Standing on the Soap Box
I’m going to do something a bit different today. Yes, there’s news to pass along. But I’m going to just compare and contrast two articles. The first is another in the series of reports about the man-made humanitarian disaster that is unfolding. There are many of these. The next is a editorial from Republica, in English, that paints the picture of things in Kathmandu.
And then, my reaction.
For another day?
Negotiations between the government and protesters continue; there is now the first scheduled mass protest in Kathmandu for tomorrow; the government is trying to obtain more petrol;
And now, for the first one — —
www.ndtv.com/…
Kathmandu: The UN has warned that Nepal's children, already hit by the devastating earthquakes, are facing a new humanitarian crisis as the country reels under political strife and blockade in the Terai region bordering India, severely impacting their health.
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake issued a statement yesterday and warned that natural devastation following the earthquake and political conflict are compounding the misery for Nepal's children.
The orange squiggle seems to have disappeared…. hey KOS! it was fun! bring it back!
The Key Editorial from Today — in Republica.
myrepublica.com/…
It looks like Kathmandu will have to make a hard compromise soon. Resilience alone cannot help deal with crisis of this magnitude. First, one and half months since the imposition of blockade, a large section of Nepal's civil society and intelligentsia have not recognized it as a proper blockade. They call it border obstruction. Nor has Nepal been able to raise this issue at SAARC level despite being its incumbent head. - See more at: myrepublica.com/…
the end paragraphs of the above:
As a mammoth nation (22 times as big as Nepal) and third largest economy in the world which surrounds Nepal on three sides, India (to which Nepal has historically depended on trade and transit) can bring Nepal to its knees. With UN and US's silence against Indian aggression, this could be possible. The question facing Nepal is whether to prostrate or to continue to resist.
The moment people start to starve, Nepal will be forced to do what Morcha and India want. Greater question facing country's educated mass is whether to lead a life of living death or oppose blockade, for as long as they can, through whatever means available. - See more at: myrepublica.com/...
If you go to MyRepublica and click on the writer’s name, you can get a list of specific editorials from that person ( similar to here on DailyKOS). The editorial above is the latest from one of the nationalists — the ones who promote unity by hating on India. Up til the very last paragraph, I had the idea that maybe he finally “gets it” in terms of the need to negotiate with Nepalis of the Terai. For me, I actually think that what they have now is a living death. Somewhere along the way, another writer whose name escapes me pointed out that it’s easy for the pundit class of Kathmandu to praise everyone else for resilience because they themselves are not yet deprived of anything. This is analogous to those in USA who promote the idea that poverty is ennobling and we are somehow giving people the chance to rise into greatness by overcoming it and reliving the rags-to-riches of the Great American Story. Here in USA, I think that for every person who achieves that miraculous metamorphosis, a hundred sink into despair and fall prey to the demons of poverty and deprivation. So in terms of whether this particular guy leads a life of living death — he’ll need to get over the humiliation of seeing the large share of Kathmandu’s people reject his views. Which they will.
Oh, and the humiliation? he’ll get over that too.
The International Community — will they come to the rescue?
One of the points raised by the writer above is “If only the international community knew what was happening here, they would take our side! They would step in and intervene against India!” From here it looks as though the international community has indeed taken a close look, and they have also seen this set of data. They are unanimous in saying that internal negotiations are required. Those doors are closed. They have been closed since the Human Rights Watch report on the Army deployment to Terai was released.
What is a Refugee?
The world’s attention is focused on refugees from Syria, fleeing the Assad regime. Nepal also has a situation of flight, but it’s referred to as the Nepali Diaspora instead. Click Here to see a map. This is a large problem and deserves it’s own attention. In summary, it’s already been official government policy to send workers abroad who mail back their remittance payment. One in five people in Doha Qatar are Nepali men working on soccer stadiums there. Thirty percent of foreign exchange is remittance from overseas workers. There is a category of Nepali expatriate to match every skill level: the elite go abroad to study at University (about 8,100 presently in USA); the next tier become businessmen; then there are the laborers. The “Diversity Visa" program of the USA is the closest thing to a “national jackpot" they have in Nepal. There are the Gurkhas of course; and if you think about it, even the human trafficking situation is a job category for expatriate employment ( and no, I emphatically do not condone trafficking. I have personally met trafficking victims). 600,000 Nepali citizens live in India itself.
In my own field, health care, young Nepali men and women choose to study nursing or medicine with the intention of working abroad. When I am in Nepal I am frequently asked for advice about going overseas to work or study — so much so that I wrote a series of blogs about it. These have all gotten more hits lately. The border between India and Nepal is among the most porous in the world, and if Nepal doesn’t get it together, the trend will accelerate. The guy who wrote the editorial above might consider adding this to the list of problems as this continues. World Refugee Day is December 18th and I’ll write more about this as the day approaches.
I’m still getting the hang of how to add pictures. Close your eyes and visualize Mount Everest. You will never get to the top unless you start at the bottom.