Women Empowerment Or Reservation?

-By Jawahar Manandhar

International Women's Day was celebrated all over world holding rallies, seminars and symposiums, speeches and pledges demanding and emphasizing on women empowerment and gender equality. This day reminds us that much has to be done for the upliftment of women and doing away with discrimination meted out to them in one way or the other.

However, in Western countries, in the last few decades, women have been able to achieve more power, rights and equality but the same cannot be said for the majority of women in the developing countries of Asia and Africa. Nepal too being one of the least developed countries is not immune to it.

The rallies and seminars taken out in the country on the occasion indicate that in Nepal too women have become conscious of their rights and status. It is a matter of satisfaction that they have been able to make their voices heard to the concerned bodies including the parliament in the last few years. But it should also be borne in mind that besides organising these programmes which give opportunities to few women to attend meetings and express their views and a day off for working women they have not been successful in carrying the importance and message of International Women's Day to the women in the outlying areas who could not manage a day off from their daily chores.

As a matter of fact it is doubtful if these women know that it is Their Day. The whole affair seems to be concentrated in the capital and at the most in a few urban areas. Actually these women do not seem to know that they are exploited and suppressed in one way or the other. But what is surprising and disturbing is that the voices of empowerment and equality seem to have originated on the basis of different political background rather than their own.

One is at a loss to find the answer to the question on why women's bodies had to bring out rallies, hold symposiums differently, when all of them have the same aims and objectives. Women too seem to be divided politically like others such as students, teachers, doctors etc. There is nothing wrong to be politically divided in a multi-party system but it would have been better and more conducive if they work unitedly and not in fraction as their demands have nothing to do with politics.

Moreover there seems to be divided views among the women themselves on how women should be empowered. Activists are demanding for reservation for women while at the same time 'gender equality'. But some women are not ready to buy the idea: they say the demands are contradictory as reservation and equality do not compliment each other. Even if a woman is given priority in employment she cannot continue it unless she shows her potentiality which does not come only through reservation. There has been cases where women have not been able to make the decision-makers listen to their voices even in the parliament, where women are allotted a five per cent quota.

It is a reality that even after decades of struggle for women's rights and equality there has not been as much improvement as desired. One recent survey conducted in the UK has shown that women there too are overburdened having to fulfill both the jobs of home and office. It says they have to slug 90 hours a week whereas their husbands work only 54 hours. This is an aspect which needs serious consideration for the upliftment of women. Worth mentioning here is the Amnesty International's statement, which says 'Women continue to be treated as a second class citizen in many parts of the world and are subjected to discriminatory laws and practices often in the name of religion, tradition or culture.

The statement further says that despite promises made in Beijing five years ago there have been few positive development in women's rights and protection. As such it has to be kept in mind that unless there has been improvement in women's condition true development would only be a mirage because men and women are two wheels of a chariot. There has to be a change in the attitude of men also because the traditional role of a woman may have changed but there has not been any change in the social and behaviourial aspects in the male dominated society.

A Tale Of Power Politics

Bleeding Mountains of Nepal; By Aditya Man Shrestha; Published by: Ekta Books; Pages: 277; Price Rs. 295 (US$10)

Reviewed by SKC

The Myth: Nepal- idyllic, serene, beautiful, abode of peace and of smiling people - only from a distance. But appearances could be deceiving.

The Reality: The other facet of Nepal is more gloomy and dismal. Nepal is a restless and discontented society mired by abject poverty, corruptibility and unreliability where more than 40 per cent of the populace lives below the poverty line; where babies and children die due to the lack of even commonest and cheapest of medicines because those in power think their comfort and perks are more important than the lives of the children; where young women are sold into prostitution and young men offer their service to alien lands seeing no future at their homeland, where educated and qualified run away towards greener pastures being completely indifferent of the plight at home.

Culprits: Although the misuses of power, posts and privileges are as clear as a morning sky, the compilation of the same in the book Bleeding Mountains of Nepal by Aditya Man Shrestha gives a clear insights of the dark and shady world of Nepal’s power politics and of corruption, dishonesty and immorality and gross perversions in the name of power.

Each page of the book is a ghastly tale of how the country is run by people whose unsatiated greed and avarice for power and perks and their dereliction of duty may be unmatched by anyone anywhere in the world. No doubt with all these, the country can not be anything but one of the poorest in the world.

Shrestha, himself a former bureaucrat, has a clear knowledge about how the government machinery work or to say it more appropriately, how decisions are distorted and deviated or are made for the benefit of only small number of people. This, he has, clearly illustrated in his book.

The book is a verification of how national resources, funds and revenue, foreign loans and assistance are pillaged, pilfered, plundered, abducted, swindled, embezzled, robbed, looted and predated by the very bottom to the top level in the government machinery and also by those outside the government. The whole book is a document of how the country is being fleeced, milched and wrenched by at all times and by the insiders, outsiders, donor agencies and the NGOs.

This book is an account of the gloomy past, shattered present and a bleak future. But the author has devoted much space and energy how the people’s hopes and aspirations have been crushed after the democratic movement of 1990 with only a few bunch of politicians, their henchmen and the Mafia have been tasting the fruits of democracy, while majority of the people languish in despair and poverty.

There are illustration galore about how the actions of the government, politicians and political parties are being aimed at serving their vested interest only. Be it the selling of the planes, to appointment of airline GSA, or import of fertilizer to the MPs wringing dry the national coffer for their personal medical treatment to the import of duty free vehicles to big issues such as the Mahakali Treaty and others. There are even examples of how the donor agencies in the name of assisting the country through public and private sector are hoodwinking the country and the people.

This is a must read book for the economic planners on where they have failed, to common people how they have been failed by those whom they elected and the donor agencies too what have become of their supposed loans and aids. Moreover, this is a document which our posterity will not be proud of, but rather will be shameful of their predecessor.

Jottings: idle and otherwise

-BY MRJ

Recently, there were two Gurkhas-related newspaper items that caught the notice of this weekly scribbler—stories that were rather and refreshingly different from the depressing and frequent Kathmandu-based ones concerning the pension and other grouses of ex-Johnny Gurkhas.

SAILORS OF FORTUNE: As per AFP reporting out of Sydney and based on an item in The Australian, an international company is offering shipping firms the services of former British Army Gurkhas to protect them from the growing menace of piracy.

Combat-ready teams of four to eight men armed with guns and kukuris are available for hire "at reasonable rates of pay" to deter piracy. A secondary objective is to "manage the event" should deterrence fail against a determined boarding party.

The actual party that is doing the hiring is the Anglo Marine Overseas Services whose letterhead says it has offices in London, Geneva, New York and Athens and represents 300 Gurkhas with an average of 16 years of service in the British Army.

While the story is curiously silent on what legal arrangements, if any, have been made with the authorities in London or Kathmandu in that regard, it seems that the offer for former Gurkha soldiers, serving as ‘sailors of fortune’ comes amid reports of flourishing piracy which rose by 40 percent last year and costs international shipping at least one billion dollars.

Another news item, this time from London, also had something to say about the same topic. A spokesman for the company making the offer — the same Anglo Marine Overseas Services mentioned above — indicated that some ships might fly a "Gurkha flag" (what ever that is supposed to be) as a warning to potential assailants.

"We are offering British military excellence at very interesting prices... This is a really exciting chance for them. These are men who may’ve joined the army aged 16 and are now in their 40s and without employment. They are living on a British pension, but are not useful. They want work."

The punch line, to my mind, was this admission: "If we wanted to employ British soldiers it would be extremely expensive." Therein lies a tale, wouldn’t you say? But, I suppose the 300 ex-Gurkhas whose services as ‘sailors of fortune’ are reportedly up for sale aren’t complaining.

SHOPAHOLIC: For most, shopping is an enjoyable experience. In the affluent West, of course, the "shop till you drop" syndrome is, as a write-up from Paris has it, now increasingly associated with the practice of indulging "in a little of what one fancies, escaping from the constraints of earning a living" and is "considered a part of any acceptable lifestyle."

Shopping has, as a consequence, even acquired a somewhat addictive quality. In any case, it provides an convenient means for most to idle away time in the emergent leisure societies of the West.

A major development in this context, one is informed, came through the shopping mall which first made its appearance in Lake Forest in Illinois in 1916. By the early 1990s, Americans were spending 12 hours a month in shopping malls — their main leisure time activity outside of the home.

However, as another story on shopping has it, there is a definite downside to this activity which has given rise to "shopaholics" or those who suffer from compulsive shopping disorder.

Described as a "hidden epidemic" comparable to compulsive gambling, kleptomania and pyromania, a Sunday Times write-up tells of an American researcher in California who is presently testing a supposed "shopaholic pill" for shopping addicts, a condition that is estimated to affect one in 30 American women.

As per the researcher, 90 per cent of shopahlics are women. Most buy items that improve their appearance such as clothes, shoes, make-up and jewellery. Their male counterparts hoard power tools and car accessories.

A typical shopaholic will embark on a binge at least once a week, he says. She or he will experience urges to buy items that are not needed and will then feel remorse. "The thrill they have is in the purchase and not in the possession.... They are filling their life with things because they feel empty inside."

A retail consultant, who does not agree that compulsive shopping is a treatable disease, offers an alternative to women who wish to perk up their spirits by shopping. An alternative to the new drug, he says, is to "get a boyfriend"!

RATINGS: These days ratings are all the rage. One by a bunch of American historian on American presidents recently caught the eye of this jotter.

It was revealing that Abe Lincoln was adjudged as the best, and Bill Clinton as the most morally deficient. Lincoln was followed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

The last ranked president James Buchanan, interestingly, came out of the same era as Lincoln — the American Civil War. Clinton was, overall, ranked 21st best just behind George Bush whom he defeated in the 1992 election. Richard Nixon, who was ranked 25th overall, just beat Clinton in the "morally deficient" category.

Nixon, of course, was pulled down not because of any sex-related scandal, as was Clinton, but because of the Watergate cover-up which eventually led to his resignation. The ratings were based on 10 different qualities, ranging from crisis leadership to pursuing equal justice for all. Educative, wouldn’t you say?