Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Should the King leave the country???

I read an article in the site about king Gyanendra and his consultation with the American Ambassador, James F. Moriarty. Initially, I thought it was just a bluff from some unknown news site to get instant popularity. But actually, it wasn't.

I checked today's paper and saw a news clip The foreign ministry calling the US Ambassador for clarification for the statement he gave to the CNN news reporter. And now I was shocked.

I am a nationalist and I have to think of my country first. It is more of a bad news to me (to our whole country) than a good news at all. First of all, I don't like anybody peeking into my house at all. Secondly, as I think, right now, because of the on going crisis, the King is the only person who can change the political scenario - be it either way, towards democracy or towards ultimate autocracy.

I think, the fate of the country and 25 millions nepali are in the hands of this one single person called King Gyanendra. He took benefit of the quarrels of the political parties (there is a saying in nepali that monkeys neither make their own house nor let others to build theirs). Something like that happened to nepali politicos as well. They were always quarrelling. Even in the parliament also, they were actually fighting with each other, it was fist fight and many MPs got injured. Such things have all gone deep down in history. The politicos fought with each other (and many times the fight was intra party, not inter party, remember girija pulling legs of sher bahadur deuba and k.p. bhattarai), and hence the state of the political scenario deteriorated. Moreover, the maoist insurgents took peak. It has also gone down in the history, girija is solely responsible for the existance of maoists in Nepal.

So who is to blame? The king or the politicos?

When the king took over the executive power in Feb 19 2005, that was definitely a dark day in the history of Nepal. I praise this guy for only one reason, when there were odds, he stood in front and took the executive powers. He showed the courage and took responsibility to change the situation of the country. Have any of the politicos done that? Moreover, they always put the blame on someone else's head so that they get a clean chit. What kind of philosophy is this? Are they actually men who have history of so many years of evolution?

As I think, the sovereignity and the identity of the country can only be saved if the king and by himself only. Of course, he has to think progressively and take steps towards that (interim government with inclusion of all politicos (those bullshits) and the maoist leaders is the only way out) way. He has to give up his executive powers. The current movement happening in the whole nation is for a good cause. I agree with that. But I hate to say that the leaders of the this movement should be persecuted for the corruption they have done.

If the king runs off, the country will be a huge mess. A mess bigger than Iraq or Afganistan. Definitely we don't want to head of that way. We can see how Iraq is now after US invasion. US has totally devastated the state. And we, conscious Nepalis do not want to be that way, do we?

As I think, India is the biggest enemy of ours. India is forcefully playing the role of big brother in the whole South East Asia. All the countries adjoined to India are actually suffering.

We cannot expect to wage and win a war with India as it is one of the neuclear powers of the world (just see this, US supports nuclear weaponry techno for India whereas it is against for that of Iran, what kind of country is US?).

For the betterment of the country, we Nepalis need to look inside us and judge what is best for us and what is not. We shouldn't go on someone else' word and hit the street. We need to find out what is good and what is bad. We need self realization first.

The solution of the current problem is within us. No other country can help us. We all have to do massive brainstorm and find best possible way out and implement it immediately. We cannot rely on anyone. We have to stand for ourselves. The politicos need this lesson most. We cannot and should not run from anybody else's guidance. Our betterment must be our sole goal, whether it be autocracy or democracy or republic.

Right now I think we need the king to maintain the country. Later, we can throw him if we want to. But the task at hand right now is, save the country, otherwise, India will take over.

Prayer for my Country

The following message is a part from a forwarded mail. I agree with the ideas presented in it. I hope you all will also ponder about our country and focus on self enlightenment and finding the real culprit after reading this.

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Dear All,

Saw this movie ''Rang de Basanti". It may sound funny but sincerely, after childhood days, for the first time I really got inspired by a movie. I really started to think about Nepal and the political crisis continuing. Lack of interest in country's system and adequate patriotism prevails in Nepal too, I felt that. That doesn't imply that the solution is to kill someone as shown in the movie. I tried to see within myself, what is my contribution? Found its ok, I am studying and becoming a manpower for the nation. But went through the news from Nepal and this time I could not satisfy myself. Going regular is not enough; felt that. It's high time for each of us to try to do something more than the regular! On the process, what can I do at most now, I found I can share my understanding of the crisis to my friends and then forward it to maximum Nepalese as far as

possible. There might be various view points on that between us. This is one amongst them.

