FIFTH COLUMN

Icons

By C K Lal

In the course of a decade, we have seen that all our role models have feet of clay. Our bureaucrats have nerves of straw. Litterateurs love to sing paeans in praise of the powerful. Journalists revel in crawling before their benefactors. So-called social service is merely a front to make some easy dough. It’s so sad, all our gods have failed us and our dreams have died young.

The reality has become so painful to bear that we desperately need some icons of success to save our sanity. Till the other day, I didn’t realise the enormity of the problem. And then I saw the mug-shot of one member from the community of Lords of Poverty, who happened to be a Nepali, splattered over the front pages of our daily newspapers. Some of them were in color, perhaps to accentuate the brown skin of an international bureaucrat.

One Kul Chandra Gautam, said the news, has become the highest ranking Nepalese citizen serving in the UN system. Good for Gautam-he will make more money, his children will acquire green cards with relative case, he can fly First Class to wherever infants are starving in the poor countries, and all that. No grudges, all envy. But, pray what is there in his appointment for us poor souls in Nepal? Why should we see him on the first page of our newspaper?

If Gautam has helped some poor Nepalis in his previous capacities at the UN system, then that must be his closely guarded secret, because the press release does not mention even one such instance. So he is not our benefactor in any way.

Gautam can’t be our role model, because the position earned by him has been on the strength of Princeton and Harvard, privileges that very few from anywhere in the world start with. He can’t even be an inspiration, since his contribution to the advancement of Nepali society is not known.

It may appear a bit harsh, even mean, but let us face it nonetheless-Gautam is a white-collar equivalent of a blue-collar worker sweating it out in Brunei or even Bombay. Their utility to Nepal is limited to their remittances, and since that is doubtful in the case of a high official, Gautam’s achievement is all his own alone.

One may argue that his exposure boosts our image. Better not be too sure about that. In all probability, he shall be used as an item of window-dressing, and projected as one more color in the rainbow of UN system, from the country of abominable snowman.

Congratulations Gautam, whoever you are. But please treat the respect given by Nepali media as an anticipation of your contribution to Nepali society not as a recognition of your achievements. We are badly in need of icons, but not of the kind who always chooses other’s arena to leave his mark.