The current wave of anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States has been building for years. It started in the early 2000s, when US policymakers first raised national-security concerns about Huawei.&nbsp;
China’s national technology champion, the market leader in developing new 5G telecommunications equipment, was accused of deploying digital backdoors that could enable Chinese espionage and cyber-attacks. US-led sanctions in 2019 stopped Huawei dead in its tracks.
But Huawei was just the start. The US has since spiraled into a full-blown outbreak of Sinophobia – a strong word that I don’t use lightly. Phobia is the extreme or irrational fear or dread aroused by a particular object or circumstance.
Indeed, China threats now seem to be popping up everywhere. The US government has imposed export controls to cut off China’s access to advanced semiconductors – part of its concerted effort to stymie the country’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/artificial-intelligence-vs-human-stupidity">artificial-intelligence</a> ambitions.&nbsp;
The Department of Justice has just indicted a state-sponsored Chinese hacking group for allegedly taking aim at critical American infrastructure. Much has also been made of the purported risks of Chinese EVs, construction and dock-loading cranes and now TikTok.&nbsp;
Nor are the fears confined to technology. Several years ago, I wrote about America’s trade-deficit disorder, whereby the US government misdiagnosed a multilateral problem – a trade deficit with more than 100 countries – as a bilateral problem and punished China with tariffs.&nbsp;
Others have warned that Washington’s exaggerated claims of the Chinese military threat have, at times, bordered on hysteria as tensions mount in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
Of course, all this is only half the story. China is equally guilty of its own strain of Ameriphobia – demonising the US for its accusations of Chinese economic espionage, unfair trading practices, and human-rights violations.&nbsp;
Both phobias are related to the profusion of false narratives that I address in my most recent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Conflict-America-China-Narratives/dp/0300259646">Accidental Conflict</a>. Notwithstanding this tit-for-tat blame game, my point now is different:&nbsp;
There is good reason to worry about an increasingly virulent strain of this phobia spinning out of control in the US. Not since the red-baiting in the 1950s, has America so vilified a foreign power.&nbsp;
Back then, a two-pronged congressional approach, led by US Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and the House Un-American Activities <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-destroyer-of-worlds">spearheaded an assault on alleged Communist sympathisers</a> under the guise of protecting Americans from Soviet espionage and influence.
Today, another politician from Wisconsin, Representative Mike Gallagher, has led the charge as chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party which, in an eerie parallel to the McCarthy era, has leveled a series of unsubstantiated charges against China. While Gallagher will retire from Congress in April, his legacy will live on, not just as co-sponsor of a bill that could lead to an outright <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rattled-by-criticism-nepal-bans-tiktok">ban of TikTok</a>, but also as the leader of a congressional effort that has cast a long shadow over those who support almost any form of engagement with China.
The litany of US allegations is a manifestation of unproven fears wrapped in the impenetrable cloak of national security. Yet there is no “smoking gun” in any of these cases. Instead, it is all about circumstantial evidence of an increasingly aggressive China. At work is an unmistakable bipartisan politicisation of deductive reasoning.
For example, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, a leading Democrat, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/china-cars-national-security-threat-investigation/" target="_blank">asks us</a> to “imagine” what could happen if Chinese EVs were weaponised on American highways.&nbsp;
FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Donald Trump appointee and member of the conservative Federalist Society, warns that Chinese malware could disable critical US infrastructure “if or when China decides the time has come to strike” (emphasis added).&nbsp;
And a former US counterintelligence officer has compared sensors in Chinese-made cranes to a Trojan horse. There are many what ifs and mythical parallels, but no hard evidence on intent or verifiable action.
What is it about China that has generated this virulent US reaction? In Accidental Conflict, I stressed that the US has long been intolerant of competing ideologies and alternative systems of governance. The claim of &nbsp;American exceptionalism seemingly compels us to impose our views and values on others. That was true in the Cold War, and it is true again today.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/staying-neutral-in-a-us-china-confrontation">Staying neutral in a US-China confrontation</a>, Project Syndicate
I also argued that excessive fear of China conveniently masks many of America’s own self-inflicted problems. Bilateral trade deficits may well reflect the unfair trading practices of individual countries – China today, Japan 35 years ago – but broad multilateral trade deficits stem more from chronic US budget deficits that lead to a deficiency of domestic savings.&nbsp;
Similarly, the technology threat is not only an outgrowth of the alleged Chinese theft of US intellectual property, it also represents, as I stressed in Accidental Conflict, America’s underinvestment in research and development and shortfalls in STEM-based higher education. Rather than taking a long, hard look in the mirror, it is politically expedient for US politicians to blame China.
As Sinophobia feeds on itself, fear starts to take on the aura of fact, and the dangers of accidental conflict with China intensify. By acting on these anxieties, America risks inciting the very outcome it wants to deter. Fears over Chinese aggression &nbsp;in Taiwan are a case in point.
The US can and must do better. Rather than excusing the excesses of Sinophobia as justifiable reactions to the China threat, US leaders need to avoid the low road and think more in terms of being the adult in the room. Global leadership requires nothing less.
In his first inaugural address in 1933, US President Franklin Roosevelt underscored the ultimate risk of this dangerous pathology with the memorable line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”&nbsp;
Amid today’s Sinophobic frenzy, that message is well worth remembering. © <a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/" target="_blank">Project Syndicate</a>&nbsp;
Stephen S Roach is a faculty member at Yale University and the author of the forthcoming Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives (Yale University Press, November 2022).&nbsp;

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US afflicted with full-blown Sinophobia

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101124/637209729c7e80680e0b5541jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="848" height="1106"/><figcaption>PHOTO MONTAGE/NEPAL ENERGY FORUM</figcaption></figure>Like a mirage, the nearer we get to Parliament’s ratification of a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/to-be-or-not-to-be-on-the-mcc/">$500 million US-backed infrastructure project</a>, the farther it seems to recede. Given the fecklessness of Nepali politics, nothing is over until it is over.After the Maoist parliamentary party on Wednesday morning decided to vote against the ratification of the American grant, a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-house-sits-for-crucial-mcc-vote/">scheduled House session</a> was postponed till Friday. A Maoist-Unified Socialists vote against the project would have effectively led to the collapse of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress, who would have got help from the opposition UML to pass the project.The Americans have set a firm 28 February deadline for ratification. The message to top Nepali leaders by US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu last week may not have been a threatening ‘take our gift, or else’, but it was certainly a ‘take it or leave it’.Part of the problem is the acronym itself. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/missing-links-in-nepals-mcc-debate/">Millenniumn Challenge Corporation (MCC)</a> is too awkwardly named, its aims are not clear enough. And many ask: why are the Americans so keen to make us accept their gift anyway if there is no hidden agenda?Read also:  <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/">China lobbying against MCC</a>, Ramesh KumarYes, geopolitics looms large. Nepal is used to being squeezed between China and India, but this time we are caught in a global <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/">Sino-US rivalry</a> that has intensified since the rise of Xi Jinping and the Trump years. We are now a yam between three boulders – although the Indians are for once strangely silent.Outsiders are playing on the incompetence and greed of Nepal’s rulers. None other than the country’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/maoists-backpedal-on-mcc-letter/">prime minister and his coalition partner write a groveling letter</a> to the project team in Washington DC begging for more time to ‘build a consensus’.All this makes King Mahendra smell like roses. In comparison to these lilliputs, Mahendra was a towering statesman who balanced regional geopolitics, and prevented Nepal from being sucked into the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.When the Chinese built the Kodari Highway, there was consternation in New Delhi and pressure  on Nepal’s king who had just sent Indian security posts packing from Nepal’s mountains. India and China had just fought a brutal Himalayan war, and Beijing had every reason to consider Nepal an enemy nation since the Indian Army’s Gorkha battalions were on the frontlines in Ladakh and Arunachal.Yet, Mahendra played deft diplomacy between New Delhi-Beijing-Washington-Moscow and got the superpowers to chip in to help with infrastructure and development projects.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/to-be-or-not-to-be-on-the-mcc/">To be or not to be on the MCC</a>, Anil Shah<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101124/637209749c7e80680e0b5542jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="422" height="628">What a far cry all that is from what is happening today. By vacillating on a project that they themselves signed, Nepal’s leaders are coming off looking like fools who cannot be trusted. Who is going to take this bunch of clowns seriously anymore?They have used a project that would have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/power-politics/">catalysed the future economic development of Nepal</a> against each other for petty party infighting. Actually, $500 million is not peanuts, and Nepal has already pledged another $130 million to increase the capacity of transmission lines and improve highways in Central Nepal.Borrowing that money would put Nepal deeper in debt. And we just have to see the current situation in Sri Lanka to realise what a real debt trap looks like. Colombo rejected a $480 million MCC two years ago by mishandling geopolitics and is now facing international ostracisation.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/using-the-delay-in-mcc-to-dissect-it/">Putting the MCC in context</a>, Jeevan R Sharma and David SeddonIt is at a time like this that Nepal needs a leader of Mahendra’s stature and skill. What would he have done? He would have approved both the MCC and the BRI, sent competent emissaries to keep Washington, Beijing and New Delhi happy. We do not even have ambassadors in those capitals.The big powers have bigger fish to fry, Nepal is not as strategic as we imagine ourselves to be. We can convince them that investment in Nepal’s infrastructure will ensure domestic stability and regional energy security.Nepal will soon have surplus electricity supply thanks to Rs215 billion <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/to-be-or-not-to-be-on-the-mcc/">investment by Nepali citizens in private power projects</a>. It now needs help with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/decentralising-hydropower/">distributing</a> that power, for which the MCC project is crucial.Nepal also needs help with connectivity, upgrading the country’s decrepit highways, adding railways and airports, and improving cross-border transit to India and China. That is where China’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI) would help.Why does it have to be one or the other? Geopolitics is so polarised, and Nepal’s domestic politics so fractious that we have lost our ability to balance these forces for the country’s sustainable long-term economic wellbeing.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/">MCC: damned if we do, damned if we don’t</a>, Nepali Times

