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Problems with us - Problems with us Nepalese

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My friend Nirbhik and I are sipping up our rum and coke and talking about Nepal and Nepali Politics, when we reached upto a discussion of what the problem is! While we were discussing what all has been been going on in Nepal, a point where we both agreed was that we Nepalese can do little to improve the current situation. All the while we wallowed in our discussion of how Nepal needs to be literate and "educated", we saw a greater point in the fact that the little things we do may create a sort of a "butterfly effect" so as to creating potential to a greater good to our nation. I guess what we were trying to say is that even a little thing like this blog entry could affect you or another person to think about this idea and probably this idea of ours(which might have many different sources) may affect the right person who could bring about "changes". This was an idea that Nirbhik came up with and I as anyone else would do refuted this claim as a utopian idea as I thought that the size of the educated population was too small to affect the whole nation. But as I thought through, it kinda made sense as all we lack, as a country, is a good leader and I guess there is no scientific way to prove our claim. However, this may be a start.

 

Well you might think what or who is a good leader? That is an answer that has many answers vis a vis arbitrary to one's belief. But one thing we all can agree is that a good leader is never perfect. Bill Clinton was a good leader and so was Abraham Lincoln, but both of them had frailties, which is another topic all together. But we cant overlook that they lead the US towards a positive direction, which is exactly what we need in Nepal. But behind all these questions and answers, I found a problem. While we might good leaders who are not perfect at all, we as Nepalese have a problem. The problem is that we tend to be too naive, we tend to be too easy and follow our leaders blindly, A cartoon sketch published in one of the newspapers when twelve Nepalese were murdered in Iraq, came to my mind. It vividly showed that very problem. One sketch showed a family watching the news on TV that said "12 Nepalese murdered in Iraq". The very next slide, showed the son smashing the TV. This is very much like the whole "Hrithik Roshan Scandal", where we chose blindly to destroy ourselves instead of understanding the situation at hand and not just following the opinions of a "leader". While we understand that any comment like that is offensive to us, we have no proof of what he said. We should ask ourselves if all those people that suffered injuries and some that died gave up their lives for a false cause(as far as we know) !! I guess those little bunch of people that started this had some leadership behind them and my point is exactly that, WE HAVE A CHOICE TO DECIDE WHETHER TO REBEL OR NOT. Given the fact that there are some strings attached to any action, WE STILL HAVE A CHOICE and we Nepalese frequently find it easy to follow leader.Given that we have so many problems in our country, we find it so easy to blame it on the system, on the leaders and on the environment, while we live in a bubble ignoring all the problems that we as individuals, we as Nepalese have. The time has come for us to realize this problem in ourselves. I guess there is little we can do to change everyone, but the little we can do makes a difference and that being that we realize a problem in ourselves and create awareness. I guess little things we do, might just and I must say might just make a difference in the big picture. So let us see and change ourselves before we seek to criticize others!! I know that our point seems simple and probably one that you might have thought of, which leads to the very point that small things make differences and this one may just influence you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My friend Nirbhik and I are sipping up our rum and coke and talking about Nepal and Nepali Politics, when we reached upto a discussion of what the problem is! While we were discussing what all has been been going on in Nepal, a point where we both agreed was that we Nepalese can do little to improve the current situation. All the while we wallowed in our discussion of how Nepal needs to be literate and "educated", we saw a greater point in the fact that the little things we do may create a sort of a "butterfly effect" so as to creating potential to a greater good to our nation. I guess what we were trying to say is that even a little thing like this blog entry could affect you or another person to think about this idea and probably this idea of ours(which might have many different sources) may affect the right person who could bring about "changes". This was an idea that Nirbhik came up with and I as anyone else would do refuted this claim as a utopian idea as I thought that the size of the educated population was too small to affect the whole nation. But as I thought through, it kinda made sense as all we lack, as a country, is a good leader and I guess there is no scientific way to prove our claim. However, this may be a start.

