Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Nepali Times ईspecial 26 - 1 August 2024 #1222
Hello,
Nepali Times has been publishing cartoons by Diwakar Chhetri for over 10 years, and in that time much has changed in Nepal’s politics. But a lot has remained the same.
Even the men who populate politics are one and the same, giving Diwakar’s visual satire such a long shelf-life. A cartoon done 12 years ago can still be reposted today because not only are the protagonists and deuterogamists the same old people, they are all up to the same old tricks.
Many of you loyal longtime readers may have found this week’s page 1 cartoon by Diwakar Chhetri vaguely familiar. That is because we used it way back in 2013 showing Pushpa Kamal Dahal being abandoned on the seesaw by Baburam Bhattarai in a competition for prime ministership.
This week, our layout guy Kiran Maharjan simply recycled the toon by replacing the lean and haughty Baburam Bhattarai with a K P Oli sketch from another of Diwakar’s toons.
Accompanying the cartoon on page 1 is an analysis by Shristi Karki on history repeating itself over and over again. The new coalition has its work cut out, while the Maoists and the RSP in the opposition lick their wounds and strategise about their next moves.
Other things that keep happening over and over again in Nepal are tragic highway and aviation accidents. Two weeks after a mudslide swept two buses carrying 62 people into the Trisuli River, a Saurya Airlines CRJ200 crashed at Kathmandu airport killing 18 people on Wednesday.
On page 10-11, reporter Shristi Karki examines Nepal’s inadequate disaster preparedness and response mechanisms. In the bus disaster, the first responders were passersby. In the air crash, the airport’s fire trucks were on the scene within 2 minutes. But questions remain:
Why did the government take the air crash more seriously than the bus accident by declaring a day of mourning although the death toll was much lower?
Instead of calling the bus disaster an ‘accident’, should it not be classified as manslaughter because it was debris from a poorly engineered road up the slope that came down?
Why were so many passengers including family members allowed on Saurya’s maintenance ferry flight?
CAAN is a regulator as well as operator, shouldn’t the two functions be separated?
In the Guest Editorial ‘Mananging the Monsoon’ on page 2, water expert Ngamindra Dahal says the monsoon gets a bad press because poor planning and bad engineering cause floods and landslides. The monsoon should be seen as a blessing, not a curse.
On page 6-7, Abhishekh Jha reports from Birganj and Janakpur about tales of the two Tarai cities which, after federalism, have become vibrant and cosmopolitan urban centres of Madhes Province. Also on the centrefold, Kamal Maden in his article ‘To Save the Tarai, Save the Siwalik’ urges an urgent effort to protect the ecology of the Chure Range.
Lisa Cheogyal pays tribute to her friend and colleague Ambica Shrestha, who died on 18 July in Kathmandu. A longer version of the obituary is online here.
May we live in less interesting times.
Kunda Dixit