I write this on the very last minutes. I spent an entire week trying to think of all possible ways how anyone can organize themselves for progress and all I could think of was how in school our teachers focused on discipline as the only (their word, not mine) legitimate route to progress for any student. For some reasons then I wasn’t quite convinced that discipline could make for an argument here. Then I read a few of the articles on the site regarding this very idea. Most entries focused on the recent earthquake, youth and children empowerment and unity and yes, these are integral topics when it comes to progress in Nepal as Nepal is a developing nation and many examples around the world point to the importance of youth empowerment and unity in times of highs and lows for a all-round development of a country.
The posts were hugely motivational for me to create my own and so I decided to list down major ways how we can organize ourselves for progress in Nepal.
The first point on my list is Motivation. Nothing moves people like a good motivation. Take the April 25 earthquake for an example. The tremors shook the living daylights out of people but many whole-heartedly took part in the relief and rescue missions. I personally was connected to a project by the Interact District Council which aimed to distribute relief materials in Sindhupalchowk and many other affected areas despite the then on-going tremors. We were a group of young Interactors and Rotaractors and we went to build shelters for the affected families. People were homeless and helpless and we felt it was our duty to go and help them in any way we could. And that’s what we did. There was no self-interest involved but the feeling of imparting goodness, which was in itself a moving motivation that pushed us.
To be honest, that’s a simple example which I am sure you will find common among many other stories. But the story wasn’t my point. If motivation resulted in us leaving our homes and families for I don’t know how many days or weeks and going to places where the earthquake hit the hardest (and was still hitting), imagine what it can do to a country.
Many complain today that there is no room for improvement in our country because there is no room at all to begin with. We blame our leaders and call their names and resort to social media to voice our criticism against them behind clever usernames. Among them we can find many stories that used the lacklustre performance of our government and leaders as a motivation and used it to contribute in whatever ways they can for the progress of Nepal. There are self-made entrepreneurs and youth leaders and icons and they are all doing what they can. So motivation: check!
“Motivation” then brought me back to what I said about my teachers in the beginning of this article: Discipline. There can hardly be a fruitful organization without discipline, without the willpower to contain oneself in a distraction-free environment with eyes on the prize. Discipline is what keeps people in order and doesn’t allow them to falter in their goals. Discipline and order (with proper motivation) turned our country from a kingdom to republic: lack of which among our leaders then led to the countless postponing of the release of our constitution. So discipline too: check!
The other important factor for organising ourselves for progress I believe is Inclusion. Leaving out a single citizen in the grand scheme of development would mean excluding voices, and that would not result in a holistic advancement of a country. For a country to progress, one must take into account every single idea, voice and concern of every single citizen. Otherwise the progress won’t be a progress but bias and it would fail to recognize the very existence of those who weren’t heard.
In the end, all I want to say is that coming up with ideas for progress isn’t as tough as organising the path to achieve it. And I believe that motivation, discipline and inclusion can help us organise ourselves for progress in Nepal.