Lumbini, Nepal: Indigenous Buddhist Concerns

                            

                            Buddha is Omnipresent

             

Co-ordination for Preservation of Buddhists' Concerns, Nepal

                    

                               National Co-ordination Council, Kathmandu

Mr. Ban ki Moon

Secretary-General

United Nations

New York, NY 10017                                                                              Date: 8^th-11-2011

Issue:   Deprived and endangered humanitarian crisis in Nepal for Buddhists.

Subject:  Appeal to caution the marauding of Buddhist cultures, heritage and historical sites by unlawful representation of Buddhists by non- Buddhist representatives seeking the support of the UN.

Dear Secretary-General,

Nepal is the birthplace of Buddha. We, indigenous Buddhists, until 1990 have been discriminated marginalized and persecuted under a Hindu state. After the Peoples’ movement in 2006, having overthrown the Hindu monarch, Nepal was declared a secular state and the Preamble of the Interim Constitution continued to specify Nepal as a democratic, republican, secular, federal, inclusive state.

We, Buddhists of Nepal, are compelled to bring to your attention the unjustifiable and unlawful representation of non-Buddhists marauding our historical, religious and, cultural heritage of profound significance.

Our appeal

However, the four party governments have obstructed and failed in drafting a constitution for the fourth time- seeking extension by holding its multi -ethnic, multi-religious peoples as bondage for the sole purpose of power brokerage. Besides the one-caste, multi-party government has seriously engaged itself in pro-activating ordinances, bills and pogroms unlawfully and unconstitutionally- marginalizing, discriminating and exploiting non- Hindu citizens.

 

At this critical juncture of historical transformation from a feudalistic state to a democratic state, our peoples and communities are deprived and endangered of equal rights and justice. We are continually experiencing the state run government repressing, encroaching and manipulating our historical, religious and cultural rights, based on our identity.
 

Protection of Buddhist rights in Secular Nepal.

Given the exigency of protecting Buddhist civilian rights in Nepal, we urge you to send several clear messages to Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal who is headed to meet you on Nov 8^th 2011 in the UN to generate foreign aid in the development of Lumbini.

However, the records in the past have shown every pilot projects in Lumbini failed, due to the unwillingness to incorporate the free will of the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha, without impartiality. Promoting Lumbini continued for the sole purpose of plundering and pillaging our historical religious site of great insignificance to its Buddhist citizens, to Nepal and for all Buddhists globally.

More recently, we are seeing many Buddhist seminars, programs and projects being implemented by non Buddhists without prior information, consultation and approval of the concerned Buddhist communities. The interim government is forcefully following oppressive Buddhist sanctions by unlawful representation.

The Humanitarian Crisis

Although Nepal generates the maximum interest for Mt.Everest and Lumbini internationally; nationally, those communities whose origin is connected in giving value to its importance continue to face humanitarian crisis. As Nepal has entered into an interim period of transformation, and the latest hostilities continue to be based on identity rights governed by discriminatory oppressive rule. 

As a result, such State manipulation in the name of Buddhists will have disastrous impact on the well-being of the Buddhist civilian population, depriving them of their identity rights and justice.

This unlawful process of seeking support for Lumbini projects- both APEC and UNIDO - without prior consultation with the concerned stake holders will not only compound the identity hostilities by confusion but will critically invite the conflict of neighboring states in particular, dragging the peace loving Buddhist civilians to a dangerous geo political crisis and threatening the very sovereignty of Nepal as a nation state.

Solution for Peace Building

To avoid such political manipulation of genuine stakeholders rights specified by -ILO 169,CERD,UNDRIP and UNESCO conventions, ratified by the Nepal government, we insist and urge your wise insight in taking maximum feasible precautions to protect civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate  ongoing hostilities assuming  under political entities violating the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, distinction and proportionality .

As the humanitarian crisis deepens, we recommend you make several crucial points: Make clear to Mr. Dahal and his team representatives that any plan to raze Lumbini in the pretext of industrial development will not be tolerated under international humanitarian law by its own people

Non Buddhist Representatives for Buddhist Concerns

The current team does not represent Buddhist aspirations and concerns as they are non Buddhist practitioners; their representation for Buddhists cause is woefully inadequate to deliver and expand Buddhist well being both in spirit and development. They do not express any scholastic aptitude to promote Buddhist knowledge and interest and put at risk our own representation.

Accountability

We welcome your calls for a thorough investigation into their plans to turn Lumbini or any Buddhist heritage sites into an industrial zone.  This is an alleged serious violation of international humanitarian law. We believe an impartial international investigation is required to look at sanctioning such master plans infringing the rights of the indigenous Buddhists as well as other rightful stake holders.

An international investigation would be an important way of demonstrating that the United Nations is deeply concerned about the fate of the stakeholders’ identity rights to drag us into further conflict. The investigation should look at not only intensifying such projects putting at risk the social, political and economic rights of its rightful stakeholders. A thorough investigation on the intent is of essential concern, as Mr. Dahal expresses his ambitious political strategy in overriding his moral obligation to the sovereignty of the country and its stake holders. Lumbini stands at this critical moment of uncovering key facts and thus encouraging all of us to truly establish peace in Lumbini as a symbolic peace zone where political parties cannot abuse authority.

Appeal to rights and justice

We see your office as the best route to establishing such an investigation. While we recognize that the focus of your intention of Mr. Dahal’s visit is to build peace in Lumbini, equally important is for you to investigate the political/ identity factors of such a visit which will not violate the will of civilian accountability.

We have called on the parties to respect our cultural dignity and rights and warning them that trespassing of our human rights is serious crime against the human spirit and law and will not be further tolerated. We are confident that technically being the Secretary General of the UN, symbolically we would like to consider you as the father of all nations for whom peace is not only a fact but a value of coexistence in Buddha‘s key message to humanity. We would appreciate in your full capacity to be the harbinger of peace.  You would be well advised to send an international team to investigate before such projects are approved. We believe that your announcement of an international investigation of the cause, consequences and effects on national stakeholders would not hinder protection of civilians and accountability for crimes committed.

We are calling on your common sense value to evaluate such unethical and manipulative proposal in our name. We are unwilling to accept any non Buddhist representation for Buddhist programs and projects without prior information and consent of our communities. In doing so, such unethical representation of Lumbini Development Program will be considered as deterring human violation and we will be obliged to take a decisive approach in guarding peace in our respective spiritual/religious sites by organizing our own community security force.

The international community must not only watch dog such predatory acts with diplomatic complacence but send a crucial message of supporting human rights values in protecting wholesale crimes against humanity.  In doing so, such crucial signal may help to deter future state violations.

Sincerely,

Coordinator

Shakun Sherchand

   Council of Buddhist Organizations:

1. Nepal Buddhist Nagarik Samaj- Swayambhu

2. Nepal Tamang Boudha Samaj-Swayambhu

3. Manang Samaj Sewa Samiti-Swayambhu

4. Tamang Ekta Samaj – Swayambhu

5. Rastriya Karuna Pratistan

6. Pavitra Pyaldor Samaj

7. Nepal Helmu Samaj

8. Akhil Nepal Himali Boudha Sangh

9. Dharma datu Foundation

10.  Hariviya Varna Mahavihar

11.  Himali Helmu Cheli Beti Sangh Samaj

12.  Dolkha Tamang Ekta Manch

13.  Boudha Jagaran Kendra

14.  Tamang Saling

15.  Thakali Sewa Samaj

16.  Kungram Foundation

17.  Gyang Ghuti Hyopen

18.  Dharmadhara

19.  Rinzesan Foundation Ghumba-Pharping

20.  Samdeybing Gumba –Boudha

21.  Manang Bikas Samiti

22.  Dolpa Ekta Samaj

23.  Buddha Kala Kendra

24.  Nepal Tamang Rastriya Mahasang

25.  Thupten Ghagailing Ghumba-Swayambu

26.  Nepal Sherpa Sangh

27.  Bhalwadi Maitrik Sewa Samiti

28.  Kunsadling Bikash Samaj-Kavre

29.  Swayambu Sewa Samaj

30.  Tharu Kalyankari Sava

31.  Tamu Sewa Samiti

32.  Helmu Samaj Sewa Kendra

33.  Tharu Adivasi Gairsarkari Mahasangh

34.  NepalTamang Boudha Samaj-Swayambu

35.  Sherpa Sewa Kendra –Boudha

36.  Sindhupalchowk Sherpa Samaj-Sindhupalchowk

37.  Sindhupalchowk Sherpa Sangh –Sindhupalchowk

38.  Bardiyali Tharu Bikash Manch

39.  Shanti Vidyalaya Boudha

40.  Jhaipung Chokpa-Sindhupalchowk

41.  Nepal Helmu Mahila Sangh Boudha

42.  The Unity of  Damfhu

43.  Mailung Tamamng Sewa Kendra

44.  Nepal Ahamshibadi Boudha Dharma Bishwa Shanti Chakra Sangh –Nawalparasi

45.  Kiti Bihar Ghyanmala Samuha

46.  Siniyo Nepal Boudha

47.  Ningma Fondation of Nepal –Jorpati

48.  Sailung Samaj Sewa Kendra-Dolakha

49.  Nepal Tamang Lama Ghedung

50.  Choi Phelkundaling Gompa  Lisankho

51.  Adivasi Mahila Uthan Samaj-Pepsicola

52.  Boudha Sampadha Sangh-Bhaktapur 

53.  Dipankar Gyanmala Bhajankhala-Bhaktapur

54.  Parampara Boudha Dharma Sangh- Bhaktapur

55.  Indarbana Mahavihar – Bhaktapur

56.  Munivihar- Bhaktapur

57.  Samtenling Gompha-Boudha

58.  Jyapu Samaj-Lalitpur

59.  Tamang Lungdtok Dechan Gompa-Lalitpur

60.  Vajrakirti Mahavihar- Ombahal

61.  Siddhimangal Boudhavihar- Lalitpur

62.  Nepal Boudha Parisad

63.  Meh Yubha Samaj-Kathmandu

64.  Manjushree Mahavihar-  Kathmandu

65.  Mahayana Buddhist Society

66.  Kopan Ani Gompa

67.  Dharmashila Boudhavihar-Pokhara

68.  Nagadesh Boudha Samuha

69.  Nepal Boudha Samaj-Tahachal

70.  Nagi Gompa-Budanilkanta

71.  Tamu Boudha Samiti Nepal

72.  Yubha Boudha SamuhaSangaram-Pokhara

73.  Boudhavihar Akcheswar-Makwanpur

74.  Yeshodhara Samaj Sewa Parishad-Lalitpur

75.  Kanching Sedep Singha Seto Gompa- Boudha

76.  Kendriya Dayak Parisad- Kathmandu

77.  Budhha Jayanti Samaro Samiti-Lalitpur

78.  Buddha Jayanti Samaro Samiti- Kathmandu

79.  Ananda Kuti Vihar-Kathmandu

80.  Akhil Nepal Vikchu Mahasangh-Kathmandu

81.  Chesum Pancho Konjyo Gompa-Kavre

82.  Parampara Gompa Rmaechap (Podi)

83.  Acharya Pujabidhi Lalitpur

84.  Punyadaya Vihar –Harisidhi –Lalitpur

85.  Mayurvarna Mahabihar- Lalitpur

86.  Pragatishil Gramin Mahila Bikash- Nuwakot

87.  Yubha Boudha Mandal- Lalitpur

88.  Nepal Boudha Parishad- Jyobahal

89.  Mehtok Choling Gompa-Makwanpur Dadakharka

90.  Rinchin Phodel Gompa-Pharping

91.  Vajrachariya  Samrakchan Guti-Lalitpur

92.  Nagarmnadap Shree Kirti Bihar-Lalitpur

93.  Dharmakirti Adhyan Gosti- Lalitpur

94.  Samyak Dharma Samaj- Kathmandu

95.  Swayambhu Sarsafai Samiti

96.  CChesang Gompa  -Boudha

97.  Antarastriya Bhabana Kendra-Buddhanagar

98.  Helmu Kagyu Sangh Latok- Boudha

 

W. S. Merwin: The Child

W. S. Merwin

The Child

Sometimes it is inconceivable that I should be the age I am
Almost always it is at a dry point in the afternoon
I cannot remember what
I am waiting for and in my astonishment I
Can hear the blood crawling over the plains
Hurrying on to arrive before dark
I try to remember my faults to make sure
One after the other but it is never
Satisfactory the list is never complete

At times night occurs to me so that I think I have been
Struck from behind I remain perfectly
Still feigning death listening for the
Assailant perhaps at last
I even sleep a little for later I have moved
I open my eyes the lanternfish have gone home in darkness
On all sides the silence is unharmed
I remember but I feel no bruise

Then there are the stories and after a while I think something
Else must connect them besides just this me
I regard myself starting the search turning
Corners in remembered metropoli
I pass skins withering in gardens that I see now
Are not familiar
And I have lost even the thread I thought I had

If I could be consistent even in destitution
The world would be revealed
While I can I try to repeat what I believe
Creatures spirits not this posture
I do not believe in knowledge as we know it
But I forget

This silence coming at intervals out of the shell of names
It must be all one person really coming at
Different hours for the same thing
If I could learn the word for yes it could teach me questions
I would see that it was itself every time and I would
Remember to say take it up like a hand
And go with it this is at last
Yourself

The child that will lead you

[from W. S. Merwin's The Lice, 1967]

How's death? Does it feel good?

               
A Ten Year Old's Email to Her Deceased Dog

To:          Gumbi in Heaven
From:     Leah at Home
Date:      August 06, 2011


Dear Gumbi,

I miss you so much! 

Did you see your Mom and Dad in heaven?   Is it nice there?

Do you miss me?

I got a new cat.  She reminds me of you.

Did you see Fudge in heaven?  Does he miss me?

Did you see the ducks?

Did you see all the cats we ever had?  Did you like them?

How's death?  Does it feel good?

I miss you.  I try to remember, but it is hard.

Do you have friends?

Did you see Pappa?

Do you see me from there?

