Inequitable Nepal: Inequity in Immunization Against COVID-19

Nepal is a highly unjust and inequitable society. The Coronavirus pandemic and the country's response to it has dramatically demonstrated that again for all to see.

One set of data which has done that is the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines by Province.

Province 2 got shafted...for obvious reasons...as far as I am concerned!

Continue ReadingInequitable Nepal: Inequity in Immunization Against COVID-19

Caste Hierarchy, False-equivalence Argument, and Mount Everest

When a hill so-called high caste Hindu counters a member of another caste describing the challenges in their lives because of the caste they are born into by saying that they too struggle and have had to work hard to get as far as they have gotten in life, they are basically making a false-equivalence argument. What is a false-equivalence argument anyway? I go into the details by using an analogy -- that of climbing Mount Everest.

Continue ReadingCaste Hierarchy, False-equivalence Argument, and Mount Everest

Unleashing Nepal: The History of Rent-seeking Mentality

This section from Unleashing Nepal describes how the Birta and Jagir systems implemented by Prithvi Narayan Shah created cultural practices and values and shaped some of the attitudes of the upper caste males of the Brahmin, Chhettri and some Newar castes, which, still prevalent in one form or another, has been and continues to also be an impediment to social, economic and political progress. (Another consequence of the systems were to impoverish and marginalize the indigenous population of the country.)

Continue ReadingUnleashing Nepal: The History of Rent-seeking Mentality