News: May 5

राहत बाँड्ने मुख्यमन्त्रीदेखि बालेनबारे बोल्ने स्थापितसम्मलाई स्पष्टीकरण माग
बालेनको घरदैलो : सेल्फी खिच्ने, टिकटक बनाउनेको होड (भिडियो) मझधारका मतदातालाई छोराछोरीको प्रेसर
अब यस्ता प्रयोगकर्ताले ट्विटर चलाउन पैसा तिर्नुपर्ने
स्थापितलाई निर्वाचन आयोगले फेरि सोध्यो २४ घण्टे स्पष्टीकरण
असल नेता नभएसम्म देश सुध्रिदैन : बालेन शाह

ओज गुमाएका शासनकर्ता शासनकर्ताहरू स्खलित हुँदै गए भने प्रजातान्त्रिक व्यवस्था असाध्य रोगलाई थेग्न नसकेर आफैं मृत्युशय्यामा पुग्छ । त्यसपछि शासक र शासनकर्ताबीचको भिन्नता मेटिन्छ र कुनै पनि षड्यन्त्रकारी खलपात्रलाई ‘प्रजातन्त्रको हत्यारा’ भएको दोष बोक्नुपर्ने परिस्थिति रहँदैन । ......... एल्युमिनियमका सस्ता भाँडाहरूले बजार पिट्नुअगाडि सामान्यजनको जाउलो माटाको कसौँडीमा पकाउने गरिन्थ्यो । चर्केको भाँडो चुलोमा चढाउन मिल्दैन भने मान्यतालाई मिश्रित धातुका बलिया वर्तनहरूले असान्दर्भिक तुल्याइदिएका छन् । तर आर्थिक, सामाजिक, सांस्कृतिक, कूटनीतिक एवं राजनीतिक समस्याहरू दन्किएर बलिरहेको आगोमा चढाइएको प्रधानमन्त्री पदलाई लोककल्याणकारी परिकार तयार गर्ने विशाल पात्रसँग लक्षणात्मक तुलना गर्ने हो भने पदासीन प्रधानमन्त्री शेरबहादुर देउवा कम्तीमा चार ठाउँमा चिरा परेका अनुपयोगी हाँडीजस्ता लाग्न सक्छन् । ......... भूमिहीनहरूको आन्दोलनले नेपालमा किसानको हकहितलाई जहिले पनि ओझेलमा पार्ने गरेको छ । सिँचाइ पुगेको छैन, चाहिएको बखत बीउबिजन पाइँदैन, रासायनिक मल पाउनु व्यक्तिगत प्रयत्न नभएर प्रारब्धको कुरा हुन पुगेको छ । लबेदा–सुरुवालमा सजिएका ‘किसान नेता’ गमलामा धान रोपेर मानो पकाउँछन् । तर, अहँ, राष्ट्रवादको पट्यारलाग्दो नाराबाहेक कतैबाट कुनै आवाज सुनिँदैन ।

How Will Twitter Change? there are a number of money-making features that Twitter hasn’t implemented over the years, such as the edit button that Musk has clamored for or creative reels that would make it more competitive with Instagram and TikTok. ........ It’s a “town square” where ordinary citizens can discuss topics of the day, where companies introduce new products and get consumer feedback, where celebrities talk to their fans, and where public officials talk directly to their constituents. ......... They don’t want to choke free speech with too many prohibitions, yet they realize that controlling misinformation and disinformation is a topline responsibility. ......... he said Twitter should not regulate free speech beyond the laws of the countries it operates in. ......... SEC filings reveal that Musk will borrow about $13 billion and spend $21 billion of his own money to buy Twitter. ......... The borrowing will result in both Musk and Twitter carrying significant debt ....... Musk would be the “most indebted CEO in America” if the deal is completed ......... “The best Twitter from a business perspective looks very different from the Twitter that’s created for public discourse.”

Most Americans ever quit in March Four-and-a-half million Americans quit their jobs in March, as employers posted 11.5 million openings — both the highest levels since records began almost a quarter-century ago. Tightness in the labor market has resulted in there being nearly two open jobs for every unemployed worker, as companies struggle to find enough employees to meet rebounding demand during the pandemic recovery. The pressure on wages, as employees quit for better jobs or pay elsewhere, is reinforcing expectations the central bank will lift borrowing costs by half a percentage point on Wednesday.

The Countdown Memorandum Doubling down on the future of American industry ....... While capital is increasingly a commodity, talent is certainly not. The right engineer can have an asymmetric effect on a company’s trajectory....... It is therefore impossible to build a highly successful hard tech business without possessing the ability to recruit the best engineers, and this is no easy task. ..... Early-stage engineers often graduate from school with a nebulous idea of the range of career options available to them. ....... it’s critical for founders to reason from foundational truths and values rather than from analogies or hearsay. ....... through intensive conversations with our advisory network of operators, decision-makers, and engineers across various hard tech industries. ...... holding strong first principles hinges on a delicate balance between skepticism about the present and optimism for the future ...... industry outsiders (as opposed to deeply entrenched domain experts) may develop the most valuable perspectives when attempting to disrupt an antiquated market. ........ The most successful founders, in every sense of the word, relentlessly paint a vision of a brighter future and build with that vision in mind. ....... Engineers will work more fervently and passionately for a future they believe is meaningful.

Meet Europe’s largest crypto miner Northern Data can mine more than €20m worth of cryptocurrency per month — and it’s almost entirely run on renewable energy ....... Six months ago, Northern Data made a big move. It spent €365m buying a company called Decentric, acquiring tens of thousands of high-powered servers that could be used to “mine” millions of euros worth of cryptocurrencies. The deal propelled the little-known German company into a whole new league, in a stroke making it Europe’s largest crypto miner. ......... In an industry dominated by big US miners such as Core Scientific, Marathon and Riot, suddenly there was a European force on the scene. ....... Northern Data now has 390 petaflops and 13 terahashes (for the uninitiated, that means 13 trillion operations a second) of processing power at its sites in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany — powered almost entirely by renewable energy (a rare thing in this sector). ........ Northern Data can mine around 5,254 ether and 236 bitcoin per month — which have a combined value of more than €20m (at today’s prices at least). ........ The cost of the hardware is significant. The power consumption is epic. And the business of finding land with a power source big enough for both the processing and for cooling the machines is tough. ....... for those that get it right, and are believers that the crypto craze will continue, it feels like the California gold rush: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to extract an enormous amount of value from essentially nothing. .......... Crypto now accounts for 0.6% of the world’s total energy consumption and burns more electricity annually than Norway ........ Last year China banned crypto mining and other countries have followed suit. In January, the top EU financial regulator renewed calls for a bloc-wide “ban” on the main form of crypto mining (known as “proof of work”). .......... Northern Data has a long-term plan to be more than a miner, using the money from crypto mining to build the infrastructure for a significant cloud computing operation — entering a much more stable space dominated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google. ....... There are more and more use cases for crypto every day — for example in remittances and in digital art — and it feels like Northern Data is one of those at the forefront of a new financial world. ........... “Our hardware can be used for artificial intelligence, rendering media and self-driving cars — as well as scientific and engineering endeavours… this is all a huge growth area.”

Northern Data Hires Chief People Officer as Part of Its Business Expansion Strategy Northern Data firmly believes that High-Performance Computing (HPC) will - quite literally - determine what the future will hold. HPC has the power to unlock unprecedented potential and opportunities for research and development, business, and government. ...... The Northern Data Group currently operates custom, large-scale data centers and proprietary mobile high-performance data centers and employs a workforce of over 180 people in seven countries. ..... The newly added machines increased the company’s hashrate from 2 exahash per second in February to 3.95 EH/s by the end of March.

Northern Data's Bitcoin Mining Fleet Adds 21,000 ASIC Rigs, Firm Holds $168M in Crypto Assets .

Ukraine Is Now America’s War, Too The U.S. is leading a new coalition of “nations of good will” as the goal expands from supporting Ukraine to weakening Russia and outlasting Putin. ......... in just over nine weeks, the conflict has rapidly evolved into a full proxy war with Russia, with global ramifications. ......... when dictators do not pay the price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and engage in more aggression,” the President told reporters on Thursday. “They keep moving. And the costs, the threats to America and the world, keep rising.” ...... the new aid is about half the size of the entire Russian defense budget—and also more than half of the U.S. State Department’s annual budget. ........ He also brokered a five-thousand-word agreement with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, to form a de-facto alliance of authoritarian regimes. They jointly opposed nato enlargement. ........ “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Austin told reporters, near the border in Poland. Blinken said, “We don’t know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene.” ....... The shift may have been inevitable, given the barbarism of the war, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives, and Russia’s challenge to the conventions and obligations of modern statecraft. “If this is left to stand, if there is no answer to this aggression, if Russia gets away with this cost-free, then so goes the so-called international order” ......... the stunning underperformance of the Russian military, the largest in Europe ...... Guterres’s trip to Kyiv followed talks with Putin in Moscow. ....... “The war is an absurdity in the twenty-first century,” he said. “The war is evil.” ......... On April 22nd, a senior Russian military commander announced that Moscow sought “full control” over eastern and southern Ukraine in part to open the way to neighboring Moldova, a tiny, landlocked country that is supportive of the European Union but dependent on Russian energy. ......... roughly two-thirds of Americans believe that the U.S. has a “moral responsibility” to do more to stop the killing of civilians in Ukraine ........... On Wednesday, he warned that he could launch a “lightning-fast” response to any nation that intervened to thwart or threaten Russia. “We have all the instruments for this, such that no one can boast of,” he said, in an apparent reference to Moscow’s nuclear and missile arsenal. “We’re going to use them if we have to.”

5th Wave? New York COVID Hospitalizations Top 2,000, Nearly Tripling in a Month In the five boroughs, health officials upped the COVID alert level to medium earlier this week for the first time since Mayor Eric Adams debuted the new system as part of his pandemic approach ....... 2,119 New Yorkers were hospitalized with COVID across the state's 10 regions, a 153% increase since April 3 alone though still well below the nearly 13,000 admitted during the variant's January surge peak. ..... The share of COVID patients hospitalized in Central New York, which was driving New York's COVID uptick a few weeks ago, is 62.4%, much higher than the state average ....... a higher-than-national-average prevalence of the omicron subvariants BA.2.12.1 and BA.2.12......... is 25% more contagious than the "inherently more transmissible" omicron BA.2 subvariant that came before it ...... the high end of the CDC's estimate for BA.2.12.1's national prevalence is 45%, with BA.2 still believed to be driving the majority of cases across America ....... an indoor face mask mandate for all people regardless of vaccination could return.

Elon Musk expected to serve as temporary Twitter CEO after deal closes Musk handpicked the investors. Commitments range from $1 billion from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to $5 million from Honeycomb Asset Management, which invested in SpaceX. Faber added that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey may back it ........ Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter last year. ....... Shares of Twitter climbed as much as 3% on Thursday morning. Tesla’s stock slid more than 6%.

