Fading Animal Planet

Leading causes of species extinction, deforestation, ocean dead zones, and water depletion are the meat and fishing industries. That is, meat and fishing industries have a massive impact on environmental degradation which impacts climate change.

Reflecting on the all-important natural environment might provide greater motivation to reconsider a meat-heavy diet. 

Many cheers for your consideration.

Bureaucrats a leading cause of death in Nepal?

"Nepalis Pay Up to Rs. 25,000 To Get Work Done" (Kathmandu Post, 24 December 2015)

With high unemployment and low wages, the high cost of bribery and corruption is easily a leading factor in disease and death. People sacrifice time and funds to unethical government officials and middlemen that would otherwise go to essentials (e.g., food, fuel, health care, education).

Without a doubt, corruption is a leading cause of suffering and lost opportunities for people with few rights.

#bribe #corrupt #freenepal

Waive Visa Fees to Boost Arrivals?

FNCCI asks govt to waive visa fees to boost arrivals (Kathmandu Post, 23 Dec, 2015)

Yes! Great idea, and in the process, why not eliminate all government sectors that charge fees without providing legitimate services?

Likewise, eliminate I/NGOs that feed these illegitimate bureaucrats and leaders, empowering them over citizens with few rights.

As financial barriers to tourism drop (e.g., visa fees, trekking permit fees, restricted area fees, temple entry fees, TIMS card fees, taxes on guides, taxes on outfitters, airport departure taxes, airline operating taxes), tourism will experience a spike. 

As tourism increases, revenue will spread to all sectors who earn it from city taxi drivers to remote lodges and all phases in between -- the honest, hardworking people providing real services and products will receive their due share with a fair profit margin that is not pinched by illegitimate means.

Revenue previously taken improperly and without a return of value by the ruling establishment gang would then go to people who actually deserve it. 

Rampant Smuggling?

The Kathmandu Post calls it smuggling...is it smuggling or merely re-fueling and supplying? 

Supplies of petrol are unavailable in Nepal due to leadership and government failures. Therefore, people are simply going to the nearest source available.

Do we really need to brand these people as smugglers when the real gangsters (dysfunctional elements of bureaucracy and unethical politicians and the foreign agents who back them) are a main cause of the fuel crisis and a litany of other problems that a long-suffering people endure and have endured for decades.

Supplying fuel provides one solution by the people to mal-governance. Perhaps these people should be praised for assisting their ailing country (unlike unethical leaders including some executives at the Nepal Oil Corp) rather than portrayed as smugglers.

"The only thing worse than an expert...

...is someone who thinks they are an expert." -- Aly A. Colon

"The problem of poverty is not a problem of experts, it is a problem of rights." --Pablo Munoz

Unfortunately, aid 'experts' often empower dysfunctional elements of the ruling establishment. This dis-empowers the people who have few rights.

Welcome to the world of I/NGO's operating with little oversight.
Transparency and hard evidence are difficult to come by with expats working to effect change in far flung lands.
Transparency and hard evidence are kindly requested of foreigners who feel the unquenchable need to try to effect change in far flung lands. Especially, now in Nepal more than ever with billions of 'aid' dollars at stake--disturbingly, that amount could potentially scar Nepal indelibly if in the hands of the wrong people. And it looks likely that it will wind up with the usual suspects, bullies with undeserved privilege and with the best interests of themselves and their personal entourage first.

Certainly there are foreign agents having a positive effect. They deserve a lot of credit for their hard work. From, anecdotal experience, these I/NGOs and exceptional individuals are extremely rare. Many if not most foreigners fall into the syndrome of longer expat is in Nepal, less knows about country while believing knows more. Despite the best of intentions, the cultural ethos has been severely damaged and a long-suffering people continues to face lethal effects of poor governance. 

Without transparency and hard evidence, then who has the time and energy to investigate and stand up to a prurient ‘confederacy of dunces’? Even if someone had the time, energy and interest of mind to track such an insidious situation and phalanx of accomplices, virtually all who are involved don’t see the light and will likely never see the light…intent on perpetuating a dysfunctional system that harms millions upon millions of innocent people.

From my observations in Nepal, foreign 'aid' is a main impediment to liberal democracy and development.

Like it or not, good intentions or not, aware or ignorant of their effects, blood is thereby on the hands of many aid entrepreneurs for the suffering caused by endowing a dysfunctional system and ruling establishment that oppresses the majority and begets chronic poverty and drives hazardous behavior of the people including emigration overseas to places where they do not have representation...approximately thirty Nepalis a month returning home in body bags having died while working abroad.

A migrant worker's journey ends with a coffin and soul-stirring mourning

The Desert Eats Us

Six shooters and six packs ad libitum (but no name changes allowed)

I can buy a six-shooter and six-pack of hard cider around the clock in the States but cannot change Facebook name for sixty days.

Facebook has a cooling off period after a name change...even when changed in a lost moment of artistic dullness--I changed it to my first name repeated twice...

Try it out for yourself, then wait sixty days...in the meantime drink away troubles while shooting your guns off (at inanimate objects).

Worst thing since sliced bread?

Inarguably, the worst thing since sliced bread -- RICE PUNCH (see photo below)

The worst thing since sliced bread?

#rice #punch #sliced #bread #worst

UFC 194 -- McGregor vs Aldo

Fascinating piece on Conor McGregor in the Wall Street Journal (7 December 2015) that captures The Notorious' essence and meteoric popularity. Lot of showmanship and moxie backed up by fierce talent and a prescient mind.
He and Aldo have otherworldly fighting skills. Highly anticipated clash.
#mcgregor #aldo #ufc194