#246 6 - 12 May 2005 16 pages Rs 30

Weekly Internet Poll # 247. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.comQ..... Are you satisfied with the response ofthe political parties after the lifting of theemergency?

Total votes:1050

Weekly Internet Poll # 246

Q. Should India resume military assistanceto Nepal?

ISSN

181

4-26

13

here has been such a flurry ofinternational activity on Nepalover the last month that one

would think–as with development,peacemaking and conflictresolution–the return to democracytoo has been farmed out tooverseas friends and next-doorneighbours. Fortunately, the pastweek saw the beginning ofcoordinated activity by politicalparties, on whom rests theresponsibility of bringing thecountry back to civilised,democratic rule based on primacyof law, constitutional evolution andrepresentative government.

Given that democracy brokeredby anyone other than therepresentatives of the people isbound to be more conservativethan liberal, amidst their concernand activism it is important forspecial representatives,ambassadors, diplomats and Nepaldesk-officers everywhere to payheed to what is happening onground level in the country theywant to save. Given that only threeindividuals of the 205 members ofthe disbanded Third Parliamentspeak parlour-quality English, it is

not hard to understand why thediplomats tend to be one stepremoved from the politicalmovement on the ground. Thisdemographic distance is a definitefactor of Nepali politics because ofthe weight the internationals pull onnational affairs due to geopoliticsand control of the purse strings ofdevelopment and arms delivery.

Three weeks ago, the UnitedNations decided in Geneva that theprotection of human rights ofNepali citizens vis-à-vis the rebelsand the security forces required aninternational presence of more than50 international monitors. IanMartin, the much-heralded head ofthe Nepal Office of the HighCommissioner for Human Rights,is due to arrive on Friday. OnTuesday, the UN system in Nepal,in unprecedented action, called forfull respect by the government forthe principles of press freedom.

At a time when the governmentwillingly has its head-in-sand, it isthe United Nations and bilateraldonors which have taken a standon emergency, humanitarian anddevelopment assistance to thepeople at risk. As we speak, thereis a high-level meeting to discussNepal developments among Delhi-based diplomats, ambassadorsarriving from Kathmandu and theIndian Foreign Office. Issuing ajoint statement on Tuesday, HumanRights Watch, AmnestyInternational and the InternationalCommission of Jurists called for a

rollback of fundamental rights.The activism of the world

community in favour of humanrights and democracy is todaymatched by the silence emanatingfrom the erstwhile (pre-FebruaryFirst) civil society. What the royaltakeover of 1 February has done isstarted a process where civilsociety wheat is separating fromcivil society chaff and we find nomore than a handful of those whohave dared to speak up for thefundamental principles ofgovernance. Among a particularcategory, it is almost as if they

believe there could bedevelopment in the absence ofdemocracy.

The silence of civil society,however, is compensated by thegrowing activism of the politicalparties, which were initiallyimpacted by the shock-and-awe of1 February. The late bloomingreaction of the parties is alsoexplained by the internalcontradictions within them onmatters of personality andprinciple and the attempts atrestructuring while the top menwere still in detention. But the

Enter the politicianKANAK MANI DIXIT

First after February First:Koirala meets Nepal on Tuesday.

Charting the course back to pluralismnews is that the political partiesare beginning to coordinate,particularly since the release ofNC President Girija PrasadKoirala last month and UMLGeneral Secretary Madhab KumarNepal at midnight on Sunday. Theplan apparently is to announce acommon agenda (which is whatNC’s Ram Sharan Mahat andUML’s Subhas Nembang wereworking on when they werearrested on 27 April) that is tolead to a unified movement notonly of the ‘five parties’ but the‘seven parties’ including theDeuba Congress.

The political parties arehopefully chastened by thecriticism of their past behaviour inparliament and gullibility whilefighting regression. Activelywatched by an alert public, theyare the ones to chart the courseback to pluralism. The world,having stood firm by the Nepalipeople in the hour of need, mustregard the politicians and theirparties as representing theaspirations of the population.Unfortunately, the reportedcomments of US AmbassadorJames Moriarty at the Centre forStrategic and International Studiesin Washington DC last Friday,including reference to theFebruary First action beingpopular among ordinary Nepalis,at the very least, does not inspireconfidence in the intentions of thesuper power.

T

KIRAN PANDAY

2 6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246EDITORIAL

Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda DixitDesk Editor: Abha Eli Phoboo, Aarti BasnyatDesign: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan ShilpakarAdvertising: Sunaina Shah advertising@himalmedia.comSubscription: Anil Karki, subscription@himalmedia.comSanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, LalitpurGPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, NepalTel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018editors@nepalitimes.com, www.nepalitimes.com

LLLLL E T T E R SE T T E R SE T T E R SE T T E R SE T T E R S

Nepali Times: You added 10members last year, Romania andBulgaria are next. Is there a feelingthe EU growing too fast?Eduardo Lechuga Jimenez: Yes,this week there was another stepforward with the enlargementagreement of the EU for Romaniaand Bulgaria which means that in avery short time, in 2007, we willhave 27 members. Also, there is aqueue of countries negotiatingmembership. We have Croatia,other Balkan countries and in themedium term, Turkey. My guess isthat by the end of this decade therewill be around 30 countries in theEU. The speed could be seen asfast, that is why there is already adebate within the EU to what extentwe can continue on this path. It isclear that one year after theenlargement by 10 new members inMay 2004 the EU is workingsurprisingly well. The basic thingis to maintain economic and socialcohesion and for that obviouslyfunds have to be distributed withinthe EU so that the cohesion takesplace. But you are right, as weexpand we have to keep revisingour policies. The morehomogenous we are, the easier itwill be for the EU to move in theright direction. This has beenproven when you look atachievements like the Euro, as oftoday the strongest currency in theworld, and technological andcommercial project as the Airbus380, the biggest aircraft in theglobe and so forth.

How are you going to resolve thiscrisis over the Europeanconstitution?I would not call it a crisis. No

doubt, the EU Constitution is oneof the big aims to be achieved. Forthe first time in the EU we have alegal point of reference for all thecountries. Six members havealready approved it but we areaware that in the next few months

other EU members will have asay about it. So far, thereferendums about this EUconstitution have been positive forits members and if it is approvedthere is no doubt it willmean that the Europeanproject is moving ahead.

The EuropeanEduardo Lechuga Jimenez is acting head of Delegation ofthe European Commission in Nepal. In the run-up toEurope Day on 9 May, he spoke to Nepali Times aboutthe challenges faced by an expanding Europe and theEU’s reaction to events in Nepal.

STATEMENTI am surprised that ICJ Secretary GeneralNicholas Howen told Samaya weekly (‘Missionstatement’, #244) ‘If the Maoists don’t cooperate,it will cast doubt on their credibility.’ Thisstatement only means that the Maoists have‘credibility’ of a sort which needs to be protected.So far, I thought Maoists were cold-blooded firstdegree criminals who need to be brought tojustice. Howen should not hesitate to explainwhat credibility he has seen in the Maoists. Whyare political authorities in this country ignoringsuch remarks from foreign governments andorganisations? They cannot and should not acton behalf of the people of Nepal.

Salini Johnson, Melbourne

It is heartening to see the role of the RNAsoldier finally being put in the proper perspective(‘Amrit Medhasi’, #244). The public’s lack ofunderstanding and support to the state forces inthis war so far is pitiable and the media has ahuge role to play in disabusing notions that theRNA and the Maoists are equal abusers ofhuman rights in our country. It needs to beemphasised for example that, like AmritMedhasi, all the soldiers of the RNA have joinedit of their own free will. The RNA does notabduct, brainwash and coerce anyone to join itsranks like the Maoists do. Other countries haveresorted to drafting soldiers in case ofemergency but despite being severelyundermanned, the RNA has not resortedto such measures. Thesoldiers of the RNA aremen and women whoconsciously decided to signup for their jobs. Anotherissue that the human rightsgroups and the media don’ttalk much about is the rateof improvement of the twoforces in complying withuniversal human rightsstandards. If such acomparative study is done, isthere any doubt who the blacksheep would be? Since 2001,

the RNA has expended resources in training itssoldiers on human rights matters and punishedwrongdoers. Have the Maoists done the same?Why don’t we hear these stories? Though humanrights organisations and the media have to bethanked for their work so far, simply pointing outthe atrocities committed by the two sides is onlyhalf-the-picture, a half-truth. The whole truth is thatthe state forces and the Maoists are not equalperpetrators of the climate of fear and terror in ourcountry. Such distinctions have to be made andmade publicly.

Abhishek Basnyat, via email

Does the American administration know thatEgypt has been under a state of emergency for thelast 20 years? The Indians know very well howdemocratic Bhutanis are but that didn’t stop theIndian prime minister from making King Jigme thechief guest at the Republic Day celebrations inNew Delhi this year. It didn’t matter to the Indiansthat one million Bhutani refugees have beenlanguishing in camps in eastern Nepal for the past13 years. And India’s love for democracy didn’tstop it from tangoing with the general to its westeither. Those in power, it seems, can get awaywith hypocrisy and double standards. That is why Icouldn’t agree more with Bihari Krishna Shrestha’sGuest Column, ‘Charting our own path’ (#245).

Hemanta Aryal, Kathmandu

No sooner had the emergency been lifted, theseven student unions affiliatedto political parties were first offthe mark to compete with theMaoists to wreak anarchy onthe country’s educationsystem. If this is what theirpolitical bosses in the erstwileparliamentary parties have inmind as a way out of thepresent crisis, then I for onewould rather have theemergency continue andmake the party leadershipsit in the cooler for somemore time. This is not justan elite view, most Nepali

people feel the same way. Let’s not mix updemocracy with demagoguery.

Gyan Subba, Kumaripati

HUG TREESRecently you published a timely letter from JanSalter and Neeta Pokhrel (‘Tree huggers’, #241).The following week you showed a photograph ofthe trees cut down in Baluwatar with the caption:‘The Slaughter Continues’. It is still continuing.This week I counted 21 mature trees cut downoutside the Engineering Campus in Pulchok. Myreaction has shifted from upset to outrage. I dohowever realise that there are issues of greaterconcern—all over Nepal people are being cut down.

In February this paper carried a celebratededitorial ‘Hariyo ban Nepal ko dhan’ (#233)providing much food for thought. Read on the mostliteral level it gives good reasons why trees thatline the streets of Kathmandu (and Patan and theroad to Bhaktapur) should not be decimated.Sundarial Bahuguna, of the Chipko Andolan stated:“The largest and most important product of the treeis not timber as we have been taught but soil,water and oxygen”. Can anyone deny thatKathmandu needs more oxygen? Will no one raisetheir voice or take action before the city loses moreof its beautiful, life-giving trees?

