In the past few weeks, we felt the tectonic plates shifting significantly in two parts of the world. The first one was mainly felt in Nepal in the form of a 7.8 Richter scale mega quake and its aftershocks due to the shift of the Indian plate underneath the Eurasian plate. It has left the country in a state of huge devastation, despondency and dread.
The second one was felt on the other part of the globe, in the UK election where the Scottish National Party (SNP) tantalized the Labor Party by seizing all but one of their previous seats in Scotland. To quote Nicole Sturgeon, the leader of SNP, ‘the tectonic plates of Scottish politics have clearly shifted’.
MASTER OF VOICES
The results of this political earthquake could not be more staggering when SNP candidate and 20-year-old University student Mhairi Black was announced to have been elected from the Paisley and Renfrewshire South, unseating Labor party’s Chair of General Election Strategy Douglas Alexander. Mhairi’s win not only questions on the election culture of countries like Nepal where the minimum age of candidacy is 25 but also stands as an inspiration to young eager beavers worldwide.
As Nepal is going through her worst times, she should earnestly welcome Mhairi’s message. The involvement of young helping hands in the rescue and relief programs after the tremors has surely added a huge strength to this message. No matter which group of people led the country, at the end of the day it was the young army men, policemen and civil youth that the country needed during these harsh times. Isn’t he the savior of the nation who offers selfless hands at adversities?
The task of the youth is not over yet. The challenges ahead are renewal, revival and reconstruction of the assets we’ve lost. The most sensitive of these challenges is in renovating the cultural heritage sites destroyed by the temblors. The reconstruction of our priceless cultural heritages will make zero sense if the task is tendered to foreign companies. So we should train our young men and women to kickstart this task as soon as possible. In case we don’t have the required number of manpower, we should not hesitate to call our brothers and sisters back home from foreign land because this is the time to come together and help our nation bounce back again.
Besides skilled manpower, we also need a huge amount of money and a very accountable system to overcome the challenges we will be facing. Even if we collect enough money, it can only buy the means but not a trustworthy system. Therefore, it’s time to stop being blindly optimistic towards the same old faces and practices. And no time will be better than this for the leaders of today to hand over the responsibility of building a newer and better Nepal to the next generation.
Nation’s mourning notwithstanding, the words of hope about reconstruction and new construction have already begun to fill daily newspapers, magazines and social media. But it’s only possible if our youth get to channel their energy into building the nation. In this time of tragedy, while we should be strong enough to overcome the fear and the challenges, we should also be sensible enough to take the right decisions because that is where the essence of being a true Nepali lies.
I am quite hopeful that Nepal will bounce back. Like they say, the period before dawn is always the darkest one.
Satish is a Class XII student of Science at Golden Gate International College in Kathmandu.
