👀 Rabing you the right way

Namaste! We hope your month is going as well as SRK's Pathan's box office haul. As we sit here and ponder where the hell January went, we'd like to remind you to respond to all your group chats (yes, even the ones you've muted). This February, be an empath and share some love on Whatsapp.

La Eta Hernus

Government

Rabi dai and the Rastriya Swatantra Party were all over the news this week. So get this. Despite not being a legally recognised citizen of Nepal, Rabi dai was able to form a political party, run for federal office, take the oath of office, and eventually join the cabinet as the home minister. Thirty three days into his tenure though, things went south. The Supreme Court stripped the deputy prime minister and home minister of his position and his parliamentary seat for breaking the country's citizenship regulations. But then, two days later, he received his citizenship, and this one was official. He's back at the helm of RaSwaPa, and he's a Nepali citizen today, but he's no longer a cabinet minister. If Rabi dai wants to regain his cabinet seat, he will need to run for office again in Chitwan and win. A controversial leader from Chitwan…that rings a bell.

Go big AND go home? Rabi dai’s citizenship fiasco led to the home ministry being vacant. The CPN-UML (that’s Oli’s party for y’all zoomers) has backed RaSwaPa in their contention that they should still get the ministry. Prachanda (the PM) vehemently disagrees. There were no resolutions to this issue at the time of publication.

Is this all a big conspiracy against Rabi dai? Why didn’t the election commission follow the due process to check his papers? Could Prachanda have a hand in this? To stay updated on our very own birther moment, keep reading us. Xoxo, Gossip Girl.

Current Affairs

(TW: Suicide) Prem Prasad Acharya, who attempted self-immolation in Kathmandu, died while undergoing treatment last week. Acharya had posted a suicide note on Facebook, writing about the challenges he has in finding work, starting a business, and managing an industry in Nepal. You can find a Nepali version of the note on Facebook, Lalitmag also has an English translation here.

Another businessman, Mohan Neupane from Morang, who had been operating an electrical shop, hanged himself in his bathroom on Wednesday. According to Kantipur, Neupane had told his neighbor that his enterprise had stalled, that he had been unable to collect payments, and that the bank had threatened to sell off his property at auction.

These tragic deaths call into question not only the state and the existing system but also nation’s officials and politicians. The government has commissioned a task force to investigate the demands made by Prem Prasad Acharya in his suicide note.

Tech

This week’s tech news is about chatgpt (again). Many of you must have seen this #proudnepalimoment floating around in social media. News pages and sites have claimed that according to google trends, Nepal ranks second in driving ChatGPT growth on Google Search (insinuating it is sheer numbers). We love being second, but many outlets seem to have skipped the text at the end of the image that clearly states that it’s proportional queries, not raw numbers. Either way, here we go: first in customer service, second in chatgpt! Jokes aside, this is still pretty exciting!

Fatafat

Stat: Nepal moved up a spot on Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries on how well they prevent and combat corruption. When the last ranking was released in January 2022, Nepal ranked 117 out of 180 countries, however the most recent index has it at number 110. Seven places up, although the score only went up one point (to 34 from 33).

First in mountains, second in hydro potential, 110th in lack of corruption. But hey, we’ve still got the most mathematical flag and no one can take that away from us!

Another stat: (We couldn’t find a great quote this week, so you get two stats!)

How much do you think people at Singha Durbar spend every day on bottled water? About 6 lakh 20 thousand rupees! That’s like five night outs in Jhamsikhel! Not for long though. Abdus Khan, the Minister of Water Supply, has instructed his Secretary to cease buying bottled water and start using the city's public water supply instead.

Read: Google's new AI technology is able to compose music in response to brief textual cues. Google researchers have published a paper explaining their work on what they call “MusicLM”. Read the paper here.

Three news briefs and a lie

Three of these news briefs are real, and one is faker than your cousin’s accent after a six month trip to the US. Can you spot the odd one out? (Scroll all the way to the bottom for the answer).

1. A man from Pokhara was pulled over for drunk driving, and while being taken into custody, he shattered the arm of the police officer taking him in. The intoxicated man was released from jail after posting a bond of NRS 4,000.

2. A Nepali couple made headlines after getting engaged online with the girl in Nepal and the guy in the USA. The unique engagement was celebrated by friends and family on social media.

3. The local government in Khajura has launched an initiative to combat child marriage by offering a gas cylinder for weddings where the bride is at least 20 years old. The aim of the initiative is to encourage families to delay marriage and prioritize education for girls.

4. A Nepali company based in the US has been fined for false advertising, as they sold tea with a "Himalayan Tea" label, but the tea was actually from Jhapa. Prosecutors in the US claimed that the company misled consumers by labeling the tea as coming from the Himalayas when it was actually from Jhapa. The company has been ordered to pay a fine and to cease making false claims about the origin of its products.

Eta Hernus Quiz

Guess which current minister tweeted this picture in 2020.

A request

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(Answer to three newsbriefs and a lie: The tea one is jpt. Answer to Eta hernus Quiz: See below.)