Year: 2011

Is it racism? Naomi Campbell not so Blissful by an advert

Posted on by Anand Nepal

Supermodel Naomi Campbell found her comparison with a chocolate bar ‘insulting and hurtful’.

The Cadbury’s advertisement for its ‘Bliss’ chocolate bar says: "Move over Naomi – there is a new diva in town." The advertisement was published in newspapers last week. Naomi claims Cadbury owner, Kraft, refused to Naomi’s request to pull the ad campaign.

To be noted, the ad also compares Naomi with a ‘diva’. I am sure she is not upset by that… Move over Naomi!

cadbury_naomi_campbell_choco_ad

Naomi says, "I am shocked. It
‘s upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me, but for all black women and black people. I do not find any humor in this. It is insulting and hurtful."

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News from Nepal May, 2011 (consolidated)

Posted on by Anand Nepal

3 immigration officials abscond – CA members’ diplomatic passports misuse

May 1, 2011 @ 22:11

After the immigration officer Bhuminanda Bhandari implicated three immigration officials working at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and police wrote to the immigration office to handover them, they have absconded, according to the news report of Annapurna Post.

Bhuminanda Bhandari was arrested by the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on Wednesday after finding his involvement in the misuse of diplomatic passports of CA members, Gayatri Sah and Bishwanath Prasad Yadav.

Three immigration officials are section officer Shyam Babu Bhandari, computer officer Nanda Kumar Sunuwar and senior immigration assistant Devidatta Uprety. They have not gone to the office and are not found at their residences since past few days.

Police started looking for them at every possible place after the immigration office did not hand them over to them as per their request.

Sah and Yadav, who are charged of selling their diplomatic passports for a huge sum, are in police custody for investigation. Yadav’s diplomatic passport was using by Prithvi Chhatya and Sah’s passport was using by Sita Sah.

Another politician, Jhakku Prasad Subedi, got slapped

May 3, 2011 @ 06:39
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Nepali Movie – Ghamanda (2008)

Posted on by Anand Nepal

Krishnabir presents
Nepali Movie – Ghamanda (2008)
Starring – Sushil Chhetri, Poojana Pradhan (now, Poojana Stri), Shaurav Karki, Shuvashree Shrestha, Hemanta Budhathoki etc.
Story – Jiwan Kumar Sunuwar
Direction /Editing – Surendra Dahal

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Sweta Lamichane clarifies Saptahik article

Posted on by Anand Nepal

I wrote about Sweta Lamichane back in Februry of 2010. It is good to see the beautiful lady featured in this week’s Saptahik weekly. But apparently, Sweta is not too much happy about the portraying of her as the ‘Hollywood star’ in the article.

Sweta’s clarification in her own words:

Since I can’t read Nepali, I had to have someone else read the Saptahik to me. I would like to clear up a few mistakes that were made.

Yes, I am a working actress, but I’m not a huge Hollywood star. I have done a few movies, commercials, and television shows. In fact, I did all of my training in Hollywood, got my SAG eligibility, and then moved away. It wasn’t until I moved that I started to book bigger roles. All of the movies that I have speaking roles in are independent films. These films only go to film festivals and you can’t find them on the shelves. Currently I’m working on a web series, I’ve completed three movies (will only appear in film festivals), and I’ve done a direct TV commercial campaign. I’m also in school for esthetics and make-up artistry. In addition, I’m recoding an album that will release at the end of this year. Thank you time and attention and Thanks for all the support!

Sweta has done a good job in Hollywood and she has made us proud by her skills over there. Now, I am also impressed by the humbleness she has shown.

Good job Sweta! Keep the good works.

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London protest held successfully

Posted on by Anand Nepal

The voices of Nepali all over the world is being heard, thanks to the recent development in communication and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

A group of Nepali youths in UK organized the protest event in front of the Embassy of Nepal in London to demand the timely constitution and co-operation from the Government. The protest event comprising of about 100 people started at 12pm midday. The protestors chanted slogan, recited poetry, sang songs , gave speech and handed over a letter to the Ambassador of Nepal for UK, to be delivered to speaker of CA.

The protest program ended at 2.15PM when Miss UK Nepal 2010, Nabina Gurung, and bloggers, Lex Limbu and Pradeep Kumar Singh went in the Embassy to handed over a letter and a petition signed by hundreds of participants. The petition demanded the government to draft constitution on time and move ahead for peace and political stability in the country and the letter to the Speaker of CA conveyed the similar message. The Nepali Ambassador to the UK, Dr. Suresh Chandra Chalise, promised to deliver the letter to the speaker of CA. The meeting lasted for about 20 minutes.

More photos from the event (Photo source – Nepali Unites UK)

12 Characteristics of a Blogger

Posted on by Anand Nepal

We had a #tweetdebate on whether a blogger is a journalist of not. After the debate it was clear that there isn’t any single answer. A blogger can be a journalist if he/she wishes but, the blogger can also be anything else.

