It is clear Mechai Viravaidya still doesn’t expect much from Thailand’s politicians.

In the walkway up to his lush and cosy Birds & Bees resort in Pattaya are sound bites etched in wood that read like grafitti: ‘Don’t Steal, The Government Doesn’t like Competition’, ‘Forgive the Rabbits for Digging Hole, They Are Digging for Gold, Like Our Politicians’.

Meeting him not long ago at Birds & Bees, I had told Mechai if he thought Thai politicians were corrupt, he should check out Nepali netas. He had replied that the roots of bad governance and graft are the same everywhere. Lack of accountability stemmed from a flawed electoral system in which cheats usually win, and is followed by institutionalised impunity when they get to power.

Mechai’s distrust of politicians comes from his stint in government in 1992, when he had to battle the country’s image as a sex tourism destination. If it hadn’t been for his enormously successful family planning program in the 1980s and the spread of condom use, the AIDS epidemic in Thailand would have been much worse.

‘Mechai’ therefore became synonymous with ‘condom’ in Thailand, but today the economist-turned-social entrepreneur is better known for heading the country’s largest philanthropic organisation, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA). The non-profit now directly benefits 10 million Thais and received the 2007 Gates Award for Global Health for its AIDS work. PDA has almost completely weaned itself from foreign donors and generates its own revenue through partnerships with the private sector and autonomous businesses like the Birds & Bees resort and a restaurant chain called Cabbages & Condoms.

Khun Mechai

The money is ploughed into Mechai’s work with skills development, women’s employment schemes and health. Mechai calls it the “privatisation of poverty reduction”, and explains that the growing gap between rich and poor is the biggest threat to Thailand.

Another one of Mechai’s favourite signs at Birds & Bees is ‘Capitalism is the uneven distribution of wealth, communism is the even distribution of poverty’ and it stands just at the point where the path through the forest divides into one that says ‘Capitalism’ and another that says ‘Communism’.

Through another non-profit that he set up, the Thailand Business Initiative in Rural Development, Mechai has convinced 150 of Thailand’s biggest companies to help villages with managerial and marketing skills for their products. Dozens of villages, especially in northeastern Thailand, have completely come out of poverty.

“The only way out of poverty is through business and not through prayer or charity,” Mechai explains.

Through his decades in development, Mechai has come to the conclusion that the most effective way to redress the income gap is to provide the same opportunity for all Thais and this he says is only possible through free quality education for the poor.

Income from Birds & Bees, for example, all goes to Lampaimart Pattana School in Buri Ram Province, which Mechai is principal of, and gives children hands-on learning and has been graded one of the best schools in Thailand.

Condom decoration at the Birds & Bees Restaurant this week in Pattaya.

A recent evaluation showed Lampaimart Pattana is as good as the many international schools for expats in Thailand, but costs less than a government school. After starting out in family planning and launching a national condom campaign, then branching off into anti-AIDS work, Mechai’s mission is now poverty reduction through community empowerment through business and education.

I had once asked Mechai in Pattaya if he knew his surname in Sanskrit meant ‘Brave Doctor’, he’d said he knew it had something to do with medicine but that he was “neither brave nor a doctor”. In an interview during a visit to Nepal back in 2001 for an AIDS conference, Mechai had said about combating HIV: “You have to push, politicians will not do it naturally. And foreigners can’t do it, Nepalis will have to do it themselves.”

That advice seems more relevant than ever before, and not just for AIDS prevention.

See also:

Thailand’s Mr Condom comes to Kathmandu
http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2001/05/25/Nation/8518

The NGO business
http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2004/04/09/EconomicSense/3519

6 Comments         

If I wasn’t a journalist, I’d sure love to have Rohit Ranjitkar’s job.

I meet Rohit amidst the scaffolded Sundari Chok at Patan Darbar. He has a large book in one hand with original photographs, and he is directing craftsmen as they painstakingly clean and repair the historic courtyard.

