BY D. M. THAPA Like we said just one week back, the nation is really at a difficult period. The lack of vision among political leaders, the utter greed of bureaucrats and others in government institutions including the security forces has led the country to this juncture. It has almost become as bad as the war devasted countries in Africa and the criminal dominated nations of South America. God forbid that it doesn’t become was field like many countries in the Middle East, but considering the fact that Nepal is situated strategically between two powerful countries, China and India, there is little that can be prohesised now. Actually this was not such a bad position for Nepal, had there been visionary leaders and competent bureaucrats. Nepal could have reaped rich benefits from both China and India, which are swiftly beingt the two power houses of the world, not only militarily but also economically. In fact China is just inches away from overtaking the United States as the biggest economic powerhouse of the world. But sadly Nepal has been unable to find any firm policy in dealing with these nations and just hanging on to their coat tails to rise economically. The same strategy could be used while dealing with the US or other prominent and rich countries of Europe. But this has not happened and unfortunately, the Western countries also have showered their benevolence to only INGOs and some individuals, and the people have not been able to see any improvement in their life. But it is not only Nepal, the US itself and the United Kingdom also seem to be in real troubling times. President of the United States Donald Trump is under the cloud of an impeachment motion against him and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still in crisis in spite of the victory his party saw in the snap general election called by him. To go back to the United States, people old as this author remembers even a strong willed and staunch President like late Richard Nixon, preferring to resign instead of being impeached. But Donald Trump is a different man as far we can analyse by reading how he is dealing with a similar impeachment case. He seems confident that he can bluster himself through this crisis and even win the next election which looming ahead. After all, he whoodwinked people in |New York to sell their land as he wanted, by not blinking first. He is a real estate broker and not a well groomed politician. It just annoys me how the genial people voted him to be the President. A much weaker but good at heart Jimmy Carter was far more better than Trump, who is opening war at all fronts, irritating all countries, including its best allies. Boris Jhonson is no better. Leave alone being in isolation from the European Union, this man might one day isolate London from the tiny island which is still called Great Britain. The same may happen to India, in spite of the euphoria of Narendra Modi’s party winning in elections in most places, but at least India, which itself was colonized by the British, didn’t have a chance to boast that the “Sun never sets in the British Empire” This Brit named Boris has the same first name as Boris Yeltsin, who played a major part in fragmenting the then powerfrul Soviet Union. Even their appearance seems same to a casual outsider. The whole world is in a chaos at present and because of upstart leaders like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, other nations are also being affected. But the concern of this writer is, instead of growing economically with two strong neigbours, it seems to be perishing under the growing pressure from the powerful countries. This is where a visionary and young leader with a different outlook is required. It is sure some individual like that is lurking in the shadows, but it is shame these people are overlooked and clever persons like Trump and Johnson are elected by the people. In Nepal, no matter how much we hear of the happiness of Loktantra, a republic system and secularism, the situation is going from bad to worse. It may not be as bad as the times during the Second World War when Japanes people had to go with money in bushels just to buy a bus ticket, but now we do have to go well stacked to buy a bag of vegetables. Federalism has been costly and almost a failure and secularism has brought more disharmony. The social scenario is the same, with some individuals getting richer by the day while the common public hardly have enough to make ends meet. Like mentioned before, late Girija Prasad Koirala, the present firebrand leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba all are culprits in taking to this dismal juncture. But this is no prophecy, but Nepal is also on the brink of disaster, not only through the greed and lack of vision among the political leaders and bureaucrats, but also due to foreign intervention. Like the Middle East countries have suffered due to the huge oil stprages they had, Nepal could also suffer because of its water potential and also the strategic geo-political stance it enjoys. All we can hope for is that we will have a better leader before Nepal becomes another Libya, Iraq or Syria, just to take a fe names of the countries that are in the midst of total civil war, all due to the good intentions of the Western powers.