Voluntary & Humanitarian Organisations
To Face Challenges Of 21st Century

By Krishna Chandra Chalisey

THE new millennium and the century have begun with many expectations. We have inherited pluralism in politics and liberalisation in economy. We also have inherited a world fraught with frequent and severe disasters, growing inequity and recourse to violence. With the growing surge of globalisation, governments have left responsibility of service delivery to market forces. The role of the state has diminished in many sectors. The private and non-governmental sectors are assuming greater responsibilities.

Trends

The world has been very unpredictable. It has become more integrated and interdependent with very limited barrier of movement of ideas, people, capital and goods. This has brought opportunities as well threats. Current development pattern is also exacerbating economic inequity. The globalisation has created a gap not only between the haves and have nots within the country but also among the countries. In 1960 20 per cent richest population of the developed world had 30 times the income of the 20 per cent poorest. In 1995 it rose to 82 times.

Urbanisation is also sure to bring rise in the numbers of people living in overcrowded slums and illegal squatters that lack virtually all services. Internally displaced people and refugees are also increasing. In many parts of the world a rapidly ageing population is putting pressure on social security expenditure. Disaster disproportionately affects poor. Over 90 per cent of the disaster-related death occur in developing countries. Our inability to combat with environmental degradation is also sure to lead more frequent and severe disasters with an ever-greater impact on society. Coastal and river flooding will affect more people and access to water will decline and diseases will spread. Developing countries are still suffering from infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection and measles coupled with poverty and malnutrition. New and re-emerging epidemics like malaria, tuberculosis and HIVAIDS are threatening people’s health and neutralising the achievements made in the sectors of human development. It is due to unhealthy lifestyles, non-transmissible diseases are also claiming lives of many people. Everywhere accidents and violence increasingly threaten human life. Industrial and traffic accidents have become among the top three killers of people aged 15 to 30 in many countries.

There is a strong possibility that these trends and unwelcome developments may lead to more frequent recourse to violence. Even after the decade of democratic era and end of cold war era, the world seems to have headed towards disintegration, discord, intolerance and religious fundamentalism. Many more states are engulfed in civil war and internal disturbances. More civil wars are appearing especially after Cold War. The result has been that more civilians have become the victims of war. Strict observance to Geneva Conventions by the warring parties is another major challenge.

Though the last decade of 20th century was the decade of restoration and establishment of democratic system in many countries, with beginning of 21st century the trend of grabbing the power by undemocratic means has begun. This political tendency has brought the situation of armed conflict and tension in many parts of the world. More civilians and innocent people are becoming the victims. It is clearly seen that the wave of democratisation could not be sustained and better applied for the betterment of the people.

In the Third world and least developed countries, the possibility of dictatorial leadership is growing. It is sure to hamper the smooth process of development.

The need for humanitarian assistance due to disasters and economic crisis is increasing. We should be very cautious to tap the opportunities opened by globalisation as the fruits of technological innovation and advancement have gone to very few limited people.

There is a need to make the programmes more responsive to local vulnerability. Vulnerable people are those at risk from situations that threaten their capacity to live with a minimum socio-economic security and human dignity. NGOs need to focuss on core areas where they can add value. There is a need to transform community based and voluntary organisations into a more cohesive movement responsive to the humanitarian challenges of the new century and the millennium.

Human security is an essential dimension of development. It involves protecting people from threats such as disasters, hunger and diseases and harmful disruption in their daily lives. Capacity building, sustainability and dignity should be the dimensions of programme interventions. There is a need to empower people, promote co-operation and lasting peace. To make the programmes responsive to local vulnerability and capacity, we need to work with the capacities, skills and resources of the vulnerable people empowering them to take charge of their lives.

Growing Role

Voluntary and humanitarian organisations need to be more prepared to cope with the challenges that are likely to grow in the context of withdrawal of the government in sectors of public concerns and growing role of private sectors who are usually profit seekers. Ultimately, a strong, vibrant and robust civil society is a must to cope with the diverse and multifaceted humanitarian challenges.

Eyes Don’t Age, Hearts Don’t Wither

By Surendra Singh K.C.

