THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL
The civil wars of the twenty-first century: Sushma Joshi's slightly twisted perspective of the universe.
14 July, 2020
27 June, 2020
America's crimes against humanity
Annapurna Express, 17/6/2020
Fifty-four African nations have called on UN Human Rights Council to have an urgent debate on police brutality and racially inspired human rights violations. The letter asks for the debate to be held next week.
The militarization of the police and imprisonment of African-Americans go back to slavery. White supremacy—the notion of white culture being supreme over others—is part of the hegemonic cultural narrative of the USA. This narrative has enabled militarized violence over minority groups, including Native Americans and Latinos.
Black Lives Matter has opened the door. The UN should now open an extended investigation into America’s crimes against humanity. Since the end of the Second World War, the deep state and military-industrial complex of the USA has terrorized the globe. From Afghanistan to Iraq, Cambodia to Laos, the same logic of white supremacy and economic and technological domination has led to the deaths of millions. Cuba, Iran and North Korea suffer and starve under economic sanctions imposed by the USA.
America has been implicated in the conflicts of the Gulf, the Middle East and Africa, with mercenary troops and friendly nations acting as fronts for proxy wars.
Agencies such as the CIA have carried out assassinations and torture. But the CIA is a known institution. More sinister are the covert agencies whose purposes are unknown, conducting scientific experiments with no ethical guidelines.
Scientists are already capable of wiring up people’s brains to computers, with the purpose of downloading thoughts. If mobilized against opponents, this technology would bring about perpetual slavery through the control of the mind. This is a violation of bodily integrity which even the slaveholders of the 18th century could not have imagined. And yet Elon Musk’s Neuralink is a reality, celebrated as a tech “innovation” that will change the world. The inherent fascistic nature of the tech-industrial complex has done little to harm him or other tech magnates. Tesla’s stocks continue to rise exponentially behind smoke and mirrors of Wall Street. We are made to think of this as a social good, not the acme of the fascist panopticon.
On April 2015, the Large Hadron Collider, based in CERN, Geneva, “accelerated protons to the fastest speed ever attained on Earth,” Symmetry Magazine reported . Superconducting magnets were involved, 6.5 TeV of energy was generated. At the same time, a powerful quake shook Nepal, killing 10,000, injuring 22,000 (me amongst them), and making 400,000 homeless. America contributed 531 million to the Large Hadron Collider project. 1700 American scientists worked on the LHC research, more than any other nation’s, says CERN’s website. These two events are connected. This is not a matter to be dismissed as “conspiracy theory,” although that strategy has worked brilliantly in the past. Now the time has come for careful legal investigation through the auspices of international institutions.
All these crimes against humanity were enabled by the propaganda of the USA as a human rights defender, a fierce supporter of democracy, and a beacon of freedom. None of this is true. Democratic regimes were removed via coups and brutal military dictatorships put in their places, as in Latin America. The true purpose was to remove indigenous people from their land and have that land be taken over by multinational corporations of America.
America has used China’s state violence against Uighurs to protest the dangers of Chinese fascism. While chilling, it doesn’t compare to what America is doing. One million Uighurs are incarcerated in Xinjiang re-education camps. "In 2014, African Americans constituted 2.3 million, or 34%, of the total 6.8 million correctional population," says the NAACP’s criminal justice fact sheet.
With Black Lives Matter mass protests, the world has shown racialized violence of the American state must end.
African-Americans face the possibility of being choked, electro-shocked or killed as they go about their lives. A white policeman can kill a black man or woman, in their own homes or while going about their daily business, at any time.
We have no idea how many times this same kind of impunity has played out internationally, in deserts of Afghanistan and darkened streets of Iraq with no cameras present. How many people have Americans killed, covertly and overtly, with technology as yet unexplicated in law books? How many people has it driven to suicide?
America’s narrative of its own ethical goodness has silenced all opposition. An institution as aware of international law as the UN sees no legal doorway to the crimes against humanity committed by American troops, agents and covert institutions over 75 years. Now the time has come to take apart that myth. The UN must work together to put every single war crimes criminal before the long arm of the law. It is time for the trial of the century to start.
Fifty-four African nations have called on UN Human Rights Council to have an urgent debate on police brutality and racially inspired human rights violations. The letter asks for the debate to be held next week.
The militarization of the police and imprisonment of African-Americans go back to slavery. White supremacy—the notion of white culture being supreme over others—is part of the hegemonic cultural narrative of the USA. This narrative has enabled militarized violence over minority groups, including Native Americans and Latinos.
Black Lives Matter has opened the door. The UN should now open an extended investigation into America’s crimes against humanity. Since the end of the Second World War, the deep state and military-industrial complex of the USA has terrorized the globe. From Afghanistan to Iraq, Cambodia to Laos, the same logic of white supremacy and economic and technological domination has led to the deaths of millions. Cuba, Iran and North Korea suffer and starve under economic sanctions imposed by the USA.
America has been implicated in the conflicts of the Gulf, the Middle East and Africa, with mercenary troops and friendly nations acting as fronts for proxy wars.
Agencies such as the CIA have carried out assassinations and torture. But the CIA is a known institution. More sinister are the covert agencies whose purposes are unknown, conducting scientific experiments with no ethical guidelines.
Scientists are already capable of wiring up people’s brains to computers, with the purpose of downloading thoughts. If mobilized against opponents, this technology would bring about perpetual slavery through the control of the mind. This is a violation of bodily integrity which even the slaveholders of the 18th century could not have imagined. And yet Elon Musk’s Neuralink is a reality, celebrated as a tech “innovation” that will change the world. The inherent fascistic nature of the tech-industrial complex has done little to harm him or other tech magnates. Tesla’s stocks continue to rise exponentially behind smoke and mirrors of Wall Street. We are made to think of this as a social good, not the acme of the fascist panopticon.
On April 2015, the Large Hadron Collider, based in CERN, Geneva, “accelerated protons to the fastest speed ever attained on Earth,” Symmetry Magazine reported . Superconducting magnets were involved, 6.5 TeV of energy was generated. At the same time, a powerful quake shook Nepal, killing 10,000, injuring 22,000 (me amongst them), and making 400,000 homeless. America contributed 531 million to the Large Hadron Collider project. 1700 American scientists worked on the LHC research, more than any other nation’s, says CERN’s website. These two events are connected. This is not a matter to be dismissed as “conspiracy theory,” although that strategy has worked brilliantly in the past. Now the time has come for careful legal investigation through the auspices of international institutions.
All these crimes against humanity were enabled by the propaganda of the USA as a human rights defender, a fierce supporter of democracy, and a beacon of freedom. None of this is true. Democratic regimes were removed via coups and brutal military dictatorships put in their places, as in Latin America. The true purpose was to remove indigenous people from their land and have that land be taken over by multinational corporations of America.
America has used China’s state violence against Uighurs to protest the dangers of Chinese fascism. While chilling, it doesn’t compare to what America is doing. One million Uighurs are incarcerated in Xinjiang re-education camps. "In 2014, African Americans constituted 2.3 million, or 34%, of the total 6.8 million correctional population," says the NAACP’s criminal justice fact sheet.
With Black Lives Matter mass protests, the world has shown racialized violence of the American state must end.
African-Americans face the possibility of being choked, electro-shocked or killed as they go about their lives. A white policeman can kill a black man or woman, in their own homes or while going about their daily business, at any time.
We have no idea how many times this same kind of impunity has played out internationally, in deserts of Afghanistan and darkened streets of Iraq with no cameras present. How many people have Americans killed, covertly and overtly, with technology as yet unexplicated in law books? How many people has it driven to suicide?
America’s narrative of its own ethical goodness has silenced all opposition. An institution as aware of international law as the UN sees no legal doorway to the crimes against humanity committed by American troops, agents and covert institutions over 75 years. Now the time has come to take apart that myth. The UN must work together to put every single war crimes criminal before the long arm of the law. It is time for the trial of the century to start.
Famine or feast?
Annapurna Express, 31/5/2020
Kathmandu saw its first known starvation death
this week: Surya Bahadur Tamang, who’d spent several decades portering goods in
Kathmandu, was found dead on the sidewalks of Kirtipur. He did not make enough money
to rent a room for himself, so he slept on the streets. On Saturday, May 23,
exactly two months after the lockdown started and all work shut down, he was
found dead, still clutching the woven jute strap he used to carry loads on his
back. The locals said he had no family. He’d been eating free food offered by
local organizations. Yet that wasn’t enough to ward off starvation.
How many people have died already is up for
debate: on Twitter, there was news of at least one other man who had died of
hunger in the Terai, news which went unreported in the national media. These
are not isolated incidents but a systematic failure of justice. As time passes
and the lockdown continues, there will be more starvation deaths.
In a 2017 report by the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), almost two million people in Nepal were
considered undernourished. Nepalis living in remote mountain areas had less
access to food than those in the Terai.
