Overcoming the Trust deficit

Nepal at present is in the dire need of capable political leaders that can break-through the current situation of uncertain political situation, towards laying strong foundation for progressive and peaceful new Nepal. However at present there is a serious leadership crisis because of which the country has not been able to put strategic focus on things of priority. The bitter fact is that acute incapability of contemporary political leaders has led our nation into doldrums. Time and again some beacon of hope in form of youth leaders arises in Nepalese political sector however even they not being able to make remarkable contribution to country, whether constrained by the corrupt system or any other reason.

The general public has huge distrust and confidence crisis towards the political parties and its leaders. The main reason being their inability to deliver the promises to the people. Be it political parties, government, or their leaders, the promises for positive changes and development comes strongly during election times which later turns into damn lies. The leaders become helpless citing a reason or other; foreign interference, coalition pressure, opposition parties, etc. For example Confession of Ex-PM Sushil Koirala that he couldn’t delivers as expected and that his team has become more corrupt is one of its kinds. It is astounding for the top executive heads of the country to mark such helpless comments without making deliberate effort to crack-down the corrupt and clumsy system of the country.

It is not only the political parties and their leaders that confronts trust deficit but also the government. Consecutive failure to deliver according to election manifestos is a one of the reason for the same. Politics in Nepal has mostly centered on government formation and breaking down. There is always presence of opposition party that makes enough exercises to out-throw the ruling parties from power and this happens ad infinitum. And ruling party exerting adequate effort to stay in power. As such more energy and resources are utilized for government changes and its retention than delivering on the strategic agendas of the country.

It is also evident that there is large chunk of intellectual population that always keep advising what politicians are supposed to do, but are very hesitant to dirt their hand to clean the political system by involving themselves. It should be admitted that the first step towards restoring trust on political system would be the entry of capable and visionary intellectuals with clean background into it. Also the need to elect capable and honest leaders is of paramount importance. Also, until and unless the leaders that we choose don’t live up to our aspiration, trust will not establish and society will not progress. Such elected people should make sure that government so formed initiate measures to be more open and approachable. As citizens we should also restore our confidence on politicians and ensure our active engagement in government affairs. Active engagement of citizens would ensure transparency, accountability and trustworthiness on the government and its leaders.

Capitalizing the Youth Energy

Nepal is a young country with about 70% (i.e. 15.91 million) of the total population below the age of 35 years. Approximately 38.8% of total population is marked by the age between 16-40 years. It is for that reason our country Nepal stands as one with lowest median age of 22 years. In spite of its youthful population, Nepal has not been able to mark rapid economic development in absence of stable political situation and policies to govern the youth employability issues.

It is estimated that every year 500,000 jobs needs to be created to provide full employment to the youth force that enter the labor market. However it is no surprise that only a fraction of those youths get job in local market while most of them are bound to leave country for employment opportunities. Figures estimate that approximately 350,000 to 400,000 youths leave the country each year as a migrant worker. It is a matter of fact that around 1500 youths leave country each day in search of better future abroad, most of them being as migrant worker.  Rests are either educated youths who land to developed countries in search of better future or youths who stay in country; unemployed and mostly uneducated.

PC: www.uphondo.com

While the population of youth is very large in Nepal, the status of youth in workforce is somehow poor. Most of the youths who leave country as migrant worker are unskilled. This not only leads to ill-treatment of the workers abroad, but also results to low per capita remittance flow to the country.  In spite of this, remittance from abroad contributes more than 25% of GDP, which is nearly double the country’s revenue from export of goods and services. However the pity being that remittance has not been channelized towards investments in wealth creating projects. Beside migrant workers, the migrating trend of educated youths is in the rise. This sometimes leads to dearth of qualified workers in national projects of long term strategic importance. The disappointment also being that the sectors which have maximum involvement of youths are also not effectively managed. For example, agriculture sector which employs about 74% of total labor force has contribution to GDP of less than 35%.  As such the nation has not been able to capitalize most out of its youthful population.

 With around 70% of total workforce integrating into international labor market every year; it is evident that this trend will increase even further.  The median age of Nepal is 22 years and with population growth rate of 2%, it will decline further. While proportion of labor force is decreasing significantly in western world, that of Nepal is increasing. As such Nepal has comparative advantage in the global context, with regard to the labor force. As a least developed country (LDC) aiming to graduate from LDC by 2022, Nepal is still to use its resources for rapid development, including the human resources. Success to develop quality manpower will not only contribute more for national building but also increase remittance from abroad.

As such, the need of time is to address the youth employability issues via proper policy. A recent improvement in this direction has been the introduction of Employment Policy 2015. The policy aims to provide training to youths in sector of strategic importance like agriculture, hydro-power, tourism, manufacturing etc. It also aims to promote entrepreneurship spirit by providing seed money to aspiring youths while also linking them to domestic markets. Thus the policy does not only envisage creating employment opportunities in local market but also aims to improve the status of migrant workers by providing them necessary training. However, government should consider a proper implementation of this policy unlike the erstwhile Youth self-Employment program of providing Rs.200,000 per youths as seed money where the fund was found to be misused by most of the party aides. Failure to do so would have serious ramifications in long term where Nepal might enter into phase of economic colonization as suppliers of clerks to the whole world. 

Indo-Nepal relationship in need of an overhaul

                 

Nepal and India shares a special relationship since time immemorial. The dynamics of Indo-Nepal relationship cannot be ascertained without comprehending multi factors upon which the relationship of both the countries is based on. As neighbors, Nepal and India are not only linked by land mass but also have many common grounds of mutual cooperation and understandings. Two countries are linked culturally, religiously, economically, and also politically.  In spite of this special bonding between the two countries, many a times bilateral disputes arise which have strained the climate of trust and boding. Such conditions have been prevalent now in Nepal after the promulgation of constitution, in which some of the suggestions of the Indian establishment were ignored by the Nepalese political parties. These difficult conditions are not new, but result of Indian interfering behavior of India, based on the faulty treaties between Nepal and India, which needs a timely review and renewal to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Nepal foreign policy is largely based on two doctrine of foreign policy of its founder King Prithvi Narayan Shan which states: “Nepal is a sandwich between India and China”, and “Do not involve in offense, but any warfare should be based on defensive basis only.” Thus these two principles can be taken as the pillars of foreign policy of Nepal.

Though formal diplomatic relationship was established only on 13^th June, 1947, Indo-Nepal relationship has been marked by extensive cooperation and mutual understanding, crossing the limits of formality. The relationship between the two countries is one of its kind and very much inter-related and inter-dependent. Many a times, foreign affairs experts opine that the policy of Nepal with India is in fact the foreign policy of Nepal.

One of an important dynamics of Indo-Nepal relations is the latter’s economic dependence on India. Nepal gets 2/3 of its exports from Indian, including necessities like petroleum products for which it totally depends on India. Its current trade deficit with India has crossed USD 3.80 billion, and is ever increasing. India also has been contributing on the political developments in Nepal, which most of the time has been debatable, leading backlash in both the countries. Pioneer leaders of Nepalese political parties were involved in the Indian Independence movement and had a good relationship with the leaders like MK Gandhi, Nehru, Lohia, etc. After the Indian independence, it assisted the political transition in Nepal with the advent of constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy by ousting the 104 years Rana oligarchy. Since then India has been having a say in political developments in Nepal and has been using it as a mechanism to maintain its big brotherhood attitude in Nepal.

While, as a buffer state between India and China, Nepal has been successful to maintain an arm’s length distance between its immediate neighbors. Nepal is committed to avoid the use of its land against security concerns of India (terrorism, money laundering etc.) and as also vividly supports one-China policy.  Nepalese delegates keep on reiterating these policies whenever they are engaged in mutual discourse with the delegation from its immediate neighbors. As such it can be said that Nepal has been able to address the security concern of its neighboring countries.

Among the earliest treaty between India and Nepal is Peace and Friendship treaty-1950 which envisions a common custom regime, free employment, and free movement across border, etc. While the basic structure of governance in India remains the same, it has undergone massive change in Nepal since the Peace and Friendship treaty of 1950 was signed. Thus time and again the need to amend 65 years old treaty is felt.

