Investigate

The "sudden disappearance" of a sizeable consignment from a godown the other day at the Kathmandu Airport Customs has stunned the entire business community. This has also sent waves of concern among the people. For, this reveals how businessmen and customs officials collude to undervalue expensive import items and deny the government its due revenue. The incident has also shed light on the fact that importers bluff their way out the customs declaring expensive merchandise as poor imitation and thus cheap. As a matter of fact, the latest incident in the series of customs-related discrepancies at the TIA, rules out any doubts that the bureaucratic machinery at customs posts around the country, particularly at TIA, have been providing safe passage for valuable goods at undervalued prices. Undervaluation at customs means the importer pays less duties and sells goods at unjustifiably and unethically high profits. The resultant all-pervading corruption that this kind of economic crimes breed is all too evident to need any elaboration.

For several years, Sushma Trading Concern (STC) had been importing expensive items from Thailand. Every time, it used to clear the consignment for less than 15,000 rupees at TIA customs. But this time, it did not happen. One of its consignments, which contained the "artificial gem", had to be checked as it was suspected to be worth more than what was stated in the invoice. According to the findings, the 6.5 kilos "coloured glass stones" consignment imported from Thailand in October was worth over one million rupees. The consignment which was lying in the godown of Nepal Transit and Warehousing Corporation was clearly undervalued. Surprisingly, it disappeared half an hour after the cargo was handed over to TIA customs office. How?

The case calls for a thorough investigation and the need to bring the guilty to justice. The haphazard manner in which such cases have been dealt with in the past must not be repeated if the government is to fulfil its promise of a corruption free administration. The consignment which was undervalued should not have taken so long for customs clearance had there not been any disagreement between STC and customs officials over possible give and take. The inordinate delay in customs clearance explicitly shows that there was a deal that failed to materialize and hence, the desperation on the part of officials which has ended in the goods doing the vanishing trick. In the past too, such expensive goods have been cleared by customs officials as "fake and imitation". It need not be reiterated that corruption - be it at TIA customs, RNAC, roads administration or other places - has really defamed the country’s image badly over the last one decade. Even the country’s so called democratic leaders are allegedly involved in shady deals with businessmen. The association of politicians with alleged smugglers and their ilk has made people unhappy and angry. The government can allow this to
continue only at greatest of peril to the nation and to the people. It has to stop such activities and punish those who are involved in shady deals. Otherwise, the country's economy will continue to remain under corrupt bureaucrats, politicians, and businessmen.

Handle with care

Our government is almost always erring and clumsy in its handling of public affairs. It is not capable of doing things, smaller or bigger, in a tactful manner.

The deportation of the junior Pakistani Embassy official for his involvement in the Indian fake currency racket, though inevitable, could have been done in a decent manner. The way the government deported him was quite crude and rough, showing how tactless Nepalese officials could become. Pakistani ambassador Ms Fauzi Nusreen was doing nothing abnormal in trying to defend the official, considering the treatment meted out to him by the government. The better way was to request the ambassador to send him out quietly. Instead of doing that, the government and its law enforcing agency were being quite inconsiderate to the dignity of a diplomatic mission of a friendly country with whom we had been able to establish formal ties and exchange embassies against heavy odds created by an extraneous force.

The manner we forced the junior diplomat’s expulsion from Nepal cannot but hurt the feelings of the Pakistanis with whom we have nothing by way of enmity. Moreover, such an attitude smacks of the utter lack of finesse on our part, apart from its verging on the point of savagery.

Pakistan needs its ties with Nepal only marginally. It is we who are in need of ties with important countries. We can ill-afford to alienate an important country like Pakistan. Pertinent question is: Will the Nepali Congress led government dare to deal similarly with other embassies some of which are carrying out extra-curricular activities which are directly against this country? Meanwhile, the Pakistan Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is also being charged for running its operation from within Nepal. Is our government sure that no other similar agency or agencies are functioning in this kingdom?

