Christmas 2004 Blues

Christmas 2004
Originally uploaded by Oldo.

So this is Christmas, and what have you blogged, another year over...

Women on the War-Path: Maobadis' Kronstadt.

Something is brewing-up in the West of Nepal - the country's most "backward region"!
In an uprecedented chalenge to their "liberators", the maobadi thugs, the meekest and poorest and wrechedest of the Salt of the Earth rose against the mighty Comissars! In spontaneous uprising they thrashed a Maoist outfit sent to "celebrate a martyrdom" (translat. from the commie-lingo:burial) in a remote village in Dailekh (West Nepal). When the Comissar tried to wrap the body in the hated Red Flag of Terror, the women had enough! Not only was the local boy forcibly recruited, but even in death the Comrades wanted to use him in their propaganda. Enough is enough, they shouted as the comrades suffered ignomious defeat at the hard hands of village women! I have a feeling this is just a beginning, as this sentiment spread like wildfire in further 17 VDCs (Villg. Devlp.Committees), and the Red Devils are on the run.
Of course, the undernourished and UNARMED women are no much to well-fed, ruthless maobadis - but that is beside the point: It is the RNA (Royal Nepal Army) which will profit mostly from this - the hearts and minds which - at least nominally - were on the side of the Maoists - will now provide intel on the Comrades' camps, routes, plans...
Good ridance, Sons-of-Sartre/Satan, hope you all receive asylum in France!

On the Road again...

Europe, 6:30, cold windy, DARK morning. The taxi driver says "You're lucky to leave for South". East actually I reflect as he heaves my certainly overweight suitcase into the trunk of the spotless Mercedes.

The sheikhs are shaken...

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia says
Zionism is behind terrorist actions in the kingdom.
Do these guys have DENIAL SYNDROM? You bet! They killed and driven out all jews 50 years ago (the few left after 1400 years of pogroms), forbid their entry upon pain of beheading to 'The Kingdom of the Two Msoques' (Mordor?), and when homegrown murderers start kiling at home (when they kill abroad - it's another TUNE!), when they threaten the rotten house of Fahd, well - "It's the Jew, stupid!"
And the UK-ambass. of 'KOTM' starts another tack - he calls the terrs 'cult'! And bet you will hear more of that - the well-paid US and EU PR-giants are AT THIS VERY moment spreading the message: "It's cult, stupid!

Theater of the Absurd

To write about politics in Nepal right now is DEPRESSING: After the 'smell' of success of the original 5 "rioting" parties ("well the Police didn't shoot anybody ... yet, let's try some more demos and riots...") and the feeling that a change of governement is NEAR, even the party of the current PM, the (nominally) pro-Palace RPP joined the 'Andolan' (movement). This is more absurd than the trying by splinter NC-D, led by fromer (dsimissed-by-the-King) PM Deuba! In his case it wasn't ABSURD but INFANTILE - like a kid who's locked out of his favourite kindergarten ("Mummy - the kids don't want to play with me!"), he carped on and on about 'PRAJATANTRA' (DEMOCRACY) and how unjust the King was. But this is understandable... the guy just wants what he think is his - his toy-tractor, his toy-plane and toy-spade... - actually Ministry of Water Resources, and Tourism and Civil Aviation and and...
But Pahupati Shumsher Rana, and his gang - if you could see me while typing, you would see my head moving from left-to-right-and-back - this is UNBELIEVABLE - as if at the height of Vietnam War Henry Kissinger or Gen. Haig started their own Peace Marches aginst Nixon. ABSURD!!! Only one thing more absurd would be if these 'pukkah' country gentlemen went to a disco in Thamel and tried to pick-up some unwashed israeli or aussie trekkie-girls...

Dancing, dancing in the streets...

... more likely danse macabre! Same old faces, same bamboo lathis and shoving people like cattle onto trucks. Today we saw strange scene: at least 50 "prisoners" being carted away standing-up in the truck, shouting waving red falgs, and heavy downpour... with hailstones! The fatalistic nepalis learnt weeks time ago not to come closer than 100 m around Ratna Park and few nearby campuses after 2 in the afternoon. The taxi drivers take it into stride as just another closed road. It's hard to make revolution in a country which is so fatalistic... unexcitable! And the media - the hammering the poor King gets, and no ONE speaks for him, much less against this hectoring! Like ALL Nepalis are for Republic, it's done thing, cooked goose. I might know the proverbial SILENT MAJORITY, or at least few of it's prominet, articulate members, out here, 10 miles from Ratna-madness: nobody thinks ANY good will come from this obstinate, day-after-day demonstrations!
And the media, interviewing only the same old, tainted leaders... Is there really no one else, who could speak for the Palace? Seems the untiring Kamal Thapa, who filled with great panache this role - is being kept very BUSY (in his function as Minster of Interior)by the endless afternoon street battles!
One way or the other, by street tactics, bad press and endless gyrations, the Palace is being worn down... to the great pity for the future of Nepal. So the gyrations are getting more RPMs as the Ali Baba GP and his 40 robbers smell the blood and the see the plum minister-posts, travel abroad and jobs for relatives...

3 weeks of ... public masturbation!

So these "street-fights" - or rather ritualized form thereof - been on for three weeks now. The stubborn old man GP running his bald head into the wall, day after day. What a pity this "querulant" didn't use this formidable energy while he was Prime Minister... Or rather he USED it, but not for profit, prosperity and happiness of Nepal - rather for himself and the wider Koirala gang. It's a pity the discipline in the Congress Party is of the indian-feudal variety - deeply ingrained in centuries of social conditioning. Reminds me of the South Korean airliner crash in Taiwan where the Captain flew on a perfectly clear night into a mountain, last words heard were polite Copilot's "Sir, maybe..." The sad thing, Koirala doesn't even have a Copilot, just some grease-monkeys and luggage handlers... Who's gonna tell him it's a New Century, New Year?

Rantin' Rantissi rocketed...

Though not Nepali stuff, the News this morning is GREAT! The sworn enemy of Israel, Jews, "Crusaders" and the whole Civilization was granted his wish! Just 2 weeks ago he was ranting, undoubtedly feeling the end is near, that "Everybody has to go - some in bed, some hit by Apache". The "sons of pigs and monkeys", as he "nobly" called his adversaries, kindly obliged him! Next: Arafat! Can't wait for Assad and the irani mullahs. You want "paradise"? We deliver!

There may be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam.

First foreigners arrested in demo's

... from among other India, the Philipines and Malaysia... And to hell with them! Make a bloody Revolution home, not here!
Last month, a french-canadian "doctor" was arrested and subesquently deported from Dang (the cradle of the Maobadi movement, 300 km W from here...). This "Medicines sans frontier"-member effectively run communication and internet services for the maoists! HMG should take a leaf from Peru, where a US woman is serving 20 years for simmilar offences. At least I hope the cops kicked the shit out him and got some useful intel out of this "Humanist"!
These "fellow travellers" and "useful idiots" should be make to pay the same price as Nepalis, and MORE: if you come here to fan flames of discontent, failed ideologies a-la marxism or islam, don't be surprised you get burned! And if you participate in riot where property is destroyed you should be held till full restitution is given. And screw the Emabssies' sissies talking about "Violation of Human Rights" - you cross 'Police Line' in NYC, Moscow, Paris, Copenhagen, and see what happens! You throw bricks, you might get shot. Get real!

