#116 25 - 31 October 2002 16 pages Rs 25

An ex-army major who tried to stay clear of boththe Maoists and the military is brutally murdered.

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KUNDA DIXITMajor Mohan Khatri had a bright future in the Royal Nepal Army. But he found militarylife too confining, its hierarchy rigid, and many of its methods dubious. So, after a two-year officer’s training at the US military academy in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, andanother three years with the Nepali contingent of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon,Major Khatri took early retirement to work on his dream project: a tourist lodge in themountains.

It took him over a year to find the right place: a south-facing slope on a ridge at2,800 m on the Jiri highway with a great view of the Jugal Himal range to the north,and scented pine forests all around. He took a bank loan and began construction ofthe rustic cabins.

The resort was completed in 1997, and was a popular stopover formany trekkers taking the Jiri route to Lukla. When the Khimti hydroelectricproject was started, the lodge became the preferred R&R site for Norwegianand Finnish engineers working on construction. Being from the cavalry, themajor loved to ride and take care of horses, and for good luck called hislodge Horseshoe Resort.

But Mohan Khatri’s luck ran out on the night of 24 October when agroup of armed Maoists came up to the hotel while he was having dinner,dragged him outside, shot him, and slashed him with khukuris. His body layin the undergrowth on a slope below the hotel till the afternoon of the nextday, before the army arrived from Barabise.

Reporters who visited Mude three days after the event said employeeswere still too shocked to speak. Saili Lama worked at the hotel, and her faceshowed a mixture of terror and sadness. When Mude villagers come running upin a group to see who the reporters were, her face went pale with fear.

The villagers are devastated. The 45-year-old major was a benefactor: not onlydid the hotel provide employment, but he had helped renovate three schools in thearea and given 35 girl students scholarships. He was working on an ambitious projectto establish a well-equipped health post with a maternity ward which was going to beinaugurated after Tihar. The villagers can’t think who will complete the hospital andhelp the schools.

Weekly Internet Poll # 55, #56

Q.Do you approve of King Gyanendra’s decision of4 October?

Do you think the new council of ministers is up to thetask ahead?

Weekly Internet Poll # 57. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.comQ. Should the political parties join the interimgovernment?

Total votes: 1,615

Total votes: 1,599

“The villagers’ support keeps me going...”

Major Khatri (right) with hiswife and daughter in Mude.

Khatri was aware of the dangers, and Maoists came around to force him to pay a“revolutionary tax”. He was careful to steer a neutral path between the Maoists andplainclothes army patrols who roamed the mountains. He didn’t get involved in politics,and thought that his charity work and his popularity with the villagers would protect him.

After killing him, the attackers set two hotel vans on fire. These were vehicles Khatrihad used many times as ambulances to ferry sick villagers to hospital in Kathmandu.

Caretaker Tilak Shrestha says that after killing the major, the attackersransacked the rooms of the resort, looking for weapons. They found ithard to believe that there were none. Shrestha was repeatedly threat-ened, but they finally concluded that the major didn’t keep guns. Thenthey took all the money from the cash register, a tape recorder and alsosome cassettes. The major’s wife, Krishna Kamal, was in the kitchen whenher husband was attacked.

Man Bahadur Lama sold Khatri the land for the hotel. He says hehad warned the major that he may be in danger because of his armyconnection. But Khatri told him: “Man Bahadur, don’t worry about me.Take care of yourself, be safe.” Villagers suspected local Maoists couldhave blamed the major for passing information to the army that led tothe raid earlier this year on a Maoist hideout on Sailung, two days awayfrom Mude, in which a dozen guerrillas were killed.

In an email to a friend a few months before he was killed, MohanKhatri appeared to be aware that things were getting dangerous. He

wrote: “In the kuna kapchas of our country where the majority of the neglected, exploitedand oppressed villagers are living, there is no lessening of support for the maobadis, thereis no government, and there is no alternative for the people. They have nothing to lose.Keeping aside the morality and the methods of the maobadis, they seem to offer the onlyhope. I am keeping myself busy with the construction of our rural health centre…thevillagers’ support keeps me going...”

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The return of the Ranas, in a new book. p8-9The return of the Ranas, in a new book. p8-9The return of the Ranas, in a new book. p8-9The return of the Ranas, in a new book. p8-9The return of the Ranas, in a new book. p8-9DDDDDYNAYNAYNAYNAYNASTSTSTSTSTYYYYYManjushree Thapa on Shrisha Karki p13

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ANALYSIS BY RAJENDRA DAHALverything is on hold. The politicalparties are trying to remain united, whilethe palace tries to woo them away for a

cabinet expansion. Distrust on both sides ishigh: the king wants to rescue Nepal fromwhat he sees as a bunch of bunglers, seniorpolitical leaders see the danger of a return to thedays of absolute monarchy.

Who will blink first? The fractiouspolitical parties have forged unprecedentedunity to oppose the king’s move, but they arestill torn by mistrust. The Koirala Congress,for instance, has not allowed the DeubaCongress to participate in the all-partymeetings, saying it is the only Congress.Koirala wants parliament to be reinstated, sinceit would mean his party would probablyreunite, and he’d call the shots again. Theleftist Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party andthe United People’s Front are with theCongress on this, because they would gettheir seats back.

But the UML, which would not benefitfrom reinstatement, is sticking to its demand

for the formation of an interim governmentunder Article 128 of the constitution, in whichit would be an equal partner. The politicalparties are so caught up in ensuring their ownexistence, they have no time to think aboutthe nation, people, democracy, constitution,or elections. Unless the emergency isreinstated, or there is a crackdown on pressfreedom (a proposal in the first cabinetmeeting last week to this effect was reportedlyrejected), it is unlikely the political parties willfind common cause.

The king poached Lokendra BahadurChand from the centre-right RPP and BadriPrasad Mandal from the tarai-basedSadbhavana Party for the interim cabinet, andboth parties are expected to go over to theking’s side sooner or later. By bringing in apro-madhesi Mandal and janajati leader GoreBahadur Khapangi, the king may have tried tocoopt them, but this move is fraught with thedangers of communalism.

Ten days after the nine-member interimgovernment was formed, the cabinet has metonly twice. To get going, it needs clarity on its

terms of reference in trying to fulfil the king’smandate: ensuring peace and security,streamlining bureaucracy, controlling corrup-tion, delivering services, and preparing forelections. There are questions about who isreally in charge. Chand, who’s been in thispost three times before, is called a “non-starter”prime minister. There are already jokes about“OK-endra Bahadur Chand”.

Suddenly, no one is talking aboutelections. The political parties seem secretlyrelieved at their postponement, and the interimgovernment has passed the buck to the parties.Only the donors and India still seem keen on

polls. That India waited ten days to officiallygreet the prime minister is taken as a sign thatNew Delhi had misgivings. Indian Informa-tion Minister Sushma Swaraj underlined hercountry’s support Wednesday for a constitu-tional monarchy and multiparty democracy.

King Gyanendra is keeping his cards closeto his chest. Is the palace conducting behind-the-scenes bargaining with the Maoists? Willthey agree on a constituent assembly inexchange for berths for Maoist representativesin the interim cabinet? The king’s cabinetappointees have been remarkably soft on theMaoists, never using the “t” word, address-

ing them in honorific Nepali, and sayingthat the insurgency needs a politicalsolution.

If there are secret contacts, we canexpect an escalation of violence near theMaoists’ 11-13 November strike as therebels try to improve their bargainingposition. The military would like to exertmore pressure on Maoist strongholds, butthere are no signs of the promised rifles,helicopters and transport aircraft from abroad.

Does the king really have a trumpcard, or not? Either way, we’ll knowby December. !

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Who will blink first in this tussle betweenthe palace and the political parties?

TUG O’ WARE

DISUNITY IN DIVERSITY: An all-male gathering of six parliamentary parties on Wednesday, clockwise from foreground. National People’s Front:Lila Mani Pokhrel (in white cap), Amik Sherchan, Chitra Bahadur KC, Pari Thapa. Nepal Workers’ Peasants’ Party: Narayan Man Bijukchhe,Chaityaraj Shakya. Nepali Congress: Ramsharan Mahat, Krishna Sitaula, Govinda Raj Joshi, Arjun Narsingh KC, girija Koirala, Sushil Koirala,Chakra Bastola. UML: Subhas Nemwang, Ishwar Pokhrel, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bharat Mohan Adhikari, K P Oli, Yubaraj Karki. RPP: PrakashChandra Lohani, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Rabindra Nath Sharma. Sadbhavana Party: Hridesh Tripathy.

22222 EDITORIAL 3333325 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES

STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL

Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd,Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Editor: Anagha NeelakantanDesign: Kiran Maharjaneditors@nepalitimes.com, www.nepalitimes.comAdvertising: Sunaina Shah advertising@himalmedia.comSubscription: Anil Karki subscription@himalmedia.comSales: Sudan Bista sales@himalmedia.comSanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, LalitpurGPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, NepalTel: 01-543333-7, Fax: 01-521013Printed at Jagadamba Press: 01-521393

L E T T E R SL E T T E R SL E T T E R SL E T T E R SL E T T E R S

I am a budget traveller who likes taking pictures,getting good deals, and avoiding too many othertourists. In my experience, visiting troubled landsmeans more vacancies in hotels and better deals.The downside is the inconvenience such asstrikes that limit transportation in the city andoften the impossibility of getting to distant loca-tions by air.

The following is not a political comment. But itis what happened. I have been in Cambodia andMadagascar during factional fighting/generalstrikes. In both case it was armed representativesof the state who extorted me, not any terrorists.Also in Indian metropolises after “communalviolence”. There, even the most violent Muslim andHindu factions could care less about me. I mightas well have been part of the scenery. Cops andsoldiers were sometimes a mild headache (curi-ously not in Srinagar though).

The news always shows the worst risk. InPhnom Penh and Tana I called or emailed home totell family that I was OK. For example if there aretanks in the street, does that mean in YOUR part oftown? So my guess is that:1. Kathmandu is still basically safe.2. The likelihood of getting hit by a car is greaterthan being blown up by a bomb.3. The major problems will be transportation-related.4. The most likely hassle will be the governmentnot allowing foreigners to enter (or confiscatingvideo camcorders) if the situation gets really dicey.

Politically I am libertarian and don’t listen toanybody’s admonitions that I visit or not visit(whether they are Maoists, Mooists, parliaments,kings or potentates). I go wherever I want to go andI don’t even listen to my own Embassy.

Posted on soc.culture.nepal by ìMarianî

"CHANCE OF GETTING HITBY A CAR IS GREATERTHAN BEING BLOWN

UP BY A BOMB"

SELF-DESTRUCTINGKing G’s decision is a positiveone to take Nepal out of the dark(“King G does it”, NT Online) asany well-wisher of Nepalknows. What Nepal’s politiciansdon’t know, however, is that thepeople are so fed up with themthat the time will soon comewhen they will all be roundedup and tried in a true “people’scourt”. I am a true-hearteddemocrat, but I think the king’sintentions mean more than theempty promises of our so-called“democrats”. King Gyanendra isa well-meaning monarch, Nepalipoliticians are not. The king hasthe genuine support of thepeople, the politicians only wishthey did.

Jack Prasai, Cape Town

" Coming from an ex-Maoistcommander, Puskar Gautam mayknow what he is talking about in“Fight to the finish” (#115). But ifhis quotes from Chairman Maoare accurate, then the mentor ofNepal’s “Maoists” contradictedhimself by first saying “that thedecisive factor in any war ispublic support, not weaponsand soldiers” (fifth paragraphfrom the bottom) and then “MaoZedong said that the people donot exist without the army”(second last paragraph). It’s justthis kind of muddle-headednessthat is making the comradestake the country on a path ofself-destruction.

Colonel BB Rai, Hong Kong

" When King Gyanendra tookover the executive power forsometime and fired an “incom-petent” prime minister, mostpoliticians and affiliated peoplewere shocked. But on the otherhand those people who havebeen dragged to vote severaltimes during 12 years, thosewho had seen confrontationbetween parties and politicians,fighting for power and chairs,those who had seen primeministers who dissolved cabinetlike a dollhouse, those who hadseen corruption at all levels, andthose who have been victim ofterrorism and tired of seeing themess—they were celebratingno matter who said what.

The situation was so badthat people preferred the safetyand security of the Panchayatsystem. Political parties shouldrealise that they can’t blameanyone but themselves. Theyshould also realise that this is asmack on their face not doingtheir job properly. Deuba mayhave been the last “incompe-tent” prime minister, but he wasonly following the example ofhis incompetent predecessors.The people came out on thestreets to throw out thePanchayat, and yet they didn’t

Democracy is too precious tobe left in the hands of thesecrooks, the king needs to rescue it,reinstate it and install the checksand balances so that multipartydemocracy begins to produce theresults that will pull the rug fromunder the feet of the Maoists. Andthat is what this interim govern-ment should be immediately tryingto do. And instead of sulking, thepolitical parties should extend theking all the help they can.

S Lamichane, Kathmandu

VISA FEESCongratulations for drawing onceagain the attention of concernedauthorities about visa practice ofNepal (“If we want tourists, scrapvisa fees”, #113). But the logic ofscrapping visa fees to boosttourism may not help much. It isjust a popular local perspectiveand may not be instrumental toboost the number of tourists. Ihave never met a tourist whoplans their holiday after checkingthe degree of visa fees. The realsolution of the problem lies in thesimplification of visa process andkind of visa, as Yogendra Shakyacorrectly states in the article. Aninstant recipe for the problemwould be: a) to simplify the visaapplication procedure at theairport, as well as b) redefine thekinds of visa by just single, doubleand multiple entry visa, independ-ent to the frequency of visit. Weknow what needs to be done, weneed to just do it.

Ram Pratap ThapaPresident, German-Nepal

Friendship AssociationCologne

TRAFFIC BLUESThanks to Andrew Bunbury in“Driven to distraction” (#115) forbeing so bold to write aboutcompletely chaotic driving rules inKathmandu.

At one time, I was motivated todevelop a computer game simulat-ing driving around the streets ofKathmandu and marketing it withSony or Microsoft. I dropped theidea, but if somebody is interestedI can provide some technicalassistance to mathematicallysimulate a bull sitting in the middlelane and its effect on traffic. Orhelp simulate a bus driver talking tohis fellow comrade on the oppositeside, completely ignoring the factthat traffic is backing up behind.Driving around Ring Road wouldbe Level 1 and driving in NewRoad would be Level 10. Thegame will also allow selectingdifferent vehicles: three-wheeler,rickshaw, motorbike, microbus. Itwill also have so called “God”mode, where you can drive

hat will it take for the elected national leaders of our sixparliamentary parties to finally grasp that they had theirchance, they had 12 years to show they could do it, and

they goofed. Not once, but repeatedly.They failed the people who voted for them, they failed the nation,

and they failed their own grassroots cadre who were laying thefoundations of democracy across the country. In contrast, the villageleaders from these parties were mostly honest and accountable. Theyare the ones who are presently being brutally slaughtered by thehundreds for their political beliefs.

Their bosses here in Kathmandu lost track long ago of what it iswas they were supposed to be fighting for. And after more than adecade of abuse, they still need to invoke “democracy” so that theycan get back to plundering the country. Or is this hollow bravado justto try to save their own skins while the CIAA cracks down?

Right through Dasain and this week, they have been splitting hairsabout the constitutionality of King Gyanendra’s action. So inert arethey to the people’s sentiments that it still hasn’t sunk in that most

W

COMMON SENSE INUNCOMMON TIMES

Nepalis have given up on them.UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal gave a speech in Dharan on

Tuesday in which he said the Nepali people had lived through theRana regime and the Panchayat, and they would reject a shamdemocracy. Umm, was he speaking of the last twelve years? Andwhen we hear top leaders of both factions of the Nepali Congresstalk of “defending democracy” there is a collective urge to throw up.

