Pradip Giri was a quintessential Nepali public intellectual who interpreted to us our desires, miseries, hypocrisies.https://t.co/IEjk0MqyGh — by @dineshkafle
Breaking Sad news: Pradeep Giri, Veteran Nepali Congress Politician and a respected intellectual is no more. It is a big big loss for Nepal. :( ๐๐๐ pic.twitter.com/Pj2Xh7AjSo
The maladies of Nepali politics is it’s ideological conflicts and corrupt collusion. Pradeep Giri would standout as a forever critique of inside and outside party of Nepali politics and it’s absolutely rare find here. He will be surely missed in nepali politics, forever !! pic.twitter.com/siL82BS3Uk
— เคกा. เคฌिเคถाเคฒ เคขเคाเคฒ (@compassionncare) August 21, 2022
Deeply saddened by the loss of #PradeepGiri jee. I found him to be one of the few men in #Nepali politics who really didn’t talk at you but talk to you - he took time to listen- his words held power and meaning - they forced thought. #Nepal lost a real gem.
Once you realize you can cold message most people and nothing that bad will happen (worst case, they ignore or don't see), a whole world of possibilities opens.
SF public works is a disaster and full of corruption, an embarrassment for sure. Totally agree with trash can process here being a disaster. But disingenuous to pick and choose pristine NYC trash cans — plenty of those to be found around SF too. Could just as easily have shown: https://t.co/M08Xodh3co
JUST IN: Biden administration has approved $32 billion in student loan forgiveness and there are more opportunities for borrowers to apply for relief as @POTUS reportedly considers widespread student loan cancellation. #Studentloanpic.twitter.com/UrvcluZyNT
Congress Is Shooting for the Moon, and Getting Close Sri Lanka Collapsed First, but It Won’t Be the Last .... ultimate blame lies with the Western-dominated neoliberal system that keeps developing countries in a form of debt-fueled colonization. The system is in crisis, its shaky foundations exposed by the tumbling dominoes of the Ukraine war, resulting in food and fuel scarcity, the pandemic, and looming insolvency and hunger rippling across the world. ...... After 450 years of colonialism, 40 years of neoliberalism, and four years of total failure by our politicians, Sri Lanka and its people have been beggared. ........ Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa deepened our debt problems, but the economy has been structurally unsound across administrations. We simply import too much, export too little and cover the difference with debt. This unsustainable economy was always going to collapse. ....... I have a car, which has now turned into a giant paperweight. Sri Lanka literally ran out of gas, so my kids asked if they could play inside it. That’s all it is good for. Getting fuel required waiting for days in spirit-crushing queues. I gave up. I got around by bus or bicycle. Most of the economy stopped moving at all. Now fuel has been rationed, but irrationally. Rich people get enough fuel for gas-guzzling S.U.V.s while working taxis don’t get enough and owners of tractors struggle to get anything at all. ......... The rupee has lost almost half its value since March and many goods are out of stock. You learn to react at the first sign of trouble: When power cuts started a few months ago my wife and I bought an expensive rechargeable fan; days later, they were sold out. When fuel cuts became dire we immediately bought bicycles, and the next day their price went up. Staples like rice, vegetables, fish and chicken have soared in price. ......... Many Sri Lankans are going on one meal a day; some are starving. Every week brings to my door a new class of people reduced to begging to survive. ......... The first major protests kicked off in March after a full night of this, when it seemed that the entire country was sleep-deprived and furious. .......... Parliament merely replaced President Rajapaksa with one of his cronies, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been prime minister a handful of times but lost his parliamentary seat in 2020. He has turned the military on demonstrators and arrested protesters and trade unionists. It’s all been “constitutional,” eroding faith in the whole liberal democratic system. ........... Sri Lanka — like so many other countries struggling for solvency — remains a colony with administration outsourced to the International Monetary Fund. We still export cheap labor and resources, and import expensive finished goods — the basic colonial model. The country is still divided and conquered by local elites, while real economic control is held abroad.
The I.M.F. has extended loans to Sri Lanka 16 times, always with stringent conditions. They just keep restructuring us for further exploitation by creditors.
............ And as much as the West blames Chinese predatory lending, only around 10 to 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is owed to China. The majority is owed to U.S. and European financial institutions, or Western allies like Japan. We died in a largely Western debt trap. ............. Around 60 percent of low-income nations and 30 percent of middle-income ones are in debt distress or at high risk of it. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Sudan — the list of those in trouble is growing rapidly. An estimated 60 percent of the world’s workforce has lower real incomes than before the pandemic, and the rich countries offer little to no help. ......... As economies collapse, Western loans simply won’t get repaid and poor nations will crash out of the dollar system that props up Western lifestyles..........
