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 OAA21003; Sun, 17 May 1998 14:23:15 -0500 (CDT) Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA09558 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-dist); Sun, 17 May 1998 12:26:38 -0500 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA09554 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-list); Sun, 17 May 1998 12:26:37 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 12:26:37 -0500 Message-Id: <199805171726.AA09554@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 - May 18, 1998 (4 Jestha 2055 BkSm) To: <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> Content-Type: text Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 265
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The Nepal Digest Mon May 18, 1998: Jestha 4 2055BS: Year7 Volume74 Issue4
Today's Topics:
Khoj Khabar
Re: The Problems of Christianity
Child Labor
Vivek-Yatra
Racism in Nepal
Dialogue on Cross-Ethnic Relations
Riot police arrest women protestors in Nepal
Re: Himalayan Expo, May, 1998
40 Point Demands by Maoist
Plan your visit to Nepal
GURKHAS
On the humerous side
Notes on Nepal
******************************************************************************
* 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) *
* Editorial 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: Thu, 7 May 1998 14:52:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Nirmal Ghimire <ngh42799@marauder.millersv.edu>
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - May 6, 1998 (19 Baishakh 2055 BkSm)
This is in regards to Pramod Mishra's query?
I completed my 10 years of education in STX.
During these 10 years not once was I ever forced or obliged to go to
Church by any of the staff members.
We had absolute religious freedom. In that way it gave us an exposure
about Christanity too.
There have been misonaries to Nepal and many may have tried to convert
people into Christanity.
But STX is a differnt story. One should realize that these
Fathers had given their lives for the purpose of others.
They were doing it as a servise to God.
They built an education institution that was so much needed.
i am not praising just because I went there, but because i still
think they did a great job in educating and helping us all.
So please do not have this misconception that STX has anything to do
with spreading Christanity.
Yes at night times we heard stories about Bible.
But there was no intention of converting. I think those stories were moral
stories and good to know stories.
That way inspite of being a Hindu I could love and respect Jesus.
Now if I talk to someone about Krishna's philosophy, Buddha's
philosophy, MUhammad's philosophy does not mean that i amtrying
to convert them.
So STX gave me an exposure into Christanity.
So i could understand more about it.
I could not resist writing this because I do not want anybody to have this
big misconception about STX.
If you think my opinions are biased, go ahead and find out.
For truth cannot be hidden.
Bye
Nirmal
*********************************************************************
Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 13:28:33 +1300
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: giri raj kattel <giri.kattel@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Subject: Khoj Khabar
KHOJ KHABAR
Dear friends,
I am conferencing the 5th internatinal ecological conference (intecol' 98)
from July (18- 25), 1998 at Florence, Italy. If some one knows about any
Nepali friends residing over there will be highly appreciated for providing
me the contact address. My postal address is: Department of Zoology,
University of Otago, P. O. Box 56, Dundedin, New Zealand. Tel: 00 64 3
479 7088, Fax: 00 64 3 479 7584, E-mail:
(giri.kattel@stonebow.otago.ac.nz). Thank you.
*******************************************************
Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 14:07:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joel Hafvenstein <joel.hafvenstein@yale.edu>
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Re: The Problems of Christianity
> Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 14:30:26 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Pramod K. Mishra" <pkm@acpub.duke.edu>
> Subject: The Problems of Christianity
[Note: This response is quite long, so like Pramod, I will send the first
part to be published in this issue of TND, and save the other half for
next issue]
Dear Pramod,
Thank you for your well-considered, if rather aggressive, comments on my
response to Jason Ritchie. I appreciate your criticisms, even where I
think they're misplaced. Let me start out by making explicit the issues
I had in mind in writing my last post. I objected to Jason's paper ("The
Problems of Christianity") first and foremost because it was unfairly
biased against Christianity, and full of poor argumentation. However,
because it was posted to the Nepal Digest (and not to, say, an electronic
journal of religion), my main concern in response was _not_ to produce a
sweeping defense of Christianity. which would only hopelessly sidetrack
the debate into religious details. Instead, I had hoped to deal only with
the most salient points and get the discussion back to Nepali affairs.
The greatest danger I perceived was that readers with a genuine interest
in seeking out religious truth might respond, "Oh, well, we can dismiss
Christianity because Christians have been responsible for great evils."
This (and not multi-culturalism run amok) was why I pointed out that
people of all religions and none have been responsible for great evils in
the past. On that, more below.
However, it turned out that you in fact were equally (and commendably)
concerned with the injustices perpetrated by _all_ religions in the name
of "God"... that even if Jason's paper had been entitled "The Problems of
Religion," you would have cheerfully posted it to the Nepal Digest. Fair
enough, and I apologize for having misconstrued your motives. Beyond
this, however, we must regretfully disagree. I continue to maintain that
Jason was grossly unfair to Christianity in his paper, and the points you
raise in his defense have done nothing to alleviate that basic unfairness.
Incidentally, Pramod, I would suggest that you were similarly unfair to
Hinduism in your post. You state (in what can only be hyperbole) that the
Hindu's "sole purpose in life" is to call people "untouchables and
mlecchas", and seem to identify the caste system as the most important and
integral part of the Hindu religion. I don't claim to be an expert on
South Asian religious traditions, but I am still willing to claim with
some confidence that this is no more an accurate representation of
Hinduism than Jason's paper was an accurate representation of Christ-
ianity. Countless Hindus have rejected the caste system as an unjust
accretion on their religion; and any balanced view of Hinduism must
surely at least _mention_ the degree to which Hinduism encourages
tolerance between people of different religions as a major point in its
favor. Unfortunately, balance is precisely the value which has been
conspicuously absent from these recent discussions on religion --
particularly Jason's.
> If you carefully read the paper, Jason does credit Christianity to have
> done some good work in the past
You have to read it very carefully indeed to find that admission. I
believe this is the sentence you're referring to: "While Christians have,
at certain points in history, made positive contributions to humanity,
their sum effect on the course of human events has been negative." This
single grudging statement hardly qualifies as a balanced treatment of the
religion in question. Jason gives no further examples of Christianity's
"positive contributions"; he merely lists every bad thing he can think of
that has ever been done by Christians, and cites the authority of Bertrand
Russell that the bads outweigh the goods. At the end of his paper, he
proposes a cost-benefit analysis with almost no benefits: "Is the peace a
few might gain from a blind belief in Christianity worth the massive pain
which has been, and still continues to be, inflicted on human beings
because of it?"
To imagine "the peace of blind belief" to be Christianity's only
contribution to the world shows a staggering lack of either information or
imagination on Jason's part. When he sums up the legacy of Jesus Christ,
he makes not the slightest mention of the millions of Christians
throughout history whose faith inspired them to attack evils such as
poverty, disease, illiteracy, slavery, alcoholism, and exploitation;
instead, all he can see are "conquest, domination, repression, and
intolerance." He makes no mention of the Christians who risked and lost
their lives saving Jews from the Holocaust, or the numerous sermons and
Papal encyclicals which condemned Nazi racism, or (for that matter) the
degree to which the Nazi regime attacked Christian churches; instead, he
simply declares that Christianity is hopelessly anti-Semitic. He makes no
mention of Biblical passages like "In Christ there is no male nor female,
slave nor free... for you are all one in Christ" (Galatians 3:28) or the
notable female role models in the Bible which have led Christians to
support gender equality; instead, he cites passages which support
traditional gender roles, and assumes these are the most important. The
main "scholarly source" he quotes for all this is Bertrand Russell -- a
brilliant mathematician and philosopher, but a terrible historian, given
to preposterous assertions like "The only good thing produced by
Christianity was the calendar."
An "unbiased historical perspective," which Jason claims is one of his
major goals, will certainly take into account the evils perpetuated by
Christians. These include the great institutional horrors such as the
Crusades, the Inquisition, and witch hunts. They also include the active
support of the Church (in various periods and places) for evils such as
anti-Semitism, slavery, and European colonial hegemony over "heathen"
nations. Christians have burned books, suppressed scientists, and
condemned other cultures as demonic; they have killed members of other
religions and other Christian sects over issues of belief. Not least,
Christians like Jason's father have deeply hurt others by making their
love contingent on acceptance of their religion.
But over against all this, one must also consider all the good things done
by Christians in the name of Christ. These include all the lives which
have been saved or greatly improved over history by institutions such as
the Salvation Army, the Missionaries of Charity, World Vision, and so on.
To dismiss the 2000-year work of the Church at providing clothes, food,
medicine, money, education, and shelter for the poor and oppressed as mere
"feel-good" work would be an insult to those who owe their lives to it.
Christians have also been (and are still today) in the forefront of
opposition to anti-Semitism, slavery, and exploitation of poor people/
nations. Churches have been a focus of opposition to authoritarian
regimes, from Latin American dictatorships to Communist Poland. The
central Christian concept of a humanity which is equal in the eyes of God
(whether male or female, slave or free) has been a crucial element in the
critique of oppression which has defined the modern era -- whether the
oppression was absolute monarchy, totalitarianism, or "Jim Crow" racism.
Overall, it seems to me unarguable that Christianity -- like all great
religions, creeds, and philosophies -- has a deeply _mixed_ historical
record. My main objection to Jason is not that he claims that Christians
have been responsible for evil, but that he ignores the great goods for
which Christianity is also responsible. He seems to not understand that
_any_ belief system can produce both positive and negative results,
depending on how it is interpreted and used.
> For unlike the tools of rhetoric that Jason has used in
> his paper--arguments and evidence, including ethos, pathos, and logos, to
> mention only a few--you have taken recourse to your faith and bland,
> hapless multiculturalism. Don't they teach rhetoric and composition at
> Yale, or you haven't taken it?
That's a rather unworthy comment, Pramod. And even if you really think
that every argument produced by Dr. Lewis and myself boils down to blind
faith or bland relativism, I'm not sure what you found so compelling about
Jason's rhetoric. As I've been saying, his whole argument was one-sided.
He offered only the evidence that supported his assertion. Objections, or
opposing evidence -- of which there is _plenty_ available -- he left out
almost entirely. I could find only one point in the entire paper where he
directly addresses an opposing viewpoint, and it was addressed to a straw
man -- the reader who "still accepts the Western myth of the conquests as
a mission of nobly enlightening the savages." Virtually no one still
accepts this myth in any form so simple as the one Jason offers, and he
ignores the existence of more complex objections to his argument. If he
seriously hopes to abolish Christianity, he'll have to argue against a
more realistic and intelligent version.
"Ethos, pathos, and logos"? Bosh. Rhetoric and composition of this sort
are valuable if you work for a sensationalistic tabloid or propaganda
machine, like America's _National Enquirer_ or Kathmandu's host of daily
newspapers. They have no place in any discussion which is aimed at
actually uncovering the truth.
[to be continued]
****************************************************************
From: "Mike And Kathy Foster" <fost@jumpgate.net>
To: <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Child Labor
Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 09:09:13 -0500
I'm a student in the U.S. I'm doing a project on child labor in Nepal, I
have not been able to find a lot of information. So I was wondering if you
could be kind enough to e-mail me at fost@jumpgate.com with information on
child labor in Nepal. Thank You!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Brady and Parker
******************************************************************
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 11:05:36 -0700
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
From: Mahesh Maskey <mmaskey@bu.edu>
Subject: Vivek-Yatra
May 9, 1998
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to tell you that day before yesterday at a press conference
at his residence, PM Girija Prasad Koirala announced that he does "not see the
necessity of" the proposed revision to the Anti-State Crimes and Punishment
Act, 2054 v.s. Since the current session of parliament is now over without
this bill being presented to the parliament, we can rest assured that the
public pressure has been effective against 'A-T bill' in this session.
However, we should all take note that no move has been made to formally
withdraw the bill and that he also said, "if it appears necessary it can be
brought again". In other words, the government has bowed to pressure but
apparently not learned the real lesson - that such acts are fundamentally
opposed to the democratic ideals Nepali Congress professes to hold dear.
In appreciation of your participation in the effort against this bill and
as a reminder that it was just one step on a long road, we have translated
a poem, Conscience-Journey, for you (the original can be found in Bedana
#59) This poem was written during last year's campaign against the
Anti-Terrorist Act by the well-known progressive poet Govinda Bartaman. It
was recited at a street poetry protest in Bhotahity at that time. Many
poets (including a few from the CPN(UML) which was then pushing the bill)
gathered and recited their poems throughout the afternoon. Such actions by
poets have a notable history in Nepal - most famous perhaps is the Street
Poetry Revolution of 2036 v.s. Poets were also an important part of the
Kaalo Patti Parva staged by writers and artists during the Jana Andolan.
Last year, poets were also joined by singers and by performers who staged
street plays. Groups such as Indreni Sanskritik Samaj, Sarvanam, Aarohan,
Samana Pariwar and Akhil Nepal Jansanskritik Sangh took part in this event,
along with individual poets and artists. As Bartaman tells us in his poem,
recited that day on the street, it is not within the confines of Singha
Darbar that the most important decisions are made - but in the streets,
when we gather and choose together.
We hope not to be alerting you to the next avatar of the bill in the next
session. But if need be, we will do so. Meantime, we offer you Bartaman's
poem as a reflection on the protest, a kind of 'vivek-yatra' we all have
been making in our campaign against the 'A-T Bill'.
Sincerely,
Mary Des Chene
Mahesh Maskey
N.B. In a few places, after consultation with the author, we have slightly
changed the wording in order to be faithful to his meaning and intended
tone while bringing the poem into English.
*********
Conscience-Journey
(Vivek-Yatra)
by Govinda Bartaman
Body of liberty is being carved away
by the glittering knife of power
runnels of blood are flowing
Bursting from the prison of pain
to the streets we have come
Hearts' screams we have sung into song
To the streets we have come
Scooping earth from the grave of your promises
to hurl in your face we have come
To the streets we have come
Bearing witness to millions of Nepali's tears
that have flowed in the melancholic, desolate surroundings
To weave a tear-drying cloth we have come
To the streets we have come
Prostitutes' thighs are dear to you
But poetry is not
The rough hands of poetry chafe you
the sharp nails of poetry slash you
Against all the lies you've come telling
poetry's feet stand firmly
In the streets only poetry prevails, not your domination
And so, bringing poems we have come
To the streets we have come
Into the air we breath
you've mixed poisonous gasses
Wounding one by one
the rivers that are like the veins of our bodies
selling blood to spoonfeed us water you have come
Turning to corpses the honourable meanings
that had the names of nationalism and democracy
like Idi Amin and Bokaso
you have sat upon the magnificent throne of power.
The hands that can shake your throne are with us
Bringing millions of hands we have come
To the streets we have come
When we have come
to the street that like a bustling shop
distributes the needful all through life
With malcious intent to hurt us yet more
flying the national flag
as guns you have come in the faces of men.
Against the advent of those guns
carrying grenades of conscience
to the streets we have come.
