ujjwal.acharya@gmail.com

Good bye, Roy!

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Roy Dias.

In 2001, when Roy Luke Dias arrived in Nepal as the national cricket coach, nobody knew what exactly the tiny Himalayan nation would achieve under him and for how long he would stay. He was the coach of Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup in England, and that fact alone made us proud to have him.

I always believed Dias chose to be Nepal´s coach due to an ego. He was fired immediately after the 1999 World Cup for Sri Lanka´s bad performance, and also because Dias, who is a strict disciplinarian, criticized star players for not playing well.

He was labeled an incapable coach, and the only way he could prove himself was by shocking them with his abilities. Continue reading…

November 26, 2010 by Sporty Spirit on Republica

Nepal parliament’s embarrassment

Friday night continues to be pivotal in Nepal.

November 19, 2010 will go into history books as a shameful day for Nepal’s parliament and will continue to embarrass the nation for years to come. The representatives of the people involved in such a scuffle that ended with manhandling of ministers and ‘abduction of the budget speech’ by the Maoist lawmakers.

Into the records, Maoist lawmakers disrupted the House session and resorted to vandalism and manhandling soon after Speaker Subas Nembang permitted Finance Minister Surendra Pandey to table the budget. They manhandled Pandey and snatched the briefcase containing the budget booklet. Other Maoist lawmakers also manhandled some ministers and lawmakers belonging to the ruling party.

Budget is a dire need of the country for rescues it from plunging into the financial crisis. The people were told (by the leaders) that the main three political parties including the Maoist agreed for the budget through a constitutional amendment and use of special rights by the President. Maoist then backtracked and said allowing President to use the special rights might set a wrong precedent – and government was adamant to go with the budget presentation resulting in the ugly scene.

Shame on Maoists

After watching the incident live on television, there is nothing else to say to the Maoist. Through protest at parliament is allowed, their behavior was immature, beyond tolerance and unacceptable. Time and again, Maoist proved themselves to be immature in politics and their thinking/action had remained that of the rebels – not that of the democratic political party.

The UCPN (Maoist) should apologize with people for the incident.

Shame on Government

The government knew something is coming for the Maoists have said they won’t allow the budget presentation. Despite that they went ahead inviting Maoist for confrontation. They should have tried for a middle-path with understanding from the Maoist.

November 20, 2010 by Politics Talks Sadly!

Nepali Politics, the Secret Meeting & Media

Just before Tihar – the festival of lights – it looked like the long-standing political deadlock of Nepal is finally being dismantled as the top leaders of three main political parties agreed to go for a meeting at a resort. The meeting was dubbed the ‘secret meeting’ for it was not accessible to media and assistants to the leaders. Not many knew the venue before it began.

Nepali politics is standstill – for no new Prime Minister has been elected (despite 16 rounds of election in the parliament) to replace the caretaker government that is facing crisis in lack of annual budget. And, there is the whole issues relating to peace process and constitution writing stalled (or progressing very slow) due to lack of understanding (read power-sharing agreement) between top parties.

In such scenario, the secret meeting – attended by 15 top leaders where the leaders agreed to spend uninterrupted days was surely a positive move and the nation hoped a good news as a Tihar gift. But there was none and at least for now the meeting was a failure. The joint statement that the parties managed to come up with after the end of two-day meeting was nothing new – just reiteration of what they were saying in new words undersigned jointly.

They said they seriously reviewed/discussed the implementation of agreements (as if they were doing in as a joke earlier or they were not doing this). They also said they realized the need to work on consensus (good but we all thought they realized this much earlier). They then reiterated commitment for peace, democracy et all (were they not committed earlier?). The only new thing that I saw in the statement is ‘November 10’ meeting – which I didn’t know earlier and they haven’t said earlier.

And, the media were kept out of the meeting. I do support the idea that most of the times it’s worthless to give access to media during the meeting for a photo or a video or a quote. And, it becomes even worse when there are so many television stations which need news every hour. There was no access and it was expected that TVs will be make a little cry over it.

But then I do also believe that mass media are a bridge between politicians and citizens and they have every right to seek information; and its duty of the politicians especially at the time when they hold a meeting of national interest to inform the media (thus the citizens) something about the meeting. They did a good thing organizing a press conference after the end of the meeting but I still believe they should also have issued at least a preliminary release at the end of Day 1 (even if there were nothing substantial information, even quotes like we were talking would have worked).

Media wants information desperately – but it doesn’t mean that they want for their profit alone. Media functions in such a way that it becomes a medium of democratic practice and tool to fulfill citizens’ right to information.

Let’s hope that the leaders meeting on November 10 will be fruitful – and media are duly informed about the outcome (or progress).

November 8, 2010 by Journalism & Media Politics Talks

Retrospecting BlogMeet at BloggerBhela

On November 4, twenty Nepali bloggers met at a hall of Capital FM in what was named a Blogger Bhela and organized as an introduction programs of Nepali bloggers in Kathmandu.

It was indeed a unique opportunity for me to get introduced to so many new bloggers; and even the gathering of the bloggers made me feel good. It was not only because it reminded me of four BlogMeet that was organized around 2007 with similar purpose but also because I believe that this meeting will lead to many other meetings and hopefully a few events about blogging.

Among those 20 bloggers, only three of us had attended BlogMeet in 2007 – me, Kamal Kumar and Bhoj Raj Dahal.

I received the invitation for the meeting in Facebook and immediately accepted it – thanks to Dilip Acharya, Basanta Gautam, Aakar, Jotare Dhaiba and Roopesh Shrestha for the initiation. I talked it with K P Dhungana of Hamroblog and we decided to attend it and see (he was also one of the men behind the BlogMeet but he could not attend the meeting this time due to traffic jam).

We wanted to ‘attend and see’ for he didn’t have good experience attending an online bloggers meet organized by Dautari.org where when he talked about BLOGAN (Bloggers Association of Nepal – an unregistered loose network of bloggers formed as an outcome of BlogMeet), there are harsh comments. (After Blogger Bhela, Bhoj Raj of NepalDiary told me the same thing, and also that he only attended for he saw a few names from old BlogMeet confirming the attendance).

Our decision behind attending this time was for two reasons: first and foremost, we always wanted bloggers to be united and our presence will be helpful; second, we wanted to share our experience with BlogMeet so that bloggers could move forward from where we left (due to various reasons).

The Blogger Bhela turned out to be a very fruitful one. I talked frankly about all those things and shared experience; Basanta Gautam gave a short overview of Nepali blogging scenario; Saurav Dhakal / Kamal Kumar and many other talked about way forward. There were talks about making blogs and blogging popular using mainstream media.

We all decided to meet again, more formally and in bigger number, on December 18.

Just before I invite all the bloggers and interested people to the Dec 18 meet (we all have to pay for our breakfast and lunch), I want to make clear a point that I also raised during the meeting: no matter what and how you write or how many people read your blog, if you write frequently (may be once a month or once every three months), we all are bloggers. Every blogger invited!

Let’s make Nepali blogoshpere vibrant!

Participants: 1. Aakar Anil (www.aakarpost.com), 2. Alankar Aryal (www.gharaagan.blogspot.com) 3. Bhoj Raj Dahal (www.nepaldiary.wordpress.com), 4. Surath Giri (www.surathgiri.com), 5. Rupesh Shrestha (www.blogstreet.wordpress.com), 6. Ujjwal Acharya (www.nepalivoices.com), 7. Saurav Dhakal (www.storycycle.com), 8. Kamal Kumar (www.kamalkumar.com.np), 9. Dilip Acharya (www.dacharya.blogspot.com), 10. Kailash Rai (www.kailashkokuti.blogspot.com), 11. Jotare Dhaiba (www.dhaiba.blogspot.com), 12. Sweta Baniya (www.swetabaniya.wordpress.com), 13. Prabesh Poudel (www.gufgaf.com), 14. Manoj K.C (www.blogsamaya.wordpress.com), 15. Saroj Koirala (www.sarojkoirala.com.np), 16. Basanta Gautam (www.basantagautam.com), 17. Sujan Sharma (www.sujanacharya.blogspot.com), 18. Pushpa Raj Acharya (www.pushparajacharya.blogspot.com), 19. Sabin Gyanwali (www.nepaliblogger.com) & 20. Pradeep Bashyal (www.pradeepbasyal.com.np)

November 5, 2010 by BLOGAN Blogs & Blogging

Flight RA 2066

“Excuse me, why are you stationary?” An Indian passenger walked back to the air hostesses on the back of the Nepal Airlines place and asked.

“We don’t have any stationery, we only have newspapers,” an air-hostess replied.