Over the years there have been quite a few instances of ups and downs in the Indo-Nepal relationship. 1990 blockade, Mahakhali treaty, Pancheswar Treaty, Bhutanese refugee issue, border disputes in Susta and Lipulek , and recent unofficial blockade of India after the promulgation of the constitution in Nepal, etc are few to name. These issues led to a massive outpour of anti-Indian sentiments in Nepal, which had led the relationship between the countries to a record low

The sooner the better, leaders from both the countries should realize that foreign relation based on the principle of Panchasheel, UN charter, international norms of Peace and welfare etc.  can help. As per the need of the time, India and Nepal should overhaul the diplomatic relationship and also the relevant treaties which lay foundation to such relationship. This can lead towards foundation of trust in upcoming diplomatic courses between the countries. Similarly India should stop meddling into political happenings in Nepal which while focusing on the miniature affairs, may end up jeopardizing its strategic concerns in Nepal. In the same way, Nepalese political leaders should display maturity in dealing with its giant neighbor. Nepalese government should consolidate the foreign policy of the country and empower foreign ministry to execute its diplomatic affairs.

In the recent context India should have been gracious in welcoming Nepal’s new constitution while registering its reservations/suggestions. Thus, India need to immediately correct the course and remove the blockade in Nepal and create a congenial environment for overhauling the overall diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Gratitude towards Unsung Heroes of our life

How thankful are we to others on daily basis? Do we acknowledge the kindness that people bestow on us? Do we care to appreciate those who perform their duty sincerely? Or we just take them for granted!

There are many people who by the virtue of performing their routine job put our life at ease. If we go on enumerating, the list will be long. So, how often do we really thank the early milk boy in the morning, newspaper hawker for timely delivery of newspaper, canteen staff for a warm cup of tea, delivery boy from online shopping stores, traffic polices for their service under scorching sun, even teacher who teaches us? When I asked this question to some of my friends, positive responses were very few.

Some people may argue that aforementioned people do not render any extraordinary job that we should be thankful of. And their reason also being that they are paid for what they do as part of their duty. Yes, I do agree that such people might not be extraordinary in their contribution to society but can you imagine the frustration they may have because of having to work for long hours in unfavorable working condition like scorching sun, dust, rain etc. And most importantly can you imagine even a single day in the absence of their services. So my question to those people who hesitate to be thankful would be:  Wouldn’t it be nice to simply thank them? Won’t it motivate them to think that they are doing a good job and encourage them to perform even better? (which in turn favors us more)

As such being thankful is in fact a worthy choice to make. The most basic advantage of being humble is that it doesn’t cost us anything but only results to gain. It is a choice which when practiced makes us happier and optimistic. It not only assists us to improve relationship with people around us but also helps us to drive out negativity and enables us to learn more from these unsung heroes of our life. So the choice is yours, whether you stop by to your unsung heroes and thank them for their service or not! 

Colonization, Independence Day and it's aspects

While you are away from your home, it’s obvious for you to miss your country. In such condition, It is generally seen that people display greater deal of patriotism regarding their nation. Exactly same situation was observed last Thursday (October 9, 2014) when Ugandan friends studying in India celebrated their 52nd Independence Day, here in Chittoor-India. The program was organized in the evening and about 20 Ugandans friends were present along with equivalent number of invitees from different countries like: Nepal, Botswana, Laos, Vietnam, Guyana etc. From Nepal it was me and my two friends from Nepal.

While I was seated in the program, to my surprise, I came to find the program very formal, well-planned, and well arranged. Members from the organizing committee were sharing their happiness about Uganda being an Independent country and how a former British colony has progressed rapidly over time. As part of the program, I was asked to share some words on behalf of the friends from representative countries.  For me, I congratulated the organizing committee and the people of the Uganda on the occasion of a happy independence day and wished them a bright future. I also wished that the relation that we shared at personal level to be elevated to the country level as most of the country representative present there (including Nepal) didn’t have bilateral relationship with Uganda. And finally I concluded my speech by thanking them for having me as a part of the program.