Starlink’s new Portability feature brings internet to vanlifers It costs an additional $25 each month, on top of monthly subscriptions that already start at $110 after a one-time hit of $599 to purchase the Starlink kit.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft will soon implement passwordless sign-in on all major platforms The tech giants want to roll out FIDO passkey technology in the coming year ........ A passwordless login process will let users choose their phones as the main authentication device for apps, websites, and other digital services ....... Unlocking the phone with whatever is set as the default action — entering a PIN, drawing a pattern, or using fingerprint unlock — will then be enough to sign in to web services without the need to ever enter a password, made possible through the use of a unique cryptographic token called a passkey that is shared between the phone and the website. ........ users can sign-in on a Google Chrome browser that’s running on Microsoft Windows—using a passkey on an Apple device.” ....... an end-to-end passwordless experience with phishing-resistant security

Omicron Subvariant BA.2.12.1 Likely To Become Dominant U.S. COVID Strain The highly contagious coronavirus variant made up 36.5% of total U.S. cases last week, up from 26.6% the week before. ...... A coronavirus subvariant called omicron BA.2.12.1, first spotted in upstate New York, is likely to become the dominant strain in the United States in the coming week ...... Omicron subvariants have been growing “in part because they have become more difficult for our immune system to ‘see’” ........ BA.12.2.1 appears to spread even more easily than the earlier highly contagious omicron strains, but vaccines seem to hold up well, preventing severe illness ...... recommends that passengers age 2 or older continue to mask up on public transportation, including airplanes. ...... Public transit agencies in New York and Los Angeles continue mandating the use of masks, while systems in Philadelphia and elsewhere have made masks optional.

Israeli researchers warn of new international COVID wave, driven by Delta comeback Omicron didn’t wipe out the previous variant, which is super-resilient and could reemerge with a vengeance, according to peer-reviewed study based on cutting-edge sewage monitoring ........ based on cutting-edge Israeli monitoring of sewage, which reveals not only the prevalence of coronavirus cases, but also their variant. ........ Omicron and its subvariants are likely to disappear soon, but Delta has shown such strong resilience that it could well reemerge .......... Delta still poses a larger threat than widely assumed. Delta could reemerge in its existing form, or could spread in the form of a new subvariant ...... “The pandemic isn’t over, and this great piece of research provides clear findings that emphasize this and help us to understand the situation” ........ Omicron is in demise, but Delta has survived and is positioned to possibly reemerge.” ...... Delta is expected to continue to circulate largely undetected — what they call cryptic circulation — until it causes a wave. ....... cryptic circulation may result in the reemergence of a Delta morbidity wave or in the possible generation of a new threatening variant.”

The Omicron Variant

Omicron variant identified in U.S.: First case of covid-19 linked to new variant found in California The previously healthy patient, who was fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine but had not received a booster shot, tested positive Nov. 29 ....... Since the new variant was first reported in southern Africa last week, it has been identified in at least 20 countries spanning the globe ........ “We should all be focused on getting vaccinated and boosted and get tested if you know you have been exposed. And continue to wear those masks.” ........

The omicron variant has a swath of mutations that raised concerns that this version of the virus might be able to evade immunity and withstand existing treatments for those infected with covid-19...... public health experts are carefully watching to see if omicron will displace delta as the most prominent viral strain.

......... “We have been talking for months about the fact that vaccinations do one really, really important thing: protect against severe disease, against hospitalization and death” ......... “The evidence that an individual with omicron, identified by sequencing, actually has mild symptoms, is improving — I think is a testimony to the importance of the vaccinations.” ....... Hundreds of passengers flying from South Africa to Amsterdam on Friday landed to learn not only that the variant had been discovered but that more than 60 people on two different planes had tested positive for coronavirus, including at least 14 who had the omicron variant. Dutch officials said this week that they detected the variant in the Netherlands at least a week before omicron’s worldwide debut. ....... emphasizing the importance of continued mitigation efforts — including vaccines, masks and social distancing — to prevent the spread of all covid variants amid fears of a possible winter surge of cases.

Existing vaccines might not be as effective against omicron variant, Moderna CEO says it would take months for pharmaceutical companies to manufacture new variant-specific doses to address omicron ........ existing vaccines might need to be modified in 2022. ...... his initial talks with scientists indicate what could be “a material drop” in vaccine effectiveness against omicron. ........ all the scientists I’ve talked to … [say], ‘This is not going to be good.’” ....... U.S. stock futures are down, and Asian markets retreated, while markets in Europe also fell. U.S. oil prices dropped below $70 a barrel, while gold rose and risk-sensitive currencies such as the Australian dollar weakened against the greenback. The 10-year Treasury yield also declined. ......... whether it can cause severe illness, if it’s more transmissible than the delta variant and whether it can erode or evade immunity....... The World Health Organization has said the “overall global risk” from omicron is “very high,” and it is pushing for governments worldwide to report cases of omicron and accelerate their vaccination drives. ......... “greater concerns about the virus” could exacerbate existing problems, such as labor shortages and supply-chain struggles. .......... the omicron variant’s unruly bunch of mutations has worried scientists, many of whom did not expect such a highly mutative variant to emerge for another year or two. He noted that

32 of the 50 mutations in omicron have focused on the spike protein — the area where existing coronavirus vaccines help boost a person’s immune system to fight the virus

. ............. omicron’s mutations were new and utterly enigmatic. ....... “Now, all together? It’s a complete black box.” ....... it would take months before an omicron-specific vaccine is produced at scale for billions of doses.

How the omicron variant unsettled the world in just one week has upended the world, disrupting global travel, rattling financial markets and posing a reminder — especially in wealthy countries with high vaccination rates — that the pandemic is far from over. ........ if it has the potential to outcompete the dominant delta variant, a very high bar. ....... Scientists said the omicron variant could be more transmissible than past iterations and has around 50 mutations, approximately 30 of which were found on the spike protein, which it uses to latch onto human cells, raising concerns that the new form of the virus could also be more resistant to existing immunities. ....... “Outside of perhaps New Zealand and maybe Australia — island nations — I’ve not seen much in the way of positive impact for travel bans” ......

“The virus just travels too fast and has too many ports of entry.”

......... “The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant,” he said Sunday. “The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to and also to recover from the pandemic.” Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, spoke out as well, condemning the restrictions. ........ “The need to create a new vaccine against omicron will restart all the never-resolved controversies about

vaccine nationalism, vaccine diplomacy and vaccine apartheid

seen with the vaccines originally developed against” the coronavirus

Omicron travel bans on African countries are ‘Afrophobia,’ Malawi’s president says

Omicron

Facebook: November 27

New ‘Variant of Concern’ Fuels Global Fear of Another Virus Surge Scientists do not yet know how dangerous the new Omicron variant is, but its many mutations set off alarms, lowering hopes of putting the pandemic in the past. ...... The world reacted with alarm on Friday to the highly mutated new coronavirus variant discovered in southern Africa, as the United States, the European Union and nations across the globe imposed new travel restrictions, financial markets swooned and visions of finally emerging from the pandemic started to dim. ........... the variant has mutations that might make it more contagious or more virulent, or make vaccines and other preventive measures less effective ........ “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant” in people who have already had Covid-19 ......... President Biden made the decision to bar travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi, starting Monday, after a briefing by his top advisers on the pandemic, including Dr. Anthony Fauci............ even with quickly enacted travel restrictions, Omicron, like past variants, is certain to spread and reach the United States ........ the doubling time is pretty rapid and the slope of the increase is really rather sharp. .......... Stock indexes and oil prices tumbled around the world, as news of the variant and travel restrictions — coming in the economically vital holiday season — raised fears of yet more financial damage caused by the pandemic. ......... The response to the Omicron variant was especially quick and sharp in Europe, once again the epicenter of the global pandemic, where fights over vaccines and social restrictions have grown increasingly harsh........ Reported coronavirus cases have soared in Europe from about 700,000 a week in early September to 2.6 million a week. The surge began in the less-vaccinated countries of Eastern Europe, but then spread to highly vaccinated nations to the west that had thought they would not be vulnerable and were caught off guard. ..........

News: November 5

‘My students never knew’: the lecturer who lived in a tent Higher education is one of the most casualised sectors of the UK economy, and for many it means a struggle to get by ....... for two years while she taught them she was living in a tent. ........ “It was cold. It was a small one-person tent, which meant after a bit it did get warmer. But there were days when I remember waking up and my tent was in a circle of snow. When I wasn’t doing my PhD or other work I was learning how to chop wood or start a fire.” ........ and showered at university ....... I even organised an international conference. I was working to a very high standard and I was incredibly focused .......

nearly half of the undergraduate tutorials for which Cambridge University is famous are delivered by precariously employed staff without proper contracts

. The UCU says this is a familiar story across the country. ........... Determined not to drop out, she borrowed the tent from a friend. ....... “Many people are still shocked to learn that higher education is one of the most casualised sectors in the British economy. There are at least 75,000 staff on insecure contracts: workers who are exploited, underpaid, and often pushed to the brink by senior management teams relying on goodwill and a culture of fear.” ......... “It was a really hard time, carrying on teaching and doing my research while I had nowhere to live,” she says. “I ended up with severe PTSD.”

Remote-first work is taking over the rich world A growing body of research hints at why ....... In february 2020 Americans on average spent 5% of their working hours at home. By May, as lockdowns spread, the share had soared to 60%—a trend that was mirrored in other countries. Many people, perhaps believing that working from home really meant shirking from home, assumed that office life would soon return to something like its pre-pandemic norm. To say it has not turned out that way would be a huge understatement. .........

40% of all American working hours are still now spent at home.

........ Wall Street banks, often the most enthusiastic advocates for in-office work, are toning down the rhetoric. ........ Workers hope they will spend closer to half their working hours at the kitchen table. ........ Many people remain scared of contracting covid-19, and thus wish to avoid public spaces. Another possibility is that workers have more bargaining power. ....... Work that is largely done remotely may be more efficient compared with an office-first model. .......... Economists have less insight into why remote workers might be more productive. One possibility is that they can more easily focus on tasks than in an office, where the temptation to gossip with a co-worker looms large. Commuting, moreover, is tiring. Another factor relates to technology. Remote workers, by necessity, rely more on tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. This may allow bosses to co-ordinate teams more effectively, if the alternative in the office was word-of-mouth instructions that could easily be forgotten or misinterpreted. ...........

The number of people moving to cities such as Tulsa, in Oklahoma, which is positioning itself as the global capital of remote work, remains small.

............ Remote work makes people’s collaboration practices more “static and siloed”, it finds. People interact more with their closest contacts, but less with the more marginal members of their networks who can offer them new perspectives and ideas. That probably hurts innovation. The upshot is that fully remote teams might do quite well in the short term, but will ultimately suffer as innovation dries up.

What Will Drive China to War? A cold war is already under way. The question is whether Washington can deter Beijing from initiating a hot one. ....... President xi jinping declared in July that those who get in the way of China’s ascent will have their “heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel.” The People’s Liberation Army Navy is churning out ships at a rate not seen since World War II, as Beijing issues threats against Taiwan and other neighbors. Top Pentagon officials have warned that China could start a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait or other geopolitical hot spots sometime this decade............... Beijing is a remarkably ambitious revanchist power, one determined to make China whole again by “reuniting” Taiwan with the mainland,

turning the East and South China Seas into Chinese lakes

, and grabbing regional primacy as a stepping-stone to global power. It is also increasingly encircled, and faces growing resistance on many fronts—just the sort of scenario that has led it to lash out in the past. ........... When confronted by a mounting threat to its geopolitical interests,

Beijing does not wait to be attacked; it shoots first to gain the advantage of surprise.

