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I cry , it doesn’t mean I am weak,

I smile ,it doesn’t mean I am happy.

I panic , it doesn’t mean I am scared,

My feelings change in moments unprepared.

Though I cry, it doesn’t mean I’ve lost,

My tears fall from battles I’ve fought.

My smiles may hide the storms within,

But they show the strength I keep deep in.

Even when I quit, I seem the strongest,

Even with fears, I look the boldest.

For the world sees only what is outside,

Not the struggles I quietly keep inside.

If I pretend, the world thinks I’m strong,

While silence hides where I go wrong.

But when I show myself and speak my heart,

I may stand alone, but that’s my art.

Let them judge, let them misunderstand,

I’ll live as me, and take my stand.

No crowd can measure what I am worth,

For being true is the rarest on earth.

Supriya Paudel

BBM III Semester

United College, Kumaripati, Lalitpur

When we find ourselves using retail therapy as a substitute for stressful lives, we often fall victim to marketing strategies without even realizing we have been prey to them. Subliminal messaging and subtle marketing have contributed to our growing scale of unused products hidden behind the backs of our cupboards. Many don’t even question why malls have escalators on two ends of the building, compelling oncoming customers to walk a whole round of shopfronts to reach down after coming up. What this does is force customers to browse around the arena and buy goods they might not have thought about. 

Escalator and lift advertising is another advertising tactic in the market industry. Imagine a bored customer trapped in an enclosed space alone, they are bound to read or at least skim through the walls and this is the right moment for the brands to pique curiosity. On average, we spend around 30 seconds on an elevator. The 30 seconds of open slot in our mind is what the brand is seeking to capture with bold images and red offers. Now imagine a customer who visits the lift regularly, the ads on the wall are not new and rather a familiar image ingrained in their mind. This increase in brand recall creates a situation where one recognizes products and might even end up buying them. In a similar case, let’s think about the Coke ads we see daily. Its pairing with the food we are most likely to buy (mo mo in our context, and pizza in the Western context) has made it the top-selling soda in the world. Without realizing it many other food businesses have fallen under the scheme of marketing by offering combos between Coke and food. 

Senses are a crucial part of living but also a victim to experience. It is easy for brands to compel customers to come to them by manipulating their senses. Abercrombie and Fitch is a perfect example of this branding. The Abercrombie stores used to target teenagers and their use of dim light and music made a feeling of being in another world which essentially made them feel mature. This use of senses made for many loyal customers who like the feeling of shopping in the stores. This was furthered by the fact that the company hired model-like staff which added to their branding of being surrounded by attractive faces which attracted customers.

Without much realization, we are pulled to products that are of no use to us or do we need. The sharpest minds fall victim to such marketing at least once in their life and there are few ways to stop ourselves from this manipulation of businesses. First is knowing your spending triggers, in what mood do you usually end up buying unplanned products for yourself? Second, is limiting the budget for things you want as opposed to need. This helps in curbing the effect of marketing strategy as you do not have the budget it needs to buy more products. Lastly, stick to a time-out method- any time there is a desire to shop, wait and think it through before making the purchase. This will help organize your financial goals and not fall victim to marketing plans.

Lujata Shrestha

Undergrad student

St Xavier’s College, Maitighar

The laws confined to paper hold little more than cosmetic value. However, when they are faithfully implemented in letter and spirit, they become the bedrock upon which democracy stands.

Enactment and enforcement are the two vital components of law. Enactment is the birth of law, the moment when it is conceived. It is the intention, the vision of order and justice. And enforcement is its living pulse. It follows enactment and translates the words into action. So, are we serious about the enforcement of laws?  

As we celebrate Human Rights Day, a day designated by the United Nations (UN) to draw the attention of international community towards the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 Dec 1948 by a vote of 48 to nil with eight abstentions, it’s high time for us to reevaluate our efforts in effectuating those rights and obligations.  

