Mr. Truth-jee, Very valid questions and concerns. I really appreciate them. As for general pessimism/optimism, as you can see I was speculating that there is not going be a significant, let alone dramatic, improvement in the quality of political leadership in Nepal for some time to come. Our politics is under the grip of vicious cycles and network of individual FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE of career politicians to legacy and baggages of major political parties. There simply is not enough room for independence, creative thinking and courage for our politicians which invariably leaves them to be the struggling "follower" of popular pressures rather than the standing "torchbearers" to the mass. It is probably more appropriate to talk in terms of "collective wisdom" of the people rather than "popular pressures", because at the end of the day, it is the SUM not the isolated individual pressures that goes to work. And if you are asking about the quality of the "collective wisdom" of Nepali people, I can say in all seriousness and subjectivity that it is dependable. To support my assertion, I have got pretty mature looking three electoral mandates (1191, 1994 and 1999) and one revolutionary mandate (2006) and impressive restraint and, one that I have been extra-ordinarily impressed, APATHY to senseless revolution and agitations (certain aspects of the Maoist revolution throughout the "people's war" and the socalled "anti-regression agitation" of our political parties during 2002-2005, cases in point) with me. It will be too long a story to explain how these electoral and revolutionary mandates and other things in between look coming from a very thoughtful and mature people. However, even at a quick glance, it is easy to see that Nepali people makes a good judgment when it comes to when, how, whom and why to reward, punish, encourage and discourage, when it comes to whom and when to trust and mistrust, when it comes to what to ignore and what not to, when it comes to when to wait and when to get on, when it comes to in what and how much courage to show and so on. It might sound jingoist, but I really think Nepali people are intelligent people and all they need is chance- chance for their voice to be heard and listened to. Since we are embarking on exactly that path, I am optimistic about our future. I am confident that we will be doing fine with just about any aaure-baaure-dhupaure as our president. If somehow, God forbid, we failed to establish a stable state and a progressing country and we came to a situation where only a handful of warlords will be having good lives and the rest of the people will be suffering from the bloodshed, anarchy and hunger, the state of Nepal will lose it's justification and the intelligent Nepali people will make a decision accordingly. I won't be complaining at that time. And nobody should. What is right is what people decide. However, I am pretty sure these nightmares are in no way in our way. From now on, Nepal will either see a patriotic and strong leader or it will never see an unpatriotic and strong leader. So it won't be our politicians if we ever have to meet the fate of Sikkim. Mero dui suka bhanuparyo. Nepe