September 11: Two years later

M R JOSSE

Tomorrow will mark the second anniversary of 9/11 – code for the most lethal terrorist attack that the world has ever known.

That occurred on September 11, 2001. First, two hijacked airliners were crashed by Al Qaeda terrorists into the World Trade Center in New York City. A third airliner was rammed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

A fourth, possibly bound for another high profile target in the American capital, crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, apparently after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.

That’s the bare-bones chronology. But, what has happened since then? The short answer is plenty, as this column will attempt to demonstrate.

First, as Professor Robert J Lieber makes out, "September 11 marked the start of a new era in American strategic thinking." In his view, it had an impact comparable to the Pearl Harbour attack on December 7, 1941 that propelled the United States into World War II.

It resulted, among other things, in the enunciation of the "Bush Doctrine" focussing on the global threat to America from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Another well-known by-product is the United States’ adoption of the doctrine of "pre-emptive" or even "preventive" war and the related concepts of "regime change" and nation or state building, the visible manifestations of which are now on public display both in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq.

At another level, as Lieber rightly argued last year, "the post-Cold War era, which began with the collapse of the Soviet Union almost 12 years ago, ended abruptly on the sunny, clear morning of September 11, 2001."

Even more significantly, "in an instant, coordinated terrorist attacks transformed the international security environment and dictated a new ‘grand strategy’ for the United States."

Public attention to the new era in US strategic thinking naturally came in tandem with a new, urgent focus on the economic cost of terrorism.

Yet, Brian S Wesbury, a prominent economist of a Chicago-based investment firm, stated in an article on the first anniversary of 9/11, the Al Qaeda assault on the institutions of capitalist democracy has failed. In his opinion, US institutions and its economy have largely recovered from the attacks.

(To that, of course, must now be computed the yet-to-be-determined but spiraling cost of the US-led war in Iraq that is far from over, despite it officially being considered as concluded.)

Wesbury maintains that while the US economy was scraped and bruised on that terrible day, even a year later the US economy had proven to be highly resilient, despite an estimated "$ 120 billion of damage and a great deal of anxiety."

On another but related level, 9/11 has led to the US re-energising itself to reducing poverty and deprivation in the rest of the world. That is premised on the belief that poverty provides a breeding ground for disease and deprivation, and potentially for crime, corruption, and terrorism.

(At this juncture, it may be noted that in Nepal, too, we have seen two very visible manifestations of 9/11’s impact. One is the readiness of the United States to provide security assistance in combating the Maoist insurgency. The other is reflected in increased US economic assistance to the government in tackling that insurgency’s socio-economic roots.)

CRITICAL BALANCE

Yet another important area of public policy where 9/11 has had a huge effect is in maintaining what Professor Mark Blitz termed as "the critical balance" between "individual rights and national security in uncertain times".

As Blitz has reminded us, "among the many effects of the terrorist attacks" of 9/11 has been a vigorous debate about certain civil liberties.

Not unnaturally, the US government’s efforts to prevent another round of terrorist attacks in the American homeland have raised "a welter of complex constitutional issues that are being decided by US courts and debated by legal scholars."

Two years down the road, those issues are still being debated and discussed in America. In the meantime, a great deal of high decibel criticism has been heard from Muslims and Arabs, in particular, about how they are being unfairly discriminated against in/by what is supposed to be the world’s greatest democracy.

(Incidentally, one might now mull over the fact that we in Nepal, too, are in the process of determining our own "critical balance" between the need to provide public security for all without overturning basic democratic rights of peaceful dissent and protest.)

AN AMERICAN IMPERIUM?

Mention has already been made of Afghanistan and Iraq as by-products of 9/11. However, some see in them evidence of a new American imperium. That, as the Economist has cogently argued in a recent issue on "America and empire", is not however borne out by facts on the ground.

Admitting that America is now going through an imperial phase, the British magazine argues that this one has more in common with its earlier imperial phases, all of which were transient, than with "the imperial eras of Britain, Byzantium or Rome."

Admitting that America has changed since September 11, the Economist says that although the new mood allows for "more assertiveness, less patience with allies, a greater readiness to go it alone", it stoutly maintains "there is no appetite to spend a lifetime in a sweaty country in the service of a noble cause."

It continues: "The memories of Vietnam, where every effort to withdraw or hand over to the locals seemed to lead to further entanglement, have not departed."

Yes, stung by events of September 11, America is "no longer shy of spilling blood, even its own." Yet, it is unlikely to continue its occupation for long in Iraq because "imperialism and democracy are at odds with each other."

Indeed, the pain of an open-ended occupation of Iraq "will not only be just a matter of budget deficits and body bags; it will also be a blow to the very heart of what makes them American – their constitutional belief in freedom.

"Freedom is in their blood; it is integral to their sense of themselves. It binds them together as nothing else does, neither ethnicity, nor religion, nor language. And it is rooted in hostility to imperialism – the imperial rule of George III. Americans know that empires lack democratic legitimacy."

Another perceptive insight into the impact of 9/11 two years after the event has been provided by columnist Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyer of the Times of India.

He argues that Indians have simply not understood the implications of 9/11 on America, "despite constant repetition that 9/11 has changed America so radically that all the old yardsticks no longer apply."

He then implores: "Forget the retreat from Somalia or Lebanon, when the US public did not think, even remotely, that they were at war. Even during Vietnam, the US mainland was never attacked. But the Americans regard 9/11 in the same light as Pearl Harbour: they truly believe that they have been forced into war.

"It is a new kind of war where Americans are not sure who or where exactly the enemy is, but they are determined to do all it takes to destroy the shadowy foe."

Now ponder over such thoughts on the second anniversary of 9/11!

Fear mars American landscape

By EDWARD J BLAKELY

It is two years since Sept 11. The date is one of those etched in everyone’s memory. We remember where we were and what we heard and saw. Now, we are not as conscious of what we are seeing.

As we look around our communities, we are beginning to notice subtle and not-so-subtle changes in the physical landscape since the terrorist attacks. The nation is becoming a place where we are divided by our fears rather than joined by our hopes. Instead of building open and democratic communities, we are building environments designed to keep "undesirables" at bay. This is what the terrorists wanted.

Changes in the national character are being shaped by profound changes in the local landscape. It is obvious but unfortunate, for instance, that security measures must be taken to protect the White House, the Capitol and other national government buildings. However, Washington is becoming an increasingly militaristic city. The city of grace is losing the battle.

The attempt by Congress to present the workings and monuments of government is overwhelmed with mazes, security checkpoints and bunkers and barriers that detract from, and make a deeper impression than, the buildings or settings themselves. As the city changes, it becomes more formidable, giving the appearance of some dark empire rather than the bastion of the free world.

But one does not have to go to the capital to be assaulted by penal architecture. Barricades and a variety of ugly planters and other barriers destroy any semblance of design and cordon off every major civic building in cities of more than a few hundred-thousand across the nation. New civic buildings are built with safety and buffer zones, including water features that look like the moats.

Security-conscious designs make it hard to find the entrances to buildings, with former exits closed or removed. In some cities such as Houston, the entrance to many buildings is no longer from the street but through the parking lot. Even the horrible and inept attempts at civic open space in cities such as New York are being removed and replaced by security mazes and grillwork. City buildings are now landscaped with needless slopes so the entrances are at least on the second or third floors to discourage car bombing but making every building almost inaccessible to the elderly and disabled.

In several major cities, private developers have dropped plans for skyscrapers. City planning commissions are also weighing in on large-scale new buildings. New planning requirements are changing the open space requirement, making the street level architecture hideous.

Cities have added new security to all transportation buildings, making it increasingly difficult to get close enough to easily drop off and pick up luggage or passengers. They have put walls and fences around public parks to reduce crime and restrict non-locals. In the same vein, middle- and high school architecture is resembling prisons. Many now have no windows, and there are guards and metal detectors.

At houses of worship, architecture is not as free and open as it once was. Churches are eliminating and sealing off windows, and synagogues have placed bolsters and barricades across their entrances. Even homes aren’t exempt.

