Obama an example

The night of Tuesday, Nov 4, has become a historic night for the entire black and white Americans living in the United States. This night, the Americans elected Democratic Senator Barrack Obama as their first Black and 44th president. No sooner had the election results been announced officially than black and white Americans alike celebrated the historic

occasion. Witnessing this, I was reminded of the victory rally back in Nepal, when the former king, Gyanendra Shah, after the historic April movement under intense public pressure was forced to reinstate the dissolved parliament. The success of Jana Andolan II had inspired optimism among Nepalis. However, they continue to suffer at the hands of unscrupulous politicians. Even in the face of the worst financial crisis, the American president-elect is determined to bail Americans out. We need leaders like Obama in our country, who, against all odds, can take on the challenge of nation building, but not leaders who are motivated by

self-interest alone. Tilak Poudel, San Francisco, USA

Dark future

Extended hours of power-cut have become a big nuisance, especially for the students appearing for SLC. As a tenth grader myself, I am forced to spend my precious time waiting for the lights to come back on, instead of preparing for my exams. The government doesn’t seem to care a fig for the future of tens of thousands of students. With so much hydropower

potential in Nepal, why are we forced to live in darkness? Prime Minister Prachanda has promised that he will be able to transform Nepal into Singapore within 10 years. But I doubt if even the problem of power shortage will have been resolved by that time.

Prashant, via e-mail

Unfair

Spice Nepal, one of Nepal’s major private telecom operators, had recently changed its offer for “Free Talk Time”. While the subscribers were availed of one-hour talk-time, which could be used at any time earlier, the time was later divided into three slots and could only be used during office hours. Now unless Mero Mobile users spend Rs 50 per week, they cannot take advantage of any free talk-time. This abrupt change is unfair. If a company cannot implement its schemes for customers, it should not announce them in the first place.

Manoj Thapa, via e-mail

Corruption

The CIAA is reported to have demanded that the government should ratify the UN convention against corruption to help control corruption in the private sector. I believe that control of corruption in the private sector should not be a priority of the government. It is very strange that the CIAA does not urge the government to promulgate effective laws to control corruption

in the government offices and the judiciary.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Kedar Prasad Giri, has already indicated that the cause of corruption in the judiciary is the absence of effective laws to control it. It is not the

judiciary that makes laws. The indifference of the lawmakers makes one wonder if they are seriously committed to rooting out corruption from the country.

Rabi Manandhar, Kathmandu