This is in reference to the news story “Nepali-led team makes NASA discoveries’’ (THT, April 9, Page 1).

The team was accountable for the task of finding answers to the puzzle why the Earth’s polar motion was moving eastwards dramatically. It deserves special thanks to a groundbreaking research led by a Nepalese scientist at NASA. Science now has an answer to a protracted puzzle: Why the earth’s polar motion is moving eastwards dramatically- from Canada to the United Kingdom- since the beginning of the new millennium and the mystery behind the west-east swings in the polar motion on a decadal basis. According to Surendra Adhikari and Erik Ivins’ research, both the melting of polar ice sheets and global land water storage pattern are responsible for the change in the Earth’s rotation. The Earth’s spin axis wobbles on a decadal pattern- meaning in some years it heads to the east and in the following years it heads to the west, and this decadal swing continues.

Adhikari from none other than our country, currently residing in the United States, has made our country proud in this regard. He has really done well working in the NASA.

Pratik Shrestha, Kathmandu

Human rights

This is in response to Saikat Kumar Basu’s letter titled “Western values” (THT, April 8, Page 8).

Basu has lambasted the Western values, democracies and its sense of human rights. Just because someone has committed any wrong, we can never accuse him/her till s/he reforms and emerges as an ideal human being. Yes, human right abuses and killing of innocents plague the history of erstwhile colonial powers and Whites. But those very countries have not only reformed but also stand as a beacon of liberal ideology. When Islamic fanatics consistently launch terrorist attacks in France, White people of that country consciously see that not a single Muslim citizen is attacked. Basu’s Canada had displayed the same rational attitude when another lone wolf attacked the Parliament House a couple of years ago and killed one innocent in the name of Islam. When the twin towers of New York got demolished, the USA authorities went all-out to protect its Muslim citizens. Only a Sikh got killed by White goons when the latter assumed him to be a Muslim. But US authorities promptly nabbed and adequately punished the White killer also. In contrast many countries of Asia and Africa still reside at the primitive age of ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ and cry for revenge against certain communities for the sin of a few misguided fellow members. But the civilized countries of the West have become enlightened enough to distinguish between right and wrong and refuse to paint all members of any particular community by the same brush. Moreover the erstwhile colonial powers have transformed themselves as epitome of discipline and law and order. Can any citizen of those countries dare disobey traffic regulation or flout pollution-related laws as is elections in Third World countries are nothing but a ‘Third World War’.

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata