NEPAL: Switching to bananas

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Farmers across Nepal are feeling the impact of climate change, prompting some, such as Pushkar Timilsina, to switch to alternative crops

JUGEDI, 31 March 2009 (IRIN) - Pushkar Timilsina, a farmer in Jugedi village, southern Nepal, has decided to replace his traditional crops with something different and unusual - bananas. 

“The weather is becoming very unpredictable. We have to start preparing for the worst,” he told IRIN. 

Timilsina is by no means the only one concerned. Climate change experts say many farmers in Nepal are feeling the impact of global warming in terms of reduced agricultural production. 

Traditional crops like rice, wheat, maize and millet have had lower yields in recent years due to extreme weather (drought or floods), according to local NGOs involved in the agricultural sector. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2007 global report Up in Smoke? Asia and Pacific, expressed serious concern about food insecurity in Nepal due to changes in rainfall patterns. Livelihoods would be affected, it said, as over 75 percent of the country's 28 million people depend on agriculture. 

According to the World Bank, around 31 percent of the population survive on less than US$1 per day. 

“There is erratic rainfall and it’s worsening, causing farmers to suffer the most,” Dinanath Bhandari from Nepal-based international NGO Practical Action told IRIN. 

A key activity of the NGO is climate adaptation activities, such as preparing farming families to cope with change, teaching them to grow new crops, and introducing drip irrigation and water storage schemes. 

Timilsina is pleased with the changes he has made: “My family and local community were totally against the idea of replacing my traditional crops with bananas, which they considered merely fruit… But for me, it’s my life saver and brings in a lot of money to buy food in the market.” 

In the two years since he started his banana farm, his family has more than doubled their income. 

Erratic rainfall 

My family and local community were totally against the idea of replacing my traditional crops with bananas, which they considered merely fruit… But for me, it’s my life saver and brings in a lot of money to buy food in the market.

Local NGOs have noticed that the monsoon rains have become increasingly erratic, and are tending to start earlier. July, traditionally the main paddy planting month, is now becoming drier. 

“This means we have to struggle with often failed paddy production, which is our main food grain,” said Hari Lamichane, another local farmer. 

In the past two decades, Lamichane has observed how the weather has changed and concedes he is now clueless as to when to expect rain. 

“There was a time when we used to celebrate religious rituals during the traditional pre-monsoon period in May and June. We used to pray for rain. That doesn’t seem to make sense any more,” the 65-year-old said. 

Temperatures rising 

On average, the global temperature is rising by 0.06 degrees Celsius a year but in the high mountains it is rising at 0.08 degrees Celsius a year, according to the IPCC. 

Landlocked and extremely mountainous, Nepal has experienced glacial melting at an alarmingly fast rate, according to various scientific studies. Hydrological cycles and the depletion of water resources have been highlighted by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report as one of the main environmental challenges facing Nepal. 

“Climate change is a big threat to our country. We need to start building our coping capacity at the national level before we run out of time,” Practical Action’s Bhandari warned.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83711

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http://www.mysansar.com/2009/03/5327.html

Nepal puts Hitler's Mercedes gift on show

By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent

Monday, 16 June 2008

A now-rusting car given to the King of Nepal by Adolf Hitler is among the more unlikely items that will fill a museum being established in the palace once occupied by the Hindu Kingdom's former royal family.

The 1939 model Mercedes-Benz was donated by the Nazi leader to King Tribhuvan, the grandfather of former king Gyanendra, the last of Nepal's monarchs who left the palace last week after a newly elected parliament voted to end the 239-year-old monarchy and formally declare the country a republic.

For the past three years the car has been rusting in the grounds of the Narayanhiti palace in central Kathmandu. Prior to that it was used by an engineering college in the city to train mechanics but officials said they no longer had sufficient funds or spare parts to restore the antique car.

Govinda Prasad Kusum, a senior official who is preparing an inventory of the property of former king Gyanendra that is being turned over to the government, told Reuters that the vintage car ought to be displayed in the museum. "The car will be a major attraction there," he said.

