You would just think that what is happening in Nepal would be receiving far more news coverage (not just a buried article, but actual headlines). But nope. There is pretty much a concerted effort by the major media in the west (where authoritarianism is taking root in many countries) to not focus on this as a major headline. Instead, you have to pretty much search for it in order to be hit with a wall of coverage of the anti-corruption protests (as a result of a weekend social media ban by the government fueled further by the children of the political elite flaunting their lifestyle/nepotism on those same social media platforms) by young Gen-Z in the country. Whether or not this is trending on social media platforms (I don’t know since I am off all of them now) will depend on ones feed/whether or not that platform has this piece of news suppressed in the algorithm. Generally speaking, most have no idea of the unrest taking place.
The protests took a deadly turn when police forces fired on the crowd (as of this post, at least 19 were confirmed dead with many injured). Protestors took to chasing parliament members, storming and setting fire to the parliamentary building and various political elites homes. Various government ministers including prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned amidst the violent revolution of a population that has felt pushed to the brink by corruption by the elite class. The government eventually lifted the social media ban/instituted curfews in hopes of diffusing the uprising (at least early on, this did little to stop the revolution). The younger generation were part of the initial masses protesting in the streets, but were eventually joined by more of the disadvantaged population.
Basically, this is the end game result when the business and political elite (who live and operate in their own reality) engage in this pilfering. This is where the people power of the regular citizens in mass protests has the ability to force out these corrupt regimes. These same elites are the ones who have long known they have to keep a lid on society (using every sort of tactic including having that regular population distracted with divisive propaganda that leads them to fight each other versus those citizens banding against the rich/powerful). Globally, the entire system of institutions (regardless of government structure) has long been rigged by the business and political elite.
Unfortunately, media corporations are now mostly owned by these oligarchs who do not want this type of news to be easily seen (while autocratic governments put pressure and/or have control over what can and cannot be reported by broadcasters). This is clearly the trend in the U.S. where the free press continues to be eroded, where the same old “infotainment” is shoveled out daily, all while the criminal regime continues dismantling the U.S. Federal government. The elites in the U.S. clearly do not want this type of news reports (of a fed up population in another country coming after those elites with literal pitchforks and knives) to be widely reported on.
Violence should never be the means to accomplish that change. Unfortunately, the elite tend to have ways to deflect and ignore the peaceful means their citizens initially try to utilize. This line about “peaceful diplomacy” has also long been a tool used by the elite while they themselves utilize the state (law enforcement, national guards, and national military) to commit proxy violence against others (while using propaganda to have their own citizens believe those ends justifying the means). In the U.S., the political and business elite no longer even try to hide what they are doing. At the same time, they haven’t pushed the larger majority of the population to the brink (yet). It took me years to unlearn all of this BS and now understand when citizens end up having to go to the extremes to root out the corruption with their own governments (once everything else has failed including trying to vote accordingly and peacefully protesting).
