[Ailist] One Small Miracle from Helicopter Tragedy in Nepal

[Malcolm Odell]

Dear Appreciative Inquiry Friends around the world,

I am devastated by the news of a tragic helicopter crash in the 
mountains of Nepal that almost certainly has killed so many of my 
oldest friends from my years of work there -- the heart and soul of 
Nepal's remarkable conservation and development movement.  A terrible 
loss for the nation, the conservation world at large, and the friends 
and families of those aboard that fated helicopter.

But there is some good news amongst the bad:  I understand from an 
obscure message on the internet,  that our mutual friend, Karna 
Shakya, a founding father of conservation in Nepal, participant in 
our peace-building efforts, and a leading voice for Appreciative 
Inquiry in Nepal, was scheduled to join that fateful mission, but 
turned back from the airport at the last minute.  Had the helicopter 
been bigger, several other mutual friends may also have been aboard.

A miracle, indeed, that suggests, to paraphrase a colleague from 
Habitat for Humanity, "God, and the people of Nepal, have more work 
for you to do, Karna Shakya!" 

 From all reports, our mutual efforts to help bring peace to Nepal 
have paid good dividends.  Now, following the success of Karna 
Shakya's book of hope about Nepal's future, "Sojh," it seems he has 
been spared to carry on his important work in creating a positive 
future for that amazing but beleaguered nation.

By another small miracle, it also turns out that Marcia is staying at 
the Kathmandu Guest House right now -- built by Karna Shakya, and 
where my fellow AI colleagues and I stayed during the peace building 
Summit last September.  She is starting an research project, 
incorporating AI, to examine how the remarkable women of the WORTH 
program have fared now that they've been on their own for almost 5 
yrs, during the Maoist rebellion and collapse of governance that 
pushed Nepal to the brink. 

A few welcome miracles among the tragic news coming out of Nepal this week.

Appreciatively,

Mac Odell
-------------------------------------
Wreckage of WWF chopper found
Sep 25, 2006
A Nepali army rescue team has located the wreckage of a helicopter 
chartered by the conservation group WWF, two days after it went 
missing in bad weather with 24 people on board, an airport official 
said.
The rescuers saw many bodies at the site, he said.
The army helicopter found the crashed aircraft one nautical mile 
southwest of Ghunsa, a village in Taplejung district, about 300 
kilometres east of the capital, Kathmandu.
"The army helicopter could not land at the site but it could see many 
bodies there," Purushottam Shakya, who co-ordinates rescues from 
Kathmandu airport, said.
"The rescuers were not able to have a close view because of the 
terrain," he said. "We have sent a medical team and photographers to 
take pictures and are waiting for more details."
The search for the missing Russian-made helicopter had been hampered 
by incessant rains and fog which prevented rescue helicopters taking 
off.
The weather had also hampered a ground search for the helicopter that 
had been chartered by conservation group WWF.
The area, located above 3,500 metres, is very remote and with few 
villages, in a rugged landscape dominated by ravines and gorges, 
officials said.
Of the 20 passengers and four crew, 17 were Nepalis. Others included 
a Finnish diplomat, two Americans, a Canadian and an Australian, as 
well as two Russians.
Nepal's junior forest minister, Gopal Rai, his wife, Finnish Charge 
d'Affaires Pauli Mustonen, and the deputy director of the United 
States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nepal, 
Margaret Alexander, were among them.
Other passengers were conservationists working for the WWF and two 
Nepali television journalists. The passengers had attended the 
handover of a WWF project to the local community and were on their 
way back.
The helicopter left Ghunsa village at about 0615 GMT but never 
arrived at its destination in Taplejung town, a 20-minute flight.
Officials said on Sunday villagers had reported hearing a loud noise 
in a gorge soon after the helicopter left Ghunsa, a region that is 
home to the world's third-highest peak, Mount Kanchenjunga.
Eighteen people, including 13 Germans, were killed when a commercial 
plane crashed in the hills of western Nepal in 2002.
Himalayan Nepal, home to Mount Everest, has a poorly developed road 
network and many tourists and officials travel by helicopters or 
small planes to remote mountainous areas.

Source: Reuters
-- 
Malcolm J. Odell, Jr., MS, PhD
Appreciative Inquiry Consulting, LLC
4 Whitehall Rd., South Hampton, NH 03827
603-394-7890; 770-6006
<macodell at adelphia.net>
<www.macodell.com>