Vacancy announcement: "Loot and pocket management officer" wanted immediately

Thanks Nepal's abject poverty and employment problem that a few of our own nationals have got employment. These employment are not only lucrative but attractive as well for such jobs yield foreign dollars. What a dollar means to a poor Nepali is perhaps known to us all. Countless NGOs have mushroomed in the country of late. How all of a sudden these grew is a perplexing phenomenon indeed. From useless and brainless persons to the retired bureaucrats all could be found calculatedly housed in various NGOs and even INGOs. Both were almost same as regards the performances were concerned. Both loiter around big cities, specially Kathmandu, and hence could be seen in making fiery speeches in Kathmandu's five star complexes. The men in these NGOs or for that matter the INGOs are afraid of meeting the targeted groups back in the remote areas for fear of being asked puzzling questions and also being dubbed as "money-spinners" and that too all in their names. Thanks Nepali poverty!

But then the foreign countries must be wholeheartedly thanked for their kind and continued assistance which has prevented some Nepali souls to go mad due to "no-employment". What is very interesting in these NGOs is that the men/women of a single family or near and dear to this particular family occupy the various chairs beginning the president to the peon. This is done according to "qualifications" and connections to the donors, I suppose.

The fact is that during these years the employment problem has become a big issue. Time permitting this issue if not handled carefully by the establishment might shake the very foundations of the Nepali society. The qualified but yet frustrated youths might create problems to the nation in various destructive and unimaginable forms. However, the fact is also that a person who is close to a particular political party or happens to be relative of a powerful personality will get him employed. In the process many unemployed youths have already taken their respective chairs. Power game indeed. For the rest read the following joke which I had heard when I was myself studying the Intermediate of Science in Biratnagar decades and decades back. This joke is valid in a much more pronounced way even today:

It so happened that one "Government owned, controlled and dictated Corporation" invited candidates for "Officer" posts. The name of the post was " Loot and pocket management officer". Naturally the name itself was pretty attractive and hence it was only but natural that the nation's thousands and thousands of the unemployed youth applied for that post.

The date of the interview approached. Every person according to his or her ability utilized their private connections with Nepali bigwigs in order to fit into the job.

Finally it was the day of the interview. The men in the Corporation had made an excellent arrangement for the interview. The management was, in effect, very scientific. It would be nice if others copied this model which will unfold within minutes. All candidates who were in thousands and thousands came to try their luck.

At the very entry point of the first hall there was an information: "Please enter this hall first". The candidates praised the corporation for their modesty and entered the hall as per the instruction.

However, inside the hall there was yet another information, which read: " Candidates, if any, with the recommendations of the Prime Minister come this way". Those who had the said recommendations entered that hall. Others were advised: "Candidates possessing ministerial recommendations please enter this hall". Some who possessed the ministerial recommendations entered the hall. For the rest, there was one another information: " Candidates having recommendations of the political parties enter this hall". Those cheerful candidates who had such recommendations entered the hall.

In the process, hundreds and hundreds of candidates made their ways to separate halls. For the rest there was further information(s) like "Candidates of the ministers"'; "Candidates of the wives of the ministers"; Candidates of the NC"; Candidates of the UML"; Candidates of the RPP and Candidates of the Sadbhavana and the likes.

In the process yet another bulk of the candidates got vanished in the hall. But yet there was a sizeable number of "recommendation less" candidates. They must have been in thousand.

Finally for these "recommendation less" candidates there was one last information. Reading to the information, these almost orphan like candidates consoled their minds that the management had some thing for them. The information read in part: "Please open this gate".

One of the "recommendation less" but yet brilliant candidate who was by then tired of reading various information and walking inside the hall for several hours pleasingly opened the gate. The opened gate brought all of them to the city's Foot-Path. Yes! It was not only the end of the interview hall but the beginning of the busy road where common people, three-wheelers, taxi and vendors were moving here and there. In effect it was a crossroad where transport vehicles plied to various routes in Kathmandu. It was a bus park to put it straight. The crowd in thousands of the recommendation-less candidates within minutes mixed up with the outside crowd which is what happens in a city like Kathmandu.

I am told those who were shown the footpath have joined various organizations and serving their nation in their own modest ways and abilities. Some have gleefully entered politics, some in pick-pocketing; some in rag-picking jobs; some as tourist guide; some as porters; some have become rebels and finally some have committed suicide.

Draw your own conclusions!

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