“No, no, I am not talking about pen or paper; I am asking why the plane is stationary.”

“I told you sir we don’t have pen or paper in the plane.”

“Wait. Stationary means still and I’m asking why you are still standing here for a long time.”

[A little aggressively] “Look Mr. I have finished all my works for take-off….”

(The conversation was overheard a few minutes before the Delhi-Kathmandu flight of Nepal Airlines took off. The not-so-good thing was that the air-hostess started talking in Nepali with other air-hostesses without finishing with the passenger. The good thing was that after a few minutes of take off, the air-hostess approached the passenger and said sorry and that she would look into dictionary for the word she had heard for the first time.)

***

My flight number was RA 2066 according to my e-ticket.

The flight number was RA 206 according to all display boards at the Delhi airport.

During in-flight announcement both. I don’t know why?

***

The immigration lobby at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu.

The immigration desk with ‘Indian’ board was unoccupied (I don’t see why especially at the time when a flight from Delhi arrived). The Indian passenger and his four friends passed through the empty desk without anybody stopping them or asking for embankment form or identity card.

The passenger suddenly felt that he needed to go the toilet. The toilet was only on the other side so he walked back through the same desk, used the toilet and once again walked through to other side without anybody saying anything.

I thought maybe that’s how we Nepalis are also supposed to walk through. I tried but I was stopped by the immigration officer in the next desk who asked me to be in queue, the same for foreign nationals and submit my embankment form! (Ok! No problem)

And, during my queuing, a foreigner told me that she got the visa in her country for at the airport where they provide on-arrival visa, credit cards are not accepted (only cash – and that many foreigners find it surprising)!

***

Just some observations!

November 2, 2010 by Travelogues

Distasteful cartoons!

Cartoons are meant to be satire and humor but there are instances when they crosses the line of humor and become distasteful. And, I find the cartoons published in Nepal’s main two national dailies – Kantipur and Nagarik – just distasteful.

The following cartoon was published in Kantipur’s front page on October 13.

(c) Kantipur Publications

The following cartoon was published in Page 3 of Nagarik on October 14.

(c) Nepal Republic Media

Kantipur daily received a lot of criticism and complaints about the cartoon (as indicated by their own front-page sorry note) and they were forced to publish a note on the front page apology note on October 14.

October 14, 2010 by Journalism & Media Sadly!

It happens only in Nepali TVs!

Incident 1 (ABC Television): Two girls, tenth graders, were interviewed by the television. They were arrested for prostitution along with two pimps. The faces were blurred during most of the interview but frequently they were visible. And, the reporter named the school they were studying twice. For what?

Incident 2 (News24 Television): In a news item about tension after abduction and murder of a school boy in West Nepal, the TV channel live interviewed a reporter and repeatedly the video that showed a naked body being pulled out. Face and private parts of the dead body was blurred but nevertheless, the question is for what it was necessary to show the video?

Incident 3 (Sagarmatha Television): The national television channel LIVE broadcast the launching of a music album from a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. I have never heard about LIVE broadcasting of such a program in a national channel.

LIVE broadcast of album launch! Thanks to Umesh Shrestha for picture!

These three representative events happened in last few days. The mushroomed television channels are competing with each other to be recognized; and using any thing that could increase their viewership (no matter what the ethical standard is).

There are so many things to complain on the ethical standard of the news and program shown on such television channels – more so because they employ fresh reporters who are normally not educated or trained in journalism. Sadly, television is such a powerful media that the reporters consider themselves privileged and demand facilities accordingly.

In many occasions, journalists who are into the profession for long enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong, complain, quietly, about the questions those television reporters ask and the behavior they show during reporting. And, the seniors at television rarely care because they need something to show – and they have not enough human resource to train those reporters.

I am not saying print and radio are all standard and ethical but they are far better than televisions. And, organizations such as Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Press Council Nepal and other NGOs – with slogans to work for media – should think of training programs for those reporters working in televisions.

October 6, 2010 by Journalism & Media Mainstream Media Sadly!

Nepali Congress: Wind of Change

The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change!
– Scorpians (Wind of Change, 1989)

Nepali Congress (NC), the Nepal’s biggest rightist party, recently concluded its 12th General Assembly electing Sushil Koirala as the new president. With a history of leading all successful fights for democracy, and also tainted history for its unsuccessful governance, NC’s existence as one of the powerful political parties is important for the country as it provides the rightist hold in the political power balance that has, through the Constituent Assembly (CA) election, swung sharply to left.

Historically, NC has remained under hold of Koiralas – Sushil being the sixth Koirala president among eight in his long history. It still believes in the principles envisioned by BP Koirala and the contribution of Koirala family has been tremendous. The party’s newly elected CWC includes four Koiralas.

Throughout the history, also because of Koirala’s dominance, the party has remained conventional and undemocratic in itself. The joke that Girija Prasad Koirala would conclude his opening speech at the CWC meeting saying ‘you go on discussing agenda, I will return in three hours to announce the decisions’ did hold some truth.

Also, during elections, many believed NC chose candidates for their contribution and/or loyalty to leaders rather than his ability to win. Also true was that NC, in many occasions, did not favor popular voices – in both identifying prospective leaders and changing its principles.

The 12th General Assembly, however, hinted towards some ‘change of wind’ that the leaders and the party itself, if it wants to regain the position of the biggest party and fulfils the expectations of its cadres and people, should think, discuss and act upon.

The first good message that the assembly gave was that it still prefers honestly, loyalty and simple-life leader over extravagant leader. The defeat of Sher Bahadur Deuba should rather be taken as a defeat of his not-so-clean image rather than the faction. Koirala had already declared that he would only lead the party for one term, and if Deuba wants to ensure his victory next time, he should be able to clean up his image.

Similarly, if Deuba and Koirala panels are considered, almost equal numbers of members have been elected. While media are terming it division, it’s better for NC, and especially those elected to steer the party, to take it as the unity and accept each other equally. The first step towards accepting that value could be during nominations in CWC.

The strongest wind of change is indicated by the victory of Gagan Thapa as a CWC member. Thapa, the former student leader whom the earlier NC leadership tried hard not to promote in ranks, received the highest number of votes among 97 candidates. More than two-third of the NC delegates voted for him.

Gagan’s overwhelming victory is founded on multitude of reasons: he’s good orator, he has voiced for change (sometime even stood against all-dominant Girija Prasad Koirala) and he has established himself as the future hope of the party (and of course, his marriage with the daughter of a powerful leader who garnered second highest votes behind him should also have helped him). Youths are coming ahead with a strong voice for change in the old party – for good if the experienced leaders act wisely.

Right now, the leftist parties – the Maoist and CPN-UML – have failed to perform according to expectations, and NC had proved to be a vital power to keep a few things on track (or off track, you can argue), it’s high time that NC should adopt to the demands of time and convert it into a modern yet principally firm political party.

September 27, 2010 by Politics Talks

Cybersansar scandal: Greed for money

On Wednesday, Nagariknews.com ran a news story along with a ‘sting operation video’ on the copyright infringement by a well-known cyber business company.

Police arrested the owners of Dreams & Ideas – Dipankar and Abhinav Kasajoo who made name, fame and money through cyber business. They also redefined Nepali modeling industry with their very popular cybersansar.com and made money by developing websites for government agencies and others.

Their greed for money probably was much more and that put them into the illegal business of downloading pirated High Definition (HD) movies through torrents and selling them to customers through a website – givemehd.com (now closed) which lists hundreds of available movie titles.

Nagariknews sting video shows a man posing as a customer visiting the office of Dreams & Ideas and buying a 3D movie with Abhinav himself talking about it and handing a copied movie on external hard drive.

I wonder how they can do this so openly. Didn’t they know that was illegal or they were just trying to ignore? The news surprised many and a lot of people, including those in similar business, have asked me the same question: why they need to do so to earn a little more money?

It becomes even ridiculous with the price of the movie – Rs. 100 (US$ 1.5) for HD movie and Rs. 200 (US$ 3) for a 3D movie. With so many successful sites running, I know they earned a lot of money only through advertisements, and there was absolutely no need for them to go into something illegal.

In Nepal, we could buy a pirated DVD of any English or Hindi movie for Rs. 25 (less than half-a-dollar) anywhere as freely as we could buy a newspaper. Copyright law is not strongly implemented, but that’s not an excuse to anyone to do an illegal business.

Sadly, the Kasajoos are sons of Vinaya Kumar Kasajoo, a noted journalist and writer who is the chief commissioner at the National Information Commission and has been an advocate/expert for online journalism and related issues.

It’s still to see if they are proven guilty or not, but it should go down as a story of greed!

September 16, 2010 by Sadly! Tech Talk

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