On the RADIO!
We did our first interview for the media, on Metro FM, 94. 6 something, early this morning.
I met with DWO yesterday to review the applicants. There were about a handful of people so far, and 6 were females. We are shooting for 5 males and 5 females. I asked them what problems they were facing, because there weren’t a lot to choose from. Also, October-til last week was a big religious holiday in Nepal, so they didn’t announce our ad on their radio and TV programs either. I think it was 3 times they mentioned our school, so the number of applicants we received were a fair amount.
Pradeep, who is a media representative/announcer for DWO radio media segments, suggested that he interview Rob and I about the school so people get a better idea of what we are doing. Someone else also suggested that we have a general info seminar, to explain exactly what our intentions are and that massage is a legitimate, fulfulling career.
The problems we have with recruitment are:
1) Female applicants: hears massage and runs the other way
2) Massage is associated with prostitution in Nepal
3) Confusion about ‘healing’
4) Applicants that have basic English skills
What we originally planned on doing was to have enough of a pool of applicants to choose 20, based on their essay, and resumes, have an orientation with them, and then choose our 10 from there.
Now we will have a general meeting for all, so that we can explain what we do, and they can meet us face to face so that we can allay any doubts to our legitimacy. That’s why doing the radio interview was necessary.
I got up at 5:15 a.m. because Rob came to pick me up at 6:20. I had a map drawn, so that we could navigate our way there. It was in an area I do not know very well (Dili Bazaar) and we left early enough to encounter mistakes. Well, actually the map was really good, (Anup-quest Maps), and were able to get there by 6:30 a.m. We didn’t go on air until 7:15 a.m.
Rob was not feeling going live, I lied to him and said I thought it was taped. He wasn’t reassured. And I thought that I wasn’t going to speak much because my Nepali isn’t so good–I can only speak one word sentences. So that put a lot of pressure on him as well. Pradeep said that we speak in English and he’d summarzie it in Nepali. He just asked that we speak slow.
FM HISTORY
FM radio stations are fairly new to Nepal, I think in the last 8 years it’s really boomed. It also surpised me to learn that India didn’t start broadcasting in FM until maybe the same time. Before there were AM stations and of course, the reception wasn’t that great. Now there are many of FM stations, that has news, all sort of talk shows and of course music.
Recently, in a remote area of Nepal, the monarchist government, stormed into Kantipur FM station, and shut it down, taking their broadcasting equipment. There has been a lot of public and private outcries (from the media companies) about this latest violation of sovereign rights. One public figure, whose last name is Giri, who is a monarchist, said that in other countries like America, they don’t broadcast news on their radio stations. He said this on air, to all of Nepal. They have since banned all radio outlets from airing any news. It’s amazing to me that other international countries didn’t make any noise, I think so far, the U.K. was the first, then the U.N. and finally the good ole boy networks from the U.S. said something as well.
But nothing that happens in Nepal is a concern for the rest of the world, since we are tucked away in the mountains and world business leaders have not found any resources to exploit in Nepal , so there is no interest and the medieval ways can continue out in the open without any interference from the outside. Oh, sure, I read that W.Bush is signing legislation against providing any military aid until some sort of democracy is restored. Which really doesn’t mean anything except that once the ceasefire is over, the military will have to make do with the current imported stock of American weaponry to fight the Maoists. This will give more incentive to Maoists who hate America for branding them “terrorists” which makes Nepal eligible for receiving U.S. weapons. Maosist usually attack army camps and barracks to destroy the army and confiscate their weapons.
I didn’t mean for this to get political, I totally sidetracked from what I was talking about.
BACK TO HIMALAYAN HEALERS….
Well, the interview went really well, though it felt strange to answer the same question he asked Rob. He did really well, got his ideas across and was articulate. As for me, asking me the same questions as Rob, especially the first one, “What is the objective of Himalayan Healers” had me searching for the answer. I didn’t want to say the exact same thing, and I wanted to stress other things, but then I thought I should just restructure my answer, so I got a little stumped on that one. I also was very conscious of my English and wanted to simplify my vocabulary which stumped me even more. I wanted Pradeep to understand what I was saying; I think he got half of what I was saying.
I had a lot of fun doing that, and I look forward to doing more. I told Rob we should do the whole media circuit, where ever DWO has a radio program, we should get our message across.
We had it taped and as soon as we can figure it out, we’ll put excerpt of the interview on the web-site. They played music and had one commercial break during that 30 minute slot, so we were the main focus of the show.
I think this will generate more interest and we can have a pool of students to choose from. We’ll see. Now we just need a pool of money to put this all together. 😀
Tags: Dalits, Kathmandu, Kathmandu Work
Administrator
I sent an email to Rob as soon as I saw his posting related to grantwriter in the craigslist. I am a human rights lawyer from Nepal and currently in San Francisco, doing my masters. My wife has got a full scholarship to study the same course and she is scheduled to leave Kathmandu sometime around Mid December. You can contact her at 9841-323120 in kathmandu. She hails from the dalit Community and is infact the first woman lawyer from the Dalit Community. We married in 2002, an intercatse marriage and have faced severe social boycott until January 2005 when we were finally accepted by my family. We still have hurdles of being accepted by the society, in which we are working to build our social status stronger first. I read about the Himalayan Healers and was impressed with its objectives.
We offer our sincerest regards to the organisation and offer our services that may be of any help to the organistaion. Likewise, we also seek your support in making our dream come true of creating a strong socio-economic standing so that we shall be able to help other intercaste married couples who aim to create a satured society in Nepal that will end the centuroes old caste based discrimination.