INHUMAN BLOCKADE is the headline in an article for the English language version of Ekantipur written by Chanda Rana. Chanda's fifty-eight year old uncle died of a cardiac arrest because he could not get to hospital on time. Chanda, completely shocked by this, has done a survey of pharmacies and hospitals to find that there is an acute shortage of life-saving medicines as well as the ongoing issue of people struggling to get transport to medical help.
There are now reports of food shortages and price hikes of basic foodstuffs because of skyrocketing fuel costs. Nearly everyone is affected in one way or another. It is approaching festival (Dashain and Tihar) season and Nepal Oil Corperation are rationing fuel so that people can get to their villages as this is for many the only time of the year people see their families.
The ongoing agitation backed by Indian cooperation to instigate this blockade is crippling the country. Post earthquakes it was always going to be hard here anyway. Once again the lack of unity and solidarity which permeates through a country of over one hundred ethnic groups as well as that many languages is having a hugely negative affect.
I guess when I posted yesterday with a Himalayan image saying come back to Nepal I didn't mean tomorrow... maybe next year? No one knows when things will become easier, it's frustrating and often very tense.
From a personal standpoint my decision to stay and do what I can is not a gratifying one in any sense. Not only is this situation paralyzing practicalities it is paralyzing minds meaning decisions are not being made. You can imagine that leopard rewilding is simply not a priority on people's minds but there is also the serious problem of aid to earthquake stricken areas being seriously hamstrung.
There are so many cultural complexities contributing to this situation and similar problems in the past have not been learnt from. As I keep saying, unless there is resolution the environmental impact will eventually affect us all... if it isn't already...