Ruth Foster, Ekantakuna

HUMLAThanks to Naresh Newar for his articleshighlighting the plight of the people in Humla(#245). It is very much a neglected and forgottenoutpost of the ‘hidden Himalayas’ as he says.However, over the past 10 years, we as anorganisation have tried to make a difference inHumla, constructing health posts, installing micro-hydro units, bringing electricity to the villages,renovating monasteries, training health workers andrunning health camps in the remote, hidden valleys.And all were done with the participation andcooperation of the villagers. But there’s a lot morethat needs to be done and we are trying toestablish an integrated network of health provisionthroughout the region, to lift Humla from its abjectposition on the Human Development Index. Humlishave waited long enough. As for Ujeli Rokaya

(‘Nothing stops Ujeli’, #245), wow, more powerto her for her courage and determination! Humla(and Nepal) could do with more people like her.

Sheila Mapson, Nepal Trust

It was sad reading the articles ‘Cry, belovedcountry’, ‘Humla’s class struggle’ and ‘Kasilal’splight’, (#245). The arson and slaughter byMaoists of innocent villagers proves that theideology and principle with which they first beganhas disappeared. On the other hand, teachersusing the Maoists as an excuse to abandonvillages and go on holiday has deteriorated theplight of many students. At a time when Kasilalshould be playing with his friends and studying,he has to carry 15 kg of rice and considerhimself lucky to get it and carry it up those steephilly trails for three hours on an empty stomach.I don’t know who is to blame for the plight ofthese innocent people but I want to ask theMaoists: how can we understand that you’vebeen fighting for the people? Or has thepostmodern world lost the meaning of integrity,love and sympathy? Or is the people’s war amere pretext to gain power?

Milan Gurung, via emailU-15I am a regular reader of Nepali Times and love toread your sports articles. It will definitely help indeveloping sports in Nepal. In the last issue, youbeautifully presented the success story of our U-15 cricket team (‘Our boys bring home the cup’,#245). But it would help even more if youmentioned the age bar of the Nepali team whichwill be a major problem for Nepal in the future. Inthis edition of the U-15 Asia Cup, only one playerwas selected for the dream team from thewinning team, Nepal but six were selected fromAfghanistan.

Niranjan Adhikari, via email

Congratulations to Bhairab Risal (‘Sun lightin Humla’, #245) for his single-handed effort tolight up Humla. He deserves a helping hand andas a Nepali who enjoys electricity, I havepledged my Rs 4,000 to light up a home inHumla. I urge fellow Nepalis to do the same.

Rima Namgyal, email

LONG AND WINDING ROADThe removal of emergency has been greeted by all with a sigh ofrelief. The UN secretary general, neighbouring India and others haveexpressed their satisfaction and urged the government to follow it upwith further relaxation and restoration of democracy. Surprisingly,the reaction here in Nepal has been rather muted and for goodreason.

Firstly, there are those who thought the emergency was working,at least inside the Ring Road. But draconian restrictions placed onfreedom of movement and expression are still in place. Even thoughsome important political figures have been released, the period ofdetention of many others such as Narhari Acharya and Lila ManiPokharel have been extended by another three months. Cell phoneshave been partially restored but even landline phones of importantpolitical figures are still dead.

Logically, the lifting of the emergency should have automaticallyended press censorship. But the notorious notification curtailingpress freedom hasn’t yet been withdrawn. News is still banned onFM. May Day and Word Press Freedom Day had to be celebrated indefiance of prohibitory orders issued by the district administration.

The state of emergency maybe officially over but it hasleft a bad hangover.

The gulf between whatthe government says anddoes is so wide that no onedares take any risk. Thishas created a crisis ofconfidence not only betweenthe palace and political

parties but also between the government and civil society. For acountry mired in violent insurgency and international censure forhuman rights violations, such uncertainty is intolerable.

The government must go beyond symbolic removal of state ofemergency. Local authorities need to be told categorically thatfundamental rights have been restored. Freedom of the press mustnot only be guaranteed but ensured through an enablingenvironment. And remember, this time there are internationalmonitors watching.

Finally, the process of reconciliation between constitutionalforces can only begin with the rescinding of all extra-legalinstitutions created under the emergency provisions.

It is a long and winding road towards democratic, peaceful andprosperous Nepal. But there can be no turning back.

MIN BAJRACHARYA

36 - 12 MAY 2005 #246

STATE OF THE STATECK Lal

Has EU policy on foreign aidchanged with enlargement?We are one of the biggest donorsin the world and we are increasingthe volume of our aid andstreamlining it. However, we arecurrently giving new thoughts toaid. For example assistance we

give to countries like Nepal and tocountries like Brazil and Chinacan’t be the same. Ourcooperation will be reviewed, myguess is that there will be newrules about how to work withrecently industralised countrieson the one hand and lessdeveloped countries on the other.Nevertheless the EU’s principlesof democracy and goodgovernance will always beadhered to in its aid policy.

And has this policy towards Nepalchanged after February First?There is a long tradition ofcooperation with Nepal. It goesback to the 1970s. We arecurrently following the guidelinesembedded within the EU-NepalCooperation Agreement signed in1996. What has changed afterFebruary First is that due to thenew political situation we arereviewing our cooperation. Which,

perspective Yellow + blue = greenWhen will our political hues be a harmony of colour?

n the referendum of 1980,political choice was colour-coded to simplify voting:

yellow for continuation of thesystem and blue for a change tomultiparty democracy. Resultswent in the favour of ‘improved’panchayat, democraticaspirations of nearly half thevoters were left unaddressed fora decade.

When the People’sMovement of 1990 upturned theverdict of 1980, most panchaysdyed their bandanas blue. A fewhardcore yellow hearts likeMarich Man Singh refused and

decided to lie low. Democratsthought that the yellow fever ofthe 80s was over. They were sosanguine that not even thesudden dissolution ofparliament in May 2002 couldwake them up.

After 4 October 2002 all thatthe dismissed premier SherBahadur Deuba could think ofwas his reinstatement.Eventually he was quite happyto be a nominated premier of agovernment with nominalpowers. The firebrand of theNepali Congress-D hadn’t justmellowed, he had actuallyyellowed.

By consenting to accept thedecisive leadership of the king,the Deuba coalition endorsedthe royal takeover of OctoberFourth by default. This is thereason victims of February Firstappear to be willingcollaborators of constructivemonarchy.

Twenty-five years after thereferendum the NC is once morethrust at the frontline of anti-palace peaceful struggle. But thistime the colour scheme of thepolitical game has a thirdshade–blood red of the armed

Maoists whose true colours aren’tyet clear. Maoists soundvirulently anti-monarchy buttheir actions have always resultedin strengthening the hands ofpalace.

No politician with apanchayat background wastouched by Maoists in the initialstages of insurgency. UMLactivists were similarly sparedtheir wrath. It seemed as ifeliminating the NC in thecountryside was the sole aim ofthe armed insurgency. Now thatthe centre has crumbled andextremists of the left and rightface each other menacingly, it’sonly the centrist NC that still hasthe political strength to savethem from each other.

In the coming days, a lot willdepend upon the proclivities ofpopular politicos under a bluebanner. Far from being a spentforce, mainstream parties willdecide the future course of Nepalipolitics.

The international communitywould like to see twin pillars of1990 constitution work inharmony. An accommodationbetween yellow and blue to createa green hue of constitutionalmonarchy and multipartydemocracy is still the bestpossible option. But looking atthe belligerence of formerpanchays dreaming about

in a pragmatic way, means ongoingprojects will continue but pipelineprojects for the time being will beon hold. For future cooperation wewill make an assessment soonand act accordingly.

And what are the conditions thatneed to be fulfilled for you toresume aid in the pipeline?As I said before, we have notstopped it but in order to improveour current and future cooperationwe will have to work in line withour EU-Nepal CooperationAgreement where both sidesaccept respect for human rightsand democratic principles as thebasis for cooperation between theparties. As you know we believe inmulti-party democracy systems,therefore, we would like to see inNepal a return to a democraticsituation soon and the re-establishment of fundamentalrights, in particular the right toassociation, freedom ofexpression, rights of the mediaetc...in short, a political programaimed at the re-establishment of amultiparty democracy.

The argument justifying FebruaryFirst is that the political partiesmade a mess of it but you say theEU will only resume aid if thesame parties are restored topower.This is an issue that should bedealt with internally. But onceagain, we maintain we want towork with democraticgovernments. Therefore, thesooner Nepal returns todemocracy the better for bothsides and we will in that frameworkbe able to ameliorate ourcooperation.

Have you offered any help tofacilitate a peace process ormediation role?During the last EC–Nepal JointCommission in September andTroikai’s visit in December 2004 toNepal we have manifested thatpossibility. The EU has alwaysenvisaged the possible use ofmechanism oriented to help solvethe conflict problem. We are stillcommitted to that offer but in thecontext I mentioned before.

absolute monarchy patternedafter panchayat, the chances ofGirija Prasad Koirala discussingabsolute democracy with thelikes of Tulsi Giri are dim.

At the other extreme, eventhough Comrade Madhab Nepaland Chairman Prachanda wavethe same hammer-and-sickle flag,their political bases are toosimilar to allow these twoambitious leaders to worktogether. Prachanda can’t tolerateBaburam Bhattarai and MadhabNepal barely tolerates KP Oli inthe UML politburo.

Were the pink communists ofBalkhu to join forces with theyellow storm troopers of thepalace to fight the Maoist menace,an orange-tinged politics ofMarxists and monarchists mayemerge. Recently freed MadhabNepal has ruled out all suchpossibilities but he is known tochange his stand at any hint ofpower. If this marriage ofconvenience is solemnised, itmay force NC to open lines ofcommunication with the Maoiststhus transforming the politicallandscape. It may appear far-fetched at the moment but thiscountry has seen its share ofsurprises. The time to think theunthinkable may be nigh. Purplepower will transform the socio-cultural landscape of Nepalforever.

I

4 6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246NATION

hen Nepal EkaratEngineering Company(NEEK) was established

as the first Nepal-Thailand jointventure company in 1990, onlyseven percent of Nepalis hadaccess to electricity. For many thatwould have been a hurdle butNEEK saw it as an opportunity.

Kush Kumar Joshi and Ajaya

Transforming Nepali industryQuietly, a Nepali electrical component manufacturer shows what hard work and perseverance can achieve

Mudbhary were electricalengineers and they immediatelyrealised that with democracy andliberal economic policy, therewould be new investments inhydropower. As Nepal electrified,the demand for transformerswould zoom.

And so it did. NEEK laidemphasis on quality andcompetitiveness throughproductivity. Soon the plant in

high quality and beganimporting from the EkaratCompany in Thailand. Ekarat’schairman Kiet PhongNoichaboon was not just abusinessman, he was altruisticand a devout Buddhist. Hewanted to do something for theland of the Buddha’s birth andthat was how NEEK was set up.

Most other exporterswouldn’t want to give awaytheir business to a localsubsidiary but Ekarat proposedto Joshi that they set up amanufacturing base in Nepal.“Not only did he want toexpand his business he alsowanted to earn divine merit,”explains Joshi, “and I think hehas earned it.”

Commercial production inHetauda began in 1992 and theinitial period revolved aroundtraining and support. NEEK’stransformers meet internationalstandards and Joshi says hewanted to dispel the notionthat things can be third rate justbecause you are supplying tothe Nepali market.

