Received: from mp.cs.niu.edu (mp.cs.niu.edu [131.156.1.2]) by library.wustl.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id WAA25948; Mon, 8 Dec 1997 22:28:15 -0600 (CST) Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA19441 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-dist); Mon, 8 Dec 1997 20:43:57 -0600 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA19437 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-list); Mon, 8 Dec 1997 20:43:56 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 20:43:56 -0600 Message-Id: <199712090243.AA19437@mp.cs.niu.edu> Reply-To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> From: The Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> Sender: "Rajpal J.P. Singh" <A10RJS1@cs.niu.edu> Subject: The Nepal Digest - December 9, 1997 (26 Mangshir 2054 BkSm) To: <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> Content-Type: text Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 247
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The Nepal Digest Tues Dec 9, 1997: Mangshir 26 2054BS: Year6 Volume69 Issue2
Today's Topics:
Nepali News
DABUU Magazine
News From Canada: TND Foundation - Canada Chapter
TIME magazine's article on trafficking
TKP Book Reviews
******************************************************************************
* TND (The Nepal Digest) Editorial Board *
* -------------------------------------- *
* *
* The Nepal Digest: General Information tnd@nepal.org *
* Chief Editor: Rajpal JP Singh a10rjs1@mp.cs.niu.edu *
* (Open Position) *
* Columnist: Pramod K. Mishra pkm@acpub.duke.edu *
* Sports Correspondent: Avinaya Rana avinayar@touro.edu *
* Co-ordinating Director - Australia Chapter (TND Foundation) *
* Dr. Krishna B. Hamal HamalK@dist.gov.au *
* Co-ordinating Director - Canada Chapter (TND Foundation) *
* Anil Shrestha SHRESTHA@CROP.UOGUELPH.CA *
* SCN Correspondent: Open Position *
* *
* TND Archives: http://library.wustl.edu/~listmgr/tnd/ *
* TND Foundation: http://www.nepal.org tnd@nepal.org *
* WebSlingers: Pradeep Bista,Naresh Kattel,Robin Rajbhandari *
* Rabi Tripathi, Prakash Bista tnd@nepal.org *
* *
* +++++ Food For Thought +++++ *
* *
* "Heros are the ones who give a bit of themselves to the community" *
* "Democracy perishes among the silent crowd" -Sirdar_Khalifa *
* *
******************************************************************************
*******************************************************
Date: Dec 8, 1997
To: The Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Nepali News
Source: The Rising Nepal
Govt to fight Maoist activity
21-point joint policy, programme of coalition out
Kathmandu, Dec. 7 (RSS):
The present coalition government is determined to ensure law and order in the
country and immediately launch a public security drive to free the country and the
people from the dark shadow of killings and terror being perpetrated in the
name of Maoist activity.
This is stated in the 21-point joint policy and programmes of the coalition
government comprising the Nepali Congress, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and
Nepal Sadbhavana Party.
In the policy and programmes document made public today, the coalition
government has expressed its determination to come up with a concrete
programme within one month, on the basis of a national consensus among
responsible political parties committed to the present Constitution and
parliamentary exercise, for effective mobilization of the police and administration
and for ending the politics of violence.
It has also proposed building a free and fearless atmosphere within four months for
holding local elections in areas where these elections have not yet concluded
because of the inefficiency of the previous government and Maoist killings.
As a need is strongly felt for immediately solving the problems currently facing the
country in the trade and investment sector, the share market, revenue mobilization
and employment generation and for developing a strong, competitive and dynamic
economy, the government will immediately launch a programme for promoting
economic activity by taking the private sector into confidence, the policy and
programmes document says.
The Ninth Plan will be formulated in such a manner as to end the existing
uncertainty by giving emphasis to poverty alleviation, employment generation,
sustainable and high economic growth rates and regional balance, it adds.
The government has also expressed its determination to give a new impetus to the
social security programme and programmes for the well-being of the disabled and
helpless including and senior citizens and widows, make necessary arrangements
for reserving some seats in technical education such as agriculture, forestry,
medicine and engineering for downtrodden ethnic groups, backward women and
students from remote areas and launch various income - generating pro-grammes
for them so that they can be brought into the country's developmental mainstream
The government has expressed its determination to establish a commission for the
upliftment of the downtrodden and an institute of ethnic groups as proposed by the
previous Nepali Congress-led coalition government for the preservation and
promotion of the languages and cultures of all ethnic groups and indigenous peoples
of the country.
It is also determined to encourage high standard, employment-oriented education
by putting an end to the existing anarchy in the educational sector, establish
agriculture, forestry, medicine and engineering universities pursuant to the concept
of multi-university, provide financial, policy and administrative autonomy to the
campuses and narrow the gap between government and private sector schools.
With a view to solving the growing unemployment problem the government has
proposed to launch skill-oriented training programmes and run programmes in
credit, technical assistance and market management in a coordinated manner
thereby encouraging self-employment.
It also proposes identifying the potential areas for direct employment and providing
better employment opportunities to educated unemployed, exploring and regulating
foreign employment opportunities and providing unemployment benefits for a
certain period to those who have completed specified skill-oriented trainings.
Likewise, the government has expressed determination to control corruption and
financial irregularities in the administrative and the public sector, maintain
transparency and accountability in tender offers and contract related economic
activities, bring commission payments into the tax net and seek a solution to the
bhutanese refugee problem with the cooperation and goodwill of the government of
India.
The government will seek a solution to the Kalapani controversy while working for
the preservation of national sovereignty and the national interest, prepare the
detailed mahakali project report bearing in mind the larger interests of the country,
expedite the country's development and implement development projects that have
not been able to get off the ground, the policy and programmes document said.