 

Well you might think what or who is a good leader? That is an answer that has many answers vis a vis arbitrary to one's belief. But one thing we all can agree is that a good leader is never perfect. Bill Clinton was a good leader and so was Abraham Lincoln, but both of them had frailties, which is another topic all together. But we cant overlook that they lead the US towards a positive direction, which is exactly what we need in Nepal. But behind all these questions and answers, I found a problem. While we might good leaders who are not perfect at all, we as Nepalese have a problem. The problem is that we tend to be too naive, we tend to be too easy and follow our leaders blindly, A cartoon sketch published in one of the newspapers when twelve Nepalese were murdered in Iraq, came to my mind. It vividly showed that very problem. One sketch showed a family watching the news on TV that said "12 Nepalese murdered in Iraq". The very next slide, showed the son smashing the TV. This is very much like the whole "Hrithik Roshan Scandal", where we chose blindly to destroy ourselves instead of understanding the situation at hand and not just following the opinions of a "leader". While we understand that any comment like that is offensive to us, we have no proof of what he said. We should ask ourselves if all those people that suffered injuries and some that died gave up their lives for a false cause(as far as we know) !! I guess those little bunch of people that started this had some leadership behind them and my point is exactly that, WE HAVE A CHOICE TO DECIDE WHETHER TO REBEL OR NOT. Given the fact that there are some strings attached to any action, WE STILL HAVE A CHOICE and we Nepalese frequently find it easy to follow leader.Given that we have so many problems in our country, we find it so easy to blame it on the system, on the leaders and on the environment, while we live in a bubble ignoring all the problems that we as individuals, we as Nepalese have. The time has come for us to realize this problem in ourselves. I guess there is little we can do to change everyone, but the little we can do makes a difference and that being that we realize a problem in ourselves and create awareness. I guess little things we do, might just and I must say might just make a difference in the big picture. So let us see and change ourselves before we seek to criticize others!! I know that our point seems simple and probably one that you might have thought of, which leads to the very point that small things make differences and this one may just influence you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View the full article

 

Thanks anyway. Good toughts while you were drunk. Normally Nepalese will start talking all these when they are drunk. I was listening all these sorts of discussion over christmas gathering of Nepalese in north of England as well. probably because i don't drink or might be because I am too slow to understand these philosophical thoughts, I am not quite influenced by such a great article. Sorry for that but it was a very good attmept. I must congratulate admin.

 

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Thanks for the feedback man. Means a lot. I guess we were just drunk talking last night but the thought hasn't died. Its just an idea I got from reading this book called "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit. Its a very easy read and not even 200 pages. It quite interesting and addresses a lot of problems we are seeing around the world. I would greatly recommend this book to you. I bet the author can explain the idea lot better than we can. If you do get around reading it do leave us a feedback. We would greatly appriciate it. Thanks again.

 

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Thanks for the feedback man. Means a lot. I guess we were just drunk talking last night but the thought hasn't died. Its just an idea I got from reading this book called "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit. Its a very easy read and not even 200 pages. It quite interesting and addresses a lot of problems we are seeing around the world. I would greatly recommend this book to you. I bet the author can explain the idea lot better than we can. If you do get around reading it do leave us a feedback. We would greatly appriciate it. Thanks again.

 

 

Oh I see, it came from there. I think I have had a read of that book might be a year ago. I vividly remember the "cause and action" theory, her stark view about George W bush's re-election and so on. I liked her analysis of 1999 protest in Seattle and also refres to cancun protest. It is not greatly philosophical but still inspiring as it covers too many areas. I would recommend it for the basic understanding of current political scenario and power game in the stage of globalisation. I will probably go back again when I finish writing up mine in a couple of months.

Edited by yogesh

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My friend Nirbhik and I are sipping up our rum and coke and talking about Nepal and Nepali Politics, when we reached upto a discussion of what the problem is! While we were discussing what all has been been going on in Nepal, a point where we both agreed was that we Nepalese can do little to improve the current situation. All the while we wallowed in our discussion of how Nepal needs to be literate and "educated", we saw a greater point in the fact that the little things we do may create a sort of a "butterfly effect" so as to creating potential to a greater good to our nation. I guess what we were trying to say is that even a little thing like this blog entry could affect you or another person to think about this idea and probably this idea of ours(which might have many different sources) may affect the right person who could bring about "changes". This was an idea that Nirbhik came up with and I as anyone else would do refuted this claim as a utopian idea as I thought that the size of the educated population was too small to affect the whole nation. But as I thought through, it kinda made sense as all we lack, as a country, is a good leader and I guess there is no scientific way to prove our claim. However, this may be a start.