Here is a country that is teetering on the edge, and all they canthink of is to try and position themselves to be the incumbentwhen next elections are held. Here we are, about to be run overby a militant group intent on overthrowing parliamentary democ-racy and constitutional monarchy, and we can’t unite against thatcommon threat.

Is that because they can now blame someone else for theirshortcomings, and use the king as a lightning rod to deflect criticismaway from their own failures? Leave this pointless debate on Article128 to the lawyers, gentlemen, just use your political common sense.

To be sure, the king’s gambit is a risky one. If he had expected the

prime minister to resign when he told him to, and the political partiesto fall in line, then he miscalculated. And right there is a timelyreminder for his advisers: this is not 1960, nor is it 1980. Don’t eventhink about it.

The constitutional monarchy as a symbol of our nationhood mustremain above the fray. Only then can it bring errant parties into linelike it is doing now. A rift between these two forces will only benefitthose who don’t believe in either. The monarch needs the mechanismof political parties to go to the people, he must not try to do it alone.

Some of the King Gyanendra’s appointees to the interim cabinetmay lack a certain oomph, but he definitely did not miscalculate thenational mood. The mood is for peace, stability and development. Andthat can only come about through a dramatic move towards radicalreform in the social, economic and cultural spheres. The currentcrisis is a result of the inability of the political parties and thePanchayat before that to deliver these reforms.

Once we recognise this failure and neglect, we act to correctthem so that the system can muster the capacity to heal itself.

SUGA (Mahottari District)—Officially,the district headquarters of Mahottari is atown, but it retains all the characteristics ofa village, including a hyperactive bushtelegraph.

Nothing can happen in Jaleshwarwithout everybody in the outskirts comingto know of it the very next morning. In themiddle of Dasain holidays, the officiatingIndian envoy in Kathmandu was here, andthe village was already buzzing with thenews. People speculated about theintended purpose of his visit.

The only appointment the seniordiplomat seem to have had was to handover some books to a private school.According to local papers, Mr AshokKumar said that his three-day visit toJanakpur and Jaleshwar was purelypersonal. There is no reason to doubt this,

since a pilgrimage to Sita’s birthplace is apart of every devout Hindu’s itinerary.

Indian diplomats, in particular, havealways delighted in the warm hospitality ofa town that considers itself the culturalcapital of Mithila, a transborder culturethat has linguistic links in both Nepal andBihar. People of this region have to rely oneach other’s physical infrastructure so muchthat roads on both sides of the internationalborder repeatedly cropped up duringinformal talks that the diplomat had withthe Janakapur intelligentsia.

The transport problem has becomeeven more acute these days as the roads inBihar are in ruins, while much of Mahottariand Dhanusha on our side have no roads at

all. Even after fifty years of planneddevelopment, residents of western

Mahottari have to travelthrough India to reach

their own district headquarters. Most ofthe vehicles plying on the dilapidatedBhittamod-Sursand Road in Bihardisplay distinctive red Nepali plates withDevnagari numerals.

Meanwhile, if the Parikrama Sadakand Hulaki Road were built, the trendwould perhaps reverse. No one in theirright mind would like to travel on Bihariroads if they can help it. The local unitof the Sadbhavana Party in Janakapurtold the visiting diplomat that thecondition of Indian roads are of as mucheconomic interest to Biharis as they areto Nepalis.

However, whether New Delhibureaucrats care any more about thewelfare of Biharis is an altogetherdifferent story. Anaemia at the peripherywhile the centre suffers from high blood

pressure is the development reality inboth India and Nepal.

Still, I had a nagging suspicion: didthe Indian envoy’s holiday here haveanything to do with the time that AtalBehari Vajpayee took in sending hiscongratulatory messages to the king’sappointee, Lokendra Bahadur Chand?For those who know South Asia’sbureaucratic procrastinators, the delaycould have been perfectly routine. Afterall, it took our own Shital Niwas nearlytwo weeks to draft a condolence messageto Megawati Sukarnoputri for theBali blast.

It’s difficult to believe, though, thata late dispatch from Lainchaur was thesole reason for the delay in getting adiplomatic message that is considered anofficial high-five from big brother. The

silence from New Delhihad become particularlyglaring because of thespeed with which theChinese congratulatedMinister-in-Chief Chand.

The cynical specula-tion this triggered in our

conspiracy-ridden

circles was that New Delhi had beenholding out for some concessions beforesending what should have been a routinemessage. But the doctrine of reciprocity indealing with neighbouring countries—regardless of the history of proximity in allaspects of life—is too deeply ingrained inthe minds of South Block diplomats.

Not that recognising LokendraBahadur by neighbouring governmentsmatters all that much. His cabinet iscomposed of royal appointees, and it’smerely an extension of the executive armof the king without any locus standiunder the 1990 constitution. Eventhough it wasn’t said so in so manywords, the king temporarily suspendedthe constitution for all practical pur-poses as soon as he assumed executivepowers. Can an executive king also be aconstitutional monarch? That question isnow academic.

In the resulting constitutional void,foreign governments have no optionother than dealing with appointees of theking, whoever they may be. It is thisstark reality that must have emergedwhen the American and Chinese ambas-sadors had an audience with the king on 4October.

In all probability, New Delhi too wasdirectly briefed at the highest levels prior tothe dismissal of Sher Bahadur Deuba. Thereason king chose not see the officiatingIndian envoy was perhaps because thedesignated ambassador hadn’t yet arrived.King Gyanendra is said to be a stickler forprotocol, and had there been an accreditedIndian ambassador it’s quite unlikely thatthe king wouldn’t have seen him.

The rumour that Indians were peevedat being ignored and were merely showingtheir displeasure by withholding the routinediplomatic message doesn’t look to be tooconvincing. Ashok Kumar wasn’t inJanakpur to sulk.

So, why the delay? Was there somegeopolitical give-and-take before thecautiously-worded message to Chandcame? We will know sooner or later, justlike we knew sooner or later aboutKalapani, Mahakali, or the new draftfriendship treaty.

Until then, it’s a balmy autumn herein tarai, worthy of weekend breaks formore diplomats from Kathmandu. Idealtime to visit: Tihar (3-6 November) andthe Mithila festival of Chhath (9-10November) celebrated on both sides ofthe border. !

Can an executive king also be a constitutional monarch?Borderline geopolitics

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CORRECTIONIn “Who’s Next” (From the Nepali Press, #115), Jit Bahadur Arjelshould have been identified as belonging to the Nepal Intellectual’sCouncil.

protest the royal move. Why?People are fed up of corruptpoliticians. And they know that ifthe same thieves come back topower, they will be betrayed againlike in the past.

The king has promised toremain a constitutional monarch.He knows that the people wantpeace and security more thananything else so that politicalstability will bring economicprogress. He had no choice, andno time to argue about legality.Either way, the constitution wasin trouble.

Now is the time again forpolitical parties to show theircommitment to the people and bringthe country back to normal. Theyhave to vow that they will not playwith the norms of the constitutionand norms of democracy.

Basu ShresthaArlington, USA

" Your editorial “The king andus” (#115) is one of the mostbalanced analyses I have yetseen in the Nepali press about HisMajesty’s 4 October take over ofexecutive powers. It is easy to beblack and white about thisdecision. To say: it was anundemocratic move if you are ademocrat, or to say that it was100 percent correct, if you area royalist.

But the reality lies somewherein between. His Majesty had nochoice, as you point out. He had tosave the country, and his throne.The politicians had messed thingsup with their corruption anddisunity, and this was endangeringthe nation.

However, where the royalistsare wrong is to think that absolutemonarchy is the answer. We triedit for thirty years and it didn’t usherin development. Everything wasso centralised (even corruption)that nothing moved. The king wassurrounded by sycophants, thepress was strictly controlled,pressure started building up, andby 1990 it got bad enough for thelid to come off.

No, the answer to our politylies in finding the right balance tomake democracy work better. Thepoliticians are crying themselveshoarse saying the king’s move isnot democractic. But neither werethey for 12 years. In fact, theymade a mockery of democracy byusing the system as an excuse toplunder the country like neverbefore.

around Kathmandu without anychance of being caught by trafficpolice and score by number ofpedestrians run over and vehicleshit. The traffic police can use thiscomputer game as part of acompulsory exam for all newdrivers and provide the driver’slicense based on the score of thegame. This computer game, I’msure, would sell better than Quakeor Doom. If Nepali Times doesn’tstop provoking me with articleslike these, I’ll drop my PhD andconcentrate on developing thiscomputer game.

Rajat RajbhandariInterdisciplinary Program in

Transportation New JerseyInstitute of Technology, USA

UNDER MY HATLoved Kunda Dixit’s “Recentlydeclassified ads” (#115). Some-one should alert Lee Kuan Yew tothe item: “Country For Rent”. Iwas also intrigued by the website for idol thieveswww.godrobbers.gov. The factthat the URL ends only in “gov”implies that it is a US website.Maybe Dixit meant “gov.np”? Ormaybe we should wait for a newdomain name: “god.np”.

S Peters, Kathmandu

" I am writing to apply for thepost of Chief Executive Jokerannounced by Kunda Dixit in“Recently de-classified ads”. Ihave been serving as the Editor-in-chief of The Sinking Nepal, forthe last two months.

Politically, I am “untainted” andI have no intention of running thenext election. I have been “laathi-charged” by the “sasastra fulish”only once and have served twodays in jail for deriding a policeofficer. I know how to caricaturemost of the prominent leaders ofNepal like Girijababu, Makune,Deuba, and even Chand-ji. Ifselected for this prestigious job, Iwill do everything possible toameliorate the quality of humour inyour paper. References can betaken from my employer in TheSinking Nepal daily.

ìMisunderstood poetî, by email

44444 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES 5555525 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMESNATIONNATION

by DANIEL LAKHERE AND THERE

DOMESTIC BRIEFS

t may be self-evident to many, even all too obvious. But it can’t beoveremphasised. There’s Kathmandu, and then there’s Nepal. A danger-ous and deep divide between capital and country is growing wider by the

day, and into the gap flow the Maoists and the unmet aspirations of theirconstituency, the rural people.

We can argue for hours about whether they actually support theMaoists or not. But one glaring, indisputable hard reality must be faced: thepeople of the countryside are not actively opposing the rebels, whether ornot they back them.

On a recent trip to Mude, to look into the tragic death of MohanKhatri (casualties of this “people’s war” always seem more tragic whenthey’re known to you) we stopped many times to take the local tempera-ture. Arbitrary, inaccurate, hopelessly shallow, our straw poll was all of these andmore, and yet I have no doubts about the sense of hopelessness and passivity thatoozed from every tea shop, every bus stand, every chautari.

In Mude, the people express sorrow over the death of a kind and activecitizen. Mohan Khatri mattered to that town. Yet ask people why theybelieve he was murdered, and they mutter that he was doing the wrongthing by helping the army train its officer recruits. A few people hide behindtheir hands and condemn the Maoists who murdered Khatri, but no onethinks that anything can be done about it.

They laugh when you mention the police, they look mystified whenquestioned about the army’s intentions, they have no idea if there are otherbrave souls who might resume Mohan Khatri’s good works. As for theauthorities in Kathmandu, “Government, what government,” wheezed anold man, speaking around his cigarette, “there hasn’t been any development,any government here for years.”

Similar scenes and encounters abounded in other places. Tinpiple inKavre, under the eye of a shiny new training complex for Nepali UNpeacekeepers, at least had a functioning VDC office. But no one wanted to

Valley of Unreality

talk to strangers about Maoists. The most expansive response to ourqueries was a finger swirled in the air, meaning “they’re all around”.

In Kushadevi village, along a rutted track just outside Panauti, whatshould be a prosperous community huddles in fear and anticipation. A localofficial talks volubly and anonymously about the death of Ryale VDCchairman Krishna Prasad Sapkota of the UML a few months aback. He wasone of those few, one of the last probably, who stood up to oppose Maoistinfluence in his village. He was beheaded at midnight during the last Nepalbandh. Now his village waits for the next visit by those demanding money

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Annapurna to Everest RaceMore than 30 runners from 8 countries and 5 Nepalis will do a high-altitude race from Annapurna Base Camp to Mt Everest Base Campstarting next week to kick off the commemorations of the 50th anniver-sary of the ascent of the world’s highest mountain.

The runners will race through six major Himalayan passes,including Thorung La, Larkya La, Lauribinayak, Chugyma La anddescend down to the Khumbu Glacier via Gokyo and Kala Pattar. Allthe high passes are more than 5,000 metres altitude.

The Himal Race is billed as the “ultimate trail” by its organiser,Himalaya Racers Association and Mandala Trekking. The runners willfirst trek to Annapurna Base Camp on 31 October, from where theywill begin running and finish up at Everest Base Camp in the thirdweek of November.

Himalaya Racers and Mandala have in the past organisedmarathons, including the Annapurna Mandala Trail. (For furtherinformation: www.mandalatrek.com)

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Jyoti Duwadi is backThe Nepali who has made public installation art his forte has returnedonce more from the United States to his motherland for a series ofexhibitions on his recurring theme of peace.

After a highly successful exhibition at Hanuman Dhoka in 2001,Duwadi will kick off his shows this year with a public art installationcalled “Remembering Peace” at Rani Pokhari 26-30 October 2002. Hethen goes on to Pharping towork on a unique PeaceGrove concept 2-9November.

The Ranipokhari installa-tion uses art to express theNepali people’s aspiration forpeace. As a metaphor forrenewal and healing, herbalflowering trees and fruit trees will be planted in jute bags around RaniPokhari. “It symbolises the hopes for peace and regeneration in Nepaland across the world,” says Duwadi.

The saplings will form a Peace Grove around Rani Pokhari, and on2 November other saplings will be taken to Pharping for anotherPeace Grove forest reserve which will be maintained by Sarki andKami women from the Seshnarayan Village Community.

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Baburam’s guru’s school bombedMaoists have continued their attacks on schools across the countryby bombing the school in Kailali run by the high school teacher of theirleader, Baburam Bhattarai. A dozen or so armed Maoists entered theschool ground on the night of 16 October in Tikapur, threatened theguards, ransacked the offices and blew up the main building afterwiring it up with explosives.

The non-profit school was run by T Varughese, a south Indianteacher who had spent eight years at the Luitel School in Gorkhawhere Baburam Bhattarai was his student in the 1960s. Also in thesame class as Baburamwas the health minister inthe interim cabinet andfamour neurosurgeon,Upendra Devkota. Afterleaving Gorkha,Varughese had spent thepast 25 years building andrunning three schools inNepal’s remote western Kailali district which focussed on educationfor underprivileged children.

Varughese was in the United States when the attack happenedand the 500 students were on Dasain holiday. Sources in Kailali saidthe school had received several extortion threats in the recent pastand was one of the last-remaining non-government schools still openin the far-western district.

The school that was bombed was named after Khadga BahadurSingh, who launched the Tikapur Development Project. The schoolwas expanding fast, and a new wing had been added. Varughesewas also planning to add a 10+2 section to meet the demand forstudents who would otherwise have to go to India or Kathmandu forfurther studies. These plans will now be shelved, it is learnt.

Varughese came to Tikapur in 1973 and first set up a high school,which was inaugurated by King Birendra and was later calledBirendra Vidya Mandir and still has 1,000 students as well as adormitory for out-of-town students.

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Rumours in the airFriends and well-wishers are concerned again about SubashGurung, a Nepali national who pleaded guilty to the post 9/11 USfederal offence of attempting to board an aircraft with a dangerousweapon. After working hard to see that Subash, who was cleared ofany supposed terrorist connections when a US judge proclaimed atthe sentencing that he had no evil intentions, they have been worriedabout rumours that the Nepali authorities plan to take Subash intocustody once he arrives back in Nepal from Minnesota.

Apparently, though, they’re just rumours. When asked, the HomeMinistry, media outlets, and the Nepal Police told Nepali Times thatthey knew nothing about the supposed plans. Sentencing guidelinesin the US would normally have called for a five-month sentence for afirst-time offender with no prior record. Earlier, the court also orderedpsychiatric treatment for Subash, which, his friends say, helpedhim greatly.