................ It is willing to pick even a very costly fight with a single enemy to teach it, and others observing from the sidelines, a lesson. ..........

China attacks not when it feels confident about the future but when it worries its enemies are closing in.

........... Beijing often has attacked far superior foes—including the U.S.—to cut them down to size and beat them back from Chinese-claimed or otherwise sensitive territory. ......... In 1950, for instance, the fledgling PRC was less than a year old and destitute, after decades of civil war and Japanese brutality. Yet it nonetheless mauled advancing U.S. forces in Korea out of concern that the Americans would conquer North Korea and eventually use it as a base to attack China. In the expanded Korean War that resulted, China suffered almost 1 million casualties, risked nuclear retaliation, and was slammed with punishing economic sanctions that stayed in place for a generation. But to this day, Beijing celebrates the intervention as a glorious victory that warded off an existential threat to its homeland. ................ In 1962, the PLA attacked Indian forces, ostensibly because they had built outposts in Chinese-claimed territory in the Himalayas. The deeper cause was that the CCP feared that it was being surrounded by the Indians, Americans, Soviets, and Chinese Nationalists, all of whom had increased their military presence near China in prior years. Later that decade, fearing that China was next on Moscow’s hit list as part of efforts to defeat “counterrevolution,” the Chinese military ambushed Soviet forces along the Ussuri River and set off a seven-month undeclared conflict that once again risked nuclear war. .............

Beijing turns violent when confronted with the prospect of permanently losing control of territory. It tends to attack one enemy to scare off others. And it rarely gives advance warning or waits to absorb the initial blow.

.............

Beijing’s military hasn’t fought a major war since 1979.

.......... From 2007 to 2019, growth rates fell by more than half, productivity declined by more than 10 percent, and overall debt surged eightfold. The coronavirus pandemic has dragged down growth even further and plunged Beijing’s finances deeper into the red. On top of all this, China’s population is aging at a devastating pace: From 2020 to 2035 alone, it will lose 70 million working-age adults and gain 130 million senior citizens. .......... For roughly a decade, Japan has been engaged in its largest military buildup since the Cold War; the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is now talking about doubling defense spending. India is massing forces near China’s borders and vital sea lanes. Vietnam and Indonesia are expanding their air, naval, and coast-guard forces. Australia is opening up its northern coast to U.S. forces and acquiring long-range missiles and nuclear-powered attack submarines. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are sending warships into the Indo-Pacific region. Dozens of countries are looking to cut China out of their supply chains; anti-China coalitions, such as the Quad and AUKUS, are proliferating. .................. Xi, like his predecessors, desires to make China the preponderant power in Asia and, eventually, the world. .......... Most of China’s trade passes through the East and South China Seas. And China’s primary antagonists in the area—Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines—are part of a strategic chain of U.S. allies and partners whose territory blocks Beijing’s access to the Pacific’s deep waters. ............... Schoolchildren study the century of humiliation. National holidays commemorate foreign theft of Chinese lands. For many citizens, making China whole again is as much an emotional as a strategic imperative. Compromise is out of the question. “We cannot lose even one inch of the territory left behind by our ancestors,” Xi told James Mattis, then the U.S. secretary of defense, in 2018. ................. In August 2021, a record 68 percent of the Taiwanese public identified solely as Taiwanese and not as Chinese, and more than 95 percent wanted to maintain the island’s de facto sovereignty or declare independence. ............. If China does attack, Washington could face a choice between escalation or seeing Taiwan conquered. ......... U.S. and Japanese officials now confer routinely on how they would respond to Chinese aggression—and publicly advertise that cooperation. .............. For years, Chinese strategists have speculated about a short, sharp war that would humiliate Japan, rupture its alliance with Washington, and serve as an object lesson for other countries in the region. Beijing could, for instance, land or parachute special forces on the Senkakus, proclaim a large maritime exclusion zone in the area, and back up that declaration by deploying ships, submarines, warplanes, and drones—all supported by hundreds of conventionally armed ballistic missiles aimed at Japanese forces and even targets in Japan. Tokyo then would either have to accept China’s fait accompli or launch a difficult and bloody military operation to recapture the islands. America, too, would have to choose between retreat and honoring the pledges it made—in 2014 and in 2021—to help Japan defend the Senkakus. Retreat might destroy the credibility of the U.S.-Japan alliance. Resistance, war games held by prominent think tanks suggest, could easily lead to rapid escalation resulting in a major regional war. ..................... From Beijing’s perspective, circumstances are looking ripe for a teachable moment. The best target might be the Philippines. .............. Beijing possesses grandiose territorial aims as well as a strategic culture that emphasizes hitting first and hitting hard when it perceives gathering dangers. It has a host of wasting assets in the form of military advantages that may not endure beyond this decade. Such dynamics have driven China to war in the past and could do so again today. ...............

a U.S.-China war could be incredibly dangerous, offering few plausible off-ramps and severe pressures for escalation

............ If Beijing understands that it cannot easily or cheaply win a conflict, it may be more cautious about starting one. .......... require an intellectual shift—a realization that the United States and its allies need to rapidly shut China’s windows of military opportunity, which means preparing for a war that could well start in 2025 rather than in 2035. And that, in turn, requires a degree of political will and urgency that has so far been lacking.



Capitalism is killing the planet – it’s time to stop buying into our own destruction Instead of focusing on ‘micro consumerist bollocks’ like ditching our plastic coffee cups, we must challenge the pursuit of wealth and level down, not up ......... Regardless of which complex system is being studied, there’s a way of telling whether it is approaching a tipping point. Its outputs begin to flicker. The closer to its critical threshold it comes, the wilder the fluctuations. What we’ve seen this year is a great global flickering, as Earth systems begin to break down.

The heat domes over the western seaboard of North America; the massive fires there, in Siberia and around the Mediterranean; the lethal floods in Germany, Belgium, China, Sierra Leone – these are the signals that, in climatic morse code, spell “mayday”.

......... Our great intelligence, our highly evolved consciousness that once took us so far, now works against us. ............ “cake” was mentioned 10 times as often as “climate change” on UK TV programmes in 2020. “Scotch egg” received double the mentions of “biodiversity”. “Banana bread” beat “wind power” and “solar power” put together. ............... If an asteroid were heading towards Earth, and we turned on the radio, we’d probably hear: “So the hot topic today is – what’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you while eating a kebab?” This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with banter. ........... The chatter on the radio sounds like the distant signals from a dying star. ......... the environmental impact of producing an organic cotton tote bag is equivalent to that of 20,000 plastic ones. ..........

Rich people can persuade themselves they’ve gone green because they recycle, while forgetting that they have a second home

............ a recent survey of public beliefs about river pollution found that “litter and plastic” was by far the biggest cause people named. In reality, the biggest source of water pollution is farming, followed by sewage. Litter is way down the list. It’s not that plastic is unimportant. The problem is that it’s almost the only story we know. .......... a 2019 speech by the chief executive of the oil company Shell, Ben van Beurden. He instructed us to “eat seasonally and recycle more”, and publicly berated his chauffeur for buying a punnet of strawberries in January. .......... The great political transition of the past 50 years, driven by corporate marketing, has been a shift from addressing our problems collectively to addressing them individually. In other words, it has turned us from citizens into consumers. It’s not hard to see why we have been herded down this path.

As citizens, joining together to demand political change, we are powerful. As consumers, we are almost powerless.

......... when Stalin and Hitler were in power, “one of the most astonishing human traits that came to light at this time was obedience”. The instinct to obey, he observed, was stronger than the instinct to survive. Acting alone, seeing ourselves as consumers, fixating on MCB and mind-numbing trivia, even as systemic environmental collapse looms: these are forms of obedience.

We would rather face civilisational death than the social embarrassment caused by raising awkward subjects, and the political trouble involved in resisting powerful forces.

The obedience reflex is our greatest flaw, the kink in the human brain that threatens our lives. ................

In reality, the great fortunes amassed under capitalism are not obtained this way, but through looting, monopoly and rent grabbing, followed by inheritance.

......... One estimate suggests that, over the course of 200 years, the British extracted from India, at current prices, $45tn. They used this money to fund industrialisation at home and the colonisation of other nations, whose wealth was then looted in turn. ............ The apparent health of our economies today depends on seizing natural wealth from future generations. This is what the oil companies, seeking to distract us with MCB and carbon footprints, are doing. Such theft from the future is the motor of economic growth. Capitalism, which sounds so reasonable when explained by a mainstream economist, is in ecological terms nothing but a pyramid scheme. ............

Bill Gates, according to one estimate, emits almost 7,500 tonnes of CO2, mostly from flying in his private jets.

Roman Abramovich, the same figures suggest, produces almost 34,000 tonnes, largely by running his gigantic yacht. ............

There is a poverty line below which no one should fall, and a wealth line above which no one should rise. We need wealth taxes, not carbon taxes

.......... But more important than the direct impacts of the ultra-wealthy is the political and cultural power with which they block effective change. Their cultural power relies on a hypnotising fairytale. Capitalism persuades us that we are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires. This is why we tolerate it. In reality,

some people are extremely rich because others are extremely poor: massive wealth depends on exploitation.

And if we did all become millionaires, we would cook the planet in no time at all. But the fairytale of universal wealth, one day, secures our obedience. ............ In consenting to the continued destruction of our life-support systems, we accommodate the desires of the ultra-rich and the powerful corporations they control. ....... In Fridays for Future, Green New Deal Rising, Extinction Rebellion and the other global uprisings against systemic environmental collapse, we see people, mostly young people, refusing to consent. What they understand is history’s most important lesson. Our survival depends on disobedience.

How Tyson Foods Got 60,500 Workers to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine Quickly The meatpacking giant, which was criticized for failing to do enough to protect its workers from Covid-19 last year, has become a leader on corporate mandates.

Congress pressures Biden to defend Taiwan China's aggressive behavior is worrying lawmakers, but a new U.S. strategy could fan the flames...... The strategic ambiguity doctrine, enshrined in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, stipulates that the U.S. remains purposely noncommittal about whether it would defend Taiwan from an attack or invasion by China. ......... “It’s really important that we arm Taiwan and help them to defend themselves. China wants to gobble them up,” Hawley said in a brief interview. “But I think it’s also a mistake for [Taiwan] to say, ‘well, if something happens, the United States will just bail us out.’ They’re a long way away.” ....... “This is competition. It does not have to be conflict,” Biden said. .......

'Europe is back at the epicenter' of COVID-19, WHO warns. 'Enough idiocy,' Italian official tells anti-vaxxers. In the past week alone, the Europe region saw 1.8 million new COVID-19 cases and 24,000 deaths, or 59 percent of global cases and nearly half the world's coronavirus deaths. "If we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year" ......... if 95 percent of Europeans just wore masks in public, 188,000 lives could be saved in the next three months. ......... Eight of the 53 countries in the WHO's European region have vaccinated more than 70 percent of their population, but two have immunized less than 10 percent. The worst outbreaks are in Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere in low-vaccination Central and Eastern Europe. Germany, with 67 percent of its population fully vaccinated, recorded a pandemic-high 33,949 new COVID cases on Wednesday.

