another strike... would you belive?

oh, have I mentioned that we have lots of strikes here?!!
hmmm

well yes, another national strike today... so with great happiness I cycled to work on pretty traffic free roads. The protesters seemed more grumpy today tho... in a couple of places they made us get off the bikes and walk about 10 metres (not sure why - flexing their muscles?)... there were signs of broken bricks everywhere indicating rock throwing had taken place... and we saw a group of protesters letting down the tyres on one man's motorbike - because he was defying the bandh (strike)... bit of a bummer to have a motorbike with flat tyres me thinks!

oh yes, and this weekend is the 'Holli' festival. I am seriously considering NOT leaving the house on Saturday, people are already throwing water balloons and they're not thrown in a fun lets-all-have-a-jolly-festival type way, more lets-see-how-many-women-we-can-harass-by throwing-water-balloons-at... its not nice, and pisses me off. Fortunately no one has had a good aim yet.

The King...

Last April's people's revolution saw the King stripped of his fairly extensive powers (he had had taken direct control of the country in 2005)... he is not particularly popular, especially as many people think he was implicated in some way in the murder of the previous (popular) King (his brother) and various other family members...

Anyways Prachanda and the Maoists are constantly calling for Nepal to be declared a republic and for the king to be stripped of all entitlements... more likely there will be a referendum, which would be interesting as traditionally the royal family were seen as divine incarnations of a Hindu god (not sure which one off hand as I'm not too up on my Hindu gods). So I'm guessing there would be a fair few people (particularly in the Army) who would want to keep the King as monarch.
In the mean time the government is considering how best to nationalise land and property belonging to the Royal family, and has also decided to replace the king's image with that of Mt Everest in Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes. In addition the Royal crown in the transparent part of the notes will be replaced by the national flower - rhododendron.

So I wonder what the King is doing? Perhaps trying to liquidize assets and shift them off shore before they can be nationalised?!

mini bus drivers....

Ok, so today’s excitements involved trying to get to work unsuccessfully due to (yes you guessed it) a protest… apparently a Maoist killed a mini bus driver (mini bus is a major form of transport here), and so most of the mini bus drivers in Kathmandu decided to protect about this by parking all their mini busses in front of the Maoist headquarters, which unfortunately happen to be next to a bridge which is a major entry point into Kathmandu… and my route to work. We tried to divert down backstreets but everyone else was doing that, including the school busses. I may have mentioned the narrow-ness of streets here. They are too narrow for cars really, let alone school buses. So we sat in some very big jams whilst cars, motorbikes and school buses tried to cram themselves along the narrow streets. In the end I gave up, came home, and got out the bike, which meant I could cycle past all the protesting mini bus drivers… squeezing through gaps between mini busses. What fun. Pictures attached below.

The only downside was that although I live less than 4miles from work, and morning traffic isn’t too bad, coming home at 5 or 6pm on a bike significantly decreases your life expectancy (in my opinion). I think there are 3 death scenarios:

1. Although not an instant death, lung cancer caused by inhaling the filthy air can’t be fun…
2. Death by moving vehicle. There are a range of options including, bus, truck, car, taxi or motorbike. There are also a range of death scenarios… head on collision (people like to drive on the wrong side of the road), squished between 2 converging moving vehicles, knocked off into the path of another moving vehicle etc etc and we must not forget the Nepali law which means if you run someone over you pay for either their medical expenses, or funeral expenses if they’re dead. Funerals are cheaper and so most people go back and finish the job off – just to make sure they don’t get lumbered with a huge bill!
3. Death by a Nepali lynch mob when you run over a pedestrian/slow cyclist who isn’t looking where they’re going or is toodling along in the middle of the road.

Fortunately I avoided all of these possible events and came home safely.

More thoughts on strikes

Apparently there has been one strike or another in Nepal every day for the last 3 months, but I am not sure how accurate that information is... anyways this strike seemed to amuse me... like I said the whole country is striking...

The Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) has called for Nuwakot Bandh (strike)for an indefinite period starting from 22nd Feb protesting the police ban on sale of alcoholic substances.

