How a little app is making a huge difference in our Nepal earthquake responseHow a little app is making a huge difference in our Nepal earthquake response

By Kamal Raj Sigdel
UNDP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Dec 8, 2015

On a misty May morning this year, we headed to Sindhupalchowk, one of the districts devastated by the April 25th Nepal Earthquake. We wove up serpentine roads, and past hamlets that had turned to rubble. Just two weeks had passed and we were to begin helping people here recover from the quake.

Behind the ruined towns, the Himalayas stood majestic, beauty beholding bereavement. People had built temporary shelters on the side of roads, children walked barefoot over the rubble, while adults attempted to salvage clothes, beds and furniture from broken homes. Many simply stood in groups, waiting for relief materials.

We reached the village of Irkhu after travelling for two hours. I was in a group of 50 people, including volunteers, who began working to safely demolish and remove debris from destroyed homes. Just as we were preparing for demolition at the top of Irkhu hill, the ground began to shake violently accompanied by deep rumbling, causing houses already damaged by the first quake to crumble before our eyes. There was sudden panic and everybody went on all fours. It was another big earthquake.

What followed was a terrifying scene: dozens of landslides cascading down the mountains, creating huge mushroom clouds of dust. It felt like the apocalypse, as if the world was soon going to end.

Children were crying and screaming and others rushed to get their family members to safety. Some of the workers in our team ran towards their homes while others stayed rooted to the spot, trying to make calls only to hear a busy tone. The UN volunteers were also trying to contact their families in vain.

I was recording a video when the quake struck. The shocks were so powerful that I was unable to even stand on my feet. It felt like I was standing on the surface of boiling water, with the entire mountain roiling under my feet. But in a matter of seconds, I put the camera back on and started recording.

We decided to halt the demolition and get back to Kathmandu as quickly as possible.
As we drove downhill, we were all silent. Thirty minutes later, we had to stop, as a part of the hill had collapsed. The road ahead was strewn with rocks, trees and earth, blocking our path home.

As we waited for the road to be cleared, the realisation that business as usual would not work sunk in. The mountainous topography of Nepal, scattered settlements, unique mudstone houses with heavy debris, and the absence of road networks complicated everything about the recovery process.

We realized we would need technology to try to help cope with the scale of the disaster.

The Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in Nepal, stepped up to the plate.

Working with the UNDP team, the MIC developed and tested a smart phone­ based debris management app in less than a week. Soon, UN volunteer engineers in the field were equipped with smart phones loaded with the app that harnessed cloud servers.

Now I watched, UNDP staff in the field do everything from registering hundreds of workers in real­time, to logging exact GPS coordinates of damaged houses.

More importantly, as a promising prototype, the app offered a potential for online project management and payments for thousands of workers which promised to significantly reduce tedious paperwork and the associated delays.

(Sigdel woked for the UNDP in Nepal as the head of communications druing the post-earthquake recovery phase in 2015-2024. The blog article was originally published in UNDP's Regional Bureau for Asia Pacific at: https://www.undp.org/content/rbap/en/home/blog/2015/12/8/How-a-little-app-is-making-a-huge-difference-in-our-Nepal-earthquake-response )

Invitation to survey on international organizations

Welcome to our study on the funding of international organizations!
 

We are inviting UN experts to express their opinion on earmarked funding, which refers to donor contributions to international development organizations that are restricted to specific themes, sectors, countries, or projects. The goal of this survey is to understand the tradeoffs that are involved when considering whether to accept proposals for development projects with different kinds of funding support. Participation is voluntary and you can exit the survey at all times.

 

We are asking you to participate because of your expertise on the funding of international organizations due to your work experience in the UN system. We will at no point ask you to disclose any information on your employer or any real organizations. Instead, we will ask only for your personal opinion on general questions regarding the funding of international organizations. At the end of the survey we will give you the opportunity to opt-in to receive a report of the survey results.

 

Before you decide to take part it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Please get in touch with the researchers if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. Take some time to decide whether or not you wish to take part. Thank you for reading this information sheet. 

 

The entire survey will take approximately 15 minutes of your time. The survey will not collect any personal identifying information. Your responses are confidential, subject to legal constraints and professional guidelines. The data collected from this survey will feed into academic research articles and presentations. This research is supported by UK Research & Innovation, the main public funding body in the United Kingdom. 

 

This project has been considered and approved by the University of Glasgow College of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee. To contact the research team, please email the lead researcher, Dr Bernhard Reinsberg (ef-io@glasgow.ac.uk). To pursue any complaint about the conduct of the research, contact the Acting Lead for Ethical Review, College of Social Sciences, Dr Benjamin Franks (socsci-ethics-lead@glasgow.ac.uk).

 

I confirm that I have read and understood the Participant Information Sheet for the above study and have had the opportunity to ask questions. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time that the survey is active without giving any reason. While the study is ongoing, the data we collect from you will be treated as confidential and kept in secure storage at all times. We will not collect any personal identifying information as part of the survey. We will only use an anonymized dataset containing the survey responses. These data will be used in future academic publications, both print and online. I agree to waive my copyright to any data collected as part of this project. I confirm that I am at least 18 years of age.

 

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Somalia mobilizes international support for its infrastructure development

On May 25, 2017, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) co-hosted a meeting with donors and friends of Somalia on "Financing the Infrastructure Pillar of Somalia's National Development Plan (NDP) 2017-19" during the African Development Bank's Annual Meetings in Ahmedabad, India.

Representatives from Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United States of America, Germany, Sweden, Egypt, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the World Bank, and AfDB were in attendance. The well-attended meeting was a timely opportunity for the FGS to further articulate its infrastructure investment priorities and outline the financing options available for delivering these priorities, following the successful launch of a New Partnership Agreement between Somalia and the international community at the London Somalia Conference on May 11, 2017.

The FGS has made the rehabilitation and development of Somalia's infrastructure a top priority through the NDP 2017-19, given its importance in accelerating economic recovery and job creation, developing a competitive and prosperous private sector, and restoring peace and stability.

However, the FGS noted that aid flows to Somalia are currently prioritized towards short-term imperatives, leaving infrastructure and economic growth as the least funded pillars of the NDP priorities. Therefore, it is crucial to identify new sources of funding that align with the country's top priorities. (based on news https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/somalia-donors-commit-to-fill-us-105-million-infrastructure-projects-funding-gap-17084)

Lessons from Somalia: What Nepal Can Learn About Community, Entrepreneurship, Resilience, Inclusion and infrastructure development

Nepal and Somalia may seem like two countries that have little in common, but both nations share some similar challenges and opportunities. Nepal, a small landlocked country located in South Asia, faces a range of issues related to poverty, infrastructure, and governance. Somalia, a war-torn country in the Horn of Africa, has struggled with conflict, instability, and poverty for several decades. Despite their differences, there are some valuable lessons that Nepal can learn from Somalia.

 

One of the most important lessons that Nepal can learn from Somalia is the importance of community engagement and participation. In Somalia, community involvement in decision-making and development initiatives has been crucial in rebuilding local institutions and fostering social cohesion. Despite the ongoing challenges of insecurity and political instability, community-based organizations and traditional structures have played a key role in providing basic services and support to vulnerable populations. Nepal, with its diverse ethnic and linguistic groups, can benefit from empowering local communities and involving them in the design and implementation of development programs.

 

Another lesson that Nepal can learn from Somalia is the value of entrepreneurship and innovation in driving economic growth. Somalia has a thriving informal economy, with many small-scale businesses and entrepreneurial ventures that have emerged in the absence of formal job opportunities. This has led to the creation of new products and services, as well as increased trade and commerce. Nepal, which also has a large informal sector, can learn from Somalia's experience and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation as a means of creating jobs and reducing poverty.

 

Somalia's experience also highlights the importance of building resilient and adaptive systems in the face of adversity. The country has faced numerous challenges, including natural disasters, conflict, and disease outbreaks, but has managed to persevere through the use of innovative approaches and adaptation. For example, in response to droughts and floods, communities have developed strategies such as rainwater harvesting and early warning systems. Similarly, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Somalia has adopted digital solutions such as mobile money and telemedicine to maintain basic services. Nepal, which is prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, can learn from Somalia's resilience and develop strategies to build more adaptive and responsive systems.

 

Fourth, Nepal can learn from Somalia's experiences in fostering social inclusion and reducing inequality. Despite its challenges, Somalia has made progress in expanding access to education and health services, particularly for marginalized communities. In recent years, the country has also made efforts to promote gender equality and empower women and girls. Nepal, which has struggled with high levels of inequality and discrimination, can benefit from adopting similar approaches and investing in policies that promote social inclusion and equity.

 

Fifth, Somalia has faced significant challenges in developing its infrastructure due to decades of civil war, political instability, and economic difficulties. However, in recent years, the Somali government has been making efforts to rebuild and modernize its infrastructure, with the support of various international partners, including China and the US.

 

China has played a significant role in financing and building infrastructure projects in Somalia, particularly through its Belt and Road Initiative. In 2017, China and Somalia signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on infrastructure development, with China pledging to provide funding and technical support for projects in sectors such as energy, transportation, and telecommunications. China has also provided equipment and materials for infrastructure projects in Somalia, such as the construction of roads, ports, and airports.

 

The US has also been involved in infrastructure development in Somalia, particularly in the area of airport modernization. In 2014, the US government announced a $50 million program to improve aviation safety and security in Somalia, with a focus on upgrading the country's two main airports in Mogadishu and Hargeisa. The program included the construction of new runways, terminals, and other facilities, as well as training for airport staff and security personnel.

 

Other countries and international organizations have also provided support for infrastructure development in Somalia. For example, the European Union has funded various projects aimed at improving road infrastructure and connectivity in the country, while the African Development Bank has provided financing for the rehabilitation of key ports and the construction of new port facilities.

 

Despite these efforts, however, Somalia still faces significant challenges in developing its infrastructure, particularly in rural areas and regions affected by conflict and insecurity. The Somali government and its international partners will need to continue working together to overcome these challenges and ensure that all Somalis have access to the infrastructure they need to thrive and succeed.

 

Nepal's leaders should know that they have failed their country and their people. Despite being blessed with abundant natural resources and a rich cultural heritage, Nepal has lagged behind in development due to the incompetence, corruption, and greed of its leaders. For over 30 years since the restoration of democracy, Nepali leaders have wasted valuable time bickering among themselves, indulging in identity politics, and lining their pockets with public funds.

Nepali leaders must take a hard look at themselves and their actions. They must be held accountable for their failures and take responsibility for their actions. It's time for them to step up and make the necessary changes to propel Nepal forward.

Nepal's leaders must feel the shame of their failures and take action to correct their mistakes. They must prioritize the needs of their citizens and work towards the development and prosperity of Nepal. The time for excuses is over, and the future of Nepal depends on the actions of its leaders today. (Photo Credit: ISS) 

 

My book

Hyperreal Identity: Transformation of Identity

-By Kamal Raj Sigdel

 

I was greatly touched when the small child pointed me to the screen. My curious question was "where is your father?" His father is actually in America who was chatting with him and his mother in the Internet cafe. It's been almost five years since the separated family have been making the low-cost cafe their rendezvous.

 

The rare insight the child's answer clicked my mind was the fact that identity has really transformed. The child is getting confused with an internal curiosity, which one is the real identity of his father: whether the consciousness of his physical father in America or the online MSN icon that chats with him and his mother day by day. I am afraid; the child who has never seen his father physically conforms to the hyperreal identity reacting in different mediums and technologies. He could have answered that his father is in America but for him the more real one is that of the screen. So he preferred to point at the screen rather than answering the whereabouts of his father.

 

It is not only his father he identifies with the MSN online icon, he defines his own identity with the personal email account that has been interacting with several other identities worldwide. He and his mother represent billions of others who have gradually subordinated their physical identities to the hyperreal ones in the contemporary world of technologies. I often confront my friends on the pathways and they decline to speak for a single moment, alarming that they are in a great hurry. They ask me to come in contact on their yahoo or msn or phones where they could talk more "comfortably" - symptomatic of the change towards hyperreal identity.

 

In these last few years, the change was so vast that we did not dare to notice. It was for the simple reason that the change was not physical one; it was too subtle and psychological. And the realization of this transformation could cause a serious depression, which is the typical problem a modern man faces these days, and this is the major cause behind our resistance to acknowledge the change.

 

Rapid growth of information and communication technology, increased number of low-cost Internet cafes, increased IT knowledge among school children, college students, housewives, adolescents and adults and the resulting Internet culture have changed our society drastically. The physical side of this change could be visible but the psychological change or impact could only be felt and is still unexplored. Our society has become more complex and more postmodern than modern.

 

The question of identity has become more audible as migration and separation of family members continued to grow.  The escalation of violence in Nepal and consequent growth in migration intensified the problem of identity. Reported 600,000 internally displaced people, their influx overseas in search of jobs and the resulting isolation brought forward the value of identity. The rest of the family members taking refuge in urban centers demanded alternative ways to be in contact with their separated ones. The low-cost technologies like email/internet and phones fulfilled their desire. This situation gave birth to a new generation of mobile population who find themselves defined and who feel as if they are intact with their own community as they could easily anchor themselves to a certain email id, no matter where they are. They feel uneasy to talk face to face as the Internet space becomes more open and comfortable. It's really a boon for us to be able to realize that we also have entered into a new era of postmodern complexities where individuals live in a hyperreal world with hyperreal identities.

 

[Manuscript date: June 2003]

Tihar, Toke and Sugar

During Tihar my friend Subash was a hero. If I am not wrong, we often call a man a hero who could accomplish any task that is almost impossible for the commoners. Quite precisely, Subash had done a great job that was not possible for his neighbours during Tihar.

 

Could you imagine what he might have accomplished? I hope you are well aware of the fact that sugar was the most precious and rare species in the market of Kathmandu during Tihar. At such a critical hour, Subash surprised all of the neighbours by bringing 50 Kg of sugar from the Salt Trading Limited where people queued in a long line and hardly got 5kg of sugar? Subash also distributed extra sugar to his neighbours without making any profit. He was indeed a hero.

 

Most of the people who wandered all around the city in search of sugar had returned empty handed at the end of the day. When they saw no hope till the eve of Tihar, they had decided to celebrate their sugarless Tihar –that hardly exists. Very few of my localities had discovered that Salt Trading is distributing sugar. But when they hurried there with their big sacks, they saw a one-kilometer long line of already-informed ants. So the ants who came late returned with a bitter story of sugar to tell their children at home. And this sugar-crisis turned into a national crisis. The children started crying. Rumour spread all over the country. And the news hit the headlines. The media started putting pressure at the government. The leading newspapers of the country published strong editorials and articles under the titles "Sugar turns bitter", "Sugar Crisis", "Lessons from Sugar Crisis" and so on. The writers asserted confidently that "the government is largely to blame for the mess that it has put the consumers into."

 

In this context, no one would disagree to call Subash a hero who helped his neighbours to successfully celebrate Tihar festival. But there is something hidden in his heroism. In his secret revelation, he told us that his miraculous adventure of bringing 50 kg sugar at a time of shortage was made possible by the Toke of the minister. He refused to tell who the powerful man was. By the power of the Toke, Subash was exempt from keeping himself in the one-kilometer long queue and was immediately served with 50kg sugar. His neighbours, at the end of Tihar, were making jokes that "now in Nepal we need Tokes even to buy sugar from the market, let alone the jobs".

 

Though we creaked sweet jocks, I think to most of the ants who lined up in the dealer and could not get sugar the Tihar was utterly bitter. Now, when I look back at Tihar in solace, I feel our family is privileged. At least we are the neighbours of a family, one of whose members have access to the high level 'Tokes' and powers and we don't have to celebrate sugar-less Tihar whatever crisis there would be.

 

[Published under the authorship of Sushil Pokhrel in The Kathmandu Post] 

KR Sigdel article series 2003-2004

‘Mise en Abyme’ - Reflections and Illusions: Mirror of the mirror

 

-By Kamalraj Sigdel

In The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide the hero is a novelist writing a novel of the same title. Often readers get confused by the mise en abyme (mirror of the mirror) strategy. Readers get confused in understanding who is the real actor manipulating the events of the multi-layered story: is it the hero of the novel, the external narrator, or the 'original' novelist who is actually writing the novel. The novel is like a picture that contains a miniature of itself which then repeats this image in ever similar copies.

 

The confusion is very similar to that of a hopeless Nepali who is trying hard to understand the Nepali politics.

 

How could he understand what the PM means when he says a "space" should be reserved for the king?

 

S/he is too innocent to differentiate the real from the reflections.

It is because nobody knows anything about the original manipulator of the political plot. All the political heads, whosoever may they be, could be easily anchored to certain external forces where they appear to be the reflections of the 'original' external forces – else most of the problems including the Maoist problem would have been solved easily with a consensus among all the political forces in Nepal's and Nepali people's well-being.

 

There is indeed a clash between the puppets on stage while the string pullers are off-stage. The string pullers can do anything: they can break, join, again break and rejoin the parties. Sometimes they even seem to have the gut to change the government as well. So the commoners are totally confused as they keep on witnessing the multiple reflections in the mise en abyme. However confusing, the common Nepalis kept on (mis)identifying the original image somewhere in the series of reflections in the mirror for they are the people hardest hit by all the events of the political story.