News: September 27

The World Is at War With Covid. Covid Is Winning. the race to vaccinate the world against Covid has unfolded like a symphony without a conductor ...... More than 80 percent of the four billion vaccine doses that had been distributed as of early August went to high- and upper-middle-income countries. ........... The People’s Vaccine Alliance estimated in June that

at the current pace, it would take 57 years for low-income countries to vaccinate their entire populations

. High-income countries will do so within the next six months (hesitancy notwithstanding). ............ This month, the global vaccine-sharing initiative known as Covax cut its projections by nearly 30 percent, saying it would have available only 1.4 billion doses by the end of this year. (The initiative has delivered just 271 million doses so far.) Later, President Biden reassured Americans that the United States had enough shots on hand to offer boosters to all its residents. The World Health Organization has been pleading with wealthy nations to hold off on boosters — and to forgo some of their planned vaccine purchases — until the rest of the world has a chance to secure more first doses. ...........

“We were promised a war effort, and instead we got a pillow fight.”

........... While the world dithers, the virus is evolving.

Given enough time and enough unvaccinated people, it could mutate its way past our best defenses, potentially sending the world — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — back to square one.

......... “rich countries behaved worse than anyone’s worst nightmare.” They bypassed Covax — either completely or by slow-walking their financial contributions — cut multiple deals directly with vaccine manufacturers and bought up many more shots than they would need, long before any had been authorized for use. As a result, not only did Covax never amass the purchasing power at the heart of its plan, but also by the time the initiative secured enough funds to start buying shots, it was at the end of a long queue. ...........

Group of 7 countries are entitled to more Covax doses by the end of this year than they have pledged to donate to the initiative

. ........... the vast majority of doses pledged by Group of 7 countries in July have yet to be delivered. Also, the shots are only one item on a roster of needs that must be met for vaccination to succeed. Transportation, electricity for cold storage, trained health workers for vaccine administration and campaigns to combat hesitancy all need to be bolstered. .......... regional facilities would make it possible to create shots within 100 days of dangerous diseases emerging and to stop outbreaks before they mushroom into pandemics. Public Citizen estimated that it would take $25 billion, and about six months, to establish a network of such hubs around the world and that if officials started today, the world could have billions more doses by this time next year. .......

the biggest hurdle, by far, appears to be the obstinacy of the world’s leading vaccine makers, which have largely refused to share their technology, even when it was developed with public money.

............... Russia, for example, managed to transfer its technology to scores of smaller companies, including in the global south, in a matter of months ........ The country’s strategy was to not only license its intellectual property but also to send its experts to those companies to show them what to do. ........... a recombinant protein vaccine. It can be grown efficiently in yeast cells, has no onerous storage requirements and should be easy to mass-produce anywhere .......... a vaccine manufacturing facility that can fit inside a shipping container and could theoretically be deployed almost anywhere in the world .......... simpler technology for making mRNA vaccines: Rather than produce the necessary components through a complicated string of in vitro processes, the company grows them in E. coli bacteria ........... To resolve a collective action conundrum, she said, you need two things: a concrete goal and a convincing sales pitch. ......... Vaccinating the world against Covid will cost a lot of money, but almost any amount of money will be worth it.

The pandemic has caused the global economy to contract by trillions of dollars and will cost the world trillions more if it’s allowed to fester.

........ The president should also support

the NOVID Act, a bill that would authorize spending some $34 billion on the global vaccination effort, and direct his administration to spend the $16 billion or so that Congress has already allocated for that purpose

. Only a tiny fraction of that money has been put to use so far, an unconscionable missed opportunity. ........ The United States has untapped leverage with Moderna. The government helped pay to develop the company’s intellectual property and holds a patent on and contractual rights to it. The United States also has leverage with Johnson & Johnson, which the government paid more than $1 billion for advance purchases and research support. One idea, reported on by Nature: Nudge Johnson & Johnson to make use of factories that are currently making the Sputnik V shot, which is similar to the Johnson & Johnson shot but has run into manufacturing troubles. ........... set aside geopolitics and work with China and perhaps Russia to validate their vaccines for broader use ........ China’s vaccine producers Sinovac and Sinopharm have pledged to export two billion doses by the end of this year ......... “But the United States is supposed to stand for something bigger than just taking care of its own citizens.”

Rich Countries Worry About Booster Shots. They Should Be Worried About Africa. there’s no conclusive evidence to justify giving boosters to fit, healthy people. Third doses should be given only to the small number of people facing a high risk of severe illness and death, despite being fully vaccinated, including those with compromised immune systems. ......... Nine months after the arrival of the first vaccine, just 20 percent of people in low- and lower-middle-income countries have received a first dose — compared with 80 percent in many high- and upper-middle-income countries. .......... Today, just 51 million people — or 3.6 percent — of Africa’s population are fully vaccinated, compared with over 60 percent in the United Kingdom and the European Union and almost 55 percent in the United States. ......... Just 15 percent of the more than one billion doses pledged by high-income countries have arrived in Africa so far.

Wealthy countries must let go of reserved doses and cede their place in the queue, allowing Covax and the African Union to buy the vaccines the continent seeks and stands ready to finance.

..........

giving boosters to fully vaccinated individuals goes against rich countries’ own interests. Countries with low vaccination rates could act as variant incubators, increasing the risk that more dangerous variants will emerge and enter international travel networks.

................ We have already seen the havoc caused by the Delta variant. Now present in 180 countries, this highly transmissible variant is leading to rising deaths in many rich nations. ......... Global economic losses due to delayed vaccinations may, according to one estimate, run into the trillions of dollars in the coming years if low- and middle-income countries cannot quickly vaccinate most of their people. The International Monetary Fund recently cited access to vaccines as the “principal fault line” along which the global economic recovery is diverging. If vaccine inequity persists, growth rates in poorer countries may not return to prepandemic levels until 2024.

Can Beto Turn Texas Blue?

News: September 18

स्थायी/अस्थायी नियोजनको तथ्यांक भन्छ— पुरुष महिलाको शरीरलाई मेसिन ठान्छ परिवार नियोजनका अस्थायी र स्थायी दुवै साधन प्रयोगकर्तामा महिला अगाडि छन् । ‘पुरुषका लागि एउटा मात्र अस्थायी साधन छ,’ उनी भन्छन्, ‘स्थायी बन्ध्याकरण (भ्यासेक्टोमी) गर्न धेरै अफवाह फैलाइएको छ । कम्मर दुख्छ, कमजोर भइन्छ भनेर धेरैले गर्न नमानेको देखिन्छ ।’ ......... २०६७ सालदेखि ०७७ सम्मको १० वर्षमा ३ लाख ६५ हजारले स्थायी बन्ध्याकरण गराएका छन् । जसमध्ये २ लाख ८० हजार महिलाले किनिल्याप र ८५ हजार ५ सय पुरुषले भ्यासेक्टोमी गराएका छन् । यो तथ्यांकले एकै समयमा स्थायी परिवार नियोजन गराउने पुरुषभन्दा महिलाको संख्या २ लाख नै बढी देखाउँछ । .......... स्थायीमा मात्रै नभएर अस्थायी साधनको प्रयोगकर्तामा पनि महिलाहरू नै अगाडि देखिन्छ । परिवार नियोजनका अस्थायी साधन अधिकांश महिलाको शरीर केन्द्रित छन् । जस्तै : महिलाले प्रयोग गर्ने अस्थायी साधन डिपोप्रोभेरा, इम्प्लान्ट, पिल्स र आईयूसीडी छ भने पुरुषका लागि कण्डम मात्रै छ । स्वास्थ्यविद्हरूका विभिन्‍न अनुसन्धानले पनि पुष्टि गरेको कुरा हो- पुरुषले प्रयोग गर्ने एक मात्र अस्थायी साधन कण्डमका तुलनामा महिलाको शरीरमा प्रयोग हुने माथिका चारैवटा साधनको साइट इफेक्ट बढी छ । ........ आर्थिक वर्ष २०७२/ ७३ देखि २०७६/७७ मा अस्थायी साधन (महिला) डिपोप्रोगेरा प्रयोग गर्ने १३ लाख ५२ हजार ४ सय ५४ जना, इम्प्लान्ट प्रयोग गर्ने ४ लाख ७१ हजार १५ जना, आईयूसीडी प्रयोग गर्ने १ लाख ३४ हजार ८ सय ४१ जना र पिल्स प्रयोग गर्ने ६ लाख ९३ हजार ५ सय ८१ जना रहेका छन् । ........ पुरुषका अस्थायी साधन (कण्डम) भने यो पाँच वर्षमा ९ लाख ८६ हजार ८ सय ५ जनाले प्रयोग गरेका छन् । कण्डम एक जनाले १ सय ५० वटा प्रयोग गरेपछि मात्र गर्भनिरोधक मानिन्छ । ........ ‘परिवार नियोजनका औषधि आविष्कार गर्नेहरू पुरुष नै छन्,’ उनी भन्छिन्, ‘आफैँले बनाउने भएपछि आफ्नो शरीरमा उनीहरूले पक्कै पनि प्रयोग गर्न खोज्दैनन् । तर, महिलाका लागि भने अनेक हर्मोनल औषधि बनाएका छन् । पुरुषको लागि एउटा छ, कण्डम । त्यो पनि हर्मोन होइन ।’ ........ डा. तामाङका अनुसार लैङ्गिक दृष्टिले हेर्ने हो भने पुरुषको शरीर बच्चा पाउनु नपर्ने भएकाले उनीहरू फुर्सदिला हुन्छन् । उनीहरू मस्तिष्क मन्थन गर्छन् । ‘प्राकृतिकबाहेक मनुष्यद्वारा गरिने सिर्जना धेरै पुरुषले गरेका छन्,’ उनी भन्छिन्, ‘महिलालाई संस्कार र संस्कृतिले घरभित्र डल्लो पारेर राखिदिएको छ । यो समस्या समस्या मात्रै नभएर एउटा भुमरी हो । जति भित्र पस्यो, त्यसको जरो उति गहिरो छ ।’ .......... ‘शिक्षा र परामर्श बिलकुलै फरक कुरा हो । शिक्षाले परामर्शको काम गर्दैन । परिवार नियोजनबारे गलत प्रचारप्रसारले पनि पुरुष सहभागिता कम भएको हो ।’ .........

