakot, Lumbini, as the I am not discrediting the handicraft shop in Kupondol for democratically elected leader, his and weather the storm for the sake long-term perspective and act birthplace of the Buddha (“Buddha archaeological argument for the the last 14 years and we have elected status as the party president, of Nepal’s fragile democracy. now. was born here”, #43). The archaeo- Buddha’s birth place but putting always had a signboard outside his elected status as the leader of Nobody in Nepal possesses a Rajesh Gautam logical argument, on the basis of things in the right perspective. All telling our customers who we are: the majority party in the parliament, magic wand to fix the country’s Kathmandu which Sher Bahadur Deuba that the archaelogical finds Self-financing women from his undefeated record as a long-standing problems overnight, announced Lumbini as the accomplish is provide an inductive Dhankuta believing in and parliamentarian and so on. Yet Lal not even the king. We have seen CK Lal is a bigot. Why do you Buddha’s birth place in 1996 amid certainty about Lumbini as the practising fair trade. Without concludes that Koirala should them all. What if democracy is keep publishing his trash? much fanfare, runs as follows: the Buddha’s birthplace. And, as notice or warning the police resign. The conclusion is neither short-circuited again as in 2017 P Swar inscription on the Ashok pillar in the everyone knows, an inductive suddenly decided to remove our dialectical, nor circular nor linear— BS? Boisterous Nepalis, including by email Mayadevi Temple complex says conclusion is only probabilistic, it signboard. Why? When the Home it’s a leap of emotion. Koirala the Lal, may have to keep their that emperor Ashok placed a stone is never conclusive. We get Minister is sending the police and president and Koirala the citizen of mouths shut for another 30 years. CONGRATULATIONS slab as a marking on the place hysterical every time some Indian army out to win people’s hearts PK Mishra Nepal’s special brand of where the Buddha was born. An source suggests Pipprahawa in and minds they certainly don’t win by email supermarket communism has archaelogical team comprising India as the Buddha’s birthplace. ours by stealing our signboard. just set a national record with Nepali and Japanese experts Deep down, we don’t seem so What will they take next? CK Lal’s piece on citizenship (“In four days of shutdowns. unearthed the stone slab in the certain. Hence the hysteria. Nita Khawas a state of statelessness”, #42) is Congratulations, comrades. process of excavating the Mayadevi Kanden Thebe The Dhankuta Sisters’ of strategic importance for Since you already have a party Temple in Lumbini. Therefore, the Taplejung Handicrafts Nepal. We should take timely office rivalling Narayanhiti, why Buddha was born in Lumbini. TIME TO STAY action regarding the Citizenship don’t you capitalise on your This argument has a few Does it really matter whether the CK Lal’s columns carry his Bill before it goes out of control. shutdowns and add trekking holes. Could emperor Ashok, who Buddha was born in Nepal or India signature courage, wit and bite from the airport to our list of lived some centuries after the since neither nation state actually that have delighted me, but his tourist attractions. And why Buddha, have made a mistake? existed when he was born? The logic at times appears skewed. In haven’t you started selling “I Could he have actually strayed Buddha must be having a good his column “Time to Go” (#43) survived a bandh” T-shirts in four miles north to Tilaurakot laugh at how our nationalistic hackles Lal’s conclusion that Girija Thamel. Where is your during his pilgrimage to the rise. Koirala must resign goes against entrepreneurship, comrades? Buddha’s birth place? And what if T Shakya the dense evidence and analysis Govind Pokhrel the Ashok pillar itself, along with by email he packs through out the USA 444 NATION 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES After 10 years, ex-kamaiyas find strength in numbers The experience of a group of former kamaiyas, out of bonded labour for over a decade, indicates the difficult road ahead

for those recently “freed” by a government edict.

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preferable,” recalls Thaga Chaudhary, a former kamaiya. Things started looking up for them with the restoration of multiparty democracy 11 years ago. As the first local elections were approaching, political parties began casting about for new ways to woo voters. The Village Development Committee (VDC) office of Surmi Nala in Kailali district provided these few kamaiyas and other landless squatters plots of land to build huts. Once they had a roof over their heads, they began thinking of work. But they had only farming skills, and because their new land-holdings were far too small for anything but subsistence farming, they could never grow enough food to feed themselves. Phulpati Chaudhari, president, and Jag Mohan Chaudhari, The former kamaiya accountant of the Ekta Bachat Samuha. families were working independently, and had almost given up hope of ensuring A community farm belonging to former kamaiyas in Kailali district proper meals for their children. PHOTOS: HEMLATA RAI HEMLATA PHOTOS: In 1998, Creation of a Creative

IN KAILALI ○○○○○

HEMLATA○○○○○○○○○○ RAI the future still looks uncertain, the end with freedom. They faced Society (CCS) a local group nlike 200,000 of their small patch of land they farm extreme poverty and desperation, started by young activists in brothers and sisters in together means there is food for as they had to leave the small Kailali, gave them a chance to ubonded labour until last the children and they can go to plots of land they cultivated for restore their confidence in their year, they got their freedom a school instead of herding animals. their families. “When our skills and experience. The decade ago. But it has taken Ten years ago, these kamaiyas children were hungry and crying, kamaiyas realised that their ten families of former kamaiyas from Kailali district managed to do we thought about going back to most valuable asset was their a long time to find security the unthinkable—they repaid their the kisans (the landholding knowledge of the seasons, through a unique effort at “owners” the sauki, the perpetually farmers who used to “own” the crops, soil and water. CCS collective farming. But real mounting debts that required them kamaiyas) to ask for loans. But brought scattered kamaiya freedom from poverty remains to remain in servitude to their then we thought the better of families together and provided a distant dream. Even though landlords. But their ordeals did not it—even death seemed them a seed fund of Rs 30,000. Taking turns with chores at the vegetable garden.

HERE AND THERE by DANIEL LAK Things fall apart, eventually

riting in a recent edition of Time magazine, columnist Roger

Rosenblatt laments the absence of great issues in America these Pick your cause. Hone your outrage. Get to work. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ w days. Other than the soaring price of petrol, most denizens of the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ United States, it seems, have little to corruption and revolution in the hills. Over in industrial countries are in the grip of unprecedented complacency. And I exercise their sense of outrage. India it’s population, Pakistan and, yes, corruption. think I know why. It’s we forty-somethings. We’re in charge now. The Whatever happened to poverty, South Africa worries about AIDS, crime and race baby boomers are here, at the top, and we’re very, very pleased with racism, inequality and the other great relations. Israel and Palestine have each other. Boy ourselves. It’s the Blair-Clinton revolution — steal the economic policies causes, Rosenblatt writes. do they ever. Pick your cause. Hone your outrage, of their political enemies and cloth them in faux-trendy youth-speak. No What a luxury to live in a land get to work. left turns allowed, but occasionally you can check the rear view mirror and where you have to look really hard to In the past, idealistic youth from the developed see what’s out there on the sinister side. Keep the bankers and the find a good cause. They are, of course, world used to do just that. Remember the hordes markets happy, and let bread and circuses soothe the masses. Those hairy out there—just like the truth in the X of sandal-wearing, dreadlocked children of the monsters who thrive on tear gas and television cameras at various global files. Even the most developed socieities suburbs who picked coffee in Nicaragua when trade fora — Trotskyists, recidivists, publicity seekers, scum. still have pressing questions of poverty President Reagan was waging proxy war against the Our smugness, it seems to me, is self-induced blindness on a grand scale. I and exclusivity that have yet to be fully Sandinistas. Never mind that the Nepali Maoists wonder if what I call the crises-to-come aren’t just around the corner. A short resolved. It’s just that the vast middle make the Ortega brothers’ politics seem — and by no means complete — list will suffice. The oceans have no more fish. classes, and people who define Thatcherite by comparison. No one is paying much Global warming is a generation away from hitting us hard, very hard. Our food themselves as such, are more numerous attention to such things anymore. And I wonder is poisonous. A thousand ethnic or communal conflicts are on the boil. The now than ever before. Incomes have kept why. It isn’t for lack of trying by the media, legions of the world’s poor know just how rich we are, thanks to satellite pace with aspirations, or at least access although I suppose we could be doing better. It television. Big places like China or Indonesia could face social mayhem, even to credit has created that illusion. isn’t because diplomats in foreign capitals don’t try implosion, as the world watches helplessly. It’s never been so easy to find child Contrast this great comfortable to make their patch seem significant and meaning- pornography or buy a slave. We’re all addicted to data and how long can it be muddle—who can’t find anything ful back home. After all, that’s the path to success. before hackers and terrorists make common cause. meaningful to get excited about—with Even much derided national governments in Call me Cassandra, but that’s not the point. All I’m saying is that there is a South Asian countries, or Africa. These troubled lands labour to put their plight across, lot to get exercised about, causes abound and we forty-somethings are past it are the places where Chinua Achebe’s even if it’s only for a bagful of development aid, or already. Our children are coming, and I think they’re already smarter than us. “Things Fall Apart” is a users’ guide to a trade concession. My daughter has been listening to Bob Dylan. The times they are definitely a- daily life. Here in Nepal it’s bandhs and It’s been apparent for some time now that most changing... again.  NATION 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 555

They also helped the newly

organised farmers lease a plot of Record climbs

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 10 kattha (approximately 0.34 It was a season of triumph, tragedy and tumbling records. hectares) to start their collective Sixteen-year-old Temba Tsheri Sherpa stepped on Mt farming exercise. Interestingly,,, Free to be miserable Everest on 23 May to become the youngest climber ever to this is the exact area of land per scale the summit. The schoolboy from Tashigaon, family that free kamaiyas and saturated labour market of the western tarai, that Rolwaling who lost five fingers to frostbite while attempting activists have been demanding for would be difficult even with training. Everest from the south last spring made it up from the Tired of waiting for the government to allot them kamaiyas freed last year. northern side this time. Temba, climbing with the “For the first season we tried the 10 katthas (approximately 0.34 hectares) of land they’ve demanded per family many former kamaiya International Everest Expedition, replaced the record set by to grow vegetables individually, 17-year-old French climber Bertrand Roche in 1990. Roche, but soon realised that dividing families from Kailali and Kanchanpur districts the small plot among ten owners decided to force the issue in January. They began moving out of the 51 makeshift camps they were was not practical. We also stuffed into and occupied undesignated chunks of realised that as small producers it government-owned land. They were careful not to was difficult to find a market for encroach upon surrounding forests, not to chop down our produce,” says Phulpati trees, or build their shelters on private-owned or Chaudhari, president of the otherwise contested properties. The ex-kamaiyas group. Instead, they decided to occupied a total of 1015 hectares. farm as a group. In the last This mass civil disobedience was to challenge season, they grew thousands of kg the government to either help them resettle there of onion, potato, tomato, permanently or provide them land elsewhere. cabbage, karela and beans. With Supporting activists promised to move in once each MIN BAJRACHARYA economies of scale, the vegetables family had the 10 katthas (0.34 hectares), to help them start their new lives with programmes for were easier to market and found nutrition, construction, healthcare, skill development willing buyers. “It was the first Former kamaiyas at a makeshift camp in Kailali. and income-generation. time I handled so much cash,” The Ministry for Social Welfare for its part, does says an excited Jag Mohan When the government outlawed the kamaiaya not agree with the former kamaiyas' demands: it also a member of this International Everest Expedition, set Chaudhari, the group’s system on 17 July last year, it would have done promises only five katthas (about 0.17 hectares) and another record this spring, when with his wife Claire, he accountant. well to look to this group for lessons about farming Rs 5,000 to each family. And even this paltry paraglided from the summit of Everest (north side) to reach The families don’t just have skills, the importance of title deeds, and keeping promise has not been kept. “Before the landlords promises. Resettling their lives away from the cheated the kamaiyas, and now the government is Base Camp in eight minutes. On the summit two hours enough vegetables for themselves after Temba was 28 year-old Lhakpa Sherpa, who become now, there’s also the increased fertile fields of rich farmers who relied on them, violating their rights by not extending due support,” has been as hard on the former kamaiyas, as was Mike Dottridge, director of Anti-Slavery International the first Nepali woman to climb the mountain from both cash flow which they urgently sides. Lhakpa summitted Everest from the Nepali side last need. Sundari Chaudhary had working in virtual slavery. said in Kathmandu recently. Non-governmental help The government decision meant the kamaiyas is also dwindling. Since the former kamaiyas are now spring. nearly lost her eyesight to were free from the obligation of sauki, the debt scattered in various locations, donor agencies are If Temba was the youngest, 64 year-old American Sherman cataracts, and last year she could that tied them to the landlords. But because finding it difficult to reach them with relief. “There is Bull became the oldest man to reach the top of the world. He finally afford to have them rehabilitation has taken so long and been so slow, also no policy or understanding among the was accompanied by his son Brad, and now there has been a treated. The children are eating the former kamaiyas have been forced to start from supporting NGOs and INGOs as to how effectively to father-son duo atop Everest. The Bulls reached the summit on better and all those under 15 go square one: They had no money to pay off their provide aid to former kamaiyas,” says Ek Raj 25 May. There’s more: 32-year-old Erik Weihenmeyer became to school, compared to only “debts”, now they have no money to get on with Chaudhary of the Backward Society Education, a the first blind climber to reach the summit, also on 25 May. The literate person among their their lives. They’re not complaining about not grassroots group at the forefront to free and being able to live in the huts they built on their rehabilitate kamaiyas. climber from Colorado followed the sound of bells to the top. parents. The spring mountaineering season also saw the first However, there are still landlords’ land, but they haven’t been provided If things don’t move fast, the former kamaiays in the with alternate housing arrangements. Farming is Surmi Nala VDC will start to look positively lucky— successful expedition on Mt Lhotse Middle, 8,413m, from the problems, including the manage- west side, by a group of Russian climbers on 23 May. ment of finances. Last year CCS what they know best, but they haven’t yet been through no effort of the government. And being “free” allocated land to farm on, or been trained in new will mean being free to suffer, and be ignored. But there was also tragedy on Everest. Four climbers, helped them form a savings and skills that would help them get other jobs. In the - Hemlata Rai including Babu Chiri Sherpa, who holds the sprinting record credit group, Ekta Bachat up Everest (16 hours, 56 minutes) died on the mountain. An Samuha. Each family is required Austrian, an Australian and a Russian climber were other to save Rs 20 a week, and send a casualties. representative to meetings. But

for the last four months, the Suspect craft ○○○○○○○○○ savings have been stagnant: none ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Fasten your seat belts, UML. It is now the main opposition’s of the members has been able to turn to feel the heat in a suspect aircraft leasing deal, this put the money aside for their one with China Southwest Airlines. The Public Accounts compulsory weekly savings. On Committee (PAC) has found another jet-leasing decision, average, a family earns about Rs under comrade Bhim Rawal, a former UML tourism 1,000 a week from the sale of minister, irregular, and possibly corrupt. And the UML vegetables and the daily wage leadership does not like the manner in which the PAC, work they find in Dhangadi headed by Subhas Chandra Nemwang, reached their bazaar. The savings book shows conclusion. Its standing committee was the first to react, the families have Rs 8,000 saying it was “surprised” by the decision. But that, in turn, between them, but there is no surprised KP Oli, a member of the standing committee and cash at hand, mainly because the PAC. Days later, Oli said he felt the party should respect virtually all members have taken democratic norms and adhere to the decision, which was loans and haven’t started paying taken by him and other senior party members, among them back. others. What this boils down to is the tussle between Oli The other worry is the land and UML general secretary Madhav Nepal, which has been itself: their three-year lease term simmering since the 1998 convention that elected Nepal to is coming to an end, but the power. Oli is said to have more popular support, but Nepal group is not confident their controls the party ranks and neither side lets slip a chance landlord will renew the to get at the other. The UML has formed a party committee to agreement, and they don’t feel investigate the charge against Rawal, known to be a Nepal confident enough to negotiate yes-man, and Oli wants to make sure this is not a ploy to with him. “Individually we are absolve the accused. nothing. Collective farming is what is vital for us. If we cannot

