How fresh is your chicken?

One fascination I have developed upon living in rural Nepal is the complete and utter acceptance chickens have on their way to their personal ends, i.e. someone's dinner table. The local farmers bring their chickens to sell to local butchers alive, hanging upside down from their feet in bunches (usually 10 in a bunch), from the handlebars of their motorcycles or pedal bikes. Transportation trucks, much like most large scale industry, does not exist here, so everyone deals in the barter, man-to-man (literally of course) system, with goods moving about via rick-shaw, motorcycle or bicycle. I love to see these large, soundless but very alert, fowl bobbing around like tassels from the handlebars, as the motorbikes chug down the roads. It's hilarious, if not terribly, terribly impressive.... I can't imagine the fight these birds stage to end up in this manner.... or, maybe they too are just simple fatalistic victims of the complacency of Nepal ... ;-P now there's something to think about... :-> what a fowl thought indeed!

Ode to the rice weevil

Indeed the true stewards of this globe are the creatures that account for the most numerous moving occupants: Invertebrates. As the rice becomes harvested off the fields and patties surrounding my current abode, the infestation of rice weevils can only leave one giggling at their knack for appearing everywhere and at any time in numerous amounts. Their slow moving and unambiguous appearance is not so much an intrusion as it seems just to be a migrational movement of lost, searching souls. Yet, their numbers, slowly dwindling as the days progress, provide one with an insight into the structural simplicity yet marvellous mechanics of the Earth's ecological system. We truly need to pay homage to that successful if not challenging, inevitable, annual shift of multiple-legged, or bulbous bodied or fanciful winged creatures which answer only to an internal clock provoked by the climatic changes of our galaxy.

Unfortunately, my rice weevils are too small for my simplistic camera to capture their black ant-eater-like form. But, I certainly have captured a small treasure trove of other Invertebrates that haunt my world in South Asia, and although I was once fearful of their differences to my own, I now revel in their true domination as being caretakers of our environment in multiple ways.  An appreciation for other creatures builds bridges to living with and accepting that which should not be feared.

And of course their skill at architecture is also a vision to behold!!

Lights, sound, action...

As I compose this note my friends and family in North America are getting their best costume ready for Fright Night, my current neighbours and colleagues are wrapping up Diwali/Tihar & The Festival of Lights, while my extended family and friends in the UK are getting ready to blow up Guy Fawkes. The history of celebrating (and the cynics out there would say profiting from) our past, present and future never seems to elude humans of all ages!! :-} Yet, when one is surrounded by humble daily existence, one is constantly reminded of the simplicities that bring such joy and comfort, without the expense, without the hoopla, without having to go too far... Friends and family are obviously part of this equation, but when beyond those connections, it is nature that can bring you down to earth in the most serene, gratifying and peaceful way.
Nepal offers this and more, and as I share some visions of our recent trip to Bardia National Park, reminisce about the last time you went for a walk in the forest (some of my doggie friends will say yesterday of course :-B), but looked through the trees to see refractions of light or glistening cobwebs, heard the diversity in feathered-friend songs, and witnessed the march of critters, large and small up a tree, behind a log or down a forged path. I hope many of you, dog owners or not, can answer: within the last 24 hours. Enjoy!!

**Please Note: the pictures of the lounging crocodile, the elephant herd, the spotted deer, the common kingfisher and the Bengal tiger are all copyright and courtesy of Mr. Mark D. Read. 

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto....

Nepal. The land of the highest mountains, some of the most lush, fertile plains, entrenched in a cultural milieu of rhythmic colour, sights and sounds... what a space to offers so much, yet return so little to its stewards. By stewards, I of course refer to the Nepali people. Still a people of much joy and peace, encapsulated with such poverty and struggle. In the far west of Nepal, the high rises and fast-paced lifestyle (if one could call it that compared to Western cities) are certainly no where to be seen. Late night curfews of 8:30pm exist for all, while the unpaved streets and farmers fields are alive and productive by 5:30am. Sunsets are nothing but spectacular routinely, and to enjoy the diverse nature of what this region has to offer can only truly be internalized with a pedal bike journey in the early morn across the fields, through the forests, before the heat of the day has engulfed all living energy.

It was in this space of beauty and content stagnation that Buddha, both in spirit and human form, emerged some 2553 years ago. His specific birth space at Lumbini has become the spiritual home to an international congregation of Buddhist Monks & Nuns, and the overarching sense of wonder and peace in this enclosed retreat can not be overstated.

But yet I am left to wonder: is it poverty within peace or peace within poverty? Is it chosen acceptance, as Bista's Fatalism and Development might imply, or surrender under a cultural stronghold that offers little reprieve at present?

The view from our apartment, as the local "moving company" deliver our personal goods. The goods flew from Egypt to Kathmandu, then drove from Kathmandu to Danghadi, then rick-shawed to our doorstep, with very few casualties.

A typical pink sunset in the far west of Nepal.

Lumbini Center, the site of Buddha's birth.

 Poverty in peace...

or peace in poverty?

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?

Language: instrument for progress or tool of destruction

Learning a new language can be a wondrous thing. It offers the ears and mind an opportunity to engage in cultural societies and with diverse peoples whom otherwise were distanced or even restricted in the past. But as a descendant of those whom cherished oral traditions, seeking to now interact another first nations culture who traditionally communicated via oral traditions, it almost seems corrupt and false to bridge the language gap through a dialogue that is neither ancestral or traditional to each our own. Yet, here we are, learning the national language, that has been forced to replace the 125+ traditional languages and dialects of Shangri-La, of which all government, political & educational institutions are instructed to use. The essence of colonialism lives on in various forms around the world....and the pursuits of Indigenous Peoples to reclaim all that has been lost continues globally. Just as #5 suggests.....