Love, love you 100 times,

Leah

Nepal's Constituent Assembly Process Continues

To appreciate why the current constitution drafting process in Nepal is so complicated and time-consuming, it is essential to locate this process in the context of three decades (1960-1990) of single party royal rule followed by two decades (1990-2008) of troubled liberal economic, democratic experience.

The 1990 Constitution drafting process, the first to write a truly democratic constitution, was led by respected lawyers, judges and political leaders, all men, who had to balance the continuing historical and cultural authority of the Shah kings with the popular demand for a multi-party democratic structure.

But, by 2006-8, after the close of the worst years of the Maoist civil conflict and the collapse of a feudal royal regime that had lasted for over 200 years, the major political parties, the Congress, UML and Maoist, agreed to a peace process that included the drafting of a new people's constitution through the election, for the first time, of a truly inclusive Constituent Assembly (CA).

The creation of a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution had been one of the 40 demands of the Communist Party of Nepal/Maoist (CPN/M) when they launched their People’s War in February 1996. This realization of this commitment was an important component of the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) that brought the ten year old civil conflict to an end.

Although the actual details and implementation procedures to adhere to the many commitments in the 2006 CPA are still being negotiated five years later, particularly with regard to the peace process, the Maoist cantonments, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Disappearances Commission, in comparison, the CA constitution drafting process -- although not yet complete -- has made much more substantial progress over the past three years than most other aspects of the CPA.

For example, the UNDP “Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal’ (SPCBN) project, funded by DFID, Danida, the Norwegian Embassy and UNDP, has worked closely with the CA and the CA Secretariat to ensure the inclusion of historically marginalized communities in the drafting this secular, democratic, federal constitution for Nepal. The effort to achieve a national outreach was originally approved by the Government of Nepal (GoN) with the CA Secretariat appointed the  representative for the project just after the CA elections.

This UNDP managed civil society outreach initiative began in early 2009 targeting historically disadvantaged communities as specifically identified in the 2007 Interim Constitution, e.g. the Madhesi, Indigenous Peoples, Dalits, women and remote area communities. The distinct objective was to bring these traditionally marginalized communities, who were less represented in the government or the upper echelon of the major political parties, into closer contact with the political leadership of the country who would be implementing the consultative constitution drafting process.

At that time, 18 Nepali NGO federations were selected from over 150 applicants through a competitive proposal review process. These 18 NGO federations represented an exceptionally wide vareity of Nepali ethnic, caste, geographic, linguistic and remote regions, as well as included over 90 local-based Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from across Nepal.  These CSOs were trained and tasked with reaching the most remote villages with civic education on the formal CA drafting process (using flip charts, trained local facilitators and training modules), as well as to collect and collate community level submissions for presentation to the CA Thematic Committees in Kathmandu.

A second phase of this civil society participation (CSO 2) was initiated in 2010 by 15 NGO Federatons through a similarly detailed selection process.  It was specifically designed to reach all 3,915 Village Development Committees (VDCs) and municipalities across the 75 districts of Nepal.  Due to their fine performance, over half of the NGO federations that participated in the first phase of civil society outreach were selected again in the second competitive selection process to continue their field work, while other NGO federations with more experience in other geographic regions and communities of the country were selected to ensure that all parts and communities of Nepal were covered.

Over a four month 2010 period, these NGOs and their over CSO 100 partners conducted ‘Democracy Dialogues’ (Loktantric Sambad) to inform people on the contents of the eleven CA Thematic Committee reports.  Using new training modules on the contents of the CA Committee reports and detailed summaries to update the people of the CA work, the 15 NGO federations and their CSO partners documented the contents of the public feedback and actual individual attendance from across Nepal.

After these field consultations, the village-level submissions were collated and presented at one public ‘Constituency Dialogue’ for each of the 240 electoral constituencies with selected local Constituent Assembly (CA) members in attendance. Then, after completion of the process, all 240 Constituency reports (including the VDCs reports from that constituency) were collected, bound and submitted to the Chair of the Constituent Assemblywith a written summary in Nepali (and English).

Over 400,000 people participated in this two year civil society outreach initiative from nearly every walk of life, including the rich divesity of caste, ethnic, religious and linguistic communities across the high mountains, middle hills and the low-laying terai of Nepal.

In addition, over 120,000 copies of a 60 page summary overview of the eleven Constituent Assembly Thematic Committee reports, including a 10 page Q&A, was prepared by the SPCBN legal team.  This booklet was translated and distributed in five national languages (Nepali, Maithali, Bhojpuri, Urdu and Bhote) to support the civil society outreach.

Nonetheless, the draft constitution has not yet been finalized by the CA, even after three extensions to May 2011, August 2011 and soon November 2011.  Although there is much agreement on many components and aspects of the future constitution, there are still contentious issues, especially with regard to the form of government, the electoral system and the structure of a federal republic.