 

Well you might think what or who is a good leader? That is an answer that has many answers vis a vis arbitrary to one's belief. But one thing we all can agree is that a good leader is never perfect. Bill Clinton was a good leader and so was Abraham Lincoln, but both of them had frailties, which is another topic all together. But we cant overlook that they lead the US towards a positive direction, which is exactly what we need in Nepal. But behind all these questions and answers, I found a problem. While we might good leaders who are not perfect at all, we as Nepalese have a problem. The problem is that we tend to be too naive, we tend to be too easy and follow our leaders blindly, A cartoon sketch published in one of the newspapers when twelve Nepalese were murdered in Iraq, came to my mind. It vividly showed that very problem. One sketch showed a family watching the news on TV that said "12 Nepalese murdered in Iraq". The very next slide, showed the son smashing the TV. This is very much like the whole "Hrithik Roshan Scandal", where we chose blindly to destroy ourselves instead of understanding the situation at hand and not just following the opinions of a "leader". While we understand that any comment like that is offensive to us, we have no proof of what he said. We should ask ourselves if all those people that suffered injuries and some that died gave up their lives for a false cause(as far as we know) !! I guess those little bunch of people that started this had some leadership behind them and my point is exactly that, WE HAVE A CHOICE TO DECIDE WHETHER TO REBEL OR NOT. Given the fact that there are some strings attached to any action, WE STILL HAVE A CHOICE and we Nepalese frequently find it easy to follow leader.Given that we have so many problems in our country, we find it so easy to blame it on the system, on the leaders and on the environment, while we live in a bubble ignoring all the problems that we as individuals, we as Nepalese have. The time has come for us to realize this problem in ourselves. I guess there is little we can do to change everyone, but the little we can do makes a difference and that being that we realize a problem in ourselves and create awareness. I guess little things we do, might just and I must say might just make a difference in the big picture. So let us see and change ourselves before we seek to criticize others!! I know that our point seems simple and probably one that you might have thought of, which leads to the very point that small things make differences and this one may just influence you!

 

 

 

I have just read the above article with great interest. It is very heartening to read such things and to know that there are people here who really care. I saw Nepal many years ago when things were very different. People here are much too fast to blame everything on the government or the system when in fact they could be doing something themselves to improve this awful mess and chaos. Here are some examples of things which disturb me. I never know when I stop on a highway bus if I will reach my destination alive. Good drivers are very rare and they seem to have no regard for human life. Last week coming home from Lagankell in a microbus, our driver could only be described as a maniac. Twice he almost hit people and had to brake sharply to avoid hitting them. Kumar sitting next to me shouted at the driver and I did also. The driver laughed. The conductor laughed. The passengers laughed. So we were ridiculed as being afraid. Yes I was afraid. A furious argument broke out between Kumar and the conductor. It was as though we were the guilty party and the driver was the saint. When will the Nepalese people stop tolerating this madness on the roads? Innocent people are dying almost every day because of recklessness. Passengers should band together when faced with dangerous drivers. Talk to the other passengers. Everybody get off the bus together. Refuse to pay the conductor. Voice your anger ! You can change everything if you try. Don't just burn tyres in the streets. That is polluting your country and inconveniencing innocent people.

My other example is of widespread tax avoidance. I am an Englishman in your country and from my experience of purchasing things for my house in Kathmandu, the vast majority of traders here are VERY reluctant to give bills of sale. They do not pay taxes and are cheating the Nepalese public. We are just in the process of starting an educational consultancy here in Kathmandu and our books are going to be exactly correct. We will pay tax as it should be paid. No cheating the system or of course Nepal cannot develop. Tax avoidance is akin to robbery; robbing the Nepalese public. Yesterday I sent one of my staff to Mahaboudha to buy two rechargeable lamps and a calculator for my new office. The lamps were purchased from an Indian shop. The calculator from a Nepalese shop. In both cases the shop assistant was reluctant to issue a receipt for our purchases. Sabin forced the issue in each case and in each case bills were written but the shop name was torn from the top of the bill. Today we will return to those shops to ask for proper bills and if these are refused, we will refer the matter to the tax authorities. The amount of lost revenue to the Nepal Government is massive every day. Revenue from taxation can bring a much better living standard to the Nepalese people. Anthonyslark@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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