44 students shine on Dean's list at SAIM College

This year marked a moment of pride for SAIM College as 44 Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students earned their place on the prestigious Dean's List, a testament to their dedication and hard work. Among these high-achieving students, four distinguished themselves further by securing a perfect CGPA of 4.0/4.0—an extraordinary accomplishment that reflects their academic brilliance and perseverance.

The top achievers—Aryan Kumar Verma, Samjhana Dura, Bipashna Sodari, and Chhesang Lama—have set a new standard of excellence, embodying the spirit of discipline and grit that defines student life at SAIM.

Speaking on the milestone, Principal Ashok Raj Pandey shared his heartfelt congratulations: "This remarkable achievement reflects not just the hard work of our students but also the dedication of our faculty and the support of families. At SAIM, we are committed to fostering an environment where students can realize their full potential. To all our students, congratulations on this well-deserved success. You are the future leaders and changemakers, and your journey has just begun."

The journey to this success has been shaped by a supportive learning environment and a student-centric approach to education. SAIM College emphasizes collaboration, critical thinking, and innovation, ensuring every student has the opportunity to excel.

For the 44 students who made the Dean’s List, this recognition celebrates their perseverance and hard work. For the four students who achieved perfection, it is a hallmark of their outstanding determination and drive.

This achievement reaffirms SAIM College’s commitment to nurturing future leaders, fostering growth, and celebrating the stories of transformation behind every success.

Emotions and authenticity

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

Subtle ways to manipulate you into retail therapy

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

Human Rights Day: Time to translate the mandates into action

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.