The government of Nepal has made no plans to
feed the estimated 10-15 percent of the population--2 million undernourished,
plus 1.5 to potentially 3 million migrants who have returned from various
cities of India--who already faces hunger.
On top of the lack of government preparation,
we have a locust infestation which has moved up from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
to Uttar Pradesh, just across Nepal’s border. The FAO estimates that the locust
invasion will grow bigger by June-July, with the advent of wet weather and the
monsoon. We could potentially lose much of our major crops. Coupled with this
is a border dispute with India which could again trigger a blockade similar to
the one in 2015. There will be less food export to rely upon as the locusts
destroy essential crops and cause food shortages within India.
The Nepal
government is still focused on developing immediate response plans for the
COVID-19 pandemic. The primary focus so far has been managing the health sector
and implementing the lockdown. As days turn into weeks and weeks turn into
months, there is an urgent need to also focus on other crisis that will
compound the risks from Covid-19. The most immediate threat is famine.
Many
countries have started re-thinking their food trade and food security status.
If countries like India and China do not keep trade open and supply chains
working, food security risks for Nepal could be devastating. It is therefore of
utmost importance to start discussing the importance of local food production
and food sovereignty for Nepal.
The
returning migrant workers, who are now only viewed as a health risk could be
Nepal’s opportunity to win back our own food self-sufficiency. There are vast
tracks of empty land in the hills and mountains and even Terai. Out-migration
and labor shortage was one of the reasons for abandoned cultivable land.
Therefore, we need to capitalize on this opportunity and direct the returning
labor force into farming. Nepal has deep roots in agriculture, and most of our
young people already know how to farm. What they need to get started is government
support for seeds, fertilizers, tools and markets.
Local
governments could provide support by making land leasing easier so that
ownership rights are protected but the land is not left unplanted. Water
management technology, seeds fertilizers and other inputs are needed as well.
The government must also set up farmer co-ops to link farmers to larger rural
and urban markets. The actual approach will need to be managed at a local
level. There is no single silver bullet approach. This also gives the local
governments an opportunity to demonstrate their prowess.
In
Germany, when farmers needed extra help to harvest some spring crops that
usually relied on migrant laborers from Eastern Europe, students from
universities volunteered to help. The universities were closed due to the
COVID- 19 and farmers even paid the students so it was a win-win situation. The
context in Nepal would be different, but we need to find a way to increase our
agricultural production. We cannot leave our lands barren and simply wait for
the crisis to slowly unfold. Action needs to be taken now to hire students for
agricultural work, to subsidize and support women farmers, and startup farmer
co-ops.
Also urgent is the need to prepare for a locust
invasion. While chemical sprays can keep the most immediate swarms at bay, they
may harm other beneficial insects, so we should also think about biological
control of the pests. Wasps are known to be the natural predators of locusts.
We could ask Netherlands, which has top-notch biological pest control
expertise, for help with designing a integrated pest management solution. We
can also use drones as well as airplanes which can fly down towards the swarms
and disperse them with noise. Scientists have shown the locusts stop swarming
when there’s a lot of noise which disrupts their swarming activities.
We should
not let this crisis go to waste. Let us use this opportunity to build back our
food sovereignty. What we decide to do now will determine whether we face
famine or feast in the upcoming winter.
11 May, 2020
Nepal's Lockdown Reality Check
Annapurna Express, 11/5/2020
A few nights ago, I heard a young child talking with a man outside my lane. The voice of the child was rough, like she was from the villages and hadn’t been educated. The man was laughing occasionally in the casual manner of the laborers who still lived in the giant big building that has been constructed in front of our house as an investment property. Built for $600,000, it is now empty, with no renters coming forward to pay the rumored 10 lakh per room. But a group of young male workers are still living there, no doubt guarding the property. Every evening, I hear beautiful flute music from the same building. But this evening, I heard the voice of an angry young woman who was coercing the child to do something she didn’t want to do. The child start to cry hysterically. The man laughed. Then they left.
I have done research in Mumbai and I know child prostitution runs beneath the layers of Nepali society, where family members and guardians often become the enablers of sexual exploitation. While I cannot say with certainty that is what occurred at that moment, it disturbed me tremendously. How many women and children are now at the mercy of predatory men, with the income earned from casual, informal work having come crashing down?
The government of Nepal, unlike Western countries, has no social safety net that can protect teenaged girls and children. They have no provisions for women who are now out of work—the five kilos of rice, some dal and a few packets of cooking oil can barely meet the needs of women with young children. A young woman who was helping me to clean my kitchen decided it wasn’t worth her while to stand in line at the ward office for this small amount of food. “Who wants to wait in line for five kilos?” she said, dismissively. Then she said they would ask for nagarikta, and she’d have to go back to her village to get it. Later that week, I saw another woman in my neighborhood who I know has a young daughter become tremendously upset when she realized she’d need her citizenship to get the food being distributed—clearly she didn’t have it on hand.
Most pandemics of the past went on for 18 to 24 months, if not longer. It is likely that a famine as well as surge of coronavirus cases will follow in the autumn, as temperatures start to cool and food shortages become apparent. Yet does the government know how much grain we have in stock to feed 28 million people? Can it guarantee that it will have enough for the entire population from 23 September 2020 to 12 April 2022, which according to my (jyotish) calculations, will be the time of greatest death and despair? It may be 17th January 2023 before all deaths stop—that is when, according to jyotish, Saturn leaves Capricorn. Coincindentally-although according to jyotish there are no coincidences--Saturn, which rules death, dying, sickness, grief and despair, entered its own house Capricorn on Jan 25th, 2020. On Jan 23, China shut down Wuhan, and on Jan 30th, the WHO declared a pandemic.
While traditional jyotish timing may not be used for government planning any longer, we can look at linear, Western history of pandemics and realize that deaths come in waves and that it rarely ends in a few months. What is our government’s exit strategy to support 28 million young children, vulnerable women, unemployed disabled and elderly? How will it give financial security to the young men and women in urban areas who are now trapped in their homes? What plans does it have to distribute food, vegetables and medicines?
While this task is gargantuan to the center in Kathmandu, provinces have set up systems to deliver old age pensions, vegetables and food to people right at their doorstep. Political representatives more accountable than those in Kathmandu hired buses with their own funds and came seeking for their villagers stranded in the capital, at a time when the sirsha netas had just shut down the city with no provisions for people to return home. Thousands were forced to walk home for days, with kind people along the way offering them food and partial transport and in all likelihood saving their lives.
Kathmandu may be the capital city, but most of its local ward administrative units has been decimated by years of politicization, neglect, corruption and non-accountability. The cellphone message saying “If you suspect you have coronavirus, go to your local health center” is a bit of a laugh in Kathmandu, because there are no government funded local health centers, unless you are talking about the major hospitals. How many unemployed women with toddlers can walk to Shukraraj Hospital?
Perhaps the most chilling development in Kathmandu was seeing the video of little children being bathed in bleach before the local officials would give them free food. A global apparatus of authoritarianism, as epitomized by China, coupled with the bleach can heal wisdom of a “science is might and right” America, is squeezing vulnerable children and elderly all across the planet. In order to come out safely, we must resist both.
https://theannapurnaexpress.com/author/103
A few nights ago, I heard a young child talking with a man outside my lane. The voice of the child was rough, like she was from the villages and hadn’t been educated. The man was laughing occasionally in the casual manner of the laborers who still lived in the giant big building that has been constructed in front of our house as an investment property. Built for $600,000, it is now empty, with no renters coming forward to pay the rumored 10 lakh per room. But a group of young male workers are still living there, no doubt guarding the property. Every evening, I hear beautiful flute music from the same building. But this evening, I heard the voice of an angry young woman who was coercing the child to do something she didn’t want to do. The child start to cry hysterically. The man laughed. Then they left.
I have done research in Mumbai and I know child prostitution runs beneath the layers of Nepali society, where family members and guardians often become the enablers of sexual exploitation. While I cannot say with certainty that is what occurred at that moment, it disturbed me tremendously. How many women and children are now at the mercy of predatory men, with the income earned from casual, informal work having come crashing down?
The government of Nepal, unlike Western countries, has no social safety net that can protect teenaged girls and children. They have no provisions for women who are now out of work—the five kilos of rice, some dal and a few packets of cooking oil can barely meet the needs of women with young children. A young woman who was helping me to clean my kitchen decided it wasn’t worth her while to stand in line at the ward office for this small amount of food. “Who wants to wait in line for five kilos?” she said, dismissively. Then she said they would ask for nagarikta, and she’d have to go back to her village to get it. Later that week, I saw another woman in my neighborhood who I know has a young daughter become tremendously upset when she realized she’d need her citizenship to get the food being distributed—clearly she didn’t have it on hand.
