The root cause

Human trafficking is one of the challenges in Nepal. It has been estimated that one-third of victims of human trafficking is either born, reach, or sent through Asia. Mostly young poor girls who have no access to education tend to believe in the trafficker’s words, because they think that they find the paradise to take them away from current miserable life of poverty.

Girls in Nepal

How can we stop the chain of trafficking? It only can be achieved by working collectively among communities and establish a monitoring mechanism that the traffickers have no space commit crime.

Thinking about the victims still locked up and victims being rescued but struggling with the nightmares is heartbreaking. However, I cannot help myself thinking about the background of the traffickers. The fact that they had ruined the lives of small children cannot be forgiven, but does the problem of poverty lies in the traffickers as well? I might be biased, but I could not believe that all the traffickers involved in this huge industry abduct people in order to get some additional money. I assume that some of them who are in the bottom of the hierarchy of human trafficking industry have involuntarily be an accomplice in the crime. Where will be the safe place for them? It is very important for Nepal to strengthen the punishment for the perpetrator; however, the problem is undoubtedly rooted into poverty. Unless the government tackles with the problems of poverty in individual level, this remains as a game of cat and mouse.

 

Culture of corruption

Asian countries are often said that they have many commonalities. People are basically friendly and warm, and have deep connection between people with a strong sense of community. Since I am from Japan, I was comparing the characteristics of Nepal and Japan during my stay. One thing that came up as a similarity was the political corruption.

According to Transparency International the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, Nepal had the corruption rate of 2.2, on a scale from 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt). Among the 178 countries in the survey, Nepal ranked as 146. We can clearly see that Nepal’s politics are far from being transparent. This rate can be given by analyzing the frequency and/or size of bribes, and for Japan, the rate was 7.8, ranked in 17th place. Seeing the figure, it may seem that corruption is not a big challenge for Japan, however, the corruption is endlessly broadcasted through media everyday and people cannot make a way out of it.

Corruption leads to people’s lack of interest in politics. What we saw in Nepal was the passiveness of people to participate in building positive peace on their soil. They were just waiting for a savior to come and take leadership to change everything for them. That culture of suppression completely supports corruption to remain.

I think one reason for this passiveness is from the quality of education. In Japan, we define our education as cramming education and we are not used to think critically or raise questions. I have no idea how much children in Nepal talk about their internal conflict in the school, but seeing the people that we met, I don’t think children are exposed to the failure and difficulties that the country is facing now. Nepali people just want to erase the past and keep going, not knowing that how fragile the peace they are now holding on to.

People can be called as politicians only by fighting with the absurdity of society. Fundamental standpoint of the politics is to extend the hand of relief to people who are suffering the most.

Vicious Cycle

Who in our group imagined that Nepal is a country full of garbage? Since I was only imagining Nepal as country surrounded by beautiful mountains, I was so shocked to see the reality. In the city of Kathmandu, you can see trashes everywhere, literally 360 degrees. On the sidewalk, on the river, under the bridges…

Why are the people so indifferent toward this situation? It is very interesting that even though people are so faithful believers, it seems like they don’t care about religious buildings covered with trash. Furthermore, despite their concern about purity/impurity because of the caste system, they don’t see the trash as the object of impunity. Impunity and insanitation are completely different concepts in Nepal.

Pollution can be seen not only in the capital but also in countryside. At the village we visited in Bara district, people lived beyond poverty level. Therefore most of the houses in the village were made of straw, and every household set an open fire in order to get warmth and to get rid of the garbage. Beautiful starry sky was vanished by the poisonous smoke, and we could barely breathe. First, I thought that the people were not aware of the health damage caused by smoke, however, making the matter worse, they were aware of it. They couldn’t help setting fire because there was no other option for them to survive cold nights. Sure enough, some of them were already ill, but they couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. I felt so bad seeing this, but at the same time I was objectively observing this circumstance that destroying the nature directly leads to the destruction of the human beings.

Straw used as bed

Flexibility or Persistence?

Before visiting Nepal, I have decided to focus on my research topic as children, because if you foresee Nepal in 30 years time, the children will be the primary actors of the Peacebuilding process. I was determined to research specifically about the child war victims, such as former child soldiers or orphans, and wanted to see how Nepal tackles with their psychological wounds. I was expecting to visit many educational facilities and meet many children having problems, however, this did not happen.

In Nepal, trauma healing is one of the aspects that they haven’t started working on as a nation. They are concerned about gender disparities, domestic violence, human trafficking, corruption, education, impunity, but not about trauma healing. None of the organization spoke a word about “trauma” or “psychological disorder,” and it was so difficult for me to grasp the real situation. It nearly made me feel that maybe there is no trauma on children in Nepal after all.

