The New Millennium Thoughts That Hinges Around

-By C.D. Bhatta

THE past years have seen many acts of violence. Everyday, one person or other faces a loss, a bereavement. And then the heart cries for justice, what is the meaning behind all this? When the Gods or those who made mythology could not handle it, how can we simple mortals cope? The excitement and the joy that promise of a new millennium held, were wiped out within seconds of hearing the news of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane followed by the crash of a domestic airliner in Nepal. This is perhaps the world’s worst episode of hijacking and heinous manner of closing the last century.

Hype
The hype over the new millennium, though partly arising from commercial considerations, is understandable. It is perfectly in order to talk of the outstanding personalities and events of the century that is drawing to a closing. At the same time, attention needs to be directed to concerns and challenges that confront the nation in the immediate context, and the directions in which the country and the polity are headed in the medium-term. To say so is realism, not narrow-mindedness, as some say aver. It is an occasion for introspection, not boorish extravagance.

Could Nepal look forward to a period of political stability? Will the Government be able to complete its term, now that the ruling party has clear majority? Will it perform at long last? How do we deal with the spectrum of various national issues which are taking a heavy toll in the country and the latest hijacking episode, could pose bigger dangers? These are some of the questions that come to mind.

There are other issues — the capability of the Government to address the economic agenda, to make a good job of the policies of reforms and to ensure social justice to uplift the population from the depths of poverty and deprivation and the prospects of the political establishment.

The media could be relied upon to try to be at its innovative best to project the heralding of the new millennium. Both the visual and the print media may well devise breathtaking techniques next week-end but when all that is done the euphoria evaporates, the hard questions will remain and cry out for answers.

Rejoining will be in order only if there are some positive elements in the situation that is unfolded by the explanations in response to the all-important queries. There may be no originality about the issues, but that does not detract from their relevance.

The gap between promise and performance is disturbing, more so because it has failed to jolt the conscience of political players, some of whom are continuing, without a sense of shame, their clumsy antics. Political instability in the recent past made things worse. This is the setting in which we enter the new millennium.

What are the chances of stability? Slightly better than in the past years. Assuming a safe start for the Government, its performance is a matter of the utmost importance.

To take the challenge of terrorism first, the thoughts at the turn of the millennium are bound to turn to the question whether the strategy adopted and the steps taken so far add up to an effective response or whether extra efforts could have been undertaken.

The state of the polity also causes distress, what with continuous proliferation of political groups, based on castes and personal egos, distorting political processes.

There may not be an immediate problem at present but instability and uncertainties are inherent in power-sharing in the future by a score of constituents. A grim view is not taken of its vulnerability in the absence of due regard for the rules of the game is considered a matter of concern.

Confidence
These are some stray thoughts that come to mind. Not profound but trivial, some may say, but that is the stuff of which the reality is made. What is important is that Nepal enters the new millennium with confidence and this is not possible with unrealistic attitudes and stances. The various pertinent outstanding issues in front of the nations are yet to be addressed.

Finally, Hijack Drama Ends

-By Mohan K.C.

THE end of the hostage drama after over a week, eight days to be exact, has sent sighs of relief not only to the hostages themselves but also their relatives and friends. The governments concerned too on their part have felt a great tension come to an end.

Concern
The main concern of Nepal had been that the IC 814 Indian Airlines flight to New Delhi originated from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the only international airport of Nepal. And this particular hijack in the air stunned everyone whether concerned directly or indirectly. The number of days that the hostages had to stay under the threat of the hijackers within the plane in suspense can unnerve anyone.

But the hostage drama ended last Friday with the safety of the Nepali travellers   confirmed. Even their family members have been relieved of the tension and emotional stress that had persisted for eight days sapping their very energy. The other fact that is of interest is that no Nepali was in league with the hijackers as had been portrayed by the Indian media. This deserves mention and serious consideration because such false propaganda has not only hurt the sentiment of the Nepalese people but was an attempt to put a blot on the image of Nepal.

Now that the involvement of any Nepali citizen in the hijack has been erased, the Indian media must realise that false dissemination of news can also lead to misunderstandings between the countries concerned. The media’s responsibility lies in presenting the real facts and not print or air news or information based merely on speculations. The unfair charges that had been brought out by the media outside was intolerable.

Moreover, the entry of the hijackers into the Indian Airlines plane bound for New Delhi, as made by the foreign media, was merely based on conjectures without any sound reasoning or taking into consideration the hard facts. This speaks for the fact that the irresponsible role of the media can do more harm than good.

Just because Nepal was the originating point for the hijacked plane, to blame Nepal is totally baseless. It’s true that the plane that was on its regular flight to New Delhi was hijacked does not necessarily mean the complicity of the Nepalese officials or workers at the airport. This is of importance to mention because Nepal has seen a hijacking of a plane that brought it into limelight, one of the reasons being that there were eight Nepalese passengers on the flight.

Now facts are out and wrong and malicious information regarding the issue has been resolved. Still the pieces are slowly being put together and the real facts will be out after the probe committee presents its report. The many allegations that were levelled at that the TIA security lapses were responsible for the hijack of the Indian Airlines plane are more out of place than what the reality is.

