NOV-A-10
THE RECENT PROBLEMS IN
MMI CANCELLATION AND A NY
TIMES STORY
Gi Dr. Glenn,
I just came from
was an alternate choice when the MMI Project to
Inspite of the limited time of dessimination, and the 3 non-working
holidays during the 2-week proejct, by God's grace, we did 89 surgical
procedures (56 majors), extracted teethg from 289 ptes, with an average of
65 OPD consultations/day. Thse bulk of patients and surgery was a first for
LBH. But the staff carrie the task very well. They
welcomed us warmly and
the joy of serving the Lord among them was very evident.
As for the Tboli/Malyabalay it will be on
hear that you may not be able to join us at this time. Well, we are a bit
saddened by this news because we've been l;ooking
ofrward to seeing you
again. Besides, your devotion and skill in surgery, had ministered to so
many here, and so, they are hoping to see you again! So, we'll pray that
you can still make it here - if not for the whole two weeks, but maybe for
only a week.
God bless you evermore!
Allan
As I was saying....
GWG
>>> kevin bergman <kbergman@yahoo.com>
11/12/03 12:56PM >>>
fyi regarding
--- "Gordon, Michael" <Michael.Gordon@wilmer.com>
wrote:
> Subject: FW: NYTimes.com Article: Op-Ed Contributor:
> Dark Days in Shangri-La
> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 10:11:37 -0500
> From: "Gordon, Michael" <Michael.Gordon@wilmer.com>
> To: "Sara R. Gordon (E-mail)" <sgordon@amchp.org>,
> "Kevin Bergman (E-mail)"
<kbergman@yahoo.com>,
> "Mike Lowe (E-mail)"
<mike_lowe@hotmail.com>
>
>
> More on Nepal.
>
>
> Op-Ed Contributor: Dark Days in Shangri-La
>
>
> By SAMRAT UPADHYAY
>
>
> hashish-filled
> Shangri-La for hippies. In the 80's its hills
> swarmed with
> trekkers catching the evening sun as it hit
>
> a more sinister show is playing in the villages and
> in the
> capital,
> worry.
>
> For seven years, Maoist rebels have been waging a
> "people's
> war" that has turned this once-peaceful nation of 25
> million, Lord Buddha's birthplace, into a killing
> field
> with thousands dead. In language that frighteningly
> invokes
> Pol Pot's
> more and
> "hoist the hammer and sickle atop
> August, after a seven-month cease-fire that allowed
> them to
> regroup, the Maoists began striking fiercely, and
> most
> Nepalis fear what will happen if they win.
>
> If
> could
> alter the security balance throughout
> this
> geopolitically important area, already rent by
> nuclear-fueled one-upmanship between
>
> this is a risk the world cannot afford.
>
> The Maoists have already formed close alliances with
> leftist extremists in the Indian states of West
>
>
> northern
>
> effort to
> crack down on them. There are reports of cooperation
> with
> Communist factions from the
>
> The rebels model their approach after
> murderous
> Shining Path guerrilla movement: voice the
> aspirations of
> the poor, fight state oppression and police
> brutality, use
> violence as a means to justice.
>
> The rebels apparently see no paradox in their
> clinging to
> the revolutionary doctrines of Mao Zedong, even as
> his
> heirs in
> Nepali
> government defeat the insurrection. They also openly
> admire
> the late North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung, and
> could turn
>
> and in
> constant friction with its neighbors.
>
> And at a time when the
> without more
> adversaries, the virulently anti-American stance of
> the
> Maoists could turn
> not
> unlike
> to
> strike back at the great "imperialist" nation in
> retaliation for real or imaginary injuries.
>
> When they began their insurgency eight years ago,
> the
> Maoists - with their promise of land reforms, free
> education and universal health care - garnered
> support from
> rural Nepalis suffering from decades of extreme
> poverty,
> illiteracy and caste and ethnic prejudice. Even
> urban
> elites saw them as an antidote to the failed
> leadership of
> corrupt and querulous political parties. But as the
> Maoists
> began snuffing innocent lives and calling it
> "collateral
> damage," public sentiment has largely turned against
> them.
