Untertitel (170)
0:00Nepal — a country of nearly 30 million
people — recently elected a new Prime
0:05Minister using Discord — the free
social platform used mainly by gamers.
0:12Between memes and emojis, thousands of users voted
0:16in an anonymous poll for their
favorite of five candidates.
0:20Less than 48 hours later, the
winner — 73-year-old former
0:25Supreme Court Justice Sushila Karki — was
formally sworn in as the nation’s leader.
0:32Needless to say, this is not how
elections typically work in Nepal.
0:38This extraordinary sequence of events
was set in motion two weeks earlier,
0:43when the previous administration sent
letters to dozens of social media companies,
0:48demanding that they immediately
register with the government.
0:52Those that refused (or were simply too slow to
0:55respond) were banned from the
country just seven days later.
1:00With hardly any warning or explanation,
Nepalis were suddenly cut off from the apps
1:06and websites they used every day — apps like
YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
1:14Outraged, a group of students and young activists
1:17began peacefully protesting
in the capital, Kathmandu.
1:21Little did they know, they had
just lit the match to a fire
1:25that would soon grow far bigger
than they could possibly control.
1:30Within hours, thousands had joined them. Their
demands grew broader. And the crowd, less patient.
1:38The government, it quickly became clear,
1:40had been caught flat-footed and
was now completely overwhelmed.
1:45The Prime Minister first repealed his
social media ban and when that didn’t work,
1:51resigned from office. But this only emboldened
the protestors — proving they had the upper hand.
1:59With no one to hold them back, some seized this
opportunity to truly vent their frustration.
2:05Over the next few days, at least 70 people —
mostly protestors — were killed, billions of
2:12dollars worth of property was destroyed, and all
three branches of government were set on fire.
2:19Finally, seeing the writing on the
wall, the army brokered a deal.
2:24It asked the leaders of the protests to
propose the name of a new Prime Minister.
2:29And those leaders, in keeping
with the spirit of the movement,
2:32deferred that question to the wisdom of the crowd.
2:36They did this the fastest, easiest, and
simplest way they knew how — using one of
2:42the very same platforms the government
had only just tried to ban: Discord.
2:48And just like that, Nepal had a new leader.
2:53But make no mistake: this revolution wasn’t really
about Discord or Instagram or YouTube. It was
3:01about the government’s decades-long inability
to solve one basic yet fatal economic problem…
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3:18Looking at a map, it’s unfortunately no mystery
3:21how Nepal became one of the
poorest nations in Asia.
3:25It doesn’t have oil, like
its Central Asian neighbors.
3:29It doesn’t have access to
the sea, like Bangladesh.
3:33It doesn’t have India’s flatter terrain, making
transportation cheaper and easier to build.
3:40And it’s not subsidized by a
central government like Tibet.
3:44Tourism helps, of course, yet the very
qualities that make it so attractive
3:49to a certain kind of thrill-seeking
traveler also limit its mass appeal.
3:55If anyone could climb Mount Everest,
after all, far fewer would want to.
4:00One thing Nepal does have an unusual
amount of, however, are people.
4:06Despite being only four times bigger than Bhutan,
its population is thirty-seven times larger.
4:14Not only that, it’s the kind of population a
rapidly growing economy needs: a young one.
4:21The median age is just 27 and a full
60% of the country is under thirty.
4:28So, what do you do with all this young,
4:31able-bodied labor when you have no
oil to drill or garments to weave?
4:36Well, in Nepal’s case, you send them abroad.
4:40Women tend to work in India; men
in Korea, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
4:46The former are often recruited as maids, nannies,
4:49and cooks; the latter as drivers, construction
workers, security guards, and electricians.
4:56South Korea, with its median age of 45, is always
in need of helping hands. As is the Middle East,
5:04with its well-known addiction
to building flashy megaprojects.
5:08Once overseas, Nepalis can earn about
$340 U.S. Dollars a month. …A tiny sum
5:15by global standards, but consider
that the country’s per capita GDP
5:19is just fourteen-hundred dollars a year
or $120 a month — only a third as much.
5:27And because migrant workers are generally
provided with food and accommodation,
5:32they can keep nearly every dime they earn.
5:35…Meaning: they can send nearly
their entire paycheck back home.
5:40These transfers — called “remittances”
— are life-changing for wives, husbands,
5:45children, and parents in Nepal.
5:48Between 1984 and 2022, the share
of its population earning less than
5:54three dollars a day fell
from 83 to just two percent.
5:58The World Bank called “the speed and
scale of [its] success in eliminating
6:02extreme poverty,” “unparalleled among its peers.”
6:09Paradoxically, what’s life-changing
for each individual family can still
6:14be disastrous for the nation as a whole.
6:18The problem is that migrant labor
isn’t just a fallback — a useful
6:22“Plan B” for those unable to
find better work at home. No,
6:27it’s practically *the* default pathway — a
virtual necessity for all but the luckiest few.
6:34Two thousand Nepalis leave for new
jobs overseas every single day. 76%
6:41of households rely on remittances
from at least one family member.
6:46And these are low estimates. Many
Nepalis work next door in India,
6:51where they don’t need a permit,
or even a passport, to enter.
