Muse ~ Nepal

Day 9 - Forbidden Games

2011-08-01T08:48:00.003-04:00

Film #9 - Forbidden Games

Set in rural France during WWII, this small film is heartbreakingly beautiful. This story involves the friendship between an orphaned five-year-old Parisian girl and a country farmer's ten-year-old son, whose family takes her in after her parents are killed on the road out of town. Those early scenes of the war and destruction are really well done, the sense of terror and fear as the city-dwellers run for their lives in droves. Once we are introduced to the little girl, she mesmerizes.

The friendship between the girl and the boy is well presented. He treats her like a princess and feels that since he found her in the fields, he is her keeper. The rural French farm life is meticulously is presented. It is a surprise how poor the farmers are, involved in nothing but petty neighborhood rivalry, superstitions, and living the life of extreme poverty.

At the heart of the film is a symbolism: the girl and the boy start to collect crosses in their own private cemetery. The idea first is to build a cemetery for her dead parents but then it expands to adding any dead being, insects, birds and critters. By the climax of the movie, the boy dedicated to satisfying the girl's childish wishes, robs the town's actual cemetery of actual crosses. That then reveals their private game to others and ends it as well. As their game expanded and evolved and multiplied, I could not shake the feeling that the symbolism of the children making their own methods of dealing with the death and destruction of war was a bit forced. Yet, if you suspend your disbelief and allow the children to be the enigmatic beings that they are, this a fine film which portrays how it is just these little games which sustain us all.

Day 8 - Bright Lights, Big City

2011-08-01T08:32:00.002-04:00

Film # 8 - Bright Lights, Big City

Bright Lights, Big City stars Michael J Fox who works as a fact-checker for a New York magazine in the mold of the New Yorker. Actually, that is neither his main vocation nor his calling, which are all night druggy parties and fiction-writing respectively. So what is this movie about? It turns out that our hero is suffering from the grief of his dead mother and his recent divorce and self medicating with drugs and hedonism. In the end, he decides to change and buys a bread and decides to sustain himself with more than instant gratification.

I remember reading the bits of the novel on which this movie is based. In my recollection not a bad book. But the movie is mediocre. One word: boring.

Day 7 - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

2011-07-21T11:30:00.001-04:00

Film # 7 - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

A just-released Bollywood movie for a change! Surely not the stuff of Ebert's greatest films list! Yet, for someone who watched his share of Bollywood Hindi movies growing up, only to start despising and ignoring most of the lot once acquiring some cinematic sense, ZNMD (as it's sure to be called) was a mildly pleasant surprise. Having not seen a complete Bollywood movie at a theater or on small-screen in many years, I was prepared for the same old-same old. And I found that, yes, it is the same old in spirit but quite improved in technique, style and presentation.

With a pretty standard, Bollywood coming-of-age story of three buddies on a journey to find themselves, plot (how many variations of this same plot has Bollywood made in the last decade? Dil Chata Hai? 3 Idiots? there must be tons of others), ZNMD is hardly original or convincing. The characters are types who play their assigned roles. The emotional depth is more like a plateau, mostly forced and insincere. Even Imran's back-story of an absent father seems to have been imagined for exactly the purpose: to make the story "deep." It works only to the extent that the director has learned not to try the old Bollywood trick of dragging the emotional chord too hard. Imran learns to let go as he is supposed to, very easily, very quickly. Nice. The other two idiots learn their life lessons also very easily, very quickly as they are supposed to. But the "theme," or "story," or "the what" is not what this movie is about. It is all about the "style" or the "how."

And on that score this movie shows the increasing technical and stylistic improvements of some current movies over standard Bollywood fare. The movie is nicely shot, the point being to show the beauty of Spain and the locales of the movie. The characters love Spain; the audience is supposed to love the vistas. The camera lingers on and on and on when it finds a lovely geographical or natural landscape. Yet, for the most part the editing is decisive and effortless except for occasional hiccups, like when the song "Senorita" begins, which comes out of nowhere. The director has taken care to present the sense of detail, the wardrobe, the sets, the lighting etc. Every little detail has been taken care of. There is no problem with the production values.

The way the technical and presentation money seems to have been spent, budget doesn't seem to be an object; just shows how rich Bollywood has become compared to even 10 years before. Therefore, more than ever, Bollywood movies such as this, are in the business of selling dreams. They want the audience in the theaters around India and the South Asian diaspora, to experience Spain as the characters do. The first ambition of the movie is the blind the audience with vicarious pleasure of the beauty, adventure and fun that is Spain and its cultural and adventure offerings. In that regard, the audience gets its money's worth.

Now hopefully, in the coming years and decades some slice of Bollywood will grow up and learn its own coming-of-age lessons, just like its characters do, and start to invest its money in writing talent to make films which explore deeper themes and present characters who are not just types, whose fates are consequential and molded by their own choices and personal change is not easy or quick but messy and incomplete. Just like Imran, Kabir or Arjun, Bollywood might let go of their easy tropes and dare to grow up.

Day 6 - The 400 Blows

2011-07-21T10:21:00.002-04:00

Film # 6 - The 400 Blows (1959)

It has been a few days of missing posts but that doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping up with my 30 days of cinema plan. I have watched four more films in the last three days and the best of them has been The 400 Blows. Directed by Francois Truffaut, this "new-wave" mainstay is beautiful visually, touching emotionally and yet very unsentimental.

The 400 Blows refers to the trials (literally, "hell raising") of a young adolescent boy, Antoine, living in Paris in the '50s with his mother and step-father, who view him as a problem child. In school he is similarly hounded. In trying to cope with such difficulties the boy rebels and is sent to live in a juvenile corrections center from where he manages to escape. That is the story. So what is it about? It is about the how the neglect of parents and teachers, the adults, of the needs and talents of a boy forces him to find his own path in life. Of course, he becomes an outcast but that is just his way of dealing with the neglectful reality.

The style of the film is the unsentimental capturing of Antoine's progressive transgressions and punishments. The director focuses on the comedic aspects of schooldays and the impressions of the adolescents regarding their teachers and parents. The boys are resourceful and know how to keep themselves amused and happy even in the face of abuse. The details of their childish rebellion and rule-breaking are shown in all the romantic, nostalgic glory they deserve. The parents are appropriately aloof and caught up in their own affairs, literally so in the case of the mother. While they might try to help the child, their commitment is lacking and insufficient.

Of course, the child has to find a way to survive on a day to day basis. Yet, as a viewer you expect or hope that the early lapses are just growing pains, that Antoine and his parents will find a way to fix the kid, that he will manage to get through. That hope doesn't materializes as his supposed sins or crimes become more heavy, so that he becomes the problem and also the property of the vastly more impersonal state. Neglect from the parents, abuse from the teachers, lead finally to the active punishment by the state. What is a boy, a child to do in such circumstances? How does this particular boy react to such reality? As a viewer, you sympathize with the child, obviously and hope he gets by okay. The ending seems to suggests that he might just be the lucky one who does get by, somehow.

One of the best so far in my cinema journey.

Day 4/5 - Gone with the Wind

2011-07-18T14:18:00.065-04:00

Film # 5 - Gone with the Wind (1939)

Clocking in at about four hours, this is long. I had to watch this classic American epic in two sittings. In the middle, around the intermission, I thought the film was overly long, especially since the story seemed to lose direction and the plot lurched on the whims of the protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara. But by the fourth hour, the characters and the ambience seemed so familiar that I felt like I had been living in their world, of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, for some time. This film by its sheer breadth and largeness of scope takes you there.

A story about the life of a Southern plantation family and its members before, during and after the Civil war, Gone with the Wind, was the first American epic. So much has been written about this film, articles, reviews, analyses, and books, that no review is attempted here. For someone watching for the first time seventy years after the production and release, all that can be recounted is the viewing experience and the obvious, early impressions.

One first notices the vividness and contrast of the early color print, which is highlighted by the studio settings and the screen painted backgrounds. In many scenes there are shadows dancing on the wall. There are silhouettes in front of the colorful backgrounds. So the film, for today's audience, harkens back to the old filmmaking where the stage was the studio and not the location. In some ways this makes the feel of the film more majestic. The dialogue and conversation is also strange to today's audience. The actors deliver their lines as if they are soliloquies, at times as if they are facing a theatre audience. The manner of conversation itself takes some getting used to but slowly gets easier to follow and like.

The plot is convoluted and digressive but is held together by the two lead characters, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The Civil War and Reconstruction are the main sources of external conflict but it is Scarlett whose actions move the story forward. And what active woman she turns out to be! She lives here life without much doubt, she takes initiative and makes life changing decisions on a split-second. Her first two marriages are both quick decisions, not based on love but for profit, emotional and financial. But Scarlett seems to meet her match with Captain Butler, who is the one character in the film who has the most fun in every situation. His profound declaration is nothing but perfect: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" That motto sums up his worldview quite well. And it is Scarlett's relationship with Captain Butler that carries the film.

Day 3 - Rabbit-Proof Fence

2011-07-16T13:25:00.016-04:00

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

Based on a historically tragic episode of racism and injustice in the name of "progress" perpetrated by the white settlers on the Australian aboriginal population, Rabbit-Proof Fence is a heart-warming tale of a long journey to freedom undertaken by a young half-aboriginal girl.

It is 1931 and a stern Mr. Neville is in charge of handling "half-caste" aboriginal children, which involves separating (stealing/ kidnapping?) these kids from their families in the bush and taking them to a faraway camp community. "The native must be helped in spite of himself," he says utterly convinced of his mission. The law that was passed to "help" the natives is based on simple eugenics, as Mr. Neville explains to a group of white housewives: it only takes three generations to white blood to turn a half-case entirely white. No wonder the aborigines willfully mis-pronounce his name as "Mr. Devil."

Once collected at the camp the kids, these "natives" and "savages," are taught the rites of "civilization"-- basically, the English language to speak, utensils to eat, Jesus and Mary to pray -- all the while showing complete subservience to the nuns, who begin their harsh training by literally scrubbing the native out of the children's flesh. Those who dare to run away to try and return to their loving families are quickly apprehended by experienced trackers, brought back and mercilessly punished.

We get to witness and experience this historical reality through the eyes of a fourteen year old half-caste girl, Molly, who is snatched along with her baby sister and cousin to be sent to the camp. Her sheer determination and her skills on the bush come in handy when she runs away along with her baby sister and cousin to embark on the more than 1200 miles journey back home to the comfort of their mother and family. One can't help but root for her success in making it back through the treacherous landscape along the rabbit proof fence, predatory informants along the way and the crafty tracker on her trail. The fact that in this one rare instance the girls are able to evade the evil forces and complete the journey makes her a true hero.

Of course, one understands how many others must have suffered same cruel fates but neither possess Molly's determination nor blessed with the twists of happy accidents. For those wronged and unlucky thousands - the "stolen generations" - a life of eternal servitude as domestics or worse, as sex slaves, awaited after the camp.

Technically the movie is well made with little touches of brilliance. Especially well treated is the vastness of the Australian continent, the barren landscape, where the girls must travel. Those sweeping vistas of woods and hills and praire and desert filmed from above look as isolated, dangerous and unending as Molly must have encountered them in her darkest hours. She must overcome not just the personal wrongs of white settler history but the impersonal vastness of the Australian geography.

Day 2 - Dog Day Afternoon

2011-07-16T08:22:00.008-04:00

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

The film begins with a montage of mundane vistas of a day in New York City. There are cars on the road, people on the street and people are going about their business - a regular day. Then we witness a bank robbery, very realistic and quite very regular, very ordinary, at first. However, the straight forward robbery turns into a hostage drama and that's when we get the extraordinary - the whole city seems to come to a standstill, the entire NYPD and the FBI seem to converge at the scene, the TV networks and reporters are breathless as ever, a big crowd surrounds the crime scene, chanting and jeering, as if taking part in this diversion to pass their boring day.

It is Al Pacino as Sonny, the leader of the two bank robbers, who commands one's attention. Watching this film for the first time now, more than 35 years later and with Pacino mythos firmly in head, it is quite a thrill to see his young self throw himself fully into the role. Sonny shows craziness in his eyes at one moment and kindness the next. He is a showman, inciting the crowd against the police, needling them. He is the mastermind of the crime, with his prior experience having worked in a bank but though steadfast, still a novice in planning the robbery and then the hostage negotiations. His partner-in-crime Sal thinks Wyoming is a good country for escape. While Sonny is not that naive, his plan of escaping to Algeria seems quite uninformed.

It is Sonny's personal relationships and his backstory that leads up to the fateful attempted robbery that gives the emotional thrust of the story. His wife is a constant nag who doesn't let him say a word. His parents, especially his mother, need his monetary support and give haranguing in return. As he says, he has all these "pressures" of money and emotion because of which he is "dying in here."

Yet, the main motivation for Sonny's pressures is not only unique but quite surprising: that this gun-totting, foul mouthed, Vietnam vet is a gay man who is compelled to rob the bank to help his male "wife" get a sex-change operation. Sidney Lumet, the director, introduces this strange element of Sonny's life so matter-of-factly and so precisely that there is no artificiality in the story. Some cops laugh, the crowd starts to jeer their previous hero and a gay crowd chants Sonny's name, but the story moves on because for the film as in real that this is just one new strange discovery on this already quite strange day.

I wondered if this film hadn't been based on a true story, what would people make of Sonny's homosexual motivations. But as is said, truth is stranger than fiction. In this fictionalized true story ("30% true," as Wikipedia reports) all the parts fit, the progression is natural and believable and so very engrossing.

Day 2 - Manhattan

2011-07-15T10:33:00.015-04:00

Manhattan (1979)

In one word, Manhattan is: beautiful! Yes, this a romantic comedy with Woody Allen and his trademark neurosis and rat-a-tat dialogue and multiple relationships and divorces and psychoanalysis and existentialism. But while all these hallmarks of Woody's trademark style are the parts, the sum of all that is nothing but beautiful. For those of us, who only know Woody Allen as a type, having not lived when he was first blazing the trail, it is easy to forget what a visionary creative artist he was. At least, we appreciate his wide ranging gifts by focusing on the beauty of Manhattan.

This film is about a middle-aged man, Issak, in New York City and his love life and relationships in the mid-1970s. He is a television writer and has been through two divorces and is currently dating a 17-year-old high school student. His best friend, Yale, is having an extra-marital affair with a quirky, intellectual and strange but attractive woman, played by Diane Keaton. The plot involves Issak's budding relationship with this woman after Yale suggests that he start dating her. To do that, he has to end his already-doomed relationship with the high-schooler. That pretty much sets up the story. But there is so much more within the plot.

First, there is the choice of black and white film which gorgeously covers Manhattan, the city is hues of black and light. Then there is the background score: jaunty, exciting and entirely fitting for each scene. The daily lives of Issak and his friends are highlighted by Gerschwin's melodies. Next, I loved the framing of the scenes, for example early in the movie we see Issak's nicer apartment where he climbs down a spiral stairs, and walks to a sofa in the far corner where he cuddles with his young lover under the lights. At the end of the scene, they walk back through the darkness to the spiral stairs, up and out of the room. So beautiful, the play of light and dark! The montages are awesome: Issak with his son; and the most beautiful and surreal sequence when Woody Allen and Diane Keaton visit the darkness within the planetarium, by the rings of saturn ("intergalactic love," Issak says later). Finally, the dialogues are fun and as quirky as you expect from Woody Allen.

Overall, Manhattan is a perfect distillation of Woody's esthetic and beauty in screen.

Day 1 - Night Moves

2011-07-14T11:10:00.008-04:00

Day 1 - Night Moves (1975)

By some chance (a random pick out of 341 in Ebert's List) I happened to begin my 30 days' journey with Night Moves. Having never heard of this movie, the viewing experience was an act of discovery. As the story begins to unfold, one realize that it is one of those private detective stories - so it must be a suspense, one is led to believe. But as the story progresses, that initial recognition is both validated and challenged, because the meat of the plot is neither that of a classic suspense nor involves the thrill of final discovery. The original suspense, about a missing girl, is solved very early in the film and without much sense of finality.

What one is left with is the empathy for the lead character of the detective, played with easy gruffness and poise by Gene Hackman. Actually, Hackman's Mosley is what captures one's attention. He does well in playing the small-time private-eye who is fighting for the clues of the case along with his own personal setbacks. It has to be said that every other character is really well cast and played, especially the enigmatic character played by Jennifer Warren.

The story is hard to follow at times, especially towards the surprising finale, but the sparse and dark "noir" mood along with the fast pace of unfolding action and introduction of characters makes the journey interesting. The strange, bizzare interlude in the middle with Mosley in the Florida Keys with Warren is enigmatic for all the right reasons and the finale is quick, taut and dramatic.

But the story is all about Mosley who fails to find all the clues, about the case as well as about himself. The '70s noir feel of the movie is the other big selling point, if you are into that. The characters and the plot remains in one's mind well after the final credits.

30 Days of Cinema

2011-07-14T10:29:00.009-04:00

Back to this long dormant blog...and for the next thirty days with a radically different focus...hey, it's the summer! Anywho, in part inspired by the TEDtalks video by Matt Cutts (see attached video) about setting similar goal or plan, I have begun a marathon of 30 days of movies. The idea is to watch as many *good/great* movies as I can in a 30 day period (which began on July 12th). The only condition is that: All of the movies have to be available in Netflix streaming...I am not going to rent DVDs or wait for a DVD in the mail.

Good question: how do I know what are the *great* movies? Answer: I have a good sense of what kinds of movies I like...I hate summer blockbusters, most animations (yes, even those from Pixar), fantasies (no Harry Potters here), horror, gore and vampires (except Shaun of the Dead, which is great:). A stranger at Denny's once told me that the kinds of movies that I love the best are called "quiet dramas." I venture widely but that is an apt description of the best moves, IMHO.

With that very subjective criteria in place, I think a good place to start looking for the best films is: Roger Ebert's list of great films in history! Why? Because Ebert is a respected movie critic who is not a snob and who likes regular, Hollywood movies. Besides, I got hooked on his journal and I truly admire him and his reviews. Reason enough.

Now on to that is the format. I will watch as many movies as possible until August 11th 2011 ( I have seen three in the last couple of days since this thing started). For each movie that I watch, I will post a brief personal reaction of my impressions. Not a "review" - I will leave the professions to do that. Just personal reactions. In addition, I will try to post some trailers and other links about the movies whenever possible.

Finally, you may ask what does this have anything to do with "muse~nepal" the blog and its stated mission? The simple answer is not a whole lot. The more complicated answer is that I have been sorely neglecting this blog for the last year, mostly because I was hamstrung about trying to make a sense of the Nepali political situation and feeling repeatedly frustrated by my inability to meaningfully engage with the issues of Nepali politics, society and culture. Rather than leaving the blog dormant and increasingly on the verge of death, I have decided to revive the space for this exercise. One hopes that by and by one will also get the inspiration and confidence to tackle the serious issue of Nepal's future with passion and clarity. In the meantime, cinema!

Glimpses of Nepali Syndrome

2010-10-15T00:02:00.000-04:00

After a longer than expected dormancy for this blog, I am prompted to add a few hastily written lines because of all the glimpses of Nepal in the experiences of other countries. While our political circus doesn't seem to end, the bigger problems that afflict us aren't going away. In the meantime, there are examples of future burdens from others' to hark back to Nepal.

Here are two bits that I came across today. The first an obvious parallel of the Nepali situation from a NY Times article on globalization and aging:

Today, nearly 12 percent of Spain’s population is foreign born. Among the arrivals are hundreds of thousands of Ecuadoreans (many of them female caregivers for elderly Spanish) whose absence at home increases the median age of Ecuador’s population. More than one in 10 Ecuadoreans has left in search of work, and the loss of so many of the country’s youngest and most enterprising workers means Ecuador has little chance of developing. Recently, its president initiated the Welcome Home Program to lure emigrants back with tax breaks and money to start businesses.

And the second article about the basket case of Europe, glorious Greece, which is less obvious in its relationship to the Nepali situation. Yet, I recognized how the professions trying to maintain their monopoly power over certain basic services hinder economic growth. In Nepal's case the resistance to market-based economy also happens to come from transportation syndicates, that try to monopolize the trucking markets and routes, at the expense of the consumers and businesses.

That is what happened this summer when the government took on the trucking industry. Greece has issued only a few new licenses for truckers since 1970, though Greece’s economy has more than tripled in that time. This created a hot market for the licenses, which have sold at prices approaching $500,000. Not surprisingly, experts say, trucking costs in Greece are far higher than anywhere else in the European Union.

The IOBE report found it was more expensive to truck something from Athens to Thebes, about 45 miles, than from Athens to Rome, a distance of more than 600 miles. Businessmen say it is cheaper to ship goods here from China than it is to move them from Athens to the island of Rhodes, 285 miles away.

Gagan Thapa Does Journalism

2010-06-09T12:04:00.009-04:00

As we are passing through another critical period (oh lord, how many more of these do we have to endure???) of our history again, the media is replete with gossip and behind the scene "news". There are opinions galore. There are myriad suggestions and advice. There are people writing nonsense. There are reporters reporting clueless junk.

Mostly, there are countless reports of straightforward what happened journalism. And these days what happened amounts to: the top leaders of the parties met; they met again and they met again. Or they didn't meet today as they said they would. The news is basically a routine, a schedule of meetings. You can count on the leaders meeting everyday; and as such you can count on each and every meeting reported as another data point, another piece of the puzzle. There is a lot of heat of the moment reportage.

What is missing is any ray of light. Nobody asks anybody what are the issues of contention? There is no real political research to figure out what is causing the bottleneck. Yeah, we do hear occasionally about some vague horse-trading on the identity of the next prime minister; or the number of PLA members to be integrated; or the easiest analysis of all: because India said so.

So depending on the media to do journalism and ASK QUESTIONS is futile. They are too busy reporting exactly when the next meeting is to be held and what the leaders said after the meeting. Who do we turn to for political research, analysis and genuine journalism of asking and answering the actual issues that divide the parties this way?

It turns out, at least for this one instance, a politician is doing the journalist's work.

Gagan Thapa, the only actual youth leader of Nepali Congress (a party replete with creaky old "youth" leaders such as Sher Bahadur, Ram Chandra and oh, my, Shekhar Koirala, the ultimate youth leader!) has published a must-read article in eKantipur.

For a politician this is a not an article about insider gossip or ideology masquerading as a newspaper column. Thapa's piece is a straight up report on the actual points of disagreements between the two major political parties in the Constituent Assembly. This article is the political research and analysis of the first order for all the readers to see beyond the daily back-and-forth, daily meetings and the gossip.

According to Thapa, there are 11 points of ideological, philosophical, and political differences between Congress and the Maoists in regards to the articles of a new constitution. It is safe to assume that the A-Ma-Le sides mostly with the Congressi position. So we have the crux of the debate highlighted in one article. For ordinary Nepali citizen, these 11 issues and others that are to be decided in the CA, are of utmost importance. We need to be ready to discuss and argue on the points of contention that is raised in this article. What kind of a future country and society do the Nepali people want? Do we want the Maoist (Socialist) vision or are we more comfortable with the Congressi (Republican) vision? That is the main debate, isn't it? Going through each of these 11 points that Thapa has presented, as a Nepali citizen and a reader, I have an opinion, I have questions, and I need a moment to reflect and try to understand the implication of each position. As an informed reader, I can make up my mind for or against either party's position on each of these issue.

But until I read this piece of journalism I had no idea what to think because no journalist had taken the time to research on these differences and report the findings like this yet. They were just content to "report" when the next meeting was taking place, as if they were the personal sectaries of the political parties tasked with setting up the daily schedule. Inasmuch as the Nepali political turmoil is caused due to the ineptitude of the political leaders, they are equally aided and abetted by the lack of hard-hitting and informative research journalism from the mushrooming media houses.

Needless to say, quantity hardly equals quality.

Dr. Gautam's Take on Nepali Optimism

2010-06-05T21:51:00.001-04:00

In response to my previous post, Prabaas commented to bring to my attention a wonderful article enumerating the "sins and virtues of new Nepal" by Dr. Kul Chandra Gautam. It is a must read. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. The article clearly distills the ills and the achievements of the past twenty years of social turmoil and political change. So I thought the article deserved a post of its own.