>
> Since 1995 the Maoists, with their 8,000 regular
> troops
> and perhaps as many as 40,000 irregular fighters,
> have been
> conducting sneak attacks against police and army
> posts,
> blowing up bridges, and publicly beheading alleged
> enemies
> and spies.
>
> Tourism, a mainstay of the Nepali economy, has been
> hit
> hard, as have primary sources of foreign exchange
> like
> textile and carpet manufacturing. "Business people
> are
> scared of the Maoists, who appear relentless in
> their
> efforts to destroy factories by setting them on
> fire," said
> Ashutosh Tiwari, a business consultant in
> "They
> rob banks, call for nationwide strikes and extort
> money -
> called a `Maoist tax' - from business people."
>
> The public is caught in the middle of the civil war.
> Last
> month four schoolchildren were killed in the
> crossfire
> between the army and the Maoists. In the past two
> years
> more than 5,000 people - army, Maoists and civilians
> - have
> died. Amnesty International has criticized the
> Maoists for
> "scores of abductions and kidnappings," but also
> condemned
> the army for arbitrary arrests and 250 cases of
> suspect
> "disappearances."
>
>
> year
> ago King Gyanendra fired the prime minister for
> supposed
> incompetence and dissolved the Parliament. For some
> Nepalis, this raised anxieties that the country was
> reverting to the repressive Panchayat regime that
> ran the
> country from 1962 to 1990 under the crown's absolute
> rule.
> Others lauded the king's "active" hand: 12 years of
> democracy hadn't worked, and it was time the king
> took
> control.
>
> In traditional Nepali thought, the monarch is an
> incarnation of Hindu god Vishnu, preserver of life.
> To some
> extent, this hold over the people remains, although
> it took
> a blow two years ago when Crown Prince Dipendra,
> drunk and
> drugged, gunned down 10 relatives, including his
> father,
> King Birendra.
>
> In February, Nepalis sighed with relief when the
> Maoists
> began negotiations with the government. A strident
> war of
> words, however, soon replaced dialogue, and the
> rebels went
> deeper into hiding. Their chief demand is for an
> assembly
> to redraft the Constitution, making the crown either
> powerless or obsolete. They also want the government
> to
> oust American military advisers and to terminate the
> country's counterterrorism agreement with the United
> States.
>
>
> nuclear
> weapons, and it's small. But
>
> insurgency problem as another potential
> - the
> Maoists' hard-core Communist ideology more than
> compensates
> for their lack of religious fervor. Should
> intervene militarily, however, the Maoists' leader,
> Baburam
> Bhattarai, has warned of "another
> the
> point, ordinary Nepalis reject foreign interference
> in
> solving their country's problems, and the
> American-led
> invasions of
> Nepalis'
> suspicion about
>
> So what can the
> military aid
> (last year Congress approved $20 million in
> emergency
> military aid to help fight the insurgents),
> should
> push for democratic change. King Gyanendra's
> executive fiat
> hasn't solved the Maoist problem, and his
> government's
> recent hasty appointments of party members to local
> administrative posts damningly resembles the
> pre-democratic
> Panchayat rule.
>
> Rather than hoping that a firm hand will subdue the
> rebellion,
> annual
> economic aid to
> moving
> toward new elections under a multiparty interim
> government.
> "Let the executive powers go back to the people,"
> says
> Akhilesh Upadhyay (no relation), an editor at The
>
> Post. As for
> Nepalese
> scholar, says the
>
> shut down Maoist bases on its territory and
> extradite the
> rebel leadership."
>
> Since the end of the cease-fire in August, more than
> a
> thousand Nepali lives have been lost. But the Maoist
> insurgency is not simply about terrorists: it's
> about the
> problems of a struggling democracy. These
> difficulties are
> shared with many other countries around the world,
> and each
> is a test case of
> its
> ideals of liberty and freedom.
>
> For years Nepalis suffered under absolute monarchy,
> which
> provided the foundation for Maoist ideologues to
> garner
> support among the oppressed. The only way out of
> this
> quagmire is more democracy, not less.
>
> Samrat Upadhyay, author of the novel "The Guru of
> Love,"
> teaches creative writing at the
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/opinion/10UPAD.html?ex=1069649636&ei=1&en=ed1707612264696a
>
>
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