Koirala ... where he belongs: in jail

GP Koirala, the octogenarian 'Brahmin from Hell',
"logically" had to follow the trajectory he embarked
upon 7 months ago: with ALL MEANS AVAILABLE get himself and
pal Nepal from CNP-UML back into driving seat.:

Police foil parties' mass meeting,
hundreds arrested

Arresting hundreds of leaders
and protesters including Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad
Koirala Thursday afternoon, police foiled the parties' mass meeting
slated for today. Agitating parties had announced a mass meeting at
the Ratnapark intersection despite prohibitory orders issued by the
government. Today is the 8th day of the prohibitory orders announced
by the government and the 15th day of party protests. Leaders of the
agitating parties such as Ramchandra Poudel ,Govinda Raj Joshi, Lila
Koirala, Nona Koirala, Arjun Narsingh KC, Ram Krishna Tamrakar,
Baldev Sharma Majgaiya, Bal Bahadur Rai ,Ishwor Pokhrel, Amrit
Bohora, Shankar Pokhrel, Keshav Badal, Bhim Rawal, Krishna Gopal
Shrestha, Lilamni Pokharel and Anandadevi among others, were arrested
in course of the protests. Most of the arrested leaders are reported
to have been taken to the Armed Police Force headquarters, Halchowk.
When Nepalnews called NC headquarters, we were told NC President
Girija Prasad Koirala has been taken to his residence at Maharajgunj.
The party cadres, however, foiled the security force's attempt to
arrest UML's Madhav Kumar Nepal, People's Front Nepal's Amik sherchan
and Nepal Peasants' and Farmers' Party's Narayan Man Bijukuchhe. They
have been taken to different hotels in Bagbazaar, our Nepalnews
correspondent at the scene reported. As earlier, students and police
are still (at 4:45 pm) pelting stones at each other. Skirmishes
between the police and the protesters are ongoing at Bag Bazaar. NC
leader, Ram Sharan Mahat, speaking to the protesters urged them not
to be afraid as, "They (the protesters) had already defeated
regression." Mahat further suggested the King not go against the
tide and the streets and the country would remain unstable "until
the King corrects regression." Party cadres took Mahat into a
hotel in Bagbazaar. Meanwhile, the police also arrested some 100
professors in Kathmandu. They were expressing their solidarity to the
ongoing agitation. The police is also reported to have detained over
20 human right activists from a sit-in protest organized by Human
Rights and Peace Society in the capital on Thursday. In the meantime,
the government Wednesday evening released three student leaders who
had been handed warrants for violating the Public Security Act
earlier this week.

(Nepali News
2004-04-15)

Anything, and I mean anything:
while jungle-comrades murdered lower "cadres" of his "own"
'communist party', Nepal met the butchers in Lucknow! GP Koirala
tried to incite "students": first against regressive
governement, later against the "regression" (read: KING)
itself!!! Nothing worked, alas, just as you try to rub two pieces of
dry wood together to get FIRE! What this 'machiavellians' don't get
is that nepali people (a term they LOVE to use, ca 20 times an
hour!), yes the TRUE AND TRIED AND TRIBULATED NEPALI PEOPLE had
ENOUGH !!! Even people that oppressed, that much lied to, so
desinformed, they smelled RAT - isn't it just so: ALL THIS
HULLABALLO and ENDLESS FRUITLESS STREET FIGHTS - all just to keep the
Kleptos Anonymous, the "golden Pajero Boys,"
out of jail. Isn't it just so that the CIAA (anti-corruption
commissn.) is getting TOO CLOSE to CHEESE? The more I reflect
over the past 6-7 months of fruitless disturbances, bandhas, the
dragging-in of gullible "students' into these street-battles,
the promises "never to end our struggle" - all of it
designed just that GP, Nepal & al. get back into Singha Durbar
and first thing will be 'castration' of CIAA and moving the
troublesome invstigators to some Far-West Customs post with Tibet! So
somehow the 'people' DOESN'T come to these 'Andolan
Afternoons', try to aviod them, ignore them..., walk in wide circles
around the 'Epicentre' of Ratna Park and Bagh Bazaar... The body language, the (relatively) small attendance of the street protests, the sneer and indifference in the villages of the Valley say clearly: Mr. Koirala, Mr. Nepal, we had enough!

Happy New Year 2061 B.S.

Been with friends down at the Bhaktapur's famous Bisket Jatra. What a let-down! On one side the tourist money (now more than $10/per tourist!!!) paved the area, so gone is the DUST, on the other side the "lingo" (tree-to-be-raised) was tiny... I remember a huge trunk, with wild branches, as long as 10-15 m (30-40 feet). Also the pulling boys & men changed a lot in the past 12 years - jeans, baseball caps replaced kurta/surwals and topis...
But the frevor and zest remained, as ever. These Jyapus are so refreshingly conservative, the salt of the earth... So great was a commotion when the "lingo" crashed down from like 5-10 degrees on the sweating crowd! Great throng of people carried someone nearby, everyone shivered and quitened... death walked by. Old Jyapus told of 'bad harvest' and 'disasters'. Can it be worse in 2061?

Still, all my friends & readers I wish all the best in the New Year 2061 Bikram Sambat!

Koirala vs Koirala

Manisha, the Bollywood kitten, grand-daughter of nepali giant BP Koirala, had scant words for the on-going 'Andolan' (movement). "If the king promises election within a year, we should respect it".
The bald grand-uncle GP would have none of it. In his 82 years of age this morose and quarrelsome man is the obstacle on the road forward. What drives him, what posseses him? Not a gram of shame, not an ounce of reflection that he himself might be PRIMARILY responsible for the mess the Nepal is in!
Two leaders of Christian Easter service have been arrested from the Amphitheater in Thundikhel. Though the HMG guaranteed the 'Order prohib. assembly of more than 5 persons' doesn't apply to religious processions, they have been detained upon urging of the close-by agitating political leaders! So this are the democrats - not even yet at the trough and already acting like BIGOTS! Bad omens if these guys get to the levers of power again!
So much more refreshing the joviality of Interior Minister Kamal Thapa. Though hard to imagine under what stress he functions (his ancestral home in Hetauda was burned down, adding to the worries!), he manages to joke about the food - or the lack of it - to the detained demonstrators, and professing respect - and orders to the police prove it! - for the 'leaders'. This guy has my 100% sympathy!

Nagarkot Lyall

Our man in Diplomacy, the inimitable look-a-like "membar" of "ZZ Top", Lyall, is leaving his cushy assignement for even cushier in Canberra. So the Usual Suspects arranged a LAST RIDE uphill to an Army Camp in Nagarkot (nod goes to Uttam with his excellent connections at RNA) .

The weather was gorgeous, and the beer cold. U. and me drove the "avant-guarde", so we already sat with cold ones when the air in the valley bellow rent with growl of 2 dozens BULLETS (and a single HONDA and two BMW's!). The pines around the picq-nique area smelled like in Slovakia at the height of summer.
Even the trip "to the Valley below" went smoothly: though heavily 'laagyo', nobody fell and some even had strength for further "refreshments" and last bits of home-made sausage at our house!
Great Saturday, and we all wish Lyle to come back ... as Ambassadorji!!!

1500 arrested

In a "subcontinent" specialty, "courting arrest", senior "leaders" of the 5 agitating parties yesterday defied HMG's Order declaring Kathmandu and Pathan within RingRoad "riot affected areas". It prohibited assembly of more than 5 persons (in Denmark during WWII it was 3!) with the reason given "security issue: the threat of maoist infiltration". God knows this is not far from truth, but for the 'leaders" (K.Dixit has nice chapter in his comic essays: "Kleptos Anonymous) this lead to foaming of the mouth with "regression" and "police brutality" and "destruction of human rights"... How sad: they could just move their asses some 40 km in any direction and the "comrades" will show them the meaning of "class justice" and "human rights under maoism"! Hell, I even saw on this morning Katipur TV how a high officer SLAPPED faces of 3-4 policemen, for being TOO ROUGH with the detainees! How sad, bad-mouthing Nepali Police for dragging you into a truck for defying, whatever you might think of it, legal order! Even the arch villain GP was not spared - in TV they showed a small would on his bare scalp (I didn't know the guy was bald - always pukkah in a TOPI!). Remained me of the mark Anwar Sadat had from pressing his head on the mat, as faithful muslim, so small! But this was exalted, aristocratic scalp, we have to see it!
The Nepali Police kept-up the good feudal tradition - even in the age of Prajatantra (Democracy - they kept separate detention camps for the 'leaders" and the riff-raff. The latter were not even given water overnight, the former could be interviewed by TV after few hours "detention".

