| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 05:54 AM
Afraid of bravery
By Rajeev Satyal
Taken from:
http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue185/guest_column.htm
No wonder we never get ahead: we fear success
There may be many reasons for Nepal’s slow progress. But the main one is our fear of success itself.
Politicians fear that national problems may soon be solved.If that happens they will lose their power to manipulate. Whether it is the Maoists or the five-party alliance, all fear that a resolution of the crisis will mean they will have to share power.
The Maoists would lose their reason for being if the country prospered and if everyone got a good education. Even ‘progressive’ communists do not want things to go well because that would mean their ideology is inferior. For those who thrive on poverty, prosperity is undesirable. Like bacteria, they thrive on decay.
Dictatorships, too, flourish in times of political instability and upheaval. Violence is their pal. Whenever there is peace, people have time to think about other things besides keeping alive: like having a free and independent voice. All around, we see the manifestaion of timid minds that fear success.
The security apparatus in this country has now got a taste of power, their budgets have bloated. Total strength has grown from 45,000 to 70,000, and they are better equipped. An end to conflict now would mean going back to peacetime status.
Media, too, fears success. News is always about the negative, the out of the ordinary. Success is not news, failure is. Political turmoil is good for circulation. In the business of news, bad news is good news. And of course the pseudo-intellectuals who live like parasites off the media would also lose their chance to pontificate if things are sorted out. In fact, if they are not involved in sorting things out, then they are against anyone else who is.
Ditto for the student union leaders who fear success because they would have to actually go back to their classrooms and study. They would have to stop taking orders from their political mentors and actually use their brains independently. Today’s political leaders all rose up from student politics. The university is the cradle of their intellectual development, where the empty foundations of their careers began. They can’t help behaving the way they do.
Non-government bodies thrive on mediocrity and the fear of success. Nepal needs to remain poor, badly-governed, mismanaged, corrupt and inefficient otherwise they would lose their raison-d’etre. Tax officials don’t want to streamline collection procedures and fear anyone who tries to inject some honesty into the system. How else would they be able to squeeze the taxpayer for personal benefits? Taxpayers don’t want to pay tax? Ridiculous. It is the tax-collector who doesn’t want the people to pay tax.
All of us in our little cocoons behind high walls are afraid of success. The enemy is within us: the confidence and self-esteem we do not have, the insecurity we feed on. Let’s individually overcome this fear of success and sacrifice short-term comfort for something permanent and true.
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| EdHunter |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 06:37 AM
Totally makes sense... Ain't gonna have much success with power hungry idiots at the helm...
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| Rastafariya |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 09:44 AM
Yo Birader Ed Hunter, and Ashu! What them you is talks nonsense?
Them Biruwa biraders nice nice Politicians never no fear that. Them Birader Biruwas nice peopal never after power or them Manipulasion of peopal.
Them peopal never manipulasion no peopal. Them never wanted no power. Them Biruwa Biraders nice nice leaders always work for them peopal to solve peopals problems.
Them no dictatorship. Him Birader Biruwas Lord Vishnu is nice nice peopal. Him only work for his dear Subjects.
Dont be writing such untrue things birader Ashu. Him Birader Biruwa gets angry if you writes them Untrue things here in da forum.
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| MadMax |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 09:50 AM
Yo Rastafariya, what you talkin about dude?
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| Rastafariya |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 10:22 AM
Yo Birader Mad Max, I is surely not talkin about you.
I is talkin about him birader Biruwas leadars whom him birader Biruwa loves and thinks them is great peopal.
You is have probilam with that?
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| _sage |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 10:25 AM
I think that article makes some sense, but I think it goes too far. I see a lot of people who are not afraid of success. In fact they want success very badly, but they are frustrated by the conditions that multiply upon each other - poverty, caste discrimination, lack of infrastructure, oppression of women's lives, and Nepal's place in the world class system at the bottom of the ladder.
I think there are a lot of students who protest not because they don't want to go into the classroom and study, but because they are young enough to still have idealism about a better world. Some of them are surely there to have a street party but the great majority are probably with very true hearts wanting a better future, so they can't bear to sit in a run-down classroom studying calculus, when they see bigger problems outside those shabby windows. Even the dirty windows themselves are a symptom of the problem of poverty, with all its causes.
Here is a great essay in the Kathmandu Post today:
http://www.kantipuronline.com/php/kolnews.php?&nid=8645
It's got a slightly different outlook on the issues.
I think there ARE some people who don't want success. Look at the World Bank - if they wanted true success in development, they would not make their policies only for economic liberalization. They would listen to their critics who have very good criticisms of their policy. But then there would not be a huge supply of cheap desperate labor for first-world use. Also some national and local people want failure because it continues their power over people. If nobody was desperately poor, then who would work in the fields of the landlord or in the factories of the owners?
(I'm definitley not saying that all landlords or factory owners are bad people. Some are very exploitive and some are better than others in treating workers as humans first. I have also paid rent and loans and worked in factories in my life, and I know how it feels.)
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| acharya |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 12:35 PM
I agree with Sage..The article goes a bit too far!
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| Badmash |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 01:05 PM
Bunch of baloney! Rajiv Satyal, yet another pessimist. We fear success not, we fear people like Satyal and his haywire logic.
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| katmandude |
Posted
on 07-Mar-04 02:29 PM
It's not that we Nepalese do not want success, its just that we rather take the short-cut; it's just that we want it at the expense of everyone else; it's just that we want it all without losing anything; its just that we want all the rights without the responsibilities.
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