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To all living eight prime ministers, finance ministers, living finance secretaries, and governors of Nepal Rastra Bank. To all living deputy chairs of the National Planning Commission, eminent economists, advisors, experts, and professors of economics. To all brilliant scholars working globally with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund. 

To all eminent Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and Cambridge scholars working in the field of economics. To the deans, professors, and lecturers in the economics department of Nepali universities. To all researchers who analyze the regional and global context of Nepal’s economics.

To economic diplomats, heads of missions in business and economics. And to all economic researchers and planners, impact analysts, economic journalists and columnists.

Firstly, amid this peculiar festive season, characterized by slow market activity and lower-than-anticipated traffic on major highways, I extend my warm wishes for your well-being and joy. Today, as a concerned citizen, I raise some pressing questions. 

What has transpired within Nepal’s economy over the past three years? Why does everything seem stable when it’s not? Why isn't trade and commerce flourishing?  Why does the chorus of “There’s no money” persist everywhere? Why does the nation seem to be mourning some unseen loss during this festive climate? What’s the real story behind it all?

You, the distinguished experts, are the ones who can unravel these mysteries and more. Every ordinary citizen of Nepal eagerly awaits your responses. 

It seems, however, that many of you have been avoiding these questions. Could it be that your efforts to plant the right seeds have failed, or perhaps the true root causes of Nepal’s current economic woes have eluded you? Have your analyses and course of action proved futile, or do you simply not concern yourselves with the ongoing situation?

We are firmly convinced that you bear responsibility for these matters, and we seek your clarifications. Your standard responses, such as low GDP, inefficient development budget spending, remittance dependency, lack of industrialization, and import reliance, do not suffice. These issues have been repeated for years, but not a single working solution has been offered. Are there no new factors to discuss, or, if your previously stated reasons are accurate, why hasn't any progress been made? 

The fundamentals of our economy overshadow your assessments and estimations. Isn't it your duty to address these problems? We demand answers. There are more questions ...

How have major corruption scandals, such as the 60 kg gold smuggling case, the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, and the fake Bhutanese refugee issue, institutionalized corruption and impacted our economy? To what extent do such incidents affect the nation's economic growth? Are such scams still occurring behind the scenes? Whether they come to light or remain concealed, how do they affect the economy when corrupt wealth significantly multiplies? Where does this black money go, and what strategy should economists employ to curb corruption?

How do we manage the increasing national administrative expenses, particularly within the federal administration, as the ‘investment return’ of administrative costs? What is the ‘investment return’ of federal administrative expenses?

How has the fluctuation in the value of the dollar affected the economy in recent years, and what actions need to be taken in such circumstances?

When analyzing ‘inward remittances’, who monitors external remittances? How has the tax structure, focusing on ‘tax above business but below brokerage,’ influenced external remittances, and how are non-resident Nepalis expanding their investments? Have they secured funding from businesses like restaurants and petrol pumps? Why do Nepali entrepreneurs primarily seek investment through foreign travel? What is the state of the funds earned from the sale of Nepal’s ancestral property abroad? How are educational loans for students studying abroad managed?

Do you truly understand taxation, or is it merely a mathematical formula for collecting government administrative expenses? Has taxation, rather than being a facilitator, acted as a deterrent for entrepreneurs looking to establish businesses in Nepal? If so, are we barking up the wrong tree? Is our economic path based on incorrect formulas, trapped within traditional perspectives, hindered by inadequate research methods, and constrained by outdated experts? Do we need to break free from our flawed assumptions and understanding? We demand answers.

Moreover, why the reluctance to promote the country’s growing exports through information technology? Why hesitate to critically analyze the actual importance and impact of our national pride programs? Why the hesitation to question the expenses of non-functional institutions and agencies?

If remittance is a key driver of Nepal’s economy, why hesitate to support foreign employment by making it more favorable, well-planned, transparent, modern, and honorable? 

While creating landless loans is nearly impossible, why restrict citizens’ access to funds for purchasing land worth about Rs 100 at a rate of nearly 30 rupees and not enact relevant legislation?

Why the skepticism about creating a conducive environment for the Nepal Stock Exchange Board to make bold decisions? Why has the burden of interest not been alleviated to facilitate access to funds and foster an environment that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation?

We insist on answers. What comes next? We don’t have all the answers, but you might. The nation has invested its hopes, aspirations, and faith in your knowledge, experience, and recognition. Failing to channel your economic expertise effectively would be a missed opportunity—embarrassing even. A knowledgeable expert can solve problems. Therefore, become empowered, self-reliant, and patriotic, transcending illusions and delusions. When does this new beginning occur, and how? We insist on answers.