Using power wisely

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637204ac9c7e80680e0b2875jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="641"/><figcaption>Crowd of people lining up for Covid vaccination outside Teku Hospital on Tuesday. Photos: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>During the devastating second wave last year, hundreds of people were dying every day. Hospitals had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/helping-nepalis-breathe-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">run out of ICU beds and oxygen cylinders</a>.This time, hospitals are running out of medical staff.As elsewhere, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/3rd-wave-in-2-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the third wave</a> in Nepal is infecting healthcare workers, endangering not only patients with Covid pneumonia, but also those suffering from pre-existing conditions like kidney failure, diabetes, cancers or cardio-vascular diseases.This acute shortage in medical staff across Nepal due to the rapid spread of Omicron has prompted the Ministry of Health to consider shortening the isolation period for doctors, nurses and paramedics to five days. The US and India have already done so.Hundreds of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-health-workers-battle-covid-19-but-also-stigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">health workers</a> are testing positive daily in hospitals all over the country, turning health facilities themselves into a hotbed of the virus.On Tuesday, there were 10,258 new cases out of 22,828 tested, bringing the positivity rate up to 45%. This is the highest ever daily new cases for Nepal and also the highest positivity rate.International airlines flying out of Kathmandu are reporting a sharp increase in the number of passengers who cannot fly because of the PCR positive test results. So far passengers on domestic flights are not required PCR tests, only vaccine cards from next week.“Omicron is spreading like wildfire through all hospitals, in ours alone we have 35 staff testing positive,” says <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-far-sighted-eye-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sanduk Ruit</a> of Tilganga Eye Hospital in Kathmandu.One of the bigger facilities in Kathmandu, HAMS Hospital, has 16 of its clinical staff in isolation after testing positive. On 17 January, 52 staff of the Trauma Centre Hospital tested positive in one day, affecting emergency care of accident victims.Teaching Hospital and Bir Hospital in the Valley also have a similarly high number of doctors and nurses infected and isolating.“Health workers in every ward are infected, Covid has now spread from the emergency to the general ward, the blood bank, physiotherapy, ICU and even the administration,” director of the Trauma Centre Pramod Joshi told Nepali Times.The hospital is now primarily treating patients that need emergency care and surgery. “The hospital is full of patients and the ICU is packed as it always is,” he said.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637204ae9c7e80680e0b2876jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1641" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The third wave has now even affected hospitals outside Kathmandu, which are struggling to cope due to a shortage of staff.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/state-of-the-art-rural-hospital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bayalpata Hospital</a> in remote Achham district has curtailed some critical services like C-sections because of sick staff. Charikot hospital in Dolakha district which had finally stopped reporting new Covid infections only last month is back to caring for an increasing number of coronavirus patients but with fewer staff.“Some of us have mild but manageable symptoms but we are still working, we had a shortage of healthcare workers even before this third wave,” Binod Dangal of Charikot Hospital said. “In fact, we have fewer people than we had during the second wave, we have equipment but no trained staff. We are no better prepared than we were before.”The only respite during the third wave is that the new strain is much milder. Because Omicron’s impact is largely confined to the upper respiratory tract, physicians say their patients do not need as much oxygen or ventilator support as was the case with the Delta variant which primarily affected the lungs.Most doctors in and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/at-the-covid-19-frontlines-in-rural-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">outside Kathmandu</a> say they expect infected staff to be back at work in a week after another test. Even so, given Nepal’s largely unprepared and limited healthcare infrastructure which works on a shift basis, medical staff having to isolate just a few days can seriously disrupt medical care, especially in rural areas where hospitals and doctors were always few and far between.Indeed, this latest crisis reflects on a pre-existing chronic shortage of doctors, nurses and trained medical staff, says <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/diary-of-a-covid-frontline-worker-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bikash Gauchan</a> of the Gandaki Province Infectious and Communicable Disease Hospital in Pokhara.“What we are experiencing now is both an acute and chronic shortage of healthcare workers, and this carries a lesson for our government, to strengthen and prepare its medical resources for future pandemics,” he adds.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/boosting-booster-jabs-against-omicron/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Booster shots for frontliners</a> including healthcare workers in Nepal  started this week, and the additional dose will provide much needed protection to doctors and nurses who work in close contact with possibly infected patients.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637204b29c7e80680e0b2877jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="641"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637204b49c7e80680e0b2878jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="641"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637204b79c7e80680e0b2879jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="641"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637204ba9c7e80680e0b287ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="641">But crowded vaccination centres (pictured above) themselves risk being breeding grounds for infection. This time the queues are not just of the unvaccinated getting their first jabs, but also those waiting for boosters. Even if vaccinated, doctors say masks and physical distancing are mandatory.They warn the public <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/omicron-may-not-be-as-risky-but-take-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">not to be complacent</a> because they are vaccinated and that Omicron is milder. Binod Dangal of Charikot Hospital says: “Most people are treating Omicron as a normal cold but it is very important for us to monitor the progress of the disease in the next few weeks, and prepare for adequate critical care.”At Nepal’s biggest infectious disease centre Teku Hospital, virologist Sher Bahadur Pun cites scientific studies to say that the shortage of healthcare workers will not persist, and the isolation period can be reduced. Nepal has likely passed the most infectious stage of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/living-with-covid-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Omicron spread</a> and it is now time to keep a close watch on people isolating at homes and in hospitals.Pun adds: “We must also investigate which strain is causing Covid deaths in Nepal because if Omicron had indeed replaced Delta, our figures for mortality should not be as consistent as it was before the third wave.”

Sonia Awale

3rd Covid wave infects Nepal’s frontliners

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d137b9c7e80680e0a9924jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1365"/><figcaption>Kathmandu shrouded in smoke and smog from stubble and industrial pollution from northern India, as well as the valley's own vehicular emissions on Monday morning. Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>Just as the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/copout-at-cop26/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deadlocked climate summit in Glasgow</a> was being extended by a day last week, Kathmandu was once again shrouded in smoke and smog from stubble burning and industrial pollution from northern India, as well as the valley’s own vehicular emissions.Nothing could have drawn the link between <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-greenwashing-in-glasgow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">global negotiations in Scotland</a> to save the planet from catastrophic heating, and the clear and present danger stemming from flawed policies of national governments.India was blamed for watering down the final resolution by changing ‘phaseout’ to ‘phasedown’ of coal, while rich countries like Australia, the US and others did not have to put their cash where their mouths were to make up for historical emissions.There were two Conference of Parties (COPs) going on simultaneously in Glasgow last week: one where mainly male politicians in suits protected their <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/sino-american-impacts-climate-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">national interest to negotiate</a> commas and brackets, and the other dominated by young women trying to warn world leaders that it was their future they were messing with.The toxic air covering northern India and Nepal while COP26 was taking place was a stark reminder that developing countries cannot go around hectoring industrialised countries about ‘climate justice’ when their own policies poison their air, water and soil.With winter approaching, it looks like this year’s Indo-Gangetic smog will only get worse since India does not have to ‘phaseout’ coal, and there is no mandatory timetable even for ‘phasing down’.Nepal is not doing much better. Its petroleum import bill is doubling every few years, and we do not see the political commitment to implement provisions in the updated Nationally Determined Contribution, or the Climate Ambition at the Top of the World report that was unveiled in Glasgow.Nepal was praised internationally (and also modestly patted itself in the back) for its three pledges in Glasgow: to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/will-nepal-ever-be-paid-for-saving-trees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increase forest cover</a> to 45% by 2030, start reducing emissions to become carbon negative after 2045, and ensure climate resilience for all vulnerable people by 2030.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d137d9c7e80680e0a9925jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3600" height="2400"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The forestry target is the most do-able, because Nepal’s total forest area is already at 44.74% -- we just have to make sure no more trees are cut in the next nine years. So, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-must-save-nijgad-forest-to-receive-climate-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">no Nijgad</a>.But we have no idea how the government expects to help all Nepalis adapt to climate impact. That goal is so vague and non-measureable as to be meaningless.And then there is the aim to be ‘net-zero’ by 2045. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/net-zero-is-not-zero/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Net-zero is an excuse</a> to keep burning fossil fuel, hoping that forests somewhere will absorb the carbon. Besides, net-zero will not protect citizens from toxic emissions car tailpipes and smokestacks.Nepal’s commitment is conditional upon financial support, and there may be a strong moral argument for ‘loss and damage’ compensation because the country only contributes 0.5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.However, we do not have to wait for donors in order to switch from petro-energy to hydro, solar and wind. Tax rebates for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/from-a-fossil-past-to-an-electric-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">electric public transport</a>, subsidies for cooking appliances, switching industries like cement, steel and manufacturing to electricity just need political will.As we have argued here before, Nepal needs to do this not so much to avert a planetary emergency, but to save our economy from collapse, and to protect the public from breathing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">poisonous air</a>.Every year, Kathmandu’s pollution level sets a new record. This spring, the Valley’s air quality index (AQI) <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/kathmandu-air-pollution-hits-record-high/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hit nearly 700</a> because of vehicular emissions combined with wildfire smoke. This was 40 times the level deemed safe to breathe by WHO’s new guidelines. Covid patients at ICUs across the country are being replaced by people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Given Nepal’s small carbon footprint, we might even attain net-zero status before 2045 because vehicles manufacturers are going electric, so we could not import diesel buses after 2030 even if we wanted to. But government policy must align with our Glasgow pledges. The on-again-off-again tax rebated on EVs in the past four years does not bode well for the future.In addition, Nepalis need help to adapt to cope with the water crisis and resulting food insecurity as well as the impact of weather-related disasters like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/still-chasing-the-melamchi-mirage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Melamchi</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/himalayan-floods-a-sign-of-worse-to-come/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manang</a> this year.After returning from lobbying rich country delegates in Glasgow, Nepali activists and scientists should now turn their attention to putting pressure on our own government to get climate smart.Sonia Awale

