'TB patients need nutritious diet'

Bhaktapur, Apr. 6 (RSS): His Majesty's Government provides anti-tuberculosis medicines to TB patients free of cost. But what they need is a balanced diet at least for next two months after the medication to completely relieve them from the malady.

Gita Rai, 20, a resident Chandranigahpur in Rautahat district has no problem for medicine which she is getting daily from the government free of cost. But, she wants a regular supply of balanced food to eat after starting treatment.

"How can I recover from TB without a square meal a day ? I do not think I will get rid of the malady merely by taking medicines." she laments.

Deepak who has been able to approach Nepal Medical College only after seeking financial assistance from his neighbours, who suggested him to do so, corroborates the same view.

"The medicines will not work effectively in such a feeble health conditions like mine. It is quite better if a balanced diet is provided to me twice a day for the coming two months," he says.

Gita Rai, a mother of three children, weighs just 35 kg. she even cannot walk without the help of others.

Although the government has been distributing anti-TB medicines to TB patients free of cost through its 229 centres and 834 sub-centres, arrangements have not been made yet to provide meals to such patients.

The TB patients coming from far-flung areas of the country and who are financially in a pitiable condition are of the opinion that they should be provided with proper accommodation and nutritious foods for at least two months along with medicines.

So far the government has not yet come up with such an scheme. However, the Britain Nepal Medical Trust which has been working in TB control programme in Nepal for a long time and a non-governmental organisation have been rendering accommodation and food to the patients at Solukhumbu district hospital in Salleri, Phaplu, for at least two months following the start of their medication.

Dr. Dirgha Singh Bam, director of National TB Centre and SAARC TB Centre maintains that in view of a score of death cases due to the non-availability of anti-TB medicines, the government is doing its best to provide the medicines to the district hospitals, health posts and sub-health posts free of cost.

"We are well aware of the fact that TB patients in the remote hilly areas are, indeed, compelled to walk as much as eight hours a day to get their medicines," Dr. Bam said. "The government is working to make the medicines easily available to TB patients in their vicinity as far as possible in a simple and smooth manner."

Dr. Bam is hopeful of providing accommodation and foods to the TB patients coming from the remote and poverty-stricken areas in association with social organisations and non-governmental organisations.

Pollution increasing in Butwal

Butwal, Apr. 6 (RSS): The problem of environmental degradation is increasing day by day in Butwal.

A study has found out that Butwal comes in the sixth place among the cities in the country producing the largest amount of waste.

According to the Nepal Environment Report-2001, Butwal annually produces 9,689 tonnes of solid waste. Out of this waste, 81 per cent comprises domestic waste.

Several streets in the town and the bank of the local Tinau river are littered with waste as people carelessly throw away polythene bags packed with litter and most of the people go to the Tinau riverside to attend the call of nature.

Apart from the problem of solid waste management, Butwal is also facing the problem of river erosion. The erosion of the riverbank and washing away of large chunks of land along the bank during the rainy season when the Tinau river bursts its banks is a matter of serious concern for the townsfolk.

Deforestation in the watershed area of the Tinau has led to an acute shortage of water and the level of water is receding each year. Moreover, the river level is being raised due to the deposition of soil and debris on the river banks as a result of several frequent landslides in the Chure hills.

Rapid deforestation in the Chure hills has increased the risk of landslides in several areas, according to geologists.

The numerous forest fires that destroy large swathes of forest areas in the Chure hills each year further aggravate the problem of deforestation.

Furthermore, the river water has become polluted due to activities like passing out stool, throwing of garbage, washing clothes, servicing vehicles and mixing of industrial effluents directly into the river. Rampant quarrying of sand and pebbles from the river bank have also aggravated the problem.

It is also learnt that arable land in several downstream villages have been littered by plastic bags and other such urban wastes as a result of the direct dumping of waste into the river.

Rapid urbanisation and unplanned constructions taking place in the town is another matter of concern for the environment of the town. As a result of this agriculture land has disappeared and there is lack of open space and the city has become more congested.

Factories producing footwear, textile, rubber and plastic goods etc. which are located in the main town area are also contributing to the environmental pollution in Butwal.

Butwal, like other towns, is also under the increasing pressure of vehicular pollution and other forms of environmental pollution.

Support for arts is social liability

FOR many years this scribe has worked with artists. With the corporate world, and the government to promote the idea that support for art is a broad social responsibility encompassing people from many walks of life.

This scribe has long believed that a telling indication of how a government relates to its own people is the degree and breadth of its support for cultural activities which could prove beneficial for the corporate world and the willingness of business to give something back to the community that supports it.

And this belief has influenced the activities that I have pursued in many countries from United States to Brazil, Middle East to South Africa, Asia to Europe, Mediterranean Turkey to Pacific Australia.

The relationship between Nepal and other various countries are broad and deep and in most respects very good. But we are people with different languages, different histories, different geographies and different ways of seeing ourselves, so it’s easy for us to misunderstand one another and we must work towards keeping our communication clear and correct. I believe that art works provide an important means of communication that helps us see through and around cultural differences. So, it should be promoted to increasing our arts activities and arts exchanges.

