Gorbachev’s remorse and Saddam’s resolve

By DR SHREEDHAR GAUTAM

Mikhail Gorbachev, largely responsible for the disintegration of former Soviet Union in the disguise of transforming communism into democracy, has recently been quoted as saying it is now America’s turn for ‘perestroika’. He has categorically said that Washington is hell-bent on attacking Iraq despite its readiness to cooperate to get rid of domestic crisis in the US. Gorbachev says: "We do need a new world order but the US administration seems to think that the world should be one big American backyard where US interest would take priority and the interests of all other states would be ignored". Gorbachev’s harsh criticism of the country he tried so hard to befriend in the late 1980s signals a sea change in him. It is an admission that his policy of identifying the interest of the former Soviet Union with the western world was a blunder. It is with this sense of remorse that he has criticised the attempt of building Pax Americana. In a Russian Government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazela he has rejected the ‘world order’ propounded by his former friends, and then predicts that the US will face more threats in future.

Right thinking persons the world over have appreciated the sense of repentance expressed by Gorbachev, especially his suggestion that America needs in depth Perestroika. Though history will not forgive Gorbachev for his short-sighted policies that have adversely affected the people in Russia and many parts of the world, his recent outburst against the policies of his former ally country will to some extent lessen the amount of his sin. However, we understand that at the beginning of his reign, he had initiated some healthy programmes for cleansing the corrupt culture that had developed in the Soviet Government machinery since the death of Stalin. But very soon, he crossed all the limits by denouncing the socialistic system itself and championing for western style democracy in the name of openness. Gorbachev fooled former Soviet people in the pretext of replacing "corrupt socialism" with ‘humane democracy’.

Gorbachev’s recently expressed concern should come as a great lesson to the power wielding leaders of different countries. It exemplifies that a nation and the whole world suffer immensely if the leaders occupying sensitive position commit mistakes or take decision in a whimsical manner. It is worth recalling that there would have been no Gulf war if Gorbachev had not sided with the western world in the Security Council in passing a resolution that, for the first time in the history of UNO, authorized the world body to use force against a member country. It is also to be recalled that, after the resolution was passed, Gorbachev tried to play the role of mediator and put forward a compromise formula to the US that gave at least a month’s time for Iraq to vacate Kuwait voluntarily. But, the western block rejected the proposal and initiated carpet-bombing of Iraqi cities on the very night of the deadline of ultimatum given to Iraq. By not giving any heed to the suggestion of Gorbachev, western block showed utter ingratitude to the father of the ‘Perestroika’, mainly because by then the Soviet Union had already been disintegrated and so it posed no threat to the western interest Gulf war, thus, came as the first gift of Russian and American joining together in the Security Council.

Close on the heels of Gorbachev’s remorse, Saddam Hussein, in an interview with a US television reporter and CBS news anchorman Dan Rather, has assertively proclaimed that he will die in Iraq and in no circumstances will accept any proposal of exile. There are reports that the Russian President Putin recently sent his emissary, a former Prime Minister, with a compromise formula for his gradual retirement and then transfer of power to younger generation, including those Iraqis living now in western countries and working against his regime. He has reportedly showed resolve to stay in Iraq and not leave Iraq, even at the cost of his death. Saddam told the reporter: "I was born here in Iraq whoever decides to forsake his nation from whoever request is not true to the principles". He also refuted the charge that he would set fire to Iraqi oil field in case of US led military invasion.

Gorbachev and Saddam are now in news for different reasons, Gorbachev’s realisation of his mistake can evoke alertness in the heart of the concerned politicians in all parts of the world. Leaders should have vision for at least 200 years, and only then their decision can be guided, by the welfare of the future generation. For instance, today’s America is the result of the vision shown by American leaders, among others by Jefferson and Lincoln. Today Americans feel proud of their visionary ancestors. Now, in Russia and China too people remember Stalin and Mao, despite the fact that both countries are no more practising communism. Russians and Chinese feel that Stalin and Mao unified their countries in the past and laid down the foundation of modern development. It does not mean that Stalin and Mao had committed no mistakes, but their mistakes were minor in comparison to their contribution. Very recently, thousands of people lined up in Moscow to show their respect to Stalin and called him the father of nation.

