Lights OUT.

Nepali cartoon

As Winter rolls around in Nepal, it is expected that there will be power cuts. Every year around December, the traditional dry season in Nepal, the rivers dry up and hydro-power plants are not able to produce enough power supply to suit the demand. Last winter we had up to 8 hours a day of power cuts, refer to our blog last year at this time. We thought that was bad. Currently, we lose power 16 hours a day. Yes, that means we have power for only 8 hours a day. If you are lucky enough to have a generator, this is not even enough time to recharge it for the next outage. The city is black. Industries are shutting down, restaurants are empty, unemployment is on the rise, TV stations go off air for 5 hours a day, electric-powered rickshaws are grounded, crime during power cut hours is sky-rocketing, internet is scarce, development projects are on hold, hospitals are turning patients away and water can not be pumped from the ground and distributed. All the while, the government and the monopoly, Nepal Electric Authority, are pointing fingers at each other, India and the hydro power industry. No one is taking responsibility for the crisis. 

The only thing the country is in full supply of is tension. Protests and rallies are held everyday by different groups speaking out against the government's inability to secure a basic need and function of daily life. People are fed up with the stagnation of development and an increasingly volatile situation is turning away potential foreign investments. 

For me personally and for Global Daughter, everything is connected to our ability to have electricity. Our silversmith can not produce GD jewelry without his tools, women can not work in the dark to produce our beaded goods, the protests are halting the transportation of our goods from the Terai into Kathmandu- all this among other things is making production and product development a nightmare. Our troubles can't compare to those effected most, but it does make for a very discouraging business environment. 

The joke around here is that we have returned to the "dark" ages. How can this country develop into a functioning democracy if it can't even supply power to the people. True, most backward villages have no power anyways, but for this crisis to sweep over the capital is alarming. Be assured, corrupt government officials and ministers are sitting in their over-sized houses with full power, lights on in every room and the TV running 24 hours a day. They still collect their checks, payoffs and hush money while their people starve for power, food, jobs and money. 

Score one for communism.