The load shedding conspiracy

For the whole of a country to remain without power for more than 2/3rd of a day- every day; a catastrophe of sorts should have had occurred. Only if the country in question is not Nepal. In Nepal, this goes on as if this is the way things should have always been.

While interacting with his students in Nepal’s premier Engineering college at Pulchowk, a prominent hydro-power expert of the country makes no bones about the fact that Nepal’s current power crisis is largely artificial. Large volumes of water from one of Nepal’s biggest reservoir-based hydro-power plants at Kulekhani, according to him, were systemically drained during Monsoon, a season when there’s water enough to flood all the rivers. Such reservoir-based plants are meant to collect water during monsoon- for use in winter, when Nepal’s rivers dry up.

The transmission lines damaged by Koshi floods have been repaired, enabling the import of some MegaWatts of electricity from India. Similarly, a quarter of a year has passed since the government released a very-long and serious sounding action-plan to minimize the effects of the power-crisis. That included the distribution of low-power electric bulbs, controlling power-leakage, cutting supplies to hoarding boards, subsidizing alternative power sources and such like. These measures were expected to save almost the same amount of power that is being imported from India. According to predictions of pundits, this would bring down load-shedding hours by half of what it is now. In the meantime, the government would re-operate some thermal power plans and start investing in newer hydro-power projects. In a matter of just ten years, Nepal would produce 10,000 MW of electricity.

It didn’t, therefore, come as a surprise to anybody, when government ministers were shouting from rooftops that load-shedding will soon be a thing of the past. After all, the generator-battery-inverter business had amassed the largest sum of money it could possibly garner in a single year, and possibly even the stocks would have emptied up. To the public eye, there seemed no reason now to continue with such atrocious durations of load shedding. But, the NEA (No Electricity Authority of Nepal) has recently announced that there will be no reduction in the duration of power-outages. Today, twittersphere was abuzz with the news of increased load-shedding duration. For the record, presently, 14 hours every day remain without power. There are some additional hours of unannounced power-cuts at arbitrary times. The rumored new routine will bring back the glorious days of 16-hours of no-power-a-day that people here were experiencing a few weeks ago.

Ok, the civil war that ran for many years (and is still running) slowed down the country’s development works and the corrupt bureaucracy helped make sure that it came to a grinding halt. There’s a difference in the supply and demand of power and some hours of load-shedding is inevitable. But the government feels no obligation to explain the reason for power-problem as serious as this. Never had Nepalese been treated so badly by a government – like they don’t even deserve an honest explanation, and we’re supposedly experiencing the most democratic political process in the nation’s history.

In the NEA’s recent statement citing inability to decrease load-shedding hours despite importing power from India, it has cited the low water levels in the Kulekhani reservoir. We never read in our newspapers about how much has the level of water decreased and why. We never hear our political leaders visiting the reservoir to check the facts and interrogate on how the present situation wasn’t foreseen. On the other hand, respected hydro-power experts complain that nobody cares about the truth and that it’s all part of a big game.

Incidentally, in today’s Kantipur (Nepal’s vernacular daily), former Managing Director of NEA writes about his first-hand experiences about conspiracies in Nepal’s hydro-power sector.

To satisfy the sadist in me, let me mention a fact that means nothing, and sounds much like a boisterous laughter from the conglomerate of Nepal’s political leadership: ours is a country whose power potential is roughly 83,000 MW, which is equivalent to the combined installed hydroelectricity capacity of Canada, the United States and Mexico (reference), although less than 1 percent has been developed (reference).

Conspiracy, catastrophe, mockery and irresponsibility by politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and media go on hand in hand with life, so blissed to be so utterly ignorant and so happily incapable of any voice and resistance, of anything at all beyond frustration, dejection and surrender. Of course, in Nepal, all this and more go on as if this is the way things should have always been.

Read my past writings about the load-shedding:
More Darkness
Diversity in Darkness

Diversity in Darkness

Darkness
One reason why I haven’t been able to blog frequently is the latest improvement in the load-shedding schedule (of which I have now lost track). The improvement took the duration of power outages to 16 hours and then, sadly, brought it down to 14 hours. Oh, I forgot to mention the unit, that’s hours per day- yes, 16 hours per day. There were rumors of more improvements which, much to my dismay, haven’t been declared as of yet. The illegal act of bringing down the duration to 10-hours a day, sadly was a failed conspiracy on part of some anti-national elements, very likely “foreign elements” or “domestic regressive and fundamentalist forces.” So, that’s an update to my earlier post on the divine darkness on this divine land.

