Playing the waiting game...

Eager anticipation is the emotion for the week. Delayed by 2 weeks in trekking west to our official placement in the district of Kailali, we find ourselves spinning our wheels while trying to stay both physically and mentally stimulated and active. I’m reading when my mind affords the need for escape, while birding hikes up Mount Polchowki in the southern Kathmandu Valley offer other forms of reprieve (albeit the incline and decline appear to take their toll on my legs/knees for days afterwards ;-?). I’m certainly not as young as I’d like to think I am (and those quick glances in the mirror strikingly reminds me of this fact daily)! Yet alas, as I bounce between fiction and non-fiction during recuperation moments, and when I’m not working on various other pending projects, my mind reflects on the enlightenment afforded by such readings as Dor Bahadur Bista’s Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s Struggle for Modernization.

Written between 1989 and 1990, Bista’s book, I offer, is a must read for any member of the global community who intends to engage the people of Nepal and Nepali lifeways through volunteer service or development work. Even though this perspective is Bista’s vision, and now some 20 years in the past, it offers both crucial insights and inspires critical questions about the state of Nepali politics, economics and its social/cultural system.  Bista’s history describes an understanding that cannot be understated as to the ways of Nepali life and their lens of existence.  Yet, the text begs many questions as to the transition that has occurred in all sectors of society since the pre-revolution and pre-monarchy days of the author's experience. Bista’s own life and mysterious disappearance over a decade ago also brings another layer of questioning on to the book’s reality and relevance for modern Nepal. May all future and current Nepali compatriots expand their knowledge base toward understanding life in Nepal through readings such as Bista’s.

Whether lounging with my new friends....

Or observing the Himalaya's shroud over the Kathmandu valley through the clouds...

Life in Nepal is never dull. Now on to Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead...

Democracy and development

Although I haven't re-established residence in my native land of Canada for a few years now, I am still not adverse to reading about the ever evolving political and economic landscape of that fair nation. Yet, experiencing life in nations which strive for the title of "true democracies" I am often left confused when Canada, the U.S., Britain and many nations of Europe are often held up to claim this title.  When much of the news out of those same nations revolve around the same corruption, right-wing fanaticism and limitless wealth within the minuscule elite, that exist in those same nations deemed "developing".

In many ways, I have grown to appreciate the simplicities of the developing nation of Nepal beyond my home land and those of the developed West, because although it is a nation of limited infra-structure and little wealth, it's sense of itself is not exaggerated or hedonistic in its belief to offer equity and freedom in unlimited proportions. Alas, all global nations in the 21st century should be doing all they can to become more aware of their own continuing internal struggles with development before they lay claim to any title that is true or democratic, equitable or humble, just or free.

However, with history and time, many stories belay varied interpretations of the world and its understanding of development. And judgement certainly rests in the 'eye of the beholder'.

In a land globally thought of to be fixed in the time of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Bronte, Dickens, etc., I ask, do you see romance, chivalry, barbarity, poverty or just simply violence?

In a nation struggling to regain economic strength and overcome political and private corruption since the North American Free Trade Agreement, is this a secret gathering to insight a protest, a riot, a revolution or peace and prosperity?

Did this image ever truly represent the iconic belief of freedom, liberty and peace for all?

And, finally, will he be remembered for epitomizing the characteristics of a revolutionary anarchist, a free-thinking liberal or a political and social genius?

Your personal history will dictate your strongest conviction of conscience. This fact can not, and should never, be judged by others... in a "true democracy". Wouldn't you agree?