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| Steve Brothers |
I know that some people (though surely outside my enlightened circle of friends :)) in the US will have as their first reaction to the news of the loss of the Marines and the helicopter, "why are 'we' even over there?". I've already seen that and more ugly sentiments expressed on the internet.
The loss of the US Marines is painful. It's not hard to understand this sort of reflexive reaction to a loss of life that one personally identifies with. I get it.
So, "why", indeed?
What follows is strictly my perspective it is also kind of long but if you don't know anything about Nepal or understand what's happening there - I think you will come away with a better understanding. That said, this is going to be grossly over simplified and brief because it is after all... a facebook post. I request the more academically inclined "old Nepal hands" in my circle of contacts to suspend their venerable capacity for nit-picking in light of the context here. So here goes... my thoughts on why the US is helping Nepal:
First of all... the US is one of the most generous, and helpful nations in the world in the wake of disasters. This is indisputable fact. "America" helps. Full stop. We will leave aside for the time being any qualifying remarks or in depth consideration of politics and geo-political stratagem, as that is beyond the scope of this discussion.
Next and quite essentially... let's get a sense of the geography. See the over lay of the outline of Nepal on the state of Kansas to get some perspective. Nepal is small. It is INCREDIBLY mountainous however. I think it's 17 of the world's 25 highest mountains, including Mt. Everest - the highest in the world, are in Nepal. Let that sink in. I've heard it said, but can't confirm, that if you flattened the topography of Nepal out with a rolling pin, removing all the earthy folds, deep valleys and snowy peaks... the flattened area would be as big as the US and Canada combined. Again... not sure about the precision of that assertion, but the point is that Nepal is a place of unparalleled and hyper-condensed topographical variation. What they call "hills" in Nepal, are mountains anywhere else.
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| Photo source: US Embassy, Kathmandu Facebook Page |
Anyway... a CRUCIAL point in this brief explanation is the geographic location of Nepal. As you can see, it lies snugly between India and China. Further, the capital, Kathmandu is only 837 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan. Similarly, Nepal's capital is a mere 1,064 miles, as the crow flies, away from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. So as you can see, it's nestled right in between multiple nuclear powers and in a region of long standing tensions and conflicts.
Nepal is not an economic power house, it's a relatively poor country in financial terms -- the per capita annual income is $2,200. You read that right - avg. annual income is less than $2500 bucks A YEAR. Kathmandu and other big cities and towns are an economic anomaly in a region that is characterized more generally by subsistence agriculture. The main industry is really tourism. Interestingly, the US Embassy in Nepal is a HUGE, sprawling, high - walled compound - a veritable fortress. There's a lot of antennas on the roof. smile emoticon Keeping in mind the geography just discussed, I'll let you connect the dots.
Now, it's not just its geo-political proximity that make Nepal important.
Nepal has always been independent. It was never colonized. It does however have a "special" relationship with Britain, the premier colonial power of the region historically speaking, for the past 300 years or so.
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| Throwback to the Second World War, when an American soldier shared a cigar with a Gurkha rifleman, somewhere in the Italian countryside. (via The Gurkha Museum): Photo: Steve Brothers' Facebook |
England, to this day, directly recruits Nepalese men into the British Army. Let that sink in as well. It says so much about so many things. But we'll focus on one - that being that Nepal is a nation of bad asses. It's really that simple. Nepal's soldiers are internationally renowned and have fought along side "Allied forces" in every major conflict going back to WW I and beyond. Nepali soldiers have spilled their blood along side Britons and Americans in battles from Europe in the first world war, to the Pacific theatre in WW II and of course more recently in Afghanistan, as a few examples. This is a unique and as far as I am aware... unparalleled type of relationship. So why would the UK, the US and others put troops at risk for Nepal? Well, it may not be the primary reason, but among other reasons... because Nepal has done it "for us", collectively speaking as citizens of allied powers, for at least a century.
They are an incredibly tough, and spirited people. A 65 year old Nepali lady in flip flops will scamper up a hill side with a 60 lb basket, secured to her back by a cloth band around her forehead, in half the time it would take most of us to make the same climb. She'll be squatting by her bundle, casually smoking a filterless cigarette at the top, by the time we arrive. No doubt considering, in polite silence, how you can be SO big, yet So damn weak. hahah! This is not "orientalism" or any other shade of exoticising the noble savage. Far from it, there's nothing savage about it... Nepal is the home of high culture, deep spiritual knowledge and amazing architectural and artistic wonders.
The historical Buddha was born in Nepal, and it has in short so many distinguishing characteristics, and boasts such a condensed and concentrated loci of "wonders" that it truly is one of the most exceptional places on Earth. These exclamations of awe about Nepali character and stamina are not the patronizing ogling of brown people. I've got that piece of paper on the wall (actually tucked away in some drawer)... something about a degree in Anthropology and South Asian Studies, blah blah... I've been steeped in the academic gospel of cultural relativism and all that - I'm acutely aware of my "privilege", none of that is lost on me. But I've also been steeped in Nepal. I know Nepali people, their unfortunate government and dithering and corrupt civil service aside... to know them is to love them. Really. I've spent nearly half my life in Nepal, I don't feel special... I feel grateful. I'll always be a foreigner and have no pretensions about whatever degree of immersion I've enjoyed, and though perhaps it really is one of those, "you had to be there" things... but as a non-Nepalese, whether you've been there for 2 weeks or 40 years... you will understand that you've encountered something great. It's that simple.
The historical Buddha was born in Nepal, and it has in short so many distinguishing characteristics, and boasts such a condensed and concentrated loci of "wonders" that it truly is one of the most exceptional places on Earth. These exclamations of awe about Nepali character and stamina are not the patronizing ogling of brown people. I've got that piece of paper on the wall (actually tucked away in some drawer)... something about a degree in Anthropology and South Asian Studies, blah blah... I've been steeped in the academic gospel of cultural relativism and all that - I'm acutely aware of my "privilege", none of that is lost on me. But I've also been steeped in Nepal. I know Nepali people, their unfortunate government and dithering and corrupt civil service aside... to know them is to love them. Really. I've spent nearly half my life in Nepal, I don't feel special... I feel grateful. I'll always be a foreigner and have no pretensions about whatever degree of immersion I've enjoyed, and though perhaps it really is one of those, "you had to be there" things... but as a non-Nepalese, whether you've been there for 2 weeks or 40 years... you will understand that you've encountered something great. It's that simple.
This and so much more, are the reasons... as I see it, that the US effort is what it is, in Nepal. mic drop ?
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| Photo Source: U.S Embassy, Kathmandu Facebook Page
Steve can be contacted via his facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveBrothers
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