Dashain greetings

A very happy Bijaya Dashami to all our valued readers and subscribers. This year, Dashain has come in a mixed sort of way. If on the one hand, the symbolic significance of the festival as manifested in the myths is assuring, then on the other, the hard realities of the day are depressing indeed.

Dashain traditionally celebrates the victory of good over evil. Each of the ten days is an epoch in itself in the annals of a theogony that culminates on the tenth day. During Navaratha, the nine-day run-up to the occasion of Bada Dashami, female deities representing the various forms of female power or Shakti are worshipped. The feminine principle that nurtures (Durga) as well as the feminine principle in reverse, which manifests itself in as the terrible and destructive form (Kali), is venerated. This practice is obviously indicative of how Vedic religion understood and respected women. According to the myth, in the course of this period, the demons, or the forces of darkness were destroyed and on the day of Bada Dashami, the ultimate in evil the king of the rakshasha Ravan was killed. Thus, we can see how deeply the beliefs of Vedic religion are ingrained in the celebrations.

Apart from its religious significance, Dashain is also a cultural event. Although the auspicious occasion of Dashara is observed all over the world where Hinduism thrives, the Nepalese people have their own very unique way of celebrating the festival. Although the Nepali tradition of receiving tika from elders is still strong, the content of the festivity has undergone quite a drastic change. For many, Dashain has become an excellent excuse for indulgence. Gambling and drinking for the husbands and shopping sprees for the wives and children - everybody's happy. This is certainly something the people of a poor country like Nepal can ill afford to do even though the bonus from the pay hike may have helped to some extent.  

A more sobering thought; what will Dashain be for the people of Dunai or for the families of the massacred policemen. It is indeed ironic that the Maoist insurgents should be the ones to announce a time-out for Dashain. Though these thoughts may seem so very inappropriate on such an auspicious occasion, they happen to be the hard realities of the day. Nonetheless, we once again wish our readers a very Happy Bijaya greeting. We close from today till Monday. But stay with us, we'll be back after the break on Wednesday, October 11.

Good government and human rights

By N S Pun

For a regime to exhibit the fundamentals of good government, concern for public good should be uppermost in its mind. The notion of good government refers to effective, ' user-friendly' rule and respect of human rights so that it is beneficial to those living under its jurisdiction.

Good government has four qualifies. It is (a) at the core of the exercise of power, (b) central to political accountability, (c) purposive and development oriented, and (d) seeking with vigour to improve the people's quality of life. Good government, in short, describes a situation where state society relations are bound by political relationship of reciprocity and authority, trust and accountability. The 'amount' of good government in a country can be gauged, at least roughly, in terms of the presence of liberty and socioeconomic fairness.

The degree of  'liberty' in a country is the relative existence of civil and political rights. A 'political freedom index' (PFI) has recently been compiled to measures the variation in a country in the institutionalisation of rights and freedom that seek to confirm the abstract concept of liberty. The question of the extent of liberty  in a country begins with the question: how much democracy is there? Democracy has two fundamental components: (a) the implementation of human rights of various kinds and (b) a legitimate probability that the position of power of the ruling elite may be regularly contested by means of a free and fair election.

A second measurable element of good government is: to what extent does a regime seek to instill a reasonable degree of socio economic fairness? Many states attempt to increase the general level of affluence in the country, perhaps by supporting  a welfare state or by seeking to introduce a progressive taxation system. While a standard indicator like the gross domestic product measures the overall economic output in a country, it says nothing about the ' quality of life; ie, the level of human development and the distribution of welfare, which allow us to assess the level of socioeconomic fairness in a country. A widely accepted indicator of 'quality of life' is the United Nations Development Programme's human development index (HDI). HDI measures life expectancy, level of literacy and people's purchasing power: when the indicators are combined, we can gauge the 'quality of live' within a country.

Post Colonial states of the Third World are often qualitatively different from those created in an earlier epoch in Europe. In the latter, the nation created the state , whereas in the former the state, often unsuccessfully, tried to create a nation. One aspect of the failure to construct nation status was that a large number of third  World government became progressively more authoritarian. One of the manifestations of this was that many who were perceived as political 'trouble makers' were routinely incarcerated and tortured. Many governments in the Third World displayed the characteristics of being a threat to their citizen's well being. Over the years, humanitarian organisations like Amnesty International, in their annual report, have catalogued the arbitrary detentions, beatings, political killings, torture, terror, disappearance of political prisoners, refugees, death squads and the eventual destruction of livelihood.

Two of the most pressing issues for many people in the  Third World are democracy and economic growth. Each is associated with a basic human right. The first involves the right to choose one's government, while the second is connected to the right to have a sufficiency to live on.  During the 1980s and 1990s these human rights concerns emerged as central  to political debates and economic struggles in many Third  World countries. As a result, it is no longer as easy as it once was for Third  World governments to deprive their citizens of basic   human rights. For one thing, increasing number of governments are democratic; in addition, a range of international and domestic factors help set up human rights standards.

Regarding international factors, events of recent years have combined to produce international diffusion effects. This has encouraged the increased demand for rights. Six are of particular importance: (a) in the post Cold War era, Western government no longer routinely try to justify Third World allies' human rights excesses as they once did in the name of fighting communism; (b) the collapse of many authoritarian governments, exemplified and symbolized by the failure of the Soviet bloc, has encouraged people everywhere to express their  opinion openly and to participate in decision making; (c) the domination of market forces, illustrated by the widespread adoption of structural adjustments in the Third World, while sometimes producing greater economic efficiency, has reduced the already weak economic position of the poor; (d) the integration of the global economy has allowed capital, labour and goods to cross national boundaries with increasing international competition; (e) the transformation of production systems and labour markets has the potential to weaken greatly the power of organized labour to ensure that governments enforce labour standards, such as minimum wage legislation and to fund welfare programmes; (f) the media revolution and consumerism has not only helped to erode particularistic clutters and values but have also served to stimulate demands for a wide array of rights in the Third World, a result of the spread of Western individualistic values. In sum, these six international diffusion effects were important in encouraging people in the Third World to demand their rights.

In conclusion, the effect of both international and domestic development was to put human rights issues firmly on political and development agendas of  Third World. Governments which fail to address such human rights concerns were likely not only to be ousted at the ballot box, but also to attract the opprobrium of international aid donors. The latter increasingly tied aid programmes to governments' human rights credentials, especially those related to democracy and the treatment of minority groups.

A battle of our own

By Smriti Dhungel

Agreat poet had once said:

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high, Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls and where words come put from the depths of truth......

As I pass through the streets on my way to college, it surprises me to see numerous NGOs mushrooming in our city especially those fighting for the cause of women's liberation. What makes me think is whether it is really men that we are battling it out with or is it a battle against women itself. Men have remained silent spectators to this cause. In our city, where we are confined to narrow domestic walls, there also exist the clan of gossipmongers whose job is basically to ignite gossip about young women and spread them far and wide. My article is for the true cause of the new generation of women who fall prey, even in a society where things are changing, where girls and boys work together whether it be in schools, colleges or offices.

The bitter truth about these gossipmongers who are predominantly women themselves, I must say is that their education has been gathering dust along with their books. They actually perceive things the way they want to, see only things that they want to see and of course, with their tremendous art of turning and twisting things, for which I must recommend them certificates and medals, and set issues for other people to ponder about. Let me cite a few examples to help you perceive things in a broader perspective.

For women,

She's going out at night with her boss, hmmmm dal mein kuch kala hai.

For men,

He's going out at night, poor lad he works so hard.

 For women,

She got a promotion; I heard her boss had a soft corner for her.

 Men,

He deserved to get that promotion; he made it on his own.

 Women,

I wonder who that guy was with whom she was on the bike. Again dal mein kuch kala hai.

Men,

Must be giving her a lift home, nothing wrong with that.

These are some of the simplest issues, which of course are added with spice and "garam masala", and it is a very sad fact that it is also our own kind actually loosening their tongue against our own kind which is despicable. I clearly fail to understand what tremendous joy they get in circulating false assumptions. Living in a society where you are shunned for the slightest rumour, it is not about defending accusations but rather fighting for our cause. The sole reason is people perceive things, in their narrow mind, without any truth to it and make assumptions. I think young women in our city are battling it out against our own kind and unless these narrow domestic walls breakdown, there is no escape as our battle is already lost. I only wish words would come out from the depth; then only will the mind be led forward into ever widening thought and action, then we shall finally be awake in defending our true cause.

Combating poverty in the new century

By Mohan Lohani

The  World Development Report 2000- 01 "Attacking Poverty" was recently launched in Kathmandu by the Nepal office of the World Bank. The Bank has done a commendable job. In fact, in recent years, the World Bank, while seeking to attack poverty in poor countries with passion and professionalism, has shown commitment in tailoring its lending policy to poverty reduction programmes and activities in Third World countries. The Report, the third in the series, is a continuation of the Bank's earlier reports on poverty  published in 1980 and 1990 and its relevance to Nepal which has accorded top priority to poverty alleviation in its Ninth Five year Plan,  needs not to be emphasised. The Report argues that it is possible to combat poverty and minimize its incidence in all dimensions by harnessing the forces of economic integration and technological change and promoting to this end, interaction among state institutions, markets and civil society organizations. It can hardly be disputed that poverty alleviation is central to the development process and calls for an integrated and holistic approach.

It is indeed ironic that poverty amidst   plenty continues to pose a challenge to most, if not all, developing countries struggling hard to catch up with developed countries like Japan and others  in Europe and North America. Attacking poverty is comparable to the treatment of a disease. A physician or a medical practitioner prepares the case history of a patient before he prescribes appropriate medical treatment. Likewise, it is essential to analyze the causes of poverty plaguing a country for long time. There are multiple causes of poverty such as a country's social structure or stratified society, its old fashioned beliefs, outmoded habits of thinking and similar patterns of behaviour, its traditional economic controlled and managed by a small feudal oligarchy and above all the mind of the ruling elite engaged in the pursuit of petty selfish interests without a sense of social responsibility or moral commitment to social progress and national development.

Chapter two of the Report mentioned above enumerates in scientific parlance the causes of poverty and sets forth a suitable framework for action. The determinants of poverty are explained and underlined in terms of people's assets such as human natural, physical, financial and social. The returns to these assets, that is productivity are influenced and governed as much by political economic and social forces and the role of state and social institutions as by the behaviour of the market. Since poverty is an outcome of economic, social and political process, the action plan envisages a three pronged strategy at local, national and global levels aimed at promoting opportunity, facilitating empowerment and enhancing security. Making progress on all three fronts, the Report points out, can generate the dynamics for sustainable poverty reduction.

South Asia inhabited by one fifth of humanity is known as the world's poverty belt  where the vast majority of people are deprived of even the basic necessities of life and where nearly half a billion live below the poverty line. The trickle down approach hitherto a characteristic feature of the conventional development paradigm, has failed to extricate the teeming millions from the quagmire of poverty manifesting itself in disease, illiteracy hunger and   deprivation. Sri Lanka's Dr Ponna Wignarija, Vice Chairman, South Asia Independent Commission on Poverty Alleviation (SAICPA) and  Chairman, South  Asian Perspectives Network Association (SAPNA) delivered a talk in Kathmandu last year on "The SAARC Process and Poverty Eradication in South Asia" and confidently asserted that it is possible to eradicate from South Asia the worst forms of poverty in a given time frame provided the poor can be organized through their own organizations. In this context, he referred to the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh which has helped villagers organize themselves not only for credit, but has also enabled the poor to cope with the unforeseen floods in that country, because of the fact that they are better organized.

Since no country in the SAARC region can solve the problem of poverty by itself, the speaker from Sri Lanka recommended a coherent strategy and new partnerships to be built at the local, national regional and global levels. He further called on the donor community including the  World Bank and IMF to refrain from doing things in their own way rather than doing them in common with a regional understanding as suggested in the South Asia Poverty Commission  Report, which states that there is no single time tested model for poverty reduction.

It is possible to bring together and integrate growth, human development and equality in the pro poor strategy. Dr Wignaraja believed in social transformation of a great magnitude with a great deal of self reliance built into the total development strategy. Such strategy takes into consideration important critical components such as culture, values, democracy in a pluralistic setting, national priorities local realities participatory action research (PAR) and people's mobilization. Experience has proved that development becomes sustainable only when it is rooted in the culture of a country with its unique features derive from spiritual, religious and other time  tested traditional values. In his foreword to the latest World Development Report James, Dr Wolfensohn,  President of the World Bank has called upon countries to develop their own poverty reduction strategies in a manner consistent with preservation of culture.

Poverty today has a wider connotation as it encompasses, among others, powerlessness and voicelessness of the poor. Articulating the voice of the poor remains a common concern of the South Asia Poverty Commission Report and the latest poverty related Development Report of the World Bank. As we have stepped into the new century with its opportunities and challenge, the world must find innovative and effective ways of improving the well being of poor people. Despite great progress made in the last century in creating opportunities for access of poor people to education and basic heath care, in minorities and other disadvantaged groups, poverty remains a major issue of global concern. James Wolfensohn admits that action at the local and national levels is not enough. He recommends global action to prevent poor people from getting further marginalised and to allow them to benefit from the positive outcome of global integration and technological advance. This brings us to the conclusion that while national efforts are crucial to poverty reduction, such efforts need to be supplemented by substantial international cooperation and support measures.