National
ICYMI: Here are our top stories from Wednesday, September 18
Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (September 18, 2019).Post Report
Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (September 18, 2019).
Revival of road project to Everest region will transform travel and local economy, officials say
In November 2011, more than 3,000 tourists were stranded in Lukla after adverse weather conditions halted flights from Kathmandu for six consecutive days. It is a recurring problem every year.
But such disruptions may be a thing of the past, as a plan to open an asphalted motorable road up to the Everest region has sprung to life after a brief hiatus.
The government had first decided to open a track linking the Everest region after the 2011 incident to ensure that nobody gets stranded for days on end due to disruption of flights.
Dubbed the Highway to Everest, the project started in 2014, but it hit a roadblock after the 2015 earthquakes.
French firm and embassy express displeasure over Nepal government's call for passport tender
The French Embassy in Kathmandu recently dispatched two letters to the government expressing displeasure over the decision to call for global tenders to supply five million biometric passports.
The embassy’s letters to the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, sent about 10 days ago, expressed “diplomatic displeasure,” according to officials at the Communication Ministry who have seen the letters.
The French embassy declined to comment on whether it had dispatched any such letters and if the French government was displeased with the Nepal government’s decisions.
What’s in your future? Open up your palms (and your wallet) to find out
On a recent afternoon at the Ramghat in Pashupati, Tika Prasad Ghimire was examining the hands of Paras Khadka, a 62-year-old man from Banke.
The session lasted 15 minutes and Khadka paid Ghimire Rs 2,100, which included charges of performing a ritual in memory of his father who had passed away.
Ghimire is one of the two dozen palm readers who await customers at Pashupati every day. A snap survey with the palm readers showed that business is good, and they were mostly happy with what they earned.
Hey men, women don’t want to be told to be like a woman
It’s no surprise that Nepali society still harbours stereotypes when it comes to gender. With time, progress towards gender equality has been made. But with deep-rooted patriarchy, even in the most liberal environment, there are certain terms or phrases that are used only to describe women—especially when they are breaking or attempting to break out of the mould. But that kind of sexism in language has also become so normalised that people don’t bother to understand why it may sound wrong to women—and even to some men.
In the courtrooms, the word that is still officially used to address court magistrates is ‘Shrimaan’—it’s also a word colloquially used to refer to ‘husband.’ After discussions were held over the honorific, which also suggests—perhaps unintentionally—that a judiciary body can only be men, many have begun using the alternative address: mananiya nyaidhis jiu (honourable judge), which is gender non-conforming.