Good COP, bad COP

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d18179c7e80680e0ac7a2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1558" height="968"/><figcaption>An x-ray image taken by Mexican police of a shipping container with migrant workers hidden inside. Eleven of the 126 migrants found inside a similar container in Guatemala on Saturday were Nepalis.</figcaption></figure>Guatemalan police said that there were 11 Nepalis among the 126 <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/haitian-migrants-at-us-border-keep-hoping/a-59263548" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dw.com/en/haitian-migrants-at-us-border-keep-hoping/a-59263548&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1633914363610000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGbiAbD03z4ImQQ62LNPzNiW3gPww">US-bound migrants</a> who were rescued from a shipping container abandoned by a roadside in Guatemala.They were believed to have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/us-bound-nepalis-trafficked-to-malawi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">left there by traffickers</a> after being paid to take them to Mexico and onwards to the United States. Most of the 126 were from Haiti, while 9 were from Ghana.Police were notified after hearing banging from inside the container, which was abandoned near the town of Nueva Concepcion, reports said."We heard cries and knocks coming from inside the container. We opened the doors and found inside 126 undocumented people: 106 from Haiti, 11 from Nepal and nine from Ghana," police spokesman Jorge Aguilar told news agencies.The group has been taken to a shelter, and will be sent back across the border to Honduras, the last country from which they entered Guatemala.Although there have been harrowing tales of Nepalis being among migrants from Central America and Haiti trying to get into the United States, this is the biggest rescue of people from Nepal.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d181a9c7e80680e0ac7a3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1578" height="1180"><figcaption>Migrants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean make the dangerous crossing of the jungles of the Darien Gap to try to reach the United States or Canada via Mexico. Photo: SBS DATELINE</figcaption></figure>Nepalis stranded in Mexico have said that they paid human traffickers tens of thousands of dollars to take them on an <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nepalis-enter-us-through-central-america,3083" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nepalis-enter-us-through-central-america,3083&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1633914363610000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGc-gSFY7B-BCjmTRgFleNussjU0Q">arduous journey from Kathmandu to Bolivia </a>and then overland across the Darien Gap in Panama through Central America to Mexico.Before the pandemic flight restrictions, the migrants were usually taken via Kuala Lumpur or Moscow to Sao Paolo and La Paz, where Nepalis get visa on arrival. Most do not make it, and are deported from transit airports en route.Last month, nearly 30 Nepalis en route to Sao Paolo and Bolivia via Moscow were detained at Frankfurt airport after suspicions that they were being trafficked. Some of them have been deported back to Nepal.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d181d9c7e80680e0ac7a4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="894" height="1166">The <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=ONHCR+website&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;ei=NkxiYazuCOmc4-EP1pyzwA0&amp;ved=0ahUKEwis4ZS74r7zAhVpzjgGHVbODNgQ4dUDCA0&amp;uact=5&amp;oq=ONHCR+website&amp;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQghEKABMgUIIRCgAToHCAAQRxCwAzoGCAAQChATSgQIQRgASgUIRBi-FUoECEMYA1DJFFicH2CcIGgBcAJ4AIAB0AGIAfkKkgEFMC43LjGYAQCgAQHIAQLAAQE&amp;sclient=gws-wiz" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs</a> (OCHA) says that more than 90,000 migrants mostly from Haiti have crossed over from Colombia through the jungles to Panama this year, hoping to reach the United States or Canada via Mexico.The figure is said to be three times higher than the estimates for 2016, and probably show a backlog of migrants who were not able to travel during the pandemic."Border closures and economic contractions due to the Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in irregular migration,'' said Santiago Paz, <a href="https://www.iom.int" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">International Organisation for Migration</a> (IOM) Chief of Mission in Panama.The Darien Gap is said to be the most dangerous part of the months-long trek across the Americas to Mexico for the migrants.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/concern-over-temporary-protected-status-of-Nepalis-in-US,4072" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepali migrants</a> who managed to reach the United States or have been speaking to families back home from Mexico say they have paid more than Rs5 million to traffickers, or bribes to immigration officials along the way to get there.There are said to be hundreds of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-promise-of-an-american-dream/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepali migrants</a> in Mexico who are trying to find ways to cross over into the United States at a time when the plight of Haitians at the Mexico-Texas border is making headlines in the US and around the world. The US is deporting many of them on flights back to Port au Prince.OCHA says that nearly 60,000 people who left Haiti four years ago have crossed Panama between January and September 2021, many of them are children who were born during their journey,It says the migrants passing through Panama also included nearly 13,000 from Cuba, 1,500 from Venezuela, as well as dozens from Bangladesh, Senegal, Ghana, Uzbekistan, India and Nepal."The situation faced by irregular migrants in transit in the Latin American and Caribbean region must be addressed from a regional approach and cannot be the responsibility of a single country,'' said the IOM’s Paz. "<a href="https://www.iom.int/global-compact-migration" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.iom.int/global-compact-migration&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1633914363610000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEo3S1DH3cRFmMChRvm-fHNnlAz7Q">The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration</a> recommends cooperation among States to respond quickly and coherently to the needs of migrants in vulnerable conditions, and this need for cooperation is especially evident in the Darien Gap."

11 Nepalis among migrants in Guatemala rescue

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02a39c7e80680e0a368fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1360" height="680"/><figcaption>Photo via PROJECT SYNDICATE</figcaption></figure>The upsurge of Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations, and deaths in the United States serves as a bitter reminder that the pandemic is not over. The global economy will not return to normal until the disease is under control everywhere.But the US case is a true tragedy, because what’s currently happening here is so unnecessary. While those in emerging markets and developing countries are longing to get the vaccine (with many dying because they cannot get it), the US supply is ample enough to provide a double dose – and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/to-boost-or-not-to-boost/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">now a booster shot</a> – to everyone in the country. And if almost everyone got vaccinated, Covid-19 would almost surely just “fade away,” as former President Donald Trump memorably put it.And yet not nearly enough people in the US have been vaccinated to prevent the highly contagious <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/delta-variants-wake-up-call-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Delta variant</a> from driving case numbers in many areas to new highs. How do so many in a country with seemingly well-educated people act so irrationally, against their own interest, against science, and against the lessons of history?Part of the answer is that the country, for all of its wealth, is not as well-educated as one might expect – which is reflected in the country’s comparative international performance on standardised assessments. In many parts of the country – including some with the highest rates of resistance to vaccination – science education is particularly poor, owing to politicisation of fundamental issues like evolution and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/un-climate-report-declares-planetary-emergency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>, which in many cases have been excluded from school curricula.In this environment, misinformation can gain traction with many people. And social-media platforms, insulated from liability for what they transmit, have made a business model of maximising “user engagement” by spreading misinformation, including about Covid-19 and the vaccines.But a key part of the answer is a deep misinterpretation, especially among the right, of individual liberty. Those who refuse to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/3-pronged-strategy-to-save-nepal-from-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wear masks</a> or socially distance often argue that requirements to do so infringe on their freedom. But one person’s freedom is another person’s “unfreedom.” If their refusal to wear a mask or get vaccinated results in others getting Covid-19, their behaviour is denying others the more fundamental right to life itself.The essence of the matter is that there are large externalities: In a pandemic, one person’s actions affect the well-being of others. And whenever there are such externalities, the well-being of society requires collective action: regulations to restrict socially harmful behaviour and to promote socially beneficial behaviour.Any ordered society entails restrictions. But while prohibitions against killing, stealing, and so on restrict an individual’s freedom, we all understand that society could not function without them. In our post-Covid world, we might interpret the Ten Commandments to include: “Thou shall not kill, including by spreading infectious diseases when thou can avoid doing so.”Similarly, “Thou shall get vaccinated.” Any infringement of an individual’s liberty by requiring safe and highly effective <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/why-vaccination-should-be-compulsory/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Covid-19 vaccination</a> pales in comparison to the social benefits – and consequent economic benefits – of public health. It is a no-brainer to require all individuals, with only limited medical exemptions, to be vaccinated. While many governments appear to be too timid to impose this requirement, employers, schools, and social organisations – any organised activity that brings individuals into contact with others – should do so.As we have been learning for the last 18 months, global health is a global public good. As long as the disease rages in some parts of the world, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/too-early-for-nepal-to-let-its-guard-down/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the risk of a deadlier</a>, more contagious, more vaccine-resistant mutation grows.In most of the world, however, the problem is not resistance to vaccination but a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hope-hyperbole-and-hypocrisy-of-covax/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">severe shortage of vaccines</a>. Evidently, the private sector is unable to scale up production to ensure an adequate supply. Is that because vaccine producers lack capital? Is there a shortage of glass vials or syringes? Or is it because they hope that fewer doses will lead to higher prices and even bigger profits? Among the key barriers to greater supply is access to the requisite intellectual property, which is why the IP waiver being discussed at the World Trade Organisation is so important.Given the urgency and scale of the challenge, more is needed: Among the steps US President Joe Biden’s administration could take is to invoke the Defense Production Act and leverage the federal government’s ownership of key patents. The US has been allowing the pharmaceutical companies to use this public IP freely, while they reap billions of dollars in profits. The US must use every instrument at its disposal to increase production at home and abroad.This, too, is a no brainer. Even if the costs of global vaccination totaled tens of billions of dollars, the amount would pale in comparison to the costs of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-nepal-must-prepare-for-3rd-covid-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">persistent Covid-19 outbreaks</a> to lives, livelihoods, and the world economy.By arrangement with © <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.project-syndicate.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607178503443000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHSbaaYvdpDj2FQzkDgwL7xNFnkWg">Project Syndicate</a>Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University, is a former chief economist of the World Bank (1997-2000), chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and co-chair of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices. He is a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and was lead author of the 1995 IPCC Climate Assessment.

