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With the
onset of spring and an objective to promote
floriculture production through awareness, a flower
exhibition was held at Bhrikutimandap in Kathmandu
recently. This yearly event organized by the
Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN) had
forty-four participants with sixty-five stalls
(sixty-one business stalls and four information
stalls). FAN, established in 1992, has till date
organized twenty-four such exhibitions, twelve of
which were in the national level, eleven in the
regional level and one in the international level.
According to Lok Nath Gaire, Vice President of FAN,
the trade fair saw a business of more that six
million rupees in direct transactions as well as
many contracts for future business, in spite of the
uncertain situation of the country. |
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The
first screening of ‘The Seven Wonders of Kathmandu’
was held at the British Council on 4th April 2007.
This was the final part of a larger heritage
awareness and information campaign conducted by
UNESCO. The drive included publication of a series
of heritage booklets, heritage passports (an
interactive tool for school age visitors to the
seven monument zones) as well as a teacher’s manual.
Media exposure of the heritage sites was another
feature of the campaign (see Spaces – March/April
2006 and Spaces – May/June 2006). Targeted primarily
towards ‘young minds’, the DVD, ‘The Seven Wonders
of Kathmandu’, was certainly full of excellent
visuals. Divided into short segments, visuals of the
seven zones - Hanuman Dhoka, Patan Durbar Square,
Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Baudhanath, Swayambhu,
Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan – were accompanied
by a sing song kind of narration. One cannot
emphasize enough the importance of such an effort –
specially the novel idea of reaching out to young
minds and encouraging them to be more pro active in
heritage preservation. The program was conducted in
collaboration with Kathmandu 2020 (a volunteer based
youth organization).
Speaking on the occasion, social entrepreneur Anil
Chitrakar had this to say, “Nepal is today referred
to as a poor landlocked nation. There has to be
shift in paradigm now. Looking at our heritage more
closely and seeing them as examples of a high degree
of accomplishment, we have to agree that once upon a
time we were very rich – rich much before even
America was born. And presumably, we were
land-linked for so much to have been accomplished.”
Additionally, he pointed out that since many of
those in elderly society here are uneducated, it is
more important to touch younger and more enlightened
minds so that they take up the task of educating
others, including the elderly.
Elke Selter and Melissa Jenkins of the Culture Unit
of UNESCO have to be commended for their unstinted
efforts in conducting such a sustained and difficult
campaign so successfully. The set of heritage
booklets (see Spaces – March/April 2007), with their
beautiful photos and informative text, is an
specially excellent production which could well be
put to use very productively to promote the
country’s proud heritage. At the same time, it would
not be amiss to say that the DVD, although a good
idea, could have been still better if the animation
had been more professional like, and the sound, more
clearer. One must not forget that even if it is
meant more for children, children today have a wider
exposure to good film productions and as a matter of
fact, their attention could well depend upon this
aspect.
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