<figure><img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d012f9c7e80680e0a3619jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>On 31 July this newspaper carried a report titled ‘<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandus-flash-floods-are-4-decades-in-the-making/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kathmandu’s Flash Floods Are 4 Decades in the Making</a>’. The analysis by Tom Robertson stated that there was nothing ‘sudden’ about floods in Kathmandu Valley, and they would get much worse.
We derive no satisfaction in saying, ‘we told you so.’ On the night of 5 September the capital received over 100mm of rain in just 3 hours early on Monday morning. The rain was heaviest recorded in the Valley for decades.
<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631072070032000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECbm6803Ead3PaypG73hCO2ZkjXA">Monsoon modelling</a> by the South Asia Climate Outlook Forum had predicted 20% higher than normal rainfall in most of Nepal this year, but the total precipitation has been even heavier than that in many places causing death and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">destruction</a>. The rains have been sustained and relentless, and we saw nearly as much rain as Kathmandu gets in the whole of September falling on just Sunday and Monday. 
Scientists are much more categorical than they have ever been in drawing a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-villages-learn-to-cope-with-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">correlation between such extreme weather events and the climate crisis</a>.  A warming atmosphere means more water vapour in the air, which translates into more than normal rain. 
This year saw record-breaking downpours in the Ahr Valley of Germany, floods in China’s Henan province in July killed 300 people, and remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped 80mm of rain in just one hour on New York, leaving 50 people dead across northeastern US, including three Nepalis.
Meanwhile, Siberia, the Canadian Arctic and California baked in unprecedented heat waves and droughts, with wildfires sweeping across them for a second northern summer in a row. Nepal itself had a five month drought last winter which sparked historic forest fires that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631072070032000&amp;usg=AFQjCNErZlFXbqeguXo0dcRfMdE1jflNBg">engulfed the whole country</a> in smoke. 
Nearly 80% of Kathmandu’s<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> annual rain </a>falls in just four months: June-September. People in Nepal and the Indo-Gangetic plains have learnt to live with the annual floods, and need them to replenish their farms with nutrients valuable for next year’s crops.
Kathmandu has seen cloudbursts before. The destructive floods of 1981 dumped 170mm of rain in 24 hours on Godavari, unleashing floods on the Bagmati’s tributaries. Makwanpur saw an unimaginable 540mm of rain in 24 hours, and the resulting debris flows filled up the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-cost-of-light/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kulekhani reservoir</a> and wiped out half its life-span. 
Such <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/first-drought-then-downpour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">extreme events will be more intense and frequent</a> as the atmosphere warms up. That is a given. But instead of preparing for them, we are making them even more disastrous by impounding water with new housing, perimeter walls, or garbage blocking drains. 
Blaming just the climate for this week’s inundation of Kathmandu is a copout. Though heavy, the Valley’s natural drainage system of the Bagmati and Bishnumati would have been able to absorb the excess water by letting it spill over what used to be wide floodplains. 
As Robertson notes, those areas are now built over, natural drainage has been blocked and impermeable concrete and asphalt prevent water from seeping into the ground. In the past 40 years, Kathmandu’s population grew four times. More houses were built, and as land got scarce they encroached into the flood plains. The rivers have been constricted into narrow channels.
Bulldozers are clawing at the Valley rim, removing the slopes that used to store rainwater like gigantic sponges, and let it out slowly. Now, with the buffers gone, even moderate intensity rainfall leads to direct runoff and flooding. 
The problem is the same in the Tarai. Sand mining and logging of the Chure has increased flash floods downstream, sedimentation raises river beds, and new highways and embankments in Nepal and across the border in India act as dams, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/flood-of-recrimination/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inundating towns and farms</a>. 
The problem is slightly <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">different in the mountains</a>. Haphazard road construction has increased landslide danger, but as we are seeing with Melamchi this year, there is rain where snow used to fall on loose glacial deposits and this is washing them down in deadly debris flows.
Glaciologist Rijan Bhakta Kayastha in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-needs-weather-stations-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-needs-weather-stations-in-the-himalaya/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631072070032000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH2R2E1tTCK-vfKOuVtERCgpW-OfA">recent Nepali Times op-ed </a>made a case for more weather stations in the high mountain catchment areas to measure the intensity of rainfall in real time, communicate the data to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority so settlements downstream can get early warning. 
All that is well and good, but as long as we continue to block the natural drainage of rivers, floods will get worse. And there is no point blaming climate change for that.

