Crisis

You know how it goes. You lie awake at night, your mind racing with the thoughts of the past few days, critically reviewing every little decision made. Where could it have all gone so wrong? Why did you decide to get the new job / buy that house / marry that woman / go to Nepal for a year? Everything was fine before, why did you feel the need to change things, why now and not after 10 years? You knew it would be hard but surely not this hard, this is just impossible. And just like that your confidence crumbles like a cliff on the east coast of England.

Guess what? I'm going through a bit of a confidence crisis.

As I said before, I'm struggling to get funding for the first project. There is a way, I know it. I'm just getting a bit hacked off with all the closed doors. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but still, maybe I'm out of my depth.

So, I've decided to go and work with some other NGOs, understand how they work and see how they get things going. Also, if I help them, they've said that they'll help us - tag projects for us onto their larger ones. So. a back scratching operation is going to be underway soon.

As for everything else here, the Kathmandu Valley and most of Nepal has been stopped for the week or so. As I said a few weeks ago, the government put up petrol prices by 25%, so the transporters - buses, microbuses and tempos - decided to put their fares up by 30 to 40%. The government said no. So they went on strike. Also, other smaller things have happened, like a local council worker getting locked in the toilet by a forestry department official - funny but caused tyre burning and no traffic along the ring-road. Some people complain that when one or two people are unhappy then the whole country stops. And it's true. The schools are closed, many shops and offices shut, the roads are barricaded by agitators. Whilst all this happens, the police stand by and do nothing. The agitating group hold the government to ransom until they sort out their problems.

But how can the government solve them? For example, petrol prices rising. The government, like many others in the region, were subsidising petrol to encourage growth. However due to the rapid rise of the price of oil, the national oil company was building up huge debts. Now, if the government kept the petrol prices the same, then these debts would become unmanageable and the government would have to spend a large part of their small public finances in subsidising fuel to the detriment of other essential development activities. They are in a no win situation.

I get severely irritated by strikes. When I lived in France, French truck drivers blockaded Toulouse airport and our office because they weren't able to drive into the UK due to Foot and Mouth. What could the French Government do? The thing that annoys me most is here in Nepal, it is detrimental to everything people are trying to do to improve things in Nepal. The schools are shut, so the children can't go to school. The roads are blocked, making trade difficult from the fertile Terai to the valley and beyond. Also, tourists can't get around as easily and are put off - a couple of days ago 6 buses carrying tourists from Pokhara to Kathmandu were attacked by people on strike.

I realise the benefit of strikes and protests. The protests here 2 years ago brought the new found democracy and the end of the Nepali monarchy - a good thing or bad thing depending on your way of thinking. People have attained better working conditions and allowed a lot more equality in society because of them. But there must be a better way sometimes than holding the whole country to ransom until you get what you want. Even if it is just one day off work.

We'll see in the next few days how things go, and see whose crisis solves first.

SAM

And here's a picture of a mountain for the person who keeps on asking for them - it's Machhapuchhre (fishtail) in the Annapurna region. It's from last time I was there - it's been a bit tricky to visit the mountains recently!