Politics

The US politics are interesting, but nothing compared to what happens here.

The strike last week over an increase in fuel prices by the national oil company was approved by the government which includes the Maoist. Then, the Maoist sent out their student unions to create havic and get the government to rescend the increase. If you forget about the first part (the Maoist approving the increase) and look only at the second the Maoist achieved something very popular with the people. Clever.

The Maoist have also said that they will have about 100 members of the YCL (Young Communist League) at each polling station for security and "campaigning". Given that the YCL continues to have forced "donations", beat innocent people, and kidnap people on a daily basis, I am guessing their idea of campaigning comes much closer to intimidation than campaigning

The government will have security at the polls, but most of them will be temporary police (meaning no weapons or any way to stop violence). The Maoist are against the Army being at the polls because they will have undue influence. For some reason, the government is going along with this idea thus far.

In addition to the Maoist problems, the Terai region which borders on India is becoming more and more violent. Initially it was just criminal behavior. Now it is becoming more politically motivated. They say they want their own seperate state and will oppose the polls if the government does not give into its' 13 demands.

Yesterday, a political group from the Terai region bombed a pro-election meeting that had thousands of people in attendance.

The twice postponed elections are slated for mid April. If they do not happen then, I fear the whole process will collapse. There are some reasons for hope and some to fear for the future.

A Good School Lesson

With all the problems they have here, religious tolerance is not one of them. It may be the nature of the dominatant religions (Hindu and Buddhist) or it could be the lessons in their classes like this from a 4th grade social studies book:

"Each religion teachers us what is right to do. Religion tells people to love each other, behave well not to put anyone in trouble, serve the helpless and poor, not to grudge any person, do the duty without any selfishness etc. All religions are good."

Becoming a man

Two days ago we attended attended a Bratabandha celebration. This is when a young boy becomes a young man. This family, who is particularly well off, had an especially elaborate celebration for their twin boys. The ceremony started with a ritualistic shaving of their heads and trimming of their toe nails.

Next, their grandfather (in the vest) along with a Hindu priest performed a series of rituals one of which involved the boys removing their clothes and putting on a loin cloth. Bad enough to have your hoo-ha out in front of strangers, but it was reasonably cold there (it reminds me of the Seinfield episode when George screams "I was in the pool!").

The boys got new suits and hats which they put on.
We walked to the temple along with the band that the family had hired.
Astrologers pick the actual day for the ceremony. Consequently, there were a lot of people celebrating. Where there are a lot of people celebrating there are a lot of dead goats. Some guy ran into me while were waiting. As I was getting ready to get upset, I realized he was jumping out of the way of a freshly slaughtered goat who was rudely shooting his blood out of his neck as he was being rushed to the temple. The buffalo who who was still breathing despite his head being removed made me feel like becoming a vegetarian.
Slaughtering an animal is important, but slaughtering 5 is particularly auspicious. Because the family we were with was well off, they slaughtered a buffalo, goat, sheep, duck, chicken. Thankfully, I was called away and Sandy was on her own for the rest of the ceremony because I am not sure I could have enjoyed all the food which was served. As you can see, Sandy was quite excited by the whole ceremony (could be that she likes looking like a giant).
I can not say that the slaughtering is is not really gross (it definitely is), but we feel really lucky to be part of these ceremonies because they teach us so much about the society.

Strike!

Facing mounting losses and the inability to get more fuel from Indian Oil Corporation due to their not paying for fuel, the Nepal Oil Corporation raised their prices for the third time in the last few months to raise the money to pay for more fuel.

The government run company is guilty of being associated with a remarkably corrupt government (last weeks granting of $15,000 to each member of the interim parliment is a good example), so the people do not trust them. They must be corrupt since the rest of the government is.

What do you do? Strike! In this case, student unions (who are perpetually on strike) put boulders in the road, set fires and announced schools and businesses will be closed from yesterday afternoon. The thousands of people who work and go to school in Kathmandu were stranded. One girl we know of walked the 10 miles back home.

Will the strike work...not likely. From what I see, there is a day off of work and school. Some business closed out of fear of the union most played the game of closing a door or two and staying open.

The police are inaffectual at best (and corrupt and disliked most of the time). These strikes happen every couple of weeks and people seem to accept it. With no real rule of law, they probably have few choices.

Update

Once again proving I know nothing, the government relented and reduced prices after the second day of increasingly violent protests.

Garbage Time

Even taking out the trash here is a bit different than elswhere we have lived. There are no trash cans, so people put their trash in front of this temple and the trash men come a few times a day to pick it up.
There are times when it is humorous like when one of the roaming cows nearly knocked Sandy over in its excitement to get at our garbage. Sometimes much less so, like when when some of the poor kids have a race to scour through the garbage for some plastic to sell.

Transportation Fascination continued

When I thought of dangers in Nepal, I thought of Maoist or Tigers. It turns out riding the buses is much more dangerous than both combined.


Fatal accidents are an everyday occurrence as we witnessed on our trip to Chitwan National Park. In a distance of about 100 miles, we saw one bus being pulled out of a 15 foot ditch (lucky since this is one of only a few areas where the drop offs are small) and a natural gas tanker overturned. On the return trip, we saw a different overturned bus and a bus with a motorcyle under its wheels.
Lonely Planet (the guide book) has a blurb about the 10 accidents that killed 200 people during the ten days of their research on the book. It seems that the rule of law and common sense are totally absent in this part of the culture.

Chitwan

We made a quick trip to Chitwan National Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site in central Nepal. The highlight of the trip was the elephant ride. The animals do not seem to be bothered by the elephants, so we could get within a couple of meters of a mother and baby one horned rhinoceros as well as 3 types of deer and monkeys. We took a ride on a canoe down a river that was full of Mud Muggers, which look exactly like American Alligators, and Gharial, an endangered long thin snout crocodilian.

Rallying

At lunch yesterday, I heard the familiar chants going down the street as were eating at. I went to investigate and there were thousands of people, including many students and adults, who joined in the Maoist rally. How can the Maoist get such big crowds when polls show them to be so unpopular.

A week ago we had dinner with the Principle of our school. He explained the Maoist rallies to me. He said that the Maoist draw their ranks from the very poor who generally have no work. If their leaders call for a rally, they go because they have nothing else to do. The other political parties draw from the mainstream, the people who actually have something to do during the day.

What about the students? The Principle told me that his brother is the man who is responsible for the union, which is Maoist affiliated, that tightly controls the public schools in Bhaktapur. Thus, if you want to be a teacher, you go see his brother to get a job. If the school wants to fire a teacher, they can not. If the Maoist call for students to participate in a rally, the teachers take them...no choice for the students.

Temple Dancing

We were out for our nightly walk when we heard women singing coming from the Dattatreya Temple . The temple, which was built in 1427, has men singing to the gods most nights, so this was a special event. As we were watching the most energetic elderly women in Bhaktapur invited us to join in. The next thing you know, they have dragged Sandy up to dance with them. I made a short video, which is too dark, but the singing gives you a feel for the atmosphere ... really fun.

Devout Dog

I was walking by a temple the other morning and noticed a dog who seemed to be worshiping the gods...just standing and not moving a muscle. I took out my camera, took a pic then continued walking. People walked by him, still no movement. A couple of nights later, we saw the same dog worshiping at another temple. Unfortunately, the camera wasn't handy.

Darwin Principle at Work

A school bus was returning from a picnic two days ago with 80 including the principle of the school, a teacher, a driver and his assistant. The buses offical capacity is 35. The bus driver and his assistant were drunk. Knowing this, the principle told them they must suck on some lemons which he thought would make them sober. Needless to say, he was wrong. The bus hit a pole and rolled over. The teacher, the principle and a student were killed in the crash.

The driver and his assistant worked valiently to help the children...at least in a world that made sense. Here, they ran away and left the kids with the dead bodies. It is strange to me to read more than a few stories about problems with alcohol because I almost never see anyone under the influence in town.

Chicken Bus

You know it is not going to be a good day when you are one of 8 chickens hanging upside down from a kids bike.

The Good, Bad and Ugly

Sandy started teaching at the same school as me and I think she is really happy especially since one of the kids in 2nd grade thought she was 19. I do not think she got too excited about this because another kid thought she was Chinese. Either way, a good first week.

A couple of bad things that happened are related to what I call the long scam. People befriending us and trying to ease money out of us. Our landlord in particular is really awful. Thankfully (or sadly) we do not trust anyone easily here so we have not been surprised or disappointed by these actions.

The ugly...well there is no other way to say it but black boogers. There brick factories all over the area. You really do not know how bad the pollution is until you blow your nose (or pick if you prefer) and find a tissue full of black boogers.