I don't think I have been here long enough to even have a very wise opinion about what on earth is going to happen to this country, it's really hard to make sense of the various rumours you hear in various places. Some people say we should stock up on provisions big time in case the current strikes in the south start to hit more than just petrol and gas supplies... some people think the Maoists will take over... some people think the prime minster will die causing even more political chaos (he is in his 80s and ill)... some people think the King will try to retake power in a coup, I don't know, no one is very optimistic about anything, and so many different groups are protesting, its too complicated to envisage a solution... and yet it is possible to toodle along in Kathmandu without too much distress. Running around buying up all the pasta and tuna in town seems extreme, but then I don't know perhaps it isn't? hmmm interesting times.

Good news!

Good news! The strike by the rubbish collecting people has finally been called off! Apparently the government have met all demands of the people surrounding the rubbish dump:

• Health post in the village,
  
• Start the process of electrification for the area,
• Provide vacancies for 20 teachers at local schools within the next seven days.
  
• Provide Rs 1 million for the construction of a road,
  
• Send technical human resources to run a veterinary hospital,
• Formulate necessary laws relating to solid waste management.

So they weren't asking for much (?!!) ... I don't have a problem with the government sorting out these things for people living near the rubbish dump, but its like I have said before, giving in 100% to every group who protests is not a sustainable policy - well not here, where every group with any issue about anything seems to be protesting at the moment, and where the country is pretty much the poorest in the world outside of Africa, and therefore does not have infinite financial resources.

According to le newspaper over 4,200 tons of solid waste remains piled up in Kathmandu, officials said it could take at least one week to clear the city streets!!

Fingerless gloves

Fingerless gloves are brilliant, one can wear them in the workplace during a power cut, resulting in ones hands not freezing, in addition ones ability to type is not hindered.
Amazing.

religious experiences

Friday was a public holiday as it was a large Hindu festival Mahashivaratri...

In the morning I decided to go visit a Buddhist temple that I had been meaning to see for a while. I thought I might cycle, which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if I knew where I was going, and if every other person on the road wasn’t a Hindu on their way to the Hindu temple and so of course knew nothing about the location of any Buddhist temples… I cycled round the ring road which is the main road going all the way round Kathmandu, it runs past Pashputi Nath temple where all the Hindus were going. As there were so many people on the road it was effectively closed and so I had to walk, trying not to bash people with the bike, and trying to avoid Sadhus determined to put red dots on my forehead for ‘luck’. As I was going up the hill I saw 2 large helicopters circling the town with large red flags hanging off the bottom of them… for a while I thought perhaps the Maoists were staging a coup or something, but I don’t think the Maoists have air power… in the end I figured they had to be something to do with the festival… but I’m not sure what. Finally back riding I got totally lost, but somehow found the temple, after having a minor head on collision with a motorbike, as I was overtaking a truck… so yes possibly it was partly my fault… but its so frustrating when my bike can go faster than half the vehicles on the road, I end up cycling like Nepalis drive (all over the place), which possibly is a recipe for disaster. Somehow he only clipped the side of my bike, but I really don’t know how I stayed on as it was quite a whack. Anyway the temple was beautiful – well I suppose the prayer flags against the blue sky were beautiful. I got rather carried away on the photo front which if you have a squizz at flickr you will see. Its like a different world out there as most of the people living round the stuppa are Tibetan refugees. Most marvellously I discovered they sell arrul (or the Tibetan equivalent)… mmm dried curds… mmm just like in Mongoland. After ambling around with the monks and tourists I got back on me bike and cycled home.

On the way I ran into a huge procession of people wearing white. White puffer jackets, white saris, white shirts… white everything. There were thousands of them and I cycled past them all… past tuktuks ferrying small child goddesses - very ‘made up’ as if going to a beauty pageant, past flags, past loud speakers, past a marching band, past small children carrying vases and wearing inordinate amounts of eye make-up, until I came to the front of the line and started talking to a man, who if I didn’t know you couldn’t convert to Hinduism, I would have thought he was trying to convert me, the way he went on about the father of my soul, and fingers pointing to heaven etc. We walked alongside a holy ‘linga’ (phallic statue) which was sitting in a flat bed truck, surrounded by more holy people and covered with flowers and other offering looking things. For some reason that I couldn’t work out it was being transported to a park, so I went with it to the park, and then went home. All very random.

But the day got more random, when I met up with my friends and we walked down to PashputiNath to see what was going on there. I had been forewarned about the ganja smoking sadhus (and there were rumours that some would be naked – but no naked men were seen). Even so it was kind of surprising to see thousands of people crushing into the temples to be blessed and then coming outside and smoking dope sold or given (I don’t know which) to them by Sadhus (or holy men). Seriously it was surreal; I had never smelt so much of the stuff in such a small area. It seemed like it was mostly men smoking… and smoking lots of the stuff, despite it being illegal in Nepal, it seems no one minds during this festival as there were police all over the place too, trying to herd crowds and stop people pelting the king’s car with stones when he came to be blessed (police seemed fairly unsuccessful on both counts).

