What’s in store for 2016?
Related story
Trump’s “Currency Manipulation” Con
2016 is here and like most of the folks on planet Earth, we too hope that this year will bring peace and prosperity. Unlike most of the folks around the world, we hope for something extra such as end of the blockade, end of shortages of everything, end of load shedding, end of dirty politics and the list goes on and on. If Santa was Nepali then he would have probably quit his job and instead gone overseas to make some money.
We hope that our politicians will finally see the light, get their act together and end the political crisis so that we can all go back to our daily routine. We hope that we will finally not have to wait for days or weeks or even months to get half-filled cooking gas cylinders. We hope that we will no longer have to pay Rs 300 for a liter of petrol and Rs 8,000 for a full gas cylinder in the black market.
We all know that we can generate electricity from water, wind, sun, nuclear, fossil fuel and maybe other stuff too. But we need to find someone who can invent something where we can put all our politicians in a room and they can go on giving their speeches to one another for eternity while the sound from such gibberish speeches can be collected and used to run generators or even a power plant. Don’t call me crazy. If that doesn’t work then all our politicians should at least use a cycle for 12 hours a day and we could hook up the energy to our national grid to light our homes. That is possible. Instead of giving out mountain bikes to our Prime Minister and former Baluwatar tenants, give them the bike generator thing. But of course, our politicians don’t want to do the hard work. They would rather only talk than walk the walk.
We got hit by the Big One in April. Thousands lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands of our people are still living in tents and temporary shelters. Winter is here and people are dying out in the cold, but our government is either blind or really doesn’t care about the suffering of the people.
The Indian blockade has made all of our lives miserable but it seems that we Nepalis can adapt to any situation better or worse. But of course, we have yet to see better days but we are still hopeful that our politicians will see the light and work together to build a better Nepal so that all of us can live in peace and harmony.
2015 was a bad year for the country. We have seen what our government is capable of and how our politicians and civil servants are prepared to not get the country back on track, but to figure out how to misuse the funds and even loot the tents and medicines meant for the survivors of the earthquake. Our politicians are cowards. They hide behind security personnel. They live in luxurious mansions in the capital.
They misuse the state funds so that their own families can lead the good life while the citizens are left to fend for themselves.
But 2015 has shown us that we Nepalis, except our politicians, are good people who will go out of their way to help each other. Earthquakes will not bring us down. We will share our food, clothes and blankets. Blockades will not bring us down. We will help each other by sharing our rides. We will ride triple-loads on our motorbikes. We will ride on the roof. We will give a ride in our cars. We will help one another unlike our politicians who only help one another to create ethnic conflict and make us fight among ourselves while they enjoy the benefits from the state.
We don’t know how 2016 will turn out to be. But if we keep on believing in our politicians and civil servants then we will continue to be miserable. We all know that our government doesn’t exist and politicians want to loot even the last paisa left in the national coffer. It is up to us to once again go out and help our people like we did after the Big One and like we have been doing during this blockade. Hoping for the government to come to their senses is senseless, and I can only hope that this year we don’t lose senses while dealing with all the crises.
kalumaila99@gmail.com