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A flood of recrimination

<img width="1000" height="772" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe849c7e80680e0a0c42jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Nepal’s economy has hit the iceberg, but you wouldn’t know it from the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-post-breakup-politics/">politicians fighting it out</a> on the deck.
A serial prime minister <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-is-delaying-nepal-cabinet-expansion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cannot form a functioning coalition government</a> even after 6 weeks of assuming office, his coalition partners are too faction-ridden to be a countervailing force, and the main opposition has just split.
All this is nothing new, of course. It has been the way things have been ever since the 1990 changes when democracy was supposed to unleash prosperity. Three decades of political infighting, neglect, conflict, a rent-seeking state and governance failure have left the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/instability-to-cost-nepal-dear-in-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economy in tatters</a>. And now <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/behind-the-masks/">we have the pandemic to contend with</a>. 
If the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/old-wine-in-old-bottle-in-nepal-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">political battles being played out</a> in the parlours of power were inter-generational or about ideology, something good might have come of it. But such personality driven one-upmanship means that the current crop of ageing politicos has neither the time nor competence to deal with the emergency at hand.
The malaise runs deep. Despite gains in literacy, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/nepali-times-search/?q=lessons+notlearned" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">poor quality of education</a> drives young Nepalis to seek salaried jobs. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/first-drought-then-downpour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">yield from agriculture</a> is so low it does not make sense to farm. Government investment and market support for agriculture are ineffective. Every year, 700,000 youth join the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/mayday-mayday-mayday/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">labour market</a> but there are jobs in Nepal for only 15% of them. The rest seek their fortunes abroad by selling ancestral property, fallow farms, lower food production, increasing poverty, and completing the vicious cycle. 
Nepal’s trade deficit has averaged $10 billion a year for the last three years. It only went down in 2020-21 because lockdowns reduced fuel imports. Newly released Nepal Rastra Bank trade figures show that the country is, to put it bluntly, bankrupt. The only reason we have not gone completely belly-up is because of remittances, which pumped $8 billion into the economy this year. 
Nepal’s biggest import item by far is petroleum and in the past fiscal year it hit Rs175 billion — compared to Rs90 billion the country earned from all other exports combined.
You could say that we are buying oil with the sweat of Nepali <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/job-seekers-now-also-jab-seekers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">migrant workers</a>  With tourism receipts and fees from mountaineering and trekking nearly zero, the economy’s reliance on remittances is even greater than before.
This is obviously unsustainable: economically, politically and environmentally. Nepal needs to make good on its target to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/nepali-times-search/?q=lessons+notlearned" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">switch to renewable energy</a> for transportation by 2030 — not just to do our bit to save the planet, but to reduce our economic and political dependence on the outside.  
Other interesting things stick out of the NRB trade data. Curiously, Nepal’s biggest item of export is soybean oil when the country is not any major grower of soya. The answer can be seen in the graph for imports: the fifth largest item there is raw soyabean oil. So, we import soyabean oil in bulk from Argentina, Brazil and Malaysia and re-export it to India.Even more interesting is that the money Nepal earned from exporting refined soybean oil (Rs53.6 billion) is exactly what we spent on importing the stuff (Rs53.3 billion). Our entire foreign trade system seems to be based on a product that we do not even manufacture ourselves. There is almost no value addition, it does not create jobs, and only provides the government about Rs5 billion a year in tax revenue.The government’s neglect of agriculture means that imports of staple items, vegetables, and fruits have soared in the past decade. The country spent Rs130 billion on importing food items in 2010-11, but Rs323 billion this fiscal year. Of this one-third was spent on rice imports alone.Partly, this is due to agricultural productivity not being able to keep pace with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/everybody-counts-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">population growth </a>and growing demands of the middle class. Two-thirds of Nepal’s 30 million people are theoretically engaged in agriculture, but they are not producing enough to even feed themselves.We are living way beyond our means, and the only reason we can do that is because of those remittances. The buck stops at Singha Durbar.

