The Short summary of Nepal news today?
A bitter tit-for-tat is taking place in Sarlahi. A pattern is developing, and you don’t need to be a genius to figure out that it could continue a long time.
I’ll skip the ongoing story of misery in the tents for the earthquake victims, though I do need to acknowledge that it continues. today was this informative video by Subina Shrestha of Al Jazeera English.
Wanna keep reading?
Nepal in Western media
NBC News wrote this. click here. It’s titled “How One Trip Home to Nepal Became a Mission to Bring Peace to Protests” — and it describes life in Janakpur. There will be a part two. It was written by an American guy.
David Caprara photo to accompany his excellent piece on Janakpur. These guys are bundling rice shoots from the nursery paddy, to be transplanted into the big paddy. The Terai grows a lot of rice.
It gives an excellent summary of how Nepal got to where it is today…… the only problem being, there is no any happy ending. We all wonder if there will ever be one.
The story ends with:
After arriving back in Nepal and seeing the situation from the ground, Kumar's goals became clearer. "I wanted to speak with local leaders to demand schools to be reopened, and to give people a platform that would refocus protests to more peaceful means," he said.
When he arrived in Janakpur, Kumar had just 10 days to work on the ground. He planned to speak to leaders, to visit schools, and to rally support to shift protests to a movement of peace. But how receptive the community would be to his ideas — he would have to wait and find out. read the whole thing at: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/how-one-trip-home-nepal-became-mission-bring-peace-protests-n486546
I agree with Mr. Caprara that the Terai would benefit from more attention. Janakpur is near Sarlaki, the scene of today’s bad news.
Janakpur
It goes like this:
1) protests in Biratnagar in which Rajendra Mahato gets thrashed. He is admitted to hospital and photos are widely circulated.
2) protests spread around eastern Terai.
3) police arrest a leader who owns an FM radio station. A video of Janakpur protests goes onto FaceBook and gets 25,000 views in five hours. The video is in Maithili, it shows some police brutality. Some of the scenes are near a water impoundment, which adds a new element — at one point a protesters kicks a tear gas canister into the pond (clever) and then we also see the police fish a guy out of the water over a wall (seems like they thrash him after rescuing….hmmmm).
to accompany the Republica article on the UML leader killed in Sarlahi. Scene of investigation. A crowd always gathers. Always.
4) Today in Sarlahi (just west of Janakpur) the body of the local leader of UML ( same political party as the current Prime Minister) was found with his throat cut on the route of his morning walk. The police are investigating, as you might expect. A gang is suspected.
5) repeat. (this seems to be a pattern).
6) I love the idea of turning these protests into peaceful dialog, I really do. But — if a political solution is not satisfactory to the gangs of young men who presumably did this, the Terai will be the scene of low-level tit-for-tat vicious senseless violence until the 12th of Never.
About FM Radio in Terai
There is a whole genre of protest songs and they are being played on both the radio airwaves and social media. Here is one in Bhojpuri language that has the very characteristic sound of Terai. By that I mean, it starts with a declamatory similar to the morning call to prayer in mosques of the region. The song uses heavy reverb. Imagine hearing it broadcast over loudspeakers. It reminds me of a wedding I came across in Bhairawaha.
Need the Daily Summary?
If you are new to this whole issue, you need to catch up on the basics, and it seems like everyone has taken a whack at how to summarize. Here is a stand-up comedian from Mumbai who explains it ( while sitting). The comments are worth the read, maybe more than the piece itself.
I never heard of this guy, and I don't plan to follow him on Twitter. He has that faux-anger disclamatory style that annoys me. And he uses the F-word. But he fills the need to explain it to those new people.
What has the government been doing, exactly?
There are two versions. Republica published a 100-day review of accomplishments. It needs to be read to be believed. The events are related to implementing the constitution, with oblique reference to all the crises. The equivalent list of daily accomplishments would be
1) I got out of bed;
2) I put on my clothes;
3) I brushed my teeth;
They are supremely unable to multi-task. Contrast it with the editorial below:
Editorial from Kathmandu Post
Dec 28, 2015-
There are still no signs that the government is prepared to take responsibility and make efforts to resolve the various crises facing the country. bit.ly/...
This summarizes the challenges and serves as a history of government failure. It ends with:
The prime minister does not seem to have any strategy, and increasingly not a clue, to resolve it. If things continue as they are, the Oli government may well go down as one of the most insensitive and ineffectual ones in Nepal’s history.
bit.ly/...
It’s snowing today in coastal Maine.