Let us all congratulate our incompetent government for organising the ‘Nepal Investment Summit’ in hopes of attracting foreign investors in our land. Our Emperor tells us that our Nepal government will do everything possible to attract foreign investment in this land. But that’s only half of the story. This is what happens when our politicians become comedians while the real comedians are out there helping those in need.

Our man in Baluwatar should have told the truth to the bideshis present at the summit. The government of Nepal and the civil servants will then do everything possible to make sure that foreign investors fail to make any profit or even if they do then make it difficult to take their dough back to their homeland.

And of course, we have the trade unions, mundrey gundas and local netas who will do everything possible to extort the bidhesis or make it difficult to begin their projects until they dole out the chiya kharcha. And our civil servants will not sign the papers or approve anything unless they receive their pocket money as well.

 Yes, foreigners will pledge billions of Rupees in investment but we all know that not even a percent of those pledged will amount to real investment in the future. Bideshis are not stupid. We are. Whenever we see a bideshi, we open our homes, invite them for dinner and even offer them free room and board regardless of our economic status. But the Bideshis only want one thing. Can this country offer them any opportunity to make a quick buck?

Well, they appreciate the free lunch we offer but at the end of the day, they care more about their self-interest and personal gain. And that’s how the world is and our government should first help its own people instead of wasting our taxpayers money on organising such events that really amount to nothing.

Our incompetent government should promote small businesses first. Yes, give tax breaks to our entrepreneurs who invest their life savings to start a business, employ a dozen people and hopes to make a little bit of profit to take care of their families. But that’s not the case. Here, anybody who starts a business becomes a target for our civil servants, trade unions and mundreys. Our factories have closed due to labour problems and lack of resources and infrastructure. Our fertile lands have turned into concrete homes and we continue to import billions of Rupees in food products from across the border.

We are losing our farms because we do not have enough manpower since most of our youth go abroad to make a few Dinars more. And yet the government doesn’t care and if that’s the trend then in the next 20 years, we will be buying everything from our chimekis. Our hard earned remittance money will go to pay them for food, clothes and everything else.

The Desi Finance Minister was in town and he tells us that we can utilize our natural resources to develop our land. I think, instead of telling us what we already know, Jaitley Chacha should have told our corrupt politicians that it is because of them that our country has not been able to use its own natural resources to bring prosperity to this land.

Our politicians look at China and India and they see our chimekis as someone who can be counted upon for funds and support to win elections, form government or topple the government. Our politicians should at least spend a month across the borders and really see what the Chinese and the Desis are doing when it comes to building infrastructure and attracting foreign investment in their lands.

Our Emperor tells us that the private sector will flourish once there is political stability in the country. Yes, we the people have been waiting for our political parties to get their act together and steer this country in the right direction. But it’s not happening and it will not happen until the people finally wake up and say no to bandas and destruction of public and private property by mundreys and cadres affiliated to our political parties.

Our netas are not committed and do not have the courage to end the political deadlock. They can’t even stick to their promises because they know that they need the bandas and daang doong to show their strength to the other political parties. Yes, make our lives miserable while you play the power game!

Our politicians tell the bideshis that we are an open economy and we do want foreign investment badly. The top loafers of our three major political parties think that just by saying that they will not create obstacles to foreign investors to  invest in our land will bring hordes of bideshis with their boras of cash to this country. But that’s not possible and won’t happen.

It doesn’t matter who invests in this land, be it bidhesis or our folks who are making some dough abroad or those of us who are here, who somehow have some money due to inheritance, or savings or by getting chiya kharcha from all over the place. Our politicial parties should find a transparent way of raising their funds instead of targeting both local and foreign-owned businesses to meet their expenses to fight elections or take care of their cadres.

Our Emperor tells us that he is surprised that our nation is poor despite having such huge natural and human resources. He can’t seem to find any answers on why our chimekis are doing good while we seem to have nothing to be proud of. Well, the answer my friend is blowing in the wind or the dust storm in the valley. We have no one to blame but our politicians and civil servants who for their own self-interest to take care of their own families have ruined the lives of millions of us and instead of building better infrastructure in this land have only built mansions for themselves.

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