In this regard, the political parties continue their negotiations, both on the peace process, which some parties state must be completed before the new draft constitution can be finalized, as well as these outstanding core issues for the new constitution.

Therefore, through our UNDP SPCBN project, this inclusive, consultative process continues in 2011.  Building on the 14 provincial level Federalism Dialogues that the project implemented in 2010 with the assistance of Professors Krishna Khanal and Krishna Hachhethu, a series of Inter-Provincial Dialogues were organized earlier this year that sought to address specific contentious issues related to federalism and state restructuring that affected adjacent proposed provinces.

Now the project is sponsoring a new series of Federalism Dialogues that concentrate on important administrative issues related to the division of state power in a new federal Nepal.   In selected regional sites around the country, these workshops seek to discuss and clarify the state powers that should be allocated to the federal government, which to the new provinces and which to the local governments -- the three primary tiers of government that have been proposed by the CA State Restructuring Commitee  for the new constitution.

In addition, a media monitoring initiative has just begun with the same 15 NGO federations that conducted the CSO 2 across the country in 2010.  These NGO federations are working with ACORAB, a respected national community radio organization, to conduct weekly 30 minute radio programs weekly until the end of the year reporting on the specific progress of the CA and political parties with regard to finalizing the draft constitution.  Half of the weekly program will be produced centrally  in Kathmandu by ACORAB while the other half will be produced by the local FM stations around the country on constitutional issues raised in the local community.  In addition, the NGOs will invite their CA members out to their constituency to participate in the local radio program a town hall meeting to discuss the issues holding back the completion of the constitution.

Hopefully these latest activities will assist in putting community pressure on their CA representatives to bring the constitution drafting phase to a completion by the end of the year, at the latest.

We hope...

'No Title Required' by Wislawa Szymborska

Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh

----------------------------------------------------------

It's come to this: I'm sitting under a tree,

beside a river

on a sunny morning.

It's an insignificant event

and won't go down in history.

It's not battles and pacts,

whose motives are scrutinized,

or noteworthy tyrannicides.



And yet I'm sitting by this river, that's a fact.

And since I'm here,

I must have come from somewhere,

and before that

I must have turned up in many other places,

exactly like the conquerors of nations

before setting sail.



Even a passing moment has its fertile past,

its Friday before Saturday,

its May before June.

Its horizons are no less real

than those a marshal's fieldglasses might scan.



This tree is a poplar that's been rooted here for years.

The river is the Raba; it didn't spring up yesterday.

The path leading through the bushes

wasn't beaten last week.

The wind had to blow the clouds here

before it could blow them away.



And though nothing much is going on nearby,

the world's no poorer in details for that,

it's just as grounded, just as definite

as when migrating races held it captive.



Conspiracies aren't the only things shrouded in silence.

Retinues of reasons don't trail coronations alone.

Anniversaries of revolutions may roll around,

but so do oval pebbles encircling the bay.



The tapestry of circumstance is intricate and dense.

Ants stitching in the grass.

The grass sewn into the ground.

The pattern of a wave being needled by a twig.



So it happens that I am and look.

Above me a white butterfly is fluttering through the air

on wings that are its alone

and a shadow skims through my hands

that is none other, no one else's, but its own.



When I see such things I'm no longer sure

that what's important

is more important than what's not.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wisława Szymborska (born July 2, 1923) is a Polish poet and essayist. In Poland, her books reach sales rivaling prominent prose authors — although she remarked in a poem entitled "Some like poetry" that no more than two out of a thousand people care for the art.

Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".

Szymborska uses irony, paradox, contradiction, and understatement to illuminate philosophical themes and obsessions. Her style is succinct and marked by introspection and wit. The compact poems often conjure existential puzzles, touching on issues of ethical import, and reflecting on the condition of people as individuals and as members of human society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wis%C5%82awa_Szymborska

A Dad Visits his Son at SOAS in London

I'm sitting in the Etihad lounge at the Heathrow airport w/ a Campari n soda, a plate of salads and blue cheese to fill my palate before my 9 pm flight back to Kathmandu.  That petite piece of blue cheese reminds me that I forget to buy some Stilton cheese in London while chasing that elusive original licorice Chris had asked me to bring back... 

It's been a lovely, precious week in London with Joshua over the Desain holidays break.  I'm glad that I asked J. in the days leading up to his own departure from Kathmandu if he would enjoy a family visit so soon after he arrived for his Junior year at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London).  He said, 'yes, that would be nice.'  

So, although Shakun and Leah preferred to have their week at home in the garden, rather than getting on an airplane, again, for me it was (as they say...) a 'no-brainer'.  For the past 4-5 years, I've thoroughly enjoyed traveling from Nepal to visit the boys at their new schools (NMH, Georgetown, Deep Springs and now SOAS) as they have grown so quickly and impressively over the past few years and gone out in the world to pursue their own dreams and identities.  

