High-Rises

High-rise buildings like the one in the middle of the picture are growing in this city. Amid the shabby concrete houses of this city, their grandeur stands out. When the darkness of the night wraps the valley, unruffled by our perpetual load shedding, these buildings glow with lights perhaps generated by backup power systems. The contrast at night is sharper. They are the survivors in this city where night favors darkness.

They must be the lucky ones who get to live in these buildings: ones who do not have to depend on the electricity that the national power grid supplies. The power grid that is raped by scarcity, incompetence, corruption and ruthlessness. I hear you have to pay millions of rupees to buy these apartments. But if you own that fortune, you do get a chance to escape the darkness of this city.

These glowing buildings at night are the epitome of power structures in Nepal.

If you have enough money, you get uninterrupted electricity (fair enough) and water . If you know somebody at a public hospital, you do not have to wait in line to be seen. But be prepared to let those people in front of you, even if you have waited in line since early morning, if you are a nobody. Hospital beds can be emptied if you hold some power (political office, connections,... you know it). But be prepared to be shoved out to another hospital if you are a nobody. Even if you are paying a substantial sum, do not expect to get a reciprocal quality of care if you are a nobody, either at public hospital or private ones. Be prepared for endless tomorrows to meet the government regulatory requirements if you are a nobody but everything can be done from home if you are in the power structure. 

Let me give you an example: our government gives a subsidy for hemodialysis to patients who have kidney failure. For that, they ask you to get photocopies of citizenship certificate, few passsport-sized photographs and a statement from VDC stating that you need financial assistance. If you are an illiterate peasant from Sankhuwasava, imagine your ordeal. Do you have a citizenship certificate at the first place? How are you going to go to Sankhuwasava to get a VDC statement while you are lying breathless in a public hospital floor? But if you are a local political somebody, you will make a call to the VDC secretary on his mobile phone and have a villager hand-carry the letter to you the next day.  

I get a sense that the plight of powerless is growing. Our government is growing and so are the ones with access to power. Our intellectuals have run out of imagination, their only solution to all of our woes is additional regulation. Our oligarchs are ecstatic about bringing any new regulation. It creates an opportunity to exercise power and extort money. In this game, ease for those with power is still secured but life for the regular folks becomes tougher. 

It seems to me incompetence of our institutions is a bigger issue than a lack of elaborate regulation. Unfortunately, our incompetence and corruption is growing and these institutions are getting larger.