11 ms·

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to generation and spinning beurocracy to their sides. I was there a few hours ago. It was a class struggle, but it was bound to be spun up as "kids don't get facebook and throw tantrum".

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bhickey 1y ago
The corruption is simply incredible. About fifteen years ago I found myself in Kathmandu after getting altitude sickness. The team's fixer brought me to lunch with some government officials. The topic of discussion? How to steal from a hydroelectric project. One of his guests outright asked, "should we be talking about this in front of this guy?" The fixer shrugged it off saying "he's a Westerner, what is he going to do about it?" And, well, he was right. It wasn't like I could go report it to the police. Years later the fixer was finally jailed for gold smuggling. https://english.khabarhub.com/2022/16/232667/ https://english.khabarhub.com/2022/16/232667/ Edit: add link
- Yeul 1y ago
  The corruption is a cultural issue and each of those protesters would ask for bribes if they ever get into power.
- robertlagrant 1y ago
  Just went to look you up on your profile to see why you might be hanging out with government officials, and just fyi your website link seems gone.
  - mothballed 1y ago
    It's not terribly unusual to end up with random government officials if you're a white guy going into a non-touristy part of the 3rd world. I went to a village in Paraguay, first thing locals did was take me to some government project creating an industrial cow milking operation where I was promptly offered an engineering job. Low-level 3rd world officials love showing off whatever they're doing to whoever will listen. They usually don't have much else to do. It is best to accept their offer and drink the tea with them or whatever, get on their good side and talk about how modern their little village is, and get on their good graces.
    - sombragris 1y ago
      I'm from Paraguay. Can you elaborate? Which village? TIA.
      - mothballed 1y ago
        It was close to "New Italy" (in Spanish), somewhere within 50 miles of Asuncion. I don't know much about Agriculture Engineering but there were a bunch of big milk vats, a couple electricians, and then a bunch of officials sitting around drinking the cold Yerba Matte stuff. I assume they brought me because they heard I was an electrical engineer and I saw they were wiring the place up.
        sombragris 1y ago
        Oh yeah, I know Nueva Italia. Will try to locate the project. Thanks for the specifics!
        marcosdumay 1y ago
        > I assume they brought me because they heard I was an electrical engineer Yeah, that adds up. Small cities in South America usually have difficulty attracting qualified people to work there. It's a bit better now than it was 10 years ago, though.
        sombragris 1y ago
- 6LLvveMx2koXfwn 1y ago
  re corruption: I was flying from Kathmandu to Bangkok in 2000 and I couldn't book a ticket on the plane until the day it flew as 'half the plane' was reserved for 'Government Officials' 'just in case'. Amusingly they were all on one side of the plane too, the side that can see Mount Everest during the flight.
  - barbazoo 1y ago
    I don’t quite see how this is indicative of corruption
    - brendoelfrendo 1y ago
      I believe the implication is that those seats would in fact be available to you if you knew who to bribe. And the fact that they were all on the Everest-facing side of the plane suggests that whoever controlled those seats realized that they could get a premium for them.
      - tocs3 1y ago
        Also, (speculation warning) it could be the government paying for airline seats to "keep them available" is a kickback. That is, lobbyist paying government officials for a contract that is not needed.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      It’s a shadow tax on non-government consumers. Imagine if you ran a restaurant and had to always keep a table free for the mayor’s family.
      - barbazoo 1y ago
        You used the word "always", the person I responded to didn't. > I was flying from Kathmandu to Bangkok in 2000 and I couldn't book a ticket on the plane until the day it flew as 'half the plane' was reserved for 'Government Officials' 'just in case'. The "just in case" sounds like speculation to me so all it sounds like is the flight they were on was reserved.
- Quarrelsome 1y ago
  I think its quite something that we all waste our time over divisions like left/right, capitalism/socialism, woke/not-woke when in practice; this is the only division that matters. Those who are trying to follow the rules and make the nation better, and those that are only active for their self-interest.
  - FollowingTheDao 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - Quarrelsome 1y ago
      hard disagree, many OG and influentual socialists came from rich backgrounds. There's also lots of poor people out there who are simply waiting their opportunity to be corrupt. Anecdotally I've experienced many people from working class backgrounds who are extremely proud of their tax evasion. The key dividing line is those who follow the rules and believe in the system and those that don't and are just looking out for their own interests. This further explains corruption within socialist systems where everyone is effectively "equal" but some people are still looking out for themselves over everyone else.
      - don_esteban 1y ago
