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Executive director of PADT Ramesh Upreti claims that foreigners conducting illegal trade in the Pash­upati region were driven away a few weeks ago. “We have increased sur­veillance in the area and are closely monitoring such foreigners. We have issued instructions to apprehend them on sight.”

A while back, the police had arrested a Chinese tourist selling mala (necklace of wooden beads with religious/spiritual significance) in the guise of a monk in Patan. He was later released after he promised not to do it again.

“Even though the Chinese tourists may appear to be petty traders and monks, they might engage in suspi­cious activities,” said an officer at the Home Ministry. Another top gov­ernment official hinted that the gov­ernment is taking a tough line since some of illegal foreign traders are suspected of spying activities, par­ticularly on the border with India.

According to the tourist police, four Chinese tourists were arrested last month for similar wrongdo­ing, and many more were made aware of Nepali laws on the spot. Tourists, mostly of African and Chinese descent, are also found selling trinkets at Pokhara’s lake side during the evenings.

By  SHAMBHU KATTEL | KATHMANDU

Even at the risk of sounding obsequious, you have to give credit to the government of KP Sharma Oli where it is due. The appointment of clean and efficient ministers, a couple of very wise picks as chiefs of the two police forces, recent exercise in balanced diplomacy and, now, the determi­nation it has shown to wipe out transport cartels are all highly admirable. Particularly the last bit. It could not have been easy for Prime Minister Oli, the chief of CPN-UML, a party that has traditionally provided patronage to transport cartels, to suddenly crack down on them in public interest.

These government actions hint at the prime min­ister’s determination to leave behind a strong legacy, one marked by accountable governance and tangible improvement in people’s daily lives. The country des­perately needed such firm leadership. Nearly every study of the growing incidents of road accidents in Nepal’s blood-soaked highways has pointed to the rickety state of long-distance passenger buses as one of the major culprits. In the fiscal 2016-17, there were an average of 28 road acci­dents, and six deaths, in the country every single day. Yet this brazen crime on the part of the trans­port cartels that refused to allow new vehicles of other private operators on the roads was ignored by successive governments.

These cartels flourished under the protection of top political leaders, despite repeated Supreme Court rulings to ban them, the first of them coming over a decade ago. Only now has the government gathered the spunk to take them on. Better late than never. We can only hope that the government stands firm and does not back down to the cartels’ pressure tactics. But even that is not enough.

There are entrenched cartels and syndicates in other sectors too. For instance one study suggests that the prices of fruits and vegetables increase up to five-fold from what the farmers get for their produce, again thanks to the cartels in this market. There are many formal or informal cartels in health and education sec­tors as well, again adversely affecting people’s well-be­ing. May sound superfluous, but the government has full public support to bust these cartels and to ensure free and fair competition in all goods and services. These are exciting times indeed.

POETRY

Love Her Wild

Atticus

Published: July 2017

Publisher: Headline

Page: 225, hardback

Rupi Kaur made social media poetry popular, but it’s Atti­cus, an anonymous Canadian poet currently living in LA, who didn’t even set out to be a poet, who seems to enjoying its bene­fits too. He has hundreds of thou­sands of followers on Instagram and celebrities like Shay Mitchell and Alicia Keys are reposting his poems, and even Emma Robert’s online book club, Belletrist, often uses them on its feeds. Apparently, Atticus only started writing poetry after a chance meeting with actor Michael Madsen (of ‘Kill Bill’ and Reser­voir Dogs fame), who told him that reading and writing poetry was what saved him from ‘addiction’ and depression. Now, poetry is how he makes sense of the world, writes Atticus on his introduction on his Instagram page. And reading ‘Love Her Wild’, or even occasion­ally dipping into it, will make you realize that his poetry can help you do the same.

The effects of poetry are mani­fold. For some, it might work like a mantra that gets them all pepped up, for others it might be able to provide comfort in the most trying of times but what it always does is come to your rescue just when you need it. As Atticus writes, “Poetry’s magic is that it is found when it’s needed”.

