Category Archives: environment

frank talks about ground reality in Nepal

How to protect your future in Nepal?

change, common sense, environment, leadership, , ,

Question: what will you do to protect your future in Nepal?

My answer: Be selfish. It is in your very selfish interest to protect your future in Nepal.

नेपालीमा पनि पढ्नुहोला

Here is a story to make my case. Let’s say, you make it big!  You become rich enough to grab a “bright” future for your family. You own a nice house in Kathmandu, with guards, servants and enough money in the bank after many hard, years of honest work. Your relatives are filled with envy!

Let’s say, you have a beautiful, small happy family, you, your partner and your two cute little children. Everyday you drive through tons of problems in Kathmandu. No one seems to be doing much about it. You get angry, frustrated, even depressed. In the end, the only words that come out of you are “Yestai ho”.(यस्तै हो) So you focus on where you feel you can make a difference which is to take care of your own family. You forget about the rest of Kathmandu. As you do this, the Bagmati river which flows through Kathmandu, pretty much remains the same, extremely toxic. You convince yourself, repairing her is beyond your job. You start the blame-game. It is the damned government’s job or some INGO’s or some environmentalist’s job. Coming back to your family; you keep raising your children in the best way possible. You put them in expensive Montessori schools, equip them with the latest ipad, iPhone, send them to excellent summer camps to broaden their horizons. You convince yourself that one day, when they grow up they will certainly help their country. This is why you “mind your own business for now”. So now, let’s say because of the highly toxic Bagmati (or the pollution in Kathmandu or hundreds of other health disasters waiting to loom here), a resistant form of mutated bronchitis or tuberculosis creeps its way through. It is lethal. Lets say “unluckily” your daughter gets (could be from her friends in school or through water or from someone, somewhere in this big city?) You rush her to a nearby hospital; put her in a deluxe first class cabin with a private personal doctor to treat her 24 /7. The doctor consults with the best practitioners around the world. Money is never a problem, but it sure shows its limits when the doctor finally admits, “your daughter cannot be treated here because the disease is new, highly contagious so she has to be taken abroad immediately to a better facility”. You charter a plane to Delhi (you sure can afford it). You try to leave for Delhi immediately but are stopped because your daughter needs to be quarantined as per their state policy. You plead with them; you lie, and even threaten them. You call directly the high level politicians of Nepal to find a way out. You manage to pressure them. At last you have permission to proceed. You fly out to save your girl (your investment, your future). But by then, it has become too late. The disease moved too fast. Too much time had already been lost. Your little girl is no more.

  • So now the blame game starts inside you. Who to blame for this loss of your child, your future, your investment, your hope?
  • Do you blame the doctors and the hospitals for not being able to save her? or her friends for transferring this disease ?
  • their irresponsible parents or the school perhaps?
  • or the toxic Bagmati River? the people who were supposed to clean it?
  • or the government for being incompetent?
  • Would you even go on to blame your neighbors (countries) for their apparent bias against Nepalis (for not letting your daughter get medical access in time)?
  • Or go one step further and blame Nepal itself for this mess? “Sati le saraape ko desh.”
  • Or do you just blame yourself?

Would blaming anyone bring your daughter back? Certainly not. But if you could see into your past, where would you change things so that your daughter would be alive today? Think hard for a minute before reading further. You would have tried to prevent this from ever happening, right? You would have never let these problems get this big. You would acted actively to control these social, environmental problems when they were small. After all it is for your own sake. In essence, It is in our own selfish interest to act now to solve these collective problems of the future. If we don’t, it will haunt my future, your future and our children’s future. So how about making this super-selfish pledge today!

  • To protect my family, I will look for and support or even build any citizen movement to clean up Bagmati.
  • To protect my future, I will not remain silent as incompetent rulers destroy my future.
  • To protect my lifestyle, I will be proactive in my neighborhood, city and country.

People who helped with this, Vidhan Rana and Prasanna Dhungel. Thank you.

was also published in myrepublica daily, April 13, 2011

Are we what we are shaped to be?

change, environment, leadership, thought provoking, , ,

20 years ago, our mentors (our teachers, fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts etc) started giving us career guidance from an early age and tell us explicitly or implicitly what they expected us to become. They analyzed what was wrong in Nepal at that time and tried to make us into solutions to the problems they were facing, then.

That is why they told us to become a Professional ( Engineer, Teacher, Banker, Manager etc) or a Doctor or a Scientist.

“डक्टर वा इन्जिनियर है !”

Most frowned upon some of our ideas of making a career in sports, poetry, writing or even acting. Equally No No was Politics or Public Service or even the Army or Police. “After all the education you have got, you are going to be just THAT? !!” was their answer. Arts (Sociology, economics etc) and Commerce (Management, business, finance etc) was only if we were not good enough be a Doctor or a Professional (Engineer was the common name given then). Our mentors also never saw social sector as a viable alternative either. (maybe the concept was not born then).

Lately, I was curious to see whether their advice was effective in shaping our generation’s choices or not. Did they shape us into what we are today?
So I decided to test this out by checking to see how our high school classmates careers matched with the general trend of career advice given by our informal mentors at that time. Here are some statistics of a rough analysis of the current careers of my classmates from high school.

If you analyze this chart, there is virtually none (1%) of us are in the public sector (the yellow). This is we see a lot of problems in the Nepali society right now.
About half of us (50%) are working as professionals as recommended by our mentors years ago.
Nearly 1 out of 5 are in the medical field which was one of the popular career advises given by our mentors. About 15% of us are working as Bankers, Accountants and Managers, (This was the 3rd most popular career guidance back in those days)

Only 8% of us are engaged in some sort of entrepreneurial activity (that creates jobs and opportunities for others). Only less than 7% are involved in some sort of ways to help change the Nepali social problems. And these two sectors is where we see immense problems in ideas and leadership. Where did all the creative amongst us go ?

The conclusion I draw from this is, our choice of career (whether we like it or not) was the product of what the Nepali society believed it wanted two decades ago.

We have a similar choice today. I believe, it is in our interest to mentor our children (the next generation) in ways to improve the sections of our Nepali society where it needs help. If we want to produce good leaders, maybe we should encourage them to “lead”, take up careers in public service  or to become actively involved in social/political/economic/creative activism.

Isn’t this the need of the hour today in Nepal? If you think so, lets recommend this when you give career guidance the next time, “Become a Leader or a Change maker.“

Technology, environment, common sense

change, common sense, environment, , , ,

techcommonsenseenvironment

A self reflection:

  • Technology
  • Common sense,
  • Lastly, Environment
I believe in these 3 systems to evolve myself. To trying to balance and enhance ourselves through the synergy of these:

I accept technology to be an efficient tool to enhance and to spread the knowledge. Using these, I continue to educate myself and to provoke others to change and follow their dreams.  Technology makes me efficient and hopefully wiser. It is not a fad or the latest tools or apps or gadgets or materials. It is pure knowledge, It is access. It brings us all closer to collaborate better.  It enables me to enhance my impact to my environment. I strive to take care of the environment (social, natural and economic). Depending on the environment (eco-system) we make, or mold, we suffer or smile.

To take care of the environment, I believe, you have to be the change you want to see around. And everyday is a grind. By sharpening my common sense knowledge, I forge a way to move ahead in these difficult times. Sounds simple yet common sense is not common to me. Everyday I contradict myself yet become persistent in my effort to forge ahead to change the environment without compromising on the ideals.

Common sense use of technology = Wisdom

Wisdom enables to make better environments, eco-systems

Better Environments keep us sane

:)

What about you ? what do you rely on ?

The real problem in Nepal: A vicious cycle where people extort each-other

environment, , , , ,

Each of us is stuck in a vicious cycle “Chakrabyu” in Nepal. No, I’m not talking about politics or government. I’m talking about us, ordinary citizens.

नेपालीमा

For a minute, Let us imagine this scenario.

I am  a branding expert. I have to rush for a business meeting with a client which is a private school who wants us to advertise them better. The meeting is at Durbar Marg in central Kathmandu. I decide to take a taxi as the traffic is bad and it’s getting late. The taxi driver happens to be a middle-aged smiling fellow. He doesn’t seem to be a bad person. But he has decided to tamper with his meter and dupe me.

Why?

Lets look at his point of view. Kathmandu is getting outrageously expensive for him to sustain his young family. He has to make enough profit to give back to his taxi owner and then some more to feed his family that night. So he feels he has no choice but to con me. So he makes a sad choice. He tampers with his meter and overcharges me. I sit silently seething at this humiliation of knowing I’m being duped but not having any immediate proof or the time to argue with him. I pay up. I feel wronged.

That evening, the taxi driver goes home to his rented room where his family of four lives. On the way to his room, he stops by the shop to buy foods to be cooked that night. His wife is waiting. The shop owner is a hard-working woman. She may not want to dupe her customers, specially this taxi driver, but she feels she has to. She feels she has no choice !

Why?

Well, her landlord has been arbitrary increasing the rent of her apartment, and on top of that, she has to send her two children to a “private boarding school” for any chance of her children to have a bright future – or so she thinks, since all her neighbors send their children to these rather fancy schools. She makes this dirty choice for the sake of her children.So she spikes up the prices arbitrarily, duping the taxi driver. He complains about these daily price rises. She replies calmly. “Ajkalko Terai hadtalle garera bhau badeko ho!” (prices have risen because of the some strikes/shutdowns in the Terai or supply problem)

Next morning, she collects her “hard earned” profits that she has saved  1 rupee at a time and goes to her children’s school.She is in for a shock! She asks the school principal (owner), why is the school increasing its fees randomly with all these added costs and hidden fees on top of the tuition fees? A standard non-emotional reply comes, “You know, teachers demands, inflation, everything is getting unaffordable, premium services etc etc” The vegetable seller isn’t convinced but what can she do? She feels helpless.  She grudgingly pays off her children’s (increased) monthly dues.  She silently returns to her shop. “Ke garne”

The educated Mr. X who is the school principal is a smart man and has been able to make a good profit running this school and leads a comfortable life for his family in the city. But lately, he’s been forced to exhort more and more from the parents of his students.

Why?

Well, because these days, he has to pay more and more money in the name of “donations” – open extortion by all these many youth, local, ethnic, political groups in his area. They hound him day and night. He feels helpless! They threaten to burn his school buses and more…. So he feels he has no choice but to make a bad choice. He decided to fleece more and more money from the parents of his students.

To make this happen, he needs more students to enroll for the next school year. He has decided to promote his school heavily by doing some branding that enhances his institution’s image which will in turn bring more profits. Guess who he is going to meet in Durbarmarg to get expert consulting advice from?
Guess, guess?

It’s Me!

And guess who he is going to get overcharged or duped by?
Me, who’s duped by the taxi driver, who’s duped by the vegetable seller, who’s been duped by the private school owner. (Hence a vicious cycle of duping)

Is this the future we want our children to inherit in Nepal? Where most people have every incentive to extort others to survive. Each day, we face such moral choices to continue or end this vicious cycle.

Stopping this vicious cycle starts with me (you)!

The question is: Will you break this cycle ? Will you begin change from yourself?

Will you ? Will I ?

 

An old version of this article appeared in Myrepublica newspaper on March 16, 2011

 


New forms of protests in Nepal

environment, marketing of politics, positive stories, , , , , ,

In our group against Bandhs in Nepal, aptly called “Die Nepal Bandh Die”, we are continuously devising new ways to make effective forms of protest as an alternative to shutdowns. Here’s a few to start with:

Do go and piss in front of Singh Durbar (prime ministers office) in Kathmandu instead of doing the total shutdown protest… The stink will be felt ! Want to shit? even better!

Block the cars of the ministers and then hurl shit to them. Let them smell what you feel.

Remind the government of our persistent trash problems by hijacking a trash container and dumping it right in front of the officials gates.

Take some animal blood and throw it in their cars or their houses  or  offices to remind them, its time to think about the country after so much bloodshed.

Take pictures of the plight you care and email it in blogs, online, newspapers. Share fast, Share hard. Pictures from your mobile is the best way!

SMS (text) “घुस्या” to that official who just extorted a bribe from you. Share their number with your friends and ask them to do the same while asking them to tell their friends to do the same. (SMS in English if you can’t do it in Nepali )

Workers of Nepal, instead of stopping work, make the managers realize your pain by doing work mischievously. like only making left slippers in the slipper factory

Threaten to picket /ban news media if they post /show negative news for more than 10% of the total news time. Make news about nepal positive! Make Monday, a positive News day every week !

Make a list of politicians who are black listed for dereliction of their duties and then go make graffitti of them in front of their house. Everytime they do a bandh, take/develop and then post a picture of someone who suffered and paste the photo on their gates or on the street opposite. (or email them :) )

Make the center of Kathmandu city, vehicle free from 9 to 5, always.  and do your protest there or shopping. Everyone comes there to protest or to shop!

Add your crazy ideas  to the list! Come on, I know you can better this list !