Nepal: A new beginning

Al Jazeera's interesting report on the ongoing political struggle in Nepal.

Karnali Highway: Deadliest Journeys docu

Nepalese are far too closely aware of the hellish condition of the Karnali region with no visible signs of civilization. We've seen their lives in drudgery and heard tales of survival. Deadliest Journeys visits Jumla, a place with about 10,000 people, and "virtually forgotten by the rest of civilization" that is accessible only by an "awful hellish and dangerous road." The documentary has compelling visuals of the most dangerous stretch of the road (Surkhet-Jumla) above 3,000 meters in the rugged Himalayas.



DEADLIEST JOURNEYS uncovers the world's most treacherous roads, skies and waterways, where intrepid travelers risk life and limb to reach their destinations.

US media goes gaga over 1-1 draw with England

Within minutes of the unexpected 1-1 draw with England, online media in the US flooded their front screen with pictures of the terrible goof by the English goalie and narrated the US "victory" as if it was all in the making. I tried to get screengrabs of few popular sites of the moment...

(Click to enlarge the images.)

World Cup 2010: Round 16 predictions

All the Group winners are the expected powerhouse in their own category. Except for Group G with Brazil and Portugal as FIFA World Rankings Top 10 teams, all other groups have one top-10 team from last year (sans Croatia). There are several high-powered matches I'm not going to miss -- such as today's England-USA, or Netherlands-Denmark, Brazil-Portugal, Spain-chile, even Italy-Paraguay. Since the top two in each group will move to Round 16, here's my prediction of who will move through: (Of course, you'll disagree!)


Group A
Mexico
Uruguay (France misses Zidane badly.)

Group B
Argentina (already ahead with 1-0 win over Nigeria)
South Korea (2-0 win over Greece is an impressive start)

Group C
England
USA (Unless Algeria does some miracle!)

Group D
Germany
Ghana (I'm betting on them this time.)

Group E
Netherlands
Cameroon (Just can't pick the Danes over them.)

Group F
Italy (Waka Waka Italia!)
Paraguay

Group G
Brazil (If anyone says they aren't going up to QF, it's blasphemy.)
Portugal

Group H
Spain
Chile


Round 16 rule: Group A winner plays Group B runner up, Group B winner plays Group A runner up, Group C winner vs. Group D runner up...and so on.

(A1) Mexico vs. (B2) South Korea

(B1) Argentina vs. (A2) Uruguay

(C1) England vs. (D2) Ghana

(D1) Germany vs. (C2) USA

(E1) Netherlands vs. (F2) Paraguay

(F1) Italy vs. (E2) Cameroon

(G1) Brazil vs. (H2) Chile

(H1) Spain vs. (G2) Portugal


More prediction to follow.....

Microsoft launches Office Web Apps

Finally, Microsoft throws the gauntlet to Google to launch its own browser-based popular Office applications. Until now Google enjoyed some dominance with its own version of Docs while also rolling out features through its Labs. Now Microsoft played a good catch-up with its own Office Web Apps prior to the launch of Office 2010 next week. Since Zoho isn't very popular yet and the open-source OpenOffice.org might take a while to jump in the cloud-computing wagon, Microsoft's latest roar would be heard loud and wide.

How can you access Office Web Apps?

You'll need an account with Windows Live to access the online suite. (Your Hotmail account works.) Once you are logged in, go to the link "Office" on top. You can use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote almost like the desktop version. You can try other products if you download the trial version.

I tried using all applications on both PC and Mac and tried it on IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome and didn't really notice any difference. It was a seamless experience, except when I tried to use on IE it wanted me to download Silverlight for better performance. I haven't opened an IE browser for more than a year now!

But I think the biggest bonus of this online experience is the 25GB free online storage space on SkyDrive. You can park your files, share, sync and also download them to a local drive. However, you still need to get online to edit documents. If only this generous space could be used for all-purpose no-size-limit upload/download files, it would be better than Dropbox or ADrive or any other free online cloud drive.

These Office Web Apps are a good start for Web-based computing if you have good connectivity. Perhaps, Microsoft could also add some features of Google Wave, such as simultaneous editing and play back. As of now, I am not complaining.

Nepali Comedy: छोरी को बिहे (Daughter's marriage)

A Nepali comedy by Shiva Hari Poudel and Niru Khadka. Video released after 50 days!

Oil Spill 4/20: An environmental 9/11?

Already into the 46th day of the oil spill, more vitriol continues to pour even as BP struggles to plug the Deepwater Horizon well that gushes about 5,000 barrels (1 barrel = 42 US gal) of crude oil daily. But some have estimated the spill could have been as high as 100,000 barrels a day. That's equivalent to all the water in seven Olympic-size swimming pools!
(Paul Rademacher, engineering director of Google Maps, has put the spill into excellent geographical perspective by allowing users to compare the area of the spill to that of their home town or a city they are familiar with.)

If the loss is converted to money, then it's billions of dollars loss at $85 per barrel. BP has already spent $1 billion containing and cleaning up the oil. Since it owned the responsibility of the spill, the expense could be much higher. President Barack Obama's administration has sent its first bill of $69 million for the US government's efforts in managing the spill response. It's too early to say whether this incident will lead BP toward bankruptcy, but the CEO of the London-based company has assured its shareholders that the company has "considerable firepower" to cover the cost. Amidst this assurance comes the time for BP to disburse dividends about which Obama has shown open displeasure.

In his third visit to the affected region, Obama assailed BP's plans to spend $50 million on an ad campaign to salvage its image and another $10 million on dividends for shareholders.

"What I don't wanna hear is when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising that they're nickel and diming fisherman," Obama said.

Obama's strong words still didn't match with any visible anger that the American people want to see in him. People want to see emotion and rage and finger wagging for some cathartic relief, perhaps much like the way during the AIG bonus saga. But he has acted cool so far.

In the latest Larry King Live interview he said he is "furious." That's it! But that's not enough for the American people who want to see an enraged president taking stern actions, even questioning the corporate as to why BP's CEO Tony Hayward still in charge.

Despite this terrible environmental mess and loss of 11 lives in the rig explosion, Hayward enjoys the confidence of the board. He was apologetic to the shareholders as he continued to assure them.

"We will work tirelessly to rebuild the confidence of the American people, and of the world, in BP," Hayward said in his first update to shareholders after the rig explosion of April 20.

But not everyone can be assured. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group with its 80,000 members, has started a campaign to boycott BP's products. It has asked people to boycott BP for "at least three months."

On the Facebook wall of Boycott BP page Kristin Royce Barsell wrote, "I went to BPs channel on Youtube and Gave a thumbs down to every one of their videos. Then, I flagged them for being innapropriat. For stuff like sexual content, violence, and a bunch of other really funny stuff. I found it very therapeutic. You should do the same. It will make you feel much better."

As the Gulf of Mexico oil slick approached coastlines and threatened people's livelihoods and damaged the ecosystem, more and more people have shown frustration with the federal administration. The public anger is aggravated further as they see live video feed of the oil spewing from the well. All the major media have given prime coverage of the pictures of pelicans drenched in oil, or images of plumes of partly dissolved oil flowing in the deep ocean.

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reports, "the mainstream media devoted 38% of its newshole to the spill during the week of May 24-30."

Despite such extensive media coverage and the amount of environmental impact the spill will create, it is still not yet the "environmental 9/11" as Melinda Henneberger of the Politics Daily argues. The present disaster has surpassed the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, or is comparable in cleanup and response efforts to hurricane Katrina, but it is still not comparable to the 9/11 attack that not only took more lives but also pulled the rug of faith for a fellow human being.

The technology to overcome the present disaster is perhaps easier to devise sooner or later, but a soothing balm to heal the impact of 9/11 is difficult to create.


***

Here's a selection of media that have given dedicated coverage of the oil spill.

