STOP THE WILLY WONKA MADNESS

Namaste!

This is my first blog since I have arrived in Kathmandu :). I think I will start by explaining the title I picked for this post.  Some of the houses in Nepal actually look like the rooms in the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". For example, in the movie, the lead character lives in this room with his mother and 4 grandparents who happen to all share a bed. The door is about 4 feet tall to enter the house and it is a very small crawl space. There are families of 4 or more living in spaces this big in my neighborhood.

As far as the madness part of the title, it is complete madness here. Madness is both a good and bad way. Yes people are living in conditions that most of us have never even imagined but at the same time, the Nepali people have made their own way and have a culture that can possibly put Canada to shame in my opinion (I do not want to insult fellow Canadians! but the culture and traditions found in Nepal are unreal).  

The driving here is madness too, but you don't see any dented, scratched or demolished cars on the roads (this is not a statement about road conditions and driving outside the Kathmandu Valley or to remote villages). There are many close calls (bad madness) but I swear an upper force is guiding all Nepali Traffic goers (good madness). I was able to take a video of some of the traffic so I will hopefully be able to upload that in a post or two.

My roommate (Sandy) and I have noticed that every time we see something that shocks us, or makes us think wow this is definitely a different way of living we tend to say "Stop the Willy Wonka Madness!". I can give you another example. We were fortunate to get to go on a city tour of Kathmandu last Thursday and when we got in our truck and automatically put our seat belts on the driver told us that Nepali people don't wear seat belts despite the fact they know they should. To this I thought, Stop the Willy Wonka Madness...do people not realise how crazy the driving is here? But in the end I guess it is all relative to where you live so anytime I think "stop the Willy Wonka madness" I remind myself that this is a way of life and I am here to learn about how they live.




I have only been in Kathmandu for less than a week and I have learned so much already. I have been going through orientation with the CECI office in Baluwatar, Kathmandu and it has been great so far and well needed. It is through the staff members of CECI that I have been able to pick up a lot of information with regards to the current political situation in Nepal.

A political deadlock in Nepal is blocking any progress in both government cohesion and the drafting of a Constitution for Nepal. Political parties, students, and Maoists have called Bandhs (strikes) several times throughout 2010 and 2011. For the month of May, there was a Bandh called for May 13, and future Bandhs are expected for May 22, 23, 24. Aadhibashi Janjati (Indigenous Caste) called for Nepal a Bandh demanding timely constitution drafting and all agreements with the government to be fulfilled immediately. The constitution is due May 28th, 2011 but the rumours in Nepal have it that it will not be ready in time. The constitution is already a year late and has an extension until May 28.

The problem with producing a constitution is that the political parties have internal conflict themselves and can not agree on certain topics. Until there is unity among the political parties, Nepal's people are going to be left without a constitution.

Despite the problems with development of a constitution, a positive note is that even though there are demonstrations and Bandhs (which are mostly non violent) the country has remained relatively free of major acts of violence.

Since most people reading this are from Canada or well developed countries, Bandhs are something unreal to us. In Canada, most strikes do not shut down an entire city for a day (excluding the example of the bus strike last year, but even then, businesses were still open and people continued on). In Nepal, when there is a Bandh, the entire city shuts down. Restaurants remain open apparently because even the protesters have to eat :) but there are no taxis and no public transportation or vehicles and the stores close. The police and military also do rounds, driving in their trucks armed with guns. It is quite shocking that Nepal’s Bandhs can shut down a city for the day and suspend productivity for the day. I think the patrolling of the police and army is a preventative as opposed to a reactive action because I have not heard of any violence yet this year do to Bandhs. Nepal just came out of a 10 year civil war so its understandable as to why there is lots of security around.

The end of May should bring some interesting events. It is predicted that as we draw closer to May 28, 2011 there will be more Bandhs called. What will actually happen is unknown though. You can tell though that the Nepal people are loosing faith in their government. For the time being I will leave you with a link to an article that is an interview with Nepal's New Prime Minister, Jhalanath Khanal with regards to the constitution deadline and the tension between political parties.

The Himalayan Times: "Peace, Constitution won't take long" AJAYA BHADRA KHANAL/PRAKASH RIMAL http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=%C2%B4Peace%E2%80%9A+constitution+won%C2%B4t+take+long%C2%B4&NewsID=287945