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 Indeed the best article I've ever seen in Nepalese media (It is only the poverty of the quality of our leadership that makes us seem poor)
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Posted on 04-06-11 11:39 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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BARBARA ADMAS
 

There is a growing realization that if we are ever to have positive change and economic betterment for Nepal’s villagers, we, the ordinary people—and above all the young people of Nepal—must bring it. And we need to start it now, before Nepal joins the list of “failed states”.

The cream of our youth is leaving the country in droves. For lack of employment opportunities at home they are allowing themselves to be exploited by unscrupulous manpower agencies in Kathmandu and unscrupulous land speculators in the countryside. We all know the risks inherent for our desperate-for-earnings youth. We read news of labour-related tragedies in the Gulf or Malaysia every day: No compensation for workplace accidents, confiscation of passports, failure to pay promised wages, women enduring rape and virtual slavery in uncountable households, the list goes on.

Mental illness and the number of suicides among our once eager and hopeful young population is rising. These acts of desperation, often motivated by poverty, reflect the bleak future many face here and the unbearable circumstances in which they have had to work abroad.

This exodus has had a devastating effect on our villages, now comprised mainly of the very old and the very young, both unfit to produce the crops needed to feed Nepal.     Villagers are already wondering who will plant the rice after the monsoon. Their hopes enhanced by the presence of NGOs, some are even looking for foreign   volunteers to work the fields.

All over Nepal, foreign-funded NGOs are supposedly (and sometimes genuinely) helping the country. The new trend is to bring in foreign volunteers willing to pay to “help” in already relatively prosperous areas. This further marginalises the poorest and most remote villages while leaving the poor, unemployed youth to stand in longer and longer queues outside the Foreign Ministry.

As I passed these long lines of mostly very young men and women over the past few months, I asked myself: Why can’t the desire of these youths to better themselves and feed their families be harnessed to help their own countrymen? Why can’t their talents and hard work be utilised and rewarded here at home instead?  

Carefully prepared questionnaires handed to a sampling of young people waiting outside the Foreign Ministry showed that if offered a similar salary as that saved while working abroad to work in poor villages in Nepal,100 percent would do it. That was enough motivation for me and similarly minded young friends to swing into action.

Today, every aware Nepali agrees on the crying need for an ethical revolution in Nepal:  a naitik  kranti! The inevitable next comment is: But who is going to lead it?  My answer is something like this: “You, and thousands of idealistic, patriotic youth like you! If you wait for a dedicated moral leader to emerge from the morass of misguided politicians, whose politics are presently destroying what is left of our moral fibre, it will be too late to save Nepal!”

Investigation into corruption in various government departments and security agencies has begun. Even the political youth have begun to speak out against the selfishness of their leaders; youth in all walks of life should be encouraged to do the same. If they can unite to fight corruption, with loud and clear moral outrage, Nepal’s youth will become an unstoppable positive force.

All the above factored into the decision to form an organisation, Youth Volunteers, Nepal, to encourage Nepal’s youth to work in their own country instead of seeking jobs abroad. Having followed Nepal’s ‘development’ over the last 50 years, I perhaps had both “gaum pharkaun” and the NDS, (National Development Service) in the back of my mind when I woke up one morning and decided not to cry, but to do! With rising awareness among all segments of society, this is the ideal time to launch such a nation-wide campaign. The express purpose is to lessen the pernicious and widening gap between rich and poor, developed and undeveloped, and educated and uneducated. Regarding education, a visionary leader could have learned from Fidel Castro, and after our recent revolution, urged educated citizens to return to their villages and stay until everyone could read and write. This is how Cuba’s 100 percent literacy rate was achieved within a year of the revolution!

We have had no such visionary leader, but we can try to transform the country into one of which we can take pride! Our youth volunteers will represent a start of what we hope will become a nation-wide development effort. Our volunteers will be asked to teach the illiterate—of whatever age—to read and write, to help villagers identify and improve income producing activities (like beekeeping and mushroom farming)  and especially to help develop and market the agriculture and unique bio-diversity with which we have been blessed.

Youth Volunteers will be chosen on the basis of their love of Nepal and desire to work to improve it. They must be flexible, able to live in harmony with the poorest villagers and have no class, caste, or ethnic prejudices. Special qualifications like expertise in local crafts, organic farming, village tourism, or medicinal herbs will be most welcome. Volunteers will receive subsistence funds for food and incidental expenses during their year of service. A sum similar to the amount earned if working in the Middle East will be put in a bank account, to be drawn out after completion of the year.

Everyone asks how we will fund such a potentially huge programme. Our idea is that every Nepali citizen with the means to do so, should participate in empowering our youth to build a ‘new’ (in the true sense of the word) Nepal. Initially, Youth Volunteers, Nepal will ask every Nepali businessman—and individuals of any other nationality who love Nepal and can afford to help its youth—to donate a minimum of US $2500 (Rs. 177,500)  to support a volunteer for one year. We are starting small with a few nearby villages and plan to expand to the Mid and Far West within six months.

