Knapsack Treks
  • Detian Waterfall Then & Now
  • Good Vices
  • Live From Lukla
  • NDP – National Day Pendaki
  • Trip Reports
    • Australia
      • Aussie Odyssey Part 1, Uluru, Kata Tjuta
      • Aussie Odyssey Part 2 Kings Canyon
      • Aussie Odyssey Part 3 Kangaroo Island
      • Dunes Downunder Part 1
      • Dunes Downunder Part 2
      • Dunes Downunder Part 3
    • Climbing Tianyou Peak 天游峰 @ Wuyi Shan 武夷山
    • Europe
      • My Greek Odyssey (Athens & Acropolis)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Delphi)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Meteora)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Mt Olympus)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Pella – birthplace of Alexander the Great)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Thessaloniki)
    • India
      • A Tale of Two Jahans
      • Akbar The Great
      • Dungeshwari – where mistakes are made and corrected
      • Horriday In India – Trains
      • Sarnath – first lesson
      • Shimla – legacy of British India
      • Taj Mahal
      • The Mahabodi Temple, Bodhgaya
      • Varanasi, a city as old as time
    • Indonesia
      • Beautiful Bali 2019
        • Batur Mountain & Lake
        • Kuta Sunset
        • Marvellous Munduk
        • Nusa Penida 1
        • Nusa Penida 2
        • Tirta Gangga
      • Dieng Antiquities
      • Gedung Songo
      • Gunung Lawu 2019
      • Sex & Temples
        • Candi Kethek & Ceto
        • Candi Sukuh
      • Back In Mt Bromo With A Kid In Tow 1
      • Back In Mt Bromo With A Kid In Tow 2
    • Kyrgyzstan, Land of Yurts, Horses, Vodka and 美女😆
      • Song Kul Lake Horse Trek
      • Beautiful Bishkek
      • The Ala Kul Lake Trek Via Telety & Karakol Valley
      • Dungan Mosque Kyrgyzstan
      • Holy Trinity Cathedral, Karakol
    • Magical Myanmar 2019
      • Hsipaw Trek
      • Paya Ko Thaung
      • Pining For Pyin Oo Lwin
      • Sunset In Sittwe
      • The Goteik Viaduct
      • Yangon Memories
    • Nepal
      • Everest Three Passes Trek Nepal
      • Tilicho Lake
      • Annapurna On Wheels With Two Kids In Tow
      • Gosainkund Winter Trek
      • Lost In Lumbini
    • The Water Curtain Cave
    • Kunming, Dali With A Kid In Tow
  • Wacky Workouts
    • Climb Stairs
    • Great Body Weight Exercise
    • Metabolic Principle – Fat Burn
    • Metabolic Principles – Muscles
    • Pull Ups Step By Step
    • Push Up Variations
    • Pushup Variations
    • Working With Elastics
  • About The Author
  • Knapsack Books
  • Fighting Fit
    • 1000 Squats
    • Alternatives For Prevention of AMS?
    • Buffering Your Blood
    • Carbo-loading: The Real Thing
    • Cold Dips
    • Fluid Replacement
    • Food For Hikes – Sweet Potatoes
    • Healthy Coffee?
    • High Altitude Diarrhoea
    • Jumpstart Cream
    • L-Carnitine
    • Low Carb Myths & Risks
    • MacRitchie To Bukit Timah Hike
    • Preventing Blisters
    • Sandfly Bites
    • Cheating AMS
  • Gear & Stuff
    • Choosing Footwear
    • Cooking Set
    • Cushion Gloves
    • Dressing Right For The Himalayas
    • Gelert Boots
    • High Fashion (Frogg Toggs)
    • Hiking Footwear Cheap & Good
    • How To Clean Mouldy Slides
    • My Neat Knapsack
    • New Hiking Boots From Decathlon
    • The Humble SAF Combat Boot
    • The Thermos Effect
    • Custom Made Hiking Boots
  • The Aging Adventurer
    • Bye Bye Bunions
      • 6 Weeks Post-op
      • Day 1
      • Day 2
      • Day 7
      • One Month Post-op
      • Trying On My Boots & Thongs
      • Week 3
    • Clogged Arteries: everyone has them!
    • Don’t Lose That Muscle
    • Foot On Ice
    • How Exercise Affects Blood Pressure
    • Keeping Fit Past 70
    • Secret To Burning Fat
    • Stairs Workout
    • Strength Training
    • The Best Doctors In The World
    • Toes & Poles
    • Too Old To Run?
    • Training For Seniors
  • Legends
    • Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922)
      • The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
    • Gigi The Bikini Hiker
    • Khoo Swee Chiow – K2, the ultimate peak
    • Xiao Peng 小鹏
    • Yu Chun Shun 余纯顺
    • Lei Dian Sheng 雷殿生
      • Horsehair & Blisters
      • Trust & Kindness
  • Other Sites by Chan Joon Yee
    • Chan Joon Yee On Homecooking
    • Chan Joon Yee On Social Issues