        The problem is when the rules are made to sustain and exacerbate the social divide, not to make the life better for everybody. No need to go far, just look at the result of lobbying in the USA. Btw, while there are many famines caused by despots (Stalin's, Mao's, Red Khmer's), there is also Bengal's famine of 1943. One must also point out that China in the last 40 years have done perhaps more regarding the poverty mitigation than anybody else in the human history (capitalism, especially the wild one, has actually quite patchy record...)
        whatshisface 1y ago
        The Chinese people did all of the work, their government simply allowed them, returning some of their own money in the form of state investment. Who pays for "state" investment?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- mulakosag 1y ago
  You don't know how incredible the corruption is. It goes from all levels. From president and prime minster to all the way down to a lowly clerk in your local government office. Nothing works without bribes. The big heads are raking out millions. I left the country only a few years ago. It is the sole reason I never want to be back there. The desperation from the youth is so heart breaking when there is no jobs creation, no industry. Depending on their ability they go and work in middle east doing all those dangerous work in the desert heat. The country is empty of youth. If you go to the airport you will see thousands leaving the country each day. Coffins of workers who died in middle east. The political parties? They are profiting for everything. In the last 10-15 years there were basically 3 guys who would become the prime minister in round robin always blame opposition when in government and always blame government when in opposition. Its like 1984 but without the surveillience but that also caught up with the ban of social media.
- rixed 1y ago
  And they were discussing all this in English, or can you speak Nepali?
dncornholio 1y ago
Don't get too caught on this. Even if you were only protesting because of the social media ban, you'd still receive support. Don't worry about it.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
Would recommend enrolling in STEP [1] as a precaution (assuming you’re American). [1] https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step
factorialboy 1y ago
Classic color revolution — China and India will be watching intently.
- alephnerd 1y ago
  China and India are meddling in this. Nothing in Nepali politics happens without either China or India's hands or implicit blessing. Heck, regional Nepali politicans will literally vie for Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav's (the two perpetual CMs of Bihar) backing. Even the Armed Forces(pro-India) and the Armed Police Force (pro-China) are at each others throats. Whenever India feels Nepal is getting too close to China, a crisis happens. When China feels Nepal is getting to close to India, a crisis happens as well. It's like how Iraqi and Lebanese politics is always meddled in by Saudi and Iran. Also, the social media ban is extremely damaging. Most students use Google and YouTube to study, and WhatsApp is heavily used by Nepalis both domestically and abroad (a large portion of Nepalis work abroad in India, the Gulf, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan as migrant workers) so people are cut off from communicating with each other and getting job offers.
  - factorialboy 1y ago
    First, Maldives. Then, Bangladesh, Now, Nepal. An unstable Nepal allows the destabilization of two critical states in India. Regime change in India is the big prize. -- China and India do meddle. But a classic color revolution, such as this one, is the signature of you-know-who.
    - Mistletoe 1y ago
      I’m hoping the one in Indonesia and this one and others catch fire. The people are starting to realize where all the money is going in the world, straight up to the top.
    - alephnerd 1y ago
      KP Sharma Oli is pro-China which even Nepali media has pointed out [0]. And his formative years were spent growing up in a village (Garamani) barely 30 km outside Naxalbari during the Naxalbari Uprising, and attended secondary school barely 5 miles (Mechinagar) away from Naxalbari during the uprising. In Nepali politics, Sher Bahadur Deuba is pro-India and Prachanda is pro-Prachanda (will back India some years, other years will back China). The whole Indian internet conspiracy of "CIA ki saazish" is ridiculous when the US has barely 20 India scholars at all. There is 0 domain experience in India studies in the US, and that reflects in America's South Asia strategy (there is none). [0] - https://kathmandupost.com/columns/2025/09/07/oli-s-diplomatic-snubs https://kathmandupost.com/columns/2025/09/07/oli-s-diplomati...
nirava 1y ago
agreed. you don't kill 19 kids protesting social media ban. it goes far far far deeper than that.
wer232essf 1y ago
[flagged]
- whimsicalism 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    Out of curiosity, what gives it away as AI slop? (I just found it inconcise.)
    - whimsicalism 1y ago
      the concluding sentence rings very strongly of the it’s not X it’s Y concluding pattern plus the usage of colons everywhere. idk everything except for the first sentence just sounds very much like GPT patterns of speech if you look at their comment history, you’ll notice how many of their comments have the It’s not X but Y concluding sentence pattern that is a GPT dead-ringer. Seeing people try to pass off comments like this is not just frustrating—it's insulting.
