The Face of New China

China is one of the grandest and innovative civilizations in the world. Backed by such a heritage maybe, China did not need outside input in rejuvenating the deeply imbedded inspiration her people required to build the new face, writes Dr BP Upreti

The plane descended through the thick gray cloud. Shanghai skyline, visible from miles away, looked almost like the skyline of Chicago seen from the lakefront. Pudong, the new area in Shanghai, a site for coal storage until a few years ago was glittering with skyscrapers. Two decades earlier I had returned home from China with an impression of bicycles and bicycles everywhere and a milling crowd in baggy pants. By the 1980s China had opened up to the outside world, but still there was a detectable sense of weariness about ‘foreign-devils’. I guess this had more to do with China’s past history; the many plunders Chinese had suffered at the hands of outsiders.

Smartly dressed teenagers with mobile phones, crowded shopping centers, and restaurants with smiling faces, skyscrapers with wide roads; life looked naturally normal - no sense of imposition. Within the past two decades, China had changed to the point that one could not quite believe.

Mr. Niranjan Bhattarai, Nepal’s formost Sinologist, who recently visited China after a gap of 20 years, was asked for his views on modern China by his friends in Beijing. His prompt reply was, "During my students days in 1958 People’s Daily had published a news hailing the achievement of an indigenously made cigarette box with a lighter. At present, China is well advanced in missile technology". That is the extent and nature of change!

China of the new millenium had placed herself into the position of a beautiful bride courted by everyone from IBM to Pizza Hut.

The thinking behind the changes may have been based on a new geo-political, and perhaps economic pragmatism. Exportation of consumer goods instead of ‘revolution’ has become the hallmark of the new China.

White Pagoda

My visit to the White Stupa, designed and built by a young Nepali called Araniko almost 730 years ago, turned out to be a pleasant experience, and an inspiration for defining a forgotten relationship. The inspiration had more to do with Araniko’s thirteen wives and their off springs. Even a rough calculation (two children from the 13 wives multiplied by one child each by each offspring every 25 years for 725 years) would indicate that over 10.3 million people of China might as well be the direct descendents of Araniko. Jokingly, I told my Chinese host that the good relationship between the two nations was based rather on blood ties. Over 10 million Chinese could be related to Nepal by ties of blood! I explained to him the reason for this. The word spread and a smiling crowd gathered around me. I ended my tour of White Pagoda with embraces from my lost relatives!

Located near the Presidential Palace, and the tallest structure in Beijing at the time it was built, White Pagoda has a symbolic importance to us as well. President Jiang Zemin is reported to have confided to the late King Birendra during the latter’s visit to China in 2000 that" I see White Pagoda during my morning walk in the palace garden garden and Nepal comes to my mind everyday". For a small country a very pleasing thought indeed!

The Great Wall

I can understand the reasons for change, but what was it that inspired the Chinese and made such massive changes possible within the shortest period of time? This was a baffling question for me. My friend Dr. Pitamber Sharma provided me with a clue. "Remember the Great Wall - one of the wonders of the world, the only man-made structure that can be seen from the moon? Centuries ago the Chinese planned and executed the project, all on their own. Why not now?" His argument made sense.

Five-storied Fly Over in Shanghai

Visitors will invariably notice an iron figure of a dragon while driving through the five-storied fly over in the middle of Shanghai. The main pillar supporting the fly-over is a huge structure. As the story goes, during the construction of the fly-over a decade ago, the heavy machines broke one after another while digging the foundation for the pillar. A Lama consultant brought to diagnose the problem immediately identified the place to be an abode of a dragon. After appropriate ceremony the dragon was ritually transferred to another site and the construction work was completed without a hitch. A Cultural Revolution of another kind, indeed!

Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai

Mr. Dev Raj Regmi narrated a small incident that took place during his travel from Shanghai to Beijing. He was seated next to a young Chinese lady who did not understand a word of English. Mr. Regmi did not know Chinese either. As the flight took off the Chinese lady opened a book and put her head on the picture of Buddha. My friend who was witnessing the event borrowed the book from the lady and paid homage to Buddha by touching the picture with his forehead. The lady smiled, so did my friend. They both communicated without speaking. I guess this illustrates the deep seated Chinese belief in spiritual matters. China is one of the grandest and innovative civilizations in the world. Backed by such a heritage maybe China did not need outside input in rejuvenating the deeply imbedded inspiration her people required to build the new face. They had it within themselves all along.

A new China with an old foundation! Bravo!!!

Breaking the tradition

The high cost of living, the global influence are driving more and more Nepalese women to come out of shells to   gain economic power. As never before, with this economic  independence, they are gaining self-confidence and individuality, writes Usha Shrestha 

In the midst of hectic household chores, Sita Chitrakar, a one time brilliant student, has to take out time to go to office. Bringing up her two children and handling household chores leave her very little time to think about herself. However, liberal attitude and understanding of in- laws about modern life has supported her to continue her career as a financial manager. They hardly objected to what dress she wears and what she does. Like every busy working woman, she goes to her office in a motorbike. This was something unthinkable and moreover, socially unacceptable in the past when the conservative Nepalese society confined the role of married women only to boundary of her home.

Time has changed. So have the lifestyles of everybody including the womenfolk in the city.

Unchecked sky-high inflation, deteriorating economy compounded by competitive global modern life has led many women to come out of their shells and prosper and share economic burden of the family.

Today, more and more Nepalese city women are steadily turning out to be professional in their works on the par with their male counterpart. With this, their traditional life style is also on the wane.

The first thing that strike us about them is the dresses they wear. Sarees are being replaced by Salawar Kurtas. The comfortable and stylist wear is attracting more and more working women. They are also becoming a catalyst of change at their homes. Having little time to cook , they are opting for readymade food items. Spices, one of the major ingredient of Nepalese food are no longer prepared at home now, but being replaced by ready made spices. Availability of good quality chatanies in the market has replaced home made ones .With this change has come food habit too.

With change in attitude, homely wives staying and serving husband and in- laws only are hardly considered smart enough. Her preference for silence is hardly taken as a token of ideal or modesty.

An Australian returnee Nepali has recently got thunderstruck after he saw the changing lifestyle of the Nepalese women in span of few years .

" Women have changed drastically more than men, " he remarked pointing to change in their dress up and their participation in various economic activities.

Regarding the dress, a woman director of a NGO notes " Despite being a professional woman, we couldn’t imagine putting on modern dresses just a couple of years ago" pointing to her Salwar Kurta. Wearing modern dresses like Salawar and trousers was a social challenge even for the professional women.

Whether one like it or not, high cost of living is also having its impact on Nepalese womenfolk which throws all this fuss about women’s wear to the background. The challenge before them now is not the dress but the economy itself. Many of them have to take up extra work outside homes for additional income.

In this way, unlike in past, more and more woman today shares economic burden of the family which was previously the sole responsibility of men.

"Simply relying on one particular job is enough to sustain the family in our country where hyperinflation is running high " says Sita, a financial manager, who also works as an insurance agent for additional income

Bimala Manandher, a veteran doctor by profession does not confine to her profession only. She has joined the side job as an agent of Amway Networking business for additional income. "People trust women professionals because they are more committed and enterprising than men," she says citing her experience during business deal.Today, women are involved in all sort of jobs even those once dubbed challenging even for the men. The benefit of their economic independence is that it has partially, though not fully, ended their dependence on husbands and vagaries of life for being a woman.

Their capabilities have also succeeded to change the perception of their dominating husbands by drawing respect from them.

Mrs Yangkila Sherpa, MP of the Upper house calls it a positive impact of development and attributes it to the 1990 movement that has brought awareness to women. "Everybody must accept a good achievement whether it is made bya man or woman " she says.

