My Vision for Nepal | A society based on wisdom and values

A society based on wisdom and values

Three ways to realize the vision: 

1) Update our curriculum to meet the needs of our society. 
2) Teach people to respect hard-working people and not just well-earning ones.
3) Implement an organic model of national development.

No country moves forward with a single set of visions.

But I think education must be at the center of everything. It might sound simple, but things never go smoothly here in Nepal as we have loopholes in every sector. And regretfully, those who are educated are also the ones misleading the nation.

In every field, the educated have turned themselves into brokers and middlemen hungry to earn commissions without doing work. Due to this, we have lost the essence of hard work. We have established our society in such a way that, these days, the ultimate goal of each person is to become a billionaire, no matter the field of their choosing. This mentality opens the floodgates for corruption and other systemic evils, but again, our society is also nurturing these things.

I don’t know how things will work when everyone must earn more and more money, anyhow. That’s why we have relatively fewer people engaged in music, art and literature, which are not considered lucrative fields.  

For instance, Nepali journalists also aim to be billionaires, which is unethical and impossible if you tread the ethical path. The same goes for many other professionals. If you are into business, you must try to be like Binod Chaudhary. Everyone is running behind the same motive. Why? Because there is a huge gulf between how our society treats a well-earning person versus a hard-working person. 

To improve this, there should be a wisdom-based education system that inculcates the same set of values in everyone. Our current education system educates, but it does not give you either morals or wisdom.

For a long time, Nepal has had two types of education. One that sends you to the Gulf and another to either Europe or the US. But neither has helped us much. Then, isn’t it time to change things? 

Also read: Pradip Pariyar: Make Nepal free of all forms of discrimination 

Those running our bureaucracy and our political system are poorly educated and they have no idea no idea about how to build a knowledge- and value-based society. 

We need to update our curriculum that is riddled with loopholes. The needs of our society and the things we are being taught are completely different. The stories we are taught are imported and adapted, and don’t fit our cultural and social context. 

Alongside the curriculum, we have to work on building a positive mindset towards the people who follow their passion, helping improve the social image of all jobs and occupations.

Besides these, there are also other areas that matter. For example, we have to improve our development model. We as a country have not implemented an organic model of development. Our towns are managed haphazardly and they look dirty and disorganized. But sadly, our villages are trying to copy the same town-modality, as they think that this is what development looks like. 

Our import-based economy is another colossal mess. We are all reliant on the things we import, and the more we import, the more reliant we become. Then how can we ever be self-reliant? The country virtually runs on remittances. Then how can we ever start engaging Nepalis productively in our county? Has any educated expert raised this issue? No, because they don’t have the vision to develop Nepal; most of them are also into racketeering of various kinds.

We have few job-creating business owners and entrepreneurs as one of the easiest ways to make money is by trading. So most of the high-level personas from whom we expect jobs are rather into trading. 

Lastly, I feel like Nepali journalists are watchdogs without power. Only if our governmental and non-governmental sectors are propelled by positive energy can journalism play its part well. Right now, with no system or responsible authority in the country, even when we expose wrongdoing, the officialdom seldom acts. So, we haven’t been able to contribute much to society.

Quick Questions:

What is the most challenging aspect for women in Nepali media?

The biggest challenge concerns trust issues, not only from the management of media houses but also from the audiences. They doubt women can understand economics or know politics in depth. Because of this social mindset, women’s credibility is often doubted.

A television personality who inspires you the most.

For now, I will say Rana Ayyub.

A quote you live by.

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”