Little Thing

.

Nature

.

Lessons of War-II

.

While the army was engaged in the most serious business of war on its own land, the Army HQ allowed many officers to opt for easy and lucrative UN assignments and overseas courses

.

The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) succeeded in preventing the insurgents from capturing state power by force. Nevertheless, the actual counter-insurgency operations revealed some of the fundamental and inherent weaknesses of the RNA as regards its organization, recruitment, preparation, training, grooming of officers, intelligence, operations, logistics, system of reward and punishment, command and leadership.

When he insurgents were eliminating the police force in the country’s remote areas, the RNA knew very well that it would have to be mobilized sooner or later to combat the insurgency. But it remained indifferent to the situation as if everything would be fine by he blessings of Lord Pashupatinath. As a result the insurgents, equipped with a few 303 rifles and homemade weapons, managed to attack and overrun the Dang army barracks, which provided them a large number of modern weapons, ammunition, explosives and equipment for the first time.

The RNA’s training hardly paid any serious attention to the importance and sensitiveness of human rights issues, ignorance of which ultimately caused the greatest damage to the image and operation of the army. Moreover, during actual face-to-face combat with the insurgents, the RNA troops could hardly use the fundamental military tactic of fire and manoeuvre. And while each defensive position (comprising approximately 150 personnel) that fought successful defensive battle fired more than one hindered thousand rounds of ammunition plus several explosives in one night, the number of insurgents that fell was less than 50. The RNA’s training doctrine, which is generally based on foreign training doctrines, and false and unrealistic assumptions proved to be ineffective and irrelevant.

Distortion of information and reports happened to be the major disease afflicting the army. Almost every unit or formation distorted reports to demonstrate its effectiveness, which caused numerous problems and number of major disasters. Lack of good logistic support was another chronic problem, which limited the combat effectiveness of the troops. Ironically, while the troops were bleeding on the battlefield, the great game of commission, especially in the procurement of arms, ammunition and equipment, went on as usual.

Most probably, the RNA would have lost the overall battle without the dedicated support of Number 11 Brigade and its brave pilots and crew members who supported the fighting units, day and night, even in difficult terrain and weather conditions. Had the extremely bad weather conditions not prevented these brave pilots, the defensive position at Pili could have been definitely saved. In fact, the troops remained too dependent on air support, especially during contact with the insurgents.

It is an established fact that troops in the field give their best only when they perceive their commanders to be ready to share the risks of war. Several RNA officers commanded their units with distinction which was instrumental in successful battles in several places. At the same time, in many cases the field commanders proved to be grossly unprofessional and incapable of leading and commanding the troops. Many of them never conducted operations on their own without the support of expensive Special Forces Units from the Strategic Reserve Forces. They rarely left their fortified positions in the barracks, inducing junior commanders and troops to do the same.

Their main aim appeared to be to complete their command tenure as soon as possible, by hook or crook, and move to safer assignments and enjoy the perks. This was a serious flaw in the army’s training of leadership and command.

Throughout the insurgency period, the Army HQ faced tough problems to find capable and confident officers to assign to command appointments in the field. At the same time, the Army HQ faced difficulty in posting many officers who were deemed to be unfit to command. It simply meant that the selection, recruiting, training and grooming system of the officers in the past was very faulty and highly manipulated.

Some officers and commanders were crowned and others put on the cross for the same kind of action. Some soldiers and officers that deserted their positions and comrades during the heat of battle were set scot-free, which became a precedent thereafter adversely affecting the combat effectiveness, motivation, unit cohesion and morale of the troops engaged in the most serious business of life and death.

The basic duty of the military in peace time is to train the troops and commanders so that they are selflessly motivated to fight effectively in war. The deliberate evasion of combat duty is considered to be an unpardonable sin for a professional soldier. President Eisenhower faced an ethical dilemma in 1952 when the U.S Army posted his son, Major John, to an infantry unit fighting in North Korea. That assignment involved the real possibility of his getting killed or captured and the president being blackmailed. However, Eisenhower, himself a great professional soldier, allowed his son to carry on with his new assignment with one firm condition – he would accept the risk of his son being killed or wounded, but his son would take his life before being captured.

