Government-Maoist Peace Talks
There’s A Bright Lining

By Prem N. Kakkar

THERE is always a belief among the sensible people in the country that politics that resorts to the use of violence can never be tolerated. But there are many things that are out of control of many a people. It is only opinion, views or appeal that comes from the peace-loving people to those bent on creating chaos through violence to stop such activities. But there are elements who believe in the fact that power comes from the barrel of the gun.

Tragic

It has been almost six years that the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) has been waging ‘people’s war’. In the years that have gone by the Maoist led violence has resulted in the death of over 1,600 people including security personnel, Maoists and innocent people. As if this was not enough the mass killing of policemen in the Maoist affected districts and the abduction of 69 security personnel in Rolpa pointed to the gravity of the situation. Though there may be reasons, the abduction of such a big number of policemen could be called the last straw.

This particular event proved a sort of turning point in the violence that had been unleashed in the past especially on the part of the Maoists. Though the call by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to halt all violence related activities was in part reciprocated by the Maoists, there must be compulsions on the Maoists to see that a better way out could come about. It could be their plan for a safe landing that saw them turning up for talks.

The government on its part was glad that their call to sit down at the table finally materialised. This can be viewed in relation to the call for talks by the past governments but which receive any response from the Maoists. Even when Girija Prasad Koirala was the Prime Minister, he had appealed to the Maoists to come for talks but there was no response from the Maoists’ side. This shows that at present a conducive atmosphere has been created which has made the Maoists come for talks.

The first round of talks was in a way an introduction between the government and the Maoist teams. It was for the first time that the Maoists had come out in the open and that too in the capital itself. A few mass meetings were also organised. From underground activities to the open was quite a transition for a party that had been confined to activities from their jungle hideout.

The events prior to the holding of the first round of talks that is the release of Maoists in custody and the release of some people in Maoist custody set the pace. Though all the conditions for talks had not been met by both the parties yet it was a "fruitful" round of talks. The only irritant present was the rhetoric of the Maoists for a republic. For this the government had made it clear that on the question of constitutional monarchy and an interim government there would be no discussion. Besides these, the talks would be open and frank.

The government made its point clear time and again. The Maoists had kept on harping on the demand for the establishment of a republic till the second round of talks in Bardiya. But since then they have toned down themselves and this issue has not been aired for
quite some time. It is good that the realisation has dawned in the Maoists that not every demand of theirs will be fulfilled. In the present situation this has been a pragmatic gesture from the Maoists side. It would have been violence for violence’s sake without any objective.

Since the second round of talks, the spree of violence leading to fatalities has reduced. This has come as a great relief to the people especially in the Far Western Region where lie most of the Maoist affected districts. Though a few people have been kidnapped or killed by the Maoists and the extortion by them has not come to a total stop. News is trickling down of such activities though not to the extent that was witnessed prior to the first sitting of both the government and Maoist representatives.

The release of Matrika Yadav, a senior Maoist leader in custody, a major demand of the Maoists has been met. But on the part of the Maoists they have yet to release all of whom they have abducted including policemen. The Maoists want all of their party members in police custody or jail to be released but they have not fulfilled what they had agreed on. This is rather strange. After all, all are Nepalese citizens. Though ideologies may not be the same yet in a democracy this does not mean suppression of one by the other. The Maoists have the freedom to adhere to the doctrine they like but this does not mean that they can resort to violence of their free will. The same applies to the security personnel. They are there to safeguard the citizens and not go out of their way and pay in the same currency.

Slow

The bright lining at the moment is that the level of violence has really come down, the peace talks are moving ahead though slowly and the government is showing the greatest amount of flexibility while the Maoists too have positively responded though not to the degree that is essential. Anyway with the peace talks on, there is every hope that it will come to an amicable solution and the people will be able to live their life in an atmosphere of peace and security.

Preserve Wildlife To Save Humans

By Prem Kaji Kafle

ALL life forms, ranging from gnats to blue whales, are very much dependent upon the activities of other life forms. Even a small move of one may have gigantic effect on another. We, human beings, are also closely bound up with the lives of all species in the biosphere. Life forms are not only the property of the individual nations within which they are located and of a particular generation, but they belong to the entire mankind for all the time in terms of geological timescale.