And today more of the same... My friends are due any minute, we ride in the mountains, far away from theis hypocrisy... First one already arrived - Uttam dhai, welcome!

The village vigilantes

I found this depressing news strangely REFRESHING:
Kanchanpur locals beat 7 Maoists to death

At least seven Maoist militants were killed in a retaliatory attack by the locals of Parasan VDC in Kanchanpur district on Wednesday night.

The tried and tribulated 'janata' of Nepal HAD ENOUGH!
Now the HMG/RNA should take the lead and supply radio and mobile phones to the villages and create "Rapid Response Team"s as the Marines have in Iraq to take back initiative and utilize this DEEP RESENTMENT and ANGER!!!.
Principally I don't think it's a good idea to give them guns - though exceptions should be made, unpublicized, for Gurkha veterans - traditionally the most royalist segment of the hill-population.
Interesting letter in today's Nepali Times:
I am quite amazed...
about arming these brave soldiers.

The Scourge of Brick Factories

The "gothic" title of this post is an UNDERSTATEMENT. These "factories" are warts of Hell, the vents opening to the evil ones bellow ground...
Seriously though: the Tuesday on the ridge above Bhaktapur OPENED my eyes for the problem. My lungs and nose were "OPENED" long time ago, the "infernal" smell of "inferior" coal started wafting around Bhaktapur about 2 years ago. Till then I thought this PLAGUE was confined in the West and mostly, as anyone landing at Tribhuvaqn Airport during daytime can attest, in the South of this Sacred Valley. Alas that sacrality you have to take with a pinch of salt: the "holy" Baghmati river snaking through Boudha, Kathmandu and Pathan is worse than the worst 'klong' I've seen in Thailand, with the added touch that there is no water, only the SHIT!
But the kilns take the CAKE! Not only are they responsible for 30% of air-pollution (conservatively), what is worse is their long-term effects on the ecology of the Valley. The production methods used are so primitive one wants to cringe. These factories take over square kilometers of prime agricultural land, using only the topsoil (I gues the organic matter within the soil helps to bind in the absence of quality coal and higher burning temperatures)!
My family's at least 5 generations back in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire were burning bricks, both in Moravia and Slovakia. As a kid, after the communists 'stole' our factory (my uncles like slaves were compelled to work there - sounds familiar to the peasants of Dang?), I spent all my holidays there, running wheelbarrows as teenager with heavy, wet bricks from the pressing machine, to make a few 'crowns'. I know a thing or two about this business.
My uncles always worked hard in the winter: in the hill behind the machine shed they prepared the earth for the spring and summer. This was dangerous - in order to save some heavy work they cut 'overhangs' in the frozen slope and then deftly cut avalanches the size of a house with few strokes of a pick. What a thrill to watch this for a small boy!
That's the secret (one of many) - you use a HILL! I've never seen surface destruction like this, expect in Northern Bohemia with strip-coal mining. Must say though the moon-landscape there WAS WORSE, LARGER - in one of those 'craters' there could easily fit the whole Valley! (Yes, with the help of EU it's BEEING cleaned, take some years more, but it's HAPPENING.)
Another thing is these sham chimneys. As it could help that you replace a 5 m shitty little sheet-metal chimney with 15 m brick one? Are you nuts? The only one chimney in the Valley which can be said CAN DISPERSE the pollutants above the surrounding mountains is in ... Bhaktapur! Yep, the Chinese Brick Factory, with it's ca 80 m high chimney, symbol of mismanagemnt of the bygone panchayati era. It's supreme irony that this factory with world-class technology (in it's prime!) is ... SHUT DOWN! How symbolic...
Seen yesterday Kunda Dixit, Editor of Nepali Times, and he'll make a stinking story out of it!

