Day 7 - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Film # 7 - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

A just-released Bollywood movie for a change! Surely not the stuff of Ebert's greatest films list! Yet, for someone who watched his share of Bollywood Hindi movies growing up, only to start despising and ignoring most of the lot once acquiring some cinematic sense, ZNMD (as it's sure to be called) was a mildly pleasant surprise. Having not seen a complete Bollywood movie at a theater or on small-screen in many years, I was prepared for the same old-same old. And I found that, yes, it is the same old in spirit but quite improved in technique, style and presentation. 

With a pretty standard, Bollywood coming-of-age story of three buddies on a journey to find themselves, plot (how many variations of this same plot has Bollywood made in the last decade? Dil Chata Hai? 3 Idiots? there must be tons of others), ZNMD is hardly original or convincing. The characters are types who play their assigned roles. The emotional depth is more like a plateau, mostly forced and insincere. Even Imran's back-story of an absent father seems to have been imagined for exactly the purpose: to make the story "deep." It works only to the extent that the director has learned not to try the old Bollywood trick of dragging the emotional chord too hard. Imran learns to let go as he is supposed to, very easily, very quickly. Nice. The other two idiots learn their life lessons also very easily, very quickly as they are supposed to. But the "theme," or "story," or "the what" is not what this movie is about. It is all about the "style" or the "how."  

And on that score this movie shows the increasing technical and stylistic improvements of some current movies over standard Bollywood fare. The movie is nicely shot, the point being to show the beauty of Spain and the locales of the movie. The characters love Spain; the audience is supposed to love the vistas. The camera lingers on and on and on when it finds a lovely geographical or natural landscape. Yet, for the most part the editing is decisive and effortless except for occasional hiccups, like when the song "Senorita" begins, which comes out of nowhere. The director has taken care to present the sense of detail, the wardrobe, the sets, the lighting etc. Every  little detail has been taken care of. There is no problem with the production values.

The way the technical and presentation money seems to have been spent, budget doesn't seem to be an object; just shows how rich Bollywood has become compared to even 10 years before. Therefore, more than ever, Bollywood movies such as this, are in the business of selling dreams. They want the audience in the theaters around India and the South Asian diaspora, to experience Spain as the characters do. The first ambition of the movie is the blind the audience with vicarious pleasure of the beauty, adventure and fun that is Spain and its cultural and adventure offerings. In that regard, the audience gets its money's worth. 

Now hopefully, in the coming years and decades some slice of Bollywood will grow up and learn its own coming-of-age lessons, just like its characters do, and start to invest its money in writing talent to make films which explore deeper themes and present characters who are not just types, whose fates are consequential and molded by their own choices and personal change is not easy or quick but messy and incomplete. Just like Imran, Kabir or Arjun, Bollywood might let go of their easy tropes and dare to grow up.    

Day 6 - The 400 Blows

Film # 6 - The 400 Blows (1959)

It has been a few days of missing posts but that doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping up with my 30 days of cinema plan. I have watched four more films in the last three days and the best of them has been The 400 Blows. Directed by Francois Truffaut, this "new-wave" mainstay is beautiful visually, touching emotionally and yet very unsentimental.

The 400 Blows refers to the trials (literally, "hell raising") of a young adolescent boy, Antoine, living in Paris in the '50s with his mother and step-father, who view him as a problem child. In school he is similarly hounded. In trying to cope with such difficulties the boy rebels and is sent to live in a juvenile corrections center from where he manages to escape. That is the story. So what is it about? It is about the how the neglect of parents and teachers, the adults, of the needs and talents of a boy forces him to find his own path in life. Of course, he becomes an outcast but that is just his way of dealing with the neglectful reality.

The style of the film is the unsentimental capturing of Antoine's progressive transgressions and punishments. The director focuses on the comedic aspects of schooldays and the impressions of the adolescents regarding their teachers and parents. The boys are resourceful and know how to keep themselves amused and happy even in the face of abuse. The details of their childish rebellion and rule-breaking are shown in all the romantic, nostalgic glory they deserve. The parents are appropriately aloof and caught up in their own affairs, literally so in the case of the mother. While they might try to help the child, their commitment is lacking and insufficient. 

