Month: June 2013

From TIA Immigration


If we look back into our (Nepal’s) history, most of us will agree with the fact that non of us are that smug with the development of Nepal and what we have seen in last ten to 15 years or even more. I think, so far, we are not been able to hold on to our responsibility as a good Spartan citizen, and I think we are in delusion to be called one. Yes, of course, we have somehow been able to hold on to our duty and still rise in the adversaries, but that is so hidebound and the development has been limited to our own family. We have not been able to contribute to the extent we are supposed to have by this time.

Fifteen years is not a small period of time — it is a long duration. The reason why I am repeatedly mentioning this time is because as a Nepalese we have seen our country developing by leaps and bounds till that time. Booming of industrial sector, government sector, quality assurance and control, the grip of Transparency International Nepal on the offices and government as well as private officials had been so much commendable, and it had shown the productivity along with the extent of productivity and quality general public had experienced in the service and products. But, as the time passes we have seen it slipping out of our hand and so far nothing has been done to assure that it is not going out of our control.

It really hurts when you see thousands of Nepalese leaving for greener pasture, and no other place can be best which can reflect the real-time scenario other than Tribhuban International Airport (TIA). As I was checking-in in TIA for Bangkok, I was shunned to see the overwhelming number of people in the queue waiting patiently which was exclusively for the Nepalese who are destined for the gulf countries for work purpose, and those who are under working visa category. The milieu of the boarding-room appears as if there are 75% of Nepalese under that category and rest contains foreigners and Nepalese for some other purpose. I am not being judgmental here, but the fact is anybody can spot it correctly without hesitation — just from the countenance and the dressing sense of the people in the room.

We can now say with a dignified tone that we are one of those countries of the world which is contributing to a significant degree to the developed world for their further progressivity, and fortunately, this has also impacted immensely on our economic graph simultaneously, which shows it is rising just because of the foreign currencies entering into our country through remittance.

This is not just the case with the working class, it has been infectious to the intellectual class as well. I guess, there are more than 100,000 students pursuing foreign degrees all over the world ranging from A-level and Prophecy Certificate Level (PCL) level to PhD and post-doctorate. And, we don’t have to go farther to look for the example. Because, if I start to trace back my friends only from my high school to my college, I can find them dispersed in more than 20 different countries with the range of subjects from arts, humanity, commerce, science and medicine which I guess is quite jaw dropping in a sense. But, hang on, because this is not painting some rosy picture towards the Nepal’s future.

The reasons are innumerable, but I would still reiterate the fact which I have been sticking to for more than last 10 years and that is “political instability”. For me, it’s a backbone towards the progressivity. Until and unless this is sorted out in a conclusive manner, I think, doesn’t matter how hard we try, we are not going any further. But, then, this doesn’t mean that we are stagnant. Of course, we are going to make some advancement but that will be just iota of something we can achieve in just months and few years.

We all know that development of any country doesn’t just depend on the individual initiation and it is not under a particular person’s frame of control, but rather it is a group venture. We all have to cooperate with each other as we all have a common target to reach to. But, it seems as if it is taking too long to just even understand that we have a common agenda and we need to cooperate to each other for that common purpose. But, sadly enough, we are being hidebound in our attitude and we have stopped listening to each other and at the same time we have become myopic in our future vision.

The lack of cooperatively in our self is another factor that is dragging us out from our country. We have virtually lost our faith, trust and sense of respect for others in the run to reach a destination overnight — which is nothing more than a seer stupidity we are following.

There is difference between in doing something by your heart and something by force. Today, we are being materialistic and we are engaged in something by force rather than by our wit and our desire for it. Today, we feel like as if we are being pushed for something we don’t want to do and there where we fail to escalate to our limit. It’s always an urge to do something tangible. If we have an urge for something it will gives us with result that we long — because these days we have become result oriented rather than work oriented. Doesn’t matter how hard we try, if we can’t produce result, rest all is just futile.

For us to produce results, we need our togetherness which provides us with cooperative — something that we desperately need in this situation. What we have earned from Thailand is not just my degree but a value of togetherness and cooperative. Thai people believe in the slogan, “Together We Can Do It!”. I think, we need the same. Because, until and unless we don’t understand this, we are not moving forward and immigration will continue for ever. ■

Author can be reached at btrajesh@gmail.com

Dealing with the devil


|By Rajesh Chaudhary

Kathmandu | June 20, 2013

Time and again, history has outspoken pertaining to the issues of women being subjected to physical violence which suggests from physical to mental ail. Since the beginning of the civilization women has been sporadically been subjected to some forms of violence and it can’t be discounted.

There is one latest example of the one of those violence against women which is harsher, cruel, inhuman or even called barbaric than anything else and it governs both mental and physical ail — “THE RAPE”!  And, this problem is not the product of our society; it has been in existence since the beginning of the era and has been clearly expressed in various occasions and news outlets citing its existence in Greek Mythology, Ancient Rome as well as during the time of Christian empire.

