Democracy For Nepal: Pumping Money Into The Movement

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Pumping Money Into The Movement

I could not have said this better myself. Narbada Chhetri said it way better than I could. The movement needs money more than anything else. Moral support is great, and lobbying is good, and organizing rallies and talk programs is wonderful, and all that has to be continued, but the number one thing is money. Fundraising has to happen.

How to do it?

One idea would be to launch an organization specifically for the purpose.

Organization: Hamro Nepal 15 Feb 2006

But that has to be only one of several ways. The existing organizations should also come in. If your organization's charter does not allow for political fundraising, do it as individuals. Small groups of 5-10 individuals could do this best. I think that would be the most effective.

The seven party alliance has to form a committee for this purpose. That committee will handle the money, and will furnish bookkeeping. There has to be accountability. That is the democratic way. You can not claim to fight for democracy and then try to squash free speech, or snuff out talk of social justice. Similary the movement for democracy has to exhibit accountability on money matters.

In the video Chhetri argues against all the ifs and buts being raised in the diaspora against the fundamental idea of fundraising. You should watch it.

Some people claim money is not needed. It is as bogus as saying democracy is unnecessary. Of course money is needed. Some say there is plenty of money in Nepal. To them I say, so what are you doing in America? Some badmouth the political leaders. They are not perfect people and free speech demands that we criticize them and we criticize the 1990s, sure. But such criticisms have to be balanced. At least they are not violating human rights and setting world records, they are not looting the treasury, they never locked you up, or got you disappeared. To top it all, this is not about them, this is about the ideal of democracy, this is about the future generations. This is not even about us. So stop badmouthing the seven party leaders. They are what we have got. Instead we should focus on shaping the agenda, and building the democracy once it is born. We should be placing our bet on building a strong system, not on some knight in shining armor who might or might not come. Democracy is not about getting to elect one prime minister or president, it is about empowering the people at the grassroots. It is about the masses, the voters to be.

And we need to be talking relentlessly. That is free speech. But that is also how we will deepen our own understanding of democracy.

So, yes, open up your wallets. Give what you can, there is no one set amount, but do give.

And I am a little wary of relying too much on the internet medium, indispensable as it is. We have to organize house parties for our fundraising efforts. Say 10 people get together at someone's apartment, you cook food, you eat, and each person chips in $30 for the movement, or something like that: the exact amount is for each house party to decide. From the $300, you take out the money spent on food - grocery yes, cooking labor no - and the rest of the money goes to the movement back home; grocery might be a total of $30 for 10 people, if that. The kind of food we are addicted to comes cheap, rice is cheap. I think this house party idea has to be at the core of our fundraising effort. Face time is where the action is. Even screen time is about facilitating face time.

The most ridiculous thing I have heard on this topic is that the Department of Homeland Security will come after you if you send political money to Nepal. Other than that it makes me mad at the right wing fundies who have harassed countless Arab Americans with the pretext of fighting terror, I think this fear is outlandish. Raise money in small groups among people you personally know, and send it like you send money to your family. We don't need a registered organization to be able to do that. We are sending money for non violence, for peace, for democracy. Likely you will get a thank you letter from the State Department. Us sending a few thousand will save them millions. The American taxpayers will thank you, or they should.

Somnath Ghimire

I just had a long, pleasant talk with Somji. He is easily among the five most active democrats in the city. We get along great.

When he was in Nepal not long back, he travelled extensively. He met many top people in Kathmandu.

We concluded that on top of doing all we have been doing, we need to massively expand our lobbying efforts at the UN. Let's reach out to 50 countries, for example. Maybe more. Let's lobby the Europeans for economic sanctions. Whatever is going on in Nepal has cost more lives than apartheid in the 1980s. This is serious stuff.

And the next thing of course was fundraising.

Likely I will be meeting Sushil Pyakurel at Som's place on Saturday. Pyakurel recently was in Brussels lobbying the European Union for economic sanctions. It is about time to be changing gears.

Alliance, Youth Council

These are the two top Nepali political organizations in New York City, and by extension also in the US. And it is some of the same people who are at the central level in both organizations. I work closely with them, I go to all their events. But so far I have resisted obtaining formal membership. Event planning and press statements are not my forte. I am happiest doing hard core political work. And their charters are not designed for the massive fundraising that is the need now. That is why there has been talk of Hamro Nepal.