Tedx and Dish Washing
The CEO at of the College was invited to present for the TEDx Kathmandu so I went along and was one of the three foreigners in an audience of 300 primarily students. There was an admission charge and guest received a black and Red TEDx T-shirt and notebook. I sat in the second row in front of the stage and listened to 4 presentations had had a delicious Dahl Bhat lunch. I could have had small bottles of 7 up or Pepsi offered free by the Pepsi cola bottling company but as I know they do not recycle the plastic from these small 250 bottles and they only go into the river, I refused on both that I don’t drink it and the lack of a sustainable policy here. Each speaker is coming from the core issue of that Nepal is developing but they are losing too many of their educated people to overseas universities and jobs because life in other countries is “easier” and they can perform and be “rewarded” and can have a “secure” life.
The big dream is that all wish to go abroad. I was even engaged by a policeman as I wandered about the small ancient temple next to the venue filled with 17 century idols under the only remaining tree in the area asking me of my reason for being there and his own desire to “go abroad” but he didn’t have the resources or connections to do so.
Thus I wondered what is it that all here want to escape and what do they hope to find.
Life here is hard as the government is weak and the policies are not for the people but for the rich. The government is run by an archic beaucratic work force that are overworked underpaid and the only way to get your government required paper work though is with a bill under the table or directly into the hand. This makes so many things difficult in that it is time consuming to find the person that will give you the paper and most of the policies have not been developed for doing new things.
Also because of the imbedded Casth system people are taken care of by lesser people so there are so many bad habits that make this country disgusting. Like in the 16th century the rivers became the sewage drainage as the population grew. Then with uncontrolled growth proper sewage systems were not connected and the 4 waste water treatment plants were not maintained after they were built by foreign donations. Thus now that the population has exploded in Kathmandu there is so much work to be tone tearing up, draining out, and replacing that the city is both dusty and dirty and difficult. However there has been a lot of work since the 2015 Earthquate that disturbed many things that progress is being made and indeed things are better managed than when I left 12 years ago. But of course the youth cannot see this and they see on their social media all these great things in other worlds that they want to be in a place that is managed and they can explore their potential. Who can blame them?
The other issue I want to talk about is this system that others clean up after you. As I mentioned we had a wonderful lunch at the TEDx talk but there is a habit that when you are done eating you place your dirty plate under your chair and you get up and leave it and then when all the guests leave some poorer soul must go and collect all the plates and silverware in a bin and Carry the heavy load, scrape the palates and wash them all. Granted we have waiters that come around and collect our dirty plates that we leave randomly on tables and potted plants but this is so uncontrolled that everyone does it and no one thinks how to manage the system for finished plates. This system leads to people tripping over the plates, food splaying on the floor and then tracking food on the floor, instantly grimy that leads up the stairs unto the carpet and everything that was once new becomes dirty. Students want to go abroad where it is cleaned and managed but where is the leadership here that would have been easy to install but there is a cultural habit of people to put plates under their chair to have the poorer person clean up after them. Changing that cultural norm is so difficult. Then when you have another cultural norm of non confrontation of people elder to you, or a higher caste than you, change becomes so difficult and things stay dirty and students want to leave for a better world.
My own internalize culture of working beside another to get the job done comes in contrast with the norms. For example there was an event at the college and all enjoying and for some reason I went to the dishwashing area and one women was hand washing all the dishes (there is a dishwasher machine in the new building) but in the old building all dishes are still done by hand in a small 8’x8’ room with dirt all over the light bulbs. The dishes piling up as students brought in the dirty dishes (the college system far better than the one at TEDx) The student are taught to scrape the places and to stack according to the type of dish so it is so much more manageable but my point here is not one student joined in to help her wash the dishes. And when I joined in to help her the students begged me not to help as they said - Ma’am it doesn’t look right for you to be doing our dishes and working with her. Please don’t do it. I answered: there is a job to be done and I am able and this is the best use of my time right now. I am not writing this to tell you I am great but I write it as how can I model change, to help students reframe their thinking, to see something different? Well it seems that my actions spread to one of my ex students from 2009 and she told me that how her class had also been shocked to see me cleaning up the garbage and moving chairs years ago and how that opened their eyes in a new way and that now in her job as Sales Director of a large hotel that is what it takes to work in a team and she does it herself to get rid of the status and work together to create something better. But it seems overnight my behavior had been communicated through the community. ;-)
And then again, out my window here this morning at 6:30, I hear students singing their school songs and doing their exercises in the fresh morning air before the pollution again settles down on this fascinating city. Education is so key and the parents so much dreams for their children, how can I help create opportunities that does not create the braindrain from here and help this amazing country, with its deep spiritual roots, maintain all that it has?
This is Khem being interviewed out in front of the building after his presentation.