Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world; most people have not used a telephone, don't worry a computer, the staple diet for most of the united kingdom is ‘dhal batt’ - rice and/or lentils with maybe some veg - every day, for life. The terrain is a combination of three altitude zones; the Himalayan mountains - the so called ‘roof in the world’, their foothills and valleys, and the southern plains with some rainforest. The Kathmandu valley is the centre of administration, commerce and what industry presently there. The country is a combination of 70% Hindu and 20% Buddhist religions (Buddha was born in Lumbini in the south), 4% Muslims who are clustered around the border with India, plus a few more obscure sects. A Kathmandu valley a synthesis of Hinduism and Buddhism is practiced by the Newars, while in the eastern and western hills, the oldest religious form, Shamanism, still survives. 80% of the population work with agriculture, an estimated 40% live in extreme lower income. Gross national income per head stands at US $240, according to the World Bank. Illiteracy is very high, though diminishing gradually; 35% of men, 70% of women.(1) The industrial working class is clustered around the Kathmandu valley and a few other urban areas; the unions claim several hundred thousand members but the figures are questionable; membership fluctuates considerably due to casualised employment and changing political loyalties. Many workers are non-unionised(2). There is a rigid caste system, but religion doesn’t appear regarding significant in party politics, apart from the class/caste aspect. Slavery was officially abolished in the early 1900’s, though an involving neo-slavery continued well in the 1990’s in some more remote rural areas; family debts were inherited by the children and could never realistically be worked off as more debt was added, so were passed on in turn to the following generation as an associated with indentured servitude. This has grown to be outlawed, but indentured villagers are still occasionally discovered and rescued from such slavery. Yet these local archaic feudal remnants co-exist alongside a tourist industry that provides internet cafes with global satellite connections
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