But artists can’t live on love alone, and I feel that it’s the responsibility of the community at large to become skilled in supporting the arts. For these reasons, I have been collaborating with the various institutions to present a series of lectures and panel discussions called Art and the Community. This series has taken place in many cities around the globe.

Jane Alexander, chief of the National Endowment for Arts and Joe Mallilo, the producing director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, both from America, while briefing this writer in the United States recently about their project explained how their well-known institutions for the promotion of new avant-garde music and dance, have become highly valued in the community and how each year the community supports them to the tune of 11 million dollars out of a 13 million dollar budget.

Art outside the museum walls are places where we live our daily lives. I supported the art from public platform and one of the most rewarding and exciting things that I was involved in was advocating public art that has seen how the collaboration with talented artists can bring tangible benefits to the community. A government’s attitude towards its people is reflected in the facilities that it builds and the art (if any) it selects to grace those public spaces. Public art says that the people who pass through this space are significant.

A visit to an art museum or a gallery isn’t part of everyone’s life. And owing works of art is not possible for many of us. But when we create public art, it is accessible for all to see, whether an airport we pass through several times a year, a park or a plaza we walk through occasionally, or a subway station in advanced countries where many people enter everyday. Our vistas are changed and enhanced when art becomes a part of the total environment. Good public art is site-specific it is created by commissioned artists who are carefully selected to take into consideration the history, the purpose, and the function of the specific space and surrounding community.

Public art came about in the early seventies. The General Services Administration (GSA) in the USA began commissioning art for public buildings. Following the high standards set by government some progressive corporations such as the Chase Manhattan Bank, IBM, Phillip Morris, and others recognised the importance of art both for society and for business. And they started collecting and commissioning contemporary art to improve the corporate image, to raise the employees’ morale, and to give something back to the community.

The governments entered into a new relationship with the art world when the National Endowment for the Arts was formed in 1965. Since then public art is become important. But where the adventures of art are concerned, we must be prepared to find both glowing praise and bitter controversy right around the corner. When a large stabile by Alexander Calder was placed in the center of Grand Rapids, Michigan, at first there was a huge outcry. The sculpture with its arched panes painted red seemed strange and alien and a few even called the Calder sculpture is the symbol of the city. It appears on all the street signs, on the mayor’s stationary, on the masthead of the town newspaper, and it’s even the logo on the city’s trash trucks.

Today public art is an accepted and familiar phenomenon all across the US, Europe and in Australia too. In the US, from Arshield Gorky’s WPA murals in the New York airport to Picasso’s Head of a Woman in Chicago, Botero’s temporary pieces of sculpture along Park Avenue (now in Chicago) to the art in San Francisco and Atlanta airports, the Boston subways and the Sacramento, California bus stops.

Similarly, in Europe, it can be seen in most of the big cities like Paris to Bonn, Brussels to London, Helsinki to Stockholm, Vienna to Istanbul etc. and also in Melbourne to Perth, Brisbane, Canberra to Tasmania in the Pacific Australia.

The Percentage for Art is a means of creating public art. Hundreds of states, cities, and towns, as well as corporations allocate 1% to 2% of the project’s construction budget to art. Public art is not just a piece of sculpture on a plaza or a wall painting. Artists, our urban pioneers, are a new resource. The special beauty of the Percent for Art programme is that the artist is there at the beginning. The work that’s commissioned is not just an afterthought, an add-on, or the result of a very difficult search for just the right piece. Art is part of the total plan.

And today, the artist is included as planner and collaborating designer on projects. Artists bring a fresh perspective to function (to lightning, seating, circulation, signage, landscapes, facades, and fountains), plus stimulating ideas for public spaces for activities to make them more social settings. And this is possible only when there’s an interdisciplinary and participatory process. Then everyone working on the project; architects, landscape architects, engineers, city planners, community representatives, construction workers, artists, fabricators, business leaders and cultural institutions must work together, respecting each other through collaboration.

Public art involves interaction between people before, during, and after the project is completed. And then it brings people into direct contact with contemporary art. Public art is seen everyone. Art is important because it serves as an eye opener. It offers a new perspective. It makes us turn an idea, a thought, and even a fact, over until we see it in a different light, with new eyes.

Public art also is instrumental for urban development. Public places with works of art attract people who gather there. Works of art revitalize the environment by incorporating local characteristics, which create and improve the image of the community, thus contributing to its pride and identity.

Public art helps artists of our time. Public art is site-specific, so it cannot be an old piece brought out of storage. Commissions give artists direct financial support and provide artists with opportunities to become directly involved in the process of the city’s planning and development. Artists’ creative input helps us re-examine the functions of space, as they are able to transform space.

It also builds a sense of community. The process of public art requires dialogue and communication with various constituents such as government agencies, public transportation authorities, architects, artists, and community leaders, who usually do not work together. Public art requires all of these to listen to each other and to collaborate.

Anyway, there is no doubt that public art brings joy to our lives. It transforms the environment. It takes us out of the realm of the ordinary. It stimulates our imagination, and stretches our mind and the ways we see the world. Thus, the support for the arts is a social responsibility.