Where are values going ?

By Jérôme Bindé and Jean-Joseph Goux

Voltaire still had no doubts: ‘There is only one morality, just as there is only one geometry’. But that universalist certainty decomposed long ago in the face of the denunciation of a wholly human origin of morality. This great crisis of values, which profoundly stirred up the previous two centuries before us, led to multiple uncertainties. Does the absence of a transcendent foundation, which allows for the rooting of eternal values, in an unchanging heaven, signify the twilight of values? Or, in a world marked by the planetary encounter of cultures, should we foresee virulent antagonisms and shocks between contrasting values? Or else, will we witness surprising and innovative hybridizations between value systems of origins and orientations that are currently foreign to one another?

The century that recently ended was one of a painful questioning of our certainties. The contemporary crisis of values is not only one of the great traditional moral frameworks attached to inherited denominations, but also one of lay values that have taken over (gress, emancipation of peoples. Monstrosity, which left its mark on the 20th century, once again seems to threaten our future. Does not the development of techniques risk resulting in what some have already designated by the disturbing term of ‘post-humanity’? How, in a universe of radical innovations and breaks, do we think about the continuity of history and maintain the desirable utopia of a better life for the greatest number? Can we maintain the aim of a universal project compatible with the multiplicity of heritages and enriched by their intertwined histories?

In a world dominated by speculation, our conception of moral or aesthetic values was tending to get closer to the model of stock-market value. The ‘spirit’ value, he said amusingly, is no different from ‘wheat’ or ‘coal’ values, and continues to drop... Thus the phenomenon of fashion which, up until now, concerned only areas such as clothing in which the arbitrary and convention are de rigueur, is invading our conception of values. The role of information and the media reinforces this orientation since the stock-market logic of values, implies taking many temporary ‘indicators’ into account, to be grasped at the moment, instant information replacing the sense of History and the recognition of its long evolutions which have become illegible.

How, in this all-powerful context that seems to favour the frivolity of values, do we still think the seriousness of values? The 21st century could be caught in a strange contradiction: never will the ephemeral have enjoyed such standing, and yet, the emergence of societies of knowledge, which tends to make ongoing, lifelong education for all no longer merely a dream but a project, seems to prefigure the growth of a new tendency of long-term values that are not only serious, but also playful and juvenile. When the boundaries between the three ages of life become blurred, new values, both cognitive and prospective, seem to emerge: they are less inherited than invented, less received than passed on.

For this reason, are we headed towards an aestheticization of values, from the moment it is first and foremost a question of creating these? Might aesthetics have become the highest stage of economy and ethics? The profound, irreconcilable divorce that seemed to have grown up, since the Romantic era, between the artist and the bourgeois, between ‘aesthetics and the political economy’, as Mallarmé said, has faded today. Perhaps no other era has placed the artist so high or made him the very model of activity producing sense and novelty. ‘Creation’ is everywhere. In personal life, everyone is forced into creation-at least of his or her own existence-. In economic life, innovation is recognized as the very driving force of development. This generalized aestheticization thus affects not only society as spectacle but the very core of the ethical principle and the entrepreneurial dynamic.

Can we henceforth forecast the creation of new values? In many regions of the world, the century witnessed a massive decline in the adherence to traditional religious dogmas, as well as an extraordinary diversification of spiritual-type personal or community research. Are these minority breakthroughs the carrier of strong values that might reveal themselves as essential for the future? Similarly, whereas the social cement has come apart in the face of the rise of an increasingly radical individualism, we note an unprecedented growth in new forms of associations, the birth of new types of solidarity. What values do these original networks bear? Can we discern the emergence of alternative values that might be called ‘post-materialistic’? These questions are tied up with the collapse of patriarchal contexts, a considerable fracture resulting in a feminization of values with profound consequences in the coming century.