While the "sins" (I rather like the word "ills" instead of "sins" in this context) as identified by Dr. Gautam seems to be quite evident to every Nepali citizen. All we do nowadays is: rail against the tyranny of a hyper-politicized culture while eagerly participating and contributing to it; cynically blame the government and the leaders for the culture of impunity and lawlessness; and rue the disregard of the economic and development matters because of the political feuding. We have became a wholly cynical society and we accept our common cynicism as a badge of Nepali honor.

However, the seven virtues of the new Nepal that Dr. Gautam identifies aren't highlighted as often. For all the limitations and distortions of the last twenty years' worth of historical political changes, there have been many areas of growth and progress. Dr. Gautam lists seven areas of optimism.

It is imperative that we constantly remind ourselves of the many virtues and achievements in our long journey on a very uneven and incomplete road to progress.

More on Nepali Optimism

2010-06-04T11:21:00.000-04:00

As stated on my previous post, I am quite optimistic about Nepal's evolving political, social and economic situation, especially so when considered in the context of the rapid changes in the last twenty years. Needless to say, all the progress that has been made could be stopped or even partially reversed if some dramatic event (military coup, another civil war, or major ethnic violence) were to send the country into extreme chaos. But, an objective observer has to acknowledge that the recent period has accorded the Nepali people with greater access, ability and opportunity. Bikalpa Paudel (via mohammad.tajim) has a wonderful rundown of all the positive changes that has occuredd since the restoration of democracy in 1990.

The reason everyone feels so pessimistic and cynical about the experience of the last twenty years is that all the progress has been achieved not because of the wise leadership of the government or the political parties, but despite them. So most of us only rue the continuing political turmoil and ignore the progress achieved in the social and private sector despite the best efforts of our political class. The progess has clearly been due to the fortuitous amalgam of many reasons.

First, the systemic change from the closed and autocratic Panchayat system to the relative openness in the political, social and the economic life of democracy set the stage for Nepalis to take important steps towards progress in many areas, especially in media, communications, education and travel.

Second, the tremendous rise of India and China influenced Nepal's trade and economy. The sudden rise of our next door neighbors clearly provided the Nepali people with many examples of progress in various areas and also gave us the opportunities to tap into their innovation and experiment. Due to our own openness, we could no longer ignore our neighbors material, cultural, and intellectual exports.

Finally, globalization played a major role. With globalization and its attendant dispersion of information and communication technology, cheap and easy transportation, and open flow of information and labor helped us get a foothold in the global economy. Of course, the only major export that we have been able to make is our labor force but if it were not for globalization not only would we be bereft of the remittance money but also from the ideas and innovations from the rest of the world.

So it has to be said that even despite the ineptitude and constant feuding by our political leaders, the Nepali people, the private sector and the civil society have made tremendous progress in the most unfavorable conditions. If the situation were to remain the same, in the next twenty years we may be still be able to realize similar progress. As stated earlier, if the situation deteriorates drastically, much could be lost.

But imagine, how much we could achieve if the political quagmire were to end and result in a modest period of stability? The Nepali people do not need a whole lot from their political leaders and their government. If the current flux were to end by producing even a mediocre constitution which gives way to a modicum of political stability, a lot of the pessimists would see the real prospect of continued progress and durable change.

Optimism on the Day of Reckoning

2010-05-28T14:27:00.004-04:00

Finally, May the 28th is here. Of course, due to our national habit of procrastination, our leaders are trying to forge a consensus on the last minute. While they had two full years to work on all of the major issues, the sticking points on this day are minor. They are not arguing about the nature and features of the new constitution. They are not disagreeing about the system of new government. They are not fighting over the constitutional words that would govern a new era of federalism. The disagreements on this day actually have nothing to do with constitution at all. The fight is about who gets to be on the driver's seat when we finally, hopefully, get around to actually drafting a new constitution.

Needless to say the Nepali people are pessimistic about the prospects. And our pessimism is not just due to the inability of the political parties and their representatives to draft a new constitution in time. Our pessimism runs deeper. We have been cheated and waylaid countless times in the last twenty years of our experiments with democracy. Of course, the situation was no different during the prior 30 years of Panchayat autocracy, or the preceding 100 years of Rana dictatorship. Naturally, we see the glass as more than half empty. Understandably, as the daily needs - electricity, water, work - of the populace are not met, and while the state seems to be in a constant state of flux, we see no light beyond the horizon, no silver lining behind the dreary, historical dark clouds.

Manjushree Thapa says that for many decades the Nepali people have been waiting and waiting for things to change, for the basic needs to be met and for some form of stability and progress. Of course, there is going to be no stability today as the deadline passes. Even when the parties finally come to a compromise, there is going to be no stability in the near term future. The entire task of starting and completing the constitution remains, which is the bigger battle. No one can blame us for being pessimistic on this symbolic day of our morbid futility.

Yet, I have to admit I remain more optimistic about our future than anytime in the last 10 years. And the reason for my optimism has to do with relativity.

Compare the situation of today to just five years ago. A representative portrait from that time can be found in the chapter titled "The People's War" in Pankaj Mishra's book "Temptations of the West" published in 2006. Mishra, an Indian writer, traveled throughout South Asia - Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal & Tibet - in the first half of the last decade (2000-2005) and wrote about his journeys in hopes of answering his central question: "How do peoples with traditions extending back several millennia modernize themselves?"

Modernization was and is a pertinent challenge for the entire South Asian region. For countries that have been living under various forms of feudalism and dictatorships in a corrosive culture of illiteracy, corruption and economic deprivation, the very Western ideas of modernism with their attendant trappings of democracy, legality, individual freedom and equal opportunity present significant destabilizing tendencies. Modernism in the Western models fuels the needs and desires of the individual person, but the society is still stuck in a pre-modern time.

For Nepal the unique variety of our population, the historical segregation of our ruling classes, the unheard and unmet desires for equality and opportunity from the marginalized castes, and other similarly complex issues presented a unique challenge. The inept monarchy, especially under King Gyanendra, was unable to meet the demands of peace and rule of law. The ruling political and economic elites were loathe to cede their position of influence and power to the angry masses. The political parties were mired by their short term goals. And in that vacuum the ultra-revolutionary Maoists had found an opening to try to remake the entire fabric of the country in the violent model imported from a different time and place.

So in early 2005, when Mishra visited Kathmandu, we were still fighting a decade long civil war. The parliament had just been dissolved by Gyanendra and he had taken over absolute power. The political parties were in disarray. The people didn't know what was going to be the endgame. There were widespread fear and panic among people. No one could trust anyone.There were daily reports of deadly clashes between the Maoists and the King's army. Most importantly, there seemed to be no way out. The Maoists were intent on capturing the state by the barrel of the gun and the King was intent on crushing the Maoists just to save himself.

The situation exactly five years ago was much, much more dire and uncertain than today. Hence, my guarded optimism.

Besides, although everyone complains about how Nepal has been only suffering in the last twenty years at the hands of incompetent leaders. That is certainly true but the Nepali people and the private sector has thrived in Nepal at the same time despite the political turmoil. Things have been improving compared to twenty years ago. A part of the explanation is simply the effects of globalization, migration and remittances, and the opening up of India and China. Yet, the progress of the past twenty years is undeniable. The political progress of the past five years is evident. So yet again on this day of reckoning, I am quite optimistic that there will be eventual progress.

Cable Car Statism

2010-05-19T22:59:00.003-04:00

One of the most successful private enterprises in the last twenty years, aside from the mushrooming banking industry, has been the Manakamana Cable Car service run by the Chitwan Co-E. It is exactly the kind of innovative, technological and social model of development that Nepal needs. While the political instability has taken a periodic toll on the cable car's business model, over the years the company and its operations has been wildly successful. Millions of Nepali and foreign travelers have enjoyed riding on Nepal's only cable car to pay a visit to the Manakamana temple. Although, I haven't been able to find any study of the project's impact, surely, the local economy of both Kurintar, Manakamana and the surrounding areas have seen the positive effects of the cable car. Not only does the service promote tourism but also enhances the economic benefits to the region.

So it is especially maddening to read (sorry, can't find the news link now) about the bureaucratic red tape faced by a new request made by Chitwan Co-E to build a new cable car operation in Pokhara. The request has to first go through the Ministry of Development, which formed a committee to decide if it was a good idea. After their prolonged preliminary report is completed, the request is passed on to the National Planning Commission which again forms its own committee to give its blessing before the project is finally approved by the government.

In a country where nothing moves without government meddling, this is a clear example of such practice. The fact is that neither the ministry engineers nor the planning commissioners have any experience building, running and maintaining a cable car operation. So why do they have to take such a long time and make the company, which has the experience, know-how and the will, to jump through hoops just to get their project approved?

Another fact that is so bothersome is why does the company have to go the central ministry and the planning commission for approval? If the project is to be built in Pokhara, shouldn't the local municipality or the district government be given enough jurisdiction to decide on the request to build in their town? If there is one thing that a smartly designed federalism can do, it is to provide just such a jurisdiction to decide on the local level without having to go back to the center for any little agenda. The costs of the top-down governmental, social and economic structure of the Nepal is apparent with examples of state-overreach like these.

This case of Chitwan Co-E is just a minor example of the state hindering the widely beneficial economic activity by the private sector. One hopes that when the whole rigmarole of the current crisis is over and the constituent assembly finally gets down to drafting a new constitution, a federalism based on economic viability forms the core of new Nepal.

Good News on the Unity Front!

2010-05-17T17:15:00.001-04:00

Muse~Nepal's only claim to fame--a minor blip, really--came with the two articles (here & here) I wrote explaining and divulging the scam that was Unity Life Assurance Company. That was almost a month ago. So it is finally some good news time today to read that the erstwhile irresponsible government has suddenly sprung to action and caught up with some of the fraudsters and their company assets. I only hope that they have some money to pay back the victims. Of course, like any other fraud a large portion of the ill-gotten gains may have already left the country. Yet, I hope that the victims might be able to recover at least some of what they paid.

A Victory for the Civil Society?

2010-05-17T11:12:00.004-04:00

It was heartening to watch the peace rally organized by the civil-society to pressure the Maoists after a brutal week of May Day banda. It is the testament to the budding democratic norm of people's power after the last twenty years of continuous political turmoil that the rally itself was so successful. The fact that the show of force had the intended effect of the Maoists taking back their street protests is important. In the aftermath, however, it must be emphasized that the victory of the civil society is not as thorough as claimed and remains quite hollow and incomplete.

Before asking why the civil society has not been very effective, it is necessary to understand "who" the Nepali civil society is composed of. In a country where political affiliations to the parties is so strong and so deep across all the sectors of the society, it is hardly a surprise that there seems to be no visible, un-affiliated, groups of people that could form a truly independent base of civil society. After all, in every nook and cranny we find groups of competing party apparatus: from the student unions of all the parties in the colleges, to the workers affiliated to specific parties, to the farmers, the teachers, the government employees, each group have various political party organizations that claim their loyalty. So where is the true base of independent civil society loyal to the entire country and its people?

Hearing the list of organizers of the "peace rally," it seems that the main block for the support for civil society were the educated, urban, businessmen and professionals. After all, those who represent and are members of FNCCI and PAPAD are the "sukila-mukila" of Nepal; indeed Prachanda's formulation was quite apt. But where Prachanda made the mistake in his characterization is that he seemed to be talking only about the organizers of the peace rally and not the actual attendees. Really, there is one major characteristic difference between the attendees at the peace rally and the Maoists supporters who descended on the valley: the simple urban/rural divide.

Thus, so far the "civil-society" movement is largely a urban (which, by default forms the Nepali elites) phenomenon. The Kathmandu elites are the ones who were most inconvenienced by the Maoists' blockade: they could not ride their cars and motorcycles, they could not shop at the shops and malls, they could not use the ATMs and the banking services, they could not attend their private schools and colleges; simply they they could neither work nor play. Compounded in the short term discomfort was certainly the growing sense of drift that has plagued Nepal in the last twenty years. People, both urban and rural, are tired and cranky after seeing such continuous tumult. Hence, they found themselves lined up on the opposite side of the geographical, societal and economic divide against one another.

Of course, this characterization of the urban/rural divide as highlighted by the Maoist protests and the "civil-society" counter protests is common knowledge. It is uncontroversial. There have been many news reports from the days of the banda which clearly establishes this conflict as fact. The plight of the poor and downtrodden Maoists protesters have been documented as well. See here and here for some representative samples.

So now we see why the so-called "civil society" is so ineffective in the larger matters of the nation. Their block of support (urban, educated, professional) the least represented in the parties and the parliament. They have no real base outside of Kathmandu and other city-centers. Finally, they seem to be in no hurry to make them more relevant outside of their comfort zones. How does the intellectual, elite civil society establish its bonafides as the true independent voice of the people which can guide and force the parties to better policies and more cooperation for the greater good?

Reading Ashutosh Tiwari's most recent column, I felt like he was wresting with the same questions as I was. And in a way, his suggestions would be a good place to start.

The Links

2010-05-09T23:41:00.007-04:00

Some of the interesting things that I read today:

Prashant Jha in "Struck down" goes through a list of options that the Maoists have now that they have taken back their daily protests in the Nepali Times. Over at Nepalnews.com guest column, Jeevan Baniya responds to the familiar and foolhardy Nepali lament that Nepal needs a strong dictator and still argues for democracy imperfect as it may be. Finally, in the Monday Interview in the Kathmandu Post, Biswas Baral talks about the dire state of the macroeconomic situation with Bishwambher Pyakuryal, professor of economics at TU.

When will our "Roadmap" come?

2010-05-04T17:18:00.002-04:00

The current Maoist protests in Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal are curiously similar to the onoing Redshirts protest in Thailand. While the specific political scenario might be unique, the aim, character, and effects of both these protests are errily the same. A class of citizens led by a political faction have turned on the capital - protesting, singing and dancing on the streets - in hopes of toppling the government. The Nepali Maoists even share the red color of the Thai Redshirts. They are mostly bussed in from the countryside. They have worked hard to put a positive face and limited explicit conflicts with the government.

So it is interesting to see that it took 54 days for the Thai Redshirts and the government to arrive at a compromise roadmap, which will lead to the political solution of the crisis.

How many more days will our Reds last?

The Plight of Bhutani Refugees

2010-04-24T11:06:00.006-04:00

In the early 1990s more than 80,000 Bhutanese citizens were forced out of their country. These Nepali-speaking Hindus—whose forefathers settled Southern Bhutan in 1880s—had been systematically persecuted by the authoritarian government of King Jigme Singye Wangchuk and the Dzongkha-speaking Northern majority. Arbitrary rules, such as mandating universal adoption of the traditional Northern clothes and customs, and forbidding the official use of the Nepali language, were imposed. New citizenship laws classified most Southerners as non-citizens paving the way to eventual usurpation of their properties. Peaceful protestors of the unjust policies were imprisoned. Many were tortured. The Southerners, fearing their survival, fled, and were settled as refugees in Nepal by the local government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Though the Bhutan government painstakingly tried to hide the fact, subsequent research by Amnesty International has established the fact that it was a case of meticulously planned religious, cultural and ethnic cleansing.

After almost twenty years, the Bhutanese refugees are still languishing in those makeshift camps in Eastern Nepal—battling difficult living conditions, suffering from mental and physical ailments, and subsisting in handouts from aid agencies—with no hope of ever returning to their homes. Their children were born and raised never knowing life outside the confines of the camps. In the tragic saga of the Bhutanese refugees, the injustice of the repressive government of Bhutan is matched in equal parts by the hypocrisy of India, the ineptitude of Nepal, and the indifference of the international community.

India claimed that the refugee crisis was a bi-lateral issue between Nepal and Bhutan. Their stance was not just inaccurate but also irresponsible for India, a country which sees itself as a regional leader, and besides controlling Bhutan’s foreign policy, also serves as the chief economic benefactor of the Bhutanese government. When the refugees fleeing from Bhutan’s security forces landed on the Indian soil, they were mercilessly nabbed by the Indian police and escorted all the way to Nepal’s border to be released. Such action punctures India’s hypocritical claim of respectable distance from the issue and shows whose side India took. For twenty years, India never used its considerable influence both in Thimpu and Kathmandu, to mediate or help resolve the Bhutanese refugee crisis.

