Why Nepal Matters

I dug up some very interesting things for this interview and article. In March the Chinese Government closed off the area around Mount Everest on the Tibetan side while coercing the Nepalese government to close their side as well. This extended from March 10 to May 10 so that the Chinese could climb the mountain on their own bearing the Olympic torch. From this spin several controversies, the first is that several medical professionals are concerned that the Chinese are doing this too fast to be healthy, and many people could die in the attempt, they haven’t allowed any foreign press coverage so there may very well have been fatalities. The second issue, and the main angle for my story is that it puts the very poor Sherpas out of business for two of their busiest months. Without the money that they make from guiding these expeditions, Sherpas and their families will have a hard time putting food on the table. All this because the Chinese didn’t want bad press from protestors at the summit of Mt. Everest. I will be asking about the amount of money a Sherpa needs to feed his family and survive, and how this will effect their economy. Breashears also produced and shot a documentary called “Red Flag over Tibet” so he should have a lot of knowledge on the issue of China and Tibet in general, especially as it affects the spill over into Nepal and the Everest Climb. This article will be China’s worst nightmare, bad press about their Everest torch run. I can show that the Chinese are claiming the run as a historic achievement, while driving out of employment the hard working and incredible mountain climbers who achieve far more of an accomplishment than bringing the torch up the mountain, every single year.