Mind, Society, and Behaviour

By: Bikal Dhungel

When I was a sixth grader, a teacher told in class that a Psychologist is a person who knows what a person talking to him is thinking. I immediately wanted to be a Psychologist. It would be cool if I could know what a person talking to me is thinking. Then I could easily know if my friends were planning to hurt me or exclude me from a game. Time and again I told other friend about it but we never knew how the Psychologist know things. For me he was a kind of magician. Time went on, and at 17 or 18, I gained some basic idea what it is all about. Till then I already knew about other fields as well, so, plan to be a Psychologist changed, and the plan changed again, and again and again. However, my passion to know it still became deeper. I read the materials. Around 2006, long before the free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), some renowned US universities were offering free lecture series in different topics. I came across a course ' An Introduction to Psychology ' by the well known Psychologist Paul Bloom, who has a worldwide reputation and whom I consider one of my teacher. Despite the busy schedule, I managed time to listen to the lectures. There were about 20 one hour lectures. Every time I listened to Paul Bloom, my fascination towards Psychology was more than I felt when I first heard about it. I realised, it is much more than just knowing what the other person is thinking. Psychology is much much powerful, it turned out to be way too powerful than I ever imagined. It has a power to turn a saint to a terrorist and a servant to a mass murderer. If it is used for good purpose, it can also create a peaceful world. You can implement Psychology in every field. You use it to know consumer behaviour to plan a sale for your company, you use it to understand the thinking pattern of your political opponent, you can use it to predict the strategy of your favourate team Manchester United, you can use it in Health, Education, Economics, Politics, Culture, everywhere.

Motivated by the course, I read my first ever Psychology book written by Sigmund Freud, ' The Interpretation of Dreams '. Then others, including Helene Deutsch, freud's daughter Anne Freud etc. During the university studies in Cologne, Germany I had a module called ' Behavioural Economics ' which dealt with the decision making process in economical life. I came to realise that understanding our way of thinking, decision making patterns, our vulnerabilities are important to solve worldly problems. Until recently these things were more or less ignored. The international community has poured billions of dollars in poor countries trying to solve problems how they thought would work best. Then a book by Esther Duflo and Abihijeet Banerjee , ' Poor Economics ' shed light on the issue. They spent a great deal of effort to understand how the poor think and how they take decision. This book in my opinion is the best ever written putting oneself on the feets of the poor so far. Even though, there is a separate field 'Behavioural Economics', its findings can be/should be used in other fields as well. Similarly, the findings from Pschological Research should also be used in other fields. If a person doesnt take a vaccine, a doctor cant simply supply him with more vaccines without knowing why he doesnt use the vaccine, may be because he is scared of needles or may be he heard from a neighbour that it will sterilize him ( meaning: you can never have a child anymore ) or he simply procrastinate ( saying ' I will do it tomorrow ' ). His psychology should be studied in order to achieve better result.

I was eagerly waiting for this year's World Development Report (2015) because it was about the human decision making in development policy. The report with the topic same as the topic of this article aims to guide the policy makers considering the psychological and social influences on a person to understand the pattern of development. Broadly saying, it is about behavioural economics based on the findings by economists in various sub sectors. The report starts with the pattern of our thinking, thinking automatically and thinking socially. In the second part, it talks about the psychology of poverty, early childhood development, household finance, productivity, health and climate change. The third and last part explains about the biases of development workers and talks about adaptive designs and interventions. These issues are the most important ones to understand the patterns of development and to implement policies effectively.

What the report basically says is, we humans have a model in mind, according to which our thinking pattern is influenced. We dont think by our own, at least most of us. Rather, we have lots of influence from others. Our family members, neighbours, friends, people we listen to in TV, Radio or elsewhere, things we read build our thinking. Then we add this influence with our learning, our experiences from the past and make a model out of it in mind and reflect what we have concluded or express our version of the thing. We not only get influenced by people around us, but also influence others. Why this is relevant in development is for example you are a farmer and thinking about which fertilizer to use. We dont look in internet or read what is best, rather buy according to what a neighbour just told yesterday in the tea shop, ' You know , i used this seed and my tomatoes were as big as mangoes ', then we simply adopt it. It might turn out to be good, but can also be a disaster. We dont have full information here. We dont know under what circumstances the neighbour was successful. So, the policy makers can intervene here and provide the farmers with best information to avoid any such catastrophe.

We are also social animals, we run with the flow, as the water in the river and the society shapes us as the river water shapes the stones. The societal beliefs shapes which political forms we prefer, to what extent we integrate religion in our daily life etc. This goes for a long time and then it becomes our culture which is hard to change. Culture does not necessarily mean a good thing. It can be one of the factors that might be limiting our actions to economic development. For example when we look at the poor in general, the culture of dowry is the one that put poor fathers in a serious problem when they have several daughters. As a result, there are thousands of dowry related suicides. The culture is the killer here. Moreover, governments throughout the world pour money in development, then it doesnt work, and the money is gone, poor remains poor, diets fail and then they left as it is and we start blaming others and find reasons why things didnt work. Governments always wondered why the poor does not perform better in schools when they start providing school meal for free. But rarely any government tried to understand the poor. Most government policy makers come from rich families. They dont always know how it means or feels to be poor. Poor Economics and the World Development Report and other scholarly journals report that children in poor families face stresses and other pressure from people around them. In their mind, there is something else, may be food or a wish of a good house and they cannot concentrate solely on studies. They are shaped by poor nutrition, bad health, dirty environment, aggressive parents etc which will all impede cognitive development and their abilities in learning. Consequently, they perform bad in schools and will have lower chances of getting a job and they will continue to remain in poverty. Female in poor families face even more problems, mostly no education, poorer nutrition than male children and are subjected to all forms of violence. This all is the loss of human potential. If we have a society or a country where there are so many people like this whose potential will never come out, it is a loss to the humanity as a whole.

Poor families, when it comes to financial decision making, policy makers often ask why they are so reluctant to save, also when they are getting external support. Why people, regardless of wealth are not so rational decision makers ? Because we decide based on emotions than rationality. Behavioural Economist Dan Ariely conducted experiments in Duke University in the USA to check students rationality. We can take an example. I show you a second hand football tshirt and ask how much would you pay for this. You might say 10 pounds or 15 or 20. So the average price you are ready to pay is 15 pounds. But when I tell you later that this tshirt was worn by Andreas Brehme , the penalty shooter who scored the only world cup final goal against Argentina in 1990 during the game making Germany world champions for third time, your willingness to pay for the tshirt will sharply rise. When psychology comes to health, it is more important than ever. How to make people exercise regularly, how to ensure that patients dont forget to take medicines are real challenges of today that psychologists are struggling to solve. Generally people dont follow you when you just tell them. Tell people not to drink Coca Cola because it has lots of sugar in it and increases your risk of diabetes, they will rarely follow you. Show a small documentary of a person who is suffering from diabetes and limits she faces in life, people are more likely to follow the advice. Add a sad music to the documentary, the likelihood will increase even further. This is a universal problem. In poor countries in general, the rate of vaccination is too low, people spend too little in prevention but too much in treatment. They dont buy a chlorine bleach which will cost 30 cents a month but go to hospital to treat diseases that cost much more because of the disease caused by drinking dirty water. Why does this happen ? Even if you dont vaccinate, the effect you will face might be in the future and the future is still too far away. People are natural procrastinators. So, especially development workers can intervene in this matter. They can bring some incentives. Economists believe that incentives always work best. Give a kilo of rice to the poor woman if she vaccinates her child, the probability that she comes will be higher and this will make the society healthier. Thatswhy, sometimes you save by paying people.

Climate is another issue that will be a matter of life and death to developing countries but also a big issue in developed countries. Psychology could be equally integrated to climate change to understand the pattern of thinking. The World Development Report gives various examples about the way people react to this issues. It says, how people think about this is based on the theory of Marx and Weber called 'availability heuristics ' which means that humans tend to judge an event by the ease with which examples of the event can be retrieved from memory or constructed anew. People get information from their own favourite media and from people they like. They are not open to new information rather, they already have opinions and they look for justifications in various sources to prove them correct. In such environment, changing peoples behaviours for good like being environmentally friendly, becomes much more difficult as they are literally politicized. People are less likely to support actions to stop climate change if they are told that humans didn't cause climate change. However, if you say that, we did this, support will increase. Similarly, if people have experienced the climate catastrophe themselves in the form of floods or heat wave etc, they are more likely to support the CO2 reduction measures.

These are few areas which the world development report briefly dealt. The gist of this report is simple: it  shed light on how humans think, how their thinking patterns work in mind, how history and the society they live in influence their lifestyle and behaviours which is then again aimed at making better policies that is more practical, more real because it puts humans in the center of decision making. This was the findings of many areas, Psychology, Economics, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science and can be used in inter-disciplinary areas. So, psychology is powerful. It should be used in every sector to understand the depth of a problem. These findings will add the information to international development to combat poverty and solve other issues that we are facing today. However, we should also think that this is the beginning of looking things from different perspective. It should develop further and if used intelligently, we might reach the ultimate goal some day that is sustainable development and prosperity. For those who are interests to learn some basics about the issues mentioned here and Psychology in general, there are few well written books.

Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Poor Economics by Esther Duflo and Abhijeet Banerjee

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemann

Europe ko Garibi

Poverty in Europe

By: Bikal Dhungel 

Harek din 1500 nepali bidesine tathya harek lai thaha vai sakeko kura ho. Bidesh ma adhyan garne, kam garne, paisa kamaune aadi yityadi sapana liyera nepali haru bidesine garchan. Aam bujhai yo pani cha ki Europe , America wa Australia ma paisa falcha, moj majja dherai huncha, ghum gham badhi garna payincha. Tara kam manche le matra bujheko cha ki Europe ma pani byapak garibi cha, samasya cha ra Nepal bata soche jati sajilo chaina. Yo lekh le Europe ko garibi ko bare jankari dincha ra sath sathai yesle nepali ra nepal lai kasari asar parcha tyo pani bislesan garcha.

