Nepe wrote: "It's a matter of pleasure to find you and myself sharing a similar view." Sure. Since -- as I have said on Sajha before -- I like to decide issues on a case-by-case basis, rest assured that with me, strong and heated and even brutal disagreements with you or anyone else in one area will NOT spill over into ALL other areas. That's why, it's entirely possible to agree with you or anyone else on some issues, and still disagree or have divergent opinions on other matters. That said, I have little sympathy for the kind of attitude I often see in our various Nepali communities which goes like this: "If you are my friend, then you and I must agree on everything. If you and I are enemies, then we must oppose one another on everything regardless of what the merit of the issues are." I am sure that in the last 10 years, the Nepali politics has shown us all the paralysing effects of such an attitude. **** As a Nepali, one of the heart-breaking things I find these days is to travel to places across South Asia and South East Asia, and see how other countries have put or are putting their house in order to grow economically and to assert themselves in the region . . . only to see Nepal reverse its whatever meager gains to slide backward all the more. At the rate Nepal is going anywhere, it'll probably take anywhere from 10 to 25 years (if not longer) to sort out its mess -- and that means two to three generations of able Nepalis in Nepal will have to do nothing but fire-fighting and cleaning up the mess in Nepal. oohi ashu