On May 23, 2020, a mob of 50-60 so-called higher caste villagers lynched half-a-dozen Dalit males. Not long after, the story mostly disappeared from mainstream media in Nepal. But that's NOT surprising in a society of people whose minds have been corrupted by the Caste System.
Nepal needs a revolution...a revolution of the mind.
The caste system is highly corrupting. It has corrupted the minds of so many Nepalis for so long that, even while taking pride in the country as the birth place of Buddha who introduced compassion to the world and denounced the system, we are very short on compassion.
And this blog post documents just one example of that: responses to a tweet by a Dalit woman desiring "to live as a human being today."
What one does in life must be for oneself...not in a selfish way, of course. That is, the justification for and the drive behind one's most important decisions, actions, and values must be intrinsic.
I visited Nepal for the first time in three years the Summer of 1993. During my stay in the country, I wrote to a number of my friends abroad. This is a reproduction of the first snail mail I sent my good and dear friend E in the US. It provides a glimpse into what Kathmandu was like then.
Nepali teachers, I have observed, do not use humor much or often. I am not sure why.
This blog contains embeds of two short clips from a presentation to students at a school in Kathmandu in which I use humor.
This is an embed of a video of a Zoom session I had with potential United World College scholarships applicants in Nepal. Having had my own experiences at a UWC put me on the path to make me into the person I have become today, I share the details from my life experiences to convince them to apply for a UWC scholarship.
On November 30, I had an interaction with about thirty 16-19 year-olds. My audience were grades 11 and 12 students at DigiSchool attending extra classes in preparation for aptitude tests needed to gain admission to universities and colleges in the USA, Australia, etc.
The following is an audio recording of the interaction.
Reproduction of a performance at UWC-USA early this century by a friend and colleague, and I, two teachers at the school. Written by us two, it looks at social realities of the world today through the eyes of two teachers from vastly different cultures. It reflects and exposes the stark inequalities and incredible diversity prevalent in the world today.
Nepal is a highly unjust and inequitable society. The Coronavirus pandemic and the country's response to it has dramatically demonstrated that again for all to see.
One set of data which has done that is the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines by Province.
Province 2 got shafted...for obvious reasons...as far as I am concerned!
Studying, living, working abroad, unconstrained by closed and inward-looking Nepali culture, society, and people, I questioned a lot of what I had been taught in Nepal.
One was the Hindu-mythology-based beliefs, practices, and values.
One lesson was taught through the story of Eklavya and Dronarcharya. We were taught that the story was about model discipleship. But after deeper questioning I have come to the conclusion that its more of caste supremacy than model discipleship.