***********************************************************
From: "Paramendra Bhagat" <paramendra@hotmail.com>
Subject: Racism in Nepal
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 12:42:57 PDT
Below my reply are the writings of two Nepalis in the US...well, one of
them could have written from Nepal, I don't know....The other is a
graduate from my high school, though he does not disclose his name.
Madhise= "nigger"
dhoti= "nigger"
They left these in the Guest Book of my homepage.
Paramendra Bhagat
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9511
______________________________________________________________________
Subject: Dialogue on Cross-Ethnic Relations
From: Paramendra Bhagat
Date: 5/7/98 1:14 PM
Dear i3pp@sdsumus.sdstate.edu,
I don't know who you are, but if you so wish we could start a dialogue
on race relations. By racism, of course, I mean native racism in Nepal.
Look at the following -
"Madhise....tero dhoti party......dhoti party......tagh......bihari
style....Madhise haru.......dhotis......your ill-motivated party like
that of lallu yadhav.......you try to spit on the same plte that you
have eaten,,,,,,,,thats natural in every madesis.........They forget
their history ra khusi hunda kheri kasailai pani bal dindaina.Why not
stop indian dhotis to imp ove our economy as one of the well wisher of
Budhanilkantha school says in his comments..........You are on the wrong
track...with full of misconceptions and grudges.better purify yor
self.............If you really care about Nepal, stop
people entering and settling from India..........teach them how to
defend themselves from cheating.............. I feel ashamed with what
Budhanilkantha School had taught
you......................................................."
Thanks for the documentation on racism in Nepal. Express yourself more
fully. I wish I had Kanchha Pulami's e-mail address.
Thanks-
Paramendra Bhagat
paramendra_bhagat@berea.edu
______________________________________________________________________
Subject: Mero Homepage ko Guest Book ma kag le chheryo !
From: Paramendra Bhagat
Date: 5/7/98 12:58 PM
kanchha pulami - 04/17/98 20:49:55
Comments:
Madhise Budhanilkantha school ko nam bechera tero dhoti party
kholdaichhas! By the way tero party sadvawana (dhoti party) sita bilaya
bhayisakyo. Ajai pani vice secretarary hoki samajbadi dal ko
tagh !!!!!! I felt hurt when you put such harsh words on r wild and
Manav . Tero ability thiyena ra ta school captain bhayinash !!!! Afulai
kattiko hero thanne mulla.A-level ra O-level ma keti ko pachhi lagyo----
A-levels result gultayo.........Thanks god atleast bhagawan le kripa
garera america puraidinu bhayo So just don't blow your own
trumpet-------- let others do that. Ani party nai khole pani
kina bihari style kina apanaune. -Madhise haru le matra suffer
gariraheko chhha nepal ma . Have you ever been to remote
hilly areas of nepal?????? Only dhotis need ttention by the
government!!!!!!!!! Do you expect to support your idea by
ex-budhanilkantha school ko student harule?? No way dude.I personally
would not wanna join your ill-motivated party like that of lallu yadhav.
Always come into reality--don't just ive false
statements to nepelese people.By the way I had gone through your party
manifesto of sangram morcha, That shows how eye cathing
words you have put --nepali ko ankhama chharo halne kamm matra gareko
chha,.If you come up with idea of unifying all n pelese in your party I
will work with all my heart and soul to uplift your party........so will
all the sebs members. Tero party lai garne kharchha bhanda give that all
money to sebs nation wide scholarship programme .At least
some needy people will be b nefitting .Being the part of national school
of nepal--- you try to spit on the same plte that you have
eaten,,,,,,,,thats natural in every madesis.They forget their history ra
khusi hunda kheri kasailai pani bal dindaina.Why not stop indian dhotis
to imp ove our economy as one of the well wisher of Budhanilkantha
school says in his comments.So Parmendra I think You are on the wrong
track...with full of misconceptions and grudges.better purify yor self.
A well wisher of Budhanilkantha
schoo
- 04/16/98 21:26:38
My Email:i3pp@sdsumus.sdstate.edu
Comments:
Do you want to be a pawnmaker? Go between the people who are struggling
to get food for living. They are not struggling
to get a good status they just need food. They are not only madhise or
janajati, people from all parts and casts of Nepal are
suffering the same. Issue you are raising is like the one who can not
succeed their goals by their own means and wants to
make a easy way to the top. If you really care about Nepal, stop people
entering and settling from India. This will
definitely help to improve the economy. Create a feeling of nationalism,
motivate people to work hard and teach them how
to defend themselves from cheating and to foll w the law and order. We
need hardwork to develop the country. You can
see how hard americans work. I feel ashamed with what Budhanilkantha
School had taught you.
Ex. B.S.
************************************************************
Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 17:21:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: aiko <gs07aaj@panther.Gsu.EDU>
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Subject: [B95: ] FAV/NEWS: Riot police arrest women protestors in Nepal (fwd)
We will be mice no more! Women of Nepal, unite!
<Aiko Joshi>
KATHMANDU, May 8 (AFP) - More than 100 women demonstrators were
arrested Friday by riot police for trying to force their way into
the house of representatives, witnesses and organizers said.
Several of the protestors received minor injuries when the women
riot police made a baton charge, they said.
Those arrested included Nepal Communist Party-Marxist and
Leninist chairperson and MP Sahana Pradhan.
The women, who represented the country's 60 districts, were
protesting parliament's failure to discuss a controversial bill
which would give women equal rights of inheritance.
Nearly 200 women from various pressure groups and organizations
took part in the demonstration.
The angry demonstrators chanted slogans like "We want equal
property rights!" and "Amend Nepal's legal system!"
The demonstrators were dragged into police vehicles by women
police and taken to police stations, but were released late Friday,
a home ministry source said.
The demonstration disrupted traffic for more than two hours.
********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 11:32:57 +0530
From: "F. A. H. ('Hutch') Dalrymple" <hutch@wlink.com.np>
Reply-To: hutch@wlink.com.np
Subject: press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1 JUNE 1998
XP SOCIETY ACCEPTS PANTHI FAMILY IN JULY!
The Narayan Panthi family of Kathmandu has been accepted into 'Camp Sundown,' by the XP Society of Poughkeepsie, N.Y./U.S.A.
The XP Society was started by Dan and Caren Mahar to help those (their daughter Katie) stricken with Xeroderma Pigmentosum, a virulent form of incurable cancer made worse by exposure to the sun (nee 'Camp Sundown' - a camp for children of the disease where activities commence at sundown).
The Panthi family of Anamnagar has long been seeking help for their three (out of four) children, Rajan, 24, Gokul, 21, and Parbati, 19, afflicted with this genetic disorder.
The XP Society has accepted the Panthi family into session #3, 22-26 July in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
His Majesty's Government, the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Anand Dhungana, has graciously offered three free tickets and three at fifty-percent off via Royal Nepal Airlines to help defray travelling costs. This will get the family to London and back.
The XP Society is contributing, besides the Camp facilities for 5/4 days and nights, $2,225U.S. to help defray airline expenses from London to N.Y.C.
Other fund raising activities are in progress to help with travel and medical expenses: a benefit concert in July which will help, not only the Panthi family, but the Sushma Memorial Hospital.
Ram Krishna Dhakal and Bijay Shivakotee have agreed to perform (more on this as it develops).
A bank account (555555'J') at the Himalayan Bank in Thamel has been set up for those who would like to contribute to this humanitarian effort!
Please do... Donate rupees, or volunteer to help!
For more information contact:
F.A.H. ('Hutch') Dalrymple (English) 410319 (Lazimpat) or hutch@wlink.com.np
Rajan Rayamajhi (Nepali) 256701, 245780 (fax)
******************************************************************
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 13:50:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ashutosh Tiwari <tiwari@fas.harvard.edu>
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: post failed (fwd)
The Simplicity and Complexity of Women's Movements
Mary Des Chene
Last year I helped a Nepali doctor carry out a survey on the
incidence of neo-natal tetanus in a VDC near Nepalgunj. To hear, in a few
days, dozens of women recount the history of the births-and the many, many
deaths-of their infants is a sobering experience. Amid all those tales of
birth and death one young mother and her husband brought their baby to be
looked at.
It was weak and sickly, malnourished. My doctor friend examined
the baby gently but he spoke in uncharacteristically sharp tones, telling
them what needed to be done, what to feed it, where to go for treatment and
so on. And that if they did not do these things it would surely die
quickly.
I later chided him, saying what is the point of giving all that
information if it won't be followed? Issuing orders in a commanding tone
when the hospital may seem an impossibly intimidating place or there may be
no money for medicine or better food will do no good. You have to find out
why they haven't done these self-evident things already and together work
out a practical path to doing them. In other words, pay attention to the
"cultural", said the wise anthropologist.
I had been looking at the woman while he examined the baby. She was
teenaged, as anemic-looking as her baby, skeletally thin, wearing an old
worn sari. And shy and hesitant even before this doctor who was right in
her neighbour's courtyard. It was her I was thinking of as I spoke.
But my wiser friend had taken in a wider scene. He had looked behind her
at her husband, a young man in strikingly robust health. His clothes were
new and fancy. He carried a portable radio. He had sunglasses. I had taken
in these details, but not their significance. Nor had I taken in the
significance of the fact that the baby was a girl.
My friend's curt instructions were directed at the man behind-standing,
healthy and indifferent, proudly displaying his expenditure on luxuries,
behind an undernourished wife and a dying girl child. On that day I
learned a simple thing I thought I already knew: sometimes, to understand
the problems of women the place to look is behind, to the men.
But of course, as my story also witnesses, men are not always part
of the problem and gender is no sure guide to who will have the greatest
insight into the sources of women's oppression. Nor is it enough to look
behind to the men, even when they are agents of women's oppression. We must
also look behind the men and women to systems of patriarchy and class,
which brings us back, in a more useful way than I proposed to my doctor
friend, to "culture".
Although I concentrate in what follows on the barriers to
gender-based organizing within a class-based society, we must note that
patriarchal ideologies in many guises support male advantage within
classes, castes and ethnic groups, and work simultaneously against both
women's movements and against trans-gender struggles organized on other
bases.
The world over women, collectively, are more undernourished, more
under-compensated for their labour, and more under-represented in formal
decision-making bodies than men, collectively. The only measure in which
women collectively come out "ahead" is life-span; those who endure seem to
be hardy (though in Nepal, according to the statisticians, even women's
lives are shorter than men's). Except to those who profess to find in the
universality of women's subordinate status across disparate societies
evidence of its "naturalness", these sorts of facts declare something very
simple: the imperative for a women's movement-here, there and everywhere.
From that simple realization to the creation of a united women's
movement lies a path strewn with complicating barriers. First among them is
the nature of women as a collective body, united by virtue of subordination
on the basis of gender, divided along every other social criterion that
usually serve as the rallying points for social justice movements.
Women-not the world's women and not Nepali women-do not speak one language,
do not share one political ideology, do not have one ethnic identity.
Above all, women are not a class like dalits, peasants or workers.
Women may effectively be the dalit of each social class, but such
unity of relative subordination hardly supercedes the very real class
interests and sensibilities that separate women, one from another. Herein
lies the great potency and the great difficulty of creating a women's
movement. More than any class-based revolution, a truly united women's
movement has potential to produce revolutionary change from within every
class, for it has ready-made cadres at every level of society, top to
bottom.
And for just that reason many forces converge against any sign of
trans-class unity among women, women's movements frequently have
conflictual relations with class, ethnicity, and party-based movements,
and women's movements are often splintered from within by the
contradictory class interests of their members.
These challenges, natural to any effort to organize against the
grain of social hierarchies, have beset women's movements everywhere, not
just in Nepal. They are a better explanation of the contradictions within
and limitations of women's movements than those that anti-feminists like
to put forth to disparage them and deflect notice from the revolutionary
potential of female unity: women's "inherent" tendency to "squabble",
women's "weakness" (mental, physical), and so on.
One result of the contradictions that work against a united women's
movement is that class-based women's movements are far more common. And
women's organizations organized around a class-based issue, on the basis of
ethnicity or in affiliation with a political party are far more common than
organizations that would unite women across such differences.
This is not uniformly the case-within Nepal the current anti-alcohol
movement, though so far largely a peasant-based women's movement, is an
example of an issue-based movement that has potential effectively to unite
women across classes, parties, and j^Fo(/,a)ti . Yet in practice even such
issue-based movements have limited potential to unite women across class
interests unless they become a vehicle for breaking down class divisions.
While abuse by an alcoholic spouse knows no class barriers, there is a
world of difference in what is at stake for poor women in whose homes the
purchase or brewing of alcohol replaces their consumption of food and for
those for whom the financial outlay goes unnoticed. Similarly, efforts to
legalize abortion impact women across classes and yet, if successful, it
will remain the case that actual access to safe abortions will be unequal
among classes along with access to other kinds of medical care, even while
it might be that women of some janaj^Fo(a,/)ti groups relegated mainly to
the lower classes, economically and through social discrimination, would
face less religious and social pressure against using such services if
they had access to them.
Such limitations to the potential for trans-class
unity on the basis of a common issue, and to equal initial impact for all
women of a given right or reform, seem to me not an argument for inaction,
but rather a reminder of the necessity to go well beyond first fruits in
any reform-oriented work on behalf of women.
This discussion is meant to highlight two things. First, that
something so seemingly simple as a united women's movement cannot emerge
in a society riven with other hierarchical distinctions but only in tandem
with the elimination of other social bases of subordination besides gender.
And second, that efforts to improve the lot of women through organizations
and movements inevitably permeated by the other divisions existent in
society, may actively-even if inadvertently-work against creation of a
united women's movement. That is to say that class and party, and
ethnicity-based organizing in the name of women can serve to entrench
female subordination overall.
(Des Chene is an anthropologist. This essay is extracted from the
introduction to a commentary section on the Nepali Women's Movement
containing 19 essays in English and Nepali published in Studies in Nepali
History and Society, Vol. 2, No. 2)
(This review was published in the Volume III. No. 2 of the
Kathmandu Post Review of Books.)
Dasain as a Power Ritual
____________________________
Cilibrer le pouvoir. Dasai, une fjte royale au Nipal,
[The Performance of Power. Dasain, a Royal Festival in Nepal]
idited by Gishle Krauskopff and Marie Lecomte-Tilouine
Paris, CNRS Editions, Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1996
***********************************************************************************************
***********************************************************************************************
by Veronique Bouillier
Dasain is one of the most impressive festivals performed throughout
the whole of Nepal. The ten articles of this collective volume are
dedicated to examining Dasain celebrations as a state ritual.
Instead of discussing the familiar aspects of the festival, the authors
prefer to focus on the historical and political aspects of Dasain
celebrations to show how the relationships generated by those performing
the rituals can be used for political purposes. Rituals here are viewed as
modes of social control.
