SATURDAY MATINEE

30 06 2007

If you have some time today sit down and watch this film. It is about the Mclibel trial and I think many activists and people in general owe a lot to these two people.

It truly is incredible that handing out a leaflet can get you involved in the longest legal battle in British history, and even more remarkable that McDonalds spent millions on legal fees and the two activists only had a little help and still in the end managed to…. well, see for yourself.

If the film makes you want to do something but you can’t be bothered, why not sub-contract the demo out to these people (click here to go to their website)…

banner.gif

Ever wanted to bring capitalism crashing down but can’t get time off work to do it?

Wanna force liberal parliamentary democracy to bow it’s corpulent head in shame but have to take the car into the garage AND do the shopping?

Do you get the urge to jab John Prescott with a stick till he cries like a fat girl but can’t find a stick?

Then McDemo’s is for you, we’ll find the stick and do the jabbing! Let us demonstrate for you!

Anyway, the film, McLibel - Two People Who Wouldn’t Say Sorry

One of the websites started by the campaign is McSpotlight




SPECIALLY RUINED FOR A HOLLYWOOD AUDIENCE

29 06 2007

default1.jpgI have always been a huge fan of Douglas Adams. Anyone capable of writing lines like “He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it” grabs your interest. Whilst I haven’t always agreed with him in all that he says, he continually managed to be seemingly flippant whilst actually profound - which is no easy habit to get into. He had an extraordinary amount of ability in the not-so simple art of putting one word after another.

Some examples…

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”

“Don’t believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.”

“He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.”

It just makes me laugh. It is not really science-fiction (he described himself as a comedy writer). Most science fiction is poorly written. Adams’ work most certainly isn’t.

I heard Hollywood was going to make a film of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and at first was pleased that the work would get to a wider audience. Then I panicked. I realised that even if it was done with the best intentions it was not going to translate to the screen. How do you translate “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t” or those I mentioned above into a visual image. It just won’t work.

Then I noticed the Hollywood spin machine get into action. Several fake fan sites were set up to promote the film. Unsurprisingly, their reviews were always glowing. The repository for all things Hitchhikers - the ‘Planet Magrathea’ website - reviewed the film and said it was fairly poor. The man who wrote the review, after years of maintaining a brilliant website for fans chucked it in because of… “unwarranted, ill-informed personal abuse and libel which has been directed towards me on the IMDB, livejournal and many other websites in the wake of my review of the film.”

Films cannot and should not replicate books exactly; it is a different medium and things have to be explained in a different way but despite this it often seems that things are not ’specially adapted’ for the screen but instead are ’specially ruined’ for Hollywood audiences.

Adams himself was asked about the differences between UK and US audiences and whether or not things had to be ‘dumbed down’ for the US. He replied that there was no great differences between the two and that the ‘dumbing down’ was not something that US audiences demanded or needed. The decision to do it is made on behalf of the US audiences by TV and film executives.

Happy endings tend to get stuck on as well. The US version of the dutch film ‘The Vanishing’ is a classic example. The Dutch version is chilling and not a little superb. The US version is the most appalling nonsense. US audiences did not demand this. US executives decided that they should see a version with a preposterous happy ending and not a straight remake of the Dutch film (better still, why not just watch the Dutch film - there are such things as subtitles). In changing the end they entirely changed the point.

Spielberg’s attempt at War of the Worlds is another case. H.G. Wells’ book is about the arrogance of the human race in assuming that they are the sum of all things. Spielberg’s version is about a few flashy special effects and Tom Cruise ‘growing up and accepting his responsibilities.’

This is not to say that remakes cannot be done well. Most often they aren’t, but occasionally they can be. Try the Orson Welles version of ‘War of the Worlds’ here.

Anyway, back to Adams. I still haven’t seen the film, I just know that I personally will find it achingly awful because I have seen probably 10 minutes worth of clips and it is clear that a book that manages to take the finer points of philosophy (a professor friend of mine informs me that one section is ‘inverse Kantian philosophy’), physics, metaphysics, astro-physics[i] and making sandwiches, has been transformed into a piss-poor slapstick with a couple of witty jokes.