Godavari

Legalising it does not ensure accessibility, or affordability of safe abortion.

Abortive attempt

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ARUNA UPRETIsmall, shy woman comes into our clinic in far-western Nepal. “What is your problem?” I askher. “I am pregnant, but…” she breaks off. I

figure she wants to know whether she is pregnant ornot. “No, she says, “I want you to help me to get rid ofthis.” The health worker sitting next to me is shocked:“But, it’s illegal. It’s a crime.”

The patient looks puzzled: isn’t it true that thegovernment has passed a new law now makingabortion legal? The health worker says that’s nottrue, where didshe hear such a thing? Both looked at me.

I asked the patient how she new abortion was notillegal anymore. “I heard it on the radio,” she replied.The patient knew, but this health worker in far westernNepal hadn’t yet heard that parliament had, indeed,passed the law. At that time two months ago, it stillneeded the formal approval of the king.

Most of us health activists think that our work isdone when we lobby to change the laws. We think thatby addressing the legal aspects of the problem,somehow it will be solved. Alas, as with everythingelse in this country: it’s not the law that is theproblem but its implementation.

And in this case, it is that even health workersdon’t know when the law has been changed. What isthe value of all our lobbying and activism inKathmandu if doctors and health workers haven’theard of it yet? The other issue is that even thoughabortion may be legal, most health posts like the one Iwas in do not have the proper facilities for carrying outthe operation.

The patient looked sad and worried, and slowly leftthe clinic. She probably went to a quack down theroad, which is the reason why so many pregnantwomen die in this country because of unsafeabortions, and why the law needs to be passed.

We in Kathmandu think that if we know some-thing, the whole country knows it as well. That is a

wrong impression. We now know that even withinKathmandu, and even among professionals knowl-edge does not travel. And in many cases this lack ofknowledge makes the difference between life anddeath.

A few weeks ago I was on Channel Nepal to discussthe new law on abortion. When we were asked thequestion, one of the panelists said with a straight faceon camera: “According to the law a woman can haveabortion only after her husband gives her permission.” Iwas quite astonished by his ignorance, and I asked thatthis section of the tape be expunged because it waspatently wrong.

Nepal is a good example of a country wherepersistent advocacy efforts by women’s reproductiverights activists and strong support by research findingshave significantly influenced the government toreforming the abortion law. The challenge now is todisseminate accurate information among healthworkers, lawyers, police as well as activists andcadre of political parties.

The medical profession is as much in the dark asany one else about the exact provisions of the new law.One male medical student recently asked me: “Don’tyou think that it would be inappropriate to give legalrights to women on the issue of abortion?” My responsewas that the rights had already been granted. Thepriority now was to make sure that the services areavailable in the district hospital.

From field experience so far of the medical sector, itwill not be easy for the government to implement thislaw. We may soon see that private hospitals will startproviding abortions at high cost, government hospitalsin cities will also have the service, but a vast majority ofrural areas will be left out. Legalising abortion does notensure accessibility, nor affordability. Passing the lawwas only the first step. !

(Dr Aruna Uprety is a women’s health andreproductive rights activist.)

A

I There is Kathmandu, and thenthere is the rest of Nepal.or recruits, and families quietly migrate to Kathmandu and poverty.

The unreality begins at Bhaktapur and worsens as you drive past Thimiand Gathinagar, finally reaching Tinkune and dear old Kathmandu. Wai-wai and cola signs bloom like weeds, a mini-property boom sees paddyterraces fall to brick houses and shops. The roads are choked with vehicles,the air is foul. The smell is of money being spent frantically before eitherofficial or unofficial tax collectors come calling. Signs on governmentbuildings boast of lavish and largely meaningless programs jointly fundedwith international agencies. The frantic bustle eclipses fear, the city ignoresthe tightening steel band that even now seems to be squeezing the edges ofthe Valley of Unreality.

In Kathmandu, a prime minister rightly calls for peace talks, and gamelypromises elections and relief to the people. In the countryside, those who’velong lost faith in the capital city’s ability to solve their problems await—passively—the next instalment of their wretched fate. They’ve given uptrying to influence their futures, unless forced to. The rift widens, andnature hates a vacuum, especially when it’s ignored by those who have themeans but not the will to fill it.

And I don’t just mean the politicians, I mean everyone in this city. Whyhelp the people when there’s black money to spend, intrigue to enjoy, alooming threat to deny.

All this is from a quick trip up the Arniko Highway and the road to Jiri.Imagine what it’s like along the rutted road to Libang, the track throughJajarkot, the trading trails of Pyuthan, Surkhet and Rukum. !

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HEMLATA RAIersistent advocacy effortsby women’s reproductiverights and healthactivists have finally paid

off. The first hard-won results oftheir intense lobbying came thisMarch, when parliamentapproved the 11th Amendmentto the Muluki Ain, which for thefirst time in Nepal legalisedabortion, if conditionally. Lastmonth, the Bill finally became anAct after receiving the royal seal.

But legalising abortion insome situations is not an end initself. Public health workers say

that the hard part begins now—implementing the law effectively.Unsafe abortion is identified as amajor killer of women ofreproductive age in Nepal—studies say that as many as sixwomen die everyday due toabortion-related complications.

“Knowledge travels veryslowly here. Even court judgesdon’t know, at the moment, thatabortion is legal in certainsituations,” says Sabin Shrestha,an advocate associated withForum for Women, Law andDevelopment (FWLD). Shresthaand others fear that this lack of

knowledge means that womenwill continue to be victimised.An FWLD study report madepublic earlier this year isdamming about the unbendingattitude of the court judges allover Nepal towards womenfacing abortion charges. Thestudy, which covers the periodfrom 1997-1999, found that 68percent of women facingabortion charges were convicted.In 1997, one in five women inNepal’s jails is incarcerated onthe charge of abortion.

Reproductive rights activistsworry in private that the

government doesn’t seeminterested in actually making thenew regulations effective. In a2000 survey by the Centre forResearch on EnvironmentHealth and Population(CREHPA), 93 percent of urbanmedical practitioners surveyedbelieved that legalising abortionwould reduce unsafe abortion-related maternal morbidity andmortality. But even strongmedical opinion didn’t preventthe government machinery fromslowing down alarmingly overthe changing of this Bill intolaw. Traditionally, a bill gets

Nepal’s new abortion law might have gaps, but its basic provisionsare considered by reproductive health and women’s rights activiststo be more liberal than those in other South Asian countries. Abortionis now legal under the following conditions:" Up to 12 weeks for any woman." Up to 18 weeks of gestation if the pregnancy results from rape orincest." At any time during pregnancy, with the recommendation of anauthorised medical practitioner, if the life of the mother were at risk, ifher physical or mental health were at risk or if the foetus wasdeformed. (The law does not specify what degree of deformitywould make abortion permissible.)

Abortion is legally punishable if it is sex-selective abortion, or if itis performed without the consent of the mother.

The new law on abortion hasmany gaps, and thegovernment doesn’t seem tookeen on making it work fast.immediate approval from thepalace following approval fromparliament. But the amendmentto the Civil Code that legalisedabortion had to wait six monthsto get the royal approval. And inthat time, virtually nothing wasdone to educate the generalpublic or even the bodies thatwould be responsible forenforcing the legislation.

The new law does nothingfor women currently in custodyon abortion charges. “Thepresent law fails to decriminalisethose already in legal custody,”says Shrestha. The law iscompletely silent about releasingthose already convicted, andeven about women currently

under trial. As with othercrimes, women already con-victed of abortion can only berelieved by a royal pardon onthe recommendation of thecabinet. Those under trial canhave their cases withdrawn bythe court, again following acabinet recommendation.

The women serving timearen’t really in a position todemand that their situation bereviewed. A study by the US-based Centre for ReproductiveLaw and Policy with FWLDfound that a majority of womenon trial or in prison for abortionhad no legal representation, and60 percent of them never evenwent to school. These women

lack family support and accessto social rehabilitationfacilities.

The other glaring omissionin the new law is that while ittechnically legalises abortion, itdoes not actually makeprovisions for improving accessto safe abortions. The new lawfixes 12 weeks as the uppertime limit for a woman to havea legal abortion, but oftenthat’s just not enough time fora rural woman who has to firstmake a tough choice, nearlyalways with no counselling orprofessional advice, and thentake time out to travel else-where, funds permitting, tohave the procedure. “Theproportion of women ap-proaching unqualified practi-tioners and outflow to India forabortion is not likely to dropimmediately,” says AnandTamang, director of CREHPA.

In order to make safeabortion services more easilyavailable, the new law allowstrained health workers athealth post levels to performabortions. A 12-week timeperiod is fixed as the safestperiod within which to have anabortion, and the technique isrelatively simple. Activists likeTamang are satisfied with thisprovision, but caution that itneeds to be revised in aboutfive years to the WHOstandard of 20 weeks. Theoverall improvement in healthfacilities, says Tamang, willlikely allow for the change.

The majority of women inurban areas seeking abortionservices are those with un-wanted and mistimed pregnan-cies. A CREHPA survey showsthat almost 43 percent ofprivate medical outletsreported dealing with clientsfor whom contraception hadfailed, and nearly three-fourthreported receiving clients withunwanted pregnancies.

The law was also put intoplace before the Ministry ofHealth could draft a newabortion policy. One of themost critical issues that will beaddressed in the draft policy,consultations for which willbegin next month, is pricing.One impact of the legalisationof abortion is expected to be adrop in the cost of the proce-dure. Before legalisation, anabortion in the first trimesterused to cost Rs 7000 to Rs10,000. The CREHPA 2000survey found that the 52.5percent of urban-based medicalpractitioners expected the costto drop if abortion werelegalised, while 38 thought itwould “only to some extent”.

Monitoring abortionpractices will be anotherdifficult legal challenge.Medical practitioners fear thatNepal will see a spurt of sex-selective abortion. Accordingto the CREHPA survey, 36percent of the surveyed doctorssaid sex selective abortion willincrease “to a large extent”. !

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What the law says

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Now to implement it....

An awareness program in Hetauda to warn women and men about the dangers of unsafe abortions.

Funeral procession of Krishna Prasad Sapkota, former chairman of RyaleVDC, Kavre, on 16 September. Sapkota was beheaded near his home byMaoists on the night of 15 September. The photo shows a mourner, at left,carrying his head in a plastic bag, as the rest of the body is borne on astretcher.

66666 NATION 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES

SOMEWHERE IN NEPAL by PUSKAR BHUSAL

he week Nepalis were leftwithout a governmentbrought news of the biggest

foreign investment in the country.Australia’s Snowy MountainsEngineering Corporation an-nounced it would begin construct-ing the $860 million West Setihydro-electric project in 2004 andstart running it four years later.

The company has been workingon the 750 MW project in the far-western development region since1996. So we shouldn’t read toomuch into the fact that a primeminister representing the westernextreme of the country has beensucceeded by someone from thesame region. (Actually, this is thesecond time Lokendra BahadurChand has succeeded SherBahadur Deuba in nearly sixyears.)

The timing of Snowy Moun-tain’s announcement is propitiousfor pondering the money-politicslink from a different perspective.Chand’s hands are full. Worse,they are tied by perceptions ofillegality at home and lack ofenthusiasm abroad. His room formanoeuvre in the mortifiedmainstream may be severelycircumscribed. The Maoists,freshly certified as one of thewealthiest rebel movements inAsia, might continue to seegreater advantage in keeping theirwar machine running.

Commercial considerationscan confer political legitimacy. An

The economics of politics

affluent agglomeration of Nepalisseems dead against reviving thepolitics that existed before 10.45PM on 4 October. The businesscommunity was the first organisedgroup to welcome the palace’sintervention. If you followed thepronouncements of key captainsof commerce over the past fewmonths, you probably sensed theirdesperation for change. Reelingfrom industrial insecurity andunrest, prominent entrepreneurs

to make a living off the forces ofdemand and supply, the characterof the government of the day“oligarchic, partyless or multi-party” hardly matters.

Similar sentiments wereburied in the Belgian govern-ment’s decision to go ahead withits contract to deliver 5,500automatic rifles to Nepal despiteour political convulsions. Thecontroversy, which peaked whenDeuba was forced to camp in

Brussels on his last foreign trip aspremier, was over whether Nepal isin a state of civil war. SeveralBelgian politicians, includingMagda Aelvoet, the deputypremier who later quit thegovernment, argued that the armssale violated both Belgian law anda European Union code ofconduct that prohibits weaponsshipments to governmentsinvolved in warfare or civil strife.Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt

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began warning politicians not tocount on their patronage in thenext elections.

One industrialist threatenedto publish explosive diaries thatwould rattle the political estab-lishment. His threat, repeatedover several newspaper interviews,carried clear traces of revulsionwith how leading politicianshad become successful merchantsas well.

His refrain: For people trying

and his allies characterised ourconflict as one between anelected government and rebelsbent on subverting democracy.Deeper down, though, thedispute had economic rootsexacerbated by Belgium’sregional divide. The multi-million-euro arms contract hasbeen awarded to FabriqueNationale Herstal,headquartered near Liege in theWalloon area. French-speakingBelgians accused their Flemishcolleagues of trying to sabotagethe fragile Walloon economy.

How foreign investors viewNepal’s two giant neighbourscould clarify our understandingof the economics of our politics.In the past 10 years, India hasattracted an estimated $30billion in foreign investment,split evenly between direct andinstitutional investment inequity markets. China has raisedover $300billion in foreign directinvestment alone.

India attracts foreigninvestment of $30 per capita,compared to China’s $497.With 150 million subscribers,China has the world’s largestcell phone market, compared toIndia’s six million. There are amillion Internet connections inIndia as against 30 million inChina. (And we thoughteverybody was listening in toeverybody else up north.) Youcould insist that China beganliberalising its economy a fulldecade before India did. Forthat argument to hold, though,you’d have to be reasonablyconfident that, by 2012, Indiawould be where China is today.Are you?

If not, here’s the nextquestion: What helped Chinaovertake the United States toreach the top of AT Kearney’sForeign Direct InvestmentConfidence Index (Nepali Times#115, The World Paper)?Robust economic growth? Entryinto the World Trade Organisa-tion? Beijing’s successful bid forthe 2008 Olympics? All three.But before all that, a relativelystable political environment,according to foreign investors.(Translation: Tibet andTiananmen Square are justquaint attractions in the world’sfastest-growing market for bothinbound and outbound travel.)

A plethora of parties, astrong legal system, Englisheducation and a free press don’tnecessarily create a congenialinvestment climate. This shouldworry Nepal’s politicians morethan our economists. !

We take pride injobs well done.

japray@mos.com.npPhone: (01) 521393, 543017, 547018

Fax: 977-1-536390JAGADAMBA PRESS

Foreign investors are looking for politically stable countries, not placeswith free press where citizens are allowed to vote.

77777ECONOMY 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES

BIZ NEWS

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More traffic jamsThe total number of vehicles registered in Kathmandu Valley and surrounding areas increased by nearly 16percent in the past year, according to the Department of Transportation. At this rate, the number ofvehicles on the streets of Kathmandu will double in the next five years. Motorcycles increased by over 20percent, and two-wheelers now make up nearly 70 percent of all vehicles in the capital.

There are about 50,000 trucks, cars, jeeps and vans in the capital and nearly 136,000 motorcycles. Thegovernment registered 369 new diesel mini buses, but is still refusing to allow a prototype electric bus. Thismeans more traffic jams, and more polluted air.

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LIC getting into reinsuranceThe Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India first came to Nepal in 2001, but is now considering setting upa reinsurance company and a mutual fund here. LIC wants to get together with General Insurance Corpo-ration and also set up the first housing finance company in Nepal, according to media reports in India. Nepalcould become the first overseas venture for LIC Mutual Fund and LIC Housing Finance for which it ispartnering with Nepal’s Vishal group. It also plans to expand its investments into Bangladesh, Bhutan andSri Lanka.