Saddam Hussein might not be a role model leader for all. However, whatever his mistakes in the past, including his military adventure on Kuwait, he has ultimately shown his resolve to die on his own soil than opt for comfortable exile as done by Iran’s Shah in 1979 and very recently by Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan. We remember the scene when Iran’s Shah dropped tears on the Iranian soil before flying for Egypt, fully knowing that he would not come back to his own land. Similarly, Nawaz Sharif agreed to a compromised exile in Saudi Arabia, not having any faith in his people. But, Saddam Hussein has shown steadfast faith in the judgement of his people, who have been suffering for the last 13 years. Why has he done so? We assume that he has not done anything detrimental to Iraq’s integrity and sovereignty.

We know that Saddam Hussein has committed mistakes, but the Iraqi people think that his contribution to the integration of Iraq is much greater in comparison to his failures. He prevented Iraqi Kurds from carving a separate state soon after his defeat in the Gulf War. Even his staunchest enemies appreciate his loyalty to the integrity of the country. If he dies in Iraq tomorrow in the imminent western aggression, his image will not diminish because so far he has not entered into any open deal for his and family members’ safety. Whether we like Saddam or not, we can learn from his resolve to fight for the independence of his country and then die on his soil. As we have learned, from American visionaries of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we can learn also from Saddam’s determination to die but not to desert the people for personal sake. We hope Gorbachev’s remorse and Saddam’s resolve will leave a positive impact on the minds of people, especially on the politician, who play crucial role in either making or destroying the nation’s destiny.

Rendezvous with destitution

By BIKASH SANGRAULA

‘Hopelessly toothless, impeccably bald, thoroughly creased and perennially stooped’. If you see a person matching this description, you have found my grandpa. Not that he is lost. He never will be. He loves life too much to try something as desperate. Need I say that I am glad for that?

But then, like all the oldies, he has his unique set of idiosyncrasies. When I was small, he used to scare me with stories of longhaired ghosts, white-attired vampires, witches riding on broomsticks and of course, the scariest of all, his sudden snorts and roars. When I outgrew those scares, he kept on inventing new ones. Grandpa was, and still remains a wizard of dark creativity, you see. He is a relentless conqueror of the human heart. And compulsive conquerors do not mind the means as long as the ends are attained.

Grandpa’s most enduring gimmick has been the ‘destitution scare’. Many have succumbed to it, and have even brought him gifts to help them drive away the ever-lurking possibility of destitution. That much was fine for me. But no, he would not spare even me from that quirky trick of his. Give him the faintest opportunity and he would shoot out, "careful with the pocket little one, destitution lurks everywhere!"

First and foremost, being called ‘little one’ had ceased to be entertaining of late, partly due to my physical size, and then there is always someone listening, you know. Furthermore, the scare was beginning to tell on my sense of security, of which I never seem to have enough, thanks to grandpa’s eternal mind-games. So I decided to maintain a distance with him and made it a point to leave home before his waking-life began and to return home after his dream-life commenced. That was until one day, which promised to be fine in every other way, I came face to face with destitution.

In umpteen years of my rather unremarkable life, I have seen many faces of destitution. Some were glorious, some were sad, some were painful and others deserving the sincerest respect. But this one eluded all my definitions. There stood the lady, clad in rags, eyes bulging, fingers long and bony, nails threatening to blemish your face, hair in shambles and cheekbones protruding like two ends of a gigantic ship. But that was not what did not fit in my definition. No. She defied my definitions the fateful moment when she came near me, and with the utmost politeness, claimed Rs 500. "You have to give me that much," said the epitome of destitution, to a man who was, frankly speaking, not much richer than her at that precise moment.