In Love Her Wild, a collection of new poems with some of the old ones on Instagram, the young poet writes about romance, the highs of love, and heartbreaking lows of life among many other emotions. And he writes with such finesse that sometimes a single line is enough to get you through a partic­ularly bad day. If you haven’t discov­ered Atticus yet, we’d say it’s about time you did.

“Art is created out of different situations, be they social situa­tions, political situations or personal situations. Situations of utter frustration yet also situations of hope,” says artist Chirag Bangdel. Bangdel’s most recent paint­ing exhibit, ‘Figurative Tran­sitions: Recent Works’, was inaugurated at GG Machan restaurant in Lalitpur on April 6. With 25 solo exhibitions in Nepal alone, Bangdel is one of the country’s finest visual artists, whose figurative com­positions have been loved for their wonderful sense of color and lyrical manifestations.

“Many of my paintings in this exhibition are based on hope and I call this series ‘Sea­son of Hope’. I use the conch or the saankha as a symbol of hope,” says Bangdel, who is also a Kathmandu-based writer, poet and RJ.

“Like all artists, I create for the joy of it. Nothing makes me happier than painting and creating new stuff,” Bangdel told APEX.

“I have also come to real­ize that whatever progress we make, it is only love that will save humanity at the end of the day and that’s something that I want to show in my paintings,” says Bangdel.

The artist’s works this time were all painted on acrylics. “Acrylics is the most used medium around the world. It is a medium that is easy to work on as it is fast-drying. That suits my style.”

A self-taught artist, Bang­del received his early train­ing from his granduncle, the famous artist Lain Singh Bang­del. In the past few years, his works have been exhibited as far afield as The Netherlands, France and Germany.

All the paintings on the exhibit are for sale, with prices ranging from Rs 15,000-Rs 60,000. The exhibition ends April 30. APEX BUREAU

After successfully introducing the international franchise ‘Idol’ in Nepal in the form of Nepal Idol, AP1 HD, the first HD channel of Nepal, has now added another famous franchise to its schedule—Boogie Woogie. Boogie Woogie was an Indian dance competition television series created and directed, in 1996, by Naved Jaffrey and Ravi Behl for Sony Entertainment Television and Sony Entertainment Television Asia.

Boogie Woogie-Nepal will be judged by Dilip Rayamajhi, Pri­yanka karki and Kabiraj Gahatraj. The show airs every Thursday at 8 pm on AP1 HD television. APEX managed to briefly talk to Dilip Rayamajhi, one of the top Nepali actors who is famous for his dance moves, about the show.

How do you feel as a judge of Boogie Woogie-Nepal?

Nepali audiences have long seen me as a dancer and an actor. Maybe this was why the AP1 television choose me. I am thankful for the opportunity but, to be honest, I am scared too. To judge talent is a huge responsibility and a big-big challenge. Since people have different views and perspec­tives, to carefully weigh these to arrive at an integrated judgment is tough. The responsibility is immense, there­fore I have mixed feelings.

What kind of a judge are you?

We have a diverse panel of judges, each with own area of focus. For instance, Kabiraj Gaha­traj judges the technical aspects of dancing. I prefer to be a ‘sweet judge’, who judges the entire dance performance, from beginning to the end, acknowledging every feature of the act and the contestant.

Can you tell a little bit about the show and the contestants?

We have been watching inter­national reality dance shows. We get astonished by their talents and performances. Little did we know those talents could be matched in our own country. Boogie Woogie- Nepal will prove that. The audi­ence will be surprised by the sheer variety of our contestants and their dance acts.

I, for one, didn’t expect such tal­ents. But when we started shooting I was stunned by the dance perfor­mances of the participants. Now I can proudly say the standard the viewers expect—after watching many inter­national dance reality shows—will be matched by Boogie Woogie-Nepal.

How is Boogie Woogie different from other shows?

It’s different in every possible way, from its concept to the shooting stan­dards. The stage, the lights, and the props being used have never been used in Nepal before. This show is big, as the viewers will notice when they see it for themselves. It’s all been set to international guidelines. I feel till date there has never been a dance reality show this big in Nepal.