      - hnthrowaway121 1y ago
        The first sentences are this way as well: - positive affirmation - thing is not just one thing - thing is something else Things don’t feel like how anybody would speak. Looking at the account I see all comments appear to be AI generated but it makes me wonder if it’s actually just AI translating from another language or something. Which is kind of a fair enough reason to use AI, in low-stakes comment setting like this.
      - AnimalMuppet 1y ago
        I don't know. To me, I would expect GPT to have a comma after "apps" in the last paragraph. To me, it reads like a human writing somewhat badly. But, even if it was GPT: If a non-native-English-speaker wants to post here, and wants to use GPT to smooth out their bad English, is that terrible? In this case I would say no - they actually had something to say, on topic, that sounded like a reasonable perspective, perhaps even one with some inside knowledge.
hliyan 1y ago
Reminscient of Sri Lanka in 2022 (I was there). The lack of petrol and powercuts were the straw that broke the back of a camel that had been overburdend for several decades. Foreign "experts" and "analysts" trying to make sense of these events often sound either hilarious or condescending to locals who are living through them.
- graemep 1y ago
  I was thinking exactly the same. I was not there at the time, but I have family there and have lived there. It was amazing how many people who were not usually politically active joined the protests, and that they attracted support across racial divisions. I think one of the problem with outside experts is that they try to reframe it in terms of the issues in their countries. For example, I have read articles trying to use Sri Lanka's excessive borrowing as a warning against modern monetary theory, which is either dishonest or incompetent - and I very much doubt the govt were even thinking in terms of MMT. BTW I have probably met you at some point. I know Gehan from when i worked at Millennium (I was only there about an year).
  - Yeul 1y ago
    Sri Lanka was borrowing from China and as you know China is the big enemy of the West. The fact that Western countries aren't investing in Sri Lanka is always conveniently ignored. The CCP aren't geniuses they just fill a vacuum.
    - hliyan 1y ago
      Here's another example of what I mentioend in the grandparent post. Geopolitical misconceptions about West vs. China aside, the debt proportion held by China vs. ISB holders could have been easily looked up online.
mandeepj 1y ago
Quite similar corruption is happening here in America! Donald trump made over $3.8B since getting into office this year, while tanking farming, jobs market, and foreign relations.
- barbazoo 1y ago
  That number can’t be right, must not be right, do you have a source for that?
  - mandeepj 1y ago
    I put that number from the lower end, but actuals are closer to $10B, if all his corruption is totaled together. Just making himself great! The key is - when he points anything at others or asks to do something for country, it is actually about himself. For instance check this https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-amasses-6-billion-fortune-after-crypto-launch-567faec5 https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-amasses-...
  - mxkopy 1y ago
    You can look up the figure pretty easily but from what I’ve glanced it seems to be related to his and his son’s crypto schemes, touted through official WH channels
    - mandeepj 1y ago
      > related to his and his son’s crypto schemes That's just one channel. There's more - 1. As of September 2025, Donald and Melania Trump have launched several crypto-related ventures, including meme coins named $TRUMP and $MELANIA and digital asset firms. 2. He's a majority shareholder in Trump Media n Tech Co. Many have bought shares in that co just to please him https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/ 3. The Trump family has launched several cryptocurrency ventures. An investment fund backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made a $2 billion investment in a stablecoin issued by the Trump family's World Liberty Financial. This investment is estimated to generate about $80 million in annual interest for the Trumps. 4. Trump-branded properties are in development across the Middle East, including a golf resort in Qatar and residential towers in Dubai and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. DAMAC Properties, a Dubai-based developer and long-time Trump business partner, also has ties to Trump-affiliated golf courses in Dubai and has announced major U.S. investments. Those deals were made during this year's trip.
sentinelsignal 1y ago
Has the country always been this corrupt? Has the corruption progressively risen or was it a drastic change? to openly plot is wild imo.
- hopelite 1y ago