Europe ek dhani mahadesh ho jasle bigat 300 barsa ma byapak arthik bikash hasil gareko cha taipani Europe ma sabai jana ko mahal hune, sabai le Mercedes chadne, sabai sanga karodau sampati hune bhane haina. Europe ma pani garibi cha ra garib teslai vanincha jasko masik aamdani aausat kamai (average income) ko 60% vanda kam huncha. GDP ko adhar ma Europe ko sabai vanda dhani desh Germany ma 15.8% janasankhya aathawa 1 karod 30 lakh manche garibi ko rekha muni parchan. Germany ma basobas garne bidesi mul ka manche haruma bhane yo sankhya jhanai badhi arthat 26.6% bidesi haru garibi ko rekha muni parchan. German ra bidesi dubai ma purush bhanda garib mahila ko sankhya badhi cha. Tesai gari gharbar bihin manche ko sankhya jhandai 250,000 cha. Samajik surakshya ko niti bhayeko desh ma vastav ma kasaile pani sadak ma sutnu pardaina, tesaile yestai garib haruko lagi vanera sarkar le basne thau ko bewastha gardeko huncha, taipani tyaha sabai subidha vane upalavda hudaina. Sarkar le sutne thau ko bewastha gardiye pani 22,000 manche sadak mai sutne gareko paiyeko cha. Halai prakashit tathyanka anusar 31 lakh manche lai afno kamaile masik kharcha dhanna pugdaina ra uniharu sarkar ko sahayog lina badhya chan. Falswarup uniharu, chahine vanda kaam khane, harek dosro din matrai tato khana khane awastha ma pugeka chan. German biddhut pradhikaran ka anusar gata barsa 312000 manche ko ghar ma bijuli ko sulka tirna nasakeko karan line katidinu pareko thiyo. Sohi tathyanka anusar arka 10 lakh byakti lai bijuli ko kharcha behorna dhaudhau pariraheko pani janaiyeko cha. Germany ma 28 lakh berojgar chan bhane thap dasau lakh simit work contract ma kaam garna badhya chan. Yesle manche ko garibi ko rekha muni dhakeline sambhawana lai badhaucha. Germany ta europe ko sabai vanda dhani desh ho. Purbi ra Dakshin Europeli desh haruma yo sthiti jhanai najuk cha.  Garibi ko rekha muni hune sankhya Greece ma 23.1%, Romania ma 22.6%, Spain ma 22.2%, Italy ma 19.4% yityadi cha vane samagra ma herda europe ma 17% manche haru garibi ko rekha muni chan. Sabai vanda kam garib vayeko muluk haru maddhe Iceland ma 7.9% manche chan, thorai hune dosro Norway ma 10.1% chan, tespachi Netherlands ra Denmark ma 10.1% ra 13.1% chan.

San 2007/2008 ko arthik mandi le european muluk haruko arthatantra lai thulo nakaratmak asar pareko thiyo jaska karan arthatantra khaskina ko sathi dherai matra ma berojgari badheko thiyo jun ajhai pani ramro sanga hal huna sakeko chaina. 2011 ma feri dakchin europeli muluk haruma aayeko arko arthik mandi le jhanjhan nakaratmak asar badhayeko cha. 2008 pachi sabai vanda baliyo Germany ko arthatantra 5.6% le khaskiyeko thiyo vane Ireland ko 9% ra purbi europeli muluk haru Estonia, Lithuania ra Latvia ko arthatantra kramasa 10, 11 ra 13% le khaskiyeko thiyo. 2011 ko arko arthik mandi ka karan Greece, Portugal ra Spain ma berojgari ko sankhya 25% pugeko cha vane yuba berojgari jhandai 50% ko harahari ma cha. Yeska karan yi muluk haru bata thulo matra ma desh chodi europe ko anya muluk haru jastai Germany ma jane kram nikkai badheko cha. Sakar le kharcha dhanna nasakne awastha ma pugeko hunale sikshya, swastha ra anya aatyawasyak chetra ma garine kharcha katauti gariyeko thiyo. Greece ma euta sadharan sikshyak ko talab masik 1100 Euro bata jharera 400 ma aai pugda hajarau manche afno pariwar palna nasakne awastha ma thiye. Jasko ghar ma baccha haru chan, usko jiban nikkai kastakar huna pugyo. Hajarau manche sadak aandolan ma utriye tara pani sarkar le garna sakne vane kehi pani thiyena kinaki arthatantra khaskida sarkai nai taat paltiyeko thiyo. Jun drisya hami tv ma afriki muluk haruma dekhne garchau, tyo drisya Greece ma dekhina thaleko thiyo. Samajik saanstha harule bato ma aatyawasyak khane kura haru baadeko, budha briddha haru container ma faleko khane kura khojdai hideko, upachar garna napayera manche haru sadak mai ladi raheko drisya drittiya biswa yuddha yeta dekhiyeko thiyena.

