Wobblyworm retorts back

Dear SRR,

You have done a wonderful job. Thank you. Its wonderful.. optimism, pessimism, hope, despair, conflict.. all in one beautiful package.

My comments (bottom-up):
1. "son" not ready to take on freedom from "father"
Well, SRR, this is the gist of my feelings. I feel that children who are not mature should have the right to live under father. When the son matures, he definitely knows that its time to take up responsibilities of life and support the family, possibly the father also. Each of the children must have this gut feeling of "responsibility" before we can survive freedom. My contention is that we can have democracy under the father also. Again, I reiterate, the father is not the enemy. Its the immaturity (lack of awareness, of conscious decision)of the child that is the problem.

2. Life is full of conflicts. It is the armed struggle of the mauists that have brought us the cherished revolution.. and yet we blame Prachanda for the atrocities committed. The charisma of Girija and his amiability has brought together a disparate people and yet we call him incompetent. We all know why that happens: its human nature to be full of conflicts, only the degree may vary. The reality does not change, but perceptions do. The important thing is the idea.. of democracy, of freedom of choice, of freedom from fear. These are the very desires that are deep inside every person and which drive in seemingly conflicting ways, of thoughts and actions. Its easy to make judgements on other people and say he did this right and he did this wrong, but it is difficult to do the right thing for ourselves. The point I am making is that like MMS said, perceptions are dependent on the frame of reference. But as an "aware" people, we must remember that its not one person that is important.. not Prachanda, not Girija.. nor any other individual person. We must realize that as "intellectuals" we must understand ourselves, and help our compatriots understand themselves and help them deal with conflicts. This will create solidarity and awareness among the people and give light and direction to our otherwise ignorant and oblivious ways.

3. Democracy is the way to go.
There is no doubt. In earlier discussions, I have mentioned that it is the freedom of choice. But again, it is useful in situations when choices are made consciously. Otherwise it does not deliver its purpose. Therefore, our mission should be to empower each individual to make a conscious choice if (s)he so wishes to make a choice. Only then the true "voice of the people" will be heard. Many people profess about the correctness of the direction of the current movement against the king. But again, I ask has the movement brought any change to our lives? hell no.. we live in the same fear.. same lack of choices.. a pessimist would say: man.. have we jumped from the pan into the fire. an optimist would say: shit man.. but lets evaluate our options. For now, I think our best move would be to create a solidarity of "aware" people. Awareness because we choose what we want, and, solidarity because it sustains our identity at various levels that I discussed in the seed discussions for the solidarity.

4. I have hope for our country.
As individuals, I have tremendous respect for Girija, for the King Gyanendra as well as for the mauist leaders. Maybe each one of them is right in his own frame of reference, but I do not believe they are contributing to the upliftment of Nepalese in terms of political ideology and democracy in general. Only by creating an atmosphere of peace and letting the people know their choices and giving them the freedom of choice (or not to choose for that matter) will they satisfy my aspirations for our country. After these requirements are fulfilled, going with the Olympics motto.. "may the best man win" should be the new motto of the democratic political system. And I believe it can come around sooner than in India. Why wait 50 years when we can start right now? According to the July 2006 estimates there are 28+ million Nepalese and if we were to bring awareness to each individual at the rate of one person per minute, it would take us 106+ years, not counting the population growth. But if we have exponential growth as MMS once explained to us, we can accomplish the feat in 25 minutes. Its amazing isn't it?

Guys, I appeal to you to at least think about 2 things:
need for solidarity
bringing awareness to ourselves and to our compatriots.

We, the people, are in no state to tackle the trio (politicians, mauists and king) if we do not have both awareness and solidarity.

Thats all folks. WOBBLYWORM.

aba SRR pani heated..

Please forgive my intrusive way of replying; I shall be commenting over WOBBLYWORM's "feelings" where ever appropriate. Please read through.

On 18/05/06, WOBBLYWORM wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Continuing with my previous argument that the so called Andolan II
> will cause greater disparity among the masses because only the king
> has been victimized when in fact the politicians and the mauists
> should also have been controlled by an "aware" people.

True.

> Girija and his team have done a good job with taking the powers of
> the King.

I can see happiness in your heart, finally, out of your so called "pessimistic" views. Your heart feels lighter, perhaps you see a slimmer of hope in this act, a promise, however small but a promise after all.


