Only, most people here earn no more than a dollar or two a day. If your job requires you to take a bus, you might have been spending 20 or 30 rupees (67 rupees=$1US) each way for your commute. Does not compute.

And that was before the recent fare hikes. I’m no economist, but I can see this is pretty much an untenable situation.

Strikes are a tremendous burden on the economy, but they are probably just an organic expression of the untenability. Make everything stop, and you can draw attention to a thing that needs to be fixed. It’s clearly not an ideal means of addressing a crisis. But it is just as clear that no ideal means exists.

So, the strikes are a pain in Nepal’s ass and all, but really, this is all about us. And what does this mean for us?

Rickshaws, baby. Human power. No petroleum. 

A Plague of Strikes Upon Us?

Kantipur Report

 

KATHMANDU, June 22 - At least four strikes -  Valley and Nepal bandas — in a month and many more in the making. As if the rest of the country felt left out in the Valley-only transport strike on Saturday called by student unions and transporters’ unions.Starting Sunday, the entire country could be hit by chakka jams and road obstructions if transport entrepreneurs have their way and the law continues to look the other way.   

The transporters and students will have additional company beginning Sunday – petroleum dealers and petro-product carriers, all of them contributing in their own ways to make life more difficult for the man in the street.

Besides, eight student unions affiliated to political parties and transport unions like the Federation of National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNTE), Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association (NPDA) and Federation of Nepal Petroleum Supply Entrepreneurs (NPSE) will also join the fray Sunday.

Of late, venting one’s ire on the street has spread like a plague throughout the country. The strike callers are of all varieties – from the aggrieved relatives of those killed in road accidents to transporters to students. It does not matter that a banda or chakka jam announced at the last minute leaves stranded people on their way to work, while setting out on some emergency task, taking someone to hospital, appearing for an exam, traveling the highway, or simply returning home.

The latest round of strikes started with the government announcing a hike in fuel prices and the resultant raise in public transport fares. The government proposed an across the board hike of 25 per cent for public vehicles (but with three-wheelers and micro buses to decide fares through competition) against a 35-45 per cent hike demanded by transport entrepreneurs. Transporters and people employed by them usually park their vehicles astride the roads to prevent all vehicular movement. “If the government fails to address the entrepreneurs’ demands immediately FNTE will halt vehicular movement for an  indefinite period across the country from Sunday,” FNTE warned Saturday.

Students who have been enjoying a 33 per cent fare concession are also up in arms. They now demand a 50 per cent concession. The government’s decision to raise the concession to 43 percent is not enough, the students say. [The 43 percent concession is  also applicable to the Jana Andolan-injured]. Transporters, of course, oppose this additional hike. On Friday, the students vandalized vehicles at some places and burnt tires in front of colleges in the capital. More such spectacles are expected on Sunday.

“We will continue our protests unless our demand for 50 per cent concession in fares is met,” said the eight students unions after a joint meeting, Saturday. Today was the fourth consecutive day of protests by them.

On Saturday, petroleum dealers padlocked Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) depots across the country. NPDA that had announced nation-wide agitations from Thursday, demanding the the government ease the supply of fuel at the earliest. As a part of the protest, NPDA has announced a halt to the purchase of fuel from NOC depots from Sunday and to the sale and distribution of petroleum products from Monday. This will ensure lengthier queues in front of government-owned fuel supply stations.

Similarly, the Federation of Nepal Petroleum Supply Entrepreneurs (NPSE) on Saturday decided to halt petroleum supply across the country from Sunday. Issuing a statement  NPSE said all tankers supplying petroleum products will stop operating until and unless the government increases fares for tankers. 

With all sides determined to have their own way, get ready to walk to your destination. The sick and elderly travel at their own risk.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we plan on doing very little in the way of official business. We understand almost everything will be closed and the streets will be quiet, as transportation will be generally prohibited. We’re about two blocks from the royal palace, where the sitting king will be gently coaxed from his throne–he’s expressed no eagerness to depart, and some fear that there will be hubbub.

There are a lot of police in the streets today, many wearing riot gear and carrying rifles or long sticks. 

Here are a few getting ready to have their hair cut from tomorrow’s festivities. 

We were in Ratna Park today, just on walkabout, when a bomb exploded. We were just walking across the park, when we heard a pretty loud (though clearly not very BIG) explosion. It was quite clear immediately that it was a bomb–things just don’t sound like that in regular life–and we sort of stood our ground a bit to get a feel for what might be happening.

We saw lots of people running towards a puff of smoke, and lots of people running away. Knowing that for the most part the folks exploding bombs here haven’t been seeking to hurt people, we didn’t have quite the same fear we might have in another place, and we found ourselves sort of tentatively sidling over toward where the bomb had been, which was probably 200 yards from where we’d been standing.

Soon enough, a crowd of people rushing from that direction overtook us, and we decided to kind of join it–either they were running from something or to something, and we figured we probably wanted to be where they were, and not where they weren’t.

It wasn’t a vibe of terror or rage or anything. Pretty shortly it became clear that they were carrying a victim of the blast, right past me. Not being a seasoned conflict photographer, I was busier trying to keep track of Amy and figure out how hard I should be running, and didn’t get any pictures. 

Keeping an eye out for stick wielding police or other angry-eyed people, we followed the crowd across the street, where they deposited the victim in the Bir Hospital’s emergency room. By this time, police in urban camo had caught up with the crowd, and were doing a fine job of milling around and keeping folks from going into the hospital. 

I asked what happened, of a studious looking fellow, and he said, “Bomb exploded. The guy who would explode it, it went off in his jeans pocket. Stupid man!” Seems plausible enough to me. If it’s true, I can’t say I feel too bad for the guy who blew his ass cheek off.

After the bomb, we did a spot of tourist ambling. It was a nice, if somewhat overwhelming, taste of Kathmandu’s street life. 

Amy and I saw this sectioned pig this evening, skin brazen orange and hair singed into a mohawk, and simultaneously exclaimed: “God, that’s beautiful!” And once again, for the one thousand thousandth time, I knew we had found each other for a reason.

Just yesterday bird sacrifices were outlawed in Kathmandu. I guess this young man didn’t get the memo.

I just can’t get enough of the handmade tools and rustic kitchens/shops here. 

We had another really nice time earlier in the day with the Little Sisters Fund folks. Shot a bunch of classroom portraits and a bit of video, as well as group portraits of the LSF girls attending Takshashila Academy (the school which adjoins the LSF offices). We’ll try to post some of those pictures, as well as some stuff from the cultural show, tomorrow. 

On our forced ‘holiday.’ 

Things look good politically.  The Maoists won the
election but they did not win “big enough” to rule
with impunity.  Instead, they will have to work with
others in the government to form the majority they
need.  This is good.  They plan to re-write the
constitution… which will take a couple/few years.

It looks like there will be 2 years of relative calm. 
The US is also posed to take the Maoists off the list
of terrorist organizations.

So, it appears we are heading into a more stable Nepal
than at any time in the past 5-6 years.

See you all very, very soon!

As of today, it’s one week until we fly. So excited.

Nope, no idea how the reporter came to refer to noise as a silent enemy. Maybe there was a winky emoticon in the original that some pernicious copyeditor struck?