I’ll adapt an Adams quote to end…”In the beginning Hollywood was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. “

Here is Adams proof of the non-existence of god from the original bbc series…

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An excellent talk Adams did at the University of California just before he died entitled “Parrots, the universe and everything” is available here

He also wrote the funniest short story I have ever read, which is available here

[i] I don’t know of any other writer who could have came up with a line like “in the end he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn’t stand was a smartarse.”




NUCLEAR

29 06 2007

I read this a couple of months ago and I have not been able to get it out of my head. It is from Derrick Jensen’s fabulous book ‘Endgame‘ (page 63/64).

As well as affecting U.S. soldiers, DU (depleted uranium) has probably already harmed 250,000 Iraqis. The same can be said for residents of Bosnia, and soon we’ll be saying the same for the people of Afghanistan. Leukemias and cancers have gone up by 66 percent in recent ye522-romans-750-wide.jpgars in southern Iraq, with some locales experiencing a 700 percent increase. And there have been birth defects. Oh, how there have been birth defects. One doctor began her report. “In August we had three babies born with no heads. Four had abnormally large heads, and two with short limbs. In October, one with no head, four with big heads and four with deformed limbs or other types of deformities.

Which finally brings us to the pictures. There are two groups: pictures I have not seen, and pictures I have. Here is what one person wrote about those which I have not (and of course I don’t expect to soon see similar text in America’s much-vaunted and certainly uncensored capitalist “free press”TM): “I thought I had a strong stomach - toughened by the minefields and foul frontline hospitals of Angola, by the handiwork of the death squads in Haiti and by the wholesale butchery of Rwanda. But I nearly lost my breakfast last week at the Basrah Maternity and Children’s hospital in Southern Iraq. Dr. Amer, the hospital’s director, had invited me into a room in which were displayed colour photographs of what, in cold medical language, a re called “congenital anomalies,” but what you and I would better understand as horrific birth deformities. The images of these babies were head-spinningly grotesque - and thank god they didn’t brin out the real thing, pickled in formaldehyde. At one point I had to grab hold of the back of a chair to support my legs. I won’t spare you the details. You should know because - according to the Iraqis and in all likelihood the World Health Organisation, which is soon to publish its findings on the spiralling birth defects in southern Iraq - we are responsible for these obscenities. During the Gulf war, Britain and the United States pounded the city and its surroundings with 96,000 depleted uranium shells. The wretched creatures in the photographs - for they were scarcely human - are the result, Dr. Amer said. he guided me past pictures of children born without eyes, without brains. Another had arrived in the world with only half a head, nothing above the eyes. Then there was a head with legs, babies without genitalia, a little girl born with her brain outside her skull, and the whatever-it-was whose eyes were below the level of its nose. Then the chair-grabbing moment - a photograph of what I can only describe (inadequately) as a pair of buttocks with a face and two amphibian arms. Mercifully, none of these babies survived for long. Depleted uranium has an incubation period in humans of five years. In the four years from 1991 (the end of the gulf war) until 1994, the Basrah maternity hospital saw 11 congenital anomalies. Last year there were 221.

There are photographs, too, that I have seen, some of the worst of my life. There are infants with one large eye in the middle of the face; infants - still alive, with huge eyes staring - with the exploded heads of the hydrocephalic; infants with translucent skin or skin covered with some unknown white substance or covered with welts or deep split open fissures or with charred looking skin or skin like dark glazed pottery; infants with ambiguous genitals (these are called, for some reason, “non-viable children”); infants - unfortunately alive - with no eyes and their bones fused and stunted; an infant - also unfortunately alive - with no anus, and with her bowel and gastro-urinary tract on the outside of her body.

These pictures all lead to me ask, not rhetorically, but with every expectation of answers: What, precisely, is this culture’s calculus of casualties? The lives of how many of these children are worth the life of one efficient executive, one prank-playing stockbroker? How many of these children’s lives are worth one Porsche, or the gasoline it takes to burn off in the wind? The lives of how many children add up to the value, to take a modern unit of currency, of a barrel of oil?

Have a look at what your tax pays for.

According to Mark Thomas (I haven’t checked yet) the British Soldiers Gulf War Veterans association list DU as a weapon of mass destruction.