> … Does it really represent the people's voice? is the
> question now. And the answer to this question will determine the
> degree to which the people will be segregated into hard-lined
> factions.


We have always had questions. And we should never stop questioning. The act of questioning is more important than ever because we have had a "krantee" here in this place, something, nobody thought would arrive so soon.

The views WILL be polemic in nature, for sure. The happiness and the sense of "victory" in people here is so great that they will not listen to anything. (Even the engineering schools here in RANIBAN {alias} are doing a "hartal" for the past few days. They say, "if they threw away the king, why can't we get our demands fulfilled"!!) But I think, in time, they will understand because I believe, with every single day, people, ordinary, mundane people are growing, developing and getting
more knowledgeable by the day.

Thus we should take the arising polemical views in the Neplis of today to be a natural phenomenon.

>
> With a pessimistic outlook, I hope that the "people" will realize the
> deeper chaos they are in. The current HoR proclamations have stripped
> of the power from the King, but as we all know, power cannot just
> disappear.. it has to belong to somebody and who is that somebody?

Now, this is a beautiful statement in its purity. Yes, very true. Power has to "belong" to somebody and as I was watching the feed on TV while the historic proclamation was being read out, I was thinking exactly the same. "Who on earth is accountable to this country now that sole power rests with a bunch of (203?) MPs?" Well, I too felt vacant for a moment but then on hind sight, if we do not allow power to HoR then WHO else? Its a choice Sau, I think. It's a choice and
they have decided well.

Also, perhaps true accountability rests with no one in times like these that these times are called, "periods of transition".. Hmm.. I am now getting to learn and see for myself, what exactly a
"sankramankaal" is.

> ... right, the politicians. some might even say that the "people"
> have jumped from a frying pan into the fire. Now the prolbem is who
> will control the politicians and Mauists? Is there any device that
> will aid the masses to control them? Civil war will be the worse
> curse for Nepal... God forbid.

:) You are thinking well ahead, and like a think tank perhaps.

I might agree with the first statement that people might have jumped onto fire from a pan. Time will tell. I don't want to bet or believe in it right now. Optimistic moron I am!

I don't much worry about the politicians. Girija Prasad Koirala, the same incompetent one who has had an important role in turning the previous "Democracy" imbecile stood by all the pressure in these very volatile times and went on ahead with the people's wishes; I think this enough shows that the guy has changed and if we paint a picture using GP's brushes, we could perhaps obtain a "harabhara" picture of Nepal if not a changed scenario. (The king touched GP's hands with a smile when GP went to the palace to take pm's oath. Contrary to the king's expressions, GP had a vacant, pale face, his face showed he promised nothing. One could just imagine how much of royal/royal affiliated pressure there must have been given to GP during these weeks before yesterday's proclamation.)

However, ordinary "byaparis" and some industrialists are fearful of the Maoists. The casual businessman feels that the softness with which the parties are giving in to the Maoists might titillate the Maoists to disrupt the new found Loktantra. Its amazing how much fear they have of the Maoists....(perhaps, its relevant too because they have paid up lakhs and lakhs of rupees in extortion money to the Maoists in broad daylight). Yes, Maoists COULD be a problem and they pose a REAL threat and the only way this threat can be lessened is to disarm them as soon as possible and involve their "cadres" in something meaningfully civilian.

Another important thing with the Maoists that we have to agree and be knowledgeable about is that their lifestyle of living in extortion money and on the tip of their gun is not going to die off just like that. It will take time. Perhaps years. And we shall have to live by with this threat till then. (A few days after loktantra was established, the Maoist affiliated students in nearby Prithvi Narayan
Campus, asked us to "donate" COSTUMES {alias} for their new office. We did comply. What was to note was that the tone of their speech was the same as usual. It was the same tone they used when they asked us (extortion) money and now. But the remarkable thing was this time, they gave a LOGIC as to why they wanted a contact office and why we had to "contribute". ha.ha..) Things are changing for sure, but slowly, so slowly that some might feel that the path of change is going nowhere. But these are very testing times. For all of us. We HAVE no choice of faltering. We have to prevail. With optimism.

> On an optimistic note, yes, these steps are in the direction towards
> a mature democracy. But even then, we have to remember that the
> countries in which democracy has sustained is where resources are
> plentiful and people can afford the time and energy to learn and
> improve.