  The open plotting happens in western countries too, my friend. I have personally been witness to it. The irony is that the same reasons that were give for not "reporting" things is also similar to why things in the west are not "reported", albeit due to far more sophisticated and complicated reasons. Must I remind you of all the examples of "whistleblowers" who were not protected, not lauded and championed, sometimes not even respected by the public they were acting in the name of. I have personal knowledge of very similar types of circumstances where people have "whistleblown" and at best, as Snowden back then indicated, even the most gross violations simply just fall on "def" ears, which is more like simply inaction; with you only having identified yourself as someone moral or principled in a system that is inherently immoral and unprincipled. Just take a look at the whole Epstein files situation. Not to be too acute about it, but how is it wild to you that plotting would happen in the "third world" when it happens right in your face in the heart of the world empire, openly defying all of the most core Constitutionally enshrined principles, and even daring you to do something about it and also proving how powerless you/everyone is to even look the cabal that control the world in the eyes, let alone depose them.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - sentinelsignal 1y ago
    Well if you think about it the most effective corruption is the one not being "caught" which will most likely be going on in more sophisticated and developed countries i presume.
- just-another-se 1y ago
  Fellow Nepali here. Corruption has always been blatant in Nepal, but in the past it was mostly limited to the monarchs and a small circle around them. With democracy, however, it feels like everyone in power has become corrupt. It’s reached a point where corruption is so normalized that people compare leaders based on the degree of their corruption, rather than whether they are corrupt at all. On top of that, the children of these politicians and officials openly flaunt their Gucci, LV, and Ferraris on social media—in a country where just one of their bags costs more than what an average Nepali earns in a whole year.
rayiner 1y ago
Youths overthrew the government in Bangladesh last year based on similar outrage circulating on social networks. And what happened? The interim government banned the political activities of the only party that's won an election in recent memory: https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/bangladesh-ban-awami-league-violation-fundamental-human-rights https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/bangladesh-ban-awami-le.... Meanwhile, the Islamist parties have been un-banned and are resurgent: https://thediplomat.com/2025/08/resurgence-of-jamaat-e-islami-shifts-bangladesh-politics-to-the-right https://thediplomat.com/2025/08/resurgence-of-jamaat-e-islam...; https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/04/07/political-islam-could-fill-bangladeshs-power-vacuum/ https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/04/07/political-islam-could-f.... Youths are fucking dumb. As George Washington said in Hamilton: "Ah, winning was easy, young man. Governing's harder."
brightball 1y ago
People go out of their way to control information. Michael Shellenberger's site was blocked in Europe by the European Parliament after posting information for "The Twitter Files - France" which he's schedule to be testifying about to the House Foreign Affairs committee tomorrow. https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1963951509928079384 https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1963951509928079384
- whimsicalism 1y ago
  to be extremely clear - it was blocked in the European Parliament network, not all of Europe by the EP
  - throwawayq3423 1y ago
    Be even more clear, there isn't a single claim any of the Twitter files have made that have been substantiated. These are pseudo journalists running cover for their billionaire benefactors.
    - brightball 1y ago
      According to whom?
      - throwawayq3423 1y ago
        The entire thing collapsed when Elon abandoned it after less than convincing results then the journalist he handpicked for it turned on Elon. It didn't prove any of the conclusions they had clearly already decided were true. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4536394-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi-musk-disappointing-free-speech/ https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4536394-twitter-files-jou...
    - SLWW 1y ago
      Hilarious that the supposed validity of information is the metric in which you forgive any possibility of censure. You people aren't real, I am convinced; no human being is this foolish if left to themselves.
hulitu 1y ago
> It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to generation and spinning beurocracy to their sides. You just gave a definition of "democracy". Thank you. /s
thisislife2 1y ago
> "kids don't get facebook and throw tantrum". But you cannot ignore that aspect - addicts do get aggressive, even violent, when they don't get their fix. So they are indeed vulnerable and politically susceptible.
- SLWW 1y ago
  Young people also like to see if there is a way to have a better world, old people tend to keep the status quo. While I'm sure the connection to technology and the Internet as a whole plays a role, but much more-so the gross and clearly corrupt government is the reason why they demonstrated. No one is willing to die so they can just post on social media.
- Nasrudith 1y ago
  Nice Kafkatrap you have there. Getting upset about losing something means that you are an addict.
drmacak 1y ago
Maybe what is even worse in a way, is the state of many developed countries where all the coruption is well documented in media, everyone knows what is going on and yet it does not really move people. I guess until you are in "good enough" state you are not forced to really fight.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