Blood, sweat, tears

<figure></figure><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-68177" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce34a9c7e80680e096645jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1323" height="991"/><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-68176" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce34e9c7e80680e096646jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1326" height="993">Kathmandu before and after the wildfires. The second picture was taken on 29 March. Photos: PRABIN RAJBHANDARIThere is political miasma suffocating the country, and like the smoke shrouding Nepal for the past week, there is no immediate end in sight.An environmental crisis is never just about the environment: climate change has political-economic antecedents in energy policy, hazardous air pollution is caused by regulatory failure, political neglect leads to health crises. Poor governance turns rivers into sewers, and policy miscarriage makes pesticides poison the soil.Disasters, too, have political roots. There is nothing natural about ‘natural disasters’. An earthquake does not kill people, corruption that allows building permits for illegal, sub-standard construction does. Floods cannot always be blamed on heavy rainfall, they become human disasters because of poor drainage in new infrastructure.Disaster preparedness is all about foreseeing risk, putting preventive measures in place, and when a calamity does strike, having search, rescue and rehabilitation exercises on standby.The newly-formed Disaster Preparedness and Risk Management Authority has a long list of the dangers that this country is cursed with: earthquakes, landslides and rockfalls, floods, droughts, wildfires, lightning strikes, glacial lake outburst floods, avalanches. And this does not even include disease outbreaks, road traffic accidents and deaths due to preventable causes.More than 7,000 children still die in Nepal every year from diseases that can easily and cheaply be prevented with vaccines, clean drinking water, or smokeless kitchen fireplaces. That breaks down to 20 children who die every day across the country, mainly in poorer, remoter parts of Nepal. They do not make the news because they are not all killed suddenly in one place where there is a tv camera to record the tragedy. But it is an unacceptable crime that should garner banner headlines in the media: ’20 More Children Died Today’.But the media does not because that is the nature of this voracious beast. It only responds to a narrow definition of ‘all the news that is fit to print’. The news business is not geared to predicting disasters, it responds nearly always after a disaster strikes, and then there is a mad scramble to chronicle the carnage.The media is also not so good at covering slowly unfolding disasters, the ones that get worse bit-by-bit and are difficult to measure—like the increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the air, or the winter fog in the Tarai that is worsening every year.‘No news is good news’, and journalists are not primed to cover positive trends, improvements, solutions, or progress. We take our adversarial role so seriously that most reporters think it is not their job to cover development.In a democracy, media is the essential feedback loop to highlight problems, preferably before they become unmanageable, or to cover individuals or communities that have surmounted obstacles and save lives by being prepared for known hazards.The media’s lapse in serving this essential public service function lets governments, policy-makers and politicians off the hook. They can shrug and pretend they had no idea disaster would strike.It is because Nepal’s politics is a disaster in itself, that we had the unprecedented wildfire catastrophe this week. In satellite pictures, we saw the entire country in flames, and the smoke haze was so thick it was off the charts. No one remembers it being so bad for so long. And it will happen again if the root causes are not addressed.Those in government knew all along that this was the fire season. Every year, there are devastating fires that take a toll on lives, property and forests. This year, it should have come as no surprise that fires would be worse because winter precipitation was only 10% of normal in Central Nepal.The Met Dept could have sounded an early-warning, but didn’t. Sure enough, the wildfires started as early as November, and soon spread to different parts of the country, until last week it became just one nationwide bonfire.Nepal’s leaders are too busy in political firefighting to fight actual fires that are ravaging the country. It took some rain to douse the flames, when will it rain on Nepal’s desiccated politics?

