Prosperous Nepal - Happy Nepalese
2018-11-28As usual, my friend was late again. With nothing else to do, I started eavesdropping on the discussion going on in another table while sipping my coffee. The group consisted of six people (I Counted!) and they were talking about one of the most trending topic in Nepal right now, “Miss Nepal 2018, Shrinkhala Khatiwada” in Miss World.
Not just that cafe, the discussion about Shrinkhala is everywhere in Nepal now. After her introductory video came out, thousands of Nepalese downloaded Mobstar app in their phone and started voting for her, making Mobstar the top most downloaded app of 2018 in Nepal. Her followers on instagram are currently 306k and her pictures and videos are shared by almost all big names and pages in social media. The most amazing thing about this is that Shrinkhala is now the most voted person in Miss World. This is indeed remarkable when you think about the fact that Nepal is a small country with one of the least number of populations compared to other participants In Miss World.
The level of patriotism we have for our nation can be portrayed beautifully in this collective effort to support a fellow Nepali in the international platform. Be it football, be it cricket, be it Miss World or a dance competition in the neighboring country, we have always done enough to make sure any Nepali competing internationally know they are being supported.
However, this makes me wonder why we are not this aggressive when it comes to politics in our country. Is it that our patriotism can only be displayed when it is Nepal competing with other nations? We have already shown that in terms of vote, Nepal can challenge the world. So why not show this unity and power in developing Nepal? Why not be this passionate and committed in politics as well? It is not that every one of us lacks the zeal that is needed to be invested in national politics and development. But most of us certainly choose to waste our time complaining about the lack of opportunities standing right in front of us, and going abroad instead. There are abundance of opportunities (Google the success stories of young entrepreneurs in Nepal for reference) going to waste and blind voting trend where we don’t properly analyze the agendas of parties and instead blindly support and vote them based on their name.
Nepal has come a long way in terms of development. According to Nepal Tourism Statistics, 2017, 940,218 (Nine Hundred Forty Thousand two hundred and eighteen) people from abroad arrived at Nepal which is 25% increment from 2016. Internal Tourism is also doing exceptionally well with Nepalese people choosing hiking, trekking to spend their vacations inside Nepal itself. Not just tourism, development can be seen in other areas as well like road, education system, health facilities, village development as well. With the formation of local levels, the voices of unheard are being perceived. Remember 18 hours of loadshedding that we used to face every day? We don’t have that now.
According to Nepal Development Update by the world bank group, Nepal is poised to embrace a new development model for a “Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepalese” by achieving faster growth to become a middle-income country by 2030. We are the generation of Nepal who abolished the monarchy and made Nepal Republic, we survived Maoist insurgency, we survived massive earthquake of 2015, we got over the harsh blockade by India, and many more. We are strong and if we commit ourselves to be part of the development that our country is going through fervently as we are committing on making Shrinkhala Khatiwada Miss World, I believe we are more than capable of achieving: “Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepalese”
- Alisha Upreti
The Author is Corporate Communication/HR Officer of KFA.