6:56When you add up all these
remittances, they comprise,
6:59by some estimates, two thirds of
Nepal’s entire GDP. Two thirds!
7:06For comparison: remittances are also quite common
in India — millions of Indian-Americans, in
7:13particular, regularly send money back home — yet
they represent just three percent of India’s GDP.
7:20In Nepal, remittances overshadow
all foreign aid and all foreign
7:25direct investment. It’s not even close.
7:29Now, a large influx of cash, one would think, is
surely a good thing. That’s the whole rationale,
7:36after all, behind foreign aid. And
indeed, for any one family, it is.
7:43But consider what this does
to an economy over time…
7:47The reason this income is so
life changing is that, for many,
7:51it’s the difference between
having dinner and going hungry.
7:54Yet for that same reason it doesn’t
allow Nepalis to save, never mind invest.
8:01The vast majority of this money (79%)
is immediately consumed — in the form
8:07of basic necessities like food, rent, and clothes.
8:11Now, that alone isn’t the problem.
8:14The problem is that, remember: all the
would-be farmers and factory workers
8:19are off building World Cup stadiums in
Qatar and off cleaning houses in Korea.
8:24All those products must be imported from abroad.
8:29In other words, money flows
in to Nepal as remittances
8:33and then immediately flows out as
imports. When all is said and done,
8:38nothing is actually built domestically
— no new factories, no new jobs.
8:44In short: Nepal has been hollowed out. It’s
little more than a “pass-through” economy.
8:52In a cruel twist of irony, nearly
everyone who stays in Nepal is a
8:56small-scale farmer — 66% of the workforce —
yet the country struggles even to feed itself.
9:04It’s forced to import a significant
quantity of its food because without
9:07capital to invest in fertilizer or equipment,
agricultural productivity is so incredibly low.
9:14It’s in the strange position of having too much
labor and therefore too little. Too much — so
9:21millions go overseas. And as a result, too little
is left at home — particularly the youngest,
9:28most able-bodied, and skilled labor — the kind who
would ordinarily, for example, start businesses.
9:36If there were more opportunities at home,
more workers would stay there. But for
9:40there to be more opportunities, workers
would first have to stay — starting the
9:45companies and attracting the investment
that would eventually create jobs.
9:49Nepalis have no choice — they
can’t turn down work overseas,
9:54forcing their families to starve, hoping
everyone else will do the same. Nor can
9:59they wait around for years while
domestic industries take off.
10:03But this means that nothing. ever. happens.
10:07And that’s just the economic problem.
10:11Now consider what this does
to a nation politically.
10:15As a “partly-free” democracy (even
before the recent “Discord revolution”),
10:20the government is theoretically
accountable to the public.
10:24Yet whenever unemployment rises, it can simply
channel this “surplus” into migrant labor.
10:31Remittances are the “perfect” low-effort
government policy: they’re easy to implement,
10:37the consequences are delayed, they shift
the burden of structural problems onto
10:42individual citizens, and they outsource
potential unrest to a faraway place.
10:48Addressing root causes, on the other hand,
is hard work and doesn’t happen overnight.
10:54Nepal, for instance, has the potential to
generate massive amounts of hydropower,
11:00ample demand for which lies right across
the border in India. Yet building dams
11:05requires diligent planning, long time
horizons, and is capital-intensive.
11:11Unsurprisingly, every government over the last
20 years has done the same thing when faced with
11:16these two choices: take the easy way out — using
remittances as a substitute for real policymaking.
11:24With the nation’s future on autopilot,
11:27politicians are free to focus
their efforts on collecting bribes.
11:32Since the end of the monarchy in 2008,
governance of Nepal has been passed
11:36around like a hot potato. One after another,
thirteen governments have gotten in, used the
11:43treasury as their personal ATM, and quickly
moved on. Not one finished their full term.
11:52For decades, Nepalis have shouldered the
burden of their government’s poor choices.
11:57Migrant labor is stressful, demanding, and
sometimes physically dangerous. Long hours are
12:04the norm and passports are often confiscated by
employers, restricting their freedom. Even in the
12:11best of cases, working overseas means being away
from your family for months or years at a time.
12:18Meanwhile, social media provides a window into
12:21the extravagant lives of the
nation’s tiny corrupt elite.
12:25In 2012, the son of a former prime minister
was given a quarter million dollars by the
12:30government to hike Mount Everest,
quote “for the sake of the country.”
12:35Another young princeling posted photos
standing next to a Christmas tree made
12:38of Louis Vuitton boxes — in a country,
recall, with a $1,400 per capita GDP.
12:46Nepal has been cruising on autopilot for so long,
12:49even the slightest patch of turbulence
was bound to unleash this fury.
12:55In September, that long-simmering
discontent finally boiled over.
13:01The social media ban wasn’t just unpopular.
It was a painful slap in the face to millions
13:07who used these platforms to stay in touch
with their loved ones working overseas.
13:13That — not young people’s “addiction” to social
media — is why Nepal overthrew its government.
13:20Those protests required enormous courage,
13:24quick thinking, and discipline. Also essential
to their success were VPNs — Virtual Private
13:31Networks — without which protestors would
never have been able to access Discord.
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