"You are Fired!"

I will take the finance secretary at his word when he says that the decision to resign was his own. However, reading between the lines, it is clear that he was pressured to leave because of his differences with the leadership at the ministry. This unjustifiable pressure that is all too common in Nepali state of affairs, so much so that people have grown accustomed to, is very disruptive and detrimental to long-term planning and policy implementation, not to mention the economic health of the nation. This incident highlights what the political tradition in Nepal has been and continues to be. The system is brutal to people that are qualified but do not necessarily share the minister’s viewpoint. Pressure to resign and transfers to different districts (saruwa) of qualified individuals, when the government changes are not unheard of. In fact, it is expected! This process not only creates inefficiencies in the bureaucratic process but hinders nation’s progress.
What can be done about this? Well, I think this is a problem that is deeply rooted in the system that we have in place. When you have a system that allows unqualified (in terms of training) MPs to become the leaders of ministries that they do not have much understanding of, married with the eminent threat of their government collapsing, one cannot expect anything other than an individual who is interested in maximizing his/her personal interest. So, my solution would be to adopt a new system—a system where the leader of the country has to be elected by the entire nation, a system where the leader has a term requirement and gets to appoint their own cabinet, a system where MPs cannot be the heads of ministries but only represent the constituency that elected them and fight for their cause.

Youth & Politics in Nepal

One might have heard of Gagan Thapa as a "rising star" of Nepali Congress. However, I have never heard of his name in an influential position in Nepal other than as a young aspiring leader (for the last 10 years!). This, in my view, is mainly due to the type of political system that we have which strongly favors the party elites--but that's a discussion for another day.
I was curious about Mr. Thapa and wanted to learn more about his views, so I did what anyone would do, I googled him. I came across the interview (posted below) which he gave to Fireside. The interview does not shed much light on his political philosophies or on any ideas that he might have about Nepal's development. It does, however, focus on the state of the political affairs in Nepal. At the end of the interview I found myself in agreement with Mr. Thapa.
Now, it would be interesting to learn about his ideas on how to solve the issues he points to and move the country forward.



Part II   &  Part III

Chautari Lecture

My good friend Kerry Brown is giving a talk at Martin Cahutari, Kathmandu on "Contextualizing Art in the Kathmandu Valley." If you are lucky to be in the valley early this week make sure to attend this exciting talk.


Photo by Kerry Lucinda Brown, 2011. All rights reserved.

Here are the details:

Mangalbare Discussion Series (Tuesday), 3pm
29 March 2011/ 15 Chait 2067
Art Discussion Series
Contextualizing Art in the Kathmandu Valley
Kerry Lucinda Brown, Fulbright Scholar, PhD Candidate, Art History Department
Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia USA

"Maoist Twist"

Here is a dance video (Maoist style) of Pushpa Dahal to entertain you on this Friday! Have a good weekend.

“Good (Eats) Reads”

• NepaliKeti points out (and I agree) the sexism surrounding Holi--the festival of water and colors. 
• Pradeep Kumar Singh, NepaliBlogger, sheds some light on late Krishna Prasad Bhattarai's life and career
• Ramesh Deshar discusses the plight of the Nepali migrant workers
• Prateebha Tuladhar points to the blogs as an escape for women
• Mukesh Khanal looks at the issues surrounding Nepal’s youth unemployment and remedies
• The Economist discusses the regional income inequality

"Kukhuree Kan" III

The news media continues to report on the growth of the poultry sector in Nepal. This time they are attributing the increase to the rise in consumption-- coming mostly from the record level arrival of tourists in the country.

Despite protracted power cuts and adverse industrial climate, the country´s poultry sector is set to register an impressive growth of 24 percent, recording turnover of over Rs 41 billion during the current fiscal year 2010/11, shows a projection report. --MyRepublica

It will be interesting to see how the sector copes with the increasing cost of feed and volatile supply of energy. As local farms start to grow these issues will seem paramount and vital to their existence. Also, the poultry entrepreneurs need to focus their attention on the supply chain--not just upstream but also downstream-- to stay competitive and flourish. 

Kiss The Pig

A couple of my students, who are members of the honor society PTK, are working on a fundraising project titled "Kiss The Pig." There will be small piggy-banks with pictures of various faculty and staff placed at the student center for about a week. The campus community will 'vote' to pick the person they would like to see kiss a pig (literally!) by inserting money into the piggy-bank with the person's picture. The event lasts for about a week and people can participate as many times as they would like by voting with their money. Everyday, the students count the 'votes' and put out a running tally for all participants. The winner and the loser (last place) has to kiss a pig from a local farm during an event (Spring Fling--3rd Wk of April) on campus. Last year the club raised about $1,000, which they donated to a women's shelter in Fort Collins, CO. This year the students are donating the raised funds to the Kasthamandap Rotary to be used for renovating a school in Dhankutta, Nepal. I have decided to participate in the event and I hope to kiss the pig!

Will provide an update as the process moves forward.

update # 1: some of you wanted to support this effort and wanted to see me kiss the pig!  If you are interested in supporting this effort, please send me an e-mail listed under my profile and I will send you information on how to support. Remember, just $10 (Cost of 2 Venti Soy Latte With No Whip) will go a long way in Nepal.  

Here's One For All Nepali Women!

On this 100th anniversary of International Women's Day I could not think of any other Nepali woman who stands as tall as Anuradha Koirala. Not only has she dedicated her life to an important social cause, she has made lasting impact on many women's lives, and has healed many scars! Thank You!

"Curry In A Hurry!"

Here is a video that might be interesting to any student of supply-chain/logistics!

"Ivy Itch"

The return on investment (ROI) of expensive schools, especially when it comes to prestigious business schools, has been of interest as tuition continues to increase. Ranking of ROI from Bloomberg Businessweek shows that top ranked business schools like Harvard, Sloan and Rotman fall down the ranks when ranked based on ROI, while many 2nd Tier schools make it to the top 50.

A new study by Stacy Dale (Mathematica Policy Research) and Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University) sheds some light on the long term earnings of students of highly selective colleges. Specifically, they look to see whether “attending a highly selective college make much difference in a student’s average earnings after college.” They find that there was “no appreciable financial payoff for attending the most-selective colleges.” There were some exceptions—e.g. “Black and Hispanic students did appear to get an earnings boost.”

So there is much more to think about when you are getting ready to apply to a MBA program! Good Luck!

Muhammad Yunus--OUT

This is just a news update that I thought might be interesting to share. Even though the issue with Dr. Yunus had been brewing for a few months it seems to have reached an important milestone. Here is a little blurb from the New York Times:

NEW DELHI — Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who pioneered tiny loans for village entrepreneurs as a way to fight poverty, has been forced out of the bank he founded, the government-appointed chairman of the bank said on Wednesday.
But Grameen Bank disputed that assertion by the chairman, Muzammel Huq, saying in a statement that Mr. Yunus was “continuing his office” while it sought legal advice.
Mr. Huq said that Mr. Yunus had been terminated as managing director by the central bank, Bangladesh Bank, because of a technical violation of the law that had created Grameen. His appointment should have been approved by the central bank, Mr. Huq said, but it was not. “He was relieved of his duties for noncompliance,” Mr. Huq said.

Bangladesh Bank sent a letter to Grameen outlining what it said were violations of the law that governs the bank and stating that Mr. Yunus had been relieved of his duties. The bank insisted that the board had not acted on the letter.

Continue to read at The New York Times