Surely right now I am breaking some basic rule of every writer, because grabbing the keyboard of my computer, in full rage, just after reading that Nepal has closed the borders again until further notice, does not seem very promising…
As we already commented in a previous post, Nepal did lockdown on March 24, thus declaring the country in a state of alarm due to the first deaths from Covid-19. In this way, the country was totally isolated from any foreign flow. And it is not little thing, because it must be remembered that Nepal is surrounded by China and India, two of the main focuses of the current pandemic.
On April 5 we left Nepal to Barcelona, feeling sad due to we could not continue with our program, but hopeful because we saw a quick response, through precautionary measures, from the Government of Nepal. As we flew home, we wished that fate was not cruel once and for all to a country where all progress towards development has been diminished in recent years.
But after four months, which seemed like four years, I can tell you that I am sadder than when I arrived. My sadness is not so much for not being able to be there, carrying out everything that we had proposed; but because of the disappointment of seeing how Nepal, or rather, the Government of Nepal, is unable to give an answer to the situation. I do not think this is the place to discuss international politics or which country has taken the best measures, but common sense. And without wanting to write it, I am going to say that the Nepal’s political elite must begin to apply it and seek a solution to the problems that are accumulating on their national agenda.
It is very easy to play at being a politician when the responsibility falls on others. Someone could even tell me that even more so when my country is not Nepal. True. Perhaps I am still unable to understand the complexity of the country in many ways. But my question, after all, is very simple: What is Nepal’s plan?
I can understand that there was no country in the world prepared to respond to a pandemic like this. But what I cannot and do not want to understand is that, even with few cases of Covid-19[1], the Nepal’s health system is already totally collapsed. Nor can I and do not want to understand that, for yet another year, the Government of Nepal has no plans to deal with the heavy monsoon rains, which continue to cause floods and landslides, taking roads, houses and lives. Neither can I nor do I want to understand that the Government of Nepal does not have any plan to reactivate the national economy based mainly on tourism. And neither can I nor do I want to understand that, given the current situation in the country, the main problems that the government wants to face are internal disputes in the executive, and geopolitical discussions with India.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I do not think it is asking anything unreasonable that in a situation like the one in which we have lived, Nepal and its government are capable of changing the order of priorities and seeking an economic and social solution for its people; people that, despite civil wars, earthquakes and pandemics, never loses an inch of their smile.
Now what I have
to do is keep waiting, just as I have done during these four months. But worst
of all, in Nepal, the plan is that there is no plan.
[1] Compared to Spain, with 359.000 confirmed Covid-19 infections, Nepal has 27.000 cases.