lease land, we will go hungry Clean-up more garbage ○○○○○○○○○ again,” Phaguram Chaudhary, ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ secretary of the group, told us. It was a sense of shame that prodded Japanese climber Worse, they don’t even have Ken Noguchi to take up the task of cleaning Everest. He ownership documents for the land was struck when western climbers pointed out that their huts are built on. although Japan’s economy was robust, its environmental The road ahead is rocky and ethics were pretty terrible. “When I climbed Everest in 1999, uncertain, but these ten families I realised a large amount of garbage had been left by are still proud that they have Japanese, Korean and Asian expeditions,” says Noguchi, stuck together and achieved so who came back with a clean-up expedition in 2000, and much. An achievement that their also this year. The 2001 Noguchi/Asia Qomolongma thousands of newly-freed brothers Cleanup Expedition brought down 1,600 kg of garbage from and sisters can learn from. Tibet. But Noguchi is just not done yet. Next year, he hopes Despite the problems, the to collect more than 4,000 kg of garbage from the Nepali relentless sun, and temperatures side of the mountain. in the area of 40 degrees, they It isn’t only foreigners making the effort to clean up the each continue to take their turn mountain. Nepali Sherpas, paid by the Nepal watering, nurturing and Mountaineering Association, the Tourism Ministry and the harvesting the vegetables they Tourism Board, brought down more than 4,000 kgs from the have come to rely on.  mountain slopes this spring. 666 NATION 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES SOMEWHERE IN NEPAL by PUSKAR BHUSAL

want to hold bandh-eve public hearings on ways of making the shutdowns as people-friendly as possible. Once residents from Shut up, or shutdown Dhoka Tole to Patan Dhoka realise that they can participate in this the opposition has been setting new alliance can think of registering a democratic exercise without having records in testing the elasticity of no-confidence motion at the to miss the headlines of the bandhs without allowing the parliament secretariat, the prime afternoon papers, the door to country to snap. In the world’s sole minister issues a whip to ruling greater public participation will surviving super power, Bill Clinton party MPs to vote in favour of the have widened a bit. used shutdowns to mount a government on anything that comes If the duration of the protests successful comeback from the brink up for a hand count. matters so much, can’t we of irrelevance after Republicans Infuriated by this restriction on conceptualise something like a five- seized control of both house of legislators’ consciences, our day relay strike in which people in Congress in 1994. Clinton’s comrades—freshly ditched by the each development region take a day showdown with House Speaker Rastriya Prajatantra Party after the off to demand the prime minister’s Newt Gingrich over budget winter session is prorogued—fill resignation? Depending on how this allocations brought the entire Putali Sadak with mangled pieces of works, we could contemplate federal government to a standstill what used to be sidewalk railings to holding 14- and 75-day stoppages for days. The impact: polls showed block the prime minister from for greater zonal, district and that Clinton would easily have won entering his Singha Darbar office. national effect. No one disputes the a third term in office if the 22nd The wily old man decides to test fact that the country loses a lot of amendment to the US constitution the will of the young and restless. money during these strikes. But hadn’t stood in the way. Instead of helicoptering himself wasn’t that the refrain of the Let’s look at it from the point from Baluwatar to work (the way he Marich Man-era pratikar samiti? of view of the UML and other left likes to take those periodic day We refused to listen then, and

MIN BAJRACHARYA groups. They insist they are forced trips to Dharan) he chooses to drive aren’t we glad? Nepalis knew they by circumstances to blend their straight through the barricades. had to lose something to gain If the duration of the protests matters so much, can’t we street action with periodic bouts of Now, you can’t expect the something of value, which is forced inactivity. Given the current agitated red brigade to pack up and go precisely what the UML is have a five-day relay bandh in which people in each political scene, they may not be home. The stakes are obviously reminding us today. So don’t bill development region take a day off to demand the prime wrong. With sparks within the increased when half the UML the UML for all those smashed governing party often flying to the central committee is taken into windows and torched cars that are

minister’s resignation? point of rendering the opposition custody to watch the prime minister the by-product of this great lesson ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ irrelevant, members of the shadow make a televised appeal for national in civic responsibility. s it not rather unfair of us to be of multiparty democracy. profound conclusion on such a cabinet know they can’t afford to consensus. True, a lot of people suffer A better idea would be to condemning political parties for However, that tells you only potent political instrument. stay in the dark for too long. So from regular bandhs. However, this charge the Kathmandu-based iorganising shutdowns, especially half the story. The Kangressis have Let’s face it. Without the spring opposition parties join hands to does not mean that they are in any embassies in direct proportion to after how that sustained series of sit- never been out of power long shutdowns of 1990, could the craft a strategy to obstruct the better shape without them. the support they gave us while we ins and strikes interspersed with enough to be itching to bring the country have dismantled the entire winter session of In deference to public opinion, were learning how to paralyse a sloganeering rekindled our demo- country to a halt at the slightest partyless edifice validated by a parliament demanding the prime however, organisers could perhaps political system that wouldn’t let cratic consciousness just over a provocation. national referendum whose minister’s resignation over a try to fine-tune their action plan the people open their mouth. After decade ago? As for the argument (Editorial, outcome even BP Koirala tainted aircraft deal. from next time. Remissions like the all, the 30-year panchayat-multi The ruling Nepali Congress, the “Realm of the senseless”, #44) that considered politically expedient not The prime minister, true to his morning and evening curfew breaks party debate was reduced to this: senior partner of the alliance that no bandh in the last seven years has to question? Strikes are a time- party’s legacy of democratic might work. If organisers think it shut up or shutdown. The people awakened us from our three-decade been successful in achieving its main tested formula for political socialism, tells his opponents to use would be difficult to ensure that have long spoken. Let’s not try to slumber, likes to brag about its objective, maybe not. But seven fulfilment. Forget about new constitutional methods to oust him. shopkeepers and consumers get destroy the language that forced the bandh-free record after the restoration years is too short to reach such a democracies like Bangladesh, where But even before the opposition back indoors in time, they might world to listen to us. 

COMMENTARY by NURU LAMA Hope for a new Nepal hile in primary school, holding placards I dream of a new Nepal that celebrates the people, communities The Indian dream is a house, a Maruti and a high above my head, I used to happily join and histories that make us a vibrant whole. A Nepal that con- ‘bahadur.’ Beside my chaukidar brothers who make w public processions shouting: “Hamro raja, Indian families’ dreams come true, I have sisters hamro desh, pran bhanda pyaro chha. Hamro bhasha, cedes the mistakes of the past, understands our present dire providing comfort in the “City of Joy”, uncles fighting hamro bhesh, pran bhanda pyaro chha.” situation and therein finds the impetus to progress. in the Indian Army, cousins laboring in Korean

Thus the sacred images of desh and naresh were sweatshops and in-laws doing ‘I don’t know what’ in ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ scripted on my empty slate. In secondary school, I ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ the Middle East. My friends are proud that they was encouraged to appreciate the visionary unification of things, I realised Nepal was just another melancholic what feels like a primordial economic and psychological fought for the British and not the Indians, are working of Nepal by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, to be proud tale of a poor nation struggling to transition from a malaise, depleting life out of the citizenry. in America and not in the Middle East. Instead of of brave warriors like Amar Singh Thapa and to feudal, isolated past, chained by the inertia of family- I am a representative Nepali youth, once full of life, fighting against servitude, we argue the trivialities of remember martyrs like Shukraraj Shastri. Here the based politics, administrative slack and caste-cultural today full of ‘fist and fury.’ Without my asking I was who the better master is. Is it so difficult for us to Buddha was born, here Mt Everest stood high. We hegemony. I understood that nationalism was a 20th given hope and pride, and today the same agents have, accept our destitution that we continue to believe the went through the daily ritual of a patriotic song century phenomenon, pronounced by the histories of without my asking, robbed me of them. As a child, I too chauvinistic rhetoric of our netajis, and read history as before class: “Hatti hoina datti ladne Nepali ko baani colonialism. It was an idea, not a reality. Nepali wanted to be someone, I too thought I could be written in the textbooks? hunchha”. We smiled gleefully like the picture- nationalism was a Panchayati attempt to give meaning someone. As a youth, I see only hopelessness and still Mt Everest may stand tall but I certainly have perfect children from North Korean propaganda to the imperial victories of the Gorkha kings by waters—my attempts at finding a job, my dreams of stooped. Once I believed in Nepal. Today, I magazines. We knew we were the future karnadhars exogenously introducing a common Nepali identity. I providing a better future for my family washed away in question it. But even in my lonely, desperate of Nepal because we were told so. realised that the Sugauli Treaty was a charitable the dirty waters of the Bagmati. A degenerative cloud of moments, I tell myself “not all is lost.” I remind Everyday we were taught to be proud of Nepal. giveaway by the British who anger and despair hangs myself of King Robert the Bruce’s lessons from the And I was one proud Nepali. I understood ours was realized that the sturdy, loyal over my generation, unrelenting spider. I am glad not to be living in the an important country in the world because foreign Gurkha recruits were more punctuated by the false assurance of a textbook Nepal, gloating in dignitaries came to visit us and were ‘granted valuable than the rugged thunder of bandhs narcissistic self-admiration or parading the audience’ by the King. The aerodynamic vibrancy of slopes they lived on. after bandhs. Our Emperor’s new clothes. Yes, I am your representa- our national flag was an impressive sight compared to The 1990 democratic Machiavellian netajis tive Nepali youth, wanting to build hope and pride the rectangular monotony of other flags. I knew the reformation was casue for prey on our frustration in a new Nepal. I imagine a new Nepal that eternal flame of the Buddha was lit at Lumbini, that fresh jubilation. We thought and muscle. We are the celebrates the people, communities and histories Shiva presided from the inner sanctums of a new era had begun. How walking-talking ‘instant’ that make us a vibrant whole. I imagine a new Pasupatinath, and that Vishnu slept soundly on his mistaken we were in our explosives they can hurl Nepal that concedes the mistakes of the past, serpent bed at Budhanilkantha. Even our hopes once again. With onto their opponents, understands our present dire situation and therein geographical scale, “all” the way from Mechi to increased political and when we explode we finds the impetus to progress. Let us learn from the Mahakali and from the Himalayas to the tarai felt jockeying at the top, destroy pavement Buddha who taught us that real happiness comes Asiatic. This was the land of powerful gods, brave pervasive corruption, railings, inflame public not from ignoring the truth of our unpleasant people and beautiful places. bureaucratic negligence, buses and assault innocent reality but in accepting and overcoming that truth.  But all was not well. The devil lurked in the and ominous Maoist Indian tourists. Yes, I am shadows. I grew up. The symbols of Nepali pride rumblings in the the ‘cute boy’ turned Nuru Lama, 27, grew up in Phaplu. He recently cultivated during my school years clashed with the western hills, the karyakarta, hooligan, graduated in economics from Harvard University and stark realities of everyday Nepal. In the global scheme country still remains in arsonist. now works in New York. NATION 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 777 Fight to the finish In the Nepali Congress backrooms political intrigue gets more

intense as Prime Minister Koirala decides to battle it out.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and the Armed Police Force (APF) to fight the Maoist insurgency. Koirala believes he got a clean chit from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). Although it did not charge the prime minister formally, the CIAA concluded that there was corruption in the deal to lease the Lauda Air 767 for Royal Nepal Airlines—which was obliquely approved by cabinet. So the stigma of graft is going to be a Girija legacy. Unlike the 1995 scam Sujata Koirala Khum Bahadur Khadka Susil Koirala involving a European sales agent for Royal Nepal Airlines, where Koirala advised him strongly not to nephew Sriharsh and sister-in-law minister. The decision also was implicated and cleared by resign. Badri Bahadur Karki, the Nona seemed to have been more smacks of an embattled prime court, this charge is likely to remain Attorney General, told the prime concerned about jeopardised minister acting defensively to with him forever. minister there was no legal reason business interests if he resigned. shore up his numbers to prevent a On 25 May, the CIAA filed to step down. Niece Shailaja, for her part, who mutiny. “This is not the Girijababu charges against ten officials, We asked Sushil Koirala why he was sternly against stepping down we remember,” a minister present at including former minister Tarani D thought the prime minister should when Koirala wanted to some the Baluwatar consultations told us. Chataut at the Appellate Court, stay on. His reply: “He’s been weeks ago because she did not see a “He was bargaining, cajoling with Lalitpur. Directors of Royal Nepal attacked from every side since the credible successor, had no firm former rivals just to cling to power.” Airlines, some senior managers and day he took office, he needs to be position this time. Koirala must be thinking he’ll two Lauda officials are also charged. given a chance to govern. That is Now that he has made up his sort out the inter-party wrangling Chataut and one RNAC employee what a majority of the party mind to stay, Koirala’s first order with a reshuffle and then turn his are absconding while others were workers said, not just us.” of business is to outflank critics full attention to the opposition picked up by police the same Defence minister Mahesh within his own party by co-opting UML to get them on board for the morning and taken to court. A Acharya, who is quiet during dissidents in his cabinet. At the budget session. If he gets an all- distant cousin of Chataut, who is a meetings but seems to have the ear forefront is Khum Bahadur party support for the ISDP and the member of the CIAA, is said to of the prime minister in private, was Khadka whom he had summarily APF, he may then step down. The have tipped him off to avoid against resignation. Family pressure sacked in August, but is now main question now is: will anyone

PHOTOS: MIN BAJRACHARYA arrest. He is now in hiding also counted: daughter Sujata, taking back probably as a senior let him?  ○○○○○

BINOD○○○○○○○○○○○ BHATTARAI parliamentary elections two years somewhere in Kathmandu. ou have to give it to the man. ago, he became prime minister Some Koirala-aides felt the yHe never gives up, does he? because he has the numbers within CIAA letter to the prime minister Ignoring the counsel of some the party, and he was elected party gave him a honourable way out, of his closest political allies, and president—why should he quit? so he could resign without following the advice of his relatives Emboldened by such fervour, he is implicating himself. Among those Holidays and cronies Girija Koirala has once now in no mood to listen to any advising him to step down last more opted to stay put and fight it talk of resignation. week—of course saying it was out . And this time, even he seems What he is contemplating ultimately his decision—were Without to realise this is a fight to the finish. now is a major reshuffle of his deputy prime minister Ram Koirala has convinced himself it cabinet to bring dissident Nepali Chandra Poudel, foreign minister is nothing less than democracy that Congress members back to the Chakra Bastola, and finance is at stake. Speaking privately to fold and turn his attention to minister Ram Sharan Mahat and Frontiers friends, he sees a huge conspiracy by holding the budget session of other close advisers. One insider A Qantas Holidays package makes worldwide the extreme right and left to unseat parliament—something that told us Koirala chain-smoked and travel so convenient. Whether its global hotel him, weaken the party and take the could be tougher. This is vital drank endless glasses of tea while country back to the days of because it has to vote the money trying to decide. NC lawmakers reservation, tour arrangement of car rental, any dictatorship. Koirala says the Nepali for his pet Integrated Security Sushil Koirala, Govinda Raj Joshi, airline ticket holder can book the above through Congress won a majority in and Defence Programme (ISDP) former minister Laxman Ghimere Qantas Holidays and benefit immensely. Be it the U.S.A., U. K., Australia, Africa of Asia, you can leave the headache of travel details to President Travels while you enjoy the sun.

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z Accommodation with Breakfast z Round trip transportation (If required) z Fruit basket & cookies in the room z Welcome drinks on arrival z 20% discount on food & beverage z Escort for mini trek/hike WORLD WIDE GSA PRESIDENT TRAVEL & TOURS PVT.LTD P.O.Box: 1307, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu, Nepal Children below 12 years sharing parents’ room free except meals. Tel.: 252995/228288/221774/224956/246685, 25 Years of Fax: 977-1-221180, E-mail: [email protected] Package for Nepalese & Expats & valid till September 2001 Quality service URL: http//www.president.nepal.com 888 NEPALI ECONOMY 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES BIZ NEWS COMMENT by VIJAYA GAJANANDA VAIDYA

Gas ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ If you’re still having problems purchasing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), you’ll be interested in knowing this: LPG will soon cost more. The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) is Needed: Nepali values working on a new pricing scheme for LPG, to account for the price hike recently announced by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). LPG sold by the IOC now costs $375 per metric ton, up t a time when the country in such social and to design laws and monitor government functions in a from $280 on 13 October last year, when the NOC raised the price of LPG from Rs 465 to political turmoil, we may need to stretch back and synergistic campaign towards long-term growth. The Rs 550 a cylinder. The NOC says it was losing about Rs 102 per cylinder even at the Rs aderive support from our historical and cultural present discretionary, ad hoc and politicised decision- 550 selling price. With the new increase from the Indian side, this will now be in the region roots. We may need to find definitions of democracy and making is hobbling development and economic of Rs 165. Madan Raj Sharma, the NOC’s executive director, says that without subsidies we governance that are based more on our own values. Are the progress. To break out of this vicious cycle the country would have to price LPG at Rs 750, a move that would need to be approved by the values of a western social order suited for us? Is there such a needs transparent and accountable government and this government. The NOC buys 3,700 metric tons of LPG from the Indian corporation thing as a Nepali value system? can happen with the correct application of democratic every month. This is obviously a contentious issue. Freedom and norms, checks and balances. Fairness and rule of law The NOC has also not yet worked out a system to ensure that LPG meant for domestic choice are universal values. And we did experiment with need to be guaranteed, so that efficient, honest and use does not end up in microbuses and three-wheelers that run on the gas. On average, a a political system “suited to the soil” which didn’t work visionary leaders are rewarded at election time. 14.2 kg cylinder of gas—enough to meet the cooking needs of a household of five to six either. But is there something in the Nepali psyche that Here, the role of the leaders of political parties is persons for a month—powers such vehicles for three to four days. About 1,000 such needs a different degree of social order than elsewhere? pivotal. They must come forward to build the institu- vehicles plying the Valley’s streets have pushed the monthly LPG demand up by about 250 The point I am trying to make is this: Nepali values tional foundations of good government. They must help metric tons. may favour strong government with efficient and honest clarify, aggregate and legitimise various interests within MIN BAJRACHARYA

Mind the gap ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Government spending has continued to increase, taking the budget deficit up by 35 percent to Rs 8.41 billion in the first nine months of the fiscal year (until end-April). The increase is mainly due to salaries and benefits for government employees and security costs. The government spent Rs 44 billion in the last nine months, of which about 29 percent went to meet regular expenses and just 14 percent was spent on development activities. According to the Central Bank’s monthly economic report, exports have continued to grow—by 21.5 percent in the first three-quarters of this fiscal year—but have slowed down compared to the 37.6 percent growth attained in the same period last year. The bank also reports drops in Nepal’s traditional exports—readymade garments, woollen carpets and jewellery. Pashmina sales in end April were Rs 6.28 billion but Nepal Rastra Bank says exports have declined since. Balancing the slowdown in exports, imports grew by just 6.9 percent to Rs 85.11 billion, compared to the 28.6 percent growth in imports in the same period last year. Foreign exchange reserves at the end of April were Rs 102.87 billion, of which 79.4 percent was convertible currency.

Budget 2001-02 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The national budget is the newest casualty of political instability. Parliament did no business after remaining in session for 57 days starting 8 February, and because the situation is basically unchanged, it is uncertain if government will be able to get new spending approved any time soon. Government sources say if things work to plan, the budget session will begin in the middle of this month. But that is no guarantee that the Nepali values may favour strong government with efficient and budget will be approved before the new fiscal year that commences in mid-July. If it cannot honest governance. We may need them to ensure the national be put through, the government will be forced to go back to borrowing money for regular

expenses, and development programmes will remain on hold until the budget bill becomes unity required for economic modernisation. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ law. This could take up the entire first quarter of the new fiscal year and bring all develop- ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ment programmes to a standstill. governance. That could be the pre-requisite to ensure society. They must help secure channels to articulate national unity required for economic modernisation. diverse views and muster public support for policy

Food for thought “Nepali values” implies social, economic and initiatives. They must be the consensus-builders ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ political characteristics that our leaders have to providing continuity and stable policies, not the ones Agriculture production has slowed down, owing mainly to unfavourable winter weather and articulate based on shared values which are identifiable polarising the polity, as is happening now. low agri-product prices. Growth is expected to be about three percent, down from 8.4 and distinct, and which transcend national, religious percent in the last fiscal year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives expects paddy and ideological differences. These cultural values are Fragile production to increase by about 4.6 percent to 4.21 million metric tons. The maize yield is based on ideals that have evolved in Nepali society since At present, Nepali political institutions remain fragile and projected to grow by 2.7 percent to 1.5 million metric tons, while that of wheat, the other the kingdom was united, they have social and political unstable, which in turn feeds social upheaval and turmoil. major crop, is expected to drop by 2.2 percent to 1.2 million metric tons. Millet output was characteristics that are distinct to the Nepali nation. The public has started to view parties as a part of the also down by 4.2 percent. The decline in wheat production is attributed to the unusually dry But do these values really transcend ideology, culture, problem and a threat to democracy because parties have winter and farmers’ unwillingness to use electricity to pump water for irrigation because religion and will they help or hinder the social and never demonstrated sensitivity to their concerns. One of agricultural product prices have remained low throughout the year. Among cash crops, economic transformation that Nepal needs? the most destructive offshoots of this is corruption and potato production is expected to increase by 5.6 percent to 1.3 million metric tons and The first problem with the thesis of “Nepali values” is nepotism. Corruption cannot be excused through cultural sugarcane is expected to grow by 5.1 percent to 2.2 million metric tons. Fruit and vegetable precisely the ethnic, religious, linguistic diversity in Nepal’s determinism, there is no society that has a monopoly on production are up by 9.8 and 10.6 percent respectively. multi-cultural milieu. The second is the question of honesty, or plunder. Transparency in government comes whether there is a correlation between such values and from institutional checks and balances, and as we have seen

Indian currency scare economic growth. This theory takes its cue from the from Hong Kong and Singapore, from a vigilant and ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ argument for “Asian values” put forward by Lee Kuan Yew visionary leadership that derives moral and political Central bank sources say they’re having problems with Indian currency: the and Mahathir Mohammad which argues that economic legitimacy from the public perception that it is accountable bank is wondering what to do with all the Indian Rupees it holds, and prosperity hinges on a strong government that is to the citizenry. the Indian currency that is in circulation and hidden away accountable and honest, and when individual freedoms are Weak government is the result of a weak under the mattresses of Nepalis. Indian second to social responsibility and collective rights. But the application of the rule of law, inadequate protection of currency circulates openly not only in “Asian values” argument that western-style democracy is individual rights, and leaders corrupted by vested border townships but also in major bad for economic growth is at best ambiguous. interests and criminal forces who bankroll their urban centres in the inner hills. elections. The state through its national budget could Commercial banks shy away from Ad hoc subsidise representative political parties through an buying IRs because re-exchanging it at One could also argue: isn’t it this very Nepali value independent commission so they will not be beholden the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) can take up system that lies at the root of the cronyism, corruption to political contributors. to three months. Sources at currency and lack of accountability afflicting us? The cause for Notwithstanding our cultural diversity and exchange counters, who are required to Nepal’s malgovernance and economic non-performance confused polity, I think Nepal can still build a shared ask customers why they’re buying or selling may lie more in the institutions, the systems of property value system and a common principle to promote IRs, say people either want to keep cash in Indian currency or are selling money they “had rights and commercial law as well as the government’s democratisation and good governance. Nepal’s strength at home.” The NRB holds about Rs 20 billion in Indian rupees, of which Rs 4 billion is macro-economic policies. lies in its nature—a soft state with its inherent invested in Indian treasury bills, and another Rs 500 million with the Reserve Bank of India The conclusion then seems to be that there is no resilience and adaptability to change. Still, given the under a stand-by agreement for trading. Even government institutions like customs and direct correlation between the type of government and present perversion of our polity through corruption, hospitals accept the currency, and sources say it is impossible to gauge how much Indian rapid economic and social development. What is opportunism and outright pillage, there is an urgent currency is actually circulating. important is whether leaders are accountable and need to instil a sense of responsibility and concerned about the country’s development. It is the commitment on our leaders. The need is urgent Veggie Mayos quality of governance, not the type of regime that seems since a government more responsive to local needs

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ to dictate the pace of economic development. A more and one that can efficiently deliver basic services is Himalayan Hygienic Snax and Noodles (P) Ltd, the makers of Mayos, has launched a new efficient use of private and public institution could long overdue. The people have shown they are not vegetarian brand. Mayos is now available in two flavours: chicken and vegetarian, produced result in improvements in income distribution prepared to wait any longer.  only after washing and cleaning the machines to ensure purity. Mayos is an undertaking of accompanying economic growth. It will be the strength, the Khetan Group in collaboration with Thai President Foods, Thailand. Veggie Mayos is quality and freedom from political interference that will Gajananda Baidya is with the Vaidya’s Organisation of priced at Rs 11 a pack. support sustainable and more equitable development. Industries and Trading Houses, and he contributed this Nepali legislators will need the support of experts comment for Nepali Times. NEPALI ECONOMY 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 999

Stupa’s Jitendra Shakh. Ansal entrepreneurs,” says Ram Prasad Choudhary, for its part, is Maharjan, chairman of Construc- collaborating with the Agricul- tion Material Entrepreneurs tural Development Bank and Association. The price of per United Finance for housing loans. thousand bricks has soared from The private sector has Rs 1800 to Rs 2900, and Falling for flats stepped in where the government Maharjan says it may even top has failed. And the government 3,500. Brick kilns have not been has not even been able to fulfil its able to meet the increased role of regulator. It has yet to demand. Cement and steel rods introduce necessary regulations have also seen a rise in price even though parliament passed “The demand for cement has the Joint Apartment Ownership increased by 50 percent this Act in 1997. There is also no year,” says Bimal Chandra separate building code for Poudel of the National Trading apartments, and no rules on safety Center. As the Nepali cement features like fire-escapes being industry is unable to address implemented. increasing demand, the import of The apartment boom has also Indian cement has risen. Due to perked up the real estate market this huge demand, Indian cement which was going through a slump. importers have hiked the price by The price of small plots have Rs 11 per sack. risen in the past six months, and In the last fiscal year, part of the reason is the demand Kathmandu Metropolitan City for apartment complexes. But the has issued Building Construction main reason is still the Sanchaya Permission for 2,347 houses. Kosh’s announcement of housing This year, the number crossed loans for civil servants which has that mark by Arpil. It is brought a surge in new estimated that 3,000 construc- construction in Kathmandu tion permits will be issued in Valley. “It was an encouraging Kathmandu and 1,000 in MIN BAJRACHARYA year for the construction Patan.  Kathmandu’s apartment craze is catching on as a new surge in BAJRACHARYA MIN

housing complexes tries to keep up with demand.

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MUKUL○○○○○ HUMAGAIN Last year, when Ansal One visitor at the Harisidhi is still out of reach for the f necessity is the mother of Choudhary Developers came up complex is Basu Shrestha, a salaried class—since there is invention, then the denizens of with the idea of Kathmandu businessman who lives in really nothing for less than Rs 1 iKathmandu may finally be Residency, some scoffed. A joint Kathmandu’s inner city Indra million. The two-bedroom looking forward to an end to their venture of the Choudhary Group Chowk area. He says: “I want to apartment of Stupa Houses at housing woes. For too long, the of Nepal and Ansal BuildWell, take my family out. It is getting Budhhanagar is one of the few Valley has coped with explosive Ansal Choudhary Developers was too congested to live in the city.” low-cost apartments, but even urbanization, malignant, the first to launch an apartment Others inspecting the interiors these are at Rs 700,000. “We unplanned growth of improvised based housing project in Nepal. are happy that there is now an targeted civil servants, and we concrete structures that added With a total of 180 apartments alternative to buying expensive will offer financing in a tie-up floors to accommodate the influx. with price ranging from Rs property, supervising unreliable with the Sanchaya Kosh,” says Zoning laws were flouted, 900,000 for a one bedroom labour and fixing the utilities. building codes violated, safety apartment to Rs 1.9 million for a Does this presage the age of sacrificed. three-bedroom one, the suburbia in Kathmandu? Some Now, housing estates and apartments were surprisingly would hope not, but it will surely modern apartment complexes are affordable. People stopped make urbanization slightly more at last making their way in. For scoffing and started taking the planned. The only real estate now restricted to the upper trend seriously. development so far had been middle class, the trend is already Kathmandu Residency will be targeted at the super-rich in areas showing signs of trickling down to completed by October next year, like Bhaise Pati with its large Think low-income housing as well. And and Ansal Choudhary has already plots for villas. Smooth Kathmandu is following the started a new housing project Given the Nepali penchant The 1.2 billion dollar car, the all South Asian trend that makes an named Mount View Residency at for copying anything that is new Hyundai Accent is here. A apartment a bigger status symbol Harisidhi outside Patan. Spread successful, urban planners hope high performance luxury sedan than a bungalow. Already, over nearly two hectares of former other developers will copy this with drop dead gorgeous looks. surprisingly affordable apartment paddy fields, Mount View model and take the pressure out Think Smooth. Think Accent. complexes are coming up Residency is a townhouse concept of inner city Kathmandu. Eyeing promising a “European lifestyle”. with Duplex and Individual the potential bonanza that Ansal Building a house can be one Homes. Aimed at the middle to Choudhary will make, others are big headache, from getting the upper income brackets, the price already joining the bandwagon. raw materials, hiring an engineer of a duplex home is Rs 1.9-2.2 Kantipur Development Pvt Ltd is and contractors, getting the million, while an individual home preparing to start a housing necessary permits (through is Rs 2.6 million. project at Balkumari, Thimi with underhand methods if necessary) Launched in mid-May, the 107 single homes, 16 2-bedroom fixing up water, electricity and apartment complex has attracted apartments, and 14 3-bedroom phones. All this can be avoided by hordes of prospective home apartments. The price of a single paying the little extra for an buyers. “We get up to 60 visitors bedroom home is Rs 2.2 million apartment. Hassle-free housing a day coming to inspect the and that of two- and three- seems to be the new slogan. And houses,” says V Rajgopalan, bedroom apartments is Rs 1.4 since there is a demand, the technical head of the project. million and Rs 1.6 million Business Advantage/0105 supply has suddenly come up in “More than half the apartments respectively. the past five years. have been booked so far.” Suraj Apartment at Tangal and Priyanka Apartment at Chabahil are the two complexes already in operation in Kathmandu. Half of the flats of Suraj apartment have been sold while rest are on rent. At Priyanka, all 16 flats are on rent ranging from Rs 14-16,000. Most tenants are businessmen from outside the Valley. Other luxury apartments and flats cater to expat clients and are out of the reach of most Nepalis.

Although demand is growing, Showroom: Tel: 428679, 410394, 414634. Fax: 422252. Nagpokhari. many Kathmandu inhabitants Service Center: Tel: 413086. Maitidevi, Kathmandu. have not outgrown their initial INTERNATIONAL (P) LTD. Dealers: Sole distributor of Hyundai vehicles for Nepal and Bhutan. Jonchhen Traders: Pokhara, Ph: 061-28589. Fax: 061-25695. Mally Auto Distributors: Butwal, Ph: 071-40648. 071-42648. reluctance to living in flats. And Genuine Auto Traders: Narayanghat, Ph: 056-26562

MIN BAJRACHARYA despite the relatively low cost, it

101010 WEATHER 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES

○○○○○○○○○○○ KUNDA○○○○○ DIXIT giving the quickening air a voice. rue, rivers are swollen, there is a Plastic bags, startled birds and leaves danger of landslides, highways were snatched by the flying yellow are blocked, flights cancelled dust. The storm edged closer until the tand in the tarai there are floods. flash and crash became simultaneous. But rain is life. More than 90 percent The roiling blue-black clouds of the farms in Nepal are rain-fed. overhead muffled the guttural roll of Weather forecasters on Radio Nepal the thunderbolt as it travelled away sound upbeat when they report “rain over the mountains into Tibet. Monsoon moods throughout the kingdom”. The GDP Another, more delicate din growth rate for the subcontinent is approached as the hailstones hit Rain gets a lot of bad press. Forget what the guidebooks say. dependent on the timely arrival of the corrugated roofs of the houses in the Visit Nepal in the monsoon. Get wet. monsoons, stock markets take a bazaar below. By evening, the plunge if there is a delay. pyrothechnics were over, the storm It is time we discovered our had moved over to the east briefly country in the rainy season. Time we framed in a double rainbow over the wet our dry and dusty souls with holy ridges of Gosainkunda. The water from heaven. In a week or two, varnished leaves dripped, the tree we will witness that annual trunks sweated, the wet water meteorological miracle that makes buffalos were shiny. prevailing winds over Nepal suddenly If a pre-monsoon thunder shower make a u-turn. Moist and warm air is an opera, then the arrival of the from the Bay of Bengal will travel up, monsoon itself a few weeks later is a deflected by the Himalayan foothills Smetana symphony. You can smell the where it will billow up and condense rain long before it actually arrives. into thick wads of rain. For three From the pass above Pokhara, the months in a year, the Himalaya from clouds move about among the Kashmir to Assam act as a gigantic Annapurnas like the little curly puffs atmospheric dam to store this water you see on thangka paintings. They vapour. The mountains are such an ride the westerlies across azure skies, effective barrier that the Tibetan and suddenly stop, hesitate, and turn plateau to the north is left literally around. That change in high-altitude high and dry in the rain shadow. wind direction precisely between These weeks before the arrival of June 10-15 over central Nepal every the monsoon are hot and muggy. year is the first sign that the Rivers run dry, fields are parched, and monsoon will soon burst. farmers stage elaborate frog weddings By evening, the air suddenly turns as rites of rain. The pre-monsoon humid, a smell of warm wetness swells showers are cataclysmic events. up from the valley below. A yellow Pumped by the heat, huge convection moon rises from behind a range of currents send cauldrons of cumulus mountainous clouds to the east. They rising vertically into the atmosphere, glow in the moonlight, and the inside sometimes more than 50,000 feet. Up of the clouds are incandescent with there in the stratosphere, the jet silent lightning. By nightfall, there is a stream smears their tops into wild sudden sharp coolness as the moisture angry cobra heads. On one pre- turns into mist, and the mist in turn monsoon afternoon, I once watched into a fine gauze of rain. The Nepali the entire Ganesh massif dwarfed in vocabulary has at many onomatopoeic the shadow of one of these words to describe different kinds of cauliflowers of moisture penetrating rain: at midnight it turns from the edge of space. The convection drizzly sim-sime to heavier darkane system rose out of the Buri Gandaki and by early morning it is a Valley to ride on flashing neon legs of torrential musal-dhare. purple lightning. From high up on a There is nothing like the simple ridge above Dhunche we watched pleasure of lying dry and drowsy inside transfixed as the afternoon sun was a sleeping bag on a bed of straw below blotted out, and the snowy slopes of a shingle roof of a Nepali farmhouse Langtang Lirung lost their light. It while the monsoon beats down suddenly became dark and silent like outside. You can analyse the an eclipse. Animals, humans, and individual sounds: of rain drops falling even the thirsty plants waited on the trees, tapping on the stone tiles nervously as a veil of violet rain above your head, gathering in the Mushroom cloudscape: Cotton candy monsoon clouds over Kathmandu Valley illuminated by slanting rain light. Below, right, moss covers Om Mani advanced from the west. gutter to splatter on the street below. Padme Hum inscription on a wet roadside rock near Tengboche. The wind picked up, the poplars When you wake up, you find it is still

PHOTOS: KUNDA DIXIT bent like bows: their agitated leaves raining through the mist. The ridge

Just singing, dancing in the rain… ○○○○○○○

DESMOND○○○○○○○○ DOIG little else than a kurta, a lungi the blue ceiling. Gone too the and space under trees lightning made her seem n one of my earliest and a pair of slippers. Even wallpaper and, alas, the great together for at least a month. strobe lit, so that flash, visits to Nepal I the slippers were a recent loo. We’d once again arrived But psychology was at work. A flash, flash there was owalked across the acquisition as we had begun in time for Yak Tails and we bedroom was a bedroom was Elizabeth leaping, gyrating border. I came with a the journey barefooted. sat being eyed rather a bedroom, and those four and spreadeagled against Hungarian artist who lived in The monsoon was suspiciously by the other beds placed rather close the night. For a while she India, her companion a expected to thud down on guests through a long evening together did suggest orgy. ignored our entreaties to French artist-adventurer, a Kathmandu any day: the Indian and the first real dinner we Elizabeth overcame remorse come in and then all of a Nepali male dancer friend plains had been scorching had had in weeks. Even Boris by taking a quick dash for her sudden was inside and a small dog of no and still, as they are just tired when Elizabeth, the bed and bundling in under splashing cold rain on us all. particular breed. before the monsoons. I like to Hungarian artist, kept urging us blankets, clothes and all. Her French companion’s Together we were think we were the first hippies to have one more before going We were soon asleep. At loud complaints were literally visiting places where who hit Nepal. Sans hash we to bed well after midnight. She some ungodly hour we were drowned by a bucket of Gautama the Buddha had looked the part, so that even herself didn’t drink. At last Boris wakened by the most frightful freezing water brought from lived and preached and Boris Lissanevitch was briefly had the bar closed and more or din. The skies over Kath- the loo by Elizabeth and died. We ended the hesitant to take us in. There less ordered us to bed. mandu were exploding. The emptied over him. pilgrimage where we were few rooms at The Royal When we got to the door of monsoon had arrived. But Kathmandu does strange should in fact have begun Hotel and its growing reputa- our room we understood where was Elizabeth? It was things to people the way it— in Lumbini. The lady tion had to be protected. Boris Elizabeth’s reluctance to retire. the Nepali dancer who saw Shangri-la did to the old, the artist had insisted that we suggested in our interest, and She stood outside and said her first and shouted, “God, young and to those in love.  travel humbly and cheaply I suspect his own, that we piteously, “I have never done she’s gone mad.” like true pilgrims. So we share a single room which this before.” Which was There in the courtyard with (Excerpted with carried nothing but our turned out to be one quarter of remarkable considering we apparently nothing on was a permission from My Kind paints and a change of the original ‘Number One’. had shared train figure dancing in the pouring of Kathmandu, Harper clothes which consisted of Gone were the cherubs and compartments, rest houses rain. Continuous purple Collins, 1994) WEATHER 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111111 track has by now turned into a torrent. There is commotion on the trail as men and women shrouded in plastic and bobbing umbrellas get their hoes ready to move down to the paddy terraces for the transplanting. Forget what the guidebooks say. Visit Nepal in the monsoon. Get wet. See the denuded slopes burst with foliage as nature gives Himalayans one more chance at regeneration— another hope to set things right. Watch Kathmandu Valley reclaim the green and turn emerald once more. Gaze down from the Jiri highway at three thousand vertical feet of staircased rice fields mirroring the gray sky. Today, most tourist areas are accessible by air even in the monsoon. There is a chance your flight will be cancelled a few days in a row, but you will get there. You gather at the domestic terminal in Kathmandu as the rain thunders on the metal roof. Drenched helicopters squat grounded on the tarmac like wet dragonflies. But, surprise, the flight to Syangboche is called. The pilot ducks, leaps and sidesteps the monsoon stratus. The Sun Kosi, swollen brown, plunges eastwards in a series of rapids. Red scars of recent landslides maul the slopes near Rumjatar. Lamjura is closed up by clouds, so we fly around it, sometimes grazing the steep flanks as goats and cattle flee for cover in the high meadows. The bend in the track to Tengboche, night and stops abruptly at dawn. that once used to connect Kathmandu into the misty undergrowth. They my shoes. The buffalos are faring mountains get steeper, meaner. the deep drone of the Bhote Kosi Mountains are like the Valley to the plains. In the village of wear straw slippers so their hoofs worse, they are bleeding from their Long tendrils of waterfalls tumble relentlessly cutting ever deeper centrefolds of girlie magazines. After a Chitlang overlooking the Kulekhani don’t wear off on the stony trail. The snouts and eyelids. In the black-and- over cliffs and dissolve into mist gorges. These rivers are older than the while, you wish they had some clothes Lake they gather for their last day on rain comes down in fat drops, and white world of a monsoon forest the half-way down in their journey to mountains and they have been slicing on. Mountains look infinitely more the trail. Tomorrow they have to that is when the leeches decide to crimson streaks on the buffalos look the valley below. The tops of through the rising rock for 60 million interesting when there are clouds make the climb up to the Chandragiri ambush the convoy. Suddenly they are like fluorescent graffiti. mountains disappear into a dark years. Hydro-powered waterwheels hovering around them. And the sight Pass at 8,000 feet before the steep everywhere, dropping down from the By mid-September, the sun ceiling of cloud. churn energetically spreading the of the first rays of the sun illuminating descent down to Kathmandu Valley lower branches, flailing out from wet returns. The dasain revelries begin, Up here in Syangboche the air prayer about the jewel in the lotus the summit seracs of Kangtega would on the other side. By the time we rocks, sucking the buffalos without the buffalos are massacred at the is more humid than Kathmandu. in all directions. Monsoon is the look incomplete without the wisp of enter the oak forest the next mercy. At the pass where we rest Kot. The sky is navy blue and dotted The next morning Mt Everest, the time when the trekking trails pink plume moving across them. afternoon, the clouds move in. The while the buffalos straggle past, I pick with kites. At Kathmandu airport, Lhotse-Nuptse wall, Thamserku mostly only have Nepalis on Clouds give an added dimension to buffalos are single file, disappearing out fifteen leeches from inside one of the tourists start arriving again.  and Kongde gather around like old them. There is not a backpacking the rock and ice—the dimension of friends. They look fresh with a tourist in sight. movement, of flight, and of matter coating of new snow, but the By ten in the morning, the first in its vapour state. And because snowline has receded up their clouds are chugging up the Imja they are visible so fleetingly, the flanks—exposing wet shoulders that Khola—the forerunner of an ocean monsoon makes you treasure the look like they are carved out of of clouds that can be seen lapping rare glimpses. ebony. The difference in the at the ridges below Namche in the By late August, you notice that monsoon is the greenery. The distance. They move up silently the relentless rain is ebbing as the flowers are in full bloom, alive with through the junipers, soaking the monsoon starts to lose its butterflies and birdlife. The grass swaying lichens with droplets of momentum. The water buffalos creeps up right up to the moraines condensation. By eleven, when we start making their treks up from and the snowline. are safely inside the Ama Dablam Hetauda to the slaughter houses of Everywhere, there is the sound Lodge, the rain starts falling steadily Kathmandu for the post-monsoon of falling water: big waterfalls that in that marathon-like pace of no- Dasain feasts. Many of these thunder right across the Imja valley, nonsense, long-term rain. It falls animals are now crammed into little ones that gurgle behind every continuously into afternoon, all lorries, but some still trek up the trail Shangrila 121212 TECHNOLOGY 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES rather look for buyers elsewhere. registration and licensing, for a period they have the economy of scale of the Apparently, the government saw of five years, depending on whether it larger companies, there is just too logic in the ISP’s argument for getting uses its own V-SAT or not. Then much of a tax burden already. “If they CanCan ITIT getget anyany worse?worse? rid of the three percent because last there’s another six percent of revenue were making as much money as the year’s rulebook did not specifically they give—four percent as royalty and government thinks they are, why mention the tax on service providers. two percent to the rural telecom fund. should the ISPs be closing shop?” asks But the tax collectors did not think so And unlike, say, the 10 percent Rajesh Lal Shrestha, Managing and managed to force ISPs to pay Telecom Service Charge NTC charges Director of Infocom. The company is three percent anyway. The rule its customers, ISPs cannot add or pass one of the few new ones that have remains unchanged, and this year the on these to clients. managed to get a foothold in the tax office has come up with a new These charges on ISPs contrast industry. “It is a killing proposition, interpretation: ISPs, like companies with the government’s ambitious goal thought-less and irrational,” Shrestha that pay commissions, royalty, of taking information technology says of the new TDS proposal. “To management fees and technical nationwide under the new IT policy. stay in business we would have to service fees to external parties, would Surendra Chaudhary, the Science and increase rates by up to 25 percent and have to cough up 15 percent TDS. Technology minister likes to say that usage would drop.” Compare that to insurance companies Nepal missed out on the industrial If that is so, one may as well ask MIN that pay 1.5 percent, and airlines that and the green revolution, and it why then have the companies not MoreMore thanthan 125,000125,000 emailemail usersusers inin NepalNepal maymay bebe hithit pay three percent. cannot afford to miss the IT closed shop and invested elsewhere? BAJRACHARYA byby aa 500%500% increaseincrease inin aa fuzzyfuzzy governmentgovernment tax.tax. The ISPs say they are not even revolution. All that now sounds like Many are forced to continue mentioned in rules, so they are not empty rhetoric to IT entrepreneurs. because being a service industry, Æ from p. 1 “Bandwidth to us is what raw material 25,000 email and Internet accounts, liable to pay. But as compromise they After visiting India’s IT hubs last they affect customers directly—in is to a manufacturing industry,” says with more than 125,000 users. say they are willing to pay the three summer even Prime Minister Girija terms of cancelled addresses and are

BINOD○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ BHATTARAI Shyam Kumar Agrawal, Managing ISPs were required to pay a percent they paid last year until the Prasad Koirala found out that it takes forced to remain in business. “Our o gauge just how desperate the Director of Worldlink three percent TDS on payments dispute is settled. ISPs met finance a token IRs 1 to register an ISP in profits are in the range of 4-5 government is, consider this: the Communications. “Even makers of they made for bandwidth, Internet minister Ram Sharan Mahat to India and they pay a six percent percent (without 15 percent TDS) ttax office wants a 500 percent alcohol and tobacco are given port and fax facility rentals three discuss these options last week. sales tax which is passed on to the and because we’ve already invested increase in Tax Deductible at Source concessions on raw material imports, years ago. They lobbied hard to Sources say that even though the user. Now it looks increasingly like so much in the business, we cannot (TDS) on payments that internet but they are taxing us another 15 convince the government to waive minister was sympathetic to their one hand of government destroys just close down,” says Agrawal. service providers make to rent percent on bandwidth. This is even the three percent, arguing even arguments, the tax department what the other hand tries to build. The tax office says it wants to bandwidth and other Internet absurd.” that was too much because the needs the tax to meet its revenue ISPs are already paying almost make the royalty uniform to avoid services. This would eat into the slim Sanjib Raj Bhandari of Mercantile market was very competitive and target and has stuck to its demand. as much as traders, cigarette or confusion on TDS deductions, profit margins that ISPs have because Communications who introduced they ended up paying the tax (for the Hence the deadlock. alcohol manufacturers in up-front and until the law is changed they more than 70 percent of their cost email and Internet to Nepalis agrees: foreign provider) without being able An ISP pays a fee as bandwidth taxes. Besides there are other have to collect payments. Puskal goes to renting the bandwidth and “It doesn’t make sense to remain in to book it as a cost. rental. Nepal’s 13 ISPs use the mismatches: Internet technology Upadhayaya, Director at the Tax Internet ports. ISPs say the TDS business when the government takes The tax office says because foreign facility from different companies and changes almost every minute, but Department thinks the problem would put them out of business over 30 percent of your gross revenue, companies ultimately pay the TDS all, including the public sector Nepal the government does not allow IT can be solved. He told us: “If it is overnight, because for all practical excluding income tax. We may as well the ISPs are only making a fuss. Telecommunication Corporation companies to depreciate capital a serious problem, the ISPs have purposes they end up paying the TDS. close down.” In January Mercantile However, the foreign companies don’t which also runs its own ISP, pay for goods by more than what it allows to come to us and explain the In addition like any other business had announced plans to take Internet because most countries selling using the service. NTC pays $17,000 regular industries. The nature of the business and we can ISPs already pay 25 percent corporate services to 25 districts, but has put it bandwidth don’t have double taxation each month for about two megabits government’s tax rules are also agree on a separate TDS for the income tax and there are invisible on hold. And even its news portal, avoidance treaties with Nepal and so of bandwidth. Private companies pay heavily skewed against information coming year. If royalty is high payments private firms have to make nepalnews.com would be hit. they cannot claim deduction. anywhere between $15,000-$30,000 technology: a hard copy that can be settled because we at various government departments to Nepal’s 13 ISPs employ over Secondly, even if there was a treaty, depending on the bandwidth they encyclopaedia has no tax, but an don’t want to kill any industry as get their files moving. 500 people, most of them in white- they would not pay the 15 percent use. It is not clear if NTC pays TDS encyclopaedia on CD has 22 we’re made out to be.” So what we may be about to collar jobs. Because staff turnover is because the industry is very on all of its external payments, even percent payable in levies and taxes. Fine words. But it doesn’t witness is another successful, all- high in the industry, they continuously competitive and works on very small though it says it does, something that Of the 13 ISPs, only seven are seem to instil too much Nepali, all-private initiative being train new entrants who often end up margins of one or two percent. And the tax office does not confirm. actually doing business, some of the confidence in the ISPs. “We just taxed out of business because the in some of the best IT companies in instead of bothering to do business An ISP pays anywhere between others are said to be looking for cannot pay 500 percent this government can’t balance its books. the world. Nepal has an estimated with Nepali companies, they would Rs 700,000-3.5 million for someone to buy them out. Unless year,” says one.  WORLD 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 131313 OPINION by JOSEPH STIGLITZ

The time is ripe for a new Third Way consensus: not higher GDP, not increased income for the few, but The third way wave the creation of democratic, equitable, and

sustained growth.

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share much: taught trickle-down economics: that the than creating wealth. Russia’s capital • They take a balanced approach to best way to help the poor is “to grow market liberalisation led to vast capital government and markets, recognising the economy.” Growth required flight, not the promised flow of that both are important and inequality because the rich would save investment. complementary. Market failures are a more, and do a better job of investing. As part of the IMF’s structural fact of life, but so are government But the poor may not benefit from adjustment programs, liberalisation failures. Neo-liberal ideologies assume growth, or may have to wait too long, was supposed to move workers from perfect markets, perfect information, unless growth is accompanied by anti- low to high productivity jobs. In all and a host of other things, which even poverty policies. Long-term growth in too many countries, however, it the best performing market economies East Asia has demonstrated that moved them from low to zero cannot satisfy. egalitarian policies aid growth. productivity jobs—unemployment. • Neo-liberals worry about excessive Indonesia exposes the danger of How could it be otherwise, when IMF government, but weak government ignoring these concerns. IMF-inspired policies led to interest rates of 10 impedes growth because weak states policies in Indonesia led to a massive percent, 20 percent or higher—rates cannot provide law and order, enforce depression, then to the elimination of at which job creation would be contracts, or ensure a sound banking food and fuel subsidies when problematic in any business system. It was too little regulation— unemployment was soaring and real environment. The problems of the capital and financial market wages plummeting. The riots that Britain’s rail privatisation and liberalisation foisted on East Asia by ensued were predictable, and California’s electricity deregulation the IMF and US Treasury—that led to predicted. Recovery from the resulting have stripped bare the dangers of neo- financial crisis in 1997. The question devastation, capital flight, and erosion liberal policies in even the best should not have been deregulating of confidence will take years. circumstances. quickly, but developing the right Economics can never be separated The time is ripe for a new Third regulatory framework. from social and political concerns. Way consensus, beyond the neo- • Public policy should work to Economic theory and the liberal Washington pensée unique: a improve markets and government. evidence underlying these precepts balanced view of markets and he last century was rough on successful at it—those of East Asia— telegraph line between Washington One exciting experience of my time in developed over the last quarter government, a refusal to confuse simplistic ideologies of left and followed policies markedly different and Baltimore, constructed by the the Clinton White House was helping century remain disputed. It may no means (like privatisation and tright. Socialism had its day in from the Washington Consensus. Federal government in 1842, to the spearhead Vice-President Gore’s longer be politically correct to ignore liberalisation) with ends, and a court, and was found wanting. The Before the financial crisis of 1997, modern Internet, from agricultural “Reinventing Government” initiative, the poor, and few nowadays openly broader conception of those ends: not Great Communist experiment is East Asia experienced three decades extension services in the 19th century where techniques and policies were advocate trickle-down economics. But higher GDP or increased income for virtually over (save for a few holdouts, not only of unprecedented growth, to military related research in the 20th developed to enhance the efficiency, behind the new rhetoric lurk the same the few, but the creation of such as Cuba and North Korea). The but also of unprecedented reductions and 21st, new industries were efficacy, and responsiveness of old neo-liberal policies of unthinking democratic, equitable, and sustained ideology of the right, as represented by in poverty. Out of these successes promoted through a quiet, market- government agencies. Today, in liberalisation and privatisation. Done growth. (Project Syndicate) the Washington Consensus of neo- arose a “Third Way” between oriented, industrial policy. virtually all dimensions, from the right way, as part of the Third liberal, market fundamentalism, socialism and market fundamentalism. There is, of course, no single responsiveness to telephone inquiries Way, these can help the poor. Done (Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at wasn’t much more successful, even if Ironically, America, long a zealous “Third Way” applicable to all to the costs of transactions, the US mechanically, they increase poverty Stanford University, formerly Chairman its failures go unacknowledged. advocate of market fundamentalism, countries and situations, but a social security administration beats and inequality, and stymie growth. of the Council of Economic Advisers to The last half-century has shown developed according to its own multiplicity adapted to each country’s almost every private insurance Has privatisation delivered growth in the Clinton Administration, and Chief that while development is possible, it “Third Way.” US industry grew social, political, and economic company. Russia? A few oligarchs garnered Economist and Senior Vice President of is not inevitable. Countries most behind tariff walls. From the first circumstances. But these “third ways” • Equality matters. Older theories billions, but by stripping assets rather the World Bank.)

Liquid gold ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ End of history in Hollywood A US entrepreneur is hoping to strike liquid gold by selling his

IN LOS ANGELES urine over the Internet. Kenneth Curtis, owner of Privacy

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ED○○○○○○○○ RAMPESS Disney’s new Pearl Harbor continues a Protection Services, says he started selling urine sample kits ollywood’s latest blockbuster, Pearl Harbor, seen by many as a historically Hollywood tradition of rewriting history. on his website after he grew tired of drugs testing at work. He

flawed effort with questionable racial politics, is yet another in a line of

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○ supplies urine contained in a small pouch with tubing, which hfilms that entertain at the expense of historical fact. can then be taped to the body. Buyers who operate it properly The US Defense Department gave extensive support to The feature on the Cuban missile crisis never reveals can use it without being noticed by someone monitoring a Pearl Harbor before its Memorial Day weekend opening, that Cubans felt compelled to protect themselves urine test, Privacy Protection Services claims. The $80 kit also which honours America’s war dead. The movie is with a nuclear deterrent because the Central includes heat packets so the user can warm the sample to advertised with what look like Second World War Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed 1961’s Bay of body temperature. But Curtis, of Hendersonville, North military recruiting posters and the company splurged for a Pigs invasion of Cuba. In the movie, communist Carolina, has now become locked in a court battle with State $5 million premier aboard a US aircraft carrier at Pearl expansionism, and not Washington’s provocative, Law Enforcement Division agents, who arrested him last April Harbor Naval Base. interventionist foreign policy, is the reason for claiming he was selling the urine kits to cheat on drugs tests. Disney’s efforts to accurately portray history, however, Soviet nukes in Cuba. He faces a combined maximum sentence of eight years in jail have flopped. The historical inaccuracies in Pearl Harbor 13 Days and Pearl Harbor underscore today’s and a $17,000 fine if convicted. An unrepentant Curtis has told are legion: for example, the radar installation that spotted US military policies. With its theme of death-from- says: “If you can’t sell urine, what can you sell? I don’t sell incoming Japanese Zeros is depicted indoors—it was the-skies, Pearl Harbor can be seen as propaganda drugs, I sell urine.” (Ananove.com) actually on a mountaintop. African-American sailor Dorie for the National Missile Defense System. Both films Miller, played by Cuba Gooding Jr, did indeed shoot at warn that America must be eternally vigilant from Eating at the White House Zeros, but he is shown firing an anti-aircraft gun; in reality endless enemies who might rain destruction down ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The White House announced this month that it will serving he used a different weapon and, unlike in the movie, did on them from the skies. Asian-Americans launched genetically modified foods at official government functions. The not have a confirmed hit. In its three hours, Pearl Harbor an education campaign to counter fallout from the move is intended to head off criticism by environmental and never fully explains why Tokyo struck this American film. Imperial pilots in the film are more-than- consumer groups that the altered foods are unsafe. “You really military base: US embargoes of oil and other raw materials human, otherworldly conspirators exercising great can’t tell the difference,” said White House chef Daniel Arreido, was one of the factors that prompted Japanese militarists bushido bravado, skill, and treachery. Pearl Harbor who recently replaced long-time Clinton cook Walter Scheib III. “It to conquer Southeast Asia. But to do so, Imperial Japan doesn’t clarify that agents conducting espionage in may be genetically altered but it tastes just the same.” Arreido had to deliver a knockout blow to its main obstacle, the US Pacific Fleet. After Hawaii prior to the attack were not Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA), a said the first family already consumes milk containing bovine the air raid, Yamamoto (correctly) expresses fear that Japan has “awakened a sore point with AJAs, falsely charged with sabotage and imprisoned en masse growth hormone. The White House plans to debut the new food sleeping giant,” but the movie never reveals the source of his anxiety—US during the Second World War. And although Pearl Harbor is named after a items at a state dinner next month for French Prime Minister aircraft carriers that escaped destruction at Pearl Harbor. The movie also ignores place and set in Oahu, there are virtually no Hawaiians in the film. Hawaii Lionel Jospin. According to Arreido, the menu for the dinner will the fact that the 7-8 December 1941 foray was part of aggressive action itself is missing in action. The film mostly depicts Oahu’s military bases, include such delicacies as pan-seared, genetically altered super stretching from Hawaii to the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Shanghai, the which the Pentagon gave Disney permission to use for months for nominal salmon and Texas-style corn pudding made with Star Link corn. most comprehensive one-day offensive ever. costs. These oversights exist even though onscreen ethnic imagery is a hot “These are traditional Texas recipes,” Arreido said, “but with a Such historical revisionism is not uncommon in Hollywood. A Los Angeles topic in Hollywood—a recent televised Bugs Bunny retrospective excised special twist.” Times article in March on Harrison Ford’s upcoming controversial K-19: The cartoons with racist caricatures of Blacks and Indians. Not everyone in the Bush administration supports the new Widowmaker notes: “In recent years, Hollywood has been criticised for films For Pearl Harbor, Disney consulted Daniel Martinez, National Park Service policy, which is said to have been the idea of Vice President Dick play[ing] loose with the facts when telling stories of real-life personalities and historian at the memorial to the USS Arizona battleship at the Hawaiian naval Cheney. Just last weekend, Environmental Protection Agency events.” K-19 is one such movie. Russians related to the sailors who died in the base. Martinez noted at least 50 factual errors in the original script, but believes chief Christine Todd Whitman voiced concern about the safety of 1961 Soviet nuclear sub disaster are concerned that the upcoming film portrays flawed history is better than no history: “You’ve seen the movie, now see the real the altered foods while appearing on the weekly political talk show their relatives in false and unflattering light. And a campaign questioning the history.” (Gemini) Meet the Press. “This administration plans to keep a watchful eye factuality of 1999’s Hurricane, about a black boxer wrongly imprisoned, may on these products,” Whitman said. (The Nation, Bangkok) have derailed Denzel Washington’s chance of winning a Best Actor Oscar. Last Ed Rampell is a film historian and co-author of the new book Pearl Harbor in the year’s 13 Days is another Hollywood film with a dubious basis in historical fact. Movies and Made In Paradise: Hollywood’s Films of Hawaii and the South Seas. 141414 ASIA 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES Tintin in the Tibetan Reinventing Beijing Autonomous Region of the

In their bid for the 2008 Olympics, the Peoples’ Republic of China ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Chinese want to turn Beijng into a BRUSSELS - Tintin, the intrepid boy reporter of comic strip

futuristic metropolis and business centre. fame, was at the centre of an embarrassing diplomatic

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○ incident last week after politically correct Chinese transla- of them because foreign banks are not industrial stronghold as well as a tors renamed his adventures in Tibet Tintin in Chinese Tibet. Known as simply Tintin allowed to do local currency business political and cultural centre. Ten years in Tibet since 1957 when it in the capital. Despite the cluster of after the Communist takeover in 1949, was first published in the state-level financial institutions in the there were 700 factories and 2,000 west, the translating “error” Beijing finance area, it has attracted blast furnaces belching soot into the has caused untold problems only three foreign banks which have air. Today, there are more than 1,000 for the Belgian publisher set up representative offices here. industrial enterprises in the city, Casterman, which has just Even within the capital, the employing millions of people. In 1957, negotiated a groundbreaking government-approved finance area the old city walls with their turrets and and lucrative deal to bring the faces stiff competition from the battlements were torn down. Since adventures of the quiffed boy Central Business District in eastern then, most historic buildings have been journalist to China for the first ANTOANETA BEZLOVA of the project. A regiment of Chaoyang district where most of razed. Ancient temples, tombs, time. The overly orthodox

IN BEIJING ○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○ skyscrapers has risen on the site of the Beijing’s foreign companies and their courtyard homes and narrow lanes have translation also caused a good n their zealous bid to win the former maze of courtyards and old expatriates are located. But Xicheng been bulldozed to make way for high- deal of awkwardness for hosting of the 2008 Olympic lanes in Xicheng district. Authorities district officials brush aside doubts rise apartment blocks, highways and Belgium’s foreign minister, iGames, Chinese leaders may be say that so far, some 300 firms, about the future of Beijing’s Wall shopping malls. Ironically, the goal of Louis Michel, a self-styled pushing for more changes in Beijing including state banks, insurance and Street. “Beijing Finance Street is the making Beijing the host of 2008 champion of democracy, who than the city can take without securities companies, have settled in only place in Beijing that is devoted Olympics has made authorities quietly was in Beijing last week to toast the historic deal only to surrendering the last bits of its ancient the finance area. The second phase, to financial business,” argues Cao reverse Mao’s policies. Over 700 discover that he had walked into a diplomatic minefield. “I identity. Beijing is now touted to which will include office buildings, Zengsen. He says that in the Ming industrial plants are to be pushed out am not a translator or a publisher and I don’t speak become a financial capital, adding a five-star hotels, convention and and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), the of the city in the next three to five Chinese,” was all the minister would say, urging the matter glitzy Wall Street-style financial area at exhibition centres, will take another place was known as Jincheng Fang or years. The city government has also to be settled privately between Casterman and their local partners, the China Children Publishing House. the foot of the ancient imperial city. five years to complete. “With China’s Gold City Lane because many gold announced plans to invest nearly 100 pending accession to the World Trade and silver workshops were there. billion yuan ($12.5 billion) in a huge But Casterman signalled last week after a hastily Authorities want to reinvent convened meeting in Beijing that it would be insisting that Organisation, the state will open the Adds Liu Jian, deputy governor of the clean-up campaign, aiming to reduce Beijing’s image from that of a the word “Chinese” be dropped from all future editions. The prohibitive old city of emperors into financing industry wider to the Xicheng district: “Today all of the air and water pollution and plant 40 publisher also sought to play down the seriousness of the one of a futuristic metropolis. They are outside world,” says Cao Zengsen, state-level financing bodies are percent of the urban area with trees, all incident. “We are interested in the Chinese market but we evicting 20,000 families and pulling executive chairman of the Beijing located in the area. If foreign by 2007. But conservationists say the are not interested in getting involved in politics,” down thousands of old courtyard Xicheng District Government where companies want to make money, enormity of the destruction to the city Casterman’s Willy Fadeur said. Fadeur added: “We have houses to make way for its showpiece the area is located. they will move in here because their is irreversible. While the clean-up asked our partners to rectify the album, not for political Wall Street—104 ha next to the city’s But China already has two domestic partners are here.” campaign might improve the city’s reasons but simply to defend the authenticity of the original second ring road, which was approved bustling metropolises—Hong Kong City officials could make a faux image enough to host the Olympics in and they have agreed.” Fanny Rodwell, the widow of by the State Council as the capital’s and Shanghai, where most of the pas to mtach that of Chairman Mao seven years’ time, it would be difficult Tintin’s Belgian creator Herge is reported to be a personal financial centre in 1993. Over the past country’s financial and business Zedong’s. He altered Beijing’s core for athletes and guests to find a cultural friend of the Dalai Lama and she did not attend the launch eight years, the city government has transactions are concentrated. Beijing irrevocably, saying the capital of a environment that really represents an ceremony in Beijing for that reason. Chinese censors have financed and completed the first third cannot mount a serious threat to either workers’ state needed to be an ancient capital.  (IPS) already ensured that the most populous country on earth will be deprived of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (anti- COMMENT communist) and Tintin in the Congo (too racist and imperial- ist) although 21 of the original 23 books will be available officially for the first time. Pirated albums of Tintin have circulated for the last two decades but they are of such poor quality that Chinese readers have been under the impression that Tintin (Dingding in Chinese) was asiatic Thailand punches below its weight rather than from Brussels. (Guardian) n the past 100 days, the Thaksin government has punched below its weight on foreign policy. Instead of matching or going beyond its weigh-in status and UNICEF rapped for HIV report icapability, the government is content with pathetic diplomacy under the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ amorphous banner of “forward engagement”. Worse has been the government’s NEW DELHI - The portrayal of an Indian caste as being enthusiasm for a nationalistic agenda which clashes with the policy objectives inherently given to prostitution, in a government report on outlined by the Foreign Ministry. Certainly, that position has won Thai Rak HIV/AIDS funded by UNICEF, has drawn condemnation from Thai a lot of domestic support. But it was painful for the government to find out human rights and women’s groups. UNICEF has asked the that the foreign community did not buy it. After Thaksin’s disastrous speech at a Human Rights Commission in central Madhya Pradesh state UN meeting in Bangkok recently, which shocked the Bangkok-based diplomatic (MPHRC), which carried out the study Caste-based community, the government took a series of damage-control actions and came Prostitution in Madhya Pradesh, to withdraw the report. out with the message that Thailand would remain open to global investment and “The concept of such a caste-based survey is repugnant to human rights and democratic thinking, being premised on a trade. That demonstrated the imperative of external exigencies, which have belief that there is something intrinsic to the caste which shaped Thailand in more ways than one since the Western colonisers knocked makes women prostitutes and men pimps,” said Brinda on its door some 150 years ago. Karat, general secretary of the All-India Democratic To move forward, Thailand needs pragmatic domestic policies that will Thaksin’s first 100 days have not done Women’s Association. Karat pointed out that the 80-page strengthen its social fabric and democratic foundations. At the same time it report was “replete with shocking generalisations”, like one

