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  • Prince Harry Becomes Village Leader Upon Visit To Nepal

    Prince Harry Becomes Village Leader Upon Visit To Nepal

    Prince Harry has been crowned honorary head of a village during his first official visit to Nepal.

    The people of Leurani welcomed the prince with garlands and scarves and crowned him with a pheta, a turban used by the villagers to show his status as an honorary leader of the villagers.

    Harry joined the villagers in their ceremonial dancing and spent the night in the home of Mangali Tamang, 86, widow of a former Gurkha rifleman, to experience life with people living in the Himalayan nation.

    Tamang was very happy to welcome her guest and referred to him as “king.” “I’m very happy to meet someone who has fought with the Gurkhas and to meet him at this age,” she said.

    Prince Harry worked with Gurkha soldiers in Afghanistan in 2008. The royal is set to visit the home of the brigade of Gurkhas to honor “the extraordinary bravery and commitment that Gurkhas have shown in the last 200 years.”

    Harry also met with the survivors of the earthquake that devastated the country last year, which killed almost 9,000 people. He said he wanted to see how the people are recovering from the deadly quake.

    “I pay my respects to those who perished and hope to do what I can to shine a spotlight on the resilience of the Nepali people,” Prince Harry said.

    He also spoke to Nepal’s first female president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, at the Presidential Palace in Kathmandu and talked about climate change. During his trip, the royal visited Bardia National Park, which is home to 50-100 tigers, rhinos, and elephants. Prince Harry mimicked the movements of a tiger to see how the cameras used to monitor the tigers work.

    The prince’s five-day visit also marks the bicentennial year of former bilateral relations between Britain and Nepal.

  • 19 Kids and Counting: Jill and Jana Duggar’s Bizarre Meal

    19 Kids and Counting: Jill and Jana Duggar’s Bizarre Meal

    Jill Duggar Dillard and husband Derick of 19 Kids and Counting are pregnant. For a while, that interfered with what Jill could do around the house.

    “I couldn’t cook at all during my first trimester,” Jill said on a recent episode of the TLC show. “The smells were too much.”

    But she is doing much better now. She says that she is not suffering from morning sickness in her second trimester. So Jill enlisted the help of her eldest sister Jana to cook a Nepalese dish for her husband Derick.

    Derick and Jill met in Nepal. Well, technically, they met on Skype when Derick was in Nepal. Jill father Jim Bob introduces them via Skype because he thought Derick would be a good husband for his daughter. Derick and Jom Bob had been prayer partners. With Derick in Nepal doing humanitarian work, Jim Bob stepped up and made the introduction.

    As a nod to their Nepal connection, Jill and Jana set about making the meal. But it was how they ate the meal that was even more interesting. In Nepal, you are only allowed to eat with your right hand, and you use no utensils.

    The logic behind this is that people in Nepal use their left hand to wash their backside after going to the bathroom. They do wash their hands, but they reserve that left hand for “personal business,” not offering to someone to shake or eating with it.

    Jill and Derick ate right-handed, without utensils. But Nepalese people also recognize cultural differences and allow guests to use utensils. So Jana Duggar did not eat bare-handed.

  • Qatar Airport Receives First Flights

    Qatar Airport Receives First Flights

    Hamad International Airport opened today in the Qatari capital of Doha, with a ceremonial Qatar Airways flight landing from Doha International Airport. National carrier Qatar Airways is scheduled to fully move into the airport on May 27.

    The new airport cost about $15 billion to build, and Qatar plans to spend roughly $100 billion on upgrading its infrastructure in time for its hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the largest sports event on the planet.

    Abdul Aziz Mohammad al-Noaimi, chairman the airport steering committee, called the new airport “a source of pride and joy” for all Qataris, and mentioned that it can presently accommodate 30 million passengers annually. In time, the facility might be able to serve up to 93 million passengers per year, which would make it the second largest airport in the region after Dubai International Airport.

    “It will deliver a memorable experience to all passengers that will travel through its gates, an experience that reflects Qatar’s status and importance on the world travel and tourism map,” al-Noaimi added.

    Here is a clip of a small tour of the Hamad terminal:

    In related news, The Qatar Museum Authority decided to buy a 16-foot tall statue of Zinedine Zidane infamously headbutting Marco Materazzi, for an untold sum in October, as a sort of “ode to defeat” World Cup ornament.

