Let’s imagine this scenario.
I rush for a business meeting at Durbar Marg in central Kathmandu. I decide to take a taxi as the traffic is too stressful and it’s getting late. [break]
The taxi driver happens to be a middle-aged fellow. He doesn’t seem to be a bad person. But he has decided to tamper with his meter and dupe me.
Why?
It’s because Kathmandu is getting outrageously expensive for him to sustain his family. He has to make enough profit to give to his taxi owner and then some more to feed his family that night. So he makes a choice. He tampers with his meter and overcharges me. I sit silently seething at this humiliation of knowing I’m being duped but not having any immediate proof or the time to argue with him. I pay up. I feel wronged.
That evening, the taxi driver goes home to his rented room where his family of four lives. On the way to his room, he stops by the shop to buy foods to be cooked that night. His wife is waiting.
The shop owner is a hard working woman. She may not want to dupe her customers, specially this taxi driver, but she feels she has to.
Why?
Well, her landlord has been arbitrary increasing the rent of her apartment, and on top of that, she has to send her two children to a “private boarding school” for any chance of her children to have a bright future – or so she thinks, since all her neighbors send their children to these rather nice schools.
So she spikes up the prices arbitrarily, duping the taxi driver. He complains about these daily price rises. She replies calmly. “Ajkalko Terai hadtalle garera bhau badeko ho!”
Next morning, she collects her “hard earned” profits that she has saved paisa by paisa over a month and goes to her children’s school. There, she pays off her children’s monthly dues.
Then she asks the school principal why is the school sending all these added costs and hidden fees on top of the tuition fees? A standard non-emotional reply comes, “You know, teachers, inflation, everything is getting unaffordable.” The vegetable seller isn’t convinced but what can she do? She feels helpless. She silently returns to her shop.
The educated Mr. X who runs the school is a smart man and has been able to make a good profit running this school and leads a comfortable life for his family in the city. But lately, he’s been forced to squeeze more and more from the parents of his students.
Why?
Well, because nowadays, he has to pay more and more money in the name of “donations” - the open extortion by all these numerous youth, local, ethnic, political groups in his area for “protection.” They hound him day and night. He feels helpless! He makes a choice. He decides to fleece more and more money from the parents of his students.
To make this happen, he needs more students to enroll for the next school year. He decides to promote his school heavily. Do some branding that enhances his institution’s image which will in turn bring more profits. Guess who has he been getting nicely paid consulting advice from for the last few days?
Guess?
It’s me!
Guess who’s going to get overcharged or duped?
Me, who’s been repeatedly duped by the taxi driver, who’s been repeatedly duped by the vegetable seller, who’s been repeatedly duped by the private school owner.
But then, I also have a choice to make. Stopping this vicious cycle also starts with me. Each day, we all have this important moral choice to make. The question is: Will we?
Ujjwal Thapa blogs at whynepal.com and is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs for Nepal.
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