|
To unsubscribe, change your address, or subscribe, go here for Bush Headline News or here for Inside Bush Watch. BUSH WATCH...Nepal Diary comment | features | today's news | news update | bushreport | archives | us | contact |
Nepal Diary, #1: Hello? Getting Online, Jerry Barrett Austin...Chicago...Moscow...Kabul...New Delhi...Kathmandu. Christine and I left Austin last Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Kathmandu last Friday afternoon, after an overnight stay in New Delhi. Our youthful drivers from the Buddhist Center met us, ready to take us 15 miles over the mountains to the villiage of Pharping, where we are staying. We first wanted to stop in Kathmandu to pick up SIM cards for our phones to make them usable as part of a digital wireless internet system. We were told, "No." Low on petrol. The petrol stations along the way were closed, and the semi-secret, muddy truck stops had none to spare. We made it to Pharping on fumes. Mountainous Nepal gets its petrol by truck from Indian dealers across the southern border. As prices have gone up over the years, the government has subsidized the cost of gas. When the government of Nepal recently attempted to remove its subsidies, the nation's drivers staged massive protests, preventing that from happening. We were told there was a store (more like a stall) in Pharping that sold SIM cards, but it was either closed or out of business. An American friend working for a few days in Kathmandu was going to purchase and bring SIM cards out to us on Monday, but learned he had to provide the name and number of a local, ongoing account, which he didn't have, to do so. A local on a motorcycle was going to pick up SIM cards in Kathmandu for us on Tuesday, but the stores in the city closed down in protest to political actions. Word was a group of Maoist rebels had taken over a hotel in Kathmandu and had roughed up the manager, demanding he pay them a tax. In retaliation, the local Chamber of Congress had the city's shopkeepers close their places of business, bringing the city to a halt. Apparently, their quid-pro-quo action worked. Today, Kathmandu was open and our SIM cards were purchased and delivered. And here we are.
Nepal Diary, #2: Care For A Demonstration?, Jerry Barrett We were planning on going to Kathmandu today, but yesterday our driver told us he learned through the grapevine that parts of the Ring Road around Kathmandu will be closed by impromptu demonstrations. (Our driver, by the way, is a fashionable late teen-early twenties guy: black and gold racing jersey, low-rider jeans dragging on the ground, topped off by a big, thick chain hanging off his belt and looped into his back pocket. Short black hair and a great smile.) The demonstrations consist of stacking tires across the road and setting them on fire. The road up the mountain from Kathmandu to Pharping is ragged, narrow, and precipitous. Two busses have a real hard time passing one another. No barriers to stop vehicles from plunging into the gorges below. There was even a demonstration on that road not long ago. A bus driver picked up some passengers at a stop along the way, but refused some young people. The young people staged a tire burning demo and no one could get through. The next day only the busses were stopped. The day after that, the owner of the bus company came and apologized, and traffic went back to normal. Then there are scheduled demonstrations, so you know in advance when things will be tied up. One checks the appropriate page on the American Embassy web site daily daily. Tomorrow the All Nepal Free Students Union (Integrated) will hold a 15-minute Road Block in front of Tri-Chandra College near the Clock Tower. We'll be sure to avoid that part of town around lunch time.
Nepal Diary, #3: New Year's Eve in Kathmandu, Jerry Barrett Prior to coming to Pharping I asked a friend who had been there about its pace of daily life. He said, "Every day is like New Year's Eve." Of course he was kidding. Standing on the cliffs overlooking the green, placid, farming valley below, Pharping is one of the calmest, least hectic places I've ever been. Kathmandu, with an estimated one million plus inhabiants, is another story. Twelve hours in Nepal's major city was enough for me, at least for a week. Like Bangkok, the pollution from densly packed motorized vehicles of all descriptions is stunning. Add to that, incredible noise pollution. Although the main roads in the city are paved and the major thoroughfares are four lanes, the concept of orderly driving behavior is weak, very weak, except for stopping at red lights. In effect, any empty space is fair game, and veering into oncoming traffic is part of the game. The result is everyone is blowing their horns ALL THE TIME. With cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, bikes, and people milling on, across, and through the roadway at all angles to the constant cacophany of blaring horns and screechy, sudden stops, the Kathmandu city experience is exhausting. On the packed sidewalks it's easy to get lost from your friends as people on the move quickly stream around you. (Busy sidewalks feature vendors displaying their wares. The book vendors prominantly feature books on both Bill Clinton and Hillary, but books on Daddy Bush or Junior are nowhere to be found.) You leave the city physically exhausted, with your respiratory system struggling to get back to normal the next day. It's really like Times Square on New Year's Eve, the only difference being that in Kathmandu it's New Year's Eve every day.