While the program was going with much enthusiasm, I began to think about the relevance of celebrating Independence Day. I believe that Independence Day is celebrated to mark the end of oppressive and tyrannical rule of colonizer on a particular country. It also means that the particular colonized country has attained a position to craft its future by itself and the people have rights to be involved in national development with much of human rights.

For a citizen of a county which has never been colonized(Nepal), I began to ponder about celebration of particular day which would make us delighted.  We have lots of national days in Nepal: Democracy day, Republic day, National Unity day, etc.  It’s not that Nepalese are less patriotic but when it comes to celebration of particular day of national day, we aren't that much enthusiastic about it. The prime reason behind this is that, in spite of bringing many changes and successful revolutions in the country, we haven’t been able to develop the nation to according to the desired expectation. As such this is creating frustration among the people and thus they are least bothered to mark such days.

While drafting this piece of opinion, I remember some of my friends repenting about Nepal not being colony of British when British raj was prevailing in its neighboring country India. They also sometime curse Gurkhas forces for stopping British invasion troops from entering Nepal. They reason that had British ruled Nepal, Nepal would have been much more developed that what it is now. While for me I just trash this opinion.

First thing, I am more proud to be citizen of a country which has never been colonized in its history.

Second, colonizers do more harm to the colonized country than benefit them. For example, prior to India being colonized, it had economic growth rate of approx. 24% which was ripped off to 4% when British raj left India.(see this link for reference)  Most of the colonized countries are still poor to this day: Tanzania, Gambia, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, etc.  As such it largely depends upon the country, its people and its institutions for the development of a nation, also advocated in the book “ Why Nations Fail: James A. Robinson and Daron Acemool”. We can never expect other country to come to our nation and develop it. 

Early Phase of Globalization: Phase III

First phase of globalization (1492-1850) was basically about state-funded voyages that would later on pave way for colonization. In Second phase of globalization (1850-1914), scientific development in means of communication and transportation speeded-up the pace of globalization. Finally the favorable ambiance created by first and second phase of Globalization turned out more encompassing and humongous in Third phase of globalization(1945-present).

On the dawn of 1945, the global economic reforms initiated by United States along with its allies of World War-II provided a framework for commencement of international trade and commerce. Economic cooperation were headed in a direction to prevent the recurrence of global economic crisis like that of 1930s.

The period from late 1940s to early 1970s is often referred to as Golden Age of Capitalism as this phase involved transfer of capital from the Colonial center to its large colonized states started. More global regulatory bodies were installed : World Bank, International Monetary Fund etc that facilitated global trade and played an intermediary role to settle the trade related disputes. Adding more, vital concepts of modern economy: deregulation of the corporate sector, the privatization of public enterprises and institutions, tax reduction, deregulation of capital flows etc flourished in this period. This would change the future of business within the county border and across the national frontiers.

The structure of economy then was quiet different in contrast to what it is at present. Banking sector then was characterized by control of politicians. But at present, banking sector has evolved as strong force for globalization and in most of the advancing economies it is independent and more powerful. Also on the dawn of third phase of globalization, state began focusing on expansion of welfare states, catering to the needs of the poor population, safeguarding the interests of business communities, etc.

Post 1945 saw a major structural change in global politics in which the proponent of capitalism, USA began a global superpower. Similarly global organization like UN acted as a beacon for effective global governance and peace keeping. Beside UN, the emergence of other ING-Os like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Greenpeace etc focused to work on the issues which was difficult for the governmental bodies to work upon. Their operation and cooperation across the world strengthened the global cooperation, understanding and goodwill.

Early Phase of Globalization : Phase I

Globalization has tied people of the world living together, no matter what part of the world and what walks of life. No country, regardless of its size, structure and business can ignore the globalization of business. In the present world, advancement in science and technology has completely transformed the concept of globalization. Forces like: modern and sophisticated means of communication, transportation, establishment of global trade facilitation bodies like World Bank, IMF etc, establishment of regional/bilateral/multilateral economic treaties etc has completed added new spheres to the discussion of globalization. 

