Column One

March/April 2004

Two factors have severely hit this publication namely emigration and apathy.

Half of the already small team volunteering to promote dialogue through this newspaper has emigrated. Their emigration proved to be irreplaceable with the prevalent youth apathy.

For more than a year, the team of this publication has been trying in vein to attract new volunteers in the hope of keeping this initiative going.

With the decrease in the number of volunteers, and the consequent strain in resources, the editorial team had a single option: To call off this project more than a year after it was first started.

Yet, the team understood that noble goals are not achieved easily or overnight.  The team decided to pursue the project, despite all odds.

Therefore, the frequency of the appearance of Alternative was lowered to once every two months.

The writing of these lines and the putting of these pages together were done in adverse conditions. Unable to hold regular meetings, the scattered team communicated across continents and put up this issue number 12.

The team apologizes to Alternative readers for the delay in publication and the appearance of some flaws due to unforeseen circumstances. But if there is a will, there must be a way.