In our case, however, while the army was engaged in the most serious business of war on its own land and suffering an acute shortage of capable officers to command the troops on the field, the Army HQ allowed many officers to opt for easy and lucrative UN assignments and overseas courses. The army did not seem to be seriously concerned with defeating the insurgents.

.

Moreover, though a number of sincere professional officers lost their near and dear ones in combat, many senior officers unethically managed to manipulate their posting gin order to spare themselves and their relatives in the army the risks and dangers of war.

To conclude, the National Security Doctrine/Strategy at the macro level is required to cater for two types of conflicts which a nation may face: first, an insurgency, and second, a protracted war of national liberation which may be required if and when foreign powers invade and occupy our nation. The lesson learnt from the counter – insurgency campaigns of the RNA could be useful for combating insurgencies. And how the Maoists conducted their insurgency campaign could provide valuable insight into how to organize, initiate and sustain a protracted war of national liberation to drive away foreign powers occupying our country. Nothing but an objective and detailed investigation of the armed conflict that Nepal faced can provide the insights required.

.

The findings of such an objective investigation must be used to restructure the Nepal Army to successfully meet the security challenges of the future.

Mark Twain rises again

...
They can't keep Mark Twain quiet.

The centenary of his death takes place next year but he is in the news again with the publication of a "new" short story, The Undertaker's Tale in The Strand magazine.

This in turn heralds a new whole new collection of fiction and non-fiction, Who is Mark Twain?, to be published next month.

Thirteen years ago, Twain made the headlines (and a special feature in the New Yorker) when a new "comprehensive" edition of Huckleberry Finn was published, including such previously unseen material as the Jim and the Dead Man sequence.

And in 2003, Shelley Fisher Fishkin published her edition of Twain's comic play, Is He Dead?

Never previously seen in print or on stage, that has now appeared in both media, with a successful Broadway debut in 2007 following book publication.

.

Where does all this material come from? Well, mostly from the Mark Twain Papers in Berkeley, with its wealth of Twainiana.

Twain wrote compulsively in his lifetime: fiction, non-fiction, plays, letters, and autobiography (much of the latter, in fact, dictated), and there is still a mass of material yet to be published. It's not many one-man industries that will turn a profit a century after that individual's death.

And, though, as one would expect, much of this work tends not to live up to the standard of the work published in his life-time, it is still well worth reading. So the new Undertaker's Tale story has a nice line in black humour, with the boy who tells it - as a type of undertaker's assistant - describing how as business prospers, he and Grace (the daughter of the undertaker's family) are "as blithe and happy as birds" as Grace meanwhile, "wrought with her nimble needle upon a shroud".

This is a macabre humour right in line with the south-western frontier tradition which initially fostered the author.

I have been working on Twain now for the last decade or so, and I still find him very funny. He must surely have been one of the wittiest writers there have been - an American Oscar Wilde, but with a more down-to-earth and democratic nature. "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated" (or words very close to these) was his well-known quick-fire reply in 1897 when the press mistook his cousin's serious illness for his own.

And "man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to," provides an ironic tag to a chapter to his late travel book, Following the Equator.

Here we go again

The new Undertaker's Tale story has a nice line in black humour.

The boy who tells it is working as a type of undertaker's assistant, describing the prospering business - the deaths in the community - in terms of his and the undertaker's families' own happiness and contentedness.

Indeed the strand of macabre humour that runs right through the story is in line with the south-western frontier tradition which initially inspired the author.

I'd defy anyone not break into precisely the smile that undertaker lacks when reading it.

So here we go again: more Twain stuff appears. I'm sure it will be a mixed bag but even if it is, his mixture of coruscating social criticism, of thought-provoking non-fiction, and of joyful and - finally - deeply humane comedy, is sure to be well worth the read.

The short story appearing in the Strand magazine will be published in the book Who Is Mark Twain

In pictures: Gay Icons -II

.

Novelist and poet Sylvia Towsend fell in love with a woman and they lived together for more than 30 years.

.

.

US actor Joe Dallesandro appeared in several of Andy Warhol's films. He identified himself as being bisexual and has been married three times.
.

Peter Tatchell co-founded the gay and lesbian campaign group Outrage!

.

British mathematician Alan Turing was alive when homosexuality was illegal. He was prosecuted after it was discovered he was gay.

.

.

The exhibition, which runs from 2 July to 18 October, coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York.