The censes data on rape victims has appalled from rags to riches alike. Some of the few examples are something like this: Delhi has witnessed 700 rape cases in 2012 alone with Madhya Pradesh of India has reported highest number of rape cases which amounts to 3,406 during that time. Besides that, as of January 2013, our country, Nepal, has witnessed 30 rape cases in last 3 months of time. Out of which one third has been reported to be in Kathmandu itself. However, this might be just a part of the story, and might not reflect the complete scenario of Nepal. The reason is more than 50 rapes is thought to have taken place during that 3 months period while police might have been able to collect the data for just 30.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website under the article “Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE)” has mentioned that, “nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States have been raped at some time in their lives and nearly 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced other forms of sexual violence victimization in their lifetime (e.g., made to penetrate someone, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences)”.

So, now, the bigger question is, how we can deal with this devil or the perpetrators behind this heinous crime? Would the answers be the anti-rape underwear (which gives shock to the molester) which has just been developed by a team of students of Instrumentation and Control Engineering at Chennai’s SRM University or would it be anti-pervert stockings for females which has buzzed the Chinese media since last couple of days.

I personally believe that the answer doesn’t lie in what we develop, rather than, it lies in our mores. Developing certain kind of tools to fend of these kind of crimes might be appreciating for a while, but this is not going to last long — this is not an ultimately solution. As a human being, our moral values determines what we ought to become — either a human or someone who is inhumane.

Though, the data on rape cases might be subjecting to the fact of level of education we have attained, we can’t completely rely on it. The reason is that even the capital city like Kathmandu and Delhi has tasted the bigger chunk of it rather than more improvised states and regions of both of these countries.

The only ultimately step to be taken to tackle with this existing problem is to introduce more modified educational system as well as stricter laws and amendments of the rules governing the violence against women — just like India has amended its legislation according to which a perpetrator is liable to capital punishment if the victim becomes handicapped or dies.

Different awareness programs along with the NGOs and INGOs might help a bit to tackle with this problem, if not completely uproot it. I think, the violence against women has rooted itself in a such as way that it might take years before even a iota of progress be made in curbing it. And, sadly enough, it is going to remain here for sometime now since the authorities responsible for amending the legislation doesn’t seem paying much heed to this ever growing serious problem.

I think, they (the authorities) are not going come out of their cozy cocoon until the problem knocks their door. This is how it always works and becomes effective.

Find the PDF file here:  Dealing with devil

Quality versus Quantity


 

|By Rajesh Chaudhary

Agree or not, as the time progresses, the thin demarcation line between the clinical sciences and the basic sciences is fading away, and this is because of the assimilation of medical disorders which are linked to the molecular ground.

We have been bickering on the fact that who is to be called a medical biochemist, medical microbiologist, medical physiologist, immunologist, pharmacologist or pathologist — either the one who have pursued the basic science or those who are into the medical science since the beginning of their undergraduate work — I mean those who are completely into the medical science.

I think it is inane to bicker on the issues that doesn’t hold any significant value in itself. And, this can only be realized when we have some sort of exposure to the real scientific world. I mean, who have that time to just keep on arguing something which doesn’t have any productive value? It’s just like killing time instead of getting engaged into something productive. After all, we all have our own area of expertise and it has not to be judged from any side.

The ground reality is that both of these fields are not separable as both requires the expertise of another to reach to a common goal, which is to find a tangible solution to the existing baffling several diseased conditions of the world.

Now, again, this fact of finding a common solutions to the existing problems has another hurdle — which is to find the resources necessary to initiate the work of research. Forget about even initiating a research work without external funding source, it is really difficult to even say that, “I want to do a molecular research work which will have some potential to turn the table to those who wants a desperate answer to the existing problems in the health sector” — specially when we have been downgraded from “developing nation” to “least developed nation” on earth.

This might be the reason why we are getting indulged into some sort of research work which is considered as a sub-standard research work whose data are often flawed or manipulated. The only thing we care of today is to somehow get paper published in some national journals, if not a descent international journal having impact factor. Because, after all we all need some sort of paper for getting promoted if we are into pure academic sector.

As I have figured out, if I am not wrong, Nepal has over 12 scientific journals which includes : Kathmandu University Medical Journal, Journal of Nepal Health Research Council, Journal of Institute of Medicine, Journal of Nepal Medical Association, Nepal Medical College Journal, Journal of Nepal Dental Association, Journal of Nepal Pediatric Association, Journal of the Nepal Nursing Council, Journal of Kathmandu Medical College, Nepal Journal of Biotechnology and many more like these.

Now, from all these piles of journals, there are hardly any scientific evidence which have potential to influence on the decision of Nepal’s National Planning Commission — obviously, on the health sector. I mean, as a Biotechnologist, Biochemistry, Microbiologist et cetra, what we are engaged in, today, is not a real research work. Most of the research works are basically finding the prevalence rate of disease, infection, effect of certain drug on the health of an individual or the pH of their digestive system or the influence of that diseased condition in life of an individual.

What I have to say is, all those things have already been researched before introducing some sort of drugs. I mean as a person in the basic science who have more molecular touch than any other filed, and thus, it is our responsibility to be a little bit descent and honest in our work when it comes to the quality of research work.

On this run-and-melee for number of publications we are our selves trying to subvert our own field by not being honest to it. My point is that either we should seriously get involved in the quality research work or just leave it rather than bungling it up with something none sense.

I think we are either not sure what we want to do and how we want to do while longing for increasing number of research publications in our curriculum vitae or either we are just trying to fool people. But, ironically, this has become a trend! Even those who are capable to give a tangible scientific output are also being involved in this act.

I am really baffled to the researches going on in Nepal and it’s all because the line of separation between the subjects has turned out to be too hazy. Take for example, a microbiological research work about the prevalence of some sort of microbial infection — what it has to do with the anatomy filed? I mean, we are still correlate things if we want but I don’t see there is any point in correlating a superficial work of microbiology to anatomy. And, even after that, how can a microbiologist take the survey data of infection and call it a research without getting to the root cause of the infection? How can we separate it from community medicine, public health and the microbiology?

As a microbiologist, biochemist we have to get down to the root cause of the disease which has to be on the molecular level. Our research can’t just rely on the fact whether or not to change a perception just based on the superficial data which might vary depending on the several different factors, for example, environmental factor, diet, genetic make up of an individual, their immunity and so on.

The genuine research works have a potential to influence a country’s economy and that is what Japan is now heading towards — reviving its economic strength based on the research work. Japan is calling for the international researches to its country and for that Japan is going to provide a complete free and fair environment so that researches can brood without a boundary — either monetary, language or cultural barrier which is thought to be the biggest hurdle for the researchers around the world.

The cultural dissimilarity has created big confusion between the researchers from different backgrounds and culture, which is thought to be the biggest hurdle when it comes to reaching a common goal of finding solution. In fact, it is true. How can somebody work freely and concentrate on their work while they are being judged based on their country of origin and their past background?

This is not only the case of Nepal, the problem seems overwhelming as it has engrossed even US system of research work and therefore, Arthur J. Ammann, a founder of Global Strategies and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA writes, “US clinical-research system in need of review”, in nature journal. Though, it has been more focused on the ethical background, it along with other such articles still holds a notion about the research works being published every now and then.

Today, we are longing for the number of research proposal rather than focusing on the quality of paper and this is becoming a serious problem of today, and there doesn’t seem any sign of it abating soon.

What does it take?


Kathmandu | Sunday, June 2, 2013

|By Rajesh Chaudhary

It has been more than 10 years now since these newspaper writing, articles, blogs, novels and whatever sort of writing materials has engrossed me to my fullest. I have just somehow found myself to be submerged in this fascinating world of literature. In this course of voyage through this fascinating world, I have learnt some of the things which is crucial for becoming a writer – at least a simple blog writer or diary writer, if not a dexterous novel writer.

As I have mentioned in one of my blogs about fear, it is our fear that is being a kind of impediment for what we long for. It is an apprehension to open yourself to the public and it is quite understandable. Whether you have to present your paper in an international conference or you have to be a moderator in some international meeting where participants are from different backgrounds. Being public is not a cakewalk, but this fear also brings fortune along with it in case if you are able to overcome it.

Fear has gagged us so overwhelmingly that it is very difficult to unfetter yourself from its grip. For me breaking this sense of apprehension has not been easier either – it took my money, my time, and even my demeanor to accomplish what I wanted so desperately. But, after all it is my desperation which gave me company to overcome it.

For a newbie like me it was a benediction to be born in a country where written and printed English materials can be bought at the cheapest price compared to the rest part of the world; not to mention, though there might be some exceptions. Ten years ago when I started my own home-grown learning library for English literature, it was just merely NRS (Nepalese Rupees) 2, for a copy of national daily newspaper. Classic novels and story books from “Wordsworth Classic” use to cost hardly NRS 100. I still have my first “Wordsworth Classic” by O. Henry containing 100 best stories which I finished in 20 days, 2006 democratic movement of Nepal.

One of my friends had ever commented on my way of reading novels with a dictionary by my side. He said, “You are killing the charm of reading novel by your dictionary by your side”. And, I can’t discount that he was wrong. Yeah, people should be reading novels in park, during traveling, on airport while they are on transit to kill time, while they are on vacation on sea beach or during trekking, but at least not on the study table with table lamp on. But, again, that is how you are going to learn language, literature and be able to comprehend the theme and meaning of the real matter – specially when English is not your first language, and there is no shame in doing that. After all, no body is “Mr. Know All” right from the beginning of their birth.

But, these days it is much easier to find contents online on internet. You don’t have struggle to find books, newspaper articles and stories by visiting libraries. I think, internet is the best possible way these days to hone your skills online – you just need to grid yourself to internet and there you go.

So, basically, there are just few steps you have to follow: overcome your fear, subdue your ego, grid yourself to internet, and express whatever you feel, learn doesn’t matter how crude it appears in the beginning – after all, that is how you are going to learn. Take my words: “If you don’t express, you will never learn!!”