Brain-drain, a problem to Nepal?

brain-drain In a latest news, a modern ICU facility was set-up in Kanti Bal Hospital. Thanks to Dr. Sangita Basnet and other Nepali living in the US, a 6 bed new natal ICU and a 6 bed pediatric ICU were being constructed since 2006 and are finished recently. It is a good example on what Nepali living abroad can do to help Nepal and its prosperity.

The issue of brain drain and loss of labor force to foreign countries have been talked a lot within Nepal and out of Nepal. The US, India,China,Bangladesh, Singapore, Russia, Australia, Canada, Germany, UK have been some of many places Nepali go for further studies. Nepali going to the labor market of Middle East, Eastern Asia and other countries are told to be underpaid and usually return back after a certain period. But the question on weather they are impacting the Nepalese development and well-being is still questioned in spite of the country’s economy driven by their revenue. Nepali students and workers in developed countries generally try to settle in the host country. They tend to turn deaf ears to some well wishers’ plea to return the cream of the country back to Nepal.

It is one’s right to choose where he/she lives. And the government and politicians have failed to create an environment to lure foreign bound citizens back to the country. The issue of dual citizenship is highly debated – will the ones who left the country benefit from it or the country will benefit from it. The NRNs will get mental benefit of not loosing their original citizenship and the country will get the material benefit from their financial capabilities. We can’t really put them in a scale and measure/compare the benefits. But I think whoever benefits, it is a win-win situation although not many people agree with me.

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Challenging Mt. Everest at old age

Looks like Mt. Everest is the only place for Nepali to break records. Last month Appa Sherpa broke his own record of 18 accents by climbing it for the 19th time. I don’t know if it is already logged in the Guinness World Records but there are other attempts related to Mt. Everest waiting to be recorded in the book.

min bahadur serchan On 25 May 2008 Min Bahadur Sherchan reached the top of Mt. Everest at the age of 76 and he is waiting to get entry as the oldest person to climb the peak the World Record book. I hope it will occur before Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay climb the peak at the age of 80. Well, Min Bahadur, born in 1931 (1988 BS), won’t rest either; he is planning to climb it again before he turns 84. Sherchan, has broken the earlier record set by a 71-year-old Japanese man named Kat Katsusuke Yanagisawa, a school teacher, who climbed the Everest the previous year.

Let’s wish all the best to Sherchan for his effort to climb the highest peak and enter in the world record book.

1 more addition to 863 species of birds in Nepal

Daurian Redstart Recently, a team of Nepalese ornithologists studying birds of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) have identified a new bird species for Nepal known as the Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus). That adds up to a whooping 864 species of bird in such a small country.

The male bird has slate grey crown, nape and upper back while the center of back is black. It has black wings with prominent white patch while female bird is olive-brown in upper parts with tail and rump are rufous, a buffy eye ring and a distinct cream-colored wing patch. The under parts are generally fulvous to ochre-brown in color. Female of this bird is easily separated from females of other species by white wing patch.

Although this species may be a migratory species to Nepal, diverse geological setting of Nepal creates conductive environment to host many different species of lives. Many are listed as endangered ones and others are yet to be identified.

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Nepali riddles – Village Eating Stories

In Nepal we have strange, unique riddle games of words. A cryptic question is asked and if you can answer it correctly you can have your choice of village. That is how the game was named “Gau Khane Katha” which roughly translates into “Village eating story” :D.

Due to the nature of language and unique socio-cultural nature on which they are formulated most of the riddles can’t be translated into English — at least not with the aura they pose in their original form. Some examples of popular riddles are given below:

Wears clothes when small but lives naked when grown up. What’s it?  Continue reading

Mobile coverage to cover the top of the World

Climbers have been calling home from the top of Mt. Everest. But that involves satellite phone, bulky and costly cousin of mobile phones we carry in our pocket. Looks like future climbers can carry the phone they have been used-to to call  back home to share their moments of scaling the top of the world. 

Nepal’s largest telecom company, Nepal Telecom (NT), is going to extend its GSM and CDMA mobile coverage to Mt. Everest by the end of this year. A satellite antenna will be installed for the purpose in Gorak Shep, located at an altitude of 5,160 meters. This however won’t be the first satellite antenna installed in the Everest region. Certain areas of the mountain have had coverage for the past few years by seven other antennas in the region.

It is told that the antennas can smoothly handle 3,000 calls at once.

Looks like NT is inspired by the first ever mobile phone call from the summit in 2007.

Was having a crazy idea of yeti carrying a cell phone, while writing this post… hence the picture :) News source: myrepublica

Dog worship and walk in London

I talked about how Nepali people worship dogs in my previous post on Tihar. In a rare occasion, dogs were worshiped in UK and Duchess of Cornwall participated on the dog walk to support a Nepali organization.

To support Kathmandu Animal Treatment (KAT) center and Kathmandu Arts Centre, Nepal, Camilla Parker Bowles, the wife of Prince Charles, participated on a dog walk to help raise fund for Nepal’s stray dogs. Kathmandu Arts Center organized the event at Green Park in London on Nov. 8.

