In reply:
There is no doubt that Nepal IS poor. But it should not be as poor as it is. Too much foreign money is siphoned off by either outside businesses operating in KTM (there's a racial element here I won't go in to) and sending the money out, and corrupt and incompetent government over decades. The whole Maoist thing didn't help, and in many ways was a product of the corruption and mismanagement.
I first went to Nepal in January 1989. Every time I go back I marvel at how little KTM has changed. The airport is 'new' but the journey in to town is almost identical. The lanes of Thamel likewise, only some signs have changed. Some people might like that, but for the locals - all of them - it shows a disgraceful waste of money and opportunity. Tens of millions of dollars in hard currency pour into Nepal (mainly KTM) each year, and where does it go? What has the government done with these funds to help local people?
The reason there are such severe power outages in KTM is not because of bloody global warming. It's because the population of KTM has grown in recent years, as nobody wants to be a farmer in a remote village any more, and the government has done nothing to compensate for that increase with power infrastructure or better management. Unlike a lot of other poor countries, Nepal has had significant foreign tourism for decades. They're not Burma, Afghanistan, Vietnam, or some poor African nation. The opportunity has been there, but the people of Nepal have had it wasted for them by successive greedy and incompetent governments, including the royal family.
And this is on top of millions upon millions that have been spent in Nepal since the 1950s by the Swiss and other nations - for bridges, roads, schools. Imaging if they had not had that aid?