Covid-19 and Human Freedom

<figure><img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02999c7e80680e0a368cjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>On 9 September, while a US delegation was landing at Kathmandu airport on a four-day visit, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Narayan Kaji Shrestha got together at the residence of Upendra Yadav for an important meeting.The Nepali Congress, which leads a five-party coalition government, was not invited to the discussion between its own partners.The meeting was to discuss a common posture of the coalition members towards a<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> $500 million US grant</a> under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to upgrade Nepal’s electricity transmission lines and highways.Cross-party support for the much-needed infrastructure project should have been a no-brainer, but MCC ratification has become such a political hot potato that it <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">threatens Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s ruling alliance</a>, two months into his fifth term in office.Deuba’s current coalition made up of Dahal’s Maoist Centre, Nepal’s breakaway CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Rastriya Janamorcha parties are opposed to the project. In fact, Rastriya Janamorcha even staged a street protest on 7 September, two days before MCC vice president Sumar landed in Kathmandu.Deuba’s NC has been in favour of ratifying the MCC in parliament since his Nepali Congress-Maoist coalition government signed the agreement in 2017 during his fourth term as prime minister. In fact, Deuba’s political rival KP Oli backed the MCC after he succeeded Deuba in 2018. <figure><img width="1131" height="1455" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d029c9c7e80680e0a368djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>MCC vice-president Fatema Z Sumar with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.</figcaption></figure>Baburam Bhattarai was Prime Minister in 2012 when Nepal was selected for the MCC threshold program. Bhattarai is now with another coalition partner, the Janata Samajbadi Party, but while he has been speaking publicly in support of MCC, his colleague Yadav is hedging his bets. Hence his inclusion in the meeting with Dahal and Nepal on 9 September. Ironically, a bilateral negotiating team was formed for the MCC Compact during Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s stint as Prime Minister in 2017. Dahal later changed his stance and joined up with dissidents from Oli’s own UML, who considered the project as being ‘anti-national’, to ultimately <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/own-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">remove him from power</a> in July. As internal disputes within the erstwhile NCP escalated, a task force including Bhim Rawal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and then foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali suggested that the MCC could be ratified, but after amendments. Had the process not been deadlocked by the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feud between Oli and Dahal</a>,  it could easily have been endorsed by Parliament then.Differing views within the ruling coalition towards the United States, as well as individual and party relationships with neighbouring India and China, have stopped the project from moving forward as it nears a deadline for acceptance.“Nepal’s political leadership has failed to recognise the difference between ultranationalism and patriotism,” says Khadga KC, a professor at the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy at Tribhuvan University. “Geopolitics has now permeated right down the political chain of command of the parties that seek to use the clash between an imperialist America and an expansionist China on the one hand and between China and India on the other.”Deuba has lately been seen to be a bit too eager to please New Delhi by not raising the issue of a Nepali man who was killed while trying to cross a wire bridge across the Mahakali river into India, as well as resurrect an already settled border dispute with China in Humla.  <figure><img width="1800" height="850" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02a09c7e80680e0a368ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Nepali Congress leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi's team with security personnel during an inspection of the Nepal-China border in Humla. Photo: JANAK SHAHI</figcaption></figure>In response, the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) associated with the CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Maoist Center held anti-India street protests. The significance of the ‘student’ wings of parties in the ruling coalition <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">protesting the policy of the prime minister</a> was not lost on anyone. If Deuba was hoping for New Delhi’s support for the MCC, that has not been forthcoming. The project’s power lines would increase the capacity of future export of surplus electricity to India. In fact, most analysts see China’s hand in behind the scenes lobbying against the MCC they regard as America’s response to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/bri-and-trans-himalayan-connectivity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Beijing's Belt Road Initiative (BRI)</a>. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/afghanistan-abandoned/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fall out of the US defeat in Afghanistan</a>, its growing tension with China with last week’s strategic AUKUS pact with Australia and Britain in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing growing global clout have undermined the prospect of the MCC going ahead in Nepal. Diplomatic experts see an attempt by Deuba to use the China border issue and the formation of an investigative committee to ingratiate himself with India so it will openly support the US project. Nepal signed a framework agreement on the BRI in 2017 after the Indian Blockade of 2015 prompted Kathmandu to plan alternative trans-Himalayan trade routes. Critics of the agreement interpreted this as Beijing’s increased influence in Nepal. “Deuba is trying to counter the narrative that Nepal is cosying up to Beijing and the BRI so as to assuage New Delhi,” says Professor KC. In November 2019, India issued a political map that included disputed border areas of Kalapani and Limpiyadhura. In response, Prime Minister Oli got Parliament to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-passes-map-bill-india-reacts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unanimously pass an amendment bill</a> to include the territory in its national emblems and its own political map, much to New Delhi’s chagrin. And while the border issue with China is gaining traction, Professor KC says that the Nepal Congress has failed to offer any criticism to India regarding Limpiyadhura as well as the 2015 blockade. Says Professor KC: “Nepal’s diplomatic relations have unnecessarily jeopardised due to the selfishness and immaturity of the political leadership. Nepal must restore the strategic balance in its stance towards the triangular rivalry between China, India and the US.” Experts say that Nepal has not been able to come up with a coherent response to this changed geostrategic terrain globally and in the region, and its leaders react in an ad hoc manner, allowing a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/using-the-delay-in-mcc-to-dissect-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">development grant like the MCC</a> to become a pingpong in domestic politics.  Former Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey says that Nepal should have a consistent and common foreign policy messaging on matters like the MCC, even though there might be internal disputes. “Nepal’s foreign policy is not fixed and keeps changing as the government changes hands,” says Pandey. “In fact, not only does our foreign policy change based on the political party in power, every political leader seems to want to dictate the country’s foreign policy.” Former Ambassador Dinesh Bhattarai believes that while the NC’s foreign policy has been fairly consistent from the beginning, Nepal's diplomatic relations especially with its neighbours have been affected by other parties using geopolitics for their domestic power struggles. “When parties which are part of a coalition government themselves take to the streets in protest, it affects our international diplomacy and credibility negatively,” says Bhattarai. He says Nepal's international credibility will hit rock bottom if the MCC Compact is not ratified: “It will mark a strategic shift in our relationship with the United States, and affect our relationship with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.”  (Translated by Shristi Karki from the Nepali <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/125877">original</a> in the September-October issue of Himal Khabarpatrika.)