I wish I were there to witness the rare sight of 65 dogs wearing maala (garland) and tika on the London streets. (photo source)

Nepal ranks 11th major supplier of students to the US

According to the latest data released from the Institute of International Education (IIE), the students from Nepal to the US institutions have increased by 15.2% in 2007/08. Nepali students in the US cover about 1.4% of total foreign students. India tops the list with 15.2% followed by China with 13.0%. In the past year Nepal was ranked two points below at 13th rank with 7,754 students in American universities. Chart in Figure 1 compares the major suppliers of foreign students in the US with their percentage share and rankings with Nepal.

Figure 1: Foreign students in the US (2007/08).

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New Living Goddess in Nepal

The last Kumari, the Living Goddess, who retired recently was sort of a rebel in the age old Nepali tradition of worshiping little girls as goddess.

Amidst child right groups’ objection on the tradition itself, three and half year old Matina Shakya has become the new Kumari. She has become the first Kumari who was shown to the general public without being observed by the King. Traditionally Kings used to worship Kumari before she was shown to the public.
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Dangerous airport – 18 killed in a crash

The Lukla airport, (Tenzing-Hillary airport) in the eastern Nepal is considered one of the world’s most dangerous airports.

In today’s news, a Yeti Airlines plane crashed during landing at the airport killing at least 14 passengers, mostly tourists. It is told that the sole survivor is a Nepali passenger.

The airport is located at an elevation of 9,380ft (2,860m) and is popular with mountaineers and trekkers heading for expeditions in the Himalayas.

Following video shows how a plane lands and takes off in the airport (it’s not a crash video!).

Beijing Olympic 2008 – Much Ado About Nepali Flag

I argued about Nepali Flag to be one of the top flag design owing to its uniqueness and beauty. But not only the Yard Flags think otherwise, the Chinese Olympic committee was unsure on what to make up of the unique flag. They had to call a professor in vexillology to assurance that the flag of Nepal meets the requirements for this international event and is in fact a proper flag!

After all, according to a high Chinese official, the flag ‘looks a little unusual, it has a tattered look, ripped so to say.’ Also no one is sure which way is up. (fdrnepal)

It was nice to see the flag being carried in the opening ceremony of the Olympic 2008 arena. I wish good luck to the eight member Nepali player team for medal in the games. Have nothing to say for the unnecessary, irrelevant, scandalous 28 member official team (About the team in Nepali language blog).

13 year old Kid rescued a toddler

Heroic act of a 13 year Kid, Kamal Nepali, saved the life of a two and half years old Aradhana Pradhan who fell into the gorge of Seti River in Pokhara, Nepal.

Aradhana fell some 60 meters into the Seti River gorge while she was following her father who was going towards the Seti River.

Several rescue attempts by the Military People, Armed Police Force, and the local people went in vain. Even a A rescue squad from the Franch Embassy in Kathmandu was also sent to aid the rescue operation. It was because the gorge was dark and too small to go in for the rescue squad the rescue squad couldn’t rescue the toddler.

Kamal Nepali volunteered himself to make an attempt to rescue the girl by crawling into the gorge with ropes attached to him. He was a small kid so he could reach places adults couldn’t get in.

Finally, the little girl was rescued 22 hours after she fell down the gorge. She was rushed to the local hospital after her rescue. She had suffered only minor bruises, but was kept in hospital to check whether she sustained internal injuries.

The incident made headlines and Nepal is Nepali was awarded various prizes. More photos of the incident in phokharacity.

Former king of Nepal handed over his crown to the government

In a historic declaration, Nepal was converted to a newest republic of modern time. The former king was told to leave the palace within 15 days and he has left the palace within the given time frame. Before he left he delivered a lengthy press statement, in which he told that he has no plans to leave the Himalayan country, amongst a huge crowd of press personals.

The former king Gyanendra Shah Wednesday relinquished the crown and Narayanhiti palace to move to the western outskirts of the capital, to the retreat at Nagarjun forest.

Before leaving the former palace of the Shah kings, he said that the country imagined and established 240-years ago by his ancestors is passing through a serious transitional phase and that he has no plans to leave the country. He also said the crown and sceptre has been handed over to the government for safekeeping.

As per the government’s decision, a total of 75 security personnel—50 Armed Police Force and 25 Nepal Army—will be providing security to Gyanendra.

The former King had been residing at the Narayanhiti palace after he ascended the throne in 2001 following a palace massacre in which a gunman, allegedly the then crown prince, assassinated King Birendra and other royal family members.

National Geographic writer Ian Baker accused of stealing statues of archaeological importance

A person claiming to be writer of National Geographic was found to be trading animal parts and statues of archaeological importance in Nepal.

41 years old Ian Baker, living in Nepal for the last 24 years, had stored statues of archaeological importance, vestiges of various wild animals including skin, skeleton and statues in his Baluwater residence. The police said 121 kinds of goods of archeological importance were seized from the two flats. According to the police, most of the idols, torans (embossed metal plates) and thankas were stolen from temples. The seized items include tiger skins, skeleton of tigers’ heads and other animals.

He escaped being arrested as he is told to be living in Bangkok these days. The house owner Rajesh Maharjan was arrested by the police for the investigation.

This site tells that Baker :  Continue reading