| Username |
Post |
| robin |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 02:33 PM
Isn't there something wrong with this picture ? The guy who is selling "paani-pur" (loved it when I was a kid is Vanasthali) seems the same age as the others that are selling it. This guy should be in school and not on the street. Even his shirt is blue (like most schools). Seems that he dropped out of school.
I am not sure if this will help and I hope others will join. If the person who took this picture can find out who this guy is and if he goes back to school, I am willing to send $100 to him. I know its not a lot but I am hoping others will follow with whatever help they can provide
-Suman
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| ironic |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 02:50 PM
no offense to robin or suman, whatever
thanx for ur generosity
However i am sick of all the nonsense we talk from here. All of us who surf this site from US or any other so called developed countries know
Nepal is one of the poorest country in the world
More than half of its popiulation living under the poverty line
It is One of the countries where sporadic cases of polio have been registered despite worldwide effort of polio eradication
thousands of children quit school at the age of 10 and start working
thousands of kids never go to school
thosands of kid die every year because of easily manageable diseases like diarrhea, malaria, typhoid, hepaptitis A etc
i am enraged at myself -- why we act in such an ignorant way? Do we really need a picture in this web site to remind us of the misfortune and durgati of nepali kids? Have we grown that insesitive? I think if a foreigner acted that way and responded with a generous offer, that would make a sense. But a nepali responding with 100 $ offer because he saw that pic in the website and he suddenly remembered that nepal is in dire need of contributors like him, at least to me it does not make any sense. Robin or suman i am not discouraging you. You can even go further and fund raise to support these kinds of kids. Good luck
puchharma, some one said when ur right hand gives something dont let ur left hand know....
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| robin |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 03:49 PM
ok.....
there is nothing new to what you said but what is your point ? Are you saying we should not help if we live is US ?
We donate to UnitedWay and other charities that are sponsored by work. why not help a nepali fellow ? If I was rich, I would send a big amount to nepali charity but I can't.
Just to educate you. There is a Tibtan school in Jorpati which basically runs from money donated by foreigners and tibetans who live abroad. They chip in whatever they can. The school is so exclusive to tibetans (?) that most nepalis don't even know it. I knew it because I have a frined you studied there. I know there is more thn 1000 lives being lifted by the help so why not we learn from it ?. Why do we always have to criticize and not do anything. It only takes one person to change the light bulb but it takes 1000 like you to say "i could have done it". Just tell me what have you done ? We talk big but we deliver zero. Somebody said -
to make a country, make yourself first
when you make yourself, you can make your family
when you make your family, the village will make itself.
when each village makes itself, the country will make it.
So..... stop "khutta tanne" others and do what you can. For your information, I do not make a lot but I work hard so I want to help someone whom I see working hard (selling food in this parched weather in Ktm). That is all, its simple. I do not want anything out of this.
-suman
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| theba |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 04:09 PM
Nothing wrong with what you said, Suman. Just that the way you so casually proffered $100 just because you saw a poor kid selling pani puri to the rich kids left a sour taste in the mouth. I could be wrong. Your intentions are probably honorable. It's just the impression I got from your posting. That's all. Nothing more.
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| theba |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 04:10 PM
btw, I'm not Ironic.
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| Nhuchche |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 04:46 PM
If we feel like helping out this kid by merely looking at the picture, how would we feel if we knew more details about this kid?
Let's say, for example, he also falls victim to racial discriminations once in a while. Some Nepalese with misplaced patriotism, call him a dhoti. Call him madhisey. Sometimes they run off without paying him. Sometimes they kick him for asking them to pay. Sometimes they just harass him for looking like an Indian.
It's not all facts. But, let's accept it. It's a possibility. Maybe he lives in a rented one room place where he along with 3 of his siblings live with his parents. In that room, they cook, sleep, and even excrete - in one secluded corner of the room - a toilet hidden from view with dirty cloth creating a section in the room, yet unmistakably present due to the stench, which they have had to get used to because of their impoverished state.
Many of us who are reading this probably never experienced the poverty that this boy might be going through. His smile - a living example of how ignorance is bliss. For the not so ignorant - for us, this is abhorable, detestable, unthinkable, yet there is not too much we can do about it.