‘परिवार नियोजनका साधन महिलामाथि जबर्जस्ती लादिएको छ,’ उनी भन्छिन्, ‘प्रयोग गरे गर, नगरे धेरै बच्चा तिमीले पाउनुपर्छ, तिमै्र स्वास्थ्य बिग्रिन्छ भन्‍ने हिसाबले हेरिन्छ ।

यसलाई महिलाको मात्र जिम्मेवारीका रूपमा लिइन्छ । उनीहरूको शरीरमाथि प्रयोग गरिन्छ ।’ ........ हामीमध्ये धेरैलाई स्त्रीरोग विशेषज्ञ अर्थात् ‘गाइनेकोलोजिस्ट’बारे थाहा छ । तर, पुरुष प्रजनन विशेषज्ञ अर्थात् ‘एन्ड्रोलोजिस्ट’बारे कमैलाई थाहा छ । कतिपयलाई त थाहा पनि छैन । ......... परिवार नियोजनमा महिला-पुरुष दुवैको समान सहभागिता नहुनुलाई पितृसत्तात्मक सोच र व्यवहारको उपज मान्छन् ।

‘विदेशतिर श्रीमती गर्भवती भयो भने ‘वी आर प्रेग्नेन्ट’ भन्‍ने चलन छ,’ उनी भन्छन्, ‘हाम्रोमा यसो भन्दा ट्रोल हुनुपर्छ । यसको अर्थ हाम्रो समाज कतिसम्म पितृसत्तात्मक छ भनेर थाहा हुन्छ ।

महिलाको गर्भावस्थामा सहभागी हुन नरुचाउने श्रीमान्‌ले कसरी परिवार नियोजनमा सहभागिता जनाऊन् ? कहिले ‘वी आर प्रेग्नेन्ट भन्लान् ?’ ............ ‘प्राकृतिक हिसाबले नै सावधानी नअपनाउँदा समस्या महिलाले भोग्‍नुपर्छ,’ उनी भन्छन्, ‘स्वास्थ्य उनीहरूकै खराब हुन्छ, करिअरमा लागेको ब्रेक उनीहरूले नै भोग्नुपर्छ । तर, आफूले भोग्नुपर्ने भएकाले पुरुष आफूलाई नपर्ने भएकाले खासै चासो देखाउँदैनन् ।’ ....... ‘पुरुषले जिम्मेवारी बोध गरेन भने दुःख महिलाले मात्र होइन उसले पनि पाउँछ,’ उनी भन्छन्, ‘तर, हाम्रोजस्तो पितृसत्तात्मक सोच हाबी भएको देशमा यो कुरा बुझाउन निकै गाह्रो छ ।’ ....... ‘पुरुषको बन्ध्याकरण गर्न एकदमै सजिलो भए पनि कम मात्रैले गर्छन्,’ उनी भन्छिन्, ‘हाम्रो समाजमा धेरै मानिसको सोच पुरुषले स्थायी बन्ध्याकरण गराउनु हुँदैन भन्‍ने गलत बुझाइ छ ।’ ........ ‘महिलाले गर्भ निरोधक साधन प्रयोग गर्दा देखिने ‘साइड इफेक्ट’लाई स्वीकार्य मानिन्छ,’ उनी भन्छिन्, ‘तर, पुरुषको हकमा देखिने ‘साइड इफेक्ट’लाई लिएर विभिन्‍न अफवाह फैलाइएको छ । स्थायी बन्ध्याकरण गर्दा पुरुष कमजोर हुन्छ, यौन आनन्द मिल्दैन, बलको काम गर्नुपर्छ भनेर अफवाह फैलाइएको छ ।’ .......... ‘एउटी महिलाले आफ्नो परिवारको स्वास्थ्यको ख्याल राखिरहँदा उनको स्वास्थ्यको ख्याल राख्ने भने कोही हुँदैन,’ उनी भन्छिन्, ‘महिलाको अधिकारको कुरा गर्दा त्यसलाई राजनीति भनिन्छ । यहाँ त शोषणको पनि आफ्नै राजनीति हुन्छ ।’ .........

परिवार नियोजनको अस्थायी साधन डिपो, पिल्स, कण्डम, आईयूसीडी, इम्प्लान्ट हुन् । यी पाँचमध्ये एउटा मात्रै पुरुषका लागि छ । त्यो पनि पुरुषले राम्रोसँग लगाइदिएन भने त्यसको भागिदार महिला नै हुनुपर्छ ।

........ स्थायी बन्ध्याकरणको हकमा पुरुषहरू बाठो भएर धेरै अफवाह फैलाएका छन् । बन्ध्याकरण गर्‍यो भने यौन क्रियाकलापमा ह्रास आउँछ, पुरुष कमजोर हुन्छ भन्‍ने अफवाह व्यापक छ । कमाइ गरेर खुवाउने पुरुष कमजोर हुनु हुँदैन भन्‍ने समाजको धारणा छ । प्राविधिक हिसाबले हेर्ने हो भने पनि महिलाभन्दा पुरुषको स्थायी बन्ध्याकरण गर्न सजिलो छ । तर, यसको चेतना छैन ।

दीपिका एसियाको सबैभन्दा प्रभावशाली अभिनेत्री दीपिका हलिउड सेलिब्रेटी एरियाना ग्रान्डे, किम कादर्सियन, एडले, सेलेन डायनको हाराहारीमा आएकी छिन् ।

सरकारले खरिद गरी ९४ लाख खोप भित्र्यायो डेढ करोड बढी खोप भित्रियो, पूर्ण मात्रा १८ प्रतिशतले लगाए

CK Raut's Half Million Followers On Facebook

ओली को चुरे संहार को प्रस्ताव नरसंहार स्तर को हो

अहिलेसम्म मधेसी पार्टी हरुले उठाउँदै आएको मुद्दा मानव अधिकार स्तरको हुने गरेको छ। तर ओली को चुरे संहार को प्रस्ताव नरसंहार स्तरको हो। कुनै पनि हालतमा ओली लाई समर्थन गर्नुहुन्न भन्ने उपेन्द्र यादवको अड़ान गलत मानिएको छ। तर जेसुकै भए पनि, ओली ले जेसुकै गरे पनि ओली लाई समर्थन गर्ने अड़ान गलत मात्र होइन घातक नै हुन सक्छ। पार्टी भित्र संवाद हुनु जरूरी छ। घनीभुत छलफल। 

उपेन्द्र यादव ओली सरकारमा सहभागी भएको प्रतिनिधि सभा विगठन अगाडि हो। संविधान लाई मिचेर प्रतिनिधि सभा विगठन को सिफारिस बहुत अशुभ संकेत हो। त्यो भन्न खोजिएको हो शायद। त्यो पनि दुई दुई पटक। 

सन २००७ को मधेसी क्रांति सन २००६ को लोकतान्त्रिक क्रांति भन्दा अगाडि गर्न सकिँदैनथ्यो। लोकतंत्रको रक्षा प्रथम कर्तव्य हो नै। संवैधानिक निकाय हरुमा आफ्नो मान्छे ठुस्ने देखि लिएर पार्टी भित्र जीहजुरी को संस्कृति निर्माण गर्ने सम्म का काम हुँदै आएका छन। आफ्नै पार्टीका संस्थापक सदस्य हरु लाई पाखा लगाउने ले मधेसी हरु लाई काखा लगाउलान भनेर शायद सोच्न सकिन्न। 

जसपा एक ढिक्का भएर कदम कदम मा सर्वसम्मत निर्णय गर्दै जानुपर्ने बेला हो यो। चुरे को वन मासेर सुर्य बहादुरले देश लाई थप १० वर्ष अध्यारोमा राखेकै हुन। चुरे नै मासेर ओली देश लाई निर्वाचित तानाशाह दिन सक्षम र उद्यत देखिन्छन। अर्को १० वर्ष जाला। 

शंका गर्नुपर्ने ठाउँ प्रशस्त छ। जसपा पार्टनर हो भने संसद विगठन गर्नु अगाडि जसपा लाई सोध्न सकिन्थ्यो। सोधिएन। नागरिकता को सवालमा पनि र थारू सँग मातृभाषामा शिक्षा को कुरामा पनि संविधान मा भएको कुरा लाई कॉपी पेस्ट गरेर के के न दिए जस्तो गरिएको छ। रेशम रिहा गर्ने वाचा गर्ने तर खुसुक्क कानुनी प्रक्रिया पुर्याएर गर्ने भनिएको छ। त्यो भनेको तत्काल नछोड्ने नै भनेको हो निर्दोष मान्छे लाई। 

ओली को चुरे संहार को प्रस्ताव खतरा को घंटी बजाउने खालको छ। यस्तो बेलामा पनि बसेर घनीभुत छलफल गर्न नसक्ने हो जसपा ले भने मधेसको जनता प्रति विश्वासघात हुनेछ। पार्टी भित्र संवादहीनता अचम्मको छ। यो सामान्य अवस्था होइन। महामारी। त्यस माथि कृत्रिम र अनावश्यक राजनीतिक महामारी। र अब आएर चुरे माथिको प्रहार। 

वातावरण माथि अनवरत मानव जाति ले हमला बोलेको ले नै यो महामारी आएको हो। चुरे माथि को प्रहारले महाविनाश निम्त्याउने हो। 

यस्तो अवस्थामा पनि जसपा ले एकता प्रदर्शन गर्न नसके मधेसी अधिकार को लागि लड्ने पार्टी होइन कि जसपा जुँगा को लड़ाइ लड्ने हरु को जमघट रहेको जस्तो देखिनेछ। 

"हाम्रो गाउँमा एकै दिनमा चार जनासम्म मरेको रेडर्क बनेको थियो। ...... करिब ६ हजार जनसंख्या रहेको हाम्रो गाउँको प्रत्येक घरमा पुगेर हाम्रो टीमले समान्य चेकजाँच गर्दै कोरोनाको लक्षणसँग मिल्दोजुल्दो व्यक्तिहरुको तथ्यांक तयार गरेको थियो। र, ती मध्ये ९० प्रतिशतको कोरोना परिक्षण गाउँमै भएको छ। जसमा झण्डै १७ प्रतिशतमा कोरोना पोजेटिभ देखिएको हो। ...... गाउँका व्यापारी, भद्रभलादमी र बैदेशिक रोजगारमा रहेका गाउँलेहरुको आर्थिक सहयोगको ओइरो नै लाग्यो। उहाँहरुले अपेक्षाभन्दा पनि धेरै सहयोग गर्नु भएको छ। स्थानीय बुद्धिजिबी, कर्मचारीहरुको पनि उल्लेखिय सहयोग र विश्वास रहेको छ।"

बेताले अभिनेताका चर्तिकला सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीको विस्थापन राजनीतिक संवैधानिकताको ‘आवश्यकताको सिद्धान्त’ अनुसार हुन्छ वा संवैधानिक राजनीतिको प्रतिस्पर्धाको खेलद्वारा भन्ने कुरा आन्तरिक परिस्थितिभन्दा पनि बाह्य खेलाडीहरूको शक्ति सन्तुलनबाट निश्चित हुने सम्भावना बढी छ । .......... इतिहासविद् एवं नेपाल प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठानका उपकुलपति डा. जगमान गुरुङले गर्दै एक पटक अत्यन्त गम्भीरतापूर्वक भनेका रहेछन्, ‘अन्य प्रधानमन्त्रीजस्तो होइनन् केपी ओली, उहाँलाई सम्पूर्ण शास्त्र, तन्त्र, रामायण, महाभारत, गीता सबै कण्ठ छ, कुनै पनि पण्डितले प्रधानमन्त्री ओलीसँग गएर प्रतिवाद गर्न सक्दैन । कुनै पनि इन्जिनियरले, मेडिकल डाक्टरले उहाँसँग बहस गर्न सक्दैन ।’ .......... स्वशिक्षित (अटोडाइडाक्ट) व्यक्तिलाई भने त्यस्तो कुनै बन्देजले छेक्न सक्दैन । तिनले आफूखुसी ‘गैंडा’ शब्दको प्रामाणिकता स्थापित गर्न सक्छन् । पुर्खाहरूका ‘जेनेटिक मेमोरी’ बारे विद्वत् प्रवचन दिन सक्छन् । बेसार र बेलौतीका पातको चिकित्सकीय महत्ता दर्साउन सक्छन् । मनोगत तवरले पदीय मर्यादाका सीमा तोक्न सक्छन् । स्वशिक्षित व्यक्तिका अभिव्यक्ति स्वतः पुष्टि भएको मानिनुपर्छ, किनभने तिनका बेसारे तर्कलाई शास्त्रार्थको विषय बनाउन सकिँदैन । ..........