Of course, the child has to find a way to survive on a day to day basis. Yet, as a viewer you expect or hope that the early lapses are just growing pains, that Antoine and his parents will find a way to fix the kid, that he will manage to get through. That hope doesn't materializes as his supposed sins or crimes become more heavy, so that he becomes the problem and also the property of the vastly more impersonal state. Neglect from the parents, abuse from the teachers, lead finally to the active punishment by the state. What is a boy, a child to do in such circumstances? How does this particular boy react to such reality? As a viewer, you sympathize with the child, obviously and hope he gets by okay. The ending seems to suggests that he might just be the lucky one who does get by, somehow. 

One of the best so far in my cinema journey.

Day 4/5 - Gone with the Wind

Film # 5 - Gone with the Wind (1939)

Clocking in at about four hours, this is long. I had to watch this classic American epic in two sittings. In the middle, around the intermission, I thought the film was overly long, especially since the story seemed to lose direction and the plot lurched on the whims of the protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara. But by the fourth hour, the characters and the ambience seemed so familiar that I felt like I had been living in their world, of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, for some time. This film by its sheer breadth and largeness of scope takes you there.

A story about the life of a Southern plantation family and its members before, during and after the Civil war, Gone with the Wind, was the first American epic. So much has been written about this film, articles, reviews, analyses, and books, that no review is attempted here. For someone watching for the first time seventy years after the production and release, all that can be recounted is the viewing experience and the obvious, early impressions.

One first notices the vividness and contrast of the early color print, which is highlighted by the studio settings and the screen painted backgrounds. In many scenes there are shadows dancing on the wall. There are silhouettes in front of the colorful backgrounds. So the film, for today's audience, harkens back to the old filmmaking where the stage was the studio and not the location. In some ways this makes the feel of the film more majestic. The dialogue and conversation is also strange to today's audience. The actors deliver their lines as if they are soliloquies, at times as if they are facing a theatre audience. The manner of conversation itself takes some getting used to but slowly gets easier to follow and like.

The plot is convoluted and digressive but is held together by the two lead characters, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The Civil War and Reconstruction are the main sources of external conflict but it is Scarlett whose actions move the story forward. And what active woman she turns out to be! She lives here life without much doubt, she takes initiative and makes life changing decisions on a split-second. Her first two marriages are both quick decisions, not based on love but for profit, emotional and financial. But Scarlett seems to meet her match with Captain Butler, who is the one character in the film who has the most fun in every situation. His profound declaration is nothing but perfect: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" That motto sums up his worldview quite well. And it is Scarlett's relationship with Captain Butler that carries the film.

Day 3 - Rabbit-Proof Fence

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

Based on a historically tragic episode of racism and injustice in the name of "progress" perpetrated by the white settlers on the Australian aboriginal population, Rabbit-Proof Fence is a heart-warming tale of a long journey to freedom undertaken by a young half-aboriginal girl.


It is 1931 and a stern Mr. Neville is in charge of handling "half-caste" aboriginal children, which involves separating (stealing/ kidnapping?) these kids from their families in the bush and taking them to a faraway camp community. "The native must be helped in spite of himself," he says utterly convinced of his mission. The law that was passed to "help" the natives is based on simple eugenics, as Mr. Neville explains to a group of white housewives: it only takes three generations to white blood to turn a half-case entirely white.  No wonder the aborigines willfully mis-pronounce his name as "Mr. Devil."


Once collected at the camp the kids, these "natives" and "savages," are taught the rites of "civilization"-- basically, the English language to speak, utensils to eat, Jesus and Mary to pray -- all the while showing complete subservience to the nuns, who begin their harsh training by literally scrubbing the native out of the children's flesh. Those who dare to run away to try and return to their loving families are quickly apprehended by experienced trackers, brought back and mercilessly punished.


We get to witness and experience this historical reality through the eyes of a fourteen year old half-caste girl, Molly, who is snatched along with her baby sister and cousin to be sent to the camp. Her sheer determination and her skills on the bush come in handy when she runs away along with her baby sister and cousin to embark on the more than 1200 miles journey back home to the comfort of their mother and family. One can't help but root for her success in making it back through the treacherous landscape along the rabbit proof fence, predatory informants along the way and the crafty tracker on her trail. The fact that in this one rare instance the girls are able to evade the evil forces and complete the journey makes her a true hero.