Ok, there’s a reason for adding that adjective before “darkness.” Darkness can do wonders. Darkness can inspire people to dream of light, hope and brightness. If it weren’t for darkness, whoever discovered electricity and invented light bulbs and dynamos would have no motivation for his work. We can hope that, someday our proud country can also enter the bright age of industrial, electronic, space and digital revolution, in case we don’t have to redo the stone age’s fire-and-wheel revolution. Hinduism’s cycle of life (birth-death-rebirth) confirms with this cycle of revolution.

My life, like many of ours’, has been revolving around this divinity, and I shall forever remain very grateful to whoever is responsible for blessing me with this opportunity. I wake up to find there’s no power and usually that makes me stay longer in bed. I come home, to find that power will resume from midnight or past that. Sometimes, power supply and I seem to coexist. There are four-hour bouts of such sad moments when I try my most to waste my time in front of my computer. There’s no time for other electronic media or devices. Four hours is a lot of time for anyone who knows that. In fact, that’s almost enough for anyone in Nepal to do anything. Ok, then again, goes off the supply of power. I try to call friends who might be available for a walk, talk or tea. Luckily, for the already-problematic telephone towers, there’s a credible looking reason to remain down- power cuts. Apart from friends, tea and walk, there are books too. If you’re out for something, you don’t want to come home because home’s not as sweet without power, your computer and all the work you can/have to do there. If you’ve been waiting for my mail reply, for me to be online on IM or IRC, or have some important task with me that you want done quick, sorry folks. I might look too busy and in fact I am I have a few deadlines to meet, for which I struggle, the eternal procrastinator that I am. And four-hour sessions are almost enough to put any deadline to shame.

Diversity
Cliched as it may sound, Nepal has earned a reputation for her cultural, natural, geographical and biological diversity. The country ranks between 25th and 30th on the global scale and 11th on the continental scale for richness in floral (plant) diversity. For a small country (the size of Arkansas), Nepal has great physical diversity, ranging from the Tarai Plain – the northern rim of the Gangetic Plain situated at about 60 meters above sea level in the south — to the 8850-meter-high Mount Everest (wikipedia text). This variation occurs within a stretch of 200 km.

I have loved my country for one more reason. Partly because of the cultural and ethnic diversity, Nepal can boast of a unique collection of indigenous liquor. In plain terms, Nepal is also a country of alcoholic diversity. With every ethnic group, is associated “at least” one variation of home-made liquor. Every such group has “at least” one festival or ritual that is incomplete or inauspicious without the use of such liquor. Varieties of spirit have been named after places (“Marfa” for a kind of home-made apple brandy popular in a place called Marpha) and plants (“kodo” for a drink made from millet- called “kodo” in Nepali). Some have Tibetan names too. They come in many varieties, color, taste and vessels. There’s one famous in the Eastern hills, called “Tongba” that comes in bamboo vessels, with a straw to sip the hot drink. And there are many methods to prepare these drinks, all with local skills and specialties. Much of the country is hilly, most people are (they used to be at least) farmers and a large part of the year in these parts is cold. Home-made drinks are cheap, strong and invigorating. I don’t have the facts, but I guess they are healthy too, as long as they are made by an original Nepali family (from the countryside: honest, innocent and harmless. read: altruistic, helpful and happy), which as you might know, are hard to find these days.

So, that’s an unconventional introduction to Nepal: as a proud country of alcoholic diversity. But that’s slowly changing. As “the original Nepali” starts to become a mythical character (for good and for bad), homemade liquors aren’t as good as they used to be. They can even be harmful. For the love of money and quick profit, the makers of such liquors usually forgo the lengthy and tiresome process of fermentation that might span as well as a month. Such a shortcut warrants the use of different material imported into the markets, which might contain harmful chemicals.

In recent days, number of alcohol related deaths in Nepal is on the rise. Surprisingly, these recent deaths are attributed to branded liquor. Last year, 18 people in Sindhupalchok died of a low-quality imported bottled drink named “Sophi.” More recently, 3 people in Kathmandu died of reputed Nepali brands “Virgin” and “Khukuri.” A few others lost their eyesight and some are recovering in hospitals. Investigations have shown that even Indian brands like “Royal Stag” and global brands like “Red Label” are adulterated. Police was quick to arrest a group of people who looked more like victims. Police confiscated a houseful of bottles that the group was said to adulterate and distribute. This looked all the more dramatic because there was a government’s tax seal on each of those bottles.

More people died outside Kathmandu and the terror doesn’t stop, thanks to a free-media that’s not as excited in consumer rights as it wants to appear, highly professional journalists who don’t want assignments that don’t include wagging tails around sources of money and power and a very vigilant government (including its administration and law-enforcing body) whose prime minister (like everybody else) obviously knows a lot more than to just shake his head, make meaningless remarks and provide tutelage to criminals.