 

Looking at the miraculous mise en abyme several intellectuals have given their 'most penetrating' interpretations but only to prove themselves sailors floating too low in the dark and deep undulations of the bright sea. Recently, one interpreted to us over a cup of tea what he called a 'chain of power' that decides the direction of Nepali political story. His interpretation was somewhat like this: we are in Kathmandu, Kathmandu in Nepal, ….Asia on Earth and the Earth is hanging on God's tail. When one of the long-tormented victims asked where God was hanging, the whole thing collapsed. So let us not try to penetrate this miraculous mise en abyme to end up only in desperation.

 

Finding no hope of coming out of this hellish labyrinth, I sometimes think of suggesting all of us to remain in the illusions trying to be a little bit postmodern. But the disquieting question is, would it be better to affirm such mise en abyme, so to say illusions and mysteries?

[Manuscript date: June 2003]

Poen: A vision

A Vision[1]

                                                            - By Kamal Raj Sigdel (M. A. 2^nd Year, T. U.)

 

The holes over the cardiac walls

Those broken pieces from distant missiles pierced.

Meekness peeped through the holes

A sinister spirit that looms over the village

Some bottomless figures swayed by intermittent air

Swarm the haunted solitude and again disappear

Yet again, the slender Hope creeps above

With its numb and sticky tendrils

Caressing over the rough wall

That basks in the snow-fueled bonfire.

 

 

The dim rays passing through the holes

Vanish out into the darkness till

At the hearth, the red-eyed cat coils watching

The last ember turned into ash.

 

------ *** -------

 

[This is a nightmarish vision of a frozen youth in a frozen country whose hope of peace is shattered when every time the so-called "peace process" fails – a psychic experience to be alive in a war-torn nation.]

---

[1] First poem of the 2050-2060 collection – "Bir Gorkhali Defunct"

Experiments in the "Land of Experiment"

-By Kamalraj Sigdel

 

Had it not been the case that haunts more than 500,000 Nepalese, EDV would not have been the subject matter of our concern. Here, we should be aware of the "American thirst for experiments" that is haunting repeatedly and we are being blindly experimented. Why are we bringing into the diasporic pain of self-imposed exile? Besides, who could guarantee that the migrants awarded with a diversity visa would not be hurled back if the experiment fails or if it fails to meet their "expectation"?

 

If the American experiment at present is seemingly heading towards diversity and multiculturalism, some 200 years ago America was headstrong with her quite opposite experiment. When America was not able to settle peaceful communities where both Whites and the Indians had to co-exist. And when there was violence and conflict between the White Americans and the Indian Americans, one of such experiments was imagined and practices. In such a situation of enmity between two races, "mixing of blood" was thought to be the best solution. This experiment was opposite to the norm of the present EDV experiment.

 

I am here referring to the "blending-into-one" strategy of the early 1800s practiced in America. Then was a time when intermarriage between Whites and Indians were advocated as a means of achieving "bloodless" conquest one that could be arrived at not by spilling of blood, but by mixing of it. Some two hundred years ago Thomas Jefferson, had once said: "In truth, the ultimate point of rest and happiness for them is to let our settlement and theirs meet and blend together, to intermix and to become one people …. and it will be better to promote than retard it."

 

But Jefferson's Utopia of "blending" had to wait no more than half a century to see what consequence had it brought.  By the middle of the 1800s the "blending" strategy began to deteriorate as reports came in that the resultant "mixed blood" had failed to live up to "white expectations". Mixed bloods quickly became marked as "faulty stock". They turned out to be a product who belong to nowhere. Since then, the "mixed bloods" are facing the dreadful "existential crisis". It was, after all, an "experiment". An experiment can have any result. Furthermore, the "mixed blood" had to suffer from the American ethnocentrism. I wonder, if Americans could ever be multiculturalist or postmodernist leaving their ethnocentricisms at history. The fault, then, was of "white expectation". President Jefferson and the other supporters of the "blending-into-one" strategy were aiming at "homogenization" not at "harmonization". The faulty "white expectation" was therefore of creating a single homogeneous white culture; what Edward Said even today perceives as the "xenophobic fantasy of creating pure European identity".

 

Now, there should not be any "white expectation" if America believes in multiculturalism. But the important thing the EDV hunters should remember is to try to visualize the pain as endured by Allan Ginsberg to "Howl" at America as "square" and strive for "counterculture". Lessons should be learned from history.

 

It should be remembered that, after all, it is another experiment. No one could guarantee that this may not meet the same fate of Jeffersonian failure-strategy. It is in the sense that we are still not able to be sure of its good results. For the paradoxes that underlay this (un)postmodern American action are much more complex. Better is not to go blind to believe that America is going to embrace the EDV "winners" with the warm and large physical embrace of Walt Whitman. Here, the Bush administration is simply practicing some new experiments.

 

Unfortunately, being much gullible and ignorant, we seem to be mere puppets in the hand of a great Experimenter. We wait for our strings to be pulled and we wait for lotteries to bring changes in our life. In what condition will Nepal be left when all of the youths and intellectuals get themselves blinded and deaf to the appeals of the nation and go to America or Europe? Think of it. We are simply swayed by mere experiments. Where is our individuality? Let us not be swayed more by any other experiments for America may keep on doing experiments (with us) since it is the "Land of Experiment" by birth. 

[Date June 2004] 

 

Nepal’s politics and Look and Gaze!

-By Kamal Raj Sigdel

A game of chess, power politics, disequilibria of triode, regression … one hardly agrees with the other in interpreting current tides of politics in Nepal. Whom to believe? Nobody speaks seriously.

I hardly sleep these days. Being a so-called well aware citizen, I keep on wondering and even pondering at this deadlock as to dig out its crux – the bottom reality and its solution. Last night, as I was rummaging through my books dumped long into an old container, I happened to see a book inscribed "Foucault". I grabbed it immediately and start reading. I felt as if my quest ended at him. I had consulted all of the books – philosophical, political, economic, fictional and even psychological – at my disposal, but none of them solved the riddle. It is only when Foucault convinced me in his "The Eye of Power" that the king and the parties are playing a game of "Look and Gaze". It is in fact a very interesting interpretation for the present power politics in Nepal. When I read it, I sat with solace and found that all are making fuss with up and down consultations while the reality is something else.

Had there been Foucault for consultation he would have certainly wrote another book "The Problem of Look and Gaze in Nepalese Politics". Being much aware of all these pantomine shows in Daura-Suruwal dress-ups, I am thinking of supplementing Foucault. But I'm horribly afraid whether this deadlock will last as long as I complete the book.

It is quite interesting to see the trap of "Look and Gaze".  The king has a curious "gaze", oftentimes the daily newspapers zoom in, at which the political leaders are subject. While in receiving audience with the king the political leaders always have a mere "look" and the king always has a controlling and dominant "gaze". At that time the king's gaze is somewhat the "male gaze" while the emaciated leaders pose their "female look" with their anti-regression cadres in momentary pause outside the palace (perhaps waiting for some miracle to happen).

Once they come out of the palace and intermingle with the Dionysiac mob at Ratnapark the relation goes topsy-turvy. Now the leaders swell up like balloons, pose straight up at some highest rooftop, jumping out of the window they start roaring themselves hoarse. This time they have really a powerful and dominant "gaze" at the king. The crowd excited in their hottest republic slogans feels that the king must have a frail "look" at them.

[Date June 2004]

Need for reform in Nepali mass media

Kamal Raj Sigdel   Monday September 27, 2004

Source : THE KATHMANDU POST

McLuhan was very critical about the media when he said "medium is message." After about four decades since Marshall McLuhan published his world famous book "The Medium is the Message," the entire world is coming to terms with his warning. In the first four years of the new millennia, McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" has become the most frequently referred book in the field of mass media and communication. And perhaps McLuhan will remain the most influential and dominant figure for the next five or more decades. Why has he become so dominant and influential? One answer could be that the book he published in the late 60s was extremely prophetic. "Who is omnipotent?" These days, ask any industrialist, or any business tycoon this question and the answer will invariably be "media." They know well how the media rules the world. It was my lack of knowledge to assume that our industrialists consider Maoists omnipotent. One of my friends, an industrialist and a businessman, told me that instead of the Maoists it is still the media that they consider omnipotent. McLuhan's "medium" could be anything like CNN, BBC, VoA, Zee TV, Nepal 1, NTV, Radio Nepal, the local FMs and so on. And if all of them are "mediums," they are messages also. If NTV and Zee TV are "mediums," they are "messages" in themselves. How can "medium" be "message"? It's a question that has been troubling the philosophers and psychologists ever since McLuhan tried to answer it. The scholars like Theodore Adorno and other hard-boiled Marxists like Antonio Gramski interpreted the riddle in Marxist perspective and rebuked the debilitating effect of capitalism. In simple terms, and in the superficial level, medium is message because medium always affects (and distorts) the message that it conveys. There could be multiple messages and multiple realities, if there are multiple mediums. This thesis should be easily clear, at least to the audiences of Nepal who have been facing the problem daily. If one happens to watch the news coverage of both the government-owned and private channels, s/he would get confused. Whom should the viewer believe? There are two completely different news story of a single event. This is how "medium" can become "message." The effect of advertisements can also show how "medium" can be "message." We are well aware what messages most of the Nepali commercial advertisements are giving to the public by means of media manipulation. Doctors, film stars and other so-called national heroes are dragged into the commercial advertisements to recommend the most low-quality products. On the one hand, they are virtually blackmailing the public by selling their popularity, and on the other hand, they are mesmerizing the illiterate public by blurring the difference between the message, the medium and the media. Can an illiterate woman deny what a doctor recommends in her television set every evening? I have seen many women in the village replacing breast milk with powder milk manufactured by the Nestle Company after televisions came in their villages. Doesn't a child insist on buying noodles everyday for his lunch if a class teacher in the television ad teaches him to do so? The hard-boiled leftists are in fact right on this count. They say that hypnotizing consumers with colorful advertisements is a capitalistic influence, where the industrialists determine what we should desire. We become mere "desiring machines." They think they have full authority to assert what we should crave for. The audience and the consumers have no rights to recommend what they should be informed of. In the absence of a regulating body and proper laws, mass media have become a place where any buffoonery can be practiced. At this, the poor ad aesthetics in Nepali mass media do not have much to say about the "medium" and the "message." They would see no difference between the two. But there have been people who have seen the difference and have explained how "medium" can become "message." In the late 70s, the two scholars, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri (often known as D&G) became popular as they tried to deal with the question through an interdisciplinary approach. They applied psychoanalysis and Marxism in their study and came up with the key words "Schizophrenia" and "Capitalism." Their book "Anti-Oedipus: Schizophrenia and Capitalism" explored that media has a psychological effect on the audience and it leads to the disease called "Schizophrenia." A schizophrenic audience is a divided personality. He faces the problem of choices and depression. For instance, take again the television as a "medium." We watch TV everyday and it is a very familiar and common thing in our life. We are unaware how it controls us - consciously or unconsciously. Someone, a researcher in mass media, has said that in most of the modern houses the television set is turned on at seven in the morning and left on all day. And its audiences are totally metamorphosed, somewhat like the Kafkaesque insect. Mother becomes a "mass women," father becomes a "mass man," and children "mass children." Another researcher Charles Van Doren further ridicules that "mass woman" watches it while she is at home, and "mass children" watch it when they return from school. The whole family views it for a few hours in the evening. He proves how the idiot box has become really hypnotic. It is indeed an undisputed fact, especially in the LDCs like Nepal. The TV set has become an indispensable part of the recipe for most of the families. There must be something about the flickering blue of the tube that mesmerizes them. However, there is nothing wrong with the growing attraction for the media or the medium. The problem is that the "medium" has become the "message" itself. The medium is under the (negative) grip of industrialists and business tycoons. Its symptoms are less visible at this hour but it will erupt like the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Serious consideration, I think, should be given to this issue from both the governmental and non-governmental side. Why don't we try to make the difference discernible (difference between medium and message) at least in our media? If we could initiate little efforts in this regard, we could be the icebreakers in the process of reforming the mass media about which very few have even thought. Let medium be medium and message be message. [Originally published in The Kathmandu Post Monday September 27, 2004]

 

Legitimizing Disparity?