Most pandemics of the past went on for 18 to 24 months, if not longer. It is likely that a famine as well as surge of coronavirus cases will follow in the autumn, as temperatures start to cool and food shortages become apparent. Yet does the government know how much grain we have in stock to feed 28 million people? Can it guarantee that it will have enough for the entire population from 23 September 2020 to 12 April 2022, which according to my (jyotish) calculations, will be the time of greatest death and despair? It may be 17th January 2023 before all deaths stop—that is when, according to jyotish, Saturn leaves Capricorn. Coincindentally-although according to jyotish there are no coincidences--Saturn, which rules death, dying, sickness, grief and despair, entered its own house Capricorn on Jan 25th, 2020. On Jan 23, China shut down Wuhan, and on Jan 30th, the WHO declared a pandemic.
While traditional jyotish timing may not be used for government planning any longer, we can look at linear, Western history of pandemics and realize that deaths come in waves and that it rarely ends in a few months. What is our government’s exit strategy to support 28 million young children, vulnerable women, unemployed disabled and elderly? How will it give financial security to the young men and women in urban areas who are now trapped in their homes? What plans does it have to distribute food, vegetables and medicines?
While this task is gargantuan to the center in Kathmandu, provinces have set up systems to deliver old age pensions, vegetables and food to people right at their doorstep. Political representatives more accountable than those in Kathmandu hired buses with their own funds and came seeking for their villagers stranded in the capital, at a time when the sirsha netas had just shut down the city with no provisions for people to return home. Thousands were forced to walk home for days, with kind people along the way offering them food and partial transport and in all likelihood saving their lives.
Kathmandu may be the capital city, but most of its local ward administrative units has been decimated by years of politicization, neglect, corruption and non-accountability. The cellphone message saying “If you suspect you have coronavirus, go to your local health center” is a bit of a laugh in Kathmandu, because there are no government funded local health centers, unless you are talking about the major hospitals. How many unemployed women with toddlers can walk to Shukraraj Hospital?
Perhaps the most chilling development in Kathmandu was seeing the video of little children being bathed in bleach before the local officials would give them free food. A global apparatus of authoritarianism, as epitomized by China, coupled with the bleach can heal wisdom of a “science is might and right” America, is squeezing vulnerable children and elderly all across the planet. In order to come out safely, we must resist both.
https://theannapurnaexpress.com/author/103
24 April, 2020
Cold West, Hot East
Annapurna Express, 24/04/2020
Despite evidence coronavirus has spread rapidly in rich, developed countries, and left poor countries unscathed, WHO keeps up the official pretense that it will affect all countries equally. This, in fact, has shown not to be the case, after almost 3.5 months of global contagion.
If the scientific establishment was in the service of science (and not in the business of pushing forth the notion of European hegemony and supremacy, or marketing Big Pharma drugs), it would be asking the question: why? What are the factors which are enabling the spread of this pulmonary disease in developed economies?
Several things stand out to me. First, the evidence that the coronavirus can survive 72 hours on plastic. All economies devastated by the virus are plastic economies. People use plastic credit cards to pay for goods and services, they eat their takeout meals out of plastic food containers, they buy their food from plastic bowls which have been touched by multiple hands on the chain of supply.
Second, despite the evidence, all health services have also pushed the notion that plastic is sanitary. Plastic is the only material from which PPE, which protects health workers, can be made. As you can surmise, this notion is problematic and may have led to many deaths of those at the health frontlines. The PPE may be infecting patients as well.
Third, rich economies rely heavily on refrigeration. Food which has been sitting for hours in a cooler is considered fit to take out and eat, without warming. As anyone in South Asia knows, anything that is not hot off the stove can harbor viruses and bacteria—we know this to our detriment from many cholera, diahorrea and other seasonal epidemics tied to hygiene. Yet in developed economies this concern is waved off as a cultural superstition of Third World peoples. Surely the much vaunted civilized cities of the West are so much more advanced with their fridges and cold sandwiches?
There’s also the Asian notion that food that is cold in temperature can cause colds and flus. This is considered to be a quaint belief by the West, where ice-creams can be consumed in the middle of winter in sweltering hot centrally heated restaurants. For Asians, cold comes not just through temperatures but certain foods which are considered to be cool/cold foods on the bodily temperature spectrum. Cucumbers and watermelons, for instance, are cooling foods, while ginger and chilli are warming foods.
This reminds me of the children’s game which we used to play in the past, where a blindfolded child has to find someone who’s hiding. He/she is taken around by another who says “Cold, cold, cold,” or “hot, hot, hot” depending upon how close the blindfolded seeker is to the hidden person they’re trying to find. “Cold” refers to “you’re off the mark.” “Hot” means “you’re very close.” Seeking the cause of coronavirus, it appears to me, could do with this childhood strategy—“Cold, cold, cold” and “you’re about to give yourself a cold with this chilly food” and “hot, hot, hot” meaning “see all those Third World people who pressure cook their food twice a day, do not eat out, and so far haven’t caught the flu? Yes, maybe it’s the hot food that’s keeping them alive!”
Fourth, there is no Amazon distributing large numbers of plastic wrapped packages in the countries where contagion is low or negligible. Amazon has been in the news for several reasons-low paid workers, difficult work conditions, inability of workers to organize and ask for healthcare, lack of testing for covid. There’s also a recent case in which a worker tested positive after Jeff Bezos visited the “fulfillment center.” These are perfect conditions for coronavirus infected workers to spread disease all across the country via niftily delivered packages.
Fifth, the lack of well-equipped hospitals may in fact have been be a boon in poor countries. A very high percentage of people who were intubated are dying after the procedure. Doctors have now gone on record saying that they mistook the very low oxygen count and automatically put people on ventilators, not paying attention to the fact people were sitting up and talking despite very low oxygen figures. The doctors have also said that the cases they see are more like altitude sickness, more than the normal kind of respiratory distress they were used to seeing in the past.
The one factor consistent amongst Third World economies: a reliance on herbal healing. Due to lack of big machines, most people in Third World countries know a local remedy to cure respiratory problems. The Tibetan Government in Exile just handed out a black pill composed of nine herbs to its citizens—perhaps it is the first government to do so. India’s Ayush Ministry has been active online, advising people to take Ayurvedic remedies, including “golden milk”—a small teaspoon of turmeric with hot milk. Just as the rationalists (who are dropping like flies) give a disbelieving laugh, they should first do the research on which system is winning the war here.
I would personally recommend garlic soup and timmur (Sechuwan peppers) to people feeling unwell. Those two cured me of my altitude sickness when I got a pounding headache at Langtang, at 3500 feet. If nothing, the timmur will force oxygen into your lungs without the invasive presence of a ventilator.
Despite evidence coronavirus has spread rapidly in rich, developed countries, and left poor countries unscathed, WHO keeps up the official pretense that it will affect all countries equally. This, in fact, has shown not to be the case, after almost 3.5 months of global contagion.
If the scientific establishment was in the service of science (and not in the business of pushing forth the notion of European hegemony and supremacy, or marketing Big Pharma drugs), it would be asking the question: why? What are the factors which are enabling the spread of this pulmonary disease in developed economies?
Several things stand out to me. First, the evidence that the coronavirus can survive 72 hours on plastic. All economies devastated by the virus are plastic economies. People use plastic credit cards to pay for goods and services, they eat their takeout meals out of plastic food containers, they buy their food from plastic bowls which have been touched by multiple hands on the chain of supply.
Second, despite the evidence, all health services have also pushed the notion that plastic is sanitary. Plastic is the only material from which PPE, which protects health workers, can be made. As you can surmise, this notion is problematic and may have led to many deaths of those at the health frontlines. The PPE may be infecting patients as well.
Third, rich economies rely heavily on refrigeration. Food which has been sitting for hours in a cooler is considered fit to take out and eat, without warming. As anyone in South Asia knows, anything that is not hot off the stove can harbor viruses and bacteria—we know this to our detriment from many cholera, diahorrea and other seasonal epidemics tied to hygiene. Yet in developed economies this concern is waved off as a cultural superstition of Third World peoples. Surely the much vaunted civilized cities of the West are so much more advanced with their fridges and cold sandwiches?
There’s also the Asian notion that food that is cold in temperature can cause colds and flus. This is considered to be a quaint belief by the West, where ice-creams can be consumed in the middle of winter in sweltering hot centrally heated restaurants. For Asians, cold comes not just through temperatures but certain foods which are considered to be cool/cold foods on the bodily temperature spectrum. Cucumbers and watermelons, for instance, are cooling foods, while ginger and chilli are warming foods.
This reminds me of the children’s game which we used to play in the past, where a blindfolded child has to find someone who’s hiding. He/she is taken around by another who says “Cold, cold, cold,” or “hot, hot, hot” depending upon how close the blindfolded seeker is to the hidden person they’re trying to find. “Cold” refers to “you’re off the mark.” “Hot” means “you’re very close.” Seeking the cause of coronavirus, it appears to me, could do with this childhood strategy—“Cold, cold, cold” and “you’re about to give yourself a cold with this chilly food” and “hot, hot, hot” meaning “see all those Third World people who pressure cook their food twice a day, do not eat out, and so far haven’t caught the flu? Yes, maybe it’s the hot food that’s keeping them alive!”