On the other hand, Nepal’s ongoing internal political turmoil and the ineptitude of its successive governments must also share a portion of the blame. While Nepal had every reason—economic, social and political—to hastily repatriate the Bhutanese refugees, Nepalese efforts rarely amounted to much beyond fruitless bi-lateral talks. Since none of the talks were mediated by a third-party (such as India or UN), no significant or lasting breakthroughs were ever achieved. With India silent, Nepal simply hadn’t much leverage against Bhutan. Neither was Nepal capable in engaging other third-party pressure. Nepal’s inability to muster international support is a definite failure.

Finally, the international community simply ignored the problem. While the aid agencies and UNHCR performed valuable service at the camps, no Western government put discernible pressure on Bhutan, or India, for repatriation. Perhaps because of the geographical remoteness, the relatively smaller number of victims, or lack of major, visible bloodshed, until recently, the international community’s official response to the Bhutanese refugee crisis was tepid to non-existent.

Then in May 2007 the United States offered a plan of third-country resettlement for more than 60,000 of the Bhutanese refugees. Other countries such as Australia, Canada, and Norway also offered to take in 10,000 refugees each. A vocal minority within the refugee community dismissed the resettlement plan as permanent banishment from their homeland; they saw resettlement in a third country as the ultimate victory for the repressive Bhutanese government. However, most of the refugees, tired, sick and desperate as they were in the camps, saw a fresh start in the United States as their only way out. Some 8000 of them have already made their way to be resettled in America.

Though generous, the American plan offers little hope of lasting resolution to the Bhutanese refugee crisis. For twenty years, the refugees’ main objectives were justice and safe repatriation to their own country. The American solution provides neither. Actually, in essence, the plan helps the Dzongkha-speaking majority in their ultimate goal of ridding Bhutan of the ethnic Nepali minority. Most of the Bhutanese refugees have agreed to the bargain out of sheer desperation. However, if given the opportunity, would they not choose to take back their ancestral lands and homes, their fields of rice and barley, and live again in the southern hills of Bhutan?

Unity को सनजाल

2010-04-21T16:53:00.004-04:00

In my previous post, I tracked down the shady companies that form Unity's pyramid. Now here is a graphical representation of Unity's web of fraud. First, what you see below is a photo from Unity's Website purporting the way to produce diesel from Jatropha plant. As I wrote before, Crystal Bio Energy Nepal, a company owned by Unity, goes around the country asking unsuspecting farmers to buy their seeds and pay for "technical expertise" to harvest Jatropha plants in their fields. Think for yourself if what is seen in this picture seems scientifically possible...

Of course, not. It is easy to see. Now why did Unity set up this bogus company called Crystal Bio Energy Nepal? To understand that look at the following picture depicting Unity को सनजाल:

Now you can see the reason why Crystal Bio and its impossible business of Jatropha diesel exists is to lure unsuspecting new people to give money to Unity's fraudulent Scheme.

How does the Pyramid Scheme of Rs. 600 करोड Work?

2010-04-21T04:07:00.027-04:00

(Thank you to all the readers from Sajha. Hope you will browse around and leave comments to share your ideas. -mG.)

(Update on 4/28: Thanks to Khusbu Sarkar for pointing out that Rs. 6 Billion is actually equal to 600 crores and not 60 crores. As you said that is ten times as troubling! I have corrected the record.Thanks. )

Republica has a stunning report on a Nepali company called Unity Life International (ULI) which is apparently making some very, very big noises within the country and abroad. The sheer number on the headline - Rs. 6 Billion (600 करोड !!!) - is enough to attract attention. The full details of Unity's activities that Milan Sharma, the reporter, describes are frightening to read. So it turns out Unity has found its mojo in Nepal selling bogus products like life and health "assurance" plans (these sort of function like the energy drinks in the Quixtar/Amway scheme). Also Unity claims to have opened hospitals to build a network of providers for its health insurance.
Clearly the company is a pyramid scheme and Sharma commendably doesn't hesitate to call it that. Anyone in America who has been involved in the Amway or the Quixtar knows what a pyramid scheme is -- the idea is to use the promise of an easy but wildly profitable business venture (Quixtar sells daily use consumer products) to suck in a network of people whose only way of gaining profit is to help bring in more people to build a bigger and bigger network. The whole thing collapses in the end because the underlying business is a scam.
Sharma mentions in passing that: "Awash in cash, the company is now venturing into any field you care to name, from real estate to airlines to department stores to Direct to Home Satellite TV." So I decided to do a little bit of snooping to fill in the gap. What I found scared me further. Turns out there are not one, but already a extending web of numerous scam/fraud companies under this pyramid of fraud!
First here is Unity's website. Why is the life "assurance" company's first image on its website showing a picture of a rafting boat for a travel and tours company? What has travel and tours got to do with "life and health assurance?" Of course, it is not a crime to have various companies under one roof but why are the they marketed at one place?