-By Kamalraj Sigdel

She could not notice how the ad legitimized the "violence against women" as the ad's Buhari is tortured simply because she falls short to meet the taste that her Saasu might prefer in her dinner. She, the audience of the ad, who watches the same ad more than hundred times a day without any objection, is a diehard feminist acting as a Chairman of some social organization advocating against gender disparity. And the channel, where the ad appeared, was the most responsible Nepal Television. And the whole theme was, Family cooking oil, a commercial brand, which "could exempt" the Buhari from her Saasu's scorn as its ad ensures.

 

I would love to explore here the role of Lacanian "unconscious" that is dormant yet active in the case. At manifest and conscious level, all seem to go against "gender disparity" but the unconscious erupts in many cases out of the blue.

 

It's pathetic; all the TV channels and radio stations have been broadcasting hundreds of such anomalous ads and not a single voice is coming up against them. If we count the organizations, they are more then enough: MGEP, OXFAM, Maiti Nepal and many others including HMG/N's Ministry of Women and Social Welfare. All come under a category and all are supposed to fight "gender disparity". They broadcast awareness documentaries in the same channels, which sometime coincide with the same flawed ads. Their negligence at such issues has arisen a doubt whether the organizations are really serious about their objectives. Someone said, it could be because they have no time to think about such "minor and insignificant" issues while they are busy with their CEDAW and Beijing Platform of Action or any other UN conventions. But it must not be so, as i have explored recently.

 

Gender disparity is rooted so badly in the Nepalese society that those who speak against it are unconsciously speaking for it, unless they have a deep understanding of the issue. That is what happening here – the intermittent eruption of Lacanian unconscious. The media sector, even the government owned NTV has not been able to free itself out from the grip of old conservatism, let alone the private and non-governmental sectors. In fact, unless all the media sectors become "gender sensitive", they can't virtually speak against gender disparity.

 

We need to understand, what does it mean when we say "gender disparity is all-pervasive" – i.e. to look within at first. Then the outer space is discernible in all its originality. Looking at the Nepalese landscape through gender perspective – the behavioral pattern of people in our societies, representation of male and female in literatures, in films, in cultures and traditions and even in advertisements – we see females represented, in its worst manifestation, as commodity and, in its lighter expression, as the "Other" in the conceptual sense of the term.

 

However, in discriminating women in our socio-cultural structure women are equally blameworthy. The women themselves are accepting their "objectification" and playing the role of "Other" as defined by men. It is obvious in the public acceptance of the above ad and in the women audience's inability to see nothing wrong in it. The crux, I think, lies here. The females themselves should be aware, for they are themselves responsible for their "othering" with capital "O". Unfortunately, it is lacking and that is why, females are still being subordinated and made passive, limited to an identification with the woman being looked at or consumed.

 

In both of the cases, either male or female, the problem is of "unconscious" that has not been purified yet: the traditional memory or the "Sanakar" is so badly rooted in the people's mindset that it may take more than one generation to cleanse it completely. And this argument may seem a "nonsense and whimsical thesis" to the development planners while they strategize programmes to change the society. Let us try to believe, development is a multidimensional phenomenon and needs a similar approach that could address multiple dimensions in parallel. (kamal.sigdel@gmail.com)

[Date: June 2004]

Political Boomerang

 

-By Kamal Raj Sigdel

You can call it a device, a craft. It's quite amazing how the Australians hunt their quarry with their boomerang which if otherwise misses the target bounces back to the hunter so that he could make use of it again and again.

 

A craftier boomerang, now a political one, has outdone that of the Australians here in Nepal. While the original boomerang used to swing back in case it misses the target, the political boomerang here is such an artful one that it returns back in either cases – no matter whether it hits or misses it.

 

Somebody, undoubtedly an accomplished hunter, devised the boomerang and threw it to hit the target. And it swung around the political arena, rustled through road to road, and it returned eventually after hitting the headlines. It was a political boomerang so it did not hit any of the wild animals out there in the jungle; it hit the headlines of the newspapers. Its hit was nothing sort of a surprise to the hunter, who was sure of it, however its hit choked others in the political arena who were feeling the swing of the boomerang passing through their ears.

 

More interesting is the miracle that the boomerang, so frail while it was thrown, ricocheted with a power and strength ten times greater than it had in its earlier times. Besides, it hit the target so badly that it seems quite impossible for it to return to its normalcy. Some of the companions being estranged by the violent hit of the boomerang, now a small group getting smaller, accumulating in one corner are staggering to define their existence, however.

 

The hit of the boomerang rated high to the staggering fives, now only fours, for one has been taken aback by the boomerang itself. Those hard hit by the boomerang who are still left in the streets, are reeling in their all fours.

 

Now the boomerang back with its master, who threw it, is grunting with a quarry. The quarry, it has brought with him is an important one – the one which has been estranged from its four accompanying parties. So the political boomerang is now a tiger, a lion that grunts to call its cubs out of the den while hanging a prey in its gnaw. However, the prey is supposed to be placed with the cubs in what is often called "Singha Durbar" (palace of lion).

 

Somebody, watching the game, most perhaps a saint, told that none of these games, preferably the hunting ones, are likely to do good to the nation. If they do, than it 'happens to be', he said. It is interesting to look at, but not to be inside the playground; it is rather like a fun house, a fiction that is for its own sake. 

 

[Originally published in The Kathmandu Post on 23 June 2004]

Noodles Extravaganza?! by Kamal Raj Sigdel

"Jo Jo Chau Chau khanus khasi khukura paaunus" at once the radio broke holding us speechless. We could not help laughing there, but at the same time, I felt a pain intolerable. How long could you enjoy it by simply being mute onlooker? It's too much, we can't be fooled more. This sort of noodles extravaganza has irritated our ears much more than to any tolerable extent. What these noodles think of consumers? How gullible do they suppose their consumers are? Serious consideration, I think, should be given to this issue. In some of the countries this sort of noodles are banned because they are "junk foods". At this, our mass media too, seem much cheap and our government no less cheaper.