These visits have given me the opportunity to see Josh and Ezra's new schools, the earthy, physical environments in which they have gone to live and study, meet their new friends, their professors and, occasionally, sit in on a class or two to stretch my own mind in new directions and ideas.  The fact that each school has been in a beautiful, unusual or refined square mile of this fascinating world has only added to my anticipation and pleasure in wandering off my own square acre of garden in Budhanilkantha to encounter this civilizing world in western Massachusetts, urbane DC, the desert of California and now the most global and syncretic of cities, London.

For me, too, it's been part of that father-son bond that each of us seeks to refine and deepen as our children grow up past those childhood days of innocence and dependence.  It's a more complex pattern of new feelings and expressions as they become bigger, smarter, stronger, more sophisticated and worldly than we were at their ages.  

Like many of my friends, we struggle a bit to find the right balance of paternal advice and authority as our sons reach past their mid-teens and into their early 20s, when they are well on their way toward their own new-found forms of independence, explorations and minor rebellions.  These are new roles for both parent and child, ones that we each struggle in our own ways to find the right language, right thoughts and right emotions to guide and support each other past old paradigms and patterns.

The metamorphosis of parental love and concern...

(Subtext: "Parenting for Well-Educated, Well-Intentioned Idiots")

Last night, our last together this time in London, Josh n I had a lovely evening w/ my dear friend, Caroline Arnold.   We met her at the SOAS pub for a drink then went to an upscale, organic restaurant pub in Islington for dinner.  She'd come from Geneva that morning to see us (arranging some meetings in the day...), then headed up to see her Dad near Henley last night about 11 pm.  We'd had dinner earlier in the week, after the Spurs-Gunners game at White Hart Lane, with Zoe, Caroline and James' oldest daughter who I'd known since she was born in Nepal 26 years ago.  Zoe has done her Bachelors and Masters already at SOAS and there can't be a better or more enthusiastic supporter of the school.  

Another of life's greater joys as we age is to re-meet the children of our dearer friends as they grow into young, inspiring and thoughtful adults.  For me, to sit over a pint the other evening listening to Zoe and Josh debate the merits (and demerits...) of global economic systems was a pleasure of rich satisfaction and confidence in the future of the world.  As troubled as the world is these days, there is still this profound sense of commitment and idealism that the world's cynicism has yet to completely tarnish  in our children and their generation.

After our steak and potato pies with a bottle of dark Argentine wine in the comfortable pub setting, Josh n I walked back after dinner to our temporary 'abodes', he retiring to his SOAS dorm by St. Pancras station while I continued on the extra 15 minutes toward my modest yet very convenient guesthouse in Bloomsbury near Russell Square, just the other side of the park from the SOAS campus.  

It's been a full and fulfilling week w/ Joshua, from the Tottenham vs Arsenal football game on Sunday, then seeing 'War Horse', a magnificent play about WWI and man's attachment to his beloved beasts on Monday, Joshua's 21st birthday.  We saw the new film 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' together, then I saw "Melancholia" by Lars Van Trier the night Josh went out w/ Pam Chen, his friend from NMH.  We went to the musical, "Billy Elliot". as well -- but I wouldn't recommend it: too much vaudeville and less substance for my taste (I much preferred the film).  

Plus repeat visits to the remarkable collections in the British Museum, the Tate Britain and the National Gallery.  All, even as everything else becomes more expensive here, still free to the public with impressive. succinct one hour tours to absorb the details of selected pieces or paintings of their awe-inspiring repositories of world kulture.  I highly recommend the Assyrian friezes in the British Museum, especially the 8th C. BC lion hunts carved in stone, the Pre-Raphaelites in the Tate Britain and the humanizing Caravaggio in the National Gallery a common man's Christ resurrected in a tavern with his unsanctified, every day apostles.  Actually, there is nothing not to like in the National Gallery.  


There is much in these museums that personify England, as well.  On my short Tate Britain tour the genteel lady guide took us first to meet the original Tates themselves, greater than life-sized portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Tate as you enter the galleries.  Our guide noted that Mr. Tate had made his personal fortune that endowed the museum in sugar.  


Naturally, I asked, "where were his plantations?" to which she seemed momentarily flustered.  "I assume in America.", she said.  "Most likely the Caribbean, in the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands." I responded.  Then, slightly embarassed, she replied,  "There is less said about where he made his money."  "There is often a darker story about great fortunes.", I smiled as I tried to close the chapter.


Thus, the irony, once again, is that the great wealth used to establish this magnificent, priceless art collection was bought, no doubt, from the riches accumulated through the slave labour of the 18th C. British colonies.  Plantation and prisons, one could say.  As the actual site along the Thames of the Tate Britain was originally a former penal institution before it was torn down to build this glorious palace of beauty and culture.

Still, even after a full week in London, I'm eager to return next year to rent an audio guide to spend more hours lost in the magnificence of what mankind has created, destroyed and recreated in our brief time manifesting visual artifacts, ritual objects and visual impressions of our awe in this world.  It's definitely too much to absorb in one visit, or a dozen visits, but observing the accumulation of art, ideas, designs and beauty permit us to partially forgive the horrors and brutalities that man has also caused each other and other cultures in his persistent desire for empire, greed and possession.

When not trundling in and out of these world class museums, I was fortunate to meet Michael Gibbons, one of my closest colleagues from my Save the Children years, who was here in his new, dynamic role for the Wellsprings Foundation working on child rights and education.  Plus, we had a lovely day Wednesday with my Amherst friend, Walter White, a sr. advocate in London specializing in things Russian for the past 16 years, with his equally impressive son, Sasha, who graduated from Amherst last year and is going to LSE for his Masters now.  Walter hosted Obama Campaign Manager, Jim Messina, for a lunch at his law firm that we were invited to attend which, naturally, was quite a treat, as well as an insight into the hurdles (e.g., the tightening of voter registration and unregulated campaign finance) ahead for the Democratic president to gain his second term.

Then, this morning we went to meet/surprise Charlotte Ramble at the SOAS store, where she works.  We hadn't seen her since a 50th birthday party for Jerome at his family home in Normandy some 5+ years ago.  Charlotte must have recognized Josh from his FB page, I guess, as we could tell that she knew us as we strolled up to say hello.  We chatted by the jangling cash register as students came by to purchase their sandwiches, catching up briefly on her life and while I enjoyed another of those precious moments I'd had this week (Zoe, Sasha, Charlotte) when observing a child become a soul incarnate in the fleeting years between meetings.  Josh said he'd give her a call this week and get together before a party she's invited him to this coming w/end.   Charlotte seems another adorable pea in her SOAS pod, thinking already of doing her Masters there while enjoying the fact that both of her parents, Anne and Charles, will be there later in October to present their learned lectures to her colleagues and peers.

Time to go!  It's soon to be another long day's plane journey into night, as I fly to Abu Dhabi in a few minutes (they just called us).  It'll be a long stint at the airport in Abu Dhabi tomorrow morning (6-7 hours), where  I'll find a place to have some food and a shower.  Then complete these meandering thoughts, plus, hopefully, draw "Oliver Twist" to a close (my London reading in Russell Square and Regents Park...).   

I'm home abut 8 pm on Sunday.  Back to the congested, polluted streets of Kathmandu while the fragile, window narrows for Nepal to come to agreement on a new constitution and the exquisite autumn lightens our own blessed botanical garden where the 'suntala' (orange) and 'kagati' (lemon) trees rapidly ripen below Shivapuri hill... 

Adieu London, you were a generous, expensive, entertaining moment in time for me.  

Be equally as kind to my son and share your worldly wisdom with him over the coming year.

Adieu!

Notes to a Distant Son

Ezra, just a brief note to say that you are deep in our thoughts, hearts and stomachs as you journey further into your second (and last…) year at Deep Springs College.  It was a gift to have you with us and the family whole again for those two months in Kathmandu after so much time apart these past three years.  

Your gentle, guiding spirit lingers and resides here with us still.

This summer Mom, Leah and I were so fortunate to join you at Deep Springs on your birthday in late June.  We know so much better your reality after seeing you at your self-chosen college, as well as meeting some of your friends on that unique ranch campus, as well as the family who help manage the ranch and the impressive professors who expressed much respect for your moral universe and intellectual curiosity. 

We definitely gained a better insight into the isolated, purposeful world that you will call home for two years.  There’s no doubt that DSC is a unique collegiate experience, exhausting the students physically while challenging them academically.  Maybe it was your high-minded naiveté that carried you there a year ago.  Your Henry David Thoreau alone in the desert dreams.  

Now, with full knowledge of the time-consuming demands required by a self-managed, self-governed isolated college cum ranch and farm, you have returned this autumn to the that western desert with your eyes wide open as to the fortitude and discipline of this rigorous almost 19th C. physical and academic life. 

For us, however temporarily, meandering those wild, raw, limitless California-Nevada borderlands, our visit was a spacious frontier beginning for our month together with you in the US. 

Now, we will always know where you spent those two years when we speak in the future about Deep Springs.  We have all also gained some perspective, and no doubt affection, for that rough, beautiful western American desert landscape, where the hoary, twisted Bristlecone Pines grow for thousands of years at 10,000’ and the herds of cattle gaze in the patches of alfalfa your school has educed from that rough, hardened, desolate soil. 