Fourth, there is no Amazon distributing large numbers of plastic wrapped packages in the countries where contagion is low or negligible. Amazon has been in the news for several reasons-low paid workers, difficult work conditions, inability of workers to organize and ask for healthcare, lack of testing for covid. There’s also a recent case in which a worker tested positive after Jeff Bezos visited the “fulfillment center.” These are perfect conditions for coronavirus infected workers to spread disease all across the country via niftily delivered packages.
Fifth, the lack of well-equipped hospitals may in fact have been be a boon in poor countries. A very high percentage of people who were intubated are dying after the procedure. Doctors have now gone on record saying that they mistook the very low oxygen count and automatically put people on ventilators, not paying attention to the fact people were sitting up and talking despite very low oxygen figures. The doctors have also said that the cases they see are more like altitude sickness, more than the normal kind of respiratory distress they were used to seeing in the past.
The one factor consistent amongst Third World economies: a reliance on herbal healing. Due to lack of big machines, most people in Third World countries know a local remedy to cure respiratory problems. The Tibetan Government in Exile just handed out a black pill composed of nine herbs to its citizens—perhaps it is the first government to do so. India’s Ayush Ministry has been active online, advising people to take Ayurvedic remedies, including “golden milk”—a small teaspoon of turmeric with hot milk. Just as the rationalists (who are dropping like flies) give a disbelieving laugh, they should first do the research on which system is winning the war here.
I would personally recommend garlic soup and timmur (Sechuwan peppers) to people feeling unwell. Those two cured me of my altitude sickness when I got a pounding headache at Langtang, at 3500 feet. If nothing, the timmur will force oxygen into your lungs without the invasive presence of a ventilator.
14 February, 2020
Local heating, not just global
Western science is lauded as the ultimate
arbiter of knowledge. When it comes to climate change, they are often quoted as
the experts, with people from all fields urging the irrational: “Listen to the
science!”
The only problem: scientists are limited in
their imagination and cannot see beyond the 1.5 degree threshold. Much like Tom
Friedman’s “The World is Flat,” they imagine the planet to be flat, warming at
an even rate all over like a nice tortilla, from mountains to Himalayan
glaciers, from Antartica to the Gulf.
But the world is not shaped like a
tortilla. It has immense geographical, environmental, social, political and
policy variations, even a few kilometers apart.
In some parts of India, peak summer
temperatures already reach 50 degree centigrades. This is unsustainable for
human habitation. Some of this heating is caused by global climate change, but
other reasons for warming and drought is local deforestation, extraction of
water without rain recharge, and industrial application of chemical fertilizers
which turn soil into fine dust. Cities and tenements built without planning for
greenery exacerbate the urban heat effect. All are catalysts for heating.
A policy decision made a kilometer away can
create a thriving, water rich, forest dense community living sustainably while
another can be a desert only a few minutes drive away. I visited one such
community in Nepal in 2009. A village of Khadgas, poor but still educated, were
tending a community forest from which they harvested herbs for essential oils.
They had plumes of water from groundwater to grow corn. Their lives were on the
upswing with one liter of essential oil bringing in Rs.30,000 in income. The
next community of Chidimars, a Dalit community which made a living off trapping
birds, were living in an desertified environment—they’d been encouraged to put
in a tubewell by a development agency, had stopped building traditional gadda to store rainwater, and had cut all their trees to build a
schoolhouse. The community was on the edge of migrating due to desertification
caused by bad policy and environmental distress.
How poor communities build up resilience to
survive the global as well as local warming effects will depend heavily upon
local policy decisions. In Nepal, local governance structures like ward offices
and village development committees have been annihilated by the Loktantric
regime. In my own neighborhood in Handigaon, I have been hard pressed to find
an elected representative who could address my concerns about huge numbers of
motorcycles driving through a historic area. I would like to stop this
onslaught. But who do I turn to? There is no clear representative, no ward
officials, no VDC structure.
This lack of local governance means special
stress and vulnerability to poor communities often at the mercy of outside
actors. Often current policy decisions, made ad hoc and on the spot, are driven
by external Kathmandu based NGO actors whose motivations may consist of showing
a progress report to the donor agency rather than the true concerns of the
community. Tubewells and now solar pumps that pump up riverwater, which are
unsustainable in the long run, are being introduced (to much applause) at the
expense of long-term sustainable water harvesting and irrigation systems. As
the traditional methods fall apart, and the people have no way to maintain
expensive polythene pipe systems, a rural community can plummet into drought
and distress.
This sort of development-triggered distress
is never accounted for in M and E reports, a genre of writing which documents
glowing successes. “Is this policy sustainable in the long run?” is not a
question asked of development practitioners. Grant burn rates (throw money at
people who can use it up fast), flashy new technology, hot button themes,
progress reports and deliverables drive policies, rather than long-term
environmental stewardship.
Fossil fuel needs to be phased out, as does
plastics. But central to people’s
survival in the climate heating era will be local governance. A strong network
of local governance existed in Nepal in the past. This is quickly being
eradicated as crony communism takes hold. If we don’t address this, this will
be a threat to the very existence of local communities.
Annapurna Post, February 14, 2020
24 January, 2020
Path to Water Sustainability
It is clear that the city of Kathmandu
cannot depend upon drinking water ferried on fossil fuel tankers, although the
current government has embraced this model as a permanent one. Not only do the
millions of trips made per month foul the already polluted air, it also adds
hugely to poor people’s water and health bills.
Nepal Parliament must pass a resolution
which makes it mandatory for landlords to provide water to residents before
they rent a room. In Kathmandu, landlords are rapidly putting up buildings with
no running water, kitchen, toilets or electricity provided. These rooms are
rented from Rs.5000 to Rs.10,000 each. The women renting them are often single
mothers whose husbands are in the Gulf. The women manage their finances and run
their household by holding down small jobs. They do domestic work,
construction, laundry and other part-time work while taking care of
school-going children. Trying to source water from tankers or plastic canisters
can be a serious burden on women who are already overworked with loans,
housework, cooking, laundry and care responsibilities.
It is unethical and wrong of rich landlords
to force poor single mothers to carry canisters of water five floors up to
their rooms. Often the landlord hasn’t provided water not because they don’t
have the money—these businessmen own multiple buildings and are cashing in
lakhs in monthly rent --but because they believe their tenants are from the
villages and therefore can manage without running water. A pump may be provided
in the yard which pumps up groundwater. These water sources are inadequate or
they do not provide clean water. Tenements of this nature have sprung up freely
without government regulation and control all over Kathmandu and other cities of
Nepal since the Loktantric government came to power.
The government does the hardworking
citizens of Nepal a disservice if they don’t put regulations in place which
ensures no ghaderi or apartment building can be
rented out till the landlord has put in essentials, including a
water-harvesting system, toilets with adequate water, electricity connection,
and gas canisters, in place. Any building with more than 3 rental families
should be legally mandated to have a water harvesting system with a filter in place.
The government must sent a health inspector to ensure such a system is in place
before they give permission to rent. The government must also provide training
to ward offices to install these systems in a cost-effective manner, with a
technical team in place to deal with maintenance issues.
A Housing Agency which keeps track of all
tenants in Kathmandu, along with a database of landlords, must be created. This
ensures that the government can keep track of water harvesting compliance. Any
complaints about toilets, electricity etc should also be addressed through the
agency, which should act as a mediator between landlords and tenants. Tenants
are at the mercy of landlords at the moment. They have no recourse to justice
and are living in what in Western countries are 19th century
tenement style buildings with very poor infrastructure. As with the past, these
conditions are not inevitable, but a consequence of greed by those who are
setting up large buildings with the explicit intention of cramming as many
tenants as possible into small spaces while providing them with the least
number of amenities.
This kind of exploitative business model is
unacceptable in a democratic system where citizens have rights, including
rights to safe housing, clean water, and human dignity.
By 2025, all water in Kathmandu should come
from water harvesting systems and revival of traditional gravity-fueled wells.
Fossil fueled water tankers must be phased out. Not only are we losing huge
amounts of foreign currency earned abroad on ferrying water into the cities, we
are also giving this money right back to the oil-rich Gulf states where our
citizens are currently working in near bonded conditions, and to India which
continues to control Nepal’s economy with a vice-like grip.
10 January, 2020
Who is to blame?
Annapurna Express, January 10, 2020
Australia is on fire. Who is to blame for
the millions of acres burnt to cinder, the lives lost and properties destroyed,
the almost half billion animals killed?
Australia is a major producer and user of
fossil fuel. Australia Energy Update 2018, from Australian Government’s
Department of Environment and Energy (energy.gov.au), says coal, oil and gas
accounted for 94 per cent of Australia's primary energy mix in 2016–17.
Sixty-three percent of electricity was
generated from coal. Out of this, 11% was from brown coal, a source of energy
environmental activists have long opposed due to its harmful health and
ecological effects. Coal mining releases methane, a potent greehouse gas which
is one of the main causes of global heating.
