Anyway, that has nothing to do with the title of this post. It has been a busy day, with me leaving the house at 5:45 am to get to the Kathmandu Marathon. No, don't be stupid of course I wasn't running even in the 5km event. VSO had encouraged all the organisations we work with to enter runners and mine had entered 7 runners in the 10km and 5km events. A large number of volunteers were also running including a couple in the full marathon. Cycled down to start area to meet my colleagues at 6am which is when the full marathon was meant to start and then stood around for 75 mins before it finally did. The other events followed shortly afterwards and I cycled the 5km course to support my BDS friends. After last week's miserable quite chilly and very wet Saturday, today was gloriously sunny and hot – great provided you weren't running or cycling. Hung around the stadium to take photos as various volunteer friends completed 10km and half marathon before setting off on the bike again to find our by now lone representative in the full marathon (the other one who started the full took the wrong turn so ended up on the half instead). We did find him after another 5km bike ride on a, by then, busy and very hot road with a nasty long uphill bit. Then back to the stadium to clap him in and take more pictures. By that time it was nearly midday, so straight off to the VSO annual picnic (I think the Country Director who had run the half marathon was starting to regret having this on the same day). The good news was that this was only a short bike ride from the stadium. A fun, despite being non-alcoholic, picnic before cycling back home in Saturday afternoon shopping rush hour traffic. There was then just time to grab a shower and check e-mail before trotting off the British Embassy club to watch rugby and enjoy sausage, egg and chips. I know you serious cyclist's knock off 20 miles before breakfast but for me this is the most cycling I've done in a day (total probably 20km) since we've been here and remember I have an old clunker of a bike. I did think when cycling home that 18 months ago I thought I was risking life and limb on roads here where everyone weaves in and out – now as I do the same myself I think how dangerous the British roads are going to be if I don't revert to Bicycle Proficiency Test standards as soon as I get back. How easy it is to get used to different norms.
Before giving political news and views, some photos of the marathon:
The Blue Diamond Society team before….
…and some of us after
I think he was pleased to see the tape
Right, politics. The elections to the Constituent Assembly due on 22 November have been postponed as the parties can't agree to various Maoist pre-conditions. These elections are a key plank of the Peace Agreement signed almost a year ago so it is not good news. It is not clear what happens now; a special sitting of Parliament (don't be misled, it is not a democratically elected body) on 11 Oct may make things clearer but is more likely to be used by all sides to deflect the blame for causing this situation. We had a security briefing by an expert yesterday and he is not optimistic that the politics can be settled in a transparent democratic way but they might be by murky deals between the parties done in private. Certainly Nepal's politicians have more experience of the latter. However having raised Nepali's hopes of a New Nepal this may not be an acceptable solution for the various minority groups (new ones popping up all the time) round the country. This is unlikely to have any security implications in Kathmandu but in other areas, as I have said before, there is little control by the security forces so the local groups and their criminal friends get away with violence which begets more violence. As long as the Maoists still keep their soldiers in the UN monitored camps, the Peace Agreement still has life but is fairly meaningless if other groups are the ones closing down parts of the country with their protests. If the Maoist soldiers start drifting out camps because they haven't been paid there is the risk that they will join other groups to fight because that’s what they know how to do. Maybe things will become clearer this week and maybe, with festival season almost here, everything will just bumble along for a couple of months with no resolution. We are happy that Kathmandu remains safe but it seems inevitable that we will see more disruption making work, at least for Sheila, very difficult. Add to that the petrol crisis which could deepen if the Indian government, which is not impressed by this turn of events, becomes less inclined to continue supplying fuel that they don't get paid for and you have a mess. However Nepal is adept at getting out of messes or at least lurching from one to another, so one has to remain hopeful.
An hour to kick off and I'm struggling to stay awake so I'll upload this and have a little nap that might turn into a long one.
Cheers
Roshan
P.S. The idea of VSO Nepal's participation in the marathon was to raise funds for the organisations we work for so if you fancy giving, go to www.smallenergy.com
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