Question: Will China ever give a damn about some Amnesty International in Nepal protesting about its system of capital punishment?
Answer: NO.
Question: Will the gathering amassed by the Amnesty International Nepal at the Maitighar Mandala, Kathmandu – with colourful banners and placards – ever make China think about its policy? Will China now consider reformation of their current ruling system which, as the media has reported, violates human rights?
Answer: NO.
More…In the future, China might (hopefully) – but that won’t be out of sheer pressure created by shows and protests like the one AI-Nepal did.
For now – my rant is about the nice looking, glossy and shiny booklets that were distributed by the Amnesty International Nepal during its program. My rant is about the colour placards, banners and caps those participating in the program were holding and wearing.
Those don’t come for free and they are truly expensive.
Anyone with half an ounce of “intelligence” will never believe that the bosses at the AI-Nepal paid for the expense from their own pocket. They were protesting against the Chinese system, why the heck they would fish money out of their pockets? We Nepali people (or generally anyone else in the world) do not spend our personal money for this kind of “social work”. No way.
Is not that a waste?
Misuse of “donated” fund is a violation itself – unless people related with AI-Nepal actually donated their personal money to protest against China. The thought of which sounds as inconceivable and ludicrous as the news about King Gyanendra contesting in the Constituent Assembly elections (1).
Does not that mean the AI-Nepal itself violated human rights?
Firstly, the program itself looks so irresponsible and foolish that even a five year old kid will have a nice laugh out of it. Secondly, that kind of expense – and for doing what – protesting here at Maiti Mandala about the Chinese system?
Just imagine how many plates of Mo:mo (2) one could have bought for those poor and hungry people from Susta(3), who have been forced to live under the Bagmati Bridge for over two months. Or the AI-Nepal could have bought rugs and clothes for those poor people down there. Instead, it wanted to prove through “media” that it cares about human rights in the international level by wasting its “donated budget”.
I really do not know what the AI-Nepal has done in the past, been doing or will do in the human rights sector for Nepal. I do not know if the donor countries, organizations or INGOs themselves approved this sort of show.
Nevertheless, that was a PURE WASTE!
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1- As we all know, the elections for the Constituent Assembly is all set for April 10, 2008 – and on completion, Nepal will be formally declared as the “Democratic Republic of Nepal” and the “King”-ship will be officially abolished. And no, King Gyanendra is not contesting in the elections.
2- The thought of which is really making me hungry.
3- Susta is one of the villages in the border-area of Nepal and India. For years, the people of Susta have been claiming that India has periodically encroached the border and out of sheer frustration and atrocities laid upon them by the Indian border security forces, the villagers of Susta came all the way up to the capital and organized sit-ins and protests in front of the Singha Durbar gate. But, the government turned its deaf ears to their cries and anguish – it had many other serious issues to take care of.
It was the month of winter and while the villagers were here in Kathmandu, they could not find any place to live and eventually were forced to take the refuge under the Bagmati Bridge. Once, a television channel showed a report on their living condition down the bridge. Many were seriously ill; they did not have anything to sleep on, nor had anything to eat and apparently completely broke to return to their village.
Poverty and Nepal
Poverty in Nepal, as perceived by donors, is primarily due to socio-political reason. Social because we have prehistorical caste ordering and Political because people do not know how to get organized. Few Decades back Poverty was linked with education and lack of opportunities to women. Accordingly many targeted programs were conducted to educate poor and especially girls to empower on various issues such as health and social awareness. Though their success cannot be undermined, the social-political issues arose because of the same program.
The education program targeted at poor and especially girls empowered the Brahmins of Nepal. They were the primary recipients of all target program as they were identified as the trainers and educators. Because of their abilities to comprehend and teach they became respective members of the society. And because of their respect, they became politicians and corrupt leaders.
Facts speak for themselves. 85% of all politicians started their career into politics as teachers or learned members of their society. They were trained by Americans and Europeans to impart knowledge. They were handed special responsibilities, by giving them Master degrees with exposure, in their societies. As more funds started pouring in from Japan and other countries , they found themselves at a gold mine.
It is strange to learn that during the early 1960s many such individuals were trained in related development programs hoping to develop just societies and environ for democracy, they mostly chose communism. And thus began communism in Nepal.
It is a proven fact that where communists excel, there is bound to be poverty because communists don’t believe in wealth creation, they believe in poverty as social responsibility. So unlimited resource is spent on mobilization and wealth is never really created. So within ten year’s span, people become poorer.
So what are the donors doing wrong? Well, firstly they look at our society in 2D and fail to understand the real dynamics. They take the voice of only the poor to international arena and spend the fund in 3D world. They thrive to change the social dynamics and end up creating conflict amongst ourselves. This is Nepal and Poverty in Nepal. If donors stop meddling in our affairs, democracy would prevail and socio-political ordering would be just. Sad, but true.. foreign donors create poverty and negative conflicts.
Well said Umesh-ji, Simply waste of time, money and energy. We should have time for AMNESTY NATIONAL not fiddle about International when there is much to do here. It would have been much better if the organizer have planted some trees in the barren land.
Could not have been said better.
well said and the reality is that China does not care. How can we expect them to care about these little demo in Nepal when they do not even listen to America… this is waste of time and energy