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BCN organizes welcome program

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Aimed at bringing all the Bhutanese in the Netherlands together and to assist them keep their spirit high, Bhutanese Community in the Netherlands (BCN) organized a cultural program to welcome the new arrivals.

The organizing committee informed BNS that various cultural shows including typical Nepali cultural dances and songs were performed during the program. Meanwhile, attractive and reliving programs of musicals, songs, and sharing of views were seen in order one after the other.

Artists perform music. Photo/BCN
Artists perform music. Photo/BCN

The organizer further informed that children, who had been busy already since a month with the rehearsals, were seen elated and enthusiastic.

BCN mentioned that the Association of Bhutanese in Norway and fellow Bhutanese from other European countries expressed their solidarity and sent wishes for the success of the program. It is reported that Hem Acharya attended the program on behalf of Bhutanese living in Belgium.

Around 30 artists presented their performances. As a token of appreciation, BCN awarded all the artists a small gift.

Speaking at end of the program, Dr. Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal we, who chairs the BCN, welcomed all the new comers and cautioned that “the Netherlands is a beautiful country with hospitable people. But it is one of the most difficult countries for immigrants to excel and to be financially independent.”

“Though Bhutanese are very hard working people, Dutch language has proven to be a major barrier to their progress.”

Bhutan sees the country’s first governor

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Governor of Bhutan, Central Bank of Bhutan, Bank of Bhutan, Daw Tenzin, Royal Monetary Authority
Bhutan sees the country’s first governor
In a bid to open up democratically, the government has appointed Daw Tenzin as the country’s first Governor of the freshly conceptualised Central Bank of Bhutan, which was recently transformed from the Bank of Bhutan
Tenzin was serving at the Royal Monetary Authority under the Ministry of Finance as the Managing Director since 2003.
“The position is a challenging one, considering that the country is developing,” the government’s mouthpiece Kuensel quoted Tenzin as saying.
The Governor admitted that new things are happening in the country and the financial institutions are not very old.
With this appointment, new notes to be printed hereafter will carry the Governor’s signature.
In a bid to open up democratically, the government has appointed Daw Tenzin as the country’s first Governor of the freshly conceptualised Central Bank of Bhutan, which was recently transformed from the Bank of Bhutan.
Tenzin was serving at the Royal Monetary Authority under the Ministry of Finance as the Managing Director since 2003.
“The position is a challenging one, considering that the country is developing,” the government’s mouthpiece Kuensel quoted Tenzin as saying.
The Governor admitted that new things are happening in the country and the financial institutions are not very old.
With this appointment, new notes to be printed hereafter will carry the Governor’s signature.

UPDATE: Missing man found in NC

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Dal Bahadur Sinchuri, who went missing from his Greensboro-based new home in North Carolina since Friday, returned home today afternoon with the help of police.

Pashupati Acharya from Greensboro informed BNS over telephone that Sinchuri, 58, was found near a highway at an estimated distance of 30 miles away from his new home.

Formerly hailed from Morang-based Sanichare camp in Nepal, Sinchuri was resettled in Greensboro along with his other three members’ family that includes his wife, son and daughter-in-law.

Acharya quoted Sinchuri as saying that he lost his way.

RKD-Nepali PM Meeting

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The first part features a conversation with couple from Goldhap on mix-marriage followed by conversation between RK Dorji and Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali PM. In the second part, you can listen to Krishna Dharabasi – the writer of a famous novel ‘Saranarthi’.

BNS journo mourns grandpa’s death

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The oldest member of Bhutanese community in Australia, Dhana Pati Poudel, grandfather of the editor of Radio Bhutan Online, Ichha Poudel, died at the age of 98 at Lyell McEwin Hospital at Elizabeth, Adelaide on Saturday.

Editor Poudel with his grandfather
Editor Poudel with his grandfather /Vikram Adhikari

The preparation for final rituals will probably start only on Monday when all offices reopen here and is likely to be cremated according to Hindu traditions by Wednesday.

With the death of Poudel, Bhutanese Diaspora has lost a resourceful person of Lhotsampa history in Bhutan. Poudel, who worked in East India Company offices in his age, was one of the oldest politically aware personalities of Bhutanese community. He was also a stern advocate of the social justice who always stood for the socially inclusive community in Diaspora.

Meanwhile, BNS has extended heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family of late Poudel. “We are really sorry to hear this news and we take the side of Ichha Poudel, one of our senior board members at this hour,” said Buddha Mani Dhakal in a condolence message.

Dhakal further added that Dhanapati’s death has caused a great loss not only to Ichha, but to entire Bhutanese communities.

Man went missing just after resettlement

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In less than a week of his resettlement in USA, a Bhutanese man has gone missing from his Greensboro-based new home in North Carolina.

Pashupati Acharya from Greensboro informed BNS over telephone that Dal Bahadur Sinchuri, 58, went missing from home since Friday afternoon. Acharya quoted employees at a glossary store run by a Nepali national, nearby his new home, as informing that Sinchuri, who was last seen there to buy cigarette, hasn’t yet returned home.

Formerly hailed from Morang-based Sanichare camp in Nepal, Sinchuri was resettled in Greensboro along with his other three members’ family that includes his wife, son and daughter-in-law.

According to Acharya, police have expedited the search to find the whereabouts of missing Sinchuri. His relatives informed that Sinchuri, who do not speak or write English, also has a hearing problem.

Crawling towards success

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Kesab talks to BNS. Photo/Author
Kesab talks to BNS. Photo/Author

By chance if you happen to meet this young boy and that you start to chat with him in English, you might feel he already adopted the American life and he might be an abhorrence of his family’s long practiced tradition.  A two-year old in USA, he speaks as fluently as an American child does, if not exactly.

Hardly it is convincing that the youngest generation, preferably below the start of teen epoch, once upon their arrival in the USA, keep their pique alive to promote culture and tradition. But, this young boy proved otherwise—where there is will there is way.

“It is a Nepali tradition and everybody should do it,” maintains Keshab Poudel, 11, who stepped into my apartment to paste “naag”, a sheet of paper portraying snakes to signify ‘naag panchami,’ an ancient Hindu tradition, early today morning along with his younger brother, Hemant, 6.

In Hindu tradition, today is observed as ‘Naag Panchami’, which is dedicated to honor the Serpent God or Naag Devta. Falling on the fifth day of bright-half phase of full moon of Shravan in July/August, reverence for the cobra (snakes) are paid. In Hindu mythology, fairly widespread before the Aryan invasion, worshipping of snakes or Naag was later incorporated into Hinduism by the Aryan themselves. Hindu Mythological books are famously filled with stories, fables and pictures of snakes.

Keshab, who learned about “naag panchami” when he was six-years-old in Bhutanese Refugee Camp Sanischare in Eastern Nepal, hastily adds that this time his ‘grandpa,’ in his own words, reminded him of the day. When asked if he did it to earn some money, he says “I am doing it for fun and on the meantime, this is our tradition and everybody should do it.”

A sixth grader at the Raleigh-based West Millbrook Middle School in North Carolina, Keshab, arrived in the USA along with his entire family three years back. The hearsays in refugee camps that people won’t be actually keen to conserve their culture and traditions after third country resettlement is actually proven wrong by these Poudel brothers, who look determined to follow their family’s long-practiced traditions even though their lifestyle started to be enveloped by modernization.

Keshab, right, takes help of his younger brother, Hemant, to paste "naag". Photo/Author
Keshab, right, takes help of his younger brother, Hemant, to paste "naag". Photo/Author

At a time when most of their fellow mates after resettlement have started finding intricate to cope with their family tradition amidst a new life in a new atmosphere, the young Poudel brothers, in one sense, surfaced as “paradigm of encouragement.” When Keshab readies himself to speak on the BNS voice recorder, his grandpa flashes smiley eagerness as if to mean he understood what his grandson was talking, but to no avail, for Keshav spoke in English—a never-learn language for grandpa.

Click here to listen to a portion of Keshab’s interview with BNS.

Keshab’s aim lives up as high as sky as he has a strapping dream of becoming a scientist in future. A brilliant student in Science and Mathematics, he perhaps finds a bit odd in the circle of his American friends at the school. “I have learned so many things from my friends and yet I feel I got to learn many things,” says Keshab.