पारिवारिक अवस्था वा परिस्थितिजन्य बाध्यताले गर्दा बेलैमा औपचारिक शिक्षा हासिल गर्न नसकेको गहिरो कुण्ठा भने उनका अनियन्त्रित अभिव्यक्तिहरूमा सहजै देख्न सकिन्छ ।

चिकित्साशास्त्रको उच्च शिक्षा हासिल गरेका तत्कालीन राष्ट्रपति रामवरण यादव उनका लागि ‘सुई घोप्ने’ ठहरिएका थिए । उनी बुद्धिजीवीलाई ‘थला पार्ने’ चेतावनी दिन्छन् । लोकसेवा दिएर सरकारी सेवामा लाग्ने मध्यमवर्गको अतृप्त तृष्णाले गर्दा होला, ‘राज्यको पेन्सन खाएर’ स्वतन्त्र भएर बोल्नेहरूले उनलाई उत्तेजित तुल्याउने रहेछन् । केही पूर्वन्यायमूर्तिहरूको नैतिक शक्तिबाट अतालिएर उनी तिनलाई ‘सडकमा हस्तक्षेपकारी ताण्डव गर्ने’ समूह ठहर्‍याउँछन् । उनको विपक्षमा बहस गर्ने कानुनवेत्ताहरूलाई ‘कालो कोटधारी केही व्यक्ति’ भनेर खिसी गर्छन् । राष्ट्रपति विद्यादेवी भण्डारीलाई शपथग्रहण समारोहको बीचमा सार्वजनिक तवरले जान्ने भएर ‘त्यो पर्दैन’ भन्दै औपचारिक पाठलाई आफैं सच्याउँछन् । र, उनै फेरि आफ्ना अग्रज, सहकर्मी एवं समवयी व्यक्तिहरूलाई भाषिक मर्यादा सिकाउन पनि पछि पर्दैनन् । .......... परम्परागत मैथिली नाटकहरूमा ‘लबरा’ भन्ने चरित्र हुने गर्थ्यो । संस्कृत नाटक परम्पराको विदूषकजस्तै मैथिली रंगमञ्चमा लबराले दर्शकलाई हँसाउनुका साथै जीवनका विरोधाभास एवं कटु यथार्थहरूसँग पनि साक्षात्कार गराउँछ । सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओली अपवाद नभएर आफ्ना नृजातीय प्रवर्गका आदर्श प्रतिनिधि–पात्र मात्र हुन् । त्यस यथार्थलाई हृदयंगम गर्नासाथ समसामयिक राजनीतिका विडम्बनाहरू स्वाभाविक लाग्न थाल्छन् । .........

प्राकृतिक महासंकटलाई अवसरका रूपमा उपयोग गर्न गोरखा भुइँचालो परकम्पहरूका बीच सन् २०१५ को जुन महिनामा सोह्रबुँदे षड्यन्त्र रचिएको थियो ।

साक्षी किनारा सदर गर्ने पारामा पुछारमा दस्तखत गरेका विजयकुमार गच्छदार अहिले राजनीतिक मूलधारबाट बाहिर परेका छन् । दिवंगत सुशील कोइरालाको उपयोगिता उनी जीवित छँदै समाप्त भइसकेको थियो । सामाजिक स्वीकार्यता हासिल गर्न सहर्ष आफ्ना राजनीतिक कार्यसूची परित्याग गरेका पुष्पकमल दाहालको स्थिति अहिले सन्त कबीरका अधीर गृहस्थको जस्तो भएको छ— ‘संसारी से प्रीतडी, सरै न एको काम / दुविधा में दोनों गये, माया मिली न राम ।’ उनले आफ्नो नृजातीय मुख्तियारका रूपमा सहर्ष स्वीकार गरेका व्यक्तिसँग अहिले माया र राम दुवै छ भने उनी आफूजस्तै केही हताश राजनीतिकर्मीहरूका साथ सडकमा बसेर ‘हामी यहाँ छौं’ भन्दै कमजोर उपस्थिति दर्साउन बाध्य छन् । जस्तोसुकै प्रतापी पात्र पनि आफ्ना छनोटहरूको प्रभावबाट सर्वथा मुक्त रहन सक्दैन । मधेसी र जनजातिलाई तिनको ‘ठाउँ देखाउन’ रचना गरिएको सोह्रबुँदे षड्यन्त्रले अन्ततः एकताकाका प्रचण्ड राजनीतिकर्मीलाई समेत तिनको आफ्नो ठाउँमा पुर्‍याइदिएको छ । ............. सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओली प्रतिगमनका रचयिता नभएर राजनीतिक उत्पाद हुन् भन्दा हुन्छ । शासन व्यवस्थाको कार्यकारी अधिकारलाई स्थायी सत्ताको अवयव रहेको सर्वोच्च अदालतका पदासीन प्रधान न्यायाधीशलाई सुम्पिएपछि संसदीय सर्वोच्चता स्वतः समाप्त भएको थियो । .......... समसामयिक नेपालमा संविधान भन्ने पुस्तकको उपयोगिता ‘जसले हान्यो, उसले जान्यो’ भन्ने जंगबहादुरको उक्तिमा अन्तर्निहित भावजस्तै अर्थ्याउने व्यक्ति वा संस्थाको अग्रसरतामा निर्भर हुन पुगेको छ । पञ्चायतकालमा ‘माथिको’ निर्देशभन्दा तिनको आशय ठम्याएर अदालतले फैसला सुनाउने गर्थ्यो । पुराना परम्पराहरू रातारात बिलाएर जाँदैनन्, एवं तिनको अवशेषबाट मुक्ति पाउन लामो कालसम्म संघर्ष गर्नुपर्ने हुन सक्छ । ........... पूर्ववर्ती सभाले व्यापक बहसपश्चात् निर्धारण गरेका मापदण्डहरूलाई रद्दीको टोकरीमा मिल्काएर दलीय निर्देशको भरमा छलफलबेगर संविधान जारी गर्ने संसारको एक मात्र गणतान्त्रिक देश नेपाल नभए पनि तुलनीय उदाहरण खोज्न अनुसन्धानकर्मीहरूलाई कठिन भने पक्कै हुनेछ । ............

दिउँसो सदनमा आफ्नो बहुमत छैन भनी सार्वजनिक घोषणा गर्ने व्यक्तिले बेलुका बहुसंख्यक सांसदको समर्थन रहेको दाबीका साथ राष्ट्रपतिलाई मध्यरातमा संसद् विघटनको घोषणा गर्न लगाउन सक्ने

........ नेपाली राजनीतिको घटनाक्रमको नैराश्य, विषाद एवं निरर्थक ऊर्जाको क्षयलाई बरु शेक्सपियरका कालजयी पंक्तिहरूले समेट्छन्— ‘जीवन एउटा कथा हो/कुनै बेवकुफद्वारा सुनाइएको, ध्वनि र रोषले सरोवर/पूर्णतः महत्त्वहीन ।’ ......... महाव्याधिको प्रकोप कम गर्न व्यापक टीकाकरणको विकल्प छैन । महाव्याधि कम से कम नेपालको स्वास्थ्य सेवा क्षमताले थेग्न सक्ने गरी नियन्त्रणभित्र नआएसम्म अर्थतन्त्रले गति समात्न सक्दैन, घोषणा गरिएको निर्वाचन गराउन सम्भव हुनेछैन । नेपालको अर्थ–राजनीतिक गन्जागोल सग्लिनुको साटो झनै धमिलो बन्दै गइरहेछ । ........

दिउँसो जोतिएर बेलुकी छाक टार्ने श्रमिकको पेटमा लात हान्ने घरबन्दी एवं निषेधाज्ञाबाहेक महाव्याधि नियन्त्रणको अर्को उपाय सत्तासँग छैन ।

......... अनपेक्षित अध्यादेशहरूलाई कहिले तत्क्षण जारी गर्न लगाएर एवं कुनै बेला हतारमा फिर्ता गराएर सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीले राष्ट्रपति पदको प्रतिष्ठा एवं सार्वजनिक छविमा अकल्पनीय ‘बट्टा’ लगाएका छन् । प्रतिनिधिसभाको भाग्य अदालतको बेन्चमा छ । बेन्चले आफ्नै मर्यादाका लागि कानुनकर्मीहरूको बारसँग बहस गरिरहेको छ । .......... सन् २०१५ देखिको निरन्तर सत्ता कब्जा अभियानले गर्दा संवैधानिक अंगहरूमा कार्यपालिकाको एकछत्र नियन्त्रण कायम भइसकेको छ । गणतन्त्र दिवस समारोहसमेत आफ्नो परिसरमा आयोजन गर्न लगाएर जंगी अड्डाले आफ्नो वर्चस्व स्पष्ट गरेको छ । आवरणमा संवैधानिकताको रूप कायम रहे पनि स्वायत्तता, समानता, बन्धुत्व एवं धर्मनिरपेक्षता गरी संघीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्रका चारवटै खम्बालाई भित्रैदेखि खोक्रो बनाउन सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओली ‘सफल’ भएका छन् । नेपालको शासन–सत्तालाई आफ्नो निर्देशनअनुसार सञ्चालन गर्न इच्छुक शक्तिहरू सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीलाई अझ बढी ‘सफल’ बनाउन उद्यत देखिन्छन् । ............ खाने मुख दुइटा एवं पचाउने पेट एउटै भएपछि अजीर्ण हुने पक्कापक्की देखेर सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीले प्रतिस्पर्धीको मुखमा बेलैमा बुजो लगाएर तिनको राजनीतिक आधार ध्वस्त गरिदिएका थिए । धनाढ्यतन्त्र (प्लुटोक्रेसी) चलाउन एकल नियन्त्रण आवश्यक हुन्छ । संविधानवादलाई तबाह गरेर सी विचारधारा संस्थागत गर्न गरिएको प्रयत्नले गर्दा दुवै सिद्धान्त एकसाथ समाप्त भएका छन् । सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीले बाहिरी टेको ठम्याएर भित्री टेक्ने ठाउँ खोजिरहेका छन् । उनका प्रतिद्वन्द्वीहरूसँग न टेक्ने ठाउँ छ, न त समाउन सक्ने दह्रो टेको ! ............. लाग्छ, मूलतः मधेसमा मताधार भएका दुवै संघटक दलहरूको विभाजन पनि विलयजत्तिकै चामत्कारिक हुनेछ ।

मधेस र मधेसी शब्दसँग सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीको प्रत्यूर्जता (एलर्जी) अहिले पनि यथावत् छ ।