Sundari Chok was built by King Siddhi Narsingh Malla 360 years ago as part of his ‘office’ where he received visitors. The sunken Tusha Hiti royal stepwell with its pantheon of stone deities is one of the most exquisite legacies of the Malla period in the Kathmandu Valley. It has survived five major earthquakes, and while the palaces and temples around it collapsed in heaps of rubble Sundari Chok survived nearly intact for nearly four centuries, and still inspires awe and reverence among those who visit it today.

Sundari Chok has been used by the nearby police post as a dormitory and was closed to the public from 1993 on. Last year Rohit’s Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (www.kvptnepal.org) finally got permission from the Department of Archaeology to start renovating the courtyard with the sunken shrine and the Patan Royal Palace complex around it.

This is the crown jewel of the Kathmandu Valley’s Malla heritage; the wood and stone carvings of the deities reflect the craftsmanship and devotion of the past masters. You can tell Rohit is completely passionate about his job, and is not rattled by the lethargic bureaucracy and the apathy of officials he has to deal with.

“I focus on the job at hand, and remind myself everyday of the importance of what we are trying to do here,” Rohit tells me, “this heritage conservation work will remind future generations about our history and culture.”

There is an urgency to the work, too. Two of the bronze images inside the stepwell have been stolen. A bronze Durga disappeared 40 years ago, while the Laxmi Narayan with Garud that guarded the water spout was stolen just eight months ago. The other empty spaces that imply theft were in fact purposely left so to signify the souls of missing deities.

Rohit’s craftsmen fix the stone and bronze figures with concealed steel rods and cement so they can’t be moved. Besides the immediate danger of theft, there is the challenge of reviving the ancient stone and woodcraft that used to be passed down from generation to generation, but is now slowly dying out.

Says Rohit: “What amazes me is the talent and the devotion of the people who were responsible for building monuments like Sundari Chok. It is hard enough maintaining them, imagine how much more difficult it must have been to design and carve them from scratch?”

KVPT is involved in not just restoration, but also in reviving some of these ancient art forms. The craftsmen working in Sundari Chok are from Panga and Bhaktapur,  learnt stone carving from their fathers and grandfathers, and themselves train apprentices in restoration and carving.

Rohit compares archival photographs with the originals in the Sundari Chok to guide his restoration.

The bronze Laxmi Narayan from Mary Slusser’s photograph taken in 1968, and which was stolen in January.

The water nymphs are still present in this picture taken circa 1900.

Rohit points out the pre-and post-earthquake wooden images in the southwest corner of Sundari Chok.

Sundari Chok is an exquisite blend of brick, wood and stone and will be a major attraction to tourists and pilgrims alike when it opens in late 2011

The upper floors of the Chok are being renovated and will be integrated with Patan Museum.

Sundari Chok in scaffolding, and an overview of the Patan Royal Palace complex, with plastic sheets keeping the rain out of the restoration work.

2 Comments         

You read about climate change, you hear about glacial retreat. But it is not until you get up in the air that you get to see for yourself how real it is.

Not long ago, I had the chance to get up on Tara Air’s brand new Pilatus Porter with a Danish tv crew to take a one-hour flight from Lukla overflying the Upper Khumbu. I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from that vantage point:

1. Climbing up past Namche I got this extraordinary view of the Phunki Glacier which you don’t notice from the Everest trail because of foreshortening. The glacier has retreated so dramatically up Thamserku’s northern flank that you don’t even see it anymore, just the remains of the lateral moraines and the summit ice cap.

2. The Ama Dablam Glacier, one of the ‘tributaries’of the Lhotse Glacier, is now just a jumble of boulders, sand and melt pools. And there is green grass in the meadows behind the moraine walls!

3. A view from higher and further of the north wall of Ama Dablam with its glacier. The stream coming from left is Imja Khola as it finds its way through the moraine complex after leaving Imja Lake.

4. Below the north face of Ama Dablam are these small differently-coloured hanging lakes trapped after the ice retreated up the mountain.

5. The Imja Lake isn’t there in trekking maps of the region from the 1970s. Melting ice and snow in the catchment basin below Lhotse and Ama Dablam have now turned it into a lake nearly 2 km long, 1km wide and 100 m deep. Luckily its terminal moraine has been bolstered by the moraine wall of the Ama Dablam Glacier, so the danger of it bursting and unleashing a catastrophic flood is not as serious as in some other glacial lakes like Tso Rolpa in Rolwaling or Thulagi in Manaslu. Unless there is a major earthquake.