bhickey 1y ago

The corruption is simply incredible. About fifteen years ago I found myself in Kathmandu after getting altitude sickness. The team's fixer brought me to lunch with some government officials. The topic of discussion? How to steal from a hydroelectric project. One of his guests outright asked, "should we be talking about this in front of this guy?" The fixer shrugged it off saying "he's a Westerner, what is he going to do about it?" And, well, he was right. It wasn't like I could go report it to the police. Years later the fixer was finally jailed for gold smuggling. https://english.khabarhub.com/2022/16/232667/ https://english.khabarhub.com/2022/16/232667/ Edit: add link

Yeul 1y ago
The corruption is a cultural issue and each of those protesters would ask for bribes if they ever get into power.
robertlagrant 1y ago
Just went to look you up on your profile to see why you might be hanging out with government officials, and just fyi your website link seems gone.
- mothballed 1y ago
  It's not terribly unusual to end up with random government officials if you're a white guy going into a non-touristy part of the 3rd world. I went to a village in Paraguay, first thing locals did was take me to some government project creating an industrial cow milking operation where I was promptly offered an engineering job. Low-level 3rd world officials love showing off whatever they're doing to whoever will listen. They usually don't have much else to do. It is best to accept their offer and drink the tea with them or whatever, get on their good side and talk about how modern their little village is, and get on their good graces.
  - sombragris 1y ago
    I'm from Paraguay. Can you elaborate? Which village? TIA.
    - mothballed 1y ago
      It was close to "New Italy" (in Spanish), somewhere within 50 miles of Asuncion. I don't know much about Agriculture Engineering but there were a bunch of big milk vats, a couple electricians, and then a bunch of officials sitting around drinking the cold Yerba Matte stuff. I assume they brought me because they heard I was an electrical engineer and I saw they were wiring the place up.
      - sombragris 1y ago
        Oh yeah, I know Nueva Italia. Will try to locate the project. Thanks for the specifics!
      - marcosdumay 1y ago
        > I assume they brought me because they heard I was an electrical engineer Yeah, that adds up. Small cities in South America usually have difficulty attracting qualified people to work there. It's a bit better now than it was 10 years ago, though.
      - sombragris 1y ago
6LLvveMx2koXfwn 1y ago
re corruption: I was flying from Kathmandu to Bangkok in 2000 and I couldn't book a ticket on the plane until the day it flew as 'half the plane' was reserved for 'Government Officials' 'just in case'. Amusingly they were all on one side of the plane too, the side that can see Mount Everest during the flight.
- barbazoo 1y ago
  I don’t quite see how this is indicative of corruption
  - brendoelfrendo 1y ago
    I believe the implication is that those seats would in fact be available to you if you knew who to bribe. And the fact that they were all on the Everest-facing side of the plane suggests that whoever controlled those seats realized that they could get a premium for them.
    - tocs3 1y ago
      Also, (speculation warning) it could be the government paying for airline seats to "keep them available" is a kickback. That is, lobbyist paying government officials for a contract that is not needed.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    It’s a shadow tax on non-government consumers. Imagine if you ran a restaurant and had to always keep a table free for the mayor’s family.
    - barbazoo 1y ago
      You used the word "always", the person I responded to didn't. > I was flying from Kathmandu to Bangkok in 2000 and I couldn't book a ticket on the plane until the day it flew as 'half the plane' was reserved for 'Government Officials' 'just in case'. The "just in case" sounds like speculation to me so all it sounds like is the flight they were on was reserved.
Quarrelsome 1y ago
I think its quite something that we all waste our time over divisions like left/right, capitalism/socialism, woke/not-woke when in practice; this is the only division that matters. Those who are trying to follow the rules and make the nation better, and those that are only active for their self-interest.
- FollowingTheDao 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - Quarrelsome 1y ago
    hard disagree, many OG and influentual socialists came from rich backgrounds. There's also lots of poor people out there who are simply waiting their opportunity to be corrupt. Anecdotally I've experienced many people from working class backgrounds who are extremely proud of their tax evasion. The key dividing line is those who follow the rules and believe in the system and those that don't and are just looking out for their own interests. This further explains corruption within socialist systems where everyone is effectively "equal" but some people are still looking out for themselves over everyone else.
    - don_esteban 1y ago
      The problem is when the rules are made to sustain and exacerbate the social divide, not to make the life better for everybody. No need to go far, just look at the result of lobbying in the USA. Btw, while there are many famines caused by despots (Stalin's, Mao's, Red Khmer's), there is also Bengal's famine of 1943. One must also point out that China in the last 40 years have done perhaps more regarding the poverty mitigation than anybody else in the human history (capitalism, especially the wild one, has actually quite patchy record...)
      - whatshisface 1y ago
        The Chinese people did all of the work, their government simply allowed them, returning some of their own money in the form of state investment. Who pays for "state" investment?
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
mulakosag 1y ago
You don't know how incredible the corruption is. It goes from all levels. From president and prime minster to all the way down to a lowly clerk in your local government office. Nothing works without bribes. The big heads are raking out millions. I left the country only a few years ago. It is the sole reason I never want to be back there. The desperation from the youth is so heart breaking when there is no jobs creation, no industry. Depending on their ability they go and work in middle east doing all those dangerous work in the desert heat. The country is empty of youth. If you go to the airport you will see thousands leaving the country each day. Coffins of workers who died in middle east. The political parties? They are profiting for everything. In the last 10-15 years there were basically 3 guys who would become the prime minister in round robin always blame opposition when in government and always blame government when in opposition. Its like 1984 but without the surveillience but that also caught up with the ban of social media.
rixed 1y ago
And they were discussing all this in English, or can you speak Nepali?

dncornholio 1y ago

Don't get too caught on this. Even if you were only protesting because of the social media ban, you'd still receive support. Don't worry about it.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

Would recommend enrolling in STEP [1] as a precaution (assuming you’re American). [1] https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step

factorialboy 1y ago

Classic color revolution — China and India will be watching intently.

alephnerd 1y ago
China and India are meddling in this. Nothing in Nepali politics happens without either China or India's hands or implicit blessing. Heck, regional Nepali politicans will literally vie for Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav's (the two perpetual CMs of Bihar) backing. Even the Armed Forces(pro-India) and the Armed Police Force (pro-China) are at each others throats. Whenever India feels Nepal is getting too close to China, a crisis happens. When China feels Nepal is getting to close to India, a crisis happens as well. It's like how Iraqi and Lebanese politics is always meddled in by Saudi and Iran. Also, the social media ban is extremely damaging. Most students use Google and YouTube to study, and WhatsApp is heavily used by Nepalis both domestically and abroad (a large portion of Nepalis work abroad in India, the Gulf, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan as migrant workers) so people are cut off from communicating with each other and getting job offers.
- factorialboy 1y ago
  First, Maldives. Then, Bangladesh, Now, Nepal. An unstable Nepal allows the destabilization of two critical states in India. Regime change in India is the big prize. -- China and India do meddle. But a classic color revolution, such as this one, is the signature of you-know-who.
  - Mistletoe 1y ago
    I’m hoping the one in Indonesia and this one and others catch fire. The people are starting to realize where all the money is going in the world, straight up to the top.
  - alephnerd 1y ago
    KP Sharma Oli is pro-China which even Nepali media has pointed out [0]. And his formative years were spent growing up in a village (Garamani) barely 30 km outside Naxalbari during the Naxalbari Uprising, and attended secondary school barely 5 miles (Mechinagar) away from Naxalbari during the uprising. In Nepali politics, Sher Bahadur Deuba is pro-India and Prachanda is pro-Prachanda (will back India some years, other years will back China). The whole Indian internet conspiracy of "CIA ki saazish" is ridiculous when the US has barely 20 India scholars at all. There is 0 domain experience in India studies in the US, and that reflects in America's South Asia strategy (there is none). [0] - https://kathmandupost.com/columns/2025/09/07/oli-s-diplomatic-snubs https://kathmandupost.com/columns/2025/09/07/oli-s-diplomati...

nirava 1y ago

agreed. you don't kill 19 kids protesting social media ban. it goes far far far deeper than that.