Nepal, as I keep telling those whose “Nepal katam” refrain is growing in cadence, is not a “poor country”.  It is one of the richest countries in the world in culture, water resources, biodiversity, natural beauty, and above all, its honest, hard-working people. It is only the poverty of the quality of our leadership that makes us seem poor. By employing our youth in their own country, uplifting the lives of their poorer compatriots and developing needy villages, Nepal can one day become the land of equality and economic progress of which we all dream. To Nepalis everywhere: please love your country. Be proud of your country. And above all, help and take pride in its youth. The future of Nepal depends on them.

 

Adams is an American-born Nepali citizen who established Youth Volunteers, Nepal on the anniversary of her 50th year in Nepal

Last edited: 06-Apr-11 11:41 AM

 
Posted on 04-06-11 12:12 PM     [Snapshot: 73]     Reply [Subscribe]
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What a wonderful article. What a great vision. What hope Barbara Adams sees for Nepal. I applaud her spirit.  
 
Posted on 04-06-11 7:55 PM     [Snapshot: 333]     Reply [Subscribe]
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Indeed! I think BARBARA ADMAS has vision that no other NEPALESE has. 50 years in NEPAL and still she is hopeful about this country! Hopefully every responsible Nepalese can see through her vision and implement it.....
 
Posted on 04-07-11 11:15 AM     [Snapshot: 512]     Reply [Subscribe]
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Frankly, I am not impressed!

Let's not get awe struck just because someone with foreign sounding name writes something about Nepal.

Why am I not impressed you ask?  Here's why:

The intention of the writer is all nice and dandy.  No doubt about that.  However, the economic development model that she is proposing is communist in nature which has failed many times over in many countries.

First, get young people to volunteer, she says.  Yeah right.  It would not make sense for anybody with half brain to spend time volunteering while in their prime earning years of life.  Only very few, from already affluent family who are like minded, would go for it.  Others would rather look for a venture that is more lucrative, for the time being in Nepal, that is foreign employment.

Second, get every businesses and individuals to pay a minimum, a minimum (could be more), of $2500 or 1 lakh 77 hajaar 5 saya rupiyaa per year to support this scheme of hers.  Seriously?  I wonder if she is in the payroll of Maoists herself because that sounds like the extortions run by... yup... Maoists.  Ain't gonna happen.  People are already sick and tired by the Maoists goons forcefully taking money from them.  They will not stand for another wolf in a sheep's clothing.

Third, assuming the forced collection of funds do occur and vast pool of money is accumulated.  Given the prevalence and history of corruption in Nepal, what percentage of that will be gobbled by so-called administrators and what little amount will actually  trickle down to the program.

So what do I think of Barbara Adam's article?  Hogwash, I say.  



 
Posted on 04-07-11 11:39 AM     [Snapshot: 537]     Reply [Subscribe]
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not a bad idea but the 2500 scheme sounds a bit too unrealistic..if this is supposed to be a mass movement...government has to be involved in funding..most people of nepal are not rich enough to afford 2500 every year!
 
Posted on 04-07-11 11:46 AM     [Snapshot: 541]     Reply [Subscribe]
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Thanks for this article..... TO Riten...I just wanted to let you know that Ms BArbara Adams is not just a lady with Foreign sounding name....here is a brief intro of her copied from this website http://www.mandalabookpoint.com/main_details.php?sid=211&cat=


Barbara Adams has lived in Nepal for 45 years. She is a staunch nationalist, and as a result, a server and passionate critic. This book contains her observations of the failings of what come to be called “democrazy” in Nepal, and her suggestions of what should be done to satisfy and engage the ever more discouraged youth. She observed the disintegration of the golden grail of multiparty democracy, and the increasing corruption of its proponents. She criticized without fear, and sometimes too passionately for the comfort of those she attacked, and was thrown out of Nepal for six months by Girija Prasad Koirala, whom she felt, and wrote, and betrayed Nepal, democracy, and the village-oriented socialism of his brother, the beloved BP Koirala. She was one of the first political observers to recognize the importance of the Maoist movement in Nepal, and to write about it sympathetically. She had always been on the side of the poor and innocent villagers and of the idealistic urban youth who flock to her house with their tales for desperation and discouragement. She understands why many of them have since jointed the Maoists. In recent years she has had a weekly column in a leftist weekly, Jana Astha. The column is under the heading: “Note of dissent” Barbara is a dissenter, original in her thoughts, but always writing with the welfare of Nepal in mind. For the last years she has been involved in peace campaigns in Kathmandu, Hetaura, Rajbiraj and other rural areas. In many places in Kathmandu she is greeted, as “Shanti Didi”. Barbara Loves Nepal and Nepal reciprocates.