But like any othermanufacturer, NEEK is facingproblems due to the blockadesof highways and strikes. Joshiwould also like to see thegovernment being moreproactive in encouragingindustries like NEEK so thecountry can become self-

sufficient. Industrial analystssay the fact is that NEEK hasbeen successful because of amanagement which injectedvision into the business.

Now, NEEK is venturing intoexports and recently got an orderfor several hundred transformersfor Bhutan. There was anotherpending order for 15,000 unitsfrom Bangladesh but NEEK hadto turn it down because oftransportation uncertainties.“We didn’t want to take theorder and not be able to deliver,”explains Joshi.

NEEK has the capacity toproduce 2,000 transformers ayear but it could be more if therewere no night curfews andblockades. Their main client isNepal Electricity Authority towhich it has sold 6,500transformers. But the demand isrising and after it received itsISO 9001 certification in 1999,NEEK is bidding for supplyingto India, Bangladesh andAfrican countries.

AARTI BASNYAT

“Tremendous scope forgrowth in electricals”Managing Director of the Nepal Ekarat Engineering Company,Kush Kumar Joshi talked to Nepali Times about transformers,joint ventures and exporting products in the region during thisdifficult period.Nepali Times: Why transformers?Kush Kumar Joshi: We started business in the electrical line,constructing electrical things like transmission lines, sowhen we were procuring transformers we found thistransformer from Thailand which was of good quality andavailable at a great price. The electrification ratio at that timewas only seven percent, there was a huge demand in themarket for transformers so we jumped right in.

Did you really need a joint venture partner? Couldn’t you go italone?To design and manufacture a transformer is not such a bigthing but the quality and experience we gained proved to be amajor advantage. Also the chairman of our mother companyEkarat Thailand wanted to do something for Nepal becausethey were Buddhists. On one hand, there was the businessopportunity and on the other, they wanted to help Nepaldevelop.

How does your domestic market compare with exports?There is tremendous scope for growth for electricalcomponents in the domestic market because only 19 percentof Nepalis have access to electricity. There is still 81 percentto tap and a huge transformer requirement exists. So far wehave made 7,000 transformers. We are very competitive,technically competent and confident about exporting. We canbid in the international market, but we are focusing more onthe regional market due to transportation problems. Our focusis Bhutan, Bangladesh and now, India.

Hetauda couldn’t producetransformers fast enough for thedomestic market and today meets90 percent of the domesticdemand.

When Joshi was doingcontract work on transmissionlines, he used to importtransformers from Thailand.Through research and marketstudy he found transformers fromThailand to be affordable and of

W

How important was your breakthrough in bagging theBhutan order?The Bhutan order was very important for us. Theirinterest was not only the price but also quality and thisboosts our reputation. There were restrictions oncommercial transactions between Bhutan and Nepalbecause of the currency but that hurdle was crossedwith the help of both governments, which allowed us todeal in Indian currency instead of dollars. It was goodfor business and the economies of both Nepal andBhutan. This has opened the door for trade betweenBhutan and Nepal. It is a milestone.

How has the political situation affected your business?We were receiving a lot of inquiries for big numbers oftransformers from both India and Bangladesh but wechose Bhutan because it was a small order. We areliving in uncertain times with bandas and blockades.Our factory is in Hetauda and for the past three years,the curfew there has prevented us from working after7PM. We can’t operate our factory at full capacityeven if we had an order. If we had more orders andweren’t able to fulfil them, it would create problemswith new customers and our reliability would bequestioned. If there was political stability the businesswould be growing much faster and perhaps we wouldalso have diversified into more sophisticated electricalcomponents.

Workers at the NEEK factory in Hetauda.

MIN BAJRACHARYA

56 - 12 MAY 2005 #246BUSINESS

NEW PRODUCT

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Tourists plummet againThe Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said that touristarrivals by air declined 38 percent in April this year as compared tothe same month of the previous year. NTB’s tally for April shows18,879 tourists arriving by air compared to 30,402 tourists last April.Some 5,058 of them were Indian this year while 7,511 Indian touristsvisited in April last year. Tourist arrivals from the UK, USA, Germany,Japan and Australia were down by 29, 33, 30, 45 and 30 percentrespectively. The decline is attributed to the unstable politicalsituation in the country. NTB also says that since September First,tourist arrivals had seen a continuous decline. The industry believesthat until a strong national carrier and competitive packages are notfloated in markets, revival of tourist numbers will be difficult despiterelentless efforts. Even then, industry experts are optimistic that thearrival trends will go up now that the emergency has been lifted.

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Ghar subidhaNepal Industrial and Commercial Bank has launchedits NIC Ghar Subhidha scheme. With the lowestinterest rates, this facility aims to enable middle classNepali families to own their own houses.

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Fly to BhutanDruk Air has introduced special promotional fares on KTM-DEL-KTMand KTM-DEL routes under certain conditions. The offer is valid for amonth.

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ShowroomGiordano has opened a new exclusive showroom in Lajimpat,opposite Suwal music library. Opened under the agreement ofGiordano Hongkong and Samden Enterprises in Nepal, it showcasesclothing for men and women.

HI-TECH: LG Electronics in association withthe Chaudhary Group has unveiled its latestrange of premium products for the Nepalimarket such as multiplexes with inbuilt DVDand VCR, home theatre facilities and GSM phones.

SUPER SPLENDOR: The new Hero Honda SuperSplendor is Syakar Company’s latest entrant in the Nepalimotorcycle market with 125 cc for an introductory price ofRs 1,09,500.

ast week, like a lot of you theBeed was up to his neckattending marriage receptions

and the common thread thatbound them was the talk ofquantity, not quality.

Hosts like to brag about thenumber of people they’ve invited.And usually, a thousand areinvited but the food runs out

before 300 have arrived. Proudmothers of brides and brides-to-be talk of 51 saris and 101 sarisfor their daughters. It does notmatter if each one cost a hundredor a thousand or tens ofthousands. Bands are judged bythe number of members in thegroup or the number of hoursthey were engaged. It doesn’tmatter if they weren’t playingmusic but just plain noise.Catering companies lure clientswith the number of items on theirmenu, perhaps people ignore thefact that only a few of them areprepared for the feast. Our questfor growing numbers is neverending. Perhaps it is our agrarianbackground that has led to thisincessant obsession withnumbers, where prosperity isjudged by the number of cattle,goat or chicken you own and notby how healthy they are.

Government officials love to

ECONOMIC SENSEArtha Beed

brag about the number of banksand financial institutions wehave even if the same set ofpeople own them. We have moreairlines than any of ourneighbouring countries. We liketo talk about the 50+ FM stationsand the number of civil societyorganisations in the same wayand political parties are judgedon the number of people they‘feed-in’ to a rally. Our ownparliament has 205 memberswhile a billion people in Indiahave just above 540. Judging byour parliamentarian topopulation ratio, India shouldhave a parliament with 8,000+members.

We have more committeesthan we can count and peoplerepresent more committees thanwe can remember. Even ourRotarian friends in Nepal havecaught the number bug. If youthrow a stone, it might just hit aRotarian.

Our development plans too,focus on quantity. It is aboutproviding health to all andeducation to all rather thanimproving the quality of healthand education. We go by thenumber of schools that are built,not considering if they haveenough teachers or if classes areconducted at all. Tax officialstalk of the number of people inthe tax net, not their quality. Wetalk of the number of saplings

planted, not the number of treesthat have grown. We talk of thenumber of tourists arriving andnot the money spent by them.Statistical expression ofdevelopment has led toquantification and number games,judging gender, vaccination,nutrition, ethnicity, rights,abuses, exploitation, energy andcommunication et al by them.And tools like logframes havemade us dream in numbers interms of judgment.

Of course, the numbers gameis important, as it is one form ofjudging performance but ignoringquality as a way of life leads tomediocrity. This createssituations like a plethora ofpolitical parties lacking inquality, plethora of businesspeople lacking in enterprisedevelopment, plethora ofbilaterals and NGOs lacking indelivery of development basics,plethora of self-proclaimedintellectuals lacking in rationalthought. Economy anddevelopment in the medium andlong-term are qualitative issues,not the short-term maze ofnumbers. We need to refocusconstantly to not get sucked intothe number game. Perhaps peoplemay start by inviting fewer peopleto parties but providing qualityexperience to those few.

www.arthabeed.com

The numbers gameMore is not always better

L

6 6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246FROM THE NEPALI PRESS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

SELECTED MATERIAL TRANSLATED EVERY WEEK FROM THE NEPALI PRESS

Kantipur, 3 May

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IrresponsibleEditorial inNepal Samacharpatra, 2 May

On Friday evening at JanajyotiCampus in Mahedranagar, thesecurity forces opened fire atinnocent students, terrorisingvillagers and causing students torise in revolt. According to thedetails of the incident, membersof ANNFSU were discussingpreparations for their inauguralcommittee and district levelinspection program when thesecurity forces suddenly burstinto the room. The students beganto run in fear when they sawarmed security personnel andwere shot at on suspicion of beingMaoists.

Local residents who witnessedthe incident had told the securityforces that the students were notMaoists. The security forces didnot listen to them and wentahead, causing serious injury tosome of the students. ANNFSU’sCentral Committee Member NarBahadur Dhami, District-levelCommittee’s Assistant SecretaryMahesh Pant and JanajyotiCampus’ student Kiran Chhetriwere shot in the leg. This incidentcasts a shadow on the credibilityof the security force that issupposed to look after thesecurity of the nation. They claimthat they were forced to open firebecause they had only receivedinformation about a Maoistmeeting and the students had notinformed them about theirs. Theirexcuse that they began to shoot atthe students on suspicion ofbeing Maoists because they beganto run is irrational. Can you shootat a group of people just becauseyou think they are Maoists? Thisis a serious question. First, theinformer gave wrong informationto the security forces. Second,responsible security personnelopened fire without verifyingfacts. Besides these, there were anumber of grave mistakes made.To shoot at a non-violent crowdof unarmed innocent students isagainst human rights and theGeneva Convention. Even if theywere Maoists, according to the lawof the kingdom, they could havebeen arrested or treated asprisoners but they were studentsdiscussing their association’sprograms. A few of them weremeeting for a simple discussion atthe campus they attended andthey thought it was safe. Studentassociations have protested thisact of violence creatingdifficulties in the educationalcalendar again. For students tolive in terror of the state is toconfuse hundreds of youngpeople. It is important that theguilty party be brought to justice.The security force must alsounderstand that they cannot acton suspicion alone, to do so is toviolate human rights and the law.

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People’s interestPadma Sundar Lawoti inNispakshya, 26 April

The king’s February First movemade many Nepalis happybecause it was the step he tookportraying the real picture of thecountry. However, the

implementation part of the royaldeclaration appears not to be asserious as it should have been. Ifappointments in the ministers’council and other politicalpositions are made on the basisof geography, ethnicity, region,and experience, it wouldperhaps have yielded effectiveand early results. But of course,there has been improvement inlaw and order. You can see foryourself how things havechanged.