Then we saw the snake charmers and my friend got to wear a snake round her neck and pose with a cobra on her head, whilst other sadhus played whistles and got stoned. I think the snakes were stoned too, they didn’t seem to be doing much. It was all so random – especially when you try and relate it to any religious festival in the UK. The other thing was that the festival was at Pashputi Nath which is where they cremate people, in full public view… so the smell of dope is intermingled with the smell of burning bodies, which is masked by incense. Seeing people being burnt on the ghats is a strange thing. Death and body disposal are very much away from public view at home, but here the bodies burn just across the river, and telfy the tourist and other tourists took photos. Which in itself is slightly odd… I mean why was I taking photos of burning bodies? (albeit at a distance)… I’m not sure, but you can see them on flickr – don’t worry nothing is very distinguishable and you probably wouldn’t know what it was unless I told you…

So all in all a random day of Buddhist and Hindu religious experiences!

A strike....

Today another strike was called, this time by an ethnic minority group wanting the government’s ear. If there is one thing I have learnt from being here it is that if you want something all you have to do is strike. People were told to stay off the roads – blocking all transport is basically how strikes work here. For one reason or another it was thought unlikely that the strike would be observed in the valley and so we drove to work… which was fine, not many other cars about tho. As the day continued we heard (via those snazzy UN VHF radios) that the strike was being enforced and that in certain areas men with big long sticks were beating cars and drivers who failed to keep off the road (nothing like a bit of hospitalisation and abuse of private property during a strike). So faced with the choice of hanging around work till 6 or 7pm and then trying to get a lift home, a colleague and I decided to walk. We walked pretty fast and got home in 55min which wasn’t too bad… on the way we passed:

Policemen in battle dress hanging around (conclusion: policemen in battle dress are always miles away from any action)…

... piles of rotting rubbish (the rubbish collectors also still being on strike)…
... virtually no cars (although bikes and motorbikes seem to be able to get around)… The road in the photo below is usually 4 lanes of solid traffic.

...actually the cars there were, were interesting, most had large flags waving from the front to clearly identify to protestors they were an ambulance, UN organisation, or tourist bus… in fact several ‘tourist busses’ had huge hastily written banners stretched over the bonnet, just so there was no mistaking the fact… Oh yes and the World Bank people sped past with a flag and a police escort just to be on the safe side – although I’m not convinced what good the police do – they certainly don’t stop strikes…

one of the best things about walking home was seeing the mountains – I think I mentioned yesterday that the combination of rain and fewer cars on the road due to strikes and petrol shortages is great in that respect! For those of you who have walked up the hill from the Bagmati towards the Himalaya Hotel you will know that the mountains in this photo are VERY rarely seen!

I think its fair to say that I am not someone who thinks that foreign investment and free markets are the ONLY way poverty can be reduced, however just seeing how crippling to the economy a month of strikes in one part of the country or another can be makes me think how on earth can this country get anywhere if things continue like this. Even at a local level who would want to invest in a small business when 6 hrs every day there will be no power (sort of rules out anything requiring a good electricity supply), when strikes cause huge petrol shortages and shut down all the shops, so you might not be able to do business, when the government appears to give into the demands of anyone who strikes long enough, when there is minimal law and order so people can get away with trashing private property (in the name of a strike)… basically an economy cant function very well like this, and although it must be a million (perhaps billion in the case if Iraq) times better than many other countries in the world… I don’t think it’s an ideal situation for economic growth or for the happiness of the population who unlike me don’t have a nice little red EU passport which means I can get out of this place and breathe some fresh air in 4 weeks time…