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Political smokescreen

<figure><img width="1540" height="994" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be27c9c7e80680e083eaejpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Illustration: DIWAKAR CHHETRI</figcaption></figure>Kathmandu’s cognoscenti suffer from low esteem about Nepal’s geostrategic importance. However, the international community also does not give the Nepali state due recognition.
It is time to change the narrative. True, Nepal’s world standing suffered during its internal conflict, which unfortunately got dubbed a ‘civil war’ by ill-informed foreign journalists and scholars. The United Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) painted an exaggerated picture of the Kathmandu establishment as regressive, oppressive and status-quoist. That vision still colours the West’s outlook.
While this bias is distressing, it is the role of our colossal northern and southern neighbours that have a direct bearing on Kathmandu’s self-perception and its sense of agency. Unfortunately, escalating tension between Beijing and New Delhi constricts the wriggle room for Nepal’s diplomacy, with its two major political parties required to take sides.
New Delhi’s nervousness regarding Beijing’s plans in Nepal is leading to a dumbing down of foreign policy in Kathmandu as well. And Beijing’s intentions to become a player in Nepal’s domestic politics needs to be checked by Kathmandu’s commentators, diplomats and politicians.
Much of Nepal’s politics of the modern era has been spent trying to ward off New Delhi’s interventionist arm. Faced with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/two-takes-on-the-nepal-india-nexus/">India’s overwhelming presence</a>, Kathmandu over past decades has leaned over backwards to exaggerate China’s importance. But things have changed in the past five years, as the influence of a rising China becomes palpable.
The arrival of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/the-tibet-train">Tibet Train</a> in Kerung and the prospect of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/which-way-will-the-tibet-nepal-railway-go/">cross-Himalaya connectivity</a> have suddenly brought mainland China closer. At the same time, Beijing has jettisoned the Himalayan spheres of influence policy that had existed since Chou En-lai, who sagaciously told Nepali leaders to maintain good relations with New Delhi.
<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/">China’s current ambassador in Kathmandu Hou Yanqi</a>, obviously acting upon instructions, is on overdrive trying to convince leaders of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to stay together, and the Nepali polity has been lax in alerting her that this activism is inappropriate. If such direct political involvement continues, Beijing is sure to face a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-india-nepal-china-geopolitical-tri-junction/">backlash similar to the one New Delhi has had to deal with</a>. China should learn from India’s mistakes in Nepal.
For its part, Kathmandu should appreciate its own international standing because it may be surprised to learn that there is little to be embarrassed about. We just need to abandon our constant social media-led self-flagellation about how inept and feckless we are.
Look where we are at: Nepal has managed a peace-process that is more or less homegrown. In all likelihood, the country will get its first full-term prime minister since the Rana regime ended in 1950, and this relative stability had a healing effect, even if Prime Minister K P Oli’s government keeps goofing badly on governance.