Prior to 1 February, anythingcould have happened anywherebut now, even if there arerumours of a Nepal banda, it isineffective in Kathmandu.People have been able to carry onwith their lives the way theylike and the situation is slowlyimproving in other areas as well.The people’s feeling and thesituation of the country is oneside, the other is the opinion offoreigners and adamant politicalparties. This is wrong. Theleaders of political partiesshould at least be practical. Ifthey look at the ground realityand analyse the aspirations ofthe people, nothing will stopthem from working togetherwith the king. The monarch hasmade it clear that the partiesmust be loyal towards thepeople and democracy. If theparties give up their vestedinterests, they will have noreason to protest. They havebeen protesting only becausetheir interests are not being met.The king has repeatedlyexpressed his commitment toconstitutional monarchy andmultiparty democracy. If we donot believe the king, then whocan we believe? The parties haveonly been making certainquarters happy to profitthemselves. Outsiders guidesome parties, a few of the leadersare remote-controlled and othershave their own selfish interests.These politicians are worriedbecause they have no way ofindulging in corruption whileothers are concerned about beingprosecuted for theirinvolvement in such cases inthe past. Considering thenational and internationalscenario, the Maoists will haveto come to terms with thegovernment. If they continueprotesting just for the sake ofprotesting, the people willoutcast them. Yes, it’s true thatthey’ve targeted me. They robbedtwo of my houses and burnt

JB Pun Magar inHimal Khabarpatrika, 29 April-14 May

BARGADAWA—The vigilantes that started withthe intention of fighting injustice at the hands of theMaoists, is now following their lead by torturing,looting and killing innocent civilians. Unarmedvillagers are now forming groups to defendthemselves against the gun-toting vigilantes led bythe notorious Muna Khan. The vigilantes havesubjected many villagers to interrogation, housesearch, extortion and even forced them to join theirretaliation committee and buy arms from them.

On 21 March, committee members includingRadhe Mukhiya Yadab and eight others beat upRajendra Malla, a small trader, during the villagemarket day at Rupaulia when they did not get themoney demanded to buy alcohol. “They were drunk

and armed when they beat me up with the butt oftheir guns,” said Malla. They had been goingaround the marketplace shooting in the air andraising false alarm by shouting that the Maoistshad come. More than a dozen people were injuredwhile trying to escape, some were children, womenand elderly citizens. The vigilantes forced 15-year-old girls Bimala Chaudhary and Parbati Chaudharyto take off their clothes. “There were about 20-25 ofthem and when we requested them not to mistreatthe girls, they attacked and beat up five of us cowherders with their guns,” recalled Bhimlal Dhakal.The vigilantes, supposedly fighting against theMaoists, have planted the seeds of a communal riftbetween the hill and tarai populace. Now they are

Vigilante justicetargeting those wearing dhaka topis. Girija PrasadBasyal was victim to such mistreatment. He wastold that there were “orders to kill anyone wearingdhaka topis.”

On 23 March, a group of 300 villagers fromRupaulia took a delegation to the districtadministration office in Somani to punish theperpetrators and to request security. Despiteassurance from Police Officer Ram Kumar Khanalto control the vigilantes, the violence is getting outof hand. On 27 March, the vigilantes mercilesslythrashed shopkeeper Keshab Raj Sharma forfailing to pay the money demanded. Almost 60 ofthe vigilantes came and ransacked his house,plundered his belongings and beat him up badly.“They even took my wife’s jewelleries. Even nowthey come everyday and threaten to kill us if wedon’t pay,” said Sharma. The vigilantes beat up 82-

year-old SaraswatiChapagain and broke herarm. Many villagers south ofNawalparasi have becomeprey to the vigilantes’atrocities. On 26 March, theyforcefully amputatedSomani’s 40-year-old RamKishor Chamar’s arm andmade him eat it beforeshooting him in cold blood.

On 31 March, they beat upteachers Shambhu Prajapatiand Satyadeb in the schoolcompound and on the sameday, thrashed dozens ofvillagers for protesting theiractivities. Now, the vigilanteshave started to speak like theMaoists, justifying extortion.

“Why should the public complain about helpingthose fighting for the people?” said MurariPahalman, president of Nawalparasi PratikarSamiti. There are over 150 youths involved in thecommittee, whose advisory team is led by MunaKhan. Almost all members carry guns and bullets.“We still don’t have enough arms. Theadministration should aid us,” said BhagwanChaudhary, president of the Somani Committee.The local administration still does not acknowledgethe vigilante group walking armed in broad daylightbut the people see them accompanied by thesecurity force, also carrying guns. But PoliceOfficer Sharma denies this saying, “We wouldhave taken action against those carrying arms.”

Get up! Emergency has been liftedDrum: EmergencyShackle: Bondage

The king has been in a crisis since he closed doors for national reconciliation, he has tofind a way out himself. No king has ever become strong by leaving the public behind.

Nepali Congress leader Girija P Koirala in Kantipur, 5 May

KIRAN PANDAY

JB PUN

76 - 12 MAY 2005 #246FROM THE NEPALI PRESS

them down. They should becompeting on matters of principlebut the way they’ve beenoperating shows that theleadership has no control over itscadre.

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Information warSamaya, 5 May

In Rolpa and Rukum, the localvillagers can listen to bothgovernment and Maoist news onradio. Hearing two versions of thesame story reported differently byRadio Nepal and Maoist FMconfuses them. “The governmentradio says one thing and theMaoists report it differently. Wedon’t know whose report isgenuine,” said an ex-Indian armysoldier in Gairigaun. While mostof the villagers do not believeeverything that the Maoist radiobroadcasts, they are incredulousabout certain reports aired by thegovernment radio especially whenthey hear reports of certainincidents that never actuallyoccurred. This is evident from theevents of security forces’Operation Khara in April whenthe Maoists were supposed tohave suffered a heavy blow at thehands of the Royal Nepali Army(RNA), which attacked them bothfrom the air and the ground. Thegovernment media reported thekilling of over 113 militants andthe death of three security forcepersonnel. On the contrary, theMaoist radio reported the death of22 RNA soldiers and 18 Maoists.Three days after the Kharaincident, the government radiosaid that 60 Maoists had beenkilled. “We were really surprisedto hear their reports,” said PremBuda of Kotgaun, referring to thenews last week about his villagein which the government claimedto have killed 22 Maoists whilethe rebels reported the killing of65 army personnel. “We neithersaw the killing of Maoists orsecurity personnel, unlike thenews broadcasts (both by thegovernment and the Maoists),”said Prem Buda. Many villagerslike him claim that only threesecurity personnel and sixMaoists had been killed. There isno way to verify the reportsindependently.

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Why English?Column by Ritubichar inHimal Khabarpatrika, 29 April

Katrin Hagen is the daughter oflate Toni Hagen, the great Swissgeologist who travelled across thelength and breadth of Nepal. As ayoung girl, Katrin accompanied

her father on many of these trekssince 1953 and grew to loveNepal. She has lost count of howmany times she has been here.Being a surgeon, she volunteers toperform operations in hospitalsin Nepal whenever she is here.Recently, at a ceremony shepresented the TribhubanUniversity Central Library withher father’s meticulous geologicalwall map of Nepal. At theceremony, although Katrin wasthe only non-Nepali, every speechwas in English and even the MCspoke in English. It wasn’t justthis function, at every ceremonyin Nepal even if there is only oneforeigner present we Nepalisinsist on struggling to expressourselves in English. Why can’twe just get an interpreter totranslate for those who can’tunderstand Nepali and go aheadand speak in our own mothertongue? Will the concernedauthorities please pay attention tothis?

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Land grabNepal, 8 May

The influx of Nepali migrants tobordering Indian states is a boonfor Indian landowners. ManyNepalis from the western taraidistricts of Nawalparasi,Rupandehi and Kapilbastu aremoving to India for permanentresidence. This has led to theincrease in land demand andIndian landowners have beenhiking up the prices. “Ever sinceNepalis began buying land andhouses here, the real estate priceshave skyrocketed,” said MahendraJaiswal of Sunauli. Most of thenew settlers belong to middle andhigh-class families. A majority ofthem moved to India out of fearof the Maoists. Some of them ownindustries and large businessfirms in Bhairawa and Butwal. InSunauli’s Nautanwa, the price ofland has more than doubled andlandowners are now plotting theirlands to sell. At Nautanwa’sbypass road, houses of Nepalimigrants are being constructedbut many will not be able toregister the houses in their namesdue to legal complications.Nepalis have also been investingin Siddharthanagar district ofIndia.

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Failed statementBuddhabar, 4 May

Authoritarian rule has turned outto be weak and unsuccessful. Thedecision to lift emergency was notdue to the king’s kindness andsympathy but was prompted by

BBC Nepali Service, 30 April

Comrade Laldhoj’s (read Baburam) serious accusation that theparty’s central committee’s latest meeting was very unhealthy andthat it marked unprincipled groupism has raised questions: is hepreparing a background to disassociate himself from the party andthe people’s war? Certainly, during the central working committeemeeting, Bhattarai’s unruly working style, self-centred thoughts, falseintellectual ego and indulgence in groupism against the central officewas widely criticised.

Bhattarai’s accusation against the party’s central committee onlyproves that he has not understood Comrade Mao’s teaching. Weshould believe in the party and the people. If we have doubts in thesevery basic principles, we can do nothing. He has claimed that heremained tolerant and silent about pretty serious and worrisomeissues in the meeting. But the fact is that he himself is going againstthe decision and the spirit of thecentral committee meeting.

Whenever there isdiscussion on article 40 ofprivate property, capitalistrepresentatives get pissed off.In the same way, Bhattarai loseshis control whenever there istalk about centralisation ofpower. This has beenhistorically proved from theperiod the people’s war was noteven launched till the lastcentral working meeting.

By labelling profoundprinciple-based and politicalcharges against the centralcommittee’s easy decision thathad to be taken given the needfor counterattack and theconspiracy of national andforeign reactionaries, Laldhojhas only revealed hisdistraction and his intellectual and political bankruptcy. In a specialand sensitive process like strategic counterattack, if all standingcommittee members remain intact in the party, army and therevolutionary council, there will be greater clarity in the party and themovement. This is a simple conclusion of political knowledge, butour knowledgeable comrade is in an illusion because of his ownopinion. Since he sees loss for himself, he thinks the entiremovement stands to lose.

As long as Comrade Laldhoj remains chief of the united front, hehas no problem with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Prachandapath.The development of a people’s republic in the 21st century too is rightfor him. But once his position changes, he thinks everything in theparty is regression. When making serious charges against the party,he revealed his groupism mindset. In the letter he submitted to theparty’s central office, he forcefully referred to a group and has beenprojecting himself as the leader of that faction. What group is that andwho has charged that group? There is no substantive proof in theletter. By tampering with facts and camouflaging the centralcommittee’s decision, he has been practicing groupism in the party.

His move has come at a crucial time when the centralcommittee’s unanimous decision of revolutionary transformation andcounterattack was to be implemented. This only shows that ComradeLaldhoj is helping imperialism, expansionism and the royal army.That is a fatal direction he has adopted.

Prachanda’s rejoinderto Baburam

national and internationalpressure. The king’s move wastaken under the pretense ofcurbing terrorism but the realmotives are now publicknowledge. Who can forget theutter injustice that has takenplace since February First: thearrests of party leaders, captureof media offices by armypersonnel, formation of the royalcommission to assassinate thecharacters of political leadersand the attempt to curb thevoices raised against the royalproclamation. Even afterdemocracy was restored in thecountry, former panchays andmandales did not stopprotesting the multipartysystem, steering the ‘bring theking and save the nation’campaign.

Now, post-February First,state terror has taken an evenmore dangerous form, makingway for absolutism which isagainst the spirit of the nation’sconstitution, law and acts. The1990 constitution had nevergiven much importance to whatthe king said but now that thecountry is being run as per hisorders, his move has so farbenefited neither the country norits citizens. The only ones whoit benefited are the incapablepeople appointed as ministersincluding Tulsi Giri, who hasspent most of his life outsidehis homeland. Often it is heardthat Maoist terror was reducedafter February First. This is nottrue, and propaganda spread bystate run media. Under thechairmanship of the king, thecouncil of ministers has beendiscarding the constitution andrule of law by appointing pro-palace individuals to work inthe districts, zones and regions.These are the same people whowere irresponsible and lackedaccountability towards thecitizens during the Panchayatera. The gagging of the press,restriction of movement withinthe country and barring ofrespected Nepali intellectualsfrom travelling abroad to attendseminars are examples ofauthoritarianism. Besides beinghard on democratic groups, wehaven’t moved closer to peaceand democracy. How long willour country be run this way?

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DPRNA

9 MAY 2005 – EUROPE DAY

Celebration of Eur

the European Community and whatis now known as the EuropeanUnion (EU).

Europe Day has been celebratedon 9 May since 1985, whereEuropean leaders at a high-levelmeeting decided to celebrateEuropean integration and RobertSchuman’s vision.

Continuous growthIn 2004, the EU reached a majormilestone in terms of enlarging thecooperation with 10 Central andEastern European countriesreaching a total of 25 memberstates. In only two years time, in2007, a new enlargement isenvisaged with Romania andBulgaria in 2007 and membershipnegotiations with Croatia, theBalkan countries and Turkey shouldbegin later this year.

The continuous expansion andevolution of the European Union isa testimony of the success story ofbringing lasting peace to Europeannations and people and morerecently to a break down of long-standing dividing lines in Europe.The expansions have beensuccessful because social, politicaland economic coherence havebeen given high priority. It maytake some years for new memberstates to prepare for membershipbut at the end of the day thepreparations allow new membersto participate in defining Europeanpolicies side by side with long-timemembers of the European family.

The European mottoDue to the fact that Europe is notonly a continent with many

n 9 May 2005, it will be55 years since the formerFrench Foreign Minister

Robert Schuman delivered hisfamous speech in which heproposed the idea of EuropeanIntegration. This idea was born inthe aftermath of numerousEuropean wars culminating withthe Second World War (1939-45) inwhich most European countriessuffered terrible losses.

Schuman recognised that anylasting peace in Europe wouldrequire that France and Germanytogether with their respective alliesset aside their age old differencesand disputes. Accordingly, heproposed a plan whereby Germanyand France joined efforts toimprove their industrialproductions in close collaborationwith other European countries. Due

to the importance of coal and steelindustries for their nationaleconomies, and being a majorinput in any weapons and warindustry, Schuman knew thatsolidarity in this sector would makewar between France and Germanynot only unthinkable but practicallyimpossible.

It took less than a year beforeSchuman’s idea was translated intoa binding legal document. On 18April 1951, six countries—Belgium,France, Germany, Italy,Luxembourg and the Netherlands—signed the Treaty of Parisestablishing the European Coal andSteel Community. Six years on, in1957, the same countries signed upfor closer cooperation in the Treatyof Rome by which the EuropeanEconomic Community wasestablished. Later, this merged into

On 9 May Europeans worldwide will celebrate Europe

O

different traditions and languagesbut also with shared values suchas democracy, freedom and socialjustice, the EU motto is ‘United inDiversity’. The EU and itsinstitutions have a common flagthat is used inside and outsideEurope as a symbol of EuropeanUnity—the flag is blue with acircle of 12 yellow stars.

Recent EU achievementsIn 2005, 55 years after the firstinitiative, European cooperationhas gradually expanded andevolved. Today, the EU bringstogether 450 million people from25 individual member states thatcooperate and consult each otheron almost all thinkable issues. Inaddition to the enlargement with10 new member states in May2004, the EU has made other greatachievements in recent years.

In January 2002, the singlecurrency, the Euro, wasintroduced in 12 member statesand in 2004 the EU member statesagreed on a new EuropeanConstitutional Treaty, which willnow have to be ratified by the EUmember states. In severalcountries, the European peoplewill be consulted directly innational referendums. Theconstitution will in particular havean impact on the ability of theEuropean Union to speak with acoherent voice in internationalaffairs.

Many of the challenges thatEurope and the rest of the worldface in the age of globalisation can

One of the meetings of the Convention called toformulate a new Constitution for Europe.

ropean integration

EU members and when they joined1952: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands1973: Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom1981: Greece1986: Portugal, Spain1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden2004: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta,Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia

presidency of the European Unionrotates among the member stateson a six-month basis. In 2005,Luxembourg holds the EUpresidency from January-June, to betaken over by United Kingdomfrom July-December.

The European Parliament iselected every five years by theEuropean people. The presentparliament was elected in June2004 and has 732 members fromall EU member states grouped inEurope-wide political groups.Nearly one-third (222) are women.The main job of the parliament is topass European laws—aresponsibility shared with theCouncil. In addition, the parliamentapproves the EU annual budget andoversees the work of the EuropeanCommission.

The European Commissionrepresents the interest of Europe asa whole and it worksindependently from nationalgovernments. The Commissionconsists of 25 Commissioners—onefrom each EU member state. Thecurrent Commission President JoséManuel Barroso and his 24Commissioners were appointed inNovember 2004. The Commissionheadquarters in Brussels preparesEuropean laws and policies. Oncelaws, policies and programmes areapproved, the Commission takesresponsibility for theirimplementation in member statesand in countries outside Europe,such as the development portfoliomanaged by the EC Delegation toNepal.

The EU in the worldIt is not only Europeans that benefitfrom the EU. Given the success ofEuropean integration, the EU iscommitted to spread peace,stability and prosperity beyond itsborders. The best way to preventconflict from arising is to create

prosperity and opportunitiesworldwide. As the world’s largesttrading power, the EU uses itsinfluence to establish fair rules forworld trade so poorer countriesbenefit from globalisation. Asdevelopment partners, individualEU member states and theEuropean Commission arecommitted to remain the world’slargest donor.

The EU provides developmentprograms and humanitarianassistance that benefit millions ofpeople every day. The EU has alsotaken a lead in fighting pollutionand promoting sustainabledevelopment worldwide. When itcomes to promotion and protectionof civil and political rights, the EUengages and provides advice andassistance to support democracy,human rights defenders, free mediaand respect for rule of law.

The EU in NepalSeveral EU member states are long-standing development partners withNepal and currently five memberstates have their individualdiplomatic missions in Kathmandualongside the Delegation of theEuropean Commission to Nepal. Asan institution, EU established

e Day, recalling achievements and looking to the future

diplomatic relations with Nepal in1975 and an EU-Kingdom ofNepal Co-operation Agreementwas signed in June 1998. Withinthis co-operation framework high-level consultations—the so-called‘Joint Commission’ takes place onan annual basis. The EuropeanCommission opened a TechnicalOffice in Nepal in 1992. Thispresence was developed into theDelegation of the EuropeanCommission to Nepal in 2002.The current European CommissionStrategy Paper for Nepal 2002-2006 identifies rural development,trade facilitation and conflictmitigation as priority sectors. Inaddition, the EC implements asignificant human rights anddemocracy portfolio as well ashumanitarian and Asia-wideassistance programs in Nepal.

only be dealt with on aninternational level. Europe willcontinue to push for multilateralresponses and promoting our corevalues—democracy, human rights,good governance and the rule oflaw.

The EU institutionsThe three core European Unioninstitutions are the Council of theEuropean Union, the EuropeanParliament and the EuropeanCommission.

The Council consists ofministers from the nationalgovernments of all 25 EU memberstates. The Council shares with theEuropean Parliament theresponsibility for passing laws andtaking policy decisions. The

For more information visit www.delnpl.cec.eu.int

MIN BAJRACHARYA

10 6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246REVIEW

t is always heartening to find agroup of good scholars workingon interesting topics and better

still if they are doing so together.On a recent research trip to

Darjeeling and Sikkim, I twicehappened to come acrossOccasional Papers from theDocumentation Cell of the Centrefor Himalayan Studies at NorthBengal University in localarchives and libraries. Some ofthe publications were pressdigests and news clippings fromdailies in South Asia, whileothers were indices ofparliamentary proceedingspertaining to relations betweenIndia, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim(before the mid-1970s) and China.This corpus of data exemplifies akind of meticulousdocumentation that few scholarshave the time to do these days, soI set myself the task of trackingdown the elusive centre.

Even in the hub of urbanDarjeeling, the first point of callfor learning anything aboutanything is naturally Google, andsure enough it delivered: a singleentry with a telephone numberand email address of the Centrefor Himalayan Studies. I got intouch and resolved to pay the

he Eighth of May always bringsback memories of 1945 becausefor me the end of the war in Europe

really was a zero hour.When the first Soviet soldiers came up

our little street in the western suburbs ofBerlin, we knew that the great slaughterwas coming to an end. My father who hadbeen in the resistance would come backfrom Brandenburg prison. I no longerneeded to hide as I had done after myrelease from a Gestapo camp at thebeginning of February. Somehow a new lifewould begin.

First, however, was the chaos. TheNazis were gone and the occupation powers

Looking up to the mountains

centre a visit in Raja Ram MohanPur, just outside of Siliguri andstrategically located on the road tothe Nepali border.

Nestled in the tree-linedcampus of North BengalUniversity (NBU), with aHimalayan backdrop true to it’sname, lies the Centre forHimalayan Studies (CHS).Directed by the dynamic andwelcoming Karubaki Datta, andpopulated by a range of scholarsand support staff, thisinterdisciplinary research centrefalls under the Area StudiesProgram of the university.

It was established inDecember 1978 and is treated as a

fully-fledged department ofNBU. In the past 27 years, theCentre has had eight directorsand a number of impressiveresident research scholars,including two who areparticularly well-known to theNepali-speaking academy: N CSinha and T B Subba.

The activities of the centrerange from research projects,seminars and publications, toguidance and supervision ofgraduate students. Collaborativeresearch projects include aprofile of the Eastern Himalayas,while individual scholars arepresently investigating topics asdiverse as the women of Bhutan,

the carrying capacity of theTeesta basin of Sikkim, thegrowth of Kalimpong as anurban centre and others arecompiling a resource planningatlas of the eastern HimalayanRegion. Twenty-nine MPhildissertations and 14 PhD thesishave been completed bystudents at the centre, largely inthe social sciences and duringmy short visit, I witnessed alarge number of studentscoming to make use of thelibrary and documentation cell.

