Country: India

It really is sad to see how obsessive and incompetent the Indian mainstream media are.

And mean and petty, too, along with single-minded, and disturbingly dishonest?

They really do sicken me at times. Their whole attitude and handling of news… it enrages me so profoundly.

And this is one of those times, mostly because it concerns a topic on which, if Indian, then, screw the facts and down with good sense! Jump to conclusions, yet again, and do spread hate and BS and do harm to others and be arrogant enough to think that India is offering better and a true option, then dare say something as insulting and asinine as: “It’s about time; the Chinese need to be called out and the world needs to see how they debt-trap countries and destroy economies.”

Holy-effen-Christ are you people ever dense and idiotic when you wanna be!

Or just devoid of certain morals and values but who cares? For all’s fair in hate n' war? Or is that ‘love of war’?

How about you try doing your friggin’ job for a change?! Like actual reporters, not members of an anti-neighbour pro-hate gang that automatically parrots manufactured puff and stamps a conclusion that isn’t offered by facts, but, since it’s the lie that's always been told and repeated… and—this is so exciting—it may be the truth this time! This time! It feels so right so it’s gotta be! The proof is there: Chinese debt trap!

Sigh.

Indian news media. They start off with hate and propaganda, then find the news story, as they clearly tend to work backwards, selecting details to fit their hatred, piecing together those that will provide the story they wanted to tell from the start rather than doing their job and setting their hate and biases aside long enough to act like a professional while “on duty”.

We know you hate the Chinese! We know you love spreading Chinese hatred and will make up lies to have an excuse to do so. And we know you feel the same about Pakistanis.

China and PAK. They turn Indians into all kinds of pathetic that flips their ‘crazy, devious, and dreadful’ switch to “on”.

There isn’t one good thing that can be said about any of that considering all the idiocy it fuels which, in turn, justifies even greater idiocy that sees success and greatness in forcing outdated paradigms on the globe. Otherwise, how will anyone know how great they are, ‘cause that’s what counts! Can’t keep boasting about one’s economy if the metrics and scales change and hob-knobbing with #1 suddenly loses all its grandeur and prestige. Because the government that screwed the world and killed the most is just an annoying acquaintance if it can’t keep on doing those? And what, then, is the use of being close to Washington if the Indians can’t flaunt their bestest-ever 2+2 BFFs to Beijing, showing off the bouquet of missiles they brought and see Xi turn blue with envy—Biden and Kamala are the best! So much fun—and who else is there that cares about India enough to exploit it and take advantage of the country in order to help it take down the sleazy neighbour?

There’s no stronger love than a hate that’s shared. And all the damage it does, which, when examined properly, makes the mainstream media people and the hate-bandwagon band bigger terrorists than many they readily label as such.

I'm just ranting. Needed to. At the heart is this story, below, that appeared in the NYT on 12-Nov-2023; it follows this one from 16-Oct-2023: "China Got a Big Contract. Nepal Got Debt and a Pricey Airport."

I don't feel like hashing through all the details so I'll just provide the bullet points and additional references should you need more to be satisfied.

Nepal has wanted an airport in Pokhara since the 1970s as the government was certain that this would boost its economy tremendously.

Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia, had sought to build an international airport in Pokhara since the 1970s in the hopes of turning the city into a tourist destination. The airport held a deep significance for Nepali officials, who hailed it as a “national pride” project because it was seen as a gateway to one of its most famous landmarks — the Himalayas.

They approached China and a deal was made. The Nepalese government had signed a USD $215.96 million soft loan agreement with China in March 2016 for the construction of the new airport in the lake city.

On 1-Jan-2023, Prime Minister 'Prachanda' unveiled a plaque marking the official inauguration of the Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA).

All were happy, officials gave a speech. And, on record, the Chinese official mentions a few times " flagship project of Nepal-China Belt and Road Initiative" and slight variations of; it's clear that the Chinese were considering this a part of their BRI project.

The two countries had also agreed on additional developments, with at least five of nine of the original projects still being in the plans and works; a Chinese team was already there for the feasibility study & survey of a China-Nepal Cross-Border Railway. 

Meanwhile, Gandaki Province Chief Minister Krishna Chandra Pokharel "urged the Chinese government to transform the loan it provided for the Pokhara airport construction project into grants."

"I urge the government of China through the Chinese Embassy here to convert 75 per cent of the total loan into grants," he said.

On 12-Jul-2023, Nepal Foreign Minister NP Saud decided to reject the claims of the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal that an airport had been built under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Nepal.

"FM Saud rejected the claims while addressing the International Relations and Tourism Committee stating the BRI project hasn't been put into action in Nepal." He feels trapped... were they being fooled and exploited? Oh, my! 