A lot of effort went into getting the car to Kathmandu when it was gifted to King Tribhuvan in 1940. Because there were no proper roads in the country, scores of labourers carried the heavy vehicle for several days from Nepal's southern plains to the capital city. The then king regularly used the car until his death in 1955, when it began to gather dust. Its bonnet and doors are reportedly coming off.

Yesterday, Nepal's Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, attended the first public function ever organised inside the palace. Former Maoist leaders, who ended a decade-long civil war to re-enter the political mainstream two years ago and who are the Constituent Assembly's largest party following April's election, were also present at the ceremony which declared the palace a museum.

The Prime Minister said Nepal should be proud that the king had left the palace without bloodshed. "This is a historic and unprecedented event," he said. "The world is watching us with awe and respect at this moment."

The vintage car is not the only intriguing item associated with King Tribhuvan that is being left in the palace. Last week, when Gyanendra left the pink-painted palace, it was revealed that a 94-year-old former mistress of Tribhuvan had been living in the complex and that she would be allowed to stay there. The government said that Sarala Gorkhali would remain there because she had nowhere else to go.

The decision to abolish the monarchy was linked to the peace process that ended the civil war that claimed up to 13,000 lives. Gyanendra became king after a 2001 palace massacre in which the Crown Prince shot dead eight members of the royal family before turning his gun on himself.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nepal-puts-hitlers-mercedes-gift-on-show-847847.html

Nepal wakes up to kidney smuggling menace

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=11c2094b-e6b4-4b22-9998-5a6455d45d4b&Headline=Nepal+wakes+up+to+kidney+smuggling+menace

When ‘kidney doctor’ Amit Kumar was arrested in Nepal in 2008, it opened up a pandora’s box — the international kidney rackets were luring poor and illiterate Nepalis as “cheap donors”.

Now, the Maoist-led government has come up with new legislation to “protect” poor Nepalis from being victims of the kidney smuggling rackets.

The Nepali cabinet on Thursday decided to pass an act to control racketing in kidney. The Human Organ Transplant Act now limits kidney donations only to relatives.

“The decision is a great relief for us,” Abhishek Pratap Shah, a member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly says. Till today, the Himalayan nation did not have any law to punish smugglers of human organs.

Earlier, Hindustan Times had reported that Jyamdi village in Nepal’s Kavre district was Amit Kumar’s main kidney bank, and over 25 per cent of the villagers had “sold” their kidneys to smugglers in India for economic reasons.

Interestingly, Kumar was also planning to set up a hospital in Kathmandu for kidney transplantation.

The new Human Organ Transplant Bill will now be placed in the Constituent Assembly during the next session, which is scheduled to begin on Sunday.

“Taking advantage of the people’s poor living condition, smugglers have been duping people of Nepal,” says Shah, adding that both India and Nepal should now take up a joint operation to crack down on the international kidney smuggling networks.

Even after Kumar’s arrest, there are reports that another kidney smuggling network, based in Chennai, is luring donors from Nepal. Unfortunately, the poor donors suffer from a lot of post-operative complications, as they don’t get the proper medical care after the kidney donations.

“We will have to enforce the new legislation strongly,” says Kathmandu-based journalist Yugnath Sharma. The government should also impart proper training to police personnel, he says.

 

Kathmandu Luring Gays as Tourism Destination

March 26, 2009 in Baburam Kharel, Blue Diamond Society, GLBT,Gay, Gay Life, Gay Tourism, Homosexuality, Kathmandu, LGBT,Nepal, Sunil Pant, Tourism, Travel

Luring gays as tourism destination by Baburam Kharel, ekantipur.com, sent by Sunil Pant
Photo Kathmandu Pride 2005, Blue Diamond Society