PLZ READ IT ONCE. GIVE A SECOND THOUGHT ON THAT. AND IF YOU DONT AGREE, IT'S YOUR RIGHT NOT TO . BUT I BELEIVE MANY OF YOU WHO'LL READ THIS MAIL WILL CERTAINLY GET CLEAR ABOUT MANY THINGS. And in due course, I'd be grateful to get your opinions as well. This way we can interact and start to think about the country more seriously. UNTIL AND UNLESS WE START A STEP, NO THING BIG WOULD BE ACHIEVABLE. Believing on this, I am sharing my opinion.

"As we see the situation in Nepal, anyone would think that the problem lies between the King, seven Political parties, and Maoists. And why? What each of them wants? We'd find answers for that also. One may say political parties want full-fledged democracy. Similarly Maoists want the communism, and King wants to reestablish Panchayat or something like that in other form. It may sound weird to you at first, but I see this crisis in completely other way. This is not any kind of conflict between Nepalese themselves. This is something between India and Nepal. It's a grand and interesting game. At the same time, highly challenging for both the states.

Every one of us knows the Indian approach of trying to dominate others, especially the neighboring countries. Defense and foreign affairs related decisions of Bhutan are directly handled by India. Nothing new about it, right? Which country in the SAARC except Bhutan is happy with India? Forget SAARC, what about other neighbors? China? Burma? Mentioning these issues just to rethink on India's foreign policies! Now let us go to what's there between India and Nepal? Care to see it thru big brother's side. India 's average economic growth rate has reached around 7.5% which is one of the best in world today. India is second largest market in the world in terms of population. Foreigners are seeing China and India as the new markets of this age and investing here rapidly. Bottom line is- India is developing. But how long people will invest in India if basic infrastructure is not there? How much investments would be there in Agricultural industry if outsiders don't see basic irrigation facilities in the field? In other way, when other area is developing, what about large Indian farmer population? When they'll prosper if irrigation is not there? And most importantly, energy is vital for all development- industries, technology and everything. India is not capable of producing the required amount. India has successfully taken control over Bhutan's energy resources and already started to have the benefit. Bhutan is also getting something out of it but in cost of sovereignty.

Now comes Nepal's part. Nepal is second richest in water resource having potential of large amount of energy. Enough energy to cater India's energy need for industrialization and irrigation and clean drinking water for eastern India (perhaps more than that). For that, India can have straight business deals with Nepal. Take it if u want, but please pay. But no! India wants all those in the way they got from Bhutan. They want to have total control in any hydro projects that'll be build in Nepal. They want to give us something out of it- lot less value than what we deserve. Since history India has been trying for this and as it was obvious for them to get refusal. In the mean time, foreigners wanted to invest in Hydro projects in Nepal. But India always fumed and fretted for any manipulation in rivers will lead to flood in India. So, all the big projects were cancelled. India didn't stop. They wanted to get the resources according to their desire. When Nepal refused, they came into games with long vision. What I interpret the game could possibly be as such- Change the non cooperative government of Nepal. Keep people in power that will be ready to sell the resources of the country fro some money. And if required, will be ready to sell the whole country. India knew that until and unless royal family is in power, it's not possible. This is because for the royals, Nepal is the only place in the world where they will get highest degree of respects and they'd never sell the country. For that, India played the key role to instill democracy in 2046 and implant corrupted people in the government. According to the plan, some leaders of ours sold out rivers and lands during the 15 years. That we all know.

Now India could not depend only on those dogs. For that, how to make Nepal completely helpless in shortest period? So that Nepal will come down on the ground with knees. There won't be any other option remaining for Nepal and finally turn towards India and beg them to utilize our own resources, and give some riots two feed Nepalese twice a day. Attack on the source of economy was the simplest route towards Nepal's bring down. And then something happened out of blues. Maoists were born in western Nepal which is the hub of ayurvedic medicine and one of Nepal's major exports. The area is still under Maoists control and no one knows how much of yarshagumba is smuggled from there every year. Country's revenue is going in vain. And let us recall, it was Girija's tenure and whole Nepal knows how Maoists flourished in no time. Besides that, major objective of giving birth to Maoists was to attack the spinal of Nepal's economy- tourism. And things happened accordingly. Nepal broke and got trapped into the crisis we r seeing today.

Now please don't doubt on who gave birth to Maoists. India was the first to call Maoists as terrorists when Nepal government was still calling it as insurgents. After that, US hit listed Maoists of Nepal in top ten among the world terrorists. Nepal government never called them terrorists those days. And in many cases, we have seen Maoists leader making rounds to Delhi in the same fashion as Girija and his daughter. The recent meeting between the parties and Maoists leaders occurred in Delhi. How could India arrange the facility when Maoists are terrorists? Do they want to send a message that Lashkar-e-taiba should be entertained by governments of various nations? And surprisingly, nowadays Indian media do not right the word "terrorists" for Nepalese Maoists. The respected word given by them these days is " Nepal rebel". This is all happening because of the slavish mentality India possesses due to 200 years of British rule. Anyways, now let us come to the major issue. After knowing all these, I m not in a condition to agree that the dispute in Nepal is for democracy. What I believe is it is for nationality. It is for saving the nation. It is for raising the nation with what we have. It is for replying back to all those who try to play with us. Now, it's up to your intellect to identify who is working for what. What King is doing, parties are doing, and Maoists are doing. It'll be a very appreciable opinion if you say what those pancheys are doing again here? We should not forget that democracy is nature's law. When you are born, you come along with your freedom. No force can stop u for that. Let's see the cause and what's happening around. Democracy within the boundary is so important? Or democracy in a country will be there when a country will b there? Let all Nepalese get together and stop the external force for some time when Nepal will try to lift up in a position from where no force would be able to bring it down. Democracy is always there. When Nepalese can change the government in 2046, same Nepalese can change the government again in 2066. And if required, forever free Nepalese could change the system around the world. We don't have to doubt in our capability. But the current need is not "restore democracy" as India is saying. Current need for each and every Nepali is to "save and raise the nation". When US envoy to India made one statement related to India's internal politics last week, whole India shouted back to the ambassador. This is something good we need to learn from Indians. When India, and other far away nations are repeatedly trying to interfere our internal matter, our corrupted media (do I have to name the media which have bosses of Non Nepalese origins? Or u find it yourself) is not tired of singing their songs everyday. These Medias are responsible for creating a pessimistic environment in the nation. People are not protesting those external interferences which are vital in present. Restoring democracy is not the issue as far as I understand. What if democracy is restored tomorrow immediately? Same old faces who tried to help the neighbor more than own country itself will be back to power. And the process of losing the nation's independency which has been stopped temporarily through king's move will get momentum again. But if Nepal and Nepalese succeeds to pause that external force for some more time, its strength will be minimized. Many things can happen within few years. Zest is- country first! Now, If you don't agree on this, I m open to have your opinion. If you feel that there is some logic in what I have said, please forward it to as many Nepalese as possible. There is nothing good happening to you within 24 hours or 3 days or 1 week or so forth. But only God knows, long term benefits could be there.


Thank you

Nepali Citizen

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

4 Days bandh and 4 days curfew

A week fully wasted.

From last Thursday, this country is going downhill. The situation is worsened significantly. Demonstrators and the government both have become very violent in this period, thrashing whoever they find, destroying public and private properties.

This is not a good sign for a developing or rather under developed country. The political scenario of our country has catapulted downhill. So who will be the saviour? The king? The politicos? The maoists?

I don't see bright future of our country any of their hands. We need new leaders now. The leader should be young, dynamic, philosopher and above all a doer. No blank words will lift this country now. There must be someone who is daring to work and fight anything that comes in front of him.

So who will be this leader? S/He got to be a new face to the political scenario of Nepal. There is so much corruption in all the aspects of the country. That should be wiped out. The people are willing to work hand in hand, the problem is, leadership is hollow.

I am just an ordinary guy. Its people like me who will bring change to the society and country. We are the leaders and pioneers. But the youths need to be given a directive and a goal, and they will themselves be mobilized towards it. They will not be stopped by anything. I agree with the king on one thing: "There should be a common agenda: the betterment of the country".

Alas, those have just been words now. There should be common agenda, like chinese people had, like Japanese had, to improve ones country. Everyone should be alert and vigil of everything around him/her and perform his/her duty with full heart. Only then, I think corruption, poverty so on and so forth will be eliminated.

Everyone should be enlightened, aware of his/her duties and responsibilities. I don't think there is time to play now.

