Easier said than done

I appreciate the views expressed in your editorial “Green gold” published on November 10. But all of us know the disadvantages of being a land-locked developing country. Firstly, we do not have access to transportation. We have to rely on our neighbour for trade, and it, in turn, has its own interests to protect.

Secondly, even though labour is cheap here, we are backward in technology and research. We do not have many investors, and will probably have to depend on foreigners for a long time to come. Most importantly, we lack effective policies to export herbs. So it is not an easy task to convert these greens to gold.

Tara Shah, via e-mail

SAARC

Most probably, the current SAARC summit will only benefit a few businessmen of the region. All the members are only focusing on trade-related policies but are silent on the violation of the basic rights of the people in the region.

Also, the SAARC heads of state or government are far from discussing the Bhutanese refugee crisis that has been there for just too long. The citizenship right of the refugees is one of the major problems facing South Asia and thus the SAARC leaders in Dhaka should have raised the issue and come up with a solution.

Ishwor Singh, Kalaiya, Bara

A far cry

This is with reference to your report “7 parties to agitate till democracy restored” (THT, November 12). The agitating political parties have put all their possible efforts into restoring democracy — from street protests to satyagraha. They have left no stone unturned but the restoration of democracy seems a far cry.

It would be better if our leaders engaged in analysing the hurdles facing the country in all the sectors and addressed those anomalies in their party agendas. Democracy alone is not the ultimate need of the people. It is worthless to sit and shout for the restoration of democracy if the leaders do not understand what the people actually need.

Chandan Das, Kathmandu University

Prove first

The news “A hormone that kills appetite”, published in THT on November 12 was an eye-opener. It is good to know that biologists have been able to synthesise the hormone that kills the appetite to 50 per cent. But the hormone synthesised from the rat’s stomach needs

further research to find out whether the hormone is toxic and whether it is appropriate for human use. If it is proved to be non-toxic then it can be used as medicine for obese people. However, it needs more research to find out if the same hormone can be synthesised from other organisms.

Suman Kesarbania,

via e-mail

Correction

I want to draw your attention to my Midway article “Daughter’s pain” published in THT on

November 11. My surname is Acharya not Adhikari as was printed. This is the second time a mistake has appeared with regard to my name. The first one occurred in my article “Missed

opportunity,” published on August 30. In that article my name ‘Rajan’ was wrongly printed as “Ranjan”. I have been contributing to THT for the last four years and such mistakes discourage me.

Rajan Raj Acharya,

Kalikasthan