Jazz and Blues: Edinburgh and Kathmandu
So I find myself at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival with some of the finest jazz and blues talent from around the world. Ranging from boggie-woogie to blues-rock, from samba to swing and soul, this festival has it all! The venues themselves are spectacular, from the opulence of the Festival Theater to hip jazz clubs and unique venues such as the Spiegeltent. Highlights of the event include artists (among many more) such as Carol Kidd, The Average White Band, Jools Holland, Rumba de Bodas, Blind Boy Paxton, Maggie Bell, and Bachelors of Jazz. A particular favorite of mine, Earl Thomas, is one of the most important blues figures of this decade. This year he brought his new venture—gospel music—for the very first time. Using the enthusiastic Edinburgh crowd as a ‘sounding board’, Thomas was moved to tears when the crowd gave him an ongoing standing ovation. This brought home that his gospel combined with blues would go down well in his upcoming concerts in the States.
On stage with Thomas was an international band, including Americans and Scottish musicians. In fact Thomas weaved an interesting tale of how his grandfather several generations back was a Scottish slave-owner, while is grandmother was a slave, and together they had 18 children. A story of love across the-then very dangerous color divide.
My thoughts turn to the music scene in Kathmandu which ranges from jazz, rock, western orchestral, to eastern classical, to Nepali pop, and a version of Korean pop. Those of you who are regular readers of the Annapurna Express will be well aware of Sunny Mahat’s excellent reviews of the music scene in the country.
But keeping on the jazz and blues theme: when Jazzmandu first started, some 16 years ago, few Nepalis came along to this week-long jazz festival involving international and local musicians. Word soon got out, however, and with the opening of the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory in 2007, jazz came of age in Nepal. Unlike in the West, there is no pretentiousness among young Nepali music lovers. If they like it, then they will listen, and appreciate. And many do indeed love jazz.
Today Jazzmandu (this year on November 1-6) has grown into a large and vibrant event attracting audiences from all walks of life. And, like the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, Jazzmandu has something that will suit the musical tastes of most. In addition, Jazzmandu retains its Nepali heritage and offers a musical flavor of Nepal and encourages visiting musicians to join hands with local traditional musicians in a celebration of Nepali culture.
Before then however will be the Kathmandu Blues and Roots festival on September 29 in Tangalwood, Kathmandu. This third event will again help raise money for those in need. This year participating bands, including The Midnight Riders, Spirit X Illusion, Newaz, Mukti and Revival, and from the US, The Well, will be joined by a local band from somewhere in the country.
Through uploading on the Blues and Roots Facebook page, bands will be judged through the number of likes, with final input from the organizers and judges. The winner will be given the opportunity to be on stage with these musicians during the festival. Included in the winning package is an all-expenses paid trip to Kathmandu (for those outside the valley) and a record deal with Skathi Records. Skathi is owned by Satish Sthapit, one of the founding organizers, along with Roshan Kansakar, of the event.
So, while listening to jazz and blues with the backdrop of the spectacular Edinburgh Castle, I’m looking forward to listening to similar sounds within the Kathmandu Valley this autumn when the Roots and Blues Festival and Jazzmandu once again transcend cultural boundaries, spreading the message of peace and compassion through music.
Remake gone terribly wrong
Romantic Drama
DHADAK
CAST: Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana
DIRECTION: Shashank Khaitan
1 and half stars
In the small town of Udaipur, India, a boy falls in love with a girl. Madhukar (Ishaan Khatter) is the only son of a family that run a modest eatery while Parthavi (Janhvi Kapoor) comes from a high caste Rajput family led by her patriarch father (Ashutosh Rana) with political ambitions. It’s easy to guess where the story goes from here. ‘Dhadak’ is pitched as the traditional Romeo-Juliet love story where doomed lovers Madhukar and Parthavi have to battle great odds to save their love. The only reason for a conventional ‘Dhadak’ to exist when off-beat small town romantic dramas like ‘Barielly ki Barfi’, ‘Dum Lagake Haisa’ and ‘Subh Mangal Savadhan’ are working their magic is that it’s a remake of the highly successful Marathi film ‘Sairat’, which is just two years old.
Unlike writer/director Nagraj Manjule’s ‘Sairat’ that was made on a low budget of 4 crores and cast first time actors with no film industry connections, ‘Dhadak’ is produced by Bollywood’s leading film studio Dharma Production, owned by Karan Johar, on a reported budget of 75 crores. And the film comes at a time when Bollywood’s A-list makers like Johar have been accused of favoring star kids over outsiders. ‘Dhadak’ too has been deemed as a launch pad for the late Bollywood diva Sridevi’s daughter (Janhvi Kapoor) and Shahid Kapoor’s younger step brother (Ishaan Khatter).