As I was relating the whole episode to Grandpa that night (I broke off the silence that very night, you see), he patted on my back lovingly and said, "I can very well understand your plight. You came face to face with the crudest of realities. And for a man who has been living in a world of myths, that is one of the most difficult of experiences."

I am not sure about where grandpa’s wisdom fits in. But I was attending a foundation-laying ceremony then, and didn’t have the time to philosophize. I was taking notes for news reporting and was constantly on the move to get away from ‘destitution’. But she was one tenacious destitute that I won’t forget. She kept following me, and much to my surprise, her ‘claim’ had within such a short span of time, metamorphosed into her ‘right’. "Give me my five-hundred. I can’t wait any longer. I have to go. Hurry up. Give me my five-hundred," demanded destitution.

No, it was not funny. More so because I did not have the wonderful option of disappearing from there. There was a whole newspaper waiting precisely for that piece of news. Its not easy being a journalist, you see!

"Remember what I told you," said Grandpa triumphantly, after I related the sad tale of a one-hour-plus rendezvous with destitution. "And how much did you give her?"

That one was tough. How much can you give a destitute who asks (in fact demands) for nothing less than half-a-thousand? Anyway, that became my newer definition of a destitute.

China’s economic prowess

By DAVID ROLAND-HOLST 

China’s economic growth can be intimidating. Many Asian nations fear that their economies will suffer as Chinese workers churn out ever greater quantities of inexpensive exports of ever increasing quality. The flood of exports is being matched by unprecedented inflows of foreign direct investment into China.

Yet such concerns, while understandable, are exaggerated. China seems set to be East Asia’s largest trading nation by 2010. Its growth will dramatically change the regional economy. But China’s rise and integration into the global economy through the World Trade organisation can be very positive for other Asian countries if they do not isolate themselves from the process. China’s accession to the WTO is a watershed event for East Asia. It establishes new standards for sustained growth and dynamic resource allocation by a large, indeed potentially huge, economy. Further domestic and external liberalisation by China will redefine its external trade relations in ways that are only beginning to be understood.

China will play two major roles in East Asia. It will intensify regional export competition in a broad spectrum of products. Of course, China’s export "threat" has attracted most attention. But just as important is its internal market, which will emerge to dominate regional demand over the next two decades.

Contrary to the view that China’s exports will stifle competitiveness and growth among its neighbors, the expansion of the Chinese economy - particularly when accelerated by WTO conformity - will bring unprecedented market opportunities to exporters in other East Asian countries.

My own estimates indicate that China will be the region’s largest exporter by 2010. More importantly for the rest of East Asia, it will be the region’s largest importer by 2005. During the coming two decades, in a favorable domestic policy environment, China’s economic growth can remain dynamic. As China’s exports and domestic demand increase, an East Asian trade triangle will emerge. China will develop a trade surplus with Western economies, and a deficit of about the same magnitude with the rest of East Asia.

A research model of the trade triangle shows that by 2020 China’s overall trade surplus in constant 1997 dollars will be $122 billion. Its bilateral surplus with the United States will top $166 billion, while that with the European Union will reach $66 billion. The trade triangle is already working its magic in East Asia. The US-China bilateral imbalance set a new record of $43 billion ($100 billion including Hong Kong) in 2002, while China’s imports from the rest of East Asia shot up by one third. China became Japan’s largest source of imports last year for the first time in either country’s trade records, while Japan’s exports in the opposite direction jumped in the opposite direction by 32 percent. South Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia were also major beneficiaries. Despite its vast pool of labor, China’s economy is constrained by a lack of many natural resources. For this reason, its long-term expansion will fuel ever greater import demand. A large portion of the net benefits of China’s export successes will ultimately accrue to its neighbors, especially if they form an East Asia free trade area with China. China’s neighbors should recognise that head-to-head global export competition is less important than seizing the opportunities presented by East Asia’s fastest growing market.