Nepal Diary, #4: Calling All Freaks, Jerry Barrett Durbar Marg, Kathmandu's fashionable street of upscale hotels, restaurants, banks, and travel agencies, runs North and South through the center of the city and ends up at the forebodingly tall fence that sorrounds the vast grounds of the Royal Palace. A few blocks to the west lies the touristy Thamel disrict (ta-MEL). It's been estimated that up to the 50's fewer than 300 Westerners had visited Kathmandu. By the 60's the Hippie invasion had begun, with those tourists on a budget permanently changing a street south of Thamel next to old Durbar Square into "Freak Street." Since then, over a thousand tourists arrive in Nepal each day, providing its third-largest source of foreign currency. While it's possible to live on Freak Street for under $25 US a day, its days of glory are long gone, and Thamel has taken its place as a tourist destination for Westerners. Thamel's narrow streets and alleys, festooned with all manner of banners and signs, and the dense mix of Westerners and Asians navigating past beggars, con men, and dealers reminded me of the set of an exotic von Sternberg movie. A dwarf passes by, dressed in a superman costume. Shops filled with reproductions of local art, fabric, and jewelry, and mirrors reminds you of that hippie pipe shop in your hometown (sans pipes). Bootleg CD's of classic rock in paper covers sell for a buck. A couple bucks at "Barnes and Nobel" gets you a used copy of a John Harvey Brit detective mystery exchanged by a returning trekker. Have a pizza at "Pizza Hut," a burger at North Beach Cafe, or Irish Stew at Kilroy's of Kathmandu. For desert, try Le Bistro or Hungry Eye. Evening entertainment takes you to Blue Note, Tom and Jerry's, or the Rum Doodle Bar. Stay a night or two at Nepal Peace Cottage or the Nirvana Garden Hotel. Sounds like the Village or Haight in the 60's, doesn't it? Kerry Moran ("Nepal Handbook"), my favorite guide to Napal, claims that the initial euphora one gets from a visit to Thamel soon wears off, and Christine agrees. Moran's reminded of Bangkok's Kao San Road and notes that while Thamel's easy to get around and it seems like everyone speaks English, "the mixture of hustle and self-delusion in the air can soon become distasteful." Maybe so, but on my initial visit to Thamel, I found it a blast!
Nepal Diary, #5: Folks on the Hill, Jerry Barrett One reason Christine and I are presently living at a Buddhist Center in Pharping is to help build a guest house on the property. Perched on a mountainous cliff edge, the house overlooks a verdant valley of terraced farmland. Dots of farmers work their patches of land down below, and carry up baskets of produce on their backs into Pharping, which lines the bowl-shapped valley on one side. Christine designed the interior and I designed the exterior. Our challenge is going over the plans with a contractor who only speaks Nepali. We speak to a Center worker who speaks Hindi and English. He speaks to a young monk who speaks Hindi and Nepali. He speaks to the contractor. It's worked pretty well so far, as we learn what can and can't be done. Since wood is scarce in the Kathmandu valley for a number of reasons, houses here are typically brick with concrete roofs. Flat concrete roofs (our choice) are finished off with balustrades; peaked roofs have tile-like designs scored into the cement and are often painted. Stucco over brick is considered to be "modern." Combining traditional Nepali and Santa Fe modern architecture, the guest house is a two-floor Nepali box, but with larger windows than usual to capture the fantastic view, sitting on top of a floating concrete platform, inspired by mid-century modern architecture. While three sides of the guest house are traditional brick, the fourth side, the side facing west, is stucco with narrow, slotted windows in the Santa Fe modern spirit. Sunday was a big day, as the work force of 10 was doubled for the pouring of the thousand square foot second story concrete roof. All building in Pharping is labor-intensive. Workers carried bags of cement, stone, and sand in wheelbarrows and on their backs down narrow paths to the site from the road a block away. The concrete was mixed in a downstairs room and, like buckets of water to put out a fire, large metal "woks" filled with cement were passed, hand to hand, up two flights of stairs and poured over steel rods that criss-crossed the previously constructed wooden form. Others on the roof kept the concrete wet and smoothed it out. Since all of this had to be done as quickly as possible to prevent the concrete from cracking or hardening unevenly, the work continued non-stop for seven hours. At the end of the day, families arrived to walk the workers home, and the contractor wisely gave everyone Monday off.
Nepal Diary, #6: It's a Gas! Jerry Barrett Another reason we've heard for the petrol shortage is that tribal groups to the South, feeling under-represented in the make-up of the new political system, are forming roadblocks to prevent the tanker trucks from getting through on the twisting, mountainous roads into Kathmandu. Some believe that these groups have the backing of royalist factions who want to retain power as the country moves into the pre-election period, the constitutional assembly elections scheduled for June. Both the nepali military and Maoist rebels are reportedly working to keep the roads clear. Meanwhile, here we were, just past the Ring Road south of Kathmandu, trying to get home on fumes. Before passing Tribhuvan University on the right, where the four-lane University Road becomes a narrow, fifteen foot wide two lane road that takes us around the mountain to Pharping, we came upon a petrol station that was open...for the moment. Motorcycles, five abreast, were lined up facing south into the petrol station. On the other side of the station's driveway, cars were streatched a mile up a hill, facing north into the station. The station owners were wise to separate the two types of vehicles, since a single line of both cars and cycles into the station would have mirrored the chaos of the typical driving experience going on in the other three lanes, with vehicles of all kinds jockying for position. There were no trucks or buses in either line; they have their own petrol stations. We drove to the end of the line of cars, hoping the station would still have petrol by the time we actually reached the pumps. We started out facing uphill, having to use precious petrol each time we moved forward in line. Soon, we reached the crest of the hill, and pushed our vechicle the rest of the way, a few yards at a time, into the petrol station an hour and a half later. Each time the line stopped, most of the drivers got out of their cars and walked around, visiting with the other drivers, washing their hands and feet at wells on the side of the road, buying snacks from carts standing in driveways, or waving to motorists passing by. Many of the trucks and buses passing by were painted in gawdy colors and elaborate patterns, some with eyes where the headlights were. As night fell, the high-tech buses were the best: animated neon replaced the paint. In the front, bright, blue-white blinking lights bounced in animation around the signage and the windshield, creating something out of a science fiction movie. In the back, a large, animated hand in bright yellow on a black background waved bye-bye. Finally, we pushed our vehicle next to a petrol pump, a well-dressed, matronly woman stuffed our $10 worth of Nepali rupees into her bulging billfold, and we were rewarded with 10 liters of petrol.
