Tuesday, May 03, 2022

Balen Shah For Kathmandu Mayor

Balen Shah has come out of nowhere. He is easily the most visible candidate in this local election across Nepal. He deserves to win. Right now I don't see how he can lose. He gives hope simply by being from a new generation. The political parties have been so utterly disappoiting for three decades in a row, my entire adult life, that he gives hope simply by not belonging to any political party. He reminds me of Zelensky, in that both are artists who exhibit an easy confidence. Zelensky has become the de facto leader of the free world, and Balen has become the hope for all Nepal. And it's not just the cosmetics. I see sheer substance. I have read his platform and he has obviously thought through many of the issues. He has tens of thousands of self-organizing volunteers in all the wadas of Kathmandu. He has an impressive tribe of intellctuals giving him firewpoer from the background. I have never been this excited about anybody running for Mayor anywhere in Nepal in my lifetime. Hope is a rare currency. He has managed to imbibe hope. He has turned this into a hope election.

His magnetic resurgence should give him an easy victory. On one side he has a #MeToo culprit from another era, on another a poltician's wife. He should be able to easily beat both.

I think he is in a good position to deliver.

  1. Take out the garbage. FDI can be brought in to launch companies that collect garbage and turn it into fertilizers. Make it easy for the money to come in.
  2. Bring in the plentiful drinking water. Melamchi ho.
  3. Emphasize electric buses to deemphasize gasoline cars and bikes. Scaling public trasnsportation by a factor of 10 will reduce car use by a factor of 100.
  4. Citywide 5G will do more to create jobs than anything else. Anybody with a high school degree can go work anywhere in the world online. Heck, you don't even need that degree. Hello Huawei.
  5. 24/7 electricity.
  6. CCTV cameras to fight crime and stop harassments of women. Not in Sthapit/Stop-It's vocabulary.
  7. Massive investments in education and health. Learn from Kejri in Delhi.
  8. e-Kathmandu like e-Estonia to eliminate corruption and red-tapism.
  9. Take personal interest in the Nijgadh Airport.
  10. The Kathmandu-Terai fast track should be modified and should have on and off ramps every five or 10 kilometers so as to make possible a Line City from Kathmandu, to Nijgadh to Birgunj. It will become the country's lifeline. It will sustain a world class knowledge economy.
  11. A Kathmandu-Birgunj-Delhi Hyperloop in a 10-year timeframe.
That would be all for now.

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