wer232essf 1y ago

[flagged]

whimsicalism 1y ago
[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  Out of curiosity, what gives it away as AI slop? (I just found it inconcise.)
  - whimsicalism 1y ago
    the concluding sentence rings very strongly of the it’s not X it’s Y concluding pattern plus the usage of colons everywhere. idk everything except for the first sentence just sounds very much like GPT patterns of speech if you look at their comment history, you’ll notice how many of their comments have the It’s not X but Y concluding sentence pattern that is a GPT dead-ringer. Seeing people try to pass off comments like this is not just frustrating—it's insulting.
    - hnthrowaway121 1y ago
      The first sentences are this way as well: - positive affirmation - thing is not just one thing - thing is something else Things don’t feel like how anybody would speak. Looking at the account I see all comments appear to be AI generated but it makes me wonder if it’s actually just AI translating from another language or something. Which is kind of a fair enough reason to use AI, in low-stakes comment setting like this.
    - AnimalMuppet 1y ago
      I don't know. To me, I would expect GPT to have a comma after "apps" in the last paragraph. To me, it reads like a human writing somewhat badly. But, even if it was GPT: If a non-native-English-speaker wants to post here, and wants to use GPT to smooth out their bad English, is that terrible? In this case I would say no - they actually had something to say, on topic, that sounded like a reasonable perspective, perhaps even one with some inside knowledge.

hliyan 1y ago

Reminscient of Sri Lanka in 2022 (I was there). The lack of petrol and powercuts were the straw that broke the back of a camel that had been overburdend for several decades. Foreign "experts" and "analysts" trying to make sense of these events often sound either hilarious or condescending to locals who are living through them.

graemep 1y ago
I was thinking exactly the same. I was not there at the time, but I have family there and have lived there. It was amazing how many people who were not usually politically active joined the protests, and that they attracted support across racial divisions. I think one of the problem with outside experts is that they try to reframe it in terms of the issues in their countries. For example, I have read articles trying to use Sri Lanka's excessive borrowing as a warning against modern monetary theory, which is either dishonest or incompetent - and I very much doubt the govt were even thinking in terms of MMT. BTW I have probably met you at some point. I know Gehan from when i worked at Millennium (I was only there about an year).
- Yeul 1y ago
  Sri Lanka was borrowing from China and as you know China is the big enemy of the West. The fact that Western countries aren't investing in Sri Lanka is always conveniently ignored. The CCP aren't geniuses they just fill a vacuum.
  - hliyan 1y ago
    Here's another example of what I mentioend in the grandparent post. Geopolitical misconceptions about West vs. China aside, the debt proportion held by China vs. ISB holders could have been easily looked up online.

mandeepj 1y ago

Quite similar corruption is happening here in America! Donald trump made over $3.8B since getting into office this year, while tanking farming, jobs market, and foreign relations.

barbazoo 1y ago
That number can’t be right, must not be right, do you have a source for that?
- mandeepj 1y ago
  I put that number from the lower end, but actuals are closer to $10B, if all his corruption is totaled together. Just making himself great! The key is - when he points anything at others or asks to do something for country, it is actually about himself. For instance check this https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-amasses-6-billion-fortune-after-crypto-launch-567faec5 https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-amasses-...
- mxkopy 1y ago
  You can look up the figure pretty easily but from what I’ve glanced it seems to be related to his and his son’s crypto schemes, touted through official WH channels
  - mandeepj 1y ago
    > related to his and his son’s crypto schemes That's just one channel. There's more - 1. As of September 2025, Donald and Melania Trump have launched several crypto-related ventures, including meme coins named $TRUMP and $MELANIA and digital asset firms. 2. He's a majority shareholder in Trump Media n Tech Co. Many have bought shares in that co just to please him https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/ 3. The Trump family has launched several cryptocurrency ventures. An investment fund backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made a $2 billion investment in a stablecoin issued by the Trump family's World Liberty Financial. This investment is estimated to generate about $80 million in annual interest for the Trumps. 4. Trump-branded properties are in development across the Middle East, including a golf resort in Qatar and residential towers in Dubai and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. DAMAC Properties, a Dubai-based developer and long-time Trump business partner, also has ties to Trump-affiliated golf courses in Dubai and has announced major U.S. investments. Those deals were made during this year's trip.

sentinelsignal 1y ago

Has the country always been this corrupt? Has the corruption progressively risen or was it a drastic change? to openly plot is wild imo.

hopelite 1y ago
The open plotting happens in western countries too, my friend. I have personally been witness to it. The irony is that the same reasons that were give for not "reporting" things is also similar to why things in the west are not "reported", albeit due to far more sophisticated and complicated reasons. Must I remind you of all the examples of "whistleblowers" who were not protected, not lauded and championed, sometimes not even respected by the public they were acting in the name of. I have personal knowledge of very similar types of circumstances where people have "whistleblown" and at best, as Snowden back then indicated, even the most gross violations simply just fall on "def" ears, which is more like simply inaction; with you only having identified yourself as someone moral or principled in a system that is inherently immoral and unprincipled. Just take a look at the whole Epstein files situation. Not to be too acute about it, but how is it wild to you that plotting would happen in the "third world" when it happens right in your face in the heart of the world empire, openly defying all of the most core Constitutionally enshrined principles, and even daring you to do something about it and also proving how powerless you/everyone is to even look the cabal that control the world in the eyes, let alone depose them.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- sentinelsignal 1y ago
  Well if you think about it the most effective corruption is the one not being "caught" which will most likely be going on in more sophisticated and developed countries i presume.
just-another-se 1y ago
Fellow Nepali here. Corruption has always been blatant in Nepal, but in the past it was mostly limited to the monarchs and a small circle around them. With democracy, however, it feels like everyone in power has become corrupt. It’s reached a point where corruption is so normalized that people compare leaders based on the degree of their corruption, rather than whether they are corrupt at all. On top of that, the children of these politicians and officials openly flaunt their Gucci, LV, and Ferraris on social media—in a country where just one of their bags costs more than what an average Nepali earns in a whole year.

rayiner 1y ago

Youths overthrew the government in Bangladesh last year based on similar outrage circulating on social networks. And what happened? The interim government banned the political activities of the only party that's won an election in recent memory: https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/bangladesh-ban-awami-league-violation-fundamental-human-rights https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/bangladesh-ban-awami-le.... Meanwhile, the Islamist parties have been un-banned and are resurgent: https://thediplomat.com/2025/08/resurgence-of-jamaat-e-islami-shifts-bangladesh-politics-to-the-right https://thediplomat.com/2025/08/resurgence-of-jamaat-e-islam...; https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/04/07/political-islam-could-fill-bangladeshs-power-vacuum/ https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/04/07/political-islam-could-f.... Youths are fucking dumb. As George Washington said in Hamilton: "Ah, winning was easy, young man. Governing's harder."

brightball 1y ago

People go out of their way to control information. Michael Shellenberger's site was blocked in Europe by the European Parliament after posting information for "The Twitter Files - France" which he's schedule to be testifying about to the House Foreign Affairs committee tomorrow. https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1963951509928079384 https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1963951509928079384

whimsicalism 1y ago
to be extremely clear - it was blocked in the European Parliament network, not all of Europe by the EP
- throwawayq3423 1y ago
  Be even more clear, there isn't a single claim any of the Twitter files have made that have been substantiated. These are pseudo journalists running cover for their billionaire benefactors.
  - brightball 1y ago
    According to whom?
    - throwawayq3423 1y ago
      The entire thing collapsed when Elon abandoned it after less than convincing results then the journalist he handpicked for it turned on Elon. It didn't prove any of the conclusions they had clearly already decided were true. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4536394-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi-musk-disappointing-free-speech/ https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4536394-twitter-files-jou...
  - SLWW 1y ago
    Hilarious that the supposed validity of information is the metric in which you forgive any possibility of censure. You people aren't real, I am convinced; no human being is this foolish if left to themselves.

hulitu 1y ago

> It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to generation and spinning beurocracy to their sides. You just gave a definition of "democracy". Thank you. /s

thisislife2 1y ago

> "kids don't get facebook and throw tantrum". But you cannot ignore that aspect - addicts do get aggressive, even violent, when they don't get their fix. So they are indeed vulnerable and politically susceptible.

SLWW 1y ago
Young people also like to see if there is a way to have a better world, old people tend to keep the status quo. While I'm sure the connection to technology and the Internet as a whole plays a role, but much more-so the gross and clearly corrupt government is the reason why they demonstrated. No one is willing to die so they can just post on social media.
Nasrudith 1y ago
Nice Kafkatrap you have there. Getting upset about losing something means that you are an addict.

drmacak 1y ago

Maybe what is even worse in a way, is the state of many developed countries where all the coruption is well documented in media, everyone knows what is going on and yet it does not really move people. I guess until you are in "good enough" state you are not forced to really fight.