Nepal is a fascinating country. Their Prime Minister is a Maoist. When he was a guerrilla leader, he was nicknamed Prachanda, "The Fierce One." Now, he has gone back to his given name, Pushpa Kamal, or "Lotus Flower." His friends call him PK.
Everything he says is reasonable. He's about the most sensible politician I've come across. He toured America recently. America has a few Maoists: relics from the 60s, old white guys with greasy gray ponytails who hang around the leftist bookstores in New York or San Francisco. They came to see the Fierce One because they wanted to see live in flesh a Maoist guerrilla leader who had taken power. PK talked about establishing permanent peace, development and multi-party democracy in Nepal. The Nepali ex-pats applauded. The old white guys booed and asked, "is this guy really a Maoist?"
What does a Maoist do when elected Prime Minister? As a taxi was taking me past the former king's palace in Kathmandu, which is now a museum, the Prime Minister's motorcade zipped by. It wasn't too fancy, just four black sedans blaring their horns while the ox-carts, buffaloes and scooters moved to the side. Not like our royal motorcades in Thailand, where hundreds of police clear the road for 10 kilometers.
Still, they were Mercedes.
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