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of
Australia, brought a lump of coal to Parliament in 2017. He sang the virtues of
coal and its links to Australian prosperity, and said: “those opposite have an
ideological, pathological fear of coal. There’s no word for coalophobia
officially, Mr. Speaker. But that’s the malady that afflicts those opposite.”
Mr. Morrison, who critics say also cut funding for firefighters, was later seen
enjoying his holiday in Hawaii as Australia went up in flames. Volunteer
firefighters died trying to contain the massive fires.
Economic “growth” almost always leads to
more stress on the environment, leading to worse economic conditions for people
in the long run. The Australian economy grew by 2.0 per cent in 2016–17 to
reach $1.7 trillion. Energy consumption was 6,146 petajoules in 2016-2017 for 24.6
million people. To compare, Nepal with a population of 27 million consumed 428
petajoules in 2010[1]. Assuming 2 million Nepalis are working
abroad at any given time, and the population being roughly equal in size, an
average Australian citizen uses 14 times more energy than a Nepali.
It is clear Nepal needs to increase its
energy use if we are to run industries and be self-sufficient in articles of
daily consumption. But does Australia need to reduce its energy levels? Is
there a balance between the First World and Third World that could be struck
which puts us somewhere in the middle?
Australia also has large tracks of
industrial farming lands which are saturated with glyphosate, a herbicide first
created by Monsanto and now sold by Bayer. Glyphosate is used to desiccate
crops after they’ve been cut. This means it’s an agent that dries out organic
matter. Now imagine millions of acres full of grain and stalks saturated with
this substance, drying out the land across an entire continent. How could it
not catch on fire?
Then there’s Bolsonaro’s Brazil,
encouraging cattle farmers to set the Amazon on fire. Australia and Brazil are
both in the Southern Hemisphere. In the map, they appear to be separated only
by an ocean. In other words, they are upwind and downwind from each other.
Without doubt, hot winds of Brazil’s Amazon fires played a hand in temperature
increases in Australia. The firestorms look more like tornados than forest
fires, which suggest heated air currents.
And last but not least, there’s eucalyptus.
Although the literature assures us that eucalyptus is native to Australia, are
there plantations that have been put together in neat rows by human hands which
have dried out groundwater? In Nepal, this tree was introduced in the Eighties
by the Australian aid agency. It quickly became known for depleting groundwater
levels for miles around. A similar situation developed in India where
eucalyptus had been planted in plantations. Is there human agency behind the
reshaping of seemingly virgin land which created conditions perfect for water
table depletion and drought?
Poignant photographs of children staring at
dead koalas and kangaroos are making their rounds on Twitter. Many species of
animals, birds and insects may never recover their population and go extinct
after this cataclysmic event. For those who are children or in their teens,
there is a sense of a world lost which can never be recovered.
Which is why it was enraging to see this tweet
from Exxon Mobil Australia:
“Stay safe and have fun this new year,
from all of us at ExxonMobil Australia.”
One person responded: “Jesus Christ this is
pure evil.” Another said: “Exxon needs to be prosecuted for crimes against
humanity. Blood is on your hands. #GreenNewDeal now.”
And this may be the only way to respond to
this apocalyptic fire which has devastated an entire continent. Can ecological
crimes finally be taken to the World Court of Justice, as another Twitter
respondent suggested? Are the actions of big corporations not leading to
genocide in many places, with people being affected in mass numbers by climate
triggered events?
In Australia, people are shifting out of
homes and neighborhoods they may never return to in their lifetime. It will
take decades for forests to revive and restore. Where will all these
fire-affected people go? Who will help them rebuild their lives? Surely it
won’t be the fossil fuel corporations who made billions of dollars in profit,
but paid zero tax to the country.
A sobering note to begin the new decade
with, but we must remember Nepal
is one of the most climate change affected countries in the world. Our people
are also being displaced, through the slow depleting of glaciers, ice and
spring melt in the Himalayas. Who is to blame?
28 December, 2019
Disband The Fourth Wall
A few weeks ago, I wrote an op-ed called
“Disband the UN.” A former senior UN official wrote to me and said he disagreed
with my thesis. Had I looked at the possibilities of reform within the UN? I
explained that my reasoning went beyond looking at the possibilities of change
within the UN—the time for that is long past.
What I am asking for is a radical rehaul of
our contemporary financial system. This system is based on colonial
underpinnings of Western countries exploiting the economies of the East, and
forms a complex, invisible mesh of international financial modalities which
underpins the present inequality of nations.
This drama of inequality is kept in place
by a “Fourth Wall” which maintains the illusion, rather than a theatrical play,
of a just international system. This play is embodied by the UN (“the actors on
the stage”), and the reality of twenty-first century poverty (“the
spectators”). Much like a play, it is funded by benefactors which have
political leverage and financial clout, as we saw in the COP25 meet in Madrid
this week. Protesters and advocates against climate change were the spectators,
while the actors on stage maintained the Fourth Wall with the illusion of
international legality.
As the COP25 drama unfolded, oil producing
state Qatar proudly tweeted its support of the UN, saying it is one of its
biggest financial contributors. How can a system whose survival depends upon
the financial support of oil-producing states be expected to pass a global
fossil-fuel ban? Which is what the COP25 should have done—hand down a 2030
deadline for the phaseout of exploration, extraction and distribution of all
fossil fuel worldwide.
Yale University’s 360 website published
“The Plastics Pipeline” by Beth Gardiner on December 19, 2019. The article
discusses how Exxon, Shell, Saudi Aramco and other big petroleum companies are
gearing up for massive plastic production in expectation of lower demand for
fossil fuel. A fracking boom has led to high production of ethane, and they
need a way to dispose of this feedstock. Millions of tons of new plastic is in
the pipeline.
Plastic is the most destructive product we
have ever invented. It clogs up our waterways, soil and air. It is found in
every living being on earth. Birds, whales and deer are found dead with their
stomachs full of plastic. Plastic should be phased out as soon as possible. We
should not be talking about “recycling,” a feel good euphemism that rich people
in the West use for dumping their trash.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
expressed disappointment in the COP25 outcomes—but disappointment is an
inadequate response for a crisis in which the survival of humankind as well as
all of life on the planet is at stake.
It is clear that the planet can no longer
be governed in this manner—with opaque financial networks, TNCs and special
interest nation-states dictating the terms of international policy and law.
With the effects of climate change exploding across the planet and tearing
through the lives of millions of people, we can no longer ignore the reality of
a handful of destructive corporations which have chosen to deceive people and
destroy the planet.
Australia has been burning with bushfires
for the past few months. About 7 million acres of land have burnt in 2019. Lyn
Bender, a 72 year old psychologist from Australia writing in Independent
Australia.net, says “The human race is engaged in a murder-suicide pact of
gigantic proportions.” She states the old methods of grief management is no
longer adequate for this moment: “As someone who has worked with grief and
trauma, I now find the age-old concepts of grief management hopelessly puny and
inadequate. The enormity of the growing evidence of environmental destruction
is now unfolding worldwide.”
In Nepal, the Himalayas are melting with
each passing year. Each winter is warmer than it used to be. A billion and more
people depend upon spring melt water from the Himalayas for drinking water,
cooking, irrigation, washing, laundry, animal husbandry, and other daily needs.
When snow no longer covers the mountains, there will be mass migration of
people seeking more livable environments, as Marty Logan (“Mt. Everest is
Melting: Are you Moved?” December 20, 2019) pointed out in the Nepali Times. We
are already starting to see this in our lifetime.
With certain environmental apocalypse
awaiting us in 30-50 years time, it is genocidal to allow a capitalist system
which sees petroleum profit as “wealth” to dictate what money is, what value it
should have, how it circulates, and where it ultimately ends up. As a post in
the Extinction Rebellion blog recently pointed out, the valuation of Saudi
Aramco as the world’s most valuable company literally equates planetary
destruction as capitalism’s most profitable endeavor.
We need a radical overhaul of the financial
mechanisms that underpin the inequality of nations. The Bank of International
Settlements, the World Bank and IMF, the opaque financial committees and
gatherings, all of this needs to be examined and disbanded. Why do some nations
get to print trillions for war and trillions for their citizens, while other
countries can only print enough to sustain starvation and death? Surely there
is a Fouth Wall between “actors” and “spectators” here that we need to dismantle.
Only then will we be able to halt our current lethal apocalyptic stride towards
planetary destruction.
Annapurna Express, December 27, 2019
https://theannapurnaexpress.com/news/disband-the-fourth-wall-2127
29 November, 2019
Disband the UN
The Annapurna Express, November 29, 2019
The UN was set up after WWII with good
intentions. Fifty-one countries got together and entered a network whose aim
was “maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly
relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards
and human rights” (UN website.) Nobody could disagree with such a mandate.
But then cracks began to show in this ideal
utopian vision. While the rhetoric assured the world that the unique
international character of the UN meant it was open to all 193 member nations,
it also stated:
“The Organization can take action on a wide
range of issues, and provide a forum for its 193 Member States to express their
views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social
Council and other bodies and committees.”