EVERY person reaches a prime time during the course of life. Decay follows soon after and, ultimately, the oblivion of death. As the river of Time flows relentlessly by, this cycle is repeated without exception endlessly. However, a definite shift in the time interval of attaining the prime and staying at it, a lateral shift in the person’s favour, has with the passage of time, undoubtedly taken place.

Visit

A friend of mine had once told me how, about seventy-five years ago, his father and his cousin brother, both in their late forties, had visited Benaras on a pilgrimage. As devout Hindus, they were overwhelmed by the holiness of the place, its hallowed antiquity and sacredness. They watched with awe corpses being burnt and lined up in queue for cremation at the Manikarnika ghat (cremation pyre). The ghat lies by the holy Ganges. Hindus believe that cremation at the ghat leads to instant mokshya (salvation), a freedom from the endless cycles of transformations till you get born again as a human being. It is said that my friend’s father and his companion were so transfigured that they had wished that they too could die that moment, then and there, to be cremated there and attain salvation forever. They’d felt so, because they’d probably thought they’d grown old enough to expect anything substantial from unnecessary prolonging of fruitless material existence. No wonder, even before his son completed the first year, the father of my friend had expired. He’d hardly attained fifty-five years.

At present the idea of a man getting old at fifty is certainly considered funny, if not antediluvian. I see sprightly seventies flitting by the streets their eyes riveted on angels catwalking, so to speak, on the pavements, their belly buttons glittering like the third eye. However, even in those times agnostics were not scarce; history, after all, is not always full of surprises. My God! What marvelous boobs?" a sixty-five year old he-goat is said to have exclaimed in raptures, as he patted the back of his companion in ecstasy, when he saw the gorgeous thing with superb busts approaching him. He’d at the ecstasy of the moment forgotten that his companion of the moment was his own grandson, he was staking along to buy a book of moral tales.

Talking of moral tales reminds me of the case of the fifty-two year old grandfather, Baburam Bhandari, and forty-two year old grandma, Krishnamaya Lamichhaney and the bhadrabhaladmi samaj (the virtuous gentlemen society) of ward no. 7, Hattipatte village development council, Sindhuli district (Gorkhapatra Daily, August 15, 2000). The widow, Krishnamaya, after getting her only dauthter married, was living alone in her house. Though widowed, Cupid’s arrows still kept tormenting her. Bhandari lived in the same locality peacefully with his wife, children and grandchildren. Maybe because Bhandari’s sexual demands were more than his wife could bear or, what’s more likely, because of some kind of instinctive male impulse to explore new territories, varieties, as they say, being the spice of life; Bhandari and the widow got into a liaison. It could not, alas, escape the attention of the bhadrabhaladmi samaz. The samaz was outraged. It went looking for an opportunity to catch the erring couple handed.

Eventually, by forcing entry into the widow’s house and catching Bhandari, well hidden in the family chest under lock and key, the samaz got the reward of their pious voyeurism. Driven by blind righteousness, they’d forced Bhandari sprinkle vermilion onto the forehead of the widow. This act forced on her, ended the state of her widowhood. It also automatically turned her into Bhandari’s second wife. Now Krishnamaya and Bhandari could do what they had been doing without disturbing the conscience of the bhadrabhaladmi or inflicting a moral outrage on them. Did the samaz do the right thing? Was it legally proper to foist upon Bhandari a second wife? What right had the bhadrabhaladmi to interfere on what a widow had chosen to do within the confines of her house? Have they not unnecessarily and permanently disturbed the peace of the Bhandari and the widow’s daughter’s households?

It seems to me that the antediluvian bhadrabhaladmi, like all busybodies, have created a lot of legal and moral problems without solving any. The paper hints that the bhadrabhaladmi were disturbed that a son born to a widow out of liaison is called a randi khal. How could the bhadrabhaladmi be unaware of the pills or the copper T, which the Nepal television is so fond of advertising? It seems to me that the bhadrabhaladmi would have done immensely better service to society had they advised the widow to keep on pills. They could have even advised Bhandari to use the ubiquitous dhal.

You may jolly well be wondering what this old fellow is up to? Instead of riding the aristocratic jabbering oldsters’ democratic bandwagon or joining the we-are-the-servants-of-the-people’s millionaires’ club and getting a bit of fat under the skin, why is this seedy looking old man raising a ruckus over a trifle?

Fact is, eyes don’t age, hearts don’t wither and mind is ageless. I was so looking forward, during this coming winter, to visiting the dance restaurants at Birgunj. Now I hear that they are closed. The girls, I was informed, had bared too much. They had too provocatively wiggled their luscious bottoms.

They’d done body flicks more provocatively than our ever vigilant and highly moral police could bear. So the restaurants were closed.

Beeline

No wonder with the bhadrabhaladmi samaz and the police, blind to all kinds of evils prevailing in the samaz but those said to be associated with the female body, hot after them, the girls are making a beeline to Kamathipura, many Kamathipura’s indeed, across the border to make a living!

The Reasons Behind Have Tragedy Among Youngsters

LOVE tragedy among youngsters seems common these days. Time and again we hear that relationships have fallen apart. The question arises… Why?

When we talk about love tragedy, we first need to highlight a little bit on the topic ‘love’. The name, Cupid, strikes our mind, as he is the God of Love. Love existed from the very beginning of the human civilisation and even before that. The ability to love and be loved is that vital gift of God to mankind. It is that force which has provided happiness and created bond among people. We can’t even imagine the existence of human being without love. It is thus indeed a very essential part of human life.

If love is beautiful then, why tragedy? Why do so many people end up rebelling against or attacking their mates who demonstrate the very traits to which they were originally attracted? What is there about love which, according to many, precludes conflict and anger? What are the major causes that result into lovetragedy?

In order to throw some light on this grave matter, a group of MBA students from Kathmandu University, School of Management undertook a research regarding this issue.

The sample consisted of 200 people of diverse sex, religion, caste and creed and was conducted in the districts of Kathmandu and Lalitpur. The age group ranged from 20 to 35. It was conducted through questionnaires and 76 people were interviewed through video and audio. Interviews were conducted in different restaurants, parks, residences and even the zoo!

As far as the educational background of our respondents is concerned, 68 per cent were of masters level, 24 per cent were doing their graduation, 6 per cent were in the intermediate level and finally only 2 per cent were of the school leaving certificate level. 20 per cent were married.

From the sample 78 per cent of the respondent had suffered from love tragedy at one time or the other in their lives. Among them 64 per cent were male and 36 per cent were females. 74 per cent of the respondents were between the age group of 15-25.

Many aspects of human relationships were explored and it was found that independent variables like misunderstanding, selfishness, ego, incompatibility, family background, fake identity cause a drift among the loving mates. Surprisingly, based on our mathematical interpretation, variables like age, education and maturity were not highly related with love tragedy.

44 per cent of love tragedy was caused due to misunderstanding while 34 per cent due to selfishness and the remaining 22 per cent were due to ego. 76 per cent said that maturity affects love life while 24 per cent said that it did not.

Studying the results of the research, one can say that, it is hard to find true lovers. Particularly among the youngsters, who seem to be disillusioned by the fact that they are actually in love, the very first moment they meet someone and even go to the extent of exchanging vows.

However with the days rolling by, when the mask unveils from the face and the true picture of the mate is seen. Then will the trouble start, pointing out the mistakes of each other. The sweet little so-called love no longer seems to exist anywhere.

Then will the innocent couple realise that love alone just cannot keep them alive when they are hungry. There are so many things that are needed in a relationship to bloom a love life.

From the above findings, the research team came up with the following recommendation that: a relationship is like a garden and if it needs to thrive, it must be watered and nurtured regularly. It begin with the element of passion but passion fades away. What is needed, is compassion.

The correct mixture of passion and compassion is what brings romance back to life. That means a relationship needs understanding, lots of caring and sharing each other’s joy and pain. To be down to earth and honest in whatever one says or does is another one of the most important aspect. With these recommendations, it can be hoped that more couples in this world would live happily ever after, making use of this wonderful gift of God in the years to come.

(Research Team: Sunira, Pravina, Kumar and Anil)