All dusks are followed by dawns; a brighter day always comes overcoming the darkness. The lock always comes with a key, so does a problem. So many times we try to solve the problem by killing the symptoms without even trying to reach to the root of the problem and may give up easily, saying the problem cannot be solved. However, a problem well understood is half-solved; hence it is most important to understand the problem at first. But we must remember, “Problems cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them.” So, what is the problem that Nepal is currently facing, if we have one at all? If a dawn is to follow this long-living darkness which direction will the sun rise from “Where shall I fix my eyes to be able to see the light?”
You do not need to workout your brain hard to realize something is wrong with the way we are living at the moment. And you do not need to be a politician or an active social worker to get to know that people are not happy with what they have, neither the millionaires nor the scholars and definitely not the poor ones. Everyone, from a five-year-young kid to a ninety-five year old gentle man senses there is a problem with the system and all the media are selling just that ; negativity. If everyone senses an underlying trouble in the country, what is it? If you ask hundred people, you will get hundred and ten different answers and surprisingly none of them matches to your perceived problem. So, what does this mean?
It means, either there is no problem, what we are thinking is just an essence of negativity and frustration we are surrounded by, or it means that we are not talking problems, we are talking symptoms.
It is only obvious that we find ourselves a decade or two behind the world in economic, technological and infrastructural terms, as we have just come out of a decade long war in the country. Wait! Have we come out of it, yet? But does that mean we are wrong in all the things that we do? Is our culture, religion, lifestyle, education system, investment policy, banking system, parenting all wrong? Or is it that only political instability is the cause for everything? Or is it nothing but just our attitude that needs to be changed? With my experience, knowledge and intelligence, I cannot point out problems in other things; nevertheless our attitude problem is clearly visible to me. No system is perfect, every system has loopholes, and all the systems are being continually improved, the important thing is to make people feel that they are heading the right direction and their future is better than what is now, and that is exactly where our leaders and scholars are lacking to communicate to the mass.
Although history may not always be a good predictor of future, the easiest reference point always is history. If we look at the history of the developed and highly developing countries, two kinds of people stand out: Effective Leaders and Visionary Entrepreneurs.
We cannot rule out the contribution of JFK, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Clinton towards the development of United States, but it was not merely their efforts that have made US the richest and strongest country in the world. It would not have been possible without Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Alexander Fleming, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Graham Bell, Mark Zuckerberg, Ray Kroc, Warren Buffet, Walt Disney and many more such enthusiastic people: Entrepreneurs. As all other are busy talking and complaining about systems, entrepreneurs are changing systems, creating systems and changing the whole world. A quick reminder though, US is neither the happiest country nor the country with the most entrepreneurs.US is a country whose citizens understand business very well and are so good at communicating things that they really make the world want what they have. Are they really the best? I leave that to you.
Today, the world is singing only two songs, one about the US as usual and the other about BRIC economy. Brazil, Russia, India and China stand head to head to grab the opportunity to become the superpower of the world very soon. And as it seems China has left the other three far behind. China’s economy is growing at a rate no one would have ever anticipated. Everyone was busy complaining about communism, and while all others spent their energy and intellect to become a capitalistic country seeing the US, China proved to everyone it’s not what system is, its what system does that matters. So here we are observing two very completely different countries in terms of everything competing for the superpower position. That would be enough to justify my point that system doesn’t really matter. So what’s fuelling China’s ballistic economic growth?
The answer is quite simple: Entrepreneurship. There’s hardly any city in the world today that does not have a China Town. And there’s hardly any product that China does not manufacture. From the cheapest toys we buy to the tallest building of the world, it’s all in China. As it is supposed to be in communism, we do not hear about many multi - billionaires from China, however there are individuals who have contributed to the economic growth in a significant manner. I personally feel its not long before we see Baidu in place of Google and YouKU taking over YouTube. We are seeing a rapid growth of sales of Chinese Automobiles world wide, we may not have to wait long to say “No, this is not German, it’s awesome and it’s Chinese. There may not be another “Beijing Olympics” for years to come; we will have to see how the Rio De’ World Cup will be by the way.
No matter how much we pretend to hate our other neighbour, its not bringing down their remarkable economic growth rate. Indians were always good with business, now they have learnt to add Luxury to it. Indian goods are no more ugly looking and cheap and strong. Land Rover’s Indian now.
Two out of five world’s richest man are Indians. Bollywood’s everywhere. Indians are on moon now. Look at the Fortune 500 companies CEO’s list and at least a third of them will be Indians. It’s not just Ambanis, Tatas, Mittals and Birlas now. Today it Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Subruto Bagchi, Vijay Mallya, Dabba wala and numerous small company owners who are joining their hands together in uplifting the country’s economy.
Of course Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a role to play in this breathtaking growth of India. He is a gold medalist of economics and has served as a teacher, so he clearly knows when and how to speak, N-deal is an example. More than Manmohan Singh my respect goes to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam though. He came as an angel to India, an angel that we desperately need in Nepal at the moment. Along with all other things, it was Kalam’s mind-boggling speech that helped India integrate and march towards the brighter path. I wish all Nepalese read that speech and take it in case of Nepal.
Living between the two fastest growing economies of the world, we may not be yam between two stones any more, we can consider ourselves, yam with extravagant nutrition from both sides, we can grow, Grow Big! There are a number of books written about what should be done and what can be achieved, and countless number of development reports written by the ‘Elite INGO Class’ of Nepal based on what they see from the tainted glasses of their Land Cruiser. Although these reports and books may hold some value, they have a basic problem, they are seen from tainted glasses. The real stories can only be obtained when we breathe the same air as those 25 % of Nepali people living under the line of poverty breathe.
To empathize poor people, do we also have to be poor? Or can poor people be made rich by sharing the capital acquired by few rich people of Nepal. Exactly as Maoists are pointing out at this moment, can Sharing economy long last? Can sharing economy even exist? Is it scientific to say that we will distribute the property equally to all, from those people who worked hard all their life and acquired some property to those who sold what they had to fulfill their daily alcohol needs. Alright, then from today even I will stop working and spend all my day in a Bhatti criticizing all the hardworking citizens and when I get bankrupt, obviously government will give me a share of money from the people who are working hard. From basic common sense, this does not work and it will never take us where we want to be.
Can nothing be done now to make our and our future generations’ future brighter? Where do we start?
In my opinion, we have to start right from the basics. If we get the basics right, results are bound to happen, though it may take longer than anticipated. We have to stop daydreaming and stop imagining Nepal being Switzerland in a months’ time. Even though it sounds very encouraging, Nepal cannot be Switzerland in a month, it is obvious. All the general public must understand the fact that development is not just being like Switzerland or Japan or America. Development is making all the people of the country prosperous and making them able to live a standard life utilizing the resources we have. Skyscrapers and Flyovers are not the only measures of development, and it is not the only way to go.
Nepal will remain quintessentially Nepal. And what we must work for is to make Nepal a better place to live. Stop dreaming about Nepal being Switzerland. And as we modern Nepalese ( sahariya pakhe is what I would like to call us) are movie fanatics we tend to believe a Superhero will come some day, make this place better for us to live and disappear. This is never going to happen. All of us have to awaken the superhero inside us that is the only way to go. Surprisingly some of the economists of Nepal believe that remittance is the way to go. These economists predict that if 50% more people go abroad for foreign employment than at present (800 Nepalese per day go for foreign employment at present) the economic condition of Nepal will start to improve radically. May be they are true, they ought to be, they are the specialists, but what they are forgetting is foreign employment is not just about money and economy. Money is only a part of living; those who go for foreign employment also have equal right to share their life with their family. Economists believe the underprivileged were destined to live a void life, working hard, saving each penny to send back home to the family members who they have not met for 10 years now. What the economist tend to forget is the human part involved with going abroad for a job. Also, they should not forget they are getting paid for their analysis from that remittance money. And other critical part is the effect foreign employment is having on our culture and attitude. Every youth believes he can do anything unethical or illegal while in country, because they are sure this country holds nothing for them and they will go to other land one day. This is bringing a catastrophic “J gare ni huncha” attitude to our country. We are losing our self-respect and have forgotten to respect others.
It always intrigues me, how people can be so proud to say Nepal is the second largest labor supplier of the world, it is actually pointing out hope bad a situation we are in.
I can see only one way out for Nepal. For the people by the people. The project and donation mentality has long survived in the country and it is not very difficult to say, they were not successful as pointed out by Sujeev Shakya in his book, Unleash Nepal. The INGO’s have made 20 or may be 50 people rich, only those working with them and not the targeted 20 million who were supposed to be benefited by them. And it will be a blunder from our side to still wait and say government will come up wit something to make our lives better. We have waited enough. It is our turn now to act and the starting point is Entrepreneurship. Only entrepreneurship has the power to revolutionize the economy and provide employment to the mass. Although economist would like to see 1600 people go for foreign employment per day to existing 800, I would like to believe that we can grow our economy only if we can reduce the number to 400 and further.
The Basics!!! What are the basics then?
1. Respect:
Respect for work. Respect for seniors. Respect for parents. Respect for country. Respect for society. Respect for system. Respect for law.Respect for Employee. Respect for Employers. Respect for yourself, SELF-RESPECT.