(The writer, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, is a visiting scholar at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo. This is a personal comment)

And khukuris keep shining

Surendra Phuyal

British Gurkhas might have lost their legal battle for equality in London. But they have not lost their war in Iraq or wherever they are moved next. The British government is reportedly preparing to deploy them in Iraq, where they will be in the frontline. Like in the Falklands, Kosovo and East Timor, they will fight to prove their loyalty and worth. The sincere chaps fight to live, and not the other war round. Since ages, Gurkhas have been fighting to finish. They will do it in future as well. And it is their compulsion.

In London, Gurkhas’ legal battle with the British government took a new turn in the third week of February after the High Court there rejected their claim that they are entitled to pay, pension and perks in parity with their British counterparts. But for its part, the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Association (GAESO), is bent on continuing it fight for equality and social justice – something, the brave warriors from the Himalayan foothills argue, they have been denied by the British government.

However, GAESO officials privy to the development in London say that the court’s ruling has addressed the grievances of the Gurkha soldiers currently serving in the British Brigade of Gurkhas. Now onwards, as a GAESO official put it recently, Gurkha soldiers will be entitled to equal pay and perks as their ‘white’ counterparts. Moreover, it has also opened the floodgates of litigation – which means Gurkhas can go to the court for justice. So the British Defence Ministry should keep itself mentally prepared to ensure justice to Gurkhas and pay the compensation they deserve.

After all, the history of Gurkhas’ is the history of bravery, courage and gallantry. They defeated British forces in several battles fought in the early nineteenth century. They include the battles of Kumau, Gadwal and Kalapani. The exemplary courage displayed by the Nepalese fighters impressed the then British Generals, who later started hiring them. Gurkhas involvement with the British dates back to 1815, a year before the historic Sugauli Treaty was signed between the East India Company and the Government of Nepal in 1816. There has been no turning back ever since; the loyal soldiers of Nepalese origin have given their ‘blood, toils and tears’ to the British.

Word is: Just because the cost of living in Nepal is cheaper, the British government can’t pay them more. The Gurkha soldiers should not be discriminated against, just because they belong to different race and they hail from a country where most of the people live on less than a dollar a day. Here it will be contextual to recount a million dollar counter-question put by a BBC Nepali Service journalist a few year ago: Can United Nations pay less compensation to UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, just because Annan comes from Ghana, where the cost of living is cheaper?

No way. That would be considered racially discriminatory. It has been a long time since the so-called democratic countries said good bye to discriminations on the basis of cast, creed, religion and background. It is high time the British government gave up its colonial hangover and ceased all kinds of discriminations against Gurkha soldiers. The Gurkhas argument was, and is, this: Why can’t a government which treats us equally in the battlefields treat us equally when it comes to paying perks and other benefits?

As a matter of fact, the British Gurkhas are not mercenaries. They should not be discriminated against just because they are Nepalese. They are sincere folks from the mountains, forced to go abroad because of a lack of employment opportunity at home. They have been victims of outright injustice. And that is precisely the reason why Cherie Booth, the barrister wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, threw her weight behind Gurkhas.

That the London High Court did not – and could not somehow – give its verdict in favour of the brave fighters from a poor country, is an issue worth investigating. An unconfirmed report has it that the London High Court judge talked about a letter issued by the Royal Nepalese Embassy there while reading out the verdict. But nobody knows for sure what is written in the letter.

And one rumour has this to say: if the High Court decides in favour of Gurkhas, we (United Kingdom) shall be forced to cut down our annual development aid to your country to foot the former British Gurkhas bill which, according to a calculation, crosses US $ 1 billion. And another deliberately threatening report, apparently fed by the British Embassy in Kathmandu, has this to say: if Gurkhas win the case in London, we (UK) might think twice before we recruit any new Gurkha soldiers.

That does not, and should not, make any difference at a time when Gurkhas - thanks to their bravery and worldwide reputation - are highly wanted in the labour markets of East Asia and beyond. There, at least the Gurkhas have not faced any sort of racial discrimination whatsoever. It is better to recruit Gurkhas in Brunei under a direct Nepal-Brunei bilateral agreement than under the UK-Brunei accord, which is working at present.