KATHMANDU, March 24 - Life’s pretty rough on gays and lesbians, more so while travelling. Even on a simple occasion like eating out, more often than not they are subjected to discrimination. For instance, waiters get nosy about their appearance and may even ask them about their sexual identity.
Fortunately, thanks to Nepal’s tourism and service industry, foreign gays and lesbians do not have to suffer like in other countries.
In a break from the traditional mindset, some of the country’s tour operators have now geared up to lure foreign gay and lesbian tourists. Earlier, this kind of travel used to be closeted.
A number of restaurants, discos and hotels have been established in the country that cater to gay and lesbian couples. Employees in these establishments have been trained to behave better so that visiting couples get the respect they are looking for.
Popular travel website utopia-asia.com has listed these various places where foreign gays and lesbians are treated differently. However, proprietors of these venues rarely open up regarding the service they provide.
Another travel website — www.visitnepal2011.com — has come to the fore calling gays and lesbians to visit Nepal. This website has posted a separate section for gay/lesbian travel but does not disclose its travel features.
Notably, according to Lonely Planet’s website, some foreign gays and lesbians have been choosing the country as the most romantic rendezvous.
Owing to the country’s deep-rooted culture of respecting guests, scores of foreign gays and lesbians travel in the country every year without any hindrance, say travel operators. But this is a subject rarely discussed.
“It is something that foreign guests are always treated in a good manner,” says Jyoti Adhikari, President of Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal, an umbrella organisation of more than 700 travel agencies in the country. “Compared to other western countries, foreign gays and lesbians are not discriminated against here.”
Adhikari admits that a large number of travellers have been visiting the country since years and no case of discrimination has come to the fore. “Some restaurants and hotels in Kathmandu offer good treatment to these couples,” he informs.
Likewise, Sunil Babu Pant, a lawmaker and president of Blue Diamond Society, an organisation that advocates the rights of gays and lesbians, also admits these tourists have never been discriminated in the country whereas Nepalis from the same community are always prone to harsh treatment.
“With travel package for foreign gays and lesbians, local sexual minorities can get employment opportunity in the tourism sector,” says Pant. “The government itself should take initiative in this regard.”
The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict recently said gays and lesbians were “natural” people. It directed the government to remove all discrimination against the community and ensure for them the rights enjoyed by all other citizens.

source: http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/nepal-kathmandu-luring-gays-as-tourism-destination/

Nepali Student earns grant to establish program in Nepal

Student earns grant to establish program in Nepal

By Kari VanDerVeen
March 20, 2009

A grant from the Davis Projects for Peace initiative will enable St. Olaf student Subhash Ghimire '10 to return to the remote village in western Nepal where he was born to organize a six-week summer camp for children impacted by the country's caste system and decade-long civil war. 

Subhash Ghimire '10

Ghimire recently received a $10,000 grant from Davis Projects for Peace, an initiative that funds student plans for grassroots projects promoting peace. The program accepts applications from students at partner schools in the Davis United World College Scholars Program that St. Olaf was selected to join last year. 

The day camp that Ghimire plans to establish will provide a wide array of activities for 45 children in Arupokhari, a village in the Gorkha district of Nepal. He hopes the camp will support community peace building by helping children from the lowest caste groups and those affected by Nepal's civil war "reclaim their playfulness, passion and joy." Ghimire, a political science major, is counting on the camp's lively atmosphere to make children feel comfortable studying, playing and eating together regardless of their caste. He also has recruited a child psychologist from Kathmandu and other child education experts to observe campers and help develop specialized activities and counseling sessions. 

"With compassion and care, I believe that children can heal and become healers within their communities," Ghimire says, adding that he believes the best way to build and perpetuate peace is by educating young people. 

Nepal's civil war displaced thousands of people and left many children orphans. Arupokhari has no electricity, roads or communication facilities and is nearly eight hours walking distance from the nearest city. The physical inaccessibility of the village, coupled with its deeply rooted caste system, has hindered the recovery and development of the community, Ghimire says. "I am aware that changing a culture is difficult and requires a lot of time, but someone has to make the first move," he says. 

To increase the impact of the camp, he will give each participant a $50 scholarship that will be enough to pay for a year of schooling. Local media in Nepal will also publicize the project, and Ghimire will deliver a presentation to St. Olaf community members when he returns. The executive committee of Arupokhari and the local secondary school have committed to support the camp and organize it annually if the model proves successful. 

Ghimire says the grant has given him the opportunity to make a difference in his homeland. "I felt like I could contribute, in a small way, to the ongoing peace process in the country," he says. "We all want Nepal to come together and move forward." 

http://fusion.stolaf.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsDetails&id=4609

Voice of Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Listen to the voice of Laxmi Prasad Devkota; one of the greatest Nepali ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0jZ9CanqL0&NR=1