I avoided being part of Nepali associations and organizations all the years I lived abroad. Luckily, that wasn't too difficult most of the time because most places I lived in neither had any sizeable Nepali population nor organizations.
One reason behind the avoidance was a discovery I made about many Nepali men -- you can take them out of Nepal, but you can't take Nepal out of them!
If, as an adult, you are CONVINCED that your academic institution SUCCEEDED in providing an excellent education, BUT has made you an ardent and blind supporter of the institution -- approving of everything it says, does, represents, and stands for unquestioningly -- then it failed you. Here are some examples of that from Nepal.
On April 13, Ministry of Health and Population of Nepal made another projection about COVID-19 cases in the country. If one were to go by their past projections, this should and can be written off too. However, there is at least one confounding factor this time around.
One of the many consequences of low science literacy and high level of religiosity and the attendant belief in superstitions in the highly patriarchal Brahmanic society of Nepal is unabashed cruelty to females. One way the cruelty is meted out is in the way they are blamed for a newborn's sex as it that were determined by gestation and birthing. Science says otherwise, of course!
Nepali teachers do NOT use humor as much as they should. I do. And so in my workshops for them, I use it to demonstrate its effectiveness. Follow link for short videos of me in action -- telling jokes and making teachers and students laugh, to grab their attention and hold it.
Among other things, North-American teachers at St. Xavier's induced in me a love for words by teaching us the etymology of words during lessons. I am trying to do the same for Nepalis by offering online classes on words and their meanings.
What in numbers are producers in an ecosystem to the number of apex predators, casual sexism is to sexual predators in rape culture. How? Read on.
When left is right and right is left; when might is right and right is wrong; and when the wrong get their way and are held is high esteem, what is left?!
I'll tell you what is left...Nepal.
You are left with the country of Nepal...where pride is the new shame!
How a society uses information and knowledge depends a lot on the kind of society it is. An open and outward looking society uses information and knowledge to free their people, for example. A closed and inward-looking society, on the other hand, utilizes them to control their people. Nepal, being a closed and inward-looking society, expends a lot of effort into controlling their people, starting from when they are children.
As much as we are products of our culture, education, society, and people, and as much as a closed and inward-looking society and people might fail us, as individuals we are also influencers and shapers of our culture and society!
When it comes to verbal, emotional, and physical violence against children is concerned, for example, we Nepalis have a choice. We don't have to follow the dictates of our culture and society. We can instead teach about empathy and compassion and even display them towards our children to end the vicious cycle of childhood violence, a hallmark of child-rearing and educational practices.