When I interviewed Sir Edmund Hillary in 1987, he made a
striking comment, that the impecunious, too, have a right to travel
and enjoy the Himalaya. I found myself unable to agree completely;
of course, it was
important for those who do not have wealth and savings to enjoy
travel, yet the interest of the hosts comes before that of the
guests. Nepal should not use its natural and cultural resources as
social service, but be in a posi-tion to charge the highest for the
resources that it has monopoly over, while simultane-ously ensuring
an equitable spread of the profits. One is sound economics, the
other is good people-friendly politics.
Nepal is a potentially high-end country that has sold itself
cheap and destroyed its brandingfirst, we fail to understand the
value of what we have (take Lumbini, mired in nationalist bombast
rather than the mes-sage of the Sakyamuni); second, we lack the
skills and exposure to provide up-market products and services; and
third, the conflict and confrontation of decades has hurt Nepals
marketability and preparedness.
Pokhara, Manang, KhaptadI am writing this in Pokhara, a valley
that is a test case on how Nepals undersells its monopoly over
touristic resources. There are the lakes, trekking, birdlife,
cultural diversity, and sub-tropical climes within less than 15
miles of the high Himalaya. In terms of vehicles, there are the
para-gliders, ultra-lights, fixed-wing gliders, canoes, and
sailboats. The ghatu naach tradition of the surrounding hills and
the lakeside eateries provide between them a wide variety of
cultural offerings.
All in all, Pokhara is one of the finest tour-ism destinations
in Asia and yet, it has not optimised the sellers market. The boost
Pokhara got from trekking tourists from overseas in terms of
exposure and sophisti-cation seems to have been used up. This can
be seen in the hotels coming up, which have abandoned all
connection to the traditional, as concrete and corrugated roofing
encircle Lake Phewa, ride up the Sarangkot ridge, and creep beyond
Hyangja. The new buildings have as little aesthetic appeal as the
streetscape of Kalanki, the creeks are
piled high with garbage and untreated sewage enters Phewa, all
of which results in hotel rates in the tens of dollars rather than
in the hundreds.
Every hilltop in Pokhara Valley and across midhill Nepal has the
possibility of generating wealth through tourism, because the
primary resourcesmountain view, human culture, and biodiversityare
avail-able like low-hanging fruit. But we must understand what the
high-spending visitor wantsdry toilets, modern indoors, and
tra-ditional facades. The Ghalegaun home-stay initiative in Lamjung
is a commendable effort, but the indoor ambience, the cuisine, and
service leave much to be desired.
On the other side of the Annapurna range from Pokhara, Manang
Gaun stands ready to evolve as the Chamonix of the Himalaya. The
typical townhouses worked in stone with rooftop sun-traps, the
warren of gul-lies, and absence (as yet) of concrete struc-tures,
the accessibility of low-altitude trek-king peaks, and the fact
that the Manangba are both worldly-wise and wealthyall of this
points to the possibility of exemplary upscale tourism, where you
can aim for $300 room-nights rather than Rs 200 for the privi-lege
of setting up a tent on the field outside.
Far West Nepal has mountains, lakes, and pine forests of the
kind that will not attract the Western leisure traveller, whose
eyes are fixated on the high Himalaya, Kathmandu Valley, and
Chitwan wildlife. But the untouched region, including the Khaptad
plateau, will be a magnet for the Indian upper crust that has lost
appetite for the over-crowded hill stations of Mussoorie,
Shimla, and Nainital. There will be an influx once the new
Mahakali road-bridge is built and New Delhi is within a five-hour
drive, but do we know to cater to the exclusive visitor?
Upside-down economicsThe Maoist war applied a brake on the
eco-nomic momentum of the mid-1990s, which would have made us a
mid-level developing country by now. In addition to so much else,
Messrs Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai introduced
self-destructive pop-ulism that pushed every facet of the econo-my
towards the low-end in terms of value and quality. As an example,
rather than improving government schools, they threat-ened and
brought low the private schools. The focus was on destruction, not
construc-tion, and as far as tourism was concerned, this diverted
elite travellers to Thailand, the Maldives, and Bhutan. Nepals
branding became that of a destination for the budget traveller.
What we should be doing, of course, is to upgrade services to be
able to charge top dollar, and ensure equitable distribution of
profits. But the upside-down Maoist econom-ics forced us to sell
our wares at a discount. In the mid-1990s, Unesco supported the
reno-vation of some old houses in Patan, as a bid to save
neighbourhoods by bringing tourists into the inner city. But the
conflict kept the tourists away. Only now, two decades later, the
neighbourhood of Swotha, north of Patan Durbar Square, is showing
the way by charging as much as $100 plus per night, which has led
to interest in restoration of
nearby townhouses. Sadly, we have lost so many heritage
buildings in the interim.
Tea to herbsIt is a matter of understanding the value of what we
own, such as that the Khaptad pla-teau and the pine forests of Mugu
will bring in the Indian (and Pakistani, Bangladeshi) tourist but
not necessarily the Norwegian or British. When we collaborate with
the Indians on the building of the Pancheshwor mega project on the
Mahakali, we need to comprehend that New Delhi is more inter-ested
in the stored water for urban use than the hydropower generated,
only then can Nepal bargain sensibly.
Similarly, we must recognise that Nepals ability to produce for
the mass market is limited. Bangladesh can be the global hub for
garments, but Nepal will never be able to provide the volume of
production demand-ed. Nepals challenge (and aspiration) should be
to have quality products in low volume and priced at a premium,
whether it is pash-mina, brass statuary, Tibetan rugs, fruits, tea,
or coffee. Rather than export herbs by the gunny sack to be traded
at the Khari Baoli market in New Delhi, we should be processing and
packaging in Nepal. Organic produce can charge premium prices
wherev-er there is a regular direct flight out of Kathmandu, from
Singapore to Turkey.
Chure bouldersReorienting the economy will certainly not be
easy, and will require taking on entrenched systems, cartels, and
mafias. The export of Chure boulders serves as an exam-ple of where
we have ended up during the devastating period of conflict and
transition that started in 1996. By the end of it, we were allowing
hundreds of 16-wheeler trucks to gouge the Chure range every day,
to trans-port it all to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with massive
cheating on royalties, deprivation of local communities, and
threatening desertification of the Tarai.
The Chure boulder extraction and export represents everything we
should not have done with our precious resourcesevasion of royalty
payments, destruction of the envi-ronment, and corruption of an
entire line of functionaries from Singha Durbar to Parliament to
the border post officials. The fact that the outflow of the
boulders has been halted these past six months can be taken as
indication that maybe, just maybe, our politics is stabilising and
we are on the path to ending the debilitating waywardness of our
economy, so that we can finally aim to maximise income and spread
the profit. And not to export what we should not.
Last October, Pawan Kumar set his 19-year-old wife, Puja Thakur
of Indrapur-9, Banke, on fire. Puja, how-ever, did not press
charges against her husband, upon advice from her family. The same
day, 25-year-old Hem Kumari Dhobi was also set ablaze by her
husband in another Banke village. A week later, Hem Kumari
succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Kathmandu. Even as the
police detained Gaya Prasad, the husband, for suspected foul play,
Hem Kumaris parents, who had come from India, did not file a case
against their son-in-law. Such refusals to register cases of
domestic violence are all too common in Banke, according to rights
activ-ists. Widespread acceptance of violence against women,
dependency of women on their male counterparts for economic
support, and the fear of stigma resulting from separation are often
stated as major reasons behind the reluctance to press charges. The
nation-wide state of affairs is no better.
According to the 2011 Nepal Demographic Health Survey, one-third
of ever-married women between the ages of 15-49 have faced
emotional, physical, or sexual violence from their spouse; 17
percent reported facing one or more forms of violence in the past
12 months of the survey. Among those who reported physical or
sex-ual violence, more than two among five suffered physi-cal
injuries. The report also found that women in the Tarai are more
likely (28 percent) to be victims of physical violence than those
in the hills and mountains (17 percent). Women residing in the
Tarai are also more likely to face sexual violence (15 percent)
than women in the mountains and hills (13 and 10 percent
respec-tively). Despite these disturbing statistics, two among
three women admitted to never having told anyone of their ordeals.
The afore-mentioned two cases in Banke are only a sad continuation
of this reality.
This situation must worry policymakers, as the Domestic Violence
(Crime and Punishment Act) has been in force since 2009. In
addition, there are One Stop Crisis Management Centres in 15
districts, which pro-vide treatment, counselling, legal advice, and
protec-tion for victims of gender-based violence. While there is a
need to expand the Centres to more districts in the long-term, the
government should, in the immediate, examine whether they have
encouraged more women to report violations or not. More
importantly, do most women even know of these Centres? Furthermore,
standalone focus on encouraging women to report domestic violence
is not enough. In many cases, women tolerate violence for the sake
of their children, as they pass down citizenship rights and
oftentimes, neither have any property to live on. Women with
disabilities also face greater risks. The government, therefore,
must cater to the economic, medical, and other needs of women,
along with their children, at one location. In particular, mass
campaigns and new programmes against domestic violence must be
launched in the Tarai with the participation of both men and
women.
Home truthsTargeted govt programmes in the Tarai against
domestic violence are required
High-end NepalThe focus must be on maximising value and
distributing largesse on everything Nepal does
EDITORIAL
KANAK MANI DIXIT
thekathmandu posteditorial 06Friday, January 2, 2015
Since 1993
Oh! Darling
VIVEK SHARMA DHAKAL
Love is ineffable; to know love, you must love. One cannot
provide a defi-nition of love, but only experience it. It is
difficult, if not impossible, to
explain how salt tastes to one who has not tasted it. It is the
same with love. At some point in life, we all fall in love with
someone, something or, at least, with oneself. Along with love,
however, comes fear. The fear of losing the one we love so deeply
and purely. Thus, we try to control, own and care for who-ever we
love.
If you love a woman, you fancy her to
be your wife because a lover is more changeable. She can,
anytime, become a stranger. Who knows? A wife is more permanent. At
least there are courts, laws and government to ensure certi-tude.
Such a fear of love! Imagine you lost the one whom you loved
wholeheart-edly. Then you will find yourself in a forlorn desert,
alone and unable to reach the ocean, the oasis of life. Then, by
and by, you recede into darkness. When you fall in love, you
gravitate towards its magnetic field. You cannot escape fall-ing.
You fall against your will, blindly. That is why we call it falling
in love. There is a great pulling force, the
energy of love.Love has a transforming power,
and it works in miraculous ways. One of my friends, a classmate
at university, used to be a drinker, smoker and all kinds of
substance abuser. Due to this reason, he was expelled from the
uni-versity hostel. Now, he is not the same person. He is all
transformed, fresh. He was changed by his girlfriends love. The
girl loved him so much that he could not refuse her requests. Once,
she told him that she would leave him because of his drinking
habit. This though of her
departure was unbearable to him. The fear of losing her! Then
slowly, miracles started happening. He left all his old habits, and
promised not to tread on the same path ever. Surprisingly, now he
hates those who smoke and drink around
him. In addition, he advises friends to quit such habits. He is
now fresh and clean; trans-
formed by love. One of the most positive human emo-
tions is love. But the present generation has misused this word
and has given it a negative outlook. They say lets make love (sex).
This gives the wrong connota-
tion of love. Love is not limited to sex. Love directed to
fulfil ones libido or other selfishness is bogus, inimical. The sap
of life is turned into shambles with such a motive. Relations dont
last long, hearts break and friends turn into strangers. Genuine
love is pure, protective and kind. It does not harm others, does
not seek oneself, rejoices in truth, hates evil and never fails.
These are some of the quali-ties of authentic love which can only
be experienced. Once you experience some-thing, you will not remain
the same. So love can transform you and the people around you.
postplatform
That the Kabul ceremony marking the official closure of Natos
mission in Afghanistan should have been held in secret speaks
vol-umes for the end-result of Americas 13-year
war in that country. The war cost nearly a tril-lion dollars and
human lives whose number is yet to be assessed. Launching Operation
Enduring Freedom on Oct 7, 2001, in the wake of 9/11, former
president George Bush Jr. said the aim was to stamp out Al Qaeda
and the Afghan Taliban.
The Taliban have not been beaten. Having for years denounced the
Taliban using the choicest adjectives, the US entered into secret
talks with them in Doha without being clear about its goals. Then,
the Pentagon announced it would not target Mullah Omar, the man
whose head had a prize, and other Taliban so long as they didnt
pose a direct threat to the US. Now President Ashraf Ghani and his
advisers should join heads to wonder whether an attack on Afghan
security forces and civilian targets falls within the category of a
direct threat to the 12,000 troops the Pentagon has left
behind.
Isaf commander Gen John Campbell declared, We have lifted the
Afghan people out of the darkness of despair and given them hope
for the future. The reality is the Afghan people were probably
never in greater despair than they are now, and the hope the
general talked about appears nowhere on the horizon.
Is the system America has left behind capa-ble of survival,
stamping out militancy and launching Afghanistans post-war
reconstruc-tion? Afghanistan is just one milestone in Americas
foreign misadventures. Despite com-manding enormous economic,
military and technological power, US actions created chaos in Libya
and Iraq, throwing both into anarchy that fundamentalist forces
were quick to exploit.The Taliban also gained from the trust
deficit between Pakistan and America. The least Washington can do
now is to strike some under-standing with Afghanistans neighbours,
espe-cially Islamabad, to ensure peace and a sem-blance of
political order in a country that has been a war theatre for more
than three decades.
Nato withdrawalAn understanding with Islamabad
wORLDvIEw
Bhoj Raj Dhunganas village is ox-bowed by liquid gold. This gold
is the runoff from the future Upper Karnali Hydroelectric Project,
historically a hot-spot for fishing a plentiful catch, a
source of fresh drinking water for sur-rounding communities, and
a habitat of the indigenous Ganges River Dolphin.