At the present time, when the concepts of globalization is dragging more attention than ever and is ever evolving, we need to understand the historical development of concepts and practice of globalization. 

First Phase of Globalization:

First phases of globalization began in 1492 AD. with the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world and the voyages of european exploration that made possible for proliferation of European colonies throughout the world. 

The explorers like: Christopher Columbus, sponsored by Spanish crown, completed four voyages across the Atlantic ocean. Columbus introduced American lands to the world. Similarly Portuguese explorer Vasco Degama made India know to the world in 1498. Similarly, Ferninand McGellan made the first circumnavigation across the world in the service of King Charles -I of Spain, between 1519-1522. Francis Drave made second circumnavigation across the world from 1577-1580, to the service of Elizabeth -I. Drave implemented the concept of tax and executed the confiscation of foreign treasures across the world. 

Basically there were many other overseas expedition prior to these. But these particular event are referred to as beginner of globalization. We can accredit following reasons for this:

1) All of these events were state sponsored acquisition of strategically valuable knowledge and skills that enabled nations like Spain, United Kingdom and Portugal to establish vast colonial empires across the world.

2) These expedition carried out state sponsored expedition to confiscate lust treasures of colonial states that could later on become wealth of the state. This later on paved possibilities of collaboration between state and private companies. eg: Great Britain and East India Company.

3) State sponsorship of global trading monopolies was a foreshadowing of state sponsored national champions global corporations of the model era.

References:
Age of Globalization course, Coursera
Wikipedia
Google

North Korea : Why is it Failing ?

While we talk about reasons of countries failing, we may infer different reasons for the failure of the nations. Even developmental experts may differ in opinion regarding this. (By failure, here I mean, the inability of the state mechanism to address the basic issues like: control over its territory, political stability, basic human rights, strong international relations, etc.)  People may attribute the reason of failure of nation to religion factor, meaning that religion practices forbids or hinders development. While some experts may opine that the cause for such phenomena of poor performance is Climatic factor. Experts are also found identifying geographical factors as forces that brings poorness to a nation. But digging more into this topic, we can ascertain without difficulty that none of the aforementioned factors prove hinderance for a nation to develop.

A more illustration to this would be:

1) Religion factors:
Any particular religion does not favor peopperity. Protestant countries like : England, Netherland etc are developed. So are Catholic countries like France. While inspite of following Christianity, the status of  Congo is still pathetic.

2) Climate factors:
 Prosperity has flourished even in tropical country like South Africa.

3) Geographical factors:
The geographical factor cannot justify the differences between North Korea and South Korea.

4) Cultural factors:
Generally held belief that "islamic values are inconsistent with economic successes" does contrast with the development of countries like Qatar,UAE etc.

Well lets us dump all these reason and look forward to see case of North Korea and South Korea in details.



Case of North Korea

The landmass on the both side of 38 parallel share almost the same religion, climate, geography, culture, history, ancestors, common diseases, language, cuisine, and ethnic identity.  However the period after the separation of Korean peninsula in the early 1950s, the two countries have evolved differently. After the separation, like the American troops residing in the South, the USSR troops remained in N. Korea to rebuild the country.  This incident would turn out to affect the status of the two country in longer period of time.


After the division, the political institutions and economics institutions that proliferated in these countries were of different nature. Under the influence of United states, S Korea developed inclusive institutions that favored growth via entrepreneurship and innovation, basic human rights, right to property, etc. While in contrast, N Korea influenced by Soviet Union created a single party system, favoring Totalitarianism (family dictatorship). The economic system in isolated Korea is wrecked and over the period of around 64 years of separation, the Per Capita of South Korea has reached to             $ 32,020(2012), while that of N. Korea is $ 1,800(as of 2010). Until mid 1970s, both the countries had almost same GDP per capita.

