THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL

Sushma Joshi In about forty years time, the monsoon may be the only source of water for much of the Indian subcontinent's one billion plus people “Are you eating meat again?” says my nephew to me disapprovingly each time he sees me eating fish or chicken. “Don't do that. You'll get bird flu.” My nephew is five years old. He is brought up by parents who are both vegetarians. His mother is pretty cool about childrearing -- she decided that he should make his own choice about meat or no meat, and that forcing children to follow a certain path would certainly lead to them doing the exact opposite. So the upshot is that besides a few brief episodes of rebellion when my nephew was in his terrible twos, when he stuffed his face with chicken at wedding feasts and embarrassed his parents, he seems to have accepted, voluntarily, the lifestyle of a committed vegetarian. After opening a FAO website in which they talk about how many liters of water is needed to produce one hamburger (2...

Sushma Joshi Of all the groups who have blocked our highways, the Tharus are one group who need to be heard more than anybody Blocking highways has become the de facto way to exhibit political protest. Everyone gets up in arms about this; perhaps we have no one to blame but our political leaders who started this method of guerilla warfare to bring attention to their presence and issues. Highways appear to be easily blocked in Nepal. More importantly, disrupted highway traffic garners immediate attention. Did I hear somebody say something about putting highway blockers in prison? Now that would be a good way to start civilising Nepali methods of protest (next should be a one year prison term for those who burn toxic tires, and who release carcinogens in the air, pollute densely populated areas, and contribute to global warming.) But wait -- don't just put these highway blockers into prison yet. Because of all the groups who have blocked our highways, the Tharus are one group who nee...

Sushma Joshi The Kathmandu Post, 02/27/2009 I laughed out loud when I read this news story: China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage lodged a protest when the auction house Christie sold two bronze sculptures—the head of a rat and a rabbit—at US$36 million. According to an AP report: “"Christie's obstinately went on with the auction of the Summer Palace relics, going against the spirit of relevant international conventions and the international common understanding that cultural relics should be returned to their country of origin," the administration said in a statement.” China, which has flouted every law in the international lawbooks, from human rights to environment, from labor standards to media freedom, from ethical standards of treatment of prisoners to copyright, is now evoking international law to shame Western pirates! Isn’t that ironic? But now we know. Even China, it appears, is willing to quote international law when expedient. China gets furious whe...

SUSHMA JOSHI I recently made my way up to Swayambhunath after a long hiatus. I’m used to seeing Kathmandu change at a rapid pace, but even the microbus ride out there was surprise. About a thousand kilometers of road seem to be carved out of the ground suddenly, all unpaved, all exuding white dust. Instead of an easy walk through crowded newari toles, we were now bumping past thousands of tacky buildings with high-rise aspirations. The walk up, instead of being a walk up to a quiet, semi-desolate and ancient shrine with grandeur, was now a walk up a trinket-infested, vegetation devoid space to a shrine that has lost its mythic scale in proportion to the inexorable growth that surrounds it. The monkeys seem more disease infected and covered with sores than I have ever seen them. I witnessed a number of angry tribal fights--no doubt the monkeys were taking a cue from humans. At the top, every building around the shrine was covered with tourist junk, but unfortunately there were no touris...