After all, Gurkhas were the ones who were in the frontline of the wars in the Falklands, Kosovo, East Timor and the Gulf. The "feared fighters from the Himalayan" have not missed a single military operation since the British started recruiting them nearly 200 years ago. From the Japanese-run camps in Malaysia during World War II to Kosovo, the Gurkhas have come a long way. And the Khukuri (curved knife made in Nepal) they carry must continue to shine.

Obsessed with overseas job

ARJUN BHANDARI

Is it true that South Korea has recently provided four thousand working visas to Nepali nationals? This is the common query to be asked by the youth in rural areas of Nepal. They gather in a local teashop or anyone else’s home-yard and start discussing about overseas employment. Who went where and how much money he remitted to his family back home since his departure is the common topic of evening discussions. Malaysia, South Korea, the Gulf countries and sometimes Israel are their dreamlands.

A majority of them are school or college dropouts, unskilled even for manual labour required for highly industrialised countries. Going overseas is the ultimate goal of their life. They somehow collect money – either by borrowing from local moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates or by selling a piece of ancestral land – for overseas employment that will hardly pay them back.

Most of them are cheated by manpower companies and a selected few manage to fly to a foreign land only to earn a few thousand rupees that could be made if they work hard at their home. But they do not know what are the working conditions, climate, language and culture of the country they wish to go. They are largely influenced by peers.

The age group between the early twenties and early thirties, which is the most productive workforce of the country, is preoccupied with the idea that foreign employment is the only option left for them to be prosperous. At one point they are right given the socio-economic condition of the country and ongoing violence.

A wave of overseas-job-mania has swept through the mind of the rural youth. They find no alternative to it though they know that working condition in foreign countries is difficult. They are ready even to spend two to three hundred thousand rupees just for a job from which they can save hardly 8,000 to 10,000 rupees a month.

Why put such a huge amount of money at risk simply to save this meagre amount? You can earn the same by investing that much money in a scheme at your home, can’t you? In reply, you hear—Oh dai, said is easier than done. And, we lack skill even to start a small business at home. In foreign country, we do not have to use our mind and we work as per the set instructions. It’s a jagiray (job holding) mentality of the youth. They lack confidence that they can also climb the ladder of prosperity starting a small business feasible at their village with some training.

It is not bad to work in foreign country. One can support his family back home by sending money. In recent years, remittance has been seen as the lifeblood of Nepal’s economy. And we can expect more to come in terms of remittance if our literate youth are trained in the field of of high demand before they leave for those countries. Such skill-oriented training is not only useful for those going overseas but also essential to meet domestic demands.

A country like Nepal can never progress economically unless it creates sufficient jobs to absorb its able workforce in its own homeland. A country depending on remittance economy is likely to collapse in case of financial or political crisis on global or regional-level. The US-led war against Iraq is imminent despite worldwide protests and call for diplomatic solution to end the Iraq crisis. Nepal’s remittance economy is likely to shatter if the Bush administration begins striking against the oil-rich country in the Gulf. An estimated 70,000 Nepalis working in the Gulf countries will have to be evacuated before the beginning of a full-fledged war. The war between hawkish Bush and Saddam Hussein will have negative impact on economy of many south Asian countries, including Nepal. Will the Bush administration compensate to hundreds of thousands of people for losses of their jobs because of his interest on Iraqi oil? Bush cannot be expected that kind of generosity.