It is lost somewhere. Nobody respects anyone here. The basic society cannot exist without respect for other beings. After witnessing 3 or 4 revolutions in their lifetime the 2000 B.S. generation today believes anything is possible in our country, and it is more important to find ways to topple power than respect powerful. As it is always seen it is always the foemen that have progressed and not the loyal ones. This has injected a sense of resistance in them. They have respect for nothing and no one in this country.
The younger generation lacks it even more. Believing all they need and dream is in America and not in Nepal, they have lost the respect for country. They see all (seniors or of their age) people working in Nepal as incapable. If they were capable and had little common sense they would not be working here leaving the colorful life US proposes. So they see their teachers, parents and seniors as incapable people who could not make it to other countries, and hence comes the disrespect.
We have a longstanding culture of disrespecting our work. We tend to let our frustration out by hating and criticizing our boss, work and office. From mela to modern corporate offices, people spend most of their time criticizing about others. In the process they start hating their work, surrounding and eventually their life. All they do after that is dream ‘I should have been in another country, I hate it over here.’ Although hating our job is popular culture worldwide, other people think in the line of getting new jobs where they will be satisfied, the better ones always come up with an idea of creating their own job. The last thing they would want to do is go to an unknown country and do the same boring job. But it’s different with us, we are made to believe things are much better in other countries; you will be more satisfied being a waiter in US than a doctor in our own country, which is not very true. So as a result of hatred and frustration, what happens is lack of Self-esteem and people start disrespecting themselves, there is no Self-Respect. They have it set in their sub-conscious, I am in Nepal and I am useless. All they do is look at their “clever” friends’ pictures in various social networking website and think ‘What would have been” had they made the decision earlier. Although picture speaks thousand words, those in these social networking sites actually deceive people, they never speak the truth.
Respect is totally lacking in our business world too. There is no ethical respect for the competitors; people go out of their league to get a chance to disrespect heir competitors. Businesses in Nepal are yet to realize ‘Right’ people are the greatest asset they have. How can one live with a salary of mere NRs. 2500 in Kathmandu in today’s inflated economic environment, yet that is what company pay to their workers. And if you think this is only happening to the lower level labors, which is obvious, you need to think again, an engineer today gets a salary as low as 3000 per month. An MBA is offered Rs. 12,000 per month! It is not acceptable by any means. If the payback period of my Engineering degree is 10 years, why should I study? Better the parents buy a piece of land for their child, he can sell it after 5 years and can easily survive for next 10 years drinking heavily; he is not expected to live much longer with the kind of lifestyle anyways.
Most of the businesses’ motto is to get rich quickly. In fact we still believe Business is about discovering a way to cheat others and get rich quickly, this definition has to change and change quickly. No business wants to fulfill their societal responsibilities, except some breweries sponsoring a youth event and thinking they are doing a great job. Breweries sponsoring youth event, isn’t that a good combination? That is why youths think that only industries existing in Nepal are tobacco and breweries and all Nepalese people do is get drunk and Talk Big.
Hence, I believe Respect is a good starting point. From today start respecting everyone and everything you have got in life, life will prosper well; Respect Life. Most of all, Respect Yourself!
2. Discipline:
Another important lesson we have learnt from all the wars we have had and mostly from our leaders is Indiscipline. Somehow we, disciples of Buddha, have always associated Ignorance and Indiscipline with bliss. The more disciplined you are more boring and hectic is life. Take it easy. Right? Wrong. Indiscipline and Ignorance only lead to Oblivion, something we have been so used to. We Nepali people forget thins easily and quickly. I can quote a thousand examples from Royal Massacre, Lauda scandal, 5 year plans to our dreams. Recent one is Constituent Assembly. Everyone panicked as if world was going to tumble the next day on Jestha 14th 2067. People brought out rallies and protests demanding constitution must be made by Jestha 14th. We stuck our eyes on TV till 1 am at night curious to know what will happen. The deadline got postponed by a year and all of us went to sleep happily. One month has past till then and I do not see any Nagarik Samaj, Buddhijibis, media worried about the constitution. There’s no use of protesting now, it wont make it to the news, 11 months down the line again all these people will come up with well thought of and well prepared remarks about why constitution could not be made on time.
Believe me, we won’t get Constitution next year too. When I say that, most of us would like to disagree, call me a pessimist and hope everything will be alright by then. We have already forgotten what happened in the last 2 years. Were we not hopeful when we fought to get Loktantra? But we would not like to think things will be same again, less we want to act to make it different. Hope and Forget is how we live!
When we dream, we must also have the discipline to try and make it come true. Only if we worked as we do while in foreign nation for survival, at our own country, we do not need any theories or miracle to see our nation grow.
No comments:
Post a Comment