I do not agree with the first one. Economists say and is proven too that the economy of a country CAN prosper even where political situation is far from democratic values. China is a brilliant example. The military junta run Burma too has not a bad economy. Saudi Arabia, even Iran are fine though. But it definitely helps to have a democratic system. :)

Secondly, even where countries have had huge resources, democracy has not been able to spread its wings. A brilliant example is Nigeria sitting on a notable percentage of oil and gas but is one of the poorest countries in the world. Japan you know has no natural resources at all. It buys raw materials, adds value and sends it back.

Thirdly, don't forget that those who call themselves truly democratic states today went through a definite period of tumult and pain.

And fourth, India is starting to reap benefits only after fifty years of independence and practice of democracy.

The point is, its hard and long way ahead but we are getting there, yes we are and definitely.

> … But in countries where people are "unaware" and lack
> resources, it might be difficult to mature with only democracy at our
> disposal. We need more than just democracy.. we need sanskar to help
> us persevere through the growing pains..


:) Very true. THIS (lack of sanskar in us) shall be a sizeable threat. And it is one of those things that take a lot of time to be inculcated.

> … and its sad that we have
> just sacrificed it.


Perhaps you are pointing to the fact that king has been done away with. I disagree. I will put an example here. Only-sons are helped and caressed at every painful turns in life by their fathers to the point that the sons don't know how to fight. Someday, that dad has to go away. That morning, the son finds himself incapable of doing even daily chores on his own.

We talk about freedom all the time and we do not let ourselves free. Royalty was perhaps the father of the only son (Nepali People) and I am simply, plainly glad that the dad has been realised of his "fatal love" to his only child. I am happy to have that freedom back. Whatever happens next shall all be mine. Good or bad. And this feeling of having got my freedom to myself is exhilarating even though I know I am faraway for sustainability in the short term. SHORT TERM only. NOT long term and NOT slavery forever. ( His love is slavery, was, all the time.)





> … Therefore awareness should be our agenda.. to be
> aware ourselves and help our compatriots understand. Let awareness be
> the mission.

True. We should. This is the only medicine that we need to take with no restrictions with regards to its dosage!


>
> Also something to think about is whether the king will simmer down
> quietly or come back with a vengeance. Who knows. But deep inside I
> am hoping that the so called "peoples' voice" that ousted the king
> from power will bring him back to respectability, not because the
> King deserves it, but because the people deserve to maintain a sense
> of culture, to preserve solidarity.

:) The king won't come back now. Its ended for good. The humiliation the king of such high ambitions has inflicted upon himself is too deep and bothersome for him to revive himself now for the rest of his life. Hey, do you see the implication of his having been stripped off his powers by the people, the same people that his dynasty took "care" of for hundreds of years? Do you see that his entire existence has been reduced but to rubble? Do you see that even Prithvi Narayan Shah has been put to shame? Do you see the extreme ambitions of this poor king when contrasted with all the shahs that ruled us? And now, can you imagine the pain of accountability that seeks answers from the only man living? Can you feel how much of pain this man must be undergoing right now? And do you now think he will ever come out, with healed wounds?

Its not over yet, Wait. All the shahs are waiting up there for him. Once he arrives, they shall have a constituent assembly right there and agree to mangle his hair for what he did back "there".


>
> May Pashupatinath be with the people.

I hope you are not trying to be the next king! ha.ha..

SRR


> Thats all folks,
> WOBBLYWORM.

Wobblyworm heats up After HoR reinstatement

Dear all,

Continuing with my previous argument that the so called Andolan II will cause greater disparity among the masses because only the king has been victimized when in fact the politicians and the mauists should also have been controlled by an "aware" people.

Girija and his team have done a good job with taking the powers of the King. Does it really represent the people's voice? is the question now. And the answer to this question will determine the degree to which the people will be segregated into hard-lined factions.

With a pessimistic outlook, I hope that the "people" will realize the deeper chaos they are in. The current HoR proclamations have stripped of the power from the King, but as we all know, power cannot just disappear.. it has to belong to somebody and who is that somebody? ... right, the politicians. some might even say that the "people" have jumped from a frying pan into the fire. Now the prolbem is who will control the politicians and Mauists? Is there any device that will aid the masses to control them? Civil war will be the worse curse for Nepal... God forbid.