Nepal Diary #7: Socrates, Buddha, and Bush, Jerry Barrett British Anthropologist Michael Carrithers has made an interesting comparison between Socrates and Buddha that was a real eye-opener for me. Both men came at a time in their respective societies when a new way of thinking was beginning to emerge. The old way of thinking was to assume an enclosed society in which everyone thinks the same and bases their beliefs on traditions, shared imagery, and supernational sanctions. The new way of thinking, which both Socrates and Buddha ascribed to, assumes a diverse, open society in which answers to fundamental questions could be applied to mankind in general, not a narrow group viewpoint based on the shared beliefs and experiences of a small community. The new way of thinking would invite discussion, be argued, and lead to an impersonal truth. Neither Socrates nor Buddha were concerned with the concept of God, the metaphysical, or the supernatural, but with establishing a philosophy or a psychology to help man deal with the practical concerns of day-to-day living. "With the rise of cities and the growth of a complex, cosmopolitan community, experience was no longer shared nor values unquestioned. The easy correspondence between traditional thought and life no longer held," writes Carrithers. "There were substantial changes in the forms of common life, and with those changes arose the possibility that those forms could be reconsidered, discussed, and reasoned over: people could now philosophize about them...Both [Socrates and Buddha] were passionately concerned with the ends and the conduct of human life." (Carrithers, "Buddha: A Very Short Introduction) With the above as background, I was amazed to realize how easily Bush and his administration could be seen as reactionary defenders of the old way of thinking, a vision of the world that has little to do with our commonly shared understanding of a modern civilization, and more to do with the kind of tribal thinking one finds in enclosed societies more interested in myths, legends, unquestioned traditions, and the supernatural than in the day-to-day needs of contemporary citizens in an open society. Doesn't this explain Bush's negative attitudes toward science, scientists, fact, and truth-telling, and his positive attitudes toward caste, myths, the supernatural, and the superiority of his tribal traditions over the day-to-day needs of American citizens? previous "Nepal Diary" entries
Nepal Diary #8: Nepal's Biggest Export: Tibetan Carpets (revised), Jerry Barrett Patan, the second largest city in Nepal with a population of 190,000, is just across the Bagmati River from Kathmandu, but its much less hectic pace is a welcome relief from the stress of its much bigger urban neighbor to the North. This is where the largest number of Tibetan refugees settled when they fled from the Chinese into Nepal. With the help of the Swiss government, they started a rug industry that has become the largest maker of exported goods in Nepal, second only to foreign aid as an income producer. The latest estimate is that the rug industry employs 250,000 workers directly, and nearly a million indirectly. Tourism is the third largest source of foreign currency. Unlike Bhutan, which earns a handsome profit selling "free-fall" electricity from its mountains' waters to India, Nepal has yet to tap its vast potential. The heart of Nepal's Tibetan carpet industry is in Patan at Jawlakhel Handicraft Center near what was the Tibetan refugee center. Past the zoo and eventually crossing the Ring Road, Ekantakuna Road is filled with carpet shops where you can bargain about the price you're willing to pay for the rug of your choice. It's expected. At the Center the prices are fixed, but fair. By the time you decide to purchase a particular rug, you would have observed 20-30 women working their looms on rugs that will eventually be sold in the showroom by salesmen. And in the showroom, itself, the rugs are divided into those with 60 knots per square inch (the average), 80 knots per square inch, and 100 knots per square inch. Naturally, those with the highest knot count are the most expensive, but they also contain the best quality wool as well. Nearly half of the hundreds of rugs in the showroom were surprisingly contemporary in design and color. An excellent example could be had for 25% of the U.S. price, and the salesmen are skilled in wrapping a 4' by 6' rug into a compact package easily carried on your trip home. Presently, the exporting of Tibetan carpets has slipped by 20% from its high point in the 90's, due in part to allegations of child labor. Kerry Moran notes in NEPAL HANDBOOK, "the legal age for employment in Nepal is 14....Unskilled workers...view weaving carpets as a distinct improvement over the backbreaking farm work they otherwise face." However, a 2001 Ford Foundation report estimated that 1,800 children under 14 were working the looms. The web presently contains carpet factory web sites that disavow illegal child labor, reports on the issue over the years, sites of organizations that have developed programs to protect children under 14 from such exploitation, others that are dedicated to protecting industry workers of legal age, and a site ,RUGMARK, that provides a guarantee mark of legal manufacture. By 2001 65% of all rugs exported from Nepal were RUGMARKED, and the number of child workers under 14 had dropped from 11% to 2%.previous "Nepal Diary" entries
