Nepal: A Word About "Foreigners"

Why is it that every time any large-scale political or human issue befuddles and confuses us in Nepal we immediately accuse nebulous "foreign forces" of everything from simple meddling to outright sabotage?

We take to the street in a foamy rage every time an Indian actor or author dares call Nepal anything less than a sovereign nation; we flip-out when foreign dignitaries issue shallow threats; we  have a media coronary if some ambassador says that he envisions "Maoists walking down to Singha Durbar;" and we dismiss anti-Monsanto protests because they "seem to have a majority of foreigners" present.

Get over it Nepal and grow up.

If we want to be respected on the world stage, we have to learn to be secure enough in our own identity to not only tolerate the voices of foreigners, but actively solicit their advice and counsel when needed.  If there seems to be a lot of foreigners in a Monsanto protest its because foreigners have infinitely more experience in dealing with Monsanto than we in Nepal and we should listen to their advice in the spirit of neighborly help and greater understanding.  If a U.S. ambassador speaks out against a bandh, its because he's seen it all before and knows that bandhs hurt Nepal's image immeasurably in the eyes of the world.

Monsanto protest, November 2011, Maharajganj

The banner is written in Nepali and for Nepalis and mostly held up by foreigners

We are trying to re-build a nation in Nepal and we need to wise-up and take all the good advice we can get. It will pose more than  enough difficulty for our young people to work around Nepal's corrupt and worthless political apparatus and form a new governmental structure in the coming years, and shutting out all good-intentioned foreign advice will only add to this difficulty.  So, I'll say this once:

NATIONAL UNITY CANNOT BE BUILT ON XENOPHOBIA

Fear cripples development, saps our young people of confidence, and keeps politicians corrupt and unaccountable to citizens.

We grow when we decide to learn--from all sources.

-=blogdai

Gagan Thapa is an Idiot

Gagan Thapa angrily rejecting India's latest bribe of "5 more meat shops."

Blogdai is tired of this guy.  

He was a screaming little boy during Jana Andolan and now he's a bought-and-paid-for member of the NC. Hooray.  Now take your money and go shut up somewhere.  Don't you have a string of meat markets to run in Kathmandu?  Quite a nice set up for a boy who started with nothing, don't you think?  Where did you get all that cash,  Papa Koirala or did you just go to Delhi directly?

Seems Lady Gagan is just beside himself these days. He just can't handle the fact that the U.S. ambassador is concerned about the NC initiated bandh and may re-instate the travel warning for U.S. citizens thinking about coming to Nepal.   Gaga(n) thinks its perfectly alright to bully the government into meeting NC demands under the shallow premise that one of their cadres was killed in a Kathmandu jail.  Rule of law be damned!  We're taking to the streets and we're going to break some things!

Once a street thug, always a street thug.  

Let's see, our brave man of the people says absolutely nothing about China's arrogant in-roads into just about every aspect of Nepali politics or India's constant meddling (don't want to bite the hand that feeds on that one, shh!)but is quick to accuse U.S. Ambassador Scott DeLisi of meddling in Nepal's internal affairs for making an appropriate and correct assessment of the bandh and its effects.  

Look no further than this for motivation:  Lady Gagan is a boy of the streets. A little street action gets his blood going and he just might be making his little play for an advanced leadership position in the NC.  

Other than that, his words are just shallow posturing by a screaming little coward.  

Take another bribe and crawl back into your hole.  

-=blogdai