Some took leave from work, some cancelled their prior engagements, some travelled...

When Baburam Bhattarai became Prime Minister some ten months ago, Nepalese were happy that a very honest and popular leader, probably the most admired political leader then, had risen to power. They hoped that Bhattarai would provide economic relief to the poor and bring the long-debated peace and constitution writing work to a happy conclusion. His declaration that he would quit the chair of power if he failed to make significant progress on these fronts (peace and constitution)within forty-five days of assuming power further enhanced people’s respect for him.

The practice of corruption is becoming a cancer without cure at all levels in our society. The ruthless exploitation of public property and money by politicians is becoming a common phenomenon. Such illicit behaviour of politicians and public officials hampers our development efforts and prolongs our stagnation. Pervasive corruption has polluted our system of governance, and, despite all the talk about its eradication, there has been no positive result to show. On the contrary, the practice spreads day by day, and it has infiltrated the entire political and administrative machinery of the nation. We, the people, are being forced to witness malpractices happening day by day with no power to stop any of them.

Borders are always an issue of conflict. Sometimes, due to the desire of a state to expand its territory, they are important to keep a check and maintain one’s sovereignty and being. Everywhere, we find thick physical lines. But in spite of these forced (forced because the human nature, the human “spirit” does not like such boundaries) boundaries imposed upon us, these boundaries are unable to separate us completely. Still it is true that rivers flow from one country to another by crossing boundaries, mountains spread over one to another and so are human emotions and relations.  No landlocked boundary in this world can be in existence in such a way that nobody can cross it.

During this century, millions of children, women and men have been victims of unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity. This is a harsh reality the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court ('ICC' or the 'Court') has enshrined in its preamble. Furthermore, it maintains that the court is determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes.

As with previous tradition of brining out monetary policy after the Government presents the budget Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), has made public the monetary policy for 2012/13. The Monetary Policy for the fiscal year 2012/13 unveiled by Nepal Rastra Bank has given priority to the productive sector to meet the economic growth target of 5.5 percent in the current fiscal year.

The April Movement (AM), 2005 of Nepal has great importance in the political history of Nepal. Its character, in the main, is bourgeoisie, but to a limited degree. Out of the achievements of the AM the election of the Constituent Assembly (CA) is of decisive importance, which in its very first session took the historical decision to abolish monarchy and establish republic. But all these achievements are within semi-feudal and semi-colonial conditions. So the AM cannot be taken as a bourgeoisie democratic movement in a real sense. A bourgeoisie democratic movement, to be a real one, should bring an end to semi-feudal and semi-colonial condition and only a New Democratic Revolution can achieve this goal. However, in spite of limited bourgeoisie character of the AM, considering the great changes brought about by it, the AM should be regarded as a progressive one. But it seems that after the election of the CA, the progressive character of the AM has ceased to exist. That is obvious from its failure to enact the constitution.

June’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, was criticized in many quarters for failing to produce binding agreements on climate change and other global issues. The criticism was justified, insofar as the international community has made so little progress in recent years toward addressing the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, especially in the developing world. In my native country of Nepal, glaciers are retreating and creating new lakes that present terrible risks to people along riversides at lower elevations. The melting of Himalayan glaciers also threatens the supply of drinking water to millions of people in Nepal, India, and China.