Online Newsportals in Nepal: An overview

My article on Bodhi on the brief history and current status of online news portals in Nepal. Read it HERE.

Regime change in Nepal: Is there any spark of hope?

After three weeks of political turmoil, Nepal has finally got the new coalition government. Now, the moderate communist party, UML led coalition replaces the hard-line Maoist led coalition in Nepal. When the Maoists pulled out of the government, opposition parties had to toil hard and wait long to materialize any such coalition to prove majority in jumbo 601 member constituent assembly and subsequently lead the government. All these mammoth efforts now put a veteran communist politician, Madhab Kumar Nepal who led the then largest communist party of the country for fifteen years until one year ago into the helm.

Has Nepal already failed?

NEPAL is the youngest Republic in the world. It is the only country in South Asia ruled by the Communist Party that rose from rebellion and grabbed power through democratic election. There are many things which make this beautiful Himalayan Sangri-la unique. Despite tremendous possibilities and enormous resources, Nepal is the poorest country in the region. People had high hopes that their fate would change after the former rebel took the helm. In just three years, the Maoists held two different fronts; the rebellion and the government. However, most of the indexes in the last three years have become nothing but negative. Nepal has been fighting with a number of problems and the enormity of them could even turn the country as a failed state.

Looking for common ground: Ethical practices in South Asian Media*

1. Introduction:
The concept of ethical standards has ever been changing. As the socio-political and cultural variables in this world change, the ethical standards also tend to change. With the increasing influence of new media or the Internet, increased trend of migration and globalization of cultures, ethical issues have resurfaced in the debates (See Rao & Wasserman, 2007). Especially with Globalization, there have been considerable efforts in finding common and universal ethical standards in media practices. We can realize that the Internet has redefined the traditional line of privacy and challenged many other beliefs. Besides, with the advent and expansion of 24/7 global and national news channels, the ethical practices seem to be redefined by themselves.

A peek into Nepalese history

 Preamble

This idea of seeing my own country's history sprouts out from an examination paper. In one paper of my first semester final examinations (MSS in Journalism, Media and Communication, Dhaka University), there was a question how I saw the development patterns in South Asia. I had no option but to write and I did. But, later when I came back, I realized that it was too surfacial. Nevertheless, I got the highest in that examination, I didn't know much about the development patterns around me. I happened to question whether I knew anything about the history of my own country.

Objectification: a subtle but central process in capitalism

Che, Marx and Angels have been objectified!

Occasionally, I am involved in discussions with my colleagues and friends and these discussions can focus on anything under the sun. Often, wherever I can, I don’t forget to look at the things from critical political economic perspective which has the root in Marxism and Neo-Marxism. Even in the feminist and media discourses, I clearly see the impact that the capitalism has. This divides me between Marxism and Neo-Marxism; which is more important - base structure i.e. means of material production like capital, labor and technology or the superstructure i.e. ideology and culture?