That is confusing. Before defining a blogger, let me write down the 12 characteristics of a blogger (I know there are others, please add more in comment):

  1. A blogger is a person. It can be you, me, or a random guy on the street.
  2. A blogger today might not be a blogger tomorrow
  3. A blogger today mightn’t have been a blogger yesterday
  4. Every journalist can be a blogger but every blogger can’t be a journalist

    5. A blogger might seem to know everything

  5. A blogger might seem to know nothing
  6. A blogger might not have a name or an address or a contact number
  7. A blogger might be a team of bloggers (there is no way to know)
  8. A blogger usually have a second job to pay for living (Journalists usually don’t)
  9. A blogger can survive without a single reader (sustainability can be questioned)
  10. A blogger can write a post every day, or every week, or every month, or every year. It might also be one post in the life-time.
  11. Most of the bloggers say they post blog posts for fun (are you serious?).

For these reasons, most of the blogs go unnoticed, un-managed, and too personal for most to even care for.

Now, let’s seek the definitions of a blogger:

  • Dictionary.com says a blogger is – "a person who keeps and updates a blog."
  • A blog is – a website or part of website which, "A frequent, chr
    onological publication of personal thoughts and Web links."

Can such a creature be confined in an organization? Can any organization have an authority over such a random creature as a blogger?

The biggest question is can somebody’s "personal thoughts" be regulated? It probably can’t. That might be the reason Tim O’Reilly’a proposed seven code of conducts don’t mention the word ‘Ethics’ in them!

  1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
  2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
  3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
  4. Ignore the trolls.
  5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
  6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
  7. Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person.

Reference:

Real Juice – worm found again

Posted on by Anand Nepal

After much media cover on the problem with Dabur’s Real Juice in the past, reports of such inedible materials in the juice had stopped for some time. But, it seems they still haven’t rectified the problem. A user in Jhapa found dust and worm in Dabur Real Mango Nectar sold in Sony Kirana Pasal in Damak 11 (Near, Himsikhar TV). The expiry date of the juice was however two month earlier.

It is not clear if the problem occurred because of the expired product or it was tainted in the factory. Whatever may be the case, the government should take proper steps to investigate the issue and discourage the shopkeepers from selling expired pro
ducts.

32 hours on Mt Everest and meditation for world peace

Posted on by Anand Nepal

A 30-year-old Nepali guru, Bhakta Kumar Rai, has spent 32 hours on top of the Mount Everest. He reached the top at 5:30 am on May 20 and stayed there till 1 pm the next day. In that time he mediated for the world peace for 27 hours.

Rai has broken the previous record of Babu Chhiri Sherpa who had made the world record by staying on the summit for 21 hours and 30 minutes in 1999. The freezing cold on the top can cause severe frostbite and swelling in the brain, that can even cause death to the less enduring climbers. It was told that in that 32 hours Rai had used oxygen only for 11 hours.

Bhakta Kumar Rai is told to have achieved ‘Supreme Master Godangel’ wh
en he was 18 years old. His followers in countries like Nepal, India, Hong Kong, Britain and Malaysia regard him as a messenger of God to earth to spread peace and eradicate poverty.

The news update of the Heavenly Path website says:

Heavenly Path would like to informed you all that Supreme Master Godangel has been arrived at Base Camp in 6 hrs 20 minutes leaving behind all the Sherpas after 32 hrs of Prayer, Meditation and Request for the World at the Top of the World…

Sanchita Luitel shows off her pregnant belly

Posted on by Anand Nepal

The actress Sanchita Luitel, who ran away with a married (not divorced) actor Nikhil Upreti to Mumbai and lived together for about a year has come back to Nepal after she got pregnant. She was told to be living in Nikhil’s village home in remote place of Sarlahi. Now, moviesnepal.com reports that she has come to Kathmandu and is proudly showing off her swollen belly.

There was no formal marriage ceremony between Sanchita and Nikhil. In contrast to Nikhil who told about his secret marriage to Sanchita, Nikhil’s wife Kopila Upreti had repeatedly denied the marriage between Nikhil and Sanchita.

But, it is an open secret that they had lived together for more than a year in Mumbai. In Mumbai, she had tried to get in the Indian movie industry without any success.

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Is it a Dance move ?

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Seen in the photo below are comedy actor Gopal Fiste and actress Sushma Karki doing some sort of dance move. The photographer Shridhar Poudel of Nayapatriaka captured the strange moves of Gopal Fiste.

The photo was taken in the party of comedy actor Nirmal Sharma, who had thrown the party for the brathaband of his son. Dinesh DC is seen dancing on the right side of the photo. More photos from the party follows:

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