371 trachoma patients get treatment

Bardiya (Gulariya), June 3 (RSS): Altogether 371 persons suffering from trachoma have been operated upon for treatment of the eye disease at the initiatives of Nepal Red Cross Society Primary Eye Care Centre, Gulariya.

Trachoma, a deadly disease of the eye, can also be cured by taking medicines in three phases and it requires an operation in the fourth stage, failing which, the person suffering from the disease will become blind.

Trachoma is mostly found among the people of the Tharu community in Bardiya district. Among those who have been provided surgical treatment, 320 were Tharus.

The rest of the patients were from other different communities. The disease mostly occurs among the people of the Tharu community because of their lifestyle and living conditions.

The community trachoma prevention and treatment programme has been launched here since 1991. The Midwest Regional Eye Care Centre, Nepalgunj and Swiss Red Cross had provided financial and technical support to the centre for this purpose.

According to a countrywide survey conducted by His Majesty's Government in 2037 B.S., 31 per cent of the people suffering from eye diseases in Bardiya district were found suffering from trachoma.

It was found by another survey conducted in 2054 B.S. that the incidence of trachoma had decreased to 7 per cent.

In view of the success gained from past programmes, the trachoma prevention and treatment campaign was started in Banke and Bardiya district since 2057 B.S. as a model programme.

Drivers to be given counselling on HIV/AIDS

Hetauda, June 3 (RSS): Vice chairman of Makwanpur District Development Committee (DDC) Badri Prasad Lamsal inaugurated the 'HIV/AIDS and STDS prevention and counselling information centre' jointly run by the General Welfare Foundation, Hetauda and the Narayani Transport Entrepreneurs' Association at local Thana Bharyang on Sunday.

The centre will provide treatment facilities for drivers and other employees working in the transport sector as well as provide counselling services on HIV/AIDS prevention.

Speaking on the occasion, DDC vice-chairman Lamsal said that the centre would help in the HIV/AIDS and STDS prevention campaign.

At the programme presided over by Narayani Transport Entrepreneurs' Association president Hira Lal Shrestha, director general of the General Welfare Foundation, Kathmandu Mahesh Dev Bhatta, deputy director Banmali Subedi, Amda Nepal STDS treatment regional chief Dr Nabin Thakur and General Welfare Foundation local bus park bureau chief Mrs Bharati Khadka also expressed their views.

‘It is not time for negotiations with Maoists’

Dr. David Scott Palmer is a professor of International Relations at Boston University, USA. He has been teaching Latin American Politics and US- Latin American relations at the University for the last 14 years.

Dr. Palmer has wide a range of professional experience that includes extensive work in Peru, Chile and Ecuador.

Dr. Palmer has authored several books. His main published works are- Studies of the Ecuador – Peru Border Dispute, Peruvian Politics, Guerrilla Movements, Military Regimes, Civil–Military Relations, Democratization and US–Latin Relations.

During his two-week stay in Nepal Dr. Palmer visited Gorkha, Pokhara and some other Maoists affected western districts in order to understand the situation.

On the basis of information given by the government officials, media people, political leaders and the business community, Dr. Palmer finds a lot of similarities between the Nepal’s Maoists terrorists and the Shining Path Movement in Peru.

He said the Maoists of Nepal are not following the principles of Mao in China.

Dr. Palmer while talking to Rajkumar K.C of The Rising Nepal on a wide range of issues related to the Maoists movement in Nepal said, " Now it is not the moment of negotiation with the Maoists." Following are the excerpts.

TRN – What could be reasons for the Maoists violence?

Palmer – Well, it appears to be in keeping with the Maoists movements in other places, which means that there is a significant element of gaining support from the disaffected particularly in rural areas that are poor and the less- well served by the government. But we should not overlook the very important ‘voluntaristic’ dimension of Maoism in order to advance their cause.

TRN – You visited some parts of Gorkha, Pokhara and some other places. Have you met the people who are directly affected by the Maoists?

Palmer- We spent most of our time talking with the officials. So I could not give you a first-hand account of the popular perception and feelings of the people. I can only go by what we are told and what we’ve read in the media while we’ve been here.

What seemed to happen in the last three months basically is that they have begun the strategies of destroying the contact points of the state with the rural areas in order to remove the presence of the government and to strengthen their influence in rural areas.

TRN- Are economic and social components playing a major role in mounting the problem?

Palmer- I think so. There are several ingredients that generate a certain amount of popular support. I think there are many people who are deprived of opportunities. They do not have any alternative. I think that is one element. Another element is ethnic/caste. In Latin America caste is really the main cause of the problem.

When class division is quite rigid that can create a problem. Ethnic reasons have encouraged the Maoists movement in Peru. That was a rural based and peasant based movement.

TRN- People had great expectations that the reinstatement of democracy in 1990 would do something to uplift their economy. But nothing like that happened. Despite boiling aspirations the disparity between the rich and poor has widened. Do you think that the government’s failure to meet the people’s need is the main cause of the Maoists movement?

Palmer- There are four ingredients here. One is economic and social not the poverty per se. The second dimension is political. Both Nepal and Peru are similar in political dimension.

That interpretation comes out of a reading of the Maoists literature specially by the extreme Maoists – not the mainstream or real Maoists. The fourth factor is governance that the government should assure.

What does the government do to respond to the need of the people? As in Peru the government of Nepal, it appears from the outsiders’ perspective, did not respond to the people very effectively. It tended to respond with repression rather than with creative solution to the problem. I think that is part of the reason of the present difficulties. There is still, it seems, a lack of priority by key political officials in the democratic system of Nepal on how political differences need to be addressed to solve the problem of insurgency. The same thing happened in Peru.

TRN- Why do such problem emerge particularly in developing countries?

Palmer- I think it has an economic dimension. There is a perception that people cannot get a fair share of resources available. The number of the disadvantaged is on the rise. That is a fact. You need to have a leadership to address the people’s problem.

The problem on the Maoists side is that they have lost sight of Mao’s principle.

TRN- How are the Shining Path and Maoists terrorists parallel to each-other?

Palmer- I believe they have some similarities.

TRN- But the Shining Path had not destroyed the development infrastructure and they seemed to have followed the principle of Mao? Didn’t they?

Palmer– Oh no! The Shining Path had done exactly the same what the Maoists are doing here. It seems that the Maoists are following the same strategic map of the Shining Path.

TRN- The government has already declared the Maoists as terrorists. Are they really terrorists or should the government not have declared them as such?

Palmer- Evaluating from the outside, the Maoists need the negotiation for strategic reasons, but not for substantive reasons. They had no intention of coming to resolutions. They wanted to rebuild their forces. When they managed to regain their force they attacked in a coordinated manner in November.

In order to tackle the situation, the government of Nepal needed to have the State of Emergency. And the government declared the insurgents terrorists. That’s a generic term. The declaration of the State of Emergency in November in my opinion was entirely appropriate.

For me, having talked to many people here, continuing the State of Emergency may not have been the best decision to make on part of the government now.

I know there are a lot of political factors. There is a big division of opinion within the Nepali Congress Party.

I think six months of Emergency was long enough. The terrorist Act with legal tools is now present to peruse the military response to the problem. The continuance of the State of Emergency seems to be unbalanced. This is a very serious problem. I understand the justification behind the continuation of Emergency, but I think it would have been better to have the Emergency laxed for the future of democracy.

TRN- Do you think that democracy in Nepal is at cross-roads now?

Palmer- Well, as I understand here at this point, you have dismissed parliament which is possible under your rules and that you have called elections to take place in six months. I am very hopeful that you will maintain your democracy.

TRN- To what extent democracy should be maintained, if it fails to serve the interest of the majority of the people?

Palmer- Many people overlook two-sides of democracy. Democracy is elections, political parties and competition, in addition to that it also a good governance. But the government in Nepal and Peru are less effective in governance. It has been less effective in carrying out programmes here.

TRN- Do you see any linkages between the Revolutionary International Movement(RIM) and the Maoist here ?

Palmer- They are part of it. It is symbolic entity. It is not a substantive entity. It is very different. There is a component. The Maoists here have regional sets of organisations like the Naxalites and, Tamil Tigers. They do meet and support each other.

TRN- How could the government solve the Maoist problem ? Is military operation an ultimate solution?

Palmer- No. That’s not enough. They need four things such as - good intelligence, effective security response, appropriate programme that meet people’s needs and popular participation and involvement. Those four elements would be able to overcome this problem.

TRN- How long will it take to solve the problem?

Palmer- It depends partly on the government and partly on the Maoists. My appraisal of the dynamics of this movement is that – if the government can move forward in a reasonably quick and efficient order to carry out those elements, it will be solved soon.

Given the current dynamics, I believe they can overcome the problems in the Nepali milieu, which is very complex and diverse, but they can overcome the problem wihtin 18 months.

TRN- There is a free border between Nepal and India. So what should be the role of India to control the Maoists?

Palmer- You have to have India’s support. You cannot accomplish your objective without India’s support.

TRN- The Maoists are showing interest for the dialogue with the government. Should the government initiate talks with the Maoists now?

Palmer- It is an outsider’s appraisal that any offer of negotiation by the Maoists will be exclusively for the strategic purposes again just like the last time. They desperately need time to regroup, re-invigorate their force, so that they can attack at greater strength again. The present dynamics favours the government. Unfortunately, it does not favour those sectors of the affected population. That’s a tragedy. It is not the moment of negotiation. I think there will be a moment to negotiate later. Negotiation is possible, but I do not think that the moment is now.

UN calls upon all to preserve earth

By A Staff Reporter

Kathamndu, June 3: As declared by the United Nations, this year’s World Environment Day will be observed with the theme Give Earth A Chance. With the objective of conveying a message of urgency about the state of the earth and the broader quest for sustainable development, the UN has called upon all to preserve the earth.

Sustainable development rests on three pillars: economic growth, social progress and protection of our environment and natural resources. When the idea first burst onto the scene in 1987 with the publication of Our Common Future, it was meant to go beyond the ecosystem approaches of the past which put environment issues on the political map, but did not take fully into account these other key concerns.

In 1992, a Rio de Janeiro, the international community achieved a conceptual breakthrough. No longer, it was hoped, would environmental issues be regarded as a luxury or afterthought. Rather, they would become a central part of the policymaking process, integrated with economic and social development. Developing countries would be helped to pursue a more environmentally sound path to modernisation than that followed by the developed countries. The big picture—a positive vision of long-term growth, equity, justice and environmental protection—seemed firmly in view, according to a press release issued by United Nations Information Centre.

Despite this advance, and despite considerable efforts and significant achievements since the "Earth Summit", the latest readings reveal a planet still in need of intensive care. Poverty, pollution and population growth; rural poverty and rapid urbanisation; wasteful consumption habits and growing demands for water, land and energy continue to place intense pressures on the planet’s life support systems, threatening our ability to achieve sustainable development, the press release says.

There is little chance of protecting the environment without a greater sense of mutual responsibility, especially in an age of interdependence, and especially since the environmental "footprint" left by some societies is so much larger than that left by others.

I hope that all states and all stakeholders will come together at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa later this year, and that he breakthrough this time, ten years along the path from Rio, will be real and tangible, the press release states.

We often look to the future for solutions. However, I think that now, there is a need to search our past, and learn from our ancestors. Mountains have, since time began, inspired mankind, and nurtured solid cultural and spiritual values. Values, which should be fostered for the good of all, and the preservation of biodiversity. On World Environment Day in 2002, the International Year of Mountains, I urge you to take action to safeguard our mountains.

Environmental conservation is often found in ancient cultures around the world. Many indigenous peoples’ value and belief systems have evolved to respect nature, and live in harmony with it. Land and people are one. Earth, as a spiritual mother, provides life and sustenance, as well as cultural and spiritual identity, the UN press release says.

‘We urgently need environmental ethics for the twenty-first century, based on equity, fairness and respect for nature. These values can be drawn from ancient cultures, indigenous beliefs and all world religions," the press release says.

In 2002, the International Year of Ecotourism, the tourist industry and all stakeholders will be working to balance the demands of tourists, and seek to care for the environment. For some communities and regions, sustainable tourism can be a first step towards sustainable development.

On this World Environment Day let us all begin to act for the environment and world together to give the Earth a Chance. An unpolluted pristine environment is vital to our survival, a precious resource, which will only endure if we "Give Earth a Chance", it is stated.

In a message UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer has said that the World Environment Day is an occasion to pause and reflect on the state of the environment. This year’s theme, "Give Earth a Chance", urges us to look at our daily impact on the planet and its peoples, and to take action to improve our environmental behaviour.

We have been taking huge steps forward to "globalise". Globalisation has opened up the world, and benefitted the world, or at least one half of the world. The other half still lives on less than two dollars a day, and will probably never enjoy a glass of clean water. We have to find a way to make globalisation work for everyone, and not just a few.

On this planet we call Earth, someone living in an industrialised country probably consumes twice as much grain, three times as much meat and eleven times as much gasoline as a person living in a developing country, according of UN Infornation Centre here.

We need to stop and ask ourselves: WHY? Globalisation is part of the answer. For many, the "culture" of globalisation revolves around the belief that economic growth and natural resources are limitless.

This approach also assumes that science and technology, can fix all problems, including those related to the environment. Little thought is given as to when the problems will be fixed, or the cost of fixing them. And what will be the costs of not fixing the problems?

Development has been divorced from its human and cultural context. It is growth without a soul. Such values are unsustainable. The poor will get poorer, and the earth will get poorer too. Neither will have a real chance or hope for improvement. A different approach is required.

The globalisation process must also focus on human, cultural, and spiritual dimensions, and on the interdependence of humankind, and its diversity. We have to (RE) develop an ecological, holistic world view, and connect, once again, with the rest of nature, the press release says.