In other words, Saud is playing the Chinese for fools, having suddenly decided that what was said several times months ago wasn't really so... and by the way, let's talk about turning this into grants, not a loan, shall we?

Beijing didn't agree; it sees no reason to simply give that money away, which Nepal wanted, agreed to, and signed the contract. And gimme a goddamn break about China forcing a useless airport on Nepal just to suck it in its trap. Is every bank that provided a loan to a business that failed an evil Chinese-wannabe-debt-trapper?!

Get your heads out of your asses and think like a news person and reporter, not a petty neighbour, perhaps? 

The airport has failed to attract any regular international flights, raising concerns about whether it will generate enough revenue to repay loans to its Chinese lenders. Nepali officials have asked Beijing to change the loans into a grant to ease the financial burden, but China has not agreed to do so.

In comes the "anti-corruption" squad and the "quality standards" people... and it seems pretty damn clear that it's a shake down. A major US periodical being suddenly interested in an airport, spotting "quality issues" and deciding to spark an anti-corruption investigation in the Nepalese, which the US has been working hard to get a footing in, its USAID NGO causing all sorts of tensions and brewing trouble. Which reminds me: the US has already been stirring crap in Bangladesh for their elections; told ya.

They have nothing yet; investigating. No accusations. But the Indians sure did bite the hook. Just them it seems, in fact.

Bhola Dahal, a spokesman for the anti-corruption agency, confirmed that an investigation into the airport was underway but declined to elaborate, noting that it was still in the preliminary stages. He said the agency had started the investigation in response to a complaint about irregularities with the project. 

These two paragraphs below, several ones apart, are from the 12-Nov NYT piece; they're a dead giveaway that this is all part of a ploy to discredit China and the BRI, which is typical of the US:

The investigation is the latest black eye for China’s overseas infrastructure projects, which face criticism for costly and poor-quality construction that leaves borrower countries awash in debt. Beijing has declared the Pokhara airport the “flagship project” of its Belt and Road Initiative with Nepal.

There is a growing mistrust among countries struggling to repay debts to China. Sri Lanka was forced to hand over a deepwater port to China when it could not repay its loans. Around 30 percent of Pakistan’s foreign debt is owed to China, a figure that has climbed with the building of a $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In Malaysia, an $11 billion rail link was halted until a Chinese contractor agreed to slash the project’s costs.

Kinda sick and tired of repeating aspects of the BRI to refute stupid lies pushed to help the Western neocolonial economy munchers that have done exponentially more harm to the Global South and the entire globe yet get a pass while the hate-filled Indian propagandists skip over honest research and hard facts to spend more time hunting down the lies manufactured by Western think tanks for Western bankers in order to attack the Chinese and the "global project" framework they offered for all rich nations to partake in, to help the rest so all can grow, because that's the effort worth destroying?!

China seized the assets of poor nations in Africa; China is a predatory monster; China is secretly spreading its military infrastructure; China is imperialist, eating up countries with debt traps... And Sri Lanka... wow! Hard to respect the Indian government on their play there or the amount of West-Ass-licking BSing they showed themselves willing to do, for there's no bad in doing harm to creep a few points closer to the millions more needed to catch up with China!

Something mentally wrong with that kind of behaviour, is my guess, all the more so given the gloves-on treatment Modi and his Mob expect and demand.

The Rajapaksa fiasco became so because of poor choices and corruption, but it's actually all the Western bonds and IMF loans that killed the country long ago, the interest on the debt it was forced to service for the WEST grew faster and bigger than their entire economy. Part of a well-documented plan to subjugate the Global South and keep the West rich, and these are the institutions that Indians seem to care for as they crap on the Chinese but fail to realize that India follows the same shitty Western model, making any of its development projects and loans way worse than China's and far more likely to end in a debt trap.

So, are Indians that pathetic yet so depraved but filled with unrealised Chinese hatred that, somehow, turns nastiness and lies into good, moral competitive practises that India can feel good and proud about? Life; it's not about the journey and hard work, it's about crushing the XI, the CPC, and the Chinese, too?

Regarding Sri Lanka (need more; I got):

Instead, a 70 percent stake of the port was leased to China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (CM Port) for 99 years for $1.12 billion. This $1.12 billion, however, was not used to pay off the debt obtained to construct the port. This significant dollar inflow was used to strengthen the country’s foreign reserves and make some short-term foreign debt repayments. To be precise, it is fair to say that the money earned from the Hambantota port deal was largely used to cover balance of payment (BOP) issues resulting largely from the soaring debt servicing cost while Sri Lanka’s export and FDI inflow growth remain sluggish.

