Late monsoon brings fear of food shortage in Nepal

(By Subel Bhandari) http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iERBwP52jPAUFvFoR0qz6vOVee7Q

(The pic is mine taken in the valley below Anandaban last year during rice planting. Deanna)

LALITPUR, Nepal (AFP) — Every year, Nepalese rice farmer Ratnakaji Maharjan celebrates the arrival of the monsoon rains by attending a centuries-old festival in this historic town near Kathmandu. The annual event, in which a huge chariot said to carry the Hindu rain god Machchindra Nath is pulled through the streets of Lalitpur, draws crowds from across the Kathmandu Valley to celebrate and pray for a good monsoon. But this year, Maharjan's mood was more subdued than celebratory as he queued to worship before the wooden chariot. "The monsoon is almost a month late," complained the 35-year-old, whose family has farmed here for five generations. "The weather patterns seem to have changed, and we don't know how to adjust."

Nepal's long-delayed monsoon finally arrived in the Kathmandu Valley on Monday, allowing local farmers to begin transplanting their seedlings to the waterlogged rice paddies after weeks of anxious waiting. But there are fears the delay could prove devastating for this year's rice crop, and experts say the increasing unpredictability of the weather is causing huge problems for farmers in one of the world's poorest countries. "The monsoon this year started around three weeks late," said Krishna Prasad Paudyal, senior scientist with the government-funded Nepal Agriculture Research Council. "This was a major setback for rice planting, which requires lots of water. The delayed monsoon meant a lot of young seedlings died, and even those that could be planted won't have time to mature enough to yield a good crop." Rice accounts for almost 50 percent of cereal production in Nepal, which is particularly dependent on rainfall because less than one-third of its agricultural land is irrigated. The delay to the monsoon came after the landlocked country suffered its driest winter for 40 years, resulting in a fall of 20-25 percent in the production of wheat, Nepal's second-biggest crop after rice.

-- Serious food shortages looming --

Three years after Nepal's decade-long civil war came to an end, the World Food Programme (WFP) says many people are still living in near-crisis conditions, with 41 percent of the population undernourished. Almost one in four Nepalese people live on less than a dollar a day, and around 2.7 million depend on WFP food aid. "There are 16 districts that are highly or severely food insecure as a result of the drought and underlying factors like high food prices and poverty," WFP country director for Nepal Richard Ragan told AFP. "WFP has food-for-work projects in these districts, but we are rushing to include people living in drought-affected villages not covered under our activities." Ragan said the latest drought was particularly devastating because it followed more than 18 months of high food prices and years of poor crop production in many areas. "Many people have used up all of their food and cash reserves and are now forced to take drastic measures to survive -- like skipping meals and selling off agricultural assets," he added. Some local officials are predicting worse to come if this year's rice harvest is poor. Balgobinda Pathak, a government agriculture official in western Achham district, said he was expecting serious food shortages later in the year. "Last winter, food production was down by 60 per cent decrease due to erratic weather and some floods," he said. "This year, 50 per cent of crops have already been destroyed due to lack of rainfall. We will see a massive food crisis later this year." Experts say Nepal is unprepared for the changing weather patterns, and will have to do more to adapt to rising temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall. "What we have seen lately is not just a change in the weather, but extreme variability in weather patterns," said Pitamber Sharma, a professor and expert on urban and rural planning. "These kind of erratic weather patterns will have a huge impact on farming and cultivation."

Headline news in Nepal

Nepal sees only 12 days free of strikes in 6 months

 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/28/content_11613992.htm

KATHMANDU, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's statistics showed that in the past six months only 12 days were free of any kind of strike, local media reported Sunday. According to a report of The Himalayan Times daily, strikes or bandhs have lasted for 166 days in the past six months, disrupting traffic and shutting down government offices, business establishments, hospitals and bazaars. All days in January, February and April saw a strike in some part of the country. Except for March 18 and June 13, strikes were recorded every day in the two months. In May, 46 bandhs were recorded, while June has seen 57 bandhs and strikes so far. The statistics, compiled from incidents reported by mass media across the country, also reflect that the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) has been using bandh as a tool for protest after it stepped down from the government in the first week of May, according to the report.  Organizations affiliated with UCPN-M enforced 22 bandhs and strikes in June and 17 in May. The party enforced bandhs for 69 such programs in the past six months. Other parties are also not far behind when it comes to enforcing bandhs. The Nepali Congress and the Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist organized 15 and 17 bandhs respectively in the last six months. Not only the political parties, even locals have started enforcing bandhs to fulfill their demands. In the last six months, the locals organized bandhs and strikes across the country for 175times. They mainly blocked roads demanding compensation for the families of accidents victims.

    Armed outfits and Terai-based groups in southern Nepal enforced such programs 145 times while the transporters and traders enforced bandh 92 times in the period. According to the daily, the increasing culture of bandhs is severely affecting the poor's ability to feed themselves, forcing many to skip meals and scavenge for food or borrow money and sell off assets to survive, the United Nations World Food Program said in a bulletin. The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries also informed that the nation loses revenue worth 7 to 14 million U.S. dollars on every bandh day. According to the police, bandhs and strikes were recorded on 254 days in 2008. The strikes were carried out by political parties, ethnic groups, students, labor groups, journalists, traders and teachers, among others.

 

 

Just how unpredictable are strikes & protests (bandhas) in Nepal??

Bandh = everything closes, no public transport available (very few individuals own a vehicle), with tire-burning road blocks that threaten to enforce retribution on those that violate the bandh; can be called at any time by practically anyone, but most commonly by protesting people & political groups making demands that are not being otherwise met…in other words, kids get a lot of days off from school, tourists may find themselves walking from the airport to the nearest hotel and the availability of supplies coming into the valley to support millions is more often under threat than not.

 

Soothsayers fail to put their finger on the date

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=197190

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, June 2 - How could the meticulous calculations go wrong? Or is it that the genius soothsayers simply miscalculated. However, in Kaliyug anything can happen, some say, at least to find some solace. On Monday afternoon, renowned astrologers from around the world gathered in Kathmandu for an international conference on astrology. They were heard whispering whether their science malfunctioned. The event was scheduled for June 1 terming it the best day after rigorous calculations, but it seems none of them could put their fingers on the right tab. A general strike called by the ethnic group Newa Mukti Morcha brought the capital city to a standstill, leaving the astrologers red-faced.  While scores of national and international participants were stranded at Thankot, the entry point to the valley, several others in the Capital could not make it to the venue due to the strike. And those who managed to had another problem: how will they go back? The august gathering that was to see at least 700 astrologers of international repute was to discuss ways to make this ancient science more accurate.  Ironically, the banda threw cold water on the programme. Though not raised by any participant, a question that must have been hovering in everyone's mind was: How could the astrologers fail to fix a hassle-free date for an international event? Organisers agree that a mathematical error might have led to the wrong astrological calculation. "We had earlier chosen May 30 for the event, but had to reschedule the event to June 1 owing to some problems," said Lok Raj Poudel, chair of the Astro-Council of Nepal and one of the organisers.

"We are no gods," said Dr. K. Divakaran, another veteran astrologer from India. "Astrologers cannot be accurate all the time." However, Kim J. Baaden, a participant, said this question had popped up in his head. He quipped that astrologers might have organised the event on the very day of banda, thinking people would have ample time to participate in the conference in a big way.  However, some have different excuses. "June 1 is the perfect date by all means, including lunar position, but predictions generally go wrong in Kaliyug," said Dubindra Serma, an acclaimed head guru and astrologer in the Kiranti community. Astrologers prophecise things as per the message of God but  God is also facing problems these days, says Divakaran.

The two-day conference aims to promote astrology as a science, initiate collaboration between Eastern and Western astrologers and modernise the traditional science. Interestingly, the conference also aims to sort out problems of inaccuracy in astrology. "Our astrology still predicts that one will have 12-15 children. Nobody believes such predictions however accurate the calculations astrologers claim to be," said Poudel.

 

Toenails and fellowship

A couple of months ago, we had a women’s retreat. The entire thing, except for some activities, was in Nepali. Have I mentioned that I speak about toddler level? I know very much what it feels like for a child to sit in a long meeting as people use unrecognizable words for hours. Really, though, it was very good. We did play some nice games later involving hula-hoops, makeup in a bag and blindfolds. J J  We also had a toenail painting session. In the photo, L-R: Elisa, Laxmi and Chanda.   

