| Username |
Post |
| Biswo |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 11:09 AM
"So, why don't you guys have tall buildings in Kathmandu?"
That tall inquisitive Chinese fella asked me again. I regretted that I told him the secret of my country earlier: that we don't have any building taller than around ten stories, but BUT when Bhimsen Thapa made Dharahara in his compound centuries ago, it was the tallest building in Asia.
We were both standing in the famous Waitan, looking across the Huangpu river, at the striptease of scaffolds of eighty-eight-stories-tall Jinmao Building(at that time still under construction).I tried to think about the reason of KTM not having tall building, and suddenly I said, "You know, we have this load-shedding thing all the time. So, obviously we can't have elevators without enough electricity. No one would live in higher floors if there were no elevators, right?" Long after that, I thought of that 'earthquake region' excuse that I could present more convincingly.
Tall buildings are pride of a lot of developing nations. Jiang Zemin, obsessed with legacy, had ordered a lot of such buildings. As if these tall buildings soar national income level to that high. It is like 1920s New York there in China. Despite the fact that long ago, in 30s, there was a report from American Steel Association (or sth like that) saying that any building higher than 63 floors is economically unprofitable. '63 floors ' is the global optimization point.Still, obsessed with height and superiority in meretricious and extragavant way, they pour in their hardearned money to the edifices of greatness.
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King Gyanendra is again in limelight. He wants to 'accept' felicitation from 'people' in Biratnagar. Experts argue about its validity, but I say let him go for this. I would love to see this man go around and accept garlands and count his number of supporters.
And I wonder when is this king gonna learn that he is lurching towards the point from where there is no comeback? Thousands people have gathered in KTM, and shouted against his moves.Parties win in elections, parties can gather people to protest against his moves, so what gives him delusion of popularity? Towering walls of Narayanhiti that isolates him from the sentiments prevaliing outside? May be it is time people tear down the wall, and bring the man sitting inside to the street out side and force him to live there with the reality of present.
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Finally, RPP election. Boys, I loved that. They had this election thing few days ago. And our democrats were really hoping that someone 'liberal' would win. Rana Pashupati Shamsher, the Naati Jarnel' won. So did people like Bikram Pande (kind of gangster from Chitwan) and Jagat Gauchan.When I saw the list of central comittee members, it made me dizzy and reminded me the rotten era of pre2046. It is useless for us to hope that people like Bikram Pande, Jagat Gauchan,Jayanta Chanda, Surya Bdr KC, Dipak Bohra etc will be the comrade of Nepali people in a movement to establish a truly democratic society.
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| bewakoof |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 04:18 PM
Biswo ji,
free group of people forming a party and electing a leader sounds pretty fair to me. are these people outstanding and admirable? probably not. but 'naati jarnel' doesn't look all that bad compared to 'hawaldaar koirala'. pre2046 world of Gauchan and Bohra was pretty rotten but not all that different from 2056 of Wagle and Khadka either. just adding some perspective. and good luck in your quest to 'establish a truly democratic society'.
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| Bramhanda |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 04:23 PM
About tall buildings.
This is the hubris of any nation. An indication that the hard work and resourves caused this. A vindication of material success. A testament that modernity has walked upon it. For United States, the fact that twin towers stood as they were , exuding the confidence of the development, and as a bastion of human achievement. Then, comes SEARS tower, and others in Canada. We hear of similar development in Malyasia.
The very fact that they are not optimal after a certain height, and that nations keep on budilging the tallest towes of the World ,is very interesting. As for the Eiffel tower, it represents both the beauty and the strength by its elegant steel structure.
Just as these tall towers are an indication of the prosperity of a nation, they can be dismantled in the same manner by the fanatics who want to prove that the pride and arrogance of that nation can also be challenged, such as in the case of 9/11.
To hope for the RPP to come out with a liberal leader is akin to searching for water in a desert.:-) We've taken a retrogressive step as a nation, where the goons and the thugs of the Panche era to come to surface.