For Keshab, the offer of resettlement has explored many ways to build up better future career. He opines that had he still been living in temporary refugee camps in Nepal, he could have ruined his life for lives in camps had always backpedaled attempts to seek better opportunities. Now he spends his holiday times, not simply staying at home, but focusing on studies—be it by sitting in the libraries or by bringing books to home to continue studying.

The future course of time will attest whether or not Keshav becomes a scientist in future but the clear undeniable fact is if he keeps up his determination and dedication always high, he is in a place encircled by opportunities; good luck, Keshab.

Click here to see photograph portraying another Bhutanese in Raleigh pasting the “naag”.

The author, who blogs at www.tpmishra.com, can be reached at: [email protected].

Bhutan refugee Ram Rai says thanks, U.S.A.

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mw refugee.jpg
Ram/John Suchocki

After living for more than 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal, Ram Rai is very happy to be settled here.

“We had nothing there. I want to thank America for giving us a chance to start a new life,” the 30-year-old man said during a recent interview at Lutheran Social Services of New England, where he is a caseworker. “We are struggling, but hopefully we can pass through this phase and make a contribution to America.”

Rai, whose family moved from Nepal to Bhutan four generations ago, was among the ethnic Nepali driven from Bhutan about 20 years ago. The government was bent on having a “one people, one nation policy,” he says.

Rai and his family were among about 120,000 ethnic Nepali living in seven refugee camps in Nepal. Rai was truly a man without a country as Nepal would not grant citizenship to the ethnic Nepali driven out of Bhutan.

Bhutan is a small, landlocked country wedged between India and China. It has a population of little more than a half million people.

The camp in which Rai lived had about 10,000 people living in huts. At first, the inhabitants used the jungle as bathrooms, but after people became ill and died, latrines screened by bamboo were provided. There was one water tap for 115 to 125 families. The wait in line for water could take as long as three hours. Sometimes the lines were too long to get any water at all, Rai said.

Despite the hardships he has endured, Rai, a slightly built, soft-spoken man with glasses, is quick to flash a wide smile.

He was educated at a school in the camp and went on to get a degree in English and sociology from Mahendra Morang College in Birathnagar, Nepal. Rai went on to teach English in Katmandu, all the while having to go back and spend weekends in the camp.

Since moving to West Springfield about a year-and-a-half ago, he has learned about such conveniences many Americans take for granted, like driving a car and using credit and ATM cards. “At first I was confused about how to use the cards,” Rai said.

His work at Lutheran Social Services of New England lets him help other refugees get resettled in the area.

“For me, it is OK, but I worry about my people who have no English at all,” he said. “Some refugees don’t even know how to write their name.”

Lutheran Social Services, a nonprofit group loosely affiliated with the Lutheran Church, works with about 300 refugees a year to get them settled in this country. It helps with everything from learning English to filling out employment applications. It is now working mainly with refugees from Bhutan, Iraq, Nepal, Somalia and Burma, the country now known as Myanmar.

Despite all the challenges of adopting a new country, Rai said the refugees have been wise to come to the United States.

“They made the right decision to come here,” he said.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected].)
Courtesy : Masslive, USA

Girl gang-raped in Sanischare

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A 15-year-old girl of Sanishchare camp of Morang district was gang- raped by six youths of same place on August 11.

Police arrested Suman Rai, 18, Nageshwor Chaudhary, 19, on alleged charge of raping the girl. Four of the accused are being hunted by police.

According to Sub-Inspector Gaurav Subba of area police office  at Urlabari, six youths  gang-raped her while she had gone to nearby jungle.

The victim underwent medical check-up at Koshi Zonal Hospital, Biratnagar on August 11, reported INSEC, Nepal.


Open letter to Stephane Jaquemet

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Date: August 10, 2010

The UNHCR country representative in Nepal
Mr. Stephane Jaquemet

Subject: Earnest plea over genuine concernsDear Stephane,
I hope you are keeping well. Congratulations to your esteemed agency for becoming successful to resettle 30,000+ Bhutanese refugees in various western countries in a short span of time. Indeed, this is one of the greatest achievements, for which the UNHCR should be doubtlessly eulogized. A majority of resettled Bhutanese have started to live up with a new hope, new dreams, and a new life—the progress for which is yet to be seen. It was very pleasurable to go through your interview in the official website of Bhutan News Service (BNS), our community’s most popular and trusted news portal. I believe that the audiences were updated with much useful information through the interview; thanks to both the interviewer and the interviewee.