Purai Europe lai joddnu parda, haal European muluk haruma 30 lakh gharbar bihin manche chan, 50 lakh bhanda badhi berojgar chan, arko 30 lakh garibi ko rekha muni dhakeline khatara ma chan, kunai pani sahar ma manche haru fohor ko container ma khane kura khojdai hideko drisya dekhna sakincha, plastik ka khali bottle khojdai hideko dekhna sakincha, bises gari yuba berojgar dherai badheko dekhincha, praye country haruma Real Wages 15 barsa agadi dekhi badheko chaina, mulya briddhi harek barsa 1-3% hune gareko cha, Europe ko 30% bhanda badhi manish lai afno kamai bata khana launa dhaudhau pareko aawastha cha ra Europe lai sapana ko mahadesh vanne din pani gayeko anubhuti hunu samanya vai sakeko awastha cha. 

Haal uttari ra paschimi european muluk ma kehi haad samma arthatantra sudhriye pani purbi ra dakshini muluk haruma Crisis kayam nai cha. Bigat 8 barsa ma dasau lakh manche harule yi muluk chodi aru desh ma gayeka chan. Yesko sidha asar vane paschimi europeli muluk haruma basne asia ra afriki mul ka manche harulai parcha kinaki praye asian ra african haru 'Low Wage Sector' ma kaam garchan. Tyo kaam eastern ra southern european harule garidiye pachi asian ra african manche haru berojgar huna pugchan. Uniharu berojgar hunale Nepal jasto desh ma sidha asar parcha kinaki Nepal Remittance ma var pareko muluk ho. Nepal ko arthatantra ko 25% hissa Remittance bata aaucha. Tyo aaunu rokinu wa kami hunu vaneko Nepal ko arthatantra ma nakaratmak asar parnu ho. Kunai pani pariwar ko ek sadasya le pathayeko Remittance le Nepal ma usko chora chori le padhi raheka chan vane remittance rokinule uniharuko vabisya pani dharap ma parne huncha. Yesai gari Europe ma dasau hajar Nepali adhyan gari raheka chan. Crisis ka karan uniharule kaam napaunu vaneko uniharuko padhai ko awadhi pani lambinu ho ra vabisya ma uniharule Nepal ma pathaune paisa ko pani kami aaunu ho. Kaam napayekai karan hajarau bidhyarthi le afno kharcha dhanna nasakda padhai bich mai rokera farkinu parne awastha pani aayeko cha.

Arko tira herda pratek barsa Nepal jane tourist haru maddhe 2 lakh jati European country haru bata jane garchan. Crisis ka karan manche haru sanga paisa nahuda ki ta uniharu Nepal jasto taadha raheko thau vanda aru nai najik raheko muluk tira jana ruchauchan wa katai pani jadainan. Nepal jane harek 8 jana tourist le ek jana lai full time job dine tathyanka le dekhayeko cha. Bhaneko matlab, Europe bata jane tourist ma 50% kami hunu vaneko 12,500 Nepali ko jagir janu ho. Ra bidesi mudra sankalan ma kami aaunu pani ho. Nepal le aantarastriya bajar ma kinne saman jastai Oil ra Gas kharid garda aantarastriya mudra ma kharid garnu parcha kinaki oil bechne Saudi Arab le Nepali rupiya lidaina, uu ameriki dollar wa Euro chahancha. Tesaile Nepal sanga hard currency nahunu vaneko Nepal niryat hune Oil wa Gas ma pani kami hunu ho. Supply kami huna sath tesle bhayeko saman ko mulya briddhi garne garcha jaska karan Nepali le badhi mulya tirera saman kharid garnu parne huncha.

Arthik mandi ka karan dhani desh le garib desh lai dine baidesik sahayog ma pani katauti garchan. 2007 ra 2008 ma Crisis vaye pani bises gari Belayat ra Germany bata aaune baidesik sahayog ma katauti gariyeko thiyena tara pani tespachi ka barsa haruma kami aayeko thiyo. Greece ra anya southern european muluk harule bhane baidesik sahayog ma nikkai katauti gareka thiye. Nepal jasto garib desh baidesik sahayog ma dependent cha. Nepal ma sarkari budget ko lagvag 35% hissa baidesik sahayog marfat garincha. Aru bikash ka kaam haruma pani baidesik sahayog bina aasambhav cha. Yo sabai vanda pahilo pancha barse yojana dekhi nai kayam raheko chij ho. Pahilo pancha barse yojana ma 100% budget baidesik sahayog marfat nai aayeko thiyo. Sahayog ka sath sathai, Crisis ko bela baidesik lagani (Foreign Direct Investment ) ma pani kami aaucha jasko karan Nepal jasto desh ma rojgari srijana huna paudaina. Aathawa chalu vai sakeka bikash ka kaam haru pani budget ko kami huda vabisya ma garne vanera saarne garincha. Bises gari bikash ko sawal ma financial certainty aatyawasyak cha. Nepal ma vayeko janasankhya briddhi ka karan harek barsa 3 lakh yuwa job market ma aaune garchan tara jamma 30 hajar jati matrai rojgari srijana hune gareko cha, baki 270,000 le berojgar hunu pareko cha ra tesaika karan dinahu 1500 yuba bidesine kram jaari cha.