LA Times – Washington Post

Cash pooling

L D MAHAT

Cash pooling is an arrangement between the entities within the same business entity. It is the ideal solution for managing the financial resources of economically related groups of companies. It is generally effected through a bank which provides a single summary of accounts by netting surplus and deficit cash balance of different entities within the same entity. Pooling resources results in greater returns or the temporary evening-up of the difference between debit and credit balances. It allows achieving a cut in interest expense, a rise in interest income, and improved use of the internal and external resources of companies that function in the scope of an economically related group with central financial management.

Cash pooling is one of the effective liquidity management techniques. It enables surplus cash in some of the accounts to be netted off against overdraft balances in other accounts for the purpose of computing interest paid to or received from banks. Multinational and regional companies may find themselves in such a situation where they have multiple operating entities or branches within a country.

The objective of cash pooling can also be achieved by zero-balancing accounts and cash concentration. Cash concentration is the transfer of funds in the multiple accounts to a single bank account. Funds can move within the country or across the border by using one or more banks. In zero balancing accounts, accounts within the same bank within the country or across the border making the balance empty.

There are two types of cash pooling: notional cash pooling and real cash pooling. In notional cash pooling, funds are not transferred physically but on paper. On the other hand, the balances of the companies account are transferred to the main account of the concerned group at the end of the day in case of real cash pooling. In nominal cash pooling, the amount of interest due to the each group member is calculated as per the interest set for the main account. In case of real cash pooling, the use of the positive balance to neutralize the deficits of other accounts that is placed within the same group. This leads to saving in external credit facilities, which are actually more costly than the internal resources.

The objective of cash pooling is to bring together the debit and credit balances. Cash pooling technique can be used to centralise global treasury in a single region or around the world. The real benefit of cash pooling arises from minimisation of interest expenses on short-term credit facilities. It can be well understood that interest on short-term credit attracts higher interest than the interest on the temporary surplus invested in marketable securities or other short-term investments. In the absence of cash pooling arrangement each of the sub-entities operated separately within the entity receives or pays interest separately depending on its daily cash position with their bank.

The benefit to be received by an entity from cash pooling can be explained by an example in a better way. Suppose there are three entities within a group: x, y and z. Entities x and y have cash surplus of Rs 200 thousand and Rs 500 thousand respectively while entity z has cash deficit of Rs 400 thousand. Suppose further that surplus is invested in short-term instrument at 4% and deficit is financed by bank overdraft, which costs 10% to the entity. In this case, if there is no cash pooling arrangement, the group loses Rs 18 thousands (earning of Rs 8 thousand by x + Rs 20 thousand by y – cost of Rs 40 thousand incurred by z). On the other hand, if there is a cash pooling arrangement, the group earns interest of Rs 12 thousand (group surplus of Rs 300 thousand multiplied by 10%).

This is a fairly simplified method for observing how each group member is contributing to the results of the grouping totality. For this the calculation of interest is done by dividing the interest on the main account between the individual group members, or by settling an internal loan. An internal loan is entered into within a group when an account registers a deficit. Accounts are allowed to borrow from each other. The clients set the specific rates at which the cash is loaned. The final results are passed to the individual companies as per the calculations done by the bank.

Cash pooling has gained a lot of popularity in the recent past. Before the introduction of cash pooling concept, resources of an entity were focused mainly on sales and marketing to maximize the profit, while back-office functions were possibly viewed as less important. The financial crisis faced by different companies in the past forced the company to consider that cash is a scarce business resource that needed to be managed. With banks reducing the availability of credit lines and pricing credit to reflect increased risk premiums, the issue of liquidity management surfaced as a key issue in ensuring survival of businesses in the new environment.

Cash pooling is important in the context of internationalisation of business. For efficient and centralised treasury management, cash pooling can prove to be a better tool for a finance manager. Cash pooling provides enormous benefits to the organisations having their operations spread across the globe. Cash pooling helps to develop a corporate of group-wide profit and loss
thinking.

Happiness happens everyday

By RICHA BHATTARAI

Last week, I was walking about feeling like the tallest person on earth, until I met an old friend of mine. Incidentally, she is five feet and seven inch tall. But that was not what made me feel shorter. It was just the way she looked down at me, "Your articles were okay, I suppose, but no one wants to read about hair and buses. You should start writing something more grown-up now, more rational. Something on, say, ceasefire."