A specific project worthy ofmention is the GeographicInformation Systems (GIS)settlement information for

A centre for Himalayan studies located in the plains

Germany’s zero hourLooking back at 8 May 1945 in sorrow and anger

RALF DAHRENDORF had not yet set up any kind ofadministration. We all went looting the localshops; I still have the slim volumes ofromantic poetry which my 16-year-old selftook from a bookshop. The occupationtroops went on a rampage. Food was hard tofind. My father was taken from prison andtransported straight to central Berlin, wherehe was told to set up the office for Berlin’senergy supply, a task that had to be doneliterally from nothing. There was no power,no transport, no organised life of any kindfor a period.

Was it defeat or liberation? ForGermans this question was not easilyanswered though clearly our family wasliberated in every sense. The question thenwas this: liberated for what? Where do we

go from here?“You must help,” my mother said to me.

So I offered my services to the local Sovietauthority and helped distribute basicfoodstuff to a small number of outlets in ourdistrict of Zehlendorf. Five weeks later,however, I was back at school. I carried aspecial pass as a ‘victim of fascism’ butothers showed the Iron Cross they had gotfor late military action. Some were refugeesfrom the east, many had their homesdestroyed in air raids, almost all grieved forlost loved ones.

Yet the zero hour did not last. It isalmost unbelievable but three years laterthe liberalising policies that followed acurrency reform set in motion what came tobe known as Germany’s economic miracle.To be precise: this is how West Germany’seconomic miracle began. The Germanexample shows just how differentoccupation powers can be. In the Sovietzone of occupation, progress was slow andabove all coupled with a new enslavement.Even concentration camps like Buchenwaldchanged their guards and inmates butremained in use.

The western powers in Germany, on theother hand, pursued, after a short period ofnon-fraternisation, a policy of controlledempowerment. Within a year of the end ofthe war there were indigenousadministrations, within two years elections.Democracy was not just preached butpractised and it could build on Germantraditions.

All this, to be sure, was not justbenevolence on the part of the occupyingpowers. It was also a result of the incipientCold War and the desire of both sides toconsolidate ‘their’ part of Germany. Eventhen, there are lessons to be learned fromthe process.

Two of these deserve to be mentioned.One is economic and has to do with theMarshall Plan. It is perhaps regrettable butnonetheless real that democracy finds rootsmore easily if economic conditions improve.Such improvement requires above all self-help, the actions of individuals who will notaccept the misery of the zero hour for long.

Such self-help can be encouraged bypolicies (which is what Ludwig Erhard, thefather of the ‘social market economy’ did inGermany) but some starting capital helps.This is where the Marshall Plan ofAmerican support became crucial.Similarly, the European Union has helped,and continues to help the postcommunistcountries on their way.

The other lesson is moral and it is moredifficult. The Nuremberg trials exposed theguilt of the Nazi leaders beyond doubt, ifindeed any such doubt was left in people’sminds. While these were important,however, Germany did not begin its arduouspath away from zero hour with concern forthe past.

Indeed, the Adenauer years after 1949were described by many as years of‘restoration’ because too many minor Nazifigures had remained in their jobs. In someways, the country simply ignored their pastand moved forward. Years later when amarket economy and political democracywere established, Germany did turn toward‘coping with the past’ and did so veryeffectively.

Germany’s Nazi past is uniquelyhorrible, so comparisons with othercountries with blighted histories aremisleading. Still, in its own way Poland hasfollowed a similar path after 1989: first thenew, then the attempt to come to terms withthe past. On balance this is a better methodof dealing with a nation’s zero hour thandoing things the other way round.

In Europe then, 8 May 2005 is anoccasion to look back in sorrow and anger.It is also an occasion to look forward withpride in the achievements of recent decadesand therefore for hope. Project Syndicate

Ralf Dahrendorf is a member of theBritish House of Lords.

Sikkim based on maps andstatistical information from theIndian census, spear-headed bythe cartographer DB Boot. Thepublication’s wing and thedocumentation cell of the centredeserve special attention. Alongwith seminar proceedings andspecial lectures, the centrepublishes a useful annualjournal entitled HimalayanMiscellany which is regrettablynot subscribed to by manyuniversity libraries in the west,while the documentation cellfocuses its attention onproducing Regmi-like digests ofevents that transpire in theeastern Himalayas. The library iswell-run and contains a set ofstandard texts along with somedelightfully rare volumes andthe staff are eager for morescholars to pass through, availthemselves of the resources andperhaps give a lecture or two. Iwould encourage any researcher,should they find themselves inthe area, to pay a visit.

Centre for Himalayan StudiesNorth Bengal UniversityRaja Ram Mohan PurPO North Bengal UniversityDistrict DarjeelingWest Bengal, 734430India

telephone: 0353-2581169www.nbu.ac.in

Mark Turin is a linguisticanthropologist based at the University

of Cambridge and directs the DigitalHimalaya Project

www.digitalhimalaya.com

MARK TURIN in SILIGURI

I

T

116 - 12 MAY 2005 #246NATION

fter February First, andespecially after the Maoistdefeats at Khara and Rolpa

in western Nepal, here in the eastthere is an unusual lull.

The RNA has been establishingnew base camps near strategicpasses that the Maoists need tomove down to the tarai, while therebels have been pushed up intoremote villages in the hills andjungle hamlets along the East-WestHighway and seem to be avoiding aconfrontation.

“They aren’t in a capacity tochallenge us frontally anymore, ifthey do they know they will suffereven bigger casualties than inKhara and Rolpa,” says a confidentMajor General Om Bahadur Pun, atthe Eastern Division Headquartersin Itahari which looks after Mechi,Kosi and Sagarmatha Zones.

Pun, who took over twomonths ago, has visited hisoutposts and says the army hasthings under control. “The Maoistsare losing popular support becausethey are terrorising the people andbecause of their extortion andforced recruitment of children,” hetold us.

On a recent trip up fromKhandbari towards Terathum,however, Maoist militia armed

A lull in the mountainsThe midhills of eastern Nepal are tense but quiet

DAMBAR KRISHNA SHRESTHA in SANKHUWASABHA

with rifles and shoulder bagscontaining socket bombs wereroaming freely in the bajars exceptin the district headquarters.Somewhere in Sankhuwasabha,the Maoists’ 18th Battalion gavevisiting journalists a march pastwith captured weapons, whichincluded one GPMG, a couple ofAK47s, INSAS rifles and a dozenSLRs. More impressive were theircommunication sets, whichincluded satellite phones andwalkie talkies with a range of 12km. One Maoist was preparing asolar cell array to collectivelyrecharge batteries for the sets.

Despite the show of force, theMaoists in the east have sufferedmajor setbacks since theiraudacious attacks on Bhojpur andPashupatinagar last year. Even inthose raids, which weresuccessful in penetrating thetowns’ defences, the Maoistssuffered heavy casualties. Therebels deny any split in the partybut admit suffering losses due tothe capture or deaths of its seniorleaders. Ram Bahadur Thapa(Badal) has taken over the rebeleastern command after the IndianPolice arrested of Mohan Baidyain Silguri last year.

Desertions appear to be aserious problem. The party hastried to rely on ethnic-basedKirat, Limbu and Tharu fronts toextend its presence in the east butsuffered setbacks after theKhumbuwan Mukti Morcha andthe Madhesi Mukti Morcha notjust split off but also took uparms against the Maoists. Despitethis, Commissar Himal of theMaoists’ 18th Battalion claims tocontrol most of the countrysideand says his forces feel safe in thevillages because of his group’sgood communications that givesearly warning of approachingpatrols.

The army has starting settingup base camps on strategic passeslike Aiselukharka near Khotangwhich links the eastern midhillsto the tarai highway and Letangin Ilam. “There has been adecrease in Maoist activities sincewe set up the camps, meanwhilethe morale of the soldiers is upafter February First,” says MajorRaj Rana of the RNA’s 2nd Brigadeat Hile. At Aiselukharka, the RNAcontingent were also having amarch past and showed a dug-in81 mm mortar used to defend thebase perimeter.

CAT AND MOUSE:Soldiers test an 81 mm mortar attheir base camp in Aiselukharkalast month (top).A Maoist charges batteries for hiswalkie talkie with a solar panelnear Sankhuwasabha (right).A Maoist unit drilling for thebenefit of visitors inSankhuwasabha and the army unitdrills in Purbi Pritana, Itahari.

A

PICS: DAMBAR KRISHNA SHRESTHA

JasmineIts sweet scent this season reminds me of Aama

NEPALI PANTrishna Gurung

Small, unassuming but fragrant enough to perfume the world.Jasmine.

It reminds me of Aama. Come spring, she would gatherarmfuls from the garden, ban us from the bathroom and then close thedoor on the world. We never knew what she did there, sometimes forhours at a stretch. Later, she would emerge soft and serene fromclouds of steam.

This season, when the sweet scent of jasmine lies like a veilupon the Valley air, it reminds meof her. They say the brain’s nerveendings for the sense of smellare located close to the cells thatstore memory, that is why when

we smell something recollections rush back.Now I wonder what Aama did behind that locked bathroom door. I

imagine her running the hot water to fill the old stone tub where shewashed loads of clothes until her back hurt and hands reddened withcold—the same tub that never looked clean no matter how often shescrubbed it.

A stray ray of late afternoon sunlight would push its way past thenylon lace curtains to mark a path across the blue and greenlinoleum. She must have moved the homemade needlepoint rug,worried that it would get wet. She’d allow herself two fresh towels,one to turban her hair and another to dry off. This she would haveplaced on the commode, within arms reach from the tub.

Slowly she would undress,peeling off her clothes so that

they lay discarded on the floorlike a shell, still warm andsmelling of her. She mightdare for a minute to look ather reflection. She sees herbreasts, breasts that have

nursed two children and areno longer as firm as they once

were. A seven-inch scar mars hersoft belly, a memento of a misdiagnosed

pregnancy.Her skin is white and pale, except the hands,

which are worn from being a mother, a housekeeperand a keen gardener. She might have smiled at the

brown earth moons under her nails—and shrugged.Her garden is beautiful and people come to admire her

green thumb and buy her plants. It keeps her in ‘pinmoney’, money that she is fiercely glad to have.

The mirror has fogged over with steam.She gathers the masses of jasmine and floats it on the water.

Opening the cold water tap, she would test the temperature of herbath with her elbow. The sensitivity to heat in her hands had beenwashed out with all the laundering and lifting hot dishes off the stove.She refuses to dwell on what to make for dinner. She has to please acarnivorous husband, a vegetarian daughter and a finicky son. Thisis her time.

The flowers have given up their scent, mingling with thewater and rising with the steam. She bends over the tub to inhaleit, eyes closed.

Then she steps into the water, carefully holding the sides.Perhaps she slid down, lower and lower. Holding her breath shewould slip under the surface.

A little water spills over the side.

12 6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246INTERNATIONAL

n the Southasia beyond India, MahatmaGandhi is increasingly regarded as‘Indian’. For many a Nepali citizen, the

Sakyamuni Buddha is by now a ‘Nepali’.By the same logic, Lalon Fakir would berestricted to being a Bangladeshi andRabindranath Tagore an Indian.