If you watch Danny Schechter’s film Weapons of Mass Deception there is a part in a British army office where there is a list of subjects they are not supposed to mention. DU is one of them.

And just in case the phoney debate in this country is starting to swing you toward thinking nuclear power is a good idea and not at all like nuclear weapons, here is a short documentary about Chernobyl 20 years after it happened.




ARMS INVESTED PEACE ENVOY?

28 06 2007

Let’s not forget that the new ‘peace envoy’ was lined up to join the Carlyle Group. Conflict of interest perhaps? Or, maybe that should read ‘interest in conflict’.  This was from Rupert Hamer in the Sunday Mirror in 2005…

Is Blair off to join $30bn world elite?

TONY Blair is expected to join one of the most exclusive groups of businessmen in the world after he leaves Downing Street.

The PM is being lined up for a highly lucrative position with the Carlyle Group - an American-based investment giant with strong links to the White House and the defence industry.

The firm has been nicknamed “The Ex-Presidents Club” because it has had a host of former world leaders on its books including George Bush Senior, his former secretary of state James Baker and former British PM John Major. There a also a large number of former US Army top brass.

Mr Blair has been keeping quiet about his plans after his departure from Number 10 - which could be as early as 2007 according to some Labour insiders.

But sources in the City have revealed that he is “seriously considering” a high-profile role with Carlyle - which manages $30billion (pounds 20million) of investments worldwide.

The job could net Mr Blair up to pounds 500,000 a year for only a few days work a month giving speeches and making “networking” trips on behalf of the company.

The move comes after it emerged that the premier’s financial affairs are in an increasingly perilous state His dream home has crashed in value by pounds 700,000 in just seven months and he and Cherie have to find pounds 13,000 a month for the mortgage.

The pounds 3million loan the couple took out to buy the house in London’s Connaught Square is 17 times Mr Blair’s current salary.

Last night one leading City source said: “Private equity firms don’t come any more powerful than Carlyle. It would be a huge coup for them if they could bring Tony Blair on board.

“But the job is likely to infuriate MPs and campaigners opposed to Britain’s role in the Iraq War because of Carlyle’s strong links to the defence industry.”

A senior Government source admitted: “We know that Tony is looking at a number of options for life after Downing Street including writing his memoirs.

“But taking certain jobs could present the Labour Party with a large headache, particularly with firms investing in the US arms industry.

“We are trying to move links with the US and the Iraq War down the agenda - and linking up with a firm like Carlyle could reopen all those wounds.”

At one time, Carlyle’s multi-million pound investors included Saudi members of the estranged family of al-Qaeda warlord Osama bin Laden, who have disowned him. But the family have not been involved with the group for several years.

It has been criticised for using George Bush Senior to help land business deals in the Middle East while advising the American President on sensitive issues in the region at the same time.

City experts believe Mr Blair would be ideally suited to the investment world because he has “the charm to schmooze almost anyone”, according to one financier in the Square Mile.

The PM would have the added advantage of having met many of the world leaders with whom Carlyle is keen to do business.

But friends of Mr Blair insist he is considering other money- making options after leaving frontline politics.

They include a lecture tour in the United States which could net him more than pounds 1million and the possibility of a visiting professorship at an American university.

Job.. Bush Snr White House

HOW THE FIRM HAS LINKS AT THE TO

THE Carlyle Group is an American private investment firm which has branches across the world.

It was named after the Carlyle Hotel in New York - although it made its headquarters in Washington DC.

A range of former US leaders either work for the company or invest in it including Frank Carlucci, President Ronald Reagan’s former Defence Secretary.

Former US President George Bush Senior was also involved with the huge corporation, but he left two years ago.

If anyone knows if he definitely joined it I would be interested to find out.




THE A-Z OF NEPAL Part 2

28 06 2007

A few years ago I spent some time doing voluntary work (building a school) in rural Nepal.

It was far and away the best experience of my life. The warmth and the friendliness of the people despite everything they have to put up with is something I will never forget.

When I got home I wrote a 6000 word A-Z of Nepal for the volunteers the next year so they would have a bit more of an idea when they arrived.

This was all 4 years ago so some of the information is out of date. Nevertheless, I am going to serialise it here.

