Pollution and protest

Faced with a growing fuel crisis in Nepal the Government has allowed the State-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to increase the price of petroleum products - petrol, diesel and kerosene - as of yesterday. The price hikes have been substantial, with increases of up to 28%. However so heavily have the prices been capped by the Government in the past (well below the import price) these increases are still not going to be enough to allow the debt-ridden NOC to even come close to breaking even. The problem is that in the past when prices have been raised street protests have erupted compelling the Government has had to back down and reverse the decision. I think this time around the Government is hoping to increase the cost by stages and hope that no one will notice.

There were protests in Kathmandu yesterday but fairly minor ones and I suspect these will soon blow over as everyone knows that prices can't be held so artificially low. The problem of course is that there is a huge knock-on effect in terms of general price rises which will be felt acutely in a country that is already so poor. The only consolation I can see is that in the UK where there have also been huge price rises at the pumps and long queues apparently petrol sales have dropped by 20% as people make less use of their cars. That has to have a huge benefit for the environment and polluted Kathmandu would certainly benefit from fewer vehicles on the road.

The Maoists as the leading party in the country have always said that they will turn Nepal into a prosperous nation. They have to be given the benefit of the doubt over this pledge, as this is their first time in power and every other party in the past has failed the nation. However these soaring costs of fuel won't help them to achieve their goals. That's but one of the challenges. The major one is to somehow engineer a sea change in people's attitudes to reform society along a healthy socialist agenda. To show concern for others many in the Nepali public have to escape from a "compound wall" mentality where so commonly people keep the confines of the compound wall that surrounds their house neat and tidy, while happily throwing rubbish over the other side. A reflection of this is the pollution of the "sacred" Bagmati river that runs through Kathmandu. Crossing the Bagmati bridge yesterday (I had to abandon my vehicle which had been caught in a traffic jam because of street protests) I took the picture on the right of the rubbish that is blatantly tipped into the stinking river. The Maoist leader, Prachanda, has said that he will clean up the Bagmati but this is a Herculean task which reflects in microcosm the difficulties his party will experience throughout Nepal purely as a result of people's inconsiderate attitudes.

It's not just the Nepalis who need to get real about our obligations to save the planet. Recently I saw a grant application form from a UK Trust that invites applicant charities to state what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint. Immediately I could think of how The Esther Benjamins Trust has established a biogas facility at the school for deaf children in Bhairahawa and how we are embracing Skype technology (webcam-based internet communication) that may allow us to hold Trustee meetings without travelling from home or my having to return from Nepal. Not all organisations within the sector are giving a due amount of thought to such issues. I was impressed to read that the Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) charity held a fundraising gala dinner in London at the weekend that raised £25 million. Then upon further reading I noted that one of the auction prizes was a private jet flight to a vineyard in France to pick up some cases of wine. There's something worthy of protest.

Shiva reincarnated

Passing the shop sign in Kathmandu today I was reminded of a story that appeared in The Himalayan Times of last week:











Even more shocking was a report in today's Himalayan Times that states the central zoo is looking to relocate to an area that will allow it room for expansion. The locals out in lovely Godawari are pitching to provide a suitable site, the argument being that Godawari is already home to such a fabulous range of flora and fauna (which it is). So what better case can there be to concrete over a lot of it and turn it into a haven for moronic day trippers to come and tease - or as I have personally witnessed in the past throw stones at - caged animals? So often I have heard dewy-eyed Nepalis wax lyrical about the beauties of their nation. But I think in many ways it takes an outsider who has seen around a bit to appreciate just what a special place this is with its rich ecology. And maybe it needs an outsider to help educate the locals who see it as their birthright to do what they will in the midst of Nepal's beautiful fragility.

In the Nepal news today

Further to my "Heroes" post of last month, this appeared on the cover of today's Kathmandu Post:

Some light reading in Nepal

Some time ago a friend in the development sector, who had lived for many years in Nepal, offered me his secret for preserving sanity and staying calm. That was to always have a good book readily to hand, given the amount of time that one can spend sitting around outside people's offices. Others can waste your time here with alacrity in what can become a little game of status and power play. So I have decided to use my "spare time" here productively by working through some of the classics of literature. Recent reads have included Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (which provided a template for one of my film favourites of all time, "Apocalypse Now"), Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" (that inspired another outstanding film "The Hours") and the one that I finished last evening, F Scott Fitzgerald's staggering book "The Great Gatsby". It is intriguing to note the influence that Conrad's work must have had on early 2oth Century literature. For Conrad (whose first language was Polish) wrote so well and was in style so ahead of his times that there are clear echoes of his writing in the other two novels that I mention.

At the end of Heart of Darkness, the central character, Kurtz, who has been living amidst the surreal savagery (most of which has originated from cruel and exploitative European colonial influences) of the eldritch Congo jungle exclaims in his dying breath "The horror, the horror!" The same cri de coeur could justifiably be uttered in Nepal when you see what those who masquerade as human beings inflict upon others whom they perceive as lesser beings. As an example, I need look no further than today's Himalayan Times newspaper report on how the police have bust a human trafficking ring that was sending vulnerable Nepalese girls into India. There the girls would have a kidney stolen from them, then enter sham marriages with the traffickers only to be subsequently dumped in brothels. Can it get much worse?

The date for our forthcoming circus rescue has been slipping each day but now it's looking good for Wednesday of next week, most likely in Calcutta area. Hopefully we'll be successful in retrieving scores of trafficked Nepalese girls from a different kind of horror.

I must remember to pack a good book.

Land of the Tiger

The girls at our Himalayan Mosaics workshop are now producing smaller and more detailed mosaics. This makes these exquisite mosaics easier to sell to tourists, who might have limited packing space, and cheaper to export. The latest designs of Nepali flora and fauna by my wife Bev seem to have developed along a tiger theme. Pictured right (awaiting grouting) is a tiger orchid, a common tiger and plain tiger butterfly and, er, a tiger. All mosaics are a mere 18 cm by 15 cm. Most excitingly we are now producing our own hand made tiles which are cut up to make the mosaics. This will increase the range of colours that are available. If anyone would like to order a mosaic or mosaics (and give a survivor of child trafficking employment) then just drop me a line.

Recently a supporter in the UK tested what I consider to be a fairly unreliable postal service by sending us a modest consignment of clothes for the children at our refuges. Yesterday the clothes were received in Kathmandu and they were put straight away to good use by the boys in the picture below. This means so much to us as the quality of locally available clothes is poor and the need is great given the 170 kids that we are looking after at the moment. If you'd like to follow this supporter's example (and are prepared to risk the loss of second hand clothes that would be subsequently untraceable) then please post what you've got to:

The Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation

PO Box 26050

Sundhara

Kathmandu

Nepal

Thanks!

Red on Red

Now that the Constituent Assembly has been elected the political process in Nepal can now move forward. Right? Wrong...

The Nepali political tradition of wrangling over top government posts continues. The largest party, the Maoists, are claiming the moral right to the appointments of both President and Prime Minister, while the other mainstream parties are saying that it should be one or the other. The Maoists have responded by saying that if they don't get their way within a couple of days they'll withdraw from government and take to the streets. And today the conservative Nepali Congress party has retaliated by calling a rally next week. And so it goes on. With all this infighting going on it is quite remarkable that anyone in the Constituent Assembly can manage some sleep, but the newly-elected highly-paid member pictured right managed to grab forty winks against the odds.

Meanwhile, over the weekend Maoist Chairman Prachanda warned the press - specifically The Kathmandu Post - to refrain from criticising his party or to face the consequences. Needless to say this sent a huge shiver through the media. I have to write that I fully support press freedom, however over the years I have found myself on the receiving end of inaccurate and vicious press reporting that has been baseless. In Nepal this has been the result of disgruntled former staff members making unsubstantiated allegations in a bid to get "revenge" and the papers love to print sensational stories here without risk of penalty. For me it's a case of liberty yes, license no.

It remains to be seen how the Maoists manage power in whatever manifestation that takes. I am hopeful that once things settle down the good relationships we have enjoyed with Maoist commanders at local level will extend to the centre. Last week Shailaja at our Kathmandu refuge received a threatening call from someone in the home district of a girl trafficking agent that we were involved in apprehending in March. Purporting to be a Maoist area commander, essentially his message was that the agent (who to escape justice claims to have senior Maoist connections) wished to apologise and be given a chance to amend her ways. Perhaps her enlightenment could be the result of her being currently in jail pending trial and facing the prospect of a conviction that could mean a 20 year sentence. When he followed up his call with a visit to Shailaja he was very unsettled to be introduced to pukka local Maoist personnel. After an exchange of opinions he returned home to carry out "further investigations". I doubt if he will be back again.

If the Maoists nationally can support our anti trafficking work - as their mainstream predecessors have failed to do in the past - then maybe we can begin to win the "fight" that I have referred to in previous posts.

Shailaja's birthday

Today is Shailaja's birthday and a fitting opportunity for me to pay tribute to this lady who has given herself over so fully to beneficence.

Shailaja is the Director of our local partner organisation, Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation (EBMF), based here in Kathmandu. I know her very well by now and have to admire her stamina in the midst of an ongoing huge workload and at times open hostility. Anyone who is good at their job and at heart will inevitably have their detractors in Nepal and Shailaja has been no exception. Indeed, when I first came to live in Nepal I was horrified to discover that she was being actively discriminated against by her (male) employers; not only was she more committed than they, but she had the wrong ingredients of being both an Indian and a woman. There is a widespread mutual antipathy between Indian and Nepali and no shortage of misogynists in Nepal. Now her pathetic narrow-minded persecutors from that time have all gone and Shailaja has taken the leading position that was her destiny.

A few weeks ago I recommended Shailaja for an international humanitarian award. Here is an extract from my pen picture:

"....Once again she has thrown herself into this task, building EBMF from nothing into a leading player in the fight against child trafficking within the course of a year. She has traveled widely within the trafficking prone areas of Nepal, motivating field staff and interacting with the communities and their children. She is a “people person” and never more comfortable than when operating in this kind of role. Shailaja has shown typical courage, herself going on rescue missions where “no” is never taken for an answer. She has been directly involved in the counseling of teenage girls who have been intercepted on the trafficking routes and has managed to convince them to give evidence against the traffickers (no small undertaking). As a consequence agents are now behind bars. And just a couple of weeks ago she was the one who personally confronted a lady at her Kathmandu home in a bid to rescue a ten year old girl from domestic slavery. The lady tried to intimidate Shailaja by telling her how important she was; Shailaja responded by filing a case with the police which is ongoing.

Shailaja now lives in the midst of 120 children, mainly trafficking victims and their “at risk” siblings at the EBMF refuge in Godawari to the southeast of Kathmandu. It is hard to overstate how fatiguing this must be, day in, day out, with little time taken by Shailaja for holiday. However she manages with her ready grin. Go to most Kathmandu orphanages and you’ll find grim Dickensian facilities, and idle staff. Visit the EBMF one and you will see the model of how things should be. I called in there last week, totally unannounced, and found a volleyball competition underway with Shailaja in the middle of the cheering children, dressed in her Manchester United strip.

I venture to suggest that you will find within this part of Asia few examples of commitment to social service and child welfare as strong as Shailaja. On the back of her motorbike she has a sticker reading “Catch me if you can”. I expect that few ever will."

Happy birthday Shailaja.