Despite the diversity and the wide geographical range of the
contributions, there is a strong unity in the volume due to a common
ethno-historical perspective, and also to the precision of the
ethnographic details of each performance.
A clear introduction by the two editors helps to relate each local
celebration to a general canvass and to compare it to the textual and
other Dasain traditions in the rest of South Asia. Comparatively speaking,
in the Nepali Dasain, there is a strong emphasis on the martial aspect of
the Goddess (at the expense, for instance, of the Ram cult predominant
elsewhere). This aspect and the celebration of that special ritual of
phulpati on the seventh day get their meaning in the socio-political
context.
Dasain festival deals with the relationship between the political
royal center and its periphery. Thus the first part of the volume is
devoted to the working of this socio-political ritual and is rooted in
history, and specially in the history of the political unification of
Nepal.
The descriptions of the rituals in Patan, Gorkha, Kathmandu, Salyan,
Argha and Isma focus on the continuity and the reinterpretation of the
Dasain tradition in the most recent period. The description of the Mvahni
or Durga puja in the old royal palace of Patan by Gerard Toffin shows that
"those palatial rituals are celebrated almost as in the past", despite the
end of the Malla kings, and that "they perpetuate a very old ideology of
the royal function as well as a hierarchical system still prevalent today".
G|nter Unbescheid gives a very detailed description of the 14-day festival
in the Kalika Temple in the old palace of the Shah rulers in Gorkha,
centered on the interactions of myth and rite or, as he says, "between
mythological dependance and ritual freedom".
As they are very difficult to observe, Marie Lecomte-Tilouine and
Bihari K.Shrestha summarize the royal rituals in Kathmandu according to the
newspapers reports. Then Gishle Krauskopff deals with Dasain and the
political changes in the former kingdom of Phalabang. She shows the
connection between the seizure of this Baisi kingdom by the Gorkha armies
and the story of the victory of the Goddess upon the local gods and
describes the enactement of these historical events in the ritual.
For the principality of Argha, Philippe Ramirez shows how the performance
of Dasain "reflects the numerous political mutations which affected the
local society during the last two centuries" and how "recent developments
in political geography still have obvious parallels in the ritual sphere".
Marie Lecomte-Tilouine ends this first part of the volume, with a study of
"the cult of the Goddess and the royal sword" in Isma, a former capital of
the Gulmi district, "a capital without a king", but with a sword as "the
king's alter ego".
The other articles relate to the attitudes of the minorities, to
the eventual conflicts, and the reactions to Dasain as an alien symbol.
Philippe Sagant shows how Limbu Yakthumba tribal chiefs can compete for the
legitimation given by the Dasain performance and how this
involves a contradiction. How do the Buddhists react to the celebration of
Dasain? For the Newars of Tibet, studied by Corneille Jest and Kesar Lall
Shrestha, Mvahni is celebrated, and adapted to Buddhist context as a symbol
of ethnic identity and as a allegiance to the Nepalese royal authority.
But the Sherpas refuse Dasain and pray and fast as an expiation for the
sacrifices performed by the others. According to Marc Gaborieau, the
Muslims "ostensibly avoid all rituals linked with Dasain" because of "the
opposing views of the relationship between power and sacredness
entertained by Hindus and Muslims." He adds, "Muslims must...avoid all
Hindu rites which, as those of Dasain, make power sacred".
If the Sannyasi monasteries studied by this reviewer take part in the
Dasain festival, it is because of their involvement with society but
generally speaking, the participation of ascetics varies according to
their sectarian affiliation and relation to the Goddess.
Thus, from celebration to avoidance, these various ways of dealing
with Dasain indicate the crucial historical and political importance of
this State ritual. We still have to question the future: how will Dasain
adapt itself to the change in the symbolic status of kingship and to the
change in the national identity process in Nepal? This very rich book
offers us, thanks to its historical insights, some possible directions.
(Bouillier has authored and edited several books, in French, on Nepal)
Power and Religion in Newar Kingdoms
_______________
Le Palais et le temple. La fonction royale dans la vallie du Nipal.
[The Palace and the Temple: Royal Duties in the Nepal Valley]
by Girard Toffin
Paris: CNRS Iditions, 1993
_______________________________________
by Gregory G. Maskarinec
Rarely do the interests, research domains, or methods of historians and
ethnologists complement one another. Even more rarely do they cohere into a
unified whole. This book, however, is a rare exception, successfully
synthesizing those two often opposed disciplines, one with its concerns
primarily for structures of signification, the other with its interests in
the strategies of power.
Toffin's topic proves ideal for this combination.
Not only do the Newar kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, have a long
literary history with considerable documentary materials, the social order
of the medieval Malla kings remains remarkably intact today, anchoring a
well-preserved cultural tradition. Studying the world's last Hindu kingdom,
one never conquered by Islam nor occupied by Western powers, Toffin
successfully produces an ethnology of the past and a history of the
present, integrating both with a geographically sound interest in spatial
arrangements.
Toffin demonstrates that Newar royalty was closely connected with genuine
social control, with the king the active center of the kingdom. Ritual
politics were never severed from expressive and efficient power. Rulers in
the Kathmandu Valley had (and the modern Shah dynasty continues to have) a
real influence on the life of their subjects, a concrete participation in
economic reality and social control, in which religion's role was (and
remains) crucial.
Myths of foundation, for example, not only furnished a religious model for
the cities, they also affirmed the authority of royal power in the face of
concurrent kingdoms while aiming at completely ordering society.
Urbanization, like the patronage of sacrifice, was a royal act. Other
social determinants, including caste and kinship, are frequently situated
between the palace, the temples, and the priesthoods. The ways that these
diverse elements give social space its homogeneity through the dialectics
of geography and cosmology, of nature and culture, are explored in this
book.
Toffin uncovers a tension in Indian thought between a total cosmology
embracing nature as well as culture, contradicted by a separation of
religious norms from political power. He explores this tension, a result of
attempting to fuse the cosmic and the ethical, by analyzing the symbolism
of power, the fundamentals of the sovereign's religion, the relations
between royalty and the supernatural, and the homologies that exist between
the structure of society and the structure of the pantheon.
Well documented are social transformations of demons, kings, and divinities
into each other, showing how deities, priests, and kings can belong to
different levels of any classification and perform diverse roles
simultaneously.
Human or divine, each being is a network of relations and positions.
Toffin's subtle analysis of the logic of power undermines other
excessively simplistic hierarchical models, such as Louis Dumont's
pure/impure dichotomy, or Georges Dumizil's tripartition, showing how they
fail to account for the complexities of South Asian traditional societies.
A divinity like Kumern, the "living goddess," with her multivariant social
responsibilities, cannot be assigned one simplistic function in the
overall order. Instead of the absolute stability required by such
totalizing schemes, Toffin demonstrates a complex theology and politics
based on the interplay of identity and difference.
The local models avoid categorical oppositions, even such apparently
fundamental dichotomies as chaos and order, or of urban and rural. Kings
and divinities unite opposed worlds in their persons through two processes:
anthropomorphization of the divine, and divinization of the human,
categories that therefore have permeable frontiers.
While endorsing A. M. Hocart's conclusions that imperium cannot be
maintained without the sacerdotal classes (the sole guarantee of its
legitimacy), and that the caste system is a sacrificial organization,
Toffin also shows that, under the influence of Tantric practices, the
disjunction between Brehman and Ksatriya, status and power, is not fully
relevant among the Newars, especially when the king is initiated into the
Tantra, and his domestic priests may be Ksatriya Karmeceryas.