Here is the second part, D to G (G is for government is my favourite entry!)

A to C is here

The A-Z of Nepal

D

D is most definitely for Daalbaat – Nepalis never ever get tired of lentils (daal) and rice (baat). Its not just the meal they eat twice a day, every day – its also their best friend too. Eaten with only the right hand (see J forJuttho) it is served in huge portions twice a day at around 8.30am and again at around 7.30pm. While obesity is an extreme rarity in Nepal, a small Daalbaat belly is a common enough sight in males over 30 years old.

D is also for Dung – an incredibly useful substance. If there is a lack of fertiliser, cement, or plaster then this can double as an effective substitute. Dung production is happily not subject to the many disruptions that other forms of production are liable to be interrupted by, such as strikes. There is a never-ending supply.

kathmandu_durbar_square.jpg

D is finally for Durbar Square – every major town or city in Nepal will have a Durbar square somewhere. They are the centres of noise and bustle in the towns and like as not there will be an open-air market somewhere in the vicinity.

Durbar Square - Kathmandu

E

E is for Everest – Everest is only its name in the Western world. In Nepali it is called Sagarmatha. If you don’t fancy the base camp trek the best views are to be found at Nagarkot, which is about an hour bus ride from Kathmandu. If you feel really flush you can splash out on a $100 air trip around the mountain. During your time in Nepal you will read in the papers about a succession of lunatics attempting to climb it in more and more ludicrously difficult ways. Keep your eyes peeled for an Everest attempt by someone walking backwards or something. I have a friend who paid $150 for a plane trip around it and because he got drunk the previous evening he slept through the whole thing.

everestbaselr.jpg

E is for Expats – many to be found in Nepal. If they are young then it’s a 99% chance they have a rafting or trekking company. If they are older then it’s a 99% chance that they used to have a rafting or trekking company and now own a restaurant or two in the tourist areas.

F

F is for Family – if you are attempting to be polite (or if you are on good terms with someone) you do not use Mr. Miss Mrs. Or Ms. It is best to refer to people by what their relation to you would be. For example, a man 2 years younger than you would be referred to as Bhai = younger brother. A woman 2 years older than you would be Didi = big sister. The full list is as follows.. Ba = Father, Amaa = Mother, Dhai = elder brother, Bhai = younger brother, Didi = elder sister, and Bahini = younger sister.

F is for Freak Street – situated just off Durbar Square Kathmandu, Freak Street was the hippie hangout in Nepal for many years. Since the invention of Thamel (see T for Thamel) much of the life in this street has moved elsewhere in the city.

F is also for Fuss - see X for X-factor

G

G is for Goats – No Nepali village or town is complete without a few goats running around. They can be sold for around $40 or eaten. Bone and skin are eaten as well as the meat.

G is for Government (see also A for Army, M for Maoists and R for Royalty) Government in Nepal is a little like recycling – everyone claims that they are doing it but very few people actually seem to be.

G is for Guides – there are two kinds of guide, one is the city guide who is like as not a chancer and wants a few hundred rupees for touring you around wherever you are standing already. The other is a trekking guide who will drive you to the point of exhaustion and be extremely nice to you while he is doing it.




HMMM, I WONDER..

27 06 2007

I wonder if something like this is going on in our dear departed prime ministers head tonight…




MURDERER

27 06 2007

I am listening to Blair’s last Prime Minister’s Questions and most of the MPs

are falling over themselves to congratulate him.

iraq-children.jpgLet’s not forget that according to the UN the waging of an aggressive war is “essentially an evil thing…to initiate a war of aggression…is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

Spanish Judge Calls for Architects of Iraq Invasion
to be Tried for War Crimes

The Courts Are Starting To Accept That the War
against Iraq Is A Crime

A War Crime Within a War Crime Within a War Crime

Iraq war illegal, says Annan




LIAR

27 06 2007

We have seen shorter goodbyes in the sound of music but today is the day he quits.