Ceasefire? Now what on earth would I write about ceasefire? Imagine this sentence,"The whole country has been left shocked by the abrupt end of ceasefire." How does it sound? Bland and passionless. One does not need political themes to express oneself well. I have always seen writing as something you remember, smile about and cherish for a long time to come. For, you cannot deny the fact that our ravaged nation badly needs a tad of mirth. A bit of bliss here, sprinkling of spirit there, and maybe then we can hope to weave our motherland together again.

I guess happiness means different things to different people. For me, it is not just merely a state of mind. You cannot say, "I’ll be happy" and break into a plastic smile. It is a divine feeling that arises from somewhere deep down your stomach, your heart, maybe your soul, and that makes you radiate so that people miles away feel your vibes.

The very first happiness in life is morning. Each morning, as I jump out of bed and rush off to college, the day becomes "a mystical journey of a soul alone/an unraveled yarn of a path unknown". I am thankful for each day, each dawn, each dewdrop. And if I am not, my friend, the sun makes sure I at least say "hi" to those I run into. Another joy that immediately follows is college. Lots of mischief, gossiping, thinking, arguing and a bit of studies and sweet teachers just about balances up your life.

The next glee is food. When you are full, you do not even think about it. But if you have just trudged in from college tired and starving, I do not need to tell you what the sight of a meal laid out (with loads of pickle) does to you. As my brother says, anything goes "yummy, yummy in the tummy".

Sometimes, money brings delight. Like when you have been pining for those great sneakers in just the right kind of blue shade (the cheaper pink won’t do), and your dad hands you exactly the amount required (plus the bus fare left over), it is simply heaven!

The biggest exhilarator is indisputably the Mother Nature. Clouds, cats, stars, and mostly this wide, wide world makes you feel like it is all a personally packaged present from God, and you have not even finished unwrapping it. Then the ever-present cheerleaders, of course, are your family and friends—they anchor you fast.

There are other miscellaneous forms of ecstasy. Remember the first rush of freedom when you jumped over the college wall? Or that heart tug when you made up after a grand fight?

But most of all, the elation is one’s dear mom. Especially if you are a slight maniac who only eats chilled rice, sleeps from one to six pm, wakes up the whole night composing inane poems and steps out of shadows to shout ‘boo-hoo’ at people until everyone boycotts you, it is such a miracle to have a mom who cooks for you, listens to your blabbering, and actually tells you to write more.

Yipee! Now I have worked out the greatest happiness. It is "you" (with your blue sneakers on), watching the sunrise with your dad and uncle along with a cup of mom’s coffee, while gibbering away and jotting down your (college) homework.

But, you might say, what this girl calls pleasure happens every day! Exactly! That’s just the point I wished to make. Happiness is the simplest of feelings which nurtures the tiniest of moments into lifelong remembrances with a miniscule effort. Just think, you will probably find that the jubilation of a diamond-studded ring (which would get stolen anyway) never makes up for a family dinner you have missed. So go on. Be jolly, be peppy, be euphoric. This is how life challenges you.

Protecting the oceans

Klaus Toepfer

This week delegates from across the globe are in Durban, South Africa, to chart the way forward for the world’s national parks and protected areas. This once-in-a-decade event is both cause for celebration and cause for concern.

It is well over 100 years since the creation of the first, modern, protected area, the Yellowstone National Park in the United States. More than 10 percent of the earth’s land surface has now been afforded protection and there are countless examples of success stories both for people and wildlife as a result.

The same, however, cannot be said for the marine world. Indeed, figures to be released by the United Nations Environment Program at the congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Durban this week will show that less than 1 percent of the oceans and seas have been given the same kind of protection.

It is not all doom and gloom. Australia, for example, has just unveiled proposals to create large swaths of so-called "no take areas" across Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. These areas, in which fishing and extractive industries such as mining and dredging will be banned, will cover roughly one third of the 350,000-square-kilometer 140,000-square-mile) marine park - up from just under 5 percent now.

