Congratulations to Dr. Yunus! He and the Bank he founded (and the business model of which has been globally replicated) richly deserve the award. Everybody appears to be ecstatic here in Bangladesh on hearing this news. This country -- which is smaller than Nepal in terms of land-mass produces enough grains to feed its almost 150 million people -- deserves wider recognition in the world for the pace of development it has adopted in the last one decade. To be sure, Bangladesh has its problems: the rise of religious fundamentalism, corrupt politics, inadequate infrastructure, etc. But in the last two years that I have been here for work, I can say that almost all Nepalis who have come here for a visit have gone back being quite impressed with Bangladesh's VISIBLE bikas on so many fronts: health-care, literacy, road networks, mobile phone penetration, overall infrastructure and so on and on. The refrain among most visiting Nepalis is: "I never knew Bangladesh has done so much better than Nepal like this. And it looks like Nepal has become actually a lot more khattam than Bangladesh." In January 2005, when Kanak Dixit came to Dhaka from Kathmandu by way of road, he remarked that he found Nepali highways khattam while highways in Bangladesh were/are so much better. Curiously, in today's (Sat) Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post (online editions), I saw NO mention of Yunus and his Nobel prize, despite the fact that there are many Grameen-like programs running in Nepal. oohi "somewhere in Bangladesh" ashu