Children Playing

For the first half of the trip, I was frustrated with the lack of information that I wanted. However, I started to think that if I continue to persist in this topic, I would lose this opportunity to learn other things. I acknowledged the importance of being flexible to the research topic if you were on the ground. But also there was a part of me saying that it is hard to change my research interests all of sudden,

because not getting much information about child soldiers/orphans doesn’t mean that the problem doesn’t exist.

As I was struggling, I was able to meet the organization that deals with children’s human rights, two days before leaving Nepal. It is the organization called CWIN (Child Workers In Nepal Concerned Center), which focuses on issues about child rights, child labors, trafficking, child abuse and children in armed conflict. It divides war-affected children in 3 categories, which are 1) Children who lost their parents during conflict, 2) Children injured during conflict, and 3) Children actually involved in the conflict. CWIN give these children psychosocial support such as counseling, and ultimately tries to reintegrate them into the community. This was the only organization that focused on psychological wounds of war victims, so the presence of CWIN meant a lot to me. Researching on the ground requires flexibility in topic, but at the same time, the persistence is also needed.

Believing in one’s possibilities

When I recall my experience in Nepal, the first thing that comes up to my mind is 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking. We met over 30 organizations during the 2-week visit and heard each of their goals and different approaches to fight against the injustice and to create peace in their country. However, 3 Sisters was the organization that inspired me the most. I have to admit that at first, I was not expecting high quality services from Nepali trekking company. But I was totally wrong, and there were many things that we have to learn from their commitment to service.

According to their definition, a guide refers to a person who can:

G-reets

U-nderstands

I-nforms

D-emonstrates

E-ntertains

They have a clear notion of how guide should act like, and I was so impressed when they mentioned “Entertaining” as an essential factor for a guide. I was surprised to see the thoughtfulness of the company that not only providing jobs to girls to make them self-independent, but also to give importance to the quality of the service they provide. If you only work for your own sake, it will limit your potential, because it is relatively easy to satisfy yourself. But on the other hand, if you work for the sake for the other people, there is no limit of satisfaction because you cannot control other’s satisfaction. This situation makes the guides to be more creative, more knowledgeable, and leads them to enhance their potential. All of the girls there were really having fun working there, because they think of their job as challenging but meaningful.

As a result, the company succeeded in gaining reputation among foreigners, and became one of the most famous trekking companies in Nepal. Yet, they are not content with their success, and striving for the empowerment of women. I saw many NGOs that works in wonderful projects with decent facilities to empower women, however, I did not see the high aspiration toward their goal as 3 Sisters did.

 

Why do we learn new language?

Under the internal conflict in Nepal, schools were used as weapons of war. School facilities were taken over by Maoists, and the role of the teachers became highly politicized. It was far from the place where you can hear the laughter of children.

 

When we visited Bara district, we were able to see one of the schools. It was a two-story building that the stairs were in dangerous condition that if a student step off the stairs, he would be hit onto the ground. All the classrooms were equipped with blackboards and table with chairs, which was better than my expectation. However, it was beyond satisfactory level. When we were walking around the school facilities, many people from the village including children gathered around us and stared at us. I was so curious to know what the children were seeing through us. Are they envisioning an ideal world though us? Or are they just seeing us as an object to make money from?

 

In the capital, Kathmandu, all the classes were taught in English, but on the other hand, all the subjects are taught in Nepali language in rural areas. This disconnection between the capital and the countryside create a huge gap in the quality of education. And this undoubtedly leads to the differences in numbers of jobs that they are qualified to attain. For example, if they can speak English, they can be hired in a tourism industry, which generates huge profit in the country.

In Kathmandu, I accosted by a boy who was selling jewelry. I was so surprised to hear his fluent Japanese, but seeing his eagerness to sell jewelries to me, I hesitated. Since I knew that Japanese is one of the main tourists who come to Nepal and spend lots of money there, I could not help myself feeling disappointed that his purpose of learning Japanese is just to get money. Of course I understand that he had to stand out among the great number of seller on the road, and I was sure that Japanese tourists would be attracted by his language ability and buy something from him.

However, this leads to my question of, “for what purpose do we learn”?

 

Sense of Superiority

The country of Nepal cannot be talked without the caste system. If you go there without any knowledge about its culture, you might miss many things regarding people’s real life. The people found at the bottom of the Nepal social structure are called Dalits, who historically engaged in cleaning streets or disposal of dead bodies. Because Dalits deal with wastes, they are referred to “untouchable,” and this directly relates to the purification of higher castes. The concept of purity and impurity is deeply tied to the concept of karma and transmigration of souls, which form the basis of Hinduism. To explain more, the status of the current life is determined by the act of the previous life, and devoting oneself on given status is the only way one can attain better status in their afterlife. I think that belief in this idea is one reason for caste to dwell in their society until now.