"Opportunities should be given to women to serve the nation too" she observes.

The visible changes in the lifestyles of modern wife may give a nice picture of advancement of women. But, upon the close examination, it gives a different picture which is not as lovely as it appears. Change in their lifestyle has in fact added workload on them. For the majority of Nepalese married women, traditional responsibilities are high on their heads. Now, she has to play multiple roles - a working women and a wife, a mother and a citizen. Normally, they have to work for 18 hours a day which is longer than in any advanced countries.

Whereas in traditional society woman ‘s role responsibility is just to look after household activities. and they didn’t need to earn.

MP Yankila Sherpa expresses her unhappiness over the poor status of women.

" Their status is not yet satisfactory," she comments.

The director of the NGO agrees with this. Although the number of working women has grown over the years , there are only handful of them at the decision-making levels where the lion’s share of opportunities goes to men." In the absence of lack of women replacing senior women in the high level post or decision making level, they being replaced by men," she adds

The Human Development in South Asia 2001 proves the very fact. It notes "Nepal’s GEM ( Gender Empowerment Measures) shows that women are far less empowered than men. Women’s participation in the political process is only one fifth of that of men. The same pattern is also manifest in professional occupations and even more so in administrative jobs. Their share in earned income is about one third of that one men " This gives picture of bleak future of women.

It is well accepted that Women’s life is never easy everywhere. But life is more harder in developing country like Nepal. Whatsoever, the change has brought change in the outlook of women too. With economic power , the feeling of individuality has come to her.

The change has enabled them to adorn their skills and build self confidence in themsevles." A strong law is needed to transform the mentality of the people Gradual transformation is thus expected with the formation of law ‘ says Gyanu Pandey, a journalist. Whatsoever, this change has uplifted the lives of women. So we must call it progress. ‘A progress meant a purposeful movement forward towards a defined end and the kind of goal the modern world fashionably calls " vision"’ as Hubert Markl writes in his article ‘ The Many Faces of Progress.’

A compensation for Eroding Siwalik

In reality, the Siwalik, at present, is under pressure and in the process of deterioration. Eradication of malaria, construction of east-west highway and other development activities have led to the devastation of the Siwalik forests, writes Dr Raj B Shrestha

Siwalik, Chure commonly named, is a very fragile range of Hills in Nepal spreading from east to west between the Terai and the Inner-Terai. It is composed mainly of sand, gravel, pebbles, and a conglomerate of sand and limestone and covers 13% of the total land area of the country. The width of the Siwalik is about 8-10 km with altitude variation from 150 m to 1368 m. Many small to big and transitory to perennial rivers of the Terai which have individual identity or serve as tributary of the other rivers originate from the Siwalik.

The Siwalik occupies about 27% of the total forest area of the country. The Sal (Shorea rubusta) is the dominant tree species in combination with the other species but not as valuable as the Sal is. The Siwalik forest has a consequential role in booming the agricultural production in the Terai, since it is the storage area of ground water for the agricultural land in the Terai.

In reality, the Siwalik, at present, is under pressure and in the process of deterioration. Eradication of malaria, construction of east-west highway and other development activities have led to the devastation of the Siwalik forests. Likewise, intervention in the forest by the people from the other parts of the Hills and the Terai for their daily needs for fuel wood, fodder, and timber and for their subsistence led to further deterioration of the forests.

The condition of forest is worst in the east than in the west. The best example can be seen while going to Jhapa, particularly from Bardibas onwards. A range of naked Siwalik Hills is quite distinct for any one who looks towards the North of the highway. Due to the destruction of the forests, the Siwalik has become the worst watershed area. About a third of the Siwalik region has diminished productivity and disturbance in the soil mantle and channels, and has accelerated erosion to advance stages. In due course, soil erosion, mudslides, and salinity in agriculture land in the Terai will be the main results of destruction of the Siwalik forests. If this trend continues, all the fertile land of Terai will be unproductive and it will correspondingly break the ecological, social, and economical processes of development in the Terai and Inner-terai.

