True Patriot Love

00:00:00.000 It all started on the 4th of September. The government ordered the shutdown of 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Signal and Snapchat and over noncompliance with new local registration agreements.

00:00:17.700 Now, really, what is this about? Hashtag NepoKids. Nepal is on fire and there is an uprising that is taking the country by storm. It's all based on corruption. And today we're going to find out more. 0.99

00:00:38.180 A remarkable 48 hours, Jim.

00:00:40.420 Well, I think for a lot of Canadians to see what's going on in Nepal, it's shocking. And this may not be the only time this happens around the world. A lot of countries are openly talking about social media bans. There's great concern what potential harm it may or may not be doing to their youth, to their society.

00:00:59.500 Australia is a country that has banned social media under a certain age. Other countries are doing the same thing.

00:01:04.860 Even here in Canada, there's restrictions on what news we can't get and not get.

00:01:10.140 And a lot of schools have banned cell phones. A year ago, banned social media in the classroom because of such concerns that kids simply are not paying attention and learning.

00:01:20.100 It is a remarkable last few days in Nepal, Kathmandu and many parts of Nepal under fire.

00:01:28.680 The parliament taken by storm, all of the required documentations of the Supreme Court up in flames.

00:01:38.200 The prime minister had to be evacuated with a military helicopter for his own safety.

00:01:42.820 So many ministers have been, some of the prime ministers have been chased down their homes, fire bombed.

00:01:48.840 And in fact, sadly, one of the wives of one of the ministers burned in one of those fires to death.

00:01:55.280 There are as many as reported as many as 19 deaths among the rioters.

00:02:01.640 And it it seems to be going on and on.

00:02:06.300 Jim, I thought it might be a good idea for us to get an idea of what's happening.

00:02:09.680 Absolutely.

00:02:10.180 On the ground. Joining us now live from Kathmandu, Roshan Gimri.

00:02:14.780 Thank you so much for being with us in the midst of all of this tumult going on.

00:02:20.660 Maybe you could give us an idea of, from your perspective, what the last four or five days has felt like there.

00:02:28.900 Sure, Mike. Thank you so much for having me over here.

00:02:33.580 Regarding the Nepal situation currently, it's not just about the social media bans.

00:02:41.220 The international medias right now, they are focusing the revolution that Gen Z started is because of the social media bans.

00:02:51.140 It's not that it's because of the corruption, deep rooted corruption.

00:02:55.520 The government, the ministers, the political parties, all the officials in the Southeast, in Nepal, it's deep rooted corruption.

00:03:05.680 And the Gen Z, they stood up as a momentum of Nepal kids that started from Indonesia, Philippines, and that was coming to Nepal.

00:03:16.240 And at that time, the government, they wanted all the social medias to register.

00:03:22.760 And then they banned the Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and all the social media platforms.

00:03:27.980 And then it's not just about the social media interruptions.

00:03:33.360 They, this is a Gen Z moment. 0.86

00:03:35.660 The Gen Z, they started a revolution.

00:03:39.880 There were deaths.

00:03:41.860 Students, 40 years children in the student uniform, was dead in the head.

00:03:48.820 And this caused a huge disturbance in the Nepalese community, not just Gen Zs, but all the people that grew up today in Kathmandu.

00:04:02.960 And then the ministers ordered shooting of the children in the school uniforms.

00:04:12.500 They were carrying school bags, there were books, there were pencils, pens, you know, and then these ministers, these houses were burned down.

00:04:26.000 The situation right now in Nepal, the Gen Zs, they are currently enjoying. 1.00

00:04:30.260 Currently, it's 10 past 10 p.m. here in Kathmandu.

00:04:38.540 From 10 p.m., the, you know, the chief of army, he has taken the power and the security is in control of army now.

00:04:49.900 Now the Gen Zs are quite happy because all the corrupted leaders, they are not here. 1.00

00:04:55.500 They are in the custody of the army and there is currently, there is not a rule of law at the moment, but from 10 p.m.

00:05:05.520 Now the army is taking power.

00:05:07.660 So there's threats everywhere to our armies.

00:05:13.140 Before that, before a couple of hours, before a couple of hours, wrong guys, they took guns from the army's place, they took the guns in their hands.

00:05:21.720 All the government is, all the parliament things, everything is burned down.

00:05:28.740 It's been something that we've been watching, certainly on television and online over the last couple of days.

00:05:36.720 And I think, Jim, what's interesting is that you can draw comparisons to other parts of the world where the Gen Z generation is suffering. 0.99

00:05:46.660 20% unemployment, we understand, it's 11% overall, and 20% for the youth overall.

00:05:59.940 This is a disturbing thing.

00:06:02.460 And to see such opulence and corruption of the families of these ministers and the government officials really did spark something here.

00:06:12.300 Well, that was my question to you, sir, is for maybe people who don't understand, how big of a gap is there between the working class of Nepal and Kathmandu and the wealthy and the people that they are rising up against?