 

It is, in fact, as most of the hardboiled Leftists say an effect of Capitalism where the industrialists determine what we desire. They have got the full authority to assert what we are always craving for. These noodles competitors, nowadays, seem to be unnecessarily cocksure about our desire.

 

The crux, I think, lies in the poor standard and recklessness of the media. There are no rules, no conditions; the producers can air their ads through media whatever message these ads content. They can lie; they can exaggerate and they can do whatever they like.

 

I wonder where this competition in ads is going to lead them and their consumers. They offer what not: hen, goat, new clothes, home, load of money, job and so on. This overemphasis on flowery ads proves that they are not bothering about quality even in the least. Quality never matters for them what matters is how they fantasize it and advertise it. Scanning these ads, one can conclude that noodles are presupposedly meant to be eaten not for anything but for its (unimaginable) prizes. It has been a convention already and so, it is not noticed that the noodles ads are crossing the limit. Some of the ads effect goes far beyond their apparent message indicating that Nepalese people are all happy enough with the petty prizes they provide.

 

Furthermore, lack of rules and regulation had encouraged the advertisers more in forming such nonsensical ads. There are enough stories and proof to suspect on the reliability of these ads. But there is no authority taking action for its inspection. One way or the other, these ads are cheating people and are making them fools. These noodles producers have made ad the only way to sale their products and mass media, in fact, has become their handmaiden.

 

It may not seem unusual for us to listen every time such ads, which repeatedly remind us of its lucky prizes, like cock and hens. But what outsiders may evaluate when they see us enjoying this sort of trifling nonsense? Just think of these ads being aired in America or in any other European countries. Is it an indicator for poverty or underdevelopment? Does not it seem a complete buffoonery? The worry here is in our inability to see nothing wrong with these ads and their acceptance as the best offer. We even see some of the "lucky" winners dragged in the television screen brandishing cocks and hens, necklace and bracelets with short provocative remarks. Why don't the government or the concerned authority think of putting limit on such ads? Mass media could not be a place where such buffooneries can be practiced. It is public and must be sensitive in each and every case. For this tendency, as Deluge and Guattari, say could corrupt the media and the public alike by making them "schizophrenic".

[Originally published in The Kathmandu Post 2 February 2004 ]

Chauvinism in Ads - Kamal Raj Sigdel

By Kamal Raj Sigdel

-        

The idiot box was making a fool of me with some ads. It was news hour. We were all gaping at the screen. Suddenly in the ads, a couple appeared eating at their dining table. The husband looked at us and prescribed the Hulas brand rice with the logic that the rice is color sorted and is as delicious as his wife who was silently accompanying him there. What nonsense? What a terrible conceit between delicious "rice" and his "wife"? No sooner was it over I was stuck by another ad where the Sashu and her son appeared appreciating her Buhari for cleaning her husband's cloths so well that they shine even in darkness. They thanked her but unfortunately, she attributed all the credit to the commercial detergent. "Oh God, at least she should have thought little of herself", I felt. There was another show. This time it was an engagement party. The gentleman caller resolves to marry the girl simply because she was a perfect cook to meet his taste. But she is content with her craftsmanship that she has used ABD Masala -- the secret of her success. Another was about dish washing. Let us not cite them all. I wonder, what message do these ads give besides their commercialism? What type of image of woman do these ads unhesitatingly represent? I feel, these ads seem treating women as pets as something that is supposed to be consumed, as a "delicious" recipe and so on. Women are not always supposed to engage themselves "rattling breakfast plates and dishes in basement kitchens". Are these ads' representations, therefore, not stereotypical?

 

Serious consideration, I think, should be given to this issue. Now, the need is that the Nepalese women should begin a "re-visionary process" for the feministic deconstruction that man no longer holds the center.

 

If we analyze the image of women, as in the above-mentioned ads, in almost all the soap ads and operas we see an essentializing and stereotypical definition of women that their virtual job is to, by hook or by crook, make their husbands happy. If she fails to do that, she is supposed to feel herself heartily guilty.

 

By thus disseminating such stereotypical male-dominated ads such a 'hegemonical' relation is created that for the people the situation will be equally surprising when a hen crows in early dawn or when in ads the present hierarchy is reversed. And most perhaps people will die of surprise if a male character is shown in any ad altruistically exhilarated in cooking foods in kitchen and washing women's garments in bathroom, prescribing certain products as a clue to draw wives' love.

            The paradox lies here in the fact that on the one hand, the government is investing its efforts and energies but on the other hand, we see such humiliating stuffs being broadcast from government and all the public media. At least the so-called intellectuals or the bureaucrats should have made public/mass media gender sensitive. The crux lies, I think, in their preconceptualized head. They see nothing wrong in these ads. How could they be gender sensitive? They take it as casual and common. But the shame is that the same bureaucrats exorcize others to be gender sensitive in their speech. What all these NGOs and INGOs doing by being deaf and blind to such a serious issue. Why do we enjoy looking at these conservatisms? They all are the blunders made from the perspective of male chauvinism. I, being a male, would prefer to reveal this blatant mistake or recklessness. Let some female activists, either Showalter or Saxton, emerge again to lobby on banning such ads. Otherwise these ads will keep on continuously creating stereotypical images and the male dominated language and the media may create "images of power and power of images" as Mahasweta Sengupta would have put it.

[Originally published in The Kathmandu Post 18 Dec. 2003: C1, 4. 20 Dec. 2003] 

 

Campaign to promote cycling for healthy cities launched

 

Press Release

2 January 2021, Kathmandu

 

The Government of Nepal Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, United Nations Development Programme, Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Kantipur Media Group and Cycle City Network Nepal jointly launched a new project/campaign to promote cycling and other environment-friendly practices in Nepal.

