From Nepali Times, ISSUE #841 (13 January 2017– 19 January 2017) Nepal’s disastrous international positioning is the result of decayed domestic politics Not since the precarious days following the departure of the British from India has Nepal been as internationally vulnerable as it is today. Its outreach is scraping rock-bottom, with foreign policy as much …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #809 (20 May 2016 – 26 May 2016) The Nepal Government must consider sending a high-level special envoy to New Delhi It has all too quickly become a truism to say that Nepal-India relations have never been this bad. There is an enormous load of humanitarian vulnerability and economic distress that …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #805 (22 April 2016 – 28 April 2016) High-end hilltop hideaways present the best way to rebuild tourism in earthquake-hit areas Nepal’s mountain tourism has been in decline in the past decade due to the rapid spread of jeep tracks, and in the past year because of the earthquake. But trekking …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #803 (8 April 2016 – 14 April 2016) A fresh look at the map will show how Bangladesh-China-India-Nepal could now be connected The acronyms that have invaded the diplomatic and Track Two discourse hold the promise of converting ‘connectivity’ from a goal to reality. BIMSTEC, BCIM and BBIN represent efforts to …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #801 (25 March 2016 – 31 March 2016) Did New Delhi ever imagine that its coercive strategy would backfire this badly? It was the five-month blockade by India that provided Nepal’s political class with the daring to sign the deal in Beijing on Monday. Without the public opinion created as a …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #788(25 December 2015 – 31 December 2015) A win-win can only happen with a halt to Indian micro- and macro-management Much recrimination has roiled the waters of the Sirsiya stream dividing Raxaul and Birganj between September-December 2015, punctuated by three statements from New Delhi’s Ministry of External Affairs. The latest note …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #751 (27 March 2015 –2 APRIL 2015) Prof Theodore Riccardi presents historical material to enrich our lives. Nepal has evolved, sadly, as a country where history and archaeology are far down in everyone’s priority. Throughout his career, the Indologist and pioneer Himalayanist Theodore Riccardi has sought to highlight aspects of Nepal’s …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #736 (12 December 2014 – 18 December 2014) Studio 7’s The Three Paise Opera is an adaptation of the German play The ThreePenny Opera Sabine Lehmann of Studio Seven at the Hotel Vajra remains a disciple of the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who challenged Hitler and was persecuted by Joseph McCarthy. …
From The Nepali Times, ISSUE #733 (21 November 2014 – 27 November 2014) Kathmandu can use its geopolitical positioning to upgrade SAARC into a dynamic regional grouping The upcoming SAARC Summit, the third in Nepal after 1987 and 2002, is happening as Kathmandu suffers deep socio-political polarisations as it tries a second time to write …
From Nepali Times, ISSUE #723 (5 September 2014 – 11 September 2014) Photographs of the site of the ‘mountain-slide’ On the pre-dawn hours of 2 August exactly a month ago, a whole mountainside swept down on the village of Jure, burying at least 156 people (almost a third of them children) under tons of rock and …