Non-Aligned Movement
Give It A New Life

By Chiranjibi Poudyal

THE 114 member nation Non Aligned Movement (NAM) summit being held in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur has a greater role to play to defuse tension in the Middle East, particularly the possible war over Iraq, fight terrorism, enhance economic cooperation, reduce poverty, resolve problem of HIV/ AIDS and increase the role of developing countries in the United Nations.

Alternative

Established as an alternative grouping to the eastern bloc of the Soviet Union led Warsaw pact communist nations and USA led bloc of the western capitalist nations during the cold war, the focus of the NAM has changed in the present context of the world. The focus mainly has been economic and political interests of the developing countries. Its focus has changed from resisting the pressures of the major power blocs: the USA and the then Soviet Union led grouping and maintaining independence and opposing colonialism and neo-colonialism to promoting the interests of the least developed and land locked countries of Asia and Africa.

NAM remained only as a pressure group during the Cold War era and even after the end of that era, its activities have not been so effective. Though the NAM leaders have stressed the need to pay special interests in the economic development and south -south cooperation, it has not seen materialised.

The post cold war era NAM summits have focused on some issues including the strengthening of democracy in the developing world, globalisation, south-south and north- south cooperation, relaxation on debt, increasing economic cooperation from the developed countries to the developing countries, international trade and disarmament and investment flow to the developing countries. Almost all the NAM nations are poor. Among them majority are least developed and landlocked, crippled with the civil war and internal crisis. Many of the NAM member countries are former colonies of the developed countries and they are still influenced by their former colonial power. The NAM nations have not been able to present their united voice in any international forum including in the United Nations.

Despite the representation of over two third of the population of the world, the role of these nations is almost neglible in the decision making process of the United Nations and other international forum. Only China is the permanent member of the UN from among the developing NAM countries. The NAM has not been able even to establish its own permanent secretariat. The leaders of the developing countries gather only in three years time and express their commitment through declaration and there is no any mechanism to implement the commitment and further enhance the cooperation among the NAM members. "The poor countries' club" named by the developed countries also seems applicable due to its inactiveness. The possible war over Iraq, HIV/AIDS, transnational crimes, international drug trafficking and low trade and investment flow even after the end of cold war era are some of the major problems faced by the developing countries. The civil wars and many other internal problems have engulfed these nations into the mire of crisis.

Despite their strength of over 114 members with over two third populations of the globe, their voice is very weak. They have not been able to convince the developed countries in international forum and make decision in favour of the poverty stricken people of the developing world.

The poverty is rampant and nearly half of the population of the NAM members is living under the poverty line. The NAM countries accounted for 880.50 billion US dollars or only 14.3 per cent of world's total export and only 736.90 billion US dollars or by 11.4 per cent of world imports in 2001. Over 95 percent of the HIV/ AIDS affected people are living in NAM members.

Except some Scandinavian countries, most of the developed countries have not provided the economic assistance as committed to provide to the developing countries. And the assistance provided by the rich countries has not been properly utilised due to rampant corruption. There is no true democracy, no transparency and no accountability and therefore the corrupt governments have no moral power to raise their voice for the interests of the country and the innocent people. The developed countries have understood this reality.

They are considering all these things, it seems there are only two alternatives before the NAM nations. NAM should be either dissolved or reinvigorated. The founders had great dream. It has been successful to free most of the countries of the Asia and Africa from the chain of colonialism. It can be reinvigorated with those strong feelings of the 25 founder members of the NAM. Focus should be laid on economic cooperation, poverty reduction, combating terrorism, HIV/AIDS, control of drug trafficking, greater economic and political cooperation through democratisation process in the member countries to give a new life to the NAM comes into existence only during the summit. The leaders of the NAM should be able to convince Iraq and the North Korea both members of the NAM to end the storing of biological, chemical and atomic weapons of mass destruction to avoid war which can further complicate the situation of the NAM. The NAM should be able to sort out the differences among its member nations and always present a united voice in the international forum. There is a need to take strong decision to make the NAM an effective grouping of the developing countries.

The words of the present chairman of the NAM and South African president Thabo Mbeki very clearly reflect the reality of the NAM countries. He said, "NAM is not a club and it should not be given to be like a club of inactive persons, it is the organisation of majority of the population of the world and the life of NAM is connected to the future of millions of people of the Third World."

Reality

These feelings should be translated into reality to fulfill the dream of the NAM founders and save the lives of millions of people from drowning into the mire of hunger and disease.

Should America Disarm Iraq?

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

THE world is how divided into two camps over the question of disarming Iraq. One camp is for direct military intervention in disarming the Iraq; The question is what will be the right thing to do for disarming Iraq?

Weapons

According to the presentation of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Security Council of the United Nations, there is no about about Iraq possessing the weapons of mass destruction; Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and making progress in building nuclear weapons too.

If the Iraqi President has a chance to use the weapons of mass destruction he will certainly use them to destroy the people with faiths other than Islam. This judgement is based on the activities of the Islamic extremists such as Talibans in Afghanistan. Talibans destroyed the huge stone image of Buddha in Bamiyan and many other images of Buddha kept in the museum in Kabul in 2000 in their mission to eliminate the relics of other faiths. Buddha is the most compassionate figure that never harms others Instead, he forgives them for anything they do wrong to him. That is why there is no retaliation against anyone for the destruction of the image of Buddha.