Of course, one understands how many others must have suffered same cruel fates but neither possess Molly's determination nor blessed with the twists of happy accidents. For those wronged and unlucky thousands - the "stolen generations" - a life of eternal servitude as domestics or worse, as sex slaves, awaited after the camp.

Technically the movie is well made with little touches of brilliance. Especially well treated is the vastness of the Australian continent, the barren landscape, where the girls must travel.  Those sweeping vistas of woods and hills and praire and desert filmed from above look as isolated, dangerous and unending as Molly must have encountered them in her darkest hours. She must overcome not just the personal wrongs of white settler history but the impersonal vastness of the Australian geography.

Day 2 - Dog Day Afternoon

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

The film begins with a montage of mundane vistas of a day in New York City. There are cars on the road, people on the street and people are going about their business - a regular day. Then we witness a bank robbery, very realistic and quite very regular, very ordinary, at first. However, the straight forward robbery turns into a hostage drama and that's when we get the extraordinary - the whole city seems to come to a standstill, the entire NYPD and the FBI seem to converge at the scene, the TV networks and reporters are breathless as ever, a big crowd surrounds the crime scene, chanting and jeering, as if taking part in this diversion to pass their boring day. 

It is Al Pacino as Sonny, the leader of the two bank robbers, who commands one's attention. Watching this film for the first time now, more than 35 years later and with Pacino mythos firmly in head, it is quite a thrill to see his young self throw himself fully into the role. Sonny shows craziness in his eyes at one moment and kindness the next. He is a showman, inciting the crowd against the police, needling them. He is the mastermind of the crime, with his prior experience having worked in a bank but though steadfast, still a novice in planning the robbery and then the hostage negotiations. His partner-in-crime Sal thinks Wyoming is a good country for escape. While Sonny is not that naive, his plan of escaping to Algeria seems quite uninformed. 

It is Sonny's personal relationships and his backstory that leads up to the fateful attempted robbery that gives the emotional thrust of the story. His wife is a constant nag who doesn't let him say a word. His parents, especially his mother, need his monetary support and give haranguing in return. As he says, he has all these "pressures" of money and emotion because of which he is "dying in here." 

Yet, the main motivation for Sonny's pressures is not only unique but quite surprising: that this gun-totting, foul mouthed, Vietnam vet is a gay man who is compelled to rob the bank to help his male "wife" get a sex-change operation. Sidney Lumet, the director, introduces this strange element of Sonny's life so matter-of-factly and so precisely that there is no artificiality in the story. Some cops laugh, the crowd starts to jeer their previous hero and a gay crowd chants Sonny's name, but the story moves on because for the film as in real that this is just one new strange discovery on this already quite strange day.

I wondered if this film hadn't been based on a true story, what would people make of Sonny's homosexual motivations. But as is said, truth is stranger than fiction. In this fictionalized true story ("30% true," as Wikipedia reports) all the parts fit, the progression is natural and believable and so very engrossing.

Day 2 - Manhattan

Manhattan (1979)

In one word, Manhattan is: beautiful! Yes, this a romantic comedy with Woody Allen and his trademark neurosis and rat-a-tat dialogue and multiple relationships and divorces and psychoanalysis and existentialism. But while all these hallmarks of Woody's trademark style are the parts, the sum of all that is nothing but beautiful. For those of us, who only know Woody Allen as a type, having not lived when he was first blazing the trail, it is easy to forget what a visionary creative artist he was. At least, we appreciate his wide ranging gifts by focusing on the beauty of Manhattan.

This film is about a middle-aged man, Issak, in New York City and his love life and relationships in the mid-1970s. He is a television writer and has been through two divorces and is currently dating a 17-year-old high school student. His best friend, Yale, is having an extra-marital affair with a quirky, intellectual and strange but attractive woman, played by Diane Keaton. The plot involves Issak's budding relationship with this woman after Yale suggests that he start dating her. To do that, he has to end his already-doomed relationship with the high-schooler. That pretty much sets up the story. But there is so much more within the plot.