The government has also proposed to set up a bonded labour debt relief and
rehabilitation fund for abolishing the bonded labour system and other related social
malpractices, implement skill-oriented training and credit programmes for abolishing
bonded labour in two years and enable such labourers to live independent lives.
As for landless settlers, the government has proposed to distribute land to them in
an organized manner and launch skill-oriented and credit programmes on a
campaign footing from this month onwards for improving the lives of such landless.
The government has also given emphasis to ending the uncertainties created by
such activities as withholding results and appointments in the civil service and the
teaching sector, and to ensuring job security of employees and boosting their
morale by correcting decisions which were taken previously out of prejudice and
vengeance and which threw the civil service into confusion.
It has proposed resuming the task of deputing citizenship distribution teams to
every village and town to solve the citizenship problem in the Terai by providing
citizenship certificates to people at their own doorsteps.
As stated in the policy and programmes document, the government will make
necessary arrangements for ensuring regular supplies of chemical fertilizers, it will
launch crop insurance prgrammes to minimize risks in agriculture, and give priority
to increased irrigation, construction of rural roads, rural electrification, simple credit
programmes and marketing pursuant to the long-term agricultural perspective plan
Local bodies will be made more able and autonomous so that they can utilize
their own powers and resources and the parliamentary bill on local self-governance
introduced by the previous Nepali Congress-led coalition government will be taken
as the basis for developing a local self-governance structure to facilitate effective
utilization of development budgets on the basis of local priorities and capability.
The government has also proposed formulating necessary laws and rules for
women's development and empowerment and for encouraging women's
participation in every development activity, and likewise proposed mandatory
appointment of women teachers in specific numbers in every vdc for running
primary schools and adult literacy programmes.
The partners in the coalition government have also stated in the document that a
mechanism will be developed to monitor and encourge on behalf of the various
political parties the efficiency, economic discipline, honesty, sense of responsibility,
party discipline and proper conduct of those with responsibilities in government and
various other sectors, and also recall such incumbents if necessary.
The government has also proposed to launch effective programmes for the
conservation of forests and wildlife, control soil erosion and floods and check rural
and urban pollution. it proposes working out programmes for honouring freeedom
fighters and political sufferers and providing them with necessary assistance.
The leaders of all three parties, ministers and high ranking government officials were
present on the occasion.
******************************************************************
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:28:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Tulsi Maharjan <global@rvcc.raritanval.edu>
Subject: DABUU Magazine
Just a short note that new issue of the NPPA's DABUU Magazine is available
in our homepage. Please send us any comments and suggestions.
If you are interested in getting a hard copy of the Magazine, please mail
$5.00 check made out to the NPPA and send it to me.
Taremam
* Tulsi R. Maharjan, Ph.D. *
* P.O. Box 3300, Somerville, NJ 08876-1265 *
***********************************************************
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 22:39:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Ashutosh Tiwari <tiwari@fas.harvard.edu>
Subject: article for posting (fwd)
The Kuire debate continued
By Seira Tamang
(This essay appears here with Seira's permission from Kathmandu).
Having just attended a talk on poverty by well know social scientist
David Seddon (author of many books on Nepal including "Nepal: A State of=20
Poverty"), it struck me again how during the kuire/bideshyi debate that
took place in the Kathmandu Post a few months ago, everyone sidestepped the
issue of "kuire worship" that initiated the discussion. In a re-entry into
that realm, let us consider a few scenarios, the last of which includes the
Seddon talk:=20
Sitting at a restaurant and trying desperately to flagg down the
waiter for the umpteenth time as he/she hovers attentively over the more
recently arrived caucausians; entering a shop and being served until a
white-skinned person arrives whereupon help is no-where to be found; being
rudely treated by receptionists of I(NGO) offices (Nepali people off the
street cannot possibly have legitimate reasons for entering institutions
designed to help Nepalis) while caucasians are smilingly greeted, and
going to conferences where only white folk hold the "truth" and Nepalis
can but learn, but not contribute, to "knowledge". =20
The latter spectacle is all the more annoying when, as in the
Seddon's talk, what is being said is a far
cry from what the then moderator described as "very stimulating and
thought provoking". Leaving aside the fact that that such phrases
are the inevitable mantras of conferences and that conference-speak
is rendering irrelevant the actual meaning of words, the crucial
areas Seddon pinpointed for progress (decentralization, bureaucracy
reform, small-scale hydropower, India relations and political
stability) have, in the words of one participant in the audience,
already been inventoried "ad nauseum" by others.
My list of such scenarios could have been continued, but I didn't
want to seem whiny... But perhaps whining, complaining, protesting
and being outraged that we Nepalis don't appear to have enough
self-respect to stop lying prostrate before our western counterparts
is exactly what we should be doing. Especially as it is we Nepalis
who read English newspapers, who act as the translators and
go-betweens between the "natives" and the Westerners, who go to
conferences etc - who should be most vocal critics of "kuire" worship
- are invariably the ones to first drop to our knees.=20
The retort of "so it's internalized racism, not the fault of our
foreign friends" misses the fact that it's only our white, foreign=20
friends who seem to elicit scenarios such as the above, and that being
part of a society, in whatever capacity, means that you are as responsible
for the collective images as anyone else. What are those dominant
collective images in Nepal? We have the "Lords of poverty" zooming
in their air-conditioned, blue-license plated imports through dirt
filled roads; expatriates filling supermarkets where prices of goods
are obscene; and tourists out to experience the exotic and be with
the natives - "so nice to visit but such a relief to escape back home
to civilization".
From another angle, Nepalis have been scrutinized, studied, managed,
organized, classified and said to be brave, chalak, illiterate,
poverty-stricken, friendly, Hindu, patriarchally structured, exotic,
ethnically diverse, sturdy, fatalistic and developing. Once dissected,
examined and laid bare in all our adequacies, attempts are then made
through policy and prescriptions to mould, construct and redefine us less
than perfect Nepalis with our less than perfect understanding of ourselves.