............ अदालतको फैसला कुरेर बसेका पूर्वराजपाका केही राजनीतिकर्मीहरू आफ्ना मुद्दालाई थाती राखेर धोती, कुर्ता र बन्डीमा इस्त्री लगाउन लागिपरेका छन् । ........ भारतीय जनता पार्टीले ब्राह्मण–वैश्य गठजोडको नियन्त्रणमा अजेय मताधार तयार गरेको छ । ....... आफ्नो सातवर्षे कार्यकालभित्र प्रधानमन्त्री मोदीले संवैधानिकता, संघीयता, समावेशिता, धर्मनिरपेक्षताजस्ता भारतीय गणतन्त्रका स्थापकीय मान्यताहरूलाई तहसनहस पारिदिएका छन् । सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओली भारतीय प्रधानमन्त्रीका लघु संस्करण हुन् । उनले सितिमिति बालुवाटार खाली गर्नेवाला छैनन् । उनलाई विस्थापित गर्न नेपाली कांग्रेसलाई हतार छैन । ........... सर्वेसर्वा शर्मा ओलीको विस्थापन राजनीतिक संवैधानिकताको ‘आवश्यकताको सिद्धान्त’ अनुसार हुन्छ वा संवैधानिक राजनीतिको प्रतिस्पर्धाको खेलद्वारा भन्ने कुरा आन्तरिक परिस्थितिभन्दा पनि बाह्य खेलाडीहरूको शक्ति सन्तुलनबाट निश्चित हुने सम्भावना बढी छ ।

महन्थ ठाकुरलाई केन्द्रीय कार्यकारिणी समिति सदस्यको हस्ताक्षरसहितको निर्णय पेस गर्न आयोगको पत्र आयोगले दुवै पक्षलाई भन्यो- 'अनुसूची- १८' को ढाँचामा विवरण पेस गर्नु ...... ठाकुरलाई केन्द्रीय कार्यकारिणी समितिका सदस्यको हस्ताक्षर यति दिनभित्र पेस गर्नु भनेर समय भने नतोकिएको श्रेष्ठले जानकारी दिए । श्रेष्ठले भने, 'हस्ताक्षर पेस गर्न कति समय लाग्ला र ? १ हप्ता लाग्ला । हस्ताक्षरसहितको निर्णय पेस नगरेसम्म उहाँहरूले मागेजस्तो प्रक्रिया अघि बढ्दैन ।' ......... जसपाको ५१ सदस्यीय केन्द्रीय कार्यकारिणीमा यादव पक्ष बहुमतमा छ । केही सदस्यले आफू कतातिर भन्ने प्रष्ट नपारिसकेको भएपनि महन्थ ठाकुरको पक्षमा २२ केन्द्रीय कार्यकारिणी सदस्य मात्रै छन् ।

ढुंगा–गिट्टी निकासी : सरकार, हलो काटेर मुंग्रो नबनाऊ सरकारले आर्थिक वर्ष २०७८–७९ को बजेटमार्फत गरेको देशको बालुवा, गिट्टी, ढुंगा निकासी फुकुवाको घोषणा आपत्तिजनक मात्र होइन, सरासर राष्ट्रघाती नै छ । देशभित्रका पूर्वाधार निर्माण र लुकीछिपी चोरी निकासीका निम्ति भैरहेको अन्धाधुन्द प्रकृति दोहनका दुष्परिणामहरू हामीले अहिले नै खेप्न थालिसकेका छौं । ........ अझ सरकारले वैधानिक रूपमै खानीजन्य पदार्थहरूको निकासी खुला गरिदिँदा त्यसको विध्वंसात्मक असर कति भयावहपूर्ण होला, सहजै अनुमान गर्न सकिन्छ । यसो गरिएमा प्रश्नै छैन,

केही वर्षमै देखिने गरी नै चुरे–पहाड बगर बन्नेछ र मुलुकको आधा जनसंख्या बसोबास गर्ने तराई–मधेस मरुभूमीकरण हुनेछ ।

तसर्थ, सरकारले व्यापारको बहानामा देश र जनताका निम्ति यति विघ्न घातक हुने कार्य कुनै पनि हालतमा अगाडि बढाउनु हुन्न । आफ्नो नीतिगत विचलनबाट पछि हट्दै उसले यो निर्णय सहर्ष फिर्ता लिनैपर्छ । ........ सरकारसमक्ष प्रचुर दबाब पुगेन वा सम्बन्धित नेतृत्वले विवेक पुर्‍याएन भने निश्चय नै यो निर्णय अविलम्ब कार्यान्वयनमा आउनेछ । आखिर, नेपालमा बजेटको हुबहु कार्यान्वयन हुने भनेकै तलब–भत्ता वृद्धि र प्रायः यस्तै स्वार्थ समूहको हित जोडिएका विषय मात्रै त हुन् । त्यसैले चाँडोभन्दा चाँडो सरकारले यसबारे पुनर्विचार गर्नुपर्छ । नत्र, यो निर्णय कार्यान्वयनले समग्र चुरेभावरको पारिस्थितिक प्रणाली र जैविक विविधतालाई खलबल्याउनेछ । र, चुरे नासिँदा तराईमा बाढीको बबन्डर मात्र मच्चिँदैन, भूमिगत पानी पनि उति नै मात्रामा नासिँदै जान्छ । पहिले–पहिले यसो खोस्रिँदै पानी आउने कति ठाउँमा अहिले नै पम्प गाड्न सय मिटरभन्दा गहिरो खन्नुपर्ने भैसकेको छ । ......... पछिल्लो समय क्रसर व्यवसायीले वन क्षेत्रसमेत पर्ने ३० स्थानमा खानी चलाउन वन मन्त्रालयसमक्ष दबाब दिइरहेका थिए । यही परिप्रेक्ष्यमा स्वार्थ समूहको प्रभावमा परी यस्तो निर्णय लिइएको हुन सक्छ । या ‘प्रकृति–पृथ्वी जेसुकै होस्, जसरी पनि पैसा आओस्’ भन्ने शैलीको सोच राख्ने प्राविधिज्ञ/विषयविज्ञको सल्लाह सुनेर जिम्मेवार नेतृत्वले अञ्जानवश नै यसो गरेको पनि हुन सक्छ । कुरा जे होस्— चालबाजी भए पनि, नियत नभए पनि यो निर्णय खतरनाक छ । यसबाट प्रकृतिको मनपरी दोहन मात्र हुने छैन, मुलुकमा ‘डनतन्त्र’ पनि झनै मौलाउनेछ । अहिले नै क्रसर उद्योगहरू बढी भएका जिल्लामा प्रमुख जिल्ला अधिकारी र प्रहरी प्रमुखसँगसँगै यस्ता उद्योगीहरूको ‘समानान्तर सत्ता’ चल्ने गरेको तथ्य छिपेको छैन । अझ कति जनप्रतिनिधिदेखि जिम्मेवार अधिकारीहरूसम्मको यसमा गोप्य लगानी भएकैले मापदण्ड मिचेर प्रकृति तथा नदीजन्य पदार्थको सहजै दोहन हुने गरेको खुला रहस्यै छ । सरकारले ‘निकासी गरिने खानीजन्य निर्माण सामग्रीको परिवहनका लागि उद्योगदेखि निकासी विन्दुसम्म रोपवे निर्माण गर्न आयातमा लाग्ने भन्सार महसुलमा छुट’ समेत गरेकाले कतै सम्पूर्ण ‘सेटिङ’ मै यो काम भैरहेको त छैन भन्ने आशंका पनि छ । त्यसैले, स्वार्थ समूहबाहेक कसैलाई फाइदा नपुग्ने कामको पछाडि सरकार दौडिन छाड्नुपर्छ । ............ गिट्टी–ढुंगा निकासीबाट धेरथोर व्यापार भएर अलिअलि घाटा पनि पुर्ताल भएछ रे लौ, तर पनि यसरी हलो तासेर मुंग्रो बनाउने कार्य कसैगरी स्वीकार्य हुन सक्दैन । हामीले गुमाउने पर्यावरणीय मूल्यको भार राजस्व र व्यापारको हिस्साले धान्न सक्दैन ।

आधा जनसंख्याको बिल्लबाठ गराउने सरकारी निर्णय सरकारले जे तर्क गरे पनि ढुंगागिटीको निकासी खोल्नु भनेकै चुरे सक्नु हो ......... अर्थमन्त्रीले शनिबार बजेट वक्तव्य वाचन गर्दा बुँदा नम्बर १९९ पढ्नेबित्तिकै त्यसपछिका कुरा सुन्न छाडेर चुरे संरक्षण अभियानमा लागेका अभियन्ताहरूबीच चिन्ताका विद्युतीय सन्देश आदानप्रदान सुरू भइसकेको थियो। ........ ढुंगागिटी निकासीको मामिलामा चुरे भनेर किटान गरिरहनैपर्दैन, किनभने अहिलेको अवस्थामा चुरेबाहेक अन्यत्रका खानी उत्खनन् गरेर निकासी गर्नु आर्थिक रूपले फाइदाजनक देखिँदैन। भारतीय बजारसँग नजिक र पूर्वाधारसमेत पुगेको चुरेका नदीखोला खोस्रिएर अकुत कमाउने ठाउँ हुँदाहुँदै क्रसर उद्योगहरू त्यसलाई छाडेर सडक, बिजुलीबत्तीजस्ता पूर्वाधार नभएका मध्यपहाडी खानीस्थलहरूसम्म पुग्छन् भनी पत्याउने आधार वास्तवमा छैन। ......... ललितपुर, भक्तपुर, सिन्धुपाल्चोकका कतिपय डाँडा क्रसरवालाहरूले सखाप पारेका दृश्य हाम्रै आँखासामुन्ने छन्। ........... सरकारले यति संवेदनशील विषयमा तराई-मधेसका बासिन्दा, प्रादेशिक सरकारहरू र वातावरण तथा पर्यावरण विज्ञहरूसँग छलफल र सार्वजनिक बहस नै नगरी एकाएक निकासी खोल्नुले नियत ठिक नभएको दर्शाउँछ। ढुंगागिटी, बालुवा निकासी गर्दा त्यसले तराई–मधेस क्षेत्रका भावी सन्ततिलाई पर्ने दीर्घकालीन असर र ती क्षेत्रमा पानीका स्रोतहरू सुकेर सिंगो बस्ती नै उठिबास हुने अवस्थाप्रति सरकार संवेदनशील देखिँदैन। .......... चुरे क्षेत्रको माटो एकदमै कमजोर छ। कमजोर भूबनोटका कारण यहाँ ढुंगागिटी अत्यधिक खोस्रियो भने नदीको बहाव तीव्र हुन्छ। यसले माथिको माटो सोहोरेर पहिरोको जोखिम बढाउँछ र नदीको तीव्र बहावले बगाएर ल्याउने बालुवा तराई–मधेस क्षेत्रमा थुप्रिँदै जान्छ। ........ विगतमा चुरे क्षेत्रबाट अनधिकृत रूपले ढुंगामाटो खोस्रिँदा प्रतिकूल असरहरू देखिएका थुप्रै उदाहरण छन्। यसले चुरेको पानी सञ्चय गर्ने क्षमता गुमेको छ। चुरेले पानी सोस्न नसकेपछि तराई–मधेसका धेरै गाउँमा इनारहरू सुकेका छन्। कतिपय गाउँका बासिन्दा विस्थापित भएका छन्। बर्खामा आएको भलले बस्ती नै बगाउँदा रौतहट, धनुषा, सप्तरी र सिराहाका कयौं गाउँ बस्नलायक छैनन्। ......... अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय स्तरमै नाम कहलिएका बाघ, गैंडा, गोही, मयूरजस्ता अनगिन्ती लोपोन्मुख पशुपन्छी र वन्यजन्तुको बासस्थान हो चुरे-भावर क्षेत्र। चुरे दोहनले मानवीय बसोबास सँगसँगै यी सबै प्राकृतिक सम्पदाले पनि आफ्नो आश्रयस्थल गुमाउनेछन्। ......... यही समस्या हेरेर सरकारले २०६६ सालपछि पटक–पटक ढुंगागिटी निकाल्ने मापदण्ड तोकेको थियो। तर, ती मापदण्ड कार्यान्वयन भएनन्।

