Katahdin in Maine's Baxter State Park. From the summit, you can shout out to Bill in Portland Maine putting together "Cheers and Jeers." It's not anywhere as tall as the Himalaya but it's the best we have. Your humble correspondent on all things Nepali took a weekend away at Daicey Pond Camps, a throwback to the 1940s era sporting camps. When I plugged back in, I thought maybe some miracle might have occurred on the petrol front in Kathmandu. It didn't.
Oct 5th is Day Twelve of the Siege of Kathmandu.
It's still "On" Watch this video for the short background.
There was a rumor that the blockade/non-blockade was being lifted and 100 trucks had been allowed into Nepal. It turns out that these were loaded with perishable food items such as tomatoes, lettuce and other vegetable. No Petrol trucks were allowed in.
KATHMANDU, Oct 4: Media reports on Saturday claiming that the blockade on vehicular movement at India-Nepal border had been lifted turned out to be untrue as the restrictions seemed to continue as of Sunday.Nepalese people, who have been reeling under acute shortage of essential goods, including that of fuel and medicines, were quick to express their happiness on social media over the news of the end of border blockade imposed by India.
But the excitement waned after it was learnt that India had allowed mostly the containers carrying vegetables and fruits to cross the border into Nepal and stopped the ones carrying fuels. Even the vehicles carrying degradable items like fruit and vegetables have been allowed to pass only through some of the border points. - See more at: http://myrepublica.com/...
https://youtu.be/...
Schools are closed, and in Terai this means the kids have missed 26 days.
Dasain Approaches
http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/...
Oct 4, 2015- Countdown to the country’s biggest festival—Dashain—has begun, but the government and transport entrepreneurs are still not sure when to open advance bus ticket bookings.
The festival begins with Ghatasthapana on October 13. Hundreds of thousands of people living in Kathmandu rush back to their homes for the celebrations.
The Department of Transport Management had planned to open the bookings in the first week of October. The department said it had prepared an action plan to efficiently handle the mass departure and the plan was approved by the Ministry of Transport. But they abandoned the plan due to strikes in the Tarai region and fuel shortages for the past week.
........It is estimated that more than 1.5 million people leave the Kathmandu valley for Dashain celebrations. According to transport entrepreneurs more than 50 percent of the people living in the Capital leave to their homes. Since airfare is expensive,
a majority of the people have no other options but to use surface transportation.
Kathmandu Post file photo from President Carter's 2013 visit. The gentleman next to him wears a "topi" the national cap of Nepal.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and Habitat for Humanity and - Nepal Nov 1st through 6th
Sep 30, 2015- Former United States’ President Jimmy Carter, who has been diagnosed with cancer, will travel to Nepal to build homes with 1,500 volunteers in November, according to Habitat for Humanity.
In August, Carter revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer in his brain but still hoped to make a scheduled trip to Nepal. “I really wanted to go to Nepal to build houses,” he had said.
Habitat for Humanity in a press statement, released on Tuesday, said that he received consent from his medical team to travel to Nepal. Carter and his wife Rosalynn will participate in Habitat for Humanity’s 32nd annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project , from Nov. 1-6, in Chitwan. “During the week, 1,500 volunteers from within Nepal and around the world will help build permanent homes in partnership with low-income families in the Nayabasti Gairigaun village. A majority of these families are Dalits, who are considered the lowest group in the Nepali caste system,” reads the statement. http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/...html
Maybe everything will be fixed by then.... maybe not.... But - I have a question for those persons who have followed these reports...... to learn what it is, you'll have to go below the fold......
Rush hour in Sauraha, the main town in Chitwan National Park. It where tourists get elephant rides. Any given elephant is owned by the driver, and he will take her home in the evening.
There are many reasons to support
Habitat for Humanity, everywhere they work. They've been planning a trip to Nepal Nov 1st through 6th, and they've needed to move it to the Terai region.
Click here for a very short video to describe their project in Nepal. The Carter Center has been active in Nepal, and helped
supervise elections there in 2007 (link in Nepali). (
here's one in English)Here is a
summary of The Carter Center's involvement.
"Wattle-and-Daub" is an ancient construction technique. Here the kind of house Habitat for Humanity will be replacing, thatched roof and all. The walls and roof harbor insects that carry disease. In the blogs, I have reported the issues in Terai and you may recall reading about the "Tharu" people - usually, this type of housing with Tharu villages. Everyone in Nepal is bound to notice.
I confess I
had never really given much thought to the work that Habitat for Humanity does. (
doh...) It seems to me that besides the actual work project, this group provides a vehicle for face-to-face interaction between the volunteers and the recipient group.
I think the face-to-face component is probably more important than the actual construction. To meet somebody in person who you might otherwise think of in abstract terms, is always valuable.
The poll will open up discussion of this. In the meantime, some other items to catch up on:
You Read it Here on DailyKOS first
BIRATNAGAR, Oct 4: Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat has said it is not possible to immediately redirect Nepal's existing trade to China."We cannot fully redirect our trade with India to China immediately due to geographical difficulties," said Mahat, adding that the process is easier to say than implement it. He was addressing a press conference in Biratnagar on Sunday.
When enquired about the government's lack of initiatives to begin importing essential goods from China, Mahat pointed out the damaged border points. "The earthquake caused huge damage to several border-points with China. We have not been able to bring them into operation at the moment," said Mahat.He further clarified that it is impossible to reopen the border-points at Tatopani and Rasuwagadhi immediately. "It is meaningless to bring new border-point of Rasuwagadi into operation because we are still not able to reopen the old border-points with China. The new border-points may take years to come into operation," he said. - See more at: http://www.myrepublica.com/...
Next, The Kathmandu government is pre-occupied with the shuffle of cabinet mandated by the new constitution. The Leader of Terai are continuing the protests, and have
named a negotiating team.
Politics in a democracy is like a game of chess. Except when it isn't. The two sides in Nepal haven't agreed on the game board. And nothing is black & white.
"Though we drew a conclusion that the government and major three parties are not serious about settling things through dialogue and negotiations, we have formed a talks team since we are not opposed to talks for resolving the problems," said TMDP spokesperson Shukla."During informal talks with the talks team formed by the government, we had repeatedly asked them to come up with concrete proposals on key constitutional issues. Though the government has said that the constitutional amendment process on two of our demands has already started, they have not uttered even a single word about our major concern, the delineation of provinces," he added.Despite forming the talks team, the UDMF meeting has also decided to continue the protest programs including non-cooperation against the government, blockades at customs points and obstruction of highways. - See more at: http://www.myrepublica.com/...
Are you booked in a nice hotel?
Oct 4, 2015- Hotels are running out of fuel and food stock due to supply bottlenecks caused by the prolonged Tarai unrest and unofficial trade blockade imposed by India.
Hoteliers said if the situation continued for the next week, all the hotels in the Kathmandu valley would be forced to shut down.
The hotels, particularly star hotels depend heavily on fuel—diesel and cooking gas—due to extended load-shedding hours.
“Big hotels are worried. They don’t have enough fuel to run their operation,” said Yogendra Shakya, a hotel entrepreneur. He said food stocks too were depleting. “The supply issue has become serious as it may hit tourists if the situation does not improve.”http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/...
Um, In Kathmandu I stay in a
guest house that costs seven bucks a night. I think President and Mrs Carter stay at
the Hyatt when they have previously visited..... In Bharatpur, I recommend
Hotel Global. The chef there is a genius when it comes to chicken. Hotel Global hosts a lot of weddings, here is a
video of one.
If ou got this far - thank you! I'll keep posting these..... and now, check out the poll