The origin of April Fools’ Day had been a great mystery for historians. Until 1993. That was the year historian Joseph Boskin of Boston University came out with a promising theory: Apparently, the annual celebration of the absurd began during the reign of Constantine the Great in third century BC. According to Boskin, one day the Roman emperor was challenged by his court jesters. They claimed, given an opportunity, they could run the empire better than Constantine. Constantine gamely took the bait and appointed one of his jesters, Kugel, the king for a single day. The new monarch, without missing a beat, passed an edict calling for the celebration of April 1 as the day of the absurd. Soon, it would become a custom.
The Himalayan country of Nepal has itself become a theater of the absurd. The post-2006 political and socio-economic developments here make little sense. The euphoria of 2006 has considerably subsided as people come to terms with the bitter reality that a revolution to overthrow an old, autocratic regime is relatively easy. The hard bit is to devise a new system out of the political and constitutional vacuum that have characterized the transition period in Nepal. The country is flush with cash. But most of it is in remittance, not the product of a strong economy. On one hand, there is a terrible crunch of capable manpower; on the other the graduates Nepal’s education system is churning out is proving woefully inadequate to meet the growing challenges of globalizing workplace. A third of Nepal’s people live in abject poverty while swanky malls and skyscrapers continue to be added in the capital.
We believe part of the problem with Nepal is that political leaders, government employees, entrepreneurs, industrial workers, unionists, and just about everybody take themselves a little too seriously. No one is ready to budge from their rigid stand. Thankfully, the peace process finally seems headed for its long-awaited completion, although the issue should have been long since settled. Yet the political polarization in the lead up to the end of the final CA term extension is worrying. This certainly would not have been the case if our political overlords had engaged in meaningful give and take rather than pandered to their vote banks.
As they say, better late than never. At long last, the peace process will be completed; and by May 27 the country will have a new constitution. Most heartening is the new gentlemen’s agreement on federalism worked out between the Maoists, NC, UML and most crucially, a huge chunk of Madhesi political block.
What would the world be without dreamers! This April Fools’ Day, we sincerely hope our make-believe wishes in the previous paragraph come true. But much like Boskin was able to sell his tall tale (the story on Constantine was a figment of Boskin’s imagination) to some of the most distinguished publications in the world, Nepalis continue to be sold on stories of progress, empowerment and development. When the hoax was disclosed by Boskin, he was widely hailed for his wicked sense of humor. Sadly, the joke our politicians have been playing on Nepalis by needlessly prolonging the wrenching transition, is anything but humorous. It’s cruel.
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