You asked for it...

Young adult friends, welcome to the May edition of You asked for it..., NCP´s mothly email to folks like you.

Included in this edition:

• Oil--but not money--flows in Guatemala
• Learning Tour promo
• Special report from a young adult in Nepal

Keep in touch. Keep the faith. Keep up the good work!

David Radcliff

Guatemala

I´m in Guatemala where our delegation (10 young adults and some of us old people) is exploring the environmental and social realities of this Centrall American couinty. We just heard a presentation on the environmental and human impacts of proposed dams, highway projects and oil exploration. Get this--when a multinational oil company starts producing oil here, the country of Guatemala only gets 1% of the profits! These corporations have poor countries like these over a barrel--excuse the pun...

Meanwhile, in the area we are visiting, child malnutrition rates are as high as 50% in some communities.

Learning Tours--could be you!

We have a very good line-up of Learning Tours coming at you--and many of them should be of interest to you. Check out especially Sudan (next January), Ecuador Amazon (next May) and Thailand/Biurma (set for June 2007, not yet posted on website).

Nepal--all the king´s horses...

You may have heard they´ve had a little revolution going on over there for the past month or so. I asked NCP co-worker 21 year-old Roshni Rai to write an insider´s view of these recent events, with a special focus on the role of young adults. You can learn more about Roshí´s work here.

Report from Roshni Rai on recent revolution in Nepal

Roshni is a 21 year-old working with Women Empowerment, a grassroots women's organization. The New Community Project provides a grant to support Roshni's work. Roshni and her mother Monita are pictured above.

April was an eventful month that brought many changes - in calendar, season and politics. The people's movement of 2006 was also a wakeup call to young Nepali citizens. Hundreds who had never bothered to think about politics before were glued to the news, devouring newspapers, participating in the protests asking about the Constitution, election and total democracy.

We could see a lot of young people full of exhilaration, anticipation and hopes marching on the streets. Lots of women from our community and Women Empowerment were also part of the protests regardless of what would happen to them. They marched on streets to end the autocratic regime. I felt like the pages of history were alive as I had only heard of the 1990 movement that forced the king to install a democratic system, but this time I experienced it.

Police fired teargas and rubber bullets and launched baton charges to protect the monarch as the people defied a shoot to kill curfew the day after the king made a belated offer to restore democracy. It was only the intervention of a heavy tropical thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon that sent people seeking shelter. Army helicopters hovered overhead as mobile telephone networks were shut down to prevent crowds communicating.

Maoist guerrillas and the thousands of people who moved in enormous whistling, shouting waves through Katmandu 's streets, defying a day-long curfew. "Down with Gyanendra! Gyanendra out, out!" many chanted as they moved toward the sprawling palace compound.

In times like this, you find out how much you really love your country. We really didn't bother about anything but to fight for a free and better Nepal . There were much shortage of food and fuel. Many slept with hungry stomachs and kept their protests going. Hunger seemed very small sacrifice to regain our identity and end absolute autocracy forever.

Finally after Gyanendra's announcement on 24 April the protests ended into a victory parade. I still wished nobody had to die or lose a loved one so that we might today live as free citizens. It was the youth who led the uprising that brought changes in three weeks and that the young will keep contributing towards development of the country. Thus, we can finally see that young people are the real pillars of any nation and the future of tomorrow! We look forward to a peaceful state where women and young people will be heard and respected equally.

Roshni Rai
B.A. Sociology (III rd Yr)
Program Co-ordinator, Women Empowerment