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.