    Oil-rich Qatar has been recently struggling to keep dibs on hosting the international soccer event. Aside from the classy headbutt statue acquisition, the country has been questioned by soccer federation FIFA about its use hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, in a situation similar to modern-day slavery. It’s been reported that over 40 Nepalese workers died last year, while building World Cup infrastructure.

    Image via Twitter

  • Mount Everest Shut Down After Avalanche Kills 16

    Mount Everest is one of the most dangerous locations on earth where many people die every year. Things came to a head earlier this month when a massive avalanche ripped through the Sherpas carrying supplies up the mountain leaving 16 people dead and three others wounded. In response, the infamous mountain has been shut down.

    After the shut down, sherpas began to demand better death and injury benefits from the government. Until those demands are met, most sherpas will not be leading tours or carrying supplies up the mountain. The strike has effectively canceled many planned climbs for the season. If the strike goes on for too long, it would have a negative effect on the climbing industry that puts millions into Nepal’s coffers.

    The Nepalese government won’t be the ones hardest hit by the shut down though. The sherpas themselves claim to be the ones hardest hit with many taking on the dangerous job to provide for their families. Many sherpas are the sole workers in their families and a canceled climbing season would drown many families in poverty.

    To make matters worse, sherpas are the only ones who can do the jobs they do. The Nepalese government relies on sherpas to lead climbers up the mountain who then pump money into the economy. The relationship was detailed in a video from a years back that shows how important sherpas are to those who want to conquer Mount Everest:

    Despite being so important to the country’s economy, the sherpas believe it isn’t doing enough for them. The AFP says that the country provides $10,000 in life insurance to sherpas as well as $3,000 in medical coverage. The sherpas say that this isn’t anywhere near enough as the $3,000 doesn’t even cover an airlift off the mountain in the event of injury. After the accident, the government offered the families of sherpas $400 to cover funeral expenses. The families rejected this offer and continue to lobby the government for more money.

    If you want to help the Sherpas out, climbers have set up a donation page for those wanting to send a little money their way. You can find it here. After losing a loved one, it would be even worse if the family lost everything else.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Mount Everest Climbing Season Ends Early for Sherpas

    On the heels of the deadliest day ever recorded on Mount Everest, Nepalese Sherpas are cutting the climbing season short, after 16 guides were killed during an avalanche on April 18th. Thirteen bodies have been recovered, while another three remain entombed in ice. More building-sized blocks of ice fell this week while the area was devoid of climbers, forcing the decision to cut the season short.

    Though, Adrian Ballinger, leader of the Alpenglow climbing team, doesn’t consider the slew of falling ice as a significant reason to cancel a season. “That’s ridiculous,” Ballinger said, adding “I would say only a very small percentage of teams canceled due to fear of increased danger in the icefall this season.”

    The Sherpas perished in the Khumbu Icefall, which is regarded as one of the most dangerous segments of the South Col route to Everest’s summit. The Khumbu glacier that carries the icefall moves at such speed (up to 4 feet down Everest daily) that large crevasses open with little warning, often ejecting house-sized ice boulders in its wake.

    Commenting on the avalanche-prone Khumbu Icefall, Ballinger said, “Small and large avalanches and collapses occur regularly. I have not seen myself, nor heard from any of my Sherpas, that there has been an increase in the frequency or severity of avalanches or icefalls this season – although obviously one slide had much greater than normal consequences.”

    Sherpas, native to the highlands of Nepal, are revered as elite mountaineers and experts of their local topography. The group was integral in the success of early Himilayan explorers from the West, and today the word “Sherpa” is sometimes used as slang to describe any person who serves as a mentor or guide in any capacity.

    Here is a Nat Geo clip regarding how tourism has affected the lives of Sherpas:

    Alan Arnette, an American Everest veteran renowned in the world of extreme climbing, commented that the Sherpas ended the Everest season due to safety, religious and economic reasons. With the Khumbu Icefall tragedy, some highly religious Sherpas believe that Everest is taking revenge on the climbers. Also, younger factions of Sherpas are attempting to compete with older, more experienced and well-paid outfits. The younger group wanted to show that it is able to shut down the south side of the mountain whenever they choose.

    Three days ago, the Sherpas petitioned the Nepal Ministry of Tourism to make some reforms and adjust guide benefits.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons