www.nepalitimes.com #146 23 - 29 May 2003 18 pages Rs 25 Because it’s there NAVIN SINGH KHADKA bottled oxygen. But by mid-afternoon it ex-headman Sonam Gyalgin Sherpa in NAMCHE BAZAR ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ was getting crowded on the summit ridge, admits there is no one in charge. f Thursday was anything to go by, this and at least one expedition turned back “Everyone is doing their own thing, will be a wild week on Sagarmatha in from the South Col because of no one is coordinating.” th I the run-up to 29 May, the 50 overcrowding. The wind was gusting up Even so, Namche SUBHAS RAI anniversary of the first ascent of the to 60 knots and clouds had moved in. A wears a festive look world’s highest mountain. Chinese expedition from the north was because the jubilee has One after another, the records are forced to return from near the summit. brought increased trekking More hype in Britain than Nepal 4 falling. For the past four days, 70-year-old In the coming days, more traffic after three consecutive years Stephen Venables 5 Yuichiro Miura and his 20-year-old son, expeditions will be making summit of decline. April alone saw 3,000 Cashing in on Everest 7 Gota, have been waiting out high winds bids—traffic and weather permitting. trekkers and climbers passing Ang Tshering Sherpa 7 at 8,200m to make their summit bid. On There are the South Africans, trying to through, compared to only Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa in Lhasa 8 Thursday morning, Miura Sr became the put the first black woman on the 1,700 last year. Hotel-owners Jamling in dad’s footsteps 8 oldest man ever to climb Mt Everest, and summit, the Italian speed expedition is here hope this year trekking We’re all Everest junkies 9 this is the longest anyone has spent above acclimatising and moving up to the numbers will reach the 25,000 List of Everest activities 14 8,000m. Thirty-three years ago, he had South Col and the 50-strong French that Namche gets on normal Sherpa Hillary 15-16 skied down Everest, braking by deploying expedition is planning to go for the top years. Branding Everest 17 a parachute. in two groups this week. Most Temba’s ambition 18 After days of fierce winds, nearly 150 expeditions have been sharing Sherpas climbers from 25 expeditions have been to fix ropes while they wait for the moving up the mountain from the Nepali weather window to make the dash to Weekly Internet Poll # 86 side, and 30 expeditions from the north. the summit. Q. How do you assess the pace of the peace talks between the government and the Maoists? Till presstime Thursday, some 26 Nepalis Meanwhile, here in Namche the and 11 international climbers got to the celebrations for the 50th top from the south. anniversary seem to be Eleven Nepalis were from an Indo- disorganised. There is Nepali army expedition in which three a Hillary statue being Indians also reached the summit. Then unveiled, but not there was the famous South Korean, Um even his sister knows Hong-Gil who has climbed all 14 peaks in where and when. Total votes:1,203 the world higher than 8,000m, and has There is supposed Weekly Internet Poll # 87. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com done Everest three times now from to be a party in Q. Do you agree with the CIAA’s current anti-graft different directions. Tengboche for campaign against senior political figures? Others to get on top Thursday were Reinhold Messner, the Irish, Belgians, Chinese and a Russian but the locals have who climbed from the north without no idea. Namche’s Patan Museum Café We are pleased to announce that we have extended the opening hours of the Patan Museum Cafe. From1030 – 1930 hrs For reservations and more information please call 55 26271/ 55 24694 NT PEPC #146.p65 1 5/23/03, 3:56 PM 2 EDITORIAL 23 - 29 MAY 2003 NEPALI TIMES #146 NATION 23 - 29 MAY 2003 NEPALI TIMES #146 3 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL OPINION by RALF DAHRENDORF Desk Editor: Trishna Gurung, Design: Kiran Maharjan Webmaster: Bhushan Shilpakar [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki [email protected] Sales: Sudan Bista [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333/ 5523845 Fax: 01-5521013 A comrade comes calling Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hattiban: 01-5547018/17 Democracy disconnect …to say the comissars are alarmed about Pax Americana. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ omething has happened to solution. Direct action by POLITICALLY INCORRECT or a leader of his stature, Comrade all that reassuring to his host. So he adds, streets of the Occupied Territories. democracy in the sense of demonstrations has become a regular hat is it with our politics that anytime anyone has a grudge against Matrika Prasad Yadav is exceedingly "We hold no grudges against people like Such images strike a chord with the S popularly elected government, and and often effective occurrence. For the anyone else, it is the classrooms that get bombed, teachers that get F modest. Instead of calling someone to you. Our actions are aimed only against class suppressed anywhere in the world as they fight it has happened all over the world. less mobile it can be replaced by W harassed, schools that get padlocked, universities that get shut down, his den, he prefers to call on them. Dressed enemies. We hold independent intellectuals entrenched power, and it inspires those who Somehow people have lost faith in electronic expressions of views, from and children that get forced to join political rallies? simply in khadis, he arrives five minutes in high esteem." For over an hour, we discuss struggle against injustice and inequality. elections. Internet chat-rooms to e-mails to Nepal’s education system, or what remains of it, has been the first target of before the appointed time. As an alternate the problems of Madhesis in Nepal and the Maoists have prevailed over state forces Turnout is declining in many political leaders. Then there are non- every political agitation. The Maoists demolished the national school system in politburo member of the Nepal Communist Maoists' method of handling it. Like most of in almost every encounter in nearly two the two years of mayhem in which hundreds of teachers were killed, tortured and countries; in the case of elections to the governmental organisations, often Party (Maoist), Comrade Matrika is his naive cadres, Comrade Matrika seems to years, except one or two rebel offensives that European Parliament, the level of voter undemocratic in their own structures hounded out of the villages. Schools across the land were forced to close down, entitled to party protection: two alert put his faith in the political rhetoric of his went wrong. It is not surprising that the and in many places they remain closed. Their rationale was the irrational logic participation is so low as to call into and yet more closely connected, it seems, of revolutions: destroy everything before rebuilding. guards shadow him wherever he goes. On leaders. "Round table, interim government, Maoist militia have little respect for the question the legitimacy of the result. to citizens. Beyond these, of course, is It is a legacy of the Panchayat that underground political parties exerted Sunday, one of them was in combat and constituent assembly," he chants the fighting ability of their peers in the Royal fatigues, and that created problems when Maoist mantra with quiet reverence. It is Nepali Army. Even young Maoist fighters But turnout apart, we have become the possibility of switching off their presence through student wings, turning campuses into hotbeds of political accustomed to accepting that parties or altogether and leaving politics to the dissent. Nothing wrong with that, of course, a politically active academia was at the Royal Nepali Army detained his pointless to argue against the faith of an barely out of their teens openly boast that the vanguard of the Peoples’ Movement that ushered in democracy in 1990. entourage for almost two hours in Salyan. extremist--be he a Maoist revolutionary, a they can easily lay their hands on the army's candidates who receive 25 percent of professionals so as to concentrate on But by trying to resurrect the conditions of 12 years ago, political parties are While the lone Madhesi Maoist jihadi, or a neocon Bush warrior. new rifles if instructed to do so. the popular vote are “winners”. From other dimensions of life. flogging a dead horse. And by deliberately targetting schools and adopting the negotiator is in Kathmandu (the capital of Speaking of which, it is America that The insurgents do not seem to be too Holland and Finland to Argentina and The latter is the most risky, because same tactics of intimidation, arson and vandalism as the Maoists, the parties' the "old regime") one of his guards often worries Comrade Matrika. He agrees it was bothered about the Indian armed interven- Japan, majority governments are formed it supports the creeping authoritarianism student wings have shown themselves to be no better. But the blame lies with doubles as his PA, passing him the the fear of direct American intervention that tion either and reject such a possibility. with minority support. that is a sign of our times. But the other their political mentors for whom all this is just an extension of their continuing cellphone after making sure that the call is prompted the Maoists to come back to the "But even if they were foolhardy enough Nor are the apparent exceptions signs of disconnection also create a parlour games.