Anyway, here is something I found in the Nepali Times (Under my Hat) that has some relevance to triumphant return of the King's men.
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Kingdom of Boredom
After being hunted nearly to extinction, wild bores are proliferating once more and have returned to our urban jungles with a vengeance. Only this morning, one of them was reading the main points over the radio with the important breaking news that the president and people of Benin have just been cordially felicitated on their National Day by our leaders who have wished the Beninese people the eternal peace and prosperity that have eluded us. The second main point in the news bulletin over the Boring Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was that the Ministry of Denial has continued to deny having never exactly said in so many words that the state airline should be sold if at all to the lowest common denominator. And the third main news was that the prime minister has stressed once more that only by working together will we be able to build a futuristic Nepal just like we have in the past.
As an endangered species, our wild bores are related to old world swines. Like them, they have the innate capacity to render a fully-grown adult citizen unconscious at thirty-paces just by opening their snouts. Zoologically speaking, the wild bore is frequently male and comes under several subspecies with a geographical range that extends right across the midhills of our landlocked Kingdom of Boredom. They can be found frequently in the vicinity of regional conferences on democracy and development where they can be spotted foraging for the root causes of poverty. They take abundant coffee breaks, prefacing all their remarks with: “Let me put it this way…”
As a service to our readers, we have put together a short biographical sketch of an average adult wild bore so that wildlife enthusiasts can track this evolving conservation success story from the subcontinent:
Latin name: Sus scrofa soporifica
Common names: Wild Bore, Male Chauvinist Piglet, Bloody Swine, Old Sow, Miss Piggy, Porky, Wart Hog, Policeman
Local names: Bangur, Bandel
Favourite song: “Kya boar bhayo” by the Rock Yogis
Habitat: UN conferences, SAARC summits, national seminars and workshops on sustainable development, and scattered across Boredom.
Behaviour: Naturally gregarious, usually nocturnal, in daytime sometimes known to snore loudly during break away sub-groups on peace and development, mature males drift off after dusk to nighspots in small bachelor herds, tend to dominate open forums where they never asks questions but make asses of themselves by holding forth on their curriculum vitae. Immature juveniles prone to inebriation and excessive chatter after overdosing on fermented grape juice and single malt distillates.
Reproduction: Seasonal farrowing, with dominant males boasting that they have the biggest tusks, and that they sired most piglets in the forest, sows tend to keep quiet about their oestrus cycles so they wont be bothered by boisterous bores used to getting their own way.
Diet: Omnivorous, but thrive mainly on airline food, cookies, turnips, tubers and bulbs. Not a fussy eater, will gobble up anything if it is free.
Vital statistics: Back from the political wilderness, no more on the endangered list, and future survival prospects good.
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/issue123/undermyhat.htm
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 09:01 PM
>The very fact that they are not optimal after a
>certain height, and that nations keep on budilging
> the tallest towes of the World ,is very interesting.
I think people in Third World countries(may be of other countries also) pine to see the tall buildings, sth that King Kong mounted in search of his girl, in their own cities since, at least, 1933!
The creation of monuments were meant to make the creator(ruler) famous and perhaps popular(among those who lived to see that) in the old days. Also some sort of technological display. But in recent days, no one feels pressure to make himself immortal and lofty than president Jiang Zemin of China. Successor of two enormously successful dictators Deng and Mao, Jiang has neither grace nor gift to match them. That makes him search for something else: like Taiwan unification, manned mission to moon, soaring towers and buildings, some lousy principles that he wants to be enshrined in the constitution of PRC etc. etc.
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| Bramhanda |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 10:09 PM
If one is neither a charismatic leader, nor a brillant one, one can only try to use other means to gain popularity. True for Zemin.
Similar actions by George Bush, who tries to create a war with another country when there is an economic battle to fight in his own land.
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