00:06:24.920 There is a huge gap.

00:06:26.200 There is a huge gap.

00:06:27.200 Today, in front of, I saw the, you know, in the Sherabad, there was a house, the, you know, the president's house was burned.

00:06:38.520 The people, they took, like the same thing in the Bangladesh, they took all the, you know, gas, they took all the materials, things from their buildings. 0.96

00:06:49.460 They are burning five-star hotels invested by these ministers.

00:06:53.460 There's a huge gap, the working class and the elite ones, there's a huge gap.

00:06:58.920 That's the reason the people, they are quite frustrated.

00:07:01.900 They just don't want, you know, the ministers' sons and daughters to enjoy luxury in abroad and while the people, the deep ground people, they are paying tax to the government.

00:07:16.980 They just don't want the tax to be utilized in that way.

00:07:20.120 So, this Gen Z momentum is currently, everything is reverse now. 0.98

00:07:28.460 We don't know how the government is going to be because the parliament, many of the parliament members, they have already resigned.

00:07:37.220 The chief of army, president himself, has called major, you know, all the concerned people, Gen Z revolutionary bodies, the mayor of the Kathmandu Valley, whom all the Nepalese people, they think he is the icon of Nepal.

00:07:58.360 They think he is the icon for the Gen Zs, they have called Balindra Saha, they have called other prominent leaders for the meeting.

00:08:08.580 So, we're going to see what's at sea, how the future is going to look like.

00:08:15.580 At the moment, does the army chief, I believe it's Shakhraj Sigil, is now appealing for everybody to calm, calm, that justice will be brought, that they're going to look into this, that it will become an investigation of the army.

00:08:33.440 Does that then put the chief of the army essentially in control of the country at the moment, or how does, who's running Nepal at the moment?

00:08:45.840 Currently, no one is running Nepal at the moment.

00:08:48.100 That is the very interesting fact because the prime minister has resigned.

00:08:52.220 All the cabinet ministers have resigned.

00:08:54.280 Parliament members, they have resigned.

00:08:57.000 The constitution hasn't been dissolved yet, but, you know, in this current situation, the president of the country, the president of the country needs to make the decision.

00:09:12.620 And the president of the country has urged chief of the army, Balindra Saha, and other prominent members, Gen Z revolutionary bodies, to come and sit and talk.

00:09:22.780 Because he doesn't want to just impose his role.

00:09:27.480 He just wants to sit and negotiate and see the future for the Nepalese, you know, Gen Z, all of them right now, they want Gen Z's participations in the government.

00:09:41.700 They want Gen Z's voice in the government. 0.73

00:09:44.240 So it's going to be, for a couple of days, it's going to be quite a difficult situation.

00:09:49.500 We can't say anything right now, but the good thing is, right after 10 p.m., the army chief said that we will be in control of the security of the nation.

00:10:01.460 They haven't said that we will take all the country, control of the country.

00:10:05.800 We will take control of the country.

00:10:09.040 So they haven't said that they will be ruling the country now.

00:10:11.840 So they have said that we will be doing the security because before a couple of hours, there were no any police officials in the embassies, even in the U.S. embassies and anywhere in, you know, in Kathmandu.

00:10:25.400 All the police officers were called off because the country is supremo.

00:10:30.740 The prime ministers, everyone, they resigned.

00:10:33.180 There was no rule of law.

00:10:34.900 So there was nobody in charge of the police at that time.

00:10:39.820 Has the army now taken control of the police forces to utilize them to bring comm to the necessary areas?

00:10:47.620 Yes, they have started.

00:10:49.500 They have started sending army troops to all over the parts of the country and all over the streets.

00:10:55.340 And now the security system, like, you know, the genesis, the revolutionary bodies, once they win the revolution, there are lots of people.

00:11:04.780 They want to get advantage of the revolution.

00:11:07.980 They might be looting.

00:11:09.040 You know, they might be going to the shops, getting things, stops out.

00:11:12.620 So they don't want even the genesis.

00:11:14.640 They don't want genesis protest wards for the change of the system.

00:11:19.560 They wanted to, you know, bring down the correct leaders, not to loot the country, not to burn all the government buildings.

00:11:28.620 So there has been some significant, you know, significant, you know, destructions as well in the country.

00:11:38.000 Many, many places it's burned down.

00:11:41.080 Kathmandu cloud, you can see it right now.

00:11:43.540 It's quite dark.

00:11:45.440 Some people, they are saying it's a good thing that we want the revolution.

00:11:50.580 It's very interesting that this revolution is being led by the Gen Zs that so many times, so often, even I have made fun of the Gen Zs for just being sitters on the fence. 0.82

00:12:01.880 Well, they didn't sit here.

00:12:04.180 And that was my next question.

00:12:05.900 As difficult and as shocking as this incident has been, sir, when everything sort of settles down, will Nepal be a better country for it?

00:12:14.420 Yes, definitely.