The Security Council is made up of 15
wealthy countries which have used their muscle power to dominate and invade
small countries. They also apply sanctions to nations who they deem
rogue—although the criteria for rogue nation appears subjective, at best. At
worst, an objective observer may argue that the wealthiest nations have ganged
up on regional powers because they don’t want them to dominate some
capitalistic sector (energy, military, or otherwise) in which they themselves
have an interest to monopolize.
The workings of the UN is neo-colonial. A
monied bureaucratic class dominated by Europeans, North Americans, Australians
and Japanese are posted to various outposts in the world. Through these postings,
they tell the governments of various nations how to conduct themselves on all
sorts of internal issues like governance, finance, justice, and security.
Interference of this sort which would never be accepted by Western nations is
meted out to Third World nations on a daily basis. These nations are seen to be
intransigent if they refuse these favors.
No questions are accepted on why a skewed
economic system which allows Western nations to dominate financially continues
to operate in the 21st century.
If we are to truly follow the spirit of the
UN, we need to dismantle the current system and set up an alternate system of
global governance. This new UN—let’s call it the United Planet --would
prioritize environmental health of the planet over military, economic or
demographic superiority of nation-states. It would not see military might as
the arbiter of authority, but would follow the spirit of liberalism, in which
the equality of all human beings would be the touchstone to creating a just and
ethical economic policy.
The patchwork of work done by the UN has
been exemplary in many regards. But in no way has it brought social change fast
enough for the 7 billion who are suffering from lack of basic needs (food,
housing, education, health, and a living, sustainable environment.) Urban
poverty besets Western nations, despite talks of great wealth. Financial and
monetary policy continue to favor the rich, with certain layers of society
getting the crème de la crème access to credit and cash, while those at the
bottom do all the work and get very little.
None of this is working, for either rich or
poor. It was working well for the rich till the environment started to collapse
and excessive exploitation of resources led to a planetary crisis. Even the
very wealthy become subject to climate change, air pollution and water
shortages. There are expensive bunkers to retreat into, but in the end there is
no escape as the collapse of biodiversity may wipe all humans out of existence.
Our world is more unequal than ever,
despite glowing optimism. Technology, including AI, rears its ugly head as a
means of surveillance and state control. One war, one natural disaster, and
millions of people can be displaced, starving, bonded to labor, trafficked,
enslaved, with no oversight or system in place to stop such an event. We’ve
seen such events in our lifetime—the Rohingya genocide, migrants drowning to
reach Europe, the slavery of African immigrants in Libya, detention of children
of Latin American families in America’s borders, the cultural erasure of
Uighurs in China.
Technology has gotten a free pass for too
long. It needs to be regulated with great oversight (although we have already
opened Pandora’s Box.) Covert military programs will continue to misuse
technology, on a scale we cannot imagine now. Any international organization
that replaces the UN must be alert to this possibility. It must constantly seek
to find and delete these fascist impulses.
What we need now is a radical new system to
replace the old and outdated. The new union of governments will govern in a
just and ethical manner, treating all nationals of Planet Earth with equal
dignity. The new union will ensure fair distribution of money and resources,
prioritize environmental protection over capitalistic gain, and reward simple
living over excessive consumption. All of this will happen through a system of
global governance which will replace entrenched systems of racial and gender
inequality, nation-state dominance, and exploitation of capital and labor.
The MeToo Movement from women, Extinction
Rebellion, Greta Thunberg and all the children of the world who call for an
ethical deal on sustainability—all these movements point to a time in history
when change is inevitable. Governance can no longer be left to the hands of a
group of elderly men. We need to ask for, and get, a radical rehaul in the way
governance is imagined, and conducted, on this planet.
19 October, 2019
ROMANTICIZING THE JANJATI
This article was rejected by the Brahmin-Chettri editors because they were too terrified to challenge PC perceptions of the janjati, and also because most probably they did not want to be branded racists. Hence rather late I decided to run it in my blog instead. The article addresses the violence against women in the name of witchcraft.
ROMANTICIZING THE JANJATI
Ten-year old Suman Nepali’s harrowing
eyewitness account of how his mother was killed by his teacher Hira Lama and
Hira’s mother Kailimaya Tamang, who tortured her and fed her human feces, was
published in NepalKhabar recently. Urban readers were sickened by this account,
in which the social science teacher hurled abuse at the young Dalit woman and
accusations of being a witch, tied her to a volleyball post in the schoolyard,
hit her on the head, tied her legs when she resisted forcible feeding of human
feces, and forced it down her throat, and beat her so savagely on her head she
succumbed to her injuries two days later.
The whole village watched as this incident
unfolded, and did not help, except for one woman who separated 10 year old
Suman from his enraged teacher after he attacked him when the boy pleaded with
him not to hurt his mother.
The victim, weakened by the torture on Tuesday, 6th
December, was unable to walk the three hours to Dhulikhel Hospital the next
day. The Nepal Police showed up on Thursday, two days after the incident, and
made the victim sign a “milapatra” or reconciliation agreement saying their
conflict had ended in the presence of 15 villagers. Used by the police often in
the case of domestic violence and abuse, the milapatra is a troublingly
overused system of restorative justice. The milapatra usually means the victim
has agreed to a reconciliation and will not pursue legal action. Laxmi Pariyar
died on Friday morning, while her husband and child slept nearby.
The account provoked storms of outrage on
social network Twitter. The protesters on Twitter demanded legal action against
the policeman who had made the victim sign this paper. Questions were raised as
to whether the justice system was misusing this informal method of local
community “reconciliation” to avoid prosecuting serious crime, in this case
murder.
Dalitonline, an online news portal, also
reported that the policeman in charge had been seen drinking with the
perpetrator shortly before. In an extraordinary misuse of the justice system,
the policeman Prempukar Chowdary, who had forced Laxmi Pariyar to sign the
concocted milapatra, apparently filed a case against the tortured victim, in
favor of the perpetrator.
Bisnukumari Pariyar, mother-in-law of the
deceased woman, explained in a press conference held by the police on 12th
December that Chowdhary had made them sign a paper in which they had to beg for
forgiveness from Hira Lama, and also pay him Rs.6000[1]. In addition, the husband of Laxmi
Pariyar was then arrested by the police, who are now claiming this incident
never occurred—according to the Dalitonline report, this is a strategy to frame
the innocent husband, in order to deflect attention from the calls of action
against the police involved, including those at district headquarters.
The multiple levels of misuse of the
justice system to torture, kill, hide the case, blame the victim, force them to
pay restitution, and then frame the innocent husband speaks of multiple levels
of miscarriage of justice for this Dalit family in Kavre. The Nepal Police have
failed in their line of duty. Not only did they fail to arrest the perpetrator
and take the victim to Kathmandu’s hospitals, which would have saved her life,
they allowed an innocent man to be framed.
This is not the first time a woman has been
fed human feces after being accused of witchcraft. Another high profile
documented case also involved a Tamang teacher who accused a woman of
witchcraft and fed her human feces. In 2009, the newspapers reported another
similar case in which Kumari BK was accused by Bimala Lama, the headmistress of a local primary school, of
practicing witchcraft. Ms Lama and a group of villagers then locked up Ms Kumari
BK and her husband for two days, and tortured the couple. When they threatened
to chop off her breasts with a knife, Ms Kumari BK "admitted" she was
a witch.
Advocacynet[2]
reports that:
Ms Kumari BK was kicked, punched, hit
with stones, and forced to eat excrement while Ms Lama and other villagers told
her that "Witches should be killed like this," according to a Jagaran
Media Center (JMC) report. The villagers also threatened to kill her husband if
he spoke up in her defense.
I remember talking to Subash Darnal, a
dynamic Dalit activist who headed the Jagaran Media Center, about this incident
in 2009. Subhash, sadly, died in a tragic accident while returning from a
fellowship at Stanford University. I assumed, like most people, that Brahmins
were somehow behind this conflict. He was the one who told me that during this
incident, the Brahmins of the community got so enraged about this sickening
violence against the Dalit woman that they had to physically send in the armed
police force from Kathmandu to manage the conflict between the Brahmins and the
Tamangs in the community.
It was also Subash who told me that the was
a need to analyze how janjati or ethnic cultures also oppressed Dalits—in
particular, he brought up the ways in which janjati men would marry Dalit
women, then abandon them once the parents protested and marry a second time
with women from their own cultures, leading to the social abandonment of Dalit
women left alone and vulnerable with children.
There is a tendency amongst the
intelligensia of Nepal, especially those educated in Western universities and
mentored by high profile Western academics, to automatically read this Dalit
oppression through the lens of what can, for lack of a better term, be labeled
“Evil Brahminism.” Through this frame of reference, all Dalit oppression is
directly attributable to the evil Brahmins and their scriptures, including
those of Manu. Parallel to this is the romanticized discourse of the “Good
Janjati,” especially Tamangs, whose contemporary situation has been read as
directly attributable to their being oppressed by the Ranas and Shahs, who used
this particular ethnic group for labor for centuries and therefore have driven
them into unimaginable poverty.
