By
Deepak Raj Joshi
At certain times in our lives, we find ourselves in the midst of situations that seem unfair to us or that simply annoy us, however, we commonly end up in the frequent dilemma where we choose to be sincere and speak our minds that makes us be called as rude or reckless. But on the other hand, if we decide to be educated and cultured, we reproach ourselves for being hypocritical or false.
Thank you all for reading my previous article and providing insightful comments, both for and against my views. But I only criticize the people who deserve it. I was under impression that there are a few uneducated hypocrites living outside Nepal. After reading all the comments for my previous article, I was shocked to find that there are more than a handful of educated hypocrites.
When I express myself freely, simply and truthfully without any pretentions, I feel good about myself for that’s exactly who and what I am. I had hesitation to answer to your comments and queries, but your aggressiveness has pushed me to clarify a few things. By the way, I like people with positive aggression.
This article is dedicated to all those educated and so called elites living beyond the borders of Nepal. The hypocrites appear to be assertive and self-assured that shows their discomforts at what I have expressed. There is a razor-thin line between hypocrisy and sincerity. An authentic value that plays a fundamental role in establishing a healthy, constructive and successful interpersonal relationship is sincerity, not hypocrisy.
Someone complained if it were not for remittance, Nepal would already have been a defunct and failed state. We all know that remittances do not come from America, Europe, and Australia. It comes from the Middle East, South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan. So where is your contribution? The migration dependent economy will collapse one day creating significant social issues. Thus, I feel that well-grounded actions are needed. Without action, nothing changes. Books with those big words like GDP, GNP, GNI, NNP NI, PI, DI, and PCI provide knowledge and not solutions. You cannot build the economy by talking and using words from the dictionary but by actions.
As far as I am concerned, a little less hypocrisy would be good for those of us who have always been privileged, educated in private schools and who continue to educate our children in the best schools of the country while we reproduce and multiply second class, average or even sub-standard citizens in our public education system.
Someone said well when he said, “Where there is no vision in the leaders, the people perish”. Political and social ethics for these political parties is diverging towards an unknown direction? Cheats, thieves, passport frauds, poachers, alcoholics and much more are the top leaders of these parties.
All political parties are run by pseudo- intellectuals with an illusory superiority complex. They are incompetent individuals who tend to overestimate their own ability. These people are unable to recognize the ability of others. A good organization should be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). Most of them do not have any of those attributes. Where is the vision? People like you and me have no stake in the Nepali political spectrum.
After implementation of more than 30 years, social policies have failed to lift our people from poverty and more than half of Nepalese are economically poor or extremely poor. It is a reality that 30% Nepalese are living below poverty line. The quality of education is poor, if not shocking. The equation is simple: this country will not grow at the required rate and generate the jobs needed to get out of poverty with this kind of political scenario. The current scheme (begging donors and squeezing remittance) of fighting poverty is reaching its limit. It is not a problem of social policy or a budgetary problem. It is a problem of politics itself. The budget in Nepal remains unspent with a majority of the expenses skewed towards the end of the fiscal year. The politics of poverty and the poverty of politics in Nepal is a sad reality but a reality nonetheless. Adapt or perish are the only two choices left for people like me. Don’t get me wrong. I am enjoying the journey from being an optimist to a defensive pessimist.
Unfortunately, we continue to suffer this form of politics based on bullshit and baloney school of thought. Whoever runs these parties, all they do is follow political monism. Monism leads to extremism and it is often the mother of fundamentalism.
Here is the sad part; we cannot import our leaders. Development and progress cannot be imported. We have to create it here. I did not come to Nepal expecting to have a good life. As I have stated earlier, I have to adapt or perish in this country. I am not asking that other people also do the same. The ideal world we have studied and read about is so very far from the world I am living in right now. Just do well to the society you are living in irrespective of being a NRN, NRI, American, Australian etc. It’s all about humanity.
Edmund Hillary who was not born in Nepal dedicated his life helping Nepalese communities and on the other hand, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa who was born in Nepal did not really do anything worthwhile and he migrated to India. The main issue is not an identity; it is an action. Your action will define your identity.
If telling the truth is wrong, then I do not want to be right. You are always welcome to share your plans, and genuine ideas to upgrade our collapsing society to a different level. I have been contributing to small groups of people here in Nepal. We need more people to contribute many smaller groups in order to build this nation. We cannot import our dream but we have to create it. If you’re not willing, no one can help you but if you’re determined, no one can stop you.
There are people out there who would like to contribute but they are averse to risk taking. Some of you have taken risks and are coping with it. If the system is less risky then there would be more people who would follow their heart. Why don’t you point out the system errors and suggest ways for fixing it? A shining example is China and to a lesser extent India. How they are capitalizing on the human resource they have abroad. How they are attracting them to the country to benefit the society. My discussion is not about the 5% intellectual NRN who genuinely have opinions with solutions.
I am doing the work to the best of my ability. There are many who tried in Nepal, became frustrated and moved overseas. There are a few people like me who dare to make the difference. At least appreciate our optimism and enthusiasm. We assure you that we will not let good people down.
