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Visions on a Roof Top

Bente H. Rasmussen
Information DW, MS-Nepal

They are sitting at the top of a roof in a Tibetan refugee camp in Kathmandu. A mix of young people from different places in the world divided in three groups. To be more precise Nepal, Tibet and Denmark. Surrounded by Tibetan prayer flags and with a direct view to the sky and the mountains in the distance. They are in the middle of an intense discussion. Suddenly they get interrupted by a voice coming from outside "Maybe it is time to stop discussions, and share each others visions" a man says. He looks older than the majority of the group and seems to be the one in charge for the activities of the day.

The Tibetan group starts by presenting their vision. A young Tibetan woman begins to tell about their vision "50 years from now Tibet will be free. We will be back in Tibet and everything will be managed by the Tibetans themselves. Non-violence and compassion will be our way to make a democracy through peace." A young Tibetan man takes over " we will have our own airlines, which will bring people from the rest of the world to visit our country." He says in such an enthusiastic way that people start to giggle a little by the thought of all the people coming to Tibet at the same time by Tibetan Airlines.

After the Tibetans it is the time for the Nepalis to tell the rest of the group about their vision for their future in Baglung, the town they normally live in, situated in the green mountains of Nepal. A young woman begins to tell while she is pointing at a map showing Baglung fifty years from now "In fifty years Baglung will have much more technology, which we will also use in our foods. There will be no political tug of war and people in Baglung are 100% educated". The rest of the group is nodding their heads as they listen to the young woman from Baglung.

The last group to tell about their future vision is the group of people from Denmark. The young Danes get up and start to move around on the roof until they are lined up in one straight line facing their audience. Two of the young Danish women start to approach the line. It is a bit unclear at the time what this is about. The rest of the people are sitting curiously waiting for the show to begin. "welcome to the show revisiting Odense in Denmark after 50 years" one of the two young women says, while she is looking into a plastic bottle as if it was a camera. "It has been 50 years since our last visit to this Danish city, so let's talk to some of the citizens from the town." She begins to interview different people in the line. They tell about the every day life in Odense from different perspectives- "we have non-polluting cars. Four hours of forest kindergarten for the children. Parents only work one day during a week. Democracy has changed, before people were too lazy to vote, but today everybody is active".

The people from Baglung ask about the forest kindergarten "Is it safe for the children to be out in the forest for so long - what about the wild animals?" The group of young Danes look quite confused, then one of them answers the question "well, it is perfectly safe. You see, in Denmark we really do not have any wild and dangerous animals. Perhaps the children will see some squirrels -if they are lucky". The people from Baglung look a little astonished, as if they do not really believe this. But is then interrupted by the message that it is time for a tea break.

What is going on? What are they doing up on this roof top? Why are they not visiting temples, shopping in Thamel, river rafting and bungee jumping? Why are they not doing the normal stuff young people do when they come to Nepal?

They are here to be part of the MS Nepal Youth Exchange Program. This time the program was originally planned to take place in Baglung, but because of the security situation in that area MS Nepal decided to change the location to Kathmandu and instead involve the Tibetan organization Norbulingka. The people from Baglung and Denmark suddenly had the chance to get familiar with Tibetan culture and especially young Tibetans.

Today 's session about the future and the visions is a part of the exchange program. Stina from Copenhagen in Denmark explains: "It is about our visions for the future, we are supposed to come up with a vision for each of our countries. But it is actually quite difficult, because Denmark is already a developed country, so the only thing we can improve on is within the more soft values, for instance better conditions for childcare and the elderly". Stina is 22 years old. For one and a half year she has been working in Denmark to save money to pay for the trip to Nepal. When she returns to Denmark she wants to study and become a teacher. Her visions for her own future is to get a good education, get married and have time for friends and family "I was positively surprised. It has been a good experience to get close to refugees like the Tibetans. I thought they were living in primitive camps, not in houses, but they are actually very organized and in many ways just as young people in Denmark. If there has been anything which has not been a positive surprise it has been all this talk about security and whether it was safe to go out on Democracy Day or if we should stay inside all day - things like that"

The tea break is over and Jacob who is the facilitator organizes the people in new groups so that Tibetans, Danes and Nepalis are now mixed. They are supposed to try and come up with some strategies for how the visions can actually come through. People sit together in the new groups, but now they look a bit tired as if the last task is almost too much to focus on. Jacob sits in the background without interfering.

The timing is good for listening to what he actually has in mind with the activities for the day. Why is it that there are absolutely no conflicts in the visions for the future? Why is it that all the groups only focus on the good life?

"It is because the other thing is too easy. It is so easy to talk about all the negative things and it is not at all constructive. The idea with this is to try to make people look at what they actually can agree upon as common goals for the future and how they can make it happen - and of course especially in the context of development" Jacob precedes with some fascinating quotes from famous philosophers and other good people - but they are far too long to waste time and precious space on in this little glimpse of the exchange of visions for the future among young people on this roof top.

Let's instead turn to Karma, office assistant at Norbulingka and 27 years and hear what he thinks of the visions for the future and the idea of exchanging young people thoughts from different cultures for the purpose of a common goal.

" This is our third last day of the youth exchange program. Throughout the program we have been doing different activities together. Today it's about the visions for the future that we have in common. The Tibetans visions are of course different from the rest, because fifty years from now we will have free Tibet and unlike the people from Denmark and even the people from Baglung, we will have to start all over. We will have to build up a society from nothing. I like the Danish society. I was in Denmark as a participant of a program called Youth and Democracy. I got a lot of inspiration from this trip. But for me it is difficult to see what we have in common because our situation are so different. The Tibetans don't see a future for themselves in Nepal, the only thing we actually think of is a free Tibet -that is our future vision" Karma stops his explanation, but then he adds "and we will need a lot of donors " The last bit is said in a dubious way which makes it difficult to know if he actually means it or not.

Govinda, 20 years old and Lal, 21 years old, from Baglung have been looking at Karma while he tells about the Tibetan vision for the future. They have had some difficulty in understanding everything that Karma was saying because their English is not as good as Karma's. Govinda says that it is sometimes little difficult because everything is in English "but the exchange program has been very nice for me" he says.

It is now late afternoon and the groups start to move. As people gather used tea cups, pick up the card boards which have been used for their presentations the sky is becoming darker and huge clouds is emerging - it looks like rain. People are moving down stairs to ground level. They have left the clouds and the visions for the future on the roof top and now they seem more concerned about their plans for the immediate future "so where are we meeting tomorrow?" one person asks "tomorrow we will go to stupa in Boudha and lit hundreds of butterlamps on the stupa. A bus will pick you up and take you to the stupa in Boudha." Karin, a Danish development worker from MS Nepal, informs as she shows the group the sacks full of little clay lamps and the rest of the props that they are supposed to carry with them tomorrow.

The group of people is beginning to spread. It is now time to relax a little and digest the visions for the future at ground level before entering into a new day packed with fresh inputs that will require all the energy they can manage to reload for the upcoming intense event the following day.