Thinking about the future of values makes sense only if one lays down the value of the future. The prospective of values is therefore, indissolubly, a prospective of time which must lay the bases for ethics of the future: not ethics in the future, but ethics of the present for the future. The sketch of such ethics is already drawn by the remarkable evolutions of three concepts: responsibility, formerly turned towards the past, is henceforth concerned, in large part, with the potential consequences of our actions. The principle of precaution teaches us that the Earth, the city, the human species itself and the biosphere are perishable, and that their fate lies mainly in our hands. The evolution of the concept of heritage and its extension to all culture and all of Nature henceforth make it the very vector of the transmission to the coming generations, and no longer the simple relief of the past. The blossoming of ethics of the future could thus be opening a new road to get out of the impasses in which we are confined by the tyranny of urgency and the ephemeral.

Breathing pure in the city

By GUNESHWOR OJHA

May be in the villages which are intact from the influence of so called modernisation, the practice is still that if a traveller on a sultry day asks for a glass of water at a house standing nearby a path, he is offered a glass full of nourishing tasty curd, if not butter milk.

In our childhood in the village, the statement of those visiting the city that even water has to be bought in the cities would sound a great joke. When still a new comer to the city, I myself it too odd to use mineral water for quenching thirst. Here, one with parched neck has no alternative except to buy a bottle of mineral water so as to pacify the thirst.

Pity as it is, in cities (especially in our country) the hallmarks of modern civilization, one can’t quench thrust simply by asking for water in a hotel or a restaurant. That just to drink water, one has to order a kind of food item by stepping in a restaurant, is a bitter experience which most of us have undergone and to ensure the purity of the water, you need to step into those hotels or restaurants which charge even entry fee.

Forget the case of water, one of the basic needs of life, we are soon to face the same fate even with air, another free gift of nature. Funny it may sound. But soon, it will be normal like a rustic villager buying mineral water to quench his thrust in the cities or towns of the country.

News has been running in the newspapers that Kathmandu, a rustic Kantipuri of outdated Bhanubhakta, already boasts of an ‘oxygen palour’ in its important tourist hub, Thamel.

Therein one can enjoy pure oxygen, which is extra vital. Just as the manufactured mineral water bottle contains water with all its content and minerals (as is claimed), one can breathe pure oxygen in the parlour, for 20 minutes!

Thanks to modern science Kathmanduites are now privileged of breathe pure oxygen, and enjoy all the vigour that pure oxygen gives. As the oxygen is pure, one is refreshed, with his tensions, nervous strain and all sorts of mental and nervous shortcomings wiped out. Thus one can now enjoy eternal state of peace and bliss.

So the polluted valley has finally got its panacea. Soon many other ‘oxygen parlours’ shall come in vogue and breathing pure oxygen through especially deigned portable cylinders will be popular in the valley. Many people will be drawn to this new technique of having a stress free and jubilant life by inhaling pure oxygen. And as cooking gas is getting popularity in the valley, so will the portable mini oxygen cylinders that can be carried on one’s back so that the facility of pure oxygen can be enjoyed all the time.

Yes, greatest of all, this technology of breathing pure oxygen is great news to children and the parents as well. Now students in colleges and schools will certainly turn out to be excellent. They no more need to be bored with their piles of homework once they start inhaling pure oxygen. No more parents should be worried that their children are dull, because once a child inhales pure oxygen, one becomes energetic and filled with vigour. The educational institutions of the country shall produce genius manpower capable enough to lift the nation to the level of the developed ones.

Now with the advent of this technology in this country, I bet the ill fate of Nepal is slowly over. But for sure, our political leaders and bureaucrats must be availed of the facility of ‘pure breathing’ twenty-four hours. This shall certainly ease them from the mental tensions and all sorts of nervous ailments that they have developed due to the pressure of work they are put to. Once they are free from all sorts of nervous disorders, certainly the work preformed in sound mind is to lift this poor country to the level of the developed ones.

Nepal-Bangladesh ties in retrospect

By DR MOHAN LOHANI

Bangladesh, which fought the War of Independence in 1971 for which countless precious lives were sacrificed, celebrates this year the 31st anniversary of its National Independence with a sense of national pride, glory and patriotic fervour. The people of Nepal join the people of Bangladesh on this auspicious occasion in celebrating their national independence day, extend heartfelt felicitations to the brothers and sisters of their friendly neighbour and wish them a happy, prosperous and peaceful future. Despite the fact that only a small strip of land territory separates Nepal from Bangladesh, bilateral relations between these two neighbours, ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972, have remained close, cordial, friendly and cooperative. Nepal takes satisfaction from the fact that it lent, although on a modest scale, its moral and material support to the freedom loving people of Bangladesh during the liberation war of 1971.