Each and every species has a define lifespan and once the species die without giving offspring the loss can never be regained. Having appeared on this planet, plants and animals have evolved into different forms. While some have vanished without issue, others died out for such reasons as over-specialisation, inability to compete with more successful species for the necessities of life or because of some natural calamities like glaciation.

It is believed that the greatest assemblage of wildlife was during the Pleistocene epoch. The late Pleistocene, which ended about 10-15 thousand years ago faced the extinction of higher proportion of large mammals like mammoth, wolly rhinoceros, sabre-toothed cat, beavers the size of bears, sheep as big as oxen, elephant - sized bison, gigantic ground sloth etc. It is believed that such extinction was due to reasons other than human activities as the world at that time was thinly populated and weapons were perimitive to finish them off.

But the main cause of current trend of wildlife extinction is chiefly human and his evil doings. The human lifespan is no more than a blip when viewed on the geological timescale. Nevertheless, the changes that have taken place within the few years are phenomenal. Much of the forest has been felled and the land brought under cultivation and deserts continue their inexorable advance. Starvation is thus emerging but neither famine nor was can curb human fecundity giving rise to huge human populace, which creates pressure on natural resources. More than 200 million hectares of forest has been lost in the past 15 years, which is equivalent to twice the size of Africa, four times the territory of Spain and equal to that of Malaysia. More than 20 million hectares of forests was lost in 1998 neglecting the considerable areas degraded.

A surprising number of species have become extinct due to human activities. According to the Birdlife International, 12 per cent of the world’s bird species (1,186 species) have a real risk of becoming extinct globally in the next 100 years. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists 24 per cent of mammals, 27 per cent of reptiles, 20 per cent of amphibians, and 30 per cent of fishes as globally threatened of extinction.

While loss or degradation of habitat is a prime cause of declining wildlife global climatic change, pollution, global warming, competition with invasive species, dependence on other species especially in the islands, slow geologic change, acid rains, catastrophic events contribute to either an actual decline in population size or an increase in its susceptibility to decline. A number of alien species introduced intentionally or unintentionally are found to cause serious ecological and economic problems because of their dominating and invasive nature over the native species. They propagate rapidly infesting a large areas in short time and outcompete native species. Solutions, which resolve one particular problem, give rise to another problem.

Local people around the world get the blame for forest loss. But the problem is rooted at least particularly in issue like over-consumption by wealthier nations. Japan, for example, convers only 2 per cent of the world population but it alone consumes about one-third of world wood consumption. It is also easy to be high minded on a full stomach but for the third world peasants, hard-pressed to scratch a living from the soil, it is altogether different matter. For them it is enough simply to survive an immediate present, tomorrow is too far.

Nepal is endowed with rich biological diversity from species to ecosystem level compared to its size. It is not an exception for the extinction of wildlife. Nevertheless it has made different efforts to curb the rate of wild faunal and floral extinction from time to time through in-situ and ex-situ conservation measures and is amending the existing policy structure. The National Conservation Strategy of Nepal aims at bring about the sustainable development, to satisfy the basic needs of people, to ensure sustainable use of natural resources, to preserve biological diversity and to maintain ecological and life support systems. All these objectives are linked to biological resources and their diversity.

R.P. Chaudhary in his book Biodiversity in Nepal: Status and Conservation mentions 43 species of amphibians, 844 species of birds, 635 species of butterflies, 185 species of fiehs, 50-52 species of insects, 181 species of mammals, 100 species of reptiles, 144 species of spiders, 7066 species of plants, 687 species of algae and 1666 species of fungi and moles. Nepal is so uniquely positioned that it harbors 6 phytogeographical provinces, 11 bioclaimatic zones and 35 forest types. Currently, Neapl has 8 national parks, 4 wildlife reserves, 3 conservation areas, 1 hunting reserve, and 5 buffer zones covering 18.14 per cent of total land. Sagarmatha and Chitwan National parks have been included in the world heritage list in 1979 and 1984 respectively. Similarly, Koshitappu Wildlife Reserve has been included in the Ramsar sites due to its international significance on waterfowls habitat.

