Friday, February 11, 2022

MCC Controversy: The Anthropology Angle



MCC Controversy: The Anthropology Angle

Too many of us, me included, have been tackling the geopolitical angle of the MCC debate too hard. Maybe we should go a little easy. I myself have suggested to the self-styled China friendly politicians in Nepal who China might or might not be aware of, the way for China to beat America would be to donate $600 million, or a billion, go get it, we shall readily accept!

I have also looked at the corruption angle. Maybe the MCC Dons (nodding to you, Fatima) should count as to how many bungalows got built in Kathmandu when the Melamchi project was stretched over three decades. It should have been completed in one tenth the time. The accountability part of the MCC package has been a problem. Just drop the money and go.

By now I feel the overwhelming angle has been not geopolitical (China Vs. America, better held in the South China Sea), or ideological (Communist Vs. Capitalist ..... every single party in Nepal is officially Socialist, go figure), or bookkeeping (read: theft, aka corruption), but rather how politicians in Nepal do business. They wait until the last minute even if they might have had, in this case, years to get it done, but they will not move until right before the deadline, and then they will move in a hurry. No debate, barely a voice vote. But at the very last minute.

Why? Watch the movie Interstellar. Our lead characters jump, hop, jump time.

Maybe not physical time the way Einstein explained it but cultural time perhaps moves in Nepal at a different speed than everywhere else.

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