Borders that delineate the countries ofSouthasia also have taken on the functionof assigning civilisational figures toindividual nation-states, even though thepersonalities who inhabited Undivided

India,forexample,shouldbe part

of the humanistic heritage of Bangladesh,Pakistan, Sri Lanka as well as the post-colonial, present-day Bharat. Developmenttheorist and practitioner Akhthar HamidKhan, who moved from Comilla to Karachito organise the people of the Orangi slum,should be regarded as our common mentor.The same for Eqbal Ahmed, the greathumanist and scholar born in Bihar anddomiciled in Islamabad.

Noor Jahan was ‘the pride of Pakistan’but also of the rest of us. MSSubbulakshmi was ‘the nightingale ofIndia’ but also the songstress of allSouthasia. When the great mystic andmusical genius Pathan-e-Khan of Multanpassed away a few years ago, the loss was ofa jewel of our common heritage but few inIndia or Bangladesh knew enough tomourn his passing. Pakistan today should

Bol! Speak up!be putting out postage stamps tocommemorate the achievements ofmathematician Srinivasa Ramajunan andBangladesh on the writing genius of RKNarayanan.

But that is not how things are workingout and we continue to categorise peopleaccording to where they lived beforePartition. There is even less likelihood thatthose born after 1947 in our increasinglypolarised societies will be regarded asSouthasian even while remaining citizensof their own countries.

Mirza Ghalib was a great citizen ofundivided India, and is described in aPakistani website as ‘one of the greatestpoets of South Asian history’. Allama Iqbalprovided the seed of the idea of Pakistan,but he was also what one could be calledan ‘Undivided Indian’. This trajectorybrings us to the question of how to regardFaiz Ahmed Faiz, the great poet of love andrevolution and inheritor of the legacy ofGhalib and Iqbal. As a passionate writer ofghazals and someone who fought theBritish with the weight of a great classicalheritage, Faiz should be an icon today forIndians, Bangladeshis and Nepalis. Hislegacy, however, is increasingly restrictedwithin the frontiers of Pakistan, where hisprotest poetry still inspires.

At a time when Nepal is rapidly‘becoming Pakistan’ in terms of autocraticrule and the loss of civil liberties, somecultural activists decided that Faiz must beintroduced to the Kathmandu audience.The oldest generation of Kathmandu’s

educated would have appreciated Ghaliband read Iqbal. But even they would nothave known Faiz. As for the succeedinggenerations, Faiz might as well not havebeen born.

This was the logic behind the staging ofthe program Faiz: Abhibyakti ko Haq (Faiz:The Right to Expression). This being anevening in tribute to an Urdu great, thePersian haq was used in the title instead ofthe Sanskrit adhikar. The event wasorganised in a hall whose name—Baggikhana—has Urdu associations.Nepalis, however, have lost even the littleability they once had to understand Urdu.As Bollywood films gradually relinquishHindustani in favour of Hindi, even thatroute of access to the Urdu labaj hasevaporated. The organisers of the Faizprogram, hence, had to provide translationsof the poems.

And what poems they were, played outfrom old tapes and new CDs, as sung byIqbal Bano, Nayyar Noor and Tina Sani!Intesaab is a poem about a homeland thatresembles a dejected forest of yellowingleaves, inhabited by people in need of

empathy, including prisoners ofconscience, tangawallahs, railwaymen,exploited women, abducted children andthe peasant farmers. Hum Dekhenge, assung by Iqbal Bano became the anthemagainst the dictatorship of Zia-ul Haq, andtells of a time to come when the meek shallinherit the earth, when palaces shallcrumble and regal headgear shall slip.

But Bol as rendered by Tina Sani andalso sung live to his own music byKathmandu artiste Aavas (see pic) was thesong of the evening , catching the fancy ofthe audience of writers, poets andjournalists at a time when the culturalworld of Kathmandu is acting strange in itssilence. For those who understood thehistory of the country and of theneighbourhood, what Faiz wrote against theBritish in his India (see free translationbelow), resonated in Kathmandu in theyear 2005.

Speak up, for your lips are still your ownSpeak, while there is still the timeSpeak, while truth still livesSpeak, and say what you have to say.

What Faiz wrote against the British inhis India resonates in Kathmandu today

SOUTHASIA BEATKanak Mani Dixit

I

KIRAN PANDAY

136 - 12 MAY 2005 #246SPORTS

TEE BREAKDeepak Acharya

U

he Chinese characters TaiChi Chuan can betranslated to mean ‘the

supreme ultimate force’. It isalso associated with the ancientChinese tradition of yin yang,which is the ultimate dualityand balance between twocomplementary forces such asthe male and the female andharmony in both.

The Chinese propounder ofTai Chi was Chang San-Fengwho once had a vivid dream of amortal combat between a snakeand crane. He was so inspired bytheir movement that heinvented Tai Chi.

It may have once been a formof exercise for martial artists butit has now become a form arelaxation of mind and body forpeople all over the world inthese stressful times. Many ofthe movements are eitherderived from the ancient martialarts or from the movements ofbirds and animals. The gesturesare slow, soft and graceful withsmooth and even transitionswhile changing forms. The focusis to circulate the chi or the vitalforce in the body which issupposed to animate the body.

Tai Chi is taught in anumber of places in Nepal. Self-Awakening Centre in BaberMahal Revisited offers the latest,along with transcendentalmeditation, yoga, reiki andalternative therapy.

Deepak Shrestha, member ofthe World United Martial Artsand the Tai Chi ChuanFederation of Nepal, is theinstructor there. Earlier he wasinterested in Kung Fu buthealth problems prevented himfrom continuing. It was at thispoint that his Chinese teacherintroduced him to Tai Chi andhe was hooked. It restored hissense of well-being andimproved his health.

Shrestha now teaches TaiChi in private sessions too,including at a park inMaharajganj where he teachesstudents as old as 81.Conducted in collaborationwith the Tai Chi Federation,these classes cost Rs 300 amonth.

“Not many young people

Balancing mind and bodyTai Chi may be derived from the martial arts but

it is now a great way to relaxAARTI BASNYAT

come to my classes,” saysShrestha, “maybe they find theslow movements boring but ithas helped a lot of my studentsphysiologically and many ofthem come because of theirhealth problems.”

The effects of Tai Chi havebeen known to benefit mindand body. The fluidmovements help improveposture and movement whilecuring various illnesses. Theexercises are not strenuous,they are done according to thephysical well-being of theperson so all age groups canpractise it.

Shivili Rana of Self-Awakening Centre says: “Peopleare always complaining aboutlack of peace, we try to givethem peace from within. Intoday’s world there is no safehaven and if people feelbalanced from within, they cantackle any problem.”

Shivili herself suffered frominsomnia but withtranscendental meditation, sheovercame it and today, describesherself as a happier, moreoptimistic person. The Self-Awakening Centre is a placewhere people who lead hecticlives and have no time forthemselves can go to find theirinner selves to heal.

As Farah Usmani of UNFPA,who has only recently beentaking Tai Chi classes, tells us:“It is really good, it gets youenergised while relaxing you atthe same time. It loosens yourjoints and especially if you havea desk job, it provides a break.Also it isn’t very hard to learn,we have been coming for only aweek but know the basicsalready.”

Contact:Self Awakening Centre

4256618,4256693Baber Mahal Revisitedl

nlike the Asian Games and the Olympics, the SAF Gamesdo not include golf as an event. Against this backdrop theSAARC Golf Championship was introduced in 1999 to

provide a platform for Southasian golf governing bodies andgolfers to get together, strengthen mutual relationships andcompete at the highest regional levels.

It’s a pity I never had the chance to play at this premierregional amateur event since just the year before I had declaredmyself a professional. This year the seventh edition of thisprestigious event (from 5-8 May) is being hosted by Sri Lanka forthe first time. They have chosen one of the region’s finest golfcourses, the Victoria Golf and Country Club located in the

beautiful hill station of Kandy.India has hosted the event

a few times including theinaugural one in Bangalore.Bangladesh and Pakistan

have also played host. The Maldives does not have a golf courseor a golf team, so their abstention from the event is understood.That leaves just the two other remaining SAARC members:Bhutan and us.

Bhutan doesn’t have a full-length 18-hole golf course yet butwe are fortunate enough to have one. The big question now is:when will Nepal host the SAARC golf event?

Perhaps our amateur golf’s governing body will get intoserious action and reciprocate the many invitations they haveaccepted these past years. The event used to be a ‘Men Only’affair but that changed last year in Lahore when ladies were alsoincluded.

Last week, the Nepal Golf Association conducted a qualifyingevent at Royal Nepal Golf Club to select players for theforthcoming event. After 54 gruelling holes, Tashi Ghale, TashiTsering and CB Bhandari qualified for our three-member men’steam. We have only two ladies that meet the required handicapcriteria, thus Kesang Lama and Shastika Shrestha qualified bydefault. For Tashi Tsering and Kesang Lama, this is their first

appearance in the SAARC Golf Championship. All others haveparticipated in it previously. A special mention should be made forCB Bhandari, who only missed the initial event but hasrepresented us in all the others. So far Nepal’s performance hasbeen quite unsatisfactory. This year, we hope our team will farebetter and perhaps bring a medal home.

The team, led by Prachanda Shrestha, joint secretary ofNepal Golf Association, left for the Championship on Tuesdayand all are geared up for the tournament. Kesang Lama, our newemerging lady golfer, was very excited about her firstinternational appearance and Tashi Tsering, who was also amember of our Namura Cup team to Australia 2003, was in highspirits. Every player in the team is capable of shooting lowscores any given day and they have our best wishes and totalsupport. We hope they do much better this year.

Deepak Acharya is a golf instructor and Golf Director atGokarna Forest Golf Resort & Spa, Kathmandu.

prodeepak@hotmail.com

Golfing gloryOur team leaves to participate in

the SAARC Golf Championship

T

KIRAN PANDAY

GOPAL CHITRAKAR

ABOUT TOWN

14 6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246CITY

KATHMANDU AIR QUALITY

KATHMANDU VALLEY

by MAUSAM BEEDNEPALI WEATHER

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue

26-13 27-12 27-12 29-13 29-14

The sudden fall of mean temperatures inMay led us to wear warm clothes again.This time the rains were from high cloudsof the northwesterly frontal system,which is unusual. Normally, pre-monsoonrains in April and May occur as a resultof the collision of warm frontal systemfrom the south of the Himalaya. However,this time the northerly front emergedunusually strong and kept pouring rainshowers and chilly winds from the polarregion. This satellite image taken onThursday morning shows a prominentnorthwesterly frontal system bringing highclouds with a fairly good amount ofmoisture. The quota of rainfall in May,about 108 mm for the Valley, will occur inthe first week of this month. Expect morerain and cold days this weekend.

