Tihar is over, Thank God, literally. But the home minister of Nepal does not cease to amaze and amuse. A few weeks ago, he decided that cyber cafes were the devil, since one could access bad websites, and I am not even speaking about porn. But websites about Bollywood, websites about political points of view from other nations, and websites about music, so cyber cafes were forced to shut down, or only operate limited hours with heavy filters. Well, then the people revolted and there was a few strikes. So, the home minister recalled that law.

Then, the next issue to combat was bars and dance halls, since those are also apparently derived from the devil. All bars and restaurants were forced to shut down at 11 o’clock. This again, was short lived as the people revolted and there were even more strikes. This time, the people who worked at the dance bars and restaurants burned a few cars for good measure. That drove the message home. So the new law was revoked by the home minister when he finally realized that he was affecting an entire population of the economy, not to mention the only with-out strings cash cow there is in Nepal- tourism.

One would think that there would be some sort of checks and balances with this fellow. I don’t know, maybe a vote from the parliament whose sole purpose for being is to represent their constituents, but nope. No vote. No discussion. No debate. Just one strange man, with even stranger ideas, and apparently a whole heck of a lot of power.

One would think he would tire of people taking to the streets and burning cars, but, the wise old sage of a home minister struck again. This time, he thought he had a really excellent plan! Why not turn the idyllic resort town of Pokhara, (which situated on the base of the amazing Annapurna range of the Himalaya’s, and the starting point for many treks) into a red light free sex zone! Yes! That will solve the nations problems and make everyone happy!

Nope. Not quite. The people got mad again, and rightfully so. This is a very chase society, where even kissing scenes are edited from movies played at the Cinemas. Women wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts are terribly taboo, so how could this fellow possibly, in his wildest dreams think that this was an ok proposal?

This week, he came up with two new plans that will be sure to incite riots of monumental proportions. First one, AWAY WITH THE STREET VENORS! Those villainous scabs, attempting to make a living selling their wares, clothing and food stuffs on street corners need to be done away with! Who will feed their families now that their meager earnings will be diminished? PASSSHHH?!?!? Who cares?!?!!? The streets need to be cleansed of their presence, never mind the trash, the street kids sniffing glue, the homeless begging on the sidewalks with their malnourished babies clinging to them in clouds of exhaust from the cars passing by. The street vendors are, apparently, the real problem.

Next, he is doing away with alcohol sales, except at designated sites. Want to make someone in South Asia angry? Take away their alcohol. This is not because this area is filled with alcoholics, although there certainly are, but this is because there is an entire culture based around alcohol. It is used in everything from business lunches to religious holidays. People make and consume something called “chang” and “raksi”, which is a home brew, and offer it with pride to any guest who enters their home. And home minister brilliant is also proposing to criminalize “raksi” and “chang”.  This is going to make little grandmas hardened criminals in one blow! I get the feeling more than cars are going to burn when this law takes effect on the 16^th of November. I will get off my soap box now, open a beer while I still can, and wish all of you a Happy Halloween!