The Urban Ethos First Issue
Message from the President
The importance of planning can hardly be undermined. The increasing role of cities and their regions in the overall development process has made planners more responsible over the years.
As the present executive committee of RUPSON started functioning from January this year, we were aware of its vast potentials. At the same time, we became concerned with its low profile and the limited sharing of stories, experiences and news among planners. Recognizing RUPSON as a society of well-qualified planners engaged in the transformation of Nepal, we must aim for a much higher goal. As a first step, we must enhance the networking to meet the goal. This realization urged us to initiate the publication of a news magazine in a systematic and regular fashion.
We are living in a dismal age; those willing to enhance the social good hardly find the ways and means of doing so. Convergence of interest used to work in other times. One could find areas where the planners’ goals would not conflict with the interests of the politicians or the business. It is increasingly difficult for planners to pursue their goals in harmony with them. RUPSON should be seen as an organization that will help individual planners to lobby for the promotion of the social goods. It may be difficult for some to understand why RUPSON should grow more as a planners’ professional organization rather than anything else. Yet, its distinctive place among the civil societies must be recognized. RUPSON is still in its embryonic stage. We ought to resort to collective learning and action for making a difference. I have sensed a high degree of response for collaborative works from other stakeholders of the planning enterprise. This means, despite its vast potential, we have so far failed to harness the opportunities. As I gathered from its ardent workers, both past and the current, we have many confusions and conflicting views on how RUPSON should grow. While we are still grappling with how it should grow, it is necessary to understand the resource crunch.
This humble effort is aimed at creating a platform from where we planners can make our voices louder. It is an attempt to provide a window for planners to vent out their suffocations while struggling for the social good, and to share their experiences and leasing them out to the wider mass for the upliftment of the Nepali society. RUPSON will use it as a tool to motivate planners to do more in the days to come and enable them to interact with the society in a meaningful way. This will help us to keep in record what we have done to enable us to do better in the future. This is the voice of the planners.