Online: White House, BP, PBS, Google News, Yahoo! News, HuffPost, The Daily Beast
Broadcast: CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, Al Jazeera, BBC, France24
Newspapers: NYTimes, WashPo, WSJ, LATimes, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, St. Petersburg, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Guardian

1. A brown pelican is seen on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast on Thursday, June 3, 2010. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon has affected wildlife throughout the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
2. Fire boat crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon late Wednesday. (U.S. Coast Guard)
3. Boycott BP Petition logo
4. May 6. An aerial view of the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. (Daniel Beltra-Reuters)
5. Screengrab of "Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf" from NYTimes.com Interactive

Images used without permission. Copyright infringement not intended.

Does the US encourage India's interference in South Asia?

“As India looks east, its role in its immediate neighborhood obviously remains crucial. We have complementary interest on the subcontinent, and United States supports India’s leadership in encouraging the emergence of a stable democratic government in Bangladesh, easing tensions in Nepal and promoting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Neither of us intends [US and India] to outsource South Asia policy to the other, but more often than not our policy prescriptions converge.”

William J. Burns, U.S. Department of State's Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs speaking at the CFR's General Meeting on India’s Rise and the Future of the U.S.-India Relationship on June 1, 2010.

Audio Source: Council on Foreign Relations (17:16)

What is Google Voice?

Since I'm impressed with Google Voice, let me do some free marketing for them.

Google Voice is by invitation only for now. But students with .EDU account can request an invite.

But why do you need a Google Voice when you have your regular phone number? Well, it's just like the need to have a universal phone charger. Nobody wants to rummage through the drawers to pull out the right one only to be misplaced again!

If you have been worried about losing your phone number while you changed carriers, or worried about not being accessible when you are at different numbers, or have been frustrated to reach that particular phone to access voice messages, then you need a universal phone number that does it all for you.

If you are the one who uses more than one phone number, you should own a Google Voice number to solve your phone worries.

Here's how Google Voice works--

1. You create your own Google Voice number after Google approves your invitation. Request an invitation with your .EDU account.

2. Add phone numbers (cell, home, office, etc) to forward calls to. Remember, you can customize the way you want to receive these calls. Check out this YouTube video on how Google Voice works.

3. Choose the option to receive SMS of your voice mails (of course, it only transcribes standard English now!), or opt to receive email messages of all the voice mails to any of the phones you own.

4. Customize playback messages by creating groups.

5. You can buy credits to make international calls. (I prefer Skype or Raza for that.)

There are many other features you can explore on your own.

So, what is the biggest advantage of a Google Voice number????

Your Google Voice becomes your permanent number. When someone asks your phone number you give your Google number. That means even if you move from one phone to another or change phone numbers frequently, you don't need to send email messages or make Facebook status updates announcing your numbers have changed. Just go to the Google Voice settings and update your numbers. Others don't even need to know what numbers you own. Isn't that wonderful?

One word of caution: Choose your number judiciously in the first instance. If you don't like your number you can always change it, but you pay $10 each time you do that.

Try it out and let me know your experience about it.

CNN's excellent use of infographics

Foreman makes a superb use of Google Maps to describe the events of the bomb scare at Times Square. His description is combined with camera movements that enhances the effect.

Changing America’s food landscape

The season's finale of ABC's Food Revolution didn't end with the proverbial cliffhanger, but Jamie Oliver has created quite a hustle to bring his audience back next season.

Here you see a man who loves food as much as he loves to talk about food; but he doesn't quite talk the way other food celebrities on television do. Anthony Bourdain, Alton Brown, Robert Irvine, Andrew Zimmern , Rachel Ray, Ted Allen, Gordon Ramsay and many others all talk about pleasing the palate, the craft of cookery, the profession, or the adventures with food. But Oliver is quite unlike any other connoisseur. He is the food-pontiff on a mission to save America.

After attaining iconic status in the United Kingdom for reforming lunches in schools, Oliver travels to Huntington, W. Va., America’s “unhealthiest” city according to Centers for Disease Control. The show chronicles his mission to fix high school’s lunch program against the wishes of lunch bosses, vitriolic local radio show host, and fuzzy federal regulations.