Holding an abundance of freshwater, the price for Nepals blue
gold will increase with population, unsustainable develop-ment, as
well as an upsurge in drought and desertification throughout the
region in neighbouring big brother countries. In parallel with
increasing impacts of climate change manifest as inconsistent
annual rain gradients and temperatures, the Upper Karnali Project
continues to be developed, and within a couple of months, Indian
com-mercial fishermen will once again enter the Mohana-Karnali
region. Nevertheless, locals will remain unaware of their
fresh-water river basins water quality degrada-tion. The adverse
effects of outside parties contaminating and harnessing resources
from their sole source of water suggests a violation of their
fundamental human rights to water.
Knowing your rightsIt is more vital than ever that those with
riparian rights to their shared basins are given the proper
knowledge regarding the sanctity and utility of their water coupled
with its impacts on overall quality.
In 1995, naturalist Tej Kumar Shrestha published his accounts of
the rivers of Nepal through an analysis of the Ganges River
Dolphin. While his book contributes
positively to science on the topic, there remains a deficit of
data on Nepals fresh-water ecosystems as well as limited public
access to facts and figures. In several instances since 1990,
conservation biolo-gists have independently surveyed the abundance
of the Ganges River Dolphin through a multitude of methods, but
incon-sistency in experimental methods and non-continuous
monitoring have resulted in a dearth of available and reliable
data. The solution is establishing an adaptive stand-ard practice
for constant long-term moni-toring, open access to data, and
encourag-ing active participation from communities in monitoring
their local watersheds.
Such a practice is endorsed by the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), as detailed by its Office of Waters website for
monitoring and assessing water quality: EPA encourages all citizens
to learn about their water resources and supports volun-teer
monitoring because of its many bene-fits. Volunteer water monitors
build com-munity awareness of pollution problems, help identify and
restore problem sites, become advocates for their watersheds and
increase the amount of needed water quali-ty information available
on our waters.
As a representative of the people, it is upon the local and
central governments to
educate communities, irrespective of caste, literacy level, and
gender, on their water and vital natural resources. Through
obtaining and contributing open access data on bio-indicators,
ranging from abun-dance and behaviour of Ganges River Dolphin and
macro-invertebrates such as dragonfly larvae to physical and
chemical quality of the basins, the people will be edu-cated and
can be mobilised to protect their fundamental human right and the
local youth exposed to relatable applications for science and
math.
The Native American experienceThis past summer, Desiree Kane, a
free-lance journalist and descendant of the Miwok tribe from the
California redwood forestsa community lost and overpowered by
exploitation of its natural resources to the California Gold
Rushfilmed the people of Kailali. With an understanding of her
familys history and realising the potential of impending dangers,
she saw their inno-cence as well as their vulnerability
parallel-ing the fate of her own people:
Nepal has a great opportunity to learn from North America in
what not to do in terms of handling the promise of access to clean,
drinkable water, a fundamental human right. Throughout history,
the
United States big brother government has made many dealings with
the indigenous people of North America. From the begin-ning, there
has been no oversight, accounta-bility, or method of treaty
enforcement. Many deals, like the many energy agree-ments the
United States has made with the Navajo Nation in Arizona, that is
so closely akin to the situation in Nepal with Indias purchase of
hydroelectric power that its astounding, were wrought with outside
cor-ruption that lead to Native communities feeling manipulated,
being left in an ongo-ing, exploitative situation where the culture
and people are being rapidly lost. It was as if the dominant
culture came in, made a corrupt-from-the-start deal based on
eco-nomic pressure, that has not only made community members sick
from pollution, but has drained the land of natural resourc-es it
was abundant with prior, water includ-ed. The only lesson I can
express from the experience of the American Indian as a warning to
Nepals indigenous to protect themselves is best said by film maker
Alanis Obomsawin in 1932: When the last tree is cut, the last fish
is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air
is sickening, you will realise, too late, that wealth is not in
bank accounts and that you cant eat money.
A rare exception amongst the myriad vil-lages that rely on the
river system, unin-formed of its threats, Bhoj Raj Dhungana and
some members of his community fortu-nately have awareness of its
water quality and challenges, and have helped identify the Ganges
River Dolphin as a flagship species within an ecosystem they share
together. But without the resources to educate on a regional level
and without government sup-port, they are still waiting for their
neigh-bouring villagers to share their knowledge and have the tools
to seek protection of their common waters and build a bridge for
trans-boundary water conservation.
Levine is an environmental scientist, assisting the Dolphin
Conservation Centre
of Kailali in research and education
Know your rightsThose with riparian rights to river basins must
be given knowledge regarding the sanctity and utility of their
water
SARAH [email protected]
n The Ganges river dolphin, found in the Karnali watershed, is a
reliable indicator of the health of the river ecosystem.
C M Y K