Login

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Tweets by toothfully
Follow me on twitter

Knapsack News

Running On Empty In Kathmandu

by admin October 31, 2015 No Comments

059

Those of us who have tried to make contributions to the less fortunate people living in the countries we visit for a dose of adventure are very likely to have experienced disappointment. Out of infatuation or compassion, many adventurers who lend a helping hand or give donations often find their gifts being sold for cash and cash being somehow “misappropriated”. There is a gap in communication and understanding that is more insurmountable than the Himalayas.

I’m not sure of the exact amount, but millions must have been donated to Nepal in the wake of the devastating earthquake that caused massive destruction and the loss of some 9,000 lives. We have all been looking forward to Nepalese putting their differences aside and starting to rebuild itself in time to catch this first trekking season after the earthquake. But it seems like this comeback is fraught with obstacles, not from mother nature, but from the Nepalese people’s own doing.

Nepal’s newly passed Constitution and the redrawing of new state boundaries failed to please some people, namely the Tharu and Madhesi people inhabiting the southern lowlands near the Indian border. Protests led to violence which killed 40 people due ostensibly to indiscriminate use of force by the police. The protests in Birgunj went on unabated. The protesters went one step further. They instigated their ethnic cousins across the border in India to help them start a blockade that would punish the uncaring elite in Kathmandu – Maoist style.

PM-Narendra-modi-wishes-muslim-community-for-holy-Ramadan-337x300

Landlocked and with practically no natural resources other than the Himalayas, Nepal is solely dependent on fuel imports from India which arrive overland from the south. The result? Nepal now has to introduce fuel rationing and vehicle restriction. Generators which used to run only in the evenings are now running for even shorter hours. Vehicles with odd number plates can only operate on odd dates, and even number plates on even dates. Schools are closed and holidays are declared. Flights had to be cancelled and the distribution of all essential items like food and medicines have hit a roadblock. All this certainly won’t help tourism – bread and butter for the folks at Kathmandu. The folks in the south really know to hit where it hurts most.

To the authorities’ credit, they did try to do something about it. Indian PM Narendra Modi promised to redirect trucks to other border crossings, but apart from the lowland crossings in the south, most other crossings between India and Nepal go over high mountain passes which will be snowbound in the months to come. Some analysts believe that the Indian government is complicit to the blockade and they didn’t like Nepal’s new Constitution which was apparently put together without consulting them. Turning to its northern neighbour may not be the best way out for Nepal as the road to and from Tibet has been damaged by April’s earthquake and the Friendship Highway is only partially repaired. Here as well, the route goes over high Himalayan passes which are not all-weather and certainly not very winter-friendly. Last week, some analysts predicted that China would be hesitant to help Nepal as this might offend India. I believe that the Chinese are not in the least of ruffling some Indian feathers given their recent confrontation with the US in the South China Sea.

As I expected, China has just announced that it would supply Nepal with petroleum products. In two separate agreements, China has promised to give a one-off 1,000 metric tonnes of petroleum products as a grant and signed a memorandum of understanding for petroleum supply.

“Nepal Oil Corporation and China National United Fuel Corporation formalised a long-term commercial agreement in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon,” a senior Nepalese bureaucrat told the Times of India. It all sounds wonderful to Nepal, but MOUs are just MOUs. It remains to be seen how all this will work out given the difficulties on the ground. I personally believe that China’s contribution can only be significant if we’re talking about a pipeline in the near future.

049

As of now, Nepal faces a “major fuel crisis situation,” with only two weeks’ supply and a thousand fuel trucks stuck on the Indian side of the border. Yes, we all want to help, but what’s going to happen to our “help”? It’s not like we’ll see any lasting results. What if all our money and sympathy end up in a bottomless pit? What if everything we’ve helped build up get wiped out in the next, almost guaranteed political bickering? When can foreign aid yield some lasting results that will make the people financially independent and self-sufficient.

India continues to block and deny that it is blocking. China keeps promising but we’re not seeing much alleviation yet. We have a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions and it’s certainly not within your or my power to help. Would you travel to Nepal and risk cancelled flights or worse, risky flights, compromised vehicles running on adulterated fuel?

So what has the Nepalese authorities been doing so far? They blocked India’s TV channels!


Check Out Knapsack Books by Chan Joon Yee

  • Previous Coney Island7 years ago
  • Next All The What Ifs7 years ago

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Knapsack Books

2023 Knapsack Treks. Donna Theme powered by WordPress
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}