In subtle ways, Toffin shows, kings and priests are each superior to the
other. While demonstrating royal manipulations of religion, such as the
ways that the topography of the gods is politically determined and how
those gods have been modeled according to Tantric geometry, Toffin
successfully prevents his analysis deteriorating into a simple
functionalism, nor does he reduce his topics into autonomous systems of
abstract metasocial representations.
Anyone interested in power and religion in traditional societies will
benefit by reading this book. Unfortunately, it is not flawless. Toffin
wears lightly his historian's role, allowing others to mine the original
documentation while himself relying on modern secondary sources that retell
Nepal's history.
Nor does he supplement the previously recorded versions of mythical
episodes with current oral retellings, consequently compromising the
ordinary approaches of both historians and cultural anthropologists.
Considerable repetition could have been eliminated by more smoothly
integrating those chapters previously published as separate essays. Too
little is said of the contemporary context, of how religion and myth
remain central to attempts at forging a coherent national identity for the
whole modern nation state of Nepal. Complex questions of how ritual
participation may reorder the relative importance of historical episodes,
and the implications of how relations of locality are produced by local
subjects, are insufficiently explained.
These, though, are minor criticisms, since both the repetition and the
lightness of method may make the work more accessible to a wider audience
interested in how practical politics and religious representations are
connected, for whom this will be a fascinating introduction to the
complexities of Nepal.
For inexhaustible detail, Toffin's earlier, monumental, Sociiti et
religion chez les Niwar du Nipal (1984) remains the most important
ethnography on Nepal's Newars. Here, he has produced a less massive book
with much wider potential appeal, one which many Indologically inclined
ethnologists who have worked in Nepal will enviously wish that they had
written.
(Maskarinec is the author of The Rulings of the Night: An Ethnography of
Nepalese Shaman Oral Texts, published by the University of Wisconsin Press
in 1995)
Another Look at Community Forestry
______________________
The Political Ecology of Community Forestry in Nepal
by Elvira Graner
Saarbrucken, Verlag fur Entwickungspolitik, 1997
__________________________________________
by Jagannath Adhikari
Nepal has witnessed a continuous shift in approaches to development
including the management of natural resources. In the 1950s and 1960s,
centralized planning was practiced and the state took the responsibility of
delivering development packages to the people. The nationalization of
forests in 1957 was a result of this policy which is believed to have
caused massive deforestation. That policy assumed that farmers were the
agents of forest degradation.
Since the emergence of the concept of political ecology in the mid-1970s,
the approach to forest (and other resource) management has changed. This
concept links ecological issues to social and political processes which
operate at all geographical scales (global, state, regional or local) and
are interlinked so as to cause dependency and underdevelopment of certain
areas and sections of the society. This unbalanced development results in
the degradation of the environment. This theory has helped in dispelling
the myth that farmers are the source of environmental problems.
This conceptual change is also reflected in Nepal's Master Plan for the
Forestry Sector, 1989-90 and the Forestry Act, 1993. These policies
continue the concept of users group forest management practiced under the
community forestry program since 1978 but emphasize that most of the
benefits of forests should go to the needy people. With the help of case
studies from Sindhupalchok district, Graner concludes that the recent
policy shift has not helped the needy people, but often has worked to their
disadvantage. As they are often not included in users groups which have
been given legal rights to manage forest resources, they have now lost even
their traditional access to those resources.
Graner states that her methodology overcomes the two main short-comings
seen in most of the studies of this kind: lack of reference of the
micro-level analysis to the processes at the meso or macro level, and the
lack of meaningful integration of the economic and social parameters. The
book is not fully successful on the first issue. Despite there being
detailed information about the economic and social situations with in-depth
historical background on the three-tier (macro, meso and micro)
geographical units, Graner does not analyze clearly how these geographical
units are interlinked with each other and with national and global
processes, and state what their impact on the use and conservation of
resources at the micro level has been.
On the other hand, Graner is successful in meaningfully integrating
economic and social parameters which clearly identify the vulnerable
households. She analyzes the factors - like production, consumption,
exchange (including purchasing capacity and terms of trade) and assets
(investments including formal and informal capital markets, stores and
claims) - in order to understand how vulnerability among different ethnic
groups is created and maintained. She also discusses the impact of recent
agrarian changes, namely irrigation expansion and increased use of chemical
fertilizers.
To examine the use of forest resources for securing a part of the
livelihood of different categories of households, particularly vulnerable
households, the author analyzes the 'sociology of access'. As access to
the forests at a particular location is determined by a complex set of
factors like history, ethnicity, economy and politics (power structure and
local institutions), this analysis helps us to understand who can
participate in the management of forests. However, Graner does not
elaborate on the two main factors that influence this access: ethnicity and
local power structure. The mere categorization of households into different
castes or ethnic groups with little information on their religion and
culture is not sufficient for understanding how ethnicity matters in access
to resources. Cultural norms and internal structure of each ethnic group
also affect the institutional arrangement of forest resource utilization.
The politics of 'ethnicity' after the Jana Andolan - growing conciousness
of ones ethnic identity and of the tendency to organize on the basis of
ones lineage, caste or ethnic groups - have affected the constitution of
users group forest management. Without the study of ethnicity and power
structure, it is difficult to come up with ideas to bring about synchronic
solidarity in villages (as Graner recommends), which are, in most cases,
ethnically diverse.
The study also provides too little empirical information and analyses on
how users groups are formed and how forests are handed over to them.
Graner argues that poor people are not included in the users groups and
thus they are not benefitting as much from the forests as envisioned in
recent policies. But for a complete understanding of political ecology of
community forestry, many questions remain unanswered. What was the response
of the excluded members when their fellow villagers with good access to
forests started forming users groups? Did the excluded households request
for inclusion in the users groups to the local political bodies? Who are
the members of these political bodies and how did they respond to such
requests? What is the role of forest officers in this matter? What
relationships exist between local elites, politicians and forest officers?
What has been the impact of changes in local as well as national politics?
How have the disadvantaged members protested the denial of their previous
rights to forest resources? Has this discrimination led to the creation of
a new ethnicity or a class, as a large majority of the excluded households
belongs to occupational castes (and in some cases are Magars and Tamangs)?
These are some questions to which answers are needed to understand the
socio-political dynamics behind the discrimination against poor households
and villagers in the allocation of forest resources, the basis of their
livelihoods.
(Adhikari is the author of The Beginnings of Agrarian Change - A Case Study
in Central Nepal published in 1997)
***********************************************************
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 10:17:11 +0530
From: "F. A. H. ('Hutch') Dalrymple" <hutch@wlink.com.np>
Subject: Re: Himalayan Expo, May, 1998
After attending the Himalayan Expo, produced by the 'House of
Rajkarnicar,' I'm convinced of one thing...
The Nepali people are wonderful, but understand little about marketing
and selling! Thus, I want to teach a course entitled, 'The American Way
of Marketing!'
For one thing an 'Expo' (short for exposition) is a place where you
exhibit a product and/or service... You don't prevent sales and take
orders, but short-term revenue, is not the goal here. An 'Expo' is not
a market! It's a chance to exhibit your product and/or service. It's a
chance to develop a customer base.
Thus, much should be given away; at least information... Nepalis don't
understand an old American fishing term, 'chumming,' or 'salting the
waters.' You attract 'the fish,' give, expose, to 'catch' long term!
I only talked to one person, a gentleman, working for Beltronix, who
knew what he was doing! I had one guy who wanted to argue with me...