Please stop complaining. Is there anyone out there willing to work here in Nepal as a teacher? We will give you a job. Come here and teach at our rural school or college. We will guarantee a 30 thousand salary. I know you will not come because you are the elite hypocrites. You cannot sustain with that kind of money but 30 million people are sustaining with minimal resources and sometimes less than the minimum. Elite hypocrites talk loud and big but do nothing. If you can spare the hatred for people like me who is actually doing something for our society then the bigger issue is something else. All you are doing is intellectual bullying.
I was wrong when I thought that the intellectuals have a positive perception towards Nepal and its development. I find there is an interesting phenomenon within the Nepalese elite living aboard. I am not against any NRN or anyone living outside Nepal, regardless of where they live, what they do and their immigration status. My anger is directed against those who only complain and do nothing. Posting pictures of Nepal on your Facebook page does not make you a patriot or a nationalist. I know so many other Nepalese living in the USA, Australia, UK and working in reputed universities who have made tremendous contributions to this country, intellectually and financially. I salute them for the extraordinary contributions they are making towards this nation. Finding faults within a system is easy. Any fool can do it. But do you have the solutions and corrective measures that this nation needs to undertake to redeem it? Are you willing to come back here and get your hands dirty to build this country? Probably no.
We do not need just symbolic patriotism. We find it in every corner of Nepal and abroad. We need action. We need a voice for the voiceless, home for the homeless and food for the hungry. You talk about the constitution and post a clip on your Facebook wall but have never read our constitution. It’s easy to criticize, but not so easy to offer helpful solutions.
I find there is an interesting phenomenon of the Nepalese elite living aboard or here in Nepal. These people hate public transportation and dream of buying a big car and complain how bad our public transportation is. They want other people to use public transportation so they can enjoy the comfort of driving on open roads. These elite take a picture of naked street kids, old women, sadhus, local tea shop, chaotic traffic with their 3000 Dollar worth DSLR and call them self-social activists. They love animals, and love pets but need to have chicken and mutton every day if possible. Now it’s time for them to get a DAURA SURAWALand DHAKA TOPI which was unthinkable for them before they become rich and famous or before they left this country. All of a sudden they swell with extreme patriotism and pride.
This is my opinion and I just want to share. There should not be anything wrong with that. The problem with all these elite finds is explanatory but not the solution. I suffer every day with the social, economic or political problems of Nepalese society and you don’t.
I had a privileged to read comments from some of the educated elite and they were lashing out at my ability to choose and write good English words and language. I agree I do not have good English but I was able to communicate to you. Please do not ever overestimate yourself about your intelligence for being an English expert. English is a just language, not intelligence. You cannot measure anybody’s intelligence by his ability to speak and write English.
There is no nation without borders. We have a border and we are a proud nation. The change for an equitable society must come from education. Knowledge is the result of both education and experience. Look at how you are using your knowledge. Intellectual intimidation is more dangerous than physical violence. Our actions need to speak louder than words.
The real issue I see is incompetence and madness of political and overeducated elite. Intellectuals are usually egocentric and tend to attach much importance; they genuinely believe they are profound scholars of social affairs.
The intellectual genuinely believes that he is more educated and knows much more than the rest of his fellow citizens, either because he has taken several college courses or because he sees himself as a refined person who has read many books or because he attends many conferences or because he has received some Awards. In short, he believes himself to be smarter and more prepared than the rest of humanity. By doing so, they tend to fall into the fatal sin of arrogance very easily.
They even come to the point of thinking that they know more than others about what we should do and how we should act. They genuinely believe that they are entitled to decide what we have to do.
For better or worse, many people do not have a degree from an expensive foreign university and there are people who think differently. That does not make them stupid but they are tired of being called stupid and ignorant by these so called intellectual elites. Just because others do not tow your line of thinking, it does not make them stupid or even arrogant.
Let’s all act like a genuine intellectual. Long term resentment and envy adds fuel to pride and ignorance. Educated elite are nothing but warriors of patriotism, democracy and social activism with half-baked knowledge and sometimes little or no experience.
If you have anything good, then give me an excellent piece of prose. You all have the right to criticize things happening in Nepal but constructive criticism would be welcome. I live in a free country and I am entitled to have my opinion. Whether you accept it or reject it, it won’t make any difference to my opinion.
If you read carefully I did not generalize on my article. It is up to you to agree or disagree and no one argues about your right to disagree. Please do not speak like a bigot. This is nothing but intellectual bullying.
Declining dynamism is a symptom of underlying economic and social problems. Conflict and frustration are not a psychological phenomenon anymore for the Nepalese people. We are living in a society in which there is a large discrepancy between feeling, saying and doing. Often these three elements are disconnected from each other. Many people, especially in the understory of politics think of one thing, say another, and do a different one. The trivialization of politics makes it less credible every day which is worrying. Our behaviors are paving a road, which eventually can lead to a dangerous social situation.
If you relate yourself to this article, then there is an underlying problem with your patriotism and you are NOT REALLY NEEDED (NRN). For all others who genuinely want to contribute to our society, you are NEEDED, RETURN NOW (NRN).
Author is a lecturer, IT consultant and he can be reached by email at jkapeed[@]gmail.com
Sunday, Jan 22, 2017
http://www.annapurnapost.com/annanote/news/3583/Posting-pictures-of-Nepal-on-Facebook-doesn’t-make-you-a-patriot,-you-got-it
