Homeless in Kathmandu, Nepal

Homeless in Kathmandu, Nepal: homeless children here mug for the camera--because many children can find pleasure despite squalor. In the past year, there have been several forcible rural & urban evictions in Nepal--mostly of Dalit residents. Last January, over 10,000 residents were bulldozed out of their homes in Kathmandu & made homeless in the interests of gentrification & not offending tourists sensibilities. Nepal is held up as a showpiece of Maoist revolution, a worker’s paradise--but over 80% of Dalit children are still employed. If a “socialist” regime doesn’t prioritize such fundamental issues as racism, caste discrimination, child welfare, & housing, & instead prioritizes the conflicting demands of neoliberal foreign investors, it isn’t worth a damn. Or maybe it’s not as socialist as it claims. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP)