Partnership For Tourism

MINISTER for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bal Bahadur KC, who led the 4-member Nepalese delegation in the 14th general assembly of World Tourism Organisation in Seoul of South Korea, addressed its plenary session the other day. In his address, Minister KC underlined the need for encouraging public and private sector partnership to promote and develop tourism industry in the world in general and Nepal in particular. Tourism is one of the biggest industries whrldwide, which is expanding and growing every year. It has been a mainstay of the world economy. It is more so with Nepal as tourism industry is the largest foreign currency earner. It is the sector that has provided employment opportunities to a large number of people in Nepal. It is due to this reason tourism is considered the backbone of Nepal’s national economy. In fact, Nepal’s tourism is one of the success stories in the world. Private sector’s participation is vital in the development of Nepal’s tourism industry. Nepal is a beautiful destination for international tourists. The snow-clad mountains, rich culture, scenic beauty, rivers and lakes, different religious and historic monuments and hospitable people are the main attractions for foreign visitors in Nepal. The country is a good example of perfect partnership of public and private sector for the development of tourism industry. His Majesty’s Government has accorded priority to tourism and has been playing a catalytic role for the promotion of this sector in Nepal. Private sector is actively involved in this business as a result of which this sector has really flourished. However, the tourism sector in Nepal has suffered recently. It is because of some internal and external factors. The political instability, frequent strikes and incidents of violence did discourage tourists from coming to Nepal. Following some strong decisions of the government to discourage strikes and similar disruptive activities and also after the start of peace talks with Maoist insurgents, travel entrepreneurs expected rise in tourist inflows to Nepal and improvement in the tourism sector. In fact, the hotel booking by tourists for this year’s autumn season was encouraging. However, the terrorist attacks in the United States and possible US attack in Afghanistan is again likely to affect Nepal’s tourist industry as many tourists have already started canceling their bookings. Now, Nepal’s tourism industry is in the soup because of both internal and external problems. Thus, as called by Minister KC, it is more urgent for both public and private sectors to work in closer for alliance the development of Nepal’s tourism industry.

Against Superstition

BLACK magic thrives in many parts of Nepal, at least that is what the local people believe, leading to bizarre and often tragic incidents time and again. In the most recent case, an old woman accused of being a witch has died at the hands of the locals in Mahottari district. The woman, Malechhiya Devi, 58, of Ekdara Bela Village Development Committee, was severely beaten up by the local people after she was accused of killing a five-year-old child with black magic. The woman, who was not only beaten up but also publicly humiliated, died on the premises of the district administration office Thursday afternoon. This, however, is not the first incident of its kind. Not a week seems to pass without reports of someone being tortured and humiliated for allegedly being a witch. And such incidents are not limited to some backward village of Nepal. They have happened in the very heart of Kathmandu, the cries and shouts for help from these women going practically unheard. So disturbed were people by some of these happenings that they have spawned many a motion picture, some of them award winning ones.

While the incident in Mahottari, as in other cases, has been denounced by all, including the unleashing of furore in Parliament the other day, putting an end to such tragic incident demands a lot more. While stern action against those responsible for the tragedy is the most plausible way to begin with, one will need to delve deeper into the psyche of the society as to why its people continue to believe in witchcraft even at the beginning of the 21st century. Superstition is very much prevalent in Nepalese society, a reason why so many believe in black magic. Lack of awareness and lack of education are other factors fuelling this belief. But superstition is not always the case. Personal vendetta is very much a cause of such bizarre incidents. While not disputing the healing powers of village shamans, that they have been used by the local people to label some woman a witch out of sheer antipathy cannot be denied. Unless people are educated and awareness created, the tendency of labelling women witches will only continue as it has for centuries. And in this endeavour, apart from the government, the civil society, particularly non-governmental organisations, has a big role to play.