What a chaotic scene I saw at Thamel – pedestrians, motorcycles and motors, of all other kinds, all jostling for the same small space of narrow lanes with the same egalitarian mood to celebrate but with stratified destinations.
Those with deep pockets were frantically trying to reach and enter the high-scale happening places. The less fortunate ones were frantically trying to reach medium-scale places like the happening dance bars and dohari geet. Lastly, the “children of lesser God” with holes in their pockets were walking aimlessly, quite oblivious to the piled up stinking garbage and strewn litter.
Garbage, of course, is part and parcel of the life of Kathmanduites, so, no wonder, the indifferent attitude of the general public. But, nobody is infallible and none have escaped the universal law of cause and effect. It doesn’t matter if the garbage originated from an opulent house or a dilapidated house. It is garbage and both strata of society have shown no sense of civic duty by dumping their garbage on public property. This irresponsible behavior is the cause whose effects will reverberate back from the streets that they erroneously think as their useless dumping ground.
If Nepal had able leadership in the post-democracy period, it could have redeemed itself and made up for the lost opportunities. Thus, the true cause for the possible demise of Nepal is the leadership of the country.
Coming to the relationship between cause and effect the Vedic sages had empirically deduced three laws of causation that Swami Chinmayanda articulates:
“1. An effect can never be without a cause.
2. Effects are plural. They are different forms of nothing but the cause itself in different forms.
3. From the effect, if the cause is removed, nothing remains.”
In my last article, I had posed the question regarding Nepal’s survival as a nation state in the very likely scenario of China and India rising as the next superpowers, post US “hyperpower” era sharing center stage in the affairs of the world together with the US and others. Does this prediction/question fit in the incessant karmic law of cause and effect? What is the cause and what will be the future effects of Nepal’s current sorry state of affairs?
A report prepared by the US National Intelligence Council states that Nepal is likely to move towards state failure by 2025 (page 65, 2025 Global Trends Final Report, 2008). With no apparent rule of law, we might not even have to wait for another 15 years.
To quote the report:
“... 32 states that import 80 percent or more of their energy needs are likely to experience significantly slower economic growth than they might have achieved with lower oil prices. These states include Nepal …”
Moreover, the report states that those are also the “States characterized by high import dependence, low GDP per capita, high current account deficits, and particularly perilous state profile.” The report also isolates Pakistan for its internal turmoil.
From our point of view, it’s not only that Nepal is highly dependent on oil but it also has all the other characteristics mentioned in the report above that could move a state towards failure and possible demise. Of course, all these determinants of potential state failure also hold the key to the survival of Nepal as a nation state. Interestingly, these issues are interrelated and positive feedbacks are present between these causes and effects giving rise to a perpetual “vicious cycle.” But, are these issues that could lead to the demise of Nepal really the cause or they are the effects of some other cause(s). That is perhaps the moot question?
Well, we could argue that low GDP is the cause or high import dependence is the cause or perhaps both combined are the cause for the present sorry state of affairs and as a consequence a potential state failure looms and the grand finale – the demise of a nation state. But, the question is why Nepal has low GDP and why does it almost entirely depend on non-domestic production for survival? Since, we can answer these questions these two issues cannot be the cause; instead the answers are the cause and that would explain our current sorry state of affairs.
I would immediately come up with the answer that the Shah-Rana clique kept our nation in the age of the bullock cart to perpetuate their rule and, thus, started the motion to our present and future state. If Nepal had able leadership in the post-democracy period, it could have redeemed itself and made up for the lost opportunities. Thus, the true cause that I have identified for the possible demise of Nepal is the leadership of the country.
Thus, theoretically, if these leaders who cannot think beyond their own self-preservation are removed from the seat of power (i.e. the fundamental cause is removed) the effects are bound to go away. Unfortunately, these people are so used to pelf and power, they are not going away any time soon and, thus, the karmic effects will continue.
So, for survival, Nepal has to find alternative pathways and I propose:
At the national level, a united government for 10 years with the following in 2010:
1. Dissolve the Constituent Assembly – it is a Trojan horse.
2. Kill this notion of federalism
3. Make English the official language.
4. National holiday at the drop of a hat is patently criminal; reduce it.
5. Penalize and ostracize those who take the law in their own hands; strengthen the hands of the judiciary and remove the police from political interference so that the rule of law becomes more important than the rule of party leaders, who are below and not above the law.
6. Invest money in schools, hospital, roads and power plants. Tap our hydropower and plant trees.
Moreover, at the individual and societal level we cannot sit as bystanders watching this as street tamasha, we have to act now and be ready to make our personal sacrifices.
In my following articles, I will examine each of these issues individually.
Talking about New Year, I just received this weekly dose on my email and would like to share with you:
“The real way to celebrate the happy New Year is not to run after happiness outside of yourself. Try to find that hiding happiness within you. If you don’t have happiness in you, you won’t find happiness anywhere outside.”
“So may this New Year make you realize your own happiness and to celebrate not only the New Year, celebrate new minutes. Every minute.”
avantikaregmi@aol.com
Related story
Minister Saud calls for deeper cooperation to find solutions to...
