Inspirational or a reason to be concerned?

At 14, girls usually are more worried about their looks and their teen fantasies, but not Bindu Thang from Sukaura village, ward no. 4. She is not only attending grade 4 at her local school, she has also been taking care of her 4 younger siblings and the family hotel at night since a year and a half. Since her step mother has gone to Kuwait for employment for two years, Bindu has been taking care of the home front. Her dad, who actually sends people abroad, too is constantly away in relation to his work, so most of the responsibilities of the home has been on Bindu. Since the trend has been for local women to seek employment abroad, more and more female children have had to bear more responsibilities. It is Bindu's discipline and talent that she is performing well in school despite all the chores upon her.
Now, is this a inspirational story that a young kid can manage her life and home so well or a sad situation that this is becoming a kind of norm even in remote villages throughout Nepal?

A tribute to the Martyrs

A trip back home

Demolition of King Mahendra's statue in Hetauda

Pitiful and outrageous act of Maoists

In the beginning when Maoist took up arms, the regime then decided that they could be crushed so did not negotaite and treated them like a joke. Tides has turned now and the Maoists are poised to share power with the seven parties. What do they do when they come to power? They have adapted the same pitiful and disgusting attitude that the previous regime took. Here is the news from THT today.

Maoist Cadres Thrash MJF Activists in Bhairahawa
THT Online

Bhairahawa, January 26
Maoist cadres disrupted a protest programme organised by the Madheshi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF), Rupandehi, in Bhairahawa on Thursday. They beat up MJF cadres Chandrika Yadav and Mahendra Yadav, took them around the city and chased other MJF cadres. Chadrika and Mahendra sustained critical injuries on their heads. "The Maoists exhibited their real character by beating us," Chandrika Yadav said. "Though we had called MJF cadres not to organise programmes that upset communal harmony and peace, they went ahead with such a programme. That is why the programme was disrupted," a district member of the CPN (Maoist), Ghanashyam Yadav, said.

It seems that the Maoists think that they are the only group who have the right to dissent and take up arms. And they seem to believe that Nepal can function without the Terai's participation as an integral part of Nepal. Here is my message to these misguided people:

Dissent cannot stopped by violence. It did not work against you, and it will not work againt others if you err like your predecessor.

The plight of Nepal due to its corrupt leaders

I was reading the cover story on GPK in "Nepal" magazine yesterday. In discussing various aspects of his life, two points were made that shows why the likes of GPK is the reason Nepal as a nation rots in the depth of misery. First point, he took totally undemocratic decision trying to promote his daughter Sailaja into Congress leadership. That meant family over the interest of the party. Second point, he is promoting "constitutional monarchy" as a possible measure to counter what he perceives as a growing strength of leftist parties, and waning credibility of Nepali Congress. This validates his prioritizing party interest over national interest. The reason for Nepal's pathetic situation is formost a manifestation and combined effect of incompetent leaders not placing national priority at the foremost thought in their deliberation and action. Shame on you corrupt leaders!

Political parties not necessarily for all people

We have setn it happen before during the 12 years of "democracy." The political parties are first and foremost for themselves, not for the Nepali people. That is why we get to see constant deterioration and cynicism in Nepali society. These two snipplets of news from THT illustrate this point. The first one is from the noted civil society leader Mr Daman Nath Dhungana:

Addressing mediapersons in Birendranagar on Thursday, Damannath Dhungana said, "Though the political parties allotted 48 seats for civil society in the Legislative Parliament, the parties did not induct them in the interim House," Dhungana said, adding, "There is no representation of civil society in the Legislative Parliament.""Do Bam Dev Gautam, Jhalanath Khanal, Bimendra Nidhi and Sujata Koirala represent the civil society?" Dhungana questioned.Dhungana said, "No change has been observed in the functioning of political parties, which are tasked with building the nation.""The civil society would present itself as the ninth party to solve the nation's problems if the eight parties failed," Dhungana said.He accused the Maoists of giving the berths meant for the civil society to the leaders of their parties.

The second bit of news is a response from indigenous people, the real "Hill" people on the promulgation of the interim constitution and to be formed interim legislature.

Indigenous leaders on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over the representation of indigenous nationalities in Legislative Parliament.Speaking at a programme, Tek Bahadur Sunuwar, vice president of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, said the issues of indigenous nationalities raised by the NEFIN had been sidelined by taking some handpicked individuals into the legislature. "The interim constitution is completely silent about the issues of regional and ethnic autonomy, which NEFIN has been advocating for years," he said.

He said the interim constitution was also silent on the federalism issue. He said an agitation to protest the interim statute would be announced on Friday.

Dr Om Gurung, former general secretary of the NEFIN, said the interim legislature was formed without taking into account the rights of the indigenous people.

Academician Bairagi Kaila said Jana Andolan II had given hope to the indigenous people but the political parties had belied those hopes. "We had sought proportional ethnic representation and autonomy, but there is no mention of it in the interim constitution," he said.

The struggle for autonomous fedralism should continur for equality of opportunity for all Nepalese. Leader of the CPN-Maoist Parliamentary Party Krishna Bahadur Mahara was reported as saying, "Nobody can stop us from making a New Nepal. We will use the interim legislature for our purpose. Those who stand for the status-quo will be defeated," he said, adding that the restructuring will do justice to all the ethnic, religious and regional groups, women and the Terai residents."

Apparently he must assume that Maoists are the only ones capable of bearing arms and that the struggle was only against the monarchy. Now that the first feudal lord has been defeated, the political parties probably feel they have a free reign on power. Unfortunately, even minor dissatisfaction in the nation can lead to major disruption in a small nation like Nepal. The grievances can take violent form easily. With the arms of the Maoist and the NA locked up, a thrid party can easily take to arms for their cause. Maoist success has laid a good foundation for such a possibility.

Who are the "Hill" people?

In the current movement of the Terai people, it's important to note who the Hill peoples are since the Terai separatist movement has created a difference between the "Hill" and "Terai" population. It is easy to forget thatthe real "Hill" people are the indegenous people. The so called "Hill" people are actually the descendents of the "Terai" people from the Muslim invasion of the 10th century. Those people in power-mostly the upper echelon in Hindu caste system-are not "Hill" people at all. Now, if we only consider Nepal's history from the time of unification, then the present conflect makes sense, but history did not start with the unification. Therefore, it is better to seek reconciliation and power-sharing through a federal system than what the movement is aiming for, a separate nation of 20 Terai districts.