Two stories

God moves so much in the everyday. Glimpses and gleams. Yesterday, we had the regular weekly outreach leprosy at Patan hospital in Kathmandu. Because we are recruiting for a very big study, the research group has been working in a special separate room from the other hospital staff. During the morning, we were very busy – every station had patients and staff working on different bits of the study. I remembered that Dr. Indra, our senior surgeon who does not come for satellite clinic every week, had not yet seen us in action yet for this particular project’s recruitment. So, I went and told him to maybe come and see when possible. He was busy and said he could maybe get time in the afternoon to come see. We continued to work right through lunch. We were expecting 22 people to come for follow-up that day, and not everyone in the study is a leprosy patient. By the end of the morning, one of the lab staff counted the files and saw only 19 had come. So, the lab staff began making reminder phone calls. One was a young woman. Later in the afternoon, Dr. Indra walked in. I began touring him around the different stations set up for the study. The young woman walked in – at which point, one of the lab staff recognized her from the morning and began to apologize. We’d made a mistake! She had already come earlier that day, and so we did not need to see her again. She sat down at one of the desks with the staff to talk a bit. But Dr. Indra was standing nearby. The woman has a very badly disfigured right hand from a burn injury – no fingers and angled sharply to the side. She manages her scarf carefully to cover it some. Dr. Indra is an orthopedic surgeon; and because many leprosy patients require hand surgery, we do a lot of that Anandaban. Someone spoke to Dr. Indra. He turned to look at her hand. They set a date for her surgery this fall when a UK plastic surgeon and hand specialist will come to perform a week of hand surgeries. J So was it a mistake that one of the staff known for details, mistakenly recalled the young woman to come back? And that she happened to come in the room when an orthopedic surgeon experienced in hand surgery would stand only a few feet from her? J

This evening, we had staff bible study in the prayer hall up at the hospital. Several patients came. There has been a sweet little (and I mean little, maybe 60-70lbs) old lady staying at the hospital for some weeks now. She barely comes to my shoulder. She is blind in one eye. She has no fingers and her feet are not so good either. But she hobbles about at her 80 years, gentle and uncomplaining. Tonight, when we asked for prayer requests, she told us that she is scheduled to be discharged tomorrow to go home. Home is in the Okhaldunga area– which by any standards is remote. There is a flight to that area maybe twice a week – but often cancelled due to low priority and weather. Once she gets there, she will have to walk two days into steep hills to get home. She had tears flowing. She spoke of known bear attacks in the jungle hill paths. Often here, younger men in families will carry the elderly or people can be hired to carry others in baskets on their backs. These hills are steep. I had a very hard time trying to catch if she has any family to meet her along the way, but it sounded like maybe not. No one is coming here to get her. Someone is meeting her in KTM tomorrow, but they aren’t flying with her. It’s highly unusual for a woman to travel alone. There are women in the hospital who can’t go home until someone comes – because they have never been outside their village much before, aren’t educated (most women can’t even sign their name) and do not know how to get home by themselves. So, for this 80 year old to be going by herself…maybe there is no family. Maybe there is no way to get word to them. Maybe because it is now rice planting season, no one can be spared to meet her. How would she get word back to us to tell us she got home safely? I do not know how she will walk two days on her disabled feet. And how without fingers can she manage money to safely pay for things along the way when she is by herself? There are so many stories like this. And it still hurts. Please pray for her. Maybe that someone will be there going to her village to travel alongside her and help her to get home. That there will be no bears and she will not be afraid. Two other elderly women patients walked beside her after the meeting to help her back to the female ward for the night. What to do? Do you know that according to national standards, she does not even qualify as disabled…because it was caused by leprosy.

Leprosy Research out the back of a truck

One of the studies we’re currently performing compares the skin reactions of people with leprosy to those who do not have it. Hopefully, this will someday aid in making an easy test to detect early leprosy in people who do not yet have major signs of disease. Therefore we could potentially treat them before major nerve damage and disability occur. But for right now, we are pretty busy trying out the prototypes. In this picture, we are spending Saturday morning in the parking lot of Patan Hospital in Kathmandu. Dr. Min Thapa is checking the temperature etc of a couple enrolled in the study. His younger son and wife, Sagar, watch beside him. Sagar is a CMA serving as a nurse in Anandaban.  

Christians in Nepal defy extremists' demand to leave country

Kathmandu, Nepal, Jun 10, 2009 / 03:44 am (CNA).- Hindu extremists in Nepal have demanded that the country’s one million Christians leave the country, prompting churches to reject threats of violence. They emphasized that their mission in the country will not change.

Last week militants bombed the Catholic cathedral in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, killing several people.
The extremist Hindu Nepal Defense Army (NDA) took responsibility for the attack in a statement distributed during May 31 public demonstrations organized by the Church, CISA reports.

“We want all the one million Christians out of the country,” their statement said.

Members of local churches make up about 2.4 percent of the Nepalese population. There are about 7,000 Catholics in Nepal.

The Catholic Church in Nepal is involved in social services with the poor, the sick and the marginalized and is generally well-received by the people.

In response to the threats the Christian community, with the support of local authorities, has alerted its members. Christians have taken security measures, with guards being organized to protect their churches.

The NDA since its inception has been fighting for the return of the Hindu monarchy which ruled Nepal for centuries, CISA says. They are protesting the democratic secular system and the rise to power of former Maoist groups.

The extremist group has already carried out several attacks on Muslims and Christians. Last year, Salesian priest Fr. Johnson Moyalan was killed in an attack.