Every monsoon, floods and landslides wreck havoc in this land of ours and thousands of folks are displaced from their homes. And as usual, our incompetent government shows us how very ill-prepared it is to deal with natural disasters. When will our incompetent civil servants learn to work out a plan to at least minimise the effects of such disasters in the future?

It’s not that we don’t have government agencies to deal with such disasters but there is no co-ordination among them and our corrupt government seems to have no cash at hand to provide relief materials and housing to the flood and landslide victims. But the government somehow has the funds to provide millions of rupees to political cadres instead of the common folks. That’s how our government works in this land—the common folks lose everything while our clowns lose their kurchi for a while, that is until they find a way to get back to power and loot some more from the state treasury.

Our security personnel are doing all they can to rescue stranded victims with their limited resources. It’s mostly the soldiers and constables who are out there rescuing our folks from landslides and floods. Yet, these low-level security personnel get nothing; the pay is not much and the perks are minimal.

It’s about time our Nepal Police, Nepal Army and the Armed Police Force at least provide adequate housing and ration to their soldiers and constables instead of treating them like slaves. No wonder the constables vent their frustration and anger at the public during protest programmes because they seem to be fed up with how they are treated by high-ranking officers. And many of them are leaving their jobs to work as security guards in foreign lands.

The Shree Tins left the building 60 years ago and yet we still have the ‘Hukumi Sashan’ in place. ‘Afno Manchey’ gets everything while the common folks get nothing but false assurances from the government. I guess our government has not learned any lessons from the Big One from last year. It’s been more than a year now and yet most of our earthquake victims have yet to receive grants. And every monsoon season, we see floods and landslides across the country. Yes, natural disasters cannot be prevented but is it not the job of our government and its agencies to at least have a plan on how to deal with it?

It’s time we had a separate Ministry for Disaster Management. We need to have someone who once used to be a Boy Scout or a Girl Guide to head the ministry. At least that person will be prepared and do their best.

After all, our ministers and Prime Monster all take their oath and promise to honour the law of the land, do their best and help the people. But in reality, they break and bend the law, and help only their cadres, cousins and contractors. When will our netas feel for the people instead of only their cadres? Why can’t these stupid corrupt clowns for once help the needy and poor instead of only helping the fake-VAT bill byaparis and con artists who make money from government contracts?

Our politicians should stop preaching about nationalism and sovereignty when they are the ones who do the bidding for the bideshis and will not think twice to sell our land to our chimekis for a few rupees more. Yes, we understand that everything is fair in politics. You become enemies and the next day, you become friends because the enemy of your enemy is a friend. 

But when our netas talk about reconciliation, they do not mean bringing everyone together and making it work. It means only working with whoever wants to partner with you to topple the government now and then back-stab them later. 

Yes, Prachanda will be our Prime Monster for the second time. And he will have nine months to prove us all that he is a changed man. Our Emperor will not do much either. He will have a hard time trying to keep his own cadres happy. After all, he has brought back other mini-Maoists back into the fold and if he can’t keep them happy then they will break up again and it will be the same natak come next general election.

Then, Sher Bahadur will be our Prime Monster for the fourth time and we should not expect much from the King himself because he really doesn’t know much about how to run the country except form  Jumbo cabinets and provide luxurious perks to our lawmakers. It really doesn’t matter who heads the government, things will only get worse and not better.

Our corrupt politicians and lazy civil servants will not just go to bed tomorrow night and wake up realising that what they have doing is all wrong and they must bring political and social change for the good of the country and its people. So let us not expect things to get better any time, or even in a year or two. Our new Morons and Maoist combo-plan is to hold local elections while Prachanda is in Baluwatar and hold our federal and provincial elections while Sheru Uncle take his turn to sleep in Baluwatar. Who are we kidding anyway? It’s been more than a decade and a half since we have had local representatives heading our local bodies. And the all-party mechanism continues to enjoy the loot.

We all know that we will not have our mayors and ward chairperson until we get the provincial and federal setup right. And with the way our politicians continue to bicker over petty issues, this country will continue to be held hostage by a dozen thieves while millions of us continue to suffer from their lack of political will to resolve the political crisis. It seems that most of us don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel because our politicians and civil make sure that we do not move forward. Maybe it’s time to start all over again. We don’t need the monarchy or the morons to lead this country. We have seen them all. We need people with morals and ethics to lead us to peace and prosperity. Somebody please put up an ad in the major dailies!

(Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at [email protected])