Nepal is one of the few countries in the modern era which has succeeded in adopting a progressive Constitution through a Constituent Assembly, with the main challenge lying not in its provisions but in its implementation. Figures tell us that the quality of representative democracy is better in Nepal than in the neighbourhood, though it will take stringent watch-dogging to keep it so.
Nepal is deeply engaged in international peacekeeping, and in a region with so many ongoing and just-past internal conflicts, it is the only country which has an ongoing truth and reconciliation process – even though transition justice remains a mirage. Nepal’s ‘soft power’ potential is as yet un-recognised by its own citizens, let alone deployed for the good of self and others.
Commentators tend to look at the sudden downturn in relations between global and regional powers as a zero-sum game, as if Kathmandu can do nothing but be trampled. There is another way to look at it. Nepal is a country to be reckoned with as the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-india-us-nepal-china-quadrangle/">US, China, India and others</a> at the global high table seek to carve out their spheres of influence.
Nepal’s position amidst this push and pull must be one of self-confident independence – publicly rejecting demands to take sides, refusing to accept that an enemy of an enemy is a friend. Through its long history of non-colonised independence and geopolitical neutrality, Nepal is capable of charting a course of geopolitical equidistance and socio-economic engagement.
Indeed, resisting both Beijing’s and New Delhi’s urgings to take sides, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/political-geography-of-india-nepal-china-ties/">Kathmandu must take the lead on the true ‘middle path’</a>, emanating not from frightened neutrality but a disavowal of the need to prove loyalty to any one power. 
While we should be happy about the flurry of visits to Kathmandu from the North and South, not all the arrivals have been welcome. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi might have sought to embarrass Prime Minister Oli by sending the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/covid-19-and-the-new-great-game/">head of his spy outfit as a special emissary</a>, but the overture ended up insulting the Nepali state and people. The Indian Army Chief who arrived for the traditional courtesy visit had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/gorkhas-on-the-frontline-between-india-and-china/">earlier implied that Nepal’s stance on Limpiyadhura was at the ‘behest’ of China.</a>
Not to be outdone, on 29 November the Chinese are sending State Councillor and Defence Minister Wei Fenghe to Kathmandu. What was wrong with sending State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi? To both New Delhi and Beijing, Kathmandu’s message should be: ‘We have had enough of being perceived only through your security lens.’
<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/new-delhis-new-dealings-in-nepal/">After dispatching a spy and a general</a>, India is finally sending its Nepali-speaking Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringhla to Kathmandu this week. New Delhi will find a trustworthy friend in Kathmandu when it ends its trail of intervention. Nepal can and will never be part of any anti-India cabal, but Nepal’s foreign policy is its own.
The newfound confidence in Kathmandu despite the ongoing political shenanigans within the ruling NCP means that Nepal is able to stake its position. The message that Harsh Shringla can take back from Kathmandu is that it is time for Prime Minister Modi to make a conciliatory visit to Nepal to start mending the frayed relationship. Beijing is invited to take notes.

No binary foreign policy

<figure><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2a69c7e80680e07baf5jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>A <a href="https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/this-is-how-the-government-is-failing-education/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/this-is-how-the-government-is-failing-education/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599106575183000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGqoopIXsdCYs-Ctd44AsChaPmyng">columnist</a> recently described the state of education in the country as being characterised by the government's neglect of public schools and disdain for private schools.This is nothing new. Those in power have always paid lip service to helping the poor, while doing everything in their power to ensure that the poor have no recourse. The added tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic is that this dangerous populist proclivity has exacerbated the education crisis, creating an even bigger chasm between private schools and government ones where 80% of students are enrolled.The government has used the excuse of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/online-classes-may-widen-digital-divide/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/online-classes-may-widen-digital-divide/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599106575183000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEmjAzru8cBDcL32pkhzDg0nmWdxA">‘digital divide’</a> to discourage private schools from thinking out of the box on online classes. Vague and ambiguous policy decisions have not helped clear the confusion.Now that it is clear that the pandemic here to stay, the Ministry of Education has finally finalised a plan to grant formal recognition to remote learning classes. However, if not planned properly, this will further widen the inequity in Nepal’s education system.A <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-19-impact-on-food-and-school-in-nepali-children/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-19-impact-on-food-and-school-in-nepali-children/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599106575183000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFmPvte291xwmwk4iUd6cz7ILYL3g">recent survey</a> showed that 95% of households said their children had stopped going to school, and 52% were not even studying at home. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/digital-divide-exposes-class-divide-in-nepal-schools/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/digital-divide-exposes-class-divide-in-nepal-schools/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599106575183000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH4g2MExFt6ZFTGQpkQ8mnF2d5v_A">Only 29% had access to distance learning</a>, but that only half were using it. <img width="1046" height="580" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2a99c7e80680e07baf6jpeg.jpg" alt="">The attitude of the Ministry towards government schools which fall directly under its own purview is even more grievous. While the government school teachers, administrators and the entire education super-structure have remained fully salaried throughout the nearly six months of lockdown, they have nearly nothing to show in terms of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/face-to-face-classes-online/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/face-to-face-classes-online/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599106575183000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEYCXAumkU_7dKJWPwdu3amiDkP8A">remote teaching.</a>The government's inability and unwillingness to address the lack of education for nearly 6 million students that attend government schools is tantamount to criminal negligence. The ministry’s dynamism has long been eroded by the politicisation of the education sector, neglect by the education establishment from the federal minister downwards, and lack of accountability and institutional memory among  donors who have practically guided the Education Ministry with its 'basket fund' over the past decade.Even today, the ministry seems to be mainly concerned with passing the buck when it comes to pandemic response. This is a ministry that has over the past few years made school exams so lenient in grading as to be meaningless. And today it has done nearly nothing to end the inertia of the lockdowns.Better-off private schools have access to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lockdown-gives-distance-learning-a-boost-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lockdown-gives-distance-learning-a-boost-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599106575183000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHihnP63dLNDsz2uqOv73NXiP2q4Q">internet learning</a>, but most government school children have neither computers nor connectivity. The  government’s response has been more fatalism and populist rhetoric about helping the poor.The most underserved mountain districts have negligible Covid-19 spread, and schools there are so sparsely populated that attendance is possible with physical distancing in the classrooms. Yet, it has been five months and the Ministry of Education has not acted on the basis of this simple reality.For government schools in urban clusters and the densely-populated Tarai, the federal government had enough time to implement an emergency plan to let local governments ensure wifi availability and remote radio/tv classes. Some of these online classes could have been centralised, while the individual schools that had the capacity should have been encouraged to start their own. The lassitude is unbelievable, yet sadly predictable.Minister of Education Giriraj Mani Pokhrel deserves an ‘F’ for not using the Covid-19 crisis to improve government school education. But the buck stops with his boss, Prime Minister K P Oli. They should both re-read the Constitution, which relegates the responsibility for school-level education to municipalities. Local governments most likely would do a better job.It is well known for decades that while Nepal’s enrollment rate rose, literacy went up, and we have numerically more schools, there was abject failure on the part of the government in raising the quality of instruction. We had hoped that handing over education to the local governments was a way to improve quality. But alas, like everything else, education is still tightly centralised.The Covid-19 crisis could still be turned into an opportunity if the federal Ministry of Education were to wake up and support urban and rural municipalities to restart remote and in-person classes, and raise the standard of instruction in government schools where it is most needed.