The resultant dominant image - we're their "friends", guides, we
translate for them, we've adopted them in our families, help them "do"=20
bhai tikka and go native in kurtas - but we're never quite as good as our
white counterparts. We can but try and copy them and the level of
civilization that they embody. We still need to be "developed".=20
Internalized racism has external components. =20
The relevance to the use of "kuires"? Well no Nepali could possibly be
totally impervious to those images highlighting Nepali inadequacies and
Western perfection. And yes, after nearly fifty years of being
"developed" with no real tangible gains, we Nepalis may be getting bitter.
And yes, we've noticed the lack of clean water supplies and we also realize
we're too poor to daily buy the bottled water those foreign =91experts'
living in mansions buy. And thanks for the information about the level
of pollution, traffic and unhygenic waste strewn on the roads Mr/Ms tourist
- we have managed to notice that too. And no, the Nepali driver of the
embassy, INGO agency etc, isn't perfectly happy with his job (contrary
to the constant cheerful demeanour his employers may see) - he'd much
rather be driven around.=20
=09Nepali people need to be seen, heard and understood as people who
think, feel and reconstitute the flows of information which surround them.
While not advocating the use of "kuires", I think it is important to
understand why the word "kuire" - encompassing as it does that edge, that
tone, that power - may be both an emotive outlet and a sign of Nepalis
wanting to take control of their thinking, doing and being. Understanding
root causes and then trying to find solutions may be more productive than
issueing the moral imperative of what words we should or should not be
using.
Moreover, Nepalis need to stop denigrating their own worth as=20
thinkers and doers and enlargen the definitions of not only what is and
who has "knowledge" but the spaces in which "knowledge" can be found.
If any of
those who thronged to see Seddon the other day had taken the time to=20
attend the weekly discussions at Martin Chauthari in Thapathali, they
would have known exactly how far and how much more sophisticated those
debates outlined by Seddon has become in Nepal. It may not be a fancy
hotel or a big goverment office conference room, and there are no
delicacies to eat and drink (you have to sit on the floor and have the
choice of pancakes and tea from an old flask), but the type of discussions
held there make Seddon-esque meetings of which there are all too many
- seem like kindergarten. THE END=20
**************************************************************
Date: November 27, 1997
To: The Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Nepal News
Source: The kathmandu Post
Nove 27, 1997
Rural life : Badly muddled
By Narendra
On account of multi-ethnic and multi-lingual groups, people love to romanticize and describe Nepal as a garden
of many flowers. But little do they consider what will happen to untended flowers, if the wild weeds dominate
the garden?
The fact is that today socio-economic development in rural areas is greatly encumbered by too many social
malpractices, superstitions and alcoholism. While larger segments of people are trapped in abject poverty, the
many knotty social issues look even more complex. The Deuki system, the Kamaiya (bonded labour) system,
Bukrahi system, excessive misuse of foodgrains to produce home brew and alcoholism are the bane of rural
society. In rural hills, especially in western Nepal, a man prefers to abduct anothers wife instead of marrying a
girl due to the false notion that it is more prestigious. This is utterly weird. The ugly practice of wife-abduction
has ruined several homes and created unnecessary social tension.
Intellectuals with long field experience have opined that control in alcoholism alone will solve many rural ills.
The rural people are shy, uneducated and incapable of reasoning.
Whenever they feel they are cheated or wronged they cannot make their point normally. So, feeling insecure
and hopeless, they gulp down a bottle of local brew, whip up courage, wield his khukuri and set out to try a
conclusion. whether the dispute is serious or trivial.
Whenever a survey team from urban areas go to a village to conduct a household survey on socio-economic
condition, they confront a strange situation. Families looking well-off present themselves as poor in the
expectation of benefits and families seemingly belonging to the poor groups try to present themselves as
well-off to enhance their social prestige.
At present two kinds of waves are stirring and muddying the rural mind. One, foreign employment agents are
doing big business by duping the rural youth. These agents present the lure of foreign jobs and push the poor
families deeper into debt. What this tantalization leads to is common knowledge. Success stories are too few.
Examples of shattered dreams and battered families are too many.
Second, following the restoration of multi-party democracy, the politicization of all aspects of rural life has
poisoned the air. Local political bodies like District Development Committees and Village Development
Committees usually witness a raucous on account of their multi-party character. The majority group tries to
bulldoze its motion. The minority group tries to foil everything.
So, the situation is one of perpetual polarity. A man of one political group will not marry off his daughter to a
boy belonging to a rival group. Social activities and functions organized by one group are cautiously avoided by
other groups.
When a murder or fight takes place in a village, both groups issue statement saying that its worker are being
victimized by the bullies of the rival group.For the socio-economic uplift of rural society, it is highly imperative
that various educative and awareness-building components should be included in the rural development
programmes and pushed forward strongly. This seems to be the only effective way to salvage the rural people's
life, which is otherwise bogged down.
Young woman jumps to death
By a Post Reporter
POKHARA, Nov 26 - A 23-year-old woman, Parvati Dhungana, has committed suicide three days after she
was married to Bhola Nath Dhungana, resident of Dulegaunda - 7 in Tanahun district.
Two days after the marriage, the newly married couple had returned to the brides parental home at Tallo
Gagangounda of Lekhnath municipality ward No 13.
The groom and bride went to bed that night. Later, the bride secretly left the sleeping groom and jumped into
the Seti river. She had put her gold ornaments in the pocket of her jacket and left the jacket on the river bank.
Her body was found after a prolonged search.
The marriage was held against the brides wishes, according to the rumour circulating among
the local people.