On an optimistic note, yes, these steps are in the direction towards a mature democracy. But even then, we have to remember that the countries in which democracy has sustained is where resources are plentiful and people can afford the time and energy to learn and improve. But in countries where people are "unaware" and lack resources, it might be difficult to mature with only democracy at our disposal. We need more than just democracy.. we need sanskar to help
us persevere through the growing pains.. and its sad that we have just sacrificed it. Therefore awareness should be our agenda.. to be aware ourselves and help our compatriots understand. Let awareness be the mission.

Also something to think about is whether the king will simmer down quietly or come back with a vengeance. Who knows. But deep inside I am hoping that the so called "peoples' voice" that ousted the king from power will bring him back to respectability, not because the King deserves it, but because the people deserve to maintain a sense of culture, to preserve solidarity.

May Pashupatinath be with the people.

Thats all folks, WOBBLYWORM

Starting of People's Movement against King

Here is another series of emails:

*** May 4, 2006 Thursday

Guys... time for another awakening.

I am not boasting.. well I guess I am.. but its true that we saw the revolution coming long before it came.. or what? My call for the solidarity movement was a precedent to whatever has been going on... ;) ok.. enough of the conceited BS.

instead of wasting you guys ko time.. i'll get down to the crux of the matter.. well, solidarity and all is a good thing.. but things did not go according to our agenda.. the first step as awareness.. and I doubt if it really happenned.. I am sad that people thought of the King as the enemy.. when he one of the mere players in Krishna's all-pervading leela. A king, whoever he is, whatever he did, is new on the throne and did what he thought was best for the country. I honestly believe in the sinceretity of his good intentions in getting involved in the political imbroglio. But no.. the f@#$ing politicians twisted facts and cheated the masses and raised them against the King... a king whose birth right gives him the right to do whatever he did, or whatever people think he did. How can the masses punish a lion for killing the gazelle?? c'mon people.. we need to wake up.. the politicians are the enemy.. manipulating people and misleading the masses. this is my take on the whole damned thing.. I hope you guys will think on it.

one more thing.. its important.. so perk up... I am also afraid that the tragedy of Mahabharata will be repeated.. if you think about it.. whats the real tragedy of Mahabharata? its that king Bharata wanted his son to be his successor instead of the most suitable one. Got it? NO.. I am not talking of Gyanendra and Paras.. I am talking of the Indira Gandhi legacy in India... yeah.. right.. I am afraid of the Koirala legacy in Kathmandu.. people.. people.. people.. wake up... Girija is the prime minister now.. ok.. he has earned it.. and he deserves it.. but his son, grandson, nephew, his daughter, his niece should not assume a leadership position without deserving it. that is my take on it.. if history is reapeated, the people will be the ones to suffer.. so let us wake up.. and let us wake up the people on whose hands the finan decision rests..

thats all folks. think about it.
WOBBLYWORM.



*** May 5, 2006 Friday

This is great MMS. Thank you for your views.

To come back to the discussion on "change".. well it has surprized me too. People have changed as a mass, right? I am yet to understand this phenomenon, because in fact, if you observe the individual, not much has changed. this is my contention. Also, as you mentioned at the end of your email about frames, which I call frame of reference, the perception of change depends on it. It all depends on which frame you are looking through. But again, yes, something has definitely changed with the Nepali populace, but what is that change? C'mon BRS, give it a go.

But again, change is not the issue I raised. It is universal and evident. But "why this change" is my question. Also, my assertion is that the King is not the enemy of democracy and that we need a king, in whatever shape or form. My assertion is that politicians are responsible for the 13+ years of turmoil, not the king. And this is the fact that has been twisted by politicians.

Now, mauist is another issue and it has mystified me more than ever. Who are they, what do they want, is the question nobody has been able to answer as of yet. And an answer to this question would simplify things a lot for everybody. But no.. its more convenient to keep the definition in a mask so that the miscreants may make use of it when they want and how they want. Someone quite appropriately said.. they are not maubadi.. they are khao-badi..

thats all then folks. guys, please contribute. BRS has never contributed to our discussions. Probably his views would help us clarify things. k ho yasto..

…

WOBBLYWORM.



