Nabuur, SACD and meeting Sabina Didi

When I met Sabina didi last July, I was simply looking forward to meeting a woman with audacity and ambition. But what I saw was a warm and loving mother and wife with an unmatched penchant for social work who deeply cared about the community she lived in.

Bill Gates unplugged | Video on TED.com

via ted.com

Great inspiring stuff from Bill Gates.

“… I am an optimist.” check out the stats. Cynics, please shut up!

and the much hyped mosquito release is truly hilarious

Saving the artisans of Nepal (and beyond)

The same approach needs to be taken with sale and marketing of handmade products in Nepal – be it metal products or Tibetan Thanka Paintings. If there is someone somewhere who can mass-produce a similar work at a lower cost then it is inevitable that the artisans will lose out sooner or later. Instead of fighting the inevitable, it is better (at least in my opinion) that the artisans essentially reposition themselves as makers of premium artwork worthy of sale to museums, galleries and collectors.

At home, in K-city

As of now, the Nepali middle class is m.i.a. They have all (at least the majority have) fled the country and are settled abroad – legally or otherwise. This vacuum in the middle-class needs to be filled as soon as possible if any form of development is to happen in the future.

On The aim of pragmatic developmental approach to development is …… by Joseph Kaifala

The goal of a developmental project should directly relate to improving the long-term future of the community. This can be achieved by making sure their is good “future leadership and entrepreneurship”. A developmental project should be able to provide communities with their own ability to generate their own income – say by means of skills training or higher level of education. If people can earn their own income and meet basic needs, most civil unrest would either wane or come to an end. Else some unemployed brain-job is going to rise with a gun in his/her hand and brainwash the poor and repressed into believeing that the only way to a better life is to loot and murder those who are better of.