One of the preconditions to sustainable economic growth of any country lies on maximum use and enrichment of human resource within the country. But we have always encouraged our youth to find jobs in other countries, either to work as Lahures in India, England, Brunei, Singapore or Hong Kong, or as unskilled labourers in the Middle East or the Far East. It was the Rana regime that devised a strategy of sending youth for overseas employment so that they can rule over the country without fear of political revolt. They had already anticipated that youth force was difficult to contain without getting them engaged in certain jobs. They found such jobs for Nepali youth in Indian and British army where they have been serving till date. Even post-democracy leaders elected by people also followed the containment policy, adopted by the Ranas, unfailingly. But the nation has been paying a heavy price in the form of the Maoist insurgency for the wrong policy the Ranas adopted soon after the Napal-Britain war that ended in Sugauli Treaty in 1816. Despite hundreds of thousands of Nepalis are involved in foreign employment, poverty, inequality and unemployment remains intact. And, experts on conflict concede that Maoist insurgency is the reflection of poverty and unemployment. Unable to fight poverty, they raise swords to kill each other.

Poaching  
How to fight it

EK RAJ SIGDEL

Wildlife poaching has appeared as a serious problem in biodiversity conservation, next to the habitat destruction, in Nepal. Despite putting various efforts in place, the wildlife poaching has increased in frequency over recent years. Exploring the mechanism for indigenous community and backward society based biodiversity conservation followed by effective law enforcement would be the next viable option for downsizing the frequencies of poaching in Nepal.

Various efforts from the government have been made to address the issues of biodiversity conservation, particularly to address the ever escalating incidence of wildlife poaching in Nepal. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) has been established with the primary objective of protecting valuable and endangered wildlife species in Nepal. One of the major activities of the DNPWC is to conserve endangered wildlife species through establishing protected area network. Nepal has expressed its firm commitment for limiting trade of endangered and rare wildlife species and their products by being signatories to the various conventions including Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species on wild flora and fauna (CITES), Convention on Biodiversity Conservation and Ramsar Convention.

As per the international commitment, a CITES unit has been established in the DNPWC to discourage poaching of endangered wildlife species and illegal trade of wildlife species. Similarly Nepal Biodiversity Strategy and Wetland Policy has been formulated as per the commitment of Biodiversity and Ramsar Conventions. Besides this, Nepal has promulgated National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act (NPWCA) for the effective conservation of biodiversity, including endangered wildlife species. According to the Act, offender dealing in poaching and illegal trade of endangered wild animals and their body parts can get a firm penalty of 5-15 years imprisonment and Rs 50, 000 to 100,000 in fine or both.

Royal Nepalese Army has been deployed in some protected areas with the responsibility of protecting wildlife species and forest products. In addition, Anti Poaching Operation has been implemented to combat poaching in some Terai Parks and Reserves for few years.

In order to solicit people’s participation to address the problem of wildlife poaching, among others the government has made some policy reforms. By making fourth amendment to the NPWCA, 1973, the government introduced the idea of buffer zone establishment around the protected areas. The policy reform was mainly to address the issues of traditional user right and up-lifting socioeconomic condition of protected area impacted community. The government has made the provision of sharing of up-to 50 per cent of the total protected area revenue with the park buffer zone communities. According to this provision, annually a huge amount of money has been ploughed back for community development activities in the buffer zone. In order to mobilise community effectively and generate guardianship of local communities over biodiversity resources, various NGOs and INGOs are being activated. Over 80 per cent people in the buffer zone are being organised into UGs, UCs, and Buffer Zone Development Council.

Despite adopting a two pronged strategy, the wildlife poaching has not yielded encouraging results. According to the DNPWC annual report, 2002, a total of 6 rhinos were poached in the RCNP in 1998. After that year, the frequency of poaching increased significantly in the RCNP. According to the government officials 31 rhinos have died in less than a year in 2002. The figure indicates the higher gravity of the poaching incidence in Nepal. The higher frequency of rhino poaching attributes to the astonishingly high price of rhino horns and body parts in the international market.

According to the same report, over 80 per cent poachers arrested in the RCNP in 2002, were residents of the buffer zone. Similarly, of the 80 per cent poachers in the buffer zone, over 50 per cent were from indigenous and backward ethnic communities like Tharu, Kumal, Darai and Lama. The main reason for such a discouraging scenario would be the inadequate representation of indigenous and backward communities in the decision-making process and weakness in the law enforcement.

In order to reduce the frequency of the poaching incidence, it is imperative to empower local communities, particularly indigenous and backward society. The scheme would be materialised only when the basic needs of these indigenous and backward communities are met. The basic needs include food, education, health and sanitation. Once these basic needs are met, these people might be responsive to biodiversity conservation. Thus, it is recommended to empower these communities through implementing indigenous and backward focused programs in the buffer zones so that the poaching incidence could be reduced. A provision of their representation in the buffer zone user committee and buffer zone management committee would be more fruitful.

Similarly, in order to make law enforcement effective, as the country is already heading towards the peace process, it is suggested to redeploy the Army in all the previously designated posts in the protected areas. It is to be remembered here that, government was forced to cut down the number of security posts by several folds to tackle the problem of insurgency in Nepal. Similarly, a sustainable financing mechanism has to be established to run Anti-poaching Operational Programme smoothly in various protected areas.

The sustainable funding mechanism can be possible by establishing a biodiversity trust fund at local and central levels. One of the sources of the funding would be a voluntary support from the private sector. The other sources include taxing additional levy to the tourism entrepreneurs, seeking support from voluntarily established private sector fund, like International Trust for Nature Conservation, industries and a part of the protected area revenue allocated for the buffer zone development. In addition, the Global Environment Fund (GEF) fund can be approached for the Trust Fund.

Despite mobilising various stakeholders and resources, the efforts to control wildlife species poaching has not been encouraging. Thus, strengthening the law enforcement mechanism, and empowering local communities, particularly indigenous and backward society would bring a positive result in decreasing the poaching of wildlife species in the days to come.

Literature
Nepalism and universalism

P R Poudel

The earth spun; so many things happened all at a time, / And fallen themselves into the core of the dilating rings -/ Of the countless beginnings and ends ad infinitum./ Things swollen and diminished and numerous others disappeared. The earth grew balder than Professor X in less than a century/ Awaiting for us, was the great life, since long before / We were born, with gifts in heap of jewels and junks, / For our mundane sojourn on this green watery planet....This is the opening stanza of D B Gurung’s monumental poem Sleepwalk, the title-poem of his long-awaited collection of poems, Sleepwalk, which is going to hit the book shelves soon. This is Gurung’s personal odyssey. An oeuvre of such stature would certainly create problems for detractors, like the late Indian poet Ageya or Prof Alex Rodger of Edinburg University, who firmly believed that writing in English by non-native user of English is a "dead end," (as cited by Abhi Subedi in his introduction in Whisper 1992). The language is deceptively simple, yet the expression is psychedelically complex steeped in the school of metaphysics, which finally becomes a well cultivated-presentation. The perpetual spinning of the earth metaphorically denotes the ceaseless passing of time; he further addresses the eternal happenings, resulting in eternal changes on earth, including the devastation of its natural bearings, the aftermath of the great wars and the ugliness of the scientific civilisation (without daubing in words), the growth of human population, the extinction and nascent origin of living things, and many more. And as a consequence, with a streak of brilliant humour, he propounds the turning of our green watery planet into a wasteland in less than a century.

Then follows a surrealistic speculation of the existence of life before one’s birth, as though to imply that "the idea was already there, but it so happened it is found only now;" and the life unfolds experiencing realities of both "grandeur" and "misery", symbolising as "jewels" and "junks." Another speculation:...Earlier than I learned to speak, I was probably storing in / A stockpile of unspeakable words and unthinkable thoughts In some distance coast, who knows, which?....

The seem-to-be disjointedness in Sleepwalk is the rich disorganization of the poem in itself, and is obviously related to poet’s erudition and his meditation upon his own life, and on the whole human existence. True, events in life do not occur in a systematic order. He is eager to call out any opponents - even the opponents within himself, and doesn’t hesitate to mock on his own ignorance....To prove the principle of human sanity, I tried negotiating / With that ghostly thing standing doggedly between me and my life / Between man and woman, and man and nature./ Later I realized I’d been a real jerk / When I looked into the mirror and saw a stranger.. / Probably, much happier would I have been / If I had only known my real name and my clan..../ What was the clan of the life I lived while dying?.../ Waking up from a sleep of how many hours or centuries / It seemed almost clear...but I really can’t explain about what....