This has been no sole hijacking incident in the world to date. Even India itself has seen a number of such cases where its planes have been taken for a ride by hijackers with different purposes. But they have never come up with explanations regarding that the security arrangements in their airports were lax or the involvement of their airport and security personnel. But when it comes to Nepal, they have blatantly pointed fingers for the loose security system at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

The Foreign Minister himself has refuted charges that had been levelled against the security arrangements at the airport. There is no doubt that the security measures at the airport are upto world standard though there may be minor lapses which may be of not much significance. Yet, the probe body which has been looking into the case will find out what went wrong that resulted into the hijack of the Indian plane. Till the report is out, it will be foolhardy to go on blaming the security arrangements at TIA.

Yet, there are many lessons to be learnt. That the terrorists see no boundary for their operations and Nepal has to enhance its preparedness to avert incidents of this sort. To support the point, even the major airports of the world, also in the terrorism prone countries, have seen planes being hijacked. The terrorists fired by their meaningless zeal put the lives of many people at stake. And their activities needs to be condemned in the strongest of
words.

Nepal is also at the moment facing the problem of Maoist insurgency and the solution to it is not yet in sight. The proliferation of private airlines and the crowded Nepalese sky must be given due attention. The other airports scattered in the Kingdom need adequate security arrangements and not only the international airport situated in Kathmandu.

Now that a sigh of relief has emerged with all the hostages returning to their homes to be with their near and dear ones, it is important to take stock of the situation. The misdirected implication of a Nepali being one of the hijackers has been totally baseless. For the eight days that the passengers remained hostages, the very though haunted the conscience of every Nepali. But now everything is clear. The records have been put straight and the wrong portrayal of a Nepali as a hijacker by Zee TV had the wrong message to give. Now the Zee TV and their reporters have been proved wrong.

All this goes to show that the media must be truthful and unbiased in reporting. A responsible media is a boon while rumour mongering type does more harm than good. This is specially true in a world where modern technology has enhanced the capacity of the media to relay information. When news or information are based on facts it gives the people what they want but wrong information creates problems which becomes difficult to rectify later on.

Message
The message is that the media must go by its ethic and not create sensations based on mere speculations. In the days ahead much has to be gleaned out of the hijack drama that ended after much ordeal to the passengers of different nationalities including the Nepalese on board.

Useful Indigenous Technology

-By Rajendra Uprety

IF THE big talks concerning the nation’s science and technology development are any indications, there seems insignificant achievements in this very issue during the last three decades. Poor perfor-mances of science and technological institutions mainly due to the lack of adequate scientists and the united zeal of nation builders have been the major causes. In this present situation, the successful implementation of indigenous technology comparatively seems more profitable and applicable.

Indeed, in developing countries like ours, in which there is a great variation geographical distribution and scattered nature of population in rural areas, the labour intensive technology seems more beneficial than that of capital intensive ones. The proper use of natural resources through technological know-how with its scientific application will assist in the sustainable development of the rural areas. Consequently, it helps to create more employ-ment opportunities thereby supporting the poverty allevia-tion programme.

The more familiar indigenous technology and lower scale investment techno-logy can be fruitful both from the progressive develop-ment view of induced technology and employment opportunities.

Indigenous technology refers to the scientific work in the local areas. Wood mills, paper mills, small scale rice and oil mills, use of organic fertiliser and botanical pesticides in farming, pottery, metalcraft, handicraft, thankas are some that can use indigenous technologies. Such technology strongly supports the modern technology which subsequently results in better economic situation of the mass. Hence, it helps raise the living standard of the people. Viewing this very soil fitted sentiment, the urgent need of implementation and preser-vation of indigenous technology and its importance to society was also stressed in the third national conference on science and technology, organised in March 1999 by Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST).

Because of the scattered origin of indigenous technology more time is needed in developing proper skills in multifarious aspects in society. Therefore, it strongly desires information technology for technology popularisation programme.

Easy handling, lower scale investment and labour intensive characteristics of indigenous technology, the success of its full implementation and best adoption can easily be recognised more than modern technology due to capital constraints and lack of desired technology and related experts. The proceeding of such self developed technology can smoothly be modified through innovating professionals from among the mass. The progress of indigenous technology for quantitative and qualitative production of goods leads to the parallel development of technological skills as well as economic situation instantly, which indeed, is the need of the time.

In fact, indigenous technology has immense potential value for promotion of environmental and social issues which have direct impact for the betterment of the society. Production of fibrous goods from small and cottage industries of green area could be the best alternatives for the protection of the environment from excessive consumption of non-degradable polymers and other such commodities.   

Collective innovations and joint ventures for the growth of skill development with co-operative approach for public motivation and reactivation will add extra stability and productivity to the technology.

Nowadays villagers are becoming interested in activities like organic farming, drying, fermen-tation, small mills, picklings etc. Preser-vation technology of the harvested products is equally a necessity.

About fifty per cent of the total Nepalese population are eking out their lives below the poverty line and their calorie intake have lagged behind the minimum requirements. Thus the villagers interest is to cultivate more improved and energy-rich varieties as well as income generating types of agro-products. If meaningful and productive solution is given through technological aspects, it would certainly be a welcome task for technological progress. Rural people heavily depend on traditional technology which doesn’t even compensate the total labour they spend in the production process.

Through the application of one’s own technology, the production of goods of basic needs can be enhanced. Hence, it will be a right substitute for imported goods and technology. Consequently, it not only provides techno-logical and economic potential to local areas but also augments the regional and national economy. By the creation and implementation of popular indigenous and bio-mass technology the proper utilisation of local natural resources and its management can easily be maintained.

Rational use of highly productive potentials of natural resources and manpower of local areas has to be taken into account for the development of these areas. Good opportunities exist for popularising indigenous technology and necessary action taken in this regard.