In pictures: Gay Icons-I

.

The first portrait exhibition to celebrate the contribution of gay icons in history is going on display at the National Portrait Gallery.

.

The photos were selected by a panel of 10 people, including KD Lang, Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen and Sandi Toksvig.

.

The selectors were asked to choose people - dead or alive - who had inspired them or was a personal icon to them.

.

Quentin Crisp became a gay icon in the 1970s after the publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.

.

US politician Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. He was so influential a film has just been made about him.

£30,000 prize for UK photographer

.

British photographer Paul Graham has been awarded the 2009 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize, winning £30,000.

Graham, 52, won for his publication, A Shimmer of Possibility, comprising 12 volumes of photographic short stories of life in contemporary America.

Judges praised the "sensitivity, subtlety and complexity" in the work.

The international prize is awarded to a photographer for their work in Europe through either an exhibition or publication over the past year.

Described as a collection of pictures that "manage to draw out something truly profound from the almost nothingness of everyday life", Graham beat three other photographers for the prize.

The other shortlisted artists, Emily Jacir from Kuwait and Americans Tod Papageorge and Taryn Simon were also each awarded £3,000.

All the shortlisted works are on show at The Photographers' Gallery in London until 12 April.

The exhibition will then tour to Berlin in late May and to Frankfurt in the Summer.

Hidden clue to composer's passion

.

The French composer, Maurice Ravel may have left a hidden message - a woman's name - inside his work.

A sequence of three notes occurring repeatedly through his work spells out the name of a famous Parisian socialite says Ravel expert David Lamaze.

He argues that the notes, E, B, A in musical notation, or "Mi-Si-La" in the French doh-re-mi scale, refer to Misia Sert, a close friend of Ravel's.

Well known in art circles, she was painted by Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Ravel never married, but Misia was married three times. Ravel composed some of his work while staying on a boat belonging to Misia and her second husband.

"It has never been done before. To take one person and to place them at the centre of a life-long work," says Professor Lamaze of the Conservatoire de Rennes, who is working on a book about Ravel and Misia.

Professor Lamaze believes Ravel was romantically inspired by Misia. "To put the feeling of love at the very central point of the creation without us knowing it. That is typical of Ravel, I think."

Secretive

Ravel was notoriously secretive about all aspects of his life, from his compositional process to his private life, which has led to speculation that he may have been gay.

The Mi-Si-La motif appears, in particular, at crucial phases of Ravel's work La Valse, says David Lamaze.

At the beginning, in depicting a man and woman dancing a Viennese Waltz, he entwines Mi-Si-La with A and E - thought to denote Ravel.

Initially planned in 1906 as a tribute to the waltzes of Johann Strauss, La Valse became a much darker work when he completed it in 1920, following his experiences serving in the World War I and the death of his mother.

Cities switch off for environment

.

Cities around the world have been turning out the lights for an hour to highlight the threat of climate change.

Sydney was the first major city to begin "Earth Hour", when at 2000 (0900 GMT), lights went out on landmarks like the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Lights were then turned off in Bangkok, Manila, Budapest, Copenhagen and Dublin as those cities joined the effort.

Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco were among several hundred cities in 35 countries taking part in the event.

Critics have dismissed the event as a gimmick that will have little effect.

Australians marked Earth Hour by holding candle-lit beach parties, dinners and poker games, while traditional Aboriginal torchlight performances were also held.

And in New Zealand, thousands of homes and more than 100 business in Christchurch turned out the lights.

WWF Thailand said the switch-off in Bangkok saved 73.34 megawatts of electricity, which would have produced 45.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Public pressure

The initiative began in Sydney last year when an estimated two million residents took part, cutting energy usage by more than 10% for the hour.

Organisers estimate that 380 towns and cities are taking part.

.
In Britain, 26 councils dimmed lights, as did Prince Charles' private residence, Highgrove House and Winchester cathedral.

On the south coast, Brighton turned off the lights on its pier, and in London - which was not officially involved - lights were turned down at City Hall.

In the Irish capital, Dublin, the floodlights were turned off at the Custom House, the home of the Environment Department.

But in the city's financial district many lights were left on.

"The banks should have embraced this wholeheartedly and they didn't," said Cathy Flanagan, an Earth Hour organiser in the city. "But it's a start. Maybe next year."