First, there is the choice of black and white film which gorgeously covers Manhattan, the city is hues of black and light. Then there is the background score: jaunty, exciting and entirely fitting for each scene. The daily lives of Issak and his friends are highlighted by Gerschwin's melodies. Next, I loved the framing of the scenes, for example early in the movie we see Issak's nicer apartment where he climbs down a spiral stairs, and walks to a sofa in the far corner where he cuddles with his young lover under the lights. At the end of the scene, they walk back through the darkness to the spiral stairs, up and out of the room. So beautiful, the play of light and dark! The montages are awesome: Issak with his son; and the most beautiful and surreal sequence when Woody Allen and Diane Keaton visit the darkness within the planetarium, by the rings of saturn ("intergalactic love," Issak says later). Finally, the dialogues are fun and as quirky as you expect from Woody Allen. 

Overall, Manhattan is a perfect distillation of Woody's esthetic and beauty in screen. 

Day 1 - Night Moves

Day 1 - Night Moves (1975)

By some chance (a random pick out of 341 in Ebert's List) I happened to begin my 30 days' journey with Night Moves. Having never heard of this movie, the viewing experience was an act of discovery. As the story begins to unfold, one realize that it is one of those private detective stories - so it must be a suspense, one is led to believe. But as the story progresses, that initial recognition is both validated and challenged, because the meat of the plot is neither that of a classic suspense nor involves the thrill of final discovery. The original suspense, about a missing girl, is solved very early in the film and without much sense of finality.

What one is left with is the empathy for the lead character of the detective, played with easy gruffness and poise by Gene Hackman. Actually, Hackman's Mosley is what captures one's attention. He does well in playing the small-time private-eye who is fighting for the clues of the case along with his own personal setbacks. It has to be said that every other character is really well cast and played, especially the enigmatic character played by Jennifer Warren.

The story is hard to follow at times, especially towards the surprising finale, but the sparse and dark "noir" mood along with the fast pace of unfolding action and introduction of characters makes the journey interesting. The strange, bizzare interlude in the middle with Mosley in the Florida Keys with Warren is enigmatic for all the right reasons and the finale is quick, taut and dramatic.

But the story is all about Mosley who fails to find all the clues, about the case as well as about himself. The '70s noir feel of the movie is the other big selling point, if you are into that. The characters and the plot remains in one's mind well after the final credits. 

30 Days of Cinema

Back to this long dormant blog...and for the next thirty days with a radically different focus...hey, it's the summer! Anywho, in part inspired by the TEDtalks video by Matt Cutts (see attached video) about setting similar goal or plan, I have begun a marathon of 30 days of movies. The idea is to watch as many *good/great* movies as I can in a 30 day period (which began on July 12th). The only condition is that: All of the movies have to be available in Netflix streaming...I am not going to rent DVDs or wait for a DVD in the mail.

Good question: how do I know what are the *great* movies? Answer: I have a good sense of what kinds of movies I like...I hate summer blockbusters, most animations (yes, even those from Pixar), fantasies (no Harry Potters here), horror, gore and vampires (except Shaun of the Dead, which is great:). A stranger at Denny's once told me that the kinds of movies that I love the best are called "quiet dramas." I venture widely but that is an apt description of the best moves, IMHO. 

With that very subjective criteria in place, I think a good place to start looking for the best films is: Roger Ebert's list of great films in history! Why? Because Ebert is a respected movie critic who is not a snob and who likes regular, Hollywood movies. Besides, I got hooked on his journal and I truly admire him and his reviews. Reason enough. 

Now on to that is the format. I will watch as many movies as possible until August 11th 2011 ( I have seen three in the last couple of days since this thing started). For each movie that I watch, I will post a brief personal reaction of my impressions. Not a "review" - I will leave the professions to do that. Just personal reactions. In addition, I will try to post some trailers and other links about the movies whenever possible. 

Finally, you may ask what does this have anything to do with "muse~nepal" the blog and its stated mission? The simple answer is not a whole lot. The more complicated answer is that I have been sorely neglecting this blog for the last year, mostly because I was hamstrung about trying to make a sense of the Nepali political situation and feeling repeatedly frustrated by my inability to meaningfully engage with the issues of Nepali politics, society and culture. Rather than leaving the blog dormant and increasingly on the verge of death, I have decided to revive the space for this exercise. One hopes that by and by one will also get the inspiration and confidence to tackle the serious issue of Nepal's future with passion and clarity. In the meantime, cinema!

Glimpses of Nepali Syndrome

After a longer than expected dormancy for this blog, I am prompted to add a few hastily written lines because of all the glimpses of Nepal in the experiences of other countries. While our political circus doesn't seem to end, the bigger problems that afflict us aren't going away. In the meantime, there are examples of future burdens from others' to hark back to Nepal. 

Here are two bits that I came across today. The first an obvious parallel of the Nepali situation from a NY Times article on globalization and aging: 

Today, nearly 12 percent of Spain’s population is foreign born. Among the arrivals are hundreds of thousands of Ecuadoreans (many of them female caregivers for elderly Spanish) whose absence at home increases the median age of Ecuador’s population. More than one in 10 Ecuadoreans has left in search of work, and the loss of so many of the country’s youngest and most enterprising workers means Ecuador has little chance of developing. Recently, its president initiated the Welcome Home Program to lure emigrants back with tax breaks and money to start businesses.

And the second article about the basket case of Europe, glorious Greece, which is less obvious in its relationship to the Nepali situation. Yet, I recognized how the professions trying to maintain their monopoly power over certain basic services hinder economic growth. In Nepal's case the resistance to market-based economy also happens to come from transportation syndicates, that try to monopolize the trucking markets and routes, at the expense of the consumers and businesses.

That is what happened this summer when the government took on the trucking industry. Greece has issued only a few new licenses for truckers since 1970, though Greece’s economy has more than tripled in that time. This created a hot market for the licenses, which have sold at prices approaching $500,000. Not surprisingly, experts say, trucking costs in Greece are far higher than anywhere else in the European Union.

The IOBE report found it was more expensive to truck something from Athens to Thebes, about 45 miles, than from Athens to Rome, a distance of more than 600 miles. Businessmen say it is cheaper to ship goods here from China than it is to move them from Athens to the island of Rhodes, 285 miles away.

Gagan Thapa Does Journalism

As we are passing through another critical period (oh lord, how many more of these do we have to endure???) of our history again, the media is replete with gossip and behind the scene "news". There are opinions galore. There are myriad suggestions and advice. There are people writing nonsense. There are reporters reporting clueless junk.

Mostly, there are countless reports of straightforward what happened journalism. And these days what happened amounts to: the top leaders of the parties met; they met again and they met again. Or they didn't meet today as they said they would. The news is basically a routine, a schedule of meetings. You can count on the leaders meeting everyday; and as such you can count on each and every meeting reported as another data point, another piece of the puzzle. There is a lot of heat of the moment reportage.

What is missing is any ray of light. Nobody asks anybody what are the issues of contention? There is no real political research to figure out what is causing the bottleneck. Yeah, we do hear occasionally about some vague horse-trading on the identity of the next prime minister; or the number of PLA members to be integrated; or the easiest analysis of all: because India said so.

So depending on the media to do journalism and ASK QUESTIONS is futile. They are too busy reporting exactly when the next meeting is to be held and what the leaders said after the meeting. Who do we turn to for political research, analysis and genuine journalism of asking and answering the actual issues that divide the parties this way? 

It turns out, at least for this one instance, a politician is doing the journalist's work. 

Gagan Thapa, the only actual youth leader of Nepali Congress (a party replete with creaky old "youth" leaders such as Sher Bahadur, Ram Chandra and oh, my, Shekhar Koirala, the ultimate youth leader!) has published a must-read article in eKantipur.

For a politician this is a not an article about insider gossip or ideology masquerading as a newspaper column. Thapa's piece is a straight up report on the actual points of disagreements between the two major political parties in the Constituent Assembly. This article is the political research and analysis of the first order for all the readers to see beyond the daily back-and-forth,  daily meetings and the gossip. 

According to Thapa, there are 11 points of ideological, philosophical, and political differences between Congress and the Maoists in regards to the articles of a new constitution. It is safe to assume that the A-Ma-Le sides mostly with the Congressi position. So we have the crux of the debate highlighted in one article. For ordinary Nepali citizen, these 11 issues and others that are to be decided in the CA, are of utmost importance. We need to be ready to discuss and argue on the points of contention that is raised in this article. What kind of a future country and society do the Nepali people want? Do we want the Maoist (Socialist) vision or are we more comfortable with the Congressi (Republican) vision? That is the main debate, isn't it? Going through each of these 11 points that Thapa has presented, as a Nepali citizen and a reader, I have an opinion, I have questions, and I need a moment to reflect and try to understand the implication of each position. As an informed reader, I can make up my mind for or against either party's position on each of these issue. 