क्रसर उद्योग चलाउने र तिनलाई संरक्षण गर्ने राजनीतिक दलका नेताहरू सरकारभन्दा बलिया थिए।

क्रसर उद्योगहरूको दादागिरीका कारण मापदण्ड लामो समय निष्क्रिय रहे। कतिपयले त कुरा नबुझेर ‘नेपालको सेतो सुन भनेकै ढुंगागिटी हो’ भन्दै निकासीको पक्षमा वकालत नै गरे। ............ चुरे विनाशलीलाका भुक्तमान तराई–मधेसका धेरै जनतालाई समेत आफूले भोग्नुपरेको सुख्खा र बाढीको खास कारण चुरे दोहन हो भन्ने थाहा थिएन। उनीहरू भाग्यलाई सराप्थे र एउटा ठाउँमा बाँच्न कठिन भएपछि लालाबाला च्यापेर अर्को ठाउँ बसाइ सर्थे। ........ निर्यात गर्दा तोकिनुपर्ने मूल्य नतोकेका कारण सरकारको राजस्व पनि गुमेको थियो। यसबाट क्रसर उद्योग र ठेकेदारहरू त लाभान्वित थिए, तर आमनेपालीले केही पाएका थिएनन्। उल्टो हाम्रो प्राकृतिक स्रोत विनाश भइरहेको थियो, तराई–मधेस क्षेत्रमा दीर्घकालीन खडेरीको संकट निम्त्याउँदै थियो र मधेसका जनताको उठिबास हुँदै थियो। .......... क्रसर उद्योगहरूलाई चुरेको फेदी, मानवबस्ती, नदी, राष्ट्रिय राजमार्ग, विद्युत प्रसारण लाइनबाट पाँच सय मिटरदेखि दुई किलोमिटरसम्म टाढा सार्ने गरी मापदण्ड लागू गरियो। ........... हामीकहाँ ढुंगागिटीलाई ‘सेतो सुन’ मान्दै यसको निकासीबाट विदेशी मुद्रा आर्जन गर्न, राजस्व बढाउन र देश धनी बनाउन सकिन्छ भन्ठान्ने सरकारले मध्यपहाडी र हिमाली क्षेत्रका ढुंगाखानी उत्खनन् र थप खानी पहिचान गर्न कुनै चासो नदेखाउनु उदेकलाग्दो छ। ...........

नेपालमा विस्तृत भौगर्भिक अध्ययनबिना खनिएका सडकले पश्चिम बैतडीदेखि पूर्व पाँचथरसम्मका हजारौं बस्तीमा पानीका मुहान सुकेका छन्। पानी लाग्ने खेत सुख्खा टारमा परिणत भएका छन्।

पछिल्लो ठूलो भुइँचालोले जमिन हल्लिएर पानीका धेरै मूल सुकेको यही सरकारका मन्त्रीहरूले पनि देखेकै हुन्। ........... चुरे मात्र होइन, नेपालका सबै पहाड बहुमूल्य स्वच्छ पानीका प्राकृतिक भण्डार हुन्। यिनको मूल्यभन्दा बढी ढुंगागिटीको मूल्य नहोला। .......

चुरे क्षेत्रबाट ढुंगागिटी झिकेर १२–१३ सय प्रतिशत फाइदा कमाउने रस बसेका क्रसरवालाहरू

सरकारले भन्दैमा लगानीको जोखिम मोलेर मध्यपहाडी खानीस्थलसम्म उक्लन्छन् भनेर हामी आश गर्न सक्दैनौं। ....... जसरी हामीलाई दैनिक नुन चाहिन्छ, विकास निर्माणमा गिटी पनि त्यस्तै हो। यसैको फाइदा उठाउँदै क्रसर उद्योगहरू जतिसुकै ठूलो लप्पनछप्पन गरेर वा जतिसुकै माथिल्लो पहुँच लगाएर भए पनि आफ्नो कारोबारलाई निरन्तरता दिइरहन चाहन्छन्। ......... लामो समयको अथक प्रयास, थुप्रै नीतिगत सुधार र धेरै विज्ञ तथा प्रशासकहरूको जोडबलपछि हामी चुरे दोहनको दलदलबाट बल्लतल्ल बाहिर निस्कँदैछ। सरकारले व्यापार घाटाका नाममा ढुंगागिटी, बालुवा निकासी खुला गर्नु भनेको फेरि त्यही दलदलमा जाकिनु हो। ............ हामीकहाँ क्रसरवालाहरूको एउटा गिरोह छ। गलत नियत भएका राजनीतिज्ञहरूले त्यस्तो गिरोहलाई छहारी दिँदै आएका छन्। क्रसर उद्योगबाट हुने अकुत कमाइ राजनीतिज्ञहरूको निम्ति आम्दानीको ठूलो स्रोत बन्दै आएको छ। कामदार आफैं पनि ज्यालाभन्दा अरू लाभले आकर्षित छन्।

कतिपय अवस्थामा मालिक नै अदृश्य हुन्छन्। गाउँलेहरूले बस्ती विनाश भइरहेको जान्दाजान्दै विरोध गर्न सक्दैनन्।

.......... यो एक किसिमले अपराधसँग गाँसिएको र असीमित नाफा कमाउने रक्तचन्दनको तस्करीजस्तै हो, जसमा बाहुबलको अत्यधिक प्रयोग हुन्छ र जसलाई राजनीतिक साँठगाँठले प्रश्रय दिन्छ।

अहिले बिनातयारी र बिनाछलफल जसरी हचुवा भरमा ढुंगागिटी निकासी खुला गरिएको छ, त्यसले क्रसर उद्योगसँगको राजनीतिक साँठगाँठ उजागर गर्छ।

.......... नेपाली ढुंगाको एउटा ठूलो सम्भाव्य बजार युरोप पनि हो। भारतले राजस्थान, महाराष्ट्र र आन्ध्रप्रदेशबाट ठूलो परिमाणको ढुंगा युरोपेली मुलुकहरूमा निकासी गर्दै आएको छ। त्यो बजार हामी पनि उपयोग गर्न सक्छौं। ........ काठमाडौं उपत्यकाको माग पूरा गर्न कास्की, धादिङ लगायत ठाउँमा क्रसर उद्योगहरू खुले। चुरे–भावर क्षेत्रबाट निकालिएका ढुंगागिटी भने भारत निकासी हुन थाल्यो। ......... यसरी भारत र नेपालको बढ्दो बजारलाई लक्ष्य गरेर चुरे क्षेत्रमा धमाधम क्रसर खुल्न थालेपछि वातावरणीय तथा पर्यावरणीय विनाशको शृंखला सुरू भयो, जसले तराई–मधेस क्षेत्रलाई मरूभूमीकरणको संघारमा पुर्‍यायो। ........ बजेटको अघिल्लो दिन सार्वजनिक नीति तथा कार्यक्रममा समेत यसबारे चुइँक्क बोलिएन। देशको आधाभन्दा बढी जनसंख्या बसोबास गर्ने भू–भागको दुरगामी भविष्यसँग जोडिएको विषयमा जनतालाई अन्धकारमा राखेर निर्णय गर्नु सरकारको बेइमानी हो, जनताप्रति धोकेबाजी हो।

ठाकुर–महतोलाई ८ मन्त्रालय एक–दुई दिनमै सरकारमा सहभागी हुने सम्भावना छ। स्रोतका अनुसार ठाकुर पक्ष गृह मन्त्रालयबिनै सरकारमा सहभागी हुन लागेको हो। सो समूहले गृह मन्त्रालयमा पाउनुपर्ने दाबी गर्दै आएका थियो। ....... स्रोतका अनुसार महतो जसपाबाट नेतृत्व गर्दै सरकारमा जाने प्रबल सम्भावना छ। ....... सरकारमा जान शरत्सिंह भण्डारी, राजकिशोर यादव र अनिल झाले पनि इच्छा देखाएका छन्। उनीहरूको सम्भावना प्रबल रहेको स्रोतले बतायो। उपेन्द्र यादव पक्षबाट कित्ता परिवर्तन गरेका सांसद उमाशंकर अरगरैया, विमल श्रीवास्तव, कल्लुदेवी विश्वकर्मा, रेणुका गुरुङ र रुहीनाथलाई मन्त्री बनाउन ठाकुरलाई दबाब बढेको छ। यीमध्येबाट अरगरैया र श्रीवास्तवको सम्भावना रहेको स्रोतले बतायो। यसैगरी प्रमोद साहलाई पनि मन्त्री बनाउन ठाकुर—महतो पक्षलाई दबाब छ। ठाकुरका सम्धी उमाकान्त झा पनि मन्त्री बन्ने प्रबल सम्भावना छ। ........... प्रधानमन्त्रीसँग अहिले रक्षासहित ८ वटा मन्त्रालय खाली छन्। गृह, जलस्रोत तथा ऊर्जा, सहरी विकास, श्रम तथा रोजगार, युवा तथा खेलकुद, खानेपानी, उद्योग, वाणिज्य तथा आपपूर्ति मन्त्रालय मन्त्रीविहीन छन्। यिनै मन्त्रालय ठाकुर–महतो पक्षलाई दिन ओली तयार भएको स्रोतले बतायो। ......... प्रधानमन्त्री र जसपाका नेताहरूबीच भएको वार्तामा यसबारेमा पनि कुराकानी भएको स्रोतले बतायो। त्यो अवस्था आएमा कानुनी अड्चन हटाउन ठाकुर पक्षले प्रधानमन्त्रीसँग सहयोग मागेको स्रोतको भनाइ छ। ‘त्यसैले सरकारमा जानुअघि नै कार्यकारिणीमा बहुमत जुटाउन ठाकुर—महतो सक्रिय भएका छन्’, स्रोतले भन्यो। यता अर्का अध्यक्ष उपेन्द्र यादवले ठाकुर–महतो पक्षका नेतालाई कारबाही गर्न सबै कानुनी प्रक्रिया पूरा गरेका छन्। ‘हामी अझै पनि उहाँहरू सही बाटोमा फर्कनुहुनेछ भन्ने आशामा छौं’, यादवले भने, ‘तर कार्यकारिणी समितिको निर्णयविपरीत उहाँहरू सरकारमा जानुभयो भने पार्टीले निष्कासन गर्नेछ। यो कार्यकारिणीको निर्णय हो।’