Irresponsible behaviour :

Do the Nepalis realise that the whole world laughs at their childish behaviour of starting fires on the streets when something goes wrong? During the protests against the petro-price hike, around 30 vehicles were vandalised. Even worse is the fact that no one was arrested. The police looked on helplessly as the law and order situation broke down. What memories will the foreign tourists take back home? Not of the traditional hospitality of the Nepalis but of the smelling alleyways and violence on the streets.

David M, Kathmandu

Price hike :

In the light of soaring oil price in the international market, the government was forced to hike the price of the petro-products in Nepal as well.

Therefore, all Nepalis should have supported the price hike which was aimed at bailing the Nepal Oil Corporation out of the huge debt it owes to the Indian Oil Corporation. We should also economise on the use of fossil fuels.

Amit Kumar Sharma,

via e-mail

Hard times :

Tribhuvan University, Nepal’s oldest university, is passing through hard times. The dearth of part-time teachers, irregularities in exam papers, lack of physical infrastructure,

embezzlement of funds, etc. have undermined its credibility.

Recently, a high-ranking official had to put in his papers because of the controversy kicked up by the result of MBS first year exams. Programmes like lockouts and pen downs have become something like university routine. The high failure rate of TU students as compared to that of the students of other universities is largely due to to university’s poor making system. Unless TU comes up with a better marking system, the number of unsuccessful candidates as well as university dropout rate will go up. Its ancient teaching techniques as well as education material need to be updated.

Kamal Sharma,

Kathmandu

New idea :

As the Maoists are likely to be included in the interim government and many of their cadres are still involved in running a parallel government, it might not be a bad idea to include PLA personnel in Nepal’s UN peacekeeping force to Lebanon. While many outlandish theories are

being floated around in recent times, this might not be such a bad idea at all.

Chandra, via e-mail

Wrong :

This refers to Dhananjay Shah’s Midway piece “Money mania” (THT, August 21). I couldn’t quite understand Shah’s motive behind writing the article. Is he trying to generalise through such statements as “Fathers are ready to sell their daughters, husbands their wives, and brothers their sisters” for money? If so, bogus statements like this can only put the Nepali

society in a bad light.

Bikal, via e-mail

Dialogue :

Only continued dialogue between the government and the Maoists will help bring peace to the nation. The talks in the past had yielded no concrete results. This time, though, following the success of the Jana Andolan II, there seems to be plenty of room for optimism.

Vivek, via e-mail