thekathmandu post 06

editorial

Friday, January 2, 2015

High-end Nepal

Since 1993

ED I T OR I A L

The focus must be on maximising value and distributing largesse on everything Nepal does

Home truths

nearby townhouses. Sadly, we have lost so

many heritage buildings in the interim.

Targeted govt programmes in the Tarai

against domestic violence are required

ast October, Pawan Kumar set his 19-year-old wife,

Puja Thakur of Indrapur-9, Banke, on fire. Puja, however, 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-inlaw. Such refusals to register cases of domestic violence
are all too common in Banke, according to rights activists. 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 nationwide 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 sexual violence, more than two among five suffered physical 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 respectively). 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 provide treatment, counselling, legal advice, and protection 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.

KANAK MANI DIXIT

hen 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 position to charge the highest for the resources
that it has monopoly over, while simultaneously 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 message 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, Khaptad
I 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 tourism 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 sophistication 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 available like low-hanging fruit. But we must
understand what the high-spending visitor
wantsdry toilets, modern indoors, and traditional 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 gullies, and absence (as yet) of concrete structures, the accessibility of low-altitude trekking 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 privilege 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 economics
The Maoist war applied a brake on the economic 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 populism that pushed every facet of the economy towards the low-end in terms of value
and quality. As an example, rather than
improving government schools, they threatened and brought low the private schools.
The focus was on destruction, not construction, 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 economics forced us to sell our wares at a discount.
In the mid-1990s, Unesco supported the renovation 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

Tea to herbs
It is a matter of understanding the value of
what we own, such as that the Khaptad plateau 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 interested 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 demanded. Nepals challenge (and aspiration) should
be to have quality products in low volume
and priced at a premium, whether it is pashmina, 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 wherever there is a regular direct flight out of
Kathmandu, from Singapore to Turkey.
Chure boulders
Reorienting 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 example 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 transport 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 environment, 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.

w orld v iew

Know your rights

Nato withdrawal

Those with riparian rights to river basins must be given knowledge regarding the sanctity and utility of their water

An understanding with Islamabad

hat the Kabul ceremony marking the official

closure of Natos mission in Afghanistan
should have been held in secret speaks volumes for the end-result of Americas 13-year
war in that country. The war cost nearly a trillion 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 capable of survival, stamping out militancy and
launching Afghanistans post-war reconstruction? Afghanistan is just one milestone in
Americas foreign misadventures. Despite commanding 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 understanding with Afghanistans neighbours, especially Islamabad, to ensure peace and a semblance of political order in a country that has
been a war theatre for more than three decades.

Oh!
Darling

SARAH LEVINE

sarah@dolphinconservation.org

hoj Raj Dhunganas village is ox-bowed

by liquid gold. This gold is the runoff
from the future Upper Karnali
Hydroelectric Project, historically a hotspot for fishing a plentiful catch, a
source of fresh drinking water for surrounding 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 development, 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 commercial fishermen will once again enter the
Mohana-Karnali region. Nevertheless,
locals will remain unaware of their freshwater river basins water quality degradation. 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 rights
It 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

VIVEK SHARMA DHAKAL

ove is ineffable; to know love, you

must love. One cannot provide a definition 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 whoever we love.
If you love a woman, you fancy her to

The Ganges river dolphin, found in the Karnali watershed, is a reliable indicator of the health of the river ecosystem.

positively to science on the topic, there

remains a deficit of data on Nepals freshwater ecosystems as well as limited public
access to facts and figures. In several
instances since 1990, conservation biologists have independently surveyed the
abundance of the Ganges River Dolphin
through a multitude of methods, but inconsistency in experimental methods and
non-continuous monitoring have resulted in
a dearth of available and reliable data. The
solution is establishing an adaptive standard practice for constant long-term monitoring, open access to data, and encouraging 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 volunteer monitoring because of its many benefits. Volunteer water monitors build community awareness of pollution problems,
help identify and restore problem sites,
become advocates for their watersheds and
increase the amount of needed water quality information available on our waters.
As a representative of the people, it is
upon the local and central governments 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 certitude. Such a fear of love! Imagine you
lost the one whom you loved wholeheartedly. 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 falling. You fall against your will, blindly.
That is why we call it falling in
love. There is a great pulling force, the

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 abundance 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 educated 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 experience
This past summer, Desiree Kane, a freelance 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 innocence as well as their vulnerability paralleling 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

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 university 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; transformed by love.
One of the most positive human emotions 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-

postplatform

United States big brother government has

made many dealings with the indigenous
people of North America. From the beginning, there has been no oversight, accountability, or method of treaty enforcement.
Many deals, like the many energy agreements 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 corruption that lead to Native communities
feeling manipulated, being left in an ongoing, 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 economic pressure, that has not only made
community members sick from pollution,
but has drained the land of natural resources it was abundant with prior, water included. 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 villages that rely on the river system, uninformed of its threats, Bhoj Raj Dhungana
and some members of his community fortunately 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 support, they are still waiting for their neighbouring 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

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 qualities of authentic love which can only be
experienced. Once you experience something, you will not remain the same. So
love can transform you and the people
around you.
C M Y K