Ministry of Education gets an F

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a40469c7e80680e04a60fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="688"/>On the face of it, when 41% of Nepalis in a public opinion poll say the country is headed in the right direction it could be taken as a decent level of approval of the government’s performance. Indeed, the way the question is framed in the Nepali language gives broad leeway for interpretation: if we should be going north, any course bearing between 270 degrees to 90 degrees would mean we are more or less on the right track.The question was part of a public opinion survey carried out by Kathmandu-based <a href="http://www.sharecast.org.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sharecast Initiative</a> in January among a statistically representative sample of 4,129 respondents in Nepal’s 42 districts. The survey takes the pulse of the nation, showing the general mood of Nepalis two years after local governments took office, and a little over a year after the federal and provincial governments were formed. In all three tiers of government, it is mostly the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) that holds sway – only Province 2 and a handful of municipalities are with other parties.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=26316&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Outward Bound</a><a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=26348&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Survey is wakeup call for Nepal government</a>, Rameshwar BohoraAs with Himalmedia <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/hoping-against-hope-himalmedia-poll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">polls in previous years</a>, the results show that the Nepali people are alert and aware of what is going on – they also seem to be short-term pessimists and long-term optimists. Even if 41% of respondents felt the country was on the right course, a full 27.1% felt Nepal was headed in the wrong direction, and 22.6% were undecided (see chart above).One of the more positive outcomes of the survey was the response to a question on which facilities people have in their homes. The government’s initiatives over the past four decades on safe drinking water, sanitation, rural electrification and infrastructure appear to be yielding results. Well over 90% of Nepalis now have access to electricity and latrines. Three-quarters live near a road, or use gas cylinders for cooking. Although the 74% with access to safe drinking water is still quite low, and only 5% of mountain dwellers live near a black-topped road, overall the country is making progress. Which may be why so many seem to think that Nepal is headed more or less in the right direction.However, there is growing public dissatisfaction with the government: only 4.2% were happy with the functioning of the federal government, 35% were dissatisfied and nearly 61% said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The greatest discontent is in Province 3 and Far-Western Province. People in the centre and the periphery both give Kathmandu failing grades.People do not seem to have faith in the federal Parliament either: more than a quarter of respondents said they did not trust the legislature, only 7% said they trust it, and 43% were ambivalent. Neither was there much approval of the performance of local governments: more than 26% were dissatisfied, and only 7% satisfied with the way provinces and municipalities were going about their business; 66% were apathetic.Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/himal-poll-expectations,4153" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Great expectations</a>, Editorial<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/himal-media-public-opinion-survey-2015-outcome" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Himalmedia Public Opinion Survey 2015</a>, Ayesha ShakyaThe survey also proves just how important migration for work overseas has become for Nepalis. More than a quarter of respondents said they had a family member working abroad, with the highest percentages among Muslims and Hill Dalits, and in Far-Western Province. Tarai 'High Castes' in Province 2 and Tharu households had the fewest members abroad. Most of the money sent home by overseas workers goes into subsistence (food, clothing, children’s education and medical treatment), and very little of it is invested in land, saved in banks or ploughed into productive sectors.Opinion surveys are a way for a democratic country’s rulers to gauge the public mood between elections. They should also be a wake-up call so course corrections can be made. They are a tool available to politicians, the bureaucracy and other agencies of the state to see if their actions fulfil the aspiration of citizens. Many of these checks and balances in a country are performed by democratic institutions and the mass media, but when the performance of other sectors of the state (legislature, judiciary, executive, bureaucracy and the security agencies) is not at an optimum, opinion surveys directly reflect the public’s frame of mind.It is clear from some of the results of the survey in this edition that citizens’ faith in government is faltering, that a large section of the public does not trust politicians and that they are unhappy with the slow pace of development. Yet, they have not given up hope and hold out the expectation that things will get better. It is still not too late for the NCP government to go beyond slogans, deliver more than rhetoric, and walk the talk.