What happened to the idea, 'the customer is God?' I've heard that
expression used by Nepalis. I had one guy tell me, when asked, 'Oh,
business is very bad!' No wonder, the way it was being done... I had
one young woman refuse to give me a sample magazine (they are
distributing), that would have come back in 'spades!' But, she didn't
understand that giving away 50NR will come back in 5,000NR later... No
one had trained her...
I thought to myself as I was leaving... These people need help! They
just don't understand marketing concepts, the way I do, after 40 years
in American business.
And thus the urge to teach this course, 'The American Way of
Marketing.' Marketing is not just putting up a pretty sign or banner!
An exposition is an opportunity to educate customers about your company
and/or your product/service. Again, it's not a market where your goal is
short-term revenue!
I visited exhibits that didn't even have business cards to give away!
Many didn't have literature to hand out, there were poorly produced
videos with bad quality audio/video, but the most egregious mistake was
having disinterested, unmotivated, and untrained people 'manning' the
booths.
Want to learn...? I'm here in Nepal to help...
F.A.H. ('Hutch') Dalrymple
hutch@wlink.com.np
************************************************************
Date: May 12, 1998
Forwarded by: Rajpal J.P. Singh <a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu>
To: The Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: 40 Point Demands by Maoist
Maoist's 40 Point Demands
(As translated by Barbara Adams - published in People's Reveiw)
I. DEMANDS RELATED TO NATIONALISM:
1) Regarding the 1950 Treaty between India and Nepal, all unequal
stipulations and agreements should be removed.
2) HMG should admit that the anti-nationalist Tanakpur agreement was
wrong, and the Mahakali Treaty, incorporating same, should be nullified.
3) The entire Nepal-Indian border should be controlled and systematized.
Cars with Indian number plates, which are plying the roads of Nepal,
should not be allowed.
4) Gorkha recruiting centers should be closed and decent jobs should be
arranged for the recruits.
5) In several areas of Nepal, where foreign technicians are given
precedence over Nepali technicians for certain local jobs, a system of work
permits should be instituted for the foreigners.
6) The monopoly of foreign capitol in Nepal's industry, trade and economic
sector should be stopped.
7) Sufficient income should be generated from customs duties for the
country's; economic development.
8) The cultural pollution of imperialists and expansionists should be
stopped. Hindi video, cinema, and all kinds of such news papers and
magazines should be completely stopped. Inside Nepal, import and
distribution of vulgar Hindi films, video cassettes and magazines should be
stopped.
9) Regarding NGOs and INGOs: Bribing by imperialists and expansionists
in the name of NGOs and INGOs should be stopped.
II. DEMANDS RELATED TO THE PUBLIC AND ITS WELL-BEING
10) A new Constitution has to be drafted by the people's elected
representatives.
11) All the special rights and privileges of the King and his family should be
ended.
12) Army, police and administration should be under the people's control.
13) The Security Act and all other repressive acts should be abolished.
14) All the false charges against the people of Rukum, Rolpa, Jajarkot,
Gorkha, Kavre, Sindhuphalchowk, Sindhuli, Dhanusha and Ramechap
should be withdrawn and all the people falsely charged should be released.
15) Armed police operations in the different districts should immediately be
stopped.
16) Regarding Dilip Chaudhary, Bhuvan Thapa Magar, Prabhakar Subedi
and other people who disappeared from police custody at different times,
the government should constitute a special investigating committee to look
into these crimes and the culprits should be punished and appropriate
compensation given to their families.
17) People who died during the time of the movement, should be declared
as martyrs and their families, and those who have been wounded and
disabled should be given proper compensation. Strong action should be
taken against the killers.
18) Nepal should be declared a secular state.
19) Girls should be given equal property rights to those of their brothers.
20) All kinds of exploitation and prejudice based on caste should be ended.
In areas having a majority of one ethnic group, that group should have
autonomy over that area.
21) The status of dalits as untouchables should be ended and the system of
untouchability should be ended once and for all.
22) All languages should be given equal status. Up until middle-high school
level (uccha-madyamic) arrangements should be made for education to be
given in the children's mother tongue.
23) There should be guarantee of free speech and free press. The
communications media should be completely autonomous.
24) Intellectuals, historians, artists and academicians engaged in other
cultural activities should be guaranteed intellectual freedom.
25) In both the terai and hilly regions there is prejudice and
misunderstanding in backward areas. This should be ended and the
backward areas should be assisted. Good relations should be established
between the villages and the city.
26) Decentralization in real terms should be applied to local areas which
should have local rights, autonomy and control over their own resources.
III DEMANDS RELATED TO THE PEOPLE'S LIVING
27) Those who cultivates the land should own it. (The tiller should have
right to the soil he/she tills.) The land of rich landlords should be
confiscated and distributed to the homeless and others who have no land.
28) Brokers and commission agents should have their property confiscated
and that money should be invested in industry.
29) All should be guaranteed work and should be given a stipend until jobs
are found for them.
30) HMG should pass strong laws ensuring that people involved in industry
and agriculture should receive minimum wages.
31) The homeless should be given suitable accommodation. Until HMG can
provide such accommodation they should not be removed from where they
are squatting.
32) Poor farmers should be completely freed from debt. Loans from the
Agricultural Development Bank by poor farmers should be completely
written off. Small industries should be given loans.
33) Fertilizer and seeds should be easily and cheaply available, and the
farmers should be given a proper market price for their production.
34) Flood and draught victims should be given all necessary help
35) All should be given free and scientific medical service and education
and education for profit (private schools?) should be completely stopped.
36) Inflation should be controlled and laborers salaries should be raised in
direct ratio with the rise in prices. Daily essential goods should be made
cheap and easily available.
37) Arrangements should be made for drinking water, good roads, and
electricity in the villages.
38) Cottage and other small industries should be granted special facilities
and protection.
39) Corruption, black marketing, smuggling, bribing, the taking of
commissions, etc. should all be stopped.
40) Orphans, the disabled, the elderly and children should be given help
and protection.
We offer a heartfelt request to the present coalition government that they
should, fulfill the above demands which are essential for Nepal's existence
and for the people's daily lives as soon as possible. If the government
doesn't show any interest by Falgun 5, 2052, (February 17, 1996,) we will
be compelled to launch a movement against the government. *** The
above demands put forth by the Samukta Jana Morcha, led by Dr.
Bhattarai, were handed over to the then prime minister Sher Bahadur
Deuba.
********************************************************
To: nepal-request@cs.niu.edu
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 04:25:04 +0530
Subject: Plan your visit to Nepal
From: sagarmatha@juno.com (Himal Ghimire)
Are you planning to go and see the great country, Nepal? You are planning
to go, but you don't know where to stay. If that is so then there is no
need to worry. Here is a place you can stay. Check it out.
If you, or any one you know, are looking for a good 3 bedrooms flat for
short/long-term lease just outside Ring Road for your people, kindly
contact us.
Located in the hill surrounded by terraces, pine forest and temples, the
apartment has a grand view of the Kirtipur Horticulture Farm, Kathmandu
and the Himalayas and is only 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) south of Balkhu,
Ring Road on the way to Panga.
The flat has spacious 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining and living area.
For more information and visit please contact Suresh Shrestha at
telephone number (977 - 1) 330222 / 330333 / 330494 (11 am - 4 pm, Nepal
Time, except holidays).
The flat is fully furnished with beds, furniture, cooker and refrigerator
and is available from the day you plan to move in. Weekly rent US$ 100.
Monthly rent US$ 350. Annual rent negotiable. Electercity and Telephone
charges as per use. Thank you very much for your time.