The deliberation of UDHR is considered as one of the five core human rights treaties of the UN that functions to advance the fundamental freedoms and to protect the basic human rights for all individuals.  The declaration is neither addressed to nations nor to the member states but to every individual. This UN deliberation is in keeping with the words, “We the people of the United Nations” with which the preamble of the UN Charter begins.

In the words of Palmer and Perkins, the acclaimed commentators of Human Rights, ‘UDHR is a beacon of light for all mankind.’ There we can come across 30 fundamental rights, including that of right to life and liberty, and freedom of speech, guaranteed to every human being by virtue of being human.

Observe the laws 

Ever since its inception, UDHR has acted as a morally binding guideline to protect humanity and uphold human dignity. Still, this occasion of Human Rights Day always affords a mixed reaction. Yet, its gross and systematic violation continues in our part of the world. To tell you a fact, our rights are merely limited on papers.   

A day does not pass without news stories of severe human rights violations in countries across all regions of the globe.  Are our children being treated humanely? Are our labor rights protected humanely enough? Are our women safe on the streets? Are our women, children, differently-abled persons or senior citizens living a dignified life? Are we getting a breath of fresh air?

The rights incorporated under the UDHR are also embodied under the Constitution of Nepal. Take an example of Article 16, which envisages that every person shall have the right to live with dignity. 

So, what does dignity mean? Is it an integral part of human rights? Dignity means a state or quality of being worthy of honor and respect. A dignified life has a freedom to exercise his rights and even fight for it. It symbolizes equality as an intrinsic right and confirms that every human is equal in this world and that everyone has equal rights and duties.

Enhance economy 

The concept of equality is also one of the notions of UDHR as well as ours’ Constitution. The digital divide, stereotype and division of society in line with economical and political status demonstrate a vivid reality that things are not equal in our country and equality remains a legal matter limited to black letters of law.  The same is the case with the right to the environment. Our cities are so polluted that the constitutional guarantee of the right to live in a pollution-free environment gets violated in broad daylight.

The right to employment also seems to be limited on paper as our majority of youths are toiling in gulf and developed countries for a better future.

The continuous violation of our rights or state’s incompetence in enforcing those rights gives a message that we cannot upkeep the constitutional guarantees unless we are economically sound. Dr BR Ambedkar, the chief architect of Indian constitution, was of the view that civil and political democracy cannot be implemented in true sense unless we have a robust economic democracy. Simply put, our rights cannot be implemented in letter and spirit, unless the state is economically sound enough for that.  

It’s high time to declare a universal declaration for maintaining the economy of the states so as to make the states qualified to implement those laws and obligations.

So, will it be just to conclude that the only thing universal about human rights is its universal violation?

Way out

Our education system should encompass values such as peace, non-discrimination, equality, pollution-free environment, fair and impartial justice, dignity, tolerance, and respect for human dignity. Our legal education system is good at imparting knowledge about human rights but bad at educating students about equity, violence redressal and preventive mechanisms.  

The concerns of human rights can no longer remain an affair of a particular state in the present world. The only thing universal about universal human rights ought to be its universal acceptance. 

Ironically, the mandates of UDHR don’t seem to have the muscle of measures, such as allocation of grants to the states with limited economies to enforce the rights in actual sense. It’s seen that the developing countries, like Nepal, are in a sorry state to enforce fundamental rights just because of poor economic conditions. The observance of UDHR is not a charity but a duty.  It’s high time to stand together against all forms of bigotries and human rights’ violation. Over and above all this, it’s high time for the UN member states to resort precisely towards actual enforcement than the mere enactment of the laws.

It will be an imprudent anticipation, if our society hopes to bring an exemplary change or to climb a  progressive ladder to unprecedented steps. How is the education of our nation in its truest form? The  impartial answer can itself prophecy the future of our society. Let’s not probe the stance of privileged  education received by very few students in Nepal, the high majority of children are still getting an  inadequate wisdom in the mere illusion of education- notably in the rural parts of our country.  