Photos in media revictimise prostitutes
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, Nov 26- Commercial sexual exploitation by displaying photographs by media plays a great
role in revictimising the prostitutes, says Renu Rajbhandari, member of Alliance Against Trafficking in Women
and Children in Nepal (AATWIN).
She says, "the attitude of the society towards prostitutes does not remain the same in different periods, so the
right to privacy of them should be made a proactive approach by the media". She added that since they are
forcefully made prostitutes, they should not be exposed.
"Also if the prostitutes who have returned to their country home with some hope are discouraged by the media
by covering their photographs, then who will be their support and be responsible for their protection?"
It is seen that the future of these women and children depends upon improving the situation of them so that they
can play an active role in the development of their families and communities.
During the programme, Meena Paudel, another member of AATWIN, focused on the positive need to combat
trafficking in girls and child sex abuse through every sector especially media and not harrass them.
She said that we have to serve by providing them with their rights and duties. "Also inspite of there being
agenda and policies, why cannot the issues pertaining to sexual exploitation be politicised."
A one-day interaction programme with the press and the non-governmental organisation was organised today
by AATWIN to help prevent misunderstandings between the media and the NGOs.
There are seven NGOs involved in AATWIN, a networking group working together for the
protection of womens empowerment and child rights.
Scrape the terrible law
As an American tourist travelling into Nepal from India, I was made very uncomfortably aware of a
terrible Nepalese law that allows a vehicle driver to run over and kill a pedestrian and pay only a flat sum
of Rs 17,500 to cover funeral expenses, whereas if the pedestrian is only injured, the driver must pay a
great deal more for the victims medical bills and rehabilitation.
My taxi, on the way from Kakarvitta to the airport at Biratnagar, was halted on the road because a bus
driver had hit a 15-year-old student, and instead of stopping, getting out and helping, had driven his truck
over the childs body, killing him. The reason for this ghastly act was to save money. Rs 17,500 is nothing
compared to the potential cost of healing the
victims injuries! I understood further that this is not an uncommon occurrence.
To say that I am shocked and horrified is an understatement. Clearly, this law needs to be removed from
the books and some more humane way of dealing with the Karma of both driver and victim needs to be
instituted. Not only is an innocent person deprived of his or her precious human body, but another person
is moved to commit and act that will surely bring increasing misfortune and dreadfulness to his own life, for
many lifetimes.
Bette Daniels,
San Francisco, USA
***********************************************************
From: "Anil Shrestha" <SHRESTHA@CROP.UOGUELPH.CA>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 11:23:23 EDT
Subject: News from Canada
Nepal related organizations in Canada
From: Anil Shrestha, TND, Canada Chapter
The following is a brief introduction of some Nepal related organizations in Canada.
Most of the information collected is based on the newsletters of these organizat
ions.
The Canada Nepal Friendship Association (CNFA): The CNFA is a non-profit,
non-political organization established in the Spring of 1990 to foster better relations
between Canada and Nepal. The CNFA feels that the immensely rich culture of the
Nepalese society should be made more widely knows to Canadians. Its members
come from various walks of life and include nationals from both Nepal and Canada
CNFA publishes a newsletter called "Namaste." The current President of CNFA is
Ms. Bettina Fraedrich. More information on CNFA can be obtained from:
Canada Nepal Friendship Association
P. O. Box 77061
Ottawa South Postal Outlet
Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5N2
Nepalese Association in Canada (NAC): NAC is a Toronto based organization
established to promote and enhance the rich Nepalese cultural heritage. It is a local
community organization alive solely for the purpose of the local Nepali community
in Toronto. NAC organizes various cultural functions and social gatherings. The
official newsletter of NAC is "Laligurans." The current President of NAC is
Ms. Shailendri Rana.
Nepalese Association in Quebec (NAQ): NAQ is a Montreal, Quebec based Nepali
organization. The current President of NAQ is Ms. Amita Rasaili.
(More information on NAQ will be published as it becomes available).
The Nepalese Community Network of Canada (NCNC): NCNC was established to
keep the culture of the Nepalese people living in Canada alive. It organizes various
cultural and social functions for the Nepalese community and friends of Nepal. NCNC
publishes a bilingual (Nepali/English) magazine "Diyalo." The current President of NCNC
is Mr. Sharad Subba of Montreal.
Information on organizations based in Central and Western Canada, if any, will be
published as it becomes available.
As a member of the TND Canada chapter, I will highly appreciate and welcome queries,
comments, information, articles and suggestions on Nepal related organizations/activities
in Canada.
My email address is: anilS@unforgettable.com
***********************************************************************************************
***********************************************************************************************
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 20:46:18 -0500 (EST)
From: aiko <gs07aaj@panther.Gsu.EDU>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: TIME magazine's article on trafficking
In the 27th January issue of TIME magazine, there was a heartrending
article on the trafficking of Nepali girls to the brothels of India.
Unless your heart is made of stone or you are a completely debased human,
noone could read this without shedding a tear or two, and feeling strong
emotions of hot anger against the perpetrators of this terrible form of
genocide.
The ages of young Nepali girls being tricked or forced into prostitution
are getting younger and younger, as AIDS-stricken Indian men pay to have
sex with these children in the stupid, moronic belief that their AIDS will
then be cured by using a virgin. Happily, these men soon find out they
were very wrong and die; unhappily, the little girls they violate are
themselves stricken with AIDS and then turned out into the steaming,
teeming streets of India to die.
What is the government of Nepal doing? NOTHING! What is the SAARC doing?
NOTHING! Numerous requests and pleas for help to SAARC have been sent but
to no avail; to this date, no reply has been sent to the emailers. Sadly,
many NGO'S are also guilty of not helping all they can; too many seem more
interested in the money and prestige than in genuinely helping these
girls. But there are other NGO groups that ARE DOING SOMETHING.
