Reading the wanted advertisement Kathmandu University put out in early May 2021, you would think that nothing was amiss in the world...like there were no such thing as a pandemic raging!
I tear apart the advertisement in this blog post. It's like the decision makers at KU were a bunch of clueless individuals running a small family-owned and run business, NOT academics!
TW: Graphic and sustained description of physical violence and abuse against a child, and brief reference to sexual abuse.
Reproduction of a harrowing Facebook account of a Nepali classmate's childhood experiences of abuse suffered in his father's hands.
A reproduction of a speech in Nepali about my life -- about my dreams, my education, my international professional career, my travels, and my liberation from many of the constraints and limitations of Nepali culture, society, and people.
A speech about education...for LIFE!
The discovery of an intriguing pattern in the changes in the number of active COVID-19 cases in Nepal led to the discovery of unaccounted 5K cases!
Our social system, the caste system, is a pernicious, insidious, and a deeply corrupt monstrosity. It corrupts the mind, kills the spirit, and strips one of humanity and, worse, obstructs one from seeing the others' humanity. And as such, it corrupts everything else -- all other systems and structures -- based on or influenced by it as they are.
One of consequences of that we are seeing during these unprecedented times of the coronavirus pandemic.
If I didn't know any better, based on the fervor with which Nepalis have been celebrating festivals during these times of the coronavirus pandemic, I would have concluded that there was some benefit to reaching heaven sooner than later.
Data in Bhaktapur's case, for example, show how Biska Jatra had contributed to, what I call, COVID-19 Jatra -- a massive spike in COVID-19 cases. No doubt that'll lead to deaths, if it hasn't already.
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!