The tourism industry, which generates nearly $3 billion annually for the local and national economy and which employs more than 47,000 people, believes the scheme will increase the number and size of fish for visitors to see, and improve and expand good snorkeling and diving sites.

Norway has stepped up action to protect its Tisler and Fjellknausen deep cold
water reefs.

Six West African countries - Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal - have announced plans for a network of marine protected areas aimed at reducing overfishing and possible threats from oil exploration.

But we need to do far more to ensure that oceans and their rich and varied life-forms, upon which billions depend for food and livelihoods, are secured for current and future generations.

There are many reasons for the existing unsatisfactory state of affairs. Much of the marine world lies hidden beneath the waves, and the movements and lifestyles of its inhabitants have until recent decades remained a
mystery.

Unlike the land, where issues of ownership, title deeds, customary rights and management are well established, the oceans have been viewed as wilderness areas owned by no one and free for all.

This was fine in a world of plenty, when explorers like John Cabot encountered so much cod off the east coast of North America his vessels were slowed by the sheer density of the shoals.

It was fine in a world where a coastal megacity might have been a few thousand rather than 10 million souls, and the relatively tiny levels of pollution could be diluted a billion-fold by the vastness of the seas.

But the ability to hunt faster and further for ever greater quantities of marine resources, and the growth in the global population, of which more than 40 percent - more than the entire world population in the 1950’s - now lives by the sea, means the oceans can no longer be treated as an unmanaged free-for-all.

The advent of the Law of the Sea, the development of regional fisheries agreements and initiatives such as United Nations Environment Program’s regional seas program are among recent developments that are focusing attention on the marine world.

Many fishermen’s organizations, appalled by the collapse of stocks and the devastation of livelihoods, are demanding action too. They also realize that the unfettered use of the drift net, the bottom trawl and the purse seine means there will nothing of value left to catch in a few short years.

The world summit meeting on sustainable development last year gave governments, industry and civil society a blueprint for action. Among its recommendations is to restore fish stocks to healthy levels by 2015 and to advance the Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. Significantly, the summit meeting also urged the establishment of a global network of marine protected areas.

Big questions remain, not least in areas of funing and enforcement, especially in developing countries. But there is growing evidence that well-managed marine protected areas not only cover their costs, but can generate substantial income for the benefit of local people and national economies.

Costa Rica’s tourist industry, based around a well-developed and well-managed network of land and marine areas, is generating about $300 million a year - far more than it costs to maintain these areas.

Some still argue that marine protected areas do not work, that there is scant evidence that closing off waters leads to a renaissance of fish stocks. But tell that to the people and fishermen of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, where commercial fish stocks have doubled since "no take zones" were designated in 1995

The theme of the parks congress in Durban this week is "Benefits Beyond Boundaries." It is time to wholeheartedly support the early stirrings of this worldwide marine protected area movement, so that there are no longer artificial boundaries between the land and the oceans.

It can no longer be a question of whether we need marine parks, but how many and how big. There is no point in having token havens, tiny islands of conservation in a sea of overexploitation.

Otherwise our grandchildren will, as with the dodo, learn about the turtles, the dugongs and the coral reefs at the knees of a history teacher, and we will have the tough job of explaining what a fish is.

(The writer is executive director of the United Nations Environment Program)

International Herald Tribune

Puppets on the chains

BEENA KHAREL

Streets have suddenly become more important than class rooms. Political parties continue to deploy students to serve their immediate purpose. Student leaders continue to mislead students. And the students continue to be led.

Having failed to rectify the Oct 4 Royal move, some parliamentary parties are deploying school and college students with the aim of bringing the ‘unconstitutional’ Surya Bahadur Thapa government to its knees.

"Wait," say the leaders, "more is to come next week." We have been hearing this and feeling the pinch since pre-Jana Andolan days. We have been electing student leaders, affiliates of various political parties, to Free Student Unions at public colleges. We have been allowing the political parties to treat the students as puppets. We, the students, the parents, the teachers, have been suffering. No Samaritan has come up with possible succor. There is no telling when the politicisation of academic institutions will be rooted out.

Student organisations synchronising with the ‘decisive movement’ of the political parties forcibly disrupted the First Year Bachelor’s exams and compelled colleges affiliated to Tribhuvan University (TU) to scrape the schedule. The Deuba Congress student wing had feebly protested against exam postponement. However, when other student groups withdrew their agitation in tune with their political bosses’ decision to drastically water down their agitation, the Deuba Congress stormed into the scene roaring.

The visibly rejuvenated student group padlocked the offices of college administration, demanding that the exams be rescheduled immediately. An agreement between the Deuba Congress and TU on holding exams in November unlocked the doors.

Caught in the crossfire are over 85 thousand students—within and outside the Kathmandu Valley. The postponement of exams will cause huge losses to the young students. First, waste of time, energy and investment. Second, the delay of the Second Year Bachelor’s academic session by at least two months. Which means the academic curricula will be completed in a hurry. No wonder, many Nepali students are rejected by prestigious foreign universities. Already, students who go abroad for further studies are made to go through the ‘foundation course’, despite a bundle of academic certificates issued by TU. Third, frustration and outrage among the students, which could go a long way in disturbing the peace of society.

As if that was not enough. The student wing of the Maoists is threatening to lockup colleges and universities for an indefinite period to pressure the government into fulfilling their 26-point demand submitted to the Education Ministry in July this year.

Where were our intellectuals, human rights activists, educationists, champions of liberal democracy and self-styled experts on good governance? But then it is not a lucrative venture—one that would generate dollars—or else, they would have readily jumped the gun. On this part of the world, fighting for education rights, or cleaning up the college mess clearly fails to attract the right people.

In which democracy, pray, are students openly functioning as party activists allowed to forcibly set up camps on college premises in order to launch a ‘decisive people’s movement’?

Nepal, unfortunately, is an exception. Last week, students installed camps on the premises of Tri Chandra College—their demonstration as clear as summer sky and as loud as the chimes of Ghantaghar tower. Pushing students into the frontline of agitation goes against the grain of democratic values.

All this, however, is not necessarily to support the Thapa government or condone its handling of the current political situation. For, his Rastriya Prajatantra Party, too, would not have the slightest hesitation in using the students as puppets.

In elucidating the relationship between education and realpolitik, I am only trying to underscore a shameless legacy of political interference in the education sector, spanning over decades. Those hogging the limelight in the name of civil society seem to lose their voice unfailingly at crucial times when the fate of a massive number of students hangs by a thread.

The education system has already earned a bad name for producing two classes of citizens: the elite and the underprivileged. Letting the defective education sector play into the hands of the politicians will only heat the cauldron of hate.

Surgical separation of education from politics continues to remain a utopian dream. For, the agents of both genres continue to play smart and gullible, funnily, at the same time. The way the stage has been set, it will not be out of the context to refer to Bertrand Russell’s argument over ‘educating the students for war’, which itself is an augury of what is to unfold here in the long-term.

Bury this hatchet

SUMAN MALLA

All is fair in love, war and sports. Well, so it would seem if you were to consider the deeply disturbing series of events that have come to dominate the sports pages of daily newspapers in recent times.

Scandals, on-field violence and off-the-field accusations and counters seem to have become so commonplace that they no longer appear to have the capacity to arouse any kind of indignation in most of us.

The contentious issue here is the increasing friction between the National Sports Council (NSC) and the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC). The latest instance, which shows disturbing signs of developing into a major controversy, relates to the election of NOC.

Member-secretary of NSC Kishor Bahadur Singh has disproved the election that NOC held discreetly after the general body meeting on May 12 as being not in conformity with the sport guidelines.

And it has only ratcheted a notch since Singh came back from his visit to the Greek capital, Athens, as chef de mission of Nepal.

Much to dissatisfaction of the council officials, an IOC delegate, Michel Filino, who visited here last week to investigate into the issue, declared that the election was held in accordance with IOC norms. At the same time, Filino also hinted at suspending Nepal unless NSC furnishes with a proper clarification to him before September 24.

It is indeed regrettable that NOC President Rukma Shamsher Rana, who had so closely followed the similar case in football in November 2000, should ferment a crisis by allowing the election in closed doors.