I have found, however, that that sort of
discourse is not just simplistic and misleading, but also has acted to
obfuscate the social realities on which intersecting oppressions of different
groups lies. This discourse fails to note that Tamangs have been beneficiaries
of the modern Nepal state since Panchayat times and more recently with the Maoist
civil conflict; and that they are in positions of power within the local
community, and that they have been incorporated into the discourses of progress
and development via the educational system. In both cases, the perpetrators of
these gender based violence were teachers, who are respected individuals who
received, in most likelihood, a government salary.
In addition, there’s also the ominous aspect of communal
ethnic cultures, missing in individualistic Brahmin Chettri culture, which is
the age-old “community court”, or local justice mechanisms. These kangaroo
courts can become violent when they gang up en masse against a marginalized
figure—an aspect often overlooked when we romaticize the benefic nature of
communal cultures.
It is also remarkable to me that amongst
all the new literature of ethnic cultures, no anthropologist has taken the time
to note that beliefs in witches exist almost exclusively amongst the animistic
cultures (including those of Rai-Limbus, Tamang, etc)--Brahmins have no mention
of witches in any of their scriptures. Which is one reason a careful analysis
of witchcraft accusations will probably, in most likelihood, bring up
non-Brahmin perpetrators. In other words, individuals of romanticized ethnic
cultures get off easily from gender violence and have uptil now not been made
accountable for these incidents of witchcraft torture, simply due to the
mistaken perception that ethnic cultures like Tamangs are inherently gender
equal, compared to the Brahmins. In fact, I would not be surprised to find some
international scholar in some faroff country reading about this incident and
writing a generic report, exclusively based on an epistemological framework of
Brahmin oppression.
I find these foreign experts (who shall
remain unnamed, but I will let on that many of them, from prestigious
universities from the USA and UK, are anthropologists) have exacerbated and
obfuscated serious issues like those of witchcraft by having the final say on
their own particular ethnic group. Nobody else is allowed to question the
epistemological supremacy of these individuals, who hold the supreme truth over
their own particular tribe (rather like old viceroys of yore), and which has
stopped other people within Nepal from asking the right questions, which may in
fact have stopped this gender based violence a long time ago.
12 October, 2019
President Xi’s Visit to Nepal: How we should shape our foreign policy
As Nepal gears up for Chinese President Xi’s visit this Saturday afternoon, I thought I’d put forth some thoughts of mine is what is otherwise an entirely male dominated foreign policy environment. All commentators (former and present diplomats, government officials, journalists) in Nepal are male, and this definitely shapes the way we view what international relations between the two countries should be.
There is a lot of talk of infrastructure, of course. There’s the trans-Himalayan railway, a much desired infrastructural project after India’s blockade on Nepal. There’s hydropower projects of mega-scope, billions of dollars and thousands of megawatts in the pipeline. China has always been a big builder of roads in Nepal, and with the BRI this is definitely in the equation. Investment in cement factories is also a big one.
My views on this has been clear on Twitter. As we invest billions of dollars every year on roads that wash away each monsoon, the viability of roads in mountain areas has become even more questionable to me as the years progress. It is clear ropeways, which require much less invasive infrastructure and which can be quickly rebuild in the case of a natural disaster, has been neglected and wiped off the Nepali policy map for decades. We need to revive the idea of goods carrying ropeways, which in the long run may be more sustainable and viable than a railway through extremely mountainous areas of Tibet and Nepal. The cost of maintaining a railway would be astronomical. Nepal will be stuck with a White Elephant which takes us more money to maintain than it brings in. There is no doubt the lines would erode over a few winter seasons and which may never repaired later, due to Nepal’s lack of trained technicians. A ropeway on the other hand would always be operational, and require minimal maintenance.
Our main goal is to bring and take goods, not people, from China. After I saw a Chinese man in a motorcycle with a Chinese number plate and army costume wandering around in Dhulikhel, it occurred to me that bringing in people from the border areas might not be a great idea. We should limit tourism to high end and middle class tourists who come by plane.
Hydropower projects, especially on the mega-scale that China is talking about, is contested for environmental reasons. Nepal has fragile mountains, whose ecology has to be carefully stewarded. Nepal is also a democratic country and its not easy to empty habited lands — the lands have to be bought, and with speculators rushing to the proposed sites and buying up land cheaply from villagers, the government is faced with a big gold-rush crowd waiting to cash in on their dividends once the hydropower projects commence. This means more costs for Nepal, and which is one of the issues which stall these projects. All of these have to be resolved before the projects can be put in operation.
With global climate change and rivers running dry, the other due diligence that Nepal Government should do is look at how viable these projects will be in 20 or 30 years time, when we may have much less water than we do now, due to climate change melting our glaciers and ending the spring melt which feeds the rivers.
A more viable policy issue to discuss with China in the day of climate change is better management of Himalayan rivers, including ways to ensure their longevity. Also the two countries should discuss the possibilities that those rivers could one day dry up, leaving a lot of highland communities with very little water. How would they survive? What are indigenous local methods of water conservation which could stall this possibility? How can China support those initiatives so that rivers are conserved on both sides of the border? These sustainable conservation issues should also be on the agenda, although they are not as glamorous as the prospect of a huge hydropower dam.
Nomadic communities on both sides of the border should be able to graze their sheep and yaks in the way they have done for centuries. These indigenous people are the stewards of the land, and they know how to keep the ecology in balance. They should be treated with respect and given due acknowlegement for their knowledge of stewardship.
There’s talk about “people to people exchange.” This is never entirely defined, other than in tourism. As a writer and filmmaker, I also want the Nepal government to lobby for a government exchange program which take teams of Nepali filmmakers to China to expose them to their world class filmmaking industries, including on short-term training programs. This would be extremely welcome.
We also need to formalize an agreement on intellectual copyright issues. How can Nepalese translate and get their works published in China with legal protection (other than going through the circuitous route of going through an American or Western literary agency, which currently is the only option?) How can we show our films in China in a way that makes it profitable for both sides? At the moment, there are no formal agreements between Nepal and China about intellectual property rights in books, films and music. This is something we should think about, since our young filmmakers are increasingly making better films and music videos. We should also be able to compensate the filmmakers in China by watching their films on the big screen, and not just watch their excellent films on pirated DVDs.
For women and young people all over the world, the viability of the planet and its survival has become a huge concern. China is a major source of greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide. Nepal must definitely raise this issue, including ways in which China could phase out coal and move to clean energy. With global warming, we are losing our glaciers and Himalayan rivers. About 1.3 billion people (Nepalese and Indians) depend upon these rivers for drinking water, irrigation and livelihoods. They are also sacred to Hindus. We cannot afford to lose these rivers. What are some of the things that China can do to offset its carbon footprint so that we can slow and stall the melting of the glaciers?
This brings me to plastic. China has long depended upon the plastic industry to boost its exports and create the new wealth which has uplifted its population. However, plastic can no longer be the material on which it builds its prosperity. Plastic’s impact on people, animals, birds and all living creatures are now well-known. We are being inundated with this material which neither biodegrades nor provides any value to soil, air and water, other than causing their desecration. China has to move away from plastic as its backbone, and look for new materials that ideally nourish the soil and air, or at least do not cause harm. It has already stopped the export of plastic waste from America and other countries into China through “Operation National Sword,” citing pollution. Now it needs to stop the manufacture of plastic, and quickly reinvest in new green options so that it can stay ahead in the plastic alternative game.
I was at my local shop the other day when a young teenager walked up with one of those disposable coffee containers ubiquitous in the West, but which we hadn’t seen in Nepal so far. Now with China’s burgeoning exports through new online websites, we are seeing these lethal objects in Nepal. The only way to dispose of these single use plastic containers is to incinerate them. This contributes to Kathmandu’s deathly pollution, as well as to the region’s global warming. This has to stop, on both a moral and ethical basis. This is not development or prosperity. This is madness. We are working to destroy our own future generations on this planet when we choose these materials as our base.
In addition, there are several points of disagreement which Nepal as a democratic country has with China. We cannot support the kind of surveillance which has become commonplace in China and which is state-endorsed. People should not be monitored by these surveillance programs — this is a fundamental violation of people’s rights to privacy. These surveillance technology are now commonplace in HongKong as well, which is an alarming trend. China must resolve its differences with HongKong peaceably, including respecting the terms and conditions with which HongKong was handed over by the British. In addition, Nepal cannot support China’s treatment of the Uighurs. These programs of coercion and indoctrination must end, and programs which encourage Uighur youths to start small businesses and move away from radicalization must be put in place instead.
