00:00:00.000It 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.
00:00:17.700Now, 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.
00:00:40.420Well, 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.
00:00:59.500Australia is a country that has banned social media under a certain age. Other countries are doing the same thing.
00:01:04.860Even here in Canada, there's restrictions on what news we can't get and not get.
00:01:10.140And 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.
00:01:20.100It is a remarkable last few days in Nepal, Kathmandu and many parts of Nepal under fire.
00:01:28.680The parliament taken by storm, all of the required documentations of the Supreme Court up in flames.
00:01:38.200The prime minister had to be evacuated with a military helicopter for his own safety.
00:01:42.820So many ministers have been, some of the prime ministers have been chased down their homes, fire bombed.
00:01:48.840And in fact, sadly, one of the wives of one of the ministers burned in one of those fires to death.
00:01:55.280There are as many as reported as many as 19 deaths among the rioters.
00:02:01.640And it it seems to be going on and on.
00:02:06.300Jim, I thought it might be a good idea for us to get an idea of what's happening.
00:03:41.860Students, 40 years children in the student uniform, was dead in the head.
00:03:48.820And this caused a huge disturbance in the Nepalese community, not just Gen Zs, but all the people that grew up today in Kathmandu.
00:04:02.960And then the ministers ordered shooting of the children in the school uniforms.
00:04:12.500They were carrying school bags, there were books, there were pencils, pens, you know, and then these ministers, these houses were burned down.
00:04:26.000The situation right now in Nepal, the Gen Zs, they are currently enjoying.
00:04:30.260Currently, it's 10 past 10 p.m. here in Kathmandu.
00:04:38.540From 10 p.m., the, you know, the chief of army, he has taken the power and the security is in control of army now.
00:04:49.900Now the Gen Zs are quite happy because all the corrupted leaders, they are not here.
00:04:55.500They 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.
00:05:07.660So there's threats everywhere to our armies.
00:05:13.140Before 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.
00:05:21.720All the government is, all the parliament things, everything is burned down.
00:05:28.740It's been something that we've been watching, certainly on television and online over the last couple of days.
00:05:36.720And 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.
00:05:46.66020% unemployment, we understand, it's 11% overall, and 20% for the youth overall.
00:06:02.460And to see such opulence and corruption of the families of these ministers and the government officials really did spark something here.
00:06:12.300Well, 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?
00:06:27.200Today, in front of, I saw the, you know, in the Sherabad, there was a house, the, you know, the president's house was burned.
00:06:38.520The 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.
00:06:49.460They are burning five-star hotels invested by these ministers.
00:06:53.460There's a huge gap, the working class and the elite ones, there's a huge gap.
00:06:58.920That's the reason the people, they are quite frustrated.
00:07:01.900They 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.
00:07:16.980They just don't want the tax to be utilized in that way.
00:07:20.120So, this Gen Z momentum is currently, everything is reverse now.
00:07:28.460We don't know how the government is going to be because the parliament, many of the parliament members, they have already resigned.
00:07:37.220The 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.
00:07:58.360They think he is the icon for the Gen Zs, they have called Balindra Saha, they have called other prominent leaders for the meeting.
00:08:08.580So, we're going to see what's at sea, how the future is going to look like.
00:08:15.580At 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.
00:08:33.440Does 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?
00:08:45.840Currently, no one is running Nepal at the moment.
00:08:48.100That is the very interesting fact because the prime minister has resigned.
00:08:52.220All the cabinet ministers have resigned.
00:08:54.280Parliament members, they have resigned.
00:08:57.000The 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.
00:09:12.620And 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.
00:09:22.780Because he doesn't want to just impose his role.
00:09:27.480He 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.
00:09:41.700They want Gen Z's voice in the government.
00:09:44.240So it's going to be, for a couple of days, it's going to be quite a difficult situation.
00:09:49.500We 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.
00:10:01.460They haven't said that we will take all the country, control of the country.
00:10:09.040So they haven't said that they will be ruling the country now.
00:10:11.840So 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.
00:10:25.400All the police officers were called off because the country is supremo.
00:10:30.740The prime ministers, everyone, they resigned.
00:10:49.500They have started sending army troops to all over the parts of the country and all over the streets.
00:10:55.340And now the security system, like, you know, the genesis, the revolutionary bodies, once they win the revolution, there are lots of people.
00:11:04.780They want to get advantage of the revolution.
00:11:45.440Some people, they are saying it's a good thing that we want the revolution.
00:11:50.580It'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.
00:12:28.240What we can see now here is lots of things have been changed within 24 to 48 hours.
00:12:35.560No one ever expected this would happen in any parts of the world.
00:12:40.380You 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.
00:12:51.120His political party is completely vanished now.
00:12:53.760Most of the leaders, top level leaders, student leaders and everyone, they have resigned.
00:12:58.300They were against the, you know, his, you know, they were against his words, they were against his mission.
00:13:09.620So 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.
00:13:22.780So things are going to be changed, but the question is who is going to lead Nepal now?
00:13:28.380This is the big and how is it going to be the system?
00:13:31.620Like, is it going to be the direct elected prime minister or the same constitutions or what's going to be next?
00:13:42.140Well, 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.
00:13:57.960But 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.
00:14:07.640From Kathmandu, joining us is Roshan, and we appreciate that.
00:14:13.260Roshan Gibray, our correspondent in Kathmandu.
00:15:22.040And for what Nepal did and what the youth did, it's a pretty remarkable thing that we'll be studying for years to come.
00:15:28.740That 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.
00:15:40.400And it became a moment of awakening for that generation.
00:15:46.540And it was being obviously hidden from them, that opulence.
00:15:50.920And you and I have a friend from Nepal and she'll tell us that the town shared a bicycle.
00:15:56.300They 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.
00:16:28.340We could go around the world and look at things like this.
00:16:31.240And 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?