Mitrataa in the news in Nepal

Mitrataa was recently in the news in Nepal as a result of Bec’s work on trademark registration for the Nepal Pashmina Industry Association (NPIA). For the past 18 months Bec has been working with NPIA in a strategic advisory capacity to help them create and register a trademark that signified certain of their products were legitimate pashmina products. In many countries the market is now flooded with products from China and India that falsely claim to be made from pashmina. The aim of this project therefore is to create a way for consumers to determine the genuine article and in the process increase export opportunities for Nepali business and the associated benefits that stem from this.

The recent article in The Himalayan Times celebrates the fact that the NPIA logo has successfully been registered as a trademark in Norway, with Australia and a number of other countries also in the process. This is a great result for NPIA and for Mitrataa. Bec has worked tirelessly with her network of law firm contacts around the world to get the best trademark advice and assistance with registration on a pro bono basis. It is testament to her relationship with firms in so many markets that the trademark is in the process of being registered in over 20 countries without NPIA incurring any legal costs other than the fees for application and registration! We want to acknowledge 4 firms in particular who have helped with this project - Rouse, Arent Fox, Baker & McKenzie, and TPC LLC.

The next step for this project will involve a marketing campaign to educate consumers about the different types of products in the market and how to distinguish ‘real’ pashmina ie. by checking for the logo. Down the track we also have very ambitious plans to develop the communities who farm the pashmina goats, providing education for their girls and education and employment opportunities for their women. Pashmina is one of a number of industries indigenous to Nepal and with vast export earning potential.

Well done Bec! Could this be the first Nepali enterprise to hold a trademark registration outside of Nepal?!

Photo Essay Exchange

When in Kathmandu recently I had the great pleasure of collecting a finished photo essay from class 8 at the Model School. The children had been assigned the task of taking around 60 photos of their local community, interesting cultural icons, and the people of Nepal. They were given disposable cameras to do this and they were then taken on various excursions to find appropriate subjects. Once the photos were taken and developed they then had to put them together into a book and write a brief description for each one. It is amazing to see some of the familiar sights of Nepal described through the eyes of the children. This book is now on its way to Eden Marine High School in Australia. The Year 8 students there will then do the same thing to send back to their friends in Nepal. I can't wait to see the results, what a fantastic way for children from two entirely different worlds to share a piece of their lives and cultures!

BMDC Boys discover Wii

On Tuesday this week I had the great pleasure of delivering a gift to the boys at the Bhaktapur Muscular Dystrophy Centre (BMDC). Thanks to a fundraising dinner organised by Rosemary King from MLC, enough money was raised to arrange a Nintendo Wii for the boys. Aside from being a lot of fun the Wii is actually very good for these boys as it helps them to exercise and improves their hand-eye co-ordination.

I visited the centre with our partner, Rabindra Puri, and also with Sarah Bartram, a recent addition to Mitrataa's board of directors. Of course when we arrived there was no electricity (!) but fortunately it came on about 10 minutes later. After some fiddling with cables and as a last resort reading the instructions, Sarah, Rabindra and I managed to get the Wii working and before we knew it we were playing tennis! The boys couldn't believe it at first but it didn't take them long to become hooked. After tennis, they were playing golf and I'm pretty sure they were keen to check out some boxing too! They were soon so engrossed in the game that they forgot their lunch. (Perhaps regular blackouts will be a good way to ensure they don't over do it!)


Thank you so much to Rosemary for arranging the Wii for these boys, it really will make a huge difference to their lives.

New Political Challenges...

Some of you may have read that in recent days Nepal's government has once again descended into uncertainty. In short, there has been an ongoing issue with the Maoists wanting their former guerilla army (PLA) integrated into the Nepal Army. The Nepal Army has refused to agree to this claiming amongst other things that the PLA are indoctrinated thugs (hard to disagree with this point). For the past year there have been about 19,000 PLA fighters living in UN supervised camps.

Everything came to a head on Sunday when the Prime Minister (Maosit leader Prachanda) attempted to sack the Army Chief. This resulted in immediate demonstrations on the streets of Kathmandu and the city became gridlocked. On Monday the President told the Army Chief not to accept the sacking and things deteriorated from there. Later that day Prachanda resigned from the position of Prime Minister and it became unclear as to whether the Maoists would continue to participate in government. On Tuesday news came that enough of the other parties had joined to form a coalition government.

It is hard to know which way things will turn next. I can't imagine Maoist supporters will accept this new situation so there is a lot of uncertainty about where things are heading. Things have been very tense in Kathmandu since Sunday with a lot of protesters on the streets, sometimes clashing with each other and/or police, and many road blocks disrupting daily life. As usual foreigners are relatively safe however there are clear no-go zones in some parts of the city. For more detailed reports you can check BBC as they have some good coverage of developments so far. Two stories in particular worth reading are:

Is Nepal Sliding Back Into The Abyss?

Nepal Deal On National Government

This is of course the last thing Nepal needs. As always in these situations it is the people of Nepal who suffer the most as nothing progresses in the country whilst all the politicians are consumed with these disputes. Frustration doesn't even begin to explain the feelings of the people here now.