Science:
Alcohol is the generic name for a family of organic compounds. Methyl alcohol is derived from methane and Ethyl alcohol from ethane. Under suitable conditions, Methyl alcohol (CH3OH) can convert to formaldehyde (CH3CHO) and subsequently to formic acid (CH3COOH). Formic acid can be very harmful to optic nerve, cause blindness. It can be a cause of a host of other medical problems and lead to immediate death. Methyl alcohol is not allowed by law to be included in alcoholic drinks. It is the Ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) that is the ingredient of a legal alcoholic drink.

More Diversity
Well, people have other things to do too, during load shedding. When there was news of Britons opting for sex to save money during the economic crisis, South Asian blogosphere echoed the wishes for a similar crisis in the region. Luckily for the Nepalese, load shedding was the savior. We were discussing among friends a couple of months earlier that there might be a population growth because of load shedding. The intelligent lots that we are, today’s papers have carried reports confirming our prediction. It is too early in the morning for me to link to those stories (Nepali newspapers’ websites aren’t updated before 10) but I can’t wait since there will be no power in 15 minutes. A few of my friends who don’t like to talk, (sip) tea, walk or (read) books wished that they were married. Of course there is a diversity in this opinion too that will surely make our proud country prouder. More Nepalese in the future will wish they weren’t born.

Links:
(to be added in the next session. There’ll be power cut shortly)

More Darkness

Load-shedding has been an unmistakable feature of daily lives in Nepal. People plan their days accordingly. They sleep and wake up accordingly. Businesses and office-goers, professionals try to adjust their work and daily routine in harmony with the load-shedding schedule published by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA, aptly called No Electricity Authority of Nepal). NEA is very good at doing it. It changes its schedule and duration time and again, citing different reasons. In summers, its usually because of the flooding at certain rivers that grains and rock try to disturb the hydro-power plants. In winters, its because most rivers originating in the mountains decrease in their volumes because the snow melts less. At other times, its because one or the other power plant needs to be closed because of technical difficulties. At no points do we learn about measures taken to forestall annual occurrences of such events.

Effective from today, NEA has imposed, another schedule. There will be 70 hours of power cut every week. That is 10 hours a day. NEA says that, come mid-January, the duration will be increased. Imagine how lives will move. Industries have already declared that it’d be impossible for them to sustain. Of course, people trading generators, inverters and such like will be very happy, like some others who’d have waited for such days.

The current government has declared its policy of generating 10,000 MW of power in 10 years, while no attempts have been made to control the yearly loss of 25.15 percent power (of total power capacity) by NEA due to power leakage.

In April, I wrote:

… Each day, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) imposes an eight-hour long load-shedding. I am sure they impose many other hours of unannounced power cuts. This, in a country whose power potential is roughly 83,000 MW, which is equivalent to the combined installed hydroelectricity capacity of Canada, the United States and Mexico (reference), although less than 1 percent has been developed (reference). Inflation is on the rise, making the livelihood of ordinary citizens extremely difficult; exports are hitting their all-time low and so are stock prices. Major industries have been shut down and due to a long time of bad publicity, tourism is only slowly gaining its lost pace.

Gauri Shankar

Gauri Shankar

Rest In Peace

No, not because there aren’t enough problems in Nepal or in the world. Not because other stories of sufferings, injustice, deaths and mourning are less important. But because almost all small kids who died in last week’s bus accident in Central Nepal were from Bharatpur-12 (Ward Number 12, Bharatpur Municipality in Chitwan district).

It’s been long since I last saw them, but I remember them. I was there when some of them took birth and took their first steps to school. Named “Hill Bird”, the private residential school is just about a 10-minute walk. Bharatpur-12 is where I lived. It is still my official address. Teachers have lost their lives, along with their entire family. There are more than 25 deaths so far, most of them kids who hadn’t yet entered their teenage. Many are recovering injuries in hospitals in Chitwan, and a few of the in Kathmandu. I was told that the whole locality is totally dumbfounded, and all of Chitwan is mourning. Reports so far say that the school bus was carrying double the number of students than it should, back from a picnic in Butwal. Survivors say that the driver was drunk and it was at a very high speed. The bus literally broke into pieces, after it lost balance and fell off 50 feet from the road.

My friend, Roshan Baniya, a teacher at the school is recovering in a hospital. I wish him and all others a very speedy recovery and the ability to come to terms with what has happened.

To all the fallen little kids and teachers, Rest In Peace. It is very sad and disheartening to learn of what has happened. My heart goes out to everybody affected by this traumatic event.

If you haven’t heard about the event:
-> BBC
-> Nepalnews
-> Chitwan grieves death of school picnickers
-> KantipurOnline
-> Bus tragedy haunts survivors

Pictures from the Theater Festival

The Kathmandu International Theater Festival concludes today.

With Sherjung Shah, an actor of Karnali Dakhhin Bagdo Chha. The poster of the play is seen on the background.

The poster of Kathmandu International Theater Festival

Wesandon, The Lost Track to Nirvana
Director: Janaprakal Chandruang. Duration: 60 min.

Yesterday, we went for this play of the The Moradokmai Troupe, Thailand. The play is based on the last life (out of 10) of Lord Buddha – Wesandon (in Thai). It was impressive in in its expression of philosophical and spiritual dilemmas in a very artistic way. The live music, sounds and lighting were very good.

King Wesandon and his very sexy wife Mutri

The ticket

We also got an opportunity to play a supporting role of lotus pond in the drama. Unfortunately, I don’t have the pictures, but the pond is where Wesandon’s children hide, as shown below:

All pictures (except the last two) by Ankur Sharma.

Another victory for Nepal’s Software Freedom Movement

The results of Software Freedom Day 2008 – competition were published yesterday. The Free/Open Source Software Community of Nepal (FOSS Nepal) is one of the 3 global winners for a second consecutive year ! Last year, Nepal, Beijing (China) and Nicaragua were the three winners of the competition. This is an appreciation of FOSS Nepal’s fight for freedom in our region. This year, the theme of FOSS Nepal’s Software Freedom Day celebration was “Create, Share, Collaborate.”

Software Freedom movement is a philosophical and social movement which values freedom, collaboration, community and transparency. It benefits the public good and ensures basic human freedoms are strengthened by technology, not hampered. Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual grass roots effort to educate the public on the virtues of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and also to encourage its use, to the benefit of the public. SFD is marked on the third Saturday of every September. The 2008 event took place on September 20 and was celebrated by over 500 teams in over 120 countries all around the world, all taking software freedom to the masses!

Highlights of our SFD 2008 celebration:

• Kathmandu Declaration signed by over 500 people including Honorable Minister for Science and Technology, Ganesh Shah
• Software Freedom Rally
• Candlelight Vigil
• A CD collection of Free Softwares for users of Microsoft Windows: Nirvikalpa
• Nepali subtitle of GNU’s short movie where Stephen Fry talks about Free Software
• Open Hardware and Robotics Workshop
• Massive Media Coverage
• Celebration in Sunsari (Dharan) and Chitwan (Bharatpur) by FOSS Nepal local chapters

Activities after SFD 08:

• The init magazine: Issue 1 (pdf), Issue 2(pdf)
• Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Release Party (pictures)
• Lobbying for the inclusion of FOSS in School Computer curriculum
• Lobbying (with the government) for a revision of the IT policy of Nepal to endorse Free Softwares, Standards and Practices.
• Orientation programs and Install Fests (Upcoming: Advanced Engg. College and Smart Club)
• Upcoming: workshop for leading Journalists of Nepal
• Upcoming: interaction with political parties and youth leaders to suggest them to adopt FOSS in their agenda/policy
• Upcoming: Fedora 10 “Cambridge” Release Party

Resources on SFD 08:

• Final Report on SFD 2008: html (withoug pictures), pdf (with pictures, 7.3MB)
• Press Releases
• Pictures from the events
• Sponsors of the events
• Ankur’s, Jwalanta’s and Jitendra’s blog entries on the victory
• Subir Pradhananga’s announcement of the victory in FOSS Nepal mailing list.

If you’re interested in FOSS Nepal: (or the philosophy of Free Softwares in general)

• FOSS Nepal website
• FOSS Nepal mailing list on Google Groups
• Get FOSS Nepal updates on twitter
• FOSS Nepal on Facebook
• Ubuntu Nepal website and aggregation of Nepali Ubunteros blogs at Planet Ubuntu-np
• Last week’s issue of Nepali Times had a nice article on Free/Open Source Softwares in Nepal

This is a proud moment for all of us in FOSS Nepal who were involved in SFD. Apart from that, special thanks to the sponsors and our friends in the media (in no particular order, including Keshav Koirala, Dipak Kharel, Saurav Dhakal, Pawan Neupane, Kunda and Kanak Mani Dixit from Himal Media, Bidur Khatiwada, Divesh Rana, Shikshya Gautam, Kedar Koirala, Anil Adhikari, ABC Television, Cyber Sanchaar magazine). Kudos to all the users and supporters of Free Softwares, standards and practices in Nepal and elsewhere. Of course, all this wouldn’t have been made possible without GNU (and Richard Stallman), Linux (and Linus Torvalds), Firefox etc. and all the free software hackers of the world.

Needless to say, our fight for freedom derives inspiration from the fighters of many diverse fields in Nepal and the world whose struggle for democracy, freedom, human rights and civil liberties make our work possible. We always remain grateful to you all !

To all Nepalese consumers of technology – FOSS Nepal needs more of your support and participation to make possible the ushering of a new age of freedom. Let us work together. Remember- in a digital world, our basic human rights, civil liberties and freedom are only as strong as the technology we use.