Enforce traffic laws

Incidents of traffic violation involving pedestrians and two and four wheelers which have resulted in fatal accidents in Kathmandu valley have become a matter of grave concern. The main reasons why the number of accidents are on the rise are: ineffective implementation of traffic rules and non-compliance with safety standards by those who move on two and four wheelers. If the Valley Traffic Police Office (VTPO) does not implement traffic rules effectively, the rate of accidents will continue to increase. VTPO has no other option but to impose traffic laws strictly if it wants to discourage traffic violations and to reduce accidents.

Police records reveal that there have been over 153 accidents during the last ten months. Of the total, cars and two wheelers contributed more than fifty percent. Apparently, 72 people had to lose their lives due to weak traffic measures. Of them, 25 died in motorcycle accidents, 15 were killed due to bus mishaps and 11 pedestrians died while crossing the road. What is surprising is that even though more than 20 drivers are booked every week as a result of drunken driving, the traffic police have hardly taken any action against them. This apart, reports have it that over 1800 drivers who violate traffic rules each week, manage to get away by bribing traffic police officers. There is no doubt that the tendency among many traffic officers to receive petty bribes has encouraged traffic violations.

Transport Management Act 1992 states that pillion riders on two wheelers are supposed to wear helmet and those occupying the front seat of a car have to use seat-belts for safety. However, the traffic police have imposed this rule neither on pillion riders of two wheelers nor on those who occupy the front seat of any car. Pedestrians cross roads when the red light is on though they know the rule, but nothing is done to them. Two and four wheelers violate the rules at every point and park their vehicles at no-parking zones. As a result of this, one has to wait hours to clear traffic jams in major thoroughfares. It is also a fact that there is no regulation policy for the import and registration of old vehicles which ply the streets of Kathmandu. Had the traffic police implemented rules and taken action against the violators, the rate of fatal accidents would have certainly been less. It is sad but true that VTPO has failed to implement traffic rules and also to maintain smooth flow of daily traffic.

It is high time the VTPO really worked to create awareness of traffic laws among the public. It must also be strict about enforcing the law against drunken driving and those who do not comply with the rules. Such measures will go a long way to lessen the rate of accidents. The sooner VTPO gets down to enforcing traffic laws in earnest, the safer it will be for the people. Last but not the least VTPO authorities must also see to it that petty corruption related to violation of traffic rules is curbed.

Towards a community of democracies

By Lok Raj Baral

Community formation is possible when shared feelings get manifested through certain mechanisms or by declaration of intents. Sense of community thus implies an identical position of individuals or groups or countries or cultural groupings. Expression of common language on certain issues and themes also leads to forming a culture of community. If the countries of identical ideological nature decide to forge bonds of friendship and cooperation with a view to strengthening a common cause, then they are closer to the idea of community. In Warsaw, Poland, 104 countries met on June 25-27, 2000 not only to affirm solidarity among democracies but also to devise ways and means for consolidating democracies on the basis of shared experiences, sympathy and support when democracies are threatened by anti-democratic forces. The meeting was called "Towards a Community of Democracies" that obviously isolated the non-democratic countries. Although some liberal democratic countries like France had a dig at the motive behind such a coalition of democracies assailing the meeting as a US show, none including France seemed to challenge the spirit of democracy and freedom sweeping across the world.

Choice of Warsaw as the venue of two conferences--Towards a Community of Democracies and world Forum on Democracies, which simultaneously took place at non-official level but with as much seriousness as was evident in the Foreign Ministers’ conference, was all the more significant. Warsaw was a symbol of both Cold War military pacts among the communist countries of Europe and of democracy movement led by the Solidarity. The foreign minister of Poland, Professor Branislaw Geremek, was the centre of attraction due to his own intellectual stature and his active involvement in the Solidarity movement launched against communism in Poland. Addressing the gathering, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, said, "challenges to human kind in the new century will be the struggle to make the practice of democracy equally universal. In that struggle, nations in which democracy is already well established will need to be vigilant in preserving that achievement, and to work together to help those where democracy is still new or emerging. That, I know is the main purpose of your coalition, and I warmly salute it." It seemed that all those present had unequivocal commitment to democracy which, as experience has suggested through decades, had no credible alternative to it, notwithstanding the tall promises made occasionally by authoritarian rulers while seizing power on various pretexts. The Warsaw Declaration committed to "collaborate on democracy related issues in existing international and regional institutions forming coalitions and caucuses to support resolutions and other international activities aimed at the promotion of democratic governance."

The four areas selected for in-depth discussion by the Warsaw Conference were: (a) cooperation among democratic governments in strengthening global, regional and specialized international institutions; (b) strengthening democracy: sharing best practices; (c) responding to threats to democracy; and (d) looking ahead on issues of democracy assistance: strengthening democratic institutions through mutual support and partnership. And the four panels were respectively chaired by four foreign ministers--Madeleine Albright (USA), Jaswant Singh (India), Soledad Alvear (Chile) and Modibo Sidibe (Mali). Chakra P Bastola, Nepal’s foreign minister and the present author, participating in the fourth panel, dealt at length with theoretical and practical problems faced by developing democracies of the world with special reference to Nepal. Ideologically and functionally, democratic systems have faced big challenges, as the democratic functionaries themselves are seemingly becoming undemocratic in their attitude and behaviour.

Added to such problems and malaise are the eroding role of the state in maintaining its conventional and non conventional roles. The exhausted state authority cannot provide security in both the actual and psychological sense, nor can it manage multifold roles assigned to it (state). Society, polity, economy, international relations, demographic change and its impacts on the country, to mention a few, are newer sources of insecurity to the country and democracy. The fast developing disparity gap in education and economic sectors that have contributed to creating highly segmented elite class coupled with continued poverty are some of the critical areas deserving the immediate attention of new democratic leaders. As these are internal issues to be tackled by the imagination, vision and determination of democratic leaders, it has by now been proved that it is the people of a country that legitimize power and system.

Democracy’s chances of survival are brighter than ever before due to some of these conditions: failure of authoritarian regimes to providing basic needs to citizens or to ensure the minimum requirements of popular legitimacy. Radical socio-economic programmes that initially promised to change the conditions of the people have invariably faltered under authoritarian rulers thus giving rise to protest movements leading to the demise of such rule. Conceivably, the collapse of authoritarian regimes across the world has established the fact that democratic resiliency and its correctives are far more endurable and legitimate than the tantrums of personality-based regimes.

Second, it is easy to topple an authoritarian regime because of its hollow power-base and shifting ideological position. It lacks absorptive capacity perennially finding itself in a cruel dilemma on whether or not it should allow freedoms and full-blown legitimacy. Since it is based on personality rather than on procedures and institutions, it is always vulnerable even to a small protest movement. Democratic governance can survive protests as has had been the case of Nepal in the post-1990 period, for the target is the party in power, not the system itself. If people become assertive on the basis of their evaluative capacity, changes occur at every interval through the prescribed channels of public dissent.

Finally, the international factor is no less significant for democracy’s survival. A strong supporting point in this regard is that democracy neutralizes external elements for creating negative impacts on change of democratically elected governments, despite individual or party preferences of some external powers. Democratic solidarity, which is clearer on the horizon today, would further shore up democratic regimes regardless of their in-built weaknesses. If the Warsaw declaration were seriously taken by the participating countries and by other lovers of democracy, chances of reversal would be less. Yet, lack of good governance at home nullifies external solidarity. How the parties and leaders abide by the rules of the game and make their roles more people-oriented and less corruptible will reinforce the linkage between external and internal aspects.

Dollar dreams

By Hitesh Karki

Hey dude, whass up yaar... long time no hear. But then probably it's my fault rather then yours. I am at the moment working like a donkey! Guess what? ever since I landed here - from dishwashing to laundries - I’ve been thru them all. But nevertheless life’s pretty cool. Hardly do I get time for sleep but I still do that whenever the opportunity is there. Else, where on the earth would I have time to chill out and booze. And as far as college is concerned, I don’t have the slightest clue as to what's going on there. I hardly go there !

What the heck yaar, dad and mom don’t know all this. I’m sure they are proud of the simple fact that I’m here without knowing what kind a life I’m spending here..."

This is just a portion of mail (not the snail one that is) that I receive quite often from my friends abroad. Whenever you see those messages like "you have got 5 new mails" I don’t think there is a person who is not delighted.

But then, here comes the difficult part. I’m sure most of us feel delighted whenever there’s mail, but replying is quite hard work. You start typing just because you are obliged to
do so.

Whenever I’m replying to such mails, the thing that bothers me most is when they ask me something like "so how’s life in Kathmandu" towards the end. That is what leaves me completely stranded. My brain, for a moment, is left comfortably numb.

I begin. "Well, overhead bridges up are cropping up day by day, stadium’s got flood lights. I hear people say that we have one of the best discotheques not only is South Asia but the whole of Asia while on the other hand, the menace of population boom is no longer there - thanks to the fact that people are dying regularly and that too in large numbers." Somehow, I begin to feel why would he be interested in these things. I’m almost on the verge of deleting whatever I’ve managed to type so far.

May be I should tell him about the budget, I decide. "New budget has been announced and like every past budget, this time too the government is saying poverty eradication is the main agenda. They have come up with schemes like Garib sanga Bisheshwor for this, while the talk at the coffee shop (remember Kamal Dai’s shop !) is that Garib sabai BP ti ra ... Dahni jati GP tira. And, by the way, the once highly revered Sagarmatha is beginning to lose its charm. Now they don’t just climb and be content but compete as if it were a 100m run event. Pretty soon, one need not be surprised if someone scales it walking backwards!"

The thought whether it will make interesting reading for him does not bother me any longer as I start to feel - "This is what he has asked for". Just about then, the phone beside my machine rings. Ke chha babu, how’s everything, I hope dad and mom are in fine health and all that customary things I finally manage to reply Sabai lai aaramai chha... everyone’s okay almost listlessly.

"Hitesh, Askash just called me this morning and has asked me to convey his regards to you. He told me that he has not only managed to get a scholarship but has also found a nice job for the summer. And by the way why don’t you too go there instead of wasting your life here...?" That gave me the feeling I was receiving a "right hook" from Tyson. Is staying here in Nepal really
wasting life away? My mind is suddenly rattled with all sorts of weird feelings.

What a mentality we have developed? All we have now begun to dream of is nothing but those "green bills".

"Enjoy" and I end the mail by pressing the send button.

Investing in human resources

By Dr Udaya Sharma

Human resources are now recognized as the most important resource of any country. As we are now in the new millennium we should focus more on increasing knowledge and on high tech. Nepal is blessed with abundant natural beauties but the effective utilization of its resources has not taken place so far. We have not made effective use of the vast reservoir of human capital. We could benefit immensely by developing our valuable human resource.

There is growing realization worldwide about the significance of human resource. Many countries are investing heavily on the development of human resources. They are upgrading their educational system, emulating successful experiences and collaborating with leaders. There has been a global paradigm shift. We should try to read and understand the global trends and adapt to the changing trends. In the past, emphasis was given to natural resources endowment and it was a key indicator of a country’s wealth and prosperity. The importance of human resources was recognised only recently. Their role and importance was realised in the 1960s first in the developed countries and subsequently in developing countries. It is now increasingly being realised that issues of human resources must be addressed with a coherent human resource policy.

Investing in the development of human resources is the priority in western countries. The human touch, the human dimension received its due share in developing countries only recently. In Nepal it is slowly being realized.

The focus of human resource development is its role in the economic development of a country. Productivity is of paramount importance. Increased productivity of workers is due to focus on Human resource development. It deals with increased knowledge and efficiency.

While the productivity aspect of human resource development was a dominant theme in the 1960s, the welfare dimension was accorded greater attention in the early 1970s .

Recently, there has been renewed interest in human resource development and utilization. Problems of low productivity continue to be real in most developing countries as low productivity continues to plague poor countries.

Increasing skills and capabilities of workers is the key to economic success in an increasingly integrated and competitive global economy.

Education is essential for raising individual productivity. It augments the ability to perform standard tasks, and to adapt to new technologies and production practices. Training for work improves productivity. Enterprise based training is associated with a significant rise in output per worker, with the largest gains realised in firms that invested simultaneously in training and technology. Human capital bears an especially high return when the opportunity to take advantage of new ideas is present.

Investing in people is highly complementary. Increasing the human capital of workers boosts their income, because market oriented economies reward skilled worker who are able to deliver more output or an output that is more highly valued in the market place. Rewards for education and skill, relative to those for unskilled labour, are now rising in most places.

Many Countries are now investing on education and training and increasing their productivity. Some countries in the Asian region have climbed the ladder to the middle income and high income countries from poverty a few decades ago. They have invested heavily on education and training. More education and training usually means more productive individuals. They are better equipped with knowledge and skills. Training is an investment from the perspective of both workers and employers. Workers often participate in training and seminars as opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skill. It is an incentive for workers. Working in the same environment every day is monotonous. So, they need a change. Training and conferences provide very good opportunity. Workers gain from the training but more than this, the organizations benefit from new knowledge and skill.

The labour market should be assessed regularly for the kind of skills demanded and information should be disseminated so that training institutions can benefit and the aspirants also can take advantage. Lack of information is the biggest problem in most countries including Nepal.

The few training institutes in the country are not equipped adequately, functioning properly and are outmodeled and do not meet modern needs. The teaching methods are obsolete, the curriculum very old, the faculty members are underpaid and the training equipment is very traditional and the overall training environment is not congenial. Some large Institutions have on the job training but only provide the basics and exclude the latest changes going on in the world.

It is imperative that institutions provide state of the art education and use the latest training equipment. We have to realise that we should prepare manpower for the new millennium. We should change our thinking and think in terms of the global perspective and not confine ourselves to national boundaries. If we do not change our thinking we will be left far behind.