At least there's no war. With 13,000 people dead during more than a decade of fighting, people here will tell you that's one good thing.
But nearly a year after Nepal's Maoist militants left their Himalayan bases to join the political mainstream, raising hopes that this country's government could finally become more than a regional sideshow, politics remains deadlocked by feuding parties and overshadowed by the former insurgents.
And in Nepal, a poverty-wracked country where most rural people struggle by in a semi-feudal existence, political pessimism has become the rule.
"I was naive enough to believe that things would change," former finance minister Devendra Raj Pandey said. "I thought the parties would change, and that the Maoists would come around to accepting this new political reality."
Instead, "they have all thoroughly disappointed the people in every sense of the word," Pandey said.
On Friday came one more disappointment when, after days of arguing, the political parties and the Maoists agreed to postpone the elections to select the Constituent Assembly, the body that will draft the country's new constitution.
It was the Maoists who pushed for the postponement, increasing the pressure on the ruling alliance after quitting the government last month.
Nothing should happen, they say, until their demands are met. The monarchy, they insist, should be immediately abolished -- though the once-absolute ruler King Gyanendra retains little power since street protests forced him to bring back democracy last year. They are also demanding procedural changes to the election system for the Constituent Assembly -- technical modifications that appear aimed at ensuring the Maoists capture as many seats as possible.
In many ways, that should come as no surprise. Democracy is messy, particularly in a country with such meager democratic experience, and for the Maoists to engage in Himalayan gerrymandering could simply mean they understand how to play the game.
But to force such a major change in the process -- particularly so early in the political transition -- is what worries many people.
"We have been let down by the Maoists. We are compelled to make changes to the election only because of them," Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said after the postponement. "All the parties in the government were ready."
To see the more mainstream politicians as the good guys, though, is too simple.
Nepal's political class -- which has grown in fits and starts since the late 1940s, with years of slowly expanding democratic power offset by years when politicians were thrown into prison by various kings -- is wildly unpopular, seen as highly corrupt.
"The people have no other choice with politicians," said Prateek Pradhan, editor of the Kathmandu Post. "They can't go back to the monarchy, and can't surrender to the Maoists."
But, he said, the country will go nowhere unless the former insurgents remain in politics.
"We can't have elections without the Maoists, they wouldn't be credible," Pradhan said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS