Feature News [The Kathmandu Post (Nepal)]

By Padma P Devkota

At a quarter to five on Saturday morning, June 2, 2001, I heard for the first time the horripilating news of the royal family massacre that had taken place the night before at Narayanhity Palace. It left a lasting emptiness in the pit of my stomach. Shocked and bewildered, my whole family sat in front of television waiting for the 7:05 news, which did not deliver for another six or seven hours. In the days that followed, I experienced the torture of uninformed existence growing more intense as the government controlled the news media, leaving us with only CNN, BBC, and Nepal Television channel to test all rumours against. In addition to this, the curfew took away the right to stretch my legs for a late afternoon walk. I felt bereaved of my right to information and, above all, of a beloved monarch who insisted that all citizens had a right to know.

The last glimpse I had of His late Majesty King Birendra (1945-2001) left me wondering why his lips were parted as he was carried on a bamboo stretcher towards Aryaghat. His usual, radiating smile had withered to a last minute pain and disbelief that death could come in such an unexpected way. His beard too seemed to have grown. This is possible even after the demise of a person. All the rest of his body, including a large part of his forehead, was covered with a yellow shroud on which was printed the name of God. As I watched the procession on the TV screen, I wished someone would exhibit the royal dress up to us and count the bullet holes in it. I grieved with the nation not only for King Birendra but also for the whole ill-fated family. My grief was a very personal reaction to a national tragedy.

Later, I asked myself why I reacted this way to the king’s and to the royal family’s demise. I did not know them personally. The only communication I ever had with them was when I replied to Their Majesties King Birendra’s and Queen Aishworya’s letter of condolence to our family on the demise of our mother. Yet, my present feeling of deprivation could not have been just the contagion of a national mood alone; it must also have been a slow sinking through three decades of a royal influence into the depths of my heart, which then learnt to nurture itself upon a feeling of security that this presence inspired. To the Nepali mind, that which positively inspires is also divine. The royal presence in my mind was a light of hope that all would turn out for the better despite the self-destruct mode of the nation. To many insecure citizens, King Birendra’s charisma offered a light of hope in the same way that the Almighty - call him Alla, Christ, or Vishu - might offer a light of hope to a diseased, aged, or dying man. I believe this to have been the general national sentiment.

It was wrong of me to expect people who voiced their opinion through western television channels to see or make this connection. To them, Nepal was just a backward and very poor country whose uneducated masses believed that King Birendra and Lord Vishnu were literally synonymous. To them, only uneducated people would cling on to such a medieval concept of monarchy. Though I partly concede to such a line of reasoning, I will also assert that no person in his/her right mind would believe in such nonsense. I feel certain that the wise and practical king himself was never misled by such a notion.

Symbolically, however, charismatic and inspiring leadership is worthy of reverence. Paradoxically, people expect such a leader to be unlike them and like them at the same time. Better than they ever will be, yet a symbolic presence among them that also represents a common will to realise a common dream. This is true everywhere. An American president who goes to see an opera is bound to be less popular despite his refined taste than another who goes to watch a football match during his free hours. A Nepali monarch who does not promote a national creed is bound to be unpopular. And, in a constitutional monarchy, the king is a greater symbol than ever before. A symbol exists on its own right, shedding light upon the unknown. Such a symbol nourishes on popular faith and imagination. In Nepal, this symbol has taken roots in Hindu concepts of wise leadership.

Religion is not a fool’s practice anywhere in the world. In fact, religion and the state have been powerful friendly-foes even in first-world nations. Religion and politics must work together everywhere to cater to everyday public needs. Religion is not just traditional rites and ceremonies. It is a creed: a set of fundamental beliefs, ideas, codes of conduct, and traditional symbols associated with a theology or belief system. It is an institution: churches, mosques, and temples are not bricks and rods alone. They are the centres of human activities. And, it is a society: it’s subcultures and communities of believers, it’s different ways of life. Religion exists where human beings exist. No politics of the east or of the west, is untouched by its power. Disputes over abortion, school prayer, pornography, etc. can never be resolved by political interests alone.

This is why King Birendra brought politics and religion to bear equally upon his life and vision. Ever since his ascension to the throne on January 31, 1972, he had made it his goal to preserve the unity and the national identity of Nepal. One cannot preserve identity without innovations. Besides fulfilling the average responsibilities of a king, he did two things that contributed greatly both to the political growth of the nation and to his own popularity. First, in 1978, he announced the referendum and asked whether the people wanted a multi-party system or a party-less Panchayati system. Second, in 1990, he announced Nepal as a democratic country after a popular movement. The smooth political transition from a party-less Panchayati system to a multi-party constitutional monarchy speaks of the king’s courage, his good intentions towards the people, and his awareness of modern global trends and movements. Even after his new status as a constitutional monarch, he continued showing a great concern in the life of the nation.

The other side of his life also adds to his human greatness. A king who granted audience to foreign dignitaries, as an Indian friend of his commented on Star TV, bowed down to and touched the feet of a holy man — Shankaracharya. This humbleness does not come to self-important power-seekers. We have seen him attending religious rites and ceremonies, seen him visiting temples and jatras, seen him doing things we do in our daily lives. This has brought him closer to us. He has been seen walking on the streets of Kathmandu as if he were an ordinary pedestrian, walking without his bodyguards and the royal regalia. We have seen him speaking to common people with love and sympathy. We have felt his presence so deep within us that it feels it was always there, a part of our own self.

And this feeling has become a source both of his popularity and of our inspiration. An inspiration that builds up the national confidence by strengthening the royal bond with the people. A confidence that speaks of leadership. Leadership within the nation, leadership in the SAARC countries, leadership in the South Asian region, leadership in the world. And great political personalities of the world too have felt the light of hope that King Birendra would one day lead Nepal out of darkness into the full daylight of democracy that would provide equal opportunities for all. In Nepal, people very spontaneously accepted him as a symbol of hope, of security, of justice, and of a better future. What more is religion if not a deep-rooted faith? In fact, there is no leader in the political arena of Nepal today who can match king Birendra’s charisma. The nation has indeed lost a beloved King and leader at a time when it most needs him.

(This article was published on June 16, 2001)

Spokesmen who don’t speak

By Satyendra Timilsina

It is an age of information. Media takes information to the people. I guess, most of the offices -- both governmental and non-governmental -- appoint spokespersons so that their messages can be delivered more easily and accurately. Most of the spokesmen are press friendly and try to create press friendly atmosphere as well. It is obvious that different people have different characters. But there are some who have more different characters than spokesmen themselves. Let me mention a few of them.

I am talking about is a spokesman who never shares information with reporters. Once I met this government’s spokesperson and queried him on one of the government programmes. Interestingly, he was unaware of it. I felt it interesting not because he knew nothing on that programme, but the way he reacted to my question as the other joint-organiser had already issued hundreds of invitations. He commented on that programme only after I had showed him the invitation card.

When you ask him on any matter, you will first get a handy answer: "I got to know about this from you for the first time, sir." And he throws his regular but unexpected question back to you. "Is there any new thing you have heard about this? If so, let me know." He then goes beyond the subject matter and talks to you at any length. When he talks, he talks of mostly policy-level views. Here, he makes some sense sometimes only which can be written in news form... If you slip out, you have to ensure him that you will write the report on the subject only on the condition of anonymity, which most reporters do.

Like him, there is one spokeswoman at a private organisation, who never entertains reporters. She hardly receives questions and rarely shares information with the reporters who are looking for information.. There are other Nepali officers who seek a written official question from the reporters. How much is it practical for submitting written queries to get information?

Some of them fear that they will lose their jobs, if they speak with the press. There is one who always says: "We will send a press release after the office takes the final decision." You can always find him suggesting that none of the news should be published before a final decision.

I have come across many of them acting as real bureaucrats, who follow a system of non-speaking spokesman: the lesser one speaks, the better the spokesman. But how much better can a spokesperson be or can he be media-unfriendly? Despite their control in dealing with media, they never actually succeed in doing so since they have to share sooner or later with the reporters. So, why not that these people also wake up from the control regime?

Rehabilitating mentally ill

By Dr Rupesh Kumar Agrawal

Twenty percent of the patients who visit hospitals in Nepal suffer from mental problems and most of them are deprived of proper medical attention. However, there are only 24 psychiatrists - five of them foreigners - to attend to thousands of such patients in the country.

Society still treats mental problems negatively. Mentally ill patients have been ill treated even by doctors. Such a mind set towards patients has exacerbated the problem. In Nepalese society mentally ill persons prefer to conceal their illness fearing that society may treat them as lunatics. Due to such reasons, they even hesitate to visit a doctor.

Mental health is a state of psychological well-being that includes both subjective comfort and the capacity to function effectively with others. Definitions of mental health invariably include some value statement about how an individual should live his or her life; thus there are almost as many definitions as there are psychological theories. Sigmund Freud’s famous view that health is the capacity "to work and to live" is still widely accepted.

Mental health means more than the absence of identifiable disorders or mental illness. Positive mental health includes the ability to experience joy or to have "peak experiences". Attempts have been made to relate mental health not only to specific acts —which are dependent on cultural norms — but to patterns or styles of acting, such as flexibility in meeting new situations, ability to perceive reality without distortion based on individual need, and the capacity to understand someone else’s point of view.

For a person to be considered mentally ill, his feelings and symptoms must be more severe than most peoples’. His feelings cause disturbance in his work, and his relationships. He cannot carry out his normal activities. If a person is mentally ill, these symptoms will last much longer than usual. Mental illness may affect a person’s physical health, psychological health, and behaviour.

Anxiety is the predominant symptom in two conditions: panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder. In phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorders, also considered anxiety disorders, fear is experienced when an individual tries to master other symptoms. A phobia is an irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that is classed as a disorder when it becomes so intense that it interferes with everyday life. Among the most disturbing of these is agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces. The most common phobic problem among people seeking psychiatric help, it often prevents them from leaving their homes for any reason. Obsessions are repetitive thoughts, images, ideas, or impulses that make no sense to the person, who can fear being unable to avoid committing a violent act, for example, or worry over whether some small duty has been performed. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours performed dutifully to try to ward off some future event. Examples of such behaviour include repeated washing of the hands or counting and recounting possessions or other objects.

Neurotic disorders: In addition to neurotic depression and anxiety disorders, other conditions that have historically been considered neurotic include hysteria, conversion reactions, psychogenic pain, hypochondriasis, and dissociative disorders.

The so-called somatoform disorders are characterised by physical symptoms for which no physical cause is evident. In hysteria, complaints are presented dramatically, if vaguely, usually beginning during the teen years and continuing through adult life. Women have been much more frequently diagnosed as having hysteria than men. The rare conversion disorders, hysterical neurosis, commonly mimic a neurological disease such as paralysis. Psychogenic pain is pain for which no physical cause is apparent. In hypochondriasis, the patient is preoccupied with the fear of illness.

Included in the dissociative disorders are a form of amnesia that apparently stems from psychological causes and multiple personality - a rare condition in which the manifestation of two or more separate personalities exists in the same person.

Even though there is no authentic data about the total number of mental patients, figures according to concerned doctors are mind boggling: 20 percent of the country’s 22 million population suffering from mental illness suggests that some 4.4 million people suffer from mental disease of one type or another. Many studies in many countries including Nepal have shown that 1-2 percent of the population is suffering from severe mental illness, and at least another 5 percent is suffering from less severe forms of mental illness. That there are different types of treatment for mental illness eg drugs, psychotherapy, rehabilitation, cooperation, help, love and affection, support and encouragement from everyone, are very important for the patient’s recovery. The earlier the treatment the better. The patient should consult a doctor or health assistant regularly. The aim of treatment is for the patient to lead a fully normal social life again.

Rehabilitation: It is not enough in the treatment of mentally ill persons that they lose their symptoms of illness. You cannot say that the treatment and cure is complete until they are able to lead a normal life again in their work, their family, and their community. The term rehabilitation means the rebuilding of all these activities in a person’s life. As regards physical exercise, it includes: exercise, walking or digging, cutting grass, carrying a load, cooking, washing. As regards mental rehabilitation, it includes: making decisions or plans for the future, thinking, doing mathematics while working in the shop. As regards social rehabilitation, it includes: talking to friends or relatives, caring for children, attending religious functions, taking part in meetings, going on a picnic. Rehabilitation is about the person’s whole life.

Commonly depression occurs after difficult or stressful events in the person’s life- bereavement, examination failure, loss of job, economic problems, or relationship problems. Sometimes it follows physical illness or acute infections. Some medicines which are given for other conditions may cause depression eg family planning pills or certain blood pressure medicine.

The most important thing to remember is that most patients with depression do not come to health personnel with a complaint of depression, but with physical complaints. To detect a patient with depression you must be suspicious. The main symptom is mood disturbance- that is, feeling of sadness- but the patient may not complaint of this unless asked specifically about it.

Even health workers in Nepal have strange beliefs about mental illness. Many health workers think that mental illness does not exist in Nepal, or is very rare. But this is not the case. Serious mental illness is more common than leprosy in Nepal but only a few services exist for mental illness and many exist for leprosy. Other health workers say that because people do not die from mental illness, it is quite common in Nepal.

It is no longer true that mental illness cannot be cured. Psychiatrists having Post Doctoral Degrees in Nepal are hardly above 20 in number. This further aggravates the problem of diagnosis and proper cure by trained psychiatrist and the more alarming situation is that psychological behaviour therapy is hardly being used in most of the hospitals. Hence, the government, NGOs and international donors should provide due attention to this matter.

The only way to provide mental care for the majority of the mentally ill in Nepal is to provide it close to their homes, that is, an integrated service, where mental health care is available at community level, as well as district, zonal and central level hospitals. In order to do this, health workers in the community also need training about mental health.