Need rest

Today is so humid. It is so really energy sapping.

I also took a nap in the afternoon and I woke up with a splitting headache.

For the last several days the humidity was just unbearable. But we had no rainfall. Yet, so many people was down with flu infections.

I also suspect that my body is primed for a flu infection.

I'm going to bed early--I need all the rest I can manage.

Mobile device, again!

I immensely enjoy reading the review of HTC Advantage by Miller on ZDnet. The review said that the company had advertised the Advantage as the ‘world’s best mobile office’. The reviewer, after using solely the Advantage for 2 weeks, tends to agree. The one thing the company did not advertise was the phone functionality of the device. But the reviewer found out that it happened to be the one of the best mobile phones he had ever used!

Here is the link to the full review.

The only things lacking ( that is, for me) are the screen size (only 5”) and the full OS ( it has only the Windows mobile).

The HTC Shift is supposed to solve the problems. And, it actually does solve the problems. It has 7” screen and it has Vista. For running Vista it has deployed a separate processor and another one for running the Windows Mobile. Why don’t they keep the specs of the Windows Mobile facet just like those of the Advantage? They took two key features, which prove to be the deal breaker for me. They are the 3mp camera and the phone functionality.

What thrills me most is the one feature of the PDA (device running Windows Mobile is a PDA, isn’t it?) which enables user to use their wide screen TV sets as its monitor! The reviewer tested out a 4-in-1 USB device from HTC itself. By using the $25 device the reviewer could actually use his 32” plasma as the PDA’s monitor..

That is a wonderful news. We should surely get hold of the 4-in-1 device from HTC, even if we are a bit disappointed with their Shift!

Innovative names!

So, what’s Ooma? And, Jajah?

They are both start-up internet phone companies. They are both are said to be hatching paradigm shifting innovations in this sector. They are intent on out-innovating Skype. But what’s certain is that they are both really innovative in naming themselves!

Then, Nokia came out with an iTune like site named OVI, which is door in Finnish. I think it’s a very good name. And, NBC and News Corp came out with a video site, named Hulu. Don’t you feel that Hulu is a little pretentious?

Again, what’s Wyzo?

I’m using Wyzo right now. It is called a ‘media browser’. It’s an internet browser + Torrent client + search engine. It’s a little heavy but I like it. I like the idea downloading Torrent files right from the browser. I even make it the default browser.

To my mind, they are racking their heads pretty hard to come out with a ‘global’name. The trick is to avoid a name which reminds one of a region or a country or even a continent. There is no future if you don’t quickly start out as a global company.

From ‘global’ to the ‘local’! This afternoon I walked to Nongmeibung. So, I crossed the Sanjenthong which bridges the Imphal river. To my surprise, it is swollen. I think it is running nearly touching the danger level. Where does all those water come from? We didn’t have any prolonged rainfall during the last few weeks, at least in Imphal areas. At this rate, if we have moderate rainfall for 4/5 days, the Imphal river will surely overflow and there will be a flash flood.

In sharp contrast, Nambul looks like it is dying!

NOW, with a wider meaning.

This should be the last part! I should really resist the temptation of wanting to continue from the previous day’s post! Well, I’m continuing from my last post.

Did some subtle changes in the quality of the playing field of the insurgency ‘sector’ occur in the meantime?

Did these changes in the quality of the playing field bring about the 180 degrees reversal in what the Naga perceived to be their ‘national interest’?

To my mind, the answer is ‘yes’.

Well, I’ll take this risk of appearing to praise the working of some Imphal-valley based rebel groups and speak out loudly.

This is the first time in the history of the Indian nation that some rebel groups’ political activities make a discernible impact on its foreign policy. This impact is presently making ripple effects in the nation-to-nation relations with India with several of its neighbours. Most of its neighbours are re-designing the diplomatic ‘ammunitions’ to be aimed towards India.

The most visible case is Burma India relations. Suddenly India seems to be obsessed with attempting to leaf frog to a cozy diplomatic relations with that country. Rangoon was bombarded with the sudden official visits of all the heavyweights of the Indian political establishment. Not to be outdone, top military officials were making secret trips to Rangoon. They are also supplying military hardware to the military junta there defying the will the International Community and discarding its much vaunted moral high grounds. They are also giving technical and training support to the junta. All these Indian efforts don’t seem to produce any perceptible dent in the Burmese government’s stance.

Unlike Bangladesh, the Burmese has no history of wanting to spite the Indians without any particular reason. Much more than impressed with the Indian handouts, Burmese leaderships are quick to come to grips with the previously unseen vulnerability of the Indian nationhood.

This is the same case with that of Chinese leadership. I think they are not much bothered with what’s happening in Burma despite the fact that the Burmese seem to have a lot of unexplored oil fields. Neither do they want to annex Arunachal Pradesh. Why should they suddenly make an issue of an Arunachali IAS probationer visiting Beijing? We have to remember here that they refused visa to the Arunachali because they were claiming that Arunachal Pradesh was a disputed area resulting in the whole of the IAS probationers, of which the Arunachali was a member, canceling their goodwill trip to Beijing. To my mind, we are all seeing these things because the Chinese leadership are quick to sense a possible vulnerability of the Indian nationhood and nimble enough to hastily act on it when presented with the first opportunity.

We know that even without all these diplomatic buildups in the region, the US will anyway give access to the nuclear supplies to India. They perceived that tying down the Chinese with an Indian ‘problem’ is in their national interest. So, making India stronger to ‘an acceptable level’ is the aim of US foreign policy. In this scenario, there is no possibility that they are not factoring in the political activities of the Manipur rebel groups in their diplomatic moves in the region.

Coming to the local, is it in the Naga’s( or the Kukis’s) ‘national interest’ to tie down the Imphal valley based rebel groups with ‘a boundary problem’?

If we try to answer this question, it is easy to see that the demand for the integration of Naga ( or Kuki) dominated areas into a single administrative set up is now not a simple thing od re-demarcating some boundary lines amongst the neighbouring states.

NOW, it carries a wider meaning.

Further sensations!

I’m continuing from my last post.

I suspect it sounds a little ahead of time to state that there is 180 degrees reversal in what the Naga ( or, at least, the present leadership of the Naga) perceive to be their ‘national interest’. I don’t mean to imply that I’m a little ahead of time! No way—I’m just a regular guy.

But we got to remember that only 6/7 months ago there was really a big debate amongst the Naga on whether it served any purpose in getting the ceasefire extended for so many times. Some even opined that extending the ceasefire without any tangible result went against the Naga ‘national interest’.

In such a climate, the Delhi operatives actually found it tough to extend the ceasefire for full 12 months, as was the some kind norm for the last 8/9 years. Some Naga leaders even pitched for extending the ceasefire for 3 months only as a means to mount pressure on Delhi.

During that time, it was crystal clear to all that the Nagas thought they were giving away too much without getting anything tangible in return when they kept on agreeing to extend the ceasefire.

Now, this time they agreed to extend the ceasefire for ‘perpetuity’.

As I had said in my last post, this 180 degrees reversal is prompted by the perceived need to drag down some neighbourhood peers. Such perceived need and the resultant change of stance are going to have a profound impact on the health of day to day relations amongst all the societies of the Region and thus, on the fate of the Region as a whole. To have a feel of the sense of the gravity of the situation, we have had to get a glimpse of the forces ranging behind the just formed embryo that will drive this ‘change of stance’.

The prime player would be the Government of India. Now, they have the golden opportunity to pitch one rebel group against another so that the intensity of insurgency is kept within the pre-calibrated acceptable level. Maintaining such a level would enable them to keep a close lid over the whole Region thereby distracting attentions from the International Community.

Then, comes the NSCN(IM). In a more benign sense, they want to keep the first mover advantage at all cost. The key words are ‘at all cost’, meaning they have the stomach to hurt their neighbours.

Lastly, there are various rebel groups of Manipur and some factional leaders of the Imphal valley based outfits. Unaware to them, they are slowly becoming the tools of Government of India and the NSCN(IM).

NSCN(IM)’s headquarter is called Hebron, which is in Dimapur. It’s already becoming a hotbed of shady characters of Government of India operatives in the persons of monitors of the ground rules of the ceasefire agreement, leaders of the rag tag groups of Manipur and factional leaders of Imphal based outfits. Naturally, being in their headquarters, the NSCN(IM) men serve as the catalysts of the whole ‘enterprise’.

Together, they will continue to make ‘news’ in the coming months and years.

Sensational?

What I’m going to say right now might seem to be sensational because there is likelihood that it may be termed as outlandish or an act of jumping to conclusion. I’ll say it anyway because there is enough solid trend to indicate it’s going towards what you think ‘sensational’.

Well, normally, it should sound like just a routine. I’m referring to the resolution of Nagaland unit of the Indian National Congress demanding the bringing together of all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative set up. But if we read it together with the recent extension of ceasefire agreement between the NSCN(IM) and the Government of India for ‘indefinite period of time’, it’s not routine.

To my mind, it’s now going beyond the simple re-demarcation of boundary lines among various neighbouring States.

Now, Nagas, at least the present leadership, seem to think that it is the ‘national interest’ of the Naga to befriend the Government of India. It’s 180 degrees reversal of what constitutes the ‘national interest’ of the Nagas because they had been fighting a tenacious guerilla war with the Government of India, terming them as their enemy no 1, for the last 50-60 years . Symbolically, it’s like saying it’s now in the ‘national interest’ of the Nagas to go West whereas it was always in their ‘natioinal interest’ to go East only some years back.

Why this drastic change in their perceptions of what constitute their ‘national interest’?

In symbolic terms, can we look at the history of Britain’s ‘national interest’ vis a vis France and vice versa? History is replete with instances of Britain’s ‘national interest’ going 180 degrees reversal if it is opportune time to drag down France. It’s all the same case with France.

So, the big question is here.

Is the Naga’s 180 degrees reversal of what they perceive to be ‘national interest’ meant to drag down some peers in the neighbourhood, like the cases of Britain vs France in past histories?

Back to the routine

Two days of getting up at 5 in the morning has totally disrupted my routine!

I'm attempting to write something politically sensational. But now it is almost midnight. I've no time to finish writing it and posting it before midnight. So, it comes tomorrow.

In the mentime, I'll surf the net and enjoy myself, celebrating my returning to my baisc routine.

Making an effort

I’ve already set the alarm clock at 5 am. I’ve to go out latest by 6 am tomorrow. I’m meeting a friend.

It’s funny how people change. I used to wake up, go to toilet, grab something to eat and still be able to go out to meet people at their places by 5.30 in the morning.

Now, it’s quite an effort to wake up by 5 in the morning. Now, I’m comfortable to sleep upto 7.30/8.00 in the morning.

But, for now and despite the effort, I should not fail to meet the guy first thing in the morning.

" Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith"

I’m re-reading a TIME article on Mother Teresa. It is a 6 parts article.

They name the article as “ Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith”.

Really? Did the Nobel Laureate have her own share of crisis of faith?

That was my first response.

Then, I went on reading the articles. After the first read, I got the uneasy feeling that I could get the gist within my grasp but somehow could not bring it within the four walls of well-defined reasoning. I felt like I could see the contours but the face was terribly hazy.

This makes me itchy. I’m re-reading the article.

Here is the link to the articles.

DIY Segway!

Some students have actually built a segway clone using parts available off the shelf in tech stores. The most important think is that they have brought the price level under a thousand dollar. I think at that price level there would definitely be a lot takers for the segway.

I even think there would be lot takers for it in Imphal if we can it for less than a thousand dollars.

Here is the link. When going to the link go further down the jump, where there is a video comparing the real thing with DIY kind.

Did someone bring the virus as blood samples from Burma?

This is a high-powered committee.

It is headed by Dr S K Bandopadhya, Commissioner, Animal Husbandry, Govt of India. The members are a) Joint Secy, Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, b) Dr J S Kartia, Director, National Institute of Animal Husbandry, c) Dr A C C Mishra, scientist, National Institute of Virology, d) Dr K S Pradhan, Joint Director, High Security Animal Disease Lab and e) Dr H K Dubey, Director, High Security Animal Disease Lab.

They are investigating the outbreak of bird flu in Imphal. In fact, they had already held their first official meeting at Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi on the 14th of month.

But what’s most intriguing is that a very senior officer at the Union Government had started talking to the media even while this high-powered committee is continuing its investigating the matter. It was reported in many Imphal papers this morning that Ms Upama Chowdhury, who is the Joint Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of India had talked to a New Agency and had actually expressed her surprise at the outbreak of the bid flu virus in Imphal.

It is to be noted here that Ms Chowdhury was here in Imphal for 2 days personally supervising the progress of the field works undertaken to contain the virus outbreak. Only after her personal supervision for 2 days here, it was announced that it was safe to eat chicken all over Manipur and it was ok to sell dressed chicken in the 0-5 kms radius.

But should she be surprised at the outbreak which was certified by the authoritative labs at Bhopal and Pune? It’s because she now thinks that the virus might have come from Burma or Bangladesh!

This throws up more questions.

How did the virus, if the source is from Burma, jump to a tiny farm in Imphal, leaving all the farms in Thoubal district uninfected?

If the above question is difficult to answer, we have no alternative but to ask the most intriguing question of this outbreak.

Did someone bring the virus as blood samples from infected poultry in Burma and injected them to the birds in the Chingmeirong farm?

In fact, the high-powered team is scheduled to visit Moreh on the 23rd of this month to track down the route undertaken by the virus.

Here is the link to my post which gives the details of the whole drama.

Somethng's not normal.

In the morning, I just came out of the bank and had started to walk towards the footpath. As I reached the footpath, 2 other men, coming in a motorbike, had also just taken the first steps on the footpath, almost colliding with me.

Then, a funny thing happened.

One of the men took his first steps on the footpath, stopped, looked left and right towards the streets and said, with a look of consternation in his face:

“Why I got this feeling that there is a bandh-like element in the airs”?

That means I’m not alone. For several months now, I’ve not been able to shake off this uneasy feeling that something definitely strange and mysterious spectre is hanging over the Imphal airs.

Is that a premonition of an impending danger?

Do people sense that some unpredictable fate awaits them just around the corner?

On some days, I walked down a street, looked around and somehow got flinched. I got this nasty feeling that something was terribly wrong. A sense of eeriness is certainly palpable.

Now, cut to the evening. A friend called me and said that he would pick me from my house for evening tea out somewhere. We went to Thangal Bazar area and ate omelets and had teas in a roadside stall. We talked and talked.

When we rose to return home, it was a little later than 8 pm. We drove along the Kangla Park Street. Looking intently ahead on the street, my friend suddenly said, not particularly to me:

“ It’s strange. Feel like something is not normal”.

My personal computing needs

I’m looking for a mobile device that would run full Windows xp and have 3-4 hrs of battery life. HTC Shift has those features. But the machine is not cheap at around Rs 60,000/-, if all available in India in near future. At that price, it does not have a good camera ( it does have one ostensibly for video conferencing—that is, the camera points towards the user). I want it to be able record some minutes of video of my surrounding while I’m moving around with it. I’m certain that I would need to produce a lot of video clips—my views of my surrounding.

I’m not a phone-man. I don’t like talking over the phone. Voice would be peripheral for me, meaning I would use the phone for voice only sparingly. Voice capacity in a Shift-like machine is not cool because it would be awkward to put the 7” screen device over your ear. For a sparing user like me, it would be ok to use the phone feature through a BT ear bud. There is real possibility that I would be able to stop carrying my phone around. Instead, I would be carrying around a Shift-like device. I really like a one-device solution for my mobile needs.

I’m also certain that a Shift-like device with the phone and camera features would come out in the market in the very near future.

At the same time, Apple’s latest desktop with 24” screen with a wireless keyboard makes a lot sense to me. With a broadband connection, you can laze around in your couch with wireless keyboard and see all the actions at the 24” screen. It would easily turn out to be the home server + TV + desktop computer. With the addition of a Shift-like device, they would satisfy all of my personal computing needs. There is also news that some 24” monitors are selling below $ 300 price mark in US.

I’ll wait for the Shift-like device to come out in the market.

The ultimate mobile device

There is something definitely funny about the way leading to the HTC Shift being announced to be ready for pre-order in the US.

Hugo Ortega was the only person in the whole world who got a chance to have a hands on preview of the machine. That review which he posted in his blog is now completely deleted! What’s happening here?

At the gottabemobile site the same preview is still there and gathered a comments thread of nearly 100 queries. And, Hugo did not return to answer the queries, though he promised to do so in an earlier up on the thread. This is very uncharacteristic of him.

I thought that the machine is the ultimate mobile device for me. But 2 things prove to be the dealbreakers.

First is the lack of a microphone. The machine is a twin-processors one. The processor which runs the Windows Mobile OS is designed to continue working for full 7 seven days for a single full charge of the onboard battery. We get the perfect Pocket PC—but without a microphone. It’s a joke.

The machine is designed to be of ultra mobile usage. Then, why not add a cam that can record some minutes of video while on the go? That way, it would be a perfect machine for YouTube generation.

If they add the above 2 feature, it would be a perfect machine for me.

Here comes the investigation

A high level official team is going to investigate the bid flu outbreak in Imphal. It is said that the team ‘was entrusted to find out the source’ of the outbreak. Here is the link.

I think everybody should co-operate with the team to find the many unanswered questions behind the bird flu outbreak here in Imphal.

To have a glimpse of those questions, please go to my previous posts—here and here.

" NANGSHE.."

I’ve been waiting for the debut films of these particular three directors. They are Bobby Wahengba, Maipaksana Haorongba and Ronel Meetei. I’m counting on them to give a sophisticated edge to the present Manipuri films.

I went to the premier show of Bobby Wahengba’s debut film, “Nangshe..”.

Olen and Sunila are in the leads. Bobby himself was there playing a major part. But I think he should concentrate more on direction part. For one thing, he would never be able to go anywhere near Olen on the acting department. Olen acts so well. The other, and the more important thing is, that when a love triangle is attempted between a good actor and non-actor ( Bobby is definitely a non-actor—it came out crystal clear in the movie), the sense of balance is spoilt and thus, destroy the possibility of making any headway to the drama and hence, to the climax.

It is also sad to note that Bobby also does not deliver as director. He has got many glitchy (and sophisticated?) shots but when strung together, it does not come out as a good and entertaining movie.

It was a disappointing movie and, for me personally, it was a frustrating experience. The only solace is that I can still wait for 2 more directors.

Trying 'to see' something?

At around 6 in the evening, a UAV appeared in the Imphal skyline.

It stayed there for about half an hour.

It appeared to me that it was trying ‘to see’ something along the Moreh-Churachandpur mountain ranges. It kept circling along the skyline which, to me, roughly corresponds to the Moreh-Churachandpur mountain ranges.

It is small flying object and it was flying farther away from Imphal.

But it was such a huge noise.

Nova Spivach's blog

I’ve been into Nova Spivach’s blog . It’s a good blog.

Nova Spivach is an aspiring Web 3.0 architect.

There are lot good contents in his blog about what Web 3.0 is all about. There are also a lot of links to what other people has to say about Web 3.0.

I could read a little part of the blog. From what I had read and a non-geeky head like mine can fathom, it all sound like an endeavor to re-tag all the data in the whole Web so that they could be more intelligently or semantically defined. Thus defined, the whole Web itself would become more intelligent and so, more useful to laymen like us.

Nova Spivach has a startup called radarnetwork. So, is the startup building a Web app for such retagging?

All ears to a friend's woes

I’m a little bit tipsy tonight.

A friend of mine phoned me this evening. He asked me to wait for him. He told me he was coming to my house.

It turned out that he badly needed to hit the bottle.

For me also, it’s no big deal to be all ears to a friend’s woes once for a while in an evening.

But, what’s a bit surprising for me was that, after 2 pegs, all the Manipuri dishes ( which he carried with him in little plastic pouches) tasted so divine.

Why was ‘thangjing singju’ tasted so divine??

Today's snippets

Today was a total waste of time. I also overslept. It was nearly 11 am when I woke up. On the previous day, we were mentally coaxed to accept that today would be a day which would be completely shut down. Thus mentally chaperoned, why should not I overslept on such days?

Actually, I planned to do a lot of laundry today but it didn’t simply happen. Today kind of just went away. It seems to me that I was just a helpless bystander---looking at a day in my life just simply slipping away. What a pity!

Well, well, I should not fail to note that I finally managed to open my Google reader account and add several new subscriptions. I’ve been planning to get hands on with that task for several months now. I did it today! What a day!!

Today’s place in history might be the open stance of students’ community of Churachandpur district as announced by all the papers. Now, they were openly saying that it would be duties of all of the citizens, besides the Government machineries, of the district to drive away the ‘valley-based’ rebels from the geographical areas of the district.

To my mind, it is a very significant development.

It forms the one arm of the two-pronged strategy to break apart the working relations between the Burmese Army and some rebel groups. ( If Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities want to ‘drive away’ ‘valley-based’ rebels, it would be tough for the rebels groups to work in geographical proximity of the Burmese Army).

Another arm of the strategy would be to question the ‘principle’ itself of establishing a working relation with the Burmese Army. The Burmese Army is continuing the decade-old program of systematic repression of Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities there. They even employed ‘mass rape tool’ to achieve this task. Why should anybody have any truck with such an Army?

Another section of the people would say that the Burmese Army is also suppressing the Nagas in the Upper Burma region. Anybody who has any working relations with it would be construed as against the Naga sovereignty. Isn’t it a just demand that some rebel groups of Manipur should not be against Naga sovereignty?

Some section would say the Burmese Army is anti-democratic. Should not it be stand to reason that some rebel groups, by virtue of establishing a working relation with it, are also accepting the anti-democratic path?

They would seek to enlist the Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities, some ‘valley-based’ rebel groups and the Nagas to act out the script of the two-pronged strategy in the coming months. These areas would become red hot in the coming months.

Didn’t I mention earlier that I stayed indoors all the day long today? But, as the dusk set in, I went out to throw some garbage. There I found a neat envelop slipped underneath the rolling shutter of my gate. It was an invitation card.

Invitation card for the premier of the film---‘NANGSE..’.

Still some drama

This afternoon, the government issued a memorandum stating that it is safe to eat chicken outside the 5 kms radius and it is now ok to sell dressed chicken within the 5 kms radius itself. But live chicken within the 5 kms radius continues to be put under strict ban.

We have to remember here that the whole poultry scene is still under continued surveillance. The surveillance will be continued for the next three months.

Officially speaking, the whole Imphal valley is not free from bird flu outbreak. That could only happen after 3 months.

To top it all, a handbill surfaced from nowhere today. It calls for an independent inquiry into the announcement of bird flu outbreak in Imphal. I have a copy of the handbill.

To understand the main thrust of the handbill you have to go back to one of my previous posts. Here is the post.

In that post you would find that there were actually 2 flocks of birds in the farm in Thangmeiband-Chingmeirong border where the birds were found to be positive for H5N1. The flocks were 132+12. Even after the 132 birds killed by the bird flu virus, the flock numbering 12 birds was still apparently healthy upto 15th July 2007.

The flock of 12 birds was the original inhabitant of the shed where another flock of 132 birds was to be taken in as guests. The handbill claimed that the ‘guests’ actually came to the shed on 05/06/07.

If the handbill is to be believed, the 2 flocks were together in the shed for more than 5 WEEKS.

During this 5 weeks period, the 12 birds should have been surely getting the bird flu virus from the 132 birds. That was proved to be true when the blood samples taken from them on the 15/07/07 were tested positive.

So, the 12 birds were infected with the virus for at least 4 weeks if we leave aside 1 week as incubation period within their bodies.

Now, the big question: Why there was not a single mortality in the flock of 12 birds?

We have to note here that they were killed by the Government officials on 15/07/07 after taking blood samples from them.

On the broadband network!

This morning I rang up BSNL broadband help desk. My intention was to make an appointment to visit their office. It was necessary because their office was a veritable fortress, with paramilitary forces on duties round the clock. If the staff do not, for any reason, wish to meet their customers, like me, we are helpless.

But they listened to my problem and gave instructions over the phone on how I had to proceed to solve the problem. It was precise and step by step instruction. And it worked.

Now, I’m on the broadband network.

As soon as I was on the broadband network, I rushed to download high res video of how Hugo Ortega has a first look at the HTC Shift. Here is the link to the video.

Briefly

Gotta be very brief. Cos my antivirus is not being active and so, I should not stay online any longer.

Recently, I switched over to Avast. Their home edition (for single computer and non-commercial users) is free. But it turned out that we need to download patches frequently to keep program active and functioning.

On the 9th (see my last post) it was notified that I needed to download a patch. I didn’t click to download because I was there only for some minutes and I was there on the dial up network.

I’m planning to download the patch as soon as I’m on the broadband network, for which, I now think, I should need to visit the BSNL office.

Updating on the blogger himself!

On the 6th I had a hearty meal, a major portion of it being pork, which I later on found out to be of spoilt meat. Some hours later, I had developed a strong vomiting tendency. I immediately suspected it to be a case of some kind of food poisoning.

Also immediately, I got this hunch that once I started vomiting, I would really be in a bad shape.

All night long, I was there on my bed, trying to suppress that vomiting tendency, only getting fitful of sleeps. The effort became a bit lighter after I dragged myself to toilet around midnight.

The following day and night also did not bring me any relief. I had still that vomiting tendency but on a much lighter intensity. This is another way of saying that I had zero appetite. I had forced myself to drink water.

I was better on the 9th. In the morning, I booted up pc and read some headlines. I was there for about some fifteen minutes but a damned virus managed to sneak in and infected my pc.

Only today I managed to gather up enough will to clean up the computer and try to go online.

I’m using the dial up network. From the 1st of this month onwards, the broadband network has never been working, at least from my end point of the net.

On the 5th day

If the media men rejoined their respective newsroom this 5th day of August, there should be evening papers late in the evening. But I could not find any papers in the newsstand this evening. I made several enquiries but it seems that the evening papers fail to come out this evening.

This could only mean that the issue was not resolved at all. Please see my last 3 posts to get an idea about the issue.

The most likely scenario is that some less resourceful rebel groups object to the terms of settlement engineered by the media men. Please my last post to get an idea about this.

I have this hunch that some of the more resourceful rebel groups might have quite readily accepted the terms of the settlement. Then, it stands to reason that there might follow re-alignments and reconsolidations amongst the rebel groups. It’s so because the only way is either to get the objecting rebel groups to withdraw their hard lined stance or to get the media men to agitate all over again to force the Government to rescind the ordinance. If some of the more resourceful groups stand behind the media men, the 2nd option would not happen. So, it only points to the likely re-alignments and reconsolidations amongst the rebel groups.

The present state of the stalemate has all the ingredients to snowball into a major, major crisis of this society.

I thought that the issue was resolved. I got the hints of the stalemate only in late evening when I failed to notice any eveningers. By that time, I could not get any further news and information. I tried listening to 7.30 pm news on radio but there was nothing about the issue. The only one news there that stood out was that there was a bomb blast near Gate no 1 in the international borders in Moreh.

Right a the moment, I’m itching to get some additional information but I’ve to wait for tomorrow.

No 4th day

There was no 4th day for the media men’s ‘Wakat Meepham’. When I went out in the morning, I found the make shift shed where the ‘Wakat Meepham’ was organized was dismantled and already carted away.

But it appears that the media men have yet to start attending their newsrooms. It’s because I could not find any eveninger in the afternoon.

To my mind, the just concluded ‘Wakat Meepham’ marks a watershed in the media history and, more than that, in the pace of societal change in the history of Manipur.

When the idea of a law curtailing the publication of rebels press handouts was first mooted publicly during the budget session of the State Assembly, there were no takers for it either within the government or the media establishments. So, the idea was quietly put into cold storage.

Then, suddenly a faction-ridden rebel made history. One faction insisted on publishing its press handout while another faction was equally adamant that the press handout should not be published. This led one of the factions went all the way to threaten an editor. This, in turn, led to the ‘Wakak Meepham’ and the subsequent promulgation of the said law.

The first impact would be the empowerment of the editors. This would be good for the society.

But the unintended yet more important impact would be the creation of a playing field where the bar for media handling by the rebel groups would be considerably raised. Now, because of the law, a faction just cannot troop into an editor’s office, shove a press handout and say—‘publish it’. For any mention in the newspapers, the rebels have to ‘make news’. In spite of the law, the editors would still have the freedom to publish ‘rebel news’.

‘Making news’ would entail a lot of resources. It’s not easy—definitely not as easy as forcing editors to publish their press handouts. So, the resourceful rebel groups would hog the news headlines whereas the less resourceful ones would be likely to be blanked out.

This scenario would definitely make a significant impact on the pace of societal change in Manipur.

The 3rd day of media men's 'Wakat Meepham'

Today marks the 3rd day of media men’s ‘Wakat Meepham’. But it was already announced in the evening that they would resume works from the 5th. Why should they wait for the 5th?

To understand this we have to take note of another announcement of today—this time from the government of Manipur.

The second announcement said that a law would come into existence from today that would not allow publishing of press releases from terrorist organizations, gang outfits or any other entity that stand for the disintegration of the nation or of the State. I think the state government had just promulgated an ordinance for bringing in a new law.

It’s quite clear that the media men negotiated for this promulgation. They seem to think they would need a law to fend off undue pressures from the rebels, who are in the habit of dictating what’s to be published and what’s not to be published.

But it appears that they would not want to make the impression that they are ganging up the government against the rebels. That’s why they have to wait for the 5th to resume their works.

It is quite clear that the rebels have a lot of clout in the state. This is reinforced by the fact that the Chief Minister himself chose to be out of the state when the announcement was made. He flew off in an Indian air force plane for an unscheduled visit to Shillong. The announcement came only after he was out of Imphal.

It seems that nobody wants to be against the rebels.

Culling without compensations

I also came to know of a particular farm within the 5 kms radius which has still live birds in it. The farm owner was bewildered no RRT came to his farm. So, he contacted the officials of the Vety deptt.

The officials replied that they would come for culling the birds but they would be able to pay him the compensation!

They said that culling with compensations officially came to a close yesterday.

This would mean that there are still a lot of live birds inside the 5 kms zone.

2nd day of media men's 'Wakat Meepham'.

As I returned home at around 6.30 in the evening, I could see the “Wakat Meepham’ by the media men still going on.

I noticed a fresh placard. It read-‘ We condemn the shooting of Labango’.

Labango must be Mr P. Labango Ma-ngang, who is the editor of Kangla Pao.

Kangla Pao is one of the three most noticeable eveningers of Imphal.

For a second day today, I could not still approach a newspaperman there to give me news for any other new development. I do hope that I would be able muster up enough courage to do that tomorrow!

How they cull the birds

Late in the afternoon, I went visiting a friend. Incidentally, he has a shop selling poultry as his neighbour. The shop also incorporates a transit poultry shed which can house several hundred birds at any given time. As the shop was forced to close down, the transit shed had become a veritable poultry farm for several weeks until the birds were culled 2 days back.

The friend’s house is within the 5 kms radius where the culling of birds is still being in full swings.

My friend gave me an eye witness account of how a team of RRT(rapid response team) went on to cull birds on a given farm.

The team in their protective arrived at my friend’s neighbour late in the afternoon. First thing they asked for were sacks(Have you got any extra sacks?).

The look of their protective gears immediately attracted the attentions of the kids. As the team was preparing to get into action, the number of curious kids around the place also was gradually increased.

As it happened, the preferred method deployed by the team was first to hit the birds with an iron bar or a stout stick. They swung their iron bars or the sticks aiming at the heads of the birds! The immediate result was a mêlée in the shed—the croaks of the dying birds, the birds flying around and the birds running noisily to escape the swings of the iron bars or the sticks of the honourable team members of the RRT!

How kids love a melee?

All the kids immediately joined the actions, laying their small hands on the birds got hit by the RRT team or on the perfectly able birds running wildly in the shed. Then, they ran off to their houses with their prized catches!

That night the smell of chickens cooking wafted several houses across the shed in all four directions!

But what is truly alarming is that there are still birds in all the neighbouring households—the birds which were carried off by the kids on that day.

Finally, the RRT wrapped up their official duty by packing whatever chickens left behind in the sacks and rode off to bury the sacks in a designated spot.

The ongoing cull has just got the opposite impact: the scattering of live birds from within the confine of a farm to an even greater geographical area.

The scenario is truly frightening.

Double crisis

We are in midst of a crisis. The possibility of the bird flu virus jumping to an Imphalite throws us all in the cauldron of a major crisis. Our present state of emergency dictates that every citizen should have quick access to timely information and news.

Just at this juncture, all newspapers went off the newsstand.

They were protesting against the undue interference and intimidation by a rebel group.

This particular rebel group has many factions within its setup. One faction demanded that the papers should not carry the press release of other faction. The other faction demanded that they should. This fracas escalated but instead of trying to negotiate the factional differences, they turned their ire to the newspapers. They forced the newspapers to shut down.

The ISTV channel was also forced to shut down.

Right at the moment, the newspapermen were staging a ‘Wakat Meepham’ on a roadside just across the Keisampat bridge towards Nityapat Chuthek. It was started from this morning and from the look of the developments down there they seemed to be planning for a non-stop ‘Wakat Meepham’, continuing all through out days and nights.

In the evening, I went down there. My plan was to approach some newspapermen and note down the blow by blow account of the crisis. But I found out interviewing newspapermen was really tricky and it proved to be beyond me!

But I did have a good look at the proceedings there. As the darkness set in, the place was brightly lit up and I had no idea how they managed to do so on a roadside and in such a short notice. I also heard buzzes about the progress for the preparation of supper to be served right there at the “Wakat Meepham’ venue!

Scores of placards encircle the venue. But 2 placards stood out. One said—‘kidnapping newspapermen is criminal’. The other said—‘firing on newspapermen is..(I can’t remember the full sentence).

So, it seems that shots were fired. Did they hurt some newspapermen? I have no means to confirm this.

So, we are facing a double crisis.

The drama behind the bird flu outbreak

The drama started some 4/5 months ago.

The scene unfolded on a piece of land near an orchid farm run by the State Government near porompat. A group of people was attempting to grab the said land from the possession of the State Government.

With this intent, they simply formed a self-help group and put up some rickety structure and boundary fencing in the name of the group on the above mentioned piece of land. Then, they installed a Nepali guy with his wife and 2 kids to look after the ‘property’.

To give some works to the Nepali family and if possible, to get some income, they purchased some 300 chicks from the Govt-run hatchery at Mantripukhri and put them under the care of the family.

So far so good. Everything seemed to be going on as planned. But one fateful day the wife of the Nepali guy ran away with the chowkidar of the Govt-run orchid farm, which is the neighbouring establishment to the ‘property’.

The ‘Meira Paibis’ came in to arbitrate the case of the ‘run-away wife’. But she told the gathering of the concerned parties, citizen of the locality (which was organized by the ‘Meira Paibis’) that she had decided to abandon her husband and 2 kids to become the wife of the orchid farm chowkidar.

Hearing his wife saying that openly in front of the gathering , the Nepali guy just packed up his belongings and left in a huff with his 2 kids.

The ‘property’ was left without a caretaker. The members of the self-help group tried to look after it by attending to it during day times.

More important to our story, 300 chickens were not properly attended to. This was continued for nearly 3 months. During this period, more than half the flock perished. During the last week of June, one of the members of the self-help group transported the remaining birds numbering about 120 to his home and housed them in a rarely-used bamboo shed, which at that time had about 12 birds inside its floor. The house of the particular member of the self-help group is near the place where the Capitol Project is presently under construction, dot on the border of Tahngmeiband and Chingmeirong.

As it happened the mortality of the flock continued unabated. On the 7th July they sent one bird for post mortem in the lab run by the Vety deptt at Sanjenthing. But the deptt official said the date was 10th, not 7th and they sent a doctor with the samples from the bird to Bhopal the following day.

The sample was to be found tested positive for H5N1 strain.

On the 15th, Mr Negi, the joint commissioner(vety) of the Govt of India arrived in Imphal.

On the 16th, Mr Negi together with officials from the State vety deptt went to the remaining 12 birds, took samples, slaughtered and buried and then, burnt down the bamboo shed.

Out of the 7 samples from the 12 birds, 6 was to be later found tested positive for the H5N1 strain.

So, let’s come to the conclusion. We can see that there were actually two flocks of birds—120 and the original 12. As was to be found later, the flock of the 120 birds was infected with the bird flu virus.

But the original flock of the 12 birds was kept intermingled with the infected for at least 2 weeks, long enough to get the virus, which they actually got into themselves, as proven by the test results later.

But here comes to the intriguing question. Why the flock of 12 birds, after infecting with the virus for several weeks, did not suffer a single mortality?

Normally, the incubation period of H5N1 is only 1 week and the mortality rate is 90%. And, we have remember here that not a single sample, other than those 7, is tested positive so far.

The question so foxed the MLA of the Oinam Assembly Constituency that he took the trouble to call up doctors at the Bhopal lab. The doctors at the Bhopal lab were also reported to be amazed at this inconsistency. The MLA in question is himself a doctor and recently retired from the State Health services, before getting himself elected as a MLA.

Shoddy works

At least one eveninger headlined it. It said that Rapid Reaction Teams (RRTs) did not dig up deep enough pits for burying the culled birds. Around Thangmeiband-Chingmeirong areas rotten smells came out of the burial sites.

Later in the evening, I learnt that the RRTs are visiting the areas tomorrow again. Shoddy works there.

And I should not fail to note down a piece of insider news. In the afternoon a cheque of Rs 10 crores had just reached the Director, Vety Deptt. It was from Delhi. In absolute terms, it is not a huge amount of money (is it a little less than 1 million dollar?) but in a small place like Imphal and in the hands of fixed-salaried petty officials, it is a huge sum of money.

It is again to be noted here that it came direct to the Director empowering him to utilize it in whatever ways he thinks fit. It bypassed what they call the ‘proper channel’ of the State Government.

It is becoming clearer day by day that there is a lot of money in virus business

The return of the UAV

I did try to have a glimpse of it but it seemed that it flew above the clouds. It was unmistakable that it was a UAV.

The time was around 5.30 in the evening.

I could hear the sound of it flying around for about 20 minutes.

What it was looking for?

Govt departments:At cross purposes

This afternoon police parties at different places outside the 5 kms radius tried to close down selling chicken and related products. It was reported in the papers that all such shops in Bishenpur were also shut down.

So, what’s happening? Were some blood samples of birds outside the 5 kms tested positive for the virus?

The Deptt of Vety is emphatic there is no such case. Then? All they could say was that we should redirect our enquiries to the office of the respective Deputy Commissioners. But unlike the Deptt of Vety which have been maintaining a control room round the clock, the offices of the DCs were closed for the Sunday. So, people could not get any information why the police personnel were trying to close down the shops.

It’s very clear that different departments of the govt are functioning in cross purposes.

If they did not get any blood sample tested positive outside the 5 kms radius, they should have no plan to cull the birds there. But the birds in those farms need to be sold off, the farms cleaned and new flocks raised in quick successions. If these cycles are broken and older age flocks are forced (as was done by the police personnel today) to stay longer in the farms, they are more prone to be the virus hosts.

The ideal thing is to encourage people to buy and eat chicken outside the 5 kms radius.

But the opposite seems to be happening.

Come sunshine, bust all the aerosols!

Who would welcome sunshine on a balmy July day?

For once, I would!

Right now, my mood is –let the harsh July sunshine beat on us and bust all the aerosols in the air. Only for the purpose of busting the aerosols I would welcome a harsh July sunshine.

Did you know that virus hops around riding the aerosols in the air? Sometimes they can travel upto 80 feet in a single hop riding the aerosols.

For several days now, we have not been able to have a glimpse of the Sun in the sky. The sky has been always overcast and intermittent drizzles all throughout days and night. The humidity is intolerable.

It’s just the perfect setting for sprouting of aerosols all around us.

In the evening I went shopping. Trudging the muddy marketplace, I could still hear gay banters among the crowd, mainly recalling the previous night’s ‘chicken party’. Everybody seems to be well-informed. They know well-cooked chicken is fit for eating and the only tricky part is when they have to kill and dress the bird. It seems that everybody thinks letting the Govt cull the birds at the rate of Rs 30 a bird is a bad idea and worse economics! I bet ‘chicken parties’ are raging all around us. But they don’t take risk by buying chicken in the market and they are also not the taking the risk of letting fowls loitering around their yards.

That’s a great spirit! Keep it up!!

The virus and the farming community

Late into the evening, there was no report of any abnormal mortality of birds in and around Imphal. I wish the virus outbreak was contained.

But viewing from the side of farming community, there is total anarchy in their domain. As soon as the official announcement was made consumers of all hues suddenly avoid chicken in any from like a plague.

Abruptly, the demands of chicken in any form drop down to a big zero.

But there are a lot of farms outside the 5 kms radius where the culling is being in progress. They have to keep feeding their flocks with no prospect of selling their crops within the next 3 months.

3 months? It’s because it is mandatory to review the status of the outbreak only after a break of complete 3 months. Within this period, there should be active surveillance to make sure that the virus was completely wiped out.

Until and unless there is another official announcement to the effect that the outbreak is contained and it is safe to eat chicken, consumers will continue to avoid it. So, the demands for chickens will continue to be zero for the next 3 months.

And, it is not common knowledge but the chicken feeds are pricey. You cannot barter a kilo of rice, which is the staple food of people here, with a kilo of chicken feed. It is costlier than rice.

Will the farming community continue to invest in this pricey stuff for a crop which would have zero demand in the market for the next 3 months?

This government and ,even this society, appear to have no idea how to deal with the present plight of the farming community here.

Bad news

First, here is the bad news. Late in the afternoon, it was officially confirmed that the strain of bird flu virus detected here was H5N1. Previously, it was thought to be H5 strain. H5N1 is more virulent and is more likely to jump to human.

They say the norm for testing is that they look for the H strain first. Only after confirming the H strain would they go for further testing looking for N strain. That’s why it takes further two days to confirm the N1 strain.

But there is still something that greatly disturbs me.

The virus was detected almost two weeks back. But they did not declare that the State was hit by a bird flu outbreak. Here is my earlier post detailing it.

I thought finding the virus in a single and tiny farm was not a sufficient condition for declaring place as a zone of outbreak. I thought that it was necessary to conduct further testing on blood samples of the flocks of the surrounding areas.

So, when they declared Imphal as being a zone of outbreak, I thought that some more samples were tested positive for the virus.

But it was certain that it was not the case.

The virus was tested positive on the 7 blood samples of the 8 sent from the tiny farm in Thangmeiband (bordering Chingmeirong).

After this detection, more than 1000 blood samples from farms in and around Imphal were sent to Bhopal. AND ALL THE SAMPLES WERE TESTED NEGATIVE.

Are they following norms wasting those critical 15-20 days?

Bird flu outbreak

It’s official now—there is bird flu outbreak here.

In the afternoon, the Govt officially announced that culling of live birds would begin tomorrow. As the first step, all the live birds within the 5 kms radius of ground zero will be culled. Ground zero is the farm in Thangmeiband area. I’ve posted about the farm here.

All the live birds outside this 5 kms radius but within the 10 kms radius will be under constant surveillance.

They are giving Rs 10 for every small chick and Rs 30 for every grown up birds culled as compensation.

These rates are mandated by Govt of India based on the current price in some states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra. Here the rates are too low. Some of my friends told me that most farmers would be willing to let their birds culled if the compensation came to around Rs 90 per bird.

We all can understand that it is an emergency situation and the farming community should be ready to lose some portions of their investments. But it appears that pure chaos prevails in the field. There is still widespread shifting of birds outside the 5 kms radius. As I’m typing this right now, wholesale transportations of birds are still continuing. I got this news from some friends of mine who are reliable.

There is likelihood that they would not find any substantial numbers of birds within the immediate 5 kms radius.

Bird flu is a very serious public concern. But this government totally mismanages the initial response to contain the outbreak. We are indeed living in a very dangerous place.

Terrible things

It’s cold—COLD! Right now, I’m wearing a jacket. Jacket on a July night!

Today, right from the go in the first morning, it was actually cold. It might be a perfect day for a long walk. But if you stay put indoors, you feel like grabbing your jackets and woolen cloths. It was cloudy, with drizzles all day long and with the sun nowhere to be seen. But why is it to be so cold on a July day?

I think that there must be something terribly wrong with our planet. Global warming must be the culprit.

Coming to the next terrible thing, they said they would say something definite about the bird flu status in Imphal by 21st. Today is the 25th. Even if all the blood samples were tested negative, they have a duty to inform the public about it. Negative results are good news for everybody concerned. Good news are meant to be spread around.

Why should anybody try to suppress good news?

I’m still a bit uneasy about the whole affairs.

UAV show in Imphal!

The show started at around 5.30 in the evening!

I had just reached home with a pack of flavoured green tea by Tetley when I heard a very unnatural yet familiar sound.

It’s familiar because I spotted it flying around Imphal night sky several months ago. All of the previous sightings were during night times. Aside of the yellow and red lights, I could not see anything. So, I could not be sure if it was a UAV or just another turboprop plane.

But this evening, I could clearly see it. At 5 in the evening, the sunlight is low in intensity and there is no glare. Above that, it was cloudy—but not with blackish clouds. The clouds were more or less lighted by the rays of the setting sun and the UAV was flying beneath them. That makes a perfect viewing experience.

I was sure it was a UAV because it was so thin that there was no possibility of any people sitting inside it. It was comparatively slow moving flying machine.

But how do I connect with today’s one with those I sighted during night times several months ago? It is the sound. They all emitted the same sound.

The sound has the ring of toy plane in it but hugely louder.

As I first saw it, it was heading towards Churachandpur side, cutting the Imphal skyline right in the middle. After some minutes, it was just a speck of a flying object in the Southern horizon. Then, it returned, circling the Imphal in a clockwise direction.

It kept circling the Imphal valley for nearly 30 minutes, many times in smaller circles, covering the Eastern skyline and then, Northern. Several times it circled in large circles covering all of Imphal skyline. It did the circling always in a clockwise direction.

After about 30 minutes of making circles, it headed towards Churachnadpur.

Then, it was gone.

A must see video.

I feel a sorry for myself for getting to see this video this late.

See Jeff Han casts his magic to your computer screen.

Some moody thoughts

Today, in the afternoon, it was actually cold. What’s happening on a July afternoon? Sudden weather changes always make me feel a little shitty.

But I should not fail to note down the series of events of the last 7/8 days.

Let me start with today’s. Some student leaders went all the way to Delhi and demanded a separate university in the hills. If not a full-fledged university, they wanted at least a campus of a central university in the hills.

Yesterday, some students vandalized passenger buses parked in a place called Kangvai, which is right on the border of Churachandpur and Bishenpur districts. They were all buses plying in Churachandpur-Imphal routes but for that day they went as far as Kangvai only as the students of Churachandpur district were observing a bandh there. The bandh was something to do with the working of Public Distribution System in the District. But the students crossed over to the area which is clearly in Bishenpur district and vandalized the buses. The transporters retaliated by organizing a counter-bandh on the Churachandpur-Imphal route. The route was paralyzed for the second day today.

Two or three days back, Hmar student leaders tried to drag out the Parbung mass rape case by demanding that a report by the Naga Peoples’ Human Rights Movement should be made public. This Naga outfit is considered to be very closed to NSCN(IM), which again is very hostile to the Manipuri rebel group accused of perpetrating the mass rape.

Some days back, there was a large demonstration by the women folks in Churachandpur district headquarter. It appeared to be well organized and one of the largest gatherings of women folks in the district in recent times. They were supposed to demonstrate against the rape of a young mother by three deserters from a rebel outfit. But they did more to spread the idea that the valley people consider tribal girls as sex objects.

They are all legitimate demands. But I noticed a thread linking all these events going all the way to the rape of the young mother and the recent disturbances in Moreh. Somebody is really desperate that there should be communal clash between the Kukis and Meeteis.

The 'conflict' in picture.

The balding old man is Mr Ph Parijat, who is one of the most senior ministers in the present Government in Imphal. He is most probably the 3rd or the 4th man after the Chief Minister himself.

The lanky man on the right who is in his short pant is Major Nikhil Thakkar of the Indian army.

The scene was in front of the outpost near Sagang, of which the major is the post commander. The senior minister, who had to pass the outpost on his way to his official visits to rural health care centtres, was detained by the major and questioned.

This is the front page photo of the Poknapham, which it carried on its 19th July 2007 edition.

A fine conspiracy theory!

Tonight, it feels like a wintry night. It’s not as cold as in the winter but it is cold. You feel like winter is just around the corner.

Hmm..if winter comes, then end of the year is also in sight. Come to think of this—2007 coming to an end! This freaks me out—I’ve not yet done anything worthwhile during 2007.

Why should I feel like this? It’s now just past the middle of the year. May be, it’s because there is a feel of wintry ambience in the air.

Remember the friend of mine who gave me the details about this bird flu stuff? We kind of bumped into each other this afternoon on the road.

It seems that he has a lot of snippets of the bid flu affairs. This afternoon’s snippets have the ring of conspiracy theory all over them! He told me that there is an emergency funds of Rs 3 crores to tackle bird flu as it begins out breaking. A designated vet doc is empowered to utilize the funds without even the concurrence of the director of the Deptt in case the virus is detected. He told me that there was the possibility of the doc aiming for the Rs 3 crores fund. But what about the blood samples which were suspected to test positive?

He told me that the designated doc in question is an active member of Indo Myanmar Friendship Society and he had been traveling to Burma for most part of the year.

My friend actually told me that the farming community here still think that the good doc might have bring back a blood sample of suspected flocks from Burma and got it couriered to Bhopal for testing.

We can understand that the farming community might be in a denial mood right at the moment but this is a pure conspiracy theory.

It's official now: 'Possibility' bird flu in Imphal.

Now, it's out in the open. Most papers headlined it today--actually headlines screaming the possibility of bird flu virus running wild in Imphal.

We have to note the qualifying word--'possibilty'. Right at the moment, the official line is that there is no bird flu virus here. They would say it definitely by Saturday. A team of 10 vet docs have completed collecting blood samples within the 5 km radius of the suspected farm in Thangmeiband. The high security lab in Bhopal will give its verdict by Saturday.

So, we have to wait for the Sunday morning papers to hit the news stand.

Commissioner veterinary to Union Government is here in Imphal supervising the operations. He arrived here on the 15th.

That such a high ranking official is supervising the operation means that the blood samples from the Thangmeiband farm were positive for bird flu virus. But the farm happened to be a tiny one, having a flock size of less than 200 broilers. While they were waiting for the Bhopal test report, all the birds were culled and even the bamboo shed was burnt down.

So, they are checking the blood samples of all the farms within the 5 kms radius of the Tahngmeiband farm. There is also the possibility that all the blood samples might test negative.

Let's hope for the best.

Still intrigued

I'm still intrigued by the rape of the 9th. May be, I'm in a mood for cracking some mysterious codes embedded in that heinous act! Please see my last post.

But why should they be executed? Villagers around the place they were excuted knew for sure that they wanted to surrender to the police. They also knew that they were in fact keeping in touch with the police to start a new lives for themselves.

If all the three men got into the act of raping the young mother, is there a remote chance that they would be spared of that brutal execution?

I've got this uneasy feeling that they were executed because somebody wanted the truth not to come out. If they were not executed, there is real likelihood that we would find out who were the actual rapists and who was the person who declined to be a party to that heinous act.

Why someone wanted to put a lid on that possibilty?

Why is it so important that the third man should join in the heinous act?

I still think that somebody planned the rape. They calculated that if two of the three men went as far as raping a young woman in the presence of their friend, he would be so aroused that he had no chance for escaping from becoming an active participant in the horrible act.

But that did not happen. And, for that reason only, all three fo them had to die. I think like this because those who want to surrender are generally welcomed with open arms by the authority. So, why should there be a separate rule for these particular three rebels?

It's because one of them refused to rape a young woman of a particular community! It's totally sttrange, to say the least.

A bizarre rape case

Most of the time, rape is everything to do about violence. But the occasional cases of rapes by rebel cadres operating deep into the mountainous parts indicate pursuit of pure sexual gratification.

Still, we did have a rape case on the 9th of this month, which is nothing to do either with violence or sex.

Reading today’s papers made me strongly felt that the act of raping a young mother on the 9th was a part of a deal. They had to rape a woman of a particular community and only then, they would get something in return. Most probably they were promised safe passage but in the end they were betrayed and got executed.

Some days back, when the news of the rape came in the papers, they were uniformly accompanied by detailed report of the blow by blow account of how the heinous was committed from the very mouth of the rape victim. She told the media that on that day 3 men in battle fatigue, all carrying assault rifles came to her farm which was barely 3 kms away from her home. 2 of them went inside her make-shift hut and called her in. One of them had to hold her baby, just outside the hut while the 2 men took their turn to rape her inside. After they finished with their acts, the third man, who is still holding the baby was called in to have his turn as well. But he declined. The scene is a little tragic comic.

The rape victim is a young mother, barely 20 years old. The place is in Churachandpur district but just adjoining Wangoo, which is a meetei dominated area in the valley. She belongs to Kuki community.

The rape did happen. The rape victim belongs to a particular community. Then, why they were executed?

Most probably, they failed to follow the script to its letters. That is, they failed to get the third man involved in the heinous act.

Really?

Today’s papers revealed that they were all deserters. But the most interesting twist in the story is that not all of the three belong to the same rebel group. A rebel group, in a press statement, said that 2 of the three were their cadres who deserted their battalion. The third was a deserter from another rebel group, who had been taking shelter in their battalion since January this year.

Was the third man the man who was holding the baby outside the hut? Was the mainstay of the deal to get the third man involved in the heinous act?

Totally bizarre.

All three of them were executed by police commandos in Nambol yesterday.

Something fishy?

There is something fishy here.

Either there is willful covering up of news or there were some mix ups in the blood samples.

I would welcome the second scenario. Bird flu virus is the last thing we need here in Imphal. We have had enough problems in hand.

But it should be very clearly understood that we cannot tolerate a cover up. If there was an actual detection of the virus here, every citizen should have the right to know the status of the virus on hourly basis.

But today I could not find any news or any development. I thought of visiting my friend again. But he has enough shares of his own worries—looking at his face, I got the impression that he had just reached the end of this world! I phoned another friend asking him if he heard something. He phoned me back telling me that everything seemed to be normal.

I also forgot to mention something in my last post. My friend very clearly told me that Joint Secy(home) and Joint Secy(vety) of the Union Government would be visiting Imphal today itself. What had happened to that visit? I tried to find out in today’s eveningers here but there was nothing.

But we should also agree that premature announcement should also be bad enough, causing panic among the general population. And we should also take into account the proverbial inefficiency of the Government here to respond to any minor contingency, leave alone responding to vastly complicated case of a bird flu outbreak.

Let’s give them 2/3 days. Within that time frame if we don’t hear anything official, I’ll definitely start asking around.

This certainly calls for an investigation.

Bird flu in Imphal?

It’s not official yet but it’s almost confirmed that the virus was detected in a small poultry farm in Thangmeiband area.

I got the news this fast because I happened to just drop into the office of one of my friends who has a farm. It was dusk and I found him in his office extremely dejected. I asked him what’s the problem with me and he told me the story.

The story goes on like this. Blood samples of the said farm were couriered to the Bhopal lab by a veterinary doctor from the Vety Deptt, Government of Mnaipur. I don’t get the details but I suspect that if they took that trouble of couriering the samples with a vety doc, they might had some preliminary findings that the farm might just have the virus. The lab in Bhopal is the only lab in India which confirmative test on bird flu.

The Bhopal lab informed directly to the Union Government in Delhi about the test results. It’s because they learnt some lesson from the recent outbreak of the virus in Nasik. In Nasik, when they heard the confirmative results from Bhopal, all the poultry farmers actually shifted birds out of the 12 kms radius of the outbreak. It’s mandatory that all the birds within the 12 kms radius of the outbreak should be culled. Here, it means that all the birds within Imphal should be culled.

So, the joint secy in the deptt of agriculture of the Union Govt had telephoned the director, vety deptt here twice today enquiring about the preparations for the culling.

My friend told me that some culling equipments actually were transported to Imphal this evening by air.

I suspect that I might just the first person to put this news in black and white but I don’t doing this. It’s because some of the friends have farms and it’s almost certain their flocks have to be culled. This means they are out of the business for some months at least.

But I also think that if the virus is actually amidst us, everybody should chip in to restrict the virus from spreading further.

Finding theanswer

I’m kind of continuing from my last post.

For whatever reason the Indian military fail to finish off the rebels establishments along the Indo Burma borders, one possible way to explain it, is to assign it an inherent weakness in its setup. That said, the soft power of the Indian state is still tremendous. Can we think up of any modern State which military has to engage in a 3 hours gun battles with rebels? May be, Afghanistan, which is more or less a freakish state. In India’s case, its military has to fight a 3 hours long gun battles with its home grown rebels and still able to present a completely normal facet to the rest of the world. That’s a tremendous achievement.

Then, we can come to the question: Why don’t the Indian military advance right up to the rebel-held areas and finish off the rebels there? We have to remember here they enjoy huge numerical superiority and the much needed local supports in the forms of assistance provided by the cadres of KNA.

Going by the strategy deployed during the Kargil war, we know that Indian military is willing to suffer a disproportionate mortality to achieve a military target.

So, it appears that the field commanders of the Indian military deployed right now along the Indo Burma borders are being tied down by other considerations, which might not be essentially military in character.

For example, the recent Chinese diplomatic moves. For several years now, everybody knew that the border dispute between China and India was becoming a non-issue. Then, only some weeks back, the Chinese made a sudden volte-face and resumed its farcical claim that Arunachal Pradesh is their territory. They even refused to issue a visa for an IAS officer, who is a native of the said state.

The most consummate nature of the recent Chinese diplomatic offensive is their ability to position it as a countermove to an Indian diplomatic move.

A countermove to what Indian diplomatic move?

To my mind, it’s the Indian diplomatic move, cozying up with the Burmese military junta, even to the extent of supplying military hardware. International diplomatic community thinks that if Indians initiate a move in a Chinese backyard, it is legitimate for the Chinese to make a countermove.

So, right at the moment, the Indian State finds itself dragged down in an uncomfortable diplomatic mess.

This state of diplomatic mess demands that the Indian military should avoid at all cost a situation whereby it is forced to a military face off with the Burmese side. We have to remember here that if the Indian military initiates ‘operations’ against the rebels too near the border, it is very well possible that it might degenerate into a military face off with the Burmese side.

So, it’s fairly possible that the field commanders of the Indian military deployed along the Indo Burma border to fight the rebels are being prevented from executing their military duties by the twists and turns of international diplomacy. This might just be the reason why there is deafening silence along the Indo Burma border right at the moment.

WHY?

It is something that had happened on the morning of 8th of this month. It was reported by all the papers on the 9th.

Well, it is about a gun battle. But I’m not overly interested in gun battles or something to do with rebel activities. As a matter of fact, it was a 3 hours long gun battle with the rebels and Indian military.

But as private citizen, interested in happenings around him, the gun battle of the 8th sets me thinking.

As could be gleaned from the media reports, it appeared to be a fierce fighting, lasting as long as 3 hours. All the reports carried both the versions of the rebels and the Indian military.

The rebels admitted that 2 of its cadres were killed and claimed to have killed 2 soldiers of the Indian military. It said that after the 3hours long battle, it was deploying rocket launchers and heavy guns, waiting for the Indian military advance.

The Indian military spokesman based in Imphal said that they had killed as many as 3 rebels and admitted that one it’s NCO was seriously injured. He concluded by stating that the ‘operation’ was still continuing.

It’s interesting to note that the rebels were bringing in reinforcement in anticipation of an imminent advance by the Indian military. And the Indian military said the ‘operation’ was continuing.

Then, suddenly total silence descended on the Indo-Burma borders near Moreh, where the gun battles took place.

WHY?

In case the rebels had abandoned their positions, the Indian military would lose no time in trumpeting their achievement of ‘flushing out’ the rebels, forcing them to back down inside the safety net provided by the Burmese military. That this trumpeting does not happen would tell us that the rebels are waiting with their ‘rocket launchers and heavy guns’.

As a general rule, rebel army retreats when the military advances. Mostly, they refuse to be pinned down in a fixed territory. But the rebels appear to be pinned down within a well defined territory near the Indo-Burma border. And, this is very important, the Indian military appears to have extremely reliable intel and logistic support provided by the KNA. And, they have huge numerical superiority.

Then, why don’t they simply advance and finish the rebels?

WHY?

It's late, tonight.

I'm late tonight. I mean I'm late to try to type out a post, which I've been busy writing in my head!

When I booted my PC it was laready 11.30 pm. I want to post it before midnight. But I think I cannot do justice to what I've been toying up in my head under 30 minutes.

I'll do it tommorow.

A new link.

I've just added a new link under heading ' Now reading!' on my left bar.

It's about the ideology of development and I find the article very interesting.

Cell phone and UMPC--converged!

Here is a video to see how a cell phone and a UMPC got converged into a single, ultra portable device.

The guy in the video is Hugo Ortega, the tablet man of Australia and he has a blog here.

2nd day

Today is the 2nd of my time shift implementation!

In the morning, when I woke up, I felt fuller. That’s a good sign. Even I can say that I felt stronger!

The only part where I felt disheartened was when I had to let loose the whistles of the pressure cooker well past midnight. They sounded really unreal. What would my neighbours think when they heard the pressure whistles past midnight?

But right now, I have already finished making all the preparations for cooking my supper. I’ll start the actual cooking at around midnight again!

Besides the fruits, I had added some whole nuts, all of which I ate at around 7.30 in the evening. Then, I had my usual cup of green tea.

I’ll try out this new regiment for a week and see what happens.

Time shift!

Is it possible to eat something at around 2/3 in the morning?

People say if we have supper at the latest by 10 pm and breakfast at around 7/8 in the following morning, there is still a gap of at least 10 hours in between. They say it is bad to leave our stomach to fend for itself for even 6 hours without supplying it a refill! They say the trick is to eat something at around 2/3 in the morning. They say some biscuits and water are sufficient. This sounds reasonable to me and I know some people who actually do it regularly as habit.

I try to form that habit but so far, I fail to persuade myself to be awake at around that timing. For one thing I sleep like a log but if I can pull myself up to be awake for sometime to eat something at that hours, I still think I won’t be able to eat anything without first cleaning my tongue and all that things. I’m afraid that doing all that chores would effectively kill off my ‘sleepiness’.

So, tonight I am implementing a time shift!

Usually, I would have my lunch at around 2 in the afternoon. Today, at around 7.30 in the evening I ate a lot of fruits ie, 5/6 hours after my lunch. This means I should have my supper just after midnight, making a gap of 5/6 hours! Then I can have my breakfast around 7/8 the following morning, still maintaining the 5/6 hours gap in between.

Right now, I have already finished making all the preparations for cooking my supper but I’ll start the actual cooking at around 11.30!

Is this freaky?

But most people, most families here have their supper by 8 pm and most probably go to bed by 10/11. The earliest they could manage their breakfast is at around 6 in the following morning. So, there is the minimum of 8 hours gap in between. Is this a good practice?

Letters-3

This is, so far, the last of the series of letters published in the “letters to the editor” of Sangai Express. This was carried on the 28th June edition of the paper.
____

Rejoinder to UNLF’s version on Moreh incident.

Sir,

Kudos to the inevitable boomerang that came my way in response to my letter captioned “UNLF triggered Moreh fissure” which was published on 21-06-07 in the The Sangai Express.

At the outset, Tah-Chapa salute(the highest honorary salutation of the Kukis) to Ksh. Yoheiba, Senior Publicity Officer of UNLF, for reiterating his side of the story which is totally contradictory to the other side of the story aired by KNO/KNA. Need anything more be said. In a dilemma I whispered truth? Where art thou!

However, it was indeed a pleasure to hear his willingness and appreciation for open-disclosure with the masses on people-centric issues unlike Kuki and Naga nationalists.

At the same time, while acknowledging and praising for my “true-inner feelings” I wish that the Front uphold and cherish the heroic actions and contributions made by my Kuki forefathers and the Haokips(Chassads) in particular, during the Kamhao(Sukte) Lan, Ava Lan, the Kohima Expedition, the Anglo-Kuki War 1917-1919 et al, besides the guarding of Konung in protest against the signing away of “our freedom” by the Maharaja of Manipur. Because linkage to the past constitutes one of the most potent motivations for stepping into the future as a shaper of tomorrow’s history.

Here, it is believed in good faith that the views expressed are not mistaken as rebuttal with malicious contempt towards the Front.

That, as far as my letters are concerned, the Editor has the sole authority in supplying the appropriate title/heading on his own volition, which was and is beyond the reach of my pen.

Regarding the chronology of events leading to “Moreh Spark”, charges and counter-charges from the warring parties may flood the limited news-column, but to me it is an “unheroic landmarks in the struggle for freedom”.

Again, it rather sounds true and convincing regarding the identity of Mr Roshan Meetei, whom claimed innocent by the UNLF and Meira Paibees. On the other hand civil’student bodies like HTC, KSO, KWO and even the NSCN(IM) in their press statements clarified his true identity as a hardcore UNLF cadre, thereby resulted in retaliatory killings of Kukis.

