As a Nepali citizen, I am impressed with the achievements of the new government in the last three months. The government's achievements are many and varied that as a mere mortal, I am having difficulty to keep track of all its activities. As a simple solution, thought I'd start a list of all its achievements so that we can all take pride in the government's efforts toward making Nepal a "multi-party democracy, a pro-free market country" and so on and so forth. The list below is UNRANKED, and contains ONLY what can be VERIFIED to be true from PUBLISHED Nepal-based newspaper accounts (so I am not making anything up!) Drumroll, please . . . . . The government's achievements since Feb 1 2005 1. Shutting down mobile phone communication in Nepal. 2. Allowing Maoist-affected Nepalis to camp out in Tundikhel. 3. Shutting down FM radio news broadcasts altogether. 4. Teaching newspaper editors that they are accountable NOT to their readers but to bureaucrats and military personnel. 5. Appointing those as Zonal commissioners who respond to those in power. 6. Declaring the days on which the King files in and out of Nepal to be public holidays. 7. Stopping intellectuals/professors from attending seminars abroad. 8. Arresting politicians while renewing commitments to multi-party democracy. 9. Planning to give all Nepalis their individual computer IDs. 10. Making a promise to hold municipal elections by the end of this year 2062. [Earlier, there had been another public promise to hold general elections by the end of 2061, but let's not talk about the past.] 11. Saying that it is about to put an apparatus in place to issue peace bonds to raise money. 12. Saying that Nepal does not need foreign aid [and this statment came from Patriot Number One K N Bista, who has worked his political and Chinese connections to make sure that his family members -- children and grand chiledren -- are well taken care of in foreign countries.) I could go on, but with these TRUTHFUL achievements of the present government, let me stop and sip some Starbucks coffee. oohi ashu