Those of you reading this may wonder, why does she go on and on about
this! What can I do; what can anyone do! Anyway, the girls brought it on
themselves by listening to the smooth-talking men who come to the villages
with promises of jobs and stardom in Kathmandu and Bombay! Anyway, it's
the parents who are at fault for selling their daughters, etc., etc.,blah,
blah, blah . . . . Sorry, but things are not as simplistic as that. There
are so many factors that go into the reasons why this is happening,
continues to happen, and IS INCREASING / NOT DECREASING! Unless you
absolutely have no feeling left for your native country because you have
been caught up in the materialism and greed displayed so prominently in
this country and other industrialized countries, I would hpe that you take
a minute and reflect what this means for Nepal as a whole and for the
Nepali people, both men and women! If a huge chunk of the population is
being infected with AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases because
they are being used as sex slaves, how can they hope to contribute
healthily and wisely to the future of Nepal? Do we want a country where
half the population is diseased? Do we just sit back and let the little
kingdom just rot into the snows of the Himalyas, and we all close the
curtain on it with sighs of relief? Those of you from the regions where
there is a lot of "recruiting" taking place, think about someone you may
know who has quietly "disappeared": some neighbor's daughter or sister. .
. .What if she were able to return home, but she was sick with disease?
Will you lead the fight to enlighten the villagers into realizing this is
not the girl's fault, and not to kick her out; will you lead the fight to
enlighten her family that there is no shame in taking an abused daughter
or sister back into the family? These girls need the support and care of
their families and other people. so the government doesn't do anything;
so some of the organizations don't give a damn. Since when do we depend
on the government to act? The PEOPLE need to take action and take the
initiative; people like you and me, people who care and are racking our
brains to try and figure out what to do to help. This is your Nepal that
is being affected, and I think it is time we got together to help in some
way; give our support in any way to the organizations that are helping.
Show videos, have meetings, MAKE THE PEOPLE AWARE! You don't have to be
in Nepal; this problem of trafficking is GLOBAL! In the coming months, I
hope to organize meetings to bring an awareness of this growing problem
and I hope that I can count on some of you for support. Remember: you
are investing in Nepal's future by HELPING AND CARING!
Aiko A. Joshi
gs07aaj@panther.gsu.edu
M.A. candidate, Georgia State University
*********************************************************
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 1997 10:37:58 -0500 (EST)
From: aiko <gs07aaj@panther.Gsu.EDU>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: New Interactive Web Site on Nepal: Protecting Women. (fwd)
Do it for Nepal and do it for women everywhere.
Anne Joshi
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 20:43:00 +0100
From: Debra Guzman <DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org>
Reply-To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
Subject: New Interactive Web Site on Nepal: Protecting Women.
Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network
## author : carin@gn.apc.org
## date : 28.10.97
Hello -
Over the last few months I have been working on an
international grass roots organizing project in cyberspace
which will hopefully have some important real world
implications.
I have been collaborating with Robert Markey, a tireless and
experienced activist who founded "Witness to Violence" to
address issues of violence against women.
We are targeting the sex trafficking of women and girls from
Nepal to the brothels of India as well as rape and sexual
harassment of women tourists by tour guides in Nepal, and
have created a web site both as a resource and a point of
direct action on these issues.
Phase one of the project is now up and running -- an e-mail
campaign to the government, media and tour companies in
Nepal to stop the pervasive practice of rape and sexual
harassment of lone women tourists in Nepal. As tourism is a
high economic priority in Nepal, we are hoping that this
campaign will not only stop this practice but also give us
leverage to help put an end to the sex trafficking industry
there. (phase two)
The 'tourism e-mail campaign' page contains a simple form to
automatically send emails to the appropriate people in
Nepal. Please help this effort by visiting the site and
sending an e-mail. While there check out the rest of the
site.
The URL is: http://blue-fox.com/nepal/sexh-tour.html
Also - and this is important - please send emails to your
friends and colleagues who are on-line asking them to join
the campaign and visit the site. (Just add a brief note to
this and send it) Thus we have a quick chain letter type
response to really get this campaign going with maximum
impact.
Thanks so much for your help with this.
Helen Brown
Check out the New - Interactive -
NEPAL - Travel, Trekking and Trafficking home page at:
http://www.blue-fox.com/nepal
******************************************************
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 09:41:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Ashutosh Tiwari <tiwari@fas.harvard.edu>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: KPRB Rvw 1 (fwd)
From=20The Kathmandu Post Review of Books
30 November, 1997
What Makes a Population Healthy?
Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality
by Richard G. Wilkinson.
New York, Routledge, 1996
Price: US$18.95
by Dr. Stephen Bezruchka
Around 1980, three studies with important implications for public
health were published. The discovery that heart attack was caused by a clot
immediately led to a whole new clinical services industry. Positive
relationship between maternal literacy and child survival in developing
countries led to the current vogue in literacy programs for women. A third
study found a strong negative relation between inequality of income and
health among sixty-four countries.
Responses to these findings were as disparate as the findings
themselves. One led to costly therapy with limited world-wide impact. The
second, which did not seriously threaten the status quo, resulted in
numerous policy declarations but little effective action. Implementation of
findings of the third study and the many ensuing confirmatory ones,
however, would have required changing national and international economic
and political power bases. Not surprisingly, it was swept under the rug. In
Unhealthy Societies, Wilkinson again exposes an idea that has been ignored
for nearly two decades.
Wilkinson's main message is that income distribution, both within
and among countries, is closely associated with the mortality rate, an
indicator of health. He posits that the effect of environmental and
behavioral risk factors on health are small in comparison to the
overwhelming effect of income distribution. His arguments, laid out like a
mathematical proof, are compelling. Most significantly, it shows that the
decisions of all government policymakers, not just the Health Ministry,
crucially affect the people's health.
In Wilkinson's conception, a population's health is not merely the
sum of its individual members' health. Pondering the rapid rise in life
expectancy globally this century, he casts doubt on the causal significance
of improved nutrition, environmental control, and medical care. Wilkinson
acknowledges that provision of medical services in poor countries will
lower mortality, but it is reduction of income disparity that correlates
most strongly with reduced mortality.
Measuring health inequalities via the stratification of mortality
rates by socioeconomic position within countries, Wilkinson shows that,
except for skin and breast cancers, "every death rate and measure of health
[is] more sensitive to variations in socioeconomic conditions than to
medical care" and observes that the "role of medicine is to pick up the
pieces". But among countries, the relation between income and health is
different. Wealthier countries are not necessarily healthier; notably the
richest country overall, the USA, ranks less than 20th among nations in
life expectancy.
Two decades of research show the pervasive and dynamic influence of
inequality of income on health: countries that alter income distribution
through taxation and other fiscal means have concurrent changes in health
indicators. Interestingly, the association does not appear strongly
influenced by government expenditures for social programs. Japan and
Sweden, first and second in life expectancy, respectively, are at opposite
poles in social expenditure as a proportion of GDP (15% in Japan; 40% in
Sweden). Wilkinson acknowledges that it is unclear how low relative incomes
have to be to affect health, and how much reduction of relative poverty
would affect the health of the wealthy.
Using national and regional examples Wilkinson argues that income
distribution is a proxy for what he calls "social cohesion"-that is,
"social capital." Studies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
during the 1970s and 1980s, show "how closely health is related to the
political environment". Today, health is clearly declining in many of those
countries, reflecting loss of social cohesion associated with "collapse"
and resurgence of economic inequality.
Finally, the book looks at possible sociological mechanisms for the
effect of income distribution on health. Stating that humankind has not yet
developed "a satisfactory social organization of the highly integrated
productive system which economic development has so recently produced",
Wilkinson points out that in older non-monetized economies, food sharing
and gift exchange limited social inequities and "open expressions of
material self-interest" were taboo. In contrast, the market and wage labor
economy institutionalizes individualism and the pursuit of individual
gains.
Wilkinson's public health arguments are epidemiologically well
grounded. His advocacy began with activities that indirectly led to the
Black Report, a pioneering look at health inequalities in the U.K. After
suppression of its findings, then some debate, knowledge has still not led
to action. In Unhealthy Societies, Wilkinson shows why putting highly
specialized therapeutic methods into practice, or even teaching women to
read are worlds apart, judged by effects on health, from implementing
egalitarian ideals of social justice, or income equality. The need for
action is clear.
Internally, Nepal suffers from sharply rising income and wealth
distribution disparities. Among nations, it ranks near the bottom in
economic indicators. Amid the current health policy struggle over
specialized care, "excellence" and privatization versus public health, this
book contains many timely lessons for ordinary citizens to press their
cause with the government. Wilkinson's fundamental message is that only
basic economic policies which equalize wealth and income distribution will
significantly improve health. More health for all will never be gained by
more wealth creation among the economic elite.
(Dr. Bezruchka teaches in the University of Washington School of Public
Health and Community Medicine and is involved in public health projects in
Nepal. Revised from a review published in the New England Journal of
Medicine)
Nepali Development: A View from the North
Development Aid to Nepal: Issues and Options in Energy, Health, Education,
Democracy and Human Rights
By Harald O. Skar and Sven Cederroth
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), Copenhagen, Denmark, 1997.
Price (paperback): DKK 125
by Tatsuro Fujikura
No one has a clear view of all development enterprises in Nepal,
much less control over the outcomes-not HMG, GOI, the World Bank nor any
other major player. Overviews habitually decry a lack of 'reliable data',
precluding determinate conclusions. Hence they are best read not as precise
descriptions of sociopolitical realities, but-as literary critic Kenneth
Burke recommended in another context-as creative works utilizing various
rhetorical and logical strategies to name outstanding features of the
situation, and "name them in a way that contains an attitude towards them."
Such works, of course, often have substantial effects on the generation of
new realities.
In 1996, anticipating substantial expansion of its aid to Nepal,
the Norwegian Foreign Ministry commissioned a study, Development Aid to
Nepal: A Summary of Experience, from the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
(NIAS). The book under review is "largely the same" as that report. Thus it
can profitably be read as an indicator of likely directions for an
increasingly significant donor, and for insights into the process of
molding a foreign policy towards Nepali development. Though author Skar has
substantial research experience in Nepal, given the impact of donor country
policies, it is disheartening to learn that the study is based on "two
researcher-months" and "eight days of hectic data collection in Nepal".
The book examines the energy, human rights, education, and health
sectors. Its most forceful argument concerns energy development where it
should, "always be a top priority for Norwegian inputs=8Ato support Nepales=
e
competence building. This is the ultimate test against which all project
proposals should be judged".=20
=09Energy sector projects, from 1958 onward, by private Norwegians
and the United Mission to Nepal (UMN) are assessed as "fairly
successful"-among the most positive evaluations in the entire book.=20
UMN-sponsored companies, engaged in small to mid-sized projects, serve as
a model for accomplishing hydropower development while also transferring
know-how "so that [Nepalis] can become less dependent on foreign
assistance for future projects". Accordingly, the authors recommend
Norwegian assistance for small, mid-sized, and micro hydropower projects,
while dismissing large-scale ones as almost inevitably involving dominance
of foreign expertise and capital, and technical, economic, and political
uncertainties that might seriously undermine energy development in Nepal.=
=20
The authors suggest more tentative engagements in other sectors.