Oliver wants a healthy America. He is not a proponent of no-meat diet or vegan-only food. His rants are mostly about the dangers of processed foods and the harmful effects of fast food on a person’s health. To encourage people, especially kids, to eat fresh vegetables and local produce, he wants to educate them first. The message that Huntington brings with its notoriety for being the fattest city is as disturbing as having one-third adult population in the country as obese and more than half considered overweight. The price? Direct or indirect annual spending of nearly $150 billion.

Have a look at America's expanding waistline

There is much to blame on America’s food culture and the ease of fast food. It’s not hard to predict whether a person will grab a quick burger or spend 15 minutes in the kitchen preparing a “healthy meal.” And it’s precisely this message that Oliver is emphasizing: Teach children to cook.

At the recent TED talk, he spoke about the importance of changing the "landscape of food around us" so that children of the future generation can live healthier and much longer lives. His focus on educating kids about good healthy food at school seems just right to set the tone toward future eating habits that could come either by integrating cooking classes in the school curriculum or learning to cook ten simple recipes before leaving high school. And he might just have achieved that in Huntington. At least, he won the bet (beer) and friendship of the local radio talk show host whose skepticism didn’t stop the community members to flock at Jamie’s Kitchen, and at the street in front, to toss pepper and spaghetti.

Food Revolution is a reality-TV-documentary that brings the right dose of message to address a killer issue. Oliver’s message is simple: If America does it, the rest of the world will follow. So?

Sign Jamie's petition to save cooking skills and improve school food

My favorite episode from Hulu.


See a recent Nielsen's survey

Bring changes to the tradition

Nepalese revere the Kumari, the virgin deity, almost as much as the Mt. Everest. But once the girl is ceased to be worshiped as the living goddess after attaining puberty or loss of blood due to injury, she loses her divine status. Her life after that mostly remains in seclusion and in unproclaimed banishment for lack of social skills and education.

The Supreme Court in 2008 ruled in favor of the Kumaris for their right to education and other human rights. The Kumari of Bhaktapur was in news couple years ago when she created a furor in the conservative religious community after visiting the United States at the invitation of a documentary maker. She was even briefly stripped of her Kumari status. This year the Nepali media have happily reported about the 15-year-old Kumari of Patan who appeared in the school leaving certificate exams. Now there is news she wants to work in the financial sector.

These are signs that the Nepalese people are slowly showing tolerance toward religious symbols and practices that were so zealously guarded for centuries. By tutoring the Kumari at her home and giving her opportunities at par with other students, the Guthi Sansthan has earned more respect for its sensitivity toward the issue.

Nepalese society now needs to challenge the tradition of the Pashupati temple that bars non-Hindus from entering its premises. It is not just against the secular character of a nation but also against the tenets of the religion itself that touts equality. If a religion forbids a non-believer from entering its most sacred place, how can it be assumed that there is respect for all people no matter what?

The guardians of the Kumari tradition have taken a bold step, can the Hindus come out of their silos now?


Learn about the virgin goddess of Patan.

Response to Carol Christiano

This is my response to Carol Christiano who considers Nepal to be a part of India when the Buddha was born.
----------
Carol: Thank you for allowing me to briefly educate you on the ancient history of the Indian subcontinent. What we now consider India or Nepal did not exist when Gautam Buddha was born. He was born in a principality whose capital was Kapilvastu. There were several small and large "kingdoms" during that time. The Maurya dynasty of the Magadh Empire gained prominence two hundred years after Buddha's death.

If you read the history of independent kingdoms during that time, you'll find reference to 16 flourishing empires known as "mahajanapad", or great countries. Some of them are Anga, Chedi, Gandhara, Kasi, Kosala, Kuru, Matsya, Magadha, Panchala etc. References to these independent kingdoms can also be found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Some of the rulers of these kingdoms even resisted the conquest of Alexander. It is in one such small Shakya republic of the Kosala kingdom, Siddhartha Gautam was born. How can you then say he was born in India? Therefore, a correct reference is: He was born in present-day Nepal.