Nepal stuck between rock and hard place

<figure><img width="1926" height="1168" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02749c7e80680e0a3680jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Nepali and international activists have begun the process of repatriating this 700-year-old wooden carving of a flying gandharva (divine singer) which was stolen from Itum Bahal in Kathmandu in the 1980s, and is now in the collection of The Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Photo: THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART</figcaption></figure>As the return by Western museums and private collectors of Nepal’s stolen antiquities gathers pace, two more religious objects from Kathmandu Valley shrines have been located at <a href="https://rubinmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rubinmuseum.org&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFJML5V4C5UeNEQo5QB_2Kw1R46GQ">The Rubin Museum of Art</a> in New York.The wooden artefacts between 400-700 years old were tracked down at The Rubin by the group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lostartsofnepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/lostartsofnepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHEyMVhw6GCFja2dBYxds74EIUajA">Lost Arts of Nepal</a> which has been investigating sacred objects so that they can be returned to the shrines from where they were stolen in Kathmandu.One of the items is a 14th century carved wooden architectural element of a flying gandharva (divine singer) that was stolen from Itum Bahal in the 1980s. The other is a wooden torana (frieze) that is 500 years old and was wrenched out of a doorway in I Bahi in Patan. <figure><img width="2528" height="1536" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02789c7e80680e0a3681jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Also at the Rubin Museum of Art’s collection is this 17th century wooden frieze stolen from I Baha in Patan. Photo: THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART</figcaption></figure>Both objects are exquisite examples of Newa devotional art and photographs in art and architecture publications in the 1970s of the objects in situ in Kathmandu shrines prove their provenance. It is not known who stole them, and how they came to be in possession of The Rubin, which has now been withdrawn from view.Announcement about the two objects was made at the official launch on Friday at the Patan Museum of <a href="https://nepalheritagerecoverycampaign.org/press-release/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nepalheritagerecoverycampaign.org/press-release/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHHoxtesx7a7tmcvW1niQu6UmUZ0w">The Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign</a> by Lalitpur Mayor Chiribabu Maharjan. The Campaign aims to work for the return of sacred objects to the temples and monuments from where they were stolen, or to museums in Nepal. The Campaign has informed the Nepal consulate in New York about the objects in possession of The Rubin, and says it will start working immediately to facilitate the restitution of these and other antiquities. Lost Arts of Nepal is based in the US and has tracked down numerous other stolen Nepali antiquities, some of which have already been returned or handed over to Nepali authorities.Just last week, a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bringing-our-gods-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bringing-our-gods-home/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpY421ywbOOFgXapmjt2QoYD1A4w">10th century stone figure of Uma Maheswar</a>, stolen from Gaa Hiti in Patan 50 years ago was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/us-returns-another-antiquity-to-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/us-returns-another-antiquity-to-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHofehW3gN0MX0rnba9alweFOgclw">handed over to the Nepal Embassy</a> in Washington DC by the Denver Art Museum.In the past year, six stolen stone and bronze sacred statuary have been handed back to Nepal. They include the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-homecoming-of-nepals-gods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-homecoming-of-nepals-gods/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHBcDXUFKcudpLqRBWzHkKPj58j9A">12th-century Laxmi-Narayan statue</a> from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-homecoming-of-nepals-gods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-homecoming-of-nepals-gods/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHBcDXUFKcudpLqRBWzHkKPj58j9A">Patko Tole</a> in Patan returned by the <a href="https://dma.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dma.org&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyvfIGtfey7dDxWS0dWVmmp0nDwg">Dallas Museum of Art</a>, a 13th century carved wooden Apsara from a temple eave, and a 700 year old Buddha. A 15th century Ganesh was also recently returned by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and a 13th century Shivalinga stolen from Kathmandu was returned to the Nepal Embassy in Washington by the Art Institute of Chicago.These objects are temporarily stored at the Patan Museum or National Museum in Chhauni before being returned and consecrated at their original shrines.“We are committed to restore the sacred statues that have been returned to the temples from which they were stolen,” Mayor Maharjan said at the launch of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign.The Campaign’s patron is historian Satyamohan Joshi and is chaired by Riddhi Baba Pradhan, former Director General of the Department of Archaeology. Other members include Dilendra Shrestha of Patan Museum, lawyer Sanjay Adhikari, Rohit Ranjitkar of the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust, Roshan Mishra of Taragaon Museum and journalist Kanak Mani Dixit.  <figure><img width="1650" height="1004" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d027b9c7e80680e0a3682jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Members of the newly formed Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign pose after the launch at Patan Museum on 17 September. Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>The anonymous investigator of the Lost Arts of Nepal is in the Advisory Council with other international art restitution activists, including Art Crime professor at the City University of New York Erin L Thompson.  After news broke of the gandharva and torana at The Rubin, <a href="https://twitter.com/artcrimeprof" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/artcrimeprof&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454748000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEySdWnWn2Alxdod01IO8SqF3ET4A">Thompson tweeted</a> on 17 September: ‘What do you say, Rubin Museum - will you join the Denver Art Museum and Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in repatriating stolen sacred artwork from Nepal?’  ,The Rubin Museum of Art was founded by <a href="https://rubinmuseum.org/about/founders" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rubinmuseum.org/about/founders&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEEs_YsnrZlTHmlp_5GwuiHpR5u4w">Shelley and Donald Rubin</a> who began collecting Himalayan 'art' in the 1970s, and has as its main mission, ‘inspiring personal connections to the ideas, cultures, and art of Himalayan regions’. After the 2015 earthquake, The Rubin held a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/honoring-nepal-review-at-the-rubin-museum-of-art-1430950668" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/articles/honoring-nepal-review-at-the-rubin-museum-of-art-1430950668&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfmqxKKWmCmbeclfZJYb7WLZG2vg">special exhibition</a> of some of the  Nepali antiquities in its collection, including a gilded Durga statue from the 13th century, of which the museum says it is confident about its provenance. Last week on Ganesh Chaturthi, it highlighted a copper alloy <a href="https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/artwork/ganesha-2004-22-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/artwork/ganesha-2004-22-2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFEfUBpYwxRF9LJmYoDHCnub1UOCQ" style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Ganesha figure</a> from Nepal in its collection. An <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0yKxj3KS3E" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dn0yKxj3KS3E&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH27kpp8fD26ZsGfaw2h1K0Z51qXQ">Al Jazeera investigation</a> in 2018 of sacred antiquities stolen from Mustang titled ‘The Great Plunder’ led to police raids and probes of antique shops in Kathmandu and museums.  In a <a href="https://rubinmuseum.org/images/content/Response_to_Al_Jazeera.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rubinmuseum.org/images/content/Response_to_Al_Jazeera.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHTiuK4ypPt0Ub8oVqTh4-k5IPVIw">statement</a> at the time, The Rubin said that it ‘vehemently opposes the trafficking of stolen or looted cultural items and does not acquire any material known or suspected to be stolen or looted’.   <figure><img width="640" height="755" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d027e9c7e80680e0a3683jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign is chasing up 15 other stolen Nepali antiquities in the possession of collectors and museums in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-wants-stolen-antiquities-returned-from-france/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-wants-stolen-antiquities-returned-from-france/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEcYNd1BoBLQqSnySau9lPcpODW3g">France</a> and other countries. It has started work on investigating the provenance of the stolen objects to provide proof for their repatriation to Nepal.<a href="https://www.manhattanda.org/manhattan-d-a-s-office-returns-three-antiquities-to-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.manhattanda.org/manhattan-d-a-s-office-returns-three-antiquities-to-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1632102454749000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFGsELjGlBwkHqPiGWMDoDtu7qMAg">The District Attorney Office</a> in Manhattan has been involved in an investigation of a $143 million antiquities smuggling ring that stole and sold artefacts from Nepal, India, Cambodia, Thailand and other countries. It seized some of them from the collection of art dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was arrested in 2012.  <figure><img width="640" height="327" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02819c7e80680e0a3684jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Statement from the Rubin Museum of Art in response to this report.</figcaption></figure>In July, the DA’s office arraigned 58-year-old British art restorer Neil Perry Smith after extraditing him from Britain. He is accused of preparing 22 stolen antiquities valued at $32 million for sale to Kapoor’s clients at his gallery, Art of the Past. Some of those objects were from Nepal, the indictment says.

2 more Nepali antiquities traced to US museum

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d01db9c7e80680e0a364djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>“Countries knock at our doors all the time for capital, as it is getting harder and harder to obtain development funds. We are holding $500 million for Nepal. We cannot wait forever. When will it be the right time for Nepal?”Fatema Z Sumar, Vice President of Compact Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) appeared mystified about why a country like Nepal that needs all the help it can get to develop its infrastructure, should be so hesitant about the grant her government is offering.Sumar was on the final day of her <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHAfb7xioCyDtl5OJ53aqyeI5-LuA">four-day visit to Nepal</a> on Sunday, speaking at an engagement with opinion makers. There was a litany of questions from across the table, and Sumar sounded like someone who is getting somewhat jaded answering the same questions over and over again in Kathmandu.“No, the MCC is not part of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFfIGiI1YhN4TBrqt-_uVwcnhLEPg">Indo-Pacific Strategy</a> and there is no US Army involvement.”“This is a treaty between two countries and has gone through the Obama, the Trump and now the Biden administrations.”“In order to make this a treaty, the Nepal government wanted to ratify it through Parliament. So, we are waiting for that.”Sumar was a former assistant secretary for South and Central Asia at the US State Department before joining the MCC. Her family is Malaysian Indian, so she understands the region well, but she was hearing in Nepal some of the same political rhetoric that led to the Sri Lankans cancelling the MCC last year for being ‘against the national interest’.MCC makes three types of grants: compacts, threshold programs and concurrent compacts for regional investment. Nepal’s grant is a five-year compact agreement with the MCC that allows an eligible country to fund specific programs targeted at reducing poverty and stimulating economic growth.The concept of the MCC is to make US development assistance ‘smarter’, and to study a country’s bottlenecks so that catalytic investment can allow it to take an economic leap. A panel of Nepali and American experts concluded in 2017 that increasing hydropower transmission capacity and upgrading highways would be most cost-effective, at a time when the country was suffering 12-hour daily power cuts.When a country applies for a grant from the MCC, the board examines its performance based on 20 policy indicators, and selects based on policy performance. The MCC says its grants are given to country-driven and country-led investments and infrastructure priorities for achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction, and Nepal qualified.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d01df9c7e80680e0a364ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="998"><figcaption>MCC vice president Fatema Sumar (third from left) with Prime Minister Deuba on Saturday at Baluwatar. Photo: PMO</figcaption></figure>So far MCC has approved $13.7 billion in compacts and $631 million in threshold programs worldwide. After Sri Lanka pulled out, Nepal is the only South Asian country on the list of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHcCgQFuOb2-re-ZURkglqZhwDvTg">MCC-approved compacts</a>.“The $500 million we are holding for Nepal is money not given to other countries which need to get out of poverty,” said Sumar’s colleague Jonathan A Brooks at the interaction. Although Brown said he had no idea where the confusion about the MCC having a military component comes from, a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHV-jTWUQwTz4eLLTh_R5gdfjVGwQ">comment by US Under Secretary of State David J Ranz</a> in 2019 that the MCC was indeed a part of the US <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFfIGiI1YhN4TBrqt-_uVwcnhLEPg">Indo-Pacific Strategy</a> did a lot of self-inflicted damage.Sumar and Brooks fielded <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/post-truth-politics-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/post-truth-politics-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEL3a5V092kNi8iXts-zWiYBTZWOA">other questions</a> that had become familiar to them during their stay in Kathmandu with answers like: the agreement with Nepal prohibits army involvement, security issues are totally for Nepal government to oversee, the compact has no provisions that contradict Nepal’s laws, the project is not above Nepal’s Constitution, and international law would apply to resolve any disputes.A major chunk of the $500 million MCC grant will go to build the Kathmandu-Hetauda-Butwal 400KV transmission line to distribute 3,000MW which will come on stream in the next three years from new <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/decentralising-hydropower/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/decentralising-hydropower/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGKA68VJytSmPpVqeXiamgpi0kCgQ">hydropower plants</a>. The line will also connect to a high-capacity electricity corridor to Gorakhpur so Nepal can <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-damages-nepals-credibility/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-damages-nepals-credibility/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEoVnLVfqbE4et0DScH8cbve0ffag">sell surplus monsoon electricity</a> to India in future.This week, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) signed an agreement with the state-run Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID) for the Butwal-Gorakhpur cross border transmission line extension in anticipation of the MCC project being completed.Sumar has seen several changes in government after she started coming to Nepal for the MCC. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his predecessor K P Oli were both in favour of the MCC, but other Communist partners in the ruling coalition are against it.As a descendant of an immigrant family herself, Sumar says she understands that poverty is not insurmountable, and can be prevented with the right government investment at the right time. She calls herself a “development diplomat”, and feels that economic growth built on better infrastructure would also bring Nepal stability.“The MCC will create many thousands of jobs for Nepalis at a time when the pandemic is creating losses of jobs and livelihoods,” she says, adding that when President John F Kennedy launched a major global drive to help developing countries in the early 1960s, Nepal was one of the first countries to receive the support.The criteria Nepal fulfilled to receive the MCC grant was its democratic polity, guarantees of basic freedoms, and protection of human rights. Sumar underlined the fact that the MCC would also help Nepal put renewable energy infrastructure in place that could be an example for a world coming to terms with climate change.The MCC project has become a victim of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHV-jTWUQwTz4eLLTh_R5gdfjVGwQ">extreme political polarisation</a> as opponents to K P Oli used the MCC to unseat him, and now it threatens to split the ruling coalition. The anti-MCC rhetoric had been so effective in convincing the cadre and public that it is anti-national, that even supporters in Deuba’s Nepali Congress, Oli’s UML and other public figures and intellectuals are afraid to speak in favour.Social media is full of posts that say Nepal will become ‘another Afghanistan’ if Parliament ratifies the MCC. But now that Sumar and her MCC team has left, the ball is back in the court of the political class in Kathmandu to ensure that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/power-politics-delays-mcc-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/power-politics-delays-mcc-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631579093888000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHlQppZeGXNXQbC5_D2GZNFz2URgw">Nepal has the capacity</a> to distribute the electricity it generates in future.

MCC ball in Nepal’s court

<figure><img width="1286" height="1500" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d015a9c7e80680e0a3624jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Vice president of US Mellennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Fatema Z Sumar arrives in Kathmandu on Thursday.</figcaption></figure>Fatema Z Sumar, vice president of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), parachuted into Kathmandu on Thursday amidst a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">firestorm of protest</a> against the project that threatens to divide Nepal’s coalition government.Together with her deputy Jonathan Brooks, Sumar over the next four days will be meeting Nepal’s top politicians who are for and against the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$500 million grant project</a> designed to upgrade Nepal’s electricity grid and highways. The visit follows Sumar’s written response to concerns raised by Nepal’s Finance Ministry on 3 September regarding the grant. The main objective of the MCC is a 315km transmission line between Hetauda-Damauli-Butwal, important for the distribution of the 3,000MW of electricity that will be added to Nepal’s national grid in the next three years. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/why-there-is-no-foreign-investment-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why there is no foreign investment in Nepal</a> , Nepali Times <img width="512" height="461" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d015d9c7e80680e0a3625jpeg.jpg" alt="">The discourse surrounding the MCC has been influenced by geopolitical rivalries between India and China on the one hand and between the US and China on the other, with Nepal’s political parties <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weaponising the project</a> to undermine each other.Indeed, support for the MCC by K P Oli was one of the issues raised by the five-party alliance that led to his ouster in July, after which <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/deuba-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deuba took over as prime minister</a>.Two months later, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-is-delaying-nepal-cabinet-expansion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deuba is yet to complete government formation</a>,  and support and opposition to the MCC is now threatening to undermine his governing alliance. The MCC is such a political hot potato that it was not even listed in the coalition’s common minimum program last month despite Prime Minister Deuba being for it.However, critics including his main coalition partner Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Socialist) view the project as part of America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, and superseding Nepal’s Constitution.Sumar’s letter attempted to assuage both of these concerns, saying that the MCC is neither a part of America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, nor is it not above Nepal’s Constitution. However, the response added that the points previously agreed upon would not be subject to amendments, which did little to quell the growing protest, including street demonstrations. The delegation led by Vice President Samar met with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli on Thursday afternoon to discuss the project, and is also set to meet with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal (both Maoists). <figure><img width="1800" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d01609c7e80680e0a3626jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The delegation led by Sumar met with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli on Thursday afternoon. </figcaption></figure>The MCC compact has clauses requiring that it be ratified by Nepal’s Parliament, and that the project be completed five years after the work officially commences. Nepal had committed to ratifying the MCC in Parliament by September 2019, but the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/just-do-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">process has been deadlocked</a> by the feud in the ruling Communist Party of Nepal while Oli was prime minister.Lok Raj Baral, Nepal’s former ambassador to India, says that there has been unnecessary over-politicisation of the issue that has harmed Nepal’s international credibility."The opposition to the MCC seems to have been led by those in power who were also trying to stop the Arun III hydropower project," says Baral. “That the opinions of individual leaders dominate the discourse over official party decisions speaks to the selfishness of Nepal’s political leadership.”Former Prime Minister Oli backed the MCC after he took over from Deuba in 2017, but his main party rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal and dissidents from his own UML used provisions in the MCC that they saw as being anti-national <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/own-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">against Oli</a>.  <figure><img width="1800" height="1121" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d01639c7e80680e0a3627jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Now, with Deuba being Prime Minister once again, the debate surrounding the MCC is likely to put a strain on his ruling coalition, made up of Dahal’s Maoist Centre and Madhav Kumar Nepal’s breakaway CPN (United Socialist) which are opposed to the project.On the other hand, the Nepali Congress and another coalition partner Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP)  seem open to ratifying the agreement in Parliament, but they do not have enough numbers in the House for it to be successful. Deuba has been sending feelers to the opposition UML to see if it will back the ratification in Parliament. For his part, Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been saying that the MCC is a conspiracy to break the ruling alliance. However, experts see Dahal’s position on the MCC as being inconsistent and opportunistic. He went along with the project, and then <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/power-politics-delays-mcc-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weaponised it during his power struggle </a>with Oli."It should not come as a surprise to anyone if the ruling coalition collapses because of the MCC,” says political analyst Punaranjan Acharya, who adds that it is not Prime Minister’s Deuba’s intention to go against the agreement, but  that of the “so-called” communist parties in Deuba’s alliance. "The prime minister has tried to be transparent regarding the matter,” says Acharya. “The problem is with the double-dealing leaders of the coalition partners.”Former speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who resigned from his position in 2019 following allegations of rape, said last year in a statement that he had been falsely accused for opposing the MCC. His successor Agni Prasad Sapkota has also blocked the MCC Compact for discussion on the House floor.Rastriya Janamorcha Party Chairman Chitra Bahadur KC, who is a member of Deuba’s coalition, says that the MCC will not be allowed to reach Parliament, and will not be ratified in the event it is presented before the House. “We continue to oppose the MCC, which is not even included in the coalition’s Common Minimum Program,” says KC.Constitutional expert Bipin Adhikari says it would be ironic if the MCC is not allowed to be presented before the people’s representatives in the House because of the political self-interest of the Speaker and other powerful political leaders.Other analysts insist that the political process surrounding the MCC should be moved forward in a way that the project is ratified in the House without breaking the coalition and without the party whip being applied.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/using-the-delay-in-mcc-to-dissect-it/">Putting the MCC in context</a>, Jeevan R Sharma and David Seddon

MCC row rocks Nepal’s ruling coalition

Nepal’s only international aviation gateway, at Kathmandu airport, will cut night-time operation hours to allow construction of taxiways, and airlines have been told to curtail flights. This is expected to lead to more than normal chaos during the height of peak autumn and spring tourist seasons at an airport that is congested even at the best of times. The airport will close from 10PM to 8AM from 8 November-31 March 2025. The taxiways will now connect to the thresholds at both ends of the runway, making the airport more efficient in handling higher frequencies of landings and takeoffs. The parallel taxiway extension will allow international flights to land every 4 minutes instead of the current every 7 minutes. At present planes have to wait to land until a plane taking off backtracks along the runway.&nbsp; Kathmandu is Nepal’s only airport with international operations, and it has only one runway that is only one way in from the south over the mountains. With the taxiway improvement, the airport will be able to handle 42 aircraft landings and takeoffs per hour — double the current capacity.&nbsp; The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has been trying to entice international airlines to also start flying to and from the other two international airports at Pokhara and Bhairawa (Lumbini) by slashing landing and handling charges. But so far only Nepal Airlines operates a weekly flight to Bhairawa from Kuala Lumpur.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241018161016_046569e53d1d66cd445cc66c697c0ef724810aec9f54bdf827481e3cd6b80c32.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241018161016_046569e53d1d66cd445cc66c697c0ef724810aec9f54bdf827481e3cd6b80c32" data-rendition-name="original" width="2356" height="1134" loading="lazy" alt="Kathmandu airport expansion"> <figcaption>Kathmandu Airport Expansion plan with extension of taxiways to the thresholds of runways 02 and 20 that will limit airport operations from 8 November 2024 - 31 March 2025. Areas in blue are existing structures, including the international terminal which in future will be the domestic airport, and the new international terminal near the north end of the runway,</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241018121028_6e17cc2ee87c1b02d78cb54905825b7aa15299b7a00f5eddb01a59579ab85c1a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241018121028_6e17cc2ee87c1b02d78cb54905825b7aa15299b7a00f5eddb01a59579ab85c1a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1353" height="1328" loading="lazy" alt="Kathmandu airport NT"> </figure>  CAAN has reportedly told international airlines to cut their flight frequency to Kathmandu citing the shorter operation hours and has told budget airlines to shift some of their flights to Pokhara or Bhairawa, or face cuts. Many airlines currently operate regular flights to and from Kathmandu between 10PM and 8AM: Air Arabia to Sharjah, Fly Dubai to Dubai, Jazeera Airways to Kuwait, Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, Singapore Airlines, several Nepal Airlines flights, and one of four daily flights by Qatar Airways to Doha. Jazeera Airways, FlyDubai, and Thai AirAsia have applied and got permission from CAAN to begin regular flights to Bhairawa’s Gautam Buddha International Airport. Starting 9 November, FlyDubai will start making a stopover in Bhairawa before flying on to Kathmandu. Immigration, customs and security are all fully functional in Bhairawa. In Kathmandu, the next phase of the airport upgrade includes converting the current international terminal for domestic operations, the construction of a new international terminal where the domestic departure area is now, as well as moving the hangars and the Nepal Army Air Wing to the eastern side of the runway. The apron area will also double its parking space for widebody jets. This is part of a Airport Capacity Enhancement Project that was initially funded through a $80 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the entire masterplan is expected to cost $800 million. This project is the latest upgrade to Nepal’s only international airport since it saw its first flight in 1949. The current international and domestic terminals are too small to handle the current annual traffic volume of 8.5 million passengers a year that is growing at 20% a year.

Kathmandu airport to cut flight hours

As Kathmandu becomes more congested and polluted, and with remote online work becoming the norm, many professional Nepalis are planning to retire in Pokhara, or move there.&nbsp; With its stunning mountain panorama, balmy winters and proximity to a profusion of wilderness areas, builders are responding to this demand with new townhouses, housing development and apartments. One such block of flats is the 10-storey <a href="https://sungavaapartment.com/">Sungava Apartment</a> located at Phulbari above the Seti River, near the point where it flows into and under Pokhara. The imposing structure near Manipal Hospital is almost complete, and on a recent visit the site was strewn with huge boulders unearthed while digging the foundation.&nbsp; The Seti brought down these boulders during a gigantic flood that geologists estimate happened 800 years ago when a chunk of Annapurna IV broke off and ploughed into the glacier below. Today, Sungava (means ‘orchid’) sits safely on a high terrace, 100m above the blue-green Seti and commands a view of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna South, Machapuchre, Annapurna III and IV.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024102411104_5f8fc736c86ea3c08d7bef43bb727081d3cc1a2caa55ae2b441717e6044de7e9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024102411104_5f8fc736c86ea3c08d7bef43bb727081d3cc1a2caa55ae2b441717e6044de7e9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2016" height="1512" loading="lazy" alt="High living below the Himalaya NT"> </figure>  The soil here is conglomerate that has solidified like concrete, and the boulders were extracted by heavy earthmovers. It is intriguing to think that these metamorphic rocks as big as cars, rounded by glacial grinding, were once a part of a much higher Annapurna IV. Even for those with little interest in geology, Sungava is an ideal place to contemplate the tectonic forces that pushed these peaks into the sky to be sculpted into delicate shapes by wind, snow, earthquake and avalanche over millions of years. The view of the Himalayan panorama from Sungava’s many balconies are breathtaking when not obscured by clouds, or the haze that drifts in from across the southern border. On most days, just watching the towering pyramid of Machapuchre (Tamu name: कतासुँ क्लिको) play hide and seek with the clouds is mesmerising. There are rocks aplenty at Phulbari, and it is probably the flowers that grew along the flat terraces e that gave the place its flowery name. The boulders will hopefully be turned into a rock garden while landscaping. An nearby restaurant complex is making the best use of the stones in its design, using flat rocks as outdoor benches and tables. Sungava was designed by the husband-wife architect team of Deepak Sherchan and Jyoti Joshi of <a href="https://thedarkmermaidamarbshrestha.blogspot.com/2013/12/creative-builders-collaborative-cbc.html">Creative Builders Collaborative (CBC)</a>, which also built Heritage Plaza, Indreni Apartment and numerous other projects in Nepal. Sadbhavana retains CBC’s trademark Newari-style masonry and here it borrows from the orange brickwork of the old town of Pokhara, integrating it with modern design elements. A few of those heritage houses are still standing in Ganesh Tole and Ram Krishna Tole in Pokhara’s old quarter.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024102411108_5eb64a4885961b6d30781cefeb1e8a313da313ac5227c7a66b60f0c7d48d6fab.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2024102411108_5eb64a4885961b6d30781cefeb1e8a313da313ac5227c7a66b60f0c7d48d6fab" data-rendition-name="original" width="1362" height="595" loading="lazy" alt="High living below the Himalaya NT"> </figure>  About 400m from the apartment past a bend on the river, and down below three tiers of terraces in the canyon is a suspension bridge. Below it, the Seti is still swollen with post-monsoon flow as it tumbles away in a hurry to head down south.&nbsp; Back at the apartment, it is quiet, far away from the hubbub of Lakeside a 15 minute drive away, and in the lap of greenery. There are 52 units at Sungava and it already has a close-knit prospective community of professionals, including doctors, publishers, engineers, and businesspeople from the renewable energy and IT sectors.&nbsp; Some residents say they opted for a second home in Pokhara to make it a ‘base camp’ to explore the Annapurnas with its many hiking trails made newly accessible with new roads. With the NRN citizenship law, overseas Nepalis can now also buy the flats. &nbsp; The floor plans include options for north and south-facing 3-bedroom apartments with verandas, and the facility has underground parking has EV charging, heated pool, sauna and gym. There are still some unsold apartments with panoramic views of the mountains and one can imagine oneself at the kitchen with its huge window, humming a ditty while preparing breakfast: “खाना पकाउँ हिमाल हेरेर...”