To add more to the clarity, let's make the use of this light picture of the Korean peninsula, taken at night. S Korea is seen lit brightly at night with crowded population, living sound life in prosperous city. In contrast, the other Korea seems like an abandoned nation. North Korea with a dim picture, akin to what the reality is there; in terms of development status, happiness of people, and prosperity of the nation.

View of Korean Peninsula at Night: NASA Earth observator

Will days come for North Korea to propel away the darkness from the nation and to lit up the country with kind of infrastructures and fuels that would blaze it in the world map ? Will such political juncture appear in North Korea, that will  force its totalitarian ruler to adopt to the political system in favor of the people? Only Kim Jong-un or future can answer this...

Youth in Politics : Be the change

They say Youths are future of the nation, I ask why not the Present !!!  And in a country with percentage of Youthful population of about 30% ( 20-40 years age group as per census 2068 BS), the Vitality of Youths is even high, especially when the country is riddled and what we call "developing'.

It’s obvious that politics influences every aspects and sphere of the society. The system of governance, bureaucracy, law of the country etc is truly guided by the Polity of the country. It not only shapes/influences the life that we are living at present but to a many future in a manifold manner. When most of the People seem to give a damn care to Politics, I am confused how they are pretending to avoid the influence of this omnipresent and omnipotent force.

We Nepalese people over the years have defined politics in a less intelligent way. Our seniors could not give a priority to it and as a result it became full time occupation of many incompetent, people who would make this country an ill-fated in a long term. The state of Policy making was and is lagging behind and was often parallel with just the functioning of the government. For an instance, Election manifestos of the major political parties which has stated their vision for development without depicting any means and resources. The struggle for power and resources was what they practiced as Politics. And in a long run, such Power hungry politicians led to the profound state of -corruption, mismanagement and gave politics a bad name. Time and again when some idealistic leader appeared in Nepalese political arena, they were shadowed, some suffered panic accidents, some ill-disease and some were trapped by the power hungry politicians under other country influences.

US President from Harvard University

In many developed countries the system ensures that they have their best guy involved in the politics. In contrast to others, such people are able to focus on the future of the country and envision the future of the country. Taking an instance of the politics of the US, where most of the elected leaders are the alumni of the top-ratedUniversity. They establish a proven leadership and accountability before joining into politics and thus are successful in a long term. In this context student politics might seem to be important. Yes, Student politics is prevailing in a competitive way. Though some significant work has been carried out for the welfare of the students, we can figure out the wrong part very easily. More than practicing leadership and Camaraderie, it is misused as platform with access to undue influence in the colleges, practicing corruption and as a political hatch-back of the top-notch politicians to overturn the government, enforce strikes and so on.

As such politics as a whole is lacking a serious concern and focus of the capable and educated Youths. We keep saying on that system is corrupt and dirty but don’t produce courage to clean the system, We keep showing the problems but not been able to produce the solutions, we keep focusing on being good on our profession but with no interest in the sector that guides all the profession, we keep escaping from the problem and blame that the system doesn't get fixed by itself, and what not!

Until and unless Politics becomes the focal interest of the Youth and of the intellectual top-notch of the society, we are not going to be improved. Of late some enthusiastic Youths have involved themselves in Politics but we still lack serious concern for those enthusiastic Youth. We cannot dream of change until and unless we change ourselves. As MK Gandhi quoted: “Be the change you want to see in the world. “

Written in the context of Nepalese Politics : 2013

Wanting to be a Blogger :)

It has been quiet a long period of time that I had desired of becoming a blogger. Flourishing a learning conducive environment among friends was one of the basic reason which inspired me for Blogging.Time and again I thought of  this fact. Yes, things do not go smoothly as expected until and unless the very decision come from the inner core of you heart with zeal or self-motivation. However it is often said, Better Late Than Never.And here now, by today itself I determined to give a extra effort to realize my desire of becoming blogger.

Meanwhile, I have nothing to share at this prompt moment. I shall compose something very soon.

As Nepal at this time is suffering with a severe power-cut, I should manage to save and post this One before the electricity goes off(some 5 minutes left :D) . So with a positive hope to continue blogging in days to come, I shall stop at this moment.


-Amish