Bhannu ko matlab ke ho vane, aja ko Globalised biswa ma Europe ma aayeko crisis le Nepal jasto garib desh lai pani dhilo chado asar paarcha paarcha. Europe ma ta yo samasya Economy ko kati pratisat khaskine vanne matra sawal hola tara yesle paarne asar le Nepal ma bhane jiban ra maran le sawal huna sakcha. Globalisation bata dherai faida haru lina sakincha tara bidesi muluk haruma dherai dependent hunu pani ghatak huna sakcha. Ajako rajnitik asthirta ra arthik awastha herda Nepal ko vabisya kaalo dekhchu. Jaba khadi muluk haruma nirmaan ka kaam haru sakinchan, tyaha raheka kaamdar haruko awasyak pardaina. Ahile bidesh ma raheka 30 lakh maddhe 20 lakh nepali nepal farkina badhya hunu parcha. Haal ko Remittance ko 80% paisa nepali harule bachna ko lagi aatyawasyak kura harumai kharcha garna pugne tathya le ke janaucha vane Remittance aayeko paisa nepal ma lagani huna sakeko chaina ra jun din bidesh bata paisa pathaune manche Nepal farkincha, tyo din uu ra usko paribar nai garibi ma dhakelinchan. 20 lakh Nepali nepal farkinu vaneko pratek pariwar ma 4 jana ko hisab garda 80 lakh Nepali garibi ma dhakelinu ho. Haal ko janasankhya briddhi lai herda, ajako 10 barsa ma thap 10 lakh badhi Nepali hune anuman garna sakincha. Janasankhya badhi ra rojgari kaam hunale garibi badhnu ka sathai, khaddya bastu ko mulya badhne huncha kinaki kheti garine jamin basna ka lagi prayog garda tesbata hune ubjani ma kami aaune huncha ra antya ma yesle griha yuddha nalyaula vanna sakinna. Tara yo chuttai bahas ko bisaya ho.

Yo article le vanna khojeko kura, Europe ma pani garibi cha ra yo vabisya ma kaam hune dekhidaina. Europe ko garibi le Europe ma matrai haina ki, Nepal jasto desh ma pani pravaab parcha. Article le dina khojeko sandesh yo pani ho ki Nepal bata Europe ko bare je sochne garincha ki tyaha paisa falcha, moj majja ko jiban cha, ghumna paincha, sajilai kaam paincha, padhna paincha, mahinai picche Nepal paisa pathauna paincha etc sabai galat ho. Europe ma pani afnai samasya chan. tyaha pani garib manche chan, tyaha pani khana launa dukha cha, tyaha pani harek samasya uttikai chan jun Nepal ma cha. Dosro kura, yo Globalisation ko yug ma Nepal le ahile nai tibra arthik bikash ko niti naliye, ahile nai rajnitik samasya lai hal nagare, bikash ka kaam ma abarodh puryaune Maobadi jasta rajnitik party harulai taha nalagaye voli thulo durghatana huna sakcha.

On Energy

 By: Bikal Dhungel 

If anyone asks, ' what is development ? ' , answer , ' Energy '. Without energy, development is not possible and in order to maintain the level of prosperity, supply of energy need to be ensured in the first place because without Energy, no production facility can go on and no new facilities could be built. For example, from 2005 through 2011 China built roughly two 600 megawatt coal plants per week. Otherwise their economic growth of 7-11% could not be realized. Before we go on, let us be clear what is meant by Energy and what these kilowatt, megawatt, or gigawatt means.

Energy can exist in many forms. When we humans or other animals eat food, it gives us energy to perform tasks until a certain limit. When we use this energy, then we need to eat more. So, food is one important source of energy. If we want to pull a bus, then we might need many people to do this but this might not be an efficient form but luckily, humans have developed other forms which could generate higher amount of energy, for example Coal, Nuclear Power, Hydro Power and even sunlight which we use in a daily basis to run our industries, to light the bulbs at home, to cook food, to drive cars and so on. Looking the share of electricity production in the world, the largest share is generated by Coal ( 40%) followed by Gas (23%), Hydro power (17%), Nuclear Power (11%), and Oil (4%) etc. (Source: IEA, 2011). Among them, Coal is regarded as most environmentally unfriendly, Nuclear Power relatively friendly (but is highly dangerous if events like Tschernobyl or Fukushima disaster take place ), and hydro power is regarded as environmentally friendly. The share of energy consumption differs in countries according to what is available there mostly or which is more preferred. For example in Norway, a country that is rich in natural resource, the share of hydropower is over 95% of total electricity production whereas in the US, percentage share of Coal is 39% Natural Gas 27%, hydro power only 7%. In Nepal when we look at total energy consumption by fuel types, 77% is from firewood, 8% from Oil, 6% from animal dung and only 0.6% from renewables implying that still primitive measures are used. An then, energy is used for various purposes which is different in different countries. Taking an example of Germany, 58% of total energy is used in Industries and Transportation combined, in households other 27% and the remaining for other purposes. This can again be divided accordingly. Like, how many percentage of household is covered by renewable energy, how many by nuclear ones etc. Data can be taken for each country for each sector from the respective agency or governmental bereau.

To understand the units measured, let us consider the following example. At home we have light bulbs, some 60 watt, some 100 watt etc. When we use 1000 watts for one hour, ( if 10 pieces of 100 watt bulbs are switched on for one hour ) you consume one kilowatt-hour. At home we have many devices that need energy: Television, Radio, Computer, Washing Machine, Air Conditioner etc. Some need more energy than the other. A typical desktop computer uses between 60-70 watts whereas an air conditioner uses between 3000-4000 watts. Of course there are less energy consuming appliances in the market. Also due to environmental concerns, countries are enacting laws to bring efficient devices in the market. For example, the European Union brought a new law that from 2014 the Vacuum Cleaners should not exceed 1600 watts and from 2017, it should be only 900 watts. That was aimed to reduce the energy consumption.

So, 1000 watts an hour is one kilowatt,1000 kilowatt is one megawatt, 1000 megawatt is one gigawatt, 1000 gigawatt is one terawatt and 1000 terawatt is one petawatt. Or you can also calculate each unit in kilowatt, implying that one petawatt is equal to 1,000,000,000,000,000 watt or 1,000,000,000,000 kilowatt. How much energy a person or a country consumes varies according the the level of prosperity in individual countries. For example, one person in Germany consumes 2800 kilowatt hour per year in average and a household of 4 person consumes about 4500 kwh per year. The whole country then consumes about 450 billion kilowatt hour per year. In a country like Nepal, per capita energy consumption is only 106 kilowatt hour per year. This means, an average German consumes about 27 times more energy per year than an average Nepali.

The issue of Energy has always been an important topic. In the developed countries, the discussion recently has been about the investment in environmentally friendly sources of energy like Solar energy whereas the developing countries like Nepal is still struggling to fulfill its energy demand by any means. Despite having a high potential of hydro power generation, the Nepalese are facing as much as 18 hours of load-shedding per day. Due to lack of energy, industries cannot increase its production. As a result, goods could not be supplied according to demand and the Nepalese are dependent on neighbouring countries India and China for basic supplies. Mostly in winter season, the supply of cooking gas faces a shortfall. There might be various issues connected to it. One is, because cooking gas comes from India, the decrease of production or an increase in demand in India will directly impact negatively in Nepal. As soon as scarcity arises, dealers have more incentive to profit from the situation by hiding the cylinders and selling with higher prices in black market. Also the public tends to be secure hence wants to have at least one stock at home and demands more gas. This will worsen the scarcity further. As a result, the general public cannot cook food and are forced to eat either raw or finished foods like instant noodles or minced rice. People also spend a long time queuing for Gas, hence being economically inactive and those who earn wages in daily basis, might end up not having anything to eat or feed their family. A shut down of a nation 'bandh' for a day will cause a loss of 2 billion rupees, a similar inactivity due to gas scarcity will cause other losses in the form of earnings or adverse effects on health. When people use firewoods to cook food, they become prone to respiratory diseases. Moreover, as there is a monopoly in supply, any inefficiency of the government agencies, in this case, Nepal Oil Corporation, will directly impact the general public. Economists think that government is a very inefficient manager and does thing worse than the private sector mostly. This is justified. The managers of Nepal Oil Corporation have no incentive to run the organisation efficiently because they are not the stakeholders. Any loss of NOC will be beared by government ( tax payers ) and as they are the monopolists, people have no other option than to buy with them. This policy should end immediately. Oil corporation should be privatised. This would first of all kick out all the unnecessary employees who were recruited by political parties and on the other hand, a private enterprise competes to stay in the market, hence put customer satisfaction as its highest priority. So, in times of higher demand, it will react in time to fulfill this demand. Consequently, such scarcity of cooking gas is not likely to occur. Another example of state enterprise is Nepal Airlines Company. When it used to be efficient and well managed, there were about 19 airplanes 20 years ago and about 190 employees, today with only 2 airlines remaining, there are about 1100 employees, most of whom entered through political pressure. In such situation, no company can earn a profit. Hence, a well managed privatization is a magic bullet for Nepal's Oil corporation and Airlines.