This needs to be highlighted to understand why the run-of-the-mill romantic plot felt refreshing in ‘Sairat’ and why it feels synthetic in ‘Dhadak’ even with big names and a mammoth budget. Nagraj Manjule, himself a dalit, crafted the original film’s caste conflict with devastating intimacy. The story might have been a tad clichéd but Manjule was able to engineer many tensed and heartfelt moments in the story that seamlessly threaded together adolescent romance and vicious world of caste-based violence.
Shashank Khaitan, who directs the remake, gives us a sanitized world with lush production design and actors putting on fake Rajasthani accents. He’s reluctant to critique the Indian caste system and makes do with a parallel subplot of regional politics.
He paints the young Madhukar and Parthavi with such sketchy details that their romance seems like shallow puppy love, not something that has viewers fidgeting, praying for their budding love to survive the bone dry societal climate. Khaitan’s work is too breezy to evoke anything close to that feeling.
Much of the success of the original film has been credited to the majestic orchestra-driven musical score and pulsating songs of composers Ajay-Atul. Their music has been reused in ‘Dhadak’ but Khaitan falters under the weight of his film’s grand visual look and frolicking touristy landscape that leave no space for the music to inject soul.
There’s nothing noteworthy in the young lead actors’ performances. Khatter is mawkish and impresses sparingly with his ever-expanding grin in the film’s lighter moments. He definitely shows range when the story shifts, as he easily grows broodier and less gooey-eyed. But his counterpart Janhvi Kapoor remains one note for most of the film. To look headstrong and bratty, Kapoor rigs up a stiff facial expression that doesn’t look one bit comfortable.
‘Dhadak’ is a flossy and less poetic version of ‘Sairat’. It gives no sign of cinematic ambition and looks like a quick cash grab marketing strategy of a big Indian film studio.
No prosperity without good governance
Nepal is still among underdeveloped countries, characterized by high level of poverty, minimal economic growth, inequality and unemployment. The economy’s size is $26 billion while per capita income has reached $1,400. But 30 percent people are still under the line of poverty.
Over the past three decades economic growth has averaged under five percent. The increasing imports and declining exports has badly hampered our balance of payment. The class structure of the society is changing and the role of the middle class growing. Yet we have been unable to use this fact to draft our economic policies. In every area, we are more and more dependent on outsiders, especially India.
We have been unable to make electricity a base for national prosperity. With a history of over 100 years of hydropower, we have been able to generate only around 1,000 MW in this time. We still consider agriculture a foundation of our economy and yet its share in overall economy is steadily declining and agricultural imports are increasing. There is a fundamental contradiction here.
On the one hand, we say that agriculture is the foundation of our economy and on the other, we have been unable to rise above subsistence agriculture. The economy is completely dependent on foreign employment and remittance and the country is becoming a big hub for constant consumption. Corruption is increasing, as is evident in the country’s steady decline in the Corruption Perception Index, and the country is slowly going into the hands of crony capitalists.
To take the country out of this morass and to achieve the desired development and prosperity we first need a clear framework for national prosperity. What kind of prosperity are we aiming for? How can we get there? What are the main hurdles and conditions? We need clarity on these fronts. The main determinants of prosperity are infrastructure development, increase in industrial output and its judicious distribution, sustainable harnessing of resources, people’s emotional satisfaction, etc. Prosperity is basically economic development that makes people happy.
This happiness comes not just from an increase in incomes but also from quality education, health, and a betterment in a person’s lifestyle and social standing. Here it becomes relevant to discuss Naya Shakti party’s political and procedural course. Our ultimate goal is ‘developed socialism’, to achieve which we need ‘inclusive prosperity’. And in order to arrive at this kind of prosperity we believe there has to be ‘inclusive, proportional and participatory democracy’, which in turn calls for ‘sovereignty’ and ‘good governance’ and ‘high ethics’.
Governance is basically a way to run state affairs, and a system that is both answerable and within legal bounds. But how does the government get these rights and how does it exercise them? These are important questions. In a democracy, such rights can be earned and exercised only with mass approval.
According to American political scientist Francis Fukuyama, governance is the ability to draft and implement laws and to work in public interest, whether or not the government is democratic. This also determines whether there is good or bad governance. Hence, for there to be good governance, it is vital that all organs of the state are transparent and work according to democratic principles, and that all these organs are directly answerable to the people.