Hazardous >425

Harmful 351 to 425

Unhealthy 121 to 350

O k 61 to 120

G o o d < 60

Putalisadak Patan H Thamel Kirtipur Bhaktapur Matsyagaun

24-30 April 2005 in micrograms per cubic meter.Source: www.mope.gov.np

The rains cleared up the air last week with the average concentration ofPM10 particles in Kathmandu Valley going down by 37 percent. Althoughareas with heavy traffic had PM10 levels that were twice as high as thenational average, the air quality in residential areas and outskirts of themain city were within national standards. With the rains coming downstill, the pollutants in the air will hopefully remain fairly low this weektoo. So, breathe easy and take a walk after the rain.

FESTIVAL AND EXHIBITIONSMagic Pencil Artworks by Britain’s best children’s illustrators at the BritishCouncil, Lainchor. Until 6 May. 4410798Buddha Gallery’s First anniversary exhibition, till 10 May. 4440689Samay Chakra by Ragini Upadhya-Grela, 10 May-8 June at SiddharthaArt Gallery. 4218048Mystical Song Etchings by Seema Sharma Shah at Park Gallery,Lajimpat, until 28 May. 4419353Aloha Nepal Works by Wicki Van De Veer at Lajimpat Gallery Café, until25 May. Proceeds go to SETU Nepal. 4428549

EVENTSMusical trip with DJ Guido on 6 May at Latin Quarter Salsa Bar, BaberMahal Revisited, 8PM, Rs 350 with one free drink.Summer Dance Party on 7 May at Liquid Lounge, Lajimpat.Fifth Himalayan Beetle Rally on 7 May. Raising funds for SingleWomen Group, Antenna Foundation and Maya Foundation. 4427623One Day Dharma Talk on 7 May, 10AM-4PM at HBMC, Thamel. 4414843Book Sale at Pilgrims Book House, Kupondole, till 8 May. 5521159The Good Person of Szechwan Staged by Studio 7 at Hotel Vajra,Friday, Saturday and Sunday, until 8 May. 4271545Sideways Film show on 10 May at LajimpatGallery Café, 7PM, Rs 50.Tai Chi Free classes at Baber Mahal Revisited.42566181905 Sundays Pet practices and more.Fun in the Sun at Club Sundhara, Hotel Shangri-la. 4412999Art workshop for kids at Buddha Gallery. 4441689Rugby Practice Every Saturday. 4435939,citygymktm@hotmail.comSanibaar Mela Saturdays at the Dharahara Bakery Café, 12AM-5PM.

MUSICRaamesh at Gurukul, 6-7 May, 5PM, Rs 100, Rs 200. 4466956Full Circle Live at Indigo Gallery on 7 May, 8PM, Rs 750.Raju Gurung and Equinox Live at Patan on 7 May, 6.30 PM, Rs 350.4414542.Kathmandu Chorale Spring Concert on 14 May at The British School,Jhamsikhel, 3.30 PM-6PM. Free entrance.Rock thru the Ages on 14 May, 7PM at New Orleans Café, Thamel, Rs200. 4700736Siddhartha Sandhya at Siddhartha Art Gallery on 15 May, 6PM-7.30PM.Live at Moks Friday jam sessions and Tuesday Soul nights. 5526212Ladies Nights Wednesdays at Jatra, live acoustic music and free drink.Fusion Time Mondays at Jalan Jalan Restaurant, Lajimpat, 7PM. 4410438Live Music Everyday at Hotel de l’Annapurna, Darbar Marg. 4221711The Heart Breakers at Rum Doodle, Fridays, 7PM onwards. 4701208Prism Live at Red Onion Bar, Lajimpat, 7.30 PM onwards.Jukebox experience Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Rox Bar.Jazz at Upstairs Jazz Bar, Lajimpat, Wednesdays and Saturdays, 7.45 PM.

FOODGreat Value Lunches at Soaltee Crowne Plaza. 4273999BBQ Lunch at Le Meridien, Gokarna Forest Golf Resort. 4445550Sunshine Weekend Brunch Free swim at Hotel Yak and Yeti. 4248999Barbeque lunch Saturdays at Club Himalaya, Nagarkot. 6680080Special Combo Burmese and Thai Menu at 1905, Kantipath.Sekuwa and Momo Revolution Saturdays at the Tea House Inn.Arniko Special Lunch at Hotel de l’Annapurna, Darbar Marg. 4221711Krishnarpan Nepali specialty restaurant at Dwarika’s Hotel. 4479488Barbecue Dinner Every Friday at the Summit Hotel. 5521810Exotic Seafood at Rox Restaurant, Hyatt Regency. 4491234Delicacies Pastas and snacks at Roadhouse Café, Jawalakhel. 5521755Earth Watch Restaurant at Park Village, dine with nature. 4375280Café Bahal Newari cuisine at Kathmandu Guest House, Thamel. 4700632The Beer Garden at Vaijayantha, Godavari Village Resort. 5560675The Tharu Kitchen at Jungle Base Camp. Junglebasecamp@yahoo.com

GETAWAYSStay one night get one Night at Shangri-la Village, Pokhara. 4435742Wet Wild Summer Splash Special package at Godavari Village Resort.Tranquility Body and beauty treatment, discounts till 16 May. 4462996Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge World’s top room with a view. 4361500Chiso Chiso Hawama at Nagarkot, special packages. 6680080Jungle Base Camp Lodge, Bardia. junglebasecamp@yahoo.comMalaysia Dream Holidays Special offers till the end of May. 4247215extn 013-14, malaysiaholidays_marco@polo.com.npShivapuri Heights Cottage Best time to be in Shivapuri.steve@escape2nepal.com

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Call 4442220 for show timingswww.jainepal.com

There are mysterious deaths caused by man-eating tigersin Jim Corbett Park. The International Wildlife Welfareappoints ace conservationist Krish Thapar and his wifeRiya to investigate. Dev and his friends also set out foran adventure trip during that weekend. Destiny preventsthem from going to the farmhouse as planned, insteadthey end up in India’s biggest jungle. Both groups bondtogether but at night, the jungle comes alive. Then startsthe journey of fear, panic and trauma. They are the huntedwith death at their heels.

156 - 12 MAY 2005 #246

LITTLE GURU: Rinpoche Asanga, one of the most respected gurus of theSakya lineage, participating in the celebration of his sixth birthday atthe Tharling Monastery in Boudha on Sunday.

YAHOO!: The new elected committee of the Federation of NepaliJournalists celebrating their victory at midnight on Thursday at RoyalNepal Academy.

PLAY ME A TUNE: A classical piano recital by British pianist AnthonyPeebles at Hyatt Regency on Tuesday.

KIRAN PANDAY

BATTLING THE WAVES: Chinese and Nepali journalists rafting fromKothe to Sukute at a program organised by Nepal Tourism Board onMonday.

DEEPENDRA BAJRACHARYA

FLOWER SHOWERS: Volunteers clearing up the grounds of DasrathStadium after helicopters showered it with flowers to celebrate theinaugural of the AFC President’s Cup on Wednesday.

KIRAN PANDAY

N epal has many flautists butno one has completed hisMasters in flute-playing as

has Jeevan Ale, 37. Hecompleted his Masters from thePrayag Institute of Illahabad,India.

Having devoted more thanhalf of his life to classical music,this resident of Mahottari hasfinally received accolades for hisefforts. Though interested influtes from an early age, Ale saysthat he only understood theintensity of its music when hestarted studying it.

“Even when I played folktunes on the flute, I did not reachthe level of satisfaction that I getwhen I play classical tunes,”says Ale. Last year, he was moreinvolved in the academic side ofmusic rather than the practical.He taught at KathmanduUniversity and also gave privatetuitions.

Says Ale to hisstudents: “Do notcome to me withhighexpectations.”And for hisown peace of mind, he seems tofollow the same philosophy. Aleis always inspiring people tostudy and practice music,adding, “Very few people havethe inherent talent given by Godbut studying music gives an in-depth understanding to it.”

Ustad AleAle lost his right leg in an

accident while overseeing lumberin Nawalparasi. Though he hadonly broken his leg in theaccident, the carelessness ofdoctors in Bharatpur hospitalresulted in gangrene andlater he had to have itamputated. Ale did not let thisstop him and with Fr Gafne’shelp, he went to Jaipur in Indiato get an artificial leg fitted. Thisincident only spurred him on toexplore the intricacies ofmusic and become abetter flautist. To make

sure that he wasn’t distractedfrom his love for music, Ale hasremained a bachelor. When

asked if he ever plans tomarry, Ale laughsand says, “Ihaven’t written itoff completely butit seems so faraway that I don’tthink I will.”

MIN BAJRACHARYA

KIRAN PANDAY

KIRAN PANDAY

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6 - 12 MAY 2005 #246

UNDER MY HATKunda Dixit

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

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hroughout human history to the present day,mankind has fantasised about heavenlybodies. So if you are one of those, there is

nothing to be embarrassed about.From the core of our galaxy to the farthest reaches

of the universe, the earth’s passage through thecosmos has held deep significance for people on ourhome planet as we try to make momentous decisionson whether or not, for example, to take the plunge

and declare astate of nationalurgency. Thebehaviour of theplanets and the

moon are especially important to prepare compatiblehoroscope charts to ensure that they are properlyaligned with each other as well as with Intelsat 5which is in geostationary orbit over the Indian Oceaneven as we speak. In case the planets are not inharmony with the constellations as is often the case,we have in our country many expert preceptors whocan fix that for a fee. And even though they can neverseem to agree with each other, they can, if need be,calculate planetary orbits relative to each other andcome up with a way to cajole Mars and Venus, forinstance, to make a more auspicious configurationand slip in an astronomical baksheesh to Jupiter andSaturn to look away. Those two are realtroublemakers.

The problem arises when, like at the present timein which we have no parliament and no primeminister, we also don’t have a royal astrologer. Howon earth are we supposed to make importantdecisions on matters of state if the post of AstrologerGeneral is vacant? How will we ever know when toappoint a prime minister or bring post-paid mobiles

Our nation’shorrorscope

back into service?So, in the public interest and to hasten the

decision-making process here is the nation’shoroscope. (Instructions for use: read all thezodiacal forecasts and pick the one that is bestsuited to you.)

Aries: Mistakes can be made if you are tooimpulsive or don’t think things through. Bepatient and let them make the first move.Taurus: You will be released from house arresttoday. Be grateful. You got three months tothink.Gemini: Strong chances of party unity thisFriday, if it doesn’t happen now it won’thappen in our lifetime.Cancer: Auspicious to come above ground andrethink your strategy. Read Sun Tzu.Leo: Today is not a good day at work. You’llreceive a gift from someone you haven’t seen in along time. Don’t open it.Virgo: Go away, I have nothing to say to you.Libra: An alteration of the home furniture willbe beneficial, replace cabinet.Scorpio: Money is coming your way this weekbut I wouldn’t put that down in the personalasset declaration form just yet if I were you.Sagittarius: You can try once more to fly out toNew Delhi. This time, try another airline.Capricorn: Isn’t it embarrassing to be caughtactually reading this stuff?Aquarius: You’ll be meeting a lot of worldleaders, so work on your handshake.Pisces: Your hard work will pay off and you’llactually get away with another weekly column inwhich you turn yourself into a complete dork.

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