We always enjoyed reading your refreshingly honest columns when we lived in Kathmandu last fall. You certainly portray the pain and struggle of the Nepali people. You also told both sides of the story. Clearly, no one seems to care about the people of Nepal, and the authorities seem to want to give a hard time to foreigners who want to help. The present government is taking bribes and extortion money from your own people and then using the money for their own selfish purposes rather than for the benefit of the people they are supposed to be serving. The Maoists are hacking your people to death with khukris if they have a different political view. I can't believe that those in government or in the Maoist movement are really Nepali-they are so different from the warm, generous and friendly Nepalis we know. Both are working to destroy the country and hurt their own people.

Meanwhile, the government is doing all it can to discourage people like us who have left lucrative jobs back home to help as volunteers with nothing but restrictions and red tape.

(Name withheld on request)
by email