High living below the Himalaya

When the United Nations held its Summit of the Future at its headquarters in New York in September, many world leaders, including Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Oli, highlighted the effect of climate breakdown in increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. What did not get as much attention was the long term impact of the climate crisis on food production. In fact, heat stress, weather extremes and the consequences on rain-fed agriculture is already being felt worldwide, undermining the chances of the <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/">UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)</a> being met by 2030.&nbsp; The SDG’s 17 targets commit countries like Nepal to reduce poverty and inequality, end malnutrition, protect the natural environment, and ensure that citizens all enjoy health, justice and prosperity without leaving anyone behind.&nbsp; However, besides the impact of climate breakdown on agricultural production, in Nepal the area under cultivation is impacted by urban expansion, falling productivity and the need for expensive inputs like fertiliser and pesticides.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_626413c5baf4dae407ac9579231b41daeb51510aa636b75aeb7489d94cca6a62.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241019041052_626413c5baf4dae407ac9579231b41daeb51510aa636b75aeb7489d94cca6a62" data-rendition-name="original" width="999" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>Kathmandu's urban sprawl is eating into its fertile cultivable lands. Photo: TAYLOR MASON</figcaption> </figure>  Now, a new study led by Nepali researcher Prajal Pradhan at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands looks at how urban agriculture may offer a solution to falling food production and meeting SDG targets. The researchers evaluated 1,450 publications exploring the contributions of urban agriculture with both positive and negative effects, and published their findings in the journal Cells Report Sustainability. Urban agriculture can help achieve 17 SDGs, positively influencing 81 targets. However, it could also undermine 51 goals.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-vanishing-land">The vanishing land</a>, Taylor Mason “Urban agriculture offers immense potential for sustainable development, but realising this potential depends crucially on adopting practices that minimise its adverse effects while maximising its benefits,” Pradhan explains. Urban agriculture can substantially enhance urban food security, provide employment to the urban poor, serve as ground water recharge in built-up areas, and preserve open spaces that can serve as safe havens during disasters like earthquakes. However, it also presents problems like the potential health risks from contamination and the need for expensive inputs. &nbsp; “Urban agriculture plays a definitive role in advancing the SDGs, but achieving this requires tailored, context-specific solutions that address the unique challenges of different regions,” says Yuanchao Hu of Wuhan University in China and who is a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “But it needs equitable access and rigorous management of environmental risks.”&nbsp; Rapid urbanisation is eating into Nepal’s most fertile agricultural land, which means farming in remaining open spaces inside cities can be a viable alternative, especially as food prices rise.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_7b7c9413086226fbdc630d45acf772cfa1ced77a8970b9056ec5ec7e5226fdf8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241019041052_7b7c9413086226fbdc630d45acf772cfa1ced77a8970b9056ec5ec7e5226fdf8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>A vegetable patch in between new houses in Thimi. Photo: TAYLOR MASON</figcaption> </figure>  “The conversion of Nepal’s most fertile land into cities is a severe problem,” Pradhan told Nepali Times. “Crop cultivation, horticulture, agroforestry, beekeeping, livestock rearing, or aquaculture can all be farming activities within and around cities.”&nbsp; The study makes recommendations for sustainable practices that build on the positive aspects of urban agriculture while mitigating the downsides, thereby promoting more resilient cities in future. Research shows that urban agriculture has been helping many countries attain SDG targets by enhancing food security and biodiversity while helping education and preservation of open spaces.&nbsp; Indeed, many farmers from the hinterland who have settled in Kathmandu Valley or other urban areas of the country have been practicing urban agriculture, leasing neighbourhood patches or cultivating roof gardens both out of necessity because of inflation and falling income to grow their own food, and also as a fulfilling hobby. Saurav Dhakal, a sustainability advocate with Story Cycle and now research fellow at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, says there are socio-economic and environmental benefits of urban agriculture. “It provides benefits to all urban dwellers, regardless of their income status,” says Dhakal, “families get fresh food, and there are many other benefits like water retention, heat regulation and biodiversity. These are all public goods, so special government incentives may be needed.” It is not unusual to see vegetable patches and even paddy fields within inner city Kathmandu where an older generation of farmers are using available fertile land and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/rooftop-gardens-kathmandu,1415">roof gardens to produce fresh, nutritious food </a>to reduce their dependence on food items that have to be bought after being trucked in from large distances.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024101905100_1291ce98dbbb8caed8702ac4b1d469b3e13016d7ecaaf3bfd5f91c974d3c0c77.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2024101905100_1291ce98dbbb8caed8702ac4b1d469b3e13016d7ecaaf3bfd5f91c974d3c0c77" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>An older generation of farmers are using any available fertile land to continue farming but it is getting more and more difficult. Photo: TAYLOR MASON </figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s urban population grew rapidly from only 3.6% in 1991 to 25% today. There is large outmigration from the mountains to peri-urban areas of the Tarai, to Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara, with many young men then moving abroad for work. Kathmandu Valley’s population has swelled to nearly 3 million, and is growing at 6.5% a year. Dilip Shrestha, 71, used to work for Nepal Food Corporation, so he knew firsthand about inflation, shortages and vegetables with pesticide residue. So, when he designed his new house in Kathmandu, he built a spacious roof where he grows cucumber, ginger, garlic, coriander, onions, tomatoes, chili, beans, okra, pumpkin and lettuce. His family eats healthier, and he has reduced dependence on the market.&nbsp; The co-author of the Cell Reports Sustainability journal article, Daya Raj Subedi who is a PhD candidate at Beijing Forestry University, says urban agriculture also promotes inclusion and psycho-social wellbeing.&nbsp; He says, “A crucial finding of the study is the identification of opportunities and challenges associated with urban agriculture, it can promote sustainable transformation of society.” In Banepa, 55-year-old Bijaya Manandhar in her lifetime has watched the fertile farms of her neighbourhood that used to supply vegetables to Kathmandu, now completely built up with no open space left. The pandemic lockdown prompted her to turn to the family’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/rooftop-agriculture-on-the-roof-of-the-world">ancestral livelihood by growing food</a> not on terrace farms, but on the roof terrace. Manandhar is now a part of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/rooftop-agriculture-on-the-roof-of-the-world%5C%5C">कौसी खेती र करेसाबारी क्रान्ती</a> (Rooftop Farming and Garden Revolution) which has an online membership of 52,000, and awards annual prizes to women who excel in urban agriculture.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_7257f5def8f823f35a799fa6f6825e153f2ffa406ac11325d4fe74049b79e96d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20241019041052_7257f5def8f823f35a799fa6f6825e153f2ffa406ac11325d4fe74049b79e96d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="736" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>Rooftop farming is gaining popularity as a form of urban agriculture. </figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_beff1a4494ce896dd8fd383ee1f518e5448bcf7ea8bb138255391c7bcb9769ed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20241019041052_beff1a4494ce896dd8fd383ee1f518e5448bcf7ea8bb138255391c7bcb9769ed" data-rendition-name="original" width="4000" height="3000" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> </figure>  Pradhan says the challenge now is to upscale such examples of successful urban agricultural practices so they support Neal’s efforts to meet SDG targets. He adds, “Crop cultivation around cities can be protected by land use plans and regulations. Promoting community-based agriculture, including rooftop gardens, requires community engagement and public-private partnerships across the food value chain.”&nbsp; Such support would accelerate the popularity of existing rooftop farming and community gardens in Kathmandu Valley, or kitchen garden initiatives in Pokhara, and building on traditional farming practices that are preserved and integrated into urban settings like in Bhaktapur and Banepa. In Lalitpur, the Women Entrepreneurship Facilitation Center promotes urban farming enhancing both sustainability and empowerment.&nbsp; Another co-author of the report, Yuanchao Hu from China says followup research of the team will aim to identify good practices in local urban agriculture practices. He adds, “There are examples of urban agriculture that optimise sustainability, ensuring that it remains a viable solution for cities globally while countries try to meet SDG targets.” Prajal Pradhan, Daya Raj Subedi, Kshitij Dahal, Yuanchao Hu, Prakriti Gurung, Sijal Pokharel, Sagar Kafle, Biplav Khatri, Sudeeksha Basyal, Monika Gurung, and Aruna Joshi. Urban Agriculture matters for sustainable development. Cell Reports Sustainability, 1:100217, 2024. [DOI: 10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100217] Prajal Pradhan (<a href="mailto:p.pradhan@rug.nl">p.pradhan@rug.nl</a>) This article is brought to you by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">Nepali Times</a>, in collaboration with <a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/" target="_blank">INPS Japan</a> and <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/" target="_blank">Soka Gakkai International</a>, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240630110640_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20240630110640_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758" data-rendition-name="original" width="680" height="103" loading="lazy" alt="SDG logo"> </figure>

Back to the land in the cities

The 700-year-old Lakshmi Narasingha temple in Bhaktapur houses a rare half-lion and half-human incarnation of Lord Vishnu carrying the Goddess Lakshmi. The temple was destroyed in the 1934 mega earthquake that killed 10,000 people and destroyed many monuments in Kathmandu Valley. It was rebuilt by a German project in the 1980s, but as a single-storey structure instead of its original two-tier pagoda design.&nbsp; With new findings from in-depth research, Bhaktapur municipality began re-restoring the temple in 2021, preserving its original architecture.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_2fae38cce543ad7b1f6de632feb3e212e08ed1acedd747830e949d7b8e878f18.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241017131016_2fae38cce543ad7b1f6de632feb3e212e08ed1acedd747830e949d7b8e878f18" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  “Our temples and heritage sites hold deep meaning. It is disheartening to witness how often they lose their original elements, whether by design or accident,” explains Kumar Chawal of the Consumer Committee of Bhaktapur. “There is a need to preserve our architecture and protect its historical value for future generations. Otherwise, we risk losing a vital part of our identity.” The Laksmi Narsingha restoration is similar to the Bhai Dega temple in Patan Darbar Square which also collapsed in 1934, but was rebuilt with a Moghul-style dome by the Rana government at the time. Only two months before the 2015 earthquake, heritage conservationists had started to rebuild Bhai Dega as the original three-tier based on early photographs. But priorities shifted when four other temples in the square were brought down by the 7.8M earthquake on 25 April 2015.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_697ea707d9ad163be5de5f2efbf5b70d3cab771adcc22f0fae6bf937c6cb0130.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241017131016_697ea707d9ad163be5de5f2efbf5b70d3cab771adcc22f0fae6bf937c6cb0130" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  This showed how damage to monuments in Kathmandu Valley spanned from one earthquake to the next. Bhai Dega restoration remains half-complete to this day because money for its restoration ran out.&nbsp; Whereas Bhai Dega restoration was done by the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust with grants from western embassies and international foundations, in Bhaktapur it is the municipality itself that allocated the Rs30.7 million needed to restore the Lakshmi Narasingha temple. The expected date of completion is early 2025. The municipality and local communities are focusing on two main aspects: preserving the past and promoting localisation. The restoration team has designed a blueprint for the temple by using historical photographs and insights from older generations.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_182882fdc393c99e70d1d0490319e415229563666c4934e3a582426ebf00ca30.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241017131016_182882fdc393c99e70d1d0490319e415229563666c4934e3a582426ebf00ca30" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="560" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  “At first, the Lakshmi Narasingha temple had only one entrance, but during the demolition process, we uncovered the foundations of four doors. Now, we are restoring all of them. This is an example of how our ancient structures have changed over time, often without our knowledge,” says Chawal. “Constructing temples is not like building houses. They carry historical and spiritual values, which is why they hold a special place in our hearts,” he adds. By replicating ancient design elements and rebuilding the temple as accurately as possible to its original form, the team has stayed true to Bhaktapur’s soul. But the restoration also revived ancient techniques that were in danger of being forgotten, generating employment for woodcarvers, masons, and contractors. The community of Bhaktapur’s Gahiti neighbourhood near the famous Nyatapola Temple has also set aside specific days for locals to volunteer in the reconstruction work. This has encouraged young people to take pride in ownership of their heritage. Families have also supported the effort by donating funds for bells, the temple pinnacle, and other structural features to the temple.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_db850ec0c084cdbe54f65bee92dad2ad8122d20fd60ec87ec086fbb9d2f72bd6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241017131016_db850ec0c084cdbe54f65bee92dad2ad8122d20fd60ec87ec086fbb9d2f72bd6" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  “I feel at peace knowing I have contributed my sweat to restoring this temple,” said one volunteer. “It is our duty to preserve our temples and heritage. The Nyatapola area will look magical once this temple is completed.” Community mobilisation is a long-standing tradition in Bhaktapur. In the past, locals have actively participated in the restoration of other temples in the city, such as Bhairav and Nyatapola fostering a strong sense of ownership. This collective engagement has not only been crucial in preserving the city's historical monuments but also in strengthening the bond between local communities and their heritage, says officials at the municipality. While securing funding is essential, and the municipality showed it values heritage conservation, the Lakshmi Narasingha restoration is proof that active involvement and sense of responsibility of the local community is as important, if not more. Local involvement also means that the monuments will be cared for into the future, When locals take ownership of these efforts, the restored monuments are not only protected in the present but are also cared for in the future.