There's no denial that Siddhartha Gautam spend his life as a teacher in nearby kingdoms that are now in India. Most of the rulers of these empires became his followers. Ashoka was the most prominent ruler of the time of the Magadha Empire who was also an ardent follower of the Buddhist ideology. He officially patronized the religion and appointed "Rajukas" to see that dhamma was followed in his kingdom. Besides sending missionaries led by his own son and daughter, it is also believed that he ordered thousands of stupas to be build across his empire and beyond. It is this expansion that helped Buddhism to spread as a religion in India and other parts of Asia and China. But this attempt doesn't undermine the historical fact about his birth.

If you have time, please read "2500 years of Buddhism" whose foreword is by S. Radhakrishnan, a religious scholar and India's second president.

The question of what constitutes India as a nation became clear only in the last 150 years or so, and politically only in 1947 when India and Pakistan were carved out. When the East India Company came to "India" in 1600 AD, they came to the empires and principalities that were eventually colonized by the British Empire in the next 300 years to form the present-day Indian nation. This political unit is different than the narrative of "India" found in the historical texts that is generically used to refer to the all the empires that existed in the Indian subcontinent, sometimes even extending up to Southeast Asia.

However, you must be aware that the modern day territory of Nepal (that includes Kapilvastu) and the Siamese kingdom (modern day Thailand) are the only two countries in the region that have not been colonized and have remained independent. Therefore, you like many others, are absolutely wrong to say that Nepal was "considered" India at the time of the Buddha's birth.

I hope you'll appreciate the importance of updating your knowledge on this issue. And if you are not satisfied by my explanation, you are free to "investigate it for yourself" just as you've said in your previous post.

----------
The above response was prepared after Carol Christiano responded to my comments on "The Buddha" Facebook page.

This is what I wrote:
PBS must get its fact correct on the birth of the Buddha. The preview video repeatedly mentions he was born in India. You are WRONG! Please be aware of the UNESCO's listing on Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha.

Please don't drag Gautam Buddha to controversy.

Carol Christiano's response:
Sijan: Shakyamuni Buddha was born 2500 years ago in "modern day" Nepal. At the time of his birth it was considered India, so I don't believe it is incorrect to state his place of birth India. There was no Nepal in existence at that time.

India hijacks Lord Buddha from Nepal

This time it's PBS that must face the Nepalese wrath over Lord Buddha's issue. David Grubin's 2-hour documentary that premieres on April 7 has ample references that will appropriately pique the Nepalese sentiments for calling Lord Buddha an Indian.

Narrated by Hollywood actor Richard Gere, "The Buddha" chronicles young Siddhartha's journey through artwork and animation. A peek into the documentary shows commentaries from the Dalai Lama, Pulitzer-prize winner poet W.S. Merwin and other prominent scholars and monastics.

John F. Wilson, PBS senior vice president and chief TV programming executive says, "By continuing our exploration of the world's religions, we are delighted to participate in broadening people's understanding of Buddhism today with David Grubin's moving portrait of the life of the Buddha."

Wilson's hope of creating an "understanding" doesn't seem to be reflected in the preview video posted on the Web nor on the description of the DVD put up for online sale. At the beginning of the preview video when the Buddha's birth is described, the narrator says, "The stories say that before his birth, his mother, the queen of a small Indian kingdom, had a dream."

This information is obviously wrong. During the time of the Buddha's birth 2,500 hundred years ago, there was no India or Nepal. But Siddhartha Gautam was born in Lumbini, the present-day Nepal. Archeological findings corroborate this fact that is endorsed by the UNESCO. But there seem to be deliberate efforts to either falsify or hide references of Nepal when it comes to the Buddha's birth.

Even if this documentary was made in collaboration with the Asia Society, the essay on The Origins of Buddhism on the Society's Web site mentioned the Buddha was born in North India. It was only after a reader's correction the reference to North India was removed, but even then the article falls short of mentioning Nepal as the birthplace of the Buddha.

While a long-term publicity and awareness campaign might rectify this error, for now we really need to complain PBS for distorting the historical facts. In fact, The Himalayan Voice wrote to the production company "to correct the information before the documentary is aired." In reply the David Gruber Productions claims that the film "explicitly" mentions that Buddha was born in southern Nepal. This is an exquisitely idiotic explanation. No sane person could accept that. How can one ignore the fact that in the 5-minute video preview Siddhartha's mother is called "the queen of a small Indian kingdom," in the blurb of the DVD version the Buddha is called "the Indian sage," and in the PBS TV schedule listing the Buddha's "northern India" affiliation is highlighted?

