Nepal

With the end of term racing near my thoughts are moving towards the next few weeks. This term I have a sabbatical for one term.



The first part of this is travel in Nepal and India. So there will be a few posts coming from the Nepal when I can get near some civilization. We are planning to be trekking around the Annapurna circuit. There are interesting environmental developments in this area so this will be good to see.

I have been keeping my eye on what is going on in Nepal. As many people may know there has been a Maoist insurgency there for the last 15 years. A ceasefire last year resulted in elections last week.

Well amazingly the Maoists (or terrorists according to United States) are winning the election and look likely to set up the next government and then write a new constitution. Hard to get news over in New Zealand (nothing ever heard or read) but you can keep up to date here. Even more surprising the election appears fair and not corrupt. The election observers were from the Carter Institute (Jimmy Carter ex-US president).

Is this the first time a Maoist party has ever cooperated in election and then won the election? Who said communism (let alone radical Maoist thought) had no place in this century?

Should be a very interesting time to visit!