I am in the process of moving home at the moment from Godawari (which is 20km outside Kathmandu) to the town centre. My former home is being transformed into the basis of a rehabilitation centre which in the short term will host our art workshops. Ultimately I'd like my Trust to be able to purchase and extend the premises so that we can cater for up to 100 girl victims of trafficking as opposed to the current 50 or so. That will be an expensive prospect; property prices in Kathmandu have doubled in the last three years and I wouldn't be surprised if the final capital project cost doesn't run to £250k. We'll have to raise that from scratch.
I drove out to the house this morning and en route passed through a village called Harisiddhi. In the middle of this traditional Newar village a large red banner proclaimed "Long live Nepal France friendship". Presumably they've just had a French donor, or potential donor, visting and the locals like to have an opportunity to indulge in a bit of this kind of shallow flattery. It is a rather ironic slogan though considering that the French government has just recently refused the nominated (Maoist) Nepalese Ambassador to France.
From time to time Nepal sees a mass release of prisoners to mark a special occasion - like for example the former King's birthday. Personally I would prefer to see a celebration taking the form of a good party, but each to their own. Yesterday the papers said that they'd be freeing early no less than 800 prisoners from jail, just because the prisons are overcrowded. However prisoners from nine special categories would not be eligible. These include serious offences like rape and human trafficking, but I was bemused to read that the others include corruption and spying on the government. I can't imagine that anyone inside or outside hasn't been guilty of the former while I am surprised that anyone would be remotely interested in committing the latter crime. One other of the special categories was "helping prisoners to escape"; this seems to be a particularly pointless crime in the light of these regular amnesties. All you have to do is sit and wait rather than to embark upon digging tunnels.
