Half a year has passed since the devastating earthquakes of April and May. But many of the 'resilient' victims still live under tents and tarpaulins. The government, probably too confident about the victims' resilience, seems to have pushed reconstruction to the end of its priority list. Rest of the country is busy glorifying 'resilience' as Nepali trait failing to distinguish it from victims' compulsion. Romantic resilience may sound like an oxymoron. But resilience has been much romanticized these days. Romanticism has an inherent flaw, it either veils the reality or it veers away from it.Five days after the massive quake, Mike McRoberts, a New Zealand journalist tweeted a picture of an old lady in Sanga, standing amidst the rubble of buildings, still wearing a warm smile on her face. His tweet was about the lady's humbleness in offering him lunch despite losing everything in the quake. With thousands of retweets and favorites, the tweet and the picture became the symbolic portrait of resilience of Nepali people post-quake.
But most of such romantic narratives have been rather treacherous. It reminded me of what my professor had once said about the politics of romanticism in my literature class. It was about the dangers of romanticism that encourage status quo by resorting to the emotional and veiling the real. The question here is, by romanticizing their resilience, aren't we being oblivious to the plights of thousands of people whose homes have been flattened by the catastrophe? Isn't the government forgetting reconstruction and easing the lives of those still struggling with the basic needs in the aftermath?
If we rely on the human capacity of endurance and psychological capacity of forbearance, the earthquake victims will soon be in their next test of stoicism with the fast approaching winter. Thousands of those who still have nothing but tarpaulins and tents to call a home will have a dreadful time. Yet, as the sun shines the next day, there is a danger that their smile at the satisfaction for having survived through one dreadful night will be mistaken for their resilience and stoicism.
In fact, human beings are hardwired to be resilient and Nepalis are no exception. Several accounts of Nagasaki nuclear bomb survivors of 1945 show how barely a month passed before the survivors returned to their place en masse, to start everything anew.
Similar was the 2011 account of the earthquake induced Tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explosion in Japan. However, it was not solely resilience of people that helped complete the daunting task of reconstruction of Japan. The firm government backing, tangible plans and policies helped sustain people's sense of resilience.
Unfortunately, in Nepal, victims are left to fend for themselves. So far there has been no significant progress in reconstruction except for the distribution of corrugated zinc sheets to the victims for building temporary shelters and establishment of Reconstruction Authority.
While we are busy glorifying resilience and attempting to portray resilience to the extent of making it a mark of 'Nepali identity' post quake, some more terminologies are already added to the list to romanticize. After the unofficial blockade imposed by India more than a month ago, 'stoicism' and 'nationalism' are new buzzwords. The distinction between compulsion and stoicism are often blurred by romantic narratives of endless endurance capacity of the Nepali people.
It is time that we use rationality to undo illusions of romanticism we have associated with victims' sense of resilience. People have shown resilience because this is the only option left after facing the biggest of big tragedies. If we romanticize resilience by claiming that it pushed quake victims to return to the farms immediately after burying the corpses of their loved ones, we may also apply a contrasting viewpoint to term it as the survival need.
In reality, it is the only way to subside the hunger of living. It is not expression of stoicism when earthquake victims smile and carry on at the dawn after being drenched in the nightlong rain or after shivering the whole night in the freezing winter. It is because they cannot give up the struggle for survival.
We have had enough of 'resilience' narratives at national and international forums. It is now time to encounter the reality. The reality is that tangible and practical plans are needed to revive thousands of villages crumbled by earthquake.
Getting back to normal is not enough. We need to leap forward to the 'better' to withstand the similar catastrophes in future. The government has the daunting task of saving victims from the harsh winter before we get the news of more tragedies.
Romanticizing resilience should not overshadow their genuine suffering. It should not be an excuse to defer reconstruction.
@smita_poudel
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