So who will be the saviour? The answer is within us. We have to lead ourselves. We have to be self aware. We have to work, not just talk. We have to make plans and implement them. In a team, the leader is the one who works most. So everybody is a leader, everybody is a team player. One must work with his/her full heart with only one thing in mind - "the betterment of the nation is the first priority."

Monday, April 03, 2006

Electronic Voting Machine

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

October 31, 2004


To restart the election, please press Ctrl-Alt-Del
By:Meh

Congratulations! You are standing in the most sophisticated, all-digital voting booth ever used in a real election. Now you can cast a ballot to shape the future - and experience the future - all in one mind-bending session.

We developed this new generation of electronic voting booth because, frankly, we were frustrated with the way our old vacuum cleaner worked. The bag quickly clogged with dust, destroying the suction. More than 5,000 prototypes later, we perfected this space-age voting kiosk.

By following these instructions, you'll make your few moments inside this advanced voting booth rewarding and easy - and hopefully keep your state out of the newspapers. Here we go:

Step 1: Touch any metal surface to minimize the risk of static shock, then press the "Touch Here" screen to begin. Disengage the restraining bolt and insert the bar-coded Voter ID ticket you were given at the registration table. A list of candidates will appear along the right side of the screen, each name with either a parallelogram or a tilted diamond beside it. (Once you vote, each candidate you select will have a trapezoid beside his or her name, and those you don't choose will appear with a rhombus.)

Step 2: To make your selections, take hold of the crankshaft with your right hand and turn in a clockwise motion until the name of your desired candidate is highlighted in reverse type on the screen. At this point you have five seconds to hit the toggle switch above the "Verification" LED to confirm your selection. If you hear the familiar "Pac Man dying" sound, you must try again. Repeat this process for each vote you want to cast.

Step 3: Remove your Voter ID ticket. Your ballot "receipt" will print out onto the floor outside the booth. A wastebasket for receipts is located near the exit.

Troubleshooting:

Problem: The presidential portion of the vote screen lists the candidates as George W. Kerry and Jeffrey Nader.

Solution: It's possible you have the "Fast Shutdown" registry key enabled. Try deleting the COMVER.BIN file in the AOL directory and the MAIN.IDX file from the IDB folder, then copy the MAIN.IDX file from the backup folder to the IDB folder.

Problem: The nitrogen sensor appears to be blocked.

Solution: Telemetry may be off. Remove the shelving unit beneath monitor with a 1/8-inch Allen wrench. Insert any pen or pencil into the "reset" hole to function as a circuit breaker. Replace shelving unit and retighten bolts.

Problem: The "ejector" light is illuminated and a timer is counting down toward 0:00.

Solution: Somehow a polymerase chain reaction has been initiated. There is a risk of mutation. Open the access panel marked "no user-serviceable parts inside" and locate the node of wires connected to the centrifuge. Carefully cut the blue wire - no, wait, the red.

Longest words used

1. supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: included in Oxford dictionary.

2. pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis: included in Oxford dictionary. It means "a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust from volcanic eruption". Regarded by the Guiness Book of World Records as the longest made-up word.

3. floccinaucinihilipilification: It means "the estimation of something as valueless". The Guiness Book of World Records regards this as the "real" longest word in English language. But the Merriam Webster dictionary does not include this word because it believes the word is just a made-up example for a long word.

4. antidisestablishmentarianism: means "opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England"

5. honorificabilitudinitatibus: invented by William Shapespeare in his play "Love's Labour's Lost"

6. tetramethyldiaminobenzhydrylphosphinous: a kind of acid

7. hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies: it is a surgical creation of a connection between the gall bladder and a hepatic duct and between the intestine and the gall bladder

8. formaldehydetetramethylamidofluorimum: a chemical compound.

9. dimethylamidophenyldimethylpyrazolone: a chemical compund

10. dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane: long name for DDT, the poisonous chemical compound

11. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch: It is a village in Wales, England.

12. Taumatawhakatang­ihangakoauauot­amateaturipukaka­pikimaunga­horonuku­pokaiwhenuak­itanatahu" is a name of a hill in New Zealand

13.
Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk" used by James Joyce in novel Finnegans Wake, or Pepsi used "Lip­smackin­thirst­quenchin­acetastin­motivatin­good­buzzin­cool­talkin­high­walkin­fast­livin­ever­g