In August 2017, Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers took a decision to sign a concession agreement with CM Port to operate the Hambantota Port as a Private Public Partnership (PPP) project under which a 70 percent stake of the port is leased to CM Port. The remaining 30 percent of the stake is owned by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the commercial operations of the port are handled by the CM Port and the SLPA jointly while the government of Sri Lanka still owns the port. At the time of entering into the lease agreement, Hambantota Port was valued at $1.4 billion and CM Port invested $1.12 billion as per the terms of the agreement.

A common and popular myth is that Sri Lanka was unable to pay off the loan obtained to construct the port, thus it was handed over to China. However, by the time the Sri Lankan government entered into the agreement with CM Port to lease Hambantota port, the debt servicing cost pertaining to the loans obtained from China Exim bank to construct the port did not amount to much. Those loan installments (including interest) amounted to less than 5 percent of Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt repayments. Furthermore, loan repayments pertaining to the second phase of the Hambantota port project were yet to start at the time. A more serious concern pertaining to foreign debt servicing cost was the maturity of sovereign bonds, which amounted to more than 40 percent of the total debt servicing payments in 2019. (Source)

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For those who get upset whenever the mention of Nazi-esque folks in Ukraine receives ridicule while an objective view of events earns one the moniker "Putin Lover"; for those who get deeply frustrated with the equivalency drawn between MAGA and "insurrectionist"; for every Latino who despises being labelled an "illegal alien"; for all Blacks who are deeply disappointed whenever "Whitey" refers to someone else (joke on that one), and for all those who, for whatever reason and whatever friction they may represent to the West, are tagged as "terrorists" and terminated if not dragged away without evidence or due process, locked up in Guantanamo in wait of a trial that may, several years from then, one day come...

Please trust me when I say that the whole "Khalistan terrorist" shtick is motivated by a genocidal-type of hatred and it exploits the same type of generalized vilification that triggers set social reactions deemed "proper", hence, reinforced by peer pressure, such as the examples mentioned. Many of you should spot the similarity between what you've witnessed and endured and what's being applied in the Sikhs' case.

I'm not asking you to take my word for it and to accept it as the truth, but, at the very least, to trust the veracity of my claim and to allow it to cancel out that which is claimed by New Delhi so that you may start from a more neutral place from which to assess the situation.

To clarify: During the Truckers' Protest, I wasn't willing to point out the Sikhs in Ottawa who were asking for donations because I was certain that the money would serve terrorist ends, but because these individuals were misrepresenting themselves to donors by abusing the case of a group of Sikhs truly in need. As such, I had the Sikhs' case in Montana in mind far more than I did those in Ottawa, while it's true that I was then more ignorant of the depth of the situation than I am now.

Below are two documents that provide broad strokes and non-Sikh-related references (like Amnesty) that provide a starting point for stats or other relevant info. The following, from the first doc, highlights that which should ring a bell:

According to Amnesty International,“the UAPA, India’s principal counter-terrorism law was amended to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist. It gives an overbroad and ambiguous definition of a ‘terrorist act’ giving unbridled power to the government to brand any ordinary citizen or activist a terrorist. It stands to implicate individuals for being proactive members of the society, ban critical thinking and criminalise dissent by designating them terrorists.” (Amnesty International, 2020).

Punjab lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur says “Accused often are not implicated under UAPA to convict them, but to keep them in jail for a long period of time. Majority cases under UAPA have no criminal occurrence. In most of the cases, the police tells court that the accused was planning to carry out some criminal activity and then uses UAPA to ensure that the person does not come out of jail on bail.”

This "row" may seem minor to you, but a heavy focus on facts—being extremely mindful of Indian propaganda—and addressing this particular hate-based issue will, hopefully, reveal wider ones that should be of greater concern to many.

Hindutva is poison, it seems. Melts brain cells, apparently.

Refusing to cooperate—the whole would have been resolved quietly, in such a case—and willingly weaponizing one's entire mainstream media as a reaction, these having busied themselves with pumping out anything to make it all a "Canada bad and India blameless" affair... that's loathsome and psychotic.

A recent one from Abhishit Chavda, Major Moron (right). Yep, that's a crown. What's in colour versus what's pushed back is very telling. Hilarious.

And, for these, anything goes to win "the battle"; this the Hindus' century.

Indeed. Not India's. The Hindus'.

Hello, again, India.

Here's the thing: I like you but you don’t like me, and I still like you but you think I’m weird.

I don’t know where things went wrong; maybe it’s the dizziness you’re feeling, the one that comes upon reaching the higher rungs of power, and maybe it’s the best-before-last-week tuna casserole that’s making my world spin, but, right now, things aren’t working between you and I, India.