Although the Master Plan for Forestry Sector(1988) has not explicitly mentioned about forest management system for the Siwalik, the Community Forestry Programme formally started from 1995 in Siwalik areas when the government implemented the Forest Act(1993) and the Forest Regulation(1995). Since then, to conserve the Siwalik, the government has implemented forest management and soil conservation activities through District Forest Offices and District Soil Conservation Offices with the support under various projects funded by Churia Forestry Development Project, CARE-Nepal, Natural Resource Management Sector Assistance Programme, and in some districts, with its own fund.

Since the Act did not differentiate the principles of Community Forestry Programme with regard to the Siwalik and other ecological zones, patches of the Siwalik forests were also handed over to the local communities residing near the forests. Because of peoples participation, those patches of forests are now well protected. Accordingly, as per approved Operation Plan the local people are harvesting forest products from the Community Forests, but this is not appropriate if geological structure of the Siwalik forest must be regulated under the strict protection system in order to maintain ecosystem and eventually to increase agricultural production in the Terai. Realizing the facts, recently, the government has in principle agreed to detain the Siwalik forests under protection regime and accordingly, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation is under the process of amendment of the Forest Act(1993) in line with this new policy.

Keeping the Siwalik forests under protection system has raised some issues. Now the issue is how to protect the Siwalik forests if it is regulated under the protection system, because without people's participation protection of the forests is out of question as the past experience has proved. To get people's participation without providing them benefits from the forest is virtually impossible whereas the forests are not in a condition to afford the benefits to the people.

Another issue is how to balance the government’s recent policy and the basic principle of Community Forestry Programme. The obvious question is what should be done for those Community Forests, which have already been handed over to the communities in the Siwalik. To revert Community Forests back to National Forests under protection system is also not easy. Under the existing Community Forestry management system, it is also difficult to stop people from harvesting forest products from the Siwalik forests.

While considering these issues, we might suggest two options to protect the Siwalik region. The first one is to resettle local people from the Siwalik to elsewhere and the second one is to involve the local people in the protection and management system. Resettlement of people is not feasible. So there is no other option more appropriate than the second one.

It is possible to protect the Siwalik forests with people's involvement without damaging the ecosystem. The first step is to make a bold decision regarding minimum use of forest and other resources from the Siwalik. The second step should be creation of partnership program together with the other stakeholders and the local service providers. The government, in line with itsdecision, should first ascertain to implement the policy with package programmes for the local people through District Forest Office and District Soil Conservation Office together. Fuelwood consumption should be reduced by providing alternative energy sources. IGA activities should be launched so that the local people can generate income for their daily life. Community development works should be assisted. Rearing of improved varieties of cattle should be promoted.

Besides, stakeholders should also play a vital role in mobilizing the community. Moreover, the stakeholders can take responsibility of creating awareness among the local people. Local service providers can help sustain the programme with their quality services.

Malati Women Community Forest in Saptari district is a good example of management and protection of Community Forest in the Siwalik with limited use of forest products. The users mainly extract grasses and fodder from what they have managed in the forest. They feed grasses to their improved varieties of cattle. From the cattle, they collect milk and they sell to Nepal Dairy Development Corporation, Biratnagar after collection in a chilling centre managed by them under a cooperative system. Accordingly, they have installed biogas plant for cooking. Now they have better lifestyle because of Community Forestry Programme.

Therefore, Community Forestry Programme can be a good opportunity for the people living along the Siwalik belt only if the forest is managed properly with limited use. In this regard, the government together with the other stakeholders has to play an important role in order to bring the people in the agreement by providing options of benefits that the people expect from the forests. However, the Terai habitants should also be involved in such management. The Community Forestry Programme, then, definitely becomes a compensation for the Siwalik, otherwise, the forest is in jeopardy.

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