I failed to mention that I have been reading a couple of excellent books while I was in transit to Nepal and for the week my body adjusted to jet lag. Maya presented me with a birthday present: a couple of beautiful, black-market, silk ties off the streets of London and a book “The Telephone Gambit, chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s secret” by Seth Schulman. The book is an exhaustive, but condensed and very readable account of how Alec Bell stole the patent for the telephone from Elisha Grey….a fascinating “tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition.” It is just out, but may already be on the bestseller list and most likely part of your Book Club’s reading list. This is the important story of how Ma Bell came into being, and Western Union never got beyond the telegraph. One of the author’s avocations, as a journalist, is reporting on the dark side of how science and technology advances, and Bell’s story offers great insight into that process. For example, the swindling of Elisha Grey calls to mind how Gutenberg, and five centuries later, the developer of DOSS who sold his rights to Bill Gates, both lost out on huge profits of their major contributions.

The other book I am presently reading is another piece of nonfiction called “The Bottom Billion” by Paul Collier, an Oxford economics professor and a former director of research at the World Bank. It refers to the 1 B people (of the 6 B in the world) who live in neither the developed nor the developing world, i.e., all those who live in failed states which are getting poorer, and of course, Nepal is a shining example. Even though I am not of an economist’s bent, this past year I vowed to read from this genre to get a better idea of what it is that I am witnessing in Nepal. I am also blessed with a nephew working in the private sector of the Development Field and had referred me to this book. Like I said, “The Bottom Billion” is referencing the population that are stuck in countries who fall into “traps” and fail to develop, while the middle 4 billion (including 1 B in China and 1 B in India) in the developing world were able to globalize their markets and are indeed developing. The top 1 billion people, of course, are in the First World (US, Canada, and the EU) which continues to grow richer. What Collier says is certainly apropos to Nepal—its development has been arrested by 5 of his “traps”: it is landlocked, lacking rich natural resources like oil and diamonds, highly dependent on its neighbors, emerging from a recent civil war. Interestingly, democracy is not a prerequisite for development and that it is often a set up for further instability. Foreign Aid also is often counter-productive as the waste inherent in “the giving” only serves to build up bigger debts without it necessarily fulfilling the needs. Nevertheless, since the election a stable government with friendlier relations with its neighbors appears to be emerging in these initial weeks and developed countries (even the US) are promising continued, if not increased assistance.

Nepal now has two years to draft and institute (hold new elections) a new constitution. This week the 601 member Constitutional Assembly will meet, reaffirm the nation as a Republic and begin their business. The “Five Year Plans” that the Maoists here are proposing (generating 10,000 MW of hydropower in 10 years compared to 605 MW per year presently) sound like the pie-in-the-sky targets of Mao Tse-tung, which almost always fell disastrously short of expectations. However, the authoritarian regime of Fidel Castro realized phenomenal successes almost overnight in a country much closer in size and population with Nepal.

It is interesting that Collier in “The Bottom Billion” has only one reference to Cuba and that is to present day Cuba’s economy as “stagnant.” Collier says nothing about the early days, before the “U.S. Embargo” left Cuba’s economy reeling. A Cuba which eradicated went from 1 to 4 medical schools in 5 years, eradicated TB, Polio, and other infectious diseases within a decade, and from 10% literacy to 100% in a generation. Today Cuba’s major export is medical doctors to the developing world. While doing disease surveillance with WHO in Ghana, I met and talked with many Cuban doctors in hospitals there, and they were excellent. (They were teaching and serving, not spying, not propagandizing, and not evangelizing.) Castro had the help of the Soviets, to be sure, but the Nepali Maoists are not reaching out to China first and foremost, but to everyone across the board for aid…and they are doing it in the right way: promising security, stability, business support, moderate politics (no totalitarian threats of nationalizing industries, promising to work with other parties), etc. Two weeks after the election the US Ambassador to Nepal Nancy Powell finally met with Prachandra, the Maoist leader, and promised continued US foreign aid to Nepal. She is being recalled to Washington to review our policy with Nepal…she is all but promising that the “terrorist tag” on the Nepali Maoist party will be removed soon. Over the coming year, it will be interesting to see what begins to surface from the inter-party wrangling and if development is going to happen.

Shortages: Food, Fuel, Water, Electricity
The headlines and photos of food riots in Africa, the Philippines and Bangladesh that we see in the Katmandu Post or the Himalayan Times here are as disturbing as they are foreboding. No rice riots in Nepal yet, but one of my friends here complained that the price has shot up almost 50% in the past two months. Moreover, there was a fuel riot in Katmandu right before I arrived. All petroleum comes into Nepal by truck from India (all of which is imported to India), so you can imagine that gasoline is horrendously expensive. The government has to subsidize the cost to make it affordable. Well, even the government couldn’t cover the $100/barrel crude cost +refining +transport & delivery, and so they tried to remove the subsidy….that lasted about two days as the people were storming the guards! As it is taxis, have to wait a minimum of an hour to get their tanks filled in Katmandu. My fare to the office is now $2 up from $1 last year (before the dollar was devalued here), but the cabbies around the foreign quarter won’t take a foreigner for less than $2.50! So I often walk a mile and catch the public minibus for 20 cents when I have the time.

Besides the escalating price of petrol, there is the problem of availability. This problem is compounded by fueling stations selling gas illegally to blackmarketeers! On our visit to the West last week, we would stop repeatedly for fuel even if we had ¾ of a tank left because we never knew when diesel would be available again. Finally, we bought three plastic gas tanks and through Som’s many connections, we were able fill up our vehicle, as well as add an extra 20 liters in the trunk. Som has two cell phones each with 500 recorded phone numbers. Time and again, he finds a way around a problem.