6. The Khumbu Glacier is retreating 50 m a year according to some estimates. At top centre is Everest Base Camp and the houses below left are Gorak Shep.

7. The emerald green of Chola Tso, a lake formed by the debris brought down by the Chola Glacier blocking off a side valley during a rapid advance, possible during the last mini-Ice Age. The Chola Glacier is now virtually extinct.

8. Looking straight down from 20,000 ft flying past the summit of Ama Dablam at an inky blue lake formed by collected ice melt that is perched precariously above the settlement of Dingboche.

As dramatic as these pictures are, we know climate change is not just about retreating glaciers. Ice and snow get the media spotlight, water is less glamorous and its depletion is less visible.

Only four per cent of the water in the Ganges comes from the melting of ice and snow in the Himalaya. The rest is monsoon runoff, or sourced from springs in the mountains. The Himalaya, therefore, is not just a frozen water tower but a gigantic sponge that absorbs rainwater and releases it slowly through the year.

We know climate change is melting the Himalayan permafrost, but how do erratic monsoons caused by climate change affect rainfall and the recharging of Himalayan aquifers? We need answers, and solutions to these problems. Time is running out.

11 Comments         

कुन चाहिँ पेशा सबैभन्दा बढी बदनाम छ भनेर केही वर्षगाडि अमेरिकामा एउटा मत-सर्वेक्षण गरेका थिए रे । नैतिक हिसाबले सबैभन्दा कमजोर मानिने वकिल रहेछन् । तर कानुन व्यवसायीहरूपछि सबैभन्दा अलोकप्रिय पत्रकारहरू नै परे ।

शायद नेपालमा पत्रकारहरू त्यति बदनाम नै भइसकेका छैनन् होला, तर हाम्रो सामूहिक चरित्र पनि त्यति आशाजनक छ भन्न सकिँदैन । हाम्रा पाठकहरूले हामी धेरैलाई गैरजिम्मेवार, घमण्डी, अरूलाई नगन्ने, नकारात्मक सोच राख्ने र भ्रष्ट भन्न रुचाउँछन् ।

यसो किन भयो ? यसलाई कसरी बदल्ने ? पत्रकार, पत्रिका र पत्रकारिता पढाउनेले के गर्नुपर्छ ? केही चाहिँ गर्नै पर्छ, किनभने हामीलाई थाहा छ, मिडिया बलिया भए मात्रै हाम्रो देशको लोकतन्त्रको जग बलियो हुन्छ । व्यक्तिगत स्वतन्त्रता र प्रेस स्वतन्त्रता एउटै सिक्काका दुई पाटा हुन् । प्रेस स्वतन्त्रता पत्रकारहरूको मात्र अधिकारको विषय होइन, हामी पत्रकारहरूले त जनताको सुसूचित हुने अधिकारलाई रक्षा मात्र गरेका हौं । हामीले त्यो अधिकार जति इमानदारी साथ पालना गर्छौ । त्यतिकै जनताको शासनलाई बलियो बनाउँछ र मिडियाकै विश्वसनीयता पनि बढ्छ । लोकतन्त्र बलियो भए मात्र विकास, न्याय र शान्तिलाई टेवा पुग्छ ।

