Sadly!

Introducing an Alien Called Dr Govinda KC

“By letting the newspaper print my works, I’ve probably undervalued my works.”

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Dr Govinda KC during one of his self-financed free camps. Photo: Republica

Dr Govinda KC spoke those words in a packed hall of Hotel Annapurna on April 24, 2010 in an event that was organized by Nagarik & Republica daily to let 15 social heroes doing selfless service to the societies tell their stories. Dr KC was one of 15 and was most reluctant to appear on newspaper or speak in the event.

I was told it needed a lot of persuasion to ensure he is available for the event – and I clearly told the hall why he was reluctant.

A story that appeared on the same day in the newspapers’ supplements began with: “The surest way to locate Dr Govinda KC is to go looking for him in that part of the globe where a major natural disaster has just struck.” Continue reading…

January 18, 2014 by Monologue Sadly!

Unethical Misinterpretation by Rajdhani

On Wednesday, Dec 19, Rajdhani national daily newspaper published a front-page photo of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi. The five-column photo shows Regmi standing while PM seems to be bowing to CJ with his hands joined together.

The captain says: “Need Support Your Honor: Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai who is also the Minister of Law greeting Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi during his participation in a program organized to mark 22nd anniversary of Justice Council.”

Rajdhani

Continue reading…

December 20, 2012 by Journalism & Media Mainstream Media Sadly!

#NetFreedom: Deception in the air

(to mark the International Human Rights Day)

How you feel if someone says: “Eat as much as you can (before the food is ready)” and when the food is ready, you are told: “That’s enough: you are eating too much.”

That’s exactly what is happening with our rights to freedom of expression and opinion!

Citizens around the world living in democratic countries were guaranteed rights to freedom of expression for long. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, promulgated long ago in 1948 by UN General Assembly, has explicitly stated it in Article 19.

All democratic nations around the world have copied, rephrased/translated and pasted the text in their constitutions. As citizens we’ll thought well we’ve individually rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

We didn’t have a powerful medium through which we could effectively exercise the rights and we were made to believe media is mediating the rights on behalf of us.

But we are being deceived!

The Internet emerged as a powerful medium that every individual around the world could use to exercise the rights to freedom of expression and opinion. When blogging emerged, it was evident. If blogs were difficult to set up and continued, then social media (on internet) is the easiest tool to use to express ourselves. Continue reading…

December 10, 2012 by Blogs & Blogging Internet Sadly! Social Media

The SuperKali Controversy, Freedom of Expression & Limitations

[To mark the International Day of Democracy]

Artist Manish Harijan painted a few arts depicting Hindu god and goddess in poses that were disliked by many people. Some, including the former army colonel and head of a Hindu group, decided to register a case against him and issue the death threats. The controversy ended after the artist and the exhibitor Sangeeta Thapa agreed to remove two of the paintings and signed a paper agreeing not to paint and exhibit such images in future. The artists were furious over the compromise made over the Freedom of Expression by Thapa, and the role played by the administration.

Those incidents brought a big discussion on Social Media. I generally said that artists should be able to exercise his freedom of artistic expression and people thinks it’s legally not acceptable they can seek judicial remedy. I also said that issuing death threat is against the law. People can dislike his painting but that shouldn’t translate into threatening him of consequences.

SuperKali: A painting by Manish Harijan depicting Hindu Goddess Kali imposed in Superwoman. Copyrighted painting used under fair use policy.

Many of the people expressed that they didn’t like it. Some of them wrote foul and threatening words to the artist. Continue reading…

September 15, 2012 by Sadly!

Where’s Knowledge?

Great nations are built on the back of ideas—not force.

This is the concluding line of an article by Indian thinker Sundeep Waslekar. The article is a thought-provoking one and I recommend all for a read. Although it’s more on India, it is applicable to any society.

After completing the article and reading the concluding line, I was attracted to idea of ‘ideas’. Of course, ideas lead to innovation and innovations to prosperity but where does the ideas come from. The sources of ideas are not only great heads but heads with knowledge.

Any idea needs to be backed up by knowledge for it to become an useful innovation as Plato put it: A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers. Continue reading…

August 29, 2012 by Monologue Sadly!

Sadly, Sex Sells!

Nepal debates what’s acceptable and what’s not at a time when sex and foul language are key ingredients of some Nepali movies; and sexually explicit pictures are spread all over Nepali tabloids.

Nepali movies these days seems to be on two streams: the traditional types are those with well-known actors where everything is mixed and targeted for lower middle class audiences; and the experimental new ones targeted for theatres at malls for upper middle class audiences. The second type generates more hype (and most possibly profits) because they are on the theaters where audiences pays more to watch and they also get a lot of mainstream media coverage.

When there were whispers going on about the movies including unnecessary scenes of sexual motivation; the success of Chapali Height made film producers and directors to believe on age-old doctrine: Sex Sells! Continue reading…

June 1, 2012 by Monologue Sadly!

R.I.P. Constituent Assembly. What next?

On May 27, 2012, the Constituent Assembly (CA) expired dashing hopes of citizens of Nepal. After four extensions to double the CA’s original tenure of two years, the biggest experiment in Nepali politics proved unsuccessful. The 601-member CA comes to an end as unceremoniously as possible without a word of good-bye or apology from the chair.

The major political parties, the largest Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the ‘democratic’ Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist-Leninist and the alliance of parties based in southern plains United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) could not reach an agreement on new constitution and with the Supreme Court (SC) verdict that CA term can be no longer extended, the CA has nowhere to go but to hit the bottom. Continue reading…

May 29, 2012 by Politics Talks Sadly!

Baburam Bhattarai: the hopeless hope?

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Dr Baburam Bhattarai

For non-Maoist supporters, Dr Baburam Bhattarai is the favorite among Maoist leaders. For urban population, the brilliant academic record of Bhattarai, a PhD, along with his no-nonsense statements made him the hope in Nepali politics at the time when many thought politics is made dirty by the group of leaders who did nothing more than quarrelling for the post.

If any politician garnered affection and praise from non-party supporters, it was Bhattarai. Continue reading…

November 14, 2011 by Politics Talks Sadly!

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