requires forward-looking policies that boost the national interest and elevate its much for a forward-looking foreign policy. that said 50 percent of the women of the Bedia community ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ position in international contexts. Somehow the external part of this equation ○○○○○○○○ were HIV-positive. “There are no substantiations for such has been missing or misplaced in the first 100 days. No one can deny that the disappointment. Bangkok decided to go for a non-action vote against the US- statements nor any details of the studies conducted, the dominant issues of the coming decades for Thailand will include drugs, refugees, sponsored resolution to condemn China’s human-rights violations. It could have number of people interviewed, or the details of the ques- migration, disease, environmental degradation and international crime as well as abstained, which was the position it took on a similar resolution on Cuba. That tionnaire,” she said. The Bedia community has demanded democracy and human rights. Thailand cannot deal with all these issues alone. way Thailand would not have alienated either side. It was understandable that withdrawal of the report. To be fair, the government has been intensifying its anti-drugs efforts both the Thaksin government voted the way it did, given the circumstances and This is not the first time a publication to increase domestically and regionally. China’s willingness to call a summit meeting to excellent ties with China. But the voting also shows the government’s true awareness of HIV/AIDS has offended the sensibilities of a discuss drugs among the Mekong countries was laudable. Like many other colours: it does not care about the issues in the hearts of the Thai people. This particular community. Last year, Abhijeet Das and his wife pledges, it must be judged in a long-term perspective. But unfortunately Thai sentiment is being reinforced by a proposal currently under consideration to Yashodhara, founders of the well-known NGO Sahyog, foreign policy has failed to maximise the country’s newly found leverage in withdraw from the UNHCR, to which Thailand got elected last year on the narrowly escaped being lynched by a mob in the Himalayan international relations. The Thaksin government has chosen to dwell on Asian roster. Somehow the government believes the policy of appeasement and town of Almora for suggesting in their pamphlet titled AIDS traditional issues and zero in on neighbouring countries. The government wants denunciation of human rights and democracy are requisites to improve ties with and Us that incest was rampant in the region. Such to strengthen trade and economic opportunities with neighbours who are less neighbouring countries. The ongoing Thai-Burmese squabbling shows otherwise. incidents have led to growing public scepticism about the developed but rich in natural resources. So there has emerged the not-so-new If the Foreign Ministry decides to pull out from the UNHCR, it will do rather well-funded programmes to fight HIV/AIDS even as concept of economic policy, which puts the emphasis on economic imperatives irreparable damage to the Thailand’s international position and reputation and the government is steadily cutting funds for a tottering rather than political and social ones. trustworthiness. It will lose friends in liberal democracies that have been helpful public health delivery system. Human rights groups have Here lies the government’s biggest pothole. Take the issue of human rights in the country’s social and economic development over the past decades. slammed the government for flaws in its vertical, anti-HIV programme funded mainly with a $544 million World Bank and democracy for which Thailand has been fighting for the past five decades. It Thailand applied to the UNCHR because it had confidence in its loan. India’s health minister, CP Thakur, defends the is only in the past decade that we have enjoyed the fruits of this long struggle. democracy and protection of human rights. Others countries might join the programme, but accuses UN agencies of “misreporting facts Political reform since 1997 has created a new domestic environment with commission for the self-serving purpose of defending their own dismal human and creating confusion,” especially by putting out estimates increased political participation from non-governmental and civil-society right records, but Thailand wants to share its experience in nurturing and and projections that there were nearly four million people organisations. This element used to be part of the country’s diplomatic posture: strengthening human rights with the rest of the world community. The Thaksin living with HIV in this country of one billion people. “In the foreign-policy outlook then reflected domestic development. It is incomprehen- government can take credit for bringing new thinking into Thai politics and Indian context it is difficult to estimate the exact prevalence sible why this government is constantly in a state of self-denial about democracy problem-solving in the domestic arena but definitely not in foreign policy. In the of HIV because of the varied cultural characteristics, and human rights. These values are not make-believe norms implanted by the age of globalisation, only a foolish nation will punch below its weight.  traditions and values with special reference to sex-related West. Ironically, the government views this hard-won creditability as a liability. risk behaviours,” he says. (IPS) Thailand’s recent voting in the UN Commission on Human Rights is a big (Editorial in The Nation, Bangkok) FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 151515 BP (BP Koirala) died. Embassy. The Indian Embassy has employee, adding, “But he does not support bigamy.” You’ve spent your lifetime in politics not released the names or even Crown Prince Dipendra is romantic in nature, and he loves to joke and be and have not started a family... the number of Nepali soldiers A suitable prince open. His professors say he is uninhibited and has the poetic talents of his By starting a family, do you mean who have died fighting for the grandfather, the late King Mahendra, although his poems have not been marriage? I did not have the time to Indian government. Sources say Kishore Nepal in Naya Sadak, published yet. Some people say the crown prince is against parliamentary marry. When could I have got that in order to be employed by Sunday, 27 May democracy, but in reality he supports it wholeheartedly. He wants the Nepali married? Even when we were in the Indian army, many Nepali people to have social discipline and responsibility. exile, I had to work to make a youth lie their age, name and Preparations are underway to The crown prince is also very studious, his favourite subject being Nepal’s living. I fought for democracy, don’t place of residence. Since Bahuns celebrate the 31st birthday of geography. He does not read a lot of fiction but devours non-fiction. He also you think I’m happy now that the are not enlisted into the Indian the heir to Nepal’s throne, painstakingly reads all the major newspapers. Crown Prince Dipendra also object of my desire has been army, they also lie about their Crown Prince Dipendra Bir engages in discussions about how to boost the nation’s economy. He often realised. I married democracy. caste. This has been a practice Bikram Shah Dev. With this quotes slokas from the Gita during discussions, but has a vision for the future. since the days of Rana rule. It is royal birthday around the The crown prince usually likes to dress in informal and colourful clothes. A lovely mouthful when these people are killed in corner, people’s attention is His favourite is a brown daura-suruwal, says a source close to him. According battle or die while on duty that

focused on the crown prince. of paan

○○○○○○○○○○○ to him, the crown prince is very conscious of the Nepali dhaka topi and if he ○○○○○ the trouble starts. Since they have People are asking why the crown particularly likes one, will wear it until the colours fade. Kedar Bhattarai in Gorkhapatra, have lied about their identities, prince is unmarried at this age, Crown Prince Dipendra’s most gentlemanly quality is that he never leaves 24 May their bodies cannot be identified and whether his future as the if someone is speaking to him, even though he is often constrained for time. He and their families do not get the heir to throne is in danger. is only satisfied once the discussion ends. Although he is very interested in Krishna Prasad Bhattarai has money that is their due. Accord- This is not an uncommon matters of governance and state administration, he does not wish to see the confessed that he still chews 30 ing to sources, there may be as worry for the Nepali people, monarchy heading the politics of the country. He maintains his stand that the paans (beetle leaves) a day. He many as 4,000 people that have who have a lot of faith in and monarchy must play a major role in social development. The enthusiasm he made the admission while address- lied their identities but are still respect for the royal family. displayed in the SAF Games is proof of his belief. ing a recent convention of the Paan serving the Indian army. Crown Prince Dipendra is Another professor close to the Crown Prince says Dipendra views his Business Association of Nepal. These problems grew in perhaps the first member of the grandfather, the late King Mahendra as the biggest “communist with a crown”. Bhattarai also said this was the first magnitude under King Nepali royalty to break tradition He does not believe any of the communist parties are real communists, except time that the chief guest of a Mahendra’s reign, and so he set MIN BAJRACHARYA and not be married even at 31. the extreme leftists. The crown prince likes to talk with Krishna Prasad Bhattrai function complemented the up the Gorkha Recruitment and The Royal Palace is also concerned about the Crown Prince’s marriage. But and admires his wisdom and ability to be light-hearted even at the most serious occasion, and that he was very Pension Unit under the foreign many do not know where the crown prince’s heart lies. times. His relationship with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is, however, happy to be addressing the ministry. The main duty of this People close to the crown prince speak of two women he has an emotional just cordial. association. Sambhu Prasad unit was to keep proper records relationship with. According to them, one is a childhood sweetheart, while his Crown Prince Dipendra turns 31 on 27 June. It is high time His Royal Chaurasiya, a paan-wallah told all of all Nepali soldiers killed on relationship with the other began when he was older. “It might be that the Highness got married. The Nepali people wish to celebrate his marriage soon present that Bhattarai was a true duty in the Indian army and to crown prince is finding it difficult to choose between the two,” jokes a palace and in the grandest manner. Everyone is worrying about when this will happen. paan connoisseur after which the collect their pension payments latter was presented with a bundle from the Indian government for concerning them are being formed. of paan, which he graciously proper distribution to their Plots of land are being pooled and these are being cultivated to provide accepted. He chewed paan families. But India did not let this Life in Maoland employment to families of martyrs, and to feed the people’s army and unit function. The Indian side volunteers. Cottage industries are also being promoted. Weaving is a major threatened that if Nepali Chetan Kunwar in Saptahik Janadesh, 22 May component of such industries and training is being provided to those who need authorities began distributing it. In winter the weaving and textile set-ups provide the woollen garments pensions, they would close all In teh villages, all issues related to land and property are looked after by the Gaon needed by the people’s army and villagers. Collectives for cattle farming are also pension offices in Nepal and the Jana Samitis (GJS) (Village People’s Organisations). It approves transactions only being encouraged, particularly in the higher Himalaya. This is being extended Nepali authorities would have after the buyer and the seller have come to an agreement. The cost involved is a two to the tarai and hill regions too. Community forests are another important issue collect to the money from percent registration fee and Rs 5 for obtaining a form. People in villages are very the people’s government is looking into. Forests that were cut down in the last Gorakhpur, India. Today there pleased with this system. They no longer have to spend large sums of money to bribe 10 to 15 years are now full of trees. Massive reforestation is being carried out. are no signs of whether that the officials at the Land Revenue office or bother with government bureaucracy. The GJS Community forests are being developed in all villages, and committees are being foreign ministry is aware of the has stopped a lot of money from going to the government’s coffers—land is an formed to deal with the issue appropriately. The forests are an important source of unit or not, and no paperwork on important source of government revenue. revenue of the people’s government. it exists. The judiciary of the People’s Government is simple and practical. All cases Alcohol has been banned. Decadent lifestyles are not allowed, although are dealt with locally. Crime has been divided into three categories, the “very people can enjoy themselves within limits. All music and songs under a serious”, the “serious” and the “ordinary”. After a case has been filed at the people’s government are based on the philosophy of the party, and about the Deer-killer Colo-

people’s court, a verdict is passed only after it has been thoroughly investigated. working class and a progressive society. The people’s government is taking nel cleared ○○○○○○○○○○○ Those found guilty might be sentenced to death, labour camps or be fined, but strong corrective measures against the present educational system. Education is ○○○○○ they can also appeal the verdict. In all cases dealt with by the People’s Courts, free of cost until standard ten. Sanskrit is no longer taught and the singing of Jana Aastha weekly, 23 May

the participation of villagers is the overriding principle, and they do participate. the national anthem has been stopped. Teachers are being asked to be more MIN BAJRACHARYA The villagers provide practical rather than technical solutions, unlike those careful and regular, and school management is being strengthened. There is Colonel Dilip Rana who was caught handed out by the courts of the reactionary forces (the government). Education for the elderly in all villages, to enable them to at least read simple throughout the function. hunting deer in Chitwan has been Major changes are also taking place on the economic front. A new people’s letters and notices. Bhattarai started chewing paan cleared of all charges. Colonel economy is being formed, with an emphasis on communes. In a war situation All health centres are being put in order and irregularities in the when he was living in Benaras. He Narendra Aryal of the Royal Nepal like now, the economy must be made self-sufficient. All production systems are distribution of medication are being rectified. Action is being taken against spent 14 years in Sundarijal prison, Army, who is in charge of the being transformed into collectives or communes, whether for farming, cattle corrupt officials. Awareness programs are being conducted and health officials where he did not get to chew paan. army’s legal affairs, said that RNA’s rearing or manufacturing. Financial institutions are also being established in are always on the move to check on health centres. Roads, bridges, waiting But he has compensated for the image was being tarnished by many villages. This process is being hastened because most banks have pulled out rooms, martyrs’ memorials, drinking water systems and other infrastructure is discomfort after he was freed. He unconfirmed and false reports. from villages. The new financial institutions have been teaching villagers about the being built. Villagers are no longer dependent on others, but are carrying out said perhaps the administration of The RNA is deployed to protect working of the proposed economy and how to be involved. They also provide loans development work themselves. The people’s government formulates the time thought they could break wildlife, but ironically, soldiers to the needy. The prices of commodities are being regulated and guidelines programmes and the villagers implement the plans. him if they did not provide him have been caught killing endan- with paan at regular intervals. It gered species. And now the QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Married to de- didn’t work, he said. He added that RNA’s image is tarnished all paan lovers shouldn’t just pay for further—by the brass’ decision to

mocracy” the paan they consume, but should ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ give Colonel Rana a clean chit. All I can say is that the prime minister should have been implicated based on the conditions imposed by the also invest in the business. Even the government has CIAA, but it will not be appropriate for me to say why this did not happen. Excerpts from an interview with Sushil Koirala, MP, Nepali Bhattarai, who has been living in proved ineffective in the face of the Subhas Chandra Nemwang, Chairman Public Accounts Committee in an interview given to the Tarun National Congress, Gorkhapatra, 24 May Kathmandu for 50 years, said he army. Earlier, it had issued a press Weekly, 29 May 2001 had given loans to many people to release stating that those found begin selling paan. In 1951, he said, guilty of hunting in protected areas You have been in politics for a very Rs 100 was enough to open a paan would be punished. The assistant long time. What were your happiest shop. He might as well have opened minister for forests even stated and saddest moments? a paan shop himself—Bhattarai says publicly that the guilty would not My happiest moment was when he once paid over IRs 100 for a be let off lightly. But even the democracy was restored in this mouthful of paan. assistant minister has been proved country, my saddest moment, when helpless by the army’s decision.