Bhutanese refugees in fact feel themselves lucky and are grateful to your esteemed agency and your implementing partners for the continued support since the establishment of refugee camps. At times, when refugees were struggling for the food and shelter, the entry of UNHCR in their care was kind of great fortune for them, which to some extend, helped them to relieve the pain of eviction from their mother land. The humanitarian efforts rendered by the agencies to meet the basic needs of refugees have remained praiseworthy and shall remain at all times.

After nearly two decades of stay in UNHCR-administered camps, the process of third country resettlement began especially at a time when there was unfeasibility of immediate return home program. Amidst all these developments, the UNHCR continued to vow the protection and nourishment of refugee and promised publicly that it won’t withdraw its support to those who do not wish to opt for the offer of third country resettlement. Despite the UNHCR’s commitments, the situation in camps seems dwindling each day. Before I actually enter into the core message of this open letter, let me make you aware that still a portion of refugees do not want to opt for resettlement. This portion includes those who wish either to continue staying in camps or wait for dignified repatriation.

There are basically three major problems blanketing the lives of refugees remaining in camps. In sum-up, degrading education system has greeted a strong sense of frustrations on parents, the fragile security management has really left rooms to doubt as to if refugee camps are safe places to dwell. Above all, the degrading health facilities and negligence of AMDA-Nepal, in particular, as reported in the media and as per the say of camp residents, is gradually leading the deaths of normal patients.

Of late, instances of allegation on AMDA for its negligence have been pouring in. In a month’s time, the relatives of two youths—Ganga Tiwari, 17, from Khudunabari and Rupa Subba, 28, from Beldangi-I camp, have publicly alleged the AMDA-Nepal for its negligence during the treatment of those young lives. There are many rooms to believe AMDA’s laxity, for instance, your tenure at the UNHCR office in Kathmandu began not that long time and there already existed dozens of such negligence-related death cases in the past years.  Often the referral cases of seriously ill patients are delayed and denied. As a result, patients are forced to the mouth of untimely death.

In the interview with BNS, you have clearly mentioned that every one in the refugee camps should have access to medical treatment. The ground reality, however, is a little different. On the other hand, some refugees are losing their lives at young age due to lack of proper medical treatment on the right time and has become ‘fall-guy’ of curable ailment. The way AMDA has rendered its service for such a long time in the medical sector in camps perhaps is commendable. However, the growing concern that ‘AMDA started to pose negligence’ is quite serious and attention seeking. Relatives of late Ganga Tiwari have clearly spelt-out the name of the doctor because of whose negligence Tiwari is said to have lost her life.

Just some weeks after Tiwari’s death, the family members and relatives of late Subba have claimed that she died due to delay in referral to better health centers. Subba is said to have lost her life due to “high doze injection”, in relatives’ own words. If what the victims’ claims were true, it is of course sad to see concerned agencies including the UNHCR maintaining meaningful silence. It is time that your agency takes special measures to probe into the incident to improve health system in camps so that ‘every one in the refugee camps will have access to medical treatment’.

I am clear that it might look doing injustice to your agency but if the same situation continues, for sure it will be read otherwise—the UNHCR and its implementing partners are compelling the refugees to opt for the third country resettlement. It is certain that the souls of the deceased will continue to curse concerned ones involved in the negligence during their treatment. They should not be led free. UNHCR, though has its own working mandate/principle, can still play crucial role to improve its implementing partner’s weaknesses. On one hand,  you are publicly making commitments to continue the humanitarian support to those who do not wish to get resettled until they remain in camps and on the other hand, refugees in the camps are dying of minor diseases due to lack of proper treatment on time.

While comparing with other thing, health is very significant and obviously it comes first; thus, I believe that now the UNHCR will take necessary measures to improve health systems in camps. Let us not hear the news of untimely deaths of more Gangas and Rupas in the future. With sincerity, I hope to see the improvement of health systems in camps, if not a respond to this open letter.

Thanks to the UNHCR and other implementing partners for their selfless service to Bhutanese refugee community in Nepal.

Sincerely,
Khem Khadka
North Carolina, USA
E-mail: [email protected]

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