Monday, January 09, 2006

NAC Talk


I just visited the Alliance page, the Youth Council page and finally the NAC page hoping to find details for the symposium to be held this Saturday at Columbia University. The information has not been displayed. I wonder if the event is an in thing. Only a few people will get invited. I did get an info email from a friend in Texas a few weeks back, and I had an e-correspondence with one of the key organizers soon after. I got the impression it was an open meeting.

But then at the NAC page I noticed something of interest: Letter to President Jimmy Carter. I got told I got expelled from the Nepal Democracy Forum for going public with that letter. I knew that could not have been the reason, and now I stand proven by none other than NAC itself, not that I miss the Forum. It is too closed for me. I like things more open.

I proceeded to check out a few more items at the NAC page. This is vastly interesting: Exploratory meeting with HE Ambassador, Mr Kedar Bhakta Shrestha. This apparently happened a day or two before the royal coup. You got to notice the timing of it all. I sometimes wonder if the diaspora Nepalis are just a bunch of homesick people who talk of Nepal not necessarily with a service motive, but so as to bond among themselves. Because sometimes the attitudes, actions and comments are so off the mark. Look at some of the stuff.

He emphasized that the Diaspora, should forcefully communicate to the political entities of Nepal that if the political forces do not respond positively to well meaning calls for peace, they would lose the support of Diaspora. The Diaspora expects political entities in Nepal to respond responsibly, otherwise Diaspora could soon lose interest in Nepali affairs and the movement could lose steam. In the final analysis, the Diaspora should take a stance and expect Nepali political entities to respond accordingly.

Golley, what is this supposed to mean? I am at sea.

The Nepali diaspora social organizations are like America when only white men with a ton of land could vote. Some of the professionally accomplished individuals have formed a few clubs. Something is better than nothing, but one wishes the organizations would get more mass based.

Yesterday I got to spend some time with Dinesh Tripathi. This guy is so highly accomplished. He has been called the Arthur Kinoy of Nepal by the National Lawyers Guild, USA. But no Nepali organization in the city bothered to organize a talk program around him like for so many other lesser visiting Nepali dignitaries. (
Dinesh Tripathi In New York, Dinesh Tripathi: In Person) To me this is so obviously a Madhesi-Pahadi thing. He is so totally in the lead for the most important thing the diaspora could do for the movement in Nepal. If and when there is a need, he will be taking the lead for global legal action against the king and the army top brass. He has been doing the homework for it in concert with several of his Ameican colleagues. But it is like blacks fought on behalf of the US during World War II and came home to segregation.

Me? I fall in a slightly different category. I have no ambitions to climb the leadership ladders in the so many Nepali social organizations in the US, not my cup of tea. I am only interested in the democracy movement. And my work goes on through specific projects. But the occasional slights I do take offense at on behalf of the 13 million Madhesis in Nepal. If not me, who? I think more Madhesis need to feel that way.

All Nepalis in America are non-white, which is half way to black. But some of the most racist comments I ever heard have been from Nepalis, and I actually went to school in the South. What are you supposed to think, that these Bahuns are white! Golley.

I think a concerted effort has to be made to reach out to the tens of thousands of Nepalis in the US. Let people donate $10 and pose for group photos to express solidarity to the movement in Nepal.

At some level the organizational dysfunctions are also amusing, like biologists watching lizards or something. The Nepalis are a colorful bunch.

But the work of democracy is on, in both Nepal and in the US. That is the good news.

Mr. Krishna Nirola, President of ANA (Association of Nepalese in Americas) announced that a total of $22,000 (twenty two thousand dollars) had been collected for the families of Nepali victims of terrorist attack in Iraq. The families in Nepal had been identified and the money will be dispensed to those families. He thanked all contributors and coordinators of this valuable effort on behalf of ANA. This was welcomed with resounding satisfaction by the audience.

I wish the NAC did some fundraising also for the various projects. So far mum has been the word.

Nepal Needs To Be Hitting The World Headlines: Write To The Media
Advisors, Doers, Donors, Supporters, Cheerleaders, Spectators, Whiners
Flickr Tag: NepalDemocracy
Googlebombing An Autocrat King
Diaspora Dynamics

In The News

RPP expels ten CWC members, including Home Minister Thapa, from the party NepalNews
Maoists raid a bank in Surkhet
Alliance to blacklist candidates of municipal poll
US suspected of using Nepal soldiers as guinea pigs NewKerala.com, India

न्युयोर्कमा अधिकारबारे बहस

कास

काठमाडौं, पुस २४ - अमेरिकी कानुन व्यवसायीको संगठन 'नेसनल लयर्स गिल्ड' ले नेपालमा कानुनी राज र मानव अधिकार बहालीबारे अभियान थाल्ने भएको छ ।

संगठनका न्युयोर्क च्याप्टर अध्यक्ष मार्टिन स्ट्रोलरले शुक्रबार न्युयोर्कमा आयोजित कार्यक्रम सम्बोधन गर्दै उक्त जानकारी दिनुभएको हो । नागरिक स्वतन्त्रताका लागि लडिरहेका अमेरिकी कानुन व्यवसायी, कानुन प्राध्यापक, न्यायाधीश र अनुसन्धान कर्ताहरूको छाता संगठन हो । कार्यक्रमलाई नेपालका तर्फबाट अधिवक्ता दिनेश त्रिपाठीले सम्बोधन गर्दै माघ १९ पछि नेपालको खस्कँदो मानव अधिकार स्थितिबारे अवगत गराउनुभयो । उहाँले राज्य स्वेच्छाचारी हुँदै गएको, गैरन्यायिक हत्याका यताना र नागरिकलाई बेपत्ता पर्ने क्रम निरन्तर जारी रहेको उल्लेख गर्नुभयो । त्यसैगरी राज्यले पत्रपत्रिकाहरूमा माथि आर्थिक नाकाबन्दी गर्ने, प्रेसको घाँटी निमोठ्न नयाँ कानुन ल्याउने, एफएम स्टेसनमाथि आक्रमण गर्ने क्रम तीव्र पारेको त्रिपाठीले जानकारी गराउनुभएको थियो ।

Visitors

9 January01:47Hong Kong S.A.R. (infolink.hk)
9 January01:59D. E. Shaw & Co., New York, United States
9 January07:01Bluewin AG, Switzerland
9 January07:09Netscape Communications Corp., United States
9 January09:15Takta Co LTD, Iran
9 January10:22Dubai Internet City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
9 January11:29Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
9 January13:47Rogers Communications Inc., Canada
9 January14:59Barak, Israel
9 January19:15Demon Internet, Netherlands, The
9 January20:57Masaryk University, Czech Republic

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