That weekend, the word people came to be officially redefined as “our peeps.” Like Ironman who attempts to privatize world peace, our politicians and celebrities attempted to privatize/partyize the people. The people were the people who were with you and weren’t the people who weren’t with you. [break]
Oh, and those with latthis? They were just Maoists. How about those in white? They weren’t people! They were imperialists and expansionists! The people were assimilated, but did the citizen still remain? Staunch and undaunted, a citizen is a free thinker and believer in the liberal values of free speech, democracy and justice. It’s safe to say that the citizen is a good idea.
It’s clear our politicians are anything but free thinkers; unsurprisingly, nor are the people. Like shadows, the people are monochromatic, two-dimensional replicas of those idealized citizens. The closest thing the people have to a free thinker is a BB – Blackberry for some, Baburam for others. Today, let’s blame this strange state of the people on our silver screens (because I want to talk about Ironman) that propounds monochromatic, two-dimensional characters as our heroes and villains. Ram is good, Ravan is bad, Ironman is good, and the bad guy is bad. Michael Jackson once sang he was bad, but everyone knew he was just being cute. ACDC was pure evil, which made them good. The Beatles were so good that they actually became good.
In Ironman 2, the baddie is motivated by one reason – hatred. The people beware! If hatred can stem from the fact your father died an old man, imagine the revenge of those raped, murdered and maimed. To dig a bit deeper into the reasons, it’s disheartening to hear communists blaming the community and capitalists blaming capitalism. In the movie, the baddie, Ivan Vanko’s father, is outcast because he wanted to earn some money – to which all I can say is “Ahem!” Poor excuse when you seem to be enjoying it all. On the flipside, you can’t blame people for not liking your latest track. Just ask Prachanda – he had a well-tailored apology ready for those people.
But getting to the juice of things, whether we’re people, as a country and nation – united we stand, and together we fall. Take the recent fiasco that was Unity Life. What’s that? You have a company that’s actively propagating a pyramid scheme for the past three years, and the government acts about three years too late. For the uninitiated, the pyramid scheme is one of the oldest of frauds – you get people to pay for “membership” and get a kickback from it. In return, the member gets nothing unless he gets more members to join in. It doesn’t work because you need more and more people to join, and the world has a finite number of people. For a scheme like this, to amass a few billion Rupees suggests crazy negligence from the government. Yes, they must have political backing. Yes, they must be filling the pockets of bureaucrats. Yes, they must’ve ripped off a whole bunch of people.
And why did people invest in it? What else but the promise of a better future, a future they no longer believe politicians can provide. It’s a damning case for the private sector. For many a person, this will just prove the unreliability of private enterprises and reinforce the distrust placed on businessmen. If it’s the duty of the red-shirted hoodlums to forsake violence, it’s the duty of the white-shirted puritans to prevent fraud.
There’s a lesson for both shirts here – there’s a market, there’s a demand, there’s a need, but enterprises will only work and last if they are honest and credible. Fraud and deception might get you along for a while, but the people will eventually be able to tell a lie for a lie and a fact for a fact. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
This brings me back to our great leaders– where are they when the people are being ripped off? If you haven’t guessed, they must be somewhere at the top of the pyramid. A serious investigation into this scandal is a must. I guarantee it’ll never happen. I’d wager the entire proceeds from this article on anyone who claims that a single politicians or bureaucrat that has allowed this scheme to continue will be punished. They might get a slap on the wrist, but justice is a dish that’s not on a Nepali restaurant menu.
If the people’s party are in it for the people, if the capitalist believe in free market enterprise – Unity Life has challenged both of them to stand up for what they idealize. They’ve taken advantage of people by blatantly violating market regulations and laws. It’s on par with Hammer industries stealing the Ironman technology. There’s no Ironman in Nepali politics or business, what we do have are a bunch of croons and roosters. Perhaps it’s for the best that we don’t have a superhero who brings with him the promise of peace but is also accompanied by violence and destruction. Instead, it might be best to be stuck with a gaggle of goons who can sip tea and talk and bolster their way to yet another stalemate.
A libertarian might find it pleasing to be in a country with a dysfunctional government; but sadly, dysfunctional isn’t the same as indifferent or small. While dysfunctional, the government continues to possess the in-your-face style of a pit fighter and imposes itself on to every facet of people’s lives. This, more than anything else, explains why the people chose to come to the streets, and continue to do so. However, people would be wise to acknowledge that our nation is made up of many more people, and just a few hundred thousand is but a small percentage of a country with a lot of people.
Just how many will perhaps be soon revealed. The national census couldn’t be coming at a better time.
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