From Nepali Times, (7 Nov, 2020) Imperious ambassadors, eager princelings and invasive spy-masters — Kathmandu has seen, and survived, them all When Kathmandu Valley was still known as Swoniga (three cities), back in the medieval Lichhavi-Malla era, the Ganga plains did not send diplomats or spies here, they sent rulers. The Lichhavi arrived from nearby Vaishali, and
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #887 (8 December 2017 – 14 December 2017) Brace yourselves for a ride into uncharted constitutional territory Nepal’s descent into Hades in the democratic era began in 1995 when the fringe party that was the CPN-Maoist lifted arms against a democratic system that was barely five years old. This downward spiralling
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #885 ( (24 November 2017 – 30 November 2017) Incoming ambassadors and donor agency heads have an opportunity to learn from the past To repeat an anecdote from an earlier column, in a southern African country some years ago, a friend was told excitedly by a Danish diplomat: “I am applying
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #883 ( (10 November 2017 – 16 November 2017) People without faith in the state migrate for survival, the new Constitution must change that Ludwig Stiller SJ wrote in The Silent Cry (Sahayogi, 1976) on how Nepalis were pauparised in the aftermath of empire-building attempts following unification. The people were taxed
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #881 (27 October 2017 -2 November 2017) Burma’s pernicious populism and a preoccupied world abandon the Rohingya The Rohingya tragedy should resonate much more in Nepal than elsewhere in South Asia, because its genesis is nearly identical to the tragedy of Bhutan’s Lhotshampa. The main difference is one of scale, as
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #879 (13 October 2017 -19 October 2017) Even if it runs at a loss, good urban transport makes a metropolis efficient and dynamic It was a coincidence to arrive in Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala last week on the day its second metro line was opened . The first
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #877 (22 September 2017 – 28 September 2017) Obfuscation and hand-wringing will not help as we prepare to face the world While at the United Nations Secretariat two-and-a-half decades ago, my work station was the press officer’s desk some steps down to the left from the main podium from where the
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #875 (8 September 2017 – 14 September 2017) Gangamaya’s hunger strike for justice is tied directly to Nepal’s economic progress Let me put it this way, so as to try and yank the reader’s head from the sand: the fight for justice of hunger striker Gangamaya Adhikari with reference to the
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #873 (25 August 2017 – 31 August 2017) Slusser was deeply apprehensive about the impact of the 2015 earthquake on the Valley’s heritage Within two months, we have experienced the departure of art historians Eduard Sekler, Sukrasagar Shrestha, Dina Bangdel — and now Mary Slusser, author of the monumental two-volume Nepal Mandala, a
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From Nepali Times, ISSUE #871 (11 August 2017 – 17 August, 2017) It is important to get SAARC back on its feet, without denying the importance of the sub-regional BIMSTEC There was once a multi-headed, consensual priesthood named SAARC which started out with seven priests and later added an eighth. It tumbled along for 30
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