An advertisement and application form for the Miss Nepal 2008 competition appears on the back page of today's Himalayan Times newspaper. It states that candidates should be "attractive" (that seems to make some kind of sense) and of "good moral character". After advising that only women in the age range of 19-25 should apply there is a space for the parent's signature to indicate that they have no objection to their daughter participating in the competition. This strikes me as being arguably a little prissy while hundreds of Nepali girls whose parents couldn't care less are trafficked into the sex trade either across the border into India or to the tourist hotspots of Kathmandu.
Equally surreal was my spotting at the weekend an anti child labour poster inside The Raj Mahal Circus (see my post of 16th June) in the midst of the Circus's gross abuse and exploitation of child performers. This was a cunning attempt to deceive their public, but then again perhaps those circus people are not quite so clever as they think they are. I learned last evening that through our efforts the Raj Mahal's manager is now in jail pending investigation of his use of child/bonded labour.