The quality of governance hinges on whether a government is ready to meet the expectations of the common folks rather than only work for a particular interest group. This is why democracy and good governance are related and help each other.
At the 2005 UN World Summit, world leaders recognized good governance as indispensable for economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Also, without good governance there can be no inclusiveness. Unless common people’s access to information is guaranteed by making them part of decision-making, Nepal will never be able to achieve the kind of prosperity it desires.
Good governance and prosperity are also closely linked. The reason Nepal has not been able to make rapid economic progress is largely due to lack of good governance. A government is an indispensable unit that has to maintain relations with market, citizens, public institutions, peoples’ representatives, civil society and private sector. The more these relations are cooperative and transparent, the higher the chances of prosperity. Yet these relations in Nepal have always been iffy.
This is why, no matter how much we discuss development and prosperity, unless we can work out its determinants and frameworks, there can never be real prosperity. When speaking about prosperity, we should at the same time address the questions of good governance, inclusiveness and sovereignty. It is our corrupt governing system that is the main impediment to prosperity. But how do we improve upon this system ?
The author is Naya Shakti central committee member and an economic analyst
Mainstreaming disability agenda
Disability is back on the global development agenda. Hopefully, rights of people with disabilities will now enter national development plans of developing and emerging countries. This hope stems from a major initiative being undertaken by the British Government through its overseas aid agency, the Government of Kenya and the International Disability Alliance. Disability activists around the world are set to gather in London on July 24 for the Global Disability Summit.
Disability has unfortunately never been the main focus in the overall developmental agenda. Even though experts acknowledge it as important, it has always been considered an “add on”, secondary or in worst cases, not given any attention.
The Summit, with a Civil Society Forum taking place a day earlier, is an opportunity to reset the global development agenda, so that rights of people with disabilities are given priority in the sustainable development agenda. It will be cohosted by an interesting triad: a government development agency from the North, a government of the South representing an emerging region like eastern Africa and the global alliance of networks and agencies focused on disabilities.
Nepal will be represented by the Minister for Women, Children & Social Welfare and a group of select activists. They were instrumental last year in ensuring the enactment of the new Disability Rights Act, a groundbreaking document that aligns the country to the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and makes Nepal a progressive nation on social inclusion, at least on paper.
In preparation of the global summit, a stakeholder summit was recently organized in Kathmandu. Dozens of activists showcased their achievements and shared their stories. Rarely has such an event been organized in Nepal where social inclusion and disability activists meet. As Shudarson Subedi, the President of the National Federation of Disabled Nepal, highlighted in his opening speech, disability agenda is rarely linked to overall national development agenda. There are positive changes in terms of social inclusion in Nepal but disability issues are still neglected. Mainstreaming complex issues like social inclusion of marginalized groups, including people with disabilities, is hard.
Independent, full-fledged programs focusing on disability rights are rare. Even though explanation of such misery is found in the “mainstreaming” principle, it is hard to justify it from a practical point of view especially if nothing else happens for the cause.
The national event in Nepal made it clear that there is an incredible group of activists and experts, with tremendous passion and determination working to bring positive changes.
Other positive things are happening too. The Ministry of Education with the support of external development partners are working on a more inclusive education system. This long term plan, if implemented properly, will allow children with disabilities in integrated schools.
However, more effort is required to make Nepal an inclusive and open society for the disabled. Resources are required to scale up and bold partnerships called for to promote best practices and innovative approaches. Organizations working for the cause of disability must be able to work together, sharing practices and promoting joint initiatives.
Thematic clusters on single issues related to disability and social inclusion could be rolled together to create more synergies and achieve scale. It should also promote sustainable initiatives to break the usual dependency trap.
If businesses and citizens consider improving lives of the disabled as a personal responsibility, it would play a crucial role in making Nepal a better place for all. External development partners could play an important role in supporting such an eco-system, rewarding actors who bring tangible results.
The state at all levels have the duty to act and promote the implementation of the new Act, starting with a massive capacity building of local bodies. Elected officers must be considerate of people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups. They must be responsive and accountable to them, as they constitute a considerable voting bloc. Helping the disabled should always be a part of the broader agenda of developing Nepal, where marginalized and vulnerable groups also have a role to play.
Hopefully the Global Disability Summit will help create momentum both internationally and locally.
The author is co-founder of ENGAGE, an NGO partnering with youths living with disabilities.