स्वतन्त्र पत्रकारितालाई तीनतिरबाट प्रहार भएको अनुभव हामीमाझ छ । सत्ता पक्षबाट त पञ्चायतकालमा प्रजातन्त्रलाई जस्तै प्रेसमाथि पनि अङ्कुश लगाइएको थियो । तर २०४६ सालको प्रजातन्त्रको पुर्नर्बहालीपछि पनि सरकारी समाचारमाध्यमलाई प्रोपोगाण्डाको यन्त्रको रूपमा प्रयोग भयो । राजा ज्ञानेन्द्रको १९ माघको ‘कु’ पछि त झन् हुन्ताको मारमा परेर मिडिया ङ्याँकियो । सिपाहीहरू नै न्यूजरुमभित्र छिरेको यो नेपाली इतिहासमै पहिलो पटक होला । माओवादीहरू निर्वाचित भएर सरकारमा आउँदा पनि नेपालका राष्ट्रियस्तरका पत्रिकाहरू भौतिक कारबाहीमा परे जसरी पहिले जिल्लाका पत्रकारहरू परेका थिए । तर मिडियाले अर्का किसिमको सेन्सरसीप पनि भोग्नुपरको छ, त्यो हो अत्यधिक व्यापारीकरणबाट पत्रपत्रिका, टिभी र रेडियोमा आउने विकृति । धेरै वर्षम्मको प्रजातन्त्र र प्रेस स्वतन्त्रताको अभ्यास भएका मुलुकहरू (जस्तै भारत र अमेरिका) पनि अति-व्यापारीकरणको प्रभावबाट बचेका छैनन् । तेस्रो चुनौती भनेको सेल्फ-सेन्सरसीप हो, जुन अहिले नेपालको मिडियामा व्यापक छ भन्नर्पर्छ । अहिलेको सङ्क्रमणकालमा दण्डहीनताको प्रकोप र विधिको शासन फितलो छ र राजनीतिक तरलताले सरकारविहीन अवस्था छ । यस्तो बेलामा पत्रकारहरू नै निशाना बनेका छन् । राजनीतिको अपराधीकरण र अपराधीहरूको राजनीतिकरणले गर्दा पत्रकारहरूलाई कसले मार्‍यो, अपहरण गर्‍यो, धम्क्यायो भन्न सक्ने अवस्था नहुँदा पत्रकारहरूले व्यक्तिगत सुरक्षाको लागि नै सबै तथ्य सम्प्रेषण गर्न चाहँदैनन् । पेशागत जोखिमले समाज नै ग्रस्त भएको बेला यो मिडियालाई मात्र खतरा बढेको पक्कै होइन, तर पत्रकारहरू फ्रन्टलाइनमा परेका चाहिँ हुन् ।

यस्तो परिस्थितिमा हामीले कसरी पत्रकारितालाई बचाउने र राष्ट्रको चौथो अङ्गको रूपमा खडा गर्ने – सङ्क्रमणकालमा राष्ट्रका अरू तीन अङ्गहरू (कार्यपालिका, व्यवस्थापिका र न्यायपालिका) कमजोर हुन्छन्, त्यसबेला मिडियाको भूमिका अझै महत्त्वपुर्ण हुन्छ । तर यस्तै बेला मिडियामा बढी व्यापारीकरण देखियो, सेल्फ-सेन्सरसीप भयो अथवा पत्रकारहरूलाई तालिम पुगेन र स्तरहीन र सनसनीपुर्ण सामग्री मात्र सम्प्रेषण हुन थाल्यो भने लोकतन्त्र नै धरापमा पर्न सक्छ । विकासको सट्टा विनास ल्याउँछ  ।

अहिले हाम्रो जस्तो मुलुकमा एउटा नयाँखालको पत्रकारिताको खाँचो छ । पश्चिमा मुलुकहरूका मिडिया-नियमहरू हामीकहाँ सबै सान्दर्भिक हुँदैनन् । तर पुर्वी एसियामा देखिने प्रेसमाथिको दमन र सरकारको गुणगान मात्रै गर्ने मिडिया पनि हामीले भोगिसक्यौँ र त्यो पनि चाहिएको छैन ।

यो नयाँखालको पत्रकारिता कस्तो हुनुपर्ला ? अहिलेको युद्धपछिको समाजमा त पहिले देशलाई हिंसा र द्वन्द्वबाट मुक्त गर्ने खालको रिपोर्टिङ चाहिएको छ । सङ्क्रमणकालमा जहिले पनि र जहाँ पनि समाधानमूलक पत्रकारिता चाहिन्छ, विकसित र राजनीतिक स्थिरता भएको देशको जस्तो पत्रकारिता हामीकहाँ प्रत्युत्पादक हुन्छन् । झगडियाहरूको मात्र समाचार बन्ने, जसले बढी उग्र कुरा गर्‍यो, जसले बढी करायो, उप्रियो, उसैको कुरा हेडलाइन हुने हो भने हामीकहाँ राजनीतिका झगडा र खिचातानीको कहिल्यै अन्त्य हुँदैन । पत्रकारले मात्र गरेर नेताहरू झगडा गर्न पक्कै छाड्दैनन्, तर अहिले पत्रकारिताले त्यस्तैलाई प्राथमिकता दिएकाले गर्दा मिडिया नै यो समस्या बनेको चाहिँ हो ।

अहिले नेपाली पत्रकारिताको चुनौती र दायित्व जनतालाई नकारात्मक सोच र नैरास्यताबाट माथि उठाउनु र शासक वर्ग र नीतिनिर्माताहरूलाई उत्तरदायी र जिम्मेवारीबोध गराउनु हो । हालका पत्रकारहरूलाई बदल्न गाह्रो होला तर भावी पुस्तालाई हामीले उच्चस्तरको मिडिया र सञ्चारको पढाइ र पत्रकारिताको तालिम दिलाउनुपर्छ ।

अहिले नेपालमा पत्रकारिता “कसरी” गर्ने मात्र होइन कि पत्रकारिता “किन” गर्ने भन्ने कुरा मिडिया पाठ्यक्रममा चाहिएको छ । मलाई पूरा विश्वास छ कि यसले नेपालमा पत्रकारिताको पठनपाठनको प्रवृत्तिले एउटा नयाँ आयाममा प्रवेश गर्नेछ र यसले लोकतन्त्र र समृद्धि पनि ल्याउने छ ।

10 Comments         

Nagarik Dail / www.nagariknews.com/ 26 July 2010

Wake me up when we have a new prime minister. Three weeks after the prime minister resigned, one week before the third round of parliamentary election to find his successor things are stuck again. On Sunday, closed door meetings between the NC, UML, Madhesi front and Maoists were once more deadlocked.

The NC can’t command a majority without the support of the Madhesi front and the UML, while the Maoists can’t come to power without Madhesi support. The Madhesis want either the NC or the Maoists to first give it to them in writing that they support One Madhes One Pradesh, a more inclusive Nepal Army and a stop to logging in the Tarai. If the Maoists give that, they’ll be home free.

However, even if the NC signs on the dotted line, it will also have to get the UML’s support. The UML itself is hopelessly split between the Oli camp which wants a coalition with the NC and the Jhalanath camp which wants to get into bed with the Maoists.

So, what does the 2 August bode for us? Actually most Nepalis are past caring. The vox pop coming in from callers all over the country to FM studio discussions harp on one thing and one thing only: when will our netas give up their greed and lust for power and get on with constitution writing and longterm peace-building?

The Madhesis and UML say they will remain neutral. What they really mean is “what’s in it for us, what portfolios will you give us if we join your coalition?” And this week you can be sure the bargaining will be intense for the lucrative ministries. It’s a Hobson’s choice between:

a) a party bent on totalitarian control of the state, which doesn’t believe in non-violent politics and for whom all this is just a tactical move in their goal of declaring a people’s republic, and
b) a corrupt and visionless party that has shown since 1990 that it doesn’t much care for the long term future of the country and which has neither the will nor the capacity to control corruption, but which believes in pluralistic non-violent politics

It won’t depend on ideology, of course, it will be the simple arithmetic of the House. If you really come to think of it, this is fairly easy to fix. Before the prime minister resigned, Pushpa Kamal Dahal wanted his resignation. Now, all he needs to do is keep his end of the bargain and fulfil the No. 1 point in the May 28 agreement: a time-bound commitment to implement past agreements on renouncing violence, behaving like a mainstream pluralistic party, giving up its politics of violence and intimidation, disbanding the YCL.

If Dahal can convince his own party that it is now ready to cross the Rubicon, as it were, he’s in. And if that happens, Poudel can throw in the towel and we can have a Maoist-led government. And even the Indians may not mind.

But, of course, this is not going to happen because it needs our leaders to show common sense, integrity and accountability.

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From himalkhabar.com

करिब तीन साताअघि माल्दिभ्सको बान्डोस टापुमा आयोजित जलवायुसम्बन्धी अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय गोष्ठीको उद्घाटनपछि राष्ट्रपति मोहमद नासिद अरू सहभागीसँगै चिया–कफीको लाइनमा उभिएर चार–पाँच मिनेट लाइनमा कुरेर कफी लिएपछि पत्रकारहरूको झुण्डमा मिसिन आइपुगे। नेपालबाट अघिल्लो दिन मात्रै त्यहाँ पुगेको यो पङ्क्तिकारलार्ई त्यो दृश्य अलि अचम्मलाग्दो थियो। 

जलवायु परिवर्तनको कारण र असर सम्बन्धमा नासिदको जानकारी वैज्ञानिक, वातावरणविद् अथवा समाजशास्त्रीको जत्तिकै गहिरो र घतलाग्दो थियो। उनले आफ्नो देशका समस्या र भविष्यमा आइलाग्ने चुनौती सामना गर्न लिइएका नीति र कदमहरूबारे अर्थ्याएको सुन्दा प्रभावित नहुने कोही थिएनौं। मसँगै उभिएका एक श्रीलङ्काली पत्रकारले पछि भनेः “हामीकहाँ यस्ता सरल र सक्षम नेताहरू कहिले जन्मने होलान्?” मनमनै म पनि नेपालको बारेमा त्यही प्रश्नको उत्तर खोजिरहेको थिएँ। 

पद बहाली हुनेवित्तिकै पहिले आफ्नै सुविधा, सम्मान, गाडी, भत्ता आदिको चिन्ता गर्ने नेताहरू हामीले थुप्रै भोग्यौं। यो मामिलामा, पञ्चायतकालका पञ्च र २०४६ सालपछिका झ्गडिया नेताहरू होऊन् या त्यसपछिका क्रान्तिकारी― कोही फरक देखिएनन्। हाम्रा नेताहरूमा लाइन नमिचिकन चिया लिने, एयरपोर्टमा भीआईपी कक्ष नताकी अरूले भोगेकै सुविधा–असुविधा उपयोग गर्दै हिँड्ने चेत पलाउन एउटा नयाँ सभ्यताकै उदय हुनुपर्ने हो कि जस्तो लाग्छ!
नासिदले आफूभन्दा अगाडिका राष्ट्रपति गयुमले बनाएको भव्य राष्ट्रपति भवनलाई माल्दिभ्सको सर्वाेच्च अदालतमा परिणत गरिदिएछन्। कार्यकारी राष्ट्रपतिको कार्यालयको वार्षिक बजेट ४ करोड डलरबाट २० लाख डलरमा झ्ारेर बचत भएको रकम स्वास्थ्य मन्त्रालयलाई दिएछन्। एउटा प्रसङ्गमा राष्ट्रपति नासिद पत्रकारहरूमाझ् भन्दैथिए, “इमानदारी र समानता माथिबाटै शुरु हुनुपर्छ। म चाहन्छु― मेरो सरकारले जनताले तिरेको कर खेर फाल्ने र दुरुपयोग गर्ने काम नगरोस्।”

नासिद १० वर्ष अगाडिसम्म पत्रकार र मानवअधिकारकर्मी थिए। गयुमले उनलाई सात वर्ष जेलमा थुनेर देशनिकाला गरे। सन् १९९६ मा कोलम्बोमा भेटिँदा उनी माल्दिभ्समा कुनै दिन लोकतन्त्र ल्याएरै छोड्ने कुरामा विश्वस्त थिए। नभन्दै सन् २००८ को निर्वाचन माल्दिभ्स डेमोक्रेटिक पार्टी (एमडीपी)ले जित्यो र उनी राष्ट्रपति बने। माल्दिभ्सको नयाँ संविधान अनुसार राष्ट्रपति र उपराष्ट्रपति बाहेक सरकारका कुनै पनि मन्त्री पार्टीका कार्यकर्ता हुँदैनन्। राष्ट्रपति नासिदले आफ्नो मन्त्रिपरिषद् ‘टेक्नोक्र्याट’ले भरेका छन्। गत हप्ता माल्दिभ्सको पूरै मन्त्रिपरिषद्ले नैतिकताको आधारमा सामूहिक राजिनामा दिएको थियो, विपक्षीहरू हावी भएको संसद्बाट नयाँ कानून ल्याउन नदिएको विरोधमा। तर बुधबार नासिदले पूरै क्याबिनेटलाई पुनर्बहाली गरे। 

बान्डोस सम्मेलनमा नासिदले सन् २०२० सम्ममा माल्दिभ्स कार्बन उत्सर्जन नगर्ने (कार्बन न्यूट्रल) देश बन्ने र फ्रिज तथा कोल्डस्टोरमा प्रयोग हुने ‘एचसीसीएफ’ ग्यासमाथि प्रतिबन्ध लगाउने घोषणा गरे। माल्दिभ्स जस्तो माछा र पर्यटन उद्योगमा निर्भर देशका निम्ति यस्तो लक्ष्य प्राप्त गर्न कम चुनौतीपूर्ण छैन। तर नासिद भन्छन्, “हो, यो गर्न कठिन छ र हामीले गर्ने यस्ता कामबाट मात्र पृथ्वीलाई बचाउन पनि सकिँदैन। तर हाम्रो जस्तो सानो मुलुक; जसको अस्तित्वलाई नै जलवायु परिवर्तनले सङ्कटमा पारेको छ– ले नै केही गरेर देखाउनुपर्छ।”

कुराकानी सिद्धिएपछि राष्ट्रपति नासिद पत्रकारहरूसँगै सडकसम्म आएर हात मिलाएर टुकुटुकु हिँड्दै नजिकै रहेको आफ्नो कार्यालयतिर लागे। उनी चढ्ने ठूलो कालो गाडी छेउको पार्किङमै रहिरह्यो। धनी मुलुक र भारत, चीन जस्ता देशले कोइला, डिजल र पेट्रोलको खपत कम गरेनन् भने आगामी ७० वर्षमा पृथ्वीको तापक्रम वृद्धिसँगै समुद्रको सतह एक मिटरले बढ्ने विज्ञहरूको अनुमान छ। त्यतिबेला माल्दिभ्स जस्ता कैयौं टापु देश पूरै जलमग्न हुनेछन्। त्यसैले नै माल्दिभ्स वातावरणका लागि हानिकारक खनिज इन्धन (फोसिल फ्यूल) को उपयोग कटौती गर्ने विश्व अभियानलाई नेतृत्व प्रदान गर्न अग्रसर भएको छ।

विश्वव्यापी जलवायु परिवर्तनको असरबाट नेपाल पनि अछुतो छैन। अबको ५० वर्षमा नेपालका धेरै हिमनदी पग्लिसक्ने छन्। नेपालले पनि माल्दिभ्सको सिको गर्दै गत वर्ष सगरमाथाको फेदीमा मन्त्रिपरिषद् बैठक गरेर थोरै भए पनि विश्वको ध्यान आकर्षण गर्न सफल भयो। तर हाम्रा यस्ता काम भाषण, नारा र अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय गोष्ठीमै सीमित छन्। नेपालले खनिज इन्धनको बढ्दो खपत नियन्त्रण गर्न सकेन भने भारतसँगको व्यापार घाटा आउँदा वर्षहरूमा चर्को दरमा बढ्दै जाने र त्यसले गर्दा नेपालमा भारतको राजनीतिक प्रभाव अरू विस्तारित हुने खतरा टड्कारो भइरहेको छ। त्यसैले, पृथ्वीलाई जोगाउन भन्दा पनि नेपालले आफ्नै अर्थतन्त्र र आफैंलाई जोगाउन पनि आयातीत तेलमाथिको निर्भरता घटाएर जलविद्युत् र नवीकरणीय ऊर्जा स्रोतलाई प्रोत्साहन गर्नुको विकल्प देखिँदैन।
तर त्यसनिम्ति आवश्यक नीतिनिर्माण र निर्णय गर्न सक्ने सरकार, त्यसलाई कार्यान्वयन गर्न सक्ने राज्य संयन्त्र अनि त्यसका लागि नभई नहुने राष्ट्रिय सहमति र राजनीतिक इच्छाशक्ति भएको नेतृत्व खोई हामीसँग? तीन लाख जनसङ्ख्या भएको माल्दिभ्सले नासिद जस्तो नेता पाइसक्यो। तर त्यस्तै नेता पाउन तीन करोड जनसङ्ख्या भएको नेपालले अरू कति कुर्नुपर्ला?   

