Govt officials set to skip Geneva UN rights meet

THE KATHMANDU POST | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013
MEDIA should be neutral, unbiased
and free I reiterate in my Mass
Communication and Journalism
class as 17-year old girls look at me with
eager eyes, with ambitions to become journalists,
reporters and media personalities.
They expect to understand the complexities
of the media, soaking in the syllabus and
thinking that they have learnt enough to
handle one of the most dangerous professions
in the world.
I may sound dramatic, but hear me out.
I had to begin a new topic in my Mass
Communication and Journalism class about
Press Freedom. We began the class as usual
with a discussion about press history; how, if
we look back into the pages of history, we
find that the Nepali press was not free—not
under the autocratic Rana rule or the first
stint at democracy in the 1950s; not under
30 years of Panchayat or 1990s democracy
that followed and not under former king
Gyanendra’s autocratic rule. Today, the
media is still not truly free as we move forward
on our third attempt at institutionalising
democracy.
One only has to remember a couple of
years ago when journalist Khilanath Dhakal
who was brutally beaten up by UML’s sister
wing Youth force members. Just recently, the
Nepal Republic Media office at Sundhara
was vandalised by a mob claiming to be Shiv
Shena cadres. Then, the murder case of
Dailekh-based journalist Dekendra Thapa
surfaced who was tortured and buried alive
by the Maoists during the insurgency. Prime
Minister Baburam Bhattarai was vehemently
criticised for his order to withdraw the
case against the accused murderers, which
he later denied. That was reminiscent of
bygone days of undemocratic practice.
There were even reports of journalists fleeing
Dailekh as they were threatened by the
ruling party.
Forget in history, even the last few
months have been testing times for press
freedom. By press freedom we understand
that the reporters are free to report on any
issue without the fear of repercussions.
In democracy, the press plays the balancing
role. It plays the role of an adversary
to the government if the government is on
the wrong side or doing wrong deeds;
whereas it doesn’t fail to point out commendable
efforts of the government for
public welfare. The press should ideally fol-
JUST A COUP
THIS blind move to draw the judiciary
into the political leadership is
tantamount to a coup (“CJ dissatisfied
with 9-pt deal,” February 19,
Online). Long live Nepali democracy.
Manohar Thapa
Bangkok, Thailand
_______________________
The legitimacy of the new government
will not be based on the
Shaping minds
There’s little correlation between what we study
in press theory and its applicability in reality
KARISHMA KARKI
low the social responsibility theory, which
states that press is free and practices responsible
journalism.
However, in the context of Nepali media
today, the government and the ruling party
are still clearly trying to suppress any media,
which is critical of them. Any policy that
curbs press freedom is readily passed. The
most recent example is the one window
advertisement policy; in which the government
decides which media institution will
get its advertisement.
We see that in the US freedom of press is
outlined in the first amendment itself. I am
not saying we be like the US which clearly
follows the Libertarian theory of press where
press is free to report on any matter: byproducts
of which are the unethical contents
in American media (not all).
We all know that with freedom comes
great responsibility. There are regulatory
bodies such as the Press Council of Nepal,
which gives ethical guidelines and codes of
conducts on how the press should act. Not
to forget the fact that reporters themselves
are involved in activities of extortion in
which they demand money or other items
from people with threats of defamation.
Then there are some who plant fictional stories,
and some who, for monetary gains, are
willing to write about people giving them
instant fame. Time and again we have witnessed
the shift in Nepali press theory from
authoritarian, during the Rana period, to
Libertarian in our short-lived democracy.
Now for the big question: is our media shape
shifting towards the communist theory?
In the communist theory of press the
communist party believes that no institution
is above the party, including the press; it
prevents the press as well as individuals
from being critical towards the party. The
most suitable examples are China and North
Korea. We can draw a parallel to the threat
the Maoist party gave to Kantipur reporters
and of those journalists who had to flee
Dailekh because of threats to their life.
Journalists in Nepal need to tread safely.
By the looks of it, the Nepali press is heading
towards a direction in which in order to be
safe, journalists have to pick up neutral
topics which do not criticise the
government or any political party. Then
there will be no constant worry of security or
pressure from anybody. Or, journalists can
be uncritical of the government, appease
the political parties and then exist securely.
But doesn’t that violate the public’s right to
information?
Now to my dilemma, if aforementioned
theories and facts are the current reality or
going to be a scene for the future, then am I
being honest in telling my students that the
press is the fourth estate of the country; that
it is the watchdog of the society?
Karki teaches Mass Communications at St. Mary’s
High School in Kathmandu
Interim Constitution. What, then, will
it be based on? It will not have popular
legitimacy. For that, there should
be a popular movement to form a
new government irrespective of what
the constitution says, just as Jana
Andolan 2 succeeded in restoring the
defunct parliament although it went
against the then constitution.
Therefore, the appointment of the
Chief Justice as prime minister can
only be considered a coup.
Gopilal Chaudhary
Bardiya
_______________________
The CJ is completely right in his
skepticism since the political parties
want to keep the steering wheel
with them and make the CJ drive
the state bus in the direction they
want to go. This will turn the whole
idea of an independent election government
into a joke—in other words,
a farce. The parties should give the
new government a free hand to conduct
the election in a free, fair, and
fearless manner. Then only will the
POST PHOTO
Nepali people trust the election
results. Chief Justice Regmi
should not accept the post with
strings attached by the selfish
political parties.
Kbm
Satdobato
_______________________
Chief Justice Regmi, do not make this
mistake and lead a government that
is opposed by so many Nepalis. It’s
not a unanimous decision but only
the decision of four parties. What
about other parties and other peoples’
wishes and views? CJ Regmi,
please be careful, do not bring dishonour
to your name.
Dipendra Gywali
Pokhara
KANTIPUR TO THE
RESCUE
IT would have been much better if
Kantipur would have vowed to
uphold Nepali nationalism
Why we love beautiful things
LANCE HOSEY
GREAT design, the management expert
Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice
Potter Stewart’s famous definition of
pornography—you know it when you see it.
You want it, too: brain scan studies reveal that
the sight of an attractive product can trigger
the part of the motor cerebellum that governs
hand movement. Instinctively, we reach out
for attractive things; beauty literally moves us.
Yet, while we are drawn to good design, as
Hamel points out, we’re not quite sure why.
This is starting to change. A revolution in
the science of design is already under way, and
most people, including designers, aren’t even
aware of it.
Take colour. Last year, German
researchers found that just glancing at shades
of green can boost creativity and motivation.
It’s not hard to guess why: We associate verdant
colours with food-bearing vegetation—
hues that promise nourishment.
This could partly explain why window
views of landscapes, research shows, can
speed patient recovery in hospitals, aid learning
in classrooms and spur productivity in the
workplace. In studies of call centers, for example,
workers who could see the outdoors completed
tasks 6 to 7 percent more efficiently
than those who couldn’t, generating an annual
savings of nearly $3,000 per employee.
In some cases the same effect can happen
with a photographic or even painted mural,
whether or not it looks like an actual view of
the outdoors. Corporations invest heavily to
understand what incentivizes employees, and
it turns out that a little colour and a mural
could do the trick.
Simple geometry is leading to similar revelations.
For more than 2,000 years, philosophers,
mathematicians and artists have marveled
at the unique properties of the “golden
rectangle”: Subtract a square from a golden
rectangle, and what remains is another golden
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd., Kantipur Complex, Subidhanagar P. B. No. 8559, Kathmandu; Nepal Phone: 4480100, Fax: 977-1-4466320, e-mail: kpost@kantipur.com.np
Simple geometry is leading to design revelations
(“Kantipur to do all it can to uphold
democratic norms,” February 19,
Page 1). Otherwise, who will you
felicitate for protecting Nepali
democracy? All top political leaders
in Nepal, including GP Koirala, have
shown anti-democracy tendencies.
Kantipur’s promise to protect Nepali
nationalism would have been much
better and relevant in the present
context.
