Naxal, Kathmandu, Nepal

20 BEVNL2 2009-11-15T04:02:16Z 3 2009-11-08T16:09:45Z One of my family members had a pretty severe case of food poisoning with lots of vomiting and&nbsp;diarrhea. &nbsp;Since he hadn't eaten out the previous few days the obvious culprit was the maid who cooks for him. &nbsp;What was interesting was her reaction when I asked what she thought the problem was - she looks at me straight in the eye and says that the spirits were making their rounds and that's why he got sick.<br><br>At first, I seriously thought she was joking. &nbsp;But she carried on. "Oh yes. &nbsp;The spirits come around to my house as well. &nbsp;There's not much you can do about it except do pujas to rid the house of the spirits". &nbsp;<span>I was pretty dumbfounded. &nbsp;"Really? &nbsp;You really think so?" I asked. &nbsp;But it became obvious that she did. &nbsp;</span><span>"What about your hands? &nbsp;Have you been washing your hands properly?" I went on hinting that there was probably a rational explanation to why he got sick. &nbsp;"No. &nbsp;it's the spirits". &nbsp;I dropped it.</span><br><br>I doubt that this is an isolated case. &nbsp;In fact my own mom does pujas when someone gets sick in the house and she's more educated than most Nepalis. &nbsp;Which really highlights one of the problems facing Nepal today - rampant superstitions. &nbsp;I really believe that on some level it is holding us back from development. &nbsp;If you stop asking questions you will not find answers. &nbsp;If you accept that spirits cause you to get food poisoning then you will stop trying to prevent it in the first place. &nbsp;Why stop to figure out why someone got food poisoning and practice proper hygiene - it's so much easier to do mindless pujas.<br><br><span>I think the blame falls squarely on the government of Nepal, both present and past. &nbsp;This is what happens if a government (or king) neglects its people for 300 years and is more interested in increasing their own wealth rather than the development of the country. &nbsp;This is what happens when illiteracy is widespread. &nbsp;And this is what happens when you have poor governance and therefore poor dissemination of accurate health information.<br><br>So in this respect, I think it's good that the monarchy is over. &nbsp;Monarchies, in places like Japan and the UK are fine because on some level the people there understand that at the end of the day their beloved king or queen are just people like everyone else. &nbsp;Ours is a country where a lot of people genuinely seem to believe that our king is a reincarnation of gods. &nbsp;So for this reason alone I believe the country is better off without a monarchy. &nbsp;One small step towards reducing superstitions in a largely&nbsp;superstitious&nbsp;country can only be a good thing.</span> 272 27.7160155623 85.3271198273 86 superstitions 0 80.0 1 0 active 3 2009-11-15T04:02:16Z 1