But until I read this piece of journalism I had no idea what to think because no journalist had taken the time to research on these differences and report the findings like this yet. They were just content to "report" when the next meeting was taking place, as if they were the personal sectaries of the political parties tasked with setting up the daily schedule. Inasmuch as the Nepali political turmoil is caused due to the ineptitude of the political leaders, they are equally aided and abetted by the lack of hard-hitting and informative research journalism from the mushrooming media houses.

Needless to say, quantity hardly equals quality.

Dr. Gautam's Take on Nepali Optimism

In response to my previous post, Prabaas commented to bring to my attention a wonderful article enumerating the "sins and virtues of new Nepal" by Dr. Kul Chandra Gautam. It is a must read. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. The article clearly distills the ills and the achievements of the past twenty years of social turmoil and political change. So I thought the article deserved a post of its own. 

While the "sins" (I rather like the word "ills" instead of "sins" in this context) as identified by Dr. Gautam seems to be quite evident to every Nepali citizen. All we do nowadays is: rail against the tyranny of a hyper-politicized culture while eagerly participating and contributing to it; cynically blame the government and the leaders for the culture of impunity and lawlessness; and rue the disregard of the economic and development matters because of the political feuding. We have became a wholly cynical society and we accept our common cynicism as a badge of Nepali honor. 

However, the seven virtues of the new Nepal that Dr. Gautam identifies aren't highlighted as often. For all the limitations and distortions of the last twenty years' worth of historical political changes, there have been many areas of growth and progress. Dr. Gautam lists seven areas of optimism. 

It is imperative that we constantly remind ourselves of the many virtues and achievements in our long journey on a very uneven and incomplete road to progress. 

More on Nepali Optimism

As stated on my previous post, I am quite optimistic about Nepal's evolving political, social and economic situation, especially so when considered in the context of the rapid changes in the last twenty years. Needless to say, all the progress that has been made could be stopped or even partially reversed if some dramatic event (military coup, another civil war, or major ethnic violence) were to send the country into extreme chaos. But, an objective observer has to acknowledge that the recent period has accorded the Nepali people with  greater access, ability and opportunity. Bikalpa Paudel (via mohammad.tajim) has a wonderful rundown of all the positive changes that has occuredd since the restoration of democracy in 1990. 

The reason everyone feels so pessimistic and cynical about the experience of the last twenty years is that all the progress has been achieved not because of the wise leadership of the government or the political parties, but despite them. So most of us only rue the continuing political turmoil and ignore the progress achieved in the social and private sector despite the best efforts of our political class. The progess has clearly been due to the fortuitous amalgam of many  reasons.

First, the systemic change from the closed and autocratic Panchayat system to the relative openness in the political, social and the economic life of democracy set the stage for Nepalis to take important steps towards progress in many areas, especially in media, communications, education and travel.

Second, the tremendous rise of India and China influenced Nepal's trade and economy. The sudden rise of our next door neighbors clearly provided the Nepali people with many examples of progress in various areas and also gave us the opportunities to tap into their innovation and experiment. Due to our own openness, we could no longer ignore our neighbors material, cultural, and intellectual exports.

Finally, globalization played a major role. With globalization and its attendant dispersion of information and communication technology, cheap and easy transportation, and open flow of information and labor helped us get a foothold in the global economy. Of course, the only major export that we have been able to make is our labor force but if it were not for globalization not only would we be bereft of the remittance money but also from the ideas and innovations from the rest of the world. 

So it has to be said that even despite the ineptitude and constant feuding by our political leaders, the Nepali people, the private sector and the civil society have made tremendous progress in the most unfavorable conditions. If the situation were to remain the same, in the next twenty years we may be still be able to realize similar progress. As stated earlier, if the situation deteriorates drastically, much could be lost. 

But imagine, how much we could achieve if the political quagmire were to end and result in a modest period of stability? The Nepali people do not need a whole lot from their political leaders  and their government. If the current flux were to end by producing even a mediocre constitution which gives way to a modicum of political stability, a lot of the pessimists would see the real prospect of continued progress and durable change.