Suggestions!
Matt, I started doing some edits, but I think the structure is improvable. I suggest one that focuses (1) on Nepal; (2) on how people can be involved and only then (3) on Edgeryders. What you have now is something that gets to the meat halfway down the post; and it treats Nepal as just another country.
I suggest something like this:
“Edgeryders is going to Nepal. Natalia and I will be in Kathmandu by the end of this month: we are being asked by UNDP to help make the country’s nation building process more inclusive. This is, to say the least, exciting.”
“If you are fascinated by transition and change, Nepal is a really interesting country, one that was never afraid to experiment with uncommon models. In 1951 it had a revolution, that managed to instate a constitutional democracy. In 1960 it saw a “royal coup”: the king declared parliamentary democracy a failure, and dreamed up a “partyless” system of local governing councils. In 1996 a Maoist insurgency started to establish “people’s government” at a district level, as the civil war between insurgents and loyalists burned on. In 2001 Prince Dipendra “went on a shooting-spree”, assassinating nine members of the royal family, including the ruling King and his Queen, before shooting himself. In 2002 the new King deposed the government and took complete personal control of the state, but he reverted back to having a government after one week. In 2005 he did that again – and for good measure cut phone and Internet access […]” (the history of Nepal is here) “[…] the country is engaged in the difficult, but exciting, task of rebuilding itself into a model that works for everyone.”
“UNDP is trying to help make this process of nation building more inclusive. We are being called in to include, specifically, what they call “alternative leaders”; these would be hackers, activists, social innovators. Imagine what would have happened if Mandela could have enlisted the Chaos Computer Club in 1994, bringing openness and computers to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission! […]”
“Of course, this sounds like Mission Impossible. Political change is very difficult. Political élites in any country are often unenthusiastic about opening up to new people with different cultures, and we have no reason to believe Nepal will be different. But guess what: we are always moaning and complaining about how things don’t work. Well, here is a small chance to make a small difference to a historically important process. We are going to run for it, and we are going to make the absolute most of it, for ourselves as well as for our Nepalese brothers and sisters. After all, Mission Impossible is exactly what we are building Edgeryders for: we want to be the foreign legion of social innovation, remember?”
“So Natalia and I are moving to Kathmandu for a while. And here is how you all can get involved […]”.
Works?