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Calcutta holiday traffic hitDespite assurances that Indian tourists entering Nepal are no longer required to carry passports or voter IDcards, the message doesn’t seem to have reached Calcutta.

And this severely affected the flow of Indian tourists to Nepal during the Puja holidays last week,according to travel agents in Calcutta. Bengali families with children were finding it difficult to arrange thedocuments, and this adversely affected their travel plans, according to Dilip Sengupta of Kundu Travels.Together with fears of political instability, Nepal-bound holiday traffic was down 70 percent from last year.Royal Nepali Consul-general in Calcutta, Ghanashyam Lamsal, told The Times of India that the documentrequirements had been imposed “with mutual consent” between India and Nepal.

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Pressure cooker sales plummetThe manufacture and sale of pressure cookers has droppeddramatically in the past year since the Maoists started usingthem for explosives and the security forces restricted theiravailability in the marketplace.

Pressure cooker factories in Birganj, Butwal andBiratnagar have started closing down. Two factories inBirganj that used to produce 360 cookers a day and employed70 workers have closed down. Birendra Kumar Jaiswal of United Industries says he stands to loosemillions in investment.

Many downstream industries that supplied raw materials to the cooker factories are also going out ofbusiness. The only place where cookers can still be sold is in Kathmandu, everywhere else there arerestrictions. In the absence of pressure cookers, fuel consumption has gone up.

NEPAL IN THE FOREIGN PRESS

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IAN BARTHOLOMEWepal has had a rough year with massiveflooding and an upsurge in violence byMaoist insurgents. So as the trekking

season, which runs roughly from late Septem-ber through to early December, opens,businesses, which rely heavily on the surge oftourist traffic during this time, face bleakprospects as cautious travellers find saferdestinations.

But it’s an ill wind that brings no good toanyone, and for those undeterred by reports ofthe kingdom’s seemingly endless politicaldifficulties, it is a time when they can avoid thecrowds, even along some of the most populartrekking routes. “It’s an opportunity to have themountains to yourself,” said a lone Australiantrekker met on the Annapurna Circuit late lastmonth. The circuit is often disparaginglylabelled “The Coca-Cola Trail” because of therelative ease of procuring material comfortsalong the way.

Passing through the police checkpointoutside the town of Chame late on a wet,blustery afternoon, only three other trekkershad passed that day according to the police log,which the bored troopers were more thanwilling to show us. “Normally at this time [lateSeptember], we can expect up to 300 people tostay overnight in Chame,” said the proprietorof the Sangetse Hotel, where our group of threewere the only guests.

The Maoist troubles have done little toaffect the area around Annapurna, but takingthe bus out from Kathmandu to the trailhead atBesisahar, around a seven-hour bus ride away,the interminable police and army checkpointswere a constant reminder of kingdom’s politicalmalaise. Tourists were generally treated withcourtesy by the sometimes dangerouslyundisciplined troops, and even the Maoists,according to Tilak Magar, a trekking firmoperator in Kathmandu, generally only request“donations” from trekkers. “Last time we metwith them, each tourist and the guide gave

With political problems keeping touristsaway, this is probably one of the best timesto visit the Himalayan kingdom.

Finding your own Nepal

them $100. They even gave us a receipt incase we met with other Maoist groups,” hesaid. For an upcoming trek around Manaslu,to the east of the Annapurna Circuit, he saidhe had advised his clients to have some spareUS dollars on hand.

Along the well-established route of theAnnapurna Circuit, such dangers seem far away,as trekkers hike from one comfortable teahouse tothe next. In the 20 years since the circuit hasbeen opened to tourists, the windowless insect-infested mud huts with wooden bunks havebecome much more amenable to urban tastes.Solar-heated hot water is one of the great luxuriesafter a long day on the trail, but we soon realisedafter two days of icy showers, that this onlyapplied when the day had been sunny.

Arriving early in Pisang in the company of acouple of Australians and one Frenchman on thefifth day of our trek, after a blustery day withonly intermittent sun, there was a general rushfor the showers and smug condolences afterwardsin the dining hall for those who had missed outon the very limited supplies of warm water. Thecamaraderie of the trail is also a large part ofAnnapurna Circuit’s appeal. Sitting down over

innumerable cups of hot milk tea andhearing about other people’s adventures atthe end of the day before turning in for anearly night easily swept away the weariness ofa day on the trail.

The realisation that this existence oftrekking, camaraderie and sleep had anincreasingly tenuous connection with Nepaliexistence was brought forcefully to mind whentaking a wrong turn out of the small town ofJagat, where we had slept at a new, characterlesslodge whose only advantage was that it wasclean, and given the competition for the smallnumber of trekkers, ridiculously cheap at justRs 30 for a triple room.

We had set off early, and soon foundourselves fighting for breath as we fought ourway up a steep ascent. As we neared the top ofthe ridge we stopped to rest after about an hourof exhausting climbing. A young boy dressedin rags watched us curiously, then in haltingEnglish, explained that if we were heading toManang, a major stop three-days further up thetrail, then we were going the wrong way. Sowhere were we heading? Something-or-other-Jagat, he said, then added: “Dirty Jagat.” A

town of the same name where the real peoplelived. The Jagat we had passed through waslargely for tourist consumption.

Many of the locals we met along the trailwere there solely to cater to the needs of trekkers.A baker in Manang, who managed to produce achocolate brownie to die for, said that apart fromthe trekking season, he lived in Kathmandu.Asked how far it was to Yak Kharka, the nextmajor stop along the trail, he shrugged. “I havenever been there,” he said. “Getting to Manangis quite difficult enough.”

Along the path of the artificial trekkingworld, some of nature’s greatest wonders lie,sometimes distant among the clouds, sometimespressing up against you, their massive propor-tions terrifying and beautiful. The high pointof the trail, in every sense, is the crossing ofThorung La at 5,400 m. From Manang(3,540 m), it normally takes two days ofclimbing to reach the staging point atThorung Phedi (4,450 m).

At this altitude, there is the danger of acutealtitude sickness, which if ignored can provefatal, and even as we clambered up a long high-traverse around one of the innumerablelandslides caused by this year’s heavymonsoon rains, we met one group retreatingfrom the Thorung Phedi suffering fromsevere headaches and nausea.

At Manang, we had visited a lama, calledthe 100 Rupee Lama, who specialised in givingblessings to those heading for the pass. This didnot lessen our reliance on painkillers as we triedto settle down to sleep in the thin atmosphere,which contained only 60 percent of the oxygenavailable at sea level.

Around 20 trekkers would cross the passthe next day, but spread along the interminablyrising trail, a black line of wet rock and ice cuttingamidst moraine and drifts of snow, it was easy tofeel completely alone, the only sound your ownlaboured breathing, the creak of your harness andthe occasional rattle of rock displaced by a heavyfootfall.

From the pass, the long descent toMuktinath, 1,600 m below, brings you out ofthe wild and back to the relative ease of theteahouse circuit. At Muktinath we stayed atthe Hotel Bob Marley, which seemed tooincongruous to bypass in one of the region’sholiest sites on the very edge of the Tibetanplateau. Here we were invited into a Tibetannunnery, and on the outskirts, watched thearrival of pilgrims who visit the Muktinathtemple complex that has structures sacred toboth Hindus and Buddhists.

After the high pass and the closest approachto the snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas, youdescend into the valley of the Kali GandakiRiver, which boasts the deepest river gorge inthe world and some outstanding white waterrafting on its lower reaches.

The Annapurna Circuit is only a small sliceof the enormous diversity that Nepal has tooffer. Even the presence of the Maoists seem tooffer more of a thrill to most tourists rather thana real threat. That the violence and politicalinstability are very real seems readily hiddenbehind the offer of magnificent scenery and thesense of adventure. It’s rather like the town ofJagat. The facade is more than adequate, and theharsh reality of poverty and dirt all but invisibleunless you take a wrong turn. !

by ARTHA BEEDECONOMIC SENSE

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fter the institution of theinterim government inNepal, the Beed has been

bombarded with questions: aboutthe future of the Nepali economy,and developments in general. But,the festive season has perhapsturned the Beed temporarily intoan optimist. So here’s my sugges-tion: why aren’t we asking whatopportunities this situationprovides, instead of looking at itfrom the traditional Nepaliperspective of failure and disaster.

While an efficient democraticsystem is often held to be thefoundation of a good economy, itisn’t necessary, evidently, thateconomies only flourish under aparticipatory democratic politicalsystem. Look at Singapore andChina, or the complexity of theIndian economy. Strong politicalwill can override the limitations ofany system. A political system byany old name is still aboutgovernance.

If it’s true that elections aren’tpossible before November 2003,let’s just put up with the interimgovernment and get on withpreparing for our future which,one way or the other, will eventu-ally come to pass. Do we reallyneed a bicameral legislative systemor can we do with fewer lawmakers.Do we need the multitude ofministries and 75 districts that bloatadministrative and government costs?

Rx for NepalCan we use this time to chase good ideas with good money?

Do we really need a planningcommission? Perhaps a single ministrycan take care of finance, local develop-ment, planning, implementation andcontrol.

Eminent Nepali scholars havedealt with all these matters—DrHarka Gurung on district divisions,Madhukar Rana on the integration ofministries, Dipak Gyawali onrestricting the possibilities ofmaking politics a life-long profes-sion. Nepali academia comprisespeople who can hold their own evenoutside lecture halls. If the interimgovernment recognises them, and thedonor community can fund well-advised, if radical ideas, this phase willbe worth it.

The prescriptions for theeconomy are clear: improve revenue,reduce costs, decentralise decision-making and punish the corrupt.Governance, foreign investment anda conducive business environmentwill follow automatically. It’s vital toreduce the cost of government, andcontinuously monitor corruption.One way to begin doing this islegitimising campaign finance anddemanding transparency.

We need at most 15 decentral-ised financially autonomous regionsin the country. Parallel to this, thecentral government needs to bereduced drastically to 10 ministries,and departments within ministriesneed to be slashed. A donor-supported enterprise development

and training fund can be created bythe government to take care ofgovernment servants who are let go.Pension money outflow would godown, and perhaps a lot more spacewould be available for remainingemployees to function efficiently,possibly through a substantialperformance-based increase inemoluments. Maybe we’ll finallyrealise how weird it is that offices inurban areas close at 4PM in thewinter. Fewer parliamentarians willmean fewer ministers, too. Aunicameral 125-member Houseshould dovetail with the division oflocal government, the key todevelopment and empowerment.

Revenue collection needs to bereorganised and GDP must beexamined in light of total revenuecollection. Increased revenue maycome from higher land revenue taxesand no income tax, or throughexpanded economic activity thatemerges out of conducive tax laws.

The Beed has discussed all thisbefore, but this provides a goodopportunity to pull everythingtogether. There is an opportunityfor administrative and otherreforms. The interim governmentcan set the stage for democraticinstitutions, including the politicalparties, to contribute better after thenext elections. !

(Readers can post their views toarthabeed@yahoo.com.)

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88888 9999925 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMESNEPALI TIMESNEPALI TIMESNEPALI TIMESNEPALI TIMESHERITAGE

A lavish new book takes a nostalgic look back at the Rana century.

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KUNDA DIXITove them or hate them, butyou can’t ignore them. Thelegacy of Rana rule remainseverywhere: from the

imposing façade of Singha Darbar,the presence of Ranas at the topechelons of modern Nepal’sbusiness, army and police, and theRana family tree, which is interwo-ven with the present members ofthe Shah dynasty. All this makesfor fascinating history that has beendocumented in research papers,academic treatises, a best-sellingnovel, a Nepali movie, and recentRana nostalgia in architecture.

But surprisingly no one has,until now, attempted to puttogether a coffee table book on thehistory, culture, lifestyle and evencuisine of the Ranas—written bythe Ranas themselves. EnterPrincess Juni of the former Indianprincely state of Sarela visitingKathmandu two years ago for aWorldwide Fund for Natureconference. “She said how comethere is no book on the Ranas,”recalls Gautam Rana of BaberMahal Revisted. Gautam alreadyhad a well-developed interest in hisclan’s heritage—when he returnedto Nepal after completing amanagement degree in Germanyin 1979, he was dismayed to seeKathmandu Valley rapidly losingwhat old charm it still had left.In 1998, he began reconstructingthe stables and cowsheds of hisancestral palace to develop anupmarket shopping complex ofboutiques, art galleries andrestaurants called Baber MahalRevisited.

“When she said that, I thoughtlet’s do it. But where was themoney?” explains Gautam. A large-format, hard cover illustratedencyclopaedia of the Ranas wasgoing to cost a packet. Luckily, instepped the Swiss banking groupCredit Suisse, which was interestedin backing the project because theproceeds from the sales were goingto help the conservation ofKathmandu Valley’s unique urbanheritage. With Credit Suissebankrolling the printing in Europe,Gautam raised money from otherillustrious Ranas who were goingto be co-authors: Prabhakar Ranaof the Soaltee Group and RPPpolitician, Pashupati Rana.

“Pretty soon, I realised I mayhave bitten off more than I couldchew,” admits Gautam, who hiredhelp for the editing, design andphotography from India’s APCA

group, but was himself responsiblefor the research and coordinatingthe contents. The result is a well-crafted work that is like a timecapsule taking readers back to theextravagance, intrigue, hopes andachievements of those 104 years.

The authors have tried not togloss over the raw ambition, greed,and, yes, lust that drove the powerstruggles in the extended Ranaclan. But the overall impression isstill a somewhat sanitised retro-spective of those years. Even thedecadence comes across asphotogenic. Gautam isn’t defensiveabout that, he says: “Some Ranasof my generation feel very apolo-getic, but there is nothing to feel

guilty about. We have aneclectic and cultured past, andthat should inspire us to helpbuild the country today, andconserve our heritage.”

Despite being an “inside story”by members of the clan vilified inpost-1950 history books, thehistory chapters in The Ranas ofNepal are an objective and credibleassessment of the period. Co-author Prabhakar Rana, great-grandson of Joodha Shumshere,actually lived in Singha Darbaruntil the age of 11. PashupatiRana, grandson of the last Ranaprime minister, MohunShumshere, was present as a boy offour at the first coronation of King

Gyanendra in 1950. Both havecontributed chapters on history,architecture, and lifestyle. Besidesthe research, Gautam helped trackdown rare photos, paintings andartefacts from private collections,and also wrote the chapter onRana jewellery.

The book’s lavish visuals withearly sepia photographs, periodportraits from private collectionsbring this history alive. Theillustrations are intelligentlygrafted into the text (edited byBrinda Datta and Dubby Bhagat),as are the contemporary photo-graphs by Indian photojournalistPrashant Panjiar.

The book begins at the

beginning: with the royal rivalriesamong the Rajput rulers ofUdaipur that drove one particularfamily of courtiers to theHimalaya, all the way up in Jumla.From there they migrated eastwardto Kaski and on to Gorkha. TheKunwars helped King PrithviNarayan in his conquests, and BalNarsingh Kunwar was madegovernor of Jumla. But in thepurges that followed the downfallof Bhimsen Thapa in 1840, BalNarsingh’s son Jung Bahaduremerged as a master manipulatorwho, through sheer charisma,craftiness and courage, wormed hisway upwards taking full advantageof the savage power strugglesamong the descendants of PrithviNarayan Shah and their consorts.

Jung Bahadur is at the centreof this swirling tale of back-stabbing, intrigue, conspiracies,alliances, finding himself right inthe middle of vicious infightingbetween a powerful queen and herparamour, the king, and the crownprince. At gunpoint, Jung is forcedto shoot his own uncle, the primeminister, and is then caught up intwo massacres at the Kot and at

while he manoeuvred to takeover. Suspecting a plot, hebeheaded two dozen courtiersand managed to carve out a placefor himself and his 17 sons in thesuccession. The clan was thuseffectively split between the JungRanas and the Shumshere Ranas.By 1885, matters reached a headagain and Dhir had his six sonskill their uncle, Rana Udip Singhand remove all the descendants ofJung Bahadur’s other brothersfrom succession.