Yadav Khanal,
Tripureshwar, Kathmandu

Merging of East and West : Role of writers

By Dr Padma P Devkota

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning

O Lord Thou pluckest me out

O Lord Thou Pluckest burning

- T S Eliot, "The Waste Land"

Binary oppositions have persisted in
various forms in human thought. East and West is one example of such a division which has proved to be more politically than culturally useful in the past. This division is too broad and too general to give an accurate picture of the various national cultures that are involved within each category. On the one hand, the East means not only Nepal but also India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, China, Japan and many other nations which are culturally diverse in themselves. The West, on the other hand, represents commercially affluent, socially homogenized, technologically advanced, and politically powerful. As a result, each nation of the East is pitted one at a time against the West which continuously provides the criteria by which eastern ideological and material advancement is measured. This partly explains the cultural impact of the West on the East.

Nevertheless, this broad categorization has also proved useful to describe two major attitudes -- the materialistic and the spiritual -- towards the world as a perceived reality, which in turn reflects the nature of the perceiver. That the West is materialistic apparently means that it is commercial, competitive, clear, questing and concise. That the East is spiritual apparently means that it is religious, muddled, abstract, and inflated with myth and magic. Yet, such notions can only be quite erroneous as they are partly the result of body of Oriental literature which has its corresponding reflection in the Dick Whittingtonian reveries of the eastern aspirant to fabulous wealth, freedom and fame in the West. Whatever else the East and the West might mean, all meaning are true and false at the same time since impermanence is the only truth we all share with conviction.

A vision of impermanence lies at the core of all Hindu philosophy and lifestyles. Reality eludes perception because it is a flux. Eyes see a stream of things they cannot properly define. Ears perceive a sequence that they attempt to interpret. Thought tries to capture the essence of this flux in a medium whose fundamental categories are themselves constantly changing. Categorical values fade away against a cosmic illusion, a lila, where consciousness can only discover itself as a part of the Brahman or the ultimate reality. Categories such as the East and the West have no place in the overall traditional Hindu consciousness.

Yet, we too have felt the impact of such provisional categories as part of the modernizing process in the twentieth century Nepal. Starting in 1951 when the country opened up to foreign influences and tourism, lifestyles and patterns of thought have changed drastically. Cultural osmosis has taken place with a natural effectiveness, not always in the desired direction, under the influence of politico-economic factors. Tourism has become at once a major source of national income and a major influence upon national cultural conduct. The resulting change has largely accommodated Western values within the Hindu lifestyle. Yet it has also rejected the Hindu lifestyle as demoded and uncritically accepted Western influences as the arrowhead of modernisation which is conspicuously outrageous to the eastern "civiligentia"-- a mass of intellectuals who prefer not to be cut off from the roots of cultural inheritance.

Eastern voices have always reacted strongly to cultural imperialism by claiming that aggression against culture can be as grave as a war crime. The world of the mid-century was filled with fear and distrust as a result of the war. This called for a mutual understanding among nations as well as peace and coexistence. Some way had to be discovered to save the rich cultural heritage of the people of Asia. One solution was to dispel distrust and suspicion through cultural exchanges. War had to be denounced by all peace-lovers. Imperialistic attitudes too had to be condemned. Rabindranath Tagore not only condemned Japanese imperialism on China as "a gregarious demand for exclusive enjoyment of all the good things on earth" but also wrote later on in life about war in these words:

The poisoned war-snakes are spitting fire

Prayers for peace shall be of no avail,

That is why, on the eve of my life

I call upon all to stand up,

Prepare,

And fight back the demon of war.

Peace and human rights have ever since become major concerns not only for politicians but for all conscious writers of the East and West.

Related to human rights are other concerns about race, religion, colour, sex, and so on. The feminist movement has strongly criticized the binary thought process and demanded a hearing in the name of human equality. Marxism, Freudianism, existentialism and many other attitudes to the world have contributed to the formation of a post-modernistic mind in the West. Although Nepalese writers uphold and cherish Freud, Marx, Sartre and others, post-modernism still feels like an empty space in Nepal.

This is probably not an illogical phenomenon. Modernism in the West is a reaction to the nineteenth century culture and values. Culturally different, Nepal cannot be modern in the same sense that the West is modern. Modernism in Nepal has meant an influx of western ideologies and commercial products rather than a qualified search for national identity. To the Nepali, modernity has meant an unconservative stance as a progressive or a neoteric in terms of the amount of western influences that can be individually imbibed. This is of course a negative definition of Nepalese modernism. A more positive definition must consider a corresponding evolution and modification of recent values as opposed to, say, those that dominated the pre-Devkotian age.

A very important contribution of the greatest modern Nepali poet, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, was to prove to the post-modern West -- or at least to that section of it which was willing to listen to him -- that what is marginal is modern as well. Writing from the periphery of the periphery of the world, Devkota speaks with a powerfully modern voice-- modern in the Western and the Nepalese sense of the world. To bring the Nepalese classical tradition to its height, to blow the bugles of modernity in national literature, and to be acclaimed as modern writer by western critics at the same time is a task of no small calibre. His vision is holistic, unbiased, yet nationalistic.

In the body of his literary works, Devkota also sought a meeting point between the East and West. In the myths of these two factions of the world, he found a common dream. Yet, dreams are but vapours of a painful reality -- vapours that arise when conscious efforts to alleviate the pains subside. Similar dreams arise from similar problems. Similar problems bring people together. Seeking a solution to the problems of the modern waste land, T S Eliot, for instance, discovered that wise men of both the East and West, St Augustine and Lord Buddha, have prescribed similar remedies to the general ailment. The conscious writers’ job is not only to identify problems but to propose solutions too. This probably also explains Devkota's and the Romantics' penchant toward a painful Promethian consciousness. It is only through such awareness of a painful reality that dreams precede actions. As writers of the East and the West have constantly reminded us, together we can hope to conquer the evils of the world. Apart, we will only begin to dislike each other.

Looking forward to the twenty-first century, therefore, we can assert that it is very important for writers of the world to be conscious of the yet painful reality of human inefficiency in creating peace and prosperity for all. Prophet, educator, clown or saviour, the writer must accept a social function first and then only take aesthetic naps in his or her ivory tower at intervals. He or she must learn to communicate, to create undeceiving words. His or her moral courage to speak up against all political attempts to suppress the writer's voice anywhere in the world must remain exemplary of a quest for newer horizons. Frontiers and restrictions must yield. Even age-long tradition and soul-deep culture must yield if such yieldings will create a better world to live in. The merger between the East and the West must first occur in the writer’s vision of a united world, which will then gradually materialize in times to come.

Of a new channel

By Amar Pradhan

Aheadline in a daily newspaper the other day caught my eyes. It said Nepalese films popular in Jhapa. It certainly was big news for a guy like me who had vowed never to watch another Nepali movie again. It is not that I’m against Nepali movie. But it so happened that after seeing those Nepali movies aired by Day TV (as boring as a day could be), I had reached at that conclusion.

And on that ominous note, the headline about Nepali movies being popular in Jhapa was even more surprising . I reached another end straight away, either there is something drastically wrong with the Jhapalis or me. The latter would seem more plausible to many since it deals with putting off a single soul.

You’ll be surprised to know that considering the increasing trend of Nepali film production, a friend of mine had actually started contemplating a career in Kollywood. Knowing very little of what’s going around here, he had once said but not long time ago that it’s a booming industry and he was thinking of taking a film direction course in Mumbai. I also thought it’s a worthwhile career.

But when I met him a few days ago he had already abandoned the idea. When I asked the reason for his present indifference, he simply answered back, "Where are the artistes,?"

"You can produce them once you’re a big director," I told him. But my answer could not convince him. And with that confused look still ingrained on his face he replied, "Looking at those movies with costars repeated literally in every movie I am still confused whether the side hero died in the movie I saw on Tuesday or the one I saw on Wednesday."

One can still argue that perhaps my friend had an overdose of movies and had only himself to blame, but back in my home the two kanchhas had started looking very energetic sometime back, perhaps ever since the Nepali movies hit the idiot box, doing everything with a sense of urgency and finishing their dhandas on time. There was that spirited spring in their steps and constant glance at the wall clocks that told it all : they were waiting for the clock to strike 2. But suddenly a couple of days ago I noticed that the spring in their steps were gone. "Don’t you have to see the movies this afternoon folks?" I joked. But they didn’t seem very excited and only nodded their head as if to say: it’s the same old movies.

Kudos to the new channel for turning virgin movies into old ones in a matter of a week or two.

And the hall wallahs must be heaving a big sigh of relief now. When the ‘new habit of new found converts’ were at its peak, the hall wallahs had in fact made a public grievance saying that the channel will literally kill them. No such problem now I suppose.

And another surprise, I heard that these same hall owners have rescued the channel. When the channel was asked if it intended to make a kind of record by airing a single movie for a record number of time? Prompt came the answer, "We are doing this to save cinema halls,"

No doubt, guys and girls are flocking to cinema halls in Jhapa these days.

Agendas for the third millennium

By Raju Chitrakar

Many civilizations have disappeared in the millennia of human history and the lesson from this at the dawn of the Third millennium is that if we move forward by correcting the past, we may be able to make the future prosperous.

The Second Millennium seems to have continued with past mistakes instead of correcting them. Like in the first millennium, there was great destruction and suffering because of conflicts: religious, political, social, territorial, ethnic, communal, commercial, philosophic, and so on.

A sad thing for the new millennium is that the above causes and practices of human destruction are still going on. Furthermore, towards the end, the Second Millennium added new kinds of dangers. These dangers are the emergence of new political and religious ideologies and invention and development of fearful weapons like atomic and neutron bombs. It appears that the Second Millennium also tried to prove the wrong notion that men are born to fight and die.

Some narrow minded people think that human disputes are necessary to keep human population and necessities in balance. At the same time, they also say that man is the most conscious animal. But the wonder is man is killing his fellow partners. This unnatural behaviour has reduced all human development to dust. No species kills its own kind except human beings. In this sense, man stoops even below the level of animals.

Every person has the right to live peacefully. To preserve this right, we must give a new direction to the millennium by trying to attain self understanding and self-development. Materially we are developed, but we cannot say the same in terms of our spirituality. All existing philosophies or theories teach us to follow things which are good for human beings. We have applied it only to our personal advantage not realising the fact that personal advantage is conditioned in the human advantage as a whole. We are doing so because we lack understanding.

We treat a person from different religion, place, politics, colour, and so forth, as if he or she were not a human being. We do not realise that despite all these natural variations he or she is a human being too. We also do not realise that we did not have such differences in the past. People are fighting one another in the name of religion, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, and so forth. This clearly shows that they are fighting with their own brothers and sisters. Such is the situation all over the world: not only within a country but also between nations.

Most of the things or ideas man has created or developed were meant to be good for human beings. For instance, every religion or philosophy teaches us good values. Similarly, even nuclear power can serve man a great deal. All of these have been the causes of human destruction because they are misused. To change such an inhuman situation, we need unified efforts. United Nations Organisation (UNO) is the authorised and responsible body to carry such an effort though it is sometimes blamed for supporting one block of people. It is spending billions of dollars in humanitarian aid every year. Still the situation is worsening everyday. The main reason behind this is that we have emphasized only the material, not spiritual values. For smooth human development, both of these are equally necessary as these are complements to one another. To solve any problem, we should eliminate the cause. When our children learn that we are one, we can be happy in unity. They will then certainly hesitate to destroy humanity when they grow up. Therefore, UN should take the lead in introducing some chapters of human values in all disciplines as part of school curriculum. All nations should be cooperative to this effort.

Changing the human mind is certainly not an easy job. One millennium may be short for this. At the same time, it will not do to be hopeless about such an essential task and let the world run as it is. Man is immortal. One reason for this is that our form or body changes but the substance or soul remains the same: my father and mother’s substance is transformed to me and my sister, and naturally my substance will be transformed to my future generations. Then, why not to plant the plant of Heaven now for our future generations? Heaven is not any separate world to go after our death. It is the earth itself and we can attain it in our own lives. If we can change it into Hell, we can also change it into Heaven.

For this, we must learn to work drawing lessons from the past. Let us make our journey to self understanding and self development. Let us know that all men are one despite differences in colour, culture, custom, religion, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, etc. Let us not misuse human achievement. Let us understand that whatever man has created, including ideologies and values, are subject to change with time and situation and hence there is no sense in killing our fellow partners in the name of one set thing, ideology or value. Let us realise that we can best live in unity, not in loneliness, that our happiness is interrelated with other’s happiness. Hence, let us live and let others live and create unity in diversity. Let us create other higher values and discover further sophisticated technologies for human happiness and, if possible, for the happiness of other creatures. And finally, let us make these the agendas for the Third Millennium. To meet the plan, let us teach above human values in our educational institutions so that our future generations could be examples of such values, not just theoretical preachers. Let UNO lead and let nations be involved in such programme. And let us hope that by the end of the Millennium, people will at least understand what they need for their unwarranted happiness. After all, man has to live for an uncountable period of time.