The British sailed away on 30 June, but the Chief Executive of China´s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Tung Che-Hwa seems to have made up his mind about the
While opponents of dam-building base their protests on issues of compensation, rehabilitation, submergence, seismic hazards, religious sentiments and cultural intrusion, in essence what is happening is that highlanders have understood
When Delhi papers label the demand for Uttarakhand secessionist, racist and rejectionist, they ignore the economic and cultural factors behind the agitation. Meanwhile, because the hill people lack coherent ideology
Chipko is not a movement, it 'was' one. Its energies sapped by excessive adulation, the movement wound up too quickly. For a while, though, Chipko came tantalisingly close to providing, for a corner of South Asia, socio-economic development through a paradigm that was self-developed.
Medicinal plants make up the largest economic resource being tapped across the Himalayan region, but mountain peasants get to see only a tiny fraction of the profits. It is a
Nepal's cigarette producers, supported by a Government media hungry for advertising revenue, are allowed to encourage the young and old to consume deadly smoke. The entry in 1987
The "NGO movement" in Nepal is overwhelmingly urban-based and entirely dependent on foreign assistance. There are more than 50 non-governmental organisations that claim to work for upliftment of
International data on suicide indicate that, overall, more women attempt suicide than men. Numerous studies have proven that this has to do with the lower social, political, legal and economic
Hundreds of thousands of lives have been touched by Gurkha soldiering. Many toasts have been drunk to and books written about the Johnny Gurkhas, but reference to their womenfolk has