Rana, who was commissioned by FIFA and AFC to hold the ANFA election involving both the feuding factions before the final deadline of November 15, 2000, was quite vociferous against the election that was held unilaterally by Ganesh Thapa.

"What Thapa did is a breach of an agreement that we made together with FIFA and AFC," was the reaction of Rana, who was the vice-president of NSC then. "The election is void in itself as it does not meet the requirements set by FIFA and AFC."

An official from within the Ganesh Thapa-led committee before the outbreak of ANFA dispute had told yours truly that, besides all the tactics, political channels that were activated, there was one more factor which helped Thapa overcome all the storm and retain his seat as ANFA president.

While there are no incontrovertible proof, indifference towards a woman from AFC executives, predominantly from Arab nations, had worked in favour of Thapa. Gita Rana, with the backing from NSC, had once emerged as a potent threat to Thapa.

The Ganesh Thapa-led ANFA was bestowed with the support of both FIFA and AFC as Rukma Shamsher Rana of NOC now claims he has that of IOC and OCA. Thapa, who has now become the vice-president of NSC, is talking in the similar lines like Rana did.

"The report Filino delivered is baseless and only seeks to hide NOC’s misdeeds," Thapa told a press conference held on the same day in response to Filino’s comments.

So reaction to the council’s comments was quite predictable with the NOC officials terming it as arbitrary and interference in the functioning of an autonomous body.

While Singh insists that the election had been held without his notice, the NOC officials claim that he has signed on the committee’s minute book and that the fact that he, being NOC’s vice-president in the new executive committee, only complicate the matter.

But Singh’s decision to dissolve the associations has only lent more credit to criticism that he has resorted to coercive methods with all the powers at his command after he failed to have his men in positions of importance in the committee.

And the council’s selective action is the definite pointer to the fact that he was venting his anger on associations that have supported Rana in his election.

Why is not he talking of holding elections in those association if he was really trying to make them functional, is one question in everyone’s lip. The control that the council wants to exercise will be meaningless beyond a point if IOC decides to impose sanction against Nepal.

With either party unwilling to relinquish, what athletes and genuine sport enthusiasts here see is a pall of gloom looming large on the horizon of Nepali sports.

Narayan Gopal and Sun Hari’s Jwain

PETER J KARTHAK

Everybody knows Narayan Gopal. As for Sun Hari, he is Sundar Hari Prajapati, my late father-in-law of Bheda Sing at Macchhendra Bahal of old Kathmandu. His friends shortened Sundar Hari to Sun Hari. I married his daughter Ranjana Rani Prajapati, and thus I am Sun Hari’s jwain.

Narayan Gopal was like a Thulo Dai to Ranjana. After all, Narayan Dai lived in Kilagal Tole across the road from Bheda Sing. My own two jethans, Ram Krishna "Toofan" Prajapati and Shyam Krishna Prajapati were Narayan’s friends and colleagues.

Because of such relations, I addressed Narayan Gopal as Jethan or Dai, and he also reciprocated by calling me Jwain Saheb or Jwain Narayan.

One fallout of our Jethan-Jwain relationship was my own relation with Gopal Yonzon. He was no more to me the old "Gofley" of Darjeeling because he was the Mitjyu of Narayan Gopal. You just don’t fool around with the Mitjyu of your Jethan, period! Therefore, my dealings with both Gopal and Narayan Gopal were strictly cool, formal and professional. We met only in crowds and acted professionally in the recording studios of Radio Nepal where I played guitar and acoustic double bass for their songs.

This is a disaster story and belongs to late 1978. We met regularly at Narayan Sahu’s tharra pasal at Masa Galli. The evening drinkers were Uttam Nepali, Ravi Shah, Kokil Gurung, Bhimbar Singh Thapa, Em Bahadur Khadka, Shyam Krishna Prajapati, some home ministry sleuths and others. Narayan Gopal was another regular to enjoy the Sahu’s fine Newar drinks and quality snacks.

One night, Narayan Gopal and I were the last customers to leave the oasis. It was around eleven. The autumn night was balmy and crispy. In the moonlight, I could see the steeple of the Taleju Bhawani at Hanuman Dhoka. We were standing in the middle of the junction facing the gate of the Rato Macchendra Nath Temple.