None of the Muslim countries spoke even a few words against such criminal acts of Talibans not to mention about the condemnation of such barbaric work of Talibans. Thus, the Muslim world gave an acceptance of destroying images of other religion by keeping quiet on the horrendous acts of Talibans.

People of other faiths particularly Buddhists faced the direct attack of Islamic extremists on their belief after the senseless destruction of the Buddha image by the Talibans in Afghanistan. The Buddhist world could tolerate such unbearable annoyance because of their belief in the ignorance of the Islamic extremists that they would need to bear the consequences of their deeds, and because of their compassion for the ignorance of such people.

The world would not have lost more than three thousand lives if the US had sensed the threat of the Islamic extremists and had been serious to protect its vulnerable monuments such as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center after the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan. At that time the US administration did show a little concern over the destruction of the Buddha image in Afghanistan. The US awoke when the Islamic extremists hit the Twin Tower using the commercial airlines and disrupting the lives of citizens for weeks in New York on September 11, 2001.

Now the question is whether the world should wait for the Iraqi president to use his weapons of mass destruction and lose millions of lives before taking actions against him or strike him now so that he will not have the opportunity of killing the innocent people. The answer is if you do not mind to get killed by the biological or chemical weapons of the Iraqi president you may opt for defending him, otherwise we need to support the destruction of the weapons of mass destruction he has been hiding.
The world is living under the threat of Islamic extremist elsewhere. They are called Disarming the Iraqi president is the first step toward the war against terrorism. If we successed in destroying the biological and chemical weapons the Iraqi president has developed and kept for destroying the innocent people, it will be only the first step towards the elimination of the ugly terrorists from is the earth.

However, the world shall not be a safe place to live in until all the terrorists are eliminated. All the countries including the Islamic countries should unite together to fight against the terrorists.
The third step toward the elimination of terrorism from this world is to stop hatred. We cannot live in peace if children are taught hatred for the humanity. When they grow up they will not have respect for the human lives and they will kill the people.

We want to serve the humanity eliminating all kinds of extremism and terrorism. So why should we not strike the Silos of the chemical and biological weapons elsewhere in the world, and make the world safe place to live in for all the people?

If we happen to supporting the wrong side, we will need to suffer the consequences. So the people blindly supporting the Iraqi president in the name of protesting against disarming Iraq will certainly need to regret in future for supporting the wrong person and wrong cause when they will face the biological and chemical weapons of the Iraqi president.

We cannot keep quiet now thinking the Islamic extremists have been targeting America only not us. The Islamic terrorist have been targeting America because America is a mighty country and once they finish off America then they will not have much problems of finishing off other weaker nations. So everyone is on the hit list of Islamic terrorists. Your turn will certainly come for the terrorists to hit you if we do not think correctly now and get rid of those extremists and their weapons of mass destruction.

Need

If you value the human lives we need to protect humanity from the destruction. If you let the terrorists grow they will not only destroy others but they themselves will get destroyed because they are bound to suffer the consequences of their wrong deeds. So we need to destroy the stockpile of the weapons of mass destruction.

(All the views expressed here are the author's personal views)-Ed

Finally He Laughed

By Anantayatree Shreedhar Khanal

M.N. REGMI was a serious man. He never laughed while talking with other people including his friends. Instead, he made them laugh with his seriously spoken language full of wit, pun, irony and humour. His friends and acquaintances were very much pleased with his occasional visit to them. The mood of such meeting was always optimistic. If Regmi did not visit somebody for more than a week, they would become anxious. They expressed surprise that Regmi did not even smile while making others laugh.

Some of his senior relatives would ask him why he did not smile or laugh and accompany others on their pleasure. Regmi would reply that his calm expression must have hidden his inward pleasure. People then were unable to understand him. They thought he was an abnormal person.

He was a distant relative of mine. So, I occasionally went to his home during my school days. I liked to play with one of his sons who preferred in-door games to out-door ones. His room was on the second floor and I had to climb two wooden staircases to meet him.

One late afternoon while I was climbing down the second stair case, one of its steps broke down. I lost my balance and fell down. I felt acute pain in my knees as well as elbows, I cried bitterly. Before my friend came down, his father who had just entered the house rose me up and slapped my face hard. My friend shouted at his father to stop beating me and be kind to his friend. Regmi ignored his son and led me outside. He sat me on the lawn and said, "Look up and pay attention what I say. You must never show pain or pleasure to others because no one is affected by it. So, my son, do not weep when you are hurt. The same way do not laugh when get pleasure. You are the only one who is affected by your good or evil luck. So, let nobody know what you are feeling inwardly."

Being fed up with his sermoning, I slowly got up and left. My friend came running after me and asked me whether I was badly hurt. I told him not to worry as I had only bruised my knee and took leave of him.

I had not accepted his father's sermon that one should not cry when hurt. It was impossible. I wanted to prove it to him. But how? Regmi came to my house a few days later. He had come to see my grandfather and had a chat with my father. I set a booby trap of banana skin on the staircase and waited till it was evening when Regmi would take leave of my father. He came out in the evening. He did not see the banana skin on the topmost step of the ladder as I had put the light off. He slipped on the ladder-step and tumbled down the stairs. I stepped forward from my hiding and tried to raise him to his feet. But he got up himself and let out a loud guffaw. And that was for the first time I had seen him laugh.