Nepal Diary #9: Birthday in Kathmandu, Jerry Barrett Yesterday was my birthday (don't ask), so we decided to join Myah, the Buddhist Center's major domo, and her niece and brave the mountainous trip to Kathmandu. Since it was Tuesday, the narrow main road outside the path to the center was filled with Hindu holiday celebrants (buses, motorcycles, cars, taxis, and vans, many spewing black smoke) ascending the hill into Pharping on the way to Dakshinkali, Kathmandu Valley's place of animal sacrifice to Kali, "The Black One" of red eyes and protruding tongue, wearing a necklace of skulls. While waiting for our driver, taxis on the way back to Kathmandu would stop and offer travel bargains. With traffic particularly heavy, negotiating hairpin turns on cliffs on the narrow, one-lane road with vehicles going the other way was no fun. (We drove by an accident on the way down.) Myah sang Buddhist mantras until we reached the lowlands 12 miles and 30 minutes later outside of Kathmandu. First stop was the Central Post Office next to the Bimsen Tower right off Kanti Path (see map). People on the railing at the top of the six-story tower looked down upon the scene below. Both sides of the street were filled with bare footed shoe repair men, practicing their craft on small blankets filled with equipment and parts. Women, mostly in traditional dress, men, mostly in modern dress, and teenagers and younger in private school uniforms of various kinds passed by. Thirty minutes later Myah came out of the post office empty-handed, not having the correct letterhead on the letter needed to give her permission to pick up the package sent from China. While in the post office, our youthful driver found a leak in a semi-bald front tire and replaced it with another semi-bald front tire. Next, we went through the throngs and vehicles up Kanti Path to New Road, a street featuring computer and camera shops, ending at Durbar Square, filled with 50 monuments and 12 squares, some going back to the 12th century. One narrow alley, with clothing shops on both sides, ended in a walled, dirt parking lot of a large cinema. We waited there while Myah and Christine ran an errand nearby. The alley was a hangout for a group of barefooted boys in shorts, 10-15 years old, carrying sacks over their shoulders and aggressively sticking their hands in open car windows or pounding on those that were closed, asking for money. At the airport a government sign asks tourists not to give money to such boys, many having left their families and come into Kathmandu from sorrounding villages, seeking to earn a living by begging. While the government wants to discourage such boys and force them to return home, others say that past Maoist uprisings have cut off social services for the poor in some rural areas, exacerbating the problem. --to be continued... previous "Nepal Diary" entries
Nepal Diary #10: Birthday in Kathmandu, Part 2, Jerry Barrett From New Road we cut across to Durbar Marg (see map), drove by the Royal Palace, and went past Mike's Breakfast into Naxal, en route to Chabahil, a suburb of Kathmandu to the northwest. Each neighborhood we went through had its own stalls for groceries, cell phone cards, printer and fax services, restaurants, DVD's, and CD's. Near noon, we crossed Ring Road, with surprising little traffic. Being a Hindu holiday Tuesday, perhaps many were headling for places like Dakshinkali to engage in ritual sacrifice. Myah was visiting the second floor home her Sherpa family had sold to another Sherpa family whose son was a young monk at the Buddhist Center back in Pharping. Our battered Suzuki van suddenly veered off the crowded main road, horn blaring, into an alley filled with people and stalls, the rutted road covered with dirt, cinders, and debris, and bounced and jolted a block or so through narrow passageways with walled apartment houses on either side. Our driver backed the van into a narrow, walled courtyard, we closed the tall, heavy gates, and went up to the apartment which had, typically, bars on all the windows. While Myah and the lady of the house spoke in Napoli, we held a conversation in English with the older of two sisters, a nurse at a local hospital. Drinking Chai, we were introduced to the younger sister who attended a nearby college and her young brother, resplendent in a schoolboy's private school uniform of white shirt, gray pants, maroon blazer, and backpack. Napolis who can afford it send their children to private school, in part so they can learn English. Before leaving and putting our shoes back on outside the apartment, we were shown one its larger rooms, filled with Buddhist religious art and lit candles on an altar. From there, we drove down more narrow alleys and arrived at the one leading to Myah's niece's house, only to be blocked by a three-wheeled jitney with a broken axel. Seeing no way around it, the niece shouldered a large sack of rice and hiked the block down to her family's apartment. We continued on our way to the next errand: the delivery of ten Tibetan religious texts to a nearby monastery. While the monastery we eventually arrived at was large and very well kept, with beautiful grounds, it was situated in a maze of narrow alleys that didn't look like they were going anywhere in particular. The roads were rutted and trash-strewn, just able to accomodate a four-wheeled vehicle and a motorcycle going the other way. Our only clue that we were nearing a monastery is that the stalls became more numerous and groups of westerners were walking around. As we waited in an intersection for a small pick-up to pass in the opposite direction, we saw a couple more curious than most. She was a very Nordic looking blond, 5:7 or 8 in her mid-twenties, wearing skimnpy shorts and a matching halter top. While the ensemble featured a pattern in shades of maroon and orange, monk's colors, Nepalis find women in shorts shocking. He was in his 40's or 50's, dark and much shorter than she, wearing a backpack and a tight alligator shirt stretching over his well-established pot belly. As they stood in the middle of the intersection, oblivious to the traffic around them, he turned around, she pulled suntan lotion out of his backpack, and he reached up and proceeded to smooth the lotion over her red neck and shoulders. previous "Nepal Diary" entries
Nepal Diary #11: Birthday in Kathmandu, Part 3, Jerry Barrett Back into Central Kathmandu, we had my birthday lunch at Moti Mahel, an Indian restaurant on Durbar Marg not far from the Royal Palace (see map). Described in one travel guide as having a "semi-delux setting," a sign in English outside the second floor restaurant advertises itself as an "executive family restaurant." We went past a tall, saluting middle-aged man in an ill-fitting royal blue uniform, up cracked marble stairs, and found ourselves inside a wedding cake: white, ornate pillars holding up the low ceiling of a whipped cream landscape with little circular mirrors inserted at random. While the furniture had seen better days, the seedy formality of the room, the chef behind a glass wall, and the somber, English speaking Indian waiters suggested a serious dining experience to come. We were not disappointed with the excellent Northern India Mughlai food, described by one reviewer as being as "sophisticated as French cooking," and at unbeatable prices. Myah Sherpa, our charming guide, (that's really her last name, in spite of 35,000 members of that ethnic group in Nepal) was particularly pleased with the sag paneer. From there we made our way past the Royal Palace on Naxal to our next destination, the Apple store in the basement of the Mercantile Traders building on Kanti Path. Across from the Royal Palace, behind a one-story plus high wall of bricks guarded by the Nepali police in blue camouflage unforms, sits some of the American Embassy offices. Unseen behind the restaurants, travel agencies, and high-end shops on parallel streets Durbar Marg and Kanti Path, the American government complex appears to extend a good part of a long city block, the only indication of its presence on a city map being the outline of a long building called "American Club." Across the street from the Apple store on Kanti Path we noticed a Sony store and a Honda dealership. The actual American Embassy is supposedly housed in a nearby hotel while a large embassy is being constructed on "Embassy Road" in the Lazimpat neighborhood, directly North of the Royal Palace. The price of laptops at the Apple store were the same as in, say, Amsterdam, putting them out of the reach of most Nepalis, not to mention the local government's 10% import tax. previous "Nepal Diary" entries
Nepal Diary #12: Birthday in Kathmandu, (Conclusion), Jerry Barrett After a difficult hour spent in search of computer parts (the streets have no numbers), we found ourselves in front of the Royal Palace again. Ill-clothed boys with afternoon newspapers were rushing between cars waiting for the light to change, banging on their windows in search of a sale. Two kids on the street, and then on the sidewalk were wrestling over a butcher knife, as pedestrians carefully walked by. The taller of the two finally twisted the knife out of the hand of the smaller one, and ran away past a watching Napoli cop standing in front of the entrance to U.S. Embassy grounds. The light changed and we continued on our way to the Tibetan Book Store in Thamel on Tridevi Marg, a few blocks away (see map). While Christine visited the Tibetan Book Store to purchase a birthday gift for me of Karen Armstrong's BUDDAH, an excellent and informative biography, I went a few doors down to another book store and bought VIDEO NIGHT IN KATHMANDU, by Pico Iyer, and two collections of short stories by the city's Samrat Upadhyay, ARRESTING GOD IN KATHMANDU and THE ROYAL GHOSTS. Iyer's book was published in 1988 and it was wrapped as though it were a rare, unread copy. The owner, blowing a layer of dust off the plastic wrapper, quoted a new book price to me, but we bargained it down to a a fair used book price. It turned out to be a used book, reminding me that in Kathmandu negotiation almost always is expected. Meeting Christine back at the Tibetan Book Store, we saw that the three turbained musicians in native costume, referred to as "the snake charmers" in one travel guide, were tuning up for the evening's street entertainment. As we walked back to the van, I saw two thin boys of 12 or 13, shirtless and shoeless, sleeping in the narrow hallway that marked the entrance to the Holiday Inn Guest House. One of the sleeping boys brushed away flies as they buzzed around his head. On the way out of town on a busy main street that featured auto parts and bathroom fixture stores, Christine saw the body of a woman laid in the narrow median with a cloth over her face, but by the time I looked back to see, our van had rounded a corner. previous "Nepal Diary" entries
Nepal Diary #13: One Year Later, And Counting, The Himalayan Times, Nepal News Hope is one-year-old today, bravo! Kathmandu: April 23 (2007) : Last year, on this day, the people of Nepal got back what king Gyanendra had taken away from them — democracy and sovereignty. The nation is set to celebrate that great event today. The Democracy Day Celebrations Organising Committee has urged people across the nation to light celebratory lamps in their residences and to participate in a celebratory programme to be organised at the Tundikhel. Much water has flown down the Bagmati since April 24, 2006 .The Maoists who had waged a bloody guerilla war for over a decade, are in the government. The king has ceased to be the head of state and the supreme commander of the army; the prime minister performs the functions of the head of state; attempts — subtle as well as brazen — to discredit the eight-party government have been made; Nepal has become a secular state and the army that was the main prop of the fallen regime has been well and truly put under civilian control. Still, Humpty Dumpty would be the patron saint of those thinking that regressive forces would give up....Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara in a message said the Loktantra that we have achieved now is “incomplete” and cannot be complete unless the country gets a new constitution through elections to constituent assembly. “We must be clear that loktantra can only be complete when people will exercise their sovereign rights to write a new constitution,” Mahara in an unsigned statement said today. Mahara said it is time that all people get together with the commitment of accomplishing this task. “The situation is not free from challenges and conspiracies,” he said. NC (D) president Sher Bahadur Deuba, in a statement, stressed that it is the duty of all Nepalis to conduct the constituent assembly polls, which was the goal of the April movement, in a free and fair manner....
Polls likely in October, says Mahat Associated Press, Kathmandu, April 23: The elections for the constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution will likely be held in October, a senior government minister said today, putting the poll months behind schedule. Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said though a new date was yet to be decided, it was likely the polls would be held after the monsoon season, which ends in September. Under a peace treaty signed last year between the Maoists and the government, a Constituent Assembly was due to have been elected on June 20 to rewrite the constitution, determine the future of the monarchy, and decide country’s political system. Election officials have sought more time to make technical preparations and for the government to pass new election laws. The officials have also said the security situation in Tarai needs to be improved before any elections take place. Violent protests and strikes in Tarai since January have stopped officials from collecting voters’ names. The Maoists were inducted in the interim government on April 1 after having joined Parliament earlier this year. The basis of their alliance with parties was to hold constituent assembly polls by mid-June. They have locked up their weapons in seven UN- monitored camps and confined their fighters to 28 barracks.
Red Storm Rising? A year after the successful restoration of democracy, fissures seem to be widening among the eight party alliance with the leftist forces publicly favouring a new phase of polarisation between them and the democrats. With communists in majority in the parliament and dominating the cabinet, the red forces are now closing in on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his centrist party Nepali Congress (NC). In the aftermath of derailment of the elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA), around one dozen splinter communist outfits are now making definitive efforts to gang up against the centrist forces. Having given free rein to Koirala since the restoration of Loktantra [democracy] last April, the communists have now started to openly doubt his efficacy. In an obvious move to tell the people that Koirala is no longer irreplaceable, the communist leaders have began a whispering campaign against the octogenarian and ailing prime minister.... The ruling eight party alliance has five communist parties – UML, Maoists, ULF, PF and NWPP. Going by the numbers the communist forces, indeed, enjoy unprecedented domination in the political front, in the parliament and in the cabinet. Of late, given the continued power-play by Koirala and high-handedness with which he deals with the communist parties, the leaders of the leftist forces have begun to come together. In togetherness, they have started smelling power close by. Actually, there is no love-lost between Koirala and the communists. Known as a fierce communist-baiter, Koirala was hounded by the leftists all his life. In the aftermath of restoration of democracy in 1990 after which he became the first elected Prime Minister, Koirala used to lump all Male (then UML), Masale (radical leftist party) and Mandale (regressive elements) together. It was nothing but the circumstances which pushed the communist parties into accepting Koirala's leadership in the People's Movement II. The wide-ranging acceptability of Koirala – within the country and outside – pushed him as undisputed leader of the ruling alliance as well as the Maoists. The symbiotic relations between Koirala and communists have continued without any major hitch for one year. While Koirala needed them to broaden his political base, communists needed him to establish international credibility of the peace process. However, after one year that was full of spectacular progresses and surprising delays in the peace process, the [recent] announcement by Election Commission (EC) regarding its inability to hold the polls within June and subsequent paralysis of the political processes created severe strain on the ruling alliance. On the Lenin's birth anniversary when communist parties were publicly expressing outrage against Koirala, the latter's own party MPs, however, responded equally bitterly against what they termed as continued Maoist excesses. "Their stalling of the parliament proceedings could affect the unity of eight parties," said Benup Raj Prasai, secretary of the NC parliamentary party. As tension develops among the ruling alliance, the communists have mulled forming a 'common front' if not 'single party' to defeat other parties. How successful they become in actually materialising such a united front is still doubtful given their history of splitting at the drop of a hat. Just in the past one year, the PF split into three factions – for no apparent ideological logic rather than ego clashes among the leaders. As such, bringing them together will be an uphill task. But the smell of power and the prospect of fulfilling the long-harboured dream of communist supremacy could prove to be too heady a reward. As the centrist and democratic forces along with the international community watch the recent developments in Nepal with trepidation, what lies ahead in Nepal's store and how soon the clouds of doubt hovering over the prime agenda of CA elections will clear up remains to be seen. nepalnews.com Apr 23 07 Nepal: Bad As Things Are, It Could Get Worse, Daniel Lak What’s truly amazing about human society is the degree of dysfunction that people and institutions are prepared to tolerate. Westerners assume any little crisis or collapse will bring things crashing down. Everyone else knows that life largely goes on, no matter what leaders, wannabe kings, and conquerors get up to. Take Nepal at the moment. To all intents and purposes, there is no government in the country. There are political forces that engage from time to time with issues and problems, but there’s little in the way of governance, leadership, vision, and thoughtful policy-making. The tyre burner in the street has as much influence as the politician in parliament. To some, especially on the right side of the spectrum, this is disaster. All is unravelling, rightists proclaim. Nothing can function without a strong hand on the tiller; better that the hand be misguided or malignant, than the tiller be unmanned. The hard left feels much the same, craving like its rightward counterpart to be the hand inside the mailed fist. Hardier centrists, whether tending right or left, have a little more sophistication. They know that things can slide along for quite some time without firm guidance or a long view on how to get to a distant policy horizon. What the late PV Narasimha Rao, former Indian prime minister, used to practice, an apparently Hindu concept called 'masterly inaction', got India well and truly on its way to today’s miraculous economic growth. Faced with a series of hard choices, Rao made none of them and just waited for things to change of their own accord, stepping in only if necessary. Arguably, it worked. At the moment, you’d think Nepal would be deep in economic freefall and descending into absolute anarchy. But bad as things are, they’re not that bad, not yet anyway. There’s a rickety shell of a civil service, a somewhat livelier civil society, and a whole network of families and other groups across the country that keep some things functioning in good times and bad. Politicians dither and blather and do dirty deals. Kings and their cohorts hatch empty plots. No one governs overtly, but it matters less than we might think. Right now, the country is waltzing towards greater limbo as the June elections fade from the radar, Nepal’s only natural resource, hydro, dries up, and people continue to queue up at foreign embassies to get themselves a job and a new life abroad. Small comfort might be sought in the notion that it’s worse elsewhere. Much of Africa squirms and suffers through much greater dysfunction and higher levels of violence. The components of the former Soviet Union, and much of Russia, are gripped by authoritarianism, corruption, and frustration. Pakistan and Afghanistan become ever more chaotic and Taliban-ready. Nepal’s stasis du jour seems mild by comparison. That’s not to argue that anyone can afford much more inaction. In this country, in this polity, doing nothing is far from the masterly option. There’s too much poverty and need. There are no Narasimha Raos to plot the crafty—if inactive—course down the centre. Now more than ever, Nepal needs its centrists to stand up and start working, to get up from the chairs and out of the meeting rooms, to avoid the nightly bhoj, and forego the raksi, to resist the overwhelming urge to just do nothing.Nepal’s dysfunctional functionality is nearing its limits.
Nepal: As Political Unrest Eases, Travel Picks Up, Michelle Higgens ...After more than 10 years of bitter conflict, the Nepalese government signed a peace deal with Maoist rebels in November. A new temporary constitution is now in effect and an interim Parliament has been formed. The United Nations Security Council voted in January to set up a mission to oversee a disarmament and cease-fire accord between the government and the rebels and to plan elections of a constitutional assembly in June. Despite such developments, the State Department has continued to post travel warnings for Nepal on its Web site, www.state.gov/travel, urging Americans thinking of visiting the country to obtain updated security information before they travel and to be prepared to change their plans on short notice. An Australian government advisory, which can be found at www.smartraveller.gov.au, recommends exercising a “high degree of caution” when traveling to Nepal. “While considerable progress has been made in negotiating a formal end to the decade-long Maoist insurgency,” the report states, “the longer-term security situation in Nepal remains unpredictable and could deteriorate.” Michael Steigerwald, director of the Himalayan region for Geographic Expeditions in San Francisco, who just returned from a February scouting trip to Nepal, said roadblocks that had doubled travel time along the road from Pokhara to Kathmandu — a key tourist route — were gone. And Maoists have stopped collecting money from tourists along trekking routes. While there were demonstrations in Biratnagar, a city near the southeastern border with India, Mr. Steigerwald said that the company’s tours did not include visits to the city. “I didn’t really feel any threats or disruptions,” he said....If you decide to take a trip to Nepal, consider using an established outfitter, like the ones mentioned above, that has local contacts in Nepal and can quickly arrange to pull out of the region if signs of unrest reappear. Avoid demonstrations and large gatherings throughout Nepal, as they could turn violent. A list of planned demonstrations can be found at the Web site of the United States Embassy in Nepal, nepal.usembassy.gov. And it’s best to stay away from the southeastern Terai region, where violent demonstrations in January and February resulted in deaths and injuries.