Rana power transitions weremessy affairs, and watching allthis from the background was theBritish regent at Lazimpat. Wesee how British India tried toinfluence events in Kathmandu,and this has familiar echoestoday. When Bir Shumsheresidelined Jagat Jung and exiledhim to India, the British refusedfor five months to recognise Biras leader. And when Jagat Jungbegan preparations to overthrowBir Shumshere from Indian soil,the British arrested him while hewas planning to march intoNepal with his armed followers.Sound familiar?

Bir Shumshere built Nepal’sfirst hospital as well as theDarbar School, for whichimported teachers from England.He was succeeded by the flashyDev Shumshere who in turn wasreplaced by the shrewd and astuteChandra Shumshere, whose 37-year reign was marked byuncharacteristic stability anddevelopment. He establishedNepal’s first college, streamlinedadministration, built suspensionbridges all over the country,installed Nepal’s first hydropowerplant in 1911 (from domesticcoffers, without foreign aid), andnamed the light powered byelectricity generated by it afterhimself (“Chandra jyoti”). Hesent architects to Europe andhorticulturists to Japan fortraining. He also built a 1,400-room palace for himself, whichended up being a contribution tothe nation—it is now SinghaDarbar. On the diplomatic front,Chandra Shumshere managed toconvince the British to officiallyagree to Nepal’s independentstatus and got them to put it inwriting in the 1923 Anglo-NepalTreaty of Friendship.

Chandra was succeeded byBhim Shumshere, Joodha

Shumshere, Padma Shumshereand finally, Mohun Shumshere.But time was running out, theend of Empire was near. Althoughthey tried to modernise Nepalwith industrialisation, banking,railways, urban water supply, andeven a liberal constitution, it wastoo little too late. MohunShumshere had to deal withnewly-independent India andgrapple with democracy-mindedNepalis whose demands soundeduncannily similar to today’sdiscourse: set up a constituentassembly and form an interimgovernment.

The book also delves intoother massacres: that of tigers,rhinos and other wildlife inhunting expeditions in honour ofvisiting British royalty. There is adramatic picture of JoodhaShumshere posing in front of peltsof a hundred or so tigers. Goodthing many Ranas have nowmoved away from huntingtowards nature conservation.

The rest of the book looks atRana architecture, and mentionsunsung Nepali engineers likeKishore Narsing and the legen-dary Joglal Sthapit, known morepopularly as “Bhajuman”.However incongruous thewedding cake Rana palaces mayhave looked when they werebuilt, the authors argue that thepalaces “seem to have achievedtheir own particular balance withthe environment” with their useof local construction materialand the incorporation of Nepalifeatures such as courtyards,verandahs, and south-facingbalconies.

The chapter on Rana

LLLLL

Bhandarkhal. He sends the queenand king into exile, installs thecrown prince on the throne andmakes himself prime minister.

Thus, at age 29, Jung BahadurKunwar launches the Rana century

in 1845. He was also the firstsubcontinental royal to visitBritain and France, driven by adesire to bypass the obstructivediktats of Calcutta by dealingdirectly with London. Once there,he received royal treatment.

One gets the feeling readingthese tales of massacres, assassina-tions and chronic infighting thatcontemporary Nepali rulers arejust following in the footsteps oftheir ancestors—maybe they arehardwired to be divisive andselfish. A paragraph from thebook, describing the conspiraciesof the royal court could very wellhave been written about today’sNepal: “He (Jung Bahadur)brought order to a Nepal on thebrink of anarchy. Nobody cancondone the means he used toachieve this end. However, it begsthe question: could it have beenachieved by any other means?”

It was perhaps inevitable thatwhen Jung died during a huntingtrip in Chitwan in 1877, hisbrothers immediately startedsquabbling for power. Jung’sbrother, Dhir, installed Jung’s sonRana Udip Singh as successor,

jewellery traces the history of theRana crown and how it evolvedand bulged with gems anddiamonds in 104 years (only to besold to a Parisian jeweller in themid 1950s). An error creeps inhere—the bird of paradise plume iswrongly identified as coming fromNew Zealand; it is actually nativeto Papua New Guinea. Many ofthese gems, precious stones andornaments were brought intoNepal by Indian royalty fleeingMughal invasions. Other jewellerycame from the Lucknow lootduring the mutiny, of which thesoldiers and officers got to keepthe gold and silver while jewellerywent to the royal coffers.

There’s more: Rana cuisine,Rana lifestyle, Rana fashion, Ranaart, and short biographies of someprominent living Ranas. The bookalso has a useful abridged familytree of most Ranas from JungBahadur’s father to SiddharthaRana, Prabhakar’s son, so readerscan navigate through the book’sconfusing genealogy, anduntangle the complex web ofRana intermarriages with theShah dynasty.

This hefty book with a heftyprice tag will be available atEverest Book Shop, Baber MahalRevisited from mid-November.Proceeds of the sales will go to theKathmandu Valley ConservationTrust, which has renovatednumerous temples, sattals andbahals in Kathmandu Valley.

The Ranas of Nepal by PrabhakarSJB Rana, Pashupati SJB Rana,Gautam SJB Rana. First editionNaef. Kister S.S. Editeur, Geneva,2002. 262 pp.

Nearly 160 years afterJung Bahadur Kunwar

(on cover, above)started a dynasty of

hereditary primeministers, and 51 yearsafter the end of Rana

reign, comes a book asopulent and sumptuous

as the era of Nepalihistory that this

remarkable family cameto dominate.

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TSTSTST ST YYYY YBalkrishna Sama’s hypothetical painting of all nine Rana prime ministers.

Joodha Shumshere’s tiger skins. Dhir Shumshere’s 17 sons.

Mohun Shumshere’s residence.

Prabhakar Rana Pashupati Rana Gautam Rana

Padma Sumshere’s throne.

1010101010 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMESWORLD

by MARINA CASTANEDACOMMENT

onica rummages frantically in her bag as we dine at a Mexico Cityrestaurant. She pulls out her cell phone and checks for messages.“Anything wrong?” I ask. “No,” she smiles, “just my husband. He

becomes upset if he calls and I don’t answer. He likes to know where I am.” “Youmean he likes to keep track of you,” I say, and she laughs.

As Monica explains sheepishly that Esteban is actually open-minded, it dawnson me that I’ve been hearing a lot of similar stories from female friends andpatients. The cell phone has become a new way for men to keep tabs on theirwives, calling them and pressuring them to come home as soon as possible.Machismo might be out of fashion in today’s Mexico, but control is definitely in.

You rarely hear of men not allowing their wives to study, work, or go outduring the day. Almost 40 percent of working-age women hold jobs, school anduniversity enrolment is evenly split between the sexes, and the average wagedifferential, whereby women earn about 70 percent of what men make, iscomparable to that of industrialised nations. Women are increasingly aware oftheir rights, demanding equal treatment in the workplace and in politics.Machismo has also mutated. It now relies more on psychological coercion andcontrol than on discrimination or physical constraints. In a sense, machismo hasgone underground. Deeply buried within our daily customs, it is all butinvisible—but ever present—among the educated classes.

Women may be considered equal in many areas, but men remain more equal.In Mexico, women’s time is not their own. When they go out, spend money, seefriends, they are still expected to render accounts. Fathers, brothers, boyfriends,and husbands feel entitled to a detailed explanation of their everyday activities—but refuse to be questioned about their own. These double standards form a pillar

Mexican men use modern technology toreinforce profoundly traditional practices.

Mexico’s machismo machineof today’s machismo. Of course, it is far more evident in the privacy of the homethan in the workplace or in public. Surveys show that men are willing to help out athome occasionally, but within rigidly defined parameters—they refuse to iron, sew,chop vegetables, or clean the oven or toilet, because these tasks are considered unmanly.

This division of labour in all areas of life means that men and women remainsurprisingly inept at certain tasks. We see educated men who don’t know how tomake a cup of coffee, and professional women who can’t change a fuse. Men knowlittle about babies; women know little about chequebooks—because they aren’tsupposed to. Machismo creates people with only half the skills that modern liferequires. Far from creating a healthy complementarity between the sexes, itperpetuates dependence on both sides and creates widespread inefficiency.

Part of the problem is the deep-seated assumption that women are meant toattend to men’s needs. From the moment of their birth, men are surrounded bythe constant care of women. Mothers, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, and latergirlfriends, wives, and daughters are expected to fulfil—even anticipate—a man’severy desire. Mothers tell little girls to “attend” their brothers, while little boys areinstructed to “watch over” their sisters. This non-stop pampering is aggravated byfemale domestic servants, from the high society governess to the part-time maid ofa middle-class family. Servants are a bulwark of Mexican machismo. Though theyallow women to go out and work, and ensure that men continue to be pamperedlike oriental potentates, never lifting a finger in the home. Where wives anddaughters now refuse to drop everything to prepare lunch for the man of thehouse, the maid takes up the slack.

The implications of these attitudes and behaviours go beyond the domesticsphere. Pampered Mexican boys grow into men accustomed to being obeyedinstantly, who feel entitled to special attention, refuse to negotiate with those whomthey consider inferior, and reject any form of criticism. The men who dominatepublic life often fit this mould: they are demanding, impatient, intolerant, andself-centred. There is an inescapable contradiction between machismo and oursupposed transition to democracy. As Monica sums it up with mock exasperationafter our lunch, twice interrupted by her husband, “This machismo businessdoesn’t make sense any more. How can we continue to be governed by men whohave never set foot in a supermarket?” ! (Project Syndicate)

(Marina Castañeda is a psychotherapist in Mexico City and authorof the recent bestseller El machismo invisible.)

ews coverage of the horrifyingexplosions in Bali last weekendshows that not much has

changed in journalism since 11September. Despite the incessantcautionary statements about violenceand the warning signals pushing thenational state of alert up and down thecolour scale, journalism gave us thesame old news. Its knee-jerk treatmentof violence, terror and atrocity—exemplified by the coverage of thebombing in the Indonesian resortvillage—barely differed from itstreatment of countless other eventsoverseas before 11 September.

Even though the blast killed anestimated 200 people, it received thekind of patterned journalistic attentionthat we have come to expect of ourmedia. It happened over there, so whypay too much attention? Theexplosions happened early Saturdaymorning, and only inched on to thenews in the US. Initial stories on thebroadcast news focused on a tightrecounting of what happened withoutextensive analysis. By the end of theweekend, the focus shifted to broaderconsiderations of its effect elsewhere inthe world, as it should have, but failedto flesh out the story. The blastreceived terse mention on the insidepages of US Sunday newspapers,bursting onto their front pages onlyon Monday. In the meantime, storiesof the sniper shootings filled the newshole, following what journalists call“firefighting” or “parachute journal-ism”. In the US, Bali just wasn’timportant enough to lead the news.

Journalism had not addressedBali before last weekend’s blast,curious given the post-11 Septembercall for a “different kind of coverage” of

by BARBIE ZELIZEREYE ON THE MEDIA

Even after the lessons of 11 September,the US media bungled the Bali blast.

No parachutes

violence, terror and atrocity. Over thepast few months, warning signsproliferated: a colour-code alert waspushed up in September because of anexpected rise in terrorism in SoutheastAsia, seven different explosions rockedthe region over the past three weeks, aheightened alert was in place at theUS embassy in Jakarta a month ago,and several US embassies inSoutheast Asia were closed.

Even after the explosions, theslight lag time between coverage of theblasts themselves and theircontextualisation suggested a tempo-rary, if fleeting, lapse of judgement onthe part of journalists who could andshould have provided an immediatecontext for the bombing. By Monday,the skies over Bali darkened withjournalism’s parachutes. A statement

by President George W Bush andother officials positioned the Baliattacks as part of a so-called resurgenceof al-Qaeda activities. That linkagebrought with it a torrent of stories—allof which helped position the blastsagainst some larger context: Withinhours, they were linked backward tothe recent explosion aboard a Frenchtanker in Yemen and attacks onAmerican soldiers in Kuwait, and fast-forwarded to next week’s potentialtargeting of oil and gas installations inIndonesia.

Only after the White Houseconnected the dots did the mainstreamUS media report that al-Qaedafunctionaries were said to be entrench-ing in Indonesia, and tapes bearingthreatening messages against the westreemerged. Bali—long seen as both a

major international tourist destinationand a Hindu island alongside theworld’s most populous Muslimnation—became the newest repositoryof the world’s horror, with one touristquoted as saying, “If Bali is no longersafe, there’s no place that’s safe.”

By Tuesday the blasts werecodified as “the beginning of a newcampaign”, and the media ran storiesabout the impact of the attacks onAmerica. The high Australian deathtoll prompted CNN to label the event“Australia’s Sept. 11”, urgingcomparisons of a pre- blast contextthat had not sufficiently been madebefore the bombs exploded.

There is a limit to how much wecan expect of our journalists. But thereare lessons to be learned aboutjournalism that require a differentmode of treatment than simpleparachute entry and exit. These lessonscall for different kinds of journalisticengagement with public events. Storiesabout warmongering against Iraq,waffling over whether Osama binLaden is dead and the eradication ofal-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan deserveto be part, but not all, of what weknow about the world.

In a post-11 September era, itremains curious that the news we getand don’t get often has less to do withIndonesia, Australia or Southeast Asiathan with ourselves. And in thatrespect, too, little has changed since9/11.! (New York Newsday)

(Barbie Zelizer teachescommunications at the Universityof Pennsylvania and co-edited thebook Journalism AfterSeptember 11.)

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UNdemocraticGENEVA - The United Nations and the principal multilateral institu-tions require profound reforms if they want to repair their imper-fections, including their lack of democracy, says a group ofinternational experts.

Without reform of the existing institutions and the creation of newones, “it is difficult to see how the international community can face thechallenges of the first part of the 21st century,” said Indian economistDeepak Nayyar, editor of the book Governing Globalisation: Issuesand Institutions, a series of essays on the future of the multilateralsystem. The study proposes changes, in some cases radical reforms,of the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. The initiative is basedon the conception that the changes in the world, particularly during thelast decade, have eroded the UN’s legitimacy, effectiveness andcredibility. The book, which is the result of research conducted at thebehest of the United Nations University-WIDER Institute, states that asfar as maintaining world peace—one of the UN’s principal mandates—the institution failed to meet the challenge of the 1990s. The authorssay that the UN’s moral authority has been “seriously undermined” bythe fact that the forum’s laws or principles are selectively enforced,tailored to “the interests of the rich and the powerful”. (IPS)

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Again, rights vs ‘security’CANBERRA - In the wake of the bombing in Bali, Australian PrimeMinister John Howard has alarmed human rights and opposition groupsby announcing that he expects a review of anti-terrorism laws to becompleted by early next week. Government sources have revealedthat the Howard administration’s priorities now include legislation thatgives a designated government minister the power to unilaterally banorganisations deemed to be associated with terrorism. Constitutionallawyers and human rights groups are worried about the prospect ofthe further erosion of democratic rights in the name of ‘anti-terrorism’legislation. Last Tuesday, special minister of state Eric Abetz re-introduced the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill into the Senate after it had beendeferred earlier in the year due to widespread opposition, includingwithin the government’s own ranks.

The provisions of the bill propose to allow life sentences to beimposed on those directly or indirectly involved with “terrorist” organi-sations and allow “suspects” to be held without charge, incommuni-cado, and without access to a lawyer for potentially extended periods.A parliamentary committee of inquiry into the ASIO legislation—dominated by government representatives—reported in June that thebill would “undermine key legal rights and erode the civil liberties thatmake Australia a leading democracy”.

“Howard is being somewhat opportunistic in using this tragedy totry and revisit some of the worst aspects of the anti-terrorism legisla-tion the Australian public clearly said ‘no’ to over the last year,” saidDamien Lawson, spokesman for the Federation of Community LegalCentres. “The nature of the threat that the Bali attacks have under-scored will not be addressed by the sort of changes they areproposing. What needs to be addressed is the political and socialunderpinnings of the conflict in Indonesia and conflict globally andlook at why there is so much support for radical Islamist organisa-tions,” he added. (IPS)

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“I’ll go”PRAGUE - The IMF is ready to start a dialogue with the World SocialForum at its third conference in Porto Alegre in Brazil early next year,deputy managing director of the IMF Eduardo Aninat said Sunday.

“If invited to Porto Alegre and given space to be heard, I’ll go,”Aninat said at the end of a two-day conference in Prague onglobalisation and development. The conference was organised jointlyby Forum 2000, the foundation led by Czech President Vaclav Havel,and the Nippon Foundation. Delegates agreed on the creation of anindependent international body that would undertake to arbitrate ondebt issues, reduction of agricultural subsidies in the US, Europe andJapan, and on making trade rules transparent and fair. Apart from thisthe conference ended with the expected variety of harsh disagree-ments, with the IMF, the World Bank and business representatives onone side and civil society activists and scholars on the other indiscussions on external debt, double standards in trade and finance,uneven flow of information between North and South, and the socialand environmental responsibility of corporations. Nobody claimed thatcorporations or the system of international trade and finance wereplaying fair with the developing world. But differences becameapparent on where responsibilities lie and what needs to be done. (IPS)

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“Schizophrenic” UNGENEVA - The UN demonstrates a tendency towards “schizophrenia”in its approaches to agricultural reform and fighting world hunger, saysSwiss academic Jean Ziegler, the global forum’s special rapporteur onthe right to food. Programmes aimed at agrarian reform, after more thantwo decades in near-oblivion, returned to the international community’sagenda through the commitments made in the declaration signed inRome at the 1996 World Food Summit. But the final declaration of thesecond summit on food, which took place this June, again in Rome,omitted the issue, even though two UN agencies back agrarian reformmodels as a means to improve food security: the International Fund forAgricultural Development (IFAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organi-sation (FAO). In contrast, the World Bank promotes different models ofagrarian reform, which place priority on the market and follow thetrend set by what is known as the “Washington Consensus”, saidZiegler. Half of the UN system, the World Bank, the IMF and a largenumber of the UN’s member states are, in practice, against the right tofood, said Ziegler, commenting that they believe the market is the onlypower that should establish food prices. (IPS)

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BANGKOK - If investigators confirmthe charges by the US and Indonesiangovernments that 12 October’scarnage in Bali was the work ofMuslim militants, the ‘Islamencourages violence’ debate sparked bythe 11 September attacks is sure tointensify and put pressure onmoderate Muslims. Sensing thispossibility, some of the leading voiceschampioning moderate Islam insouth-east Asia have been quick tospeak up and raise issues aboutthese acts of terror and separatingthem from Islam.

Condemning the car bomb attackin Bali, Malaysian Prime MinisterMahathir Mohamad said that terroristattacks were “not a good way to fightfor any cause, as it was not planned forultimate victory but to exact revengeand retaliation,” reported the English-language daily The Star.

In Indonesia, where officials inBali are intensively questioning twoIndonesians in connection with the

by MARWAAN MACAN-MARKARANALYSIS

The Indonesia attacks have finallypushed moderate Muslims to speak up.

Time to talk

attack killed at least 182 people andinjured more than 300 people,Muslim lawyers have chided thecountry’s defence minister for blamingthe al-Qaeda network for the attackwithout citing evidence. The leader ofIndonesia’s largest Muslim organisa-tion, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), alsocautioned against pointing fingers atIslam for encouraging such acts ofterror. “It (the Bali bombing) was anact against humanity and no religioncan justify it. The authorities mustsolve the case and bring the perpetra-tors to justice, but must do soaccording to facts, not analysis,”Hasyim Muzadi of NU was quotedas having said.

Among those who have ragedagainst Islam in the ‘Islam encouragesviolence’ or ‘Islam equals terrorism’debate have seen people such as UStelevision evangelist Jerry Falwell andFranklin Graham link Islam with the“forces of darkness”. Falwell has saidthat the followers of the Prophet

Mohammad are “bent on destroyingall non-Muslims”. In early August,the US media reported that some neo-conservative writers and thinkers closeto the administration of PresidentGeorge W Bush were turning thepressure on Saudi Arabia for theconservative strand of Islam it practisesthat traces its roots to the 18th century,Wahabism. They implied thatWahabism has an anti-US streak,highlighted by the fact that themajority of the hijackers in the USattacks—and Osama bin Laden—wereWahabis, whose idea of an idealIslamic state was the Taleban’sAfghanistan.

But Muslim moderates in South-east Asia have been at pains since 11September to counter those who accuseIslam of encouraging violence, byoffering the region’s tolerant face of thefaith as evidence that it is not so.Indonesia, in fact, has been held up asa prime example of Islam’s moderateface. It is the largest Muslim countryin the world, with 170.3 million outof its 220 million people adherents ofIslam. The Nahdlatul Ulama, with amembership of 40 million Muslims,encourages the country’s faithful totake a moderate path. Yet in the eyes ofmany, this image has suffered due tothe Bali blast, and will place thisregion’s Muslims in a furtherpredicament if investigators linkmilitant Muslims to the bloodshed.

by MUSHAHID HUSSAINCOMMENT

ISLAMABAD – Over a year after the ‘regime change’ in Afghanistan, the nationbuilding keenly undertaken there by the United States seems bogged down as newpriorities take precedence over present policy.

The October election results in Pakistan complicate the American administra-tion’s Afghan strategy, given US concerns over the triumph of Islamist parties intwo provinces bordering Afghanistan. These parties had campaigned against theUS bombing of Afghanistan and oppose any American troop presence insidePakistan. Other developments, like the upcoming American military actionagainst Iraq and unfulfilled promises of massive, much-needed foreign aid, couldcomplicate an already difficult situation inside Afghanistan.

The US-led ‘war on terror’ is already in a stalemate,given that Osama bin Laden, his chief lieutenant DrAyman al Zawahiri, who recently sent an audiotapedmessage of defiance to Qatar-based Al Jazeerahtelevision, and former Taleban supremo, MullahOmar, remain at large. In a 14 October interview,Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Dr AbdullahAbdullah expressed concern that “in the event of anyattack on Iraq, the terrorists will try to destabiliseAfghanistan”. He did not mention the probablebacklash among Afghanistan’s Muslims.

Last week, General Tommy Franks, head of theUS Central Command, visited Pakistan andAfghanistan and made public statements to assureAfghanistan on both counts. AddressingAmerican troops at Bagram base outside Kabul,Franks said: “Any conflict in Iraq will not affectour mission in Afghanistan.” But irrespective ofFrank’s comments, the stated US mission inAfghanistan is yet to be accomplished. US PresidentGeorge W Bush had wanted bin Laden ‘dead or alive’, andthe money pledged to Afghanistan is simply not forthcom-ing. A long-term US commitment, deemed crucial tostability in Afghanistan, is competing with Washington’sobsession with Iraq, and possibly also North Korea.

Officially, the State Department welcomed thismonth’s elections in Pakistan. But Washington’s officiallyunstated concerns were voiced by the conservative Wash-ington Times newspaper, which is close to the Bush administra-tion. Its 21 October editorial said: “The power that fundamental-ists have gained in the election is without precedent in Pakistan,and will probably affect US efforts to ferret out al-Qaedaterrorists along the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

However, the main problem in Afghanistan is not anypotential political fallout from the Pakistani polls but the fact

Priorities changeThe focus on Iraq and Pakistan is drawingattention away from Afghanistan’s needs.

that the situation in the country has not stabilised nearly a year after the Taleban’sexit in November last year. American forces continue to be under attack, mostlythrough hit-and-run snipers or rockets, forcing, for example, the closure of Kabulairport to UN planes last week.

Testifying before the US Congress last week, CIA Director George Tenetwarned that the “al-Qaeda is reconstituting, the level of threat is

the same as it was last summer (prior to 11 September)and they are coming after us”. But he remained cluelessregarding the group’s main leaders since they remain atlarge, sending periodic threats through audiotaped

messages whose source has yet to be traced. Prior to thebombing at Kuta beach in the Indonesian island of Bali,

Dr Ayman al Zawahiri had warned about “attacks onAmerica and its allies”. There have been attacks in Kuwait,

which killed a US Marine, parcels bombs in Karachi andKamra in Pakistan, and explosions in the southern Philip-

pines.Afghanistan has also been disappointed at the lack of

foreign aid actually coming in, despite promises of $4.5 billionduring the donors’ conference in Tokyo in January. Only$900 million of the $1.8 billion pledged for 2002 has come

in this year. However, the 14 October summit of theEconomic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) inIstanbul decided to set up a special fund to helprebuild Afghanistan.

ECO has 10 members including the CentralAsian republics plus Pakistan, Iran, Turkey andAfghanistan.

The ECO summit also supported a project tobuild a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistanthrough Afghanistan. Pakistan provides the shortestoutlet to the sea for the landlocked Central Asianregion. The 1,450 km pipeline will cost $2 billion,and once operational, would provide Afghanistan with$300 million in annual transit revenues. But theproject is inextricably linked to peace and stability inAfghanistan, which could again become a question mark

should the US shift attention to ‘regime change’ inIraq, and turn away from ‘nation building’ inAfghanistan. ! (IPS)

At the same time, statements fromsome religious leaders accused ofholding extremist views are nothelping create space for moderates. Forinstance, the line of argument used byAbu Bakar Baasyir, an IndonesianMuslim cleric that intelligence officialsin the region have linked to plannedattacks, will not help deflect chargesthat Islam encourages violence. Baasyirtold journalists at a press conferencethat the Bali attack was the work offoreigners, “most probably the UnitedStates”, to give the impression thatIslamic extremists are present inIndonesia. The authorities will look toaccuse Muslims—including himself—for the attack, he added.

In a commentary in last Tuesday’sArab News, Abdul Qader Tash says ahostile approach, which “presentsIslam as aggressive and antagonistictowards the west,” is not the way to go.“Our efforts will be wasted,” he writes,if Islam is seen as trying to destroy thewest and “build an Islamic civilisationon its ruins”. In the wake of attackslike the Bali blasts, south-east Asia’sMuslims face the challenge ofconvincing many that Islam does notencourage violence, by looking into thecommunity and launching a debateabout what has gone wrong with theway some Muslims interpret theirfaith and use the religion for politicalpurposes. ! (IPS)

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Blast falloutJAKARTA – Many Indonesians are asking how the nation will copewith the economic fallout from the 12 October bomb blast in Bali,the hub of Indonesia’s tourism industry, which last year attracted1.35 million foreigners. Economists say confidence has beenshaken in the short term, but some remain optimistic that despiteinitial reactions from the stock market and a decline in the value ofthe Indonesian currency, these trends should be temporary. A keygauge of international sentiment on Indonesia’s economy will be ameeting in Yogjakarta of Indonesia’s donors on 28-29 October.

Hotel bookings continue to be cancelled, and one hotel in Balihas already received 400 to 450 room cancellations since the blastkilled nearly 200 people. “If there are no extraordinary measures torestore international confidence, tourism businesses here willtotally collapse,” said the governor of Bali, Edi Bharata. (IPS)

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1212121212 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMESFROM THE NEPALI PRESS THIS PAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL SELECTED FROM THE NEPALI PRESS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

The Maoist policy is this: not to allow the UML to form a majority government; not to allow the formationof a communist government; to prevent the formation of a UML government in the name of their “great”revolutionary; to prevent the formation of a government that works for the people and towards progressivereforms. As a result, the main achievement of the Maoist revolution has been to hand over the people’ssovereignty to the palace.

— KP Sharma Oli, standing committee member, CPN (UML) in Sanghu, 21 October.

Himal Khabarpatrika, 2 October-1 November

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Mined landHimalaya Times, 20 October

There has been a marked increase inthe use of landmines in Nepal sincethe Maoist insurgency began in Nepal.A recent report by the CampaignAgainst Landmines, Nepal says thatthe use of landmines targeting humanshas doubled in recent years. In 2001,210 people were injured and 214 diedin 424 incidents of landmineexplosions. In 2000, 84 were injuredand 94 died. In 1999, 94 wereinjured and 40 died, while in 1998,34 people were injured and 20 peoplekilled in explosions.

The people most affected,especially since the peace talks fell apartand the use of landmines startedincreasing, have been innocentchildren, students and farmers. Thegovernment maintains that the Maoistshave been making landmines at home,after acquiring equipment, detonators,explosives and weapons from thePeople’s War Group and the MaoistCommunist Centre, both in India.

In 2002 February, two childrendied and six people were injured whenlandmines laid by police in Achhamwent off. Another person was injuredin Rukum when a landmine laid byarmy personnel went off. Thegovernment continues to deny the useof landmines by security forces, butPurna Shova Chitrakar, coordinatorof the campaign against landmines,says it is highly probable that thesecurity forces lay landmines aroundtheir camps.

A landmine costs between Rs 25to Rs 800 to make, and treatment of aperson injured by one, Rs 10,000 toRs 200,000. In the last two years, theBirendra Army Hospital has asked forRs 9.3 million to treat people injuredby landmines. The government has sofar allocated Rs 3.4 million.

A report released by the govern-ment records 2,456 incidents oflandmine explosions between February1996 and June 2000, which havekilled 1,366 people. The use oflandmines, which began in Rolpa, hasspread to 37 districts by 2000. By

Excerpts from an interview with Minister for Women and SocialWelfare Gore Bahadur Khapangi in Nepal Samacharpatra,20 October.

Although the constitution outlines the work, the duties andthe rights of the council of ministers, the king has issued afive-point list of responsibilities. Donít you think this impliesthat the council does not exercise executive powers?After he formed a new council of ministers, the king wasresponsible for issuing guidelines to it. He holds executivepowers, but I don’t think it is accurate to say that things havebeen done in a dictatorial fashion. If the five points were bad,then one could point that out. Those who want to oppose thingswill say anything. I heard someone saying on the FM that theministers were in a hurry to get media coverage. Is the mediadistinct from the government and the people? People talk asthey please.Would this present government have the right to sign anytreaty or agreement?Everyone knows that foreign affairs are looked after by theForeign Ministry, which is part of the government. So it caneasily do so. The subject falls within the five points. There’s noquestion of the government not exercising that right.What is the stand of this government on resolving the Maoist problem?To put it briefly, the government and the Maoists have to talk. First, the government has toprepare guidelines [for talks], something the last government was unable to do. The govern-ment has to look for a strong mediator, it has to ask civil society for help. Everyone wantspeace.

I feel that the individual also has a big role. For instance, let’s ask whether the governmentwould look at me and at yesterday’s [former minister for Housing and Physical Planning]Chiranjibi Wagle differently. This will definitely make a difference. I’m sure the Maoists will talkto a government which includes Gore Bahadur Khapangi on a different level—they will have to.Because Chiranjibi and Gore Bahadur came into government from different places.

Another thing: we needn’t worry if the Maoists continue fighting. That’s a given process andwill not affect talks. Once the talks begin, the fighting will decrease. Tomorrow, when we sitdown for talks, whether their ideas influence us, or our thoughts influence them, we will arriveat a solution. If we only talk about weapons, the peace process will be delayed. When you cuta tree, do the leaves, the branches and the roots dry up all at once? It may take a year for thebranches to dry.Thereís a price on the heads of the Maoist leaders. Will the government retract that beforeit calls for talks?The government remains the government. Only the leadership has changed. Our RastriyaJanamukti Party never recognised the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) as ‘terrorists’.Being a representative of the party, can I accept such a definition? There’s no question of mystepping beyond the boundaries set by my party. I will put forward my ideas while I am in thegovernment. If the definition of terrorists given by the former government will make it difficult tohave talks, then we must think again. The Maoist party went silent after three efforts at talks.That’s the direction our thoughts must take.If the present governmentówhich, according to you, exercises executive powersóagreeswith the Maoists to form a Constituent Assembly, will it be able to agree to a plebiscitewithout consulting the king?I am not a student of constitutional law. I know that this government is not elected by thepeople, and that there is no parliament at present. The government is answerable to whoeverhas formed it. The government will consult with whoever formed it. But if you feel that some-thing is 100 percent right, there’s no need to make queries.

“The government is answerableto whoever formed it.”

December 2001, 71 districts wereaffected. Of the seven SAARC nations,only Bangladesh and Maldives havesigned the Ottawa Convention whichprohibits the manufacture, use andtransport of landmines targetinghumans. A total of 135 nations haveendorsed the convention.

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Not my faultHimalaya Times, 22 October

Former prime minister Sher BahadurDeuba recently disclosed that hisunprecedented action to dissolveparliament five months ago was due topalace pressure.

Former prime minister andpresident of the Nepali Congress(Democratic) Deuba had invitedleaders of various political parties to aluncheon at his residence on Monday.The gathering turned into an all-partymeet where various political issues werediscussed. When KP Sharma Oli askedDeuba whose pressure he had given into, the former prime minister indicatedthat he was forced by the palace. WhenSurya Bahadur Thapa, leader of theRastriya Prajatantra Party, asked Deubawhy he dissolved parliament, theformer prime minister replied that hehadn’t done so of his own volition.Deuba expressed sorrow over the royaldeclaration that followed his request tothe king to postpone elections.

He said the king’s decision toassume executive powers was anti-democratic and undermined the

Weighing risksExceprts from analysis by Kapil Kafle, Nepal Samacharpatra

The main parliamentary parties are raising a hue and cry that “the king has made a mistake”. But if theking can pull a rabbit out of the hat and resolve the Maoist crisis, this will silence the critics who haverefused to help him.

Leaders like Girija Prasad Koirala, and countries such as India, where he has his second home, havenot lent support to the Lokendra Bahadur Chand government. Knowingly or unknowingly, Koirala ishelping those foreign entities who do not desire peace and stability in Nepal. The Indian papers are alsowriting editorials helping Koirala. And although Sher Bahadur Deuba may have physically split from theparty, ideologically, he is still parroting Koirala’s unhelpful line.

And the Maoists attach more importance to the power of the king than that of the political parties. It isunlikely they will say: “We will stick with brothers Koirala and Deuba.” It is not inconceivable that theMaoists who are a fighting a war against the Royal Nepal Army will begin negotiations with the Chandgovernment, which was formed by the army’s Supreme Commander.

The political leaders may be crying themselves hoarse calling the new government “unconstitutional”,but the people aren’t descending on to the streets. That is because of the commitment in the royaladdress to constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy. It is also because press freedom and thefreedom to protest are intact, in fact the press is now even freer because it can be critical of the king.The media has even stopped tagging “terrorist” every time it mentions the word, Maoist.

The stock of political parties willplummet further when the king figures outwhat it is that can bring the rebels to thenegotiating table. It will be the king, with orwithout the support of the political parties,who will have to take this risky step. Weknow that the Maoists are not stupid, theywill not talk unless they get something. Itlooks like the king will have to start thinkingabout a constituent assembly.

Perhaps the next general electionscan also serve as an election for theconstituent assembly. And as soon as thathappens and the king can announce adate for such elections, the rug will havebeen pulled out from under Koirala andCompany and their reliance on Article 128.

victory of the People’s Movement of1990. According to a leader presentat the meeting, Deuba urged theseven parties represented there tounite against the king’s decision,which he said undermined theagreement of the seven parties topostpone elections.

Deuba remained quiet when KPSharma Oli asked why he didn’t callan all-party meeting as soon as he gotan indication that the king was torelieve him of office. He was alsosilent when Oli asked him why hehad asked the king to postponeelections by a year when an all-partymeeting had agreed to postpone theelections for six months. WhenDeuba asked the party leaders torelease a joint statement against theking’s undemocratic act in removingthe prime minister, Sadbhavana Partyleader Hriyadesh Tripathi,Janamorcha Nepal leaderGhanashyam Sharma, and NepalMajdoor Kisaan Party leader NarayanMan Bijukchhe all refused.Janamorcha Nepal’s secretary Sharmasaid the only way to safeguard thevictory of 1990 was to hold electionsfor a constituent assembly to bringthe king and the Maoists on ademocratic path.

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Girija Koirala greeting the new deputy prime ministerBadri Prasad Mandal.

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by MANJUSHREE THAPACOMMENT

Film artists have formed a committee for this cause, and are alsolobbying media organisations to hold its members accountable. TheNepal Film Directors’ Association has pressed complaints at the NepalPress Council and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, asking thataction be taken against Shrestha. Acknowledging that Shresthaviolated Karki’s right to privacy and instigated her death, the PressCouncil’s Chairperson Harihar Birahi has said that the Press Councilcan issue a warning, demand an apology, and work to revokeShrestha’s press identity card. The Federation has been meeting todeliberate over its response.

The office of Jana Aastha remained closed throughout the Dasainholidays, and neither Shrestha nor the two authors of the article havesurfaced. In the meanwhile Biswamani Subedi has taken out a noticeclaiming that Karki’s suicide proved his story’s allegations to be true; hehas exposed, in the process, his own ignorance of privacy laws andjournalistic ethics. The paper’s assistant editor resigned after publicoutcry over the incident mounted. Police at the Hanumandhoka districtoffice have said that the search for Shrestha is on.

Would this case have received such attention if Karki had not losther life for it? Most probably not. It is an open secret that most vernacu-lar weeklies are backed by various political parties, or cliques withinthem. The political patrons of Jana Aastha are said to be the Bam DevGautam clique of the CPN (UML). These patrons have never, till now,had to question their own moral standing, and their commitment toNepali women by backing such a substandard, anti-women rag.

Strangely, despite the overt misogyny of Jana Aastha’s treatmentof Karki, women’s rights activists have been slow to organise dissentagainst this incident. There is plenty they could do to address thewidespread denigration of women in the media, and social doublestandards in demanding sexual purity from women. One problematic buttypical response to Karki’s death has been to blame the victim. Anexample: while supporting Karki, the Centre for Human Rights andDemocratic Studies has also suggested that the film industry keep itsactivities respectable. Another response from a film industry journalistwas: “Actresses with bad morals are also polluting Nepali society.”(Needless to say, most activists and journalists are not of the breedthat necks openly on the couches of Himalayan Java).

Manju Thapa of Asmita has been quick to speak against the preyingof women in the media after this incident. To return to the 9 Octoberissue of Jana Aastha: the only other story concerning women on thefront page was headlined: MANISHA’S LOVER IN A BRAWL. The storyreported a scuffle in the Everest Hotel’s disco, where actress ManishaKoirala’s former boyfriend was supposedly ogling, while drunk, a showof “young women in transparent clothing”. In fact the former boyfriendand his wife were having a quiet dinner elsewhere in the hotel. Noneof which has anything to do with Koirala: Jana Aastha was simplysmearing her name in the mud, in a casual show of contempt for anaccomplished Nepali woman.

Such prevalent double standards pose a challenge to women’srights activists, who are, let us hope, not too busy with their partypolitics or NGO projects to act on this case. After all, Shrisha Karki isnot on trial here. Nor is the film industry. Kishore Shrestha, BishwamaniSubedi and Yadavprasad Pandey of Jana Aastha are on trial. Thepolice are also on trial, to route out police complicity, if any, in this case.And the sponsors of Jana Aastha are most definitely on trial.

The entire Nepali media faces a serious challenge at this time.Krishna Malla has been heartened by the media’s support against JanaAastha: “The press is very aware. I believe we will receive justicebecause of the coverage the media has given this incident.” Butstamping out corruption in the media will take serious effort. The NepalPress Council and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists must not onlypenalise Jana Aastha in the strongest terms possible, they mustactively enforce more ethical standards in their member organisations.Media houses must aggressively flush out those among them who areviolating their profession’s code of ethics.

If such steps are taken, they may be the only meaning to besalvaged from the death of a brutishly hounded and hunted-downyoung woman. !

wo elderly people in a retirement home are discussing the food they areserved in this Woody Allen joke. One says, “They feed us such awful,tasteless food.” The other agrees, and adds, “And such small portions.”

My extended family and clan members are exactly like that. In the days beforeweddings were catered, they used to conduct vigorous post-mortems of thefood served. A typical post-reception dinner conversation would be as follows:Mum: “The meat dish, it was too salty and hot. And no meat chunks, just fatand gristle. Why bother inviting guests when you fear feeding them? Anddon’t even get me started on the vegetables … and did you notice that the so-called ‘pulau’ was nothing but plain rice colored with turmeric? Terrible, justterrible. Some people have no shame.”Dad: “Even so, I noticed you took three helpings. But I must say the ‘laalmohan’ was quite stale…”Mum (interrupting): “But its staleness didn’t prevent you from devouringfour of them. Don’t ask me for Eno in the middle of the night...”

Returning to Nepal after travels, I used to come home laden withgifts. Unfortunately, no one appreciated the presents. Younger brotherstossed out the t-shirts because they were made in China. (If I wanted amade in China t-shirt, I could buy it in Asan, I expected something elsefrom Hong Kong.”)

My aunts were equally rude about the saris, which were cotton.Expressions such as “Frenchchiffon”, “Japanese jaargette” and“Banarasi silk” were tossed likepoisoned arrows at me. Even mybeloved grandmother, who I hopehas finally found peace andhappiness, whose favorite grand-child I was, didn’t spare me. “Youknow no one in our family everwears anything but silk. And youcome here with cheap cotton dhotifor your aunts. And what kind ofcolour is this for me? Red! Am I ayoung, blushing bride or what? Don’t you know by now that I wearnothing but pure white silk saris?”

A blossoming, promising romance with a wealthy lass was instantlyaborted when I proudly presented her with not one but six pairs of ear-rings (and matching necklaces), made of exotic, exquisite sea shells, that Ihad bought in a provincial Thai town. The guidebook informed me thatbuying such local craftwork sustained local artisans and their indigenousoccupation. By presenting this gift, I was killing two birds with onestone—appeasing both my social consciousness and the social climber inme. Alas, it only killed the romance.

I must confess that I myself have been guilty of looking the gift horsein the mouth. At a precocious six, we had been visiting one crumblingrelative after another for Dasain tika. When one uncle gave me a suka coin Iwas insulted and threw it away. My father slapped me and my mother askedan older relative to take me home immediately. But the others of my agethought it was cool.

Some years later, older and wiser I was at a classmate’s birthday. This wasin an era when perhaps one boy out of a thousand actually celebrated a full-scale, western-style birthday with candles on a cake. I had finally pried moneyout of my father to buy a birthday gift, which was like extracting a healthytooth without anaesthesia: he firmly believed that receiving is better thangiving and that such new-fangled, foreign practices as celebrating a birthdaywould soon undermine our pure culture. My gift was a box of Monacobiscuits wrapped in glossy green paper and a red ribbon stolen from mysister. However, all that stylish effort came to naught. The birthday cake wasso small, and my slice was so tiny that I decided not to give the present.

Soon after an American official announced earlier this year that Nepalwould receive $20 million to battle our home-grown insurgents, I overheard anative deconstructionist sniff: “What! Just 20 million? From the richestnation to the poorest, only 20 million? Why don’t they just give us peanuts?”!

PUTTING THE MEDIA ON TRIALby RAJENDRA S KHADKAOPINION

Don’t give

Over the years,I’ve learnt thatgiving doesn’tnecessarilymake you morepopular.

he front page of the 9 October issue of Jana Aastha, a left-leaning vernacular weekly, carried a story headlined: ACOLOURFUL EVENING IN FILM CITY. Written by Bishwamani

Subedi and Yadavprasad Pandey, it concerned the alleged prostitution,sexual escapades and love affairs of those in the Nepali film industry.

Sadly, this was not out of the ordinary for the paper, leafedthrough by many for its insider police and army gossip, but considered,like many of the vernacular weeklies, to fall short of professionalstandards. But what was out of the ordinary, even for the sleaziest ofvernaculars, was a photograph of a naked woman that accompaniedthe last story. Its caption sadistically read: “Do you recognise thisNepali heroine?”

The actress in the photograph, Shrisha Karki, hung herself at herhome in Chabahil six days later in a case that shook the film industryover Dasain. It is not hard to imagine the intense degradation the youngwoman must have felt in her last days. What support would she havepossibly received from a society obsessed with women’s sexualpurity? Anyone who looks at her photograph can measure hervulnerability: in it, she stares up from a hunched-over position in bed,her face contorted in fear, her body frozen in humiliation. It is obvious thatthe photograph was taken against her will. Karki’s is the face of a victim-ised woman pleading, unmistakably, for some decency from her victimiser.

This was a decency that Jana Aastha’s editor, Kishore Shrestha,did not extend to her.

Shrestha’s decision to run the photograph has reared ugly allega-tions about the sordid underworld of journalism. Film artists claim thatShrestha had been using the photograph to extort the actress.According to them, the picture was taken a year and a half ago by a

photographer and apoliceman who has since

retired, Uddav Bhandari, after invitingKarki to an apartment and forcibly stripping her,

with the help of a film director; it was their intention to blackmail herinto prostitution. The actress filed a complaint immediately after theincident, but the police were slow to act on it. She went to meet thephotographer, but could not retrieve the film. According to film artists,Bhandari gave the photograph to Shrestha, who used it to extort her,even after her engagement. He ran the photograph in his paper afterKarki refused to give in to his demands.

Krishna Malla of the Film Artists’ Association says that the organi-sation is pursuing a variety of legal recourses. These avenues,however, are limited. The Film Artists’ Association helped file a pleawith the police—while Karki was still alive—requesting that strongaction be taken against Shrestha. But the maximum punishment fordefamation is a Rs 5,000 fine and a sentence of two years. The publicoffence law against indecency carries a maximum punishment of Rs10,000, a two-year sentence, and damages. According to publicinterest advocate Gopal Sivakoti Chintan, punishment for such crimesusually amounts to a fine of five or ten rupees, and limited jail time, ifany. There are no laws in Nepal to punish those who instigate suicide.A bill on journalists’ code of ethics, which bars the publication ofphotographs without permission, is stuck indefinitely in parliament. Withthe help of women’s rights advocates Shanta Thapaliya and SapanaPradhan Malla, Karki’s family is now proceeding with murder chargesagainst Shrestha, in a case that, according to Chintan, could set a newprecedent for Nepal’s murder law.

TT

In the November Himal

THE HOLYCOWS AND‘UNHOLY’

DALITS OF INDIA

To subscribe: Write to subscription@himalmedia.com or call 543-333

• TRACKING THE NEXT WAVE OF SOUTHASIAN MILITANCY • DEMOCRACY ORANTI-DEMOCRACY IN NEPAL ANDPAKISTAN? • AID AND ITS EFFECTS ONNEPAL • WORLD BANK AND IMF GAMESIN BANGLADESH • MENTAL ANDSOCIAL HEALTH IN KASHMIR • SEIRATAMANG ON NUMAFUNG • KEEPING THEPEACE IN SRI LANKA • A VISIT TO THEBANGLA HEARTLAND •

PLUS MUCH MORE! On newsstands next

week!

THE HORROR OF IT ALL:

CHILDDOMESTICSAMONGST US

A Professor and a Nepali PhD student from the University of Torontoare seeking two Research Assistants (one full-time and one part-time)for the duration of five months starting November 2002. Selected candi-dates will assist in conducting research on microfinance sector.

Responsibilities: Assist in collecting archival data and in conductingsurveys and in-depth interviews; transcribe and translate interviews;some administrative tasks (eg. data entry, setting up interviews). Willinvolve four months of field-work in villages (in Terai region).

Qualifications: Good communication skills (Nepali & English); friendlyand outgoing personality; self-directed and critical thinking; needs todemonstrate a genuine interest in development issues; previous re-search experience an asset but not necessary (training will be given);excellent opportunity for social science students; women and ethnicminorities are encouraged to apply.

Application: Send C.V. and a two-page essay on “DevelopmentChallenges for Nepal” by November 8th. One supporting/creative ma-terial that highlights special skills/experiences can also be included.

Mail application to: Mr. Y.B. Shakya, G.P.O. Box 10017, Kathmandu

Wanted Research Assistants

Terrace flat available on short-term lease. Onebedroom, one living room, spacious kitchen, toilet/bathroom, hot water on tap and a wide beer terrace.Lots of greenery, great view of sunset, good priceand some chill people around. Call Mani Rai424877 or Dinesh 425677.

For sale Dining table and six chairs, deep-freezerefrigerator, flexicoir mattress because leaving thecountry. Contact Paula at 530297

Contact www.kopilaclinic.com

Beautiful land for your dream project ! Birdbreeding? Flower/Fruit Cultivation? AyurvedicClinic? Meditation Center? Terraced land, 2 ½Ropani, next to a wild running brook! Absolutelybreathtaking location. Only 20 minute drive fromKathmandu city to this treasure property! Seriousbuyers, Please call : Niraj 981024067 Email:niraj_adhikari@hotmail.com

House for rent in Jawalakhel centrally located,spacious old Rana bungalow (9386.61sq.ft) with big

DSES-23-10-2002 02:00 GMT

1414141414 CITY 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES

For inclusion in the listing send information to editors@nepalitimes.com

KATHMANDU VALLEY

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue

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by NGAMINDRA DAHALNEPALI WEATHER

For insertions ring NT Marketing at 543333-36.

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garden, ample parking space. Total land area-30690.23 sq.ft. Suitable for offices. Serious enquir-ies: Contact S. Rana between 7- 8:30 am and 5:30-8pm Tel: 521128/546857

Foot - Reflexology: stressed or tired? UPLIFT YOURSPIRIT FROM YOUR TOES UP.email: buddhasfeet@yahoo.com or ring 425931

Nagarkot Special at Naked Chef Bed and breakfast,three-course gourmet dinner, Rs 800 per person.Room Rs 300 only. For Nepalis and expatriates.680006, 969107153

K-Too! Beer and Steakhouse not the “longest”,“highest”, “first” or any other superlative. Just arelaxed, easy-going bar and restaurant with thecoldest beer and juiciest steaks this side of themoon. By the Kathmandu Guest House. 433043

Visit Ground Zero Fine wines, designer candles,cards, exclusive Nepali paper products, silverjewellery, wooden items, perfumes and more. DarbarMarg, opposite Hotel de l’Annapurna

Based on the short story by Philip K DickSteven Spielberg’s Minority Report is set in a2054 Washington DC judicial system in whichkillers are arrested and convicted before theycommit murder using a psychic technology.John Anderton played by Tom Cruise is thehead of this Pre-crime unit and is himselfaccused of the future murder of a man hehasn’t even met. With seemingly no way todefend himself against the charge of Pre-Crime, which he is expected to commit in just36 hours, John must trace the roots of whatbrought him here. Could the system be wrong?

Spiderman: 12 noon, 3PMMinority Report 6:00PMTelephone booking: 442220Online booking www.jainepal.com

Minority ReportJAI NEPAL CINEMA

%%

EXHIBITION AND AUCTIONEXHIBITION AND AUCTIONEXHIBITION AND AUCTIONEXHIBITION AND AUCTIONEXHIBITION AND AUCTION& Imagine: Your photos will open my life 400 children from 45 countries, including 15

working and school-going children from Nepal display their work. Until 1 November,GTZ office, Neer Bhawan, Sanepa. 539129

& Raw Material: From the road in Asia Travel collage by Margi Scharff. Indigo Gallery,Naxal, 8AM-6PM daily. 413580

EVENTSEVENTSEVENTSEVENTSEVENTS& The greenest patch Weekend lunches in the oldest and largest garden in Nagarkot at

The Fort Resort, fort@mos.com.np. 226799& Bodhicharyaavatara Lessons on Mahayana Buddhism, a guide to the Bodhisattava’s

way of life. In Nepali by Khenpo Vagindra Shila at the Akcheshore Mahavihar, Pulchowk.Saturdays, 4PM-5PM. Free, open to all.

& Weekly dialogues on life and living and books and audiotapes at the KrishnamurtiStudy Center, Dhyankuti, Swoyambh. Saturdays1PM-6PM. 227704.

MUSICMUS ICMUS ICMUS ICMUS IC& Live music by Catch 22, Friday nights at the 40,000 ½ ft Bar, Rum Doodle Restaurant,

Thamel. 414336

DR INKDR INKDR INKDR INKDR INK& Ladies night at The Rox Bar Wednesdays. Women get a drink on the house, and after

8PM Teesta band plays. Hyatt Regency Kathmandu. 491234& Friday Indulgence Irish music from An Fainne, tasting with 12 Scottish single malt,

Rs 999. The Piano Lounge, Hotel Yak & Yeti. 248999

FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD& International Food Festival With children’s activities and games

for adults. Rs 50 for adults, Rs 25 for children under 4 ft. Proceedsgo to the KMTNC zoo project. Hyatt Regency Kathmandu, 26October, 11AM-5PM. 491234

& Chef special variable lunch at discounted rates at Dwarika’sHotel. 479488

& Indian Food Festival with chef Marut Sukka and until 30 October.Hotel Yak & Yeti. 248999

& Vegetarian specialties and clay oven pizza at Stupa View Restau-rant & Terrace, Boudha. 480262

GETAWAYSGETAWAYSGETAWAYSGETAWAYSGETAWAYS& Thank Goodness it's Friday Package for local residents, includes BBQ, overnight stay

and breakfast. $125 per couple, $95 single, nett, Dwarika’s Hotel. 479488& Trust your sixth sense Indulge the other five at The Old Inn, Bandipur, the ancient

hilltop town near Dumre, Pokhara Highway. Contact Himalayan Encounters, Thamel,417426.

& Shivapuri Birdwatching, short hikes, writing. 20 minute drive, 10 minute walk fromKathmandu, two acres at 6,000 feet on the edge of the Shivapuri National Park. Rs1,850 per person with dinner and breakfast, Rs 925 per child 5-14 years, ShivapuriHeights Cottage. info@escape2nepal.com

& The Great Godavari Getaway Special weekend packages including room with break-fast and dinner, 25 percent discount on health club facilities. Godavari Village Resort.560675

& Writing Retreat Full board package. Aesthetic living, innovative thinking, creative writingand nature at Park Village Resort, Budhanilkantha. 375280

on FM 102.4

/]l8of] ;u/dfyf

Radio SagarmathaP.O. Box 6958, Bakhundole, Lalitpur, Nepal

Tel: ++977-1-545680, 545681Fax: ++ 977-1- 530227

E-mail: radio@radiosagarmatha.orgwww.radiosagarmatha.org

Mon-Fri 0615-0645 BBC World TodaySat 0615-0645 BBC Reporting ReligionSun 0615-0645 BBC AgendaDaily 2045-2115 BBC g]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jf

Daily 2245-2300 BBC g]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jfg]kfnL ;]jf

Sun-Fri 0740- 0800 ltg6f s '/fltg6f s '/fltg6f s '/fltg6f s '/fltg6f s '/f

Daily 0800-0830 8jn L8jn L8jn L8jn L8jn L

Daily 2000-2030 cfhsf s '/fcfhsf s '/fcfhsf s '/fcfhsf s '/fcfhsf s '/f

Foggy mornings of winter are already here, as thattiny speck of white in this satellite representingKathmandu valley shows. Expect delayed morningflights, plummeting maximum temperatures. The mistis confined to Himalayan valleys, and the rest ofnorth India is dominated by a wide high pressurezone. Off in the Bay of Bengal coast of AndhraPradesh is a low pressure circulation that is notquite a cyclone. This may bring us some moistureincursion later next week.

ABOUT TOWN

Starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell,Samantha Morton, Peter Stormare,and Max Von Sydow.

BOOKWORM

Courtesy: Mandala Book Point, Kantipath, 227711, mandala@ccsl.com.np

Family Matters Rohinton MistryFaber and Faber, London, 2002Rs 750Mistry’s eagerly anticipated third novel goes back to the author’s vintage territory—Parsis inMumabi, their fragmented families and tenuous communities. An old Parsi widower andpatriarch is haunted by memories of the past. A broken ankle sets into motion a series ofevents—a great unravelling and a revelation of the family’s lovelorn past—that leads to thenarrative’s final outcome.

Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia Ahmed RashidOrient Longman, Hyderabad, 2002

Rs 472Rashid, who previously unravelled the Taleban regime in Afghanistan, now investigates the five

Central Asian republics adjacent to Afghanistan that were part of the former Soviet Union.Based on groundbreaking research and numerous interviews, Jihad explains the roots of

fundamentalist rage in Central Asia, and suggests ways the threat can be neutralised throughdiplomatic and economic intervention.

The Algebra of Infinite Justice Arundhati RoyViking/ Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2001Rs 472A collection of Arundhati Roy’s political writings so far: The End of Imagination; The GreaterCommon Good; Power Politics; The Ladies Have Feelings, So; The Algebra of InfiniteJustice; War is Peace. The essays are carefully researched and closely argued, and deal with bigdams, India’s detonation of its nuclear bomb, the downside of corporate globalisation, and theUS government’s ‘war against terror’.

151515151525 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMESCULTURE

Art in a bottleepali artists are finding newoutlets for their work.Three young painters, Erina

Tamrakar, Pramila Bajracharyaand Sunila Bajracharya, are nowalso designing wine bottle labels.Their artworks now grace bottlesof Nepali-made wine of Canadianvintage. Impressed by theirpaintings at an exhibition inFebruary at the NAFA ArtGallery, Canadian Consul Carla

Hogan Rufelds bought work byeach of the three women. Theartists assumed that their paint-ings would simply hang in a quietcorner of an expat residence.Imagine their surprise, then, whenthey were told that their paint-ings would be used to sell wine.“This is an honour for us, as wellas a great promotional opportu-nity,” says Erina.

As their work received more

attention, the trio were presentedwith a unique proposition: anexhibition at the newly-openedKasthamandap Art Studio, whichcombines the aesthetic pleasuresof an art gallery with sociable caféculture. “The gallery was openedto help promote young artists. Inthe coming days we also hope tohold photography and designexhibitions,” says Ellen, a partnerin the studio. For Sunila and her

colleagues, this was a chance toreach out to more people withtheir art, take it out of thesometimes sterile environs ofhighbrow galleries. “Artistssometimes think that showingtheir work in gallery cafésdiminishes its value,” says Sunila.“But this kind of thing is com-monplace abroad, and we supportthe idea because the gallery istrying to promote the newgeneration of artists, enthusiastsand art buyers.”

In addition, Erina conductsart classes for beginner’s, as wellas colloquia for more advancedenthusiasts.

The show is on at the cafégallery until 30 October, anddisplays 13 oil paintings, of whichthree are already sold. Erina’sworks are mainly based on theeveryday lives of women. Pramiladisplays landscapes, and Sunilafocuses on semi-abstract faces. Allthree women studied fine arts atthe Lalit Kala Campus.

As the number ofart galleries increasesin the Valley,Kathmandu mightyet return to itshistoric avatar as acity of art thatlives with thepeople, ratherthan remain thereserve of only thevery wealthy. “Itisn’t as difficult tobe an artist todayas it used to be,”says Erina. “Ofcourse, manychallenges remain,but Nepali artiststoday have muchbetter opportuni-ties.” !

Kasthamandap ArtStudio 429590

Three young women are helpingrevitalise the Nepali art scene.

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1616161616 25 - 31 OCTOBER 2002 NEPALI TIMES

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

by Kunda Dixit

Under My Hat NEPALI SOCIETY

he mass-murder of goats this Dasain, and theirconsumption, did not leave much time for ourtechnocrats to get seriously down to the task of

rebuilding the nation. But I am confident that by thelatter part of this decade they should be able to do so.

Caught up in all the festivities, one importantanniversary slipped by largely unnoticed. It was the 20th

anniversary of the first ever use of an emoticon in anemail message in 1982:

Nuclear scientist #1: Wakey, wakey you lazy #$%&*!Orangutan :-)

Nuclear scientist #2: Ha! Ha! Ha! Groovy!See what I mean? The beauty of the smiley

emoticon was that you could hurl the worst insults everinvented, casting serious aspersions about your inter-locutor’s female ancestors, if any, and if you stuck alittle smiley at the end, all would be forgiven.

The world has moved on, of course. And theprimitive BBS of 20 years ago have given way to theinternet, search engines, personalised sites, and chatrooms. I entered one of these chat rooms recently, andrealised just how advanced the language of the internethas become as youngsters communicate with each otherabout matters of vital importance to the future of theworld. Here is a short extract from one such chat roomwhich is open 24 hours of every solar day:

Enter LOVER BOY.LOVER BOY: Hi guyzGEEK: I really think ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is theonly way to prevent the unpredictable side-effects ofclimate change.GOONDA: Whadddiz? ur in wrong room, get out ofhere.

CHOR enters room.CHOR: That is like so totally uncool, man.LOVER BOY: Hi galz.

YAMRAJ enters room.YAMRAJ: Wutz kookin, guyz

; - )LOVER BOY: asl?LOVER BOY: galz, PM meGOONDA: brb

GOONDA leaves roomCHOR: goonda’s gone 2 looPINKY: no, goonda gone 2 PMPINKY: mwahahahahahaLOVER BOY: hey Yamraj you guy or gal?YAMRAJ: lolGEEK: The only way to address the greenhouse effectis if America cuts carbon emissions by 5% of 1991levels.PINKY: ok g2g

PINKY leaves room.LOVER BOY: au reservoir, pinky c u laterLOVER BOY: anyone still here of the female species

GOONDA enters room.GOONDA: am back yarYAMRAJ: ya i’m phemaleLOVER BOY: lets go PM

Unfortunately, the vocabulary of our future stars isconstricted by the limitations of the qwerty keyboard.We need to give expression to the vast array of emotionsand hormones that flow through these chats, and here iswhere emoticons can play an important role. We alsoneed to move beyond smiley to other emoticons morerelevant to the times. Here is a sample:

:o Wild boar emerging through fogC|:3@) Baseball pitcher blowing bubble gum(:8-) Mahatma Gandhi~(:-z Hare Krishna devotee snoring@#$%&(;-{ Railway porter at Howrah Station<(B-{} Sher Bahadur upon learning that he just

got the sack4:-o KP Bhattarai addressing press conference

while chewing paan<[:-]== The new Minister of Women and Social

Welfare$%g Ex-minister appearing at CIAA hearing{:>=( Adolf Hitler on a bad hair day

Tabita Lama may be smalland fragile, but she movesmountains. Providing

health care in her native Humlawould intimidate anyone, but forBabita, it’s just in a day’s work. Thenearest functioning hospital fromHumla is on the Indian border, atwo-week walk over ruggedmountains. The child mortalityrate here is 300—three times thenational average. Babitadecided very early on that shedidn’t want to be a famous doctorin the capital, she wanted tohelp the people in the villagewhere she was born.

And it took a decade offocussed work that allowed her tofulfil her dream. When she startedout, with a one-room clinic inHumla’s Turpa village, there wasno shortage of patients: mostlychildren with acute respiratoryinfections and gastric disorders.

In 1994, she set up the NepalTrust to manage communityactivities in Humla. Today, thereare four Nepal Trust clinics whichare run jointly with the districtadministration. School girls fromgrade eight to ten volunteer inthe clinics and learn early basichealth tips. But finding educatedgirls is difficult in Humla, so thetrust made a small compro-mise—in their Limi clinic, a five-day walk from Simikot, they alsotrain school boys.

“If I’d had somebody to guideme, I would have studied publichealth,” says this mother-of-twoof her only regret. Babita is nowlooking forward to handing overher clinics to the volunteers she

has trained. Thereis one nagging worry:the insurgency hasalready pushed back thetrust’s programme ofexpansion by a year. Butshe’s not deterred. “Allyou need is a sense ofpurpose and commit-ment,” she tells us.“The rest will follow.” !

MovingmountainsB