Can't get no satisfaction

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

Thousands of Nepali students dreaming of an American education have been forced to look elsewhere as the Trump administration’s visa restrictions make their future uncertain.
The US was long considered a top destination for higher studies, making Nepal the 10th biggest country of origin for international students in America.&nbsp;
However, that number has seen a significant decline with the total for Nepali students now at 16,482. Some 8,000 Nepali students obtained no-objection certificates to study in the US from the Ministry of Education in the past year.&nbsp;
India, Australia, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom and Japan are the other popular destinations for Nepali students. There are no clear numbers for Nepalis going to India, but a slight decline was noted this year after the deaths of two female students.
The US State Department has issued a circular to its embassies not to issue new visas to applicants until further notice. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the directive stated that the department planned to expand the screening of applicants' social media.&nbsp;
While new applicants are barred including those applying for visitor visas, students with scheduled interviews are allowed to proceed.
“Many of our students are affected by the new restrictions, but those who had applied for student visas earlier have got interview dates,” one Kathmandu-based college counsellor told us.
Meanwhile, even foreign students with spotless records already in the US have not been spared, as visa scrutiny intensifies under the new policy. In a move that underscores the growing sense of insecurity, many US colleges advised international students to carry their passports and documents at all times, even when traveling locally.
“Me and my friends did not go home this summer because we were not sure we would be allowed back, so we just went to Niagara Falls,” said a Nepali undergrad in Ohio, who like many interviewed for this report did not want her name used for fear of repercussion.
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Nepali students have adopted a cautious stance, with many choosing not to return home during summer vacation due to fear of visa revocations as well as travel bans. Meanwhile, over 7,000 Nepalis with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will have to come back to Nepal by 5 August or face deportation. Thirty-seven were flown back to Kathmandu on Omni Air last week.
“The US is one of the most sought-after destinations for higher education, and the ban will definitely impact bright students,” says Narottam Aryal of the King’s College in Kathmandu.
Indeed, Nepali undergraduates admitted into Ivy League colleges for the 2025 academic year have been asked to look for alternatives. The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarships Board resigned on Wednesday citing interference from the Trump administration on the selection of this year’s cohort. Some Nepali students already on Fulbright scholarships have noted disruptions, delays and even cancellation of stipends.&nbsp;
The student visa restrictions were initially just for foreign students admitted to Harvard University, but it was later extended to all Chinese students and now to all students. Universities like Columbia which actively recruit foreign students, face sharp enrolment declines, threatening their financial stability and diversity.
An Indian female PhD candidate at Columbia University had her visa revoked by the US State Department, and said she was targeted on the basis of her social media posts on Israeli military attacks in Gaza. Social media vetting of political activism has raised concerns about privacy and freedom of expression in a country where such rights were a given.
Many students have been informed via email that their visas have been revoked for getting speeding or parking tickets, but even others with no criminal record have been affected. The fear of deportation looms large amongst international students, including those from Nepal.&nbsp;
For most Nepalis who migrate to the US for education, the journey is a high-stakes investment. They come largely from middle-class families, often rely on a patchwork of scholarships, work-study programs, loans, or even the sale of family assets to afford fees.
Most Nepali students pursue STEM subjects which offer extended Optional Practical Training (OPT) periods that help fund their education. But with the US backsliding on education and humanitarian matters, countries like the UK and Canada are becoming more attractive despite their own recent stricter controls on student visas.&nbsp;
The UK universities saw a 63% rise in Nepali students’ admissions in 2024. Japan is another popular destination with 64,816 Nepali students enrolled as of 2024.
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Already, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia are poised to benefit from the increased scrutiny of US student visas. Several Hong Kong universities are offering unconditional admission to affected students, while Malaysian institutions are targeting previously US-bound Asian students. China and India have 330,000 and 280,000 students respectively in America, but the numbers for China have seen a sharp drop in the past year.
Elsewhere, branch campuses of American institutions such as NYU in Abu Dhabi, Georgetown in Dubai and Northwestern in Doha are getting more admission applications, and universities in the Gulf region are expanding infrastructure to accommodate those who would otherwise have gone to the US.&nbsp;
Even educational institutions in Nepal are hopeful that the US visa restrictions can be an opportunity to at least keep Nepali undergrads in Nepal, and also attract foreign students from the region.&nbsp;
“Many students might choose to complete their undergraduate degree here in Nepal and then move abroad for their Master’s degree later,” says Aryal of King’s College. “There was a need for quality higher education in Nepal anyway in terms of innovation and opportunities, so this could be the time to reduce our dependence on other countries.”
Nepal’s strategic position between India and China makes it sensitive to US policy shifts. India, a key ally, is also under US scrutiny for potential student travel restrictions. Chinese universities are already offering more scholarships to Nepali talent to capitalise on the US retreat.
American universities have challenged student visa restrictions in the courts. A federal court in Boston revoked the blanket ban on Harvard, and the State Department has ordered the resumption of processing student and exchange visitor visas.&nbsp;
Some are still hoping that President Trump will backtrack on the student visa restrictions, just like he has done with many of his more drastic executive orders.
Even so, the visa see-saw and longer-term uncertainties about living in the United States and its education system means students across the world are making alternative plans.
Says Aryal: “Policies of foreign countries change according to their needs, so excessive dependence was never a good idea. We should work to create different opportunities and choices of higher education within Nepal, so students are retained.” &nbsp;

America no longer prime destination for Nepali students

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;

The Everest Industry

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.

nepali-times-editorial