Tag Archives: news

Student Elections in Nepal

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Last week marked the annual student elections for some of the major university and college campuses in Nepal.  These elections, unlike most of the student elections I have seen, are incredibly heated and tumultuous events.  They are political statements of youth who through their voting align themselves with national political parties.  That’s right, you heard me, ALIGNING themselves with variious national Nepali parties.  The result is a highly charged, dangerous and fear festering process that looks nothing like a demoncratic voting process and more appears to resemble violent mob behaviour.  Each student party is a youth wing of the major political parties and the ripe and fertile grounds of higher education institutions are used as a grooming ground for future national politicians.  Through the ranks of student politicians come the national leaders.  The current politicians take student elections very seriously – this is their opportunity to froth, foam, and rile the groups into a turmoil.  To pit youth parties against each other and crush any chances that these youth might for a moment consider collaboration more fruitful than war.

UBC students please take note…this message is for you.  You are so incredibly fortunate to be able to undertake a safe and democratic process through which you hopefully elect student leaders who sincerely care about your experience. Please imagine for a moment, as was the case in Nepal last week, that 1 student was killed while voting.  He was risking life and limb to cast a vote and was killed in his student union elections.  Add to that the 6 students who were seriously injured as a series of bombs exploded near various voting stations.  Imagine, what it must feel like to be a university student here.  Imagine the intimidation tactics that can play into election campaigns.  Please, please count yourself so lucky to be part of a system that allows you to voice an opinion safely.  You have peers in other countries that are not as lucky and would be ashamed to know that so many of you do not vote – that you do not take the democratic process seriously.  If they can get themselves to the polls and risk death…it means you have no excuse.

Newsworthy in Nepal: 02/20/09

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It has been a pretty quiet month for news in Nepal actually – no major headlines but lots of great small ones that are interesting to me, so I will share.

  • The Maoist government is having their annual convention this week, full of many many closed-door meetings.  The political party system here is incredibly complex, with mutiple parties having the words “united”, “maoist”, “Nepal” in their title.  There is in fact the following political parties listed in today’s paper:  1) Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – UCPN(M) who are newly elected into power and have a minority in the Constituent Assembly, 2) Nepali Congress (NC) – the ousted party who form the second largest party in Nepal and are the opposition, and 3) Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) – the largest coalition group of many smaller communist parties.  This doesn’t include the smaller, more extreme parties which often represent specific regional ethnic groups or are youth wings of the above mentioned parties who provide the agitation and public distrurbances for the party.  A great summary of the political situation right now is published today on ReliefWeb.
  • One of the driest winters on record.  According to the Nepal Meteorological Forecasting Division we had almost no rain in Nepal this dry season and temperatures that were above normal (despite the fact that I spent most of December shivering).
  • Oldest man to climb Everest.  It is a feate that many from around the world attempt and one which many also fail.  But for Nepalis, a point of pride is their tenacious ability to climb Everest.  So, when a 77 year old attempts to get into the Guiness Book of World Records as the oldest man to scale the peak and is trumped by a 75 year old…well national pride is hurt.

Newsworthy in Nepal: 01/22/09

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In efforts to help a smidgen of news to trickle through from Nepal I will be starting a bi-monthly post highlighting some of what is making news in Nepal.  I am guessing guess that your media coverage over the past month has mostly Obamania, the economic crisis, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict…am I correct?  Making headlines in Nepal right now is:

  • Avian flu has now crossed over the Indian border and into Nepal.  The cases at this point have been limited to the Eastern region of the country…but officials have been warning all people to avoid eating chicken and sales of chicken have gone down up to 25% this month.
  • The murder of another prominent journalist in early January, Uma Singh, has caused major media protest and concern about protection for other journalists.  This murder has followed other targeted attacks on media personnel and newspapers and is suspected to be tied to stories and reporting by media outlets that criticizes government policies and actions. 
  • A garbage strike in Kathmandu has led to more than the usual amount of debris creating large and unruly piles around the capital.  The strike is being carried out by citizens of the small village that live next to the place where Kathmandu dumps its garbage and citizens are calling for a longer term solution to the problem, rather than dumping Kathmandu waste into someone else’s backyard.
  • Various Nepal student organizations are increasing and amplifying their protest efforts against the government.  While intended to be peaceful yet disruptive blockades, in Kathmandu and Pokhara, they have turned into more violent clashes between rival groups, police, protesters, and media.  The student groups are politically affiliated and have strong ties to the major rival parties in government.

And that is what is making headlines today in Nepal.