Discussing human rights, they write that "Nepal's legal system is renowned
for being highly corrupt and a hindrance rather than help in the life of
ordinary Nepali citizens". They recommend support for local human rights
NGOs, joining in the efforts by DANIDA and USAID on electoral issues, and
support for "the peaceful understanding of ethnic diversity" (e.g., the
Ethnographic Museum).=20
=09Regarding education, the authors state it would be "prudent" for
Norway to invest in the Basic Primary Education Project, regarded by many
donors as a 'model', and where, accordingly, many donors have flocked.
However, they also suggest that vocational training within high schools
"may become an interesting and important development arena". =20
=09Turning to health, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is described as
"the most bureaucratic and inefficient ministry of all the 47 ministries
in Nepal". Hence, rather than investing in MOH, the authors suggest direct
financing of short-term projects through consultancy firms or networks
established by UMN or Redd Barna. Arguing that sufficient trained rural
health personnel, rather than simply more health posts, is the critical
need, they recommend a separate study of possibilities for
Norwegian-funded health personnel training.
Readers can benefit from clear presentations throughout of
bureaucratic structures related to development projects and their funding
sources. However, the authors also make many simplistic, and sometimes
illogical statements on sociocultural matters, such as caste and ethnicity.
For example, the fact that during the period of their research, the
Minister of Law and Justice was a Tamang-whom, the authors explain, have
low status in the caste hierarchy -is presented as evidence that human
rights are accorded very little importance in Nepal.=20
=09More generally, quoting heavily from the donors' side, the book
creates a picture of rational, conscientious donors (from DANIDA to World
Bank) struggling in the face of the irrational Nepali, beset by primordial
sentiments and practices of aphno manchhe and chakari. This imaginative
description of key players "that contains an attitude toward them", leaves
no room for sustained analysis of how foreign aid practices themselves may
have been transforming the Nepali sociocultural structure at a very deep
level. Such analysis, in turn, may be essential if, as the authors of this
book profess to believe, the ultimate test for "good" foreign aid is
whether it helps to render foreign aid unnecessary.=20
(Tatsuro Fujikura is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago,
USA, currently doing research on development in Nepal)
Nepali Literature Through a Glass, Darkly
Khagendra Sangraula
Spun into the web of words produced from their investigations and
inspections, social researchers and literary writers endeavour to hang
before us mirrors reflective of individuals and society. Ironically,
sometimes those mirrors present merely a pitiable reflection of the
writers' own intellectual abilities and moral sensibilities.
=20
=09British researcher Michael Hutt has investigated modern Nepali
literature for nearly two decades, engaging in editorial work, commentary
and, most extensively, translation. Within this web of collected, original,
and transformed words, he too has hung a mirror. In it Nepal's reflection
appears murky, superficial, piecemeal: his own reflection appears clear,
sharp, and whole.=20
=09Reviewing Hutt's Himalayan Voices, fellow British
academic David Gellner dubbed him with the title of "foremost foreign
expert on modern Nepali literature". What is the basis for such an
assessment? Is it the polish and fidelity of the mirror of Nepali
literature that Mr. Hutt has created (and within it, true reflections of
the images of society that Nepali literature itself produces)?
Unfortunately, no.=20
=09Peering into the mirror one can make out, dimly backlit
by the never-quite-setting sun of the enduring empire, a few of the
characteristics lending plausibility to that title: the English language,
white skin, the sterling pound. And gathered round, slavishly worshipping
these signs of 'modern civilization', one part of the Nepali intellectual
community, whose adulatory stance lends native authority to the lal mohar
stamped upon Hutt's credentials by his fellow countryman. Thus has his
expertise on Nepali literature become an established fact.
=20
=09What, then, of the fate of Nepali literature, whose faithful image
Hutt's mirror is ostensibly designed to reflect? For years his mirror has
mainly refracted images of the literature given its own lal mohar by the
Royal Academy. About the peculiar features and limitations of that
reflection of Nepali literature much could be said. But for reasons of
space, here I present just a few examples that testify to Mr. Hutt's
intellectual skills, moral sensibilities and apparent love for commando
culture.
=20
=09In The Nepali Literature of the Democracy Movement and its
Aftermath he writes of the creative assistance to expression rendered by
the censorship plastered upon the consciences of citizens during the
Panchayati Raj: "The existence of censorship (which was, more often than
not, self-censorship) produced many great and memorable works of allegory".
But in reality, artistic works like those Hutt seeks to credit for their
allegorical form are produced not by censorship; their form is the end
result of intellectual effort to break the chains of censorship, a
profoundly different matter.=20
=09Hutt expresses concern that, after the downfall of the Panchayat,
the regime's censorship may have become exaggerated. If the scope of the
Panchyati Raj he inspects were expanded to include the innumerable
literary works in newspapers and journals smudged out by the black soot of
censorship, the many books stolen and destroyed by the authorities, the
anonymous handwritten poems, allowed no publication outlet, scattered
secretly in the streets, and the many writers persecuted simply for
criticism of the regime, he would surely be saved from such ignorant and
absurd commentary. No less absurd are the acrobatics he engages in to
surreptitiously conceal the ugly aspects of the Rajat Poetry Campaign's
mandalization, through instilled terror and proffered enticements, of
independent consciences and poetry alike.=20
Individuals knowledgeable in English, Nepali, and the art of
translation-Taranath Sharma, Pratyoush Onta and others-have meaningfully
commented on various injustices to the original found in Hutt's
translations. In the arts of discarding parts of the text with abandon and
inserting things willy-nilly, Hutt is unrivalled. In some cases this seems
merely to reflect a lack of respect for or comprehension of the original
text, but in others it actively helps to create his cleansed image of
commando culture and his feeble image of opposition to it.