What would you like to say to pos­sible viewers of the show?

I request the viewers to watch Boogie Woogie and to give us your assessment of the show. Today it’s us who are choosing the contestants but tomorrow, in the following rounds, the responsibility will be passed on to you. Help us to select the first ever winner of Boogie Woogie-Nepal.

Raj Brewery Pvt Ltd, the pro­ducer of Warsteiner Premium Beer in Nepal, officially launched the beer in their ultra-modern factory in Hakui, Nawalparasi this week.

The Warsteiner Group is one of Germany’s leading independent brewers, with a global reputation for brewing excellence spanning more than 260 years.

Warsteiner brand is one of the most successful German brewer­ies. Warsteiner Premium Beer is available in more than 60 export markets.

The launch was attended by Catharina Cramer, owner and president of Board of Warsteiner Group along with other Ger­man delegates, and members of Raj Brewery Pvt. Ltd.

Warsteiner Premium beer will be available for all premium beer lov­ers across the nation. Raj Brewery falls under the Jawalakhel Group of Industries.

The country has adopted a fed­eral structure, but the model of insurance under such a struc­ture is yet to be determined. The Insurance Board, the insur­ance regulator, is planning to expand services to all the seven provinces. Currently it only has a central office in Kathmandu. It had established regional offices in Bir­gunj, Biratnagar and Butwal back in 1998, but they could not function effectively and had to be closed within five years.

According to Schedule 5 of the constitution, formulation of insurance policy falls under the jurisdiction of the federal govern­ment. Running and managing the insurance business, however, is under the joint authority of the fed­eral and provincial governments, according to Schedule 7. But specific laws and guidelines on insurance are as yet missing. Only when that void is filled will the model of insur­ance under the federal structure be ascertained.

Chairperson of the Insurance Board Chiranjivi Chapagain says that the central office will remain in Kathmandu, but the provincial offices will have the authority to issue license to insurance agents and surveyors, provide training to them, renew their licenses, collect insurance data at the provincial level and monitor the local level branch offices. The central office will have the authority to formulate policies and examine insurance claims.

Chapagain adds that his office is not in a hurry to establish pro­vincial offices as the country does not yet have permanent provincial capitals. “We are studying the mat­ter; it’s still unclear what authority and how many staff the provincial offices will have. But it’s important for insurance companies to expand. Only if they reach all 753 local units can ordinary citizens benefit from insurance services.”

But Bibek Jha, CEO of Nepal Life Insurance, disagrees. “Establishing offices everywhere will be costly. We go where there is a big population density. Our company, for instance, has offices in all but four districts of the country. And we have already reached 120 local units. Our target is to reach 150 local units by the end of the year,” says Jha.

Currently, the 35 insurance companies in the country are concentrated in a handful of major towns. As such a large section of the population is deprived of insurance services.

Nanda Prasad Tiwari, chairman of Nepal Professional Insurance Agent Union, says there is a healthy market for insurance. “Nine percent of the total population has insured them­selves. That percentage will go up to 25 or 30 under a federal model,” says Tiwari.

There are 400,000 insurance agents in the country. The minimum qualification required to be one is SEE (Grade X). Tiwari argues they are facing problems for a couple of reasons. “One, insurance compa­nies are not able to pay what they promise. Two, even banks provide insurance services. Banks should not have the right to sell insurance,” he says.

By Tulasi Subedi | Kathmandu

Turkish Airlines is celebrating the 10th anniversary of joining the Star Alliance network. The alliance was established in 1997 as the first global airline alliance with worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service for international travellers.

The flag-carrier of Turkey celebrated its membership anniversary at Turkish Airlines Headquarters with the participation of Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, M. llker Aycı, and Star Alliance CEO, Jeffrey Goh.

“Like yesterday and today, Turkish Airlines will continue to be a valuable partner for Star Alliance and its members—as an important element of our common strategy that will enable the Alliance to move forward with solid footprints,” says M. llker Aycı. Turkish Airlines became the 20th Star Alliance member airline in April 2008.