In the macro level however, the government should focus on building hydro power plants. Nepal has enough water resources to supply its citizens with energy. Like Norway, it can generate almost all of its energy demand by hydro electricity. Then it decreases its dependency on neighbouring countries like India and China for energy needs and on the other hand, electrical heaters at home is good for the health and also for environment. Only if it can power the water supply system and irrigation on the hills, only if it can clean the Kathmandu valley, only if it can launch water related businesses like Water parks, swimming pools, mineral water factories etc, there is a huge potential of water related economic growth in one hand, but also the good irrigation system could boost vegetable industries as the geographical location of Nepal is a god-given gift. The tropical terai, medium hills and lower mountainous regions are excellent for wide varieties of fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the potential of tourism continues to exist. Looking at giants like India and China, only attracting less than 0.1% of their population as tourists in Nepal can take Nepal's per capital income same like theirs. Potential is there but either to use it properly lies in the hands of Nepal. Coming back to the issue of Energy, it is only energy that can give a boost of economic take over, and lack of it can bring it to freefall with no sign of any land down.

Coming to developed countries, the issues are quite different than in Nepal. They are concerned with energy security which is extremely volatile to political relations and other factors like climate. The political turmoil between Western Europe and Russia can have a deadly effect in the energy supply system and the economy as a whole. It may not even be western Europe. Few years before, when Ukraine did not pay the bills to Russia ( also believed to be a different reason ), Russia tightened the tap causing a halt in gas supply in Europe. High level political delegations rushed to Russia to solve the deal. There were several deaths in Balkans by freezing due to the lack of gas in winter. Hospitals were not able to warm up and the refrigerators did not work and materials that needed to be kept cold could not be kept so, hence causing problems one after another. There were also consequences on the economy. Due to the potential of such crisis, a new Gas pipeline was built connecting Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany directly surpassing other eastern European countries. To reduce the dependency on Russia, another pipeline Nabucco was built, to supply gas from Central Asia to Europe.

Concerning Oil, among the major producers, many are non-democratic states with terrible human rights record, like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Venezuela etc. Due to the dependency on oil, we are obliged to look away when countries like Saudi Arabia practices unlawful killings and harsh punishments for minor crimes. There is war going on in several countries with western involvement based on human rights principles but on the other hand, Saudi Arabia is a major ally of western powers. This is why, investments in Green Energy is essential to reduce such unholy alliances. The US has already taken the initiative and started to take its oil reserves out and hence, might become the largest oil producer in the world. Also history teaches us some lessons. When western powers supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War, Oil exporting Arabic nations brought an Oil Embargo, stopping the supply of oil for western countries. Consequently, there was a brief economic recession in Europe and America. One reason why it was good was, countries like Denmark started to think about Green Energy, to reduce this dependency. As a result, Denmark as well as other Scandinavian countries have highest portion of renewable energy sources today. Despite having a large oil reserve, Norway powers itself almost solely with hydro electricity. In other countries, the major concern is not oil itself, but its power to affect the economy. Rising oil prices or energy prices cause an economical downturn. Rising oil price will cause higher production costs, higher transportation cost and at last, the price of a good will go up. When prices go up, people consume less. When people consume less, firms need fewer employees, should fire workers. This will then cause reduced tax revenues for the government, and additional burdens on social security system because those fired from firms need governmental support. By this way, even a tiny rise in oil prices could cause a large crisis. One reason of high inflation in the last 15 years can be attributed to high oil prices. The oil price was $25 per barrel in 2002, in 2008 it crossed $140 per barrel, in 2011, came down to $100 and now has again decreased. Econometric calculations show that one dollar increase in one barrel oil will cost additional 31 billion dollar to the world economy if the consumption is to remain the same. When the Gas price would increase by $1, consuming the same amount, the economy would bear the lost of another 60 billion dollar yearly. Regarding electricity, an increase of one cent per kilowatt hour would cost additional 180 billion dollar to the world economy. So, energy prices are important but also vulnerable to the economy.

However, we should also consider the effect of falling oil prices. In the short term, falling oil prices can be a good thing for a country that imports oil and bad thing for the country that exports oil. When oil price falls, the price of goods also fall due to lower production and transportation costs. So, when prices are falling, people do not immediately buy the goods, they would wait till the price falls further, causing a deflation. This means simply, when people don't buy goods, producers need to produce less, so they again fire workers and unemployment increases, causing a problem in the economy, as Japan is facing right now. The process of deflation stops at that point when people think that it wont/cant fall further. So, in the medium term, falling oil prices can be bad for the economy. On the other hand, when oil is cheap, there is no incentive to invest in clean energy because it will be too costly. When there is a cheap source of energy, why bother with expensive green energy ? So, the green project can be put under the carpet. When we postpone the Green Project, the problems will arise in the future as oil is about be finished until the end of this century if no other sources will be discovered. According to Jon Jones of the school of engineering at the University of Aberdeen, when oil drilling started by John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company ( richest man in human history with about $300 billion in today's money, 6 times richer than Bill Gates ) at least 135 billion barrels of oil has been used and about 40% of possible reserves is yet to be discovered.