Translating from Bimal Nibha's portrait, in his poem, Patan, of the
aspirations and beauty of the People's Movement's opposition to the
autocratic Panchayat, banished from Hutt's mirror is: "And protest against
injustice". Just four small words, but within them the essence of the
andolan.=20
=09In a short satirical essay discussing the fate of poems founded
upon the security of bayonets and plated silver coins, I wrote: "Now
praise-filled talk of the brave Nepali people rose toward the
stratosphere; along with the gang of commandos, talk of Chandani Shaha
slipped inside a hole. It's amazing! Who was where yesterday; who's
reached where today?" In Hutt's English mirror, the "gang of commandos"
was smudged out altogether. For the "foremost foreign expert", "commando
bhaiharuko dalbal" are evidently merely three lifeless words. But for
those who experienced the cruelty of Panchayati culture, commando is an
unforgettable, ugly sign of the fear, pain, and wrath produced by
Panchayati oppression.=20
Words convey human feelings and experience. Words have life of
their own, rhythms, and dignity. For nonsensically-whether whimsically or
willfully-pruning others' words, it may seem rude to dub Mr. Hutt a
word-stalker and an assassin of meaning. But, unfortunately, to express the
essence of his destructive sport in any words but these is impossible.
And it is in this light that we must examine the spectre of a
Hutterized Bhupi-hacked to pieces and condemned to lay exposed so for years
to come, before an international audience. Bhupi's words dance to many
rhythms-melancholy and slow, fast and furious-but always they dance,
creating dazzling patterns in a few short steps. Simplicity and spareness,
rhyme and alliteration, repetition and precision, revelation of the subject
only after its portrait is before us-these are key elements of Bhupi's
wordcraft.=20
=09Satirical, outraged or bemused, profound portraits of the
injustices and sufferings of Nepali life written from a sometimes tortured
vantage within it-these are what much of his wordcraft was dedicated to.
Hutterized Bhupi speaks in unrecognizable plodding, disjointed prose and
has nothing much to say. Beyond the artistic travesty, Bhupi's moral
stances, and sharp-eyed critiques are frequently smudged out. Consider the
final stanza of Sadhain-Sadhain Mero Sapanama:
yasari nai sadhain-sadhain mero sapanama
Malayaka asankhya-asankhya manisharuko
aasuko ek thulo sagar banchha
jasko pratyek laharma
ek lash mathi uthchha
ek lash tala dubchha
tara dubnubhanda agadi malai
pratyek lashle ghrinale herchha
ah, mero sapanama malai
mero bipanako itihasle ghrina garchha
So always always in my dream
a great ocean forms:
the tears of the men in Malaya;
a corpse rises up and a corpse sinks down
in every ocean wave,
regarding me with hatred.
Ah in my dreams I am loathed
by the history of my awakening.
Inviting confusion by omission of "asankhya-asankhya", actively
misleading by translating Malayaka manisharu as "the men in Malaya", Hutt
then adds a footnote expressly identifying them as Gurkhas, thus erasing
Bhupi's image of the ocean of tears of the people of Malaya, that is,
erasing his critique of the war in which his countrymen were fighting on
the side of imperialism.=20
=09Whose are the bobbing corpses and who do they regard with hatred?
For English readers contemplation of those questions is foreclosed by the
translation. Its final line completes the hatchet job, obscuring Bhupi's
harshly honest, complex relation to the history of our country. A similar
erasure is achieved by the translation of galat as "lie" in Galat Lagchha
Malai Mero Deshko Itihas.=20
=09Two senses of wrongness pervade the entire poem: the
incorrectness of the resplendent national history that is told and
displayed, and the moral wrongness of the history that has transpired in
Nepal. The second sense fades from the poem in the mirror. In Ghantaghar,
several pure Michaelian inventions are added; of Bhupi's few words,
several are dropped. All rhythm is lost and so is the profound still
portrait effected by the whole. In Sanjhko Naya Sadak =8A, a stark image of
citizens treated as refuse by the Panchayati Raj is made opaque in the
mirror. And on and on=8A "kathaibara, bichara/'Bhupi' Sherchan!"
The distorted overall image of Nepali society through its
literature reflected in Hutt's mirror is not just a composite of deformed
details. Selecting for translation pieces which will, in practice,
represent the whole, entails responsibility for careful contextualization,
and attention to contemporary contexts.=20
=09In a recent volume under Hutt's editorship (in the Journal of
South Asian Literature), no discernible standard of literary or social
value, or representativeness guides the selection, rather it seems based
on a whimsical "hi-hallo" announcing, 'even in Nepal, there is
literature!' And, included there is B.P. Koirala's The Colonel's Horse.=20
=09At this historic moment, when Nepali women are joined in struggle
for personal recognition and rights, what is the point of presenting that
hapless image created a year before 7 saal, of a woman seeking
compensation from a youthful horse for the sexual satisfaction she cannot
get from her elderly husband? Carefully contextualized, it could have a
point. Without that, is it not appalling derision of the aspirations of
women who, in addition to other rights, wish to fulfill, in a natural and
healthy way, their sexual desires? Even on the basic questions of what to
translate when, and why, we find reflected not an iota of the wisdom of
Nepali literature's "foremost foreign expert".=20
Despite years of effort, a superficial, distorted and ugly image of
Nepali literature and the Nepali sensibilities reflected therein has been
created by Hutt's spinning of Nepali words into English ones. That his
fellow countryman can blithely stamp a seal of approval upon his mirror of
Nepal, that the clearest image reflected is the pitiable one of Mr. Hutt's
own lack of craft and reactionary sensibilities, and that some members of
Nepal's literary community have long gazed in uncritical adulation into
such a mirror, are facts that do not make up a pretty picture. It is no
source of pleasure to gaze or comment upon it. But gaze and comment we must
for, confronted with such a mirror, we Nepalis need to pause and reflect on
its sources.
(Khagendra Sangraula is a fiction writer and essayist. The essay of his
mentioned above was published in Jan-Andolanka Chharraharu.)
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