It is a matter of great satisfaction to learn from the national press that the mayors of Kathmandu and Pyongyang have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise the sister-city relationship between our great towns. That the long and arduous process to declare the two capitals siblings has finally borne fruit points to the spirit of give-and-take that has characterised this decades-long negotiation process. We must see this as the beginning of a great new relationship. And although the agreement took a long time to see the light of day, my professional opinion is: Better late than never. It is good that the two mayors decided to bite the bullet, cross the Rubicon, and let bygones be bygones. And so saying, let me raise a toast at this point to the honourable mayors and pay tribute to their endeavours. Whoa. That was strong stuff.

Now that the deed is done, we must wait and see what new ideas Mayor Sthapit has brought back from the North Korean capital and how he is going to implement them in the context of the ongoing preparation for the SAARC Summit which, as we all know, is being undertaken here on a civil war footing. There is obviously a lot that the Greater Kathmandu Metropolitan Cosmopolitan City can learn from its counterpart north of the DMZ.

As anyone who has been there will tell you, Pyongyang is an extremely clean city. There is no garbage there because no one actually lives in Pyongyang. Therein probably lies one possible solution to Kathmandu's garbage problem. If we can evacuate the entire city before the summit, and leave the streets at the disposal of the seven heads of states, we will probably leave an extremely favourable impression on our visitors.
But there is one aspect of Pyongyang that leaves a lot of visitors pained: Koreans love dogs. In fact, they love them so much, you don't see a single dog on the streets of Pyongyang. According to insider sources, our mayor reportedly offered all possible technical assistance to lend a helping hand and provide a tip or two to our Korean friends on how to re-populate Pyongyang's heretofore dog-free streets with canines before the next Afro-Asian Conference of Non-aligned Nations on Youth, Women and Workers which will be going on at about the same time as the World Cup is being held in Seoul.

Essentially, it is a supply and demand situation. Kathmandu has a surplus of dogs, Pyongyang has a shortage. Let's do an exchange. There is of course the real danger that the Mutts of \'Mandu while on a study tour north of the 38th Parallel will end up being served as Man's Best Friend in Oyster Sauce. But this is a danger that they will have to live with for the greater cause of international solidarity. After all, it is a man-eat-dog world out there. There is no denying that some dogs will go astray, others may overstay their tourist visas, but a fairly large proportion of our dogs will end up on the streets of Pyongyang and make them a friendly place once more.

Before animal rights activists and dog lovers raise a howl of protest, let me hasten to clarify that no dogs have been harmed during the course of writing this column, and any pain inflicted on them is inadvertent and deeply regretted. And it is also incumbent on me to end with a proviso to readers that the above column has been declared safe as long as you don't believe a word of it. The authorities have vetted it, and nothing herein has been found to be detrimental to our national security and territorial integrity at the present time.