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There isn’t a media conference these days where the subject doesn’t wind back to online vs offline journalism. Usually the debate is polarised between those who accuse ‘hardcopy hardliners’ of being fossil dinosaurs, and traditional hacks who think citizen journalists are impostors.

Till recently, I confess, I was a skeptic. The digital divide globally and within our countries made the debate only theoretical for us in developing countries. Before we stick computers into a classroom, I argued, how about making sure it has a roof first? What’s the point of ‘leapfrogging’ to computer literacy when schools don’t have textbooks, teachers are often absent and school kids suffer from chronic malnutrition?

These arguments are still valid, and some of them have been levelled at initiatives like ‘One Laptop Per Child’. Nepal’s internet penetration rate is 5 per cent, but a survey showed 20 per cent had used the internet in the last three months. According to a BBC Trust poll in 2007, nearly 80 per cent of those using the internet accessed it from cybercafés, mostly to check emails, and stayed online for only 1-2 hours a week. But things are changing rapidly because of the online application process for the US visa lottery, and with 17 per cent of Nepalis living and working abroad at any given time, VOIP and chats have spread the use of the internet.

But how much potential is there for online journalism? Till a few years ago I was a hardcore hardcopy guy. Now, some Nepali FM stations have more listeners downloading broadcasts from the net than tuning in through the radio. If you miss the BBC Nepali service at 8:45 PM you can listen to it at your leisure online, although you may have to wait a while for the full download in Nepal because of low bandwidth. When Nepali Times started in May 2000, it was online for the first two months before the first hardcopy edition came out in July and today, we have more readers online than in print.

At a recent media conference in Hong Kong, panelists for a session on the sustainability of online journalism listed the pros and cons. There was the familiar listing of the minus points of online journalism:

- citizen journalists lack training and this hurts the credibility of the content
- the information surplus makes it difficult to find relevant information
- any Tom, Dick or Hari can do blogs
- readers visit sites they agree with, leading to ideological ghettoisation
- content is prone to misuse for defamation
- not ‘mass media’ but ‘individuated media’

The plus points were also familiar:

- digital, multimedia content
- interactive
- dynamic updates, deadlines meaningless
- end of geography
- the medium levels the playing field

Most panelists agreed that neither side was right, nor wrong. The consensus was that online media is like a tiger, and if you don’t ride it, it will gobble you up. Just as radio before the advent of tv was different from radio after tv, newspapers too have to adapt to survive. The newspapers of the internet age have to change hardcopy content in order to complement news portals, their online editions have to separate products and not be treated like an afterthought where paper content is dumped. Content has to be written to contribute to a pool of knowledge of the subject that updates past coverage and will itself need updating in real time.

Online news sites do not compete against each other for eyeballs, but together they compete against social networking sites. An average reader of a news site in the US spends only 2-8 minutes a month there, but they spend at least 7 hours a month on Facebook alone. Readers are no longer reading an entire newspaper from start to finish, they pick and chose what they like to read online and preprogram their computers to do the sorting for them.

There are many examples of newspapers and magazines that have adapted their hardcopy editions to the internet age (The Economist, by making its paper copy complement online information, has overtaken Time and Newsweek in North America in circulation) or launched award-winning sites (The Guardian) that are now far ahead of the hardcopy in terms of readership.

The critical issue is revenue. The consensus in Hong Kong was that very few news outlets can get away with charging for content, and the only models that work are with financial magazines. The hope is that ad revenue for online will pick up and ultimately overtake the paper edition. But for the foreseeable future in Nepal, the income must still come from selling the hardcopy and the space in it to pay for the online editions.

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