LOCAL NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Politics & Weather

POLITICS here in the country seems to work in tandem with the weather. While the nation saw quiet days during the cool winder period, the situation seems to have heated up as the days have gotten hotter.

In fact, along with things getting heated in the Parliament, the opposition parties have started to fire up even the streets.

Will cooler heads prevail and the differences be resolved through negotiations, or will the ocuntry need heavy Monsoon downpours to douse the political fires, perhaps, only time can tell. (LDT)

Taken For A Ride

RIDING home one evening when the load shedding was in force as per schedule, I was suddenly pulled aside by a policemen. As he was about to issue the ticket, another bike zipped away and the rider made an obscene gesture to the policemen.

Shocked by this kind of act, putting his ticket book away, the policemen said , "You're lucky this evening." With that, he started blowing his whistle as hard as he could and ran after the bike to stop it. As I was trying to inject the bike engine, the cop appeared again with a tired look and said that people nowadays were not even afraid of them. Or was it the other way round. The cops instead of being preachers must go their way in enforcing the law. (ASR)

Holi's Gone

WELL, Holi has finally bid adieu. It's time to take a stock as to how it went. It was rather a drab affair with people splashing all the dirty water stored to be used up for the occasion. In fact, going by the past accounts, the revellers seemed to have used up all their energy in the past one week so that the fun on the actual day was amiss. Surely police vans had to work overtime ferrying those who indulged in activities that was considered not civil. Yet, the lanes were not free and even the policemen didn't venture into the labyrinths that this city of Kathmandu is famous for. (PNK)

The Drama Ends

FINALLY, with the resignation of Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattrai, the month-long drama staged in the national politics has ended. However, to end the drama 69 characters out of total 113 had to start the second part of the drama as the first show a month ago had ended with the mysterious 'agreement' between the two principal characters. Though this humble scribe does not know whether it was a tragedy or a comedy, he is sure that for some especially for the sitting ministers and their relatives and supporters the drama appeared to be a tragedy and for others a comedy. However, the powerful and long concluding dialect at the end of the drama that was from one of the principal characters must have made many believe it was somehow a tragedy. Otherwise a few MPs would not have shed tears in the parliament and the party activists who were demanding the resignation of the PM just before they heard the final speech would not have said, " He made a good and realistic speech..." (BG)

Majority & What

BEFORE the May, 1999 general elections, we had enough room to pretend. To pretend in loud voice that it was nothing but the hung representation of political parties in the Parliament that was acting as the culprit for all kinds of aberrations, anomalies, immoralities and instability. Therefore, we preached and called for a majority mandate. Everybody agreed 'majority' was the only panacea in the Nepalese political domain.

We got it with the wholehearted support of the Janata Janardan (people). But turn of events showed that the magical remedial power of majority was only a myth. Just as there are different parties, there are camps within parties and even camps within camps that hamper stability. There is bigger defect within us than the lack of majority that needs correction. (BT)

Noctural Talks

THE Bhutanese officials seemed to have resorted to a different trick this time. During day light they would most of the time like to kill the time doing this or that. The serious talks between our officials and those of the Dragon kingdom would begin only in the night and would continue even after clocks changed dates at midnight. Guess why. There could be two probabilities. Either the crafty Druk Officials deliberately wanted to keep the press in the dark. Or, perhaps they had expected our officials to yawn…. in the late night and things to move the way the Dragon Kingdom wanted. God save from such nocturnal talks! (NSK)

Reality Out

WHILE shopping with his wife two days before the festive day of colourful Holi, this scribe had an opportunity to meet a well known women's rights activist in the New Road area. When yours humbly just started criticising the psyche of terrorising innocent women folks with water-filled balloons in public places, the lady in her early thirties interrupted and embarked upon her discourse. "To a large extent, the girls themselves are to be blamed: the most important thing is all women must be bold enough to bully and intimidate those perverse boys," she boasted,"This is how I've never been hit with a single baloon in life." And, instantly she left in her luxurious car.

Perhaps plausibly impressed by her rhetorics, this scribe started telling the wife high of the lady's 'idealistic' approach while walking back home. Right there, several water-filled flying objects landed on my wife.

