Fifth Worst

A letter to the Kathmandu Post (or maybe it was the Himalayan Times) that I read on Sunday said that Nepal had been voted amongst the top five worst countries in the world. Unfortunately, the letter writer did not expand on which poll he was quoting from, how 'worst' was defined or what the other 4 countries were (but that is the start of a whole different rant on journalism here which never seems to require story background, context or follow up!). At first I was a little surprised. This is a country where when the smog lifts you can see nothing but snow capped mountains in the distance, this is the country that is home to Everest, that is the birth place of Buddha and a travel destination for droves of tourists, climbers, hippies, trekkers, adventure sport fanatics and generally anyone who loves beauty. There are a lot of stinking, war torn, corrupt and generally undemocratic countries in the world. And Nepal was ranking in the top 5. Then I thought about all the possible indicators for 'worst'…lack of amenities, lack of clean water, lack of security, lack of good governance, lack of a functioning civil society, corruption, pollution, low life expectancy, lack of health services, poverty, discrimination, displaced populations and I realized Nepal has all of those, some in abundance. Everyday there are less vehicles on the road and longer queues outside petrol stations because of a diesel crisis (meaning the country has no diesel), we have to wait days, sometimes weeks for a new gas cylinder to use for heating or cooking, today I heard that the water truck can't deliver any more water because they have no fuel for driving (and my house has become the shower-place as all of my friends ran out of water weeks ago), electricity cuts are now 8 hours a day (more outside Kathmandu) with no real reason (Nepal is hydropowered and should have enough power to power herself and parts of India and China!) except for "in order to repair damaged machine No.1 Julekhani Hydropower Project needs to be closed tentatively for about two weeks…." that was 2 months ago. In terms of security the Maoists have quietened down since joining the Government but a new group (I use the term group loosely as there are many different groups and factions) called the Madheshi's are now agitating across the Terai region of Nepal, calling strikes, burning buses, letting off bombs, killing and terrorizing in the name of equal rights, representation and in extreme cases an independent state. The Terai is a pretty much no go area and hordes of people are leaving, adding to the hordes who left or were displaced under the 10years of Maoists insurgency. Stikes (or bandhs as they are called here) in Kathmandu are less frequent but at least once or twice a month the city will grind to a halt, tyres will be burnt, rocks will be thrown and another group will call for another set of demands to be met. I went to a BBC presentation last week where they shared that when asked 'what is the most effective form of collective action' the highest number of survey respondents said bandh, the next highest was violent uprisings. The Constituent Assembly elections (the first crucial step towards developing a functioning democracy and Government in Nepal) have already been postponed twice…this time they are planned for April but no one can say if they will happen. And all this comes on top of the poverty, the low literacy rates, the high infant mortality rates. Nepal is amongst only a few countries in the world where the life expectancy for women is lower than men (although this differs on whose statistics you look at, Action Aid has women slightly higher than men). So I guess it is understandable that Nepal would rank so high…but still disappointing and distressing, this is a country with such potential, with so many natural resources, with a vibrant tourist industry, with beautiful people and yet it seems to be slipping away largely unnoticed by the wider world.