--- MMS wrote:

> Hi WOBBLYWORM,
>
> Your thought stand out but I must say I cannot agree. No one had to 'twist'
> the kings' face. He did that to himself. Even the politicians are having a
> hard time dealing with the strict demands of the people. Now even the
> maoists are listening to the voice of the people. Somehow reality seems to
> be changing. Something has happened. What exactly? Is hard to say. How
> else do you explain the phenomenon of the revolution: people not caring
> about their lives, businesses forfeiting profits, schools posponing the
> future of children, government employees risking their necks, and the king
> so suddenly letting go within 20 days? May be Nepal is not cursed after
> all.
>
> Realities change. First the world is flat (pre-Columbus), then the earth is
> the centre of the universe (Aristotle), then the earth is part of the solar
> system (Galelio), then gravity pulls everything together (Newton), then time
> becomes a relative quantity and no more an absolute quantity (Einstein),
> then the universe is expanding like a balloon being blown (big bang theory),
> then atoms become waves and light becomes particles (quantum theory).
>
> Realities change. First the sky would fall on the heads of people if they
> were bad (Gaules), the forces of nature are governed by gods (mythology),
> then temperature, pressure, vast quantities of water, tectonic plates,
> control the forces of nature (geography), then human beings also affect
> climates (o-zone layer).
>
> Realities change. Madness is madness (pre-Freud), behind every mental
> disorder is sexual perversion (Freud), free sex is good (hippy movement),
> safe sex is best (post-AIDS).
>
> After all these evidences, we could deduce also that our realities also may
> be subject to change. We need new frames to look at the current occurrences, to explain them, and to predict even the immediate future. It
> seems mad but may be we have no option if we are to strive in these rapidly
> changing times.
>
> We may be talking about sexual attitudes, understanding of the forces of
> nature, and of the universe, as we could about the nature of the population
> of Nepal. I believe some fundamental changes has occured. What do you
> think it is?
>
>
> MMS


*** May 8, 2006 Monday

Dear MMS,

I get your message; plus, I agree with you fully. There is change.. in expectations, and so much else. And what has come around is not surprising in the sense that there was so much chaos and therefore so much opportunity. However, the proceedings of the masses has appalled and baffled me at the same time because non of it has profit-ed the masses. My question is: how does it affect the lives of the people? I cannot fit the movement of the masses in a logical model for the following reasons:
1. who are mauists and what do they want? are they part of the
people's voice?
2. why do people revere Birendra and admonish his brother? they are
of the same blood.
3. how come Girija is the PM when he had nothing to do with the
revolution? is he the people's voice?

Well, the list goes on...

My intent is for understanding and trying to make everybody understand the truth. Most of the time it is more convenient not to understand, but if we are going towards democracy, awareness is the first step. People born into democracy will not appreciate its value as much as those born into slavery or despotism. But we dont want the
masses to suffer. The least we can do is to educate ourselves and thus educate the masses because we are the masses. Just because there is a bigger tide, it does not mean everybody must ride the tide. And isn't that what democracy is about? The freedom of choice? The freedom which says that the bigger fish does not always eat the smaller one. I may have a small voice of awareness and of solidarity, but I strongly believe that the element of choice must be present in every democracy. Democracy is not about the popular vote, otherwise, Al Gore would have been the president.

What I think is that we are thinking as individuals. We must think as the people. What we are now doing is just trying to match our voice with the so-called people's voice. And from the little I know about music, it produces interesting beats, but does not really resonate to the voice of solidarity. On the other hand, when each of us knows
what our own voice and when we can tune our individual voice along with other people's voice, then the voices can resonate and such resonance would be the ideal voice of the people that symbolizes the essence of democracy. Just singing along to the politician's fiddle will not take us anywhere other than drown us in the Lake of Enlightened Sheep. If I may say so myself, we the so-called educated, and, hopefully, intellectual mass, should least of all support the any of the three parties that have plunged our beloved country to
despair. We, the intellectual masses, should take the initiative to educate and inform our less fortunate fellow-citizens about the choices and opportunities that we may have.

I am not in favor of the King, nor the parties, nor the so-called third party.. but I am adamantly in favor of the people's betterment. i am adamantly for the awareness of the people, and hope that in time, they will be able to make their own choices. But meanwhile there needs to be an environment of learning, of peace, of awareness.
And I appreciated the King's move because sought to change the political chaos with the intellectual mass. It did not succeed, but I thought it was a good effort.

I am in favor of the people's movement also, but aware people. Let each one discover his voice.. then join a movement.. not to join a movement to find a voice... that is the gist of my message.

If you ask me, this so called people's voice will not last long.. it will either whither away, or will be replaced by staunch support for a particular faction.. and such segregation is counter productive to our solidarity movement. For that reason I am not happy with this
current direction of the masses, a direction that comes not of awareness, but of emotion or false sense of movement. Its like a rocking chair that keeps your moving but gets you nowhere.

Anyway, I still have hope and hope that at least some of your voices will resonate with mine.

Thats all folks.

WOBBLYWORM.


---MMS wrote:

> Hi WOBBLYWORM,
>
> The last 'jana andolan' was a fantastic event, challenging our assumptions
> to the core. There are many theories to explain what, why, how. MAny more
> will come over time. This thesis is an attempt to explain this historic
> occurence. In the end I think that this phenomenon is not unique to
> politics and that the learnings can be transferred to our own professional,
> community and family lives.
>
> Change in the populations' behaviors, attitude towards monarchy, forgetfulness of
> the wrongs done by the politicians, enigma behind the
> maobadi can be explained by the altering expectations of the people.
>
> Expectation is a very powerful force for right or wrong. All the four
> elements I listed above, shift in mentality of people, hatred towards
> monarchy, forgiveness of the parties, conspiracy theory about the maoists,
> are the effects of one single cause: evolving expectations. Again
> expectations is the effect of many factors. So what is expecations? It is
> both a cognition and a feeling stemming from desire. It is the belief that
> something must be recieved. It is the belief that one is owed, that one
> deserves something. In short, expectation is like condensed hope.
>
> During the Rana Regime, people expected only to be able to live, eat, work
> and the kings expected to have a life of luxury and excess. This was the
> fuel for the Rana's seize of power for 101 years. Then a book came out in
> the market with a very simple metaphor: the bird in a golden cage. Along
> side, some liberals Rana's gave education to the people. Education is like
> a virus. Its message spread. Slowly, the thought of what is life for and
> how much one deserves from the state, began to change. Just performing the
> basic rituals of life, indulging in the senses and staying blind to the
> madness of the rulers became unacceptable. Does this coincide with a growth
> in the physical brain or DNA, or is it just an addition of knowledge, is
> hard to say. But changes in perpection happened from one to two, to four,
> to 16, to 256 and suchwise exponentially. Was it a surprise the Rana regime
> fell? So this evidence adds one point to my thesis: dramatic change
> expectation is the driving force of all revolutions.
>
> Revolution is an abrupt change, the more abrupt the change in expectations,
> the bigger, faster, bloodier revolution. That is aggreable. But how about
> the change attitude and behavior othe people? Does it precede the
> revolution? Does it walk along the revolution or does it come after the
> revolution? I think in case of the last revolution in nepal, it began with
> a few part of the population before, then like a contagious disease consumed
> much of the remaining population and finally towards the end, it claimed
> everyone even the king.

> It is not about the king. It is neither about the politicians or maobadi.
> It is about the the expectation of people who want to have a life of peace.
> It is the expecation of people to have work, that pays more than to fulfil
> the basic needs. It is the expecation of people to be able to express their
> feelings, their opinions. It is the expecation of people not to be
>
> exploited, cheated or ignored. Such expectations could not be met by the
> king. The parties expertly molded themselves as humble representatives of
> the people rather than their rulers. Maobadis were a product of rising
> expectations, jealousy of the have's by the have-not's, frustration and a
> clever leadership. Before the mounting wave of the transformed expecations
> of the people, they too had to succumb. Too much credit, they dont'
> deserve. Peace and prosperity is the prime expectation of the people: this
> is what this 'jana andolan' proved.
>
> This revolution has taught us many lessons. Among them is that expectation
> is a powerful force. I thus urge you to examine your expectations. If you
> are running your own company, or if your supervising a group, or if you are
> the head of a family (small or big), please take note of this finding. Make
> sure you examine their expectations too, how they are changing, whether for
> good or bad, rise or fall. I call upon you to ride those waves of
> expectations and not try to stop them or smash them, for as we have seen, it
> is quite impossible.
> > MMS