Yet when we walked amid that landscape and looked close, strolling on the perimeter of the college’s farm land, we could see the life that lives below the fragrant lavender and thistle plants, the petite thrushes darting in the shrubs and wily snakes flitting across the dirt trails.  In the distance beckoned the white patina of salt flats, where the mountain run-off gathers on those dark, rainy winter days in this forbidding mountainous terrain.

The name of the school, too, has a remote resonance… Deep Springs.  

Here, the founder, LL Nunn, knew he was pealing away the layers of earthly comfort when he first envisioned the school in the early 20^th C.  He knew then, as we may have forgotten now, the difference between the urban luxuries of his East Coast life and the harsher demands of America’s formidable West.  There amid the great swath of barren landscape between the snowcapped Sierra and Rockies, more akin to the Pueblo Southwest than the gentle central valleys of California or Colorado, he founded DSC to teach the rigors of the land to young men with ambition and a calling.

Out there, past the primordial salt stalagmites of Mono Lake, past the large irrigated farms below the eastern Sierra, past the highway towns of Bishop and Big Pines, just north of Death Valley, past any cell service or internet connection, turning east over a rough, single lane 8,000’ pass toward Nevada, then down into your east of Eden valley, you and your 25 college friends dig deep within yourselves, as well, to sustain the ranch and farm life others before you established over the past 94 years.  

Deep Springs appears on the horizon, a splash of verdant cultivation amid the desolation, an oasis of human settlement and energy amid nature’s private realm. 

Although we were there for only a couple of days, 72 hours, they will remain a vital visual source of memories for us for years to come.  

The ego mind is well-organized that way...  our personal mind stores, then collates images for recollection, refreshment and understanding in future times.  

In modern-speak, we each have individualized hard drives initiated and registered at birth, like arriving new at an Apple store, or going to the Embassy to register a birth abroad.  We are each provided a freshly cleansed 'iMind', personalized with our new names, birth date and family connections, written into the 'Book of Life' (as the rebbes reverently pronounce at this sacred time of the year...) accessible for decades as a source of joy, observation, reflection and moral tidings.

Thus, in our mind’s eye, Ezi-bezi, even as you have been hurtled, once again, by those amazing gravity defying jet planes so far away from us, from our dank, lush, ever more polluted Kathmandu Valley to your remote, high altitude, burnished Deep Springs Valley, from the Asian Himalaya to the American Sierra, from Nepal to California, you are no longer so far away, no longer somewhere distant and unknown, no longer on a exiled journey where we cannot follow you. 

For now, albeit briefly, we have crossed those geographic barriers with you and shared, momentarily, the beauty and isolation of your temporary abode.

For us, for parents, for those who love, that is almost, nearly, enough… 

The ache remains, the sense of loss, the diminishment of our own fragile and isolated lives, the peculiar parental knowledge that a part of us has escaped, swept away into a new creation, a new creature, of us and yet no longer part of us.   

This is definitely one of life’s great mysteries.  As incomprehensible and yet as wrenchingly true as our sense of the sacred immanence of life, along with the uncertain moral universe that has us gasping for breath in an effort to protect and guide our vulnerable children.

These are the truths that no one, not even the sacred itself, can protect us from in this sublime and yet fragile material world.

So, as you have been whooshed away in the empyrean, up in the clouds, floating on the air pockets that keep us emotionally aloft here on earth, as well, our hearts have gone with you, seek to protect you and, if possible, guide you… even far away from us.

For us, we must remind ourselves that it's a gift when we are together at all.  

We share our family, odd, stiff-necked as we may be, yet one we share with so many friends around the world.  We can't imagine our world w/o you, which is why it means so much to all of us to have you among us, whenever it's possible.  

We do know and appreciate that you and Josh must make your own ways in this world, find your own path, your own friends, loves and relationships while creating a career and profession by which you can contribute to this crazy, fleeting world.  We know that, of course, as you do.  But it still ain't any easier to watch you go through those airport doors and cascade ten thousand miles away.

Appreciate the magnificence of the larger world that we inhabit and are so fortunate to share, East and West, American and Nepali, Buddhist and Jewish, Licchavi Grove and Thamel, Deep Springs and Manhattan, East Coast and West Coast, friends and family, Josh and Leah, brother and sister, mother and father, Grammy and Afu Mua, Man U and Liverpool, Caroline, Karma and Pia, Luke and Sam, Lincoln and NMH, Yosemite and Thak Khola, 'Creation' and 'Ice Age 3', Adele and Dylan...  

The antipodes and neighborhoods that unite us...

Endless... and endlessly absorbing, challenging and gifted...

We are very fortunate, my beloved son to have each other. 

Fortunate that you are in our lives and fortunate to have had this time together this summer past. 

Travel peacefully, safely and carefully.  You are in our thoughts every hour at Deep Springs, protected, we chose to believe, by the g-ds of nature and nuture.

with much love and affection, dear one...