Suddenly we heard the bhajan mandali of the temple singing their ears off in the night. I knew the insomniac old men of the Bahal gathered for their nightly choir. I knew this because this was my Sasurali area! My father-in-law Sundar Hari was a principal member of this sleepless group because he was the master ganja mixer for the bhajan singers who smoked it for euphoric concentration in their bid to be one with their Maker.

"Let’s go there!" Narayan Dai said suddenly and moved towards the gate. I followed. Inside we saw the singers on the high platform behind the iron bar enclosure. In the public side were white and Japanese tourists, listening and clicking their cameras. This was a major nocturnal sightseeing destination in Kathmandu during those days.

I saw my Sasura and his colleagues. There was a recess, and my father-in-law was preparing the next chilim of ganja, which he eventually lighted and passed around. The cave-like conclave was once again engulfed in a tinted whitish blue smoke that we all had to inhale.

It was then Narayan Dai threw his shoes to one side. Muttering "Ka-ka-ka" in Newari, he climbed up to the podium and grabbed the harmonium, sat down and crossed his legs. The chilim was passed on to him, which he enflamed with a long and deep pull and exuded a voluminous smoke like a fire dragon.

Then he started singing the popular bhajans, his eyes closed in sombre contemplation. He sang six of them, in rapid succession. The elderly gentlemen all knew him as an ex-bhajan singer and their immediate neighbour. They were happy, and accompanied him enthusiastically on the acoustic organ, tabla, dholak, "tringle", jhyamta and ektare. The night was awake and the choir shook the entire area. There was much chatter and cheers when Narayan finished his last spiritual. Then we left.

Then things turned real nasty, oh boy! One evening, Ranjana came home, agitated. There was a big ho-halla at Bheda Sing, she huffed and puffed. Why? Because I had taken Narayan Dai to the Mandir’s bhajan ensemble! Not true, I countered: It was he who took me there. He smoked their ganja and sang six lengthy bhajans. The old men also smoked and sang with him. Ranjana relayed my version to her brothers, "Toofan" and Shyam Krishna, the two mahsoors of Kathmandu at that time.

But my clarifications did not help matters at all. It transpired that Narayan Gopal was a persona non grata in Bheda Sing because of its old feud with Kilagal. Then how come Narayan Gopal had the guts to come to Macchhendra Bahal, and sing bhajans, to boot? The answer: Because Sun Hari’s jwain brought him there! Which son-in-law? The one called Peter who married Ranjana!

Then invectives flew my way. That Peter? That gai khane! Beshyaka! Mampaka! That prabasi from Darjeeling! Kristaan! That bhatey Bhotey! The other rich and traditional Newar expletives hurled at me cannot be printed here.

But I did not mind all these bad blood, which had also rendered me a persona no grata at Bheda Sing, like Narayan. I stopped going to my Sasurali. It was only when my father-in-law passed away in 1983 was I able to visit again, when all seemed forgiven and forgotten.

As I said, I understood the communal enmity. After all, the Kathmandu Valley was ruled by feuding brother-kings who fought among and against themselves. Kathmandu was a series of walled-in ghettos, which were dismantled only by Bhimsen Thapa. A large part of the absence in civic sense even to this day in Kathmandu goes back to its divisive and clannish history.

I don’t know whether Narayan Gopal himself was aware of all these disquieting developments that had heaped all the blames on me. We seldom met after that, and he was slowly and surely becoming the "Swar Samrat" of Nepal in his own way.

At one Sasurali bhoj, my Jethan Shyam Dai explained the "external elements" that were responsible for the charges levelled against me for bringing Narayan to the Bhajan Kanda. Why outside elements in an ancient and self-protected enclave like Bheda Sing? I did not get the answers.

Narayan is no more, so are most of the famed bhanjan mandali members of Macchhendra Bahal. One grandson of Sundar Hari Prajapati, who has not left Bheda Sing, is a member of the celebrated choir, singing the nights away. Narayan Sahu’s Tharra Pasal is also no more. We all have grown older and moved away, one way or the other. But perhaps tourists still visit the singing shrine at night.