It has been a while crocodile since I wrote about the joys of strikes, protests and petrol shortages... but fear not I am still enjoying them. Recently there have been a spate of strikes and protests, and a 2 day nationwide shut down is planned for Sunday and Monday... and our security guy at work sent out a list of 'upcoming strikes and protests' and it not short... so more cycling to work I think!
Here are some of the highlights of recent striking/protest action:
- The Youth Communist League (YCL), have been seeing some action. I have mentioned them before as being rather pesky, but I am increasingly viewing them as a rather sinister group of young people, and children - possibly manipulated by elder children/adults... but I don't know that for sure. Anyways they got hacked off with the Prime minister calling them the "Young Criminal League" (he might not be wrong) and so they blocked the roads and burnt some effigies of the PM. They did this all over the country. I have also read that over the next 4 months they plan to increase their membership from 150,000 to 500,000... which will make them a serious force to be reckoned with!
- Other groups are trying to change the names of places and streets named after any member of the Royal family, and seize royal property - not the palace ... that would be dramatic, and would probably involve army and general slaughter... AND stampeding of the kings beautiful Agapantha's which are currently in full bloom. It would be rather tragic if the Maoists dug them up in the name of a cultural revolution...
- General road blockades and strikes... either caused by teacher's unions (although they have quietened down now) or Indigenous People's groups, representing those in the south of the country who despite making up a significant proportion of the population are severely under-represented in government etc. and have not been happy bunnies for a long time. This is a big issue in Nepal, and apparently has the potential to flare up into something nasty...
Oh yes petrol is short because the national petroleum company buys all petrol, and then distributes it. This company is bankrupt, and sells fuel at a price way way bellow the market value, and now they cant pay India for the fuel they buy and so we have fuel problems... if the fuel totally dried up then it could lead to civil unrest, which India don't really want... so some fuel is coming in. Last year the petrol company tried to increase petrol prices dramatically, so they were more in line with the market price. oooops. This led to people trashing petrol stations (not owned by the oil company, but by individuals), apparently they were pulling out pumps and things. I am not really sure where the logic is in that, but prices have remained low since then.
So all is good!
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