The grass roots of our nation are failing to avail itself with the profound opportunity of today.  Although, there is a slight progress in the way of learning among the students of these parts in the past  few years, it is still nowhere near that landmark point which could in turn supersede the face of today’s  Nepal to a better, prosperous, and sustainable Nepal of tomorrow. I had the privilege of beholding the  depths of our country’s education when I conducted small informative sessions in a few secondary level  schools of Kapilvastu district. The informative sessions were mostly based on spreading awareness about literature, novel reading, and poetry reading culture in the schools near my hometown. 

It is no wonder that I found a deficit in creativity and the lack of great aspiration among these countryside students. This result shall be alarming to society because the pedestal of tomorrow is not  highly robust as they shall be to lead the nation in a praiseworthy notion.  

It was also seen that the students were ingrained with the typical aspiration of the same stereotypical  lifestyle that has been prevalent in these towns and villages for a long time. For many students of rural  towns, thinking about the professional career outside the confines of the small towns and nearby  cities seems to be a very big challenge; students are consciously escaping the thoughts of striving for such professional paths. At one instance, I also observed some secondary level students struggling to  comprehensively understand a simple literary excerpt of a novel: it shows how fragile these student’s  reading comprehension skills are.  

When around 5m students (data taken from “Source: Flash I Report 2011-015”, Ministry of  Education, Nepal) of our country are enrolled in community schools for basic level education (class 1-8),  showing indifference to the educational quality of government schools will yield serious  consequences for the nation. The fundamental education till the high school shall be the same everywhere  in terms of the quality offered to the students not merely in academic syllabus, but also in terms of  exposure to broad non-academic activities and personal growth initiatives. When we observe the gap  in education level of two students of Nepal, one coming from a privileged private school and society of  urban areas and another hailing from a normal government(community) school of some rural Nepal,  most of the time the gap is so bigger that there seems to be a time difference of decades in the  education both have received. Though the difference in educational quality is also observed in the  socially and economically advanced countries, the gap that we see in Nepal is way bigger in comparison  to the academic field of high caliber nations. 

Today, the ubiquity of resources has made it easier to close such gaps and it only takes a small step from the governing authority’s side, a small step from the school’s side, and a small step from the student’s side. The right guidance to the students from their surrounding can be propitious on  fostering the student’s intelligence, and ultimately leads the community towards excellence. We can  unequivocally profess that the same students of the remotest areas can bring extraordinary visions to  the table if they are nurtured in a liberal, ethical, passionate, and resourceful environment. ‘What is  needed for the change?’ nothing more than giving assurance to the students “Your talent and ability  are an invaluable jewel that you can use to craft your dreams in the canvas of prosperity”. But here is  the problem, the assurance shall not merely be vocal, it should be presented in an exemplary notion  through the many lenses that print pictures in the subconscious mind of growing children. 

These lenses are many more, but most salient lenses among them seem to be family atmosphere and  community’s principles as they surround the children all the time, and play a greater role in the  direction a child takes on his/her journey of education. The lenses of the rural Nepali community are fabricated with fragile glasses, so they are unable to project bigger and clearer images for students  relying on these lenses to draw the sketch of their ambitions and visions. The piles of improvements  that are pending in the field of education in our country are not trivial, and simple mitigation measures  or plans will not be applicable to the distinctive areas grappling with diverse factors or challenges. Still,  we cannot hope for a great revolution- at least not a great leap forward, but a small leap forward could be  possible. This merely necessitates the concerned people of the educational sector being ingrained in their  duty to provide the best education possible without segregating the resources, opportunities,  knowledge circulation to the students based on the factors such as socio-economic status, ethnic  background, or geographical settings.  

Let us start a small journey sparkled with a beautiful dream where all the people of our nation unite to  make the quality education possible for everyone. Not even a single child shall deviate from the waves  of intelligence and nor shall he be pushed away to the deserted land; Nourish each plant in the garden  of knowledge and fill their hunger with the fruits of wisdom. Once we follow this principle, we can all sleep beneath the tranquil sky knowing that our dreams will be showcased up in the clouds of reality  when we wake up. 

Birat Neupane

Undergraduate student 

St Xavier’s College, Maitighar