Nepal: Return to Kathmandu, Part One, Susan Spano The all-seeing eyes of Buddha stare blankly over Kathmandu's Palace Square from a massive, wooden portal. The door is shut tight. But standing here on the very day in November when Maoist rebels signed a peace accord ending 10 years of turmoil in Nepal, I could almost hear the giant door open, bidding visitors back. A Hindu adage says guests are like gods. But travelers have largely stayed away since 1996, when Maoist insurgents began a terror campaign. Rebels blockaded roads, bombed tourist areas and demanded money from trekkers in the mountains. The US embassy in Kathmandu advised citizens to avoid Nepal and the Peace Corps suspended operations. Then, in 2001, the king and nine members of his family were massacred in the palace by the crown prince. The tragedies seemed almost unreal, especially to travelers who, over the years, had become deeply attached to Nepal. I booked a trip to Nepal - my first - last summer, about the time insurgents agreed to lay down their arms. Since then, negotiations between the government and the Maoists have remained on track. A peace accord was signed November 21, and visitors are returning. With 75 percent of the country covered by mountains, including many of the world's tallest peaks - among them 8,850-meter Mount Everest - Nepal is a dream destination.... The myriad faces of Nepal today are nowhere more apparent than in the fertile Kathmandu Valley, which is ringed by terraced rice paddies. The Himalayas are about 80 kilometers north but seldom visible from the city because of clouds and pollution. I spent a week walking through this vibrant, noisy, nerve-rattling capital and touring nearby Bhaktapur and Patan. Since the late 13th century, this triad of cities - now melded in urban sprawl - has been the home of Nepal's kings, who filled it with palaces and temples. With seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Kathmandu Valley would richly reward visitors even if it were not in the shadow of the Himalayas.... I stayed at Hotel Tibet near the foreign embassies and new royal palace. It is owned by a family that immigrated to Nepal after the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1951, when refugees flooded in. The newcomers were known as keen business people, and they prospered in Tibetan Buddhist communities. The women at the hotel's front desk wore traditional Tibetan dresses. Carved dark wood, tiger rugs and stuffed yaks decorated the lobby. It was a 10-minute walk from the hotel to the tourist hub of Thamel in central Kathmandu. I took a variety of routes, passing vegetable stands, bicycle taxi ranks, boys playing cricket and intersections clogged with cars that abide by no traffic rules except survival of the fittest. My path passed the eerily quiet, heavily guarded new royal palace, which occupies a huge walled compound in central Kathmandu. Once open to tourists, it has been closed since that night in 2001 when, high on drugs and alcohol and distraught after an argument with his parents, Prince Dipendra opened fire on his family then turned the weapon on himself. He was rushed to the hospital in a coma and proclaimed king, but he died without regaining consciousness. The prince's uncle, Gyanendra, took the throne. Though he does not enjoy wide popularity, many Nepalese are deeply attached to the monarchy and his picture is seen in restaurants and shops....continued below
Nepal: Return to Kathmandu, Part Two, Susan Spano ...Life goes on, especially in crazy Thamel, which grew up when hippies discovered Nepal's cheap hospitality and hashish in the 1960s. The country outlawed marijuana in 1973, and only a few graying flower children hang on. But the Thamel street scene remains overpowering.... Thamel's unofficial nerve center is Pilgrims Book House, which has a large collection of titles on the Himalayas, handicrafts and a congenial restaurant. I sat there drinking milky Nepalese tea with owner Rama Nand Tiwari....The only other quiet corner in Thamel is the newly opened Garden of Dreams in the grounds of an old European-style, Rana-era palace occupied by the Ministry of Sports and Education. I kept going back to Thamel because of the restaurants. They serve every variety of Asian cuisine, refreshingly unfused. I had perfect pad Thai in the courtyard at Yin and Yang, and sat on the floor at Thamel House, tasting traditional dishes of the Newari people (half the population in Kathmandu Valley) such as roasted soybeans and potatoes fried with turmeric, chili and cumin. Thamel is also an irresistible place to shop, with merchandise from all over Asia, testifying to Kathmandu's favored location on ages-old trading routes between India and China. Prices for fabrics and clothes, carpets, wood carvings, Newari metalwork, handmade mulberry paper and an astonishing array of knick-knacks are low even before negotiation. Upscale shoppers favor Durbar Marg, two long blocks east of Thamel. It is Kathmandu's Fifth Avenue, despite uneven sidewalks and stray dogs. Kathmandu's historic center, Palace Square or Durbar Square, is crowded with statues, pavilions, the old royal palace and marigold-decorated temples in a range of architectural styles. Pilgrims who come for blessings from the Shivas and Vishnus inside, souvenir hawkers, rickshaw drivers and restoration teams working atop rickety scaffolds make the area vibrantly alive.... In Nepal, religion is not for holy days only but tightly woven into routine, as I saw one morning at Swayambhunath Temple a few kilometers west of downtown Kathmandu. Devotees in warmup suits were circumambulating the hill on which the temple is perched. A steep flight of steps leads to a giant white "stupa" - Buddhist shrine - decorated with prayer flags and another image of Buddha's all-seeing eyes. Monkeys skitter across the tile roofs and, when I was there, teenage soldiers filed around the stupa, spinning the prayer wheels. I watched, counting my blessings. To be in Nepal at that moment seemed a great gift. Only Buddha can see how the Nepalese will fare as they rebuild their fragile democracy....
About Us: Bush Watch is a daily political internet magazine based in Austin, Texas, paid for and edited by Politex, a non-affiliated U.S. citizen. Contents, including "Bush Watch" and "Politex," (c) 1998-2005 Politex. The views expressed herein and the views in stories that you are linked to are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bush Watch. Permission of the author is required for reprinting posted material, and only requests for reprinting a specific item are considered. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. The duration of the working links is not under our control. Bush Watch has not reviewed all of the sites linked to our site and is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages or any other sites linked to our site. Your linking to any other off-site pages or other sites from our site is at your own risk.
Send all e-mail to Politex. We reserve the right to post all e-mail messages sent to us, along with the name of the e-mailer. You must specifically request that your e-mail message or your name not be considered for posting, if that's what you desire.
|