Also Nepal cannot support any program of extradition which may affect Tibetans. Tibetans who came as refugees are one of Nepal’s most hardworking communities, tirelessly bringing in the foreign exchange through the many entrepreneurial ventures that they run. The biggest export from Nepal to China may be Tibetan handknotted carpets. Tibetan Buddhist teachers run religious institutions and give lectures on Buddhism which also attract many international visitors, including many from mainland China. Nepal, as a country dependent upon tourism, see them as a valuable part of our national life, not just due to their contribution to the economy but especially in their hand in keeping alive the Buddha Dharma. They are valued citizens and we cannot put them at risk in any way.
There are many other ways in which China and Nepal can sustainably co-operate and boost trade both ways. Healing herbs have always been a major export from Nepal from mountain areas, especially the Karnali. Nepal needs to regulate the trade and provide the benefits of this trade goes back to local communities. Right now, it requires a license to harvest the herbs. Indian businessmen who pay for the license can legally harvest while the locals can be prosecuted for picking herbs from their own forests. This is obviously a system that must be dismantled and greater autonomy given to locals to steward and sustainably harvest their own forest resources.
China’s traditional healing herbs and traditional medicines are world-class, and Nepal can learn a lot from them. Our government should request the Chinese government to provide an exchange program which trains people in acupuncture techniques as well as traditional Chinese herbs so we can provide low cost traditional herbal alternatives to our people. I have gone to an acupuncturist after my earthquake accident and experienced first hand the wellbeing that comes from acupuncture. I have also seen people with paralysis and other life-crippling events recover in this healing center.
China and Nepal should also work on attracting tourists to ecological tourism, in which people are taught about the benefits of maintaining wild areas and wildlife. Without our forests and our animals, we will not survive for very long. Nature can do without humans, but humans cannot do without nature! We need to understand this and work towards rebuilding mixed forests which give importance to old growth trees.
Currently a series of new governments have devastated Kathmandu’s trees, killing thousands of old growths in road expansion programs. We are now facing the consequences of those actions — including an epidemic of dengue, which is spread by mosquitoes. Everyone from the Mayor to our most valued doctor Sanduk Ruit have come down with this disease. The mosquito’s natural predators, including dragonflies, birds and bats, all live in green areas, and with cement and asphalt everywhere, Kathmandu is prime “real estate” for mosquitoes to breed in. We know the wages of ecological sin is death, and in this current scenario of climate change it might quickly become mass death unless the environment is given top priority. Kathmandu needs to reforest itself quickly, and that means picking the right species of hardwood tree (not the tropical palm trees that the current government has quickly planted along President Xi’s route from the airport). Of course a two year old tree will never exale the thousands of tons of oxygen a stand of century-old old growth trees will give out, but at least it would be a start towards thinking about a more sustainable city.
China must think about how it could support Asian cities to re-green, not just concretize. Concrete is turning out to be an unviable material due to the way we have recklessly destroyed mountains for lime and riverbeds for sand. China has the capacity to conduct research on green building materials which are sustainable and which do not harm the environment.
The one area in which Nepal could provide support to China is in helping China to adopt its very successful community forestry model. Nepal has recently been in the news as one of the very few countries where the total landmass of forests is increasing. This is not just due to the mass migration of people from villages into cities (although that is a factor), but also because of an extremely successful community forestry program that been operational since the late 1970s. The late King Birendra’s “Hariyo Ban, Nepal Ko Dhan” (Green Forests are Nepal’s Wealth) program was instrumental in this rise of reforestation in Nepal.
As the global economy slows down due to the disruptions of climate protesters, there has to be new ways to think about creating prosperity. The old model of relentlessly pumping out objects and materials toxic to the environment and harmful to living things has to change, if industries and economies are to survive. China can play a key role in this moment, because it has the capacity to quickly shift to new, green materials, as it has shown with its manufacture and adoption of electric vehicles which outnumber those in more cumbersome Western economies. China’s solar industries are the best in the world, and Nepal should also court the possibility of attracting solar power and electric vehicle support to Nepal, not just focus on stalled hydropower. We should also lobby for a government exchange program in which Nepali engineers are taken to be trained in solar technology and EV technology in China.
President Xi’s visit is a prestigious moment for Nepal, for whom both its giant neighbors are equally important. We are honored by his visit. Our cultural and historical ties are long, and will last throughout the ages. We should use this moment to think about long-term benefits for both nations which will help citizens of both nations to survive the turbulence of both planetary as well as economic changes.
04 October, 2019
How Dare You
Annapurna Express, October 4th, 2019
“Change is coming, whether you like it or
not.”
Wise words from a sixteen year old that is
lost amongst the clamor of panicking adults who can’t see beyond their own
narrow confines of belief and bank accounts. Greta Thunberg has blown the conch
shell, metaphorically speaking. In Hindu mythology, the conch shell was blown
at the beginning of a battle of good over evil. In the Mahabharata, the world’s
longest epic, a long and destructive battle almost destroyed both sides, but
the lesson remains—no matter what the cost, the battle had to be fought to the
bitter end for ethical and moral reasons. Once you entered the fray, there
was no turning back.
The war of the Mahabharata was only 18 days
long. But what intense eighteen days! The epic is rich with extraordinary
characters, plots and events. The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known to
humanity. According to Wikipedia: “At about 1.8 million words in total, the
Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey
combined.”
And in much the same way, we can see the
unfolding furies and passions of people separating into two battle lines as 16
year old Thunberg blows the couch shell over what may be the biggest battle of
humanity—the fight over the survival of the planet itself. Tied to this battle
is humanity’s survival, and also the survival of all living forms on earth.
For those who believe that their “way of
life” is at risk, and who continue to believe the leftists are using children
to make up alarmist stories to attack their lifestyles, the path forward is
clear—more fossil fuel extraction, more automobiles on the roads, endless
deforestation for palm oil, soy and beef, clearcutting of all of South America
to feed the geometrically multiplying human population. In this scenario,
poverty can only be ended when every single human eats a hamburger a day,
discards 4.6 pounds of disposable plastic each day, and drinks only bottled
water or soda out of plastic bottles. Agriculture will be increasingly “human
free,” and will be done on a war footing with computers, drones and planes
spraying thousands of hectares of land with lethal pesticides that kill every
pest (and every weed, wildflower, bird, bee, earthworm, and beetle in the
vicinity.) This is the vision of progress and affluence pushed by America,
which coincidentally also happens to have the biggest fossil fuel companies,
car companies and fertilizer and pesticide companies listed on their stock
exchanges, enriching their stockholders with this apocalyptic vision of
progress.
When Greta Thunberg took a sailboat from
Sweden to New York, she was entering the lion’s den—the city where all the
commodities erasing the planet’s lifeforms are traded. Millions of dollars
change hands in Wall Street and around New York everyday, as big finance
companies trade in palm oil, soy, beef, and timber. The lifestyles of those
trading the future security of the coming generation for their own
securities—private jets, brownstones in Manhattan, giant mansions in
Connecticut, dinners at Nobu, holiday homes at Martha’s Vineyard, private
tuition at Ivy Leagues—all depend upon coolly calculative decisions which
prioritize profit over planet everyday.
For these ruling elites, Greta Thunberg and
children like her who speak the truth are a threat. She must be brought down by
the force of public opinion, so the right-wing cavalry marched into action.
Dinesh D’Souza, right-wing extraordinaire, posted a picture of Nazi propaganda
featuring a blue eyed girl with braids and juxtaposed that with a photograph of
Greta “Children—notably Nordic white girls with braids and red cheeks—were
often used in Nazi propaganda. An old Goebbels technique! Looks like today’s
progressive Left is still learning its game from an earlier Left in the 1930s,”
he wrote. Fox host Laura Ingraham compared Greta to a Stephen King story.
Sandipan Deb, former editor of India’s
‘Financial Express’ and founder-editor of ‘Open’ and ‘Swarajya’ magazines, said
“radical-left handlers” are using Thunberg to create a pre-industrial society
akin to Pol Pot’s. On the eve of massive unseasonal floods which left many
people dead in Bihar, Deb wrote:
“Even if global temperatures rise by 1.5
degrees above pre-industrial levels, nothing cataclysmic will happen.”
Deb goes on to claim “crazed leftists” want
to keep the poor in a helpless state, while magnanimous people like him see the
way forward—better research in green energy which will be cheaper and more
attractive than fossil fuel. By a sudden switcheroo, climate activists
clamoring for an end of fossil fuel and for green energy are sudden crazed and
only out to drive people into poverty, while wise people like Mr. Deb of
Swarajya magazine have been calling for green energy all along. Besides the
sleigh of hand of this argument, Mr. Deb expects nobody will notice the
internal contradiction of dismissing the 1.5 degree threshold while seizing the
green energy platform.
Who will win this massive battle for the
survival of all of life? There is no doubt in my mind. It is not the
middle-aged people furiously railing against Thunberg while trying to deviously
confuse us with their bizarre arguments, hoping nobody will notice that their
prime concern is for their stocks and shares. The only winners in this epic
battle are the next generation, who will shape the world according to their own
vision of prosperity.
https://theannapurnaexpress.com/news/how-dare-you-1946
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