HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 25 July 2013 Unfortunate remarks It was very unfortunate to read the news report “Send Gyanendra to jail, growls BRB” (THT, 24 July, Page 1). Dr. Baburam Bhattarai’s remarks over the former King’s current visit to flood devastated areas in the western part of Nepal have hurt his well wishers. It really did not suit the level of his intellect and seemed a cheap political statement. His statement has decreased his political height. He has been badly criticized by his fellow party members and election commission members. There was nothing to do with former king’s involvement in distributing relief materials to the flood victims. After all he is simply an ordinary Nepali citizen. Why BRB had to worry about? Can’t we be more civilized in this 21 st century while expressing our thoughts and concerns? Who had barred BRB from putting former King in jail while he was the Prime Minister? What instigated him to call some selected journalists to his res...

The Himalayan Times 12 July 2013 Reasons for CA failure I think the major political parties including Madhes based parties should have now realised that to forcefully install the concept of federalism in Nepal was one of the main reasons behind complete failure of the erstwhile CA that had to be ended without drafting the new constitution. It did not seem feasible by any means to be instituted in such a small and poverty ridden country. Was it necessary to follow the same suit of one party by the others in the name of new Nepal where multi-cultural, multi-religion and multi-racial groups of people used to harmoniously live for decades? Accordingly, was it necessary for NC to spend its valuable time on such an impracticable issue as reported in the news report “NC polishing its policy on federal model” (THT, 11 July, Page1) rather than fruitfully spending its time on resolving other political problems? The current leaderships in NC have completely devi...

Community Empowerment for health I find the term “empowerment” sometimes difficult to define in its true sense for several reasons. It is used mostly by the development pundits who claim themselves to be the experts of designing and implementing development programs. I could not also simply remain untouched and unmoved by this term because of my long involvement in a Swiss funded bilateral rural health development project in the mid eastern hilly districts. I remained initially hesitant whether I should put together successful stories of its working approach and share with the development pundits or not. However, my inner conscience kept me pushing hard to do so. Empowering the individuals, groups and organizations, who were considered to be the working partners or stakeholders, was the key working approach that remained to be the most challenging task for the project. Identifying the real working partners at the grass root level who were individually or collectively invo...