E-Pao! - a journey through 2010
- XI Anniversary -

In November 2000, the Armed security forces gun down 10 civilians in what later came to be known as the 'Malom Massacre' at Malom near Tulihal Airport, Imphal. This incident woke up the common people of Manipur to the gross insecurity of life under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958. Many gathering and marches marks the protests against the 'Draconian Act' but more importantly, that was when an unassuming but sturdy Manipuri woman pledged to redeem the people, especially the victims of the Act (in Manipur and elsewhere) by going on a fast-unto-death until the Act is totally repealed. That woman is Irom Sharmila Chanu. This year marked the 10 years of her ongoing agitation against the Draconian Act. Now the world joins her in support of her agitation and Manipur is proud to have a daughter and a sister like her in these modern times.

The start of the year 2010 was rocked by the attempts and its aftermath of a planned visit of very important personalities of modern Noth East India - Mr. Thuingaleng Muivah. He was born in Somdal Village, Ukhrul, Manipur but have left the place nearly 40 years ago. The state was rocked by unrest over his intent of the visit. The visit was planned for May 8th and the news of it came to light at the end of April. The next few days after the news, the unrest over the intention of the visit collected momentum and tension were built up to a battlefront with groups either supporting his visit or questioning his intentions.

The visit was deferred and it doesn't look like Mr Muivah could visit Manipur in the near future but this has been a long drawn out affair with very serious repurcussions. Manipur is reeling with shortages of everything that one would consider a basic necessity. The lifeline of Manipur - NH39 - has been blocked and foodgrains, medicine, fuel and other essential commodities were wasted on its way hence stopping from reaching its market in Manipur. Prices of everything sky rocketted and common people were driven to the dark ages. An attempt to restart usage of the other highway - NH53 - was started only to remind everyone how badly it has been neglected and how unusable it has become.

The killing toll kept ticking unabetted along with various other issues in this state. If it has taught anything to the common Manipuri, it is the lesson to be self sufficient, patience and resilient.

Away from Manipur, the various artists and sportspersons took Manipur to newer heights and recognition in their various fields.

Around the world, the social network platform has become bigger and better. Almost everything and everyone are on the social network. Its given power to everyone to reach out and be connected with the rest in the world. Yet another example of how our world is shrinking. E-Pao! also is on facebook and twitter. Going with the pace, we also have added RSS feeds for other popular contents other than news. You could now subscribe to the RSS feeds of the videos (Ooba), receipes (Chakhum), Photos (Gallery) & articles/announcements/etc (hotspots). To increase the social platform experience, we have now added feature to add comments and discuss for the news, articles, videos, eRang and gallery photoes.

We featured 2 more Manipuri bands in the Yellout section - Cleave and ReCycle. Many songs and videos are added to the E-Pao! Radio and E-Pao! Ooba!

We receive many email enquiries on contact numbers of government offices and officials. We have gathered numbers of many government offices and officials from the public domain and have compiled a database which could be queried through a simple search screen. We urge you to use this database and while we cannot vouch for the correctness of the contact phone numbers or addresses, we will be happy if you can update us with the correct ones. we would promptly correct them.

Mahesh Konsam continues to create the awesome desktop wallpapers. There were 11 of them added over the year.

We have also been dutifully stringing the timelines of the news on specific topics. The Irom Sharmila timeline has been running since 2006 and the Killing fields timeline since 2008. The BT Road shootout was tracked from 2009 to 2010. NSCN-IM general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah's visit to Manipur is tracked since the news broke out on 30th May 2010. Parallely we have also beent tracking the Hill Districts Autonomous District Councils (ADC) Election of May 2010. More recently we started a timeline on the Arrest of UNLF chairman RK Meghen alias Sanayaima (since October 2010)

Amongst the new columns added, notable are "Lunminthang Haokip's Essays" and "Leivon Jimmy Lamjkang Top Personalities"

E-Pao! has been fortunate to be able to be involved with humanitarian initiatives through our visitors. Below are some snapshots of very laudable efforts from the Manipuri community which we were proud to be part of:

• Festival Of Hope, Justice And Peace :: Irom Sharmila
• Video for Tapta on this event

• Shared Solace
• Shared Solace Galleries: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3

• Heralding Hope - A Peace Concert for NE Region on 10th Oct 2010
• Heralding Hope Galleries: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2

• Metronome 2010
• Check Gallery for Metronome 2010 here

• Blue and Green for Organic Manipur :: 2010
• B&G Galleries: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3