Pratyoush Onta's "What to do when Big Brother knocks"(#55) is a schizophrenic analysis. The rationale behind foreign direct investment (FDI) is to import advanced technology and capital which will eventually boost a country's exports and have a positive impact on the economy. Hi-tech industries which require huge capital and resources are generally invited in the name of FDI, and Nepal has so far followed this trend. But FDI in the sensitive Fourth Estate is a different matter. Is FDI necessary to teach Nepali journalists to write articles and editorials, as Onta states? I am not convinced that an Indian-owned newspaper will help us in narrowing the trade deficit and create mass employment to give a boost to our economy? Nepal does not need FDI to publish a daily newspaper in Kathmandu. The other question is: why does Big Brother want to enter our relatively small market where other national dailies are still running at a loss? Onta's argument that the foreign media's compulsion to survive on Nepal's advertising market is quite ridiculous.

Gopi Sarmah

New Road, Pokhara



By leaving out a point in my letter (Letters, #56) you have completely diluted my main message about Pratyoush Onta's piece on foreign direct investment in media. If FDI was to succeed in mauling Nepali bichar, then people would stop investing in RAW, ISI, CIA, et al. Besides, these agencies will have a very easy job in achieving their goals by having their operatives write in newspapers. Moreover, you have also abridged my name by deleting the letters "FCA" from my name.

Ratna Sansar Shrestha, FCA

Senior Chartered Accountant & Corporate Lawyer

Kathmandu



It was refreshing to see wide ranging debate being initiated on the almost taboo subject of Nepali nationalism with BP Giri's "My nation, right or wrong", #54 and Pratyoush Onta's "What to do when Big Brother knocks", #55. Unqualified Nepali nationalism, as Giri points out, often stifles rational debate on important issues and most political parties inflame public sentiment. Why should we take pride in our independence when we cannot run the most rudimentary administration with any degree of competence? It does not matter that Nepal has never been colonised if we allow our country to go down through incompetence and corruption.

Onta is persuasive. However, there is no denying that an individual or an identified organisation can have decisive influence on the national thinking if they have sufficient control of media. Whether that has any detrimental effect on the nation is a separate matter.

Suresh K Kafle

Manchester, UK