THE REBELS
Protest is not bad. If Nepali youth protest when six Biharis die in a road rage in Kathmandu, we can’t consider it to be a bad or a wrong thing. If you see it positively, they aren’t tolerating any injustices. The Biharis aren’t locals. The negative aspect of this incident is the culture of impunity that exists in the society. The youths were enraged because there was a rumor that the driver was of a police family. So they took to the streets. But we have to see the positive side, i.e., they were protesting for someone not from this place and against something they believe was an injustice.
Americans ask me how Nepal goes through hundreds of shutdowns and strikes. I ask them how come presidents like George W Bush hold office for eight years and there was no burning of tyres in front of the White House? What kind of culture or practice of tolerance is it?
According to traditional wisdom, you run after the crow instead of trying to feel if the crow took your ear. I ask people how many have actually studied Maoism and Marxism. Nobody. But then, you run after them. There is no conversation on intellectual level because nobody, especially the youth, has studied them.
The culture where youth are leading versus being led is a key shift we need to see in Nepal.
THRIVING IN CHAOS
Can this youth generation thrive in the present chaos that we see? Chaos is defined as aformless matter that existed before creation. Nepal is a perfect definition that describes chaos. That also means there is an opportunity to create something that we want. Chaos is where you launch new creativity. But there are challenges. The system is so complex that we just tend to look at one part of it because that is our comfort zone. We don’t look at the bigger picture. Knowledge and general information has definitely increased. But how much energy do we put in to develop the skills that are needed? Business is a good idea, but do we have skills to run businesses. People don’t seem to invest in it. Is it an entrepreneurship to take over dad’s business and raise the bar by five per cent?
There are young entrepreneurs who sell cheap watches dipped in water buckets. They understand their clientele. Individually we thrive but collective excellence is zero. Singly, we are successful; but as a group of people, our roads don’t work, garbage doesn’t get picked up, and the system is a failure.
There are those who dream and who do. Youths usually dream and do. Many of the others sell dreams and do nothing. And there are those who do with no dreams. For example, you cultivate maize all your life. Nepalis are eating more pizzas than ever. Maybe you could try your hands on Oregano. For the same piece of land, we have the choice now to make what is more beneficial: Maize or Oregano.
NEED FOR CRITICAL MASS
People get it now though. But is it enough for a small mass to understand? We do not need a majority, but we need a critical mass. I firmly believe that we are getting close to having enough critical mass. You are in Sanfe Bagar and there is a young guy who is using the internet. We have a critical mass on the making right there.
When you leave in an airplane, it might be depressing to see at least five hundred young leaving the country everyday. But we forget to see that there is almost the same number of young coming back to the country. It’s full too. The brain drain will definitely translate to brain gain. Someone who will probably spend all his youth playing carom board by the street, if he goes abroad to work, what’s the harm in that? But we have systemic problems. Banks don’t accept village property as collateral, so the villagers have to pay certain someone up to 36 per cent interest. That is also the problem of many shifting to towns and cities because village living is not favorable anymore. But to change the system, we need critical mass. We do not need Lee Kuan Yew or a benevolent dictator to make the change. We need a small critical mass that works together to make the change. They lead the society and the rest follow.
How willing are you to step outside your comfort zone? Are you ready to give up your Trump tie and Wingtip shoes to cultivate Oregano? The risk-taking, stepping out, experimental is the new youth. It’s a mindset. We have started getting domesticated, and the risk-taking factor has declined.
THE TRADER´S SONS
Young Newars in past centuries used to travel weeks to trade and do business in Tibet. They used to earn a good amount of profit, from which they would build wonderful monuments. Now, the young Newar sits in his couch on the fourth floor and does nothing because the three floors will provide him. He will probably never walk out of the neighborhood, and this is the indicator of the decline of the society. I have no qualms saying that the Newars, if decline in the future, will be due to their rent-seeking culture. For centuries, they did business with Lhasa. The intuitiveness, capacity of entrepreneurship, learning of language is all declining. After a generation, all he knows how to do is flip channels with the remote control. The communities that thrived in the old days are Sherpas, Newars and Thakalis, because we were all traders and controlled the trans-Himalayan trade. The Thakalis monopolized the salt trade. The youths who are leaving for the Gulf are the new traders. They remit money to the country and they get exposed to technology, development and the idea of entrepreneurship.
A British Gurkha veteran once said that he, who was in Casablanca, Burma, and all over the world, was never in Kathmandu because there was no Second World War happening here. His generation traveled the whole world. The new generation of Gurkhas goes to London and that’s about it. Their fathers’ generation earned the reputation as British Gurkhas. The Sherpas are the same way. The father has climbed the highest peak 15 times, without oxygen. The sons are in San Francisco or Manhattan at mediocre jobs. The Tharus who could catch and tame wild elephants are not there either.
The police department in New York has the descendents of the Irish who left the country because they had no opportunity there. And now they are going back and Ireland is one of the few countries with the highest growth rate. The brain drain always comes back with brain gain.
THE CULTURE OF JAGIR (JOBS)
If you ask most of the youth in Kathmandu why they are studying, the reply would be to find a jagir (job). The word comes from Persian language. It means the state has no money to pay but can give you title for authority. But there is no money in it. How you use the title and authority is upon you to decide. The word was invented by the Persians and adapted by the Mughals and we borrowed it. Naturally, if I am in a Jagir with a government administration, I do not get money. But because I have status and authority, I will earn money by signing on a piece of paper that proves your son is your son. You are using that authority to make a living. There is one section of the youth who aspires to become Jagireys. If you ask if you can earn your living by being a Jagirey, the reply would be – when I am one, I know how to earn a living in a Jagir. The orientation is not right. And we have a chunk of youth who cares for nothing but be Jagireys.
ATTRACTION OF THE CITIES
Another crowd that comprises a majority of youth is those who are attracted to the cities. In this capital, we see thousands of those. You look at dance bars, violence, criminal activities, you see them. They see that people are enjoying their lives and they know not how. So they take short cuts to climb up the social ladder. It’s because of push and pull. It’s not just Nepal. All over the globe, people are attracted to cities and do anything to be a part of it. The UN says that 50 per cent of the world population will live in cities by 2050. We reached the number by 2008. Urbanization is a global trend, other idea is wishful thinking. This is a lost generation who are after easy money and easy fix. That is the second culture of youth, a major misled group.
Indifference is associated with comfort. The current political change has made a lot of people discomforted. You do not understand the need of the other party, but because it’s discomforting for you, you do not want him to go down to the streets? That is a fallacy. Just because you are uncomfortable, are you denying the other person to be comfortable as well? If the people had trust in the system, they would not go down to the streets to pressure for their demand. Our work is to fix the system so that people do not feel the need to take to the streets. And to do that, we need a critical mass.
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