Perhaps that sounds a little down and gives the impressing I’m desperate to leave… in fact my Grannie said to me she thinks I don’t like it here. But I do like it here, its random, the people are lovely, the food is yum and outside of Kathmandu it is so very very beautiful, when you see those Himalaya Mountains it’s more than magical. I guess its just not a holiday (like the bodge?), but that doesnt mean I dont like it... I think perhaps next time I blog I will make an effort to write about something good and happy going on in Nepal…

snow and darkness

Today it snowed in Kathmandu for the first time since 1952… or something like that. Alas it was nothing more than a few snowflakes, and possibly could be best described as sleet… and indeed I didn’t see it at all as I was working in the dungeon that is my office. However the aftermath of 24hrs of rain (and 5 minutes of snow) is amazing. The temperature has dropped to freezing and the air is crisp, cold and best of all FRESH (except around the piles of un-cleared rubbish, as rubbish collectors are still on strike). I have been doing pleanty of breathing… oh and it tastes sooo good. The extent of the pollution here was hit home again this evening as we drove back from work. Looking out of the window at the view I have looked at everyday coming home from work these last 3.5months, there in front of me were some wapping huge big mountains… now I had never seen these mountains before today as the smoggy-haze just hid them from view. It was incredible, surprising and disconcerting to see them, a curtain had been lifted and the previous reality was suddenly not reality but a smog induced illusion.

So I think I mentioned that load shedding (power cuts) are increasing. Today the power was on-off-on-off at work and I found myself using my head torch at one point to be able to see my keyboard – it was that dark. The local papers report that we will be having 6hrs power cuts 2 days per week and 7hrs power cuts 4 days a week, and then the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) seem to expect us to be grateful that one day per week we will have no power cuts… the NEA call this a ‘load shedding holiday’. Apparently some power is being imported from India, but they are unable to bring it very far into the country because of “technical reasons … that would entail a lot of transmission losses". Apparently current load shedding is not saving enough power, and people are just shifting electricity consumption to different times of the day, hence the need to deprive us of so much electricity that we cant help but use less. Load shedding may increase to 8 or 9 hrs per day in March, should the situation not improve. It is an interesting experience, especially coming from a society where any power cuts are met with distress. I think it spurs on my desire to live in an eco house, or someplace where I am not dependent on supplies of non-renewable energy…

blog blog blogedy blog

Well it has been a little while since I last blogged, mostly because ‘blogger’ have finally made changing your sign in procedure a pre-requisite of blogging and I didn’t have time to do that until now!

So life is good. I have put some more photos on Flickr, of mountain biking last weekend, and of the Maoist rally that I went to today - celebrating 12 years of glorious insurgency amongst other things I believe. Prachanda the great leader himself was there, not that I could get anywhere close enough to spy him. Thousands upon thousands of red flag flying people were surging around Ratna Park in town trying to get close to the action. Maoists were dishing out free water and it was all very jolly – the red paper ‘Maoist’ visors worn by every other person made me feel as if I was in a surreal communist theme park… and I desperately want to find exactly where you can get vests with Prachanda printed on them in a very Che Guevara-esq pose.

The petrol update is that there is now petrol (a 10 day halt to the strikes and blockades in the south was called)… however there are still fairly huge queues – back log I guess. Electricity cuts are increasing to 6hrs per day starting tomorrow. At work we only have back up power for PCs and so there are no lights during the power cuts. Its soooo dark and depressing! Oh yes and as if this wasn’t enough the people who collect the rubbish are striking about something or other - they have learnt that if you want anything in this country you just have to strike and then the government is fairly likely to give into most of your demands and you can all live happily ever after… well until the government realises that this really isn’t a very sustainable way to function… so yes rubbish collection people striking is actually more tragic than you might think, as basically most people, especially in market areas, just throw the rubbish onto the street and then someone else comes along and sweeps it and burns it and manky dogs run around it all and get excited… so basically certain areas always look rather grim, or so I thought until the rubbish collectors went on strike… and now they look really grim… but the dogs are happy at least.

The other weekend we went to see a bollywood movie. Its interesting, very rarely are western films shown here. I think Casino Royale was shown in December, but with all sex scenes edited out, which makes you wonder if the Bond-ness of the Bond film was lost. So, yes we went to see a bollywood movie, which was a 3 hour epic with no subtitles… despite this quite easy to follow… the liberal interspersing of ‘I love you’ and other English mixed into the Hindi helped. There was plenty of singing and dancing… the movie was split between Delhi and ‘London’… well it was supposed to be London, but when one actress ran round the corner of Trafalgar square and past the Bodleian Library in Oxford I decided either something was amiss or I had been out of the country too long. Just sitting in the audience was an experience, people brought their whole families along, babies and toddlers included, fortunately the sound system was incredibly loud – to drown out screaming kids I suppose… my friend was sitting next to a Nepali who tried to have several conversations with her during the film, and asked her if she wanted to take part in some sort of rally car event he was setting up. Random.

Friday is a holiday. Apparently a big Hindu festival will be celebrated with (naked!) Sadhus chanting, smoking dope and waving live snakes about the place… it all sounds a very random ceremony and one not to be missed. Perhaps some good photos?!

That’s all from me I think.

Love and power cuts x x x x

Petrol crisis

Currently in Nepal there is a bit of a crisis in the (Terai) south of the country, with certain ethnic groups wanting more political autonomy and greater representation in parliament. Quite a few people have been killed by the police which is only fanning the fire of discontent… there are blockades and curfews in many parts of the Terai and as this affects the main import routes from India there is now a huge nationwide gas and petrol shortage (with other shortages to follow I suppose as we seem to get many things from India or the countryside – both of which require fuel to get into Kathmandu). Most people (including me) cook using gas bottles, and as Kathmandu is smogville central I can assure you petrol is in high demand. Some petrol is getting in but they are rationing it to 5litres per person. One of our drivers at work queued for 6 hours at the weekend to get fuel for a car… the queues are crazy, this afternoon I took some pictures fairly close to my house (see below), they just show the queue for motor bikes, the one for cars snaked for a couple of miles down the road…

The only good thing about all this is less cars on the road, but so far there is no noticeable improvement in air quality, and my now almost permanent cold persists… grrrr

Saturday night and I'm feeling flammable

July 2012: I found this in my drafts... probably from 5 years ago, but it amused me to look back on this... highlight?? ... of my time in Nepal. So I am going to publish it retrospectively, hopefully filed in the right year if I can work out the blogger wizardary! x


______

Soooo have you ever washed in kerosene? Probably I imagine the answer is NO... it is like asking if you have bathed in petrol... not really a very nice idea. However I have just completed washing myself with kerosene and I thought I would like to share the experience with the world.


So yes I was cycling home in the dark and I noticed that the path I was about to cycle on was freshly tarred. When I say fresh I mean that 6 hours previous it was dirt and no workmen/ steam rollers were in sight. I actually stopped my bike and considered cycling the long way round. But no I am lazy and thought it cant be too tragic... it was a gloriously smooth cycling experience. No potholes... wonderous.


I noticed a fair amount of tar was flying up into the mud guard and some onto my legs, but it was too late to do anything about it. After lugging the bike up the 2 floors to my flat I had concluded that both bike and I were fairly black. The solution was obviously to put bike in the bathroom and hose it down. doh. This had the effect of spraying tar all over my bathroom, and the rest of me that wasn't tared all ready... it also had the effect of inducing mild panic as I tried (unsuccessfully) to wipe the tar from the walls and floor and toilet and sink and washing machine, and only succeeded in making more mess in the process. WHAT would my landlord say? What would people at work say when they saw I was covered in black oily smears? panic panic panic. I then decided to try and see if a bit of washing up liquid would remove the tar, this involved walking into the kitchen to get it... and yes traipsing oily wet marks all through there too... the situation was deteriorating. everything i was touching was turning black... i was a mess, my house was a mess, and no washing up liquid does not remove tar. Panic levels were rising even more.


Then I remembered. My kerosene... the ultimate bike degreaser when bike degreaser isn't available. I went and got the bottle from the balcony. Wonder of wonders it worked a dream, the tar just rolled off... the bike was cleaned, the bathroom was cleaned, the floors were cleaned... all that was left was me... and no amount of scrubbing with soap was getting the tar off. The only thing for it was to dip the flannel in Kerosene and use it like shower gel... (urgh)


It worked... but I am not sure at what price. I cant smell anything but kerosene, I am probably the most flammable person in Kathmandu, and my skin is tingling like it may be allergic to kerosene despite much scrubbing with non-kerosene shower gel and moisturising with non-kerosene smelling products...


dum de dum...


on the plus side my bike is looking sooooo spangly, and I don't look like I have been rolling in tar!

The Guardian says...

Today the 'Guardian' say-eth:

"Women who live in areas of high air pollution, exposed to invisible particles from traffic fumes, coal-fired power stations and wood fires, are at increased risk of heart disease and death, according to a study in one of the world's leading medical journals today."

Lucky me... I reckon I have never lived anywhere so polluted. When I come home I think I shall be doing some serious breathing in wooded areas or by the coast or something... mmmm just the smell of fresh air would be most wonderful.