Contact Person and address in Nepal:
Name: Suresh Shrestha (sathi@writeme.com)
Telephone #: (977 - 1) 330222 / 330333 / 330494 ( 11 am - 4 pm, Nepal
Time, except holidays)
Contact Person and address in Nepal:
Name: Himal Ghimire (sagarmatha@juno.com), Californai, USA
Telephone #: (916) 486 - 9355
Himal Ghimire
4412 Baron Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95821
Phone : (916) 486 - 9355
E-mail : sagarmatha@juno.com
HomePage: http://welcome.to/Visit.Himal
"The truest test of civilization, culture, and dignity is character, not
clothing".
P.S: Thanks lot for publishing this on TND.
******************************************************************
Date: Tue, 10 May 1988 20:11:41 +0100
From: Nicola King <nicolaking@easynet.co.uk>
To: tnd@nepal.org
Subject: GURKHAS
I am trying to find an address for the GAESO as I need some help and advice on my case for an ex Gurkha who has not been paid correctly, by the British Army.
Pay is just one aspect of his case. I would appreciate any advice or help. Perhaps I could give the GAESO some information that might help there case for pay and pensions.
****************************************************************
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 12:22:35 -0400
From: "Royal Nepalese Embassy," <RNELondon@compuserve.com>
Subject: request for info about mr tika thapa and tara thapa
To: information officer <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
COULD I HAVE THE ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER OF :
MR TIKA THAPA AND TARA THAPA RESIDING SOMEWHERE TO THE WESTERN COAST=
OF USA- PROBABLY IN ARIZONA WITH THEIR TWO SMART SONS. I MET THEM IN KANS=
AS
IN 1989-90. I LOST CONTACT WITH THEM SINCE LAST FEW YEARS. PRESENTLY I AM=
LIVING IN LONDON WORKING AS MILITARY ATTACHE FROM NEPAL. =
LT COL INDRA B KARKI
MILITARY ATTACHE
ROYAL NEPALESE
EMBASSY
LONDON,W84QU
TELE:0044 171
2296231or 1594
EMAIL
ADDRESS:Internet:RNELondon@compuserve .
*****************************************************************
From: Ben Thapa <kkthapa@apollogrp.edu>
To: "'nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu'" <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: On the humerous side
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 11:28:16 -0700
Why DID the chicken cross the road?
Richard M. Nixon:
The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken
did "not" cross the road.
Bill Clinton:
I do not believe that you can find any evidence that 'that
chicken' is currently crossing the road solely to reach the other side.
Jerry Seinfeld:
Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever
think to ask, "What the heck was this 'chicken' doing walking around
all over the place anyway?"
Bill Gates:
I have just released the new Chicken Office 2000, which will not
only cross roads, but it will lay eggs, file your important documents
AND balance your checkbook. But please do not waste resources training
for CO 2000, as CO 2001 will be released soon, with many improved
features,
but it will not be backwards-compatible.
Oliver Stone:
The question is not "Why did the chicken cross the road?" But is
rather "Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked
in our haste to observe the chicken crossing, and were there other
high-placed chickens involved?"
Darwin:
Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected
in such a way that they are now genetically predisposed to cross roads.
Grandpa:
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone
told us that the chicken had crossed the road, and that was good
enough for us.
Machiavelli:
The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why?
The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.
Albert Einstein:
Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the
chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
Buddha:
Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
The chicken did not cross the road - it transcended it.
Ernest Hemingway:
To die. In the rain.
Colonel Sanders:
I missed one?
Kabindra Thapa
Phoenix, Arizona
************************************************************
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 20:12:18 +0530
From: "F. A. H. ('Hutch') Dalrymple" <hutch@wlink.com.np>
To: The Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Notes on Nepal
The following was discovered in a book entitled, 'Notes on Nepal,' by
Edin Vansittart, first published in 1896... I assume you'll see the
humor in it...
He that plays continually on the banks of a large river will someday be
drowned.
He that plays too much upon a rock may fall down some time.
Pigs secured by wooden clogs will become tame.
Elephants (if you've got an extra one) secured by twisted cotton ropes
will get very tame! (Note: Elephants are into S & M big time...
Everyone knows that!)
As soon as a wife has risen in the morning, she should bow down before
her husband and place his feet upon her head.
If the water is clear, fish will gather there.
If the tree is good and large, all birds and squirrels will live there.
Be not anxious to defend thy neighbor's honor.
Such wives as obey not their husband's commands and insist upon acting
according to their own wishes, will bring ruin to their own home, and
after death will be born again in the shape of itchy bitches.
Those who steal cotton will be born again as lepers.
A widow is allowed to marry again, but her value is held to have
declined by use, and only half the usual bride price should be paid if
she is still young (under 25 years old), but only one-quarter if older.
So, take heed...
-----------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 18:24:42 +0000
To: hutch@wlink.com.np
From: "V&G Publications Pvt. Ltd." <vgpub@mos.com.np>
Subject: NO HUMOR
Hi Hutch,
I don't see any humor in this. Please read my comments.
Yubakar
Editor,
Wave
At 08:12 PM 5/16/98 +0530, you wrote:
>The following was discovered in a book entitled, 'Notes on Nepal,' by
>Edin Vansittart, first published in 1896... I assume you'll see the
>humor in it...
>
>He that plays continually on the banks of a large river will someday be
>drowned.
(There's humor in this??)
>He that plays too much upon a rock may fall down some time.
(Where's humor?)
>Pigs secured by wooden clogs will become tame.
(?????????????????)
>Elephants (if you've got an extra one) secured by twisted cotton ropes
>will get very tame! (Note: Elephants are into S & M big time...
>Everyone knows that!)
(??????????)
>As soon as a wife has risen in the morning, she should bow down before
>her husband and place his feet upon her head.
(I think you know that it is a part of our culture. Are you laughing at this?)
>If the water is clear, fish will gather there.
(Humor???)
>If the tree is good and large, all birds and squirrels will live there.
(????)
>Be not anxious to defend thy neighbor's honor.
(I don't see how you find humor in all these lines. Are you sure you've
read these yourself?)
>Such wives as obey not their husband's commands and insist upon acting
>according to their own wishes, will bring ruin to their own home, and
>after death will be born again in the shape of itchy bitches.
(Well, this one, you can say, bears wild imagination.)
>Those who steal cotton will be born again as lepers.
(?????????? I mean, who said this or wrote this and where and in what
context and....)
>A widow is allowed to marry again, but her value is held to have
>declined by use, and only half the usual bride price should be paid if
>she is still young (under 25 years old), but only one-quarter if older.
(Again, wild imagination.)
>So, take heed...
Sorry, didn't find any humor.
***************************************************************
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 11:35:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: aiko <gs07aaj@panther.Gsu.EDU>
To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Corrections
I need to make two corrections to the post I'd sent regarding my reaction
to the hypocrisy of the US re India:
I had written about a "Dr. Meerschaum" which was an incorrect spelling of
his name, and of his name in general: the correct one is "Dr. John
Meerscheimer". He is the American professor who also is critical of US
condemnation of India
In the "Week in Review" section of the Sunday ed. of the New York Times,
there is an article which states that the European nations OPPOSE the US
bid for sanctions against India. Perhaps they see the hypocrisy in all
this as well? I had written that the "western" nations had followed suit
along with the US in condemning India. Perhaps initially, but from what I
understand, that quickly changed to no sanctions against. Russia had
urged that from the beginning, but not Germany or Britain or France.
However, now those countries also do not opt for the sanctions.
Thank you.
aiko joshi
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