Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The centuries old Arab-Israeli conflict and the fate of stranded Nepalese youths in Lebanon are hitting headlines at home and abroad. Perhaps, for the first time countrymen back home had the clue to the effect of the decade old conflict, the poverty as a result, the movement thereafter, which altogether saw Nepalese youths in search of food and shelter arriving in the world’s worst conflict affected areas. Who will forget the bloody massacre of few Nepalese youths by an Islamic extremist group in Iraq? Who is to be blamed, the government formed by a proven group of selfish leaders or those who die time and again for the country’s cause?

From Afghanistan to Iraq and now to Lebanon, Nepalese are regularly seen in the list of innocent dead either from a Taliban attack or from an Islamist fundamentalist group attack or through an Israeli attack in Lebanon. In the near future possibly in the list of dead through a Hezbollah attack in Israel. The possibilities can't be ruled out.

What is our government doing to prevent incidents like these? Nothing perhaps!

The problem is a clear lack of concern among the leaders in the government and the so-called revolutionary men who successfully led the youths to a takeover of the old regime quite recently. Still not over from the hangover the leaders are busy preaching their cadres who are mostly youths, about their future political strategy. But the lack of concern for youths who are helping to reconstruct the shattered economy through remittance also shows the double standard among the leaders back home.

Let us turn deaf ear as our leaders and our media, to the issue of the inundated villages and the human casualty and loss of property in the Nepali side due to the dam constructed along India-Nepal border by the Indian government. Forgetting this issue let us all applaud the Indian government’s magnanimity in rescuing some Nepalese from among four thousand men from the war-zone. India was not alone in rescuing foreign nationals though; stranded Peruvian migrants were seen rescued by the Chilean Embassy in Damascus. For this graciousness both the Indians and the Chileans are being applauded all over the world. Inundating Nepali villages and providing support to stranded Nepalese concurrently? What a turn of event? Master brains definitely have the Indians.

The government in Nepal though, which is still to prove its faith among men within the country, without India’s help was not expected to open diplomatic channels swiftly to rescue youths living in dire conditions in Lebanon or anywhere in the world. There are perhaps more important issues for the government to sort out at home than rescuing the men who risked their lives for enhancing the country’s economic condition. This is the fate of the Nepalese youths who are exploited again and again by the political leaders to achieve their goals but are left in the cold to die as and when they need the government’s support.

“The Nepalese living across the border in the Israeli territory are safe as the majority Hezbollah attack has been unable to hit Israel hard”, a Nepali youth living in Israel revealed recently, he was talking to his family over the telephone.

The question is as war continues and if Israel becomes unsuccessful to tame terrorist organizations like Hezbollah there is a possibility that Israel will face more indiscriminate attacks in the future. And it is highly likely that Israel will face more difficulties in the future as Iran, a majority Shiite country and Syria, are directly supporting the Hezbollah, a Shitte organization itself in their fight against Israel. In this pretext, how the government in Nepal will be able to keep Nepalese youths safe in Israel or others dispersed in the Arabian countries is to be seen in the future. Here the government needs a clear strategy to preserve the youths who make majority of the country’s population not to die an unnatural death be it in the name of internal conflict or while serving the country from an alien land.