Here’s a screengrab of the new homepage for poudyal.org/.com. Decided to remove text altogether - with clickable regions on the image itself. The image below is from my flickr, you can CLICK HERE for my homepage.
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Archive for February, 2008
And the first piece of news I saw this morning…
Fidel Castro is one of those leaders who always seemed to be on the news when I was growing up. Other names that I grew up hearing on the news were Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, Ronald Reagan (and later George Bush Sr), Margaret Thatcher, Mikhael Gorbachev, Helmut Kohl etc. I guess they all in one way or other shaped the world we live today - especially those that were in the thick of “Cold War” and the end of it. Anyway, hearing about Fidel Castro’s retirement this morning suddenly reminded me of my years in Nepal as a kid growing up listening to news on radio, hearing all those names without having any idea whatsoever about how powerful the people behind those names were.
I think the first time I realised how powerful an American president could be was seeing George Bush Sr on CNN at the start of the first Gulf War, and then watching the war that followed his speech - “live on CNN”!! I also remember being late for school after staying in front of the TV set all morning watching those fireworks of missiles, rockets and what not. And at that time we didn’t have TV set at home either, so I had to go to one of my uncles’ house to watch “live coverage” of the war!!
I think I became more aware of the issues surrounding those names only after having access to television, and seeing Mandela freed, or Berlin wall fall or Castro giving a lengthy speech at the UN - seeing is believing I guess! And somehow only Castro seemed to be able to stand up to the US (not with military might of course) while the rest of the world seemed to come closer towards the only remaining super-power. Well, now the man has decided to call it a day and the US president is talking about helping Cubans towards a “period of a democratic transition“. The man who “helped Afghanistan and Iraq towards a democratic transition” has less than a year to do the same for/to Cuba!!!
Two scraps from the past that seem relevant in the present.
Scrap 1: worse hand-writing in the world!?! Wouldn’t surprise me at all 
Scrap 2: It can’t be me!!! At least not the one with “nameless fame”…future aspirations? I hope not!!!
He is enjoying his nameless fame on his pedestal, his ivory tower. He thinks, he talks, and he writes - but he doesn’t leave his ivory tower, or mind his namelessness. He acknowledges that one day he’ll have to leave his tower, and drop down to the real world, and acquire a real name, and do real things. We’ll just have to wait and see if he’s still able to think, and talk, and write then as he does now…
Click “more” only if you are in a mood for more junk…I don’t mind if you do by the way - I’d rather welcome it to be honest
Continue reading ‘thinking allowed…’
16 Feb 10:20:59 me: hey, how is it going? working on a saturday?
16 Feb 10:21:55 him: all fine here..except lack of water, electricity, petroleum products, etc.
I thought what an optimist this friend of mine is! Then came the crucial point -
16 Feb 10:32:49 him: it’s really hard in nepal now…if u r thinking of coming back, think not twice but 100 times
16 Feb 10:33:10 me: yea, thats the advice from everybody
16 Feb 10:33:19 me: except mum of course
Well, everybody has his/her limits, limits of toleration, limits to adversities in life - and I guess my friend is also approaching his pretty soon. If not within months, I think he’ll be somewhere else within a year! This actually comes only a couple of days after I received an email from my brother suggesting not even to think of coming back to Nepal! I think I’ll leave this issue of returning back/running away for some other time.
Life’s a mess…here, there, everywhere…
Anyway, the issue of fuel and fuel-politics is not new, and definitely not confined to Nepal. You just have to look at Russia-Ukraine and Russia-Georgia fuel-disputes in recent times. Ukrainian president was successful in buying more time before Russia cuts the oil supply, but returned with a threat of missile target if Ukraine aligned itself with NATO. But global fuel-politics aside, Nepal’s situation does look bleak indeed - in a season when there is already more than 8 hours of load-shedding, shortage of petroleum will mean almost no energy at all for a third of the day!! How will the economy function without energy? I was asking my friend, who works in medical transcription sector for foreign clients, how is his company still functioning without electricity for more that 8 hours a day. He just told me casually that they use diesel-powered generator, and have been sourcing diesel in black market for more than 100 rupees a litre!
copylefT 2008
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