First Letter from Nepal – 23 August 2007
Friends:
Hard to believe I’ve been in Nepal
for over a month, all of it, except for one brief trip to Nepalgunj (the
mid-Western Terai) and Jumla (the mid-Western hills) in Kathmandu Valley.
But the first part of my mission, assisting the government to write Directives
so that they can implement the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs) which they adopted in February, is almost done, and then I should be
able to travel more extensively in the country. I will be visiting different
districts (there are 75 in Nepal)
to assist local government officials and civil society actors to better
understand the policy and directives. I am looking forward to that. As well, I
may also take a closer look at the new IDPs that have emerged the past year
around the new conflict in the Terai (the plains that border India) as
against the IDPs from the 10 year long civil war with the Maoists, which the
Govt’s Policy was largely directed at addressing. But that will depend on how
much time I get to spend here. My Terms of Reference are for a three month
assignment, till mid-October, and I do want to try and go to Tibet – there by
jeep and back from Lhasa by plane, the last half of October.
Nepal
is fascinating and complex. The people are beautiful, but many are miserably
poor. And once you are out of the municipalities, services – health, education,
social assistance – are minimal or non-existent. Yet the struggle to change the
system seems incredibly counter-productive. The tactic that has been much in
vogue this year is the “bandh” – what I guess we would have called the “general
strike” in the American labour movement. Everything stops – the traffic, the
shops, work, schools. And those who suffer most are the day labourers who earn
nothing when a bandh is in effect. Yesterday was my first first-hand experience
with the bandh. I left the house, as I usually do, at 8.15 to walk to the
office – or grab a cab. Normally, at that hour, the city is alive. Children are
going to school, people are setting up their sidewalk stands. The traffic is
heavy and noisy and polluting. The air throbs with sound and movement. Instead,
everything was eerily silent. There were
no cars on the road, no motor scooters. The fruits stands just outside my
apartment were bare. The shutters were down on all the shops.
The Bandh was called by two groups for the whole Kathmandu Valley by two groups – the Joint
Republican Dalit Front and the Maoist-affiliated Tamang national Liberation
Front. The demands – that Nepal
be declared a Republic and that there be a guarantee of proportional
representation for the upcoming elections to the Constituent Assembly – are
unlikely to be met. But the dissatisfaction and discontent are clearly
registered. The bandh was 100% effective. On the main street that I walk down
to work (the UN was probably the only place where people showed for work, apart
from hospitals and police), there were groups of young men – “the enforcers” --
some with red bandanas, many with big sticks. In the early afternoon, I saw
them attack a motorbike that was driving down Pulchowk Road – a youth attacked
it with a large stick, breaking the tail light – but the two men on the bike
got away unhurt, I think. Only bicycles, UN cars, ambulances – were allowed to
travel in the Valley. Today, I was supposed to travel to a meeting in
Biratnagar – but we had to postpone that till next week, because a 5-day bandh
was called for the Eastern Terai. It is still unclear whether the elections for
the Constitutional Assembly will actually take place in November, though the
plans are for hundreds of international monitors. But so much for politics.
At the personal level, I am very much enjoying this mission.
I live in a suite (living room, dining room/kitchen, bedroom) in a residential
hotel 10-15 minutes away from my office on foot. There is a swimming pool, a
gym and a sauna that I use regularly. I try to do 3 kilometers on the treadmill
and 30 laps of the pool a few times a week at least. How is that for trying to
get back into shape, though somehow, my weight refuses to drop. I refuse,
however, to give up my wine in the evenings, if that is what it will take.
Fortunately, you can get good wine at a modest cost here. Also, interesting
apple brandy that I bought in Jumla, famous for its apple trees.
The city is fascinating to explore, though I have not had
too much time to do so yet. But, everywhere there are temples and shrines and a
very laissez-faire approach to religion, where you spin prayer wheels, light
candles, have your forehead painted, bring flowers or offerings to the Gods,
and where children and dogs and monkeys and cows all intermingle somehow. The
crafts are also great – the masks, the puppets, the jewelry, the paintings.
Though I have only bought a very few things so far. And the food, of course.
You get a mélange here – of Indian and Chinese and Nepali. I’m not really sure
what is indigenous, but much of it is good and cheap. And outside my hotel, I
have fruit stands with papaya, and mangoes, and pineapples, and pomegranates,
and melons, and jackfruit – plus a variety of fruit I don’t know. And just
across the road are vegetable stands with eggplants and squashes of various
sorts, and lots of stuff I don’t know how to cook. So, when I have time, I take
my camera and walk. I will do more of that in the coming weeks, now that the
rains seem to have tapered off. September and October should be sunny.
I have recently been connected to this thing that is called
“Facebook” on google – where I will post some photo albums. That is easier than
trying to send photos through my poor internet connection – though I am
delighted that I have one at home.
So – that is my news for the moment.
Warmest regards
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