THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

not consider I had been particularly critical of 'K3' at all and that
the report to which I assumed he was referring was based substantially
on the well-documented history of the project as well as present staff
members' own comments. I could not understand his comment about 'one
side of an argument which was none of my concern1, but felt that if one
of my aims was to understand the development process in the Koshi Hills
then understanding the history and organisation of the chief development
project in the region had to be my concern, I could have added that it
could justifably have been the concern of any British taxpayer,
I took the precaution of contecting the head of SEMD on his next
visit to Kathmandu to discuss with him the contents of this vitriolic
letter as a 'damage limitation' exercise. When he read the letter and
heard my side of the story, he was at 8 loss for words except to say
that the agronomist had a naturally abrasive style. It seemed Paul
Francis had been away on leave and the agronomist had been opening his
mail in his absence, It seemed I had touched a raw nerve in my analysis
of the organizational culture of the 'K3' project, which probably meant
I said some things which were quite close to the mark, However, I had
had quite enough of ODA politics and, particularly since the project
they were operating in the Koshi Hills appeared to have so little impact
on the community which we had come to know and love, I decided not to
sand out any more reports, Tribhuvan University was also in chaos
following the success of the pro-democracy movement, so there seemed
little point In sending reports there either,
There are some who would argue that the distinction between 'pure'
and 'applied' is invalid, but in my experience the division seemed only
too real. Grillo, for example, writes of the need for the dissolution