By Rabi Raj Thapa

Today, the world has become too complex and complicated to comprehend about what is happening all over the world. Fortunately or unfortunately, the news and information have become so easy and accessible that the first thing you do before going to the bathroom is browse the Internet to know things like what the US President Donald Trump said and how the EU and NATO leaders reacted etc. Actually, all these stuff have the least to do with your daily bread and butter. Only the best part of this is: you don’t need to do anything, just watch it and enjoy it like a cricket game.  

Today, the first person I happened to see on my mobile screen was Professor Jeffery Sachs who was saying, “I begged the Ukrainians…, I advised Ukrainians, “save your lives, save your sovereignty, save your territory, be neutral. Don’t listen to Americans”. Then he added, “I repeated to them the famous adage of Henry Kissinger that, ‘to be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal'. So let me repeat that for Europe…” Here, my question is: How far this message be prudently applied in the Nepali context with our immediate neighboring countries? 

Then I came across my favorite podcast friend Tanka Dhakal who surprised me with his fear and apprehension of being arrested and extradited to Nepal for producing eye-opening podcasts in Nepali Bhasa for Nepali people. His recent podcast with metamorphosis of foreign aid to Nepal was a great gift to Nepali people. But that might have naturally offended a lot of Nepali and foreign aid beneficiaries living in Nepal and other parts of the world.  

However, one of his latest podcasts was short and alarming. In his podcast, he said, “I firmly believe that the rumor of my arrest and extradition to Nepal through Red-Corner Notice of the INTERPOL is not true! No government can arrest and extradite me just because I wrote and developed audio-visual podcasts.” He further remarks, “I am not a law student, but I am a firm believer of the rule of law (in Nepal and America as well); I have not killed anybody, robbed any bank, and have confidence in Nepali Criminal Justice System, Nepal Police and other (related) agencies. Then what can be the reason for the Interpol to issue a Red-Corner Notice against me?” (If there is anything like this). At the same time, Tanka Dhakal also challenges the concerned authorities that he may go to the court to sue them in the United States if there anything conspiracy going against him. To conclude, there must be something going around against our favorite Tanka Dhakal Jee. And there is also a ground to suspect because as the age-old Nepali saying goes, “Hawa Nachali Paat hallidaina” (leaf does not move without wind).

Then comes the favorite Fareed Zakaria on podcast saying, ”Donald Trump’s White House has now turned into a court, and his courtiers scurry around, aware that the mercurial monarch might change his mind at any time. Then he compares Trump with King Henry the Eight, the monarch who went from being the greatest defender of the Catholic Church to a vicious opponent just because he wanted a divorce that the Pope would not sanction. In that, one man who refused to play the game, Sir Thomas Moore, paid the price by getting his head chopped off. The reason Trump aids and supporters to say things that they know are false is also to enforce a regime in which loyalty is paramount, overriding facts, overriding long-held convictions etc. The moral of this story totally fits in with our Nepali old-timers: Oli, Deuba, Prachanda, Madhav,  Upendra and many others who are more but no less than Donald Trump in their behavior in any way and, so to say, Trump may be quite a newcomer compared to our old timers with three decades of successful experiments and successes.