00:12:16.160 Nepal is going to be one of the best country in the world because right now, till now, there were lots of political leaders.

00:12:25.440 The system was quite corrupted.

00:12:28.240 What we can see now here is lots of things have been changed within 24 to 48 hours.

00:12:35.560 No one ever expected this would happen in any parts of the world.

00:12:40.380 You know, they have changed everything like, you know, the one of the political party, UML, the leader of the political party, K.P. Sharma Oli was the prime minister.

00:12:51.120 His political party is completely vanished now.

00:12:53.760 Most of the leaders, top level leaders, student leaders and everyone, they have resigned.

00:12:58.300 They were against the, you know, his, you know, they were against his words, they were against his mission.

00:13:09.620 So right now, major political parties in Nepal, if you see Nepalese Congress, you can see the UML, the Maoists, the people, they have started, you know, change in their mind.

00:13:22.780 So things are going to be changed, but the question is who is going to lead Nepal now?

00:13:28.380 This is the big and how is it going to be the system?

00:13:31.620 Like, is it going to be the direct elected prime minister or the same constitutions or what's going to be next?

00:13:40.840 So this is the main question.

00:13:42.140 Well, the one thing that I will certainly say on behalf of all of us here at TPL, we wish calm in Nepal soon and, you know, no return to violence as this kind of works itself out.

00:13:57.960 But I hope that the army chief remains in control of what happens and that the Gen Zers finally bring an end to the corruption there in Nepal. 1.00

00:14:07.640 From Kathmandu, joining us is Roshan, and we appreciate that.

00:14:13.260 Roshan Gibray, our correspondent in Kathmandu.

00:14:16.440 Thank you.

00:14:16.860 We'll be back in touch with you on another day on brighter terms, I hope.

00:14:20.820 And we wish you guys the best.

00:14:23.200 See you.

00:14:23.540 A remarkable uprising, very quick, very generational.

00:14:31.820 It's almost like they told the boomers to stay home.

00:14:34.120 We've got this.

00:14:35.440 Do you remember in England in the mid 1970s, the youth unemployment rate was out of control?

00:14:41.460 And out of that, we had the creation of punk rock music.

00:14:45.380 It's true.

00:14:45.800 I was going to say.

00:14:46.640 And punk rock music was born out of extreme frustration of the youth of England who felt they had nowhere to go.

00:14:53.540 And the government was they had no prospects.

00:14:56.760 And eventually they had their uprising and they use music and culture and clothing to have their big punk rock uprising and change things.

00:15:04.940 And every once in a while we said and it's generational.

00:15:08.340 All the youth today in the 60s don't know what it's like in the war.

00:15:11.600 Well, the youth in the 60s were the ones that were the forefront of the Vietnam War protests.

00:15:16.820 And eventually the youth feel, wait a second, this is wrong.

00:15:20.200 And they stand up and be counted.

00:15:22.040 And for what Nepal did and what the youth did, it's a pretty remarkable thing that we'll be studying for years to come.

00:15:28.740 That gap that Rishan mentions that is between the, you know, the average person in Nepal and what the minister's families were living like when that social media leaked.

00:15:40.400 And it became a moment of awakening for that generation.

00:15:46.540 And it was being obviously hidden from them, that opulence.

00:15:50.920 And you and I have a friend from Nepal and she'll tell us that the town shared a bicycle.

00:15:56.300 They had a single bicycle in that town to be given access to watching the Nepal babies of that government live high on the hog on corrupt money. 1.00

00:16:07.220 It was just too much.

00:16:09.580 It was a breaking point.

00:16:10.780 And it makes me wonder where else we're going to see this in the world.

00:16:13.160 Well, I mean, there are countries around the world where there is a lot of people who are upset.

00:16:18.440 They're frustrated.

00:16:19.600 There are uprisings.

00:16:21.020 They feel like, where else do we have to turn?

00:16:23.940 We're not so different here, Jim.

00:16:25.320 No.

00:16:25.680 The same generation is in trouble. 0.97

00:16:27.660 Yeah, yeah.

00:16:28.340 We could go around the world and look at things like this.

00:16:31.240 And I think a lot of government leaders and a lot of governments and a lot of sociologists are looking at what happened in Nepal and wondering, could that happen in our own backyard?

00:16:39.840 We'll keep you updated.

00:16:41.360 From Kathmandu, we have feet on the street, keeping an eye.

00:16:46.700 Rishan and a couple of other correspondents joining us.

00:16:49.340 And we appreciate everything they're doing to stay in touch with us.

00:16:52.680 It's after curfew there as we record this.

00:16:55.140 And it seemed that there was calm in the streets to some degree.

00:16:58.360 But we'll keep on the story.

00:17:00.100 Thank you for joining us.

00:17:01.220 This is The Daily Cancelled.

00:17:02.960 TPL, Jim Lang, Mike Wixon.

00:17:04.660 We'll see you next time.

Live From Nepal #GenZ Protest - A TPL Media Update

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