Missing files Rana is said to have good ○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ connections with the army top brass. Jana Aastha weekly, 23 May In fact, he has already served as secretary of a very important unit in The pension records of Nepali the army hierarchy. Rana is also the soldiers who died fighting in the son-in-law of former army chief, Indian army are mismanaged and Dharmapalbar Singh Thapa. The there is much bungling in the former chief is said to be involved in distribution of pensions. In fact, an arms-selling scandal, and this new money is siphoned off. According to incident only proves that he still calls sources at the foreign ministry, as the shots in the armed force. The names, address and their verifica- district forest officer who caught Rana ‘We will expose the corrupt!’ tion are often inaccurate, a lot of hunting has been promised that he Banner: Lauda PM resign! the money does not reach the will be sent to Switzerland for Flying suruwal: China South-West people it is supposed to, but “training”—or maybe to keep his remains instead with the Indian Himalaya Times, 27 May MIN BAJRACHARYA mouth shut.

THIS PAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL SELECTED FROM THE NEPALI LANGUAGE PRESS 161616 SPORTS 1 - 7 MAY 2001 NEPALI TIMES Mud and Bike championship

loved each moment of this bond I had with the kids out there. And Vital statistics many thanks to Philippe who lent me his bike,” he said, pointing to a Junior Division (9 km): French racer in the junior division Arjun Ghale 24 min 46.82 sec Nepal 5,000 cash & trophy who offered Thompson his bike Sanjeev Thapa 25 min 37.02 sec Nepal 4,000 “ when he saw him with a flat tyre Ravindra Adhikari 25 min 58.72 sec Nepal 3,000 “ near the circuit gate. But there were also other lucky factors in Senior Division (22.5 km): Thompson’s win. His nearest John Thomson 33 1 hr 00 min 59 sec New Zealand 10,000 cash & trophy competitor, Chandra Bahadur Richard Torgen 35 1 hr 02 min 4 sec Canada 7,000 “ Chettri, was barely a minute behind Suresh K Dulal 21 1 hr 04 min 11 sec Nepal 5,000 “ him—until, that is, he got a flat. “I was in the middle of nowhere. I was helpless,” sighs Chettri. Top Female Racer (22.5 km) : Erin Ryan, Canada The first runner-up, Canadian Youngest Racer (9 km) : Heman Pun, 10, Nepal Richard Torgen had a less dramatic, Oldest Racer (22.5 km) : Sonam Gurung, 52, Nepal but very consistent ride. Suresh Dulal, who finished third, had three Time keeper : Baikuntha Manandhar, marathoner, and Sushil Nar- rough falls, but managed to singh Rana, a coach, both with the Nepal Athletics Association maintain his position. “I lost so Race Director : Sanjeev Pandey (NMBA) much speed recovering from the falls, but I did my best,” he said. Not a single contestant dropped spectators. They were kept finishing at Budhanilkantha, and member of the NMBA “The NMBA out because they were tired and entertained by a multitude of attracted 72 mountain bikers from is confident that such races will couldn’t hack it, including Erin things— Scotland, England, Australia, help promote tourism in Nepal— Ryan, the Canadian woman with a whistling time-keepers, first-aid Denmark, Belgium and Nepal. The plenty of people love to mountain splint on her sprained foot. In the squads rushing hither and thither NMBA, which was formed and bike in such wild terrain and senior division, 34 bikers finished on motorbikes, kids cheering recognised by the National Sports enchanting landscapes,” he adds. the circuit. vociferously in between scarfing Council in 1995, is an active “We plan to send the Nepali Also exciting and equally “do or down vast amounts of ice cream, a member of the Asian Cycling mountain bikers to participate in die” were the 26 under-18s in the Manangi and Sherpa volunteer Confederation and Union Cyclist the seventh Asian Mountain Bike junior division. They did two laps family distributing a Nanglo lunch Internationale. This year’s Nepal Championship to be held in Korea on the circuit instead of five, and box and bananas to the racers and Mountain Bike Championship was in October this year. But we are were wildly excited. Young Sanjay volunteers, and a swarm of monkey- the association’s fifth. trying to raise funds,” says Chimmi Shrestha from Samakhusihi, who like children grabbing at the fruit. “Our objective here is to Gurung. finished in tenth place, had quietly Mountain biking began gaining promote mountain biking in Nepal. Whether that happens or not, skipped breakfast and slipped out popularity in Nepal about a decade We want to attract a large number even as the dust was settling on the from home with his heavy bike. ago. The Himalayan Mountain Bike of domestic racers and turn them trackat the end of this race, NMBA One of the fastest juniors, nine- Tours and Expedition organised the into professionals, and make Nepal members were already scheduling year-old half-Australian half-Sherpa first MB race here in 1993. It was a an international mountain biking for an international race at a similar Sunny, was the pre-race crowd 32 km race starting from Kakani venue,” says Umesh Rimal, a venue in Nepal next March. 

favourite, but unfortunately took a SALIL SUBEDI bad spill at the beginning of his second lap. Many juniors fell, but there were no serious injuries. Ten- SALIL SUBEDI year-old Heman was unfazed by the The NMBA championship is the only rough trail. This student of Little Angel’s School who bicycled all the recognised national level interna- way from Sat Dobato, seven km tional-class mountain bike champion- from venue, won the trophy for the youngest to finish the circuit. ship in Nepal. Eighteen-year-olds Arjun Ghale

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ (first position, 24 minutes 46.82 ○○○○○○○○○○○

SALIL○○○○○ SUBEDI protect a sprained foot. As soon as seconds) and Sanjeev Thapa nder blue skies interrupted the pistol resounded, the bikers (second, 25 minutes 37.02 seconds) by the wispiest of clouds, 72 shot off, only to navigate a hair- showed what the younger uoff-road mountain bikers raising hairpin bend to get to the participants could do given a few from seven countries, waited for the south hill of the circuit gate and years of experience. Thapa was the shotgun to begin the fifth National then whizz down a dirt track winner last year of the Himalayan Mountain Bike Championship. The leading north. There are a few Mountain Bike Championship held contest, an annual event of the obstacles on this path, which after at the same venue. But he wasn’t Nepal Mountain Bike Association one-and-a-half km goes west doing too well, and only barely put (NMBA), was held on 26 May this towards Nagarjun hill. There’s an Ravindra Adhikary (25 minutes 58 year, beginning at Gairi Gaun, a uphill one km slog past a gompa, 72 seconds) in third place. deserted stone quarry on the where the path was particularly, These precise times come southern flanks of the Swayambhu well, muddy. It was on this segment courtesy the organisers, who made section of the Ring Road. that most of the racers tasted sure every participant went back Chimmi Gurung the chairman mythical Kathmandu mud, after with a formal notification of their of the NMBA was saying: “This is which they careened down a timing and position. This may seem the last call, if anybody has any bone-shaking gravel path. They like the obvious thing to do, but queries about the circuit and the went around this 4.5 km track pervious mountain bike race, please ask now... Some parts not once, but five gruelling times, championships in Nepal have not of the trail have been washed out by covering 22.5 km most of us hope bothered to actually keep any such the rain. Expect a lot of mud on we never have to walk across, records. “We don’t want anybody your tyres... All right, everybody’s leave along race. to go back without knowing and clear.” This is serious stuff—the Predictably, most racers lost having official proof of their timings NMBA championship is the only speed on the uphill, but there was and position— they have worked so recognised national level plenty of opportunity to do so on hard just to even participate,” says international-class mountain bike the downhill, too. And this was Sanjeev Pandey, the director of the championship in Nepal, and it is shown to full advantage by Kiwi race and a member of the NMBA. The club slowly gaining international John Thompson, described by The chief time-keeper was none recognition as a contest to be spectators as “the crazy one.” other than Nepal’s record-breaking reckoned with. Descending at approximately 50 senior marathiner, Baikuntha The 46 competitors in the km/hr from the highest point on Manandhar. “The boys are good, senior division were deadly serious. the course, he hit a rock and flew “ he said. “They’re committed Only a slight smile on some faces right off his disc-brake bike. The and that’s what I like about this belied the sense of anticipation in children up the hill fell down whole thing.” the air. The contestants were a laughing. Thompson, who went on While the racers were struggling mixed lot, from tattooed Thamel to win the senior’s title in just over on the track and the timekeepers folk to a lone female participant an hour, enjoyed it thoroughly. were watching, eagle-eyed, there wearing a strange contraption to “That’s how I got my energy. I was plenty of excitement among the CULTURE 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111777 SAVING FAITH by DESMOND DOIG

orget the obvious, refuse the houses up rickety stairs where, luxury coaches that race you in some rooms so low one fto palaces and temples and cannot stand, a master crafts- rudely scatter crowds in the man fashions images. A youth Durbar Square. Walk through who led me to these busy ateliers, Patan. Down a lane where a where invariably I was asked to tantric shrine gaudy with murals sit on beds with embroidered of witches and warlocks and covers, asked me if I would visit skeletons exorcise spells if one his own. walks through its tunnel-like The street was dirty and full passage. Or happen into of slush. He apologized. And he courtyards where children play apologized again for the long about stupas or ride protective steep climb to his room. We sat stone lions. Climb a mound on Tibetan rugs and he ordered wearing an old gnarled tree to be tea. Then from a tin trunk he told that beneath you is a took a pile of scrolls and Lichchhavi palace. unrolled them one at a time. Sip fizzy drinks in a Tibetan He had painted them himself in carpet shop. Wonder at two the highly disciplined style of Staffordshire dogs in a shop full Tibetan thanka art. They were of Nepali trinkets. Be guided by beautiful and far removed from the sound of hammer on metal the gaudy varnished scroll into alleys where brass and paintings found in curio shops. copper pots are made. Be led by Were there others like him, I friendly and instant guides into asked. With unmistakable pride

It is easy to believe one needs a bamboo cage, rush mats, coloured baskets, rope belts, woven straw shoes and skeins of gaudy rope. I filled a garage with

instant love but useless afterthoughts.

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he answered, “Oh, yes this is a easy to believe that one needs a treasure is the round thick rope cane shop has eased many an hour city of artists.” bamboo cage or rush mats or mats that many Nepali and my of painful sitting on antique One of my favourite corners coloured baskets, rope belts, young artist friend use as seats. stone.  in Patan, closeby the Durbar woven straw shoes and skeins of Carried by an obliging Square is a courtyard taken over gaudy rope. I filled a garage attendant and slid deftly under (Excerpted with permission from by cane weavers and potters. The with instant love but useless me as I sit to sketch, this scrap My Kind of Kathmandu,

MIN BAJRACHARYA shopkeepers are kindly and it is afterthoughts. But something I of salvation from my favourite Harper Collins, 1994.)

NEPALITERATURE by MANJUSHREE THAPA Kundan Sharma WITH CONFIDENCE AND FINESSE oet Kundan Sharma stands out from the you are a mere devotee of my body The Ardhanaarishwar Deity From your love I demand pgrowing numbers of women poets of So take it, using any excuse the right to exist as myself today for the confidence and finesse of Who has ever understood my heart? There must be a sky for me somewhere the capacity to stand fearless her voice. Some of her best poems speak to Who has sought it out? There must be an earth somewhere beneath this sky the issue of women’s exploitation, and do so Who feels any need for it? that can be deemed my own For somewhere there must be a life with a rare combination of conviction and art. I an excellent composition of nature I, a part of your creation that can be my own Sharma does not flinch from hard social and have always lived as a wish for pleasure who should I blame— Somewhere somebody psychological issues—the commodification of Here—the walls of kinship aren’t respected you or myself will surely wait for me too women’s flesh, the erasure of women’s no age difference remains or the rebellion burgeoning inside me? personalities, neglect, discrimination and your hand won’t keep from patting the A long time I’ve lived here in hiding Sharma is also the author of a poetry collection, Yo concealing myself degradation. Yet they do not sacrifice art for bodies Mann. She currently lives in Delhi. of the little girls sitting on my lap but my inner self couldn’t reject myself the sake of their message; the unusual turns It’s true that flesh trade goes on here All my feelings were natural for me of phrases and expressions make her poetry Was there ever a time when it didn’t? there was no one to understand this though fresh and alive. Both poems translated below Raise your eyes and examine If birth is reality why can’t we accept appear in Kabita, the poetry journal of the each street, each house that it can take any form? Royal Nepal Academy. the stage, the papers, the cinemas and Just because the boundaries of your thinking television are set I won’t be faulted Flesh Trade —everywhere, all over the place for not falling inside them you’ll see my body there Why then had you accepted in this land It’s true that flesh trade goes on here All that has changed today the half-Shiva half-Shakti deity Was there ever a time when it didn’t? is that you used to force me at first Ardhanaarishwar? Dress yourself in the marketplace’s speech whereas now of my own accord You refuse to see or wear pajamas of kinship at home I strip myself—I sell myself that I can be born as anyone or on a stage, offering the name of beauty and meet my own costs in the bone-skin-flesh strip me naked exhibiting my every part Possibly this is the single attraction of somebody’s body and life force All you need is my body you feel towards me I can grow up and live as anything so fornicate with that Possibly this is the only control as a woman or man Buy it or sell it for intercourse I command over you as man in woman enjoy it once you own it in the name of love As long as the beast in you lives as woman in man look for your lineage in my womb and my self-respect doesn’t awaken I’m your own progeny or plot to earn riches through me this trade will continue in this way Don’t give me up Give it any name this trade will go on in exactly this way disgraced by humiliation give it any false respectability 181818 CITY 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES ABOUT TOWN BOOKWORM

MOVIES Mahâmudrâ: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation Takpo Tashi Namgyal, The Club, Bhatbhateni Latest Hindi movie and latest top-ten English movie, 7pm, free. trans. Lobsang P Lhalungpa Nepali and Hindi movies online ticket booking at www.nepalshop.com Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1993/2001 Rs 792 EATING OUT The first English translation of a major Buddhist manual detailing the various stages and Sekuwa (BBQ) Night Dwarika’s Hotel. Starters, meats, vegetarian selections, dessert, practices for training the advanced student of Mahayana and Vajrayana meditation. The complementary drink. Traditional dance in lamp lit Newari courtyard. Rs 699. Friday nights. original Tibetan text was composed by Namgyal (1512-1587), a great lama and scholar of 479488 the Kagyu Buddhist sect. La’Soon Restaurant and Vinotheque Lunch, tea and dinner with European and American food, fine wines. Pulchowk. 535290 The Concealed Essence of the Hevaja Tantra GW Farrow, I Menon Brunch with swimming Shangri La Kathmandu’s award-winning garden. Rs 700 + tax. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1992/2001 412999 Rs 632 Wet & Wild Summer Swimming in a cool pool and a buffet lunch. Saturdays at Godavari The Hevaja Tantra is a non-dual Yogini tantra of the late Mantrayana Buddhist tradition Village Resort. Adults Rs 600, children Rs 350. Taxes extra. 560675, 560775 composed in north-east India in the late eighth century. This text constitutes the essence Mango Tango Exotic mangoes desserts Hotel de l’ Annapurna. All day, all food and of sophisticated, but controversial, tantric methods and is an authoritative account of beverage outlets. the classic tantric period of India in religious history (5-13 century). Movenpick Exotic desserts at the ice-cream lounge, Darbar Marg. Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of the Shambhala MUSIC Chögyam Trungpa 2:001 For the Love of Rock Vibes Entertainment presents the third annual rock festival Shambhala Publications, Boston, 1999 with Robin and Looza, Flower Generation, Axata, Albatross, and Hybrid Pressurize. Scout Rs 1,875 Headquarters, Lainchour. Rs 200. 2 June. Win free tickets online at www.vibes.com.np The follow-up to Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Trungpa addresses our deepest Cadenza Jazz at the Upstairs Bar, Lazimpat, Wednesday, Friday 7.30pm. Rs 200 fears: the alienation of modern life, depression, materialism, aggression, anger, anxiety, and lack of self-worth. He says we are all powerful and genuine individuals who need to ignite the DANCE warrior within. Sounds from the Underground Dance party at Simply Shutters Bistro, Baber Mahal Revisited. 1 June, 8pm onwards. Rs 300. Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat: Land of Medicine Buddha, February-April 1999 Lama Zopa Rinpoche EVENTS Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Weston, Mass., 2000 Fanta Grand Fun Fair Live music, games and food. Godavari Alumni Association and Rs 1,500 Cohort 1,2,3 June. Jawalakhel Grounds. “Doing Vajrasattva retreat is not simply about reciting the mantra and saying some Stress Free Weekends Overnight stay at the Hyatt, dinner for two at the Rox Restaurant, prayers. It is about making the practice effective for your mind, making it the use of pool, health club, spa and outdoor jacuzzi, ayurvedic massage for two, weekend quickest, most powerful way to transform your mind.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche brunch, late check out Sunday. Rs 9000 plus tax. Hyatt Regency, Kathmandu. 491234 Pheri Jaun Hai Pokhara Free airfare, room, breakfast, airport transport, use of health club Courtesy: Mandala Book Point, Kantipath and lots more. Rs 1500 for Nepalis, $45 for expats. Shangri La Hotel & Resort; [email protected], 412999 Spiny Babbler Museum Readings and presentations of contemporary Nepali literature CLASSIFIED

and art, Sundays 5-6pm Kathmandu Guest House, Thamel; Tuesdays 4-5pm Kathmandu ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Environment Education Project, Thamel; Thursdays 7-8pm Bamboo Club Restaurant, Visit The New Bishalnagar Nursery To let Thamel, Saturdays 5-6pm New Orleans Café, Thamel. [email protected]. 542810, for flowers you will not find elsewhere! Just Fully furnished apartment, three 546725 two minutes from Bishalnagar Chowk on the bedrooms, two baths, spacious living- Poetry, Meditation, Music Learn practical techniques of meditation to find peace for Dhumvarahi Road. Specialties of the dining, kitchen, phone line, terrace positive livingLive meditative music, poetry, short lecture on spirituality. Sri Chinmoy Centre season: Fuschias in many colours and overlooking garden. Peaceful and Budhanilkantha School. Buhanilkantha School Assembly Hall. 2 June, 9am-11am. Free. varieties, young plants of early-fruiting surroundings, near Jawalakhel Zoo. Discourse Swami Subodhananda, Jain Mandir, Kamalpokhari. Chinmaya Sangh Nepal, in German vine, and many others. 524389. Hindi. 1-7 June, 7.30am-8.30am (Driga Drishya Vivek), 5.30pm– 7pm (Ram Charitra Manas). 521379 Mountain Biking HMB Reflexology The Club, Bhatbhateni Rusty Nails play Friday nights, 7pm, free. Saturday poolside BBQ, for all your mountain biking needs—full Professional US, Europe-trained bingo, music. Rafting, 2 June. Includes one night at the Riverside Spring Resort, BBQ, workshop, repair facilities, all models. Pick naturopath, therapist. Improve your breakfast. [email protected]. 426238, 416430 up, delivery, professional mechanics. Bike blood circulation, energy flow. Perfect clothing, spare parts, accessories. Hire, buy, preventive therapy and also for specific ○○○○○ EXHIBITION sell, new and second-hand bikes. ailments. 416118 (11am-5pm) or email If Bodies have Voices From the Street: Kathmandu 1985-1995. Photographs by Wayne Himalayan Mountain Bike. [email protected]. Amtzis. 25 May-11 June. Amtzis reads from his collection City on His Back. 3 June, 4pm. www.bikingnepal.com. 437437. Siddhartha Art Gallery. 411122 For insertions ring NT Marketing at 543333-36. Mani: Jewelled Words of Tibetan-Buddhism on Flags, Wheels, and Stones Fulbright Scholar Katherine Anne Paul’s research on the popular use and manufacture of Tibetan religious artefacts in Nepal. Until 2 June. Bamboo Gallery, Panipokhari. 412507 YAK YETI YAK by MIKU

MARTIN CHAUTARI Formal and Informal Judicial System and VDC’s Judicial Rights Pundits: Advocate DN Parajuli, Dinesh Prasai CVICT. Unless otherwise noted all discussion are in Nepali. 5 June, 5.30pm Martin Chautari. Thapathali.

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NEPALI WEATHER by NGAMINDRA DAHAL The monsoon is still on progress. The inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), a seasonal low pressure belt that often lies parallel along the equatorial line is on FM 102.4 gradually shifting close to Himalaya to bring vigorous rains. Presence of a strong low-pressure system in the

DSES- 20-06-2001 0400 GMT north Indian plain has also created a favorable Mon-Fri 0615-0645 BBC World Today condition to move moisture-laden air toward the region both easterly from Bay of Bengal and southwesterly Sat 0615-0645 BBC Science in Action from Arabian Sea. Once the two branches meet week the first cycle of monsoon completes, which remains Sun 0615-0645 BBC Agenda active for another two to four days. As seen in the latest satellite images rainfall will occur almost regularly over Daily 2045-2115 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf]]] the week, and more often during night. The next active monsoon cycle begins after four to seven days of break Daily 2245-2300 BBC g]kfnL ;]jf]]] (i.e. rain free period). Because of daily rainfall last week, mercury levels have fallen significantly by up to 3 degrees in average. The weather is getting humid Radio Sagarmatha KATHMANDU P.O. Box 6958, Bakhundole, Lalitpur, Nepal Tel: ++977-1-545680, 545681 Fax: ++ 977-1- 530227 Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue E-mail: [email protected] www.radiosagarmatha.org 28-20 27-19 28-20 29-20 28-20 ARTS 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES 191919 ART REVIEW by NINA BHATT If bodies have voices KIRAN’S WINDHORSE elders whose furrowed brows bear testament to their struggles to earn Kiran Manandhar, a strokes cannot a daily wage. prolific and break free of. What is remarkable about this versatile painter These new limits ten year retrospective is the known for his set on the artist’s intimate engagement between the celebratory use of freedom of artist and his subjects. Those color and stroke, expression allows photographed are aware they are has taken a new for an honest objects of the camera’s gaze, yet departure. A recent contemporary there is an unusual degree of stay in Tibet, reading of place. consent, albeit momentary, to allow traveling and The brooding Amtzis to penetrate their lives. leading workshops figures of woman or Both parties tacitly acknowledge in painting has lovers that appear that a kind of intrusion is occurring, introduced a in many of Kiran’s but somehow appear to recognize collage-like canvasses are here that this intrusion, on this occasion, element to his as well, and their with the sympathetic nature of this work. His current juxtaposition to the camera lens, must happen. Thus do exhibit at the prayer flag adds a oet Wayne Amtzis’ the subjects engage directly with Contemporary Art personal pphotographic the viewer, unapologetically offering Gallery in Thamel incorporates in each dimension. In #6 and in # 26 we see exhibition currently a piece of their troubled lives. This painting a Tibetan prayer flag with a these figures with the prayer flags. In on display at the Siddhartha frankness reveals itself more the windhorse and a wish-fulfilling jewel one, a woman turns towards the flag and Art Gallery compels its longer one spends on each rising from its back. the viewer senses encounter; in the other, viewers to acknowledge the photograph. At first glance, much like many two figures, mutually engaged, seem not to difficult socio-economic Take for instance, the Youth at western artists, he seems to be utilizing notice the flag’s presence. Interest and circumstances experienced Indrachowk (#9). This handsome an artifact from a culture even more indifference, an emotional opening towards by Kathmandu Valley child boy is seated for a brief respite from “exotic” than his own. A more thorough commitment and a troubled emotional laborers, abandoned his work as a porter. At any viewing indicates the boldness of his entanglement, set the parameters of women, petty traders and moment, his name will be called attempt. The dominant image, whether it engagement with a wider world. porters. The collection of out to haul a load probably beyond is integrated into Kiran’s vocabulary of Kiran is persistent in his use of the 43 black and white his capacity. His facial expression is evocative color and energetic stroke or Tibetan prayer flags. Whether the photographs is an uncom- one of explicit engagement. He not, makes itself known throughout the windhorse flies above, or lies promisingly harsh portrayal seems fresh, still innocent, but his exhibit. So close to Tibet’s borders, a submerged, or even fails to enter into or of the vicissitudes of eyes have begun to ask “why me?” flag of Tibetan origin is raised in the modify Kiran’s abstract landscapes, their modern urban life. It As viewers, we can weave a landscape of Kiran’s work. presence must be accounted for in depicts the drudgery of narrative as we move on to the These paintings are more contained whatever aesthetic conclusions the physical labor, moments of young man in National Refrigerator, than Kiran’s previous endeavors. viewer may draw from his work.  hopeless respite from work, Gairidhara (#12). He seems to Though drawn from the openness and solitary mad women, designate the future of the boy from power of the Tibetan landscape, there is Kiran Manandhar, Everest dejected street vendors, and #9. Yet a sense of determination a sense of enclosure that even Kiran’s Contemporary Art Gallery, Arcadia still emerges in his face and eyes. color-rich palette and free flowing Building, Thamel. This young man knows his life is HAPPENINGS hard, but he hasn’t succumbed to resignation and despair. The people whose portraits appear in this exhibit are cornered by the walls and streets of Kathmandu. The barbed wire they hang to, the ropes looped around their bodies and hands tell

MIN BAJRACHARYA MIN us how bound and limited are their lives. Representing “everyman”—they symbolize the drudgery carried out daily by millions of Nepalis. In a wider sense Amtzis’ photographs DAY ONE: Tourism entrepreneurs fielded Volkswagen Vans with “Tourist” provide a global commentary of banners to ferry tourist groups to and from the airport as the strike got underway on-the-edge urban workers and on 27 May. For individual travellers, rickshaws were the best (and most denizens of the street. Giving expensive) way to get to town. The cheapest way was to walk. themselves the time these portraits deserve, the viewers can move beyond cursory impressions and appreciate the exhibition’s complexity and subtlety. With patient scrutiny, what emerges are highly personalized “voices” which convey narratives specific to each individual.

MIN BAJRACHARYA MIN The serendipitous timing of the taking of these photographs (1985-1995) makes for disheartening political commentary. In today’s DAY TWO: Bhaktapur shops wear a deserted look as tourists stay away on Kathmandu “democracy” has the second day of the strike. arrived. Civil sector groups and NGOs flourish; politicians wax eloquent while expatriate and local development wallahs continually reproduce new ‘agendas.’ Meanwhile, life for those depicted here remains unchanged. As a complement to this exhibit, Amtzis will read at the MIN BAJRACHARYA MIN gallery from his poetry collection, “City on his Back” at 4 PM on Sunday, June 3.  From the Street: Kathmandu 1985- 1995 Photos by Wayne Amtzis DAY THREE: No one is left out of this public meeting organised by the Siddhartha Art Gallery May 25-June organisers of the bandh. Ratna Park on 29 May. 11, 2001 Babar Mahal Revisited 202020 1 - 7 JUNE 2001 NEPALI TIMES Under My Hat NEPALI SOCIETY by Kunda Dixit Thank you, Dr Tej t must have finally dawned on each live to see another day and everyone among us by now 5,678 marriage processions 1980. The Karnali river at the Chisapani Gorge. It was the first made their way upstream. Suddenly, one of us jumped right up in ithat we have just voluntarily and dispersed nationwide time we dolphins saw a real scientist. Our cousins in the front of these two humans. The doctor almost fell off his boat with out of our own free will stayed at At least 3.2 litres of Single Malt Narayani had told us a strange human wearing glasses, a big excitement. He took off his glasses and said: “I was right. There home for three straight days in a allegedly consumed in one camera and a funny hat had been giving them the eye. They said are Gangetic Dolphins (Platanista gangetica) in Nepal’s rivers.” spontaneous gesture of support for newspaper office alone. he would jump and point his camera at the smallest movement We certainly didn’t mind word of our presence getting out. one bunch of jokers (which we shall If all this could be achieved in three of water. But our relatives couldn’t get to know him too well, Over the years we had lots of visitors, but they were mostly for the time being call Team A) to days, how much more could be done because the dirty water from the beer factory and paper mill at tourists. We migrate in winter from the Karnali and topple another bunch of jokers (which in a week...two weeks…a month. Narayanghat forced them to move. Kosi, we don’t spend much time in the Narayani we shall call Team B) to be this Insider sources tell us Party HQ is When he came to Chisapani Gorge inside the Bardiya and the Mahakali. And there are only 20 of us country’s Numero Uno Clown-in- now inundated with congratulatory National Park, our mammalian proximity sense told us he had left in Nepal. So, very few of you will get to see Chief. We must collectively thank messages of heartiLest felicitation and pitched camp near a big cliff and had us unless you approach with love and care, befriended an old fisherman. The two used much like Dr Tej does. to row upstream to reach the tranquil We knew Dr Tej campaigned to create an One Great Leap waters in the middle of the gorge. It was all aquatic wildlife preserve for us while very amusing for us. We jumped up for everyone wanted to focus on terrestrial fresh air often and looked over at him, but mammals—tigers, rhinos and elephants. Forward, we were too quick and he never saw us. We live in a complex ecological system, We liked him. We learnt that he was quite and though we are labelled endangered, Two Leaps Back a rare specimen—a Tribhuvan University- locals still sell our meat. They call us trained zoologist honoured by over 20 bhagirath or sonsh, thinking that we arrived Team A for this opportunity to jubilation from fraternal and maternal international scientific organisations like when Shiva sprouted water from his hair to express our holehearted, unquantified organisations all over the world the Institute of Biology UK, the Linnean create the Ganga. People hang our bones and air-conditioned support for their commending the General Secretary Society of London, and the British in doorways to drive away evil. Ayurvedic bid to be head honcho of this circus on the successful completion of his Orinthological Union. After about a doctors extract oil from us for its by allowing us to enjoy a totalitarian three-day National Paralysis. Just to month, we decided to surprise supposed aphrodisiac, analgesic and bed rest and to adhere to a strict give readers an idea of the intense him. It was a beautiful early antiseptic properties. But nobody liquid diet of Single Malt for most of international camaraderie and morning. “Doctor sahib, go home. SALIL SUBEDI except this doctor, who also this past week. Ladies and gentlemen, solidarity, we reprint below the full Only sanyasis wander around like knows all about Nepal’s birds, let us give the organisers a big hand. text of some of the messages: this,” the fisherman was telling Dr has bothered to truly get to know That the three days have been a Telegram from Bangladesh Prime Tej Kumar Shrestha as they us. Thank you, Dr Tej. grand all-round success there is now Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed: no doubt—because Team A says so. CONGRATULATIONS STOP But if you asked me (not that you YOU OUTDID US STOP THREE have, but here I go anyway) what the DAYS WHOLE COUNTRY STOP biggest achievement of the three day BUT WHY ON EARTH DID national sleep-in has been for our YOU BURN OUR MOTOR- nation, it is that at the end of it Team CYCLE AT MITRA PARK ON B is still in charge. Which means it SUNDAY QUESTION MARK WE leaves open the opportunity for Team VERY VERY ANGRY STOP A to once more request us to please PHULBARI TRANSIT STOP consider voluntarily taking another SMUGGLING OF OXEN STOP week bed rest with liquid diet before MEDICAL SEATS FOR NEPALIS the budget session. STOP Over at the HQ of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unfit From Kim Jong-Il: Marxist-Leninists) they have been You have just received a Blue engaged in marathon debriefing Mountain Internet greeting sessions and have unanimously card from Dear Leader in decided that last week is sure to go Pyongyang, and it goes: down in the annals of the Great “Comrade Nepal, you still International Proletarian have a lot to learn about Revolution as One Great Leap Juchhe, but you are getting Forward for Mankind and the general Idea. In North Two Leaps Back. Here is Korea, our streets are the latest tally of empty of cars all year achievements: round, our huge hotels are 3,108 bicycle tyres always empty. If you deflated continue at this rate, you 7.3 million litres of will also be able to attain petrol and kerosene- Jucche. Keep it up. Yours in laced diesel saved solidarity and camaraderie, 35 goats, 57 ducks Kim the Last of the Reds.” Pepsodent and 403 chicken MSN Hotmail from Fidel which would Castro: “Bravo. You have just otherwise have struck another blow at the heart been lost to road of global imperialism. Sending kill on our highways cigars by DHL.”

June issue on stands next week