In the context of Moreh Town, one has to note that, for any civil-related cases the task of compromise, reconcialition, understanding has been altruistically delivered by civil organizations like Hill Tribal Council and Meetei Council, Tamil Sangam etc. Unfortunately, it is very much doubtful why the traditional role assigned to civil bodies had been overtaken all of a sudden by UNLF in the case of “the innocent Roshan”. I humbly appeal to one and all to respect and preserve the sanctity of the role played by civil organizations.

Coming back to the death of AMSU President, I am urged by my conscience to state that, as per the news reports availed top the masses by the mass media, the President was annihilated by KNF(MC) for his alleged fraud gun running and not by KNA as alleged by UNLF.

On the question of the role of Security Forces, the British legacy of “Divide and Rule” remains the gaining strategy for any Nation, State, party or even in family affairs. Be it as it may, the history of Assam Rifles amply proved the heroic contributions of the Kukis in the form of Kuki-Levy.

In the present conflict situation, the “Friends of the Hill People” has been friendly disposed towards the Kuki Hill-men but not much to the valley-Meetei people. The reason—the Olive Branch offer by New Delhi.

All said and done,our hearts go out to our people in Kabaw Valley, who are denied their basic human rights—the right to survive as an ethnic community by the Burmese Military junta despite their tears and sweats for retoration of democracy. As such, any party or front found supporting, abetting, harbouring or in collaboration with the Burmese regime, is deserved to be called “enemy of the Kukis”.

As a citizen of Manipur, we also ought to share our grief and pain for those internally displaced people who were compelled to flee to Mizoram in the wake of alleged mass-rape and those innocent victims of the killer land-mine besides the untold miseries suffered by Tribal students on the streets of New Delhi.

Thus, I would like to conclude by asking myself—Is there any Government for redressing the plight of the Kuki people? Who cares? Nobody cares. The Kukis have been left uncared, neglected, subjugated for decades. External forces and situation has compelled them to fight and stand up for the rights. But I feel bravery without unity is futile.

So come, let us sit down together and there I assure you, we shall find that our differences are far more imaginary than real.

Yours faithfully,
Lenneo Haokip,
Former Editor,
Manmasi.

Letters-2

This letter is in response to Mr Lenneo Haokip’s letter to the editor of 21st June( See my last post—letters-1).

Today’s letter was on the 25th June edition of Sangai Express.

UNLF did not trigger Moreh fissure.

Sir,

We appreciate the positive views and constructive suggestions expressed in this column on 21-06-07 by Mr Lenneo Haokip, former editor of Manmasi. We feel reassured that people like Mr Haokip appreciates UNLF’s revolutionary line of National Liberation Struggle, particularly its basic principle of peaceful co-existence. In fact, we are moved by his genuine patriotic feelings carried in his appeal ‘to the people of Manipur to arise, awake, introspect and come together as one to avoid further balkanization of our tiny-state Manipur into tri-zone viz Kangleipak, Nagalim and Kuki Zalen-Gam’. We are absolutely with him in this endeavour.

However, we are constrained to make some clarifications on being tagged ‘UNLF triggered Moreh Fissures’ having ‘gone awry from their basic principle by playing the communal card in the recent Moreh episode’ in the context of our basic principles of peaceful co-existence and co-development. We feel that the chronology of events that led what Mr Haokip calls the ‘Moreh Mishap’ needs to be recounted here so that our progressive intellectuals like Mr Hakip could be more objective on such sensitive issues.

For some years now, the KNO/KNA, supported and assisted by the Indian security forces, has been carrying on a campaign to intimidate the families of Kukis who have joined UNLF/MPA. KNA even brutally tortured some families.

On 01-06-07, KNA killed ex-MPA No, 1710 Nengneilhing Baite @ Mary Baite, resident of Moreh and married to a Meetei, after being raped and brutally tortured. The reason—working for UNLF/MPA.

On 03-06-07, KNA gunned downed a youth named Roshan, a Meetei. The reason—alleged to be a 2/lt in MPA while HTC/KSO claimed earlier that he was a sergeant in MPA.

On 04-06-07, armed KNA men, encouraged by 24 AR of the SF for working on their agenda of creating communal tension, moved freely in Moreh town and began to terrorise the Meetei community thereby provoking a communal reaction.

The above stated activities of the KNO/KNA crossed the limit of UNLF’s tolerance and decided to act against the SF-KNA conspiracy.

Therefore, on 05-06-07 at 10.00 hrs a Special Strike Force of UNLF/MPA entered Moreh Town and detained six men suspected to be KNA. Four of them were identified to be KNA men who were involved in the killing of President, AMSU Chandel District, Nengheiling Baite @ Mary Baite and Roshan, while the other two were found to be innocent civilian and thus set free. As the Special Strike Force was given specific orders to shoot only KNA men, the four identified KNA were shot on the spot. Moving further, another KNA intelligence man, operating as Auto Driver, was found near the gate of Roshan’s house. He was identified to be involved in the killing of Roshan and thus shot on the spot.

In retaliation to the action taken by the MPA Special Strike Force, the KNO/KNA, according to the agenda set by 24 AR of the SF mowed down 6 Meetei labourers on the one hand and whipped up communal sentiments of the Moreh Kukis by wrongly informing that the UNLF/MPA has killed innocent Kukis.

We would like Mr Haokip to ponder over how KNO/KNA has been helping the SFs, knowingly or unknowingly, to take advantage of our internal contradictions. That the Meeteis did not react communally to KNO/KNA provocations was not by any outside effort but primary because of the maturity of the Meeteis as a community, which has been displayed time and again in recent times.

On UNLF’s vision for an independent and united country, we may reiterate our guiding principle of ‘autonomy at all levels’. According to this basic principle, we conduct ourselves in ethnic areas through traditional local authorities, either ‘Chiefs’ or ‘village councils’ as of now.

The presence of UNLF/MPA in ethnic areas(read Kuki areas as well) is primarily of fighting against the Security Force on the one hand and to spread the message of unity, co-existence and co-development besides extending much needed humanitarian help.

Thus, it is totally wrong and misleading to describe UNLF/MPA presence in ethnic areas as encroachment.

The problem is, our KNO/KNA brothers, instead of trying to understand the humble efforts of the UNLF/MPA, have joined hands with the SF against UNLF/MPA. Working with the SF for other purposes may not be our business. But if that relationship turns against UNLF and our national liberation struggle, we are compelled to take appropriate measures. This is just what has happened in Moreh.

We would like to reassure Mr Haokip that the UNLF has not at all ‘gone awry’ from the firmly committed path of national liberation, peaceful co-existence and co-development. But we need two hands to clap.

In the regards, we would welcome more, if any, from Mr Haokip.

Yours faithfully,
Ksh. Yoheiba,
Senior Publicity Officer,
UNLF.

Letters-1

I’m reproducing a series of letters from the column “Letters to the Editor” of Sangai Express, English edition. Today’s letter appeared on the 21st June edition.
_______

UNLF triggered Moreh fissures

Sir,

Amongst all the radically innovative groups waging a war against the Indian Union, the UNLF once had the literary comparison of being the most commanding, estimable and mass based vanguard of the national liberation movement of Manipur.

Since its inception, the onward march of the Front has been laudable at times and deserved red-salutations of its revolutionary zeal and its basic principle of peaceful co-existence.

As such it began to shed the old appendage of being valley-based or Meitei insurgents. Thus, spreading the insurrectionary message of Independent Manipur far and wide across hills and valley.

Infelicitously, today, after a long soporific revolutionary expedition, the UNLF has gone awry from their basic principle by playing the communal card in the recent Moreh episode which heightened the already tense Meitei-Kuki social and political ties. In fact, in the recent Moreh sparks the party which have been oft-repeatedly exhorting the masses for peace and integrity had taken the role in fomenting communal passions and confrontational attitude towards the Kukis. This was indeed unfortunate and is something which we, regretfully, cannot deny. Here, it is worth mentioning the plausible role of other insurgent groups for their unfailing commitment to peace, communal harmony and tolerance at such a critical juncture where the fate of Manipur is at stake.

Above all, the direct confrontational attitude and its active involvement besides its propaganda warfare to keep its hands only shows its mastery over the art of propaganda.

It amply proved itself to the world of its chauvinistic leadership, intolerance and non-serious commitment to the rhetoric of “hingminnasi eikhoi and chingtam amatani”.

Therefore, ‘Moreh Mishap’ is a reminder to the people of Manipur to arise, awake, instrospect and come together as one to further balkanization of our tiny State Manipur into a tri-zone viz, Kangleipak, Nagalim and Kuki Zalen-Gam.

It is very much relevant to state that the Kuki people were and are allergic to alien interference and domination in their land which was proved to the world by the Anglo-Kuki war of 1917-19.

Also, in the early 1990s the abortive attempts made by the NSCN(IM) to infiltrate and control Moreh was successfully thwarted by the Kukis.

Thus for the sake of peace and unity, let UNLF restate, withdraw and reshape its policies regarding the Kuki people and their land.

It is a humble appeal that,let the predominantly Kuki-dominated township (Moreh) be a peaceful gateway to Asia for all business community.

Let not crore of rupees pumped in for the development of international trade hub by the Government of India be the bone of contention between insurgent groups and let it not be the cause of our collective downfall as a national liberators without the land and people to liberate.

“Chingna koina pansaba, Haona (Kuki na) koina pan ngakpa”.

Yours faithfully,

Lenneo Haokip, MA,
Political Science,
Former Editor, Manmasi.