Globalization, Peace, Terrorism and Nepal
By Kamala Sarup
It seems that the US will lose out to the Asian countries eventually unless it can become more competitive in high-tech
industries. Also, US has large budget (fiscal) and trade deficits, which can't be sustained forever and might lead to a
depression in a few years. Of course, a US depression would result in a depression for the rest of the world. That is
why other countries buy US dollars, stocks and bonds - to keep dollar strong so that they can export to US. US has
become a consumer society instead of a producer society.
Nepal has so much geography against it, e.g., mountains, that I don't see much hope for it. War adds to the problem by
wasting resources. Only way would be to become strong in industries that require no transportation, e.g., software
design. However, that requires a good educational system, which Nepal does not have. India, OTOH, has a good educational
system and its people are fluent in English, thanks to the prior colonization by the British. China have very strong
growth and cheap labor at this point in their development. Hence, US, Europe, Japan and other developed countries are
investing heavily there. Software and services, e.g., accounting, call answering, research, etc. are going to India.
China is picking up heavy industry.
On the other side, Women and children in Nepal are the worst victims of the growing violence. Therefore, to find ways to
lessen the impact of the conflict on women and children and what the media can do to create pressure on the warring
factions. Women and children are being affected in one form or the other both by the political movement as well as by
the Maoists conflict. The media should play an important role to mitigate such a situation. And also, the human rights
groups have failed to raise the rights for peace of the common people.
"Adopting the formula of more positive attitude by all frontiers is preeminent, in understanding the essentialist of new
sense of collective cooperation. Morally non-corroded political leadership, yet remains to stem from a democracy, having
its roots in the patriotic nationalism, befitting the needs and yearning of the soil. Enough is enough. It is infringing
upon the country's aspiration for new dimensional, development-oriented nationalistic currents. Everything must reach
its dead end at one or the other stage.
The very intrinsic dynamism of any polity over a given period, on the time scale, will knock the door of inevitability
of change from the non-productive stagnancy. The compulsions of this change must be moored along the right track of
national polity. It must be protected from going off the track, against the currents of growing popular expectation and
desire for peaceful settlement of national issues and securing of the congeniality of environment. This is most needed
for institutionalization of competitive democratic practice, which can no more be enslaved by the monopolistic,
manipulative and self-centered grip of failed political leaders. They are already nakedly exposed, as being engrossed in
the narrowness of greed infested, individualistic power bargaining games, proving severely harmful to integrated
aspiration of the people. The nation is in want of non-shuddering solidarity and avenue towards prosperity through
progressive, equitable people-oriented economic stability. This is invariably necessary, to catalyze establishment of
stable social and political developments in the new dimensional order of achieving re-enforced national advancement. One
must realize that this is being threatened by the derailed and directionless internal politics itself. It has lost its
true compass in the hands of those murky political game players, who failed to put forth unified and common consensus
based national outlook, in finding appropriate solutions to the crucial problems of the country". A Nepali journalist
Indra Pradha said recently.
The obligation of securing the nation as well as to ensure peace, people will eagerly welcome the appropriate alternate
steps. All must instill this truth into their minds, as the realism of prime importance for normalizing the eruptive and
volatile atmosphere in the country.
Even It is not unusual for the Maoists to show some flexibility to try gaining to power without fighting and solve the
problem or to achieve their goals through political and diplomatic means, which they failed to attain through battle.
The Maoist war or in Marxist language if the anarchical activities are not solved in time through peaceful means, the
country and the people will have to bear a great loss of lives and property. Therefore, all should go for solving the
problem. Talk is certainly the best thing, and after all the sides sit down in the negotiating table it would be easier
to reach to an agreement. For that the process for talks must be started immediately.
I have recently started looking at Nepal again after a hiatus of several weeks. Why? Because several things have piqued
my interest there: The upcoming municipal elections will serve as a first test of the ongoing peace process
negotiations. So far, the negotiations appear to be going well despite the recent unilateral ceasefire pullout by the
rebels. I personally have high hopes that all the parties, government and maoists concerned will work out that which
they have been discussing, particularly the ongoing economic issues.
"The large earthquake a couple of months ago in Pakistan has created an effective zone of non-control by the government
of General Musharraf. The most effective aid workers to the tens of thousands of displaced people there have been
terrorists. There remains a strong possibility that radicals will attempt in the near future to use the ancient "hash
trail" to smuggle WMD contraband past the noses of the authorities in India and Bangladesh. Nepal sits astride this
route. There is quite a bit of geopolitical jockeying going on between India, China, Pakistan, the USA and the UK, not
to mention Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran, all of whom have power and interest considerations in play depending on what
happens in Nepal and neighboring Bhutan, two quaint religious Kingdoms, one Hindu, one Buddhist. Thus, the Great Game is
getting a bit complicated. It just so happens that the helpless people of Nepal, particularly the poor women and
children there, are smack dab in the middle of all this Master of the Universe stuff".said an american journalist John.
He further argued "The New Terrorists have as far as I can determine become members of all religions, sects, cults, etc.
No help there. You cannot reliably use appearance. Their very banality is a most effective disguise. If you believe you
detect something, how do you account for personal bias, predilections, and simple mistakes? Can you backtrack from
financial events and terrorism events, communication traffic and anomalies? A definite maybe. Methodology? The New
Terrorists are extremely computer savvy. They grew up with the World Wide Web, cell phones, etc. They program for fun
and profit. No help there. They think computers and networks are baby stuff, the mere components of dreams and schemes.
The New Terrorists are extremely savvy about money and finances. As are most 20, 30 and 40 somethings. Oldsters tend to
look at things a bit differently based on their life experiences. Not so the under 50 crowd. If an entire population is
skilled at something, how to determine the "bad guys and gals"? The New Terrorists are transnational. They are like
corporations used to be. Financial markets depend on globalisation and 24/7. Impossible to differentiate as far as I can
tell. "Everybody's doin' it".
There you have it. Ground Zero. I am at a loss as to how to conceptualize the problem. Is it even a problem? If Fukayama
announced the "End of History", are we now at the "End of Terrorism"?
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Kamala Sarup is an editor of peacejornalism.com