Unity's homepage also has a flashy banner of a "New Year Dhamaka." Once you click on that banner you get to see for yourself the juicy proof of Unity's pyramid business model. It is entirely based on what they call "प्रत्यक्ष सिफारिस or (Direct Reffer)." Basically what that means is you can pay money to join the program and then the more people you can refer to join it the more promise of bonuses. It is like the old "ढकुटी" games that used to give "steel दराज" as first place prize, which was popular at one time in Kathmandu.
Remember, but in this case what is Unity selling, why are these people joining the company for? Life and health insurance. How does the company plan to pay out for those insurance claims, when some member dies or needs health care? They are going to use the money coming in from new people to service the claims of the existing ones. But when the music stops, this musical chair will fall on its own weight. That is why it is a pyramid scheme. So you may ask, what is Unity doing with all the money they are raking in right now? Good question.
Now I scroll down to the bottom of the home page and see an even stranger photo: Unity Milk, Ghee and Dairy Products! What do those three companies - insurance, tourism, dairy products - have in common? Who are these geniuses who have suddenly found the business acumen and knowledge in three widely divergent industrial and service sectors - insurance, tourism, dairy products - to launch these business under a single brand? What market need or niche are they exploiting?
But the next company in the roster of Unity companies seems to be a even stranger choice even for Unity. There is a picture of a deer in bushes in the middle of the page under a quirky slogan: "अभ खाडी को डीजेल होईन, झाडी को डीजेल प्रयोग गरऊ" -- I wondered, बाबा! झाडी को डीजेल रे??? One of the rotating pictures under the slogan was a crude life-cycle figure of random bushes connected by arrows to a beaker containing what looked like gasoline. Clicking on this wonderful invention of diesel from bushes, I get to the homepage of another entirely new company: Crystal Bio Energy Nepal Ltd. After a little looking around, I am confused. The sole aim of Crystal Bio seems to be to promote planting of a plant called "Jatropha." But why?
Then I read Crystal Bio's (=Unity) explanation of the easy scientific process of producing झाडी को डीजेल from Jatropha and clearly understood their scam: "Bio-diesel is made through a chemical process called trans-esterification in which the glycerine is separated from the jatropha oil. The process leaves behind two products--alkyl esters (the generic chemical name for bio-diesel and glycerine a valuable by-product usually sold to be used in soaps and other cosmetic products. Once the glycerine is removed from the jatropha oil, the remaining molecules are, to a diesel engine, similar to petroleum diesel fuel. But there are some notable differences. Even though “diesel” is part of its name, there are no petroleum or other fossil fuels in bio-diesel."
And if you believe that mumbo-jumbo, I have a tall Dharahara that I want to sell to you:) This scam of "Jatropha-bio-diesel" has been exposed by a prominent British scientist among others, a long time ago. But the poor Nepali farmers are a long ways away from Royal Engineering Society. That's why Crystal Bio (=Unity) is able to go around the country selling these Jatropha seeds and "technical expertise" to unsuspecting farmers and also selling them life insurance while making away like bandits. Also, the worth of fertile land that could to used for profitable crops, going to waste due to farming the useless bush is doubly troubling. So Unity is not just looting the Nepali migrant laborers but also Nepali farmers.
But that is not all: how is Unity going to run all these fly-by-the-night business ventures? They will surely need an army of business leaders to run the dairy farm, the rafting agency, the bio-diesel plant, the insurance company, and on and on, right? Of course, they would. And Unity has already thought of that too.
Hence, there is another shady company: Re-Team, which is apparently a leadership training company. The introduction to the company makes it clear what they do: "Re-team means Research Team and makes different kinds of study on human development.This Team is the educating body of the fastest growing Company of Nepal Unity Life International Ltd. Nationally and Internationally; it organizes the Training programs, Seminars, Workshops and Counseling to the peoples. We don''t believe in providing only training but we try to mould participates in such a way that they could bargain a better opportunity."
Also, Mr. Dharmendra Chaudhary, the coordinator of Re-Team has posted a personal message to his "Partners" which explains the function of the Re-Team in the larger pyramid scheme of Unity. Mr Chaudhary writes: "It gives me enormous pleasure initiating RE-TEAM Business Education System in the field of Network Industry on the behalf of ASSURANCE UNITY LIFE INt'l LTD. We all know that we can change the shape of Nepal though Network Industry. Many Nepalese were directly or indirectly involving in various natures of Network Marketing Companies. With the help of very dynamic and experienced MLM professionals and visionary person of the ASSURANCE UNITY LIFE made it possible to establish RE-TEAM. We are providing different levels of training like Business, Leadership & Personal Development, career development Training for every interested person and organization.....and blah, blah, blah."
So what does it all mean? Why is a newish Rs. 60 Crore "assurance provider" company operating in Nepal, running all these new business ventures with questionable business prospects? What is Re-TEAM planning on teaching their partners? Of course, if you know anything about pyramid schemes, you already know the connection.
For those who are fortunate enough to have never before come in contact with other such schemes of network marketing, and who are wondering, what the connection is, here is the answer: Unity is not a company. It doesn't provide any service or produce any good. Whatever "life assurance or health assurance" products it is selling are bogus. What it wants is the membership fees collected from more and more "partners" who can use "प्रत्यक्ष सिफारिस or (Direct Reffer)" to bring even more and more partners who bring in more and more fees. All the collected fees are stashed in the name of shady/unprofitable companies (Unity Ghee, Travel Agency, Crystal Bio, etc) and laundered through black market by the promoters of the company.
Additionally, the RE-TEAM branch of the Unity teaches their existing "partners" on the techniques of network marketing to bring in more suckers. They are taught how to sell to a poor migrant worker the dream of buying "life insurance" for his dying dad. The partners are taught how to rope in the uneducated farmers by telling them stories of how Jatropha will bring them lots of money. The partners are trained on how to give slick presentation to their friends and co-workers. Above all, all the partners are taught never to question the authority of UNITY, the company and their masters. In a sense once you join to become a member, you become their slave - just giving them your hard earned money and also bringing more and more people to waste their money as well. The totally brain wash you.
Finally, as Sharma mentions, by the way, this is not the first time that these schemers have cheated on Nepalis. In early 2000s a company called Goldquest was criminally charged for engaging in similar fraudulent activities. There were various others. So it is very sad to read that none of the governmental regulatory bodies have acted to save the consumers who are being taken for a ride. Although there is ample reason to believe that some corrupt politicians are surely behind the company, the pathetic response of the government bureaucrats is shameful and indeed criminal. No wonder, under such lax and criminally unresponsive bureaucracy, the Managing Director of Unity, awash in all the cash of the poor Nepalis at home and migrant workers in Gulf, is pretty much boasting, "कसको बौ को के तगत?" There is little doubt that Unity's activities are illegal fraud and scam, either in law or its spirit, which makes it all the more sadder that the government allowed it to grow so big. Our only hope is to educate the people. Hope you share this article with your friends and relatives in Nepal, so they don't get sucked into this web of fraud.
So now that you know all about the wonderful pyramid scheme of UNITY, don't you just want to join them? (/don't do it, i'm just joking:). But hey, if you still want to join them, they even have a Facebook group with 215 friends!

नेपाली को हो?

2010-04-16T08:07:00.006-04:00

I have been thinking about what is "Nepali." More than ever, I think this question is a vital one for our country. Not only officially for the legitimacy and effectiveness of a new constitution but also for the social, cultural and national unity, we need to discuss, reflect upon and discover what it means to be a Nepali.

So it was a nice surprise to read the special edition of Himal Khabarpatrika where a number of articles start that discussion in an effort to try and answer what "Nepalipan" is. Must read for all Nepalis everywhere. Of the many gems from the articles, this from C K Lal: "नश्लवाद (रेसिज्म) नेपालीपन अवधारणासँग जोडिएर आउँछ। सोच-प्रयोगका लागि एकछिनलाई कल्पना गरौं; केन्याली बाबु एवं नेपाली आमाको कुनै सन्तान जनकपुरमा जन्मिन्छ र परिबन्दले उसको पालनपोषण जकार्तामा हुन पुग्दछ। नेपालीपनको जति नै उदार व्याख्या गरे पनि त्यस्तो व्यक्ति कहिल्यै नेपालमा बाराक 'वामा बन्न सक्दैन। नेपालमा त्यस्तो व्यक्तिले कर्म गर्दै फलको आशा राख्ने होइन, पुनर्जन्मको प्रतीक्षा गर्नुपर्ने छ।"

The Rinpoche and the Kumari

2010-04-09T10:50:00.001-04:00

While the buzz on the Nepali online community was all about the PBS documentary, "The Buddha" for allegedly reporting that Buddha was born in India, I was much more taken in by the Independent Lens feature shown immediately afterwards in our local station.

The feature titled "Unmistaken Child" follows the story of Tenzin Zopa, a young Tibetan Buddhist monk from Kopan Monastary in Kathmandu, as he journeys to small villages and hamlets of Tibet in search of a little boy. Zopa's guru Geshe Lama has passed away due to old age and now the devotee is tasked with finding the reincarnation of his guru.

It is a arduous process of walking from village to village and performing tests on each little boy between the ages of one to one and a half that Zopa finds. While the villagers are generally helpful, the young boys, shy or even afraid of the stranger (and of course the camera crew of foreigners), only succumb to the test when bribed with balloons or toffee.

The test to determine true reincarnation, hence the "unmistaken," basically involves asking a boy to choose among a couple of prayer beads. Most children are more enamored of candy to pay much attention to the beads. So the Zopa continues his search to the next village and the next in the elusive search. When he finally finds a boy who he believes to be the reincarnation of his Guru, the story changes from a search to the tale of accommodating the little kid to his new role of a famous guru at the ripe old age of a year and a half.

It looked to me that the one characteristic that determines who gets chosen is the fortitude of character. The new Rinpoche shows a hardiness and fearlessness when he first meets the Zopa. He is curious and less shy that the other boys. And he wants the shiny beads, along with the toy cars and other trinkets.

Overall it is a good enough story, especially because of the exhaustive privilege of access enjoyed by the filmmakers (they get to film the scene where the Dalai Lama blesses the little boy as the new Rinpoche). The parts where the parents are asked to give up their young son to the monastery is so truly heart touching that no amount of invasion by the camera is able to cloak the basic grief in the mother and father's eyes.

At the end of the documentary, we leave the little boy, now about four years old, to his daily life of service and prayer and play, with the Lamas at Kopan, far away from his home in the tiny Tibetan hamlet, away from his mother, father and beloved grandma. Although he is too young to know it now, his whole life is changed merely by a chance encounter. I couldn't help feeling lonely for him.

The institution of the Kumari is much more well-known compared to the story of baby Rinpoche. When watching how the little boy was installed as the reincarnation of a Lama, I immediately made the connection to the tradition of Kumari. (The journalist Deepak Adhikari elegantly describes one slice of that story in "The Goddess' Exam.") Of course, seen as the social and religious practice of installing a child to be a surrogate for a deity, the Rinpoche is the natural kin of the Kumari. So it is not surprising that both the traditions are linked to the Buddhist heritage in Kathmandu and Tibet.

GPK's Death and the Politics of Personality and Informality

2010-04-06T23:01:00.002-04:00

(Thanks to Surath for spurring me to write after some absence.)