Certainly, the sage is beyond all disputes but the controversy is real and getting nastier.

PBS not only needs to purge the erroneous information but also owes a sincere apology with a commitment to participate in a publicity campaign to establish Nepal's position against all propaganda.

Raise your voice by commenting on PBS Facebook page and other social networking sites.

Cheesemaking in Nepal: Dairy farmers at the top of the world

Mr. Driard settled in Nepal after working in 30 countries in three years as a wandering journalist. “Nepal was perfect for me: beautiful mountains, beautiful women, beautiful climate – but no cheese.... I knew I had to do something about this.”

Read More

Gateway to the Himalayas - 1954

This video shot in 1954 is one of the earlier footages of Nepal when the country was opening up to foreigners in the 1950s. Nothing much has changed in the streets now in 2010 since what the video shows or what a National Geographic reporter wrote about the festivities in 1920: "Life in a Nepalese city seems to the uninitiated just one Mardi Gras after another. A dignitary's visit is the occasion of the special holiday, while there would be more red-ink dates than black were the festivals designated as on an occidental calendar."
White, J. C. (1920) “Nepal: a Little-Known Kingdom.” National Geographic, 38 (4), p. 245-283.

Nepalese Night - 2010 participation survey

**

Ellen's princess visits Franklin Hall

Kali Baba's self-immolation threat and religious discrimination in Nepal

A popular Nepali godman Kali Baba is outrageously making statements of self-immolation if Nepal is not declared a Hindu state.

His threat of self-immolation has been reported by the news media in Nepal and India with equal interest since the notion itself flares up the emotion. Is that a reasonable act to pursue one’s cause?

The godman has been in limelight for his nine-day long sahasra rudrachandi akhanda mahayagya that aimed to restore Nepal as a Hindu country. He was visited at Bankali by the former king Gyanendra Shah along with his wife Komal. Shah is reported to have supported the cause. Other high-profile visitors to the yagna have equally surprised the political pundits because the yagna was more political than religious.

Kali Baba, like many other Nepalese, is frustrated at the political turn of events. He is upset that "vandals and vagabonds" are entering the temple premises and beating up the priests; he believes that secularism is not the people’s demand; and, he is disappointed that the Maoists “did nothing for the country” despite their promises.

Now what Kali Baba is trying to attempt is to rescue the failed politics by religion. His conviction that monarchy alone can unite the nation was booted out in a popular mass movement couple years ago. Though his question on whether the process to declare the country as secular still remains valid, it is an action most likely to be undone.

Kali Baba’s yagya might have a religious and cultural appeal, but it cannot undermine the aspiration of Jana Andolan II. But what Kali Baba is doing now is thwarting the peace process by striving to assert the supremacy of religion over state. Such orthodox mistakes in the past have dragged the nation to the present turmoil.

Historically, Nepal has favored a religion that promotes discrimination. After the completion of the official unification of the country in 1769, Prithvi Narayan Shah declared Nepal a "garland" of "char jat and chattis varna" based on Hindu caste system. When the Civil Code was enacted by Junga Bahadur Rana in 1854, the vedic system of discrimination was further strengthened by classifying people in descending order and separating the tagadharis, matwalis and sudras. In 1962 when the Panchayat constitution was adopted, Nepal was declared a Hindu kingdom once again reinforcing discrimination based on religion. And now comes Kali Baba’s yagya in 2010 that again wants to put the Nepali people in the loop of discrimination.

At a time when the nation is debating to be inclusive, Kali Baba’s action incites extremist feelings in one religious community. The Hindus form a majority in Nepal, but that doesn’t mean the religion should dominate the state. Most wars around the world are fought today because of religious reasons.

Luckily, Nepal has maintained an image of a tolerant society where Buddhists, Muslims and Christians have largely felt secure. But if the emotions of the Hindus are allowed to be played with in the name of religious rites to secure a political goal, we might soon witness discontentment in the streets expressed by other religious communities.

The issue of self-immolation is another sensitive matter. Self-immolation is a powerful tool to express the message of discontent. In recent decades there have been deliberate acts of self-immolation to highlight a cause.

On 11 June 1963 Thich Quang Duc self-immolated in a busy intersection in Saigon, Vietnam, protesting the persecution of the Buddhists by South Vietnam’s administration. The monk had written to the government and told the members of his Buddhist community about the religious oppression at the hands of Catholic Jean Baptiste Ngo Dinh Diem. Duc’s self-immolation captured the sentiment of the time for more political protests that ultimately changed the regime. Several other self-immolations followed the incident.

Other incidents in the sub-continent have sparked wide protests.

In 1990 a student from Delhi University attempted to self-immolate against the implementation of the Mandal Commission that recommended reservations and quotas for backward communities.

On 29 January 2009 K. Muthukumar self-immolated to protest the killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Some people of the Tamil origin around the world were inspired to follow suit. In fact, one person self-immolated in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva.

On 21 February 2010 Siripur Yadaiah self-immolated in Hyderabad shouting pro-Telangana slogans. A note found in his pocket revealed he was prepared to give up his life for the cause of a separate Telangana state.

There are numerous such gory incidences of self-immolation that have been planned and warned about. Kali Baba’s threat should be taken within this context.

Nepal is barely catching up to practice the basic democratic ideals. We should be cognizant of the fact that such threats and actions don’t impede our march toward the much sought after peace. There are other religious issues that Kali Baba or people of influence could work upon.

For instance, we ought to scrap the law that considers religious conversion an offense, or the slaughter of cows as punishable by 18 years in prison, or the rampant discrimination in the name of "untouchables.”

Other nuanced forms of discrimination that exist in our households also need to be stopped, such as promotion of fatalism, chaupadi, men-worship in Teej and Swasthani.

Religious leaders have tremendous tasks ahead to preserve the values of religion while at the same time weeding out practices that compromise equality. The influence of Kali Baba should be used to promote harmony and tolerance.

It is in the best interest of a nation to keep religion away from the state affairs.

Published on March 13, 2010 at newpalnews.com.
====================

Read how Kalidas Dahal tricked his way to be known as Kali Baba in Himal published on 28 Mar-13 Apr 2010 (१६-३१ चैत २०६६). Also visit his Web site here where he makes false claims about his age, education and his father's legacy.

Image of Kali Baba's bogus Web site.

The Art of Saving Money

Here's an extreme example of how you can save a lot of money if you know how to use coupons in a real real real real real smart way. This CNN video shows an unbelievably insane way to shop. Good luck!

Nepal: Caught Between China and India

Nepal may be most famous for its majestic Himalayan peaks, but much of the country is a vast stretch of plains, the terai, which have long been underdeveloped and largely ignored by the two powers on either side. No longer. India has just launched a plan to spend $361 million over the next several years on roads and rail links in the terai, announcing the grants just before Nepali President Ram Baran Yadav made his Feb. 15 official visit to New Delhi. China, meanwhile, recently increased its annual aid to Nepal by 50% to about $22 million.

Read more

Google Buzz Launch Event (video)

Groups/Feeders outside Kathmandu valley

Click on the image to zoom in.














Click here for Groups/Feeders INSIDE Kathmandu valley

Groups/Feeders inside Kathmandu valley

Click on the image to zoom in.













Click here for Groups/Feeders OUTSIDE Kathmandu valley

नेपाल "लोडशेडिङ्ग" प्रधिकरणको नयाँ तालिका

मिति २०६६/१०/१४ देखि लागु हुने गरी।

Click on the image to zoom in.


See list of Groups/Feeders-

INSIDE Kathmandu valley

OUTSIDE Kathmandu valley

Haiti: 360°

Use your mouse to click and drag around the video to change the view. You can also zoom in and out. Pause and explore at any time by pressing the play/pause button under the video to stop and look around. The video below was shot on Monday, January 18, at 9:52 a.m. EST in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Urban Interns