Fussy about the assault, the wife said,"See, the difference lies here: women like me have to use the public roads whereas the high-class people like that fashionable lady use the luxurious car, which flying bolloon terror can't hit. So she's high sounding about 'others' constraints." Sounds true, indeed! (AS)

Disparity

GENERALLY women are said to be more kind hearted and cooperative than men. It is believed that they understand agonies of other women and help them in every tricky situation. With the elapse of time, this concept seems to have died down. Women these days seem less pathetic to other women themselves. The discrepancy between men and women is not that awful as it is among women themselves. Women who are more privileged often take advantage by exploiting other women in their own society. The women leaders who plead for the emancipation of women seem to have created disparity among women themselves. (RKC)

Gordian Knot

PPOSITION party? Forget about it for the time being because the way the Nepali Congress Parliamentary party elected its leader gives me the impression that the NC party strongman Koirala's fourth return to power has come with a pinch of salt for many of his party men. And those who suffered "defeat" at the hands of Koirala will in all their likelihood barge in the next round of hectic bargaining to gain the appointments that ensure them power and pelf. This is where the Gordian Knot lies for Koirala whose first priority is to check corruption. Those who will fail in gaining their desired place in the government will surely try to cerate problems for the Prime Minister. Does not this remind you of the by-gone days of chhattise and chauhattare when a group of 36 NC legislators pulled down their own majority government headed by Koirala. In the backdrop of shifting loyalties of NC lawmakers, nobody will be usrprised if these defeated lawmakers would go the Chhattise ways and do their best to cerate many problems to the newly formed government. The factionalism within NC will give us another round of engrossing moments and induce us to forget about the activities of other opposition political parties for a while. (NU)

Another Facet

MARRIAGE just after completing an year of birth! Is the idea not wild and antic? But it was and happened recently in Dom community in Janakapur. Two kids namely Rubi and Sunil tied the knots courtesy their parents. The event can invite many questions. But it can be happy news for those NGOs working for the downtrodden communities including this Dom community. By learning this, they could write a good proposal to donors seeking fund to bring about changes in the lives of the Doms. Being good proposal, it would definitely receive support from donors. Their paper works would go to the media any fully satisfy the donors believing the expected aims were achieved. And it might be possible that the innocent Doms who would be quite unknown about the activities as NGOs might not raise difficulty of reaching to them. (RRS)

Old Habits

"CUSTOMARILY" ministers are late to a function. So I'm also late". These were the first few words of a secretary who was to inaugurate a photo exhibition the other day at the hall of Tribhuvan's University's Central Library. It is true that they are late to most of the functions organised by Nepalese people or their organisations. But surprisingly they reach the venue in time, or even before that, if the organisers are foreigners, especially from the western world. But this top bureaucrat broke the eleventh commandment of the noble cabinet member by reaching late (by more than half an hour) to the exhibition that was organised by israeli Embassy in Kathmandu and Israel, albeit in Asia, is a land of western world in spirit. Perhaps as the saying goes old habits die hard-Nepalese still cannot be punctual.

Streets' Chaos

DRIVING in the streets of Kathmandu is no task for the faint hearted. From aggressive vehicle drivers to adamant pedestrians, the roads seem full of people who are out to push to the limit the rules of safety.

The traffic police have tried to bring some semblance of order by physically manning some busy crossings and also dividing the roads with ropes and plastic fences. But not much improvement can be seen.

However one good policy adopted by the traffic cops, is the seeking of suggestions from the people themselves. The scheme would probably be more effective if the authorities, instead of relying only on a telephone and a fax, also utilised the services of the print and electronic media, specialy the FM channels, to give their message and also take feedback from the people.