Afternoon on Telkot

Tuesday was "band-day" (you know: "Sunday, Monday, Banday..."), so me and couple of friends drove on the ridge jutting down West from Nagarkot towards the heart of the Valley. An agori baba made a nice "kutir" there: large "5-mouth" Hanuman statue. enormous Shiva-trisul (visible from most of the Valley) and round "tower" where he lives and smokes. The day was hot, and due to "banda" there were quite a few villagers and even brick-factory Biharis on a stroll on their day off.
Aah the brick factories...
As far as the eye could see from this lofty perch, the MORDOR of brick-kilns was aproaching the ancient city of Bhaktapur. The lush green fields fertilized over the centuries with back-breaking labour (and love) by the Jyapus are being turned into SAHARA... For a few rupees to buy a TV-set or a HERO HONDA they sell the inheritance of their ancestors...

Three Ring Circuss

The 5 "parliamentary" parties (from their penchant for street-violence you would don't know they are "PARLIMENTARY": "We just wanted to cross peacefully the Police line and they beat the shit out us" ) continue the slow destruction of the Nation. I make no beef that I'm a Royalist, with capital "R" - I'm of the humble opinion that this country, with the patchwork of castes, tribes, languages, is UNGOVERNABLE without some form of Monarchy (= STABILITY). Some family MUST rise above the patchwork and be there for all: rich and poor, "terais" and "pahadis:, hindus and budhists... Enough of this - should be elementary, basic knowledge for every one who knows a BIT aboiut the last HORROR CENTURY: "Your break-up a Kingdom or and Empire and crores of innocent die". Was Russia a better place under the mass-murderer Lenin or a few years before under Czar?

Just asking... Hope Koirala, Nepal and the gang that couldn't walk straight are LISTENING...

Whispers of new governement

The streets are still smouldering, the hospital wards are full of people lying on the floor on bedsheets - but politics, like show-biz, MUST GO ON. The country it at standstill (and I have no petrol for my antique BULLET!) - but first swallows flittering about new multi-party governement appeared.

Mega demonstrations in downtown Kathmandu

NTV just shown desolate pictures from the streets of Kathmandu: chopped down trees across roads (as if the Valley/Kathmandu had TOO many of them!), the familiar burning tyres (another "improvement" of the miserable air quality in theValley), sea of red, mostly Nepal Congress and CNP-UML, flags. And Police, a lot of Police, indulging of their favorite pastime: throwing stones at the protesters (yep, the Police!). Today they got little bit more serious - they fire rubber bullets!
And then came the inevitable pictures from hospital (conveniently closeby) - bandaged "senior leaders". I would chracterize them as "senior thieves". It's a pity that in their blind hate against the King and the Monarchy these clepto-demo-crats hijacked the political agenda and EVEN persuaded the students to join them in this SUICIDAL ENDEVOUR.
Nepal without monarchy will be truly another Afghanistan, and will probably cease to exist as a sovereign nation. But this doesn't bother these "leaders", as long as they can destroy the King!!!

Endless "bandas" in the Valley - demo on Friday.

Situation in Nepal grows more violent and CRAZY day-by-day. The 5 political parties agitate against "regression". For 2nd April is announced mass demo infront of the Royal Palace... things will be interesting. And "banda" for Saturday, 3rd...

Nepal is on my mind...

Returning to the keyboard after some time. ("Some time" is an UNDERSTATEMENT!)
Nepal is on my mind.
I want to bring here conservative perspective to the daily travails and vision for the way forward for the severely tested Nepalis...
6 days passed since the BENI BATTLE, the largest battle of the civil war so far! Last Saturday (March 20th) the western forces of maoists attacked the District Headquarters on the popular Jomsom trek. It seems they wanted to hold the town for at least 3 days, in order to embarass King's visit to nearby Pokhara.
Some papers write about Maoist victory. Some facts, some victory: about 500 dead maoists - the numbers seemed unbelievable when RNA spokesman came with on Nepal TV Sunday night - but now seem to be confirmed, and even surpassed by people in villages around Beni. The guerillas used kidnapped, brainwashed teenagers in the first wave, more experienced fighter behind. Wave after wave, whole night. The barbarity of using kids to fight this crazy war is ASTOUNDING!