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Berger Paints Nepal, on the occasion of New Year 2075, has announced its new offer ‘Berger Ko ATM’ to get your home spruced up this season with loads of cash rewards.

In this offer, house owners may win up to Rs 3 million. Also, on the purchase of Berger Silk Range, Weathercoat All Guard or Weathercoat Anti Dust Emulsions, house owners will get 100 sq. ft. Silk Illu­sion Design for free. Three best commercial buildings will get Rs 50,000 each and the most liked house on Berger’s Facebook page will win Rs 25,000.

To be part of this offer, house owners need to call Berger’s toll free numbers—1660-01-23434 (NTC) or 9801571001 (NCell) or send an SMS to 33377 typing <berger>—to register themselves before painting their house. Once the registration is done, a unique code shall be provided to each individual house at the time of call or via an automatic SMS system.

The promotion, which started on April 15, will be valid for registration till July 16.  

Ilam’s Mai municipality, which borders the district of Jhapa, gets over 50 cases in a month. Bishnu Maya Rijal, coordinator of the judicial committee and deputy mayor, says many of those cases have to do with marital prob­lems, and that while the commit­tee is able to resolve some cases, others are more complicated. One such reported case involved a wife who asked for an expen­sive mobile phone from her hus­band working abroad and used the device to establish relations with another man.

Rijal argues that families whose members work abroad are being broken apart because of social media abuse. Face­book seems to be a major cul­prit. Women (but also men in some cases) are apparently using it to begin extra-marital affairs. They splurge the hard-earned money sent by their spouse working abroad, the filed cases accuse.

Similar cases are being filed in other areas too. Pabimaya Rai, deputy mayor and head of the Judicial Committee at Deumai municipality, says that there has been a drastic increase in the number of ‘Facebook dis­putes’. “There are many cases of a woman indulging in profligacy or licentiousness while her hus­band is abroad,” says Rai.

No law yet

The standard procedure for adjudicating cases hasn’t yet been formed at Ilam’s local level. But Shumsher Rai, chairperson of Rong rural municipality, says that despite the lack of laws, local disputes are resolved through mediation.

In the absence of the required laws and guidelines, some local level judicial committees have adopted the dispute resolution mechanism of various NGOs. The government has recently sent a preliminary draft of the law to the local level. All local level judicial committees say they are studying the draft.

By TOYANATH BHATTARAI | ILAM

Hemophilia is an inherit­ed bleeding disorder that prevents blood from clot­ting effectively. For a person with hemophilia, any injury to a blood vessel can result in an uncontrolled discharge of blood either internally or, when the skin is broken, externally. A bump or a knock, which in a normal person would produce a bruise, may result in a major bleeding episode in a person with hemophilia.People with hemophilia are prone to spontaneous bleeds, particularly in joints such as ankles, elbows and knees. Because these bleeds are accom­panied by symptoms of pain and swelling, they are generally obvious and get prompt attention. Nevertheless, over a period of time, the enzymes from these hemorrhages corrode the cartilage, bones and nerves causing chronic pain and arthritis in the affected joints. Another insidious aspect of the disorder is that spontaneous, life-threatening bleeds may occur internally without any spe­cific symptoms, requiring emer­gency hospitalization.

Except in rare cases, hemophil­ia occurs only in men; women, however, are the carriers of the hemophilia gene. This condi­tion is incurable but temporarily manageable. The only possible treatment is infusion of blood, plasma, cryoprecipitate or the anti-hemophilic factor concen­trate at every instance of bleed­ing. The treatment is prohibitive­ly expensive.

In line with the World Feder­ation of Hemophilia’s estimated prevalence rate of hemophilia in general population (one in 10,000 live births), there should be around 3,000 persons with hemophilia (PWH) in Nepal. But only around 600 of them have been identified. Nepal Hemophil­ia Society is a social non-profit, non-governmental, non-political organization that works for these PWH, their families and care-giv­ers. Established in 1992, it is run by a group of voluntary workers who either have hemophilia or are parents of such children.

NHS is working in all aspects of hemophilia care that includes diagnosis, treatment, rehabil­itation, psychosocial counsel­ing and social support. Other important works of NHS include advocacy of hemophilia rights and awareness generation.

NHS is a sole caregiver, the only advocacy group, and a social network for the PWHs and their families in Nepal. After a long strategic planning, advo­cacy and continuous effort, an important landmark has been achieved i.e. for the first time hemophilia has been categorized as a disability in Nepal under the Persons with Disabilities Rights Act, 2074. Issues of hemophilia have, however, remained largely 'invisible', often side-lined in the rights debate, making those with it unable to enjoy their human rights like everyone else.

As we celebrated the World Hemophilia Day on April 17, the hemophilia fraternity of Nepal was still struggling to get that one vial of anti-hemophiliac factor concentrate for the next bleeding episode.

By SURAKSHA THAPA

The author is a program officer at Nepal Hemophilia Society

Weekly Editorial Cartoon

The hand pump in front of the house dried up two years ago. An electricity pole stands adjacent to their house, but they have to rely on a tuki (a traditional oil lamp) at night because their house does not have a power meter. They have been married for 10 years, but their marriage hasn’t been registered. And because they don’t have citizenship cards, their son’s birth hasn’t been registered either, which in turn has hindered his school enrolment. These are just some problems that the family of the 30-year-old Rajwati Musahar from Birta of Gaushala municipality in the central plains district of Mahottari has to face. “I often go to the municipality office, but no one listens,” she says.

Hand-to-mouth existence

Birta’s 60 Musahar families—with a total population of 250—are deprived of even basic rights and state services. “We live hand to mouth,” rues Rajwati. “No one understands our pain.”

There is hardly anyone in Birta’s Musahar community who has completed secondary school. Most children haven’t even been to a school. “My children go to morn­ing school, but they cannot be formally enrolled as they don’t have birth certificates,” says Jitani Devi Musahar, another local resident.

Rambabu Shah, chairman of ward 4, says the process of getting children enrolled in schools has already begun. “We will also ensure that the children have books and uni­forms they need in school,” says Shah.

Toilet woes

Part of why the Musahars have been denied government services is that they don’t have a toilet in their homes. The municipality, under its ‘no open defecation’ campaign, has barred households without a toilet from accessing govern­ment services.

“We don’t even have land to build a house, how can we build a toilet?” wonders Kabita Musahar, a mother of two.

“Our settlement has five hand pumps. Four of them went dry after the 2015 quake. We have to stand in a long line to fill water from the remaining one,” says 70-year-old Sukadev Sada.

Bikhani Sada claims that people from other caste groups even stop them from using the hand pump. “We have to go to the nearby pond to bathe and wash clothes. The pond water makes my body itch,” she says.

Shivanath Mahato, mayor of Gaushala municipality, claims that he will make sure the Musahar community will soon have ample access to drinking water.

BY RAJKARAN MAHATO | GAUSHALA, MAHOTTARI

Executive director of PADT Ramesh Upreti claims that foreigners conducting illegal trade in the Pash­upati region were driven away a few weeks ago. “We have increased sur­veillance in the area and are closely monitoring such foreigners. We have issued instructions to apprehend them on sight.”

A while back, the police had arrested a Chinese tourist selling mala (necklace of wooden beads with religious/spiritual significance) in the guise of a monk in Patan. He was later released after he promised not to do it again.

“Even though the Chinese tourists may appear to be petty traders and monks, they might engage in suspi­cious activities,” said an officer at the Home Ministry. Another top gov­ernment official hinted that the gov­ernment is taking a tough line since some of illegal foreign traders are suspected of spying activities, par­ticularly on the border with India.

According to the tourist police, four Chinese tourists were arrested last month for similar wrongdo­ing, and many more were made aware of Nepali laws on the spot. Tourists, mostly of African and Chinese descent, are also found selling trinkets at Pokhara’s lake side during the evenings.

By  SHAMBHU KATTEL | KATHMANDU

Even at the risk of sounding obsequious, you have to give credit to the government of KP Sharma Oli where it is due. The appointment of clean and efficient ministers, a couple of very wise picks as chiefs of the two police forces, recent exercise in balanced diplomacy and, now, the determi­nation it has shown to wipe out transport cartels are all highly admirable. Particularly the last bit. It could not have been easy for Prime Minister Oli, the chief of CPN-UML, a party that has traditionally provided patronage to transport cartels, to suddenly crack down on them in public interest.

These government actions hint at the prime min­ister’s determination to leave behind a strong legacy, one marked by accountable governance and tangible improvement in people’s daily lives. The country des­perately needed such firm leadership. Nearly every study of the growing incidents of road accidents in Nepal’s blood-soaked highways has pointed to the rickety state of long-distance passenger buses as one of the major culprits. In the fiscal 2016-17, there were an average of 28 road acci­dents, and six deaths, in the country every single day. Yet this brazen crime on the part of the trans­port cartels that refused to allow new vehicles of other private operators on the roads was ignored by successive governments.

These cartels flourished under the protection of top political leaders, despite repeated Supreme Court rulings to ban them, the first of them coming over a decade ago. Only now has the government gathered the spunk to take them on. Better late than never. We can only hope that the government stands firm and does not back down to the cartels’ pressure tactics. But even that is not enough.

There are entrenched cartels and syndicates in other sectors too. For instance one study suggests that the prices of fruits and vegetables increase up to five-fold from what the farmers get for their produce, again thanks to the cartels in this market. There are many formal or informal cartels in health and education sec­tors as well, again adversely affecting people’s well-be­ing. May sound superfluous, but the government has full public support to bust these cartels and to ensure free and fair competition in all goods and services. These are exciting times indeed.

POETRY

Love Her Wild

Atticus

Published: July 2017

Publisher: Headline

Page: 225, hardback

Rupi Kaur made social media poetry popular, but it’s Atti­cus, an anonymous Canadian poet currently living in LA, who didn’t even set out to be a poet, who seems to enjoying its bene­fits too. He has hundreds of thou­sands of followers on Instagram and celebrities like Shay Mitchell and Alicia Keys are reposting his poems, and even Emma Robert’s online book club, Belletrist, often uses them on its feeds. Apparently, Atticus only started writing poetry after a chance meeting with actor Michael Madsen (of ‘Kill Bill’ and Reser­voir Dogs fame), who told him that reading and writing poetry was what saved him from ‘addiction’ and depression. Now, poetry is how he makes sense of the world, writes Atticus on his introduction on his Instagram page. And reading ‘Love Her Wild’, or even occasion­ally dipping into it, will make you realize that his poetry can help you do the same.

The effects of poetry are mani­fold. For some, it might work like a mantra that gets them all pepped up, for others it might be able to provide comfort in the most trying of times but what it always does is come to your rescue just when you need it. As Atticus writes, “Poetry’s magic is that it is found when it’s needed”.

In Love Her Wild, a collection of new poems with some of the old ones on Instagram, the young poet writes about romance, the highs of love, and heartbreaking lows of life among many other emotions. And he writes with such finesse that sometimes a single line is enough to get you through a partic­ularly bad day. If you haven’t discov­ered Atticus yet, we’d say it’s about time you did.