This piece was inspired by a conversation with a banker 

A long festive season is around the corner. Marigolds, chrysanthemums, makhmali (gomphrena globosa) and a myriad other flowers are in full bloom, as if in celebration. The air is full of our very own Mangal Dhun and Malshree. The kites flying high in the sky and crops ready for harvest in our fertile fields also seem to be suggesting us all to not worry too much. 

But our hearts are not as full of joy as they used to be in the midst of festivities, with several factors seeking to eat into our peace, bliss and happiness. Rising market prices have become a killjoy with the absence of the state in the market giving black marketers a free rein.  

 Apart from the utter lack of the rule of law in the market, the wounds from the recent killing of 10 Nepali students in attacks in Israel are still raw. 

As a peace-loving nation, which itself has been a victim of violence and terror, our prayers are for peace and tranquility all over the world. As a country that has been contributing to United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world, including in the restive Mideast, Nepal, the birthplace and tapobhumi (the place of meditation) of Gautam Buddha and numerous other enlightened souls like Rishis, Maharshis and Munis, should do its utmost for the cessation of hostilities. 

On the domestic front, the government should do far more than it has been doing to curb the literal exodus of hundreds of Nepalis to foreign shores every day, At the heart of this alarming brain and muscle drain is a growing feeling among the most productive age group, the youths, that the country is heading toward a dark abyss, thanks to a rudderless political leadership and a bureaucracy that has failed to act as the permanent government, by and large. 

Instead of taking concrete measures to stop this drain, the government itself seems to be aiding and abetting this exodus, driven by the lure of remittances, without giving a hoot about the multi-faceted negative impacts of this drain on Nepal. 

Learning lessons from the tragedies in Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq and high death rates of Nepalis working in subhuman conditions around the world, the government needs to adopt policies that create jobs and a favorable environment for doing business in the country. Only then will Nepal be able to get a population dividend, ushering the country in an era of peace, progress and prosperity.   

On their part, the youths would do well to stop searching for the proverbial land where milk and honey flows. The youths should realize that their motherland/fatherland needs them the most, especially at a time when it has been facing serious crises. They should ask themselves as to why they cannot make a living in Nepal even when lakhs of people from the neighborhood have been doing exactly the same.   

They should never forget that this country is too precious to be left to a bunch of rulers, who have their petty interests at heart, at the expense of the greater good of the country.  

Let Goddess Durga inspire us to reclaim our country and our destiny.   

On a small farm in Nepal, a weeping father mourns the lost dreams of his 25-year-old son, among the 10 Nepali agriculture students massacred in the Hamas assault on Israel.

It was only last month that Ashish Chaudhary’s family had been celebrating his hopes of building a better life, after he joined Israel’s 11-month ‘Learn and Earn’ work-study scheme.

“I thought... it would be good for him and his bright future,” his father Bejhulal Dangaura told AFP with tears in his eyes. “If I had known about this danger, I would have stopped him.”

Chaudhary was among the 10 Nepali students killed when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its Oct 7 attack on Israel, stabbing, shooting and burning to death more than 1,400 people. The attack—the worst in Israel’s history—sparked a retaliatory assault on Gaza that has killed around 3,000 people there, most of them civilians.

At Israel’s Kibbutz Alumim, close to the Gaza border, Chaudhary was among the 10 Nepali farming students killed by Hamas’s grenade explosions and intense gunfire.

Four other Nepalis were injured, and one student is missing. Distraught relatives in Nepal—a majority-Hindu Himalayan nation over 4,500 kilometers (2,795 miles) from the bloodshed—are reeling from the loss.

Chaudhary had planned to return home next year. His dream was to use his savings and the skills learned from Israel’s high-tech agriculture to launch a farming business in Nepal’s western Kailali district.

More than 3,000 Nepalis have joined the Israeli programme since its 2013 launch, being paid more in a year than what it would take a decade on average to earn at home.

Remittances are crucial for Nepal’s economy, equalling nearly a quarter of the country’s GDP last year, the ninth-highest rate globally, according to the World Bank.

‘River of blood’

Before the attack, around 4,500 Nepalis were estimated to be working in Israel, many as caregivers. About 200 students were on the ‘Learn and Earn’ program, which allows them to learn new skills while working on farms in Israel.

Parents who poured their life savings into educating their child—hoping they could then bring the whole family out of poverty—have had their dreams crushed.

“I did not let anything go missing from his life since his childhood. All love their children and want to give them a good education. We brought him to this point,” his father Dangaura said.

Dangaura had taken out loans to send his son to college, using his home and small shop as collateral. Students like Chaudhary expect to earn up to $15,000 for their work in Israel, a lucrative opportunity with Nepal’s annual average income just $1,400.

His death came just as “he wanted to earn and take care of us”, Dangaura said.

“He was happy. He had many dreams... He used to tell me: ‘Don’t worry, I will take care of everything,’” his sister Amrita Devi Dangaura said, as she burst into tears while consoling her parents.

“We are left with neither any business nor farmland nor our family’s son.” Durga Neupane, aunt of another student Narayan Prasad Neupane killed, said she would struggle to comprehend his death until she saw his dead body.

“It feels like it’s not real,” she said. “He used to say that he would return home and build a concrete house. Now, even his body is not here.”

Nepal last week sent a rescue flight for 254 citizens, with 200 others waiting to return.

Dhan Bahadur Chaudhary, 26, injured by a grenade blast, was among those who returned. He saw his friends shot dead and others bleed to death. “I can’t sleep well at night,” he told reporters as he arrived at the airport in the capital Kathmandu. “I dream of my friends. I only see blood, I see a river of blood.”

AFP

‘Death and Awareness’ by Dr Mohan Prasad Joshi contains one hundred poems that worship awareness, and invoke death to teach the mystery of mindful living. In every poem, one can symbolize that a deep-meditative sage, who has acknowledged his future way precisely, is inspecting every incident consciously. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the book is a collection of hymns of awakened spirits that establishes the correlation between awareness and death. As many poems are enriched with philosophies, a reader needs a philosophic mindset to comprehend them.

The poet believes that theories and techniques bring no peace but create an illusion in the minds. The reality/ truth that we call is the immediacy of the moment. True awareness is when we look at ourselves inward and realize we are inhaling and exhaling. It is an actual self-realization. This miracle can happen unknowingly anywhere, but we should sense it. The days we decide to listen to the true self, we feel we are living our purpose and honoring our true nature. ‘You are two sides’ and ‘Rise’ are some of the prominent poems that expound awareness significantly. 

The poet says that we should live in the present and know ourselves. Each day upon waking we have a choice to be human beings or to be a caterpillar. Humans should not get jailed by the past and haunted by the ghost-like future. He believes blissfulness and the feeling of godliness are always in the present. Even enlightenment is in the present because enlightenment is not the goal. He further supposes that life is a false dream. As Heraclitus says ‘No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man,’ one cannot live in the moment twice. 

Once this acceptance arises in the heart, it becomes clear that living in the past and the future is a huge mistake. The poems ‘Why Wait,’ ‘Rise,’ ‘This and next rock n Roll’ and ‘Live Fully while Alive’ are prominent poems under the philosophic realm of living in the present.

Human beings have millions of possibilities. The poet believes our physical existence is a mysterious gateway that can transcend ourselves. In his words, ‘just like dispersed pollen makes thousands of flowers bloom, we have those potentials too.’ However, we are in such a hurry that we have already missed the opportunities to sense them. Being shielded by our materialistic virtue, we all want one another upon the achievement of one. This has pushed us into the vicious cycle of craving. He believes that to let our potential bloom, it needs adequate space. 

Thus, we must evade our endless thirst to see a new version of ourselves. That is the true purpose of human beings in the world, and we also have this possibility. Poems ‘Expound a new definition,’ ‘Antivirus Thoughts’ and ‘Miles and Miles’ are some of the poems under this theme.

Everything in the universe is a Guru because one can learn something from it. For example, the Shrimad Bhagavat narrates the story of the deity Dattatreya who accumulated knowledge from the 24 Gurus. The poet looks upon many things for lessons. The more we subtly observe ourselves, the more we find everything livable. He believes that we all have the same strings despite our different forms that provide a distinguished approach to our journey of awareness. 

Above all, death is a great guru that teaches us the fragility of our existence and helps erase our toxic memories. Some representative poems in this category are ‘Lost my reference Point,’ ‘A River’s Journey,’ ‘Everything is Alive,’ and ‘Despite Differences’ are some of the poems that speak the heart of the poet.

The poet shows a correlation between death and awareness. Death is inevitable, and this is the truth. Many of us are afraid of death. However, he stands out differently in the case of death. The poet is quite conscious of it and asks death to be his friend. He profoundly believes acceptance of death's inevitability leads human beings to consciousness and awareness escorts humans to liberation.  He further writes that death is not that furious, horrible, or dark- ending. 

Death becomes a celebration when there is awareness. We all are in all-time through several memories from many generations in the form of DNA that hurdle our journey of consciousness. Death is the only tool that robustly cleanses and completes us. If one remains awake consistently, s/he will admire that voidness. ‘The Letter from Death,’ ‘The Art of Dying’ and ‘Be Friend of Mine' are prominent examples of glorification of death. 

As a reader, I have found the smooth writing style in poems. He sings the songs of awareness and death with the melodious flute of consciousness. Unlike the contemporary writers and poets, he has a different taste in poetry. He does not have lamentation, grievance, or complaints but has glorification of every little thing. Being inspired by the Samyak view, he accepts the lively grandeur of nature. In some poems, there is the taste of science. It feels like each poem is a masterpiece itself. Overall, the poet is successful in making us wake up from deep sleep transcending our minds.