However, investment in Green Energy is vital. The challenges of Climate Change and other environmental issues have put the future of our children at risk. Germany and Scandinavian countries have took a lead in this transformation though it is not sure either Germany will take a U turn in its policy because of lots of uncertainties. Before the nuclear accident in Fukushima in Japan, nuclear energy did not remain the major issue as it was cheap and not so environmentally unfriendly. Then came Fukushima, and all of a sudden, there was a huge pressure to Chancellor Merkel to take action to end such risky sources. She did not hesitate to announce that 8 nuclear power plants will be immediately shut down and will totally shut all the nuclear facilities by 2022. This is not far away, its in seven short years. It is unclear from where Germany will power its industries. It is the fourth largest economy of the world today and among the largest exporters with almost no natural resources. Shutting down industries is not an option. Companies like Siemens are investing massively in storage batteries, wind turbines are being built in east and north sea though with some opposition , ' not in my backyard ', but still there is no sure solution for this problem. On the other hand, neighbouring countries like France and Czech Republic saw an opportunity to export energy to Germany. Both of these countries are building new power plants but the problem is, when they face a similar accident in Fukushima, it will have impacts on thousands of miles, affecting Germany in a same way. The disaster in Chernobyl affected people as far as Sweden through the radiation taken by wind. It was reported in a study that concluded that people in one particular area had lower cognitive skills and lower performance in general in Sweden. So, at last, Germany was the only stupid one that acted, though we have to honour the will of chancellor Merkel to lead by example.

The issue of Energy will continue to be important, be it oil or gas or other forms. In the future, it is going to be more a problem as world population is increasing with high rate. Economic growth in emerging economies especially China and India and many other Asian and African countries will pose additional demand on energy. They will not postpone their growth due to energy. Fact is, the women in Asia and Africa who spent their long days washing cloths at the river needs Washing Machine, their kitchen will also need refrigerators to cool the foods and children should also be able to learn at night under the electric bulbs. Development is the development energy. The story of climate change cannot be posed to the poor to stop them from economically growing, it is their right to live in a standard that is usual in rich countries. Climate Change is the issue of tomorrow ( also today ) but to eat and survive is the issue of now immediately. So, poor do not care if the fuels they are burning is environmentally friendly or not, they must not care. What they care is if they and their children get enough energy supplements in a daily basis. It is the basis of development. Only, not to forget that the threat of Climate Change is real and it will affect the poor over-proportionally but the richer world should bear the cost of consequences concerning support to poor countries, investment in mitigation programs and investment in adaptation technologies. Additionally, it is also true that, when an average citizen of the world live like an average american, three Earths are needed.

It is the humans who created the destruction. Since the humans started to rule the world, over 80% of creatures faced extinction according to the National Geographic. We have destroyed the largest part of the world's forests, as a result of which countries like Haiti and even England is roughly treeless, we have brought a near extinction of Rhinos, Bengal Tigers, Sumatran Elephants, Black Spider Monkeys, Chimpanzees, Fin Whale, Giant Panda, Green Turtle, Sea Lions, Snow leopards and many others who face extinction today. Many of them are because of human activity on earth. Humans top the list of most dangerous animals that have killed most other species, and this in a short time. Since we reached industrialization, we have crossed the limits and then started to destroy the place which we call home, the Earth. The world didn't care when it burnt fossil fuels, the issue of energy and environment was already popular in the 1960s, but nobody cared because they would not live enough to face the consequences anyway. It is their children. Even today, the large number of countries do not care about the environment, also the countries that care, large number of people do not care. This is why international summits like The Copenhagen Conference fail time and again. When it is about loosing money, millions will march on the street with banners like ' For our children, for our future ' but when it comes to environment which we all need, people have no time to pressure their government. Again, developed countries are in a position to adapt with climate change, their economy will only face a tiny contraction. For countries like Canada, Russia or Scandinavia, increase in temperature might be even better due to more crop yields, less need of heating, lower winter deaths or the rise in tourism but for southern countries and especially small island countries, it is the matter of life and death. Maldives may not exist in 20 years, as other islands in the pacific. Countries like Bangladesh will loose 25% of their land. Others will suffer with flood, heat waves, crop failures etc causing additional burdens to already over-burdened places. Developed countries do not seem to be ready to provide clean technologies to poorer countries , a so called 'Leap Frog' measures to avoid poor countries to use the same energy inefficient machines as rich countries of today used in the last 100 years. But poor countries are responsible equally. Technology transfer does not happen by a way that Siemens tells the Nepalese government, ' by the way, here I have a machine to generate electricity cheaply, take it and use it', it can only happen by Trade, Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ) etc. For this, the Nepalese side should be an investment friendly country with a welcoming nature towards international investors. It should integrate itself to the global economy instead of being too nationalistic and supporting inefficient national companies. It should let people make profit, without the incentive to make profit, no one will come and invest. Government should only make proper rules but bring liberal policies. In the case with energy, if there are no local companies who can invest and provide the country with electricity, it should let foreign countries to do this. It should not forget that, energy is development, without energy, it cannot develop. So, the choice is, either to let the foreigners come and invest and make profit and be both side better off or telling that this is our internal affairs by putting the people into darkness unable to study at night, unable to cook food, unable to heat the houses in cold winter, unable to store foods for longer, unable to power the roads, and unable to develop. These are the choices.