Trouble in Shangri-La? 

      My spring '08 visit to Nepal felt like a mixed blessing.  A blessing because the people of this mountain kingdom are among the warmest, friendliest and most engaging I have ever encountered in all my years of travel.  Virtually all my interactions, whether in markets, city shops, hotels and restaurants or with cabbies and rickshaw drivers, are marked with humor, curiosity and honesty.  Many of those interactions have blossomed over the years into friendships or acquaintances that I look forward to renewing with each visit.  A cultural crossroad for millennia, Nepal is rich in art and architecture expressing its unique libertarian mix of Buddhist and Hindu beliefs.  One could spend a lifetime wandering the Kathmandu valley alone exploring the countless temples, stupas and palaces adorned with carvings, weavings, and paintings each telling its own story.  The country itself is, of course, a jewel of snowcapped mountains, avian rich jungles, thundering rivers making it a magnet world over for trekkers, kayakers, birders and adventurers of all stripes.

      Why then and I so concerned about the near-term prognosis for one of my favorite destinations?  Because currently Nepal is struggling under the weight of an exploding population, collapsing infrastructure and crippling civil war.  These multifaceted problems have no single root but, oddly, the worst unraveling of the social fabric began with the introduction of democracy about a decade ago.  Previously Nepal was a monarchy ruled by a series of less than perfect kings, but kings who were none the less generally highly regarded and respected.  The transition to democracy came to a country with no history or experience in electoral politics and to a nation with high illiteracy rates and low levels of education.  To date that has resulted in a political system rife with waste, corruption and inaction.  The populous, once ecstatic about the prospect of democracy, are now increasingly cynical.  Many feel they have replaced one self aggrandizing king with thousands of corrupt local, regional and national leaders.  The bitter fruit of this situation is revealing in ever deteriorating roads and bridges, fewer resources for schools and health care and longer and longer lines for fuel and even, shockingly, for water.  These conditions, and the opportunities they created, led many to take up arms and, under the banner of Maoism or Communism or anything-but-what-we-have-ism, declare war on the current government.  The resulting conflict has plodded along for some years now with neither side gaining an upper hand.  It has instigated, however, a mass migration of people from the dangerous countryside into the relatively safer cities whose resources are further strained while the nation’s food producing fields lay fallow.

      What then next for Shangri-La?  Its near term future is delicate but its people are hard working, determined and desirous of a better future for their children.  Recently I have seen people of good will, including several friends of mine, agree to step forward and run for political office.  It is not too much to hope that the next generation of leaders will use their lessons hard learned to turn Nepal in a new direction.  In my own years of travel I have witnessed Peru struggle and overcome its guerrilla war with Sendero Luminoso and I watched Bolivia slip into and out of the control of international narcotrafficers.  Those darkest moments came just before the new dawn of those nations.  For the sake of all the good people of Nepal I hope a new dawn is just ahead.