With all due respect to the talented author, her primary
sources for the Al Jazeera piece (Rebuilding Nepal: The rubble must go) are organizations with vested interests--NGOs,
the UN, the government—entities that have earned skepticism over decades of aid-industry ventures in Nepal. Rather than pay them more heed, the citizens of this great nation
would do well to hold these groups up to greater scrutiny and demand transparency and hard
evidence with quantifiable metrics, e.g., poverty reduction, worthy of 5-6 decades
of aid and billions of dollars spent including dazzling salaries that put aid
entrepreneurs in the top 1% of Nepal society, the very society that they endeavor to assist.
More reliable and convincing sources of information in this piece about
the afflicted areas would be residents themselves from the rural areas most affected
by the quake. A relatively small percentage of Nepal was badly damaged by this natural
tragedy and people in these areas are receiving humanitarian aid and are also
working together as communities to rebuild themselves. These worst hit areas
will likely need a lot of continued assistance but this fraction of Nepal is not
representative of the entire country regarding reconstruction needs by a wide margin.
It is extraordinary to read of the “urgent…task of
reconstruction…small window of time… winter, which will be particularly brutal”
juxtaposed with Executive Director of the National Society for Earthquake
Technology’s statement, “Timeframe is not an issue…Nepal can be rebuilt in the
five years outlined”.
It would be more convincing to hear from voices outside of the organizations
that have monopolized aid. Despite the small pockets of Nepal in real need of humanitarian relief, the whole country seems to be portrayed as in dire need of outside help. An unsavory side-effect of that broad depiction is the complete sabotage of one of Nepal’s most vital industries—the hardworking tourism sector. Painting the picture as one of
dire need (e.g., “debris still blocking streets”) unnecessarily scares off potential visitors and is killing an integral industry that could immediately endeavor to
revive Nepal’s post-quake economy.
.
The graphic portrayals though meant to help bring in more aid funds do real harm to many
people especially, those who rely on tourism and their dependents. From hoteliers, restaurateurs, taxi drivers, goods
sellers and suppliers, guides and porters, families and dependents and everyone
else in between Kathmandu and tourist destinations and back again, such misrepresentations cause harm.
The following links are a bit scathing but at least might
provide a counter-perspective to the implausible pleas in the Al Jazeera article for more money…Can these organisations iron out issues among themselves and get to work with the
4.4 billion USD that has already been pledged? This amount itself can scar Nepal
indelibly if it goes to the wrong gang…and elements of that gang are very much
aware of the wildly lucrative opportunity born from the true victims of tragedy.
#FreeNepal, #AidBully, #AidEntrepreneur, #AidRiddenNepal, #DonorDarlings, #NepalQuake, #Nepal
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