There are abundances of Socratic ironies scattered here and there to finally fuse in with the stoic consciousness of the poet, combined with confessions sub-merged in the pool of surrealistic paradox: ...After many kissed-off disasters, now back to my city / Like a returning echo to settle my old debts/ Here we play and cry in the Kafkaesque rule hiding tears.../ Inside me there’s a fathomless cave where no one enters; / I’m the sole visitor here, and both prey and predator.../ But now I’m convinced that it was only me who was born and living on..../ One man alone has died in the battle of Nalapani, at Auschitz, in Hiroshima, at the WTC Towers./ Only one baby was born and one some one has died today....

Here’s a marvellous confluence of oriental and occidental mythologies, in which the poet leads us to ponder that every one of us here are the lost visitors in the Chakrabwuha, the eternal maze of this world. We were born but fail to live, that means death is inevitable but uncertain that when it happens. The young Abhimanyu though entered into the maze but failed to come out. Yes, Abhimanyu symbolizes each of us, and we have forgotten to rig ourselves with Ariadne’s thread, or the elixir of immortality. Births and deaths are referred to as arrivals and departures. ...Yes, I too, among the others, with young Abhimanyu entered through/ The arched portal of Charabhuha, but have forgotten to rig myself/ With Ariadne’s thread, although I was warned in a dream./ Wherever I went I increasingly smelt of loneliness,/ And ended up arriving somewhere unknowingly,/ Departure and arrival, arrival and departure. To sum up all those arrivals and departures./ Is an impossible extension of the term statistics....

DB Gurung, whose novel Echoes of the Himalayas (2000) has been hailed as the pioneering and the major breakthrough both in Nepal and abroad, is the winner of numerous poetry awards from the United States. The poet demonstrates a mellifluous smoothness, delicacy in perception and deep insights in his poetry. Poetry is the language of his heart and an oeuvre of brains. He avoids adhering to Nepal’s popular traditional concept that "great poetry is (or has to be) done spontaneously." An spontaneous poetry frequently drifts away from the main theme and intelligence, and has a collapse of sensibility to point of deadly monotony. His poems are profoundly expressed and beautifully rounded out with subtle echoes of the classical tradition without ignoring modernistic values, both in potential and structure.

In Where’re they now? he makes a wistful lamentation of the days that are no more. It brings the poet’s nostalgia that tries to pull back the lost gems of innocence, childish tongue and mutability that surround childhood:...Alas, my childish tongue, that irretrievable innocence/ And all those act of mutability/ Wafted away to somewhere far unaware/ Leaving me behind with my gnawing maturity,/ A map of mystery and some rags/ On my way up to the sandman’s hut - sleep of eternity./ Where’re they now?/ Deep down in the sea or sky/ Over those faces on dewdrops, I sigh.

Gurung shows his ingrained poetic sensibility even when he was away from home in Goleta Night, a piece from his first collection Whisper (1992): Something queer is steering my sleep tonight,/ Drifting across the deepening dark hours./ I, agog like a child listening to ghost tales,/ Awake with the Goleta night.../ My mother must have already begun/ Her day’s rituals, and here I, on the other/ Side contending the chemistry of a foreign night/ Yes, I do have reasons to be here:/ Fallen in love, and crave to be in a desperate plight. The culprits are my savage dreams.../ With insomniac sea I share my dreams.

Elegy, is one the most moving poems in this collection, written on the death of his father. At every encounter with Gurung convinces one of a renewal of belief in the possibilities of poetry, and his phenomenal way of driving us toward an almost unimaginable situation to muse: ...I wonder, which house you are going to make your new home tonight./ Whose pictures would be hanging there on the room-walls of your new home? - probably not ours.