Speaking globally, we hear much about human rights but little about human responsibilities. Homo sapiens is indeed an exploiter. Sapient we may be for our own good but wise we are not. Geared by self-interest and greed we are fouling our own nest to an extent that is rapidly making its un inhabitable. We assume that a particular organism is of no value and its extinction a matter of no consequence.

Wildlife cannot be conserved unless we are within the limits imposed by our ecological bounds. Advancement achieved only at the expense of congenial surroundings, beautiful landscapes forgetting the vividness of wildlife and never be perfect in the true sense. Creation of national parks and wildlife reserves without gaining support from the public can’t prove a successful scheme in the long run. Keeping in mind the ethnical imperatives, we should not forget that we have not inherited the nature and its resources from our parents, we have borrowed it from out grandchildren. In order to save ourselves—to enable us to live at our best and happiest, wildlife conservation is a precondition and in it lies the greatest hope and aspirations. Perhaps no civilised society in the world can forget the huge rhinoceros, lifty elephants, agile tigers moving majestically, speeding cheetals and sambars, sweet chirping of beautifully coloured birds hopping from branch to branch that is too difficult to reduce in words.

School Feeding Can Thwart Poverty And Extremism

By George McGovern

THERE are more than 300 million chronically hungry children in the world today who are condemned to lives of disease illiteracy, and in many cases, physical deformity. Trapped in city slums desolate villages, settlements and refugee camps, these children often live short or poverty and despair. Malnutrition alone kills more than six millions of them before they reach their fifth birthdays.

In observations of this year’s World Food Day theme, "fighting hunger to reduce poverty I’d like to put a proposal on the table that, if fully implemented, would dramatically reduce the number of the world’s hungry by more than one-third. And it would do so among its most vulnerable population - its children. That ideas is a global school feeding programme.

Of the world’s 300 million chronically hungry children, 170 million are often forced to learn on empty stomachs because they receive no food at school; 130 million don’t attend class at all. Over sixty per cent of these children are girls.

Many factors contribute to their hunger. For those who attend class, the lack of money to buy breakfast or lunch or the long distances they must travel each day to class often means they arrive at school hungry and then receive nothing to eat all day. Trying to learn on empty stomach is nearly impossible. Children who don’t go to school at all are usually involved to helping their families make a living. An education for these children, the poorest of the poor, is not an option.

It is widely agreed that basic education is the best investment to improve the physical, social and economic conditions of the poor. A UNESCO survey, for example showed that in countries with an adult literacy rate of about 40 per cent GNP per capita averaged $210 annually; in those countries with at least 80 per cent literacy rates, GNP per capita was $ 1000 and above.

Education is particularly critical for women and girls. Research shows that girls who go to school many later, practice greater restraint in spacing births an have an average of 50 per cent fewer children. They are also more informed about health risks, like HIV/AIDS and can better protect themselves. Each additional year of schooling for a mother results in a 5 to 10 per cent disease in mortality among her children.

The catalyst for educating poor children is food. Research and decades of experience by aid agencies like the UN’s World Food Programme show that school feeding can immediately alleviate hunger, dramatically increase attendance and improve school performance. It also compensate poor parents for the loss of their children’s labour while they attend class.

Using food to attract poor children to school and to keep them there may seem like a surprisingly simple way to make an impact. And it is. For an average of just 19 cents per day, or 34 dollars annually, a child can be fed for 180 schools days a year.

In the current atmosphere of tension around the world, it is vitally important that the leaders in the coalition against terrorism look at concrete ways to close the widening gap between reach and poor nations. It is now more important than ever that we help children escape the poverty and ignorance upon which extremism thrives.

In contrast to questionable mega-development projects, school feeding focuses on the individual child while yielding tangible results for society as a whole. Reducing children’s hunger and improving their educational opportunities creates the human infrastructure needed by nations if they are to prosper.

Aid agencies, like WEP, have the expertise and reach to make global school feeding a reality. And donor governments are interested. Already, Italy, Switzerland, France and the United States have increased their contributions to WFP and the US Congress is contemplating legislation that would commit the US to an annual contribution towards a global programme to urge other heads of state and leaders in the private sector and aid community to take up a similar commitment.

School feeding is the key to fighting hunger and poverty. With a collective commitment now, we can put a stop to ignorance, malnutrition and poverty and prevent graver consequences in the future.