Born in New York, Barbara Adams grew up in Washington DC, where her father, an economist, held a series of jobs with FDR’s new Deal. Both shy and rebellious as a child, she eschewed conventional education in Washington’s public schools and spent her days riding and grooming horses and her evenings voraciously reading. She studies French and Russian at the Georgetown International Relations from George Washington University. Anguished by the gap between haves and have nots which she experienced during a mid-term trip to Haiti, she left America immediately after graduation on an odyssey through Europe, the Middle East and India, selling feature articles to finance her travels, which included walking with Vinobha Bhave in the Punjab. In 1961 Barbara settled in Nepal, and with Prince Basundara and Gen. Sharada Sumsher J.B. Rana, Opened Third Eye Tours,, Nepal’s first travel Agency. She traveled much of the world promoting tourism to still unknown Nepal, worked with Nepali craft promotion and design and became and expert on Bhutanese textiles about which she wrote a book. For oblivious reasons Barbara avoided writing about politics. That changed with the advent of democracy: She started her column, Barbara’s Beat, in the Independent in 1991, then moved it to the Kathmandu Post, the Everest Herald, and lastly the People’s Review. Other columns were published in Jana Asstha. Barbara became and environmental, economic, political, and human rights activist and was twice “exiled” from her adopted country for expressing her views.


 
Posted on 04-07-11 12:16 PM     [Snapshot: 594]     Reply [Subscribe]
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She has living in Nepal for more than 40 years. I read somewhere that she has been begging to get the nepalese citizenship for many years. It amazes me that the same government which doesn't hesitate a bit to give millions of citizenships to biharis, never give citizenships to these people who love Nepal more than many nepalese and want to live and die in Nepal, be it her or late gopal bhutani or tulsi ghimire. 
 
Posted on 04-07-11 12:23 PM     [Snapshot: 525]     Reply [Subscribe]
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To Riten,
      No worries even if you r impressed or not, there is always an exception everywhere..
      In today's date, foreign or national names does not make much of a difference to most of us after dwelling here for almost a decade and thus we do not admire people by their names but prospects and ideals...
    Nice and clear you have appreciated her work but the government system which you called the communism, we'd agree with that as well if those principles lead us to a better peaceful and developed Nepal. 
    Personally, my suggestion would be.. Reading an article its not must that we have to follow it, instead literating ourselves with those brilliant ideas and discovering a logical conclusion that would be on the side of National progress and implementing them for a change that would shine the future of our mother Nepal would be compatible. 
   But I'd definitely agree with your last statement, would their be trustable accountants for such a huge fund, dude I'd pay 10% of the sum at present and the rest on installments. Don't take me as your foe.. my understanding is that we need people like Barbara Adams to light our mind bulbs.
  Besides I disagree you on down below as well, "
        
          Riten
               I am not sure what illegal activities these businessmen might have been doing.  Neither am I affiliated with them, nor am I in Government to be in the know.  But one thing for sure is they have created a lot of employment in Nepal.  Because of the industries they have started, lot of Nepalis can bring the food to their table. On that basis and only on that basis, I would encourage more such entrepreneurship rather than pull their legs.

- my 2 cents.  "


 
Posted on 04-07-11 12:45 PM     [Snapshot: 561]     Reply [Subscribe]
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First of, what kind of people work at eKantipur? They can't even get a columnist's name right!. Is the last name Adams or Admas? If Admas is correct., her first name inititial together with last name  i.e B. Admas would sound like "Badmas" LOL!

(Nepalnews.com is not far behind in that area either. I have opened article titles on their website only to find the body of the article swapped with that of another article. Anyone else experienced that?)
Oh well!

Since Ms. Adams has been living in and traveling throughout Nepal longer than most of us, she would definitely have a better first hand knowledge of the reality in Nepal. To bring about the proportion of change Ms Adams is clamoring for, the Nepal Government needs to get involved. $2500 annual stipend per volunteer sounds rather pricey. Collecting a voluntary contribution of a dollar per week from every Nepali working in foreign lands might be more doable to finance such an endeavor. The administration and spending of the flow of funds requires proper scrutiny because the trust among the stakeholders cannot be broken if the scheme is meant to be sustainable.

In a nutshell, all the ills taking place in Nepal at present is due to the lack of education. The people were kept in the dark for centuries so that it will be easy for the autocratic rulers to maintain the status quo. Even after the so-called "Democracy" was restored during Tribhuvan's regime, literacy was still not encouraged for the same reason like before as you can see. The literacy drive topped to free education till primary level only. Two year worth of curriculum for SLC was kept intact so that maximum would not be able to pass the hurdle for further studies. Once failed these discouraged students would go back to what their poor ancestors had been doing for centuries. Going forward some key things to be included in school curriculum could be stressing the value of economics, patriotism, volunteering, entrepreneurship, vocational training, abolishment of child labor etc. With these kinds of practical education system, we could be on a track to see a Nepal everyone of us would like to see.


Last edited: 07-Apr-11 12:55 PM

 


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