I have often heard in an international conference the participants from Nepal expressing the following:
?Our country is facing big trouble. There is killing everywhere. Children and women are not even spared in the conflict by the Maoists. Upto now 12,000 people have been killed. We are facing this trouble for last several years??
?....Our women folk are exploited. Our girls cannot find job in Nepal. They are taken to brothels in India. Trafficking is rampant in Nepal. .."
?We have open border with India. Men go to work in India. Many of them bring in AIDS when they come home and spread it to their wives?.we have HIV/AIDS all over the country?.?
These are the statements by many NGO and INGO participants who come to a workshop or a conference outside Nepal. Nothing wrong with these statements but they have made a ?kheti? of these often repeated statements. The international audiences listen to these statements in silence with sympathy towards Nepal. When the audience becomes very sympathetic to these causes, the participants from the poorest country who made these statements appear proud of their momentary success in gaining the attention of the audience.
Yes, these statements are true, but what lies behind these statements are many of those very people who are making these statements do not seem to understand the magnitude of the problem they are stating to the international audience. They fail to state the facts and underlying causes behind these statements. They give the impression as if they are hit by a tsunami whereas in fact it is a tsunami created by bad performance and corruption of a series of successive governments that failed to fulfill the promises they made to the people and continuing discriminations practiced and perpetuated by the government policies. Of course, the Maoists are blameworthy for bringing the chaos to the country that has befallen mostly on the weaker sections of the people but the bad governance is also equally to be blamed ---are some of those regular participants, directly and indirectly, you heard making the aforementioned statements are also part of it. They should hang their heads in shame when they are making these statements, instead of making it proudly or in a melodramatic act of weeping ---shedding the crocodile tears.
And, there are the government type participants who make either of the following statements:
??government is winning the war against the killer Maoists?they are terrorists??
??there is peace in Nepal?only in a few districts we have some trouble that too under full control of our security force??
How long can you live in a state of denial and sympathy? A proud Nepali should stand tall by claiming your achievements and efforts but not by what is rotten and gone down the history. Ladies and gentlemen, when you present your thoughts next time to an international gathering, do state the facts both side. Before doing so, know who you are and why you are there. Stop this international begging of sympathy. Or cover your face first if you have not already masked yourself artificially as you often do.
