I sent following letter to Nepali Times. I don't know whether it will be posted on their website or not. In either cases, it won't harm to have another copy and that is the reason I am posting it here.
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As Thomas Paine, in his famous "Common Sense", wrote that 'time makes more converts than reason', the detractors of republican agenda will have a moment of truth sometime very soon. So, I will try neither to negate nor to support their stand right now. I will also not, from such a great distance from home and ground reality, try to explain the current societal dynamics evolving after King's February 1st move, or shall I say coup d'tat. I will not even say that I really understand the current ground reality there back home. I will just try to write some thoughts that are always there on back of my mind.
One thing that I have realized from time to time is that it is very easy to lose sight of the reality over there, from over here, by looking at the news that make headlines of Kantipur, Himal, and other magazine and newpaper websites. Those websites are the main source of our information about 'over there.' There are so many ugly details not covered by those websites and those that are then invisible from here, that generalization based on the headlines, which most of the my compatriots here around me usually and comfortably do, poses a risk of appearing a sciolist. I will not take that risk.
When I was back home last December, I wasn't expecting to see bombs lying around in the middle of the highway, and people walking by it without even giving it an apprehensive look, as if that thing covered in the bucket was nothing more than a joke. People were stranded on both sides of the town, as there were noone to defuse that bomb. Actually that bomb remained there for next couple of days. I was scared to see kids go near the bucket to peer inside trying to fathom may be the depth of the problem plaguing the society. I was amazed at how those little kids became so brave that they were not afraid of the bombs anymore. Couple of days after, there was another bomb on the middle of the ground. This time somebody actually thought that was just a joke and tried to move it. It exploded. Luckily that person escaped with minor injuries.
Neither was I expecting to hear ugly details of how Maoists' extort money from small town business people who were trying to make their living by doing what they knew how to do, was I expecting to feel the disenchantment of people towards both the government and the maoists that self-proclaim to be fighting for regular people.
I know such things are happening locally almost everywhere even right now. But they don't make it to the headlines because there are simply too many of them. Or, on second thought, they may actually not sell as easily as others bigger and coarser headlines do hence donot make it to the headlines.
*******************************************
As Thomas Paine, in his famous "Common Sense", wrote that 'time makes more converts than reason', the detractors of republican agenda will have a moment of truth sometime very soon. So, I will try neither to negate nor to support their stand right now. I will also not, from such a great distance from home and ground reality, try to explain the current societal dynamics evolving after King's February 1st move, or shall I say coup d'tat. I will not even say that I really understand the current ground reality there back home. I will just try to write some thoughts that are always there on back of my mind.
One thing that I have realized from time to time is that it is very easy to lose sight of the reality over there, from over here, by looking at the news that make headlines of Kantipur, Himal, and other magazine and newpaper websites. Those websites are the main source of our information about 'over there.' There are so many ugly details not covered by those websites and those that are then invisible from here, that generalization based on the headlines, which most of the my compatriots here around me usually and comfortably do, poses a risk of appearing a sciolist. I will not take that risk.
When I was back home last December, I wasn't expecting to see bombs lying around in the middle of the highway, and people walking by it without even giving it an apprehensive look, as if that thing covered in the bucket was nothing more than a joke. People were stranded on both sides of the town, as there were noone to defuse that bomb. Actually that bomb remained there for next couple of days. I was scared to see kids go near the bucket to peer inside trying to fathom may be the depth of the problem plaguing the society. I was amazed at how those little kids became so brave that they were not afraid of the bombs anymore. Couple of days after, there was another bomb on the middle of the ground. This time somebody actually thought that was just a joke and tried to move it. It exploded. Luckily that person escaped with minor injuries.
Neither was I expecting to hear ugly details of how Maoists' extort money from small town business people who were trying to make their living by doing what they knew how to do, was I expecting to feel the disenchantment of people towards both the government and the maoists that self-proclaim to be fighting for regular people.
I know such things are happening locally almost everywhere even right now. But they don't make it to the headlines because there are simply too many of them. Or, on second thought, they may actually not sell as easily as others bigger and coarser headlines do hence donot make it to the headlines.
posted by dipeshb at 10:09 PM
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