In Copenhagen, people enjoyed a rare chance to gaze at the night sky.

"It's not often you can see the stars in a city," said local Earth Hour spokeswoman Ida Thuesen.

Kyoto change

Organisers insist the aim of Earth Hour is to show that communities care passionately about climate change and want to keep up the pressure on governments to act decisively.

Andy Ridley of the WWF, which is behind the initiative, says interest has been immense.

"We're aware of villages in Norfolk in England that are doing Earth Hour and we're aware of the big cities like Chicago and Sydney that are doing it," he told the BBC.

Internet search engine Google turned its normal white homepage black.

Australia is one of the world's worst per capita emitters of greenhouse gases and many believe recent droughts and floods are the result of man's destabilising influence on the climate, the BBC's Phil Mercer reports from Sydney.

New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made the environment one of his priorities, signing up to the Kyoto Protocol on tackling climate change soon after he took office.

MTV and YouTube go head to head

.

A higher percentage of 15-24 year olds in the UK have watched a music video on YouTube than on dedicated music channels, according to a new study.

The report found that 57% of 15-24 year olds watched music on YouTube, compared to 56% watching them on TV.

However, TV still has a commanding lead when it comes to adults as a whole.

The survey also found that half of all adults who watched a YouTube music video went on to buy music released by that artist.

The study, by market research firm Ipsos MediaCT, looked at the viewing habits of more than 1500 people, across the United Kingdom, in March 2009.

It found that double the number of 15-24 year olds were using YouTube to watch music videos, compared to other age groups. This percentage rose even more for those still in education, with 69% using the music channels on YouTube.

.

ADULTS WATCHING MUSIC VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE IN LAST 12 MONTHS

Age 15 - 24 57%
Age 25 - 34 30%
Age 35 - 44 24%
Age 45 - 54 25%
Age 55+ 3%

.

Speaking to the BBC, Ipsos' head of entertainment research, Ian Bramley, said that TV music channels may have to rethink their position.

"There is a significant shift in the way the youngest adult age group watches its music videos.

.

One would think this age group would stick with watching music videos online as they get older.

"TV music channels are doing very well, but they need to look at exactly who is actually watching their channel. It's probably not who they think their target market is.

"There may be a case, when we do this again, that the market starts to fragment and that TV music channels will need to reposition themselves for an older market," added Mr Bramley.

Television still has the edge when it comes to children. Or at least, families with children aged 10-15.

48% of these families have watched a music video on TV compared with 39% having watched music videos on YouTube.

Wind-powered car breaks record

.

British engineer from Hampshire has broken the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle.

Richard Jenkins reached 126.1mph (202.9km/h) in his Greenbird car on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake in Nevada.

Mr Jenkins told the BBC that it had taken him 10 years of "hard work" to break the record and that, on the day, "things couldn't have been better".

American Bob Schumacher set the previous record of 116 mph in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle.

"It's great, it's one of those things that you spend so long trying to do and when it actually happens, it's almost too easy," Mr Jenkins told the BBC.

The Greenbird is a carbon fibre composite vehicle that uses wind (and nothing else) for power. The only metalwork used is for the wing bearings and the wheel unit.

Sail away

The designers describe it as a "very high performance sailboat" but one that uses a solid wing, rather than a sail, to generate movement.

Mr Jenkins, from Lymington, spent 10 years designing the vehicle, with Greenbird the fifth vehicle he has built to try to break the record.

.

Due to the shape of the craft, especially at such high speeds, the wings also provide lift; a useful trait for an aircraft, but very hazardous for a car. To compensate for this, the designers have added small wings to "stick" the car to the ground, in the same way Formula 1 cars do.

"Greenbird weighs 600kg when it's standing still," said Mr Jenkins. "But at speed, the effect of the wings make her weigh just over a tonne."

Richard Jenkins spent much of his childhood sailing on the South Coast of England and from the age of 10 was designing what he calls "radical contraptions".

He has also built a wind powered craft that travels on ice, rather than land.

"Now that we've broken the record, I'm going back on to the ice craft. There's still some debate as to whether travelling on ice or land will be faster," he said

"But I think we've got some time. 126.1 mph was a good margin to beat the record and I think it will be some time before anyone else breaks it."