Plus, I’m busy these days. Real busy. What’s that? Oh, you know… there’s laundry, and dishes, and garbage to move. And I gotta take down some Post Its and erase my dry-erase board... And vacuuming, too. That couldn’t hurt. Should do that... I also gotta run around town, go pick up that stuff. Plus, I gotta see about that thing, then there’s that other thing comin up, and... you know… busy, busy, busy.

Oh, and Pakistan says “Hi,” and China misses you. And the US says you smell like rancid curry and they don’t like you and they’re all moving to space next week so don’t bother calling the White House to check, ok?

Fine. I lied. Their end of the continent sank. Disappeared. No more. No need to call the White House, you can trust me.

Fine. That’s also a lie. All is. Everything! Everything is a lie! The laundry, the dishes, the vacuuming… all’s a sham. I’ve none of those. My life is meaningless, untethered, and directionless. And... oh, the lackluster—remind me to tell the maid to give that gold railing a polish, would you?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, India, things to do; how can I help you? Really? Oh… yes, yes, of course. I wanted to warn you—see, I do care—of an AI forgery featuring your Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman.

I’m assuming it’s been caught and pulled? It seems to have come and gone in a flash. I'm only aware of one other person having been taken in, which would explain their's and mine's initial response à la: "What?! Nooooooooo!"

Lottaz wasn't the only Pascal that may have been duped last week. That all seems very anti-Pascal, no?

The little I did mention on it is in fact true, but within an entirely different reality, and one that's actually very sensible, like the India I remember, despite being so carefree and curious in those breezy summer dresses...   

Let’s just say that MP Sitharaman came across as, well, very gestapo-like, but not in her actions or prosody, but through her determination to force a digital life on the globe yesterday if not today.

What’s that B-word that very few women enjoy? Indeed, hence why I was so floored in that bit I’d inserted at the last minute in that “Corridors” post, wherein I’d mentioned the digital ID, CBDC, and portal.

There was nothing remarkedly 'evil' about the plan that the seemingly-manipulated video presented—hence its genius, I suppose, its subtlety—but the plan being presented was sure to lead to a global mutiny, and "insanely callous" are what describe its approach best, unless, which is what her composure and the alleged Western backing suggested, the implementation was merely the inconvenient phase of a long-established plan, this suggesting a totalitarian path under heavy boots was what was to be logically expected.

And from you, India. You. I was crushed. My heart whimpered its thump-thumps.

That certain outlets hadn't touched the news provides an example of one of the fact-checking processes that kicks in, the unsettling lack of attention to the matter letting me know something was off and I needed to look further before even broaching the subject again. 

Yes, I did have a look at your New Delhi Declaration, India. Looks good. One or two formatting mistakes but a fine looking plan. What's that? Oh, god no. I'm talking about 'presentation'; I'm not qualified to have a real opinion on much of the rest. I mean, I understand it all, I just haven't a clue if it ultimately translates into long-term "good' or 'bad', especially in comparison to other available options or currently implemented plans. Sure, other than particular aspects, of which I've a real good grasp, I probably understand it better than most, but far less than any expert. You know me, India, I was blessed, being born with an impeccable charm and quick, sharp wits; it's just too bad that the second cancels out the first.

But with words like "voluntary" and "testing", what's not to love, really? Although... I do have important critiques which, for me, make it impossible to support any of the plan. Even if overlooking the course that the G20 is determined to take, there are points relating to the underlying fundamentals, and the expression of such, found in the document that I'd be unwilling to budge on; I don't wanna be all Western-white-dude about it, but I'm confident that the developing world sees it my way, though you really ought to ask them:

I'd flat out reject the document, and any treaty, act, agreement, or similar, as long as the phrase "rules-based order" appears anywhere within that document in any manner that doesn't negate the validity of such a mindset. 

I'd flat out reject any plan that relies on the individual participation of, or under a joint partnership that includes, the IMF, World Bank, and/or the European Development Fund; those three entities are tasked with reviewing and implementing a globally-applied development program and bank. Anyone backing this is tone-deaf and/or deeply ignorant, maddengly so, frankly.

As long as any of those institutions carry over to any supposedly new plan, I'd be walking out, and military aggression would be the only way to get me to even consider signing anything. This sentiment appears to be a shared one, albeit to various degrees, this being so though Washington refuses to hear it.

And the reason for that is because the West obliterated whatever trust they took for granted! And that's what makes it so hard, India...

Oh, yeah... Yeah... well... uh, well me, Russia, and China have orgies planned each night this week! And Iran may join in on Wednesday night, so there! How you like that?!   

Wait! Don't go...

Should MP Sitharaman suddenly find herself being called that B-word from all parts of the Internet, then, my guess would be that it’s back in circulation.

So... uh, what are, um... what are you doing later tonight? Any, you know, plans?