Nepal and Bangladesh share identical views on major issues of regional and international concern. As members of the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement they have cooperated closely with each other in international forums such as the UN and NAM in championing the cause of world peace and also the cause of the least developed among developing countries (LDCs). The late President Ziaur Rahman who led the delegation of Bangladesh to the eleventh special session of the UN in 1980 on international economic cooperation addressed a meeting of LDC delegates in New York and urged the international community, in particular developed industrialised countries, to take special measures in favour of the LDCs so that they could integrate themselves in the global economic mainstream.

The pioneering role played by Rahman in giving a concrete shape to the concept of Regional Cooperation in South Asia has been widely acclaimed. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC which consists of seven countries as its members has recently completed the sixteenth year of its existence and its eleventh summit was successfully held in Kathmandu last January by issuing a Declaration which incorporates major decisions of concern to the region. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh delegation to the eleventh SAARC Summit, while addressing the conference highlighted the significant achievements of SAARC since its establishment and also pointed out some outstanding problems and challenges facing the region.

Poverty continues to be a major problem awaiting urgent solution in the region. South Asian leaders in their efforts towards achieving peace and promoting prosperity in the region have accorded top priority to poverty alleviation which calls for effective measures to deal with the basic needs of the people. In this context, the "Dal-Bhat" strategy suggested and highlighted by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at the SAARC summit was hailed by the participating members as a realistic approach to poverty alleviation.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia assumed leadership of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) at a crucial moment three years after the brutal assassination of her husband President Ziaur Rahman in May 1981. For nine years BNP under the leadership of Begum Zia waged a relentless struggle against an undemocratic regime. She did not compromise even for a minute with democratic principles and her strong commitment to democratic rule. Democracy in Nepal and Bangladesh was restored in 1990 after the people’s movement and a mass upsurge. In the parliamentary election held in February 1991, BNP won the election with a clear majority and Begum Zia became the first woman Prime Minister of independent Bangladesh. In the 2001 parliamentary elections held under a neutral caretaker government, Begum Zia became the Prime Minister once again after her party BNP won a landslide victory. It is to the credit of Prime Minister Zia that Bangladesh switched over from Presidential to Parliamentary form of government after the Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament) of the country passed the historic 12th Constitutional Amendment Bill piloted by Begum Zia in August 1991.

Despite popular unrest and political tensions from time to time, Bangladesh is keen to institutionalise democracy and is committed to accelerating the pace of development through popular participation under a democratic setup. In her address to the nation last October after her swearing-in as Prime Minister, Begum Zia, aware of high expectations of her people, reaffirmed her determination to build a happy, prosperous and peaceful country. She urged the people belonging to all religions, caste and ethnic groups to extend cooperation in building the country. She also cautioned the countrymen against any attempt to create anarchy, chaos and disorder as her government was committed to restoring the rule of law in the country for creating a congenial atmosphere for economic modernisation including industrialisation, trade, commerce as well as employment generation.

As stated earlier, both Nepal and Bangladesh which figure on the list of LDCs as categorised by the UN are committed to rapid development that would significantly contribute to and promote industrialisation, trade and employment generation with a view to improving the living conditions of their people. While political relations between the two neighbours are excellent, much remains to be done to promote bilateral cooperation on the economic front. It is important for both countries to embark upon mutually beneficial programmes of economic cooperation in concrete terms with a view to augmenting the plight of the common people, particularly the poor. The Kakarbhitta-Phulbari-Banglabandh land route that links landlocked Nepal to Bangladesh, which is a coastal country, has opened up bright prospects of trade expansion and export promotion between the two countries. This route which provides Nepal with additional alternative access to the sea through the Mongla Port of Bangladesh needs to be fully and commercially exploited for mutual benefit. In brief, there is ample scope for broadening the areas of meaningful cooperation between Nepal and Bangladesh, and it is in the interest of both to make the maximum use of opportunities and potential that exist in these countries for the benefit of their people.

(The author is former ambassador to Bangladesh)