THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL

Cover Story BEHIND THE SMOKE SCREEN Despite Nepal’s stiff resistance, the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva last week issued a binding statement, asking Nepal to accept international monitoring of its human rights situation. But the bigger question is whether Nepal is keen about improving its poor human rights record BY SUSHMA JOSHI Nation Weekly, April 26, 2004 Dinesh Prasain has a gap in his teeth when he smiles. The co-ordinator for the Collective Campaign for Peace says he didn’t always have a missing tooth. On December 14, four men in plainclothes came and knocked on his door. “I will open the door if you show me your ID,” said Prasain, who had recently received death threats after writing an article that questioned the integrity of NGOs. The men broke down his door and started to beat him up. They asked him four questions. “Why didn’t you open the door?” “Why are you looking at us in the eye?” “Do you know Bharat Prasain?” And finally: “Where...

A LABORATORY KNOWN AS EVEREST BY SUSHMA JOSHI Nation Weekly, April 26, 2004 Scientists from all over the world come to Nepal to conduct experiments which have long-term conse- quences for humanity. Few of us hear about them. One such experiment is being conducted by three young women on Everest this summer. Angie Morey, 25, Mara Larson, 24, Lara Vowles, 22 are returning to Nepal for two months to follow up on research which will shed light on issues as diverse as Parkinson’s disease, ways in which to lessen air traffic accidents, and the mission to Mars. Why do this research on Everest, you may ask? Everest is probably the only place in the world where people voluntarily put themselves in a temporary situation where their brain is deprived of oxygen. Cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain can lead to brain damage, which is what happens during strokes. It would be ethically wrong to put subjects through oxygen deprivation in a laboratory to see what can happen ...

Art & Society On The Road With The Red God Kesang Tseten’s new film captures both the Rato Machhindranath festival and the preprations accompanying the grand event in a blow-by-blow rendition BY SUSHMA JOSHI Nation Weekly, August 26, 2004 The sight of a priest proudly display- ing a tiny vest at the Rato Machhindranath festival has been etched into our national consciousness. “On the road with the Red God: Machhindranath” is a film recently made by Kesang Tseten. Tseten takes 110 hours of footage of various acts of human ingenuity and devotion to what seems like a lost cause—namely, the construction of an unwieldy 100 foot chariot that gets tangled up in the electric wires of Patan and tilts drunkenly as it is dragged and pushed and pulled by enthusiasts across flood-washed roads every 12 years, and where men get roaring drunk and get into fights all the way from Bungmati to Patan, and then repeat the process all the way back. Behind the vest rest...

Sushma Joshi One hundred and fifty-five teachers have died at the hands of Maoists and Royal Nepal Army since the conflict began, a recent estimate by the Nepal Teachers Association states. Ganesh Chiluwal, head of the Maoist Victims’ Association, recently killed by Maoists in retaliation for his activism against their violence, reported 250 deaths of teachers. The numbers are probably much higher, according to observers. On February 23, Maoist rebels abducted 44 teachers from Triveni Secondary School in Kailali district, according to the Rajdhani Dainik. The teachers were from 11 different schools, and were attending a training conducted by the District Education Office. “No one knows where the teachers are now…,” a resident said. The District Police Office has denied knowledge of the incident. Bir Bahadur Rana, District Superintendent of Police, said as late as Monday evening, “We do not know anything about the incident yet.” The abductions may have been done to retaliate against ...

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE? Sushma Joshi Inside the Khokana Oil Mill, a bit of the past still remains in the form of a wooden soli press. RamBahadur Lama, a young man who has migrated from Makwanpur and now works for this family enterprise, roasts crushed mustard seeds in a traditional wood-fired oven. These seeds are then put inside a fold of woven bamboo. SuryaBahadur climbs nimbly onto a large wooden wheel of the press, pulling it down with him as he enters a square cavity in the ground. The wheel spins from his body weight, and dark brown oil trickles out of the spout at the bottom. Khokana, the name of a small Newari town a few kilometers outside of Kathmandu, was synonymous with mustard oil. The oil, extracted from roasted seeds, was prized for its smoky taste and purity since the early seventeenth century, when it was exported to China and Tibet. It was used widely in cooking, and was valued as a therapeutic massage oil for new mothers and babies. The Insight Guide to ...

GOODWILL HUNTING Sushma Joshi On January 23, 2004, dozens of students were imprisoned in Janakpurdham for their activism against regression. Janakpur, viewed by local inhabitants with pride as one of the first gadatantra in history - its democratic politics is written about in the epic Ramayana, claim local scholars - is a place where students would rebel against a repressive system. But local inhabitants had another related event to mark on the same day - January 23th was also the third death anniversary of Gajendra Narayan Singh, the charismatic leader and founder of the Sadhbhawana Party. The Sadhbhawana Party represents the broad swath of the Terai belt, and raises issues of citizenship, language, culture and decentralized government-central to the concerns of the madesh's inhabitants-on a national level. The current Constitution discriminates against the Terai people in many ways, say political leaders. Sadhbhawana's platform is based on redressing these discriminatory s...

Sushma Joshi The Nation Weekly Magazine, 2004 Through one of the many winding lanes leading off the main shrine of Boudha, Kathmandu, you can walk past craftsmen hammering delicate silver jewelry, past workshops which manufacture wooden casks, past a dump-heap where an old woman scavenges for recyclables, and into a large and spacious monastery. This is the Shechen Monastery, one of the many monasteries that dot the land around the main shrine. But Shechen, which is based on the Ningmapa tradition, has something a little different to offer. This warm February morning, a scattered line of animated foreigners carrying scrolls in their hands exit out of the building. As we climb up the stairs, we see photographs of thangkas framed and exhibited on the walls. On the second floor, monks rush about carrying trays full of tarts adorned with fresh fruits while people carrying diplomas get their photographs taken. At the threshold, we meet Monk Matthew, a Tibetan Buddhist monk originally ...