DC Girl, Why are you lumping me with IF all the time? I know IF personally, and I respect his RIGHT to his opinions though he and I often disagree about a lot of things, and those disagreements have NOT affected our working relationship so far. FYI, unlike most people writing about democracy from afar and telling us the usual boring platitudes as if they just discovered them at some park in Washington DC, IF has: worked in Nepal, worked for a foreign policy think tank in a questioning manner, reads a lot, loves discussing various ideas, takes risks with his ideas even to the point of being unfairly ridiculed in public forums, has done his best to network with various stripes of people in Nepal and abroad, and, as far as my experience with him goes, remains open to be persuaded otherwise with EVIDENCE. And he's only in his 20s -- not someone with life in Nepal already over and who then goes on to spew venom from afar. IF is NOT as simple-minded or as close-minded as some of his Sajha critics, with Nepe acting as their Pied Piper, paint him as. In fact, I would say that over the last few years, I have learnt much from IF (because his views are so radically different and because he refuses to settle for easy platitudes and because he brings a totally different perspectives that would not have occurred to me) than from the chorus of so-called democrats who repeat the usual "king is bad" and then form an echoing chamber for their views, but are actually IMPOTENT when it comes to putting themselves in harm's way to fight for their convinctions. One learns a lot when surrounded by people who hold different views. One does NOT learn anything when one is surrounded by people who repeat one's one stances. I like IF for a different and a diverse perspective he brings to this PUBLIC sphere. A true democrat would learn from IF NOT to ridicule monarchy (an easy thing to do!) but to better understand some of the reasoning that has shaped the decisions that REALLY affect the lives of Nepalis in Nepal today. oohi ashu