Travels in Nepal: The Sequestered Kingdom
Charlie Pye-Smith Aurum Press, London 1988, 12.95 Pounds
Review by Miriam Poser
The title of this well-written book is very misleading. It is only marginally a travel book; it is chiefly about the impact which foreign aid has had on Nepal. In the preface, the author writes, "The assumption is that aid helps to alleviate poverty. I hope this book goes some way towards showing that often this is not the case." With examples from diverse projects, he makes his point. Along the way, Pye-Smith provides a delightfully earthy and non-condescending account of the problem-laden country and its resilient people. The British travel writer and environmentalist has clearly met the right people and asked the right questions. The result is an updated "from the inside" look at a country. The book is critical, unsentimental and thought provoking.
The book begins with a brief account of Nepali history, its bureaucracy and present day politics. Getting into "development", the author points out that Nepal seems to have been carved up for the foreign aid agencies: Khumbu for the New Zealanders and Austrians; the far west for Canadians; Rapti, Mustang and Gorkha for Americans; Dhading for Germans; the Kosi Hills for the British, and so on.
Pye-Smith´s first trip was to Khumbu. He writes about deforestation and the various schemes there, including the Hotel Everest View fiasco and the dam on the Bhote Kosi at Thami which was washed away a few months after it was completed when a glacial lake burst upstream. Work was scheduled to begin again, but there had been no attempt to assess the demand for electricity in the area noT how the hydro electric plant would help the environment. The local population had neither been consulted about, nor asked to support, the project.
The author also describes the Resource Conservation and Utilisation Project (RCUP) — amply criticised in the pages of this magazine — funded by USAID in the Kali Gandaki Valley. RCUP, says Pye-Smith, ultimately "floundered in a mire of bureaucracy" and wasted huge sums.
Pakhribas, a British agriculture project in eastern Nepal, is one of few efforts