THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL

Kathmandu Post, January 23, 2009 Sushma Joshi Pablo Picasso's name is synonymous with modern art. But people in Malaga, his birthplace, are not impressed. ¨Ah, Picasso, ¨ says a journalist dismissively when I tell him I am writing an article on the maestro. ¨I don't have much to say about him.¨ Instantly intrigued, I asked: So what about Picasso? Do tell. I sense this man has a lot to say about him. And indeed, such is the case. We are sitting out in a crowded outdoor café in a cool winter night. My companions -- three journalists, two of who cover art -- are instantly fighting as soon as I put the bone out there: can Picasso's work be considered High Art? Or is it Pop? The clatter of Spanish syllables tells me that my two animated companions are at each other's throats and that this is serious, serious stuff. Thrilled to find that the tradition of intellectual discourse is alive and well in Spain, I soon get a translation from my impassioned critic. ¨Picasso is shit-ma...

One of our Nepali Observers gives her perspective on Asia's dependence on its exports market and the effect this has on the economic crisis. A butterfly flutters its wings in one part of the world, and the flutter causes a hurricane on the other side. This causality, so widely cited by everybody from weather experts to scientists to economists looking at causes for seemingly-random but connected phenomena, becomes more relevant in this day and age when a global financial crisis is occurring. The collapse of one mortgage company in America, it appears, could trigger the collapse of the entire house of cards which we call the global economy. That's why I am fascinated to find that, despite the crisis, the streets of Granada, a city in Southern Spain, is full of shoppers who throng the classy areas, buying clothes and boots and bags, buying jewellery and scarves and other bric-a-brac, all clearly manufactured in Asia. Despite the 'Made in Spain' stamp (written in Engl...

Sushma Joshi Kathmandu Post, January 16, 2009 A butterfly flutters its wings in one part of the world, and the flutter cause a hurricane on the other side. This causality, so widely cited by everybody from weather experts to scientists to economists looking at causes for seemingly random but connected phenomena, becomes more relevant in this day and age when a global financial crisis is occuring. The collapse of one mortgage company in America, it appears, could trigger the collapse of the entire house of cards which we call the global economy. That´s why I am fascinated to find that despite the crisis, the roads of the cities of Granada, a city in Southern Spain, is full of shoppers who throng the classy shopping areas, buying clothes and boots and bags, buying jewelry and scarves and other bric-a-brac, all clearly manufactured in Asia. Despite the ¨Made in Spain¨ stamp (written in English), I can recognize a pair of boots—or an entire store of boots— made in China when I see one. S...

The Audacity of Technology Sushma Joshi The Kathmandu Post Should a five year old in a rural village lacking a reliable supply of electricity and basic school supplies dream of owning a computer of her own? For Rabi Karmacharya, director of the Open Learning Exchange in Nepal (OLE), the answer is a resounding yes. The audacity of his hope, that many schools in rural Nepal will follow and adopt the successful model he's implemented in two schools near Lakhuribhanjyang, a few kilometers outside of Kathmandu, appears particularly foolhardy to people who say that the computers cost too much, have no reliable technical support, and use a technology that lacks teaching software and tools. All these objections make perfect sense in the urban clamor of the valley, where I sit sipping coffee at the balcony of the Java Coffeehouse with Chris Hoadley, a Fulbright fellow at New York University whose research specializes in educational communications. Chris shares with me some of the common cr...

Sushma Joshi "Last week, one man hung himself, two died in construction, and seven died in their sleep," says Devendra Raj Bhattarai. We are sitting in a five star hotel in Doha, where I find myself suddenly sequestered after being pulled en route to some other destination. Bhattarai, the Special Correspondent for the Gulf Region for Kantipur Daily, is giving me a list of deaths that have taken place that week. In total, he says, 180 Nepalis died in Doha last year -- about a hundred of them in their sleep. What do you mean, they died in their sleep? I ask. There is no post-mortem of workers who die in Doha. There are no human rights organizations in the Gulf emirate, and no UN agencies such as the ILO maintain a presence. The true reason of the deaths, Bhattarai says, will probably never be known. "I have talked to some doctors, and they give climatic reasons," Devendra says. But the biggest reason, he says, is the weight of the dreams that men and women carry...