Outlook – July 06, 2019

WHEN SHANGRI LA BECOMES SHIMLA

I

NDIAN tourists are infamous for littering,

playing loud music and being a nuisance

abroad. Now, in the land of happiness, they are

causing a lot of distress. Bhutan has a ‘quality,

not quantity’ tourism policy to preserve its

fragile ecosystem. Foreign visitors have to pay

a cover charge of $250 a day, but Indians are

exempt. And so they go in hordes—in 2017,

Indians comprised 2 lakh of the 2.7 lakh tour-

ists in Bhutan, putting pressure on the ecology.

Bhutan is mulling a ‘Sustainable Development

Fee’ of Rs 500 on arrival and an increase in the

prices of tickets to tourist spots. The measure

will hopefully stop the last Shangri La from

becoming the next Shimla.

C

ATS have been the uno-

fficial kings of the inter-

net. Now they’re making in-

roads into Pakistan. On June

15, a Facebook livestream of

a minister’s press confer-

ence featured that favourite

embellishment of

tweens—a cat filter.

What Shoukat

Yousufzai, Khy-

ber Pakhtunkh-

wa’s minister of

information, said

garnered little attention. It

is his face, adorned with cat

ears and whiskers, that set

the internet on fire. Turns

out someone had left the

filter on. The party quickly

deleted it and stated: “Paki-

stan Tehreek-e- Insaf ’s

social media team

is... the pioneers of

Social Media in

Pakistan. (sic)”

You’ve got to be

kitten me, sir!

N

EXT time you’re

ambling in Darbar

Square in Kathmandu,

you might hear snatches

of Mandarin—and not just

from Chinese tourists.

Many private schools

have made the language

compulsory after China

offered to cover teachers’

salaries. The schools just

have to pay a stipend for

boarding and lodging. The

move, however, is illegal as

Nepal’s Curriculum Dev el-

opment Centre states that

while schools can teach

foreign languages, they

cannot make it compulso-

ry. The schools know this,

but who cares when you’re

getting teachers for free.

S

LOGANS and songs have traditionally been part

of street protests. But rarely has a Christian

hymn been used to demonstrate seething public anger,

to reflect grave disappointment and concern.

Of all war cries available to the angry masses,

“Hallelujah to the Lord” has become an unofficial anthem

of crowds in the ongoing protests in Hong Kong that

has caught the interest of the world.

The unprecedentedly large number of protesters,

numbering nearly two million people, has been out in

the street in Hong Kong for days protesting against a

proposed controversial law that would allow people

accused of crimes to be extradited to mainland China.

In the process, the proposed legislation has also raised

serious questions on the sincerity of Beijing in pursuing

its ‘one country, two systems’ policy for Hong Kong.

For a large number of Chris-

tians in Hong Kong, the hymn

is not only a sign of faith but

also reflects the fear that even

religious issues, along with

political ones, is at stake if the

bill was ever to pass.

According to a report in the

BBC, the protests were already

under way when the tune first

started being sung.

But on June 11, a day before

the protests turned violent,

a group of Christians holding

public prayer meeting through

the night started singing Hallelujah to the Lord.

“People picked up this song as it is short and easy

to remember,” Edwin Chow, 19, acting president of the

Hong Kong Federation of Catholic Students, told the

BBC. “There’s only one line: ‘Sing Hallelujah to the Lord’.”

Some protesters felt the song would have calming effect

on the police and help diffuse tension after police fired

tear gas shells and rubber bullets to subdue them.

It was also used as a political shield of sorts. Since

according to the law, any religious gathering in public

areas are not considered illegal, so if people sang the

Christian hymn together it could provide a guarantee of their

physical safety. Hong Kong has been part of China since 1997

under the “one country, two systems” principle. This gives

Hong Kong its own judicial independence, legislature and eco-

nomic system. But people fear that the proposed bill would

bring the province’s liberal-minded populace under China’s

control and it would be misued to target dissidents. Under

pressure, the government has suspended the introduction

of the bill. The protestors want it to be scrapped altogether.

Add Wings To A Prayer

The simple

Catholic hymn

reflects faith

and a fear of

religious

persecution

among Hong

Kong ’s people.

Also, it can be

a guarantee of

physical safety.

FROM NAMASTE TO NI HAO

THE PAKISTANI MINISTER’S MEW

8 July 2019 OUTLOOK 9