Rice production worldwide is up, but so is the price! Two weeks back, our driver pulled the van over to the side of a road while we were visiting some schools away from KTM. Unfortunately, he accidently backed over a two pound (1 kg) sack of rice that was being peddled by the road side, and we had to compensate the merchant. The merchant then carefully picked every grain from the mud, washed it off and repackaged it.
While riding over hill and dale making our rounds, I am always enthralled with the terraced rice paddies which stretch out as far as the eye can see, ascending up the slopes to the tops of mountains or until the angle of inclination increases beyond the capability to terrace. The paddy terraces are carefully plowed, carved, fashioned and maintained. If not, it is a set up for an avalanche of mud, which can take out houses and terraces below. One of the natural disasters in Nepal, far more common than earthquakes, is landslides, usually during the heavy rains of the monsoon season. We have several children in ANSWER whose families and homes have been swept away by landslides. These children, I am sure, are affected by Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome, but you could never gauge it from their academic performance…they have taken life by the bootstraps!

I haven’t read a good analysis of the current food shortage, but every day the newspapers here carry stories and the latest reports on the issue. It is no accident that fuel costs and food costs are going up together. It is not just the higher transportation costs to bring the food to market that hikes the food prices, but also the need for petrochemicals to produce fertilizers and insecticides on the one hand, as well as the global cultivation of biofuels in lieu of produce which limits supply. Adding insult to injury, Global warming is playing havoc with weather patterns is yet another part of it. But Mr. Bush is not pointing the finger at biofuels (which is his darling) or global warming (which he defiantly minimizes), but squarely at India’s and China’s growing middle class as the major cause….as if no one but Americans and Europeans have any right to the world’s wheat and rice! “Let them eat millet cakes!”

Growing rice is labor intensive…especially the more common, wet-cultivated rice. It requires paddies to contain the rains or irrigation water from the rivers, so paddies preclude the use of heavy machinery. Rice is densely planted in one paddy and after about a month, the seedlings are transplanted carefully by hand to other paddies. Paddies must be hand tilled with a shovel, or plowed by oxen or small, two-wheeled cultivators which represent a mating of rototiller with tractor. Once mature, the rice is harvested by hand: a clump of rice stalks gathered in one hand and cut with a sickle in the other, then bundled together and tied with a couple of rice stalks, and set aside to be gathered up. To do this, a woven basket worn on the back with a headstrap is loaded up with the rice bundles so that it towers high above the brim, and toted back to the house where it is hand threshed, winnowed and sun dried outdoors. Finally, the rice is swept up, the little stones individually picked out, and the rice is finally bagged in gunny sacks and stored under the roof beside the house. Whew!

It seems that increased yields or efficiency have already been reached. Even worse: those areas where rice is most highly cultivated in the lowlands of SE Asia are to be the most impacted in the next 50 years by tidal flooding due to rising sea levels! Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam produce the most of the exported rice while India, Nepal and China essentially produce only enough to feed their huge populations. India and Nepal along with a few other countries are adding insult to injury: outlawing the export of their rice to insure that their own populations can be fed! Urban sprawl in the Katmandu valley, as elsewhere, represents yet another loss in rice production as another fertile valley is paved under.

So, the World food experts who championed rice for the third world initially because of its high caloric value, are now back-stepping as it seems that the green revolution has maxed out! These experts now contend that we need to start switching to other grains that can be grown more efficiently, sown and harvested by the world’s poorest while the rest of us enjoy rice and bread.

Another hardship placed on Nepalis these days is “load-shedding”. These are 4-hour blackout periods that are rotated across districts and wards of the cities in order to stretch the limited generated electrical power. Before the election we had two black outs a day—this means that we have only 8 hours of power each day since loading-shedding does not occur between 10pm and 6 am (when most everyone is asleep) but smack dab when power is needed the most: morning and evenings. Nepal with its raging rivers coming off of the Himalayan glaciers has the greatest hydroelectric potential of any country in the world, but what isn’t factored in is that the glaciers will melt away to nothing in the next 50 years. Yes, even those of Mt. Everest!). The sad fact is that Nepal is so underdeveloped even the limited amount that they have harnessed is more than sufficient to electrify the country. However, India has financed the lion’s share of the dam building in Nepal, and by international agreement bleeds off 90% of the generated power for India! The 10% share for Nepal is enough to meet about half its needs, hence we have load-shedding. Whenever I step into a cybercafé I have to ask, “When is the power going off?” to make sure it is even worth my time to start emailing. More times than not, I have had to come back later. I have two things I carry with me at all times these days, my cell phone and a 60-cent Chinese lighter for lighting candles with a built in LED flashlight for me to see well enough to thread my room key into the lock at the end of a dark hallway! I also carry a $3 Chinese version of the Swiss Pocket knife with two saws, scissors, multiple blades (all dull), and a bent corkscrew that always snags the inside of my pocket which makes extricating it an ordeal. I have lost the invaluable toothpick included, but it is still handy. I’d love the Swiss version, but I know that I would immediately lose it…Karma!

So many Indian cars, trucks, and buses are sold in Nepal, so many large hotels and businesses in Nepal are now owned by Indians, so much of the lobbying money comes from Indian vested interests that the indignation that many Nepalis feel towards Indians is palpable. In so many ways Nepal’s development is reminiscent of the pre-industrial West and in a similar way controlled (hampered) by its domineering superpower, that it is easy to imagine how our colonists must have felt towards King George III! After all my years in Nepal, it finally dawned on me to ask Bal (our co-director who is also studying for a degree that would allow him to become a stockbroker for the Nepal Stock Exchange) if non-Nepalis could own stock. It was reassuring to hear that only Nepalis with citizenship papers could own Nepse stock…until he explained that many of the Regulators of the Stock Exchange are big Indian bankers in Nepal!

Fuel, electricity, rice and foodstuff are not the end of it. Now as the hot season begins, the city wells are drying up. As they put out less and less water, and people are walking around trying to find a public well that is still putting out. Our children will be wearing dirty uniforms for the lack of water as laundering becomes a luxury item few of our families can afford! I keep telling myself that this is nothing compared to what we have done to Iraq’s infrastructure: many places in Baghdad have power two hours a day, people stand in line all day for a couple of gallons of rationed petrol, etc. It’s a sad commentary when we can only feel grateful not because we are so fortunate, but because there are so many so much less fortunate than we. So, this brings us to solving the problems, viz., to the Election in Nepal.

Today is Election Day, a day of R&R for me because everything is shut down: schools, businesses, all motorized transportation, and even the sale of alcohol! But for 15 Million voters in Nepal, it is election day, the day that Nepalis decide who will be elected to the new Constituent Assembly to forge a new, interim government, to write a new constitution, and to decide whether they will maintain a King as a Ceremonial Monarch, as in England. All those who are registered to vote must return to their place of registration to vote, and so the highways have been full of buses the past few days carrying people out of the cities back to their home villages, as well as buses and caravans of party campaigners waving flags and banners and shouting slogans out their windows.

The weeks leading up to the election have been full of headlines of one party’s gang members beating up those of another party, including murdering the opposition’s candidates! Leaders were beginning to feel that the Maoists wouldn’t live up to their agreement of accepting the election results if they didn’t win. The Maoist Leader Prachandra repeated his promise to follow the will of the people even though his cadres in the countryside were having a field day intimidating villagers, but the Maoists weren’t alone. Other parties were also resorting to violence and intimidation. The Election Commission has threatened several districts of disqualification if the violence continued. 800 Foreign and UN observers began flying into Katmandu, such as Jimmy Carter and 60 others from the Carter Center. Finally, 24 hours before Election Day, all violence along with road traffic ceased, as all parties had agreed, and Katmandu at least has seen a calm and stillness that it has rarely known in the past decade. Even most shops and restaurants in the tourist section are closed and our guest house and restaurant are enjoying a boom in business without the competition.

There are 8 major parties, but the top 3 are the Nepali Congress (NC) Party, the United Marxist-Leninist (UML) Party, and the Maoist (CPN-M) Party. Believe it or not, the UML is considered to be the “middle path” by many, while the NC are and CPN-M are regarded as the parties to the right and left of center, resp. This doesn’t mean that most support the UML or that most Nepalis are commies because the UML has bought into the establishment and is really more like a conservative socialist party than a communist party. More to the point, I have not met anyone prior to the election who could explain to me just how the election is really supposed to work? Many of the voters are showing up at the polls not knowing what to do, and many votes are being disqualified for using inked fingerprints to make the selection and an ink seal where they are supposed to fingerprint. Further, a constituent assembly is supposed to somehow represent the voter’s caste, but it is unclear how, and so, most are learning everything at the polling station. What a job!
Consequently, the results of this election are totally unpredictable, which means no one is hazarding a guess as to the outcome. If the NC wins, it will be business as usual, if the Maoists win, there may be dramatic changes…for the better remains to be seen. But in all likelihood there will be no clear winner and the government will be a coalition, probably with UML and Maoists forming a coalition for some changes, but perhaps too little too late. As my Franco-American resident friend here puts it: “Do you think an election is going to make one bit of difference?” I fear that that may be the case.

So, I sit in the guest house reading and writing, waiting to see what the results will bring and what our next move will be in the short run and in the long run. Can we get back on the road and cover the schools in the East, or is there going to be a kickback reaction of violence against the results from Hindu fundamentalists if the King is completely deposed? If the NC wins, will the Maoists in the West protest by demonstrating and blockading roads like they did last year? It is a good time to sit back and let go of it all, let Karma play its hand, and not try to force ours.

Three Days Later: the Landslide
Well, three days later, and Nepal is still counting the results. One of the nicest things to witness is how everyone is glued to the TV waiting for the next district to update its counts. FM radio stations are giving hourly updates, and there is a general buzz in the air that a historic change in direction is in the offing. Some of the shopkeepers and private school principals are afraid of changes, and I try to reassure them that something has to be done or Nepal will dry up like a vineyard waiting for rain.

Jimmy Carter, the UN and other foreign observers, as well as Nepali officials have all been lauding the fair, free, and openness of the polling. The Election Commission will rerun voting at 106 polling stations where there seems to have been some “irregularities” (usually intimidation, most often, but not exclusively, by Maoist cadres). At this time the Maoists have a clear majority not only did their candidates sweep the countryside but many of the cities as well. There is no question that Nepalis are fed up with the status quo (escalating fuel and food costs, decaying infrastructure, corruption, etc) and simply decided to throw the rascals out. Even though the King has graciously come out and expressed his pleasure at seeing the turnout and the will of the people expressed, it seems very likely that the Constituent Assembly will throw out the last vestige of the King as well. Prachandra, the Maoist Party Leader, says that in two weeks that the King will be the first order of business when the CA convenes, and he thinks that the King should be out of Palace by then, returning it to the people. The 240 year old Monarchy is all but history.

One week Later: Counting the Votes
The election process, modeled on the MSLM (Modified Sainte Lague Method), is very complex. There will be 601 seats in the interim (probably about 2 years) Constituent Assembly which will govern and write the new constitution. Although there will be only one assembly of 601 seats, the people voted with two ballots. The first ballot goes towards selecting the party candidate who will fill one of 240 seats, and the second for their party choice. The party will then be rewarded a “proportional number” of 335 seats to which they will assign a party candidate, and finally their will be26 seats chosen by the “old guard” leaders. If you add this up: 240+335+26=601.

The MSLM is, of course, a compromise that was worked out amongst the 8 Major Parties over the previous 2 years since the King stepped down and reinstated the government The MSLM seems like a really fair way which tried to incorporate everyone’s position, so it has all been agreed to by everyone running. For example, the 26 seats represents a way reassure the old guard that they would not be forgotten: so even most of the old guard was defeated heavily by the Maoists, they can still play a role in the formation of the new government. The “Proportional Representation” (PR) Electoral System which leaves 335 seats to be allocated by party choice favors the smaller parties and minorities. For example, Even though the Maoists won almost half of the 240 candidate seats, they only garnered one third of the total popular vote. Consequently they will only get 1/3 of the 335 Proportional seats, or 111 additional seats. The NC which won only 1/8 of the candidate seats will get 1/4 (or 80 additional) PR seats since they won 26% of the popular vote. One problem, however, is that the parliament building (which had two houses) only seats a maximum of 400 seats, so for the next two years the Constituent Assembly will have to meet in the Birendra International Conference Center here in Katmandu!

The bottom line is that the Maoists candidates won an overwhelming number of seats (117 out of 240), but by Proportional Representation they are only assessed 111 more seats, making a total of 228 plus a portion of the 26 seats remaining. A majority is half of 601, or 300 needed. This means that they are 60-70 votes shy of a majority. Even with an overwhelming turnout for the Maoists, they will have to form alliances and work cooperatively with the other parties….Prachandra and Dr. Bhattarai are pragmatists who realize that now that they have won, they must live up to their pre-election agreements. They are openly welcoming the chance to work with the other parties in a positive way to bring the country together. Some of the other parties are “sore losers” such as the UML, as many of the leaders being soundly beaten, are withdrawing their party’s participation in the government…although they remain resolved to participate in the writing the new Constitution. As an outsider, I can’t understand how they can have their cake and eat it, too. But hey, that’s politics!

Nepali New Years
The day after the election was Nepali New Years and it is also the time when the Red and White Majendranath Gods are taken out of their temples, placed on huge chariots with sky-high towers, and wheeled (pulled by ropes) around the city blessing the different wards. Because they are so tall (my guess is that they tower 40 feet above the streets), they are rather “tippy.” I saw the “White” Chariot being constructed and noted that the tower framework was already listing from the outset. So, it was no surprise to find that once again the whole thing toppled over rounding a corner—12 were injured! When this happens it portends bad luck for the monarchy…the last time this happened the Royal Family was assassinated in 2002. And now, the fallen chariot portends the end of the monarchy altogether. But, in addition, there will be a trickle down that will impact the rich cultural tradition of Nepal. For example, what will future topplings portend when there is no Monarchy? Who’s the fall guy? Another example is the Living Virgin Goddess Kumari. She is only 12 years old and “prematurely” had her first menstruation a few months ago, and so she must now step down and let priests select another child to take her place. In the Durbar (Palace grounds) of Katmandu stands the Kumari House, her home, which is now vacant, waiting for the selection of its next occupant. One of her important functions is to bless the King each year at about this time….what is to become of the beloved Kumari now? What will be her role without a King?

Election Trickle Down
The New Year’s election results came as quite a shock to many, esp., to our state department. The US Embassy is among all the others here in Katmandu reeling from being blindsided by the Maoist landslide. After the election Som and I talked with one of our embassy officials who explained that the they now realize that all the embassies were simply listening to same urban-based Nepali informants and that they had little contact with the sentiment of the people in the countryside (Duh, 80% of the people are farmers and live in the countryside). Even so, the Maoist won the popular vote throughout the Katmandu Valley, too, and they couldn’t even get that right! As soon as I saw that the Maoists were winning half the wards in Katmandu, I knew it was all over.

The week before the election while we were outside the valley visiting schools, busloads of party campaigners on the road were passing us cheering and waving their party flags…it was clear that there were two to three times as many Maoist supporters compared to the other parties put together. I discounted this as being a regional artifact, too, but it has turned out to be a national phenomenon. What this means is the Condie Rice and the US State Dept has egg all over their faces. For two years now the Maoists not only put down their weapons, but they cantoned their troops in deplorable conditions (while Nepali forces continued to receive pay, housing in barracks, training and supplies). The Maoists have signed and followed out agreements as best as can be expected for a loosely run guerilla army. They have accepted UN and HR inspectors, joined the government of Nepal as a legitimate political party, and actively and positively participated in the government. The whole while, even today nine days after the election, the US still has not retracted labeling the Maoist Party as a “terrorist organization.” What this means at this point is that the Maoists are about to become the ruling party of Nepal, and Nepal could rightfully be labeled a “terrorist nation,” making them part of the “Evil Empire,” on par with Iran and North Korea. The Maoists are not the Taliban and Prachandra is not Osama bin Ladin! Rather than being holed up in a cave or otherwise totally inaccessible, Prachandra is about to be filmed and interviewed by a friend of mine from Grand Rapids for a documentary. Jimmy Carter both last year and again this past week has called on the Bush Administration to drop the “terrorist label.”

It is clear to all that of hundreds of thousands of Americans abroad who has been put in danger by our foreign policy since 9-11. I have done my best to not take a political stance, and I was very impressed at how cordial and helpful the embassy was to me a few years ago when my passport was stolen. I think they work hard and try to do their best. But I now realize that our government’s ineptitude from on high has a very deleterious effect on our personal safety that can poison those in the trenches. The Embassy bombings in Africa are but one example. So, the administration has invested billions of dollars to build new fortified embassies throughout the world. But that doesn’t help me.

Every American trekking or working in Nepal has been directly endangered by U.S. policy that propped up an unpopular King who usurped power from a duly elected government 5 years ago. In addition, the Bush Administration began supplying M16s to the King’s Army under the pretext that this is a necessary part of the war against international terrorism. To do so, meant that the administration had to label the Maoists as “international terrorists.” This directly endangered hundreds of Americans trekking in the mountains, and to some extent even in the cities. Fortunately, the Maoists carried out a 10-year war without killing one American (maybe not even injuring one)! Not only did the “terrorist label” restrict me from talking with Maoists (“cavorting with the enemy”) about our children in village schools, but I was compelled to pose as a French doctor to make it past Maoist blockades in order to do the oversight on our schools. Where an American would be sent back, “the French Dr. Clouseau” was allowed to pass. I would probably not have been harmed, but I don’t know what would have happened to Som and Dipendra for allegedly conspiring with “an undercover agent,” and the American Embassy would have had a hell of a job trying to disprove Maoist charges that I was a CIA spy!

I don’t mind trying to explain or lamely defend our country’s contorted foreign policy to every left-leaning Nepali (and most are), nor that I have to apologize to every European, Aussie and Kiwi I meet here in Nepal of our government’s blatant ignorance (Remember when none of our senior administrative officials, when queried, couldn’t explain the difference between a Sunni and Shiite!). But today was the last straw! In an interview with George Stephanoupoulos for ABC television, Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s security advisor, consistently mistook Nepal for Tibet! Hadley stated, “The way to deal with the issue of Nepal is not by….not going to the opening ceremonies [of the Beijing Olympics].” Hadley did not simply misspeak—the White House later had to admit, “Mr. Hadley referred at least a half-dozen times to Nepal when he seemed clearly to be speaking of Tibet.” This man is our President’s security advisor? No wonder our Embassy can’t get it right: the State Department doesn’t know up from down because the White House is totally unaware of any events in Nepal.

Now then, everyone knows that our President cannot read a map (admittedly I can’t operate a GPS without Mary Jane), but that simply makes for good material for the Tonight Show. However, when his security advisor cannot read a map either and is expressing views about a region he obviously knows next to nothing, including a country (Nepal!) that is strategically positioned between India and China, the world’s two most populous countries, both armed to the teeth with nukes, I am not just worried, I am scared to death!

I don’t know how much of this story was covered on CNN or in the US newspapers, but since I read it in the Katmandu Post (April 18, top of page 2), then not only did every expat in Nepal read it, you can be sure that it was also carried by the International Herald Tribune, Le Monde, Die Welt, and the Asahi Shimbun. We should all be embarrassed, indignant, and scared! Homeland Security is of little consequence if we keep making more needless enemies overseas. I can just picture some American traveling in the Southern Terai of Nepal (like me starting tomorrow) being held hostage for ransom by right wing fundamentalist Hindus who just want to make a buck, and our government thinking, or under the pretext, that these are Maoists, send in the marines to topple the government. In case you think I am exaggerating, remember the American students we presumably rescued because there were Cubans in Granada! As Som, Chanak and I set out today into areas of unrest and violence, I fear not so much our personal safety as I the fear that our state department might compound a situation as a result of the 3 I’s: Indifference, Ignorance, and Incompetence at the highest level of our government. If America continues to misread and miscalculate the events abroad, the 2 I’s, the Ignominy of Iraq, will be repeated again and again.

So, will some of you please inform the President, his security advisor, and Condie that there were historic elections in Nepal this week and the Beijing Olympics is the last thing on Nepali minds! And please tell them that the “Maoists” is an outdated label. Nepali Maoists regard themselves more as “Deng Xiao-ping-ists” and support capitalism, economic development and foreign assistance, and want to promote good relations internationally. But more than Deng and the People’s Republic of China, the Nepali Maoists support multiparty democracy, coalition governance and continue to play a major role in transforming Nepal from a monarchy to a republic.

Dear Friends and Sponsors,

I am now writing you from Nepal. In recent years, I have written back weekly newsletters of my adventures there, with the first one usually being about the long flights to get there, as these are always adventures in themselves. Previous years’ letters are found at our website www.answer-nepal.org (which is being revised and updated—thanks to Dawid). As the children often write from their perspective which is often limited to schools and festivals, I try to reveal some of the other aspects from an outsider’s point of view. However, as an outsider, some of these aspects (the “injustices”) of mixing poverty, caste, and children even after all these years are still hard for me, and I find the need use this forum to purge myself of emotions and impressions in order to return to sleep at night. This first letter however, is usually a product of jet lag and sleep deprivations, rather than a coping situation. Enjoy!

Karma: Chance Encounters of the Third Kind
I flew out Grand Rapids Saturday March 22 with most of your letters, but ended up leaving them behind in Chicago, as snow had delayed my initial flight to the point that my bags didn’t make the connection in Chicago. I had 5 minutes to sprint down the 2 concourses with two carry-ons + a sack lunch as the PA System broadcasted “Final Boarding for Paris” and “Last Call for Mr. X, please report to Gate Y.” I at last arrived at Gate Y, puffing and panting, with everyone waiting for me, “Are you Mr. X?” “Huh? No, I’m Mr. Canfield.” And then the smiles dropped as two of them went to the computer to look me up (I guess they weren’t interested in economy class flyers). Within a few minutes Mr. X arrived—a young man of 17-19 years with his iPod plugged in to both ears. He had been sitting right in front of the gate desk but couldn’t hear his multiple pages. Everyone was put out, and I chided him with, “I couldn’t have made my flight if you hadn’t been so irresponsible. Thanks!” I then got these confused looks from everyone! It wasn’t until I was at the baggage carousel that I realized that my baggage handlers had let me down.

Whether it was a premonition, a history of bad hits, or my incipient insight into the workings of Karma, I congratulated myself that I had, prophetically and prophelactically, transferred a pair of socks and briefs to my carry-ons at the last minute. So, now I could still carry out a week-long European tour of Paris, Bruges, and Antwerp with my daughter Maya who worked in London and was hitching up with me at Chas De Gaulle airport, just outside customs, waiting dutifully for me to emerge. Having filled out instructions to have the airlines deliver the bags to our hotel in Paris in our absence, we were off to catch a train to Belgium. And so I wore the same pants, shirt, shoes and jacket for a week while washing out my socks and undees in the bathroom sink every evening!

Two days after my arrival in Paris, while we were in Belgium, we placed a phone call to our hotel in Paris and were informed that my check-in luggage had still had not made it to our hotel there! For those of you who have heard my sermon “Karma is a Funny Thing”, you know that I no longer shake my fist at the heavens or pray to console myself over, “Why me, God?” Instead, I have learned to smile inwardly and laugh, “Karma is sending me a reminder that I am way over my head again—Give it up!” It feels good to know that I am mellowing at last and to come to realize and accept how little control we have over anything. With this we come to appreciate how dependent we are on the deeds of others (their karma, too)!”

To put your minds at ease, the suitcases with letters and my clothes had by the end of our journey in the Lowlands found themselves safely to our hotel in Paris when we returned a week later. And so, all the while I felt fortunate that I didn’t have a lot to lug around! Karma is a funny thing.

My father used to have a great quip that he would invariably cite when traveling, “Everywhere I go, people tell me the weather here is unusual.” Yes, indeed, it was snowing on Easter and even though there were tulips in the stores (hothouse variety I am sure), it seldom got above 40, with a fierce wind-chill. Maya generously augmented my scant wardrobe with a warm woolen scarf. And as Karma was watching over me, I didn’t have to worry about sweating up and my unlaundered clothes becoming offensive. Besides, this was Europe! (I couldn’t resist).

I contend that every minute of every day we are pummeled by Karmic coincidences (connections, if you will) that we simply fail to be perceive, like the millions of meteors that burn up in our atmosphere unseen and unknown, unless we look up and pay careful attention. Occasionally one will make it to earth and leave its mark. So, traveling is an opportunity like looking up at the sky at night and search out trails of meteors. If we sit back and focus as we travel, we will see and marvel at the arrays of chance encounters all around us. I am sure you have had these too, now and then, but traveling randomly through time and space and then to meet up with someone you know directly or indirectly (degrees of separation) accentuates the coincidence. Like in The Bridge over San Luis Rey which all of a sudden collapsed and killed several disparate travelers crossing it: Why here? Why them? Why at this time and spot? What were the chances? What’s operating here?

Of course, you are waiting for examples. Last summer I was again visiting my daughter Maya in London, and we decided to tour parts of Scotland. It was the 4th of July and we were in Edinburgh, the beautiful city of J. R. Rowlings (Harry Potter) when Maya and I went into one of dozens of restaurants to grab a bite. The restaurant was packed except for one table, so we sat down and waited to be served. We tried to ignore the throngs of tourists as we talked over the din of their chatter. Then, all of sudden Maya’s ears perked up to some words coming from the table beside us—it was something about the annual fireworks display in East Grand Rapids. (We know it well!) Yes, it was the 4th of July, but more than that the family next to us actually lived only a few blocks away from our home in Grand Rapids! Okay, sure, it is not unusual to find a couple of Americans in a British pub, but this was Edinburgh, not London, and we had the choice of a hundred restaurants, dozens of tables, and beyond that, I am speaking of an itty-bitty, highly inbred, insular suburb in the Midwest, not of New York or Boston! What were the chances, at this moment, at that spot?

Another encounter with even higher odds against it occurred a few years before Scotland while I was checking into my usual Guest House in Katmandu on day 1. I was wearing a t-shirt which mentioned the name of an HMO in Seattle where I used to work. All of a sudden a man in his mid –thirties walked through the lobby, halted and said, “Hey, I almost worked there!” He introduced himself as Dave and turned out to be a surgeon from Grand Rapids…well more than that, a urologist who was partnered with my urologist! Since my father had also been a urologist there long before me, we arranged to sit down and share a beer. Well, Dave had also fallen in love with Nepal, so much so that he took a temporary job at a travel clinic in Katmandu which evolved into a long term commitment. Consequently, each year we get together for dinner and catch up with events in Nepal and Grand Rapids. So, when traveling, be on the alert not just for pickpockets, but karmic events!

Two Days Later in Bruges, Belgium: Another Chance Encounter
Bruges is one of the loveliest, cleanest, old towns I have visited anywhere. Enough to say that it is known as the Venice of Northern Europe because of its canals, its historical focus on trade, and for the wealth of Flemish painters that worked here during the Northern Renaissance, e.g., Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, and a dozen more, to be sure. It is a must see.

Well, this one evening Maya felt like fish and chips…and we had looked all day long for some place that served it. Finally, out on the hunt again, we weren’t having much luck but I asked a friendly looking waiter that if they don’t have Fish and Chips somewhere. Well, he showed it to us on the menu as Sea Bream, salad, and fried potatoes. It was expensive, but everything is in Europe these days, so I resigned myself to buying her dinner in hopes that she will support me in my dotage. This was midweek after Easter, so the waiters were not rushed and gathered ‘round to know more about us. One began with, “You are Americans, no?” Maya, who has lived 5 years abroad, is put off by this line of inquiry because she knows that the next words out will be political interrogation. We had been discussing this issue that morning, and I had told her to simply say that you didn’t vote for Bush. However, Maya feels that she shouldn’t have to defend American policies anymore than a Frenchman, as individuals, should have to defend his government’s policies….she has her point! Hoping to demonstrate my point, However, I immediately disarmed him with, “We are Americans, but like most Americans who travel abroad, we did not vote for Bush. Even though he is our President, he has his good points: he provides our comedians with many jokes!” He smiled and realized he wasn’t going to be able to debate a point with us. He then guessed that Maya was a student and that dad was visiting her. Maya, like her mother, looks younger than her 28 years, so we explained that she worked in London, and I was on my way to Nepal.

“Nepal?” said the waiter as if one of the meteors had just landed, and pointed to one of the waiters, “He is from Nepal.” And so the Karmic forces began to unfold its petals before our eyes. Shalikram is a political refugee from Baglung, near Pokhara. He is only 26 years old (guessing that his e-mail address bespeaks his DOB), but he was younger still when he headed several programs for handicap children for a British Non-Profit Organization (NGO) which ended up getting him in trouble with the Maoists. Shalikram was working in a difficult and dangerous position trying to help children during the worst of times. There was a terribly bloody surprise attack and battle for Baglung between the Maoists and the King’s Army a few years ago, so sentiments between the two camps were extremely tense while he was in charge. No one in Baglung is rich, so he must be extremely resourceful to have saved himself and made it to Bruges, of all places! For him to at last have someone could meaningfully talk to about his former work was as much a joy to him as it was to us. Shalik had also worked with HRDC, the hospital for disabled children where Mary Jane and I initially volunteered. In the end we exchanged emails, and we shall see what Karma (our future deeds) has in store for us, as we have been invited to Baglung by one of its school principals to help educate poor children there.

Our tour continued on to Antwerp with a heavy dose of Ruebens who did alright for himself, to say the least. It is no accident that Antwerp’s Museum of Fine Arts built in 1892 is as prodigious as the size and number of his paintings housed there. Moreover, his colossal beautiful home or Wapper Street (Whopper would be a more appropriates spelling) houses even more of his works! Even so, we discovered a home was even more grandiose than Ruebens with a visit to the Plantin-Moretus House. Plantin was a contemporary and close friend and business associate of Ruebens. Plantin founded a printing business in Antwerp in 1555 ( a century after the Gutneberg’s invention) that continued in the family for 300 years. Ruebens did some of the title page engravings that found their way into books which Plantin printed. The earphone tour is a wonderful history lesson packed with information on the struggle between the Humanist movement and the counter-Reformation of the times. The stately home houses 35 rooms exhibiting a wide assortment of early presses, typesets, rare books and maps, an early 3-volume Gutenberg Bible, original guilt leather wall coverings, paintings …what an amazing step back in to time! You just can’t read history or look at a photo of a painting in an art book and appreciate the event or the work without actually going to The Source and seeing it in its context. This was made all the clearer to me when we spent our last day in Paris at the Louvre. I had only been to Paris once, and didn’t have time to step inside. What a way to end the tour: the Grand Finale, the piece d’resistance. In June, after Mary Jane comes to Nepal in May, the two of us will stop in Paris on the way back, so I will again be able to visit the Louvre again and have all the exhibits indelibly etched into my long term memory. Also, the stele with the Hammurabi Code was on special exhibit, so I missed it, but I can catch it in June when it returns to its rightful position!

Needless to say, we were brain dead that final evening in Europe together, and as Karma would have it the EU was instituting its own Daylights Savings Time that very night, so we were losing an hour. Naturally, I had an early morning flight out of Paris, so by the time I arrived in Nepal via Bahrain, I was amply sleep deprived. Karma must have felt that I had been punished enough and did not intercept my luggage again, for I arrived in Katmandu without a hitch. This doesn’t mean that Karma was totally dormant.

One More Chance Encounter: Bahrain
When one goes to Nepal via Europe, it is easier and cheaper to fly via the Emirate Airlines, such as Gulf Air or Qatar Airlines because they have a direct route to, of all places, Katmandu. (Why is that do you suppose? Hint: outsourced, cheap laborers from Nepal by the Gajillions!). So, everywhere in Bahrain there are Nepalis waiting on tables, behind food service counters, and mopping the floors of the airports. So, can you sense that another karmic event was about to unfold? As I came up the stairs in the Bahrain airport to locate my next gate, I rounded a corner and almost literally ran into our good Nepali friends from Grand Rapids, Jim and Sharmila Suwal taking photos of their toddler Megan who was enthralled with a clever display of some robotic fishermen casting their nets in a fountain.

Apparently we were on the same plane out of Paris but they were upfront on the opposite aisle so I never saw them. Karma is a funny thing— because of our busy lives, we hardly get to see each other when we are all in Grand Rapids, and now we are given 6 hours of quality time together in an Arab Sheikdom. What a blessing! As it turns out Jim’s mother is elderly and had an acute episode and is in the hospital in Katmandu. So, the whole family jumped a plane for Nepal which ended up connecting with my flight in Paris. Jim’s brother Naren is already in Katmandu with his mother, so I will get to see the whole family on their “home turf.” But the real blessing is that Jim’s and Naren’s mother will see her granddaughter Megan for the very first time. So sweet!

This was really good luck because a 6 hour layover all alone seems twice as long! Now with 3.25 of us (counting 2 y.o. Megan), it really was easy for someone to watch over the bags (or Megan) while others went dinner or the bathroom. Later on, with our arrival in Nepal, I made a bee line through immigration and customs to expeditiously collect a pair of baggage carts and start assembling the bags. Finally, after all of us had jumped though all the entry hoops, we came out of the airport together… to find Sharmila’s sister Madhu and husband already there to pick them up and to greet me. You see, Madhu is married to the principal of Albert Einstein Academy, one of our schools. They are a great team and have done so much for the street children we enrolled at AEA. Last year I asked our children if they liked school, and all of them enthusiastically said, “Yes, sir”. But then I asked them to think real hard, “Why do you love school so much?” Again, they all agreed: they liked their teacher who was so nice….Madhu!

So, as it came to pass that Naren by a quirk settled in Grand Rapids twenty years ago. Naren then brought over his brother Jim. Jim married and brought Sharmila to Grand Rapids four years ago. Sharmila referred us to Madhu and her school in Katmandu two years ago. This list of “begats” has one last knot that linked us with Naren initially. It was our next door neighbor Jennifer (yes, right smack dab next door!) who works for the City of Kentwood and mentioned to us that there was a Nepali man named Naren in Grand Rapids who sometimes came by to submit a filing to her office.

For those who say that life is full of coincidences—so, it seems…but that’s a superficial read. I will have to side with Albert Einstein, who didn’t believe in Chance: “God doesn’t throw dice.” There are meteor showers all around us we ignore, and degrees of separation unexplored, and a connectivity that escapes our grasp, but every now and then we do get a glimmer, a chance encounter, an insight, an epiphany that comes out of nowhere that fills us with wonder. From whence it comes, we call God (an actor, an entity, the agent). But we can also refer to it as Karma (actions, events, perpetuating interactions). It seems to me that, be it God or Karma, we are dealing with two sides of the same coin, or perhaps the chicken-egg proposition (which came first?). Perhaps it is just a semanticism that keeps us from equating God ó Karma?

One final thought to push you over the edge: Deductium ad Nauseum. In the West heresies and intolerance were defined by Orthodoxy (Christian or Islamic) evoking the crusades, the counter-reformation, pogroms, stifled liberal learning and understanding, and affected our perception of God. In much the same way, Hindus also used a religious construct Karma to reinforce the socio-political construct of the Caste System. For example, isn’t the Protestant Ethic of rationalizing God rewarding the virtuous with wealth in the West tantamount to Karma assigning one a high station in life based on his deeds in a previous life? So, if KarmaóGod, then which comes first? I submit that Karma, being the sum total of all individual actions (karma) in the universe, could be the determinate behind our own Free Will (that which determines a conscious decisions), as well as God’s Will (where and when a lightning strikes, a chemical bond is formed, or a gene mutates). Even miracles arise from the interaction of actions (Karma). When Karma is taken as the godhead, one of the great Western paradoxes, viz., Free Will vs. God’s Will, dissolves away. How neat is that! The bottom line is our actions matter!—So, be nice to everyone; practice love and compassion.

Well, it should be apparent to all of you by now, that the disruption of biorhythms along with sleep deprivation has had a dramatic effect on my ability to think clearly. But I can’t help but feel that traveling beyond our borders can carry us beyond our normal limitations. Foreign travel provides us with new information whereby we can re-explore the familiar, stimulate us in discovering new ways to visualize and interpret, and to think in ways that we have never done before? In either case, I am exhausted and ready for bed. Thanks.

Earle

It is a bit ironic, then, that on Easter Sunday we would find ourselves staying on the grounds where the Buddha was born. Like Jesus, Buddha was purported to have had a virgin birth and a mother by the name of Mary (actually her name was Maya which is the Indo-Aryan cognate of Mary). Queen Maya was not visited by an angel to announce the conception, but by a white elephant in a dream! Although many cultures also have virgin birth stories, the importation of Eastern ideas into the Western world is well established through trade routes and conquests. The three Magi following a star to Bethlehem nicely exemplify this transmission. Going the other way, Alexander the Great’s triumphs in the 3rd century BC brought Greek ideas as far as the Khyber Pass in Pakistan.

The early evolution of Buddhist sculpture of this period in the Kushan Dynasty of Gandhara (Kandahar), Afghanistan reflects Greek stylistic influences as seen in the small, carved stone Buddha displayed on the mezzanine at Fountain Street Church. This exquisite piece of sculpture of the Buddha is probably 500 years older than the giant Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban, and there it is resting serenely in our church! The Buddha’s robe and the way it drapes, imitate depictions of the Greco-Roman “togas” of this period. Instead of the typical snail curls of hair as seen in early or later Buddhist sculpture, there are the long, wavy, flowing locks of Adonis on the Gandharan Buddha heads of this period. There are many depictions of the Buddha with “Mongolian eyes” since he acquired those features once Buddhism migrated into China, Korea and Japan, but in fact he was an “Aryan Blueblood” with “round eyes” who spoke a “Western Language” somewhat midway between Nepali and English!

Georgia’s on my Mind
David and Marty from Maine have been living and working in Georgia over the last 4-5 years not Jimmy Carter’s state, but the former Soviet Republic, now a CIS country situated in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. This area is thought to have been the homeland of the Caucasian race some 5000 or more years ago. From here the “Aryan” nomadic tribes spread forth in waves into Europe, the Mediterranean, Persia and the Indian subcontinent thus many of the Indian-derived languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi and Nepali are related to the European Languages including the Romance, Germanic and Slavic Languages.

Often some of the oldest rudiments of a language are found in the names of body parts. Thus, Nepali words mukh, naak, and aakha are in fact related to its English designations mouth, nose and eye. If you doubt any semblance between aakha and eye, just take a look at “eye” in other European languages: ojo in Spanish is perceptibly related to eye (vowel, j=y, vowel), and auge in German is perceptibly close to aakha (vowel, velar stop, vowel). Verb tenses, cases, plurals, and less so, syntax are very similar throughout the Indo-European languages. Up until recently, one of the best ways to understand the ancient connection of literate peoples were through linguistic influences, but now with the development of DNA typing much of this is now being more fully understood.

Getting back to Georgia, it is not only the homeland of our language but is also a crossroads between East and West. I remember reading a translation and study of an ancient Georgian tale called The Balavarani (approx 6th century AD, I think). It is the tale of the wondrous deeds of an early Christian saint by the name of Jehosovat (yes, Virginia there is a Jumping Jehosovat, and not so far removed in time or place from the original St. Nicholas). This name is none other than a “Christian” rendition of the Buddhist word for “saint”, viz., “Bodhisattva”! The concept of “Bodhisattva” along with the practice of devotion or “Bhakti” in Buddhism and Hinduism arose in India about the time of the birth of Christ and so one can see an almost simultaneous transference of devotional belief and practice arising together in East and West. How could this be?

One only has to look at the Roman legions. Most of us focus on Julius Casesar’s conquest of Gaul, Hadrian’s Wall, or the Roman oppression of the Jews, but the Roman armies, like those of Alexander, were also being dispatched far to the East as well. It is no accident that Jesus, the Jewish reformer, soon acquired many traits similar to Buddha, the Hindu reformer, and Moses, the Jewish Miracle-worker and Liberator. It is no wonder they seemed patterned after each other.

What’s in a Name?
It sometimes comes as a shocking revelation when a Christian fundamentalist realizes that Christ was, in fact, not a Christian, but a Jew. On the other hand, many contend that the Great Reformers would probably be shocked to learn that their very names have since become the appellations of the religion they “founded” and that of their followers. Calling ourselves “Christians” seems a bit self-righteous and flies in the face of the humility that Christ demonstrated and wanted us to follow. I do not want to offend or convert anyone, but am self-examining and exploring, as I am one of those who is horrified by crucifixes hanging around people’s necks and taking center stage behind the pulpit. The WWJD bracelets are innocent reminders compared to the crucifixes. What a way to be remembered nailed and run through, hemorrhaging and heaving! Why not leave the sword or spear inserted for maximal effect! A cross with a heart seems so much more forgiving.

What if instead of “Christianity,” we called Christ’s teachings something like “Philomnia” or “Universal Love” since that is at the heart his teachings. His followers would be “Philomnians” or “Philomnists,” I guess. Wouldn’t Jesus rather be remembered for teaching Universal Love than to be the oft-disputed Son of God? Afterall, is not His divinity that is the very point of disagreement between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam at the cost of the many lives and the many things they share?

If Muslims don’t recognize Jesus as the Son of God, they at least see him as a prophet. We are finally ridding our vocabulary of Mohammedism in favor of Islam or the Muslim religion, and even Osama’s followers don’t call themselves Osamists. One cannot say as much for the Wahabi fundamentalists, however.

Would not the Buddha have preferred to have his religion called “Selflessness” rather than incorporating his “self” (Buddh-)into the very name Buddhism? (Actually, the name refers to his enlightenment, not his name per se, which was Gautama.) The Dalai Lama, an incarnate Buddha, calls his religious practice, one of “Kindness,” avoiding any reference to the personage.

So, in the end, to spend Easter at Buddha’s birthplace is in many ways an appropriate place to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Afterall, doesn’t Universal Love and Selflessness go hand in hand? For two days, we explored the grounds, the monasteries, the Peace Pagoda, the Ancient Ashokan Pillar (as old as our little Gandharan Buddha) and the Maya Devi temple where an ancient monument was unearthed that designated the very spot where the “Prince” was born. Some of us did this by riding bicycles, some by bicycle-rickshaws. Peggy took some time off to visited schools in the area to meet her children, bringing them Easter presents of books and paints.