I can see that on various sites and blogs more than 3.5 billion dollars have already been committed to us. This amount might very well increase in the upcoming days. Give us the money, we will thank you wholeheartedly.
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We lost more than 9,000 lives because of this ‘weird’ earthquake. Thousands were handicapped. To add to the agony, millions of lives must have been broken. The grief is simply unexplainable. I have to term it ‘weird’ because it’s been very selective. The experts themselves have given us all different kinds of explanations to the extent that you do not feel like hearing them anymore. No wonder it took away all the buildings built before a certain era, before the advent of engineers without whose permission one could not have built.
But the fact that, unlike what everyone had predicted, that all of Kathmandu would be flattened, did not happen. Ason, of all places, did suffer damages but not in a fashion resembling Sankhu. The point here is simple. It was a kind of quake that seemed to defy logic. Was it the quality of the cement and the steel? The more I read about the two-month-old quake, the more baffled I am. Did we ever look into this aspect? If famous Maggie can flout a rule, can we trust that the steel and cements adhere to standard guidelines?
We have seen World Food Programme continue to distribute inedible foodstuff and bar inspectors from checking the quality of the stuff in their go-downs. Then there’s this tape-recorded message that the grand old man plays every time some organization visits Baluwatar to donate money to his relief fund. He never misses to say one thing, that being, “I will not let anyone misuse this money”. No wonder it sounds music to our ears but he makes it sound as if all that matters to him is the amount in this particular fund. What he also never fails to mention is if anyone is found misusing this money, he will be punished harshly. We still do not know where the sacks of rice went missing, nor do we know the whereabouts of tents. Even if some day we find some, how come he let his trusted lieutenant Mahat’s PA go scot free while whole world knows that he was selling the zinc sheets?
What must Mahat be thinking while he is free! I ask this because he must be the only person in the history of modern Nepal who has been glued to Ministry of Finance. Is he the only one we’ve got to manage our finances in spite of his failure to solve the problem of budget going unutilized year after year? People like Swarnim Wagle on the other hand do bring a fresh breath of air. I got to see and read the Post Disaster Needs Assessment prepared by him and was elated.
No matter what name we give to this much touted conglomeration of donors, all we are doing is ‘begging’. In a way they are the pilgrims and we are beggars sitting around the temple. As they circle the temple, they decide how much to throw at us. Truth is, we are one of the poorest nations in the world. If the world were one city, we would be a filthy slum no one would notice. And while the backdrop is so bleak there is a certain discourse going on where some feel that we should not take whatever is given but only take the aid abiding by rules set by us. Pragmatic?
All I say is charity begins at home. It’s pretty much useless to get into the discourse as to how we get the money. It’s more about how we convince ourselves that we will leave no stones unturned to ensure that we will rise like a phoenix again. Do we see signs of that? Yes, while countrymen suffer at such difficult juncture all we seem to think of is tabling a Bill that ensures lifelong facility to anyone and everyone who has taken a certain position. (Thank God, it was recalled after hue and cry.) And that against a backdrop where every Tom, Dick and Harry has managed to become a minister and prime-minister.
To conclude, let’s take all these donors have to give. No strings attached. Let’s beg shamelessly. Let’s not be pretentious and act choosy. For once, let’s give ‘development’ one real try!
hiteshkarki@gmail.com