People experience poverty in different forms. Maybe this boy is comparatively better off than some street kid - who doesn't have anyone or anything in this world. Who sleeps in the street corners inside the Jute Ko Bora to keep himself warm. Who has to scour the streets to find a bite to eat - preferably by hanging outside some restaurant where they throw away the waste produced by the more affluent part of the society.
How do we compare different levels of poverty? How do we find how poor a village family is who work in a farm to feed themselves? After all there could be some remote villages in Nepal where people live their lives without seeing any MONEY.
In our constant zeal to achieve our goals and make a better lives for ourselves, we tend to forget about the poverty that exists in our country. Sure, it would be nice if we could help out in some ways. Is it even possible for us to do anything about it? Is it not the job of the policy makers who are sitting in those revolving chairs to at least give a rats ass to the fact that something needs to be done for the poor and the underpriviledged in Nepal?
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| dasein |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 04:46 PM
Mr. Suman,
Ignore the cynics. I think your decision to sacrifice a hundred bucks help a stranger is commendable regardless of what prompted it.
I was accused of being a ‘reactionary’ a few years back by my family when I insisted that we send a ‘kamaiya’ girl that used to work at my house to school. I am from mid-western Nepal and she was a textbook example of bonded labor. She worked, ate, worked, slept and got up to work in my house. I think we all know that story.
After going back home after a year abroad, I was enraged at her (and other’s like her) condition. I am a little ashamed that it took me a year in England to realize the unfairness of it. So I talked my parents into letting her go (I threatened to give the girl’s dad a share of my wallet). Then I had to convince the girl’s dad, an illiterate farmer with 3 daughter and 2 sons) to send the girl to school. He nodded, but after talking to his wife, I was sure he was not going to send his daughter to school. So I offered to pay for her, along with one of her brother’s, education as long as she was attending school. Since he really wanted his son to go to school he agreed. I’m hoping that in four years time, this girl will become the first Chaudhary girl in her village to pass SLC. That is, of course, if she doesn’t elope one day (like most Chaudhary ladies in my village do) and turn into a housewife.
If you think your money will be well spent on helping girls like this to go to school, get in touch. I am going back to my home in mid-western Nepal in couple of weeks and I know a few girls who cannot go to school because Daddy doesn’t have money to buy textbooks.
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| robin |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 04:47 PM
Hi Theba,
I think I got too frustrated with the current situation and the big talks. I guess I could have been more 'political' about it and putting $ amount was just not the right thing. i was simply implying that there is always too much talk and not much work. if we all do what we can, i think we could do better. There were some nepalis who wanted to start a charity firm but because of the same bureaucratic mindset, it never got implemented. I personally feel that I should do what I can and not rely on group effort since too many things comes to play. I was trying to make it a simple issue - that's all. I don't think its bad to hand out $100 to a person to go to school unless I am not seeing what other are seeing ?
-Suman
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| theba |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 07:02 PM
I hear you, Suman. And when you put it like that, I see your point. It's nice to find compassion - whenever, wherever, in whatever form. I would shake your hand if I were there. Cheers.
- Sangey
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| Suman Dhakal |
Posted
on 13-Jun-02 07:15 PM
I applaud robin's intentions to help the kid on the picture. Help of any sort is better than no help at all. However, if we are to be concerned about other kids like this on the picture, a hundred dollor or even few hundred dollors can only go so far.
Food is a bigger necessaity in life than education. How can one worry about going to school when he or she has to first worry about making ends meet? Going to school doesn't put food in the stomach. I think this is on of the reasons why parents in poor villages don't prompt their kids to go to school and make them work. Afterall, one needs to eat to survive.
Thus i am of the belief that in addition to giving financial help like the one suggested by robin, we need to establish a system that at least provides the basics. I think this is where the government has failed and our country is in the situation that it's in.
Therefore, the first thing to do is to provide better job opportunities for men and women in poor villages. A job that at least puts enough food on the table. Once we have done this, we will not see kids working out in the field or picking up arms when they should be in school. Parents will be more inclined to send their kids off to school. Only then we will have solved the problem alltogether. This would amount to showing one how to fish insted of simply giving him a fish. Because giving one a fish is only a temporary solution. It does not help SOLVE the problem.
Suman Dhakal(not to be confused with the name Suman that robin goes by)
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