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14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

(www.tribuneindia.com)
560 points whatsupdog | 7 comments | 08 Sep 25 11:24 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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lionturtle ◴[08 Sep 25 11:52 UTC] No.45167176[source]▶
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".

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bhickey ◴[08 Sep 25 12:14 UTC] No.45167350[source]▶
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/

Edit: add link

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robertlagrant ◴[08 Sep 25 12:24 UTC] No.45167426[source]▶
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.
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mothballed ◴[08 Sep 25 12:28 UTC] No.45167449[source]▶
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.

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1. sombragris ◴[08 Sep 25 12:30 UTC] No.45167470[source]▶
I'm from Paraguay. Can you elaborate? Which village? TIA.
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2. mothballed ◴[08 Sep 25 12:32 UTC] No.45167477[source]▶
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.

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3. sombragris ◴[08 Sep 25 13:18 UTC] No.45167898[source]▶
Oh yeah, I know Nueva Italia. Will try to locate the project. Thanks for the specifics!
4. marcosdumay ◴[08 Sep 25 15:00 UTC] No.45169175[source]▶
> 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.

5. sombragris ◴[09 Sep 25 12:26 UTC] No.45181000[source]▶
> they heard I was an electrical engineer

Just an add to what has been said. This might be because they heard you are an electrical engineer. I really don't know your qualifications, but here (in Paraguay), electrical engineering is a different degree than electronical engineering.

You might be versed in electronics as your primary field, but since they heard you are an electrical engineer, they thought you could check out the facility's electrical wiring setup.

Thus, if you do mainly electronics, you might want to present yourself here (in Paraguay) as an electronics/electronical engineer.

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6. mothballed ◴[09 Sep 25 13:08 UTC] No.45181438{3}[source]▶
Yes I was totally unqualified for what they were doing.

Also pretty big language barrier because my Spanish is pretty bad. And Guarani, forget it.

I could probably "fake" it enough to do it now, but not back then.

They were extremely nice though and it was cool to check out a farming project. I would have liked to see some of the more remote farms but never got around to it.

Paraguay felt very much to me like the midwest / "Iowa/Ohio" of South America. Extremely practical hidden gem that is easily overlooked, but makes you feel right at home. Even in Asuncion I felt quite safe. Seems like the country is very active in fostering getting agricultural investment and development.

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7. sombragris ◴[09 Sep 25 15:13 UTC] No.45183075{4}[source]▶
> Paraguay felt very much to me like the midwest / "Iowa/Ohio" of South America

Funny that you say that. I am by no means a countryside person, I'm as urbanite as any other. But while I never was in Iowa or Ohio (save for a short layover), I lived in West Michigan, and therefore in the Midwest, for some time; and yes, despite the climate being quite different, things seemed somewhat familiar to me in many aspects.