It must be realised that more than police presence and plastic dividers, awareness among the people will help make the roads more disciplined and smooth. (LDT)

Only Tourists Trek

PREPARE to meet surprises in the highlands, especially while you are trekking. Towering snow- clad mountains at a stone throw away distance, roaring river gorges just below you, and what not. But you know what tops the list? Tourists, especially westerners, gazing at you while you are on your trekking trail. Reason? They don't believe even Nepalese trek like they do. Me say, when Nepalese own the rugged terrain, they can trek them too. Even if, not too often. (NSK)

Locking Horns

NO ONE knows what the outcome will be with the private schools holding their final exams within this month and starting their new session soon thereafter. The concerned government demartment has one thing in mind but the private school operators have another thing in mind. In fact, in the past two sessions the school students have already have had many months more to study thereby leaving them behind in the race of getting 'there' faster. Now, it's wait and watch game of how things will move forward in the days to come. (PNK)

An Example

THOUGH the Nepali Congress is the largest and the oldest democratic party in the country, many politicians including its own supporters often claim that NC lacks internal democracy. Yes, the past events have shown that the party has solved most of the issues through sarabasammati nirnaya (consensus) albeit majority of party members and supporters are against the decision. All the leaders of its parliamentary party in the past were elected unopposed and even the party President were mostly elected unopposed. But this time NC set a record by conducting an election to choose its leader of the parliamentary party. Indeed, in democracy, election is the main measure to elect the leaders and everyone should respect the result of any election. But for opposition parties and some weeklies which in the past never tired of claiming that NC lacked internal democracy are now pointing the recent election as the beginning of party split. Perhaps it is an example to denote how our political parties have intolerable attitudes towards their rival parties. (BG)

Tired Mood!

UNLIKE in the past, this year's Holi festival was celebrated with relatively less enthusiasm and participation of the revellers. To recall the day in previous years, the streets would be filled with merry makers shouting, singing and bathed in colour and water. Some came in vehicles while others walked in groups. Similarly, exciting atmosphere of merriment could be observed on rooftops of neighbourhoods.

One may work out several probable reasons leading to this tired mood of Holi revellers. However, seemingly most convincing among them might be this: Holi was overly celebrated even before the real day came. When people tend to forget the timeliness of anything, it is natural such trend occur. (BT)

Beau & Arrows

A PHILIPPINES returned model I know is reportedly in love (or, just infatuation?) with one of the hottest pop singers in town. The upcoming model does not seem to give an envious look when crazy female fans have a romantic chat with her beau. Neither is she mad nor feel bearish as hell about the rumours linking her beau with other those beautiful female fans. If the rumour machine keeps darting the arrows, she will just let them. The latent fact came to light soon, because when it came to the singer's birthday celebration recently in a cosy hall in town, it was she who stuck to her beau like a baby does to its teddy bear. (AS)

The Sufferers

IT'S not in the game of cricket where the saying 'tu chal, main aaya (you leave, I come)" is said to describe the misery of a team that suffers rapid fall of wickets. It may appropriately be adopted for the practice of hiring and firing of the Nepalese bureaucrats and political appointees too. With the appointment of new government, many of such appointees are set to leave as the axes are ready to fall on them while others are making a bee-line to their "godfathers" for appointments in high government places. Such circumstance, this scribe's heart really goes for those persons who reach top government post not by using their honeyed tongues but by sheer force of their capabilities. However, in the murky game of flattery they seem to be suffering most because they do not know how to impress sbosses using the art of bootlicking and sycophancy. (NU)

Who knows?

STRIKE, sit-in and slogan chanting are what the main Opposition party is doing now. These non-violent activities are fine. These are certainly good weapons in democracy to fulfill the demands. After a slumber of months, CPN-UML is trying to answer the accusation through some praiseworthy and some pressurising activities in the country. It has launched series of protests programme against corruption and red tapism that have plauged the state. No doubt, such moves are welcome if they prove catalytic in removing the evils. And if drives are merely a stunt to attract public attention and earning cheap popularity, then it would benefit none. Let's hope the moves are mere stunts. (RRS)

'Sweet' Problems

The market is teeming with items like lollipops and coloured candies that hardly meet the hygienic and health safety standards. It seems that anyone can produce such items anywhere and bring to the market without a headache to the authorities. These stuffs contain colouring and flavouring additives that are hazardous to health to which the innocent kids fall victims. This kind of phenomenon is rampant as there is no active body with monitoring and surveillance mechanism. In the absence of adequate regulation of food market, even the registered industries do not bother to maintain standards.

The items that usually lure the sweet toothed children carry so called gift items that have proved fatal as reported in the media recently. The kids were choked to death with whistles attached to lollipops. These incidents have drawn the attention of the Food Research Lab but no one knows how long it will be before the authority with public health responsibility will go to hibernation again. (BT)

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