Many NGOs we met on the ground were working hard to improve the social status of Dalits. They conduct various workshops and trainings in order for the Dalits to be aware of their rights, and to empower them. I was expecting that Dalits will gladly accept their assistance, however, apparently this was not the case. Since Dalits customary go into the bush to pee, no matter how much NGOs teach them the importance of proper sanitation or even provide them restroom facilities, they tend to go outside to pee. I faced the difficulty and complexity of transforming the culture, which they have been holding on to for many years. Even though you are sure that providing the infrastructure makes their lives better, I have learned that it is important to stop and think what people have gone through. Sustainable development and empowerment can only be achieved gradually and it takes time to penetrate.

One of the sad things I faced during my visit to Nepal is that there is a hierarchy within the Dalit community. The so-called “elite Dalits” have access to judicial system or other privileges that non-elites have no access to. How do these things happen? How can they disregard people in their own community despite the fact that they have faced the absurdity and unfairness of discrimination? Discrimination appears at the moment when people think of themselves as superior to some other people. The scary thing is that people don’t recognize it anymore once they are incorporated into the higher position.

As a human being, in my definition, the superior person is who has a kindness to share the pain of the other people. And I have to say that I didn’t have opportunity to see much of this during my trip to Nepal.

Is forgiving a sacrifice?

“Forgiving is just not a passive act.” At the discussion of the Peacebuilding seminar, I was not able to fully comprehend this idea. My point was that, when your important people were killed during conflicts, sometimes it is too much for the individuals to carry the burden of the grievances, anger, and the sense of revenge throughout their lives. Therefore, I thought that to give up those emotions after certain period of time and free their minds from the chain of hatred could be considered as one form of forgiveness.

However, I learned that from the Peacebuilding perspective, digesting the rush of agony in personal level does not lead to a true reconciliation. It should be an inter-personal approach participated by both victims and perpetrators. Perpetrators must acknowledge the crime that he committed and show apology to the victims, and the victims should try proactively to understand the standpoint of the perpetrator. This is because, in war, everybody can be considered as victims.

While I was thinking about this, I imagined about the people in Japan who lost their family in tsunami. Is it harder for the victims to not have the target for anger? The hardest part in losing families in natural disasters is that you cannot accuse anyone, and just have to accept that it was their fate. And same as war, natural disasters do not fall in equally to the people either. Maybe it is not appropriate to compare the grievances that people feel in war and natural disasters, however, there is a chance for true reconciliation if the conflict was between human being. And if they can share difficulties in both sides, they can try to talk how to stop the reoccurrence of war, which every post-war country are eager to know.

In Nepal, we saw sense of giving up grievances by the victims everywhere, and I saw this as a core obstacle for true nation building of the country. This Nepal culture undoubtedly accelerated the impunity issues remain unsolved, and consequently left many people still unaccounted for. I felt that peace is not living in a quiet, carefree life, and it only exists in action.

 

Education for what sake?

The Himalayan trek in Pokhara was an amazing experience. Post cards and pictures cannot say enough about its magnificence. The tips of the Himalayas covered with snow appeared in between lush greenery, and the contrast was absolutely stunning. Indescribable feelings emerged the moment I saw the mountains, and the sense of satisfaction came right after.

While we were trekking, we interacted with many locals and at the same time, we saw terraced fields of rice and corn, which are their income source.

We took a break in front of a lake that was made just for the locals to do their laundry, and we were able to see real lifestyles. However, culture of male-dominance was clearly visible, since only women were gathering around the lake doing their laundry, which included very young children.

I asked to several Nepali men about men’s participation in house works, but no one gave the answer that I wanted. The beauty of the mountains worsened my dejection toward this situation.

It is said that 7 hundred million people in the world are illiterate, and 70% of them are concentrated in Asian countries. Seeing the situation in Nepal in my own eyes, there is no doubt for me to say that male-dominant social structure is one cause. In Nepal, same as other underdeveloped Asian countries, girls drop out rate for the school is very high. This is because their parents want them to work for the family, or the parents don’t recognize the importance of education.

There were four Nepali girls as guides from 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking, which is a trekking company that train Nepali girls in order to socially empower them. I was able to have fruitful conversation with one of the girls who spoke fluent English, and she was once a graduate student. She told me about her complex background that her father has two wives in Nepal and in India. No matter how she complains about the situation or expresses her frustration and toward his father, she was always turned away because she is a girl. However, she admitted that she would never question or argue about this situation if she had not been educated. Education gave her the cognition of female discrimination. For the girls who don’t receive education, male dominance is perceived as one form of culture, so it would be difficult for them to raise complaint. No matter how they harmed physically or being insulted, their sorrow would be left in their inner heart as a scar for a long time because they cannot raise voice.

After talking to her, I was able to reaffirm the value of education, which all of Nepali girls must have access to. The girl I talked to established herself as an independent woman, and was expanding her field of vision by interacting with people who come to trek from all over the place. I see her as a perfect embodiment of the slogan for 3 Sisters Trekking Company which said,

“Women do not need sympathy, we need education and opportunity”