Red Nepal

Rajendra Thakurathi

A country infected by years of repression of communism and a crumbled democracy after losing two “world wars” in the span of 25 years. A wall as long as 100 miles, its only purpose to prevent the exodus of the skilled people from the east side to the west side at the sake of their freedom. How long could the wall stand robust?

This 11/9 (not 9/11) represents the 20th anniversary of that shiny day in history that culminated the long-awaited hope of Germans to bring down the wall. No longer was there an East and West Germany, and Berliners from both sides were reunited. On Nov. 9, 1989, hours before midnight, the mob on the east side stormed the border crossing called “Checkpoint Charlie” in Berlin, yelling out to the border guards: “Open up.” The crowd on the West answered “Come over, come over!” The gates eventually swung open, and many German clambered atop the Berlin Wall and yelled “Die Mauer ist Weg!” (the Wall is gone).

For 28 years, the wall built by the Eastern Communistic Germany prevented people from crossing the border between East and West Berlin. Tanks and uniformed soldiers guarded the border. Soldiers were given orders to shoot those spotted crossing the border. While the Western Allied Powers (the U.S., Great Britain and France) occupied West Germany in the cloak of democracy, the trampled East was ruled by fanatic advocates of communism. People’s voices were unheard, and East Germans were banned to travel beyond the Iron Curtain, a physical and ideological boundary that kept Europe divided from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War. Those longing to escape to the West tried going from neighboring Hungary or Czechoslovakia and from there over the mountains to West Germany. One-hundred-ninety two people lost their lives while trying to escape to the West between 1961 and 1989.

Germany had been locked behind the Iron Curtain since the early 1960s. One of the hardest-hit areas in Europe, Germany had both the threat of a second Great Depression and, on the other, the rise of communism. The Western Allies’ Marshall Plan was committed to rebuild Europe as soon as possible, but Communist Soviet Union had other intentions in mind. The barbed wires that merely shone as the demarcation of the East and the West were changed into huge concrete walls overnight while the Berliners were sleeping in 1961. East Berliners found themselves as prisoners in their own country. The border was sealed and the makeshift barbed-wire barrier was transformed into the Berlin Wall. Walter Ulbricht, the communist party leader, thought it was the solution to losing skilled people from the East to the West. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who had wooed new Third World states to embrace communism and spoke to recognizing the two German states, stood up and ordered Bauen Sie die Mauer, “Build the wall!” Death Strip, a no-man’s land was soon created.

The demarcation not just divided the Berliners and the Germans, but also aggravated Cold War tensions. At one point, world leaders feared a nuclear war. The 1963 Berlin speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy fell on deaf ears. But in 1987, President Reagen’s call to “Bring down this wall!” prompted Soviet Union Prime Minister Mikael Gorbachev to show signs of willingness to tear down the wall. Then on Nov. 9, 1989, the Checkpoint Charlie border guards shrugged and threw open the gates on that freezing night.

Today, no line remains to show the border. Where the barbed wires, watchtowers and the wall showed their grim faces, the skyscrapers smile at the sky to tell about the glorious years Germany has come to. At present, just two kilometers of the wall remain of the 43 kilometers that once ran through the center of Berlin. However, the people who saw the wall fall often will sing “Wind of Change” — just as they sang for the world 20 years ago. Freiheit!

Rajendra believes a wind of change comes every now and often.

by Sanjit Pradhananga

If a Hindu priest bore witness to how the Nepalese Diaspora celebrated this year’s Dashain festivities, he would be aghast to say the least. We’d congregated at a Chapel under one skinny foreigner nailed to a cross, while another blessed us by evoking the Gods of our forefathers. To be honest, I don’t even know if the prayer we sent out to heavens that day was accurate, for it was in a tongue I’ve long forgotten. But surely the all-loving G will absolve the audacity of a people, self-exiled from their traditions, trying to cling on to whatever little they remember. Surely the all-compassionate G will empathize with the end, if not our means. I have been told that She holds the ones who’ve been lost, closest to her breast.

I confess I’ve been lost for a while. For four years I have scoured through empty isles in the library, climbed jagged bluffs by the Mississippi, wandered lonely on mirthless nights through virgin snow, lamenting all that has slipped from my memory. It happened very suddenly, I remember. One July, I had swum in the Atlantic during a storm, thinking of my mother’s soft hands. In my mind, I could see it, the texture, the scar, the yellow turmeric tan. But I’d forgotten how it smelt. It was completely gone. I hurried out of the choppy waters, with a tempest stirring within my head. Gone! That first smell, I learned to recognize. That odor of selfless love, that’s a tantalizing mix of curry and lavender. All Gone.

It has been all downhill since then.
Phone numbers, places, voices then faces.
All lost.
Uncle Sam taketh a lot of things.
Uncle Sam taketh my money, my youth, my sweat, my dreams and my innocence.

But Uncle Sam also hoodwinked a veil I had over my eyes, all the years I’d lived in Nepal. So many things were taken for granted back then, the odors, the voices, the faces, the traditions. Dashain, which we try now so desperately to recreate, was a big nuisance to me while growing up. The family gatherings were long and painful, the blessings were phony, and the animal sacrifices inhumane and illogical.

I like to think of my self-exile as a big storm that has blown away all my dying leaves. Now in this winter of discontent, I see the tree that gave life to me for what it really is. I see the sturdy branches of tradition I’d nested in. I see my roots, strong, interwoven and grounded solid. I don’t take anything for granted anymore.

Everything I go through takes me past these rain drenched streets, to back home where my heart lies. I see big cars zooming by and miss those noisy streets back home, the horns, the commotion, and those cows that wandered into the streets. I see nice houses and lavish lawns and remember those huts, those slums where people lived in utter poverty but love. I hear church bells toll and remember those frantic chimes of temple bells, the elderly worshiping at dawn, their purity which I(until now) had always scorned and questioned. I walk into the ARC and find my self back to my high school library, but a couple of isolated racks holding Nepali literature books (that I never bothered venturing into) are gone. Yet my eyes still search for that isolated corner. The prosperity that seethes through everything here, resounds with the echo of the woes my ailing nation. The cry of a mother land whose sons and daughters choose to abandon her in their yearning for prosperity.Being an alien, reminds me of the profoundness of my own culture. It is funny that I had to travel half way around the world into a foreign land to realize it. My family often jokes about how I’ve become an American, how my accent has changed, how I don’t remember phone numbers, and names, and places. I listen and smile, because they get a great kick out of it. But if they only knew! The irony.

For I have transitioned not into an American but more into a Nepali.
“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” –
J.J.


Sanjit is a gadfly. He runs the The Gadfly Rises. Click here.

ENTREPRENEURS OF NEPAL is an open network forum for young Nepalis. It holds various programs like interactions with Nepali entrepreneurs every month.

The forum has compiled 10 tips from established entrepreneurs speaking at their forums, that may help you on your goal to start your own venture in Nepal. Here they are:

1. Success takes patience. Min Bahadur Gurung waited almost for a decade before he expanded his one-room cold storage shop to a small department store, which then went on to be today’s Bhat Bhateni Supermarkets at more than one locations.
2. Know yourself. Karna Sakya has devised a test that helps you find out how you work, how you value time, and what your values are. His point is that unless you really know what you are good at, and how you function, you are not likely to be a success.
3. Know the strength of others. You are working with. You can’t do everything by yourself. Icchya Raj Tamang says that working well on a team is a function knowing and using the strengths of other team-mates toward your goals.
4. Honesty is the key. Min Bdr Gurung says that long-term business success is anchored on honesty, and on mutually trustworthy relationships with your financial institutions, creditors, debtors, co-workers, employees and customers.
5. When choosing partners, do your homework well. Mahendra Man Shakya of Momo King says that most mistakes are made in Nepali businesses when people get into business partnerships without doing the necessary background research and without asking themselves some tough questions which need to be answered and understood upfront. There is no fun in quarreling with your business partners when things go wrong, which there surely will be at some point in the business.

6. Aim for precision in communication. Jonas Lindholm says that bad communication lies at the heart of many business failures and misunderstandings. In Nepal, often, people say ‘yes’ too eagerly, without being aware of what they can do and what they cannot do, and that can be a problem when things do not go right. Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
7. Analyze your mistakes to learn from them. Gyanendra Pradhan of HydroSolutions says that a good habit an entrepreneur needs to develop is an ability to reflect upon one’s mistakes, and learn from them without getting stuck in the past. This habit can be cultivated through conscious practice and reflective experiences.
8. Hard work is the only way to success. Mrs. Ambika Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotel, says that she attributes her success to her ability to work very hard when she was young. No work was beneath her, and she made many, many sales calls and visits to sell her hotel’s and travel agency’s offerings.
9. Persistence is important. Ajay Ghimire, CEO of Vibor Bank, says that he looks for a sense of persistence when dealing with entrepreneurs. Those who are persistent are likely to not get disappointed with failures and setbacks, and have the energy and willpower to push ahead to success.
10. Entrepreneurship is the art of selling. Ajay Ghimire believes that whatever an entrepreneur does, success comes from an ability to sell ideas, concepts, good and services to others. This is why, an ability sell what one knows and makes is a critical skill to have.
hope you enjoyed it !

For Entrepreneurs for Nepal: Ashutosh Tiwari, Jaya Burathoki, Sagar Onta , Ujwal Thapa with Robin Sitoula and Samriddhi: The Prosperity Foundation

The forum can be reached at e4nepal.com

I opened the door to my room, threw the key on the table and set the alarm for tomorrow on my phone. A miss call “Unknown” made me realize that somebody must have called me from home. Suddenly, I realized it was yet another beautiful festival Tihar.

When I was back home, Tihar was my best festivity, for it was an occasion of light and delight. Although Dashain is considered the greatest festival, I never felt its importance until I came here, away from my family. For me, Dashain was a way for the whole family and kith and kin to come together, to hear some political guffaw of my Dad and his acquaintances. Under the dark blue sky, on the terrace of my house, I would listen closely to my Dad and fall asleep on the side gazing at the stars when my Mom would have gone to her parents along with my brother. However, Tihar was something that filled my whole world with a unique aroma of excitement. Flickering candles, diyo and a bunch of deusi-bhaili groups were so cheerful to me. The gayety was even more with crackers that I would buy with my brother under-the- table, for my Dad never liked it.

Every year, I had been with my brother, who along with me, would light up the candles outside the house on this day. Although the bridge would make the flame dance and blow out, we would spend whole night making sure there was light around our house and that Goddess Laxmi would come to our house. The redolence of shell-roti, gujiya and sweets made by my sister and a smile on everyone’s face in my family would please me. I would watch the deusi-bhaili people going from shop to shop, singing and dancing. Then my Dad would ask me to be in his shop so that he could go and do Laxmi Puja.

But, today I lie down on this bed, all tired and restless from daylong work, I am waiting for a call, just one call, from my brother, my sister, my Mom and my Dad. Just one call, and I swear my whole week would go lucky. I’m waiting. All the festivals come and go, but they don’t matter to anyone here. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, they don’t interest me at all. During my own festivals, I find myself and Nepali friends soaked in working and finishing assignments and class projects. I can’t complain.

I turn off the light to sleep and my phone rings.

(Photo courtesy of Blind Manche on Flickr.com)

Here is a Diwali message from Obama to all those who celebrate this festival.

Dear NRNs,

At the outset, this writer wishes to make it clear that this letter is a sincere salutation to those of you who have not only talked about Nepal but have made concrete contributions to this country in various ways. However, this letter could make for uncomfortable reading to the majority of you who come, who talk, who return and do nothing but just talk and find excuses to talk more. There is no point cursing Nepali politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and civil society members when you, with all your expertise, skills and resources, have failed to fulfil your social and patriotic responsibilities.

The Fourth Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) Global Conference is starting tomorrow with huge fanfare. Like in past conferences, there will be an ostentatious inauguration, spirited speeches, erudite paper presentations, heated discussions and profound declarations about how NRNs can contribute to the development of Nepal and how the Nepal government should recognise and encourage the contributions of NRNs towards their motherland. After extensive publicity, several flashy interviews, and the grand conclusion of the conference, you will all disperse and return ‘home’. Before the next global conference takes place in 2011, many of you will engage and participate in several regional NRN conferences in Europe and Asia. Again, you will demonstrate your organisational and leadership skills and possibly impress lots of local NRNs by your seemingly persuasive speeches. You will express serious concern about the deteriorating political, economic and social conditions in Nepal. Some of you will express more concern about the country on various internet-based discussion forums. And, some of you will also go to the extent of submitting memorandums to the Prime Minister and senior politicians urging them to act on various issues. In essence, you will waste your energy and time in activities which are not going to change anything but give you some name and fame because of your engagement in intellectual discourses and managing to convey your concerns to the concerned authorities, who receive several similar petitions all the time but hardly do anything about it.

A word of thanks is in order to Dr Upendra Mahato, who has worked tirelessly for nearly a decade to establish and spread the NRN movement throughout the world. He has led by example and has not just talked but made things happen. Like him, there are a few other prominent NRNs who command the moral high ground to talk about ideals and actions. They have personally and collectively contributed to several good causes in Nepal. Many of you, who talk and do nothing, think they did it because they have the resources. You may not be as resourceful, but you can always do things in whatever small way that you can as hundreds of ordinary NRNs living in different countries do. You can learn from those inspirational ordinary NRNs. The irony is, many of you are seeking a high profile in terms of leading the organisation and talking about NRN’s aims and expectations but are absolutely reluctant in setting examples yourself. This country badly needs examples, not talkers. If only you had the honesty, sense of social responsibility and the commitment, you could have played a hugely catalytic role. You have the knowledge, the exposure and the understanding, but, unfortunately, you lack the wisdom. Hence, you want to take more and give less, you enjoy talking rather than acting and you enjoy blaming rather than reflecting.

Nepal does not need doses of lectures from NRNs. It needs more schools and libraries, health posts and medicines, which many of you can provide at a personal level. Nepal does not need NRNs who bask in the glory of their successes in businesses and other sectors but do nothing for the schools and villages where they spent their childhood. A very simplistic but realistic argument is: if a successful Nepali has benefited the Australians, the Americans or the British through his talent and hard work, let the respective nationals be proud of him. Why should 27 million Nepalis bother about such a person who has been utterly useless for poor communities that he has left behind?

Many successful NRNs are also very passionate about political and human rights issues, which usually provide them a high profile in media and society. We already have more than enough able indigenous activists to talk about those issues. If you still want to talk about it, please complement it with meaningful action. Only the combination of actions and words can bring about changes. Words alone are extremely hollow. For people of your knowledge and exposure, it would just be farcical to continuously talk about politics and human rights but do nothing to mitigate the socio-economic maladies in whatever small way that you can.

Similarly, the issue of dual citizenship, registration of NRN Association in Nepal and the creation of a 100 Million Dollar Nepal Investment Fund have figured high on your objectives. Many of you argue that when those three objectives are met, you can make a significant contribution to Nepal. Those demands are perfectly reasonable for the kind of movement the NRN is. However, it looks very pretentious when you make those demands an excuse for your inaction. It is always nice to talk about big investments and big changes but in poor Nepali villages, small gestures make a huge difference. For example, you claim that there are 2.5 million NRNs spread outside of South Asia. It is possible that out of 2.5 million, 1.5 million NRNs can hardly do anything as they come from an extremely poor background and are virtually illiterate. This writer has been arguing for long that out of the remaining one million NRNs, even if half of them sponsor a child, every year half a million Nepali children will get better education and health facilities. Anyone willing to do so, will not need a dual citizenship, registration of the NRN Association in Nepal or a 100 Million Dollar Investment Fund. You also don’t need any go-between to sponsor a child in a community that you belong to and visit it from to time.

You have fancied talking big all these years. If you go through NRN Association’s website, you will see it for yourself how you have mostly wasted your time in holding meetings, conferences, interaction programmes, issuing statements and declarations. If you go through the declarations of the past three NRN Global conferences, you will see for yourself how most of the declaration-objectives have been virtually forgotten by now. Just calculate the money that you have individually and institutionally spent in global, regional and national activities over the years. If you had limited such events to the absolutely necessary ones, probably you could have built several small schools in Nepali hills and plains. That would have given you greater moral strength and credibility. You have succeeded in institutionalising and expanding the association but have miserably failed in actually helping your motherland, which was and is your core objective. On the fourth conference starting tomorrow, it would be hugely beneficial if you did serious soul searching about your achievements and aspirations, which need a clear focus and commitment to make things happen. Just showing off your strength every two years, presenting the works of a handful of committed NRNs as an example of what NRNs can do in Nepal, boasting about token gestures and the remittances, which is a compulsion rather than a conscious contribution, is neither good for you nor for Nepal. Hope this letter will be taken in a positive vein.

Wishing you a meaningful and productive conference.

(Rabindra Mishra is associated with Help Nepal and can be reached at (rabindra.helpnepal@gmail.com )