 

The initiative will promote sustainable urban mobility and environment-friendly lifestyle choices for urban populations in the context of COVID-19 and beyond by promoting cycling as an alternative mode of clean, healthy and affordable transport for commuters in cities. Part of the campaign will also focus on advocacy and awareness for adoption of cycle-friendly policies and programs and environment-friendly lifestyle choices for urban populations. The campaign will be launched from at least two municipalities, and one of them will be Lalitpur Metropolitan City, and will be scaled up further in the coming years.

 

The campaign will make use of existing technology to track, map, credit and reward cycling practices and gradually connect with the larger ecosystem of solutions for healthy cities. People will be motivated to use cycle or switch to cycling and other forms of cleaner transport through gamification of the cycling practice that incentivizes cyclists with rewards and also favours clean-businesses that sponsor and take part in the game. The campaign assumes that people will be more willing to switch to or continue cycle-commuting for multiple reasons, including, economic, health, environmental as well as COVID related safety reasons. The challenges are to ensure more investment for cycle-friendly infrastructure so that safety issues could be improved.

 

The cycle campaign will offer opportunities for private sector contribution through sponsorship and other in-kind rewards, along with some business development opportunities for interested private sector companies as we move ahead.

 

"Bicycle has been in use for two centuries, and it continues to be a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation, fostering environmental stewardship and health.  Cycling should be included in the development programmes where stakeholders encourage the use of the bicycle as a means of fostering sustainable development. It is a means to access schools, health facilities, and to keep fit young and old, rich and poor alike," said UNDP Resident Representative Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labe. Success of such initiatives, she said, will depend on how all others, including motorists and policy makers facilitate the ride, including safety and security.

 

"Lalitpur Metropolitan City is pleased to launch this joint campaign to further motivate the people in our city to use cycle as an alternative means of transport. As the first city to have initiated cycle lanes, I believe it makes great sense to initiate the cycle campaign from Lalitpur. We look forward to building healthier cities together," said Lalitpur Metropolitan City Mayor Chiribabu Maharjan.

 

"The Government of Nepal's National Plan for Electric Mobility (NPEM) envisions improving air quality, among several other means, through 50% cut in the use of fossil fuels in the transport sector by 2050 and to decrease the rate of air pollution through proper monitoring of sources of pollutants across waste, old and unmaintained vehicles and industries. Promoting cycling in cities, I believe, will be one of the immediate and low-cost and most sustainable ways of reaching that target. Promoting cycling makes a strong case for sustainability of Nepal's existing and emerging cities," said Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Gopal Prasad Sigdel.

 

"We are proud to launch this campaign to encourage a larger mass to switch to cycling as an alternative mode of transport in cities across Nepal. We believe that this campaign would be helpful in bringing about a transformation for the good of our environment and public health," said Mahesh Swar, Assistant General Manager of Kantipur Media Group.

 

"We are pleased to be part of this campaign which aims to provide an open platform for all cycle advocates to come together and collaborate for making our cities cycle friendly. The campaign will offer opportunities for private sector companies to sponsor, invest and experiment on a number of businesses around cycling, and other environment friendly practices such as recycling and plantation," said CCNN President Shailendra Dongol.

 

The cycle campaign will also be backed up and supported by a wide range of partners, including Yeti Airlines, Sano Paila, G.D. Labs and Research and Cycling Cities, India. More partners and sponsors from local governments and private sector are expected to join in the coming days. [For media inquiries: Kamal Raj Sigdel at UNDP Nepal: kamal.sigdel@undp.org | Nivesh Dugar at CCNN niveshdugar@gmail.com | Sagar KC at Kantipur Media Group: sagar@kmg.com.np | Raju Maharjan at Lalitpur Metropolitan City: rrajuu@gmail.com]

 

 

Global coronavirus death toll passes 1 million

The coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of slowing with rising death toll while economic impact continues to threaten decades of human development growth.

New York, 29 September 2020 – The world passed a grim milestone this week as the World Health Organization announced that 1 million people have now died from the coronavirus. More than 33 million people have been infected with the virus since it began in late 2019, and those numbers expect to grow as more countries sound the alarm about second waves.

The pandemic has also taken a dramatic socio-economic toll on the world with governments pumping as much as US$11 trillion into economies to keep them afloat. Stopping the virus while protecting people from the economic devastation remains top priority, says United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Achim Steiner.  

"The climbing death toll is staggering, and we must work together to slow the spread of this virus," Achim Steiner says. "The world is at a breaking point. In almost every country and territory our socio-economic impact assessments have revealed economies slowing down and contracting. The IMF forecasts a grim end of year with 172 countries expecting negative growth.  Economists predict that GDP levels will not return to pre-Covid19 levels until 2023. Those low to medium development countries will be hit the hardest, not just economically, but also socially. The people living in those countries are on the brink."

The impact from the coronavirus pandemic has put enormous strain on world economies and for the first time in 30 years has sent human development into reverse. In 2020, as many as 100 million more people could fall into extreme poverty (UNDP), while 270 million people are in danger of acute food insecurity (World Food Programme).

Safeguards could prevent further shocks for people in low development countries who face further harm to education, health, and access to livelihoods. For example, countries can roll out a temporary basic income that would provide a social safety net against poverty while also stopping the spread of the virus.

However, safeguards are not enough, according to Steiner. Moving forward from the crisis requires a complete transformation on how the world views prosperity and progress, putting people and planet at the core of recovery rather than GDP metrics.

It also requires shifting toward tomorrow's economies that include renewable energies and carbon pricing, and away from outdated economies built on fossil fuel reliance. Depending on GDP metrics to determine debt, credit and access to international markets will exacerbate the crisis.

"Today, it is 64 times cheaper for the richest economies of the world to access international credit than for a developing country on the African continent," Steiner says.

"When countries are looking to bolster their economic landscape, we hear across continents and communities the call for a future that is green, fair and equitable. We cannot continue on this collision course with nature, and ultimately ourselves," Steiner says.

For more information on the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, visit www.undp.org.