Dan Theeng is a 24-years-old young man striving for success despite a life full of hardships. Originally from Sarlahi, Dan lost her mother when he was a toddler and till now he does not know much about the causes of her death. Her passing is wrapped in a sort of mystery as his father, a local farmer, never wanted to share with him what led to the tragic loss of his wife and Dan was never able to raise the issue. Likewise, when he was really small, like thousands of other people at that time, Dan contracted polio, a condition that defined his life for better.

If Europe does not wake up to the realities of the new Sino-American rivalry, it could find itself in a position of geopolitical irrelevance

Many cases of medical negligence are being reported in Nepali media. The recent case that has been making news is related with a case against Grande International Hospital which has been accused of committing series of acts of negligence pushing a newly born baby to a malnourished life.

Marshall McLuhan, the mid-20th century media visionary, whose statement “medium is the message” has been frequently quoted in the realm of media studies, predicted that people would be allured to using media as the major content than the content itself. In his book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man, McLuhan writes: “In fact, all man-made material things can be treated as extensions of what man once did with his body or some specialized part of his body.” His expression implies that human beings tend to envision and produce new technologies relevant and necessary for their times.

HONG KONG – On January 15, US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed a “phase one” agreement aimed at containing the two countries’ long-running bilateral trade war. But no sooner had the deal been concluded than China was confronted with an emergency in the form of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

Nepal is a very liberal country in terms of recognizing and providing rights to sexual and gender minorities. While many countries around the world are on denial on the existence of these populations in their countries, constitution of Nepal has impressively recognized the rights of Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) as fundamental rights. Nepal currently acknowledges its transgender community by allowing a third category of ‘others’ (meaning gender other than male or female) on passports, citizenship certificates, electoral rolls and immigration forms. Despite being liberal in recognizing and providing rights to this population, there are many issues that are being overlooked.

Recently, a physician affiliated with one of the premier private hospitals in Kathmandu wrote about present day working environment in health sector in a Nepali daily. While he raised some valid issues, including that of mistreatment of service providers, medical college mafia, financial extortions, and improper licensing of facilities and manpower, he argued these matters largely portray physicians as victimized professionals, and likened their predicament to byathaa (an affliction) that they have to endure on a daily basis.

‘Much ado about nothing’ is the title of a play by William Shakespeare which he wrote toward the end of the 16th century to highlight disagreements and bad behavior of newlywed couples in most cases on trivial matters. More formally and generally, the phrase means ‘a great deal of fuss over a thing of little importance’.

Tensions between the US and Iran continues even after several days of killing of top Iranian General Qassim Suleimani by the US at Baghdad airport in Iraq on January 3. Suleimani was the most powerful commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran. In retaliation, Iran launched a spate of missile attacks targeting US troops in Iraq. Initially, the US claimed that there was no casualty as such on its army base from the Iranian attacks, but now it is confirmed that 11 of US soldiers were injured.

NEW DELHI – “Great nations do not fight endless wars,” US President Donald Trump declared in his 2019 State of the Union speech. He had a point: military entanglements in the Middle East have contributed to the relative decline of American power and facilitated China’s muscular rise. And yet, less than a year after that speech, Trump ordered the assassination of Iran’s most powerful military commander, General Qassem Suleimani, bringing the United States to the precipice of yet another war. Such is the power of America’s addiction to interfering in the chronically volatile Middle East.