Sandesh Sapkota
Dhading
GALTUNG’S
THOUGHTS
I FULLY agree with the views of Prof
Galtung and admire his ideas on
so many ‘cracies’ prevalent in
contemporary Nepal—minus
democracy (“Nepal is turning into a
technocracy,” February 18, Page 6).
He puts a lot of stress on negative
and positive peace and ‘cultural’ violence
in his literature. His opinion on
the need to lift up the bottom in
rectangle, and so on and so on—an infinite
spiral. These so-called magical proportions
(about 5 by 8) are common in the shapes of
books, television sets and credit cards, and
they provide the underlying structure for
some of the most beloved designs in history:
the facades of the Parthenon and Notre Dame,
the face of the “Mona Lisa,” the Stradivarius
violin and the original iPod. Experiments
going back to the 19th century repeatedly
It should come as no
surprise that good design
can have dramatic
effects. We think of great
design as art, not science,
a mysterious gift from
the gods, not something
that results just from
diligent study
show that people invariably prefer images in
these proportions, but no one has known why.
Then, in 2009, a Duke University professor
demonstrated that our eyes can scan an image
fastest when its shape is a golden rectangle.
For instance, it’s the ideal layout of a paragraph
of text, the one most conducive to reading
and retention. This simple shape speeds
up our ability to perceive the world, and without
realizing it, we employ it wherever we can.
Certain patterns also have universal
appeal. Natural fractals—irregular, self-similar
geometry—occur virtually everywhere in
Nepal is laudable. All prominent
actors keep on promising to lift up
the bottom but have failed significantly
till date.
Vidyadhar Mallik
Battisputali, Kathmandu
_______________________
Yes, inequality is the main problem
in this country. Every culture and
society within this nation should be
respected. There is no need to accept
the travesty called the caste system.
Bijay
Pokhara
_______________________
It seems foreigners know very
well the root cause or the ‘key problem’
that gives way to all other issues
in Nepal—inequality within the
country.
Dev Rai
US
_______________________
Prof Galtung’s interview politely
7
nature: in coastlines and riverways, in
snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own
lungs. In recent years, physicists have found
that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical
density of fractals—not too thick, not
too sparse. The theory is that this particular
pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically
the acacia, on the African savanna, the place
stored in our genetic memory from the cradle
of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist,
beauty is in the genes of the beholder—
home is where the genome is.
Life magazine named Jackson Pollock “the
greatest living painter in the United States” in
1949 when he was creating canvases now
known to conform to the optimal fractal density
(about 1.3 on a scale of 1 to 2 from void to
solid). Could Pollock’s late paintings result
from his lifelong effort to excavate an image
buried in all of our brains?
We respond so dramatically to this pattern
that it can reduce stress levels by as much as
60 percent—just by being in our field of vision.
One researcher has calculated that since
Americans spend $300 billion a year dealing
with stress-related illness, the economic benefits
of these shapes, widely applied, could be
in the billions.
It should come as no surprise that good
design, often in very subtle ways, can have
such dramatic effects. After all, bad design
works the other way: Poorly designed computers
can injure your wrists, awkward chairs
can strain your back and over-bright lighting
and computer screens can fatigue your eyes.
We think of great design as art, not science,
a mysterious gift from the gods, not
something that results just from diligent and
informed study. But if every designer understood
more about the mathematics of attraction,
the mechanics of affection, all design—
from houses to cellphones to offices and cars
—could both look good and be good for you.
—©2013 The New York Times
overlooks the horrible fact that Nepal
is also now a kleptocracy—a thieves’
paradise in other words. All but a tiny
portion of donor money, government
grants and other foreign aid is stolen,
thieved, pilfered and sucked into private
pockets in return for nothing.
This is done through hidden commissions,
inflated pricing, counterfeit
invoicing, grossly inflated consulting
fees, bribes, back handers,
and so on.
Peter
Sydney, Australia
_______________________
It is worth considering that even a
foreign social scientist such as Prof
Galtung can show such a deep
understanding of Nepal's social and
political problems. I wish so-called
Nepali intellectuals and leaders
would at least show this kind of
understanding and act according to
it in order to get this ill-fated country
out of its present turmoil.
Dilli Sharma
Baglung