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Yubaraj Khatiwada is the right man to lead the Ministry of Finance. Not just because he has a Phd in monetary economics from the pres­tigious Delhi School of Economics—although that is no small consideration in a country where this vital portfolio has time and again gone to those with limited economic nous. The new finance minister has a record of helping steady the economy through diffi­cult times, particularly during his previous stint as the central bank governor.

Khatiwada takes over as finance minister when the economy is again hitting turbulence. Over the past one decade, the country’s trade deficit has declined by a yearly average of 21.9 percent. It has notched up over Rs 90 billion of deficit in the first five months of the current fiscal alone.

Foreign remittance, Nepal’s one sure source of steady income, is drying up. In the five months of the current fiscal, remittance is down 0.8 percent compared to the same period last year—the first negative remittance growth rate in over a decade. Recurrent expenditures are shooting up, productive spending is stagnant, and another real estate bubble is building. Even someone with Khatiwada’s stellar credentials could struggle to bring the twisted economy in shape.

But Khatiwada seems to be in a mood to make a good fist of it. In his first declaration as finance minister, he vowed to bring all government transactions online from the upcoming Nepali New Year. This, if can be done, could make a significant dent on bureaucratic corruption and reduce money-laundering, a growing problem. As a representative of the unified left gov­ernment, Khatiwada added, he is as committed to the left alliance’s electoral commitment of common pros­perity. Moreover, he said he was determined to bring Nepal’s economy back on track. But therein also lies the problem.

CPN-UML, the senior partner in the recent merger with CPN (Maoist Center), has long been seen as a par­ty that protects cartels and syndicates. It also has a vast patronage network to look after. This raises a legitimate fear: Will the new finance minister be allowed to work freely? Or will he be used primarily as a smokescreen behind which the various vested interests of the new communist juggernaut can hide?

Having shown the courage to sideline his cronies who were all angling for the finance ministry, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli would do well to give his cho­sen one enough room to work in the country’s interest.

NON-FICTION
The Girl Who
Escaped Isis
Farida Khalaf with
Andrea C. Hoffman
Translated by Jamie Bulloch
Published: 2017
Publisher: Vintage
Page: 206, paperback

In August 2014, Isis fighters gave the Yazidi inhabitants of Kocho village in the mountains of Iraq three days to convert to Islam or ‘suffer the fate of infidels’. They erroneously viewed the Yazidi religion as a form of devil worship. Farida Khalaf, a young Yazidi woman who was then 18, belonged to one of the many families in Kocho who thought converting to another religion was tantamount to dying.

The result: The Isis stormed into their village, and the jihadists murdered all the boys and men including Farida’s father and elder brother. The girls—around 80 of them—including Farida, were forced into a bus, at gunpoint, and sold into slavery at Raqqa, a city in Syria. The women—including Farida’s mother—were taken elsewhere.

What’s worse, for the Isis fight­ers, misogyny is part of their reli­gion. And that made it possible for men to reject the idea of gender equality and enjoy a sense of power over ‘their’ women. They reveled in violent sexual acts that often left women bruised and bleeding. That’s what happened to Farida too. She was repeatedly sold into sexual slav­ery, raped, and beaten senseless when she tried to resist.

But the good news is that The Girl Who Escaped Isis isn’t just a harrowing tale of all that happened to Farida during the time she was held captive. Yes, she talks about the beatings (she lost sight in one eye, and there was a time when she could not walk for two months), and all the sexual torture that she had to go through.

She even narrates the attempted suicide episodes—from cutting her wrist with glass shards to trying to stick her finger into a light-bulb socket—carried out just to put an end to all the rape.

But the book is ultimately the story of a girl who survived the horrors of Isis against all odds. Farida currently lives in Germany and has been reunited with her mother and younger brothers, who were also taken from their village and held captive for months. However, escaping the clutches of Isis wasn’t the end of the fight for Farida.

Even when she was reunited with her surviving family members, the extended community looked down upon her as someone who had brought dishonor to her family by being raped. Even the name Farida Khalaf is a pseudonym, adopted to protect herself and her family from further shame.

What makes you unable to put the book down though is the way human spirit shines through the ordeals. Farida defies her captors from the get-go and she fights them every chance she gets and with every ounce of strength she has. Maybe Farida’s father, who was a soldier on border duty between northern Iraq and Syria, and who taught her how to shoot a Kalashnikov when she was just 15, had fired up her ‘fight’ rather than ‘flight mode.

This early life lesson was perhaps why she was able to bear the torture without letting it defeat her, even when things seemed far beyond her control. Farida worms her way into your heart with her fighting, screaming, kicking ways. You realize that in a similar situation you would have long given up and that makes you cheer for her unwavering spirit even more.

During the felicitation program hosted by Monika Petra Scheiblauer, the gen­eral manager of Hotel Yak & Yeti, the climbers shared their extraordinary experiences and expressed their heartfelt connection to Nepal.

“It has been 40 years but the experience is still fresh,” Reinhold Messner, a member of the expedition, told APEX. “I wish to be back 20 years later and spend my last few years here. It is always won­derful to be here in Nepal.”

The other mountaineers of the 1978 expedition attend­ing the event were Wolfgang Nairz, Prof Dr Oswald Olz, Prof Peter Habeler, Prof Dr Raimund Magreiter, Robert Schauer, Hanns Schell and Helmuth Hagner. Nepal Mountaineering Association President Santa Bir Lama and the representative of Nepal Tourism Board Sudhan Subedi were also in attendance.

The Evoke Café and Bistro at Jhamiskhel, Lalitpur is a venue that offers great coffee choices, an eclectic food menu and selective live music, in a calm and cozy environment.

With its own spacious parking space and both indoors and outdoors seating, Evoke hosts a variety of events from mini-markets to theater performances, barbecue parties to live music.

The premise also shares space with The Local Project—a shop, gallery and studio—so you can eat, drink, party, and shop as well.  

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

Evoke Lasagna, Waffles, Mozzarella Sticks, Fish and Chips

Opening hours

8 am-10 pm

Average Meal for two: Rs 2,500

Cards

Accepted  

Turkish Airlines, a world leader in civil aviation, launched the sixth edition of its Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup this week. Following its inception in 2013, the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup has established itself as one of the prominent corporate tournaments in global golf, while representing the powerful link between the game of golf and the Turkish Airlines.

The Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup players are personally invited by Turkish Airlines and more than 8,000 are expected to feature in 100 tournaments around the world, with each hoping to qualify for the Grand Finals in Antalya in November.

Royal Birkdale, the 2017 British Open Championship venue, and Ryder Cup courses Gleneagles, Edinburgh, the K Club, Dublin and Paris’s Le Golf National, which hosts September’s match between Europe and the United States, are among the venues on the schedule.

The players reaching the Grand Finals will receive Business Class flights to Turkey and accommodation at the five-star Titanic Golf Deluxe Belek Hotel and the winners in Belek will have the chance to play in the Pro-Am at the European Tour’s Turkish Airlines Open along some of the finest golfers in the world.

This year’s Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup is also supported by The Financial Times, National, Titanic Hotels and Ruck & Maul.  

On the occasion of the Nepali New Year 2075, NIC Asia Bank has launched a new discount scheme for its cardholders.

NIC Asia Bank will be provid­ing discounts ranging from five percent to 50 percent to its debit and credit cardholders in select outlets throughout the Nepali calendar year. At present, this discount scheme is applicable in over 30 outlets across the coun­try. The bank says the number of outlets where the discount can be availed will increase in the near future.  

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