The recent death of Girija Prashad Koirala and the subsequent sense of vacuum in Nepali politics brought to fore the innate problematic nature of our political culture: the system of patrimony.

Rishikesh Shaha in one of his political histories of Nepal, recounts how the the patrimonial elites have ruled the country through a politics of personal influence, proximity to the center of power, and informality. Shaha was describing the scene after the takeover of the country by King Mahendra on 1950 and subsequently as the Panchayati politics of chakadi and bribery flourished. The national politicians competed mightily to become closer to the palace, near the ear of the king, who in turn rewarded or punished public officials based on little more than his personal whim. This corruption of public power through informality extended from the king all the down to the local Panchayat leaders.

Of course, these features of informality and unchecked power of personality in the political realm are derived from the same cultural notions in the larger society. No wonder, the same modes of behavior has continued to this day, two decades after the fall of the Panchayat System. In every level of society we can find the similar disregard for laws and norms in favor of informality. Whoever occupies a formal position, commands the level of power and influence that his personality and circumstance accords. Thus, legitimacy of action is provided not by the position held, but the personality holding the position.

Hence, it is not a surprise to see the emerging disputes in the Nepali Congress Party in the wake of GPK's death. Despite Ashutosh Tiwari's posthumous prescriptions about how to ably manage succession in the future, one suspects the party leaders vying to fill Girija's position are hardly in a advice-taking mode. Rather, all three potential successors, Deuba, Paudel and Koirala, are acting as rational actors by trying to flout their personal influence and seek support of the party members through informal channels. If our society was run by rules and laws and not by men like GPK, there would no issues with succession, the members of the party would simply vote for the person they trusted to be their leader.

अफ्फनो गाऊ अफ्फै बनाऊ!

2010-03-01T12:39:00.000-05:00

In a recent Strictly Business column, Ashu Tiwari laments the case of missing local government in Nepal. For the last 9 years, there have been no local representatives in office. Their roles and responsibilities have been handed to hand-picked bureaucrats from the central government.

That reminded me of the old A-MA-LE slogan: अफ्फनो गाऊ अफ्फै बनाऊ! And that slogan is not really a bad policy. Actually, I would like to extend Tiwari's argument. Why do we have bureaucrats from the center in every district office? In every organ of the state functioning in the districts--be it the education, water, roads--the managers, the हाकिम are the outsiders. They suffer from the same apathy towards their jobs and their postings as do the appointed representatives now.

Of course, it would take a long time for Nepal to totally have decentralized public administration for each region and district. However, it should be mandatory that any official who aims for high office should come from a pool of locals as much as possible. That way, their expertise would help their own place. They may even be more responsible and strategic in their activities.

Philippines Sickness - Nepal's Future?

2010-02-18T14:04:00.003-05:00

The most optimistic near term future for Nepal include the following three events: the PLA integration into Nepal Army; drafting of a compromise constitution (a few years behind deadline); and institution of a rough federalism model. All these would be monumental achievements as seen from the dire prospects of the present. However, those success may not come close to securing the Nepali dream of a functioning, responsive government and a developing nation. The most certain outcome is that even then Nepal would suffer from the sickness engulfing the present day Philippines.

Banyan's analysis of the upcoming elections in Philippines highlights the cultural ills of that society, all of which are intimately familiar to any Nepali: "shortage of political commitment to the public good"; "violence embedded in the political system"; corruption; absence of policy from political campaigns; administrative and political gridlock. Also the brightest spot for Philippines are its people who work abroad to send back remittances, just like in Nepal.

It is evident that the culture of political gridlock and absence of any policy discussion during campaigns will not be solved simply because a new constitution is written in Nepal. That means the system is not the culprit by itself. It is the culture of our political sphere that needs rewiring. Banyan's hope that the swelling population of emigrants would effect the domestic elections might be possible in Philippines. In Nepal, unless the new constitutions mandates voting rights and privileges for Nepalese abroad, even that possibility of change is dim.

In one respect Philippine politicians are different than their Nepali counterparts? There are no avowedly "pro-business" leaders in Nepal. We have numerous leaders and parties and constituents representing the failed Communist ideology, as well as those representing each and every ethnicity. But there is not a single leader or party, distinctly in favor of business, growth and capitalism. Without advancement in private investment and business, there is no development. But where is our pro-business leader?

"What happened" vs. "Why this matters"

2010-02-17T00:03:00.004-05:00

For one of the best commentators of Nepali politics, CK Lal's recent switch to become a media commentator, starting with a column on Lohani's death (if memory serves), could be a loss to his readers. However, there are many, many political prognosticators around and hardly any analysts dedicated to the task of watching the watchdog. Lal's astute observations and criticisms would surely benefit the Nepali media culture.

Development in the mass media sector is no doubt one of the brightest spots in Nepal since the restoration of Democracy in 1990. Going from complete government control and near-complete ownership of most print and all broadcast medium during the Panchayat rule, Nepal's media scene has exploded in the last 20 years.

I still remember seeing the advertisement for "Kantipur Daily" near Sundhara as they were publishing their first issues. Then came the FM stations when everyone in the valley seemed to be walking around with a FM radio. The satellite TV stations from Hong Kong and then from India. Then came the private TV stations at home. And multiple dailies, numerous weeklies and monthly magazines.

No doubt that this flourishing of media has been a boon to Nepal. However, the media culture is still nascent. What the audience seem to want from the news sources is just basic information, which the reporters and editors are providing to some level. However, what the audience may not demand, or rather would not know to demand, and the journalists are not savvy or dedicated enough to provide is the quality of news that sustains a democratic culture. Nepali media does a good enough job of telling "what happened." They do a very poor job of explaining "why it matters."

CK Lal's most recent "Fourth Estate" column goes to the heart of the matter. I agree with him that Nepali media operate as storytellers. However, I am not sure if I buy his rationale for the reasons why. Lal thinks the dearth of actual investigative journalism results from lack of resources, namely time and money. I rather think it is journalistic incompetence stemming from having scant role models of good journalism. And that goes back to the issue of the nascent culture of journalistic practices.

Of course, the way media has expanded in the last 20 years there is hope that sooner rather than later Nepali journalists evolve into deliberate practitioners of "why this story matters" journalism. And it is respected voices like Lal's that will guide the journalistic profession to that higher level. So his decision to focus on Nepali media scene is clearly a net gain for the readers.

Countdown to New Nepal

2010-02-16T16:00:00.002-05:00

In this first post at Muse Nepal, I want to share the vision that prompted me to start this blog. These visions would also serve to establish the concerns and topics of coverage in this blog.

Nepali political culture is dysfunctional in many ways--the usual suspects of nepotism, corruption and institutional lack of democracy being the prime reasons. Nepali bureaucracy suffers from the same ailments. Actually, I think these corroding elements are pervasive throughout the society. When our leaders talk about development and prosperity, when they sell us the dreams of New Nepal, their words are less a vision of a changed society and more like daydreams. So far, our political or civic leaders have been unable to even identify the source of these problems, much less tackle them.

The heart of the issue, as I see it, is dearth of diverse ideas. The problem is that Nepalis have very short history of wrestling with ideas of governance, democracy, and development. Even when we have been engaged in debates, our ideas have been limited in focus to the events of the day or wildly fantastical daydreams about changing the face our motherland overnight. We have scant institutional, social or academic practice of honest intellectual debates. There is essentially no marketplace of ideas to speak of. Yet, it is true that finger-pointing is easy; it is especially easy to find faults from the comfort of foreign soil.

My attempt at Muse Nepal will be not just to keep track of the current developments in Nepal but also try to extend and enlarge the debate beyond the day-to-day events to the larger and more basic intellectual ideas, essentially to extend the marketplace of ideas to ask some fundamental questions about the nature of Nepali society, the history of our political system, and the shape of our shared future. I will try to engage in the intellectual underpinnings of change in our society. The hope is to offer some optimism about the prospect of change and improvement. Hence, the countdown to New Nepal. Also, the muse, motive and subject is Nepal and Nepalis--therefore Muse~Nepal.

While these decidedly lofty aims are primary, on the day-to-day scrum, I will highlight, engage and share any sundry observations, ruminations and thoughts that draws my interest. Hope some readers (when/if they join) would find them of interest as well.

Jai Ganesh!