Over the top

This is a follow-up to my earlier post. I wanted to see what kind of news about Nepal were covered, mainly by the BBC. I have gathered some quick Google results (Google web search and Google news search) for a set of different search queries about Nepal. The queries were made on the 4th Dec 2009, 11:49 (Nepal time). Though this is not an exhaustive research, and the results don’t produce anything even close to ‘conclusive,’ I hope it can give some hints, and justify my reasons in the earlier post.

‘nepal’+'gadhimai’ returned 931 pages from bbc.co.uk on google web search

“nepal”+”karnali” returned 25 pages from bbc.co.uk on google web search

Google Web:

• “nepal”+”christian”+”conversion” : 42 (bbc.co.uk) picture
• “nepal”+”christian”+”death” : 286 (bbc.co.uk) picture
• “nepal”+”road accident” : 50 (bbc.co.uk) 50 picture
• “nepal”+”karnali” : 25 (bbc.co.uk) picture
• “nepal”+”karnali”+”food” : 4 (bbc.co.uk) picture
• “nepal”+”gadhimai” : 931 (bbc.co.uk) picture
• “nepal” : 31,300 (bbc.co.uk) picture

”nepal”+”christian”+”death” returned 1740 results on google news search

“nepal”+”christian”+”convert” returned 194 results on google news search

Google News:

• “nepal”+”karnali” : 1040 (all) picture
• “nepal”+”hinduism” : 1700 (all) picture
• “nepal”+”christian”+”death” : 1740 (all) picture
• “nepal”+”christian”+”convert” : 194 (all) picture
• “nepal”+”karnali” : 135 (BBC) picture
• “nepal”+”hinduism” : 29 (BBC) picture
• “nepal”+”christian”+”death” : 7 (BBC) picture
• “nepal”+”christian”+”convert” : 2 (BBC) picture
• “nepal”+”christian” : 72 (BBC) picture
• “nepal”+”tibet” : 508 (BBC) picture

I leave it for you to decide what is the defining characteristic of Christianity in Nepal: death or conversion? The figures speak for themselves on what kind of coverage did Gadhimai receive and what really are the pressing issues of Nepal.

Thanks for your comments