WASTE OF TIME
'The coalition Dahal heads is a transitional entity with three jobs: take the peace process forward, assist the CA in framing a new constitution and ensure a functioning government. Everything else is either a diversionary tactic or sheer waste of time. 'Well said (Editorial 'Waste of Time', #427). The Maoists have perfected the art of talking through both ends of their mouth to other political parties, foreign diplomats and the UN. It is time we told PKD he can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time.

S B Pandey,
email

YAM
I couldn't agree more with Prashant Jha ('Still a yam', #427) about Nepal-India-China relations. It is clear that China is sensitive about Tibet, and India wants to keep Nepal in its sphere of influence. It is time Nepal's foreign policy mandarins understood this and charted out a strategy that is pragmatic and not suicidal nationalism. Unless we understand the geopolitical sensitivities of our two giant neighbours we will not be able to get what we want from them. It is counter-productive to try to play one against the other, it has never worked and never will.

Jang B Thapa,
Lazimpat

WINDOWLESS NEPAL
It was a very happy moment for all of us in the Free/Open Source Software Community of Nepal (FOSS Nepal) to see the informed and well-written coverage on Free Software in Nepal ('Towards a Windowsless world,' #426). FOSS Nepal has won the Best Software Freedom Day (SFD) event prize for 2008 and we were among the top three teams out of more than 500 from over 120 countries. With this, we have secured back-to-back victory in the competition. In 2007 too, FOSS Nepal was among the top three teams from all over the world. Nepal is now appreciated by the larger global community of Free Software activists.

FOSS Nepal needs more support and participation from Nepali consumers of the technology to make possible the ushering of a new age of freedom. In a digital world, our basic human rights, civil liberties and freedom are only as strong as the technology we use.

Bibek Paudel,
FOSS Nepal

* Paavan Mathema's article on FOSS Nepal was very well-written and a much needed one for a country like ours. The FOSS movement needs more media dissemination like this in future. I especially liked the catchy title of the article: 'Towards a Windowsless world'.

Subir,
email