K-K-K-K-Katmandu, where democracy is through...

A sad piece of news that few will notice today and perhpas even fewer will care about, that nonetheless means months and maybe years of conflict in an otherwise beautiful and peaceful country. The King of Nepal has sacked the government and assumed power. From the Times:

For the second time in three years, Nepal's king has dismissed the government and declared a state of emergency, plunging the conflict-plagued Himalayan nation into further crisis.

[...] The Associated Press reported that soldiers had surrounded the houses of the prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and other government leaders, and that armored military vehicles were patrolling the streets of Katmandu, the capital. [...] Land and mobile phones in the capital were not working, and officials with Jet Airways and Indian Airlines in New Delhi said flights were not being allowed into or out of the city. A Thai Airways flight, unable to land, returned to Bangkok.

The city, once a famed tourist destination, was essentially cut off from the outside world, much as it has been under recent blockades mounted by Maoist rebels the government is fighting.

Two of my strongest memories of Kathmandu: flower-strewn Ganeshes, Vishnus, and Hanumans (Hindu gods) decorating the courtyard of Buddhist temples, and a squatting monkey, stroking the fur of a happy dog in the failing evening light. An outsider's idealiztion of anecdotal evidence? Surely. But examples of real tolerance and peaceful cohabitation are few enough; we must save them where we can, and remember them where we cannot.