HELLO NEPAL

  Committing genocide? The government’s recent decision not to provide costs related to test and treatment of Covid-19 to general public, infected people have stopped visiting health service outlets. This situation will rapidly increase the number of virus infected persons in the coming days. In fact, contact tracing of the infected people in the earlier days was also not effective. Health professionals and experts opine that the government’s decision not to pay for tests and treatment of Covid-19 for the citizens could lead to massive spread of the virus in the community. The people have now stopped visiting the health centres for tests and treatment following the government’s unconstitutional decision. The government seems to be staying away from its constitutional responsibility of providing basic health services and providing free treatment for pandemic diseases to general public. It has even disrespected Supreme Court’s recent directives asking it to provide free health ...

  No desire to become prime minister While I was going through the Kathmandu Post of various dates,  I noticed an interesting article by Anil Giri published on February 14, 2020 about Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, Chairperson of Nepal Communist Party (CPM), I could not resist myself for sharing in my blog for my regular readers. Without elaborating this article, I decided to summarize only the main events which are included in Anil Giri’s article.   The chairman has an identity crisis Pushpa Kamal Dahal is torn between his two selves: an insidious, crafty Prachanda who will go on the offensive to get what he wants, and a gentle, pragmatic Pushpa Kamal who can placate opposing factions and win over the media. Pushpa Kamal Dahal is a man divided. At the final session of Kantipur Conclave last week, Pushpa Kamal, dressed in a dark suit with a matching topi and a silk tie, appeared relaxed and confident, speaking at length about himself, his journey and his ambi...

  Is federalism still suitable for Nepal? I am and was not against the concept of federalism. I only kept raising my concern whether it was suitable for such a small country considering its geographical structure and available financial and human resources. I still think that there were not held extensive deliberations about this structure among the constitutional experts, intellect individuals and general public before the then seven party alliance decided to adapt and include in the new constitution. As a result, we used to and still hear even some of the leaders of the major political parties were not in favour of implementing federal structure, however, they did not dare to face their bosses. Until now, several laws and acts related to implementation of provincial governments in accordance with the constitution are yet to be tabled in and pass through the House which is the sole constitutional responsibility of the federal government led by the Prime Minister K.P.Oli who is...

    Who am I? A corrupt politician or a coward citizen I am not so sure about others who are hell-bent towards political parties and their leaders, could be for their personal interests and benefits. There were and are some leaders in all the major political parties whom I happened to be either their college friends, working friends or relatives. During my college time, I was repeatedly asked and pushed to get involved in the then students union. For some known and unknown reasons, I never wanted to be directly involved in politics. Could be, my subconscious mind did not allow me to step into politics. I see these days some of my politician college friends, working friends and politician relatives enjoying their luxurious life styles. On the other side, I see the majority of the people are struggling to make their both ends meet.   I find myself in between them. If I had joined the politics, I would be nowhere because of my emotional behaviour and lack of insincerity....

  Everest looks sad this year Nepal is known for mountaineering and earns a good amount of foreign currency as revenue every year. Many interested climbers from different countries come to Nepal for fulfilling their immense wish and interest to have first-hand mountaineering climbing experience and go back to their homeland with all the exciting and unforgettable sweet memories. Since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa ascended 8,848-metre (29,028 feet) high Mount Everest in 1953, a total of 6,507 mountaineers have climbed it from the Nepal side. Among the 6,507 summiteers, 471 are female, with Junko Tabei of Japan being the first to make it to the top in 1975. Foreigners pay $11,000 to obtain a permit to climb Everest and spend anywhere between $40,000 and $90,000 for the entire expedition. In 2019, the government earned $5.07 million in royalties from the issuance of climbing permits. Out of the total revenue, Everest accounted for $4.05 million. Covid-19 kept a...

  NCP factional politics at the local level Sometimes I feel that I should not be writing anything about the politics of our country, Nepal. But, its political parties and their leaders do not seem to be behaving well with respect to fulfilling their national, political and social responsibilities. Nepal is experiencing federal structure in line with the new constitution promulgated in 2015. There are three levels of governments; most of them are in the hands of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).       I have no hesitation to say that this party was formed by uniting the then United Marxist Leninist (UML) and Maoist Centre (CPM-C) just before the general election simply to fulfil their personal political interests and benefits. The people took its rosy election manifests seriously and voted this party overwhelmingly. Now, the people seem to be realized that they made a blunder by voting them to misuse and abuse political powers. I regularly listen over some rad...

  Another popular revolt in Nepal? I hope, I will not be wrong, when I frequently say that Nepal and its people have seen many ups and downs in its political history. However, there have not been any significance changes in the political behaviour of political parties and their leaders who do not hesitate to claim as the champion of democracy. Our democracy movement is a series of political movements from the 20th century to 2008 that advocated the establishment of representative democracy, a multi-party parliamentary system and constitutional monarchy and now a federal republic. Now, the country is governed by two-thirds majority government of the Nepal Communist Party for the last three years. The people had enthusiastically participated and voted in the three tiers of general elections held in 2074 BS with high hope of seeing stable political environment and stable government. It seems now that the people’s hopes and expectations are gradually fading away looking at the sl...

  2020 Nobel Prize Winners   I hope you will be interested to know the names  of 2020 Nobel Prize Winners in various categories. Here are they with their details: https://www.nytimes.com/article/2020-nobel-prize-winners.html Physiology or Medicine Drs. Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice on Monday received the prize for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus. The Nobel committee said the three scientists had “made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.” Physics Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez received the prize on Tuesday for their discoveries that have improved understanding of the universe, including work on black holes. Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded on Wednesday to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for their work on the development of Crispr-Cas9, a method for genome editing. Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursda...