Heritage Sites

An Alternative Tourism Industry

By Rabi Jung Pandey

NEPAL is a country having international glory for adventure and culture bewilderment. The number of world heritage sites within a small limited area has pointed out the importance and authenticity of its culture, tradition, and ethnicity. These heritage sites have become an indispensable resource for the development and promotion of tourism in the urban as well as rural sector of the country. However, some of the important heritage sites are under threat. If necessary action or well-organised programme for conservation is not initiated, much of our heritage may disappear in the near future.

Inspection

Though some international organisations and national heritage conservation programmes seem to be active on conserving our heritage, some of them are on the list of endangered sites. Recently a high level technical team of UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee inspected the heritage sites in Kathmandu to evaluate the suggestions that was given to Nepal regarding her conservation programme.

The 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Culture and Natural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO in response to increasing threats to sites of cultural and natural heritage, that especially in countries that have neither the financial nor the technical and scentific resources they need to mitigate the dangers. The Convention underscores the fact that physical cultural heritage and, in many cases, natural heritage is non-renewable, irreplaceable resource. More and more sites are at risk of degradation due to direct or indirect result of urbanisation, natural resource exploitation, population growth, pollution and other phenomena of modern industrial civilisation. A site’s physical and cultural integrity also faces an array of indirect threats: atmospheric pollution, traffic, vibration, encroachment and intrusive commercial development.

As such site management must take into account the local and national plans, forecasts of demographic growth or decline, economic factors, traffic projections and industrial zoning and preventive measures to mitigate various types of man-made and natural disasters. Successful protection and maintenance of World Heritage require continuous assessment, inventory, information management, research and administration. It is the process that guarantees a World Heritage site’s survival as a sustainable resource.

In the past, the study of tourism was commonly, thought to be a superfluous activity. Tourism was simply defined as an activity dependent on three operative elements: discretionary income, leisure time, and social sanctions permissive of travel. However, at present the research has touched upon these elements and their possible impact on host communities. In the recent decades the tourist activity and their impacts have become a matter of great attention to the changing world.

To preceive tourism as a cultural industry is to acknowledge the natural environment, built environment, icons, and attractions of destinations as part of the cultural package. As tourism develops into a major international as well as national industry, questions and debates about sustainability, authenticity, social impacts, indigeneous cultures and so on reflect the cultural dimension of tourism. The planners need to identify and address the acceptable and unacceptable forms and limits of tourism. They also need to answer, whether these new forms of tourism, specially rural tourism or indigenous/ethnic tourism, ecotourism, and even adventure tourism, intrude the destination community.

Tourism and preservation may appear to be strange bedfellows, but with proper management they are a winning combination. Sustainable tourism can bring improved income and living standards for the local people. It can revitalised local culture, especially traditional crafts and customs. It can stimulate the rural economy by creating demand for agricultural products and inject capital in the rural areas.

With tourists, becoming increasingly attracted to environmentally sound holidays, the adoption of sustainable practices enhances the corporate image. But most important for World Heritage, the sustainable tourism contributes to the conservation and protection of natural and cultural features, generates additional finance and fosters greater public and local awareness of protected areas and environment. The simple fact is that preservation pays. Sharing heritage with visitors means reaping the economic benefits of tourism. Only proper planning, management and control can ensure that a World Heritage site will live up to its commercial potential and survive intact into the future.

Technically, heritage tourism is defined as the phenomenon in which the cultural, historical and ethnic components of a society are harnessed as resources to attract tourists, as well as develop tourism industry. However, this has often been criticised in many parts of the globe for converting local cultures and lifestyles into ‘commodities’ for sale to foreign audiences. It is also argued that cultural commodification contributes to the detraction of social customs, the alienation of residents and the creation of homogeneity between places. Sometime planners warn that the economic allure of tourism and the need to cater to tourists is a key reason for the ‘mythic reconstruction’ of places and the falsification of histories and identities.

However, it has been widely accepted that when cultural event is co-opted with destination area by tourism, it becomes a consumer product. A number of important points have raised to throw light on the wider context of the heritage commodification (conservation and development) process.

Firstly, communal assertions of identity, increasing local appreciation of heritage and civic awareness have contributed to the ‘new urban renaissance.’ Changes in the urban cultural landscapes are best understood as the outcome of multiple factors will interact with one another. So it would be an oversight to consider local cultures passive, and proclaim tourism as the most important agent of social change.

Secondly, heritage has not been considered as a relic but a dynamic and multi-purpose resource or a form of capital that has moulded and transformed for diverse audiences. The commodification process has helped balance between visitors and the local community by fulfilling the needs of residents that could have been either in marginalised or totally neglected form. It has become possible for the heritage entrepreneur to serve multiple goals at one time without alienating any particular group of people.

Unquestionably, heritage conservation leads to changes in the identity and land uses of certain other places. However, an alternative way to view these changes would be to say that ‘zones of discard’ are revalued in the name of urbanisation and converting them into useful environments for visitors and locals.

Imperative

Heritage tourism products are geared towards global audiences as well as home communities, and it is imperative to explore the heritage development process as traversing (or attempting to traverse) the tourist-local divide. Heritage development takes various forms in different places depending on the success of the planning authority or entrepreneur in bridging the tourist-local rift.

Child Rights Needs Priority

By Mohan K.C.

NEPAL is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Child Rights. It was on 14th September, 1990 that it was ratified by Nepal. Now ten years have gone by and it is worth taking a stock of what has been achieved so far. Though the occasion was marked by a variety of programmes, the plights of the countless children especially in the developing countries have yet to be addressed to the fullest possible extent.

Document

The UN Convention on Child Rights is a basic document that sets guidelines to be implemented by the signatory countries to see to it that the children receive all the rights that upholds their dignity and opportunities to health, education and every sector of the human sphere.

It must be realised that it was a big achievement for the convention to come into effect to improve the conditions of children worldwide. Exploitation of children in the Third World countries has still been going on unabated though the UN Convention made it mandatory for the signatory countries to abide by what had been agreed upon.

The convention binds all signatory countries to formulate relevant laws and regulations so that the exploitation of children is eliminated and all facilities made available to them so that they can become responsible citizens of not only the country but the world itself.

Nepal was one of the first signatory countries to have declared its firm commitment to abide by the convention for protecting the rights of the child in the country. The task of seeing to it that the children irrespective of their caste, creed or religion receive equal treatment whether it concerns education, health care or other necessary opportunities. The fact has been realised by the government. There are many NGOs working in their own respective ways for the welfare of the Nepalese children.

In conformity with the UN Convention, the law was formulated in 2048 B.S. and the necessary regulations in 2051 B.S. They have been formulated according to the particular requirements and demands of the children in general. Though there is no lack of endeavours to see that the rights of the child are not violated, appreciable progress has not come about the easy way.

The welfare of children is one of government’s top priority. This is an apt scheme of things by the very fact that the children of today are the citizens of tomorrow and in reality on whose shoulders will rest the prosperity of the country itself. In this respect an all round development of the children is very essential.

That the children have to receive the care and support in the formative years is true because they are the ones who will grow on to become the pillars of the society and contribute their mite for the overall development of the country.

The concerted efforts of the government, the enthusiastic participation of the people and the related NGOs and INGOs has yielded results and there is room for optimism that things will get better in the future. However, the government by itself cannot do everything but has the rather responsible task of formulating relevant laws and regulations concerning the rights of the child and its implementation but the other line agencies have the foremost duty of seeing that the abuse and exploitation of children do not take place. The protection of the rights of the child is for everyone to give priority to.

In the past, before the enforcement of the relevant laws, poverty made children work in hazardous conditions. But now, it may be worthwhile noting that the employment of children in carpet factories and other dangerous places is prohibited by law. Despite the relevant laws and rules in existence it is again the deprived condition that sees many children working as household helpers, restaurant boys and so on. These children are deprived of the very essence of childhood and have to face the harsh realities of life. Health care and education for them is almost non-existent.

The child workers have to work for long hours without rest, underpaid or not paid at all besides receiving harsh punishments even for minor mistakes. Changes come slowly and there is hope that in the coming years the situation will change for the better.

Despite the legal provisions, cases of child exploitation sometimes make headline news. This points to the fact that the sensitisation of child rights must be carried out vigorously so that the people themselves will realise the crime that they are committing by disregarding the rights of the child. In this scenario, the plight of the girl child is still worse. The call for gender equality is sometimes missed by the parents themselves. It is more often that the girl child is all the more exploited. Right from the time they are born, especially in the rural parts, they are exploited and the sons are given preference. Trafficking in girls has attracted a great deal of attention these days. Steps

Child rights issues have always dominated the UN forum and as a member country Nepal has committed itself to protecting the rights of the child as per the Convention on Child Rights. Steps are now being taken worldwide to improve the lot of the children and protect their rights and Nepal is doing its best in the direction.

Prices Up, Life Standard Down

By BT

A PEEK into the price front leads you to believe that actions are absent that could make life easier. Livelihood keeps falling down to newer depths of degraded standard. Pessi-mism about good days finds itself slimmed and suffocated at the same proportion that the wads in your wallet are inflated.

Bogged in desperation, one sometimes likes to wander backward in time and live in good old days when the challenges of making ends meet used to be less daunting and the nights less sleepless. Money used to be less a ruling master and you yourself produced the necessities of your survival. Money was kept at a low profile, unable to rule a man. Banknotes were just scraps of paper that could not be chewed when hungry and happiness was higher.

With the domination of consumerism, we started to abandon the traditional professions of self sufficiency. We sought money and got it. The more money we got, the poorer we became. Money is not affluence as we witnessed.

The heap of misery mounts every day as the cash in your hand keeps losing the strength to buy. The brazen traders are hell bent to make more money for which their tireless mission and mainstay motto is: hike the price and create the maximum possible profit margin not caring what repercussions their unfettered move will have on the life of a common man. The infinite phenomenon of price sky catapulting sees no limitation, so does the degree of despair of a man. Powerless are naturally there to be crushed and cry in silence. Strangely enough, those in authority do not bother to try to make a difference and lie mute as if matters will take care of themselves.

Essential commodities and services are the most effective nets to trap the masses if they try to escape the hike scare. You cannot possibly find an alternative to water or kerosene or foodstuffs. Majority struggles throughout life to manage these necessities and there is no time to think about superior issues. Even if they think in such a condition, the brainchild is going to be a demoniac one.

The heap of trouble piles up and up with every price hike and one sees no rays of hope of getting a relief. When misery comes to greet you as a rule and not an exception, every mind is bound to cultivate frustration. For the whole society, prosperity-propelled advancement remains but a mirage.

With one price hike, one is not in a position to remain relaxed. His mind is ever preoccupied with ‘what next?’ You feel some formidable creature has seized upon your legs and trying to swallow you up. This cowing economic fiend, pampered by price hike, continues to torment with its ever strengthened claws. People are falling prey with lost hope and subdued spirit. It is a sheer mockery to the tall talks about poverty alleviation.

The virtual deadlock in development’s momentum has made employment opportunities elusive. Poverty pursues more people to languish them below the absolute mark of misery when they are left in lurch without jobs for income and resources for independent ventures. The challenge to put body and soul together turns insurmountable when prices skyrocket on regular basis. As prices soar, quality of life mires down to new depths of difficulties.