From Robert Fisk in the Independent

…I came across one of Blair’s lies in my local Beirut paper. Sandwiched beneath a headline which read “Saudi reforms lose momentum” - surely one of the more extraordinarily unnecessary stories in the Arab press - it quoted our dear Prime Minister as saying that he was very angry that a review committee had prevented him from deporting two Algerians home because their government represented a “different political system”. The “foregrounded” element, of course, is the word “different”. This is the word that contains the lie. bliar-hat-eyesdown.jpgFor the reason why the committee declined to return these men to their country was not - as Blair well knew - because Algeria possesses a “different” political system but because the Algerian “system” allows it to torture to death its prisoners.

I have myself interviewed Algerian policemen and women who have become perverted by their witness of torture: one policewoman told me how she now loves horror films because they remind her of the repulsive torture she had to watch at the Chateauneuf police station in Algiers - where prisoners had water pumped into their anuses until they died. I still remember the spiteful and abusive letter that the Algerian ambassador to London wrote to The Independent, sneering at Saida Kheroui whose foot was broken under torture. She was a “terrorist”, this man announced. This is the “different” political system that Blair was referring to. Ms Kheroui, by the way, never emerged from prison. She was murdered by her torturers.

Blair knows that the Algerian security forces rape women to death. He knows this. So how does he dare lie about the “different” political system which allows police officers to rape women? We Europeans now make a habit of lying about this. Take the Belgian government. It deported Bouasria Ben Othman to Algeria on 15 July 1996 on the grounds that he would not be in danger if he was returned to his country. He died in police custody at Moustaganem. A “different” political system indeed.

And now I have before me Blair’s repulsive “goodbye” speech to the British people, uttered at Sedgefield. Putting the country first didn’t mean “doing the right thing according to conventional wisdom” (Chomsky foregrounded element: conventional) or the “prevailing consensus: (Chomsky foregrounded element: prevailing). It meant “what you genuinely believe to be right” (Chomsky foregrounded element: genuinely). Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara wanted to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Britain’s oldest ally, which he assumed to be the United States. (It is actually Portugal, but no matter.) “I did so out of belief,” he told us. Foregrounded element: belief.

Am I alone in being repulsed by this? “Politics may be the art of the possible (foregrounded element: may) but, at least in life, give the impossible a go.” What does this mean? Is Blair adopting sainthood as a means to an end? “Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right.” Excuse me? Is that Blair’s message to the families of all those dead soldiers - and to the families of all those thousands of dead Iraqis? It has been an “honour” to “serve” Britain, this man tells us. What gall.

Yes, I must acknowledge Northern Ireland. If only Blair had kept to this achievement. If only he had accepted that his role was to end 800 years of the Anglo-Irish conflict. But no. He wanted to be our Saviour - and he allowed George Bush to do such things as Oliver Cromwell would find quite normal. Torture. Murder. Rape.

My Dad used to call people like Blair a “twerp” which, I think, meant a pregnant earwig. But Blair is not a twerp. I very much fear he is a vicious little man. And I can only recall Cromwell’s statement to the Rump Parliament in 1653, repeated - with such wisdom - by Leo Amery to Chamberlain in 1940: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”balir.jpg

“I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons.”

“There was absolutely no reason for us to doubt that intelligence [the 45 minute claim] at all.”

“UN weapons inspectors say vast amounts of chemical and biological poisons, such as anthrax, VX nerve agent, and mustard gas remain unaccounted for in Iraq.”

Only a fraction of the available info can be found at these links…

Iraq Dossier

Blair’s Serious And Current Lies

Blair’s Lies

Diplomat’s suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war




WHAT A FIND!

26 06 2007

Seriously well done to the guy who uploaded this old show. It is a special from something called ‘Spitting Image’ which used to be on british TV at the end of the 80s. Aside from the jokes about the president being stupid some of the stuff is so strong I don’t believe for a minute it would get on normal TV now.

Please take the time to watch this, you won’t regret it, it is incredibly funny. Any americans or other foreigners watching it may miss a couple of things regarding the british journos that they are also making fun of but that is only a tiny part of it… so please watch and comment on how little you think things have changed apart from the faces.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RONALD REAGAN




THE A-Z OF NEPAL

26 06 2007

A few years ago I spent some time doing voluntary work (building a school) in rural Nepal.

It was far and away the best experience of my life. The warmth and the friendliness of the people despite everything they have to put up with is something I will never forget.

When I got home I wrote a 6000 word A-Z of Nepal for the volunteers the next year so they would have a bit more of an idea when they arrived.

This was all 4 years ago so some of the information is out of date. Nevertheless, I am going to serialise it here.

Here is the first section which is A to C…

The A-Z of Nepal

A

A is for Altitude - The Himalayas are known as “the roof of the world” and even in Kathmandu you are at around 800 metres altitude. Altitude sickness can kick in at around 2,500m but you can easily find yourself getting tired quickly at lower levels. You probably won’t notice it in Kathmandu or Pokhara but when you get out into the villages it will hit you. After about a week you should have adjusted and be able to move about as normal. If you are very high up though, it won’t get much easier for a long time.

A is for Americans - not the most popular people in Nepal. There are several reasons for this. The Maoists have declared that they do not want Americans in Nepal. As a response to this the US government has warned its citizens not to go there. However, there are still American tourists and more than that there are allegedly American troops too (although estimates vary as to how many - the figure I heard most was about 100 soldiers). The US and Nepali governments both say that the troops are only there to train the Royal Nepal Army in order to defeat the Maoist insurgents. Whilst the Maoists are certain to be annoyed by this fact alone they contend that the US military wants to set up a permanent residence, which may or may not be true. This would be strategically important and advantageous for the US due to the proximity to China. If you meet a Maoist he is likely to ask you if you are an American, even if you are, just say no. Americans will not get trouble in the tourist areas, but if they stray into the villages they may be unlucky.

A is for Army - the Royal Nepal Army are, at time of writing, extremely active in Nepal. The political troubles mean that there are checkpoints everywhere and there are heavily armed soldiers roaming around at all hours. Whilst the numbers are impressive the effectiveness doesn’t seem to be. The army is also extremely unpopular with the average Nepali.

B

B is for the Batcave - just outside Pokhara is the Batcave or ‘Chomero Gupha’. Now that his secret is out it appears that Bruce Wayne will have to move elsewhere. Also, given that the batcave is in Nepal it gives us an idea how fast the batmobile must go if he could always get to Gotham City to catch criminals in time.

B is for Buff (Buffalo) - Hindu religion does not permit the eating of beef. However, you will find it relatively easy to get a buff steak. There is no massive difference between beef and buff (in fact sometimes buff is beef which has been culled in India and sent to Nepal but remains buff on the menu so as not to offend strict Hindus).

C

C is for Child mortality - this is a huge problem in Nepal. 27,000 children die every year from diarrhoea alone. With the political problems currently faced by Nepal and a growing population (its expected to double in the next 25 years) this problem is going to get worse unless drastic steps are taken to improve sanitation and provide clean drinking water.C is for Commission - this is the favourite game of many of the more “colourful” traders. When you arrive at the airport you may have a hotel in mind. You may ask the taxi driver to take you there. Do not be surprised if you are then informed that the hotel has burnt down or has changed its name or some such thing. It hasn’t burnt down or changed its name - you have just been playing your first game of COMMISSIONTM. The taxi driver in addition to your fare will be receiving a slice of your hotel bill too. Kathmandu is where the most skilled players are and as long as you don’t take any nonsense and argue in order to get where you really want to go, it can actually be quite funny (on the other hand, it can be a fright if you have just been informed that the hotel all your friends who arrived the day before you are in has burnt down - which is what happened to me).

C is for Corruption - always a major problem. Many anti-globalisation protestors and NGOs do not like people raising this issue in relation to developing nations in case people decide to withdraw their support because they do not feel their money will go where it is most needed. Nonetheless, it is a problem and ignoring it will not make it go away. The “Kathmandu Elite” tend to misappropriate a lot of funds that were meant to go to more worthy causes. When the Maoists first started out they worked mainly at exposing the corruption in Nepal. This is why at first they were extremely popular.

C is for Crime - despite having a civil war on Nepal, in terms of street crime is actually one of the safest places you could visit. Crime is incredibly low and there really isn’t a problem at all with regards petty theft and muggings and the like. Tourists have less chance of being mugged or robbed here than maybe anywhere else they could go.

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P.S.

You can also sign up for the RSS feed again as I seemed to have removed it somehow. It is on the right hand side if you scroll down.