LETTERS

National interest

I support the views of Jeetendra Narayan Dev expressed in his article “Linking democracy and

nationalism” published in THT on June 3. Both nationalism and democracy should go hand in hand, and unlike in Nepal, there should be no difference in being a democrat and a nationalist.

Just being “anti” does not make someone a strong nationalist automatically. There is no point in only blaming others whereas the weakness lies inside us. People should not waste time in worthless political drama. I also agree with the writer that both India and China are in favour of “development, advancement, and territorial integrity” of Nepal. It would be beneficial for Nepal to move ahead with mutual understanding and cooperation with these two neighbours.

Ramesh Ghimire, Chabahil

Meaningless

I was surprised to read the news “Car rally against smoking” published in your newspaper on June 3 because I cannot understand the rationale behind increasing air pollution by driving cars during an anti-smoking campaign. The article also mentioned that doctors also

participated in the rally. This compels me to suggest an alternative use of their knowledge and energy. Wouldn’t it be much better if the same doctors carried on with their daily work and gave some amount out of their hefty earnings for charity organisations like the Cancer Society instead of uselessly spending some Rs 5,000 each for the rally?

By saying this I am not despising the cause of social awareness such a rally would normally bring about. However, my question is how many observers or the general public were present on that particular day anyway? Thus, we can easily question the success or the effectiveness of such awareness drives. At the same time, how cost-effective is it to trade air pollution, consumption of fuel, and wastage of the doctors’ valuable time for anti-smoking campaign?

I would be grateful to anybody who could refer me any study that can confirm that lack of awareness of health hazards associated with smoking indeed leads to smoking habit. If reports have shown that teenage is the time when most people fall prey to this habit, what are the specific things that are done to stop the teenagers from picking this habit?

Sumana Shrestha, via e-mail

Insensible

This is in reference to a question published in the Talk To Me column in THT on June 5. The question in point asked by Akash Kumar was on the intentional marriage of a boy to a girl from the hills. This seems absurd to me since I thought the column was supposed to deal with serious problems affecting the life of the readers. I hope that in future trivial issues do not overshadow important and worthy social issues. In my view, inter-caste marriages, for example, is one such issue that should be encouraged in order to mitigate social stigmas and promote social harmony. But it does not in any way mean that one should “intentionally” try to do so. I hope that THT as well as Sangeeta Thapa will take some